Best B+W cinematography - Top 10
After reading another thread here about how great James Wong Howe's cinematography was in "Hud," I thought this would make a good topic. Off the top of my head, here are the movies I think have the best black and white cinematography, in no particular order:
Hud (James Wong Howe)
The Grapes of Wrath (Gregg Toland)
Citizen Kane (Gregg Toland)
Casablanca (Arthur Edeson)
Manhattan (Gordon Willis)
On the Waterfront (Boris Kaufman)
Paper Moon (Laszlo Kovacs)
The Elephant Man (Freddie Francis)
The Last Picture Show (Robert Surtees)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Ted D. McCord)
There are so many other great ones. I realize my list has only American titles -- I should probably have included one or two of Fellini's films (especially 8 1/2), but it's been many years since I've seen them and they're not fresh in my mind. I need to see them again. Same with some of Bergman's early films. I remember "Persona" being very beautiful, but I haven't seen it in decades.
One B&W film that doesn't get enough credit for its great cinematography is "Young Frankenstein" -- it's beautiful.