1940s

The Woman in Green begins with a mystery that Scotland Yard cannot solve. Several women have turned up murdered around London, all with a finger severed off. Stumped by who the killer could be, Inspector Gregson (Matthew Boulton) calls on Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to solve the case. Holmes and Watson soon discover that the deaths are far more than the work of a lone serial killer, but part of a diabolical plot involving hypnotism and the ever evil, Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell).

Strangler of the Swamp Written by Frank Wisbar and Harold Erickson Directed by Frank Wisbar USA, 1946 “Old legends – strange tales – never die in the lonely swampland. Villages and hamlets lie remote and almost forgotten. Small ferryboats glide between the shores, and the ferryman is a very important person. Day and night he …

Romance and harmless conflict run amuck in Irving Cummings’s That Night In Rio. The film follows American entertainer, Larry Martin (Don Ameche), as he impersonates his doppelganger, Baron Manuel Duarte. Once Manuel’s wife, Baroness Cecilia Duarte (Alice Faye) discovers the impersonation, she begins to want her husband to be as loving as the one portrayed by Larry. That Night In Rio also features several song and dance numbers from Carmen Miranda, at the time deemed “The Brazilian Bombshell.”

Cover Girl Directed by Charles Vidor Written by Virginia Van Upp Starring Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, and Lee Bowman USA, 107 min.    At the beginning of Charles Vidor’s Cover Girl, Vanity Magazine holds a contest to find an unknown, fresh-faced model to place on the cover. Wanting to jump start her career, nightclub dancer, …

‘White Heat’   Directed by Raoul Walsh   Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts   Starring James Cagney, Virginia, Edmond O’