Favourite Movies From the 1940s?

[Amy Jeanne]

A follow-up to my 1930s thread!

I'll admit it -- my cutoff year is generally 1942. Mostly for aesthetic reasons My 1940s movie knowledge is seriously lacking.

But I still want to know what some of your favourites from 1940 to 1949 are. Sell us your favourite movie and perhaps we'll check it out!

The 40s for me:

Misbehaving Husbands (1940)
My Little Chickadee (1940)
Turnabout (1940)
Two Girls On Broadway (1940 - although a much SILLIER remake of The Broadway Melody, still kind of cute!)
All American Co-Ed (1941 - I still don't know how most of the stuff in this movie got past the Code.)
Two-Faced Woman (1941)
Her Cardboard Lover (1942)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
The Devil On Wheels (1947)
She Shoulda Said No! (1949)


Comments?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Anything by Preston Sturges, including --

The Great McGinty
The Lady Eve
Sullivan's Travels
The Palm Beach Story
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (one of my all-time favorites of any era)
Hail The Conquering Hero
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock

There are few careers in Hollywood to burn as brightly as Sturges', only to fizzle completely out. But in his prime, his stuff was brilliant.

I also have an embarassing fondness for Kay Kyser musicals. Silly but always entertaining.

 

[Liz]

I really like '40s movies -- especially film noir. Some of my '40s favorites:

Scarlet Street
Out of the Past
Ziegfeld Girl
Cat People (and Curse of the Cat People)
Detour
Laura
I Married a Witch
Double Indemnity

 

[The Wolf]

I agree with Lizzie and Liz. Sturges for madcap and film noir for the serious.
My favorite year is 1946 and some of the best noir is from then: "Somewhere in the Night", "Dark Corner", etc.
Also detective films that are lighter, like the Thin Man series and "Grand Central Murder".

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[AmateisGal]

LOVE the '40s for movies! I think it's one of my favorite time periods for cinema.

Here's some of my top picks:

Laura
Christmas in Connecticut
The Best Years of Our Lives
Ball of Fire
Frenchman's Creek
State Fair
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

 

[deadpandiva]

I love all the costume dramas based on novels such as
Kings Row
Green Dolphin Street
The Magnifecent Ambersons
Valley of Decision
I love all the corny Andy Hardy Movies, all musicals with Virginia O'Brien and just about anything with Red Skelton. Some other favorites are:
Mrs. Miniver
Zeigfield Girl
Romance on The High Seas
I Married A Witch
The Lady Eve
Born To Kill
Broken Blossoms
Random Harvest and 100's of other random things.

 

[Dagwood]

I really like Holiday Inn with Bing and Fred. Also, The Ghost Breakers with Bob Hope.

 

[AmateisGal]

D'oh! :eusa_doh: I forgot one of my absolute all-time favorites that is almost impossible to find on DVD.

Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour - They Got Me Covered

 

[SamMarlowPI]

awwww shucks i can't even begin to list. there are so many, i'd forget 'em...

 

[Michael10]

Favorite movie from the 40's

Easter Parade with Fred Astaire, in some great clothes and hats, Judy Garland, Ann Miller and Peter Lawford.

 

[HadleyH]

Even tho the 1940s is not my favourite decade ( the 20s and 30s is ) there are so many fantastic films from those years. Besides the obvious choices like Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The best Years of Our lives, The Great Dictator, etc... if one must select, these are the ones for me:

Broadway Melody of 1940
Laura (I love the musical score by David Raskin! :eusa_clap )
Meet Me in St. Louis
The Postman Always Rings Twice

 

[Decobelle]

My favorite decade for film! hard to narrow it down, but here goes:

Now, Voyager
Christmas in Connecticut
The More the Merrier
The Maltese Falcon
His Girl Friday
Laura
The Letter
Out of the Past
High Sierra
Sullivan's Travels
Double Indemnity
Pillow to Post
My Favorite Wife
The Killers
Abbott & Costello - Buck Privates, In the Navy, etc.
Casablanca
Mildred Pierce

 

[LadyStardust]

Mr.Skeffington sticks out in particular. Always loved that film.

 

[Twitch]

Anything from or about WW II.

 

[hepkitten]

The Philadelphia Story
Double Indemnity
His Girl Friday
The Letter
Casablanca
Now, Voyager
All This, and Heaven, Too
To Have and Have Not

...and so many more!

 

[Snookie]

So I happen to really like Judy Garland...
-Strike Up the Band
-Meet Me in St. Louis
-Ziegfield Girl
-In the Good Old Summertime

I also love love love The Palm Beach Story (one of the first "old" movies I ever saw).

Orchestra Wives, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and Make Mine Music also make my list. Oh! I almost forgot The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer.

I've never heard of Christmas in Connecticut before but it looks great! I'll have to get it.

 

[Miles Borocky]

Laura! Great film. And the theme song is one of my favorite standards.

Brilliant all around.

 

[Kitty_Sheridan]

Oooh...the choice!!!!

It's a Wonderful Life
A matter of life and death
The way to the stars
Meet me in St Louis (Have yourself a merry little xmas chokes me up every time)

Oh, possibly 'A canterbury tale'

Too, too many to list.

oh and 'Millions like us' and 'This happy breed'

lol

 

[Haversack]

Besides the afore-mentioned films of Preston Sturges, I greatly enjoy _Star Spangled Rhythm_, (1942). While it is an early wartime "Lets put on a show for the troops" film, it is also a studio satire with a great deal of inside jokes about Paramount Studio. (Just about everybody who was under contract to Paramount is in it.)

It has some great musical numbers: Especially the sartorial "Sharp As a Tack, (With a Belt in the Back)" sung by Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, and " A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peek-a-boo Bang" which includes Arthur Treacher and Sterling Holloway in drag. (Not to mention Veronica Lake in a catsuit.)

It also has Preston Sturges playing himself at the height of his powers. During his bit, the film even includes two of his trademarks: Slapstick, (Sturges takes a pratfall), and traveling by train. (the "Hit the Road to Dreamland" number.)

Haversack.

 

[scotrace]

Best film of all time: Casablanca
The Third Man
The Best Years of Our Lives
Double Indemnity
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon

And about eleventy hundred others