Top 15 of the 1940's

Top 15 of the 1940's:

15. Double Indemnity (1944)

Famed film critic Leonard Maltin called it the "best film noir". I disagree (my choice is coming up), but it is a great one, one of Billy Wilder's best movies, which is really saying something. It's one that has no real flaws in it. Fred MacMurray is a wonderful leading man, Edward G. Robinson is his always tremendous self, and Barbara Stanwyck is the standard bearer femme fatale. Well shot, well written, I love it, just maybe not as much as its all-time reputation might hype up.

14. Bambi (1942)

A movie that really impresses with its care and detail. The changing of the seasons is lovingly animated and told, the shooting of Bambi's mother is as emotional as ever, and the frightening and thrilling forest fire is as impactful as ever. Not the best Disney movie of the decade, but a classic for a reason. One I didn't have a ton of love for or connection to as a child, but one that is really impactful as an adult.

13. Foreign Correspondent (1940)

This is probably Alfred Hitchcock's most sadly forgotten masterpiece. It's a thrilling adventure, one I much prefer to his more famous 1940 movie, Rebecca. The classic umbrella sequence, as well as the plane crash (one of Hitch's best sequences, period) as well as the deliciously evil turn from future Santa Claus Edmund Gwynn help to make this one of the Hitchcock movies I always recommend, as even too many Hitch fans haven't caught up to it.

12. Act of Violence (1949)

Act of Violence concerns itself with the guilt and anger felt by two soldiers who survived the horror of a Nazi P.O.W. camp. One of the soldiers, Van Heflin's Frank, was the leader of the group that'd been shot down by the Germans. Robert Ryan plays Joe, the only other man to make it out of the camp alive. Joe blames Frank for the deaths of the other men, and has tracked him down relentlessly in a bid to right the thing he feels has been wronged. Frank moved his family from Syracuse, New York all the way to southern California just to get away from Joe's vengeful quest, assuring himself that Joe won't continue following.

Frank's survivor's guilt must've been mirrored by that of legendary director Fred Zinnemann, who'd escaped the dangers of WWII with his brother just 10 years previous to Act of Violence, but lost both of his parents in concentration camps. Van Heflin's wonderfully layered performance carries the movie, especially in the scene where he explains to his wife Edith (Janet Leigh, in her first role of significance) exactly why Joe blames him for the soldiers' deaths, and what he's been carrying around with him since then. Robert Ryan is creepily effective as Joe, single minded in his pursuit, to the point that he tells his girlfriend he just doesn't love her enough to care what she thinks about his intent of violence retribution. It's a really tremendous noir flick that needs to be seen by more people.

11. Key Largo (1948)






The less famous of the John Huston/Humphrey Bogart noir collaborations (plus Lauren Bacall in the final Bogie/Bacall pairing), Key Largo is a terrific movie. Bogie has long been one of my favorite actors, and this is one of his best performances. He had one of the most emotionally expressive faces I've seen, and we see so much play out in his eyes and his facial "body language" as his disillusioned WWII vet Maj. Frank McCloud struggles with discovering a reason to fight, in this case against famous gangster Johnny Rocco, deliciously played by Edward G. Robinson, who is keeping a small hotel full of people hostage as a small hurricane passes through.

Playing as a sort of oppositely cast version of The Petrified Forest (an underrated sort of pre-noir which served as Bogie's big break as the gangster holding people hostage, it was also the movie that made me fall in love with Bette Davis), Key Largo plays out more fascinatingly with Bogart and Robinson playing a sort of cat-and-mouse/battle of wits game that plays out with about as high a body count as a claustrophobic movie like this can manage.

10. Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

One of the great dark comedies ever made, it was an idea Orson Welles had for a movie that he wanted Chaplin to star in. Chaplin had not often been directed by anyone but himself, and wasn't gonna start at the age of 58, so he bought the script, re-wrote it, directed it, starred in it, and wrote the score for it (a typical day at the office for control freak Chaplin). It's the story of a man who marries women, kills them and takes their money. It abides by the production code of the day by not letting Chaplin get away with it, but coming out just after WWII, Chaplin can't help commenting "One murder makes a villain, millions a hero." I've only seen 2 Chaplin movies I would call "genius". And while I think his The Gold Rush is superior to this, Monsieur Verdoux is certainly his other.

9. Stray Dog (1949)

The earliest of Kurosawa's many masterpieces, Stray Dog is about a young post-war Tokyo cop who has his gun stolen on the train home one hot summer day. This gun later turns up as the murder weapon in another case, and sends the young officer on a manhunt to find who stole his gun. One of Kurosawa's under appreciated non-samurai movies, Stray Dog has a palpable sweat to it, evoking those unbearable summer days and humid nights. Wrapping that setting around a cop movie was a good choice, and having his favorite actors Toshiro Mifune (as the young cop) and Takashi Shimura (as the veteran helping him out) as his stars was a typical bit of brilliance.

