Winter weather is all over the map this year. Despite a few remarkably warm weekends, we’ve not seen the last of those cold, blustery days where you just want to stay in and watch a good movie. Thanks to the abundance of streaming and rental services, we’re free to revisit our favorite movies any time we want.
Need help deciding what to watch? Here are 10 of our favorites from the classic years of Hollywood:
1. The Great Gatsby (1974). Sure, the recent remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel was a visual feast, but the original film, starring Robert Redford as self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby, is the real deal.
2. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Who could forget Marilynn Monroe’s role as Lorelei Lee in this delightfully comic musical about two American showgirls looking for love.
3. The Graduate (1967). “Are you here for an affair?” What’s not to love about this memorable flick starring Dustin Hoffman as young Benjamin Braddock and his entanglement with Anne Bancroft’s Mrs. Robinson.
4. Roman Holiday (1953). What do you get when you put Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn into a romantic comedy? A sizzling good film worth watching again and again.
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). In the mood for something a little more somber? This classic sci-fi about extraterrestrials holds up to repeated re-watching.
6. Doctor Zhivago (1965). This film was made for a weekend snowstorm. Although it runs more than 3 hours, any film buff will look up at the end and say, “Where did the afternoon go?”
7. El Dorado (1966). What would a best-of list of classic films be without John Wayne? Having struck pay dirt with his 1958 western Rio Bravo, director Howard Hawks brings Wayne back for an exciting gunfighter adventure story with a slam-bang climax.
8. Cleopatra (1966). This colossal and opulent $60 million spectacular was epic in every sense of the word -- an epic investment, an epic in the annals of Hollywood gossip, and, ultimately, an epic flop. But more than 50 years later, it stands up as a monument to the glory days of Hollywood.
9. North by Northwest (1959). At one time, Cary Grant defined American manhood. In this classic Alfred Hitchcock film, enjoy Grant’s role as a man pursued for mistaken identity.
10. Key Largo (1948). If any actor can give Cary Grant a run for his money, it would be Humphrey Bogart. Sure, everyone loves Casablanca and The Big Sleep, but for our money this tale of gangsters trapped in a hotel during a storm is the perfect remedy for cabin fever.
We believe you can’t go wrong with any of these classics, and now that Brandermill Woods has a new onsite movie theater for our residents as part of our recent expansion, we may be showing a few of these films for our residents.
What movies do you turn to when you want to hunker down and stay warm? Visit our Facebook page and share your thoughts.
