in every old movie ever

"Miss (big name actress) appears courtesy of (big name movie studio)"

(Performer)'s Wardrobe by (famous designer)

Something momentous happens - the dam bursts, the President shoots the Pope, the moon explodes. Montage of politicians, generals, and people in the street establishes that this has the whole city/nation/world spellbound. Cut to a shot of a newspaper, with blaring headline and 1-2 other stories directly responding to this nightmarish development - but, oddly, the remaining columns are still filled with "Tax Board OKs County Plan" and "Aluminum Dealers Conference Kicks Off."

Lol

https://hugelolcdn.com/i/362930.png

inappropriate cigarette smoking/drinking

''Fine'' used in the way of ''swell'' or ''wonderful'': ''We have the Presidential Suite at your disposal, if it would fit your needs.'' ''Say, that'd be fine.''

(Possibly just a strange tic specific to Cary Grant.)

Leg brace on child because polio

Alcoholics

The ubiquity of maids, butlers, and other servants.

I've thought about the "fine" thing before and I reckon the equivalent of the 1930s/40s fine would be the way we now say "great" or "cool" in a casual sense.

"Oh you walked the dog already? Fine! Then let's leave…"

Yeah, that's how I read it too, it's just always so odd - a bit of the idiom that seems to have died a sudden, total death at some point.

We still have that sense in reference to art, dining, she's so, which makes it even odder that colloquially it only ever really means "just ok"

I guess you could say the word has aged like an acceptable wine

I still use it a lot. Back to the thread in question:

Trumpeter in jazz band in nightclub from below at an angle.

^well done

Women described as 'handsome'.

Women wearing hats.

And gloves, anywhere and at all times.

Anyone, arriving at anyone's home or place of business at any time of day, will be offered a drink or the opportunity to fix themselves one. The wetbar may be more or less fully stocked depending whether this is a millionaire's study or the office of the Chief of Police, but an ice bucket with tongs is invariably present.

Hot-cha! Hot-cha! Twenty-three skidoooooo!

a fistfight where everyone just slaps each other

Foreign professor in a bow tie

My friend needs information or they'll die! I must physically move myself to them to pass it on in the nick of time.

a fistfight where everyone just slaps each other

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand)

Fistfights generally pretty tame/dull in Golden Age movies.

Declarative sentences beginning with "Why,...!"

Barman ducks as a glass or bottle smashes into the wall/mirror behind him (Westerns section).

Declarative sentences beginning with "Why,...!"

good one!

lol read that as Batman

Yeah everything is funnier in costume

distressed woman has heard quite enough and screams, "get out!"

"Say, Jimmy, you just might be on to something with that idea. You're a regular Albert Einstein!"

"Wow, Albert Einstein... gee, thanks, Professor! (pause) Who's Albert Einstein?"

A rider on a galloping horse is shot. Both go down; the human stays down while the horse struggles to its feet.

With stock library 'Neigggh!' dubbed in slightly out of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsJmMoCdjE4

Also, the footage of the galloping horse is sped up just enough to tip it into the uncanny valley, and the coconuts intended to give the sound effect of horses' hooves are in full use.

Plucky kids put on a show.

Any scene in a jungle anywhere in the world features Australian kookaburras laughing on the soundtrack

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.