My Favorite Films 1940-1949
by rfischer9100 | created - 09 Nov 2013 | updated - 24 Jan 2016 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 464,774 | Gross: $1.59M
Pretty good.
So many of the visuals are so far ahead of their time, the acting is fantastic, and though the final conclusion about Kane may be a bit trite, it's still a powerful depiction of an iconic and definitive American character.
2. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Approved | 170 min | Drama, Romance, War
Three World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Teresa Wright
Votes: 70,286 | Gross: $23.65M
Very well-acted and well-filmed stories of WWII soldiers readjusting to civilian life. Manages to take on a serious issue without becoming too dour itself; it's actually an entertaining three hours. I feel like Dana Andrews should have been a bigger star after seeing this.
3. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 604,194 | Gross: $1.02M
Pulp masterpiece.
4. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 497,735
Everything Capra did before this was a dry run - here his visual flair, love of Americana, populism, and dedication to messages all pay off without the usual tics getting in the way. Just great.
5. His Girl Friday (1940)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 62,955 | Gross: $0.30M
A great film with snappy dialogue, a sense of humor that has aged better than most, and a fantastic performance by Rosalind Russell as one of the first really strong, independent female characters in cinema.
There is a lot of casual racism, though I think you could argue that it's a reflection on the crassness of the newspaper culture the film is depicting.
6. Rome, Open City (1945)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Thriller, War
During the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi, Marcello Pagliero, Vito Annichiarico
Votes: 28,859
Some elements of the central plot seem a bit cliched, and the villains are rather arch for a film so famous for starting the "neo-realism" movement...but it's not really those elements that make the film fantastic. The location shooting and naturalistic performances like Aldo Fabrizi's, and, of course, the immediacy of the subject matter, make this a very powerful piece of filmmaking.
7. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Votes: 166,196 | Gross: $2.11M
This film is all about the cool of Sam Spade, in all senses of the word. The plot is ridiculously complicated, but Spade is always a few steps ahead, even when he's constantly getting drugged or double-crossed or pulled on. It is a testament to the direction, script, and, especially, Bogart, that Spade's coolness never grates, but rather makes for something fantastic.
As far as the visuals, not as "noir" as I remembered, but a pleasantly shadowy step in the right direction.
8. The Great Dictator (1940)
G | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 236,697 | Gross: $0.29M
Some rough-edges show in the most "talkie" film Chaplin had made to that point - the verbal jokes are overshadowed by the slapstick, and some of the slapstick plays a little broad. The satire is cutting though, and the film is daring in its attempt to find comedy in tragedy. And much of the slapstick does work as well as Chaplin's brilliant silent work. In hindsight, it's probably too gentle with Hitler - he's more callous than monstrous here, and he doesn't seem much of a credible threat to anyone but his own people. The satire is much more detailed and specific than I remember it being though, with Goebbels getting a lot of attention as an even more sinister figure than the dictator.
9. Fantasia (1940)
G | 124 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
A series of eight famous pieces of classical music, conducted by Leopold Stokowski and interpreted in animation by Walt Disney's team of artists.
Directors: James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe Jr., Norman Ferguson, David Hand, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen | Stars: Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Corey Burton
Votes: 103,659 | Gross: $76.41M
The visuals are imaginative and beautiful (for the most part), and they hold up still today. Considering this film in the context of its time, it is revolutionary.
10. Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Passed | 124 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Mady Correll, Allison Roddan, Robert Lewis
Votes: 19,063 | Gross: $0.33M
A brilliant dark comedy - Chaplin's slapstick and scenarios are as inventive as ever and the edginess of the murderous plot sharpens the humor. At the same time, Chaplin is exploring interesting themes like the violence of capitalism and the nature of evil. He underlines those themes a little too much at the end, but otherwise, this is a thoroughly engaging and entertaining film. Chaplin is also underrated as a director.
Would make a great double feature with American Psycho.
11. Late Spring (1949)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
Several people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka, Haruko Sugimura
Votes: 19,162
I don't have a lot to add to the usual superlatives for Ozu, or to the descriptions of the slow rhythms of his narrative style. This is the best Ozu I've seen yet, and it's amazing how he can transport a viewer with a simple story of family life.
12. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Passed | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Two down-on-their-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 132,066 | Gross: $5.01M
The quintessential adventure film with sharp direction by Huston and great black-and-white photography. Walter Huston is fun to watch, and Bogart's turn is very interesting considering the persona he'd spent most of the decade developing.
Adventure films are almost all about imperialism, so it's not surprising that there are plenty of awful caricatures of Mexicans and Indians...
13. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Family
At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp
Votes: 26,385
Arguably the most beautiful black and white film ever made. The plot is an episodic look at a family in a Welsh coal-mining town, and I think the quality of the episodes vary a bit (some are quite moving, others rather cheesy), but the plot is so secondary to the visuals it hardly matters. A directing tour de force from John Ford. I wouldn't say it's better than Citizen Kane, but I can understand why it won, and that's saying a lot.
14. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Passed | 129 min | Drama
An Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin
Votes: 99,627 | Gross: $0.06M
John Ford is at the top of his game, and the Steinbeck adaptation is a perfect fit for his style because it demands that the characters be oriented in the landscapes of the Dust Bowl and California's orchards, and that those landscapes signal the exploitation of the Joad family. Ford pulls all of this off marvelously. Henry Fonda is at the top of his game as well.
