Matthew Broderick

“I’m first pulling out The Lady Eve. It’s hilarious and also really touching. I love… love this movie, I love Preston Sturges, as did John Hughes love Preston Sturges and Mike Nichols, who I worked with, said, “You gotta watch Preston Sturges movies,” and that’s how I first started watching those.”

“The 39 Steps I saw recently. Black-and-white, you know, British, more British-y Alfred Hitchcock and, like all his movies, there is something absolutely special and magnificent about it. It’s just a great plot that just… Surprises keep coming to poor Robert Donat or… I think that’s how you pronounce his name. There’s a helicopter in it, and one of the worst special effects I’ve ever seen is the helicopter flying overhead. And that’s another Hitchcock trademark, in my opinion, is to have some very fake-looking shot somewhere in his movies. I don’t know why, but he seemed to like that.”

“My Man Godfrey. You know, Carole Lombard, the most… God, the most gorgeous… You can’t not fall in love with her. And William Powell, too. The two of them are magnificent. And I don’t know the other actors’ names so well, but… that guy with the big… you know, the scratchy voice is in it who’s fucking fant– Excuse me. Fantastic. The… There’s a guy who does an impression of a monkey in it. And it’s a very funny and also very great, clever plot about the need for help after the Depression.”

“Now I’m picking Now, Voyager. It’s Paul Henreid and Bette Davis. It’s the one where Paul Henreid puts two cigarettes in his mouth and lights them both and gives– “Shall we have a cigarette on it?” And I’m leaving out Claude Rains, who may be my… one of my very favorite actors ever. Great character actor. A little taller, he would’ve been a leading man, but he got better parts because he’s a little on the short side, I guess. In this he plays her psychiatrist, and he is so touching and warm with her. I love him. I love Claude Rains.”

“So I have a noir: Double Indemnity. This movie is… Everybody talks this very clipped, short, stylish noir way that… there’s no other film quite like it. It’s perfect. And Barbara Stanwyck, no collection is complete without Barbara Stanwyck. One of the best film actors ever.”

“And this is The Cameraman, which is Buster Keaton. And I think this is one of his best ones, one of his most… It’s not like episodes of stunts. It’s like a real good story and a good character, and… I saw it at a movie theater with a live band and the audience was dying laughing. It’s funny to watch these movies in… with other people and realize that they’re still funny, which after a hundred years or ninety years is kind of amazing.”

“This is David Lean and Noël Coward, both of whom… nobody better. And the fact that they came together, some people don’t know because you know other David Lean movies and you might know Noël Coward plays, but Brief Encounter is very famous. Brief Encounter. There’s no more heartbreaking, yearning, regret-filled movie, but ends with a certain amount of happiness and peace somehow, brilliantly, even though it’s… it really tears you apart. In Which We Serve you might not have seen, but is magnificent. Noël Coward is in it. I believe he hated making it and decided he didn’t want to do movies anymore after that. He said, “I’m going back to the theater.” This Happy Breed I have not seen. Blithe Spirit, Rex Harrison. I haven’t seen that in a long time, but I can’t wait to see it again. Can’t believe David Lean directed those. Because you think of him as this enormous epic guy, but these are more intimate.”