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 34th 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)
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