15. The Red Shoes (1948)
Not Rated | 135 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A young ballet dancer is torn between the man she loves and her pursuit to become a prima ballerina.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann
Votes: 38,971 | Gross: $10.90M
Between this film and Black Narcissus, it feels like Powell and Pressburger are moving away from grounded, realistic emotions and towards hyperbolic psychologies at the same time they're perfecting an amazing visual style and upping their ambitions. But that style and those ambitions are so astounding, the fact that the characters are losing relatability feels unimportant.
If the rest of this film were 120 minutes of paint drying, it'd still be four-and-a-half stars for the "Red Shoes" ballet sequence alone.
16. Out of the Past (1947)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses, and duplicitous dames.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Votes: 40,769
An excellent film noir that heightens the trappings of the genre by having a protagonist determined to escape them. Great performances and great direction by Tourneur.
17. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,296 | Gross: $0.45M
Beautifully shot, well-acted, perfectly paced, a really interesting setting - it's easy to see why everyone loves this film. A bit more interested in establishing intrigue than in getting into its characters or this postwar world.
18. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 166,903 | Gross: $5.72M
Compared to the exotic hijinks of the Maltese Falcon, this noir is a grounded and straightforward crime story, and it's quite powerful for it. Add a very slick production and great performances throughout, and it's easy to see why this film is legendary.
19. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Passed | 90 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Hollywood director John L. Sullivan sets out to experience life as a homeless person in order to gain relevant life experience for his next movie.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest
Votes: 28,410
A great Hollywood satire with a lot of wonderful directorial touches by Sturges. The first two-thirds are sort of plot-less, but they're the better for it, as the imposition of conflict in the final third feels a bit forced. There are a lot of film directors today who could learn a lot from this film's message.
20. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Not Rated | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 73,634
A screwball comedy where the characters' eccentricities are actually developed, coherent character traits and the snappy dialogue is actually a series of probing attacks to reveal those traits. The script is great and the three main performances are very charming. I think you could argue that the film is unfair to Hepburn's character, who has to change for her man, but it is made clear that Grant's character has dealt with his own demons before the film's start, and she doesn't seem to have to change that much.
21. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
A New York inventor needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire with a capricious high-society sister.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee
Votes: 12,830 | Gross: $0.44M
A great, zany comedy from Preston Sturges. The A-plot delves into the power of sex and toys with adultery about as much as a Code film can. And, Sid Arno is doing some of the best physical comedy since the silent era on the side (paired brilliantly by Mary Astor). Plus, it has one of the best credit sequences in history.
22. Red River (1948)
Passed | 133 min | Drama, Western
Dunson leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, to its destination in Missouri. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted son.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson | Stars: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan
Votes: 34,231
John Wayne is Capt Ahab on a cattle drive (the first on the Chisholm trail from Texas to Abilene). Montogomery Clift has an Oedipal complex against him. Big, epic, well-acted and directed. Clift is better than most of these handsome young sidekick characters. Maureen O’Hara is interesting as the female lead. Maybe a little too much going on.
23. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy, Crime
A distant poor relative of the Duke D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
Director: Robert Hamer | Stars: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood
Votes: 39,607
Dennis Price gives a great performance and Alec Guinness gives several in this very fun and very dark comedy. I did have some problems with the ending - mainly how it drags on and on.
24. Rope (1948)
Approved | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two men attempt to prove they committed the perfect crime by hosting a dinner party after strangling their former classmate to death.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Dick Hogan
Votes: 153,114
Even though he's basically just filming a live performance (or, at least, lengthy live segments) his set-ups are so perfect that they add an incredible cinematic dimension. The plot's certainly interesting enough to not be entirely overshadowed by the long takes, though I think Brandon comes on a little too strong - he just seems like a twerp rather than a brilliant young man with dangerous ideas.
25. My Darling Clementine (1946)
Passed | 97 min | Drama, Romance, Western
After their cattle are stolen and their brother murdered, the Earp brothers have a score to settle with the Clanton family.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Cathy Downs
Votes: 25,673
One of the prettiest black and white movies ever made. Historical accuracy is not really a selling point - the Clantons' are just a force of violence. The film moves slowly, but I think that's intentional on Ford's part – the revenge plot is subsumed by civil and (mostly) domestic concerns. The one real problem is the treatment of the Mexican woman Chihuahua.
26. Henry V (1944)
Not Rated | 137 min | Biography, Drama, History
In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.
Director: Laurence Olivier | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, Leslie Banks, Felix Aylmer
Votes: 7,029
A fantastic spectacle with great Shakespearean acting. I love how Olivier blends stage and film, giving us a recreation of a Globe performance then moving into a Technicolor film world that highlights rather than hides the painted nature of the matte backgrounds. Influenced by Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky?
27. Notorious (1946)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
The daughter of a convicted German spy is asked by American agents to gather information on a ring of German scientists in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
Votes: 106,970 | Gross: $10.46M
I didn't love this movie my first time through, and it was largely because of the way Grant's pride leads him to thoroughly mistreat and endanger the woman he supposedly loves. Now that I'm better versed in the films of the era, I've got to chock that up to the standards of the day - Grant's character acts like the male in almost every Hollywood romance (dramatic or comedic) of the '30s and '40s. Putting that aside for this viewing, I was really able to appreciate the grace of the film's craft and the depth of its emotion.
Bergman is amazing. Every camera movement is so perfect...
28. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
PG | 129 min | Drama, Family, Romance
Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan
Votes: 8,379
A moving look at tenement life in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn through the eyes of a young girl with big dreams...despite the rough situation, it never loses a basic warmth. The film perfectly balances its view of the mother, who perhaps goes to far in her prudence but clearly does it all with love. Kazan's pretty great at what he does from the start.
29. Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong
Votes: 3,390
It's fantastic to see all of this black talent on the screen here. Lena Horne is wonderful, but she takes a back seat to Ethel Waters and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson - I have to admit to not being too familiar with either of them, but they're absolutely amazing. Waters, especially, is a great singer and gives a wonderful performance. I'm running out of superlatives.
Minnelli's directing pulls it all together and elevates this movie over Stormy Weather, the other super-great showcase of black talent from 1943.
On the DVD, Warner Bros. slapped a lengthy apology to the front of the film for its racism. While there are a lot of stereotypes employed, from black religiosity to dice-throwing, the characters are actually quite nuanced. I just saw The Blind Side from 2009, and that film was several orders of magnitude more racist, in my opinion.
30. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Fantasy, Mystery
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
Directors: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Stars: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Votes: 15,127
A fascinating experimental film that plays with and against contemporary Hollywood film in interesting ways. Not the first of its kind, but it still seems way ahead of its time.
31. Colorado Territory (1949)
Approved | 94 min | Western
In Colorado territory, outlaw Wes McQueen escapes jail to pull a railroad robbery but, upon meeting pretty settler Julie Ann, he wonders about going straight.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone, Henry Hull
Votes: 3,158
A great dark film (actually a remake of High Sierra), with one of Joel McCrae's best performances. Plus, Indians are sympathetic, skilled, and allies, and bits of the mission/pueblo past are used effectively in settings. The ending feels a bit more code-dictated then a real try at genuine tragedy.
32. Black Narcissus (1947)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
A group of nuns struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Jenny Laird
Votes: 27,527
Just an absolutely gorgeous film. Unfortunately, the plot relies on a combination of orientalism and a misogynistic view of mischannelled female sexuality (Sister Ruth's madness is straight out of some late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century, horrible sexist psychological treatise). On the one hand, I want to ignore these flaws because the view of a sensuous east driving nuns crazy is so central to the film's astonishing technicolor beauty. On the other hand, if the Archers had played the repressed sexuality a little more subtly, and treated the Indian culture a little more respectfully, this could have been a near-perfect masterpiece that could age extremely well. As it is, I still adored the lush cinematography, but I was a little embarrassed for it at times.
33. Gilda (1946)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 35,125
This film is gorgeous in so many ways - the production design it great, the camera always pushes in at just the right moment, the chiaroscuro lighting is perfect, and Rita Hayworth is on screen a fair amount of time. The plot is also intriguing and exciting for three-quarters of the film - it's only the ill-fitting Hollywood ending and a healthy dose of misogyny (remarkably tossed aside on behalf of said Hollywood ending) that keep this from being a masterpiece.
34. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron
Votes: 24,633
Heavenly comedies were practically a sub-genre in this era, but Powell and Pressburger (not surprisingly) elevate the concept with beautiful color, some striking imagery, and their usual humanist touch. Here, they create a kinder, gentler universe for the audience to live in in the wake of World War II.
There were a few flaws that jumped out at me: the Archers' British patriotism is more heavy-handed than ever. Worse, very little is done to sell the central relationship after the initial radio conversation, which seems to be especially problematic considering how much of the plot hangs on it. That said, it's easy to ignore these problems in a film this great.
35. Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944)
Not Rated | 95 min | Biography, Drama, History
During the early part of his reign, Ivan the Terrible faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Nikolay Cherkasov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman, Mikhail Nazvanov
Votes: 10,814
Eisenstein really came around on the whole Tsar thing, huh? There are a lot of propaganda films coming out in this era, but it's a little disturbing to see a film coming out of Stalin's Russia celebrating authoritarianism and ruthlessness. But, the compositions, the costumes and the sets are absolutely amazing. Eisenstein was a master of film.
Interestingly, there are some clear influences from Scarlet Empress.
36. 49th Parallel (1941)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama, Thriller, War
A World War II U-boat crew are stranded in northern Canada. To avoid internment, they must make their way to the border and get into the still-neutral U.S.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier, Richard George, Eric Portman
Votes: 7,617
Yes, it's a piece of propaganda, but it's a very skillfully made one that defies expectations - the protaganists are the villains, and they go on a journey that exposes why liberalism is a better society - didactic, yes, but in a clever and subtle way. The Nazi-centered storyline is also propulsive and exciting in a way that few of the adventures of the era are, propaganda or not. There were a couple of disappointing moments concerning First Nations people, unfortunately.
37. The 47 Ronin (1941)
241 min | Drama, History
The legendary Forty-seven ronin plot to avenge the death of their lord, Asano Naganori, by killing Kira Yoshinaka, a shogunate official responsible for Asano being forced to commit seppuku.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Chôjûrô Kawarasaki, Yoshizaburo Arashi, Utaemon Ichikawa, Kan'emon Nakamura
Votes: 2,664
I'll be honest and say that parts of the first half really dragged for me. The focus on samurai ethics can be hard to relate to, and Mizoguchi doesn't really sell Oishi's facade.
Part II really blew me away though. The ethical questions keep building and compounding themselves, the samurais' sacrifice IS relatable in ways that the politics aren't, the mise en scene is dynamic and enthralling, and I love the decision to have what many would consider the climax of the story occur off-screen with an hour of run-time left.
38. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Not Rated | 163 min | Drama, Romance, War
From the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook, James McKechnie
Votes: 16,268
The film centers on a larger-than-life character who becomes realer and more sympathetic as the film goes on - a metaphor for the passage from the heroic Empire to a nation laid low by the Nazis. The celebration of Empire did grate a little though, even if there is plenty of subtle nuance for what is more-or-less a wartime propaganda film (though Churchill hated it).
