Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Yeah, it's a lot better than the Johnny Depp version isn't it? Probably because this one is fun and entertaining and the Depp one was was a Tim Burton film and felt kind of pretentious didn't it?
Clearly this version doesn't look as visually pleasing, but it makes up for that in earnest heart, a few good tunes, and a titular character that is always delightfully entertaining to watch.
Gene Wilder really sells it without being creepy doesn't he? And the first time you watch it you don't think about it... but it's a really thin line he had to walk to come across as not creepy and still be eccentric and fun and he pulled it off in spades.
I didn't really think about it as a kid, but as an adult (especially with Burton's) it's one of those things where Wilder should have won an Oscar. It was Academy Award worthy and the film was made in '71 where the Academy Awards still meant something.
Gene's devastatingly on target performance aside, this is just a fun film that the family deserves to see and it certainly needs to be lauded over the remake.

"Charlie" lives in one room with his mother and four grandparents all sharing the same bed and sustained on a diet of cabbage soup! Then the eponymous chocolatier announces a chance of a lifetime. In only five of the tens of millions of bars of chocolate they produce, there will be hidden a golden ticket. Find the ticket and you win a trip around the factory. Now his family clearly don't have much money so his chances aren't high, especially as he watches the television and sees a collection and spoiled and obnoxious children with equally odious parents snap them all up. What chance when he finds some money on the street that the bar he buys will win? Well that bit of the story hardly requires Sherlock Holmes, but he does receive an intriguing proposal from competitor "Slugworth" before he and his "Grandpa Joe" (Jack Albertson) arrive at the appointed time. Out comes a purple velvet clad gent with a big hat - that's the hugely eccentric "Wonka" (Gene Wilder) who speaks a form of gobbledygook and promises them a trip of a lifetime! There is something of the parable about the ensuing story as the children face tests of character and fall foul of their own excesses with the occasionally quite menacing "Wonka" ensuring that just desserts are dished out to the wrongdoers. It's got to be the ultra-petulant "Veruca Salt" (Julie Dawn Cole) who topped my list of those deserving the compost heap, but "Mike Teevee" (Paris Themmen) wasn't far behind. As we travel through the place we are introduced to the mysterious "Oompa Loompa" people who keep the place running and help him produce the perfect chocolate but the big question is, though, will "Charlie" and "Joe" make it through the challenges of the trip themselves? Wilder is on super form here as he takes them on a moral maze that is just as sugar coated as the candies, and Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley have written some of the best songs to grace the silver screen. "Pure Imagination", "The Candy Man" and the delightfully annoying "I Want it Now" from the aptly named "Veruca" all top off a colourful, acrobatic and magical tale of trust and decency that you can't fail to enjoy. Perhaps Roy Kinnear sould have considered drowning at birth?