15 Old Black and White Movies That Are Still a Pleasure to Watch

if you think old black and white movies are dull, we hope this list will change your mind.

The General (1926)

The next time a CGI movie makes you sigh with its lack of style and verve, you'll feel especially awed by The General, a silent black and white movie masterpiece that pretty much epitomes the concept of pulling out all the stops.

Buster Keaton's character helping the Confederate Army hasn't aged well. Everything else has. A bit of a bomb in its time, The General is stunning now thanks to its clockwork inventiveness and derring-do. It's hard to believe anyone made anything this ambitious, so early in the life of cinema.

Keaton, known as the great stone face, throws his body into violent-yet-comic hazards without changing his expression — a skill he developed while being kicked around vaudeville stages by his father, hence the nickname "Buster." Okay, maybe that didn't age so well, either.

Metropolis (1927)

Fritz Lang's silent, expressionistic Metropolis somehow still feels futuristic and avant-garde nearly 100 years after its release.

Operatic and vast in scope, it's a visual feast that moves much slower than modern films — which is a sheer joy if you can allow yourself the time.

Also, it's moral, literally spelled out in the final inter-title – feels especially relevant in the age of A.I. It is simply: "The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart."

Originally 153 minutes long, Metropolis has been frequently recut, and while we aren't big fans of chopping down a great director's work, we think you can grasp the gist of the film with one of the shorter versions.

It Happened One Night (1933)

One of two Frank Capra films on this list. It Happened One Night is a screwball comedy that inspired countless road movies and rom-coms, almost none of them as good.

Clarke Gable and Claudette Colbert have electrifying chemistry as, respectively, a newspaper reporter on the make and a socialite on the run, trying to reunite with her husband. Yes, husband: This movie is fairly gleeful endorsement of extramarital love, and It Happened One Night could get away with that sort of thing because it came out just before the restrictive Hays Code took effect.

It also endorses showing a little leg (shame!) while hitchhiking (shame! shame!). It may leave you with the impression that life was a little more fun about a hundred years ago.

Casablanca (1942)

When people say they love old movies, this is likely the old movie they're picturing. It's perfect from beginning to end.

Ingrid Bergman, who also appears later on this list, is captivating as Ilsa Lund, a woman torn between love and her duty to fight fascism. Humphrey Bogart, as her ex-lover Rick, is as good a male lead as any movie had ever had.

But Casablanca is a movie where every single person is giving it their all, from director Michael Kurtiz to writers Howard Koch and Julius and Philip Epstein.

Everyone has their favorite moment, but ours is "I'm shocked, shocked" which we think about every time we read the latest headlines.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1944)

If you ever long for the good old days, watch this one to remind yourself that people of the past were anything but naive.

John Garfield makes being a drifter look like a good life choice when his character, Frank, wanders into a service station operated by the stunning Cora (Lana Turner). Unfortunately, she runs it with her husband.

Frank and Cora work out a little scheme to take care of that obstacle. It goes about as well as you'd expect if you've ever seen a '40s noir.

Double Indemnity (1944)

The most fun movie ever made about insurance, this noir extravaganza sizzles off the screen in moments like the anklet scene — aka the "how fast was I going" scene — between Fred McMurray as an insurance man and Barbara Stanwyck as a scheming client.

It never goes too fast, which somehow makes it all the more wildly seductive.

It inspired many (often color) films, including 1981's very good Body Heat, but we still prefer the black and white movie.

High Noon (1952)

High Noon seems to fly by as it unfurls in real time over the 85 tight minutes leading up to the title. Gary Cooper plays Will Kane, a New Mexico marshall ready to ride into the sunset with his new bride Amy (Grace Kelly).

But Frank Miller, a brutal outlaw Kane once sent to prison, will arrive in town at noon, as his gang is ready to meet him. Everyone would understand if Kane slipped out of town to let someone else deal with the disaster to come.

But that's not what he does.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Did you make it through another holiday season without watching this Frank Capra gem?

