1940 poll

[Lencho of the Apes]

Makes sense, I guess I can bend the rules in a good cause. 1899 and 1923, if KG has anything that's not otherwise available.

[sally]

1923? :goes blind emoji:

[Brotherdeacon]

Final List 1940:

The Stars Look Down (Carol Reed)
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
Strange Cargo (Frank Borzage)
Der Postmeister (Gustav Ucicky)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
Menaces (Edmund T. Grèville)
Pride and Prejudice (Robert Z. Leonard)
Nobuko (Hiroshi Shimizu)
Northwest Passage (King Vidor)
The Westerner (William Wyler)
Battement de cœur (Henri Decoin)
Dark Command (Raoul Walsh)
In the Field of Dreams (Teuvo Tulio)
Aurat (Mehboob Khan)
The Thief of Baghdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell)
Sea Hawk (Michael Curtiz)
Angels Over Broadway (Ben Hecht)

[Angel]

Makes sense, I guess I can bend the rules in a good cause. 1899 and 1923, if KG has anything that's not otherwise available.

Gosh! Rosita and Erdgeist unrestored and Mälarpirater unavailable...

[Lencho of the Apes]

Yah, I thought it would be slim...

[---]

For 1923, there's an Epstein that probably most of you guys have seen (but I haven't). Decent year for Germany. Wiene's "Crime and Punishment" adaptation, Pabst's debut "The Treasure"... "The Street" and "Trapped in a Mine" by Karl Grune both look cool

The Shock (with the boy Lon Chaney), as well

That's all I was able to find on KG that I wanted. Let me know if anyone wants any of those

[Lencho of the Apes]

There sure were a lot of natural disasters in 1940 Hollywood movies. Strange Cargo, The Long Voyage Home, The Bluebird; you'd almost think it was like a metaphor or something.

[brian d]

final list:

in the fields of dreams (tulio)
rebecca (hitchcock)
pinocchio (luske; sharpsteen)
fantasia (various)
menaces (grèville)*
the sea hawk (curtiz)
the westerner (wyler)
the great dictator (chaplin)
l'espoir (malraux; peskine)
nobuko (shimizu)
the mortal storm (borzage)*
night train to munich (reed)
the grapes of wrath (ford)

couldn't find the time:
joão ratão (brum do canto)

[...]

FInal list (I think) Tough year to cut down for me, so many roughly equal movies to choose from. Even just sorting the early still somewhat light hearted war movies was a pain. Feel bad about leaving some off, not seeing more, and not doing enough to suggest the good qualities of the ones I liked. Too little time sadly. Maybe someday there'll be another chance.


Vassilisa the Beautiful
The Shop Around the Corner
The Great McGinty
The Letter
Pinocchio
The Long Voyage Home
Strange Cargo
City for Conquest
Three Faces West
All This and Heaven Too
They Drive By Night
Contraband
Stranger on the Third Floor
Spring Parade
My Little Chickadee
A Chump at Oxford
Green Hell
Boomtown
Dr Cyclops
Dreaming Out Loud

[dominicano1970]

Four Flights to Love (Gance)

The Biscuit Eater (Heisler)
Dance, Girl, Dance (Arzner)
From Mayerling to Sarajevo (Ophüls)
The Grapes of Wrath (Ford)
His Girl Friday (Hawks)
The Mark of Zorro (Mamoulian)
Nobuko (Shimizu)
North West Mounted Police (DeMille)
The Philadelphia Story (Cukor)
Rebecca (Hitchcock)
Remember the Night (Leisen)
The Sea Hawk (Curtiz)
The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch)
The Stationmaster (Ucicky)
They Drive by Night (Walsh)
The Thief of Bagdad (Berger, Powell & Whelan)
Three Faces West (Vorhaus)
Waterloo Bridge (LeRoy)
The Well-Digger's Daughter (Pagnol)

[mesnalty]

Final list:

1. The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch)

The Mortal Storm (Borzage)
Tarantella (Bute and Nemeth)
The Great Dictator (Chaplin)
The Philadelphia Story (Cukor)
The Long Voyage Home (Ford)
Menaces... (Greville)
His Girl Friday (Hawks)
Rebecca (Hitchcock)
Night Train to Munich (Reed)
In the Fields of Dreams (Tulio)
The Letter (Wyler)

[sally]

well. this site is so slow at the moment for me i might have to stop using it. anyway, here's my final list, didn't get to even half of what i wanted to and some i wanted to (eg the ophuls, the naruse) i couldn't find access to. and it's a shame no one else liked the fisherman's son, but....

