This week we are celebrating the best of the Silver Screen with a selection of classic films from ‘Hollywood’s Golden Age’, all available on BBC iPlayer via Freeview Play.
With over 20 titles to discover featuring some of Hollywood’s best loved stars, such as the musical Top Hat, Orson Well’s Citizen Kane, and the original King Kong, there’s plenty to add to your watch list.
We have rounded up our favourites here, and head over to our on demand hub, Explore Freeview Play, hosted on Channel 100, to have a browse.
Carefree, 1938
A musical comedy starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, with a score by Irving Berlin. A humourless lawyer is worried because his fiance keeps postponing their wedding day, so he arranges for her to see his best friend, a brilliant psychiatrist.
Vivacious Lady, 1938
A black and white romantic comedy starring Ginger Rogers and James Stewart, in which a young professor impulsively marries a wild New York nightclub singer but begins to regret the decision when he returns to his small-town home to face another kind of music - the reaction of his conservative parents.
Bringing up Baby, 1938
Starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, a classic screwball comedy about a madcap heiress who makes a shambles of an absent-minded palaeontologist's life when she arrives on the scene complete with her pet leopard. The film's rollercoaster plot formed the basis for 1972's What's Up, Doc? and is notable for Katharine Hepburn's foray into zany comedy.
Suspicion, 1941
Classic thriller in which Joan Fontaine stars as a timid heiress convinced that her husband is trying to kill her. After first escaping from her oppressive parents, she meets and marries a fortune hunter. At first her happiness prevents her from reflecting on his character, but when events take a sinister twist she fears that his intentions are murderous. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, from Frances Iles’ novel. Joan Fontaine won an Oscar for her role.
Citizen Kane, 1941
Frequently voted one of the best films ever made, Orson Welles's masterpiece tells the story of newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane in a series of flashbacks. A reporter is intrigued by the dying Kane's last word - rosebud - and sets out to find a new angle on the life of one of the most powerful men in America. Nine Oscar nominations resulted in only one award for the outspoken Welles - Best Screenplay
Looking for more recommendations? Head over to Channel 100
