20 Great Years of Movies, Part 3: 1940

1. Fantasia (director: Ben Sharpsteen): Somehow, this is the Disney film I was most drawn to as a child - the one with with the least conventional structure. It helps that I grew up in a house where we heard classical music all the time - nor does it hurt that the film has weird imagery, dinosaurs, demons and some frightening brooms. I still have a great time watching this film.
2. The Great Dictator (director: Charles Chaplin): Because of the range of years I chose for these lists I won't get to spolight much of Chaplin, but this is my favourite of his films, the picture I really connected with. It has a lot of physical comedy which, at times, is dated (dated by the standards of 1940, I mean). It's also very heartfelt and many of the gags still land. I also simply have to applaud Chaplin's bravery in mocking Hitler at a time when all of Hollywood wanted to keep him happy.
3. His Girl Friday (director: Howard Hawks): This film is rightly lauded for the rapid dialogue delivery (some of which was not scripted). It's almost entirely carried by performances, specifically those of Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell.
4. The Grapes of Wrath (director: John Ford): As a social picture examining what were contemporary problems, this movie is simply unparalleled. I recently showed it to a friend of mine who wanted to know what John Ford's movies were like. I was amazed when, months later, he told another friend that this was the best movie he had seen all year!
5. The Philadelphia Story (director: George Cukor): This film lacks the edge of His Girl Friday but it's all good fun - James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant is somehow likeable despite who his character is on paper - just great fun.
6. The Shop Around the Corner (director: Ernst Lubitsch): Another great James Stewart comedy from this time, and one which can be brought out at Christmas. The notion of two combative co-workers falling in love through the mail is great, but Stewart learning his pen pal's identity really puts it over. It's delightful.
7. Christmas in July (director: Preston Sturges): I came late to Preston Sturges and I'm amazed that, outside of Sullivan's Travels (next year), he was not a director written about in any of the books I studied, nor spoken of reverently in documentaries. He wrote so many great films before becoming a director, but in 1940 he finally took on the challenge of directing and proved he was able at that. This film is charming - a movie which has practically no antagonist and yet finds plenty of complications as a man thinks he's won a big cash prize.
8. The Great McGinty (director: Preston Sturges): And this was Sturges' debut film as a director, with a political pawn working his way up to become a governor by holding to no particular scruples; unfortunately he eventually develops a slight conscience, and that ruins his political career! Discovering this film was like finding a lost Capra film; it surely earned its Academy Award.
9. Night Train to Munich (director: Carol Reed): This is sometimes called a sequel to Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes because two of that film's supporting characters appear here - on a train, no less! This is a fun espionage story with a British agent trying to transport a scientist out of the Nazis' hands.
10. The Sea Hawk (director: Michael Curtiz): This has basically everything The Adventures of Robin Hood did - I mean, not the technicolor or Olivia de Haviland, but basically everything. It's a fun swashbuckler with an amazing musical score by Korngold.