Nice looking technicolor, and some inventive little bits, especially to convey passage of time or offer up exposition.
39. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Western
When a posse captures three men suspected of killing a local farmer, they become strongly divided over whether or not to lynch the men.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn
Votes: 24,886 | Gross: $1.64M
A very good, tragic film about lynching (though it's whites who are lynched). Very well done and affecting with some great character actor performances. Henry Fonda doing his thing and spelling out the morality too much keeps this from being perfect. Also, it’s not super fun.
40. Laura (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 51,211 | Gross: $4.36M
Laura is an unusual noir character in that she's presented as sweet and pure (though obviously, she hung out with the wrong crowd). This makes for an interesting dynamic, but it also dulls the typical noir hard-edge. Still, overall, it is a very intriguing and stylish film.
41. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943)
Approved | 98 min | Comedy, Romance, War
After an all-night send-off party for the troops, a small-town girl with an awkward boyfriend wakes up to find herself married and pregnant, but with no memory of her husband's identity.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, William Demarest
Votes: 7,925
A very funny film that's also quite edgy for the day - a big part of the fun is figuring out how various plot points got past the Hays Code.
Sturges does a fine job here of relying heavily on physical comedy and managing to keep it from playing too broad - oh, it's broad, but there's a cleverness and skillfulness that keeps it from feeling that way. Great performances by some less-well-known actors.
42. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Passed | 108 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A teenage girl, overjoyed when her favorite uncle comes to visit the family in their quiet California town, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sought by the authorities.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers
Votes: 70,290
Cotten and Hitchcock maybe overdo the menace of their villain, but everything around that central problem is amazing - it looks great, the secondary characters are very funny and well-acted, and there's some great, incestuous sexual tension.
43. To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance, War
During the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart
Votes: 42,715
Lubitsch successfully pulls off a farce in a time and place when that shouldn't be possible.
44. Great Expectations (1946)
Approved | 118 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
A humble orphan boy in 1810s Kent is given the opportunity to go to London and become a gentleman, with the help of an unknown benefactor.
Director: David Lean | Stars: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Tony Wager, Jean Simmons
Votes: 26,304
Since reading it in middle school, I haven't been a fan of this Dickens tale. It hangs on some massive contrivances and some misogynistic portrayals of women. Lean's production, however, is so gorgeous and moves at such a pleasant clip, that I've actually reconsidered my feelings about the book.
45. Now, Voyager (1942)
Passed | 117 min | Drama, Romance
A frumpy spinster blossoms under therapy and becomes an elegant, independent woman.
Director: Irving Rapper | Stars: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper
Votes: 18,908
A melodrama I actually liked. For a film about a woman cured of mental illness, it's not very psychologically sophisticated, but it does introduce a lot of interesting and complicated relationships.
I watched All This and Heaven Too just before this. In that movie, the passive aggressive villainess and the protagonists' senseless guilt and moral perfection annoyed me to no end. Some of those elements are on display here as well, but they're given just enough nuance (and Charlotte Vale transgresses just enough) to make them much more tolerable, and even interesting.
46. The Lost Weekend (1945)
Passed | 101 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 40,064 | Gross: $9.46M
I tend to roll my eyes at knee-jerk critiques of Hollywood stylization (see most of Mark Cousins' Story of Film), but this is a case where the subject matter and tone of a film are at war with the constraints of Hollywood. At times, this really works to the film's advantage - the bat scene is all the more shocking because this is a mainstream film. Other Hollywood bits, like the devoted girlfriend and the happy ending, strike glaringly wrong notes and mar an otherwise powerful film about the depths of alcoholism that really conveys the insistent drive of addiction.
47. Scarlet Street (1945)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, though her fiancé persuades her to con him out of the fortune they mistakenly assume he possesses.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, Margaret Lindsay
Votes: 19,047
An excellent noir about a destructive circle of one-sided relationships.
Having seen La Chienne not that long ago, I was a bit preoccupied with comparisons - overall, I think Fritz Lang surpasses Renoir here and makes his best film since...M?...in the process. It's felt like Lang's style has been suppressed a lot in most of his Hollywood films, but this reminded me of old school Lang. I think the one disadvantage that film has against La Chienne is in the lead role: I love Edward G. Robinson, but Michel Simon brings an innate creepiness to the role (to all of his roles) that changes the tone - Robinson's protagonist is accessible and sympathetic, which makes the film's cynicism a little harder to take and plays up the misogyny (the terrible female characters were easier to handle when everyone was terrible).
48. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Passed | 104 min | Western
Captain Nathan Brittles, on the eve of retirement, takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson
Votes: 19,262
2nd in cavalry trilogy and much lighter than the first. Ends with non-violent solution to Indians with real grievances (and a generational conflict in leadership, though the elders are a little clownish). The silliness, especially unremitting Irish drunk humor, can go too far, but overall the film is better for the lighter tone. Also, the theme of aging (John Wayne’s officer is retiring) has aged better than the Cold War themes of the other two cavalry films. Most importantly, Ford works in color, and it looks absolutely gorgeous.
49. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, War
A British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, May Whitty
Votes: 19,393 | Gross: $13.50M
The film starts a little slow, and the inspiring propaganda aspect gets pretty heavy-handed at the end, but in between there are some very powerful and well-done blitz scenes.
50. The Stranger (1946)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Philip Merivale
Votes: 28,629
Welles has the horrors of World War II intrude on an idyllic small American town. It's a very fun, well-made thriller, and you get to see Welles and Edward G. Robinson spar on screen.
