Movies Old House Buffs will Love

A sappy, gushy, corny romantic/cult classic from 1980 based on Richard Matheson's novel Bid Time Return. Basic plot: An elderly woman presses a pocket watch into the hand of playwright Richard Collier (Reeve) and whispers "Come back to me." Years later, Collier becomes obsessed with a picture of an early 1900s actress (Jane Seymour) and discovers that she's the woman who gave him the watch. Collier travels back in time to find her, and they begin a love affair.

The setting is the gorgeous Grand Hotel, which really exists on Mackinac Island, Michigan, and which is as close as most of us can get to time travel. Cars are not allowed on the island and it remains pretty much an unchanged microcosm of the Victorian era. The entire island is a National Historic Landmark.

Long before Will Smith and Kevin Kline road the rails in the 1999 film, Federal undercover agent James T. West (Robert Conrad) and his sidekick and master-of-disguise, Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) were riding their private Victorian railroad and inventing gadgets worthy of a post-civil war Victorian era James Bond in living rooms across the country.

Part oater, part sci-fi, and with outlandish costumes and gadgets, the original WWW is still fun to watch. And it still makes me nostalgic for rich wood panelled, red velvet draped train cars that any respectable Victorian parlor would envy. The first season was b&w, so for the full impact of the lush settings, start with season 2. If you like Steampunk, you'll love WWW.

Bette Davis won her second oscar in this classic 1938 antebellum film . Davis's character, Miss Julie, was purportedly her "audition" for Scarlett in Gone With the Wind. One could argue that Davis would have been a better Scarlett than Vivien Leigh, but it would be an exercise in futility at this point in time. Be that as it may, although it is a b&w film, the luxurious settings rival Tara at its prime.

The period detail is amazing and I would argue that if Jezebel was originally shot in color, the set decoration and art direction would have surpassed GWTW, even though Jezebel's crew had a much lower budget to work with. I watched this old gem again recently and it is still an outstanding film in every way -- the patina of age agrees with it as it does with the finest antiques and, although it was not colorized (I HATE colorized B&W films), Jezebel was so superbly crafted, I am willing to swear that the infamous "red" dress Miss Julie wore was actually a richer shade of Scarlett.

Tom Hanks and Shelley Long star in this 1980s remake of Cary Grants 1948 "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House." A box office flop, I think rentals by Old House renovators are what turned its reputation around. Hanks and Long have a knack for making those of us at our wit's end with falling plaster, rotted sill beams, crumbling foundations, and plumbing that makes one wish the outhouse still existed, able to see the comedy amidst the angst of living in a nightmare of a dream house.

If laughter is the best medicine, this film will help your renovation be less painful, if not less expensive. Too bad Tom Hanks didn't stick with comedy instead of, IMHO, joining forces with Ron Howard to dilute, if not decimate, Dan Brown's gripping novels.

Dark Shadows was a 1960s daytime soap opera for those whose tastes ran toward the gothic before goth was fashionable. The show gained popularity after introducing Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), a vampire who returns to his estate after being chained inside a coffin for almost 2 centuries. Collins was the reluctant vampire long before Twilight's Cullen was born. Are similar names a coincidence or an homage?

Gloomy and atmospheric, the Victorian and Edwardian sets are richly decorated in antiques, velvets, and silks. I wonder how many of those who rushed home from school in the late 60s to catch the captivating daily episodes with their mysterious tales of very human vampires, werewolves, and ghosts have wound up transferring that fascination to velvet settees, elaborately fringed draperies, and hand cranked phonographs with painted morninglory horns?

(If you can tear yourself away from the furnishings and the gorgeous actresses like Lara Parker as Angelique, look for David Selby and Kate Jackson early in their careers and see if you can spot appearances by Marsha Mason, Harvey Keitel, Abe Vigoda and others.)

Whether you are fond of musicals or not, what is outstanding in this 1964 film based on the 1956 Broadway muscial is not just the acting (Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, singing (Marnie Nixon's voice served as Hepburn's), and adaptation of Bernard Shaw's adaptation of the classic (as in ancient Greek mythology) Pygmalion into a socialist attack on the British class system (which neither Lerner & Lowe nor George Cukor did not, to their credit, dilute).

In my opinion, the early 19th century wallpapers printed by Cole at the request of Sir Cecil Beaton and the other sumptuous details from moldings to costumes (and especially those Ascot hats and outfits) contribute just as much, as Beaton's Oscar attests. (And don't miss all of those fascinating gadgets in the Professor's study.) One of least cloying musicals I have ever seen on the screen, there are some distractions, both good and not-so-good. For example, in the latter category, the lip-syncing is annoyingly imperfect. However, you may not even notice since you'll be studying the impeccably perfect settings.