If so, like many of us, you may wrongly remember it as a sweet little affair. But no. The film is surprisingly honest about how much failure and struggle are part of the cost of living, and makes a clear-eyed case about why it's still worth it to press on.

Also, we have to agree with this tweet about how the phone scene between Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart, despite its lack of anything gratuitous, is pretty hot.

Notorious (1947)

The Alfred Hitchock films of the 1950s and '60s could get a little slow — but Notorious crackles from start to finish thanks to the presence of one of the all-time greatest actresses, and magnetic lead characters.

Ingrid Bergman is magnificent as Alicia Huberman, whose virtue and morality are in constant question. She juggles endless demands and expectations, keeping her intentions a mystery until the very end.

Cary Grant as T.R. Devlin, a U.S. agent who recruits her. When people start falling in love, things get very tricky.

All About Eve (1950)

From the start of theater critic Addison Dewitt's very unreliable narration (wryly delivered by George Sanders), you know you're in excellent hands with this showbiz satire written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Bette Davis plays a Broadway star who won't give up the spotlight, and Anne Baxter is Eve Harrington, a shrewd manipulator ready to take her place. It's a dynamic we've seen a million times since, from The Devil Wears Prada to Showgirls, but no one's done it with more wit than All About Eve.

When a young Marilyn Monroe is the seventh or eight billed person in the cast, you know you've got an incredible lineup of actors.

The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

TMZ might want to take notes from this noir classic, a story of a showbiz columnist, J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) who rules Broadway with a velveted fist.

Ruthless press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) toadies up to him, but proves to be pretty clever himself, as he tries to break up a relationship between Hunsecker's little sister Susan (Susan Harrison) and a jazz guitarist.

It's also one of the most beautifully shot black and white movies — the lights of Broadway have never felt so hot.

The Apartment (1960)

You'll find yourself saying again during The Apartment: They made this in 1960? A Mad Men-era story of sex and ambition — and an obvious Mad Men influence — the film is about a young clerk on the make (Jack Lemmon) who has to loan out his apartment to executives who use it for secret trysts with vulnerable women, including one played by an adorable, and vulnerable, Shirley MacLaine.

You quickly finding yourself rooting hard for the have-nots in this film about refusing to bend over for the man.

MacLaine, Lemmon, director Billy Wilder and screenwriter IAL Diamond reunited three years later for Irma la Douce, which revisited some of the themes of The Apartment. It's not a black and white movie, but don't hold that against it.

Psycho (1960)

We know, everyone thinks first of the shower scene. But Psycho hooks you long before that with its setup: Janet Leigh's Marion Crane robs her boozy boss to flee across the Arizona desert to the arms of her deadbeat boyfriend. It's juicy as hell, even before she checks into the worst possible hotel.

The only thing that keeps Psycho from perfection is its stodgy expository ending that feels unnecessary now, but may have been helpful for a 1960 audience that hadn't yet seen a million movies about psychos.

You know how Shakespeare plays can feel cliched, but only because they were the first to do something that later inspired countless shallow imitations? Psycho is exactly like that.

The Third Man (1949)

Joseph Cotten plays pulp novelist Holly Martins, who arrives in ghostly postwar Vienna to investigate the death of an old friend, Harry Lime. But things aren't as they seem.

The highlight is an utterly chilling little monologue by Orson Welles as he and Cotten ride a Ferris wheel and look at all the little people below.

Breathless (1960)

We could tell you about all the great film deconstruction critic-turned-director Jean-Luc Godard is doing in this sexy, breezy girl-and-a-gun French crime thriller, but just watch it. You'll be blown away by how fresh and cool it feels all these decades later.

Also, if you're not a fan of subtitles, a lot of it is in English. This is one of those black and white movies that may sound like it's going to be a challenge, but turns out to be as fun as anything you've ever watched.

Liked This List of Black and White Movies That Are Still a Sheer Pleasure?

You might also like this list of the 1960s Movies That Are Still a Pleasure to Watch. Several are, yes, black and white movies.

Main image: Ingrid Bergman in Notorious. RKO Radio Pictures.