in every old movie ever

"You don't even know your own mind."

guy in vest pushes up window in tenement window, scratches armpit, takes stoagie out of mouth "Hey, you kids! Scram"

"nuthin'"

"well let's have a *look* at some o' that nuthin!"

"Why I oughta...!"

"don't be ridiculous!"

Bloke takes off his uniform cap, scratches his head with the same hand that's holding the cap, then replaces cap on head.

also

"Come come, officer. I'm a respectable man."

"Here, son, I'll take one of those"

This was also in Platoon.

Lol

Two characters have conversation; director has somehow contrived to have them both facing camera.

Character asked simple question. Gazes into middle distance and recounts entire life story.

Life story is flashback running for several minutes or perhaps nearly the entire length of the film. The person who asked the question hardly bats an eye and only grows more fascinated.

Two characters have conversation; director has somehow contrived to have them both facing camera.

bonus points if this is staged using an eye-watering split-diopter lens

UK edition: Drunk batchelor falls down stairs and wakes the landlady who tells him to pack and leave

Married couples sleeping in seperate beds (surely been mentioned?)

Watched All About Eve last night and it's chock full of these.

I was watching an old movie ("The Gilded Lily" with Claudette Colbert) and right on cue in the first reel a transit cop gets pushed to the ground, the next shot shows him sputtering, fuming, pushing his cop cap back on his head and stating (I quote):

"Oh, a wise guy, eh?"

Two characters have conversation; director has somehow contrived to have them both facing camera.

another variant: mirror hung in unlikely location permits us to see both faces even with characters facing each other.

Fistfights generally pretty tame/dull in Golden Age movies.

― chap, Sunday, July 16, 2017 4:48 PM (three weeks ago)

every fistfight in an old movie seems to start with someone turning his back as if he's about to walk away, then abruptly turning around and knocking the other guy down

i suspect this would not actually be a wise move in real life

I guess by old, you mean '30s and '40s. If it's a late-'60s/early-'70s romance involving young people, there will be snow, and there will be frolicking in the snow. Maybe snow angels, maybe tumbling around, maybe a pretend snowball fight. As they frolic, something that sounds like the Association will play on the soundtrack.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/S8tncYfSFzI/hqdefault.jpg

As action or antics spill into a bar or performance space: "Wow, are they part of the show?" "Boy, those sure are some crazy costumes!" "Say, that's a pretty cool new dance!" etc.

i'm imagining all those ADR'ed over the actual scene which probably has not been shot with sync sound

those fuckin... the old phones

Lip reading cons in the day room, visiting area or on the factory floor.

A bottle of hair tonic.

flypaper gets stuck to hands. one of the lesser scenes in kane.

Shabby alcoholic (ex-)doctor who will remove stray bullets from hoodlums for the price of a bottle of bourbon.

the other week i watched "the bride came c.o.d.", a 1941 comedy with james cagney and bette davis that felt like the ultimate "old movie" as defined by this thread. someone even gets to say "oh, a wise guy, eh?"

also includes an angry heiress, spinning newspaper headlines, and that one shot of police cars and motorcycles zooming out of the station, with the sirens blazing

Must watch this!

Bonus points for police motorcycles with sidecars

I caught an old film on daytime TV last week that actually featured a monocle popping out in shock, can't remember what it was though...

Street urchin selling newspapers. Cop/PI/suspect takes one from him, starts reading it and is about to walk off with it when the seller tugs his sleeve for the dime he owes him.

Fistfights generally pretty tame/dull in Golden Age movies.

― chap, Sunday, July 16, 2017 5:48 PM (four years ago)

The fight at the end in Uncle Silas stands out, seems brutal for the era

An expression of a hunger for hamburger sandwiches and French fried potatoes.

Married couples sleeping in seperate beds (surely been mentioned?)

And one of them having at least one foot on the floor.

"Why, I oughta pound you!"

Aw, don't be a sap.

My recollection is that every film set in New York until the modern era starred people who looked like this and dressed in these clothes (from Wolfen), but it could be Six Days of the Condor, The French Connection, Ghostbusters, Kramer vs Kramer, literally every film shot in New York):
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_reviews_67/wolfen_blu-ray_/960__wolfen_06_blu-ray__blu-ray_.jpg

Everybody was older then. Was it cheaper to film in New York in the winter?

Do people still go to psychotherapists in films? As with the greatcoats, literally every Oscar-baity film shot in the last half of the 1970s was about a professional couple who were splitting up and they were both in therapy. Because it was the "me" decade, which has led to the hilarious spectacle of people who grew up in the "me" decade complaining on the internet that kids nowadays are self-centered.

Let's try that again:
https://i.imgur.com/glQ2loB.jpg

NB I'm not shitting on Wolfen. It's a mess, but it was shot at a particular time in New York's history that feels alien today:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmZmZjIzZjgtNWExZi00ZDY0LTkxNDItYzlhZTUzYjYwYmYwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzk5MDQ0NA@@._V1_.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YO_9LKblcJw/UGSBFpQNsyI/AAAAAAAAAec/KcKbLAwg1EM/s1600/bronx.jpeg
http://basementrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/wolfen-new-york-city-bridge-twin-towers-world-trade-center-albert-finney-edward-james-olmos.jpg
https://www.framerated.co.uk/frwpcontent/uploads/2021/07/Wolfen10.jpg

It's like a visual representation of the first two Talking Heads albums.

Cary Grant does some scary driving along an incredibly twisty road, complete with shots of water crashing against cliffs below.

Car chase, speedometer goes all the way to 70.

two somewhat middle-aged men - one married, the other newly divorced - discuss the situation while playing a very indoor racket ball game

^otm

preferably George Segal and Elliot Gould if at all possible

one guy in a hat slugs another guy in a hat

then takes the hat

racket ball one is brilliant

Yet another opportunity to mention Patriot on Amazon Prime: Let me Walk You Through Our Donnely Nut Spacing

I'd also like to see Ryan O'Neal and John Cassavetes playing racquet ball, maybe I can ask the AI to create that scene & dialogue