It’s the stuff that dreams are of made of….

As Hollywood continued making movies, more and more features were released each year. As such, I have a feeling that when I enter the 1950s, I’ll have to start writing these entries every 5 years as opposed to every 10. Anyway, the forties are full of many films that are considered prime examples of their genres even to this day. For instance:

Romance

* His Girl Friday (1940)- One of the greatest “Battle of the Sexes” films

* The Shop Around the Corner (1940)- A plot featuring the hate-so-much-they-fall-in-love relationship formula

* The Philadelphia Story (1940)- One of the first Rom-Com’s

* Now, Voyager (1942)- Made cigarettes sexy

Film Noir

* The Maltese Falcon (1941)- Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade

* Double Indemnity (1944)- Barbara Stanwyck as one the screen’s coolest Ice Queens

* Gilda (1946)- Rita Hayworth’s hot femme fetal e toys with Glenn Ford

* The Big Sleep (1946)- Bogart’s back, and trying not to fall for Lauren Bacall

Drama

* Citizen Kane (1940)- Innovative, challenging, and AFI’s #1

* The Grapes of Wrath (1940)- Heartbreaking and controversial, like the novel

* Casablanca (1943)*- One of the greatest films ever made, don’t argue with me

* It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)- That Christmas classic that still dominates the airwaves in winter

There are many other notable films on this list that make the 1940s one of my favorite decades in Hollywood cinema: Rebecca (one of Hitchcock’s first US films), the indelible Claude Rains in the Technicolor world of The Phantom of the Opera (many versions of the Phantom story will be featured in this blog), and of course, Charlie Chaplain in The Great Dictator.

Here's lookin' at you... (1940-1949)

61. All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

62. Fantasia (1940)

63. His Girl Friday (1940)

64. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

65. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

66. Pinocchio (1940)

67. Rebecca (1940)

68. My Favorite Wife (1940)

69. Pride and Prejudice (1940)

70. The Great Dictator (1940)

71. The Philadelphia Story (1940)

72. Citizen Kane (1940)

73. Meet John Doe (1940)

74. The Reluctant Dragon” (1941)

75. The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)

76. Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

77. The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)

78. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

79. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

80. Dumbo (1941)

81. Buck Privates (1941)

82. The Wolf Man (1941)

83. To Be, or Not to Be (1942)

84. Horton Hatches the Egg” (1942)

85. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

86. Bambi (1942)

87. Now, Voyager (1942)

88. The Black Swan (1942)

89. Cat People (1942)

90. Der Fuehrer’s Face” (1943)

91. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

92. Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs” (1943)

93. Cabin in the Sky (1943)

94. Casablanca (1943)

95. Heaven Can Wait (1943)

96. The Phantom of the Opera (1943)

97. Lifeboat (1944)

98. Jane Eyre (1944)

99. Gaslight (1944)

100. Mr. Skeffington (1944)

101. Kismet (1944)

102. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

103. Double Indemnity (1944)

104. Laura (1944)

105. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

106. The Enchanted Cottage (1945)

107. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

108. The Corn is Green (1945)

109. State Fair (1945)

110. The Naughty Nineties (1945)

111. Anchors Aweigh (1945)

112. Mildred Pierce (1945)

113. Spellbound (1945)

114. Humoresque (1946)

115. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

116. The Harvey Girls (1946)

117. Gilda (1946)

118. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

119. Anna and the King of Siam (1946)

120. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

121. Notorious (1946)

122. “Willie the Operatic Whale” (1946)

123. The Big Sleep (1946)

124. Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

125. The Paradine Case (1947)

126. Boom Town (1947)

127. Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

128. Miracle on 34^th Street (1947)

129. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

130. Life with Father (1947)

131. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

132. Dark Passage (1947)

133. Song of Love (1947)

134. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

135. The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

136. A Double Life (1947)

137. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

138. The Pirate (1948)

139. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

140. Key Largo (1948)

141. Rope (1948)

142. The Three Musketeers (1948)

143. The Red Shoes

144. Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1949)

145. I Was a Male War Bride (1949)

146.”The Wind and the Willows” (1949)

147. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

148. Adam’s Rib (1949)

149. On the Town (1949)

150. Samson and Delilah (1949)

The 1930s

What can be said about the films of the 30s? This was the era of the classic monster movies of Universal Studios, sweeping romantic epics like Gone with the Wind and Wuthering Heights, and it was the era where Disney and Warner Brothers delighted audiences with their animated shorts... until 1937 when Walt Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

With the Great Depression making reality hard to endure, movie audiences longed for the escapism of films like The Wizard of Oz or to laugh at the antics of the Marx brothers as they turned the rich and famous on their ears...

It's Alive! (1929-1939)

12. "The Skeleton Dance" (1929)
13.. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
14. Svengali (1931)
15. Dracula (1931)
16. Frankenstein (1931)
17. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
18. Freaks (1932)
19. The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
20. The Mummy (1932)
21. Duck Soup (1933)
22. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
23. King Kong (1933)
24. 42nd Street (1933)
25. The Invisible Man (1933)
26. It Happened One Night (1934)
27. Imitation of Life (1934)
28. The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
29. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
30. Top Hat (1935)
31. A Midsummer's Night's Dream (1935)
32. A Night at the Opera (1935)
33. Annie Oakley (1935)
34. A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
35. Modern Times (1936)
36. Show Boat (1936)
37. San Francisco (1936)
38. My Man Godfrey (1936)
40. The Awful Truth (1937)
41. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
42. A Day at the Races (1937)
43. The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
44. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
45. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
46. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
47. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
48. Pygmalion (1938)
49. "Ferdinand the Bull" (1938)

50. Holiday (1938)
51. Wuthering Heights (1939)
52. Dark Victory (1939)
53. In Name Only (1939)
54. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
55. Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)
56. The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
57. Ninotchka (1939)
58. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
59. Gone with the Wind (1939)
60. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

We didn't need words... we had FACES!

We begin this kooky quest with the era of the silent films. Silent movies hold a special place in my heart because the restored 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera, starring the brilliant Lon Chaney, was one of the first versions of the Phantom story that I had ever seen (touching off a life-long obsession), and I shall never forget Chaney's heartrending mix of maudlin and menace as Erik, the Opera Ghost.






Since then, I have seen many other silents, including the comedies of Chaplin, epic tales, and the dark expressionism of directors like Fritz Lang. Silents are unique to me because I view them as a true test of the camera, where visuals and incredible pantomime (often alone) pull an audience into the story. The fact that these movies can still transport me to other worlds is a credit to the universal themes and motifs of these classics: The Gold Rush is still funny, just as there is something that remains deeply disturbing about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

(The List 1900-1928)
Silence is Golden

1. Le Voyage Dans la Lune- A Trip to the Moon (1902)
2. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
3. Broken Blossoms (1919)
4. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
5. Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie Des Grauens (1922)
6. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
7. The Gold Rush (1925)
8. Greed (1925)
9. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
10. Metropolis (1927)
11. The Man Who Laughs (1928)