- Title: Forgotten Films to Remember
- Author: John Springer
- Year Published: 1980 (The Citadel Press)
- Year Purchased: 1990s
- Source: Unknown
- About: Some of the best classic movies aren’t, well, classic. At least not in the sense of having wide, lasting cultural impact. Maybe they were box office winners in their day, quiet sleepers or cheapie programmers, critically acclaimed or unappreciated gems; most have been long forgotten by the masses, embraced and beloved by fanatics alone. Hollywood studios churned out hundreds of films a year, so it is no wonder that, of those hardy survivors, few are truly iconic. If you want to learn more but are too cowed to wade through the classic film jungle alone and bewildered, Forgotten Films to Remember makes it easy. Covering the years 1928-1959 (with a quick overview of the 1960s and 1970s), John Springer devotes a paragraph each to dozens of remarkable movies that you really need to watch. In the process, a clear, workmanlike but interesting narrative of studio-era Hollywood emerges. The accompanying photographs are mostly from the author’s archive.
- Motivation: I love old movies, especially obscure ones.
- Times Read: 4 or 5
- Random Excerpt/Page 18: “Howard Hawks made a strong movie out of Martin Flavin’s play, The Criminal Code, aided impressively by the performance of Walter Huston. He played a district attorney who becomes the warden of a prison, populated by men he has sent up. Constance Cummings and Phillips Holmes had the love interest such as it was and Boris Karloff skulked about as a squealer.”
- Happiness Scale: 9
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A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 
Great review! Great place for someone like me to start. I was just thinking that older movies probably have better plots than your average flick today because they didn’t have all of the special effects, and when they did, wow, they were epic. In a word, Mothra! LOL
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Thanks! There are so many wonderful old movies to choose from. Even I will never be able to watch all of the ones I want to! I’m always on stand-by for recommendations. 🙂 Movies back then definitely had special effects, but they were actually special. Not always good, although they often were very convincing. I think that there are few things worse than bad CGI.
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I believe the Scorsese doccies on Italian and American film are superb. The thing being that he was influenced by lesser known and obscure films. They’re around 3 hours a pop, I hear, but very nourishing, so I’m told.
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Sounds fascinating. I will have to add those to the list of the kajillion other things I need to read or watch.
I actually love hearing or reading about filmmakers’ influences. For the most part, they really know their film history and have interesting, often obscure favourites.
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Have you read Easy Riders, Raging Bulls? By is it Patrick or Peter Biskind?
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No, I haven’t. Is that a recommendation on your part?
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It is a recommendation. It’s quite a cynical look at some of the sacred cows of the era. Biskind was not kind, and I’m sure he mined for the dirt. I think quite a few people were unhappy about the book. Dennis Hopper, amongst others, didn’t come out too well. But he paints a plausible picture.
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Hmmm. I will definitely actively look for this one.
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