How to get your favourite classic movies cheaply or FREE!

Monday 3 December 2012

How to get your favourite classic movies cheaply or FREE!

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. 

Orson Welles 

I love old movies, all types - detective, war, mystery, Alfred Hitchcock (c'mon people, he deserves his own category), romance, comedy, musicals and a mixture of the above also. They had such a carefree vibe to them and you truly felt that the actors and actresses were in them for the love of acting instead of how big the pay check would be or how much they'd score at the box office.

Yes, we got fooled with some of the stars when they sang being replaced with trained professional singers but hey, who cares right? At least they still sounded good unlike more recent fools (*cough* Milli Vanilli *cough*). Also, we didn't get so many remakes. Don't you feel like screaming when they go and remake a good film, probably for the 20th time?! Ok that was an exaggeration, the 3rd...that's more like it, right? Sometimes of course, the remake is better than the original, for instance (and I may get lynched for writing this) but take 'Babes in Toyland' personally my favourite version is the 1961 film, maybe it's because I saw this as a child and before the 1934 Laurel and Hardy version (which I'm not knocking) but it's a million times better than the 1986 version with Keanu Reeves (as a friend of mine summed Keanu up when she watched the latter version - ' he keeps doing his gormless stare ' perfect way of describing the whole film).

But c'est la vie, we can't moan now when they've already made the remakes and, most of the time, ruined the job completely. Let's get to the actual subject at hand - where to get movies on DVD for cheap and where to stream them for FREE!

My first site to refer you to for this is an obvious one - Ebay - they have lots of good deals and there is usually an ebay dedicated site (or one that you may order from such as Ebay.com) wherever you live in the world. You can search by title, actor/actress or even by release date! Very handy if you just want to search for missing titles of your collection but can't remember the specific names.

My second site is also an obvious one but quite often overlooked - Amazon - for an example I put my search term in that link as 'classic DVD films' and just look at the wealth of results, so once again, you don't have to be too specific if you don't want to be.

My third link is more of an unusual one, most people I know don't know of it which confuses me - Ebid - this is a great site as most people don't know of it so you can get really good bargins on here, the only downside is that for exactly the same reason you might not always get results for your searches :/ They have international websites too, catering for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, India, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, USA. I'm sure that if your country isn't listed, you could use another one and just check with individual listings to see if they post internationally.

My fourth link is a nice cheap site - Classic Movie Store - this store sells so many box sets so cheaply in their sales. They also stock a range of decades not only movies but T.V shows from those decades also.
Here's a deal I'd love for a present ;)

Cary Grant box set for £2.97!

Now, my fifth link is for my American and Canadian readers (supposing you guys are out there) or even for others in the rest of the world who don't mind the postage fees :) Deep Discount - it has a classic movies section, which of course is where my link will take you straight to, and their prices are pretty good. Most DVD's are between $5-$10 not a bad bargain eh?

My sixth link - Where can you go if you feel like having a classic late night movie fest but feel like trying flicks you've never seen before? Classic Flix is the place to go for that, I have to admit they're a bit expensive to buy the movies but here you can RENT them! I love this idea and wish I was in the States to try it....so let me know what it's like if you do go for it :)

Now, onto the FREE ones! We all love free stuff correct? Of course we do!

My seventh link is one I regularly visit, especially when the other half is working late - Classic Cinema Online - this is a lovely website that's just had a redesign and update. It's really user friendly and doesn't have so many of those annoying adverts, plus I've never seen a pop-up on this site! No sign up required or hidden fees, literally you can just watch whatever they have on the site and they're always adding new ones.

My eighth link is an unknown one, Open Culture this website has an archive of all sorts of things and in amongst those they have some hidden gems of old movies, for an example - The 39 Steps - is on here :)

My second to last link comes from Internet Archive - This site has a wealth of old movies, of all different genres and decades, they even have a dedicated Film Noir section. If you select 'Feature Films' that's where you'll find all the goodies but check out the other categories as well, you don't know what you might find. Also, they have a spotlight item that changes every month that's usually worth checking out.

My last website (for now) is Solar Movie - this site unfortunately has A LOT of pop ups but if you persevere through them you get the goods without sign up or fees...and let's face it, if you can't find the film on the previous listed websites then closing a few pop up windows is well worth watching your beloved old movies.

I hope this list has helped you and that you enjoy rediscovering all those films!