The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions (Decade Project Vol. 4)

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks for all the effort swo!

My top 10, plus also-rans:

1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
2. Hail the Conquering Hero
3. To Be or Not to Be
4. The Seventh Victim
5. The Big Sleep
6. The Best Years of Our Lives
7. Out of the Past
8. The Curse of the Cat People
9. La Symphonie pastorale
10. On the Town

26. Air Force
31. A Royal Scandal
34. The Fan (ORPHAN)
37. Apartment for Peggy
38. The Spiral Staircase
42. Dragonwyck
44. They Live By Night
50. Hellzapoppin’

And in case my original clue no longer makes sense, I swapped On the Town back into my top 10 at the last minute because it felt like the right thing to do.

[Rayon Vert]

Thanks again swo, and to everyone that contributed! Great-looking list, and another really fun project.

Kind of surprised that Kane is no. 1 again going from the comments in this thread (I'm one of those who didn't vote for it, and yes I prefer How Green Was My Valley, which I did vote for - The Lady from Shanghai is at no. 13 for me, and I'm sorry to see it slip somewhat). Also surprised A Matter of Life and Death came in so high, to me it's definitely not in the same rank as several other Archers this decade, and sorry to see Lang's The Woman in the Window not make it, which was my top Lang in the Fritz project, and if I remember Domino ranked it also very high. But the rest looks great!

Like Altair, I'm also happy to see The Best Years of Our Lives go as high - it was no. 12 for me. Whoever ranked Fort Apache as no. 1, you have my admiration, as I get the feeling on this board sometimes it's not well appreciated - it was 18 for me. Congrats to twbb also for having such good taste regarding his top ranker.

I had about ten British films, and only three French, really the polar opposite from the 30s for me, and I'm surprised to see France beat the UK this decade in the general stats.

My top 10 and also-rans & orphans:

1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
2. Kind Hearts and Coronets
3. Brief Encounter
4. Notorious
5. Red River
6. Double Indemnity
7. Out of the Past
8. Casablanca
9. Black Narcissus
10. It’s a Wonderful Life

14. Dark Passage
15. Saboteur
19. The Woman in the Window
20. Paisan
26. They Were Expendable
27. Man Hunt
32. The Man in Grey
34. Quai des Orfèvres
35. Goupi Mains Rouges (It Happened at the Inn)
36. The Picture of Dorian Gray
39. Henry V
44. Humoresque
45. Captain from Castile
46. Hold Back the Dawn
47. The Captive Heart
48. Pride and Prejudice
50. Kiss of Death

[therewillbeblus]

The Lady from Shanghai was no 14 for me and also my highest ranking Welles for the decade by a mile so I’m with you there. The 40s might be his most praised period but at least one of his films will crack my top ten lists in each of the next two decades, and I think he made his three best in a row starting in the late 50s

[nitin]

This was mine, I am boring:

1. Double Indemnity
2. Casablanca
3. Citizen Kane
4. The Maltese Falcon
5. The Third Man
6. The Magnificent Ambersons
7. The Killers
8. Day of Wrath
9. The Bicycle Thieves
10. Notorious
11. Une si Jolie Petit Plage
12. The Big Sleep
13. Brief Encounter
14. Out of the Past
15. Great Expectations
16. The Big Clock
17. The Grapes Of Wrath
18. The Fallen Idol
19. It’s A Wonderful Life
20. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
21. Oliver Twist
22. Les Enfants Du Paradis
23. Scarlet Street
24. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
25. Le Corbeau
26. The Best Years Of Our Lives
27. The Shop Around the Corner
28. Odd Man Out
29. Kind Hearts and Coronets
30. To Be Or Not To Be
31. The Lady Eve
32. Moonrise
33. Leave Her to Heaven
34. Foreign Correspondent
35. Arsenic and Old Lace
36. Nightmare Alley
37. Les Dames Du Bois De Boulange
38. White Heat
39. A Canterbury Tale
40. Heaven Can Wait
41. The Lady From Shanghai
42. The Ox Bow Incident
43. To Have and Have Not
44, Force of Evil
45. Body and Soul
46. Stray Dog
47. The Picture Of Dorian Gray
48. The Letter
49. Mildred Pierce
50. Rebecca

[barryconvex]

Thank you as always to swo for quarterbacking this list. And thank you again to the members who spent so much time over the past months writing about their viewing experiences.

