Favorite Black and White Movies
by evm211 | created - 10 Nov 2013 | updated - 10 Nov 2013 | PublicI love almost all black and white, and older, movies, but this list is movies that were filmed in black and white and hold up well in terms of plot and acting.
See notes below for info on age-specific child appropriateness for each movie.
These movies are great introductions to those who *think* they dislike black and white... give these films a shot!
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1. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 168,302 | Gross: $0.03M
Suspenseful film with a great performance by Peter Lorre.
Good for kids? No.
2. The Awful Truth (1937)
Passed | 90 min | Comedy, Romance
A married couple file an amicable divorce, but find it harder to let go of each other than they initially thought.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D'Arcy
Votes: 21,341
Irene Dunne at her best, with funny, fast writing.
Good for kids? Yes, though it deals with divorce, so be sensitive to that.
3. Heidi (1937)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Family, Musical
A plucky little orphan girl gets dumped abruptly into her gruff, hermit grandfather's care, then later gets retaken and delivered as a companion for an injured girl.
Director: Allan Dwan | Stars: Shirley Temple, Jean Hersholt, Arthur Treacher, Helen Westley
Votes: 4,936
Sweet and heartwarming, a great movie to watch over the holidays. Shirley Temple's best.
Good for kids? Yes!
4. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Passed | 102 min | Comedy
While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett
Votes: 66,031
Hilarious! Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant at their best. Wonderful physical comedy and smart writing.
Good for kids? Yes, a great introduction to screwball comedy. It also has dinosaurs and leopards!
5. Holiday (1938)
Passed | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A young man in love with a girl from a rich family finds his unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée's eccentric sister and long-suffering brother.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres
Votes: 18,226
Great writing and a wonderful story about family, fate and fun.
Good for kids? Yes.
6. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,895 | Gross: $4.66M
A charming movie about a wild, eccentric family.
Good for kids? Yes.
7. Rebecca (1940)
Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 146,604 | Gross: $4.36M
Haunting and beautiful.
Good for kids? Yes, but they might get bored.
8. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 465,612 | Gross: $1.59M
A classic, many say the best film ever, about a tycoon and a reporter, based on William Randolph Hearst.
Good for kids? Not really, nothing shocking but long with adult themes and concerns. Mature children of 13+ might enjoy it for its history/story.
9. Suspicion (1941)
Approved | 99 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce
Votes: 42,367 | Gross: $4.50M
A romance and suspense. Great out-of-character performance by Cary Grant.
Good for kids? Not under 9 or 10. Nothing violent but suspenseful and slightly sinister.
10. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 498,741
Probably the most-seen black and white movie, with good reason. A Christmas classic.
Good for kids? Yes, though the scenes on the bridge and after might be distressing for younger viewers.
11. Harvey (1950)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Due to his insistence that he has an invisible six foot-tall rabbit for a best friend, a whimsical middle-aged man is thought by his family to be insane - but he may be wiser than anyone knows.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Wallace Ford, William H. Lynn, Victoria Horne
Votes: 58,211
Funny and charming film about a rabbit and his best friend, Jimmy Stewart.
Good for kids? Yes.
12. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft
Votes: 283,284 | Gross: $25.00M
One of the funniest movies of all time. A great date movie.
Good for kids? Yes. Funny sight-gags and physical humor, nothing too inappropriate.
13. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 717,581 | Gross: $32.00M
Terrifying!
Good for kids? No. Not under 14, violent and scary.
14. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Approved | 129 min | Crime, Drama
Atticus Finch, a widowed lawyer in Depression-era Alabama, defends a Black man against an undeserved rape charge, and tries to educate his young children against prejudice.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
Votes: 332,624
Harper Lee's classic about childhood, fatherhood, and justice in the South.
Good for kids? Yes, around 9+. Themes of racism and mentions of rape might confuse/upset younger viewers.
15. Lilies of the Field (1963)
Unrated | 94 min | Drama
A travelling handyman becomes the answer to the prayers of nuns who wish to build a chapel in the desert.
Director: Ralph Nelson | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Lisa Mann, Isa Crino
Votes: 13,533
Beautiful, sweet and slight story about a wandering man helping impoverished nuns build their "shappel" (chapel). Wonderful performance by Sidney Poitier.
Good for kids? Yes.
16. The Haunting (1963)
G | 112 min | Horror
Hill House has stood for about 90 years and appears haunted: its inhabitants have always met strange, tragic ends. Now Dr. John Markway has assembled a team of people who he thinks will prove whether or not the house is haunted.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 42,457 | Gross: $2.62M
Spooky haunted house story. Best scary movie ever.
Good for kids? Not under 8 or so. Not violent but lots of scares. A great introduction to "scary movies."
17. Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
Not Rated | 107 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Keir Dullea, Carol Lynley, Laurence Olivier, Martita Hunt
Votes: 10,214
Creepy and suspenseful film about a missing child.
Good for kids? Not under 14.
18. Paper Moon (1973)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman
Votes: 52,390 | Gross: $30.93M
A story about a little girl and a con man during the Depression. Very sweet and funny.
Good for kids? Yes, though the film begins with the mother's funeral, and it has dark moments. Okay for 8+.
19. Young Frankenstein (1974)
PG | 106 min | Comedy
An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.
Director: Mel Brooks | Stars: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle
Votes: 168,788 | Gross: $86.30M
Very funny.
Good for kids? Yes. The few mild sexual innuendos will probably go over their heads ("Roll, roll, roll in the hay.").
20. Manhattan (1979)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy
Votes: 147,134 | Gross: $45.70M
Classic Woody Allen comedy about love and New York City.
Good for kids? No.
21. Schindler's List (1993)
R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 1,448,944 | Gross: $96.90M
Tragic story about evil and kindness during the Holocaust.
Good for kids? No. Very intense and violent.
22. Ed Wood (1994)
R | 127 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Ambitious but troubled movie director Edward D. Wood Jr. tries his best to fulfill his dreams despite his lack of talent.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette
Votes: 183,881 | Gross: $5.89M
Johnny Depp is great as the worst director of all time. A great movie about Hollywood.
Good for kids? Not under 14 or so.
23. Clerks (1994)
R | 92 min | Comedy
A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.
Director: Kevin Smith | Stars: Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer
Votes: 232,229 | Gross: $3.15M
Kevin Smith's first movie about potheads and movie fanatics wasting away the day at the corner store. Funny, though a bit dated.
Good for kids? No, absolutely not. Very crass, with drug references.
24. The Artist (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When George, a silent movie superstar, meets Peppy Miller, a dancer, sparks fly between the two. However, after the introduction of talking pictures, their fortunes change, affecting their dynamic.
Director: Michel Hazanavicius | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Votes: 248,512 | Gross: $44.67M
Very funny, sweet and clever film about early Hollywood.
Good for kids? Yes.
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