The only drawback is that a lot of the tension leans on Loretta Young trying to be a faithful wife - it might have been more tolerable if her gullibility had felt like it came from love rather than her gender role. She at least gets some redemption in the end.
51. Mildred Pierce (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Votes: 28,524
Issues of class, materialism, and the changing economic position of women are all filtered through a sordid noir, that also happens to be quite nicely directed by Michael Curtiz. Joan Crawford gives a great performance.
Veda's character could've used some nuance and shading, and poor Butterfly McQueen gets some lousy comic relief bits.
52. Spellbound (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Romance
A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 52,074 | Gross: $7.00M
The psychoanalysis material is so patently absurd and has aged so poorly that it is hard to take this film seriously (also aging poorly: the rear projection in the skiing scene at the film's climax). However, if you can set the ridiculous science-magic psychiatry aside, this is an intriguing and well-paced mystery. Hitchcock is getting more visually inventive with some interesting POV shots and a Dali-advised surrealist dream sequence. Bergman gives a great performance; Peck is a little disappointing.
53. The Big Clock (1948)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A magazine tycoon commits a murder and pins it on an innocent man, who then tries to solve the murder himself.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Ray Milland, Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Laughton, George Macready
Votes: 9,495
Alcohol gets Milland in trouble again! Will he never learn?
This is a very fun thriller that uses a plot about a man trapped in his office as his coworkers close in on pinning a murder on him as an allegory for dissatisfaction with white collar work in post-war America.
54. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama
In post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Elena Altieri
Votes: 174,568 | Gross: $0.33M
A moving portrait of a struggling father in post-war Italy. It deftly depicts all the labor it requires for someone in poverty just to get and keep a job, while also showing the emotions of longing, hope, and anger that all spawn out of this life.
I don't know if it's neorealism burn-out or a case of extremely high expectations, but I didn't like this quite as much as I feel like I'm supposed to. That said, the skill behind the film is evident, and non-professional Maggiorani's performance is incredible.
55. Hamlet (1948)
Approved | 154 min | Drama
Prince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king.
Director: Laurence Olivier | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, John Laurie, Esmond Knight
Votes: 18,298 | Gross: $7.09M
It's not as playful as Henry V with the film/stage transition, but this production does have some nice camera moves, great set design, and wonderful expressionistic lighting. Still, it was a bit of a disappointment after seeing Henry V, especially since I like this source material so much more (yeah, I'm going to take a controversial stand and say that Hamlet is a pretty good play. Gutsy, I know). I'm not keen on the monologues as voice-over, even if it does make a certain amount of sense and provides Olivier the opportunity to do a different kind of acting.
56. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders
Votes: 33,149 | Gross: $0.01M
I felt a little cheated by Welles' sub-par Irish lilt and Hayworth's blondeness. The film meanders through a middling noir plot with some good cinematography, but that ending really takes it to another level.
This is the first film in my big chronological movie watchthrough that touches on the existential dread of nuclear annihilation.
57. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Votes: 23,562 | Gross: $3.48M
The plot is a little too convoluted, I don't think McCrae quite sells his role, and there's a somewhat heavy-handed propaganda message, but this is a very exciting film that is, of course, quite well-made, and tries some action set-pieces that are ahead of their time (including a plane crash!).
58. Cat People (1942)
Not Rated | 73 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
An American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if they are intimate together.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph
Votes: 25,877 | Gross: $4.00M
Effectively creepy horror movie about love and sex. Famously keeps its monster in the shadows. Actually, it keeps just about everything in the shadows, which does add to its charms.
To be honest, it probably has aged better as a text to be analyzed then as a horror film to be enjoyed, but it is such a rich text...
59. This Gun for Hire (1942)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When assassin Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his beautiful female companion dead, he is paid off in marked bills by his treasonous employer who is working with foreign spies.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar
Votes: 10,585
Maybe the darkest noir yet. The film works hard NOT to redeem Ladd, which is an unusual move during the Code. There are some nice flourishes to humanize his killer as well.
60. The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
Passed | 70 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
The young, friendless daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed befriends her father's dead first wife and an aging, reclusive actress.
Directors: Gunther von Fritsch, Robert Wise | Stars: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Ann Carter
Votes: 7,157
Completely different from Cat People, but it ends up equaling that film in quality. This is a moody exploration of a child's imagination with a lot of ambiguity in the supernatural elements. It's plotless and the all the better for it; in fact, it's biggest flaw is the way that it forces a climax at the end. Shot very beautifully.
61. White Heat (1949)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 35,550
Cagney's huge performance keeps the film engaging through some early boilerplate cops and robbers stuff. Then, the film's climax is exciting and brilliant - really upping the ante on movie action sequences.
62. The Lady Eve (1941)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A trio of classy card sharks targets a socially awkward brewery heir, until one of them falls in love with him.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette
Votes: 23,296
Henry Fonda seems miscast, but Stanwyck is a force of nature...she really makes up for it. It's not entirely a comedy....but not really a tragedy - that odd mix is what makes this film so distinctive, but it does make for an odd viewing experience.
63. Bambi (1942)
G | 69 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
The story of a young deer growing up in the forest.
Directors: James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, David Hand, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Norman Wright, Arthur Davis, Clyde Geronimi | Stars: Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander, Bobette Audrey, Peter Behn
Votes: 153,559 | Gross: $102.80M
When I was a kid, I detested this movie: it was tedious, and then it was depressing.
Watching now, it's still a little slow, and it's certainly sentimental, but the animation's just so gorgeous. Mainlining '40s films helps with the appreciation...I mean, My God, the colors!