1. the shop around the corner (lubitsch)
strange cargo (borzage)
the fisherman's son (liepnieks)
the well-digger's daughter (pagnol)
the postmaster (ucicky)
vassilisa the beautiful (rou)
three faces west (vorhaus)
menaces... (gréville)
french without tears (asquith)
in the field of dreams (tulio)
santa fe trail (curtiz)
lucky partners (milestone)
green hell (whale)
battement de cœur (decoin)
he stayed for breakfast (hall)
dark command (walsh)
the long voyage home (ford)
rebecca (hitchcock)
confucius (fei)
rose scarlatte (amato, de sica)

[Lencho of the Apes]

You Can't Fool Your Wife - Ray McCarey, USA

Things you don't expect to hear in 1940:

Lucille Ball : "everything's fallen into a routine -- laundry on Monday, ironing on Tuesday, on Wednesday we go to the movies. It's all planned in advance, and there are never any surprises…"
James Ellison: "We could maybe have sex once in awhile."

My first thought was that somebody had looped that in as a gag, seventy-five years later.

[kanafani]

The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, 1940)

The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, 1940)
Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, 1940)
The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin, 1940)
Night Train to Munich (Carol Reed, 1940)
The Great McGinty (Preston Sturges, 1940)
Stranger on the Third Floor (Boris Ingster, 1940)
Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh, 1940)
Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen, 1940)
In the Fields of Dreams (Tulio)

[MatiasAlbertotti]

There's a looooong list of movies I wanted to watch but couldn't. I feel like I only got a glimpse of 1940.

His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)

The Thief of Bagdad (Powell, 1940)
Christmas in July (Sturges, 1940)
The Great McGinty (Sturges, 1940)
Foreign Correspondent (Hitchcock, 1940)
Rebecca (Hitchcock, 1940)
The Grapes of Wrath (Ford, 1940)
The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch, 1940)
In the Fields of Dreams (Tulio, 1940)
The Letter (Wyler, 1940)
Travelling Actors (Naruse, 1940)
The Well-Digger’s Daughter (Pagnol, 1940)
Dance Girl, Dance (Arzner, 1940)
Nobuko (Shimizu, 1940)
Remember the Night (Leisen, 1940)

[...]

You Can't Fool Your Wife - Ray McCarey, USA

Things you don't expect to hear in 1940:

Lucille Ball : "everything's fallen into a routine -- laundry on Monday, ironing on Tuesday, on Wednesday we go to the movies. It's all planned in advance, and there are never any surprises…"
James Ellison: "We could maybe have sex once in awhile."

That was really dialogue from the movie? I am actually shocked, not in the Claude Rains way either. Was any of the rest of the movie as interesting as that bit? I kinda need to see it now.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Strange Cargo - Borzage

Angels Over Broadway
Baron Prasil - Fric
Battement De Coeur - Decoin
The Blue Bird - W. Lang
L'espoir
Foreign Correspondent
Grapes Of Wrath
Los De Abajo - Urueta
Menaces (Edmond T. Gréville)
Paradis Perdu/Four Flights To Heaven - Gance
The Philadelphia Story
Rebecca - Hitchcock
Remember The Night - Leisen
The Stars Look Down -
Stranger On The Third Floor - Ingster
They Drive By Night - Walsh

[Lencho of the Apes]

really?

Aw, shucks. I heard it wrong, I'm sorry. "We could maybe have steak for a change." My bad. "Have sex" didn't seem like a year-appropriate turn of phrase in the first place...

[Lencho of the Apes]

Voting closes in about four hours.

[...]

Aw, shucks. I heard it wrong, I'm sorry. "We could maybe have steak for a change." My bad. "Have sex" didn't seem like a year-appropriate turn of phrase in the first place...

