The beauty, the romance, the timelessness. There is nothing quite like an old movie. They can sweep you off your feet and drop you right into the past. Lines fade away and its as if no time has passed. Color or black and white, they provide the same escape. An old movie can pluck you out of whatever life you may be stuck in and transport you to a land of wonder and awe.

     The lighting, the direction, the dialect and the music. Everything comes together in such a way that grabs onto you and holds on tight. It only takes one. One special classic old movie to get you. It could be a film from the sixties or seventies in color even, or a black and white silent film from the twenties. Whatever the genre, it will grab you and old movies will become like a drug.

     For me, it was Gone With The Wind. I resigned to watch it once, finally, years ago. I didn't think I would like it, let alone love it. I thought I would get bored with it halfway through as I had countless times in the past with old movies. They rarely kept my attention. I thought the only decent films were modern films. As in 1980 and up. I was pleasantly surprised to find that as I watched an epic such as Gone With The Wind, not only wasn't I bored, I was transfixed.

    Watching Rhett and Scarlet on the television screen was a moment when I realized the amazing hold Old Hollywood had on me. The romance of the film was incredible. Not the romance of the love story, but the feeling created by the movie, rather.

    I had always been a fan of black and white photographs of Hollywood actors and actresses from years ago. Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Errol Flynn, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh, Paul Newman...The list goes on and on. The photographs are timeless. Such beauty and character. There is nothing today that can compare with the old Hollywood stills. Gorgeous.

    This was the same way I was beginning to feel about old movies. After Gone With The Wind, I realized I actually could enjoy them. I started giving more of them a chance. I was watching old movies a lot and liking them. Not to say I have loved, or even liked, every old movie I've watched since GWTW, but I have enjoyed quite a few.

   I started with the classics. I figured they were classic for a reason, right? Some I have liked, some I have not. Some of my favorites are -

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Singin' In The Rain

Meet Me In St. Louis

Move Over, Darling

Pillow Talk

The Way We Were

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

And so many more...

    Believe it or not, old comedies can be pretty darn funny. Don't believe me? Try out anything with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Check out the classic combination of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. "Hey nice lady..."

    The love stories can be provocative and dramatic. The women and mena were just as sexy and alluring back then as they are today. Have a peek at Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Cary Grant or Veronica Lake, Jane Mansfield or Bridget Bardot. Talk about sex sells...

   Not every old movie is a musical, either. There are some great musicals- Judy Garland and Fred Astaire made incredible musicals throughout their careers. Yes they were popular in the forties through sixties, but they did make other movies during that time as well. All I'm saying is give an old movie a shot. You might be pleasantly surprised. Check out some of the videos I post here and let yourself get lost in the beauty of the photographs.

   There is so much that Old Hollywood can offer that modern Hollywood never will. It was another era, another world. It is the one place I would go if I could time travel--to the timeless black and white microcosm created by the movie studios of old. An otherworldly creation inhabited with bygone movie stars and the characters they portrayed. I get lost in it all just talking about it....