My top ten:
1. The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger 1948)
2. Lifeboat (Hitchcock 1944)
3. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (Huston 1948)
4. The Life & Death Of Colonel Blimp (Powell & Pressburger 1943)
5. The Maltese Falcon (Huston 1941)
6. Citizen Kane (Welles 1941)
7. The Third Man (Reed 1949)
8. La Silence De La Mer (Melville 1949)
9. The Big Sleep (Hawks 1946)
10. The Best Years Of Our Lives (Wyler 1946)

Also rans:
2. Lifeboat (Hitchcock 1944)
11. The Picture Of Dorian Gray (Lewin 1945)
18. Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne (Bresson 1945)
27. Quai Des Orfèvres (Clouzot 1947)
36. Oliver Twist (Lean 1948)
38. The Big Clock (Farrow 1948)
39. The Bank Dick (Cline 1940)
40. Ride The Pink Horse (Montgomery 1947)
49. Murder, My Sweet (Dmytryk 1944)
50. Born To Kill (Wise 1947)

[TMDaines]

Thanks, Swo. Great job as always with these lists.

It's interesting to read the discussion regarding USA vs the world. I first got into cinema through Italian and German films that I was studying as part of my degree and never used to watch that much stuff growing up. I was definitely a bit of a snob regarding watching Hollywood films because of that, preferring to watch the more "exotic" foreign language films when first watching seriously. It's only really in recent years first through having watched the Hollywood output of German and Austrian emigrees and others, as well having come round to the 30s, 40s and next the 50s decade lists, that I've understood the cultural impact and appeal that Hollywood had at that time. It's worth stating though that I think Hollywood cinema production of these decades as the equivalent of a World XI or an all-star team. Just look at many of the top directors: Hitchcock, Lubitsch, Wyler, Tourneur, Curtiz, Lang, Wilder, Preminger, Chaplin, etc. Hollywood was great because it proactively poached much of the top talent from across the pond or welcomed them once the political situation became untenable.

Interestingly, the first decade I participated in was the 60s and I think I only voted for six American films then, compared to 22 and 21 titles for the 30s and 40s respectively. I'm not going to pretend my opinion is definitive and isn't heavily influenced by what I've prioritised watching so far, but even so I'll be interesting to see if that changes much by the next time I visit them. If I had more time to watch films from the 30s and 40s though what I desire to watch would be heavily slanted to Hollywood, but as for the 60s, that just strikes me as a period when the output of the rest of the world was of greater interest: Italy was at the peak of its golden age during the first half of the decade, the French New Wave was in full flight (with an able supporting cast), the political situation in Eastern Europe generated vast amounts of interesting works, Japan was at a peak, other auteurs like Bergman, Buñuel and Ray were churning out consensus masterpieces etc. Meanwhile the death of the studio system meant Hollywood no longer had the lion's share of top talent and the overwhelming financial might that it once did, and the previous political instability of the previous decades in Europe was not to be repeated, which meant the top artists didn't emigrate en masse. The early and mid 70s were largely a continuation of this, but at least by the early 70s the US had adapted and was producing a large volume of key works again, many of which now had the director (rather than the studio or producer) as the key creative force.