64. The Little Foxes (1941)
Approved | 116 min | Drama, Romance
The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the Deep South at the turn of the twentieth century.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson
Votes: 13,047
A dark film about a set of evil Southern siblings. Bette Davis is having the time of her life in her wicked role, and William Wyler elevates the material with some fine compositions. The first film that doesn't romanticize the South (there are a few gestures towards the antebellum South being better, but they don't come from reliable characters).
65. High Sierra (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After being released from prison, notorious thief Roy Earle is hired by his old boss to help a group of inexperienced criminals plan and carry out the robbery of a California resort.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy
Votes: 19,154
There's a lengthy sub-plot here about Bogie falling in love with a sweet, disabled little farm-girl. She represents the innocence he's left behind, and he hopes to sweep her away. The film foreshadows a rather cliched resolution that she'll reject him for being a bank-robber. He's become too tainted for the innocent world he longs to rejoin. But, no, she dumps him for a disrespectful drunk jerk and a life of partying! The world's not too innocent for him; he's too noble and wise for the world. The jerk sweet Velma ends up with is echoed in the young toughs in his crew, who don't have the honor of Bogart's generation. And Lupino, who looks and acts like the femme fatale, is actually the sweet loving girl that Bogart wanted all along. It's a dark, subversive theme, and the film plays it subtly.
There is some fat here that could be trimmed though - the pacing and structure drag it down a bit.
66. I Married a Witch (1942)
Passed | 77 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A beautiful 17th-century witch returns to life to plague politician Wallace Wooley, descendant of her persecutor.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward
Votes: 9,478 | Gross: $0.31M
A great supernatural comedy that's sort of a proto-Bewitched. Veronica Lake is beautiful and great. Directed very well by the French comedy auteur Rene Clair.
67. National Velvet (1944)
Passed | 123 min | Drama, Family, Sport
A jaded former jockey helps a young girl prepare a wild but gifted horse for England's Grand National Sweepstakes.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere
Votes: 7,975
Things that provoke the worst Hollywood sentimentality: animals, children, sports, Britain (London excluded), and young Mickey Rourke. This movie has all of that, and yet manages to not be a complete schlock-fest. The fun family dynamic, the light-hearted but sincere atmosphere, and early girl-power message make this film very endearing. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected.
68. Ministry of Fear (1944)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Stephen Neale has just been released from an asylum during World War II in England when he accidentally stumbles onto a deadly Nazi spy plot and tries to stop it.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke
Votes: 8,845
A slick, Hitchcockian (or is Hitchcock Langian?) paranoid thriller. I'm not sure there's much under the surface, but it's highly entertaining and looks great.
69. Stormy Weather (1943)
Passed | 78 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.
Director: Andrew L. Stone | Stars: Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra, Katherine Dunham and Her Troupe
Votes: 2,871
Showcasing even more black talent than Cabin in the Sky, Stormy Weather, unfortunately lacks the plot and direction to equal the other black musical of '43. It's a fictionalized backstager biopic of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson - still my least favorite combination of genres. That said, who needs plot when you have Bojangles, Lena Horne, the Nicholas Brothers, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, and others showing off. It might have been better as just a straight-up revue - it's a joy to watch.
70. Key Largo (1948)
Approved | 100 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A man visits his war buddy's family hotel and finds a gangster running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 43,852
The thing that really puts this hostage thriller over the top (other than the great cast) is how all of the characters - both heroes and villains - have seen better days. Robinson is trying, weakly, to make a come-back in crime. Bogart is disillusioned. Bacall has lost her love. Barrymore is wheelchair-bound. The drama is heightened, rather than lowered as a result...
That said, the stand-off did get a little tiresome.
Huston seems to care more about Indians than most directors of the era, but he does lay on some stereotypes, though not as much as in Sierra Madre.
71. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Votes: 38,306 | Gross: $0.20M
Lubitsch shows that he still has his touch. Mostly confined to one set, it should feel stagey, but it never really does. Margaret Sullivan and Jimmy Stewart's performances really make it work. Inspired You've Got Mail.
72. Battleground (1949)
Approved | 118 min | Action, Drama, History
True tale about a squad of the 101st Airborne Division coping with being trapped by the Germans in the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy
Votes: 7,839 | Gross: $10.29M
Battleground doesn't really do anything new or different in the field of war movies - it's the usually mix of bureaucracy, banter, and booms - but it manages to put these elements together better than any of the other war films of the '40s.
73. Stray Dog (1949)
Not Rated | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective tries to track down his stolen Colt pistol.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji, Eiko Miyoshi
Votes: 18,848
It's often remarked that, compared to the other two titans of mid-century Japanese cinema (Ozu and Mizoguchi), Kurosawa's style is the most Hollywood-influenced. That's fairly clear here, but I think it's important to note that, based on this film, Kurosawa would have been in the top tier of Hollywood directors even as early as '49. This film easily surpasses most of the American detective movies that inspired it, like Naked City. It's slick and exciting, but also layered with social commentary about post-war Japan. It's also interesting to see Mifune (the earliest I've ever seen him) doing something different from the roles that he will become famous for.
74. The Heiress (1949)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A naive young woman falls for a handsome young man her emotionally abusive father suspects is only a fortune hunter.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins
Votes: 17,287
A thoroughly unsentimental anti-romance set in mid-nineteenth-century New York. Fantastic direction and great performances.
75. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,318 | Gross: $6.54M
Yeah, Bogart is Marlowe instead of Spade, but it feels like Hawks is following in The Maltese Falcon's footsteps here with Bogart cooly navigating his way through a ridiculously convoluted plot with lots of different people trying to kill each other (and him). Bacall is a nice addition (as are a bevy of attractive ladies; Marlowe is kind of Bond-esque here), but it just doesn't have the originality of Maltese Falcon.
76. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Passed | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer
Votes: 27,608 | Gross: $7.57M
Marvelous colors, the best song line-up in a musical thus far, the madness of Tootie, and just oodles of charm make-up for a virtually-non-existent plot and some tedious bits.
77. Hangmen Also Die! (1943)
Passed | 134 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
After the German administrator of Czechoslovakia is shot, his assassin tries to elude the Gestapo and struggles with his impulse to give himself up as hostages are executed.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 6,351
Lang at his most atmospheric since coming to Hollywood in the this film about the Nazi occupation of Prague. Brecht's screenplay has some interesting things to say about communal resistance, though it can get a bit heavy-handed. There are a lot of interesting-looking character actors chewing up scenery (especially as Nazis) in a way that is also reminiscent of earlier Lang work. Some of the central performances drag the film down a bit (especially Anna Lee; wikipedia says Theresa Wright was up for the part, and that casting alone would've made for a significantly better movie, I think).
This is a heavy-handed propaganda piece, but the Nazis managed to be even worse than Hollywood's version of them.
78. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A beautiful young woman takes her father's place as the prisoner of a mysterious beast, who wishes to marry her.
Directors: Jean Cocteau, René Clément | Stars: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Mila Parély, Nane Germon
Votes: 27,997 | Gross: $0.30M
The perfect realization of a fairy tale on film.
79. Meet John Doe (1941)
Passed | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A penniless drifter is recruited by an ambitious columnist to impersonate a non-existent person who said he'd be committing suicide as a protest, and a social movement begins.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan
Votes: 14,863
It feels like Capra's movies are getting darker with time. This time, the characters don't start out as naifs, and there seems to be a recognition that there's a thin line between Capra-platitudes and fascist demagoguery. I think that this pessimism actually strengthens Capra's message...but, he has basically made this same film four or five times now.
80. Brief Encounter (1945)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Romance
Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey
Votes: 44,048
Certainly a well-made film, and one that is elevated by wonderful performances by the two leads, especially Celia Johnson. At the end of the day, however, I have a hard time sympathizing with the British middle class repression that drives the whole story, and so it didn't resonate with me as well as it could have.
81. The More the Merrier (1943)
Passed | 104 min | Comedy
During the World War II housing shortage in Washington, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, Richard Gaines
Votes: 7,439
An interesting romantic comedy that tries to play up the wartime context for its D.C.-set plot. Charles Coburn has to play an anarchic character that throws Jean Arthur's life into chaos after becoming her roommate. Coburn doesn't seem like the best choice for this role, but there is some good comedy here.
There's something about Jean Arthur that seems to bring out very passionate performances in her male costars - I think the scene with McCrae on the steps is the most physical love scene I've seen since before the Code.
82. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett
Votes: 13,621
Dark and atmospheric (I think I use that word to describe every Tourneur film). Perhaps problematic racially, but it at least acknowledges that slavery is horrible and creates some nuanced rolls for some black actors, rare things before the '50s.
83. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
Director: Albert Lewin | Stars: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 14,397
Could have, perhaps, been a little moodier, but it does go to some dark places eventually, and the presentation of the portraits is incredibly effective.
84. Major Barbara (1941)
Approved | 121 min | Comedy
A young and idealistic woman, who has adopted the Salvation Army and whose father is an armament industrialist, will save more souls directing her father's business. A comedy with social commentary.
Directors: Gabriel Pascal, Harold French, David Lean | Stars: Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison, Robert Morley, Robert Newton
Votes: 1,510
This film, based on a George Bernard Shaw play, winds around to get to a very ambivalent ending that is presented as triumphant. This is both a strength and a weakness - the story and characters perhaps lack consistency, but there is plenty to chew on (including very witty dialogue). The film brings some great performances into the mix as well.
85. Macbeth (1948)
Passed | 107 min | Drama, History, War
Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, Roddy McDowall
Votes: 7,760
Olivier managed to bring striking cinematic visuals to filmed Shakespeare plays without sacrificing the language or performances. Welles certainly achieves the striking visuals here, really surpassing Olivier's Hamlet despite having much less to work with, but the performances do suffer. Also, for the second time in a row, a Welles production is somewhat hobbled by his own lackluster accent work.
86. A Walk in the Sun (1945)
Approved | 117 min | Drama, War
During WWII, a platoon of American soldiers trudge through the Italian countryside in search of a bridge they have been ordered to blow up, encountering danger and destruction along the way.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, George Tyne, John Ireland
Votes: 4,070
Cinema verite it ain't, but this film does offer a heightened, stylized vision of the typical war movie. The dialogue has the familiar rhythms of wartime camaraderie, but extra clever and layered...it can feel almost too affected, but I generally don't expect realism in movies framed by ballads. I was drawn into the film's world. Milestone also uses some interesting camera angles.
Feels like Spielberg drew a lot of inspiration from this one for Saving Private Ryan...or maybe it's just that they're both infantry films.
87. All That Money Can Buy (1941)
Passed | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A nineteenth-century New Hampshire farmer makes a pact with Satan for economic success, then enlists famed orator Daniel Webster to extract him from his contract.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, Jane Darwell, Simone Simon
Votes: 5,551
Moments of fantasy brilliance, directed with flair by Dieterle, are dragged down by a lot of aw shucks Americana and heavy-handed preaching for most of the film, especially the first two thirds. Huston's and Arnold's performances also help lift it out of these dull patches.