Aw, dang. It seemed too good to be true, but I was hoping. After hearing some of the innuendo and double entendre in Boomtown, I thought there might be a tiny chance something really bold could have slipped by.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

An outstanding couple weeks of 1940 film viewing for me. I started at 35 seen, and I'm now up to 73, and I even rewatched a few. Still major contenders I never rewatched (the Fords, Great Dictator, Pinocchio, etc.) and some unseen could-be-gems I never got too (most notably, two potentially progressive Columbia-Nick Grinde movies, Convicted Woman and Before I Hang). But I'm quite happy with my progress — I learned a lot!

My true favourite votes, in alphabetical order save for #1:

1. His Girl Friday (USA, Columbia, Hawks)
— Alice in Movieland (USA, Warner Bros., Negulesco)
— Christmas in July (USA, Paramount, Sturges)
— Foreign Correspondent (USA, United Artists, Hitchcock)
— Girls of the Road (USA, Columbia, Grinde)
— Maddalena... zero in condotta (Italy, Artisti Associati, De Sica)
— The Shop Around the Corner (USA, MGM, Lubitsch)
— Too Many Husbands (USA, Columbia, Ruggles)

Four near-favourites I'm *not* voting for but that I feel neurotically compelled to pay tribute to as runners-up: the fascinating but racist and overlong Down Argentine Way, the slight but remarkably anti-war Quack Infantry Troop, the sexy John Wayne scenes of Three Faces West, and the romantic fantasy of Waterloo Bridge.

[john ryan]

1. The Mortal Storm (Borzage)

the shop around the corner (lubitsch)
his girl friday (hawks)
the long voyage home (ford)
pinocchio (luske, sharpsteen)
the great dictator (chaplin)
travelling actors (naruse)
the philadelphia story (cukor)
rebecca (hitchcock)
the grapes of wrath (ford)
foreign correspondent (hitchcock)
the great mcginty (sturges)
night train to munich (reed)
remember the night (leisen)

[Silga]

Final list:

The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)

They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh)
You Ought to Be in Pictures (Friz Freleng)
Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock)
Brother Orchid (Lloyd Bacon)
City for Conquest (Anatole Litvak)
Castle on the Hudson (Anatole Litvak
All This, and Heaven Too (Anatole Litvak)

[---]

Added "Baron Prásil (Martin Frič, 1940)" to my list

[Brotherdeacon]

Thanks Lencho and all. I have plenty of 1940 to catch up on . . . plenty.

[---]

Anyone have Battement de Coeur subs? They're not on KG!

[Lencho of the Apes]

1
the shop around the corner (lubitsch)

2
his girl friday (hawks)

3
rebecca (hitchcock)

4
the long voyage home (ford)

5
The grapes of wrath (ford)

6
Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock)

7
The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)
night train to munich (reed)
remember the night (leisen)
They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh)

11
the philadelphia story (cukor)
The Thief of Bagdad (Powell, 1940)

13
fantasia (various)
The Mortal Storm (Borzage)
Nobuko (Shimizu, 1940)
the westerner (wyler)

17
Christmas in July (USA, Paramount, Sturges)
In the Fields of Dreams (Tulio, 1940)
Menaces (Edmond T. Gr�ville)
pinocchio (luske, sharpsteen)
Stranger On The Third Floor - Ingster

22
The Great McGinty (Sturges, 1940)
The Letter (Wyler, 1940)
The Sea Hawk (Curtiz)
Travelling Actors (Naruse, 1940)

26
Dance Girl, Dance (Arzner, 1940)
Strange Cargo - Borzage
The Well-Digger�s Daughter (Pagnol, 1940)

29
Battement De Coeur - Decoin
dark command (walsh)
Paradis Perdu/Four Flights To Heaven - Gance
the postmaster (ucicky)
three faces west (vorhaus)

34 - 39
All This, and Heaven Too (Anatole Litvak)
City for Conquest (Anatole Litvak)
The Mark of Zorro (Mamoulian)
Spring Parade
The Stars Look Down -
Waterloo Bridge (LeRoy)

[---]

Yes! For once, one of my favourites comes out on top! My favourite Jimmy Stewart movie ever and by far the greatest romantic comedy of all-time

[rischka]

DA BIG LIST

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

That's a great list. 1940 is right smack dab in the heart of what is probably my favourite film era to study ever (the years of WWII, basically) so I'll probably try to finish the whole top 39 this year, and I'll surely be pouring over everyone's additional votes for years to come.