The 80s and 90s really feel like the nadir of cinema to me and whilst I do have an interest in challenging myself on that opinion through much more viewing, my watchlist is dominated by other time periods. By the late 70s and certainly the 80s it feels like the output of many European countries was in decline, the output of the US was becoming more conservative and less creative, and the number of key auteurs had dipped. I always wonder how much home video was to blame for this. There were still good films, but no longer the same depth. It's only now through the digital revolution, whereby the cost of entry to film making is so low, again that you once again have the same exciting diversity of film that even arguably surpassed what you had the in 60s. I'm really intrigued to see how this current period will be viewed retrospectively.

I've probably written some stuff that people vehemently disagree with, but it would be interesting to get the views of others on the rise and fall of cinema in broad brushstrokes. This is my crude narrative that I have formed from watching and reading over the last ten or so years. I'd certainly be interested to know if others feel the same about the 80s and 90s.

[swo17]

I probably agree with your broad strokes (and '60s world cinema might be my very favorite period) but I honestly feel about as strongly about my top 50 from every decade. In other words, there are plenty of great films in every era, many of which do not necessarily follow prevailing trends

[TMDaines]

My top ten:

#1) Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica - 1948 - Italy)
#2) Roma città aperta (Roberto Rossellini - 1945 - Italy)
#3) It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra - 1946 - United States)
#4) Der verzauberte Tag (Peter Pewas - 1944 - Germany)
#5) The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler - 1946 - United States)
#6) To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch - 1942 - United States)
#7) Ossessione (Luchino Visconti - 1943 - Italy)
#8) The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch - 1940 - United States)
#9) Panique (Julien Duvivier - 1946 - France)
#10) Große Freiheit Nr. 7 (Helmut Käutner - 1944 - Germany)

Orphans:

#13) Remorques (Jean Grémillon - 1941 - France)
#25) Ministry of Fear (Fritz Lang - 1944 - United States)
#28) Wohin Johanna? (Peter Pewas - 1946 - Germany)
#37) Anni difficili (Luigi Zampa - 1948 - Italy)
#41) Berliner Ballade (Robert Stemmle - 1948 - Germany)
#43) Ehe im Schatten (Kurt Maetzig - 1947 - Germany)
#50) Gaslight (Thorold Dickinson - 1940 - United Kingdom)

Country breakdown: USA (23); Italy (9); Germany (6); France, UK (5); Denmark, Hungary (1)
Top directors: Hitchcock (5); Curtiz, De Sica, Käutner, Lubitsch, Pewas, Rossellini, Welles, Wyler, Zampa (2)

Seen 59 of top 101.

[senseabove]

Prob due to the stress of the realization that once you plug in the entire Parker Posey filmography, there’s still like five more spots to fill before you can submit

The obvious resolution to that anxiety is that Party Girl just takes the top 6 slots...



This was my first decade list, picked up a little late in the game, and I'm looking forward to having the full allotment of time for the 1950s list. I opted to leave off movies like Citizen Kane, Rebecca, and The Third Man whose quality and import I recognize but, even if they have in the past, didn't do much to get me going on my last rewatch and don't, as is even more apparent now, need my help; but even getting past the feeling of "I should have this on here, and high," it still feels weird when it comes down to putting one movie above or below another, especially when I've only seen them once and know my appraisal can swing pretty wildly on second viewings. Top 10, maybe 20, I feel pretty firm about, but after that it's just kinda... tiers of quality (and even then, I'm a little terrified to rewatch some things I absolutely loved on first and only viewing and ranked highly—yes, I'm looking at you, Under Capricorn). I'm definitely majority USA if only because discovering classic Hollywood has been my main focus the past few years and I didn't have the time or energy to broaden those horizons or revisit what I already knew beyond them, and I also opted to exclude cartoons and the like, even though I'd probably rank at least a few Looney Tunes if I thought about it, just because figuring out how on earth I'd compare feature-length apples to short oranges wasn't something I had the time to do. Anyway, my relevant selections:


Top 10
1. Brief Encounter
2. The Red Shoes
3. Notorious
4. The Little Foxes
5. The Philadelphia Story
6. Late Spring
7. Mildred Pierce
8. Gaslight (Cukor)
9. Portrait of Jennie
10. His Girl Friday

