1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
We begin our ranking of the best classic films with one of the best films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, The Wizard of Oz, a film that was directed by four of the best Hollywood directors of its time: Victor Fleming, Mervyn LeRoy, Richard Thorpe, and King Vidor.
The cast of this film was headed by a young Judy Garland, who made viewers fall in love with her innocence by playing Dorothy (Dorita in the Spanish translation that we still have) in this adaptation of the first book in Lyman's series of novels Frank Baum.
To get an idea of the relevance of The Wizard of Oz, it is worth mentioning that we are not only dealing with a masterpiece and one of the essential old or classic films but it is also considered one of the key cultural works and an asset of humanity.
2. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Gone with the Wind, a classic film based on the 1936 novel of the same name, could not be missing from this list. This is an old film that is essential in any list of old movie cinephiles.
It is set during the American Civil War and tells of the decline of the South before, during, and after the conflict with the North. The protagonist of it is Scarlet O'Hara, the eldest daughter of some landowners, who is one of the axes of the torrid love triangle along with her cousin and an adventurer who wants her.
Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland are the stars of this film that became in its own right one of the best movies of all time. If you want a copy, know that it is very easy to find Gone with the Wind both on DVD and on Blu-ray, also if you liked the movie be sure to take a look at the book and its sequel.
3. The Great Dictator (1940)
You could not miss what is one of the great masterpieces of Charles Chaplin, along with Footlights or Modern Times. Did you think we were going to leave the king of Comedy out of this list of the best classic movies? There is a lot to choose from, but we have decided on this work because of its rawness and genius.
In it Chaplin satires about the Third Reich and the Nazi regime. He especially focuses on the figure of Adolf Hitler, whom he caricatures, establishing an enormous resemblance between him and a humble Jewish barber from the suburbs of the capital of Romania (a fictitious Germany). The mess will be enormous when both are confused and exchange roles.
Chaplin drew on Riefenstahl's The Triumph of the Will, one of the greatest documentaries of all time, to craft his film. Thanks to this great mime we can safely say that The Great Dictator is one of the best classic films in history.
4. Citizen Kane (1941)
Overrated, according to many, adored by others, no one doubts that this is one of the best black and white classic films of all time, although it is a title that divides film lovers between iconoclasts and devotees.
With Citizen Kane, Orson Welles loaded a poisoned dice against tycoon William Randolph Hearst, writing, producing, directing, and starring in the film. And it is that the story tells an unofficial -or authorized- biography of Hearts, whom he ridiculed on screen.
A note on Citizen Kane: it was a box office flop, but over time it ended up becoming one of the best movies in movie history. For its fans, we have the 70th-anniversary edition of Citizen Kane that is circulating around, and that is unmissable.
5. Casablanca (1942)
Casablanca has earned, along with a good part of Humphrey Bogart's filmography, the right to be considered one of the great old films of black-and-white cinema. It was also the title that endorsed the actor, typecast as a tough guy, as an interpreter of dramas, and even as a leading man. In addition, it also became one of the films that inflamed the spirit of the fight against the Third Reich in the US. Has BJ from Wolfenstein seen it?
This film directed by Michael Curtiz has gone down in history as one of the most iconic films in Hollywood, among many things for having a cast of the best of its time. We must point out that there is a Casablanca Blu-ray that can be found very easily and that has an infinite number of extras and documentaries (including the wonderful parody that Looney Tunes made).
By the way, a cinephile curiosity that we cannot fail to point out: Casablanca is originally based on a musical called Everybody Comes to Rick's, which was never staged, and its script had to be improvised several times, which made the ending so unexpected. as surprising for the time.
