Top Movies by Year
1949: Jolson Sings Again, 1948: The Red Shoes, 1947: Welcome Stranger, 1946: The Best Years of Our Lives, 1945: The Bells of St. Mary's, 1944: Going My Way, 1943: This is the Army, 1942: Mrs. Miniver, 1941: Sergeant York and 1940: Boom Town.
Hit Songs of the Decade
1949: "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" by Spike Jones, 1948: "Buttons and Bows" by Dinah Shore and Her Happy Boys, 1947: "Near You" by Francis Craig and His Orchestra, 1946: "To Each His Own" by Eddy Howard and His Orchestra, 1945: "Sentimental Journey" by Les Brown and His Orchestra, 1944: "Swinging on a Star" by Bing Crosby, 1943: "Paper Doll" by The Mills Brothers, 1942: "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby, 1941: "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and 1940: "Frenesi" by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra.
Popular Novels of the 40s
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn, The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin, The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel, The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas, Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith, Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor, The King's General by Daphne du Maurier, The Miracle of the Bells by Russel Janney, The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas and The Egyptian by Mika Waltari.
All of the movies discussed below can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube. Every title is linked to the full version.
These movies are listed in the order I enjoyed them, with the ones I liked more closer to the top and the ones I liked less closer to the bottom.
1. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Rita Hayworth. She really was very beautiful.
This was more of a genre picture for Orson Welles, but it's full of interesting touches. I loved that business with the chess board in the courthouse, and the funhouse in the end. There's also Hayworth's character, who's twisting and turning at every opportunity. Welles himself, ridiculous brogue aside, is also an interesting lead, and I liked how his ambivalence plays into both the plot and others' intentions for him.
Fun Fact 1: Welles' cut of the film was very different. Studio head Harry Cohn objected to Welles' rough cut and ordered both reshoots and a re-editing of the film. This process took over a year, and resulted in a very different movie.
Harry Cohn, by the way, has been described as "a monster." You want to talk about #MeToo? He abused women in the film industry for years with near-impunity. He was also deeply involved with organized crime. He was one of the inspirations behind the Jack Woltz character in The Godfather.
Fun Fact 2: Orson Welles' last, unfinished film, The Other Side of the Wind, is available on Netflix. If you're the kind of person who can sit through F for Fake without falling asleep you might like it. I'm not, and I didn't.
2. Call Northside 777 (1948)
Jimmy Stewart stars as a reporter trying to prove a convicted murderer's innocence. The filmmakers made every effort to film this movie on location in Chicago, and the result is a suspenseful movie that feels very authentic. Director Henry Hathaway was perhaps best known for westerns, but his "semidocumentary" movies are worth a look.
3. Lady on a Train (1945)
The adorable Deanna Durbin witnesses a murder from a train window. This movie would've only been half as fun if they'd taken it seriously. Instead a lot of the scenes in this almost-noir are played for laughs, and the result is a movie that's aged like wine.
Fun Fact 1: That really is Durbin's voice in the musical numbers. She was quite a talented singer. She retired from Hollywood in 1949, disenchanted with the persona the industry had created for her.
Fun Fact 2: Ralph Bellamy, who appears in this movie as "Jonathan," would later appear in 1983's Trading Places as Randolph Duke. His career in film lasted 59 years.
4. Under Capricorn (1949)
A young Irishman newly arrived in Australia comes between a wealthy ex-convict and his eccentric wife. This was Hitchcock's second color film, and both Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten are captivating in the lead roles. Critics hated it at the time, but appreciation for Under Capricorn has grown considerably since its release.
Fun Fact: The screenplay was written in part by Hume Cronyn.
5. Caught (1949)
Film noir* in which a young woman attempts to leave her abusive husband. It's a really solid movie all the way through, even if the ending is "upbeat" in the weirdest way possible. And check out James Mason on this one. He was young back then.
6. This Happy Breed (1944)
A British family between world wars. Written by Noel Coward, This Happy Breed is a very understated movie in which ordinary, working class people live their lives in the shadow of historic events which are at once larger and smaller than themselves. I loved the father character's dry sense of humor.