Also-Rans
Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, 1940) 117/7/15/+17
Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948) 114/3(2)/7/+5
The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949) 102/4(1)/9/-10
Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) 99/4(1)/8/+11
Falbalas (Jacques Becker, 1945) 86/4/16/New
Humoresque (Jean Negulesco, 1946) 86/5/13/New
The Letter (William Wyler, 1940) 68/3(1)/3/New
Key Largo (John Huston, 1948) 61/5/24/-39
The Gang's All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943) 57/2(1)/5/New
Dance, Girl, Dance (Dorothy Arzner, 1940) 56/3/28/New
Yellow Sky (William Wellman, 1948) 52/3(1)/7/-66
Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949) 49/2/17/--
The Blue Dahlia (George Marshall, 1946) 35/2/23/New
Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown, 1949) 30/2/23/-64
A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph Mankiewicz, 1949) 25/2/38/-30

Orphans
In This Our Life (John Huston, 1942) 24
The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949) 42
Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger, 1949) 32
Two-Faced Woman (George Cukor, 1941) 50



The stat I'm most curious about is what the biggest swings—up and down—were.

And thanks, swo!

[the preacher]

Hungary (1)

So you were the other one who supported Szöts, weren't you?

[swo17]

The stat I'm most curious about is what the biggest swings—up and down—were.

See the films on the final list with red or green numbers at the end, or just generally, check the final figure listed for each title

[senseabove]

Well I never. How dare you ask me to put the least bit of effort into something, swo.



Three biggest swings up and down each from the list and the also-rans:
63. The Little Foxes (William Wyler, 1941) 211/9(2)/4/+156
87. (tie) Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944) 147/7/13/+151
96. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946) 126/6/12/+139
The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak, 1945) 109/5/20/+124
Hellzapoppin' (H.C. Potter, 1941) 88/3(1)/1/+109
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson, 1945) 78/4/18/+94

62. I Know Where I'm Going! (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1945) 214/9(1)/7/-35
80. La terra trema (Luchino Visconti, 1948) 168/6(1)/7/-37
88. The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fritsch & Robert Wise, 1944) 147/5(2)/5/-54
They Made Me a Fugitive (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1947) 25/3/33/-134
Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945) 32/3/34/-144
The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946) 25/2/27/-147

[Noiradelic]

Thanks swo for all the hard work!

Four Wyler films: Andrew Sarris would be rolling in his grave. Like The Heiress quite a bit, though.

Particularly disappointed that Went the Day Well? didn't make it as it was the most delightful surprise of the films I watched for the All-Time List. Get the impression zedz didn't participate this go-around. His absence is strongly felt.

Glad Thieves Highway made it; a last-minute addition to my list. Nice that Strange Love of Martha Ivers got in as well, though I couldn't fit it on my list. Though fairly well-known, it seems like it's often overlooked.

EDIT

[therewillbeblus]

I had The Heiress in my top ten until the last round. Never much of a fan before but a revisit on the Criterion shook me and I finally realized its brilliance. I’m surprised by the turnout for The Little Foxes, but it goes to show how talented Wyler is to perfect a craft to the point where each film holds the capacity to be the standout, a grab bag choice armed with only winners. The Best Years of Our Lives is tops for me, but I can’t honestly say it’s a better movie than something like Mrs. Miniver, which I rank significantly lower on my own totem pole despite admiring it as a great film.

[domino harvey]

Andrew Sarris thought Juno was the best film of the year

[therewillbeblus]

[domino harvey]

Hey swoskillet, all 50s List Project Threads want to be borned

[barryconvex]

it still feels weird when it comes down to putting one movie above or below another, especially when I've only seen them once and know my appraisal can swing pretty wildly on second viewings. Top 10, maybe 20, I feel pretty firm about, but after that it's just kinda... tiers of quality...