In Charlie Chaplin's 1915 silent film, he is a wallpaper-hanger's workhorse (literally) assistant. Charlie and his boss have difficulties getting to the house they are going to wallpaper. When they finally do, the owner is angry because he can't get breakfast and his wife is screaming at the maid. The kitchen gas stove backfires and Chaplin offers to fix it.

In the meantime, the wife's secret lover arrives and is passed off as the workers' supervisor, but the husband doesn't buy this and starts shooting. I won't give away the climactic ending, but you will relate to the series of situations analagous to difficulties that can be encountered when changing wallpaper in an old house. "Work" is in the public domain and downloads can be found on the internet.

(I recently saw a restored version of another of Chaplin's early shorts, "One a.m." and was amazed by the elaborate wallpaper that had virtually been stripped off the walls by time until the film preservationists restored it. (If you scrape wallpaper off the closets hoping to find the original still adhered to the horsehair plaster walls under a piece of molding or the back of a shelf, you can relate to this bit of "archaeology" as well.)

Despite Snow's annoyingly shrillingly sweet voice, and Disney's cloyingly sweet watering-down of the Brothers Grimm dark tale, this classic still makes my list. The first full-length cartoon movie is not only an incredible artistic accomplishment (remember this was made BY HAND 67+ years ago!), it is captivatingly color-full and still a feast for the eyes (if not always the ears.)

Yes, the characters and style do look dated, and you may not want bright green beams in your cottage, but the twisted stone columns of the castle, the carved beams and moldings in the dwarfs' cottage (not to mention those wonderful wide-plank floors), and especially the wishing well and that wonderfully totemically-piped organ, supply enough furnishing fantasy to inspire even the most jaded old house restorer.

Aside from the shameless merchandising, the Potter films have everything going for them. While reviews rave about the stories, special effects, and acting, what really gets me waiting for the next film or wearing out the dvd's is the chance to be in those glorious surroundings once more. From the train station to the magic shop, from the moving staircase to Dumbledore's study, every setting in this series of films is a tempting visual feast. The problem with the Potter films are that they can be so engrossing that you may have to watch them several times to be able to focus your full attention on the magnificence of the architecture and decor.

The Victorian mansion featured in this film tries to steal the show from a young Hayley Mills in this Disney Classic from 1960. Whether you appreciate the heavy dose of optimism offered by this film or not, the magnificence of the setting is guaranteed to please. Hayley Mills won a special Academy Award for her performance in this film. Also starring Jane Wyman as Aunt Polly. Warning: You'll need a box of tissues -- either to wipe away the tears from the story line or the drool from house envy.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman star in this be-witching drama-comedy about spell-casting sisters. Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing play supporting roles as their aunts. That is reason enough for many to watch this brew-some tale, but perhaps the best magic is that the convincingly Victorian house is actually just a hollow construction and stage sets disassembled after filming! A shame it was never real, but nonetheless an inspirational environment for old house addicts.

Starring Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders and Edna Best, with a young Natalie Wood, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is more romance than ghost story. The recently widowed Mrs. Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) and her daughter (Natalie Wood) move into a house that belonged to a sea captain (Rex Harrison) whose cantankerous ghost still inhabits it. Made in 1947 and set in the late 1800s/early 1900s, the film also stars a picturesque English coastal town and of course, Captain Daniel Gregg's seaside cottage, which I found somewhat spartan but befitting the crotchety captain. After trying to scare Lucy, her spunk and stubborness first win the captain's respect and then his love. Complications arise when an author of children's books (George Sanders) arrives on the scene and begins to woo the widow. Don't want to include any spoilers, but definitely worth watching at least once.

Jane Campion's film about the romantic poet, John Keats and his love for Fanny Brawne, complicated by a rival for her heart. Richard T. Jameson expressed the attraction this movie has for old house lovers when he said "Bright Star is the rare period movie to convey--without being insistent--what it was like to be alive in another era, the nature of houses and rooms and how people occupied them, the way windows linked spaces and enlarged people's lives and experiences, how fires warmed as the milky English sunlight did not."

And I would be remiss if I didn't note the sumptuous 19th-century fabrics that drape this film in luxury, texture, and nuances of color and add very much to the lush cinematography and sensuous quality of the film."