88. Dark Passage (1947)
Passed | 106 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try to prove his innocence.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 21,867
Bogart/Bacall, the well-filmed San Francisco setting, and the creative ways in which Daves obscures his star's face all make this film highly enjoyable, despite the rather clunky, contrivance-driven plot.
89. Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
Passed | 96 min | Thriller, War
In the North African campaign a British straggler manages to pass himself off as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Fortunio Bonanova
Votes: 6,710
You can feel the stageplay origins in the middle, but it is still rather tense and the performances are strong (and you see some of Wilder's work with lighting that would soon enliven Double Indemnity). The bookending sequences with tanks are especially strong too.
90. Western Union (1941)
Passed | 95 min | History, Western
When Edward Creighton leads the construction of the Western Union to unite East with West, he hires a Western reformed outlaw and a tenderfoot Eastern surveyor.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Robert Young, Randolph Scott, Dean Jagger, Virginia Gilmore
Votes: 3,258
A very well-made though formulaic western, hitting the usual themes of civilizing the frontier (including a typical representation of the tensions in a love triangle). Randolph Scott is very good here, the technicolor looks nice, and, while I still prefer the madcap German work of Fritz Lang, it is quite well-directed.
I thought it might do something interesting with portrayals of American Indians for a second there, but it ended up using the typical stereotypes and put-downs for the most part.
91. Pursued (1947)
Passed | 101 min | Western
A boy haunted by nightmares about the night his entire family was murdered is brought up by a neighboring family in the 1880s. He falls for his lovely adoptive sister but his nasty adoptive brother and mysterious uncle want him dead.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum, Judith Anderson, Dean Jagger
Votes: 3,814
A great-looking noir-western with a well-cast Mitchum as the lead. Goes for mood over logic but achieves the desired effect.
92. The Raven (1943)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A French village doctor becomes the target of poison-pen letters sent to village leaders, accusing him of affairs and practicing abortion.
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot | Stars: Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, Micheline Francey, Héléna Manson
Votes: 10,850 | Gross: $0.03M
An interesting, twisty mystery with a dark ambiance and interesting conflicts. The characters can be a bit over-the-top, as is often the case in French cinema (at least, until Bresson shows up and takes things in the opposite direction).
93. Rebecca (1940)
Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 146,248 | Gross: $4.36M
I wanted to like this more than I did, but the comically evil villains, the constant Joan Fontaine put downs, and the fact that her character has so little agency in this whole story all kind of took me out of it.
That said, it looks fantastic, and the mysteries are compelling.
94. Pinocchio (1940)
G | 88 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.
Directors: Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen | Stars: Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Mel Blanc, Don Brodie
Votes: 159,265 | Gross: $84.25M
High marks for surrealist imagery and shots that are just astounding in the context of the time. I can't say I connect with the plot (it's really just a series of strange incidents with simplistic morals) or the characters (other than Jiminy)
95. On the Town (1949)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Three sailors wreak havoc as they search for love during a whirlwind 24-hour leave in New York City.
Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | Stars: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller
Votes: 18,730
Anchors Aweigh 2: The Townening.
Actually, this film is toned down some from Anchors Aweigh - the plot's (what there is of it) more linear and there's no Tom and Jerry dance sequence...I can't quite decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Definitely a good thing: Ann Miller and Vera-Allen - the ladies here are a big upgrade over Kathryn Grayson.
96. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Romance
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel Journet
Votes: 13,600
This film seems old-fashioned even for 1948. I wanted Greta Garbo circa 1930 as the lead. That said, it perfects that early-30s Euroromantic melodrama formula. It also looks great.
There was a moment near the end where I thought the film might reject romanticism, but that certainly didn't pan out. For me, it would have been a more interesting film if it had.
97. A Canterbury Tale (1944)
Not Rated | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price, John Sweet
Votes: 6,455
Powell and Pressburger know how to make a film, and there is a lot to like about this quiet, pastoral homefront film that mostly keeps the war in the background (though it is always present). What plot there is involves the investigation of a series of misogynist attacks that the film ultimately (and very annoyingly) shrugs off because, hey, the attacker loved British history. Another problem is the unfortunate acting of Sgt. John Sweet.
98. Sahara (I) (1943)
Approved | 97 min | Action, Drama, War
After the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.
Director: Zoltan Korda | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, J. Carrol Naish, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 9,705
A well-made but by-the-numbers war film elevated a bit by some very nice desert landscapes. There's an interesting multi-national angle, including a Sudanese Muslim, though I bet it grated that ahyper-competent American got to be a great hero of El Alamein (a British battle).
99. Ball of Fire (1941)
Approved | 111 min | Comedy, Romance
A group of professors working on a new encyclopedia while living in a Manhattan mansion take in a mouthy nightclub singer who is wanted by the police to help bring down her mob boss lover.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers
Votes: 13,986
Nice, light fun, but fairly generic for a screwball. Wilder's script is quite good, especially with the slang. I like Cooper, but it seems like Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant would have been better fits.
100. The Great McGinty (1940)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy
Dan McGinty has great success in his chosen field of crooked politics, but he endangers it all in one crazy moment of honesty.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, Allyn Joslyn
Votes: 4,399
Sort of the bizarro Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, as it is much more cynical. I think it ends up showing that Capra's approach, despite the cheesiness factor, is more effective. That said, there are some really interesting ideas in Preston Sturges's directorial debut, including almost showing a suicide attempt in a mirror, a non-linear structure, and some neat tracking shots.
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