I feel similarly. Everything after my top 10 or top 15 could've been listed at random. Actually, not even my top ten is set in stone. I put Lifeboat in as my number 2 but would I really want to watch that right now instead of Rebecca or Notorious which I left off completely? I'm not so sure. I'm going to implement a self enforced challenge for my next go round-half of the films from my 40s list have to be replaced.

[Michael Kerpan]

My rankings were a mix of arbitrary and strategic. At a certain point I just quit worrying about where I put any given film (except in this case -- Late Spring).

[swo17]

Hey swoskillet, all 50s List Project Threads want to be borned

It's Thanksgiving--enjoy time with your family watching Juno

[domino harvey]

Well, I'm not doing like at least three of the things in that sentence, so I guess I'll post my list. I don't usually post my full lists for the decades editions, but given that I've seen the entire cumulative Top 101 save one, I guess it's okay to pull the curtain back a bit. Like many have already mentioned, at a certain point the ranking is pointless (more so), so it's more just a record of how I felt a few weeks ago when I submitted to swo

01 Whirlpool
02 On the Town
03 Out of the Past
04 the Song of Bernadette
05 Heaven Can Wait
06 Air Force
07 Laura
08 Mrs Miniver
09 Vigil in the Night
10 Sgt York

11 Rebecca
12 Red River
13 the Best Years of Our Lives
14 Hail the Conquering Hero
15 the Strange Love of Martha Ivers
16 Saboteur
17 Riff-Raff
18 the More the Merrier
19 the Devil Thumbs a Ride
20 Yankee Doodle Dandy

21 Resisting Enemy Interrogation
22 Once More, My Darling
23 the Blue Dahlia
24 It Had to Be You
25 the Postman Always Rings Twice
26 the Woman in the Window
27 Leave Her to Heaven
28 the Treasure of the Sierra Madre
29 La symphonie pastorale
30 Pitfall

31 Good News
32 the Bishop’s Wife
33 Destination Tokyo
34 Dragonwyck
35 Scarlet Street
36 Sullivan’s Travels
37 A Royal Scandal
38 the Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
39 Canon City
40 the Window

41 the Crystal Ball
42 the Pride of the Yankees
43 They Were Expendable
44 Johnny Belinda
45 the Snake Pit
46 Christmas in July
47 Impact
48 Night Has a Thousand Eyes
49 Moss Rose
50 Bataan

Enjoy your over-representation while it lasts, Hollywood-- this was your decade!

[TMDaines]

IMDb list of results

[Rayon Vert]

so I guess I'll post my list.

I'm second-doubting myself less for putting Saboteur at no 15 seeing that you've got it at 16! Really a tremendously fun action film. (I ended up with 6 Hitchcocks - and 5 Fords - on my list but I really ranked all the films relative to my level of joy or appreciation at watching each of them, for the first time or for the nth revisit in a 3-year period starting with the Hitchcock list project, and not considering any criteria of representation.)

Glad to see your top Lang and They Were Expendable there as well. Leave Her to Heaven is a great film that just missed making mine.

Seeing how at least two members ranked La symphonie pastorale highly, I will definitely make it a priority to watch it before... the next 40s list I guess (?!). Same goes for Hangover Square that I somehow missed. In some ways, I wish we were starting a round 2 right now so I could spend the next 9 months doing a deep dive exclusively watching films that I haven't yet seen.

[therewillbeblus]

domino turned me on to La symphonie pastorale, and while it's a great film, the high placement on my own list is surely due to my own obsession with the ambiguous nature of human beings when clashing their psychologies with the enigmatic nature of spirituality, and the existential consequences that follow. A specific interest perhaps but if that strikes your fancy I'd seek it out immediately.

[swo17]

In some ways, I wish we were starting a round 2 right now so I could spend the next 9 months doing a deep dive exclusively watching films that I haven't yet seen.

Well we're done with the '40s for now, but if people would appreciate a longer Round 2 window for the '50s (e.g. 6 months for Round 1, 3 months for Round 2) I'd be open to it