I love old movies!!

I had already mentioned my affections for old movies in a prior blog post but watching The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone last night reminded me why I love that simplistic approach of old movies.

Yes, Nigel Bruce's irritating, bumbling and harrumphing Doctor Watson makes me want to tear my hair out. Which I suppose isn't wise nowadays seeing that my hair doesn't grow back so quickly anymore.

But that's besides the point.

The soft tones of the black and white as well as the flickering lights in the background.

Movies between the 1900's to the 1940's are probably my favorite to watch. I love silent films. I take a silent movie approach to many of my illustrations. It's easy to draw a scene and have a speech balloon saying "The murderer got away!"

But it takes a great deal of skill to show that without the use of words. Merely expression and body language. And I think that's why I feel many silent movie actors are very underrated.

I love movies from the 30's and 40's because that was the time my Grandparents lived through. I was very close to my Grandparents and even though they are gone, these movies are what keeps me connected to their time.

Actually, when I was as young as many of the students in my art classes, I was watching stuff like the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy as well as movies with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, W.C. Fields and Mabel Normand.

My Grandfather loved Laurel and Hardy. They had a night of Laurel and Hardy films on TMC over August. I found myself chuckling at a scene where Stan Laurel is sitting with this child who is telling him the story of the Three Bears. With voices. During the story Laurel keeps falling asleep. And what wakes him up is when the little girl does the baby bear voice.

To some, they would find the scene boring and unfunny. Mostly because nowadays if you're not getting kicked in the crotch, it's not funny. But what was funny about the scene was the look on Laurel's face everytime the little girl would make him wake up with a start.

Like I said, I knew about most, if not all these movies when I was a kid. I've found a lot of my students have never seen a silent movie in their life. And I think it's kind of sad that a lot of these films are being missed by people nowadays.

So, if you get a chance go on Amazon.com, put them on your Netflicks list. Or wait till they're on TMC again.