Fun Fact: This was director David Lean's second movie.
7. I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
This movie was remade in 1953 as Vicki, which has also been reviewed here. I think the original works much better in terms of pacing, and Victor Mature is a stronger lead. Sure, he has an odd way of smiling while talking, but he's much more interesting to watch.
Fun Fact: The scene where the suspected murderer and the murdered woman's sister hide out in the theater is often cited as an example of what "grindhouse theaters" of the time were like. The movie advertised on the marquee is, by the way, entirely fictional. There's a 1922 silent film by that name, but the title was re-invented for I Wake Up Screaming.
8. Lucky Jordan (1942)
Alan Ladd stars as a gangster drafted into the U.S. Army. Weirdly enough, parts of this movie are funnier than Jitterbugs below. The performances are fairly derivative, and no one plays anything for laughs, but you can tell the scriptwriters had fun with the material.
Fun Fact 1: This was Alan Ladd's first leading role.
Fun Fact 2: Alan Ladd's son, Alan Ladd Jr., was president of 20th Century Fox and founder of The Ladd Company.
9. China (1943)
First Alan Ladd crosses paths with German saboteurs in Lucky Jordan (above), then he fights the Japanese in 1943's China. It's easy to dismiss this movie as propaganda, and references to "Japs" are less than PC in 2022, but speaking as someone who's lived in Taiwan for 22 years, and who's also studied the history of the Republic of China extensively, I think this movie is a fairly balanced picture of the time period. Given the time it was made and the subject matter, this film could have been a helluva lot more racist than it is, and in terms of representation the Chinese characters are given a lot of agency.
Fun Fact 1: Alan Ladd's character in this movie was (to some extent) the basis for Indiana Jones.
Unsurprising Fact?: All of the actors playing the Japanese characters were Chinese. It was, as many have pointed out, an uncomfortable time to be of Japanese ancestry.
10. State Fair (1945)
Jeanne Crain, another beauty. Her career tapered off in the 50s, but in the 40s her popularity was at its height.
I've stated several times in this blog that I'm "not into musicals," but in the context of the 40s I find them a lot easier to digest. A lot of other film genres simply didn't exist then, and I can see how light entertainment like State Fair would have been a bigger draw at the box office. This Rodgers and Hammerstein production is a fun hour and a half, and even if you don't like musicals Jeanne Crain is very easy to look at.
11. The Spiral Staircase (1946)
If this movie had been made in the 80s it would have been a slasher film. As it is several young women are murdered off camera, and the viewer has to guess which of the eccentric people living in the house is the murderer. It's an indisputably well made movie, but I doubt it would scare anyone now.
12. Gunfighters (1947)
Randolph Scott, who may or may not have been Cary Grant's lover, stars as a gunfighter set on giving up his guns. I had a difficult time focusing on the plot of this movie, but the stuntmen did an obviously great job. I should read one of Zane Grey's novels one of these days...
13. Hired Wife (1940)
The head of a cement company marries his secretary for business purposes. Rosalind Russell is charming as the big boss's secretary, but in my opinion the "secretary in love with her boss" trope plays into a lot of stereotypes. The movie does upend some of these stereotypes for the sake of laughs, but I still wished that Russell's character respected herself enough to tell her boss to go to hell. Romance, sexual, harassment or sexual assault? Some scenes in this movie beg the question.
14. Jitterbugs (1943)
"...another fine mess you've gotten me into!"
Laurel and Hardy help one con man to con another. I don't think the humor has aged well, but if you're wondering what people found funny in 1943 this will give you a good idea.
Related Entries:
*I use the term "film noir" sparingly. In many people's hands this term just means "dark, black and white movie that deals with crime." I've heard the argument that "film noir" is actually an earlier Hollywood attempt to make exploitation/grindhouse pictures that dealt with riskier subject matter. In many instances, especially as one goes further back in time, it can be hard to separate "film noir" from exploitation.
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