8. Beauty and the Beast (1946)

The earliest screen take on the famous fairy tale, Jean Cocteau's movie is magical in every sense of the word. He created a fairy tale real world, where Belle comes from. And he created a darker, slightly creepier, but also whimsically fascinating world for the Beast's castle. The basic outline of the movie will be familiar to most people thanks to the famous Disney take on it, so there's no need for plot description, but I'll say that Cocteau took me to a world I wanted to see more of, and told me an engaging and delightful tale while I was there.

7. Mickey and the Beanstalk (1947)

So I'm allowing a few short films to sneak onto my lists here and there, and I think Mickey and the Beanstalk is a perfect one to let sneak. It's joyous, fun, memorable, and never loses re-watch value. I watched this short countless times as a child and now revisiting it as an adult I find it just as magical and funny and lovable.

6. Citizen Kane (1941)

What more can really be said about this, likely the most talked and written about movie in cinema history? I'll just quickly posit that obviously I don't put it as one of the 1 or 2 greatest movies ever made, it is most definitely a great movie. Orson Welles' work as director is incredibly ambitious and impressive, his work as writer nearly flawless, but it's his central performance as Charles Foster Kane that really carries this textbook of a movie. He doesn't need the aging makeup he's put in, he believably takes us through different stages of Kane's life with just body language and voice control. It's truly amazing work on every level from a man who was only 26 at the time. And for those who haven't seen it, yes Rosebud was his sled, but what does that mean?

5. Fantasia (1940)

A movie that I always wanted to see as a kid but was told I wouldn't like it, it was just animation with classical music and not a standard Disney story or anything. I thought that sounded great but I still wasn't able to see it until the age of 32. It was even better than I could've imagined. It's like the best ballet you could ever dream up. The animation tied to the music so much that they become of a single piece. I could actually do without the introductions by the music conductor, that's probably my only complaint. Each section needs some sort of break between them, but I would've been fine with a fade to black, moment of blank screen, and fade up into a new section. Regardless, the movie is gorgeous to look at, as transportational a viewing experience as you'll ever have.

4. He Walked by Night (1948)

Probably the most unfairly overlooked noir movie ever made. Serving as the blueprint for Dragnet's use of real police files, and having that shows creator and star Jack Webb in a small role, He Walked by Night is a fascinating police procedural noir with some striking cinematography, terrific performances, and a tightly wound script that never lets up, even if it only lasts 79 minutes.

Credited to journeyman filmmaker Alfred L. Werker, but directed at least in part by the legendary Anthony Mann (reports conflict on how much), the calling card of the movie has to be its finale, a flashlight lit chase through the L.A. storm drain system that shames the more famous, and very similar, chase at the end of The Third Man, released the following year. See this movie.

3. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Everyone has that movie that just makes them feel good. No matter what your mood is, no matter what's going on in your life, you can watch it and feel thoroughly good. Well, this is that movie for me. It's just so joyous and uplifting and happy, just like Santa Claus. I watch it every holiday season and my love for it only grows.

But as a movie buff I couldn't put it on the list if I didn't admire it from a filmmaking perspective too. It's got a tight script, is nicely photographed, and the acting by everyone involved is top notch. Edmund Gwynn IS Santa Claus to so many for a reason, and this Oscar winning performance will show you why. Natalie Wood gives one of the best child performances ever, Maureen O'Hara is her usual wonderful self, and John Payne is a great sense of decency next to Gwynn (who is really what makes this movie shine). So it satisfies anything I could want from it.

2. Notorious (1946)

One of the great performances from one of our greatest stars, Ingrid Bergman, is contained right here in one of the most low-key spy stories the movies have ever given us. It's really not a spy tale at all, it's the story of love and how these two people let their jobs get in the way, and put their country above themselves just long enough for things to get all screwed up, while we hope that they get out of it in the end. It's a nearly perfect movie, in my eyes, with Cary Grant's career best work, and Bergman's only being surpassed by another movie on her resume...

1. Casablanca (1942)

No surprise here, as this movie is in my all-time top 10. It took me a long time, in movie lover years, to finally catch up to it. It was one of those movies that you always hear is so great, so I resisted watching it for a long time because I was afraid of being disappointed. Instead, I was blown away. One of the great love stories, that of lost love, and time passed, and old hurts coming back to haunt you. The Bogart performance that should've won him an Oscar. Ingrid Bergman is luminous, you can see why the men are drawn to her. It's been called the greatest screenplay ever written, and in fact much of the dialog has so entered popular culture that I recognized nearly every scene upon my first viewing of the movie. But that didn't diminish it at all. Definitely the best movie of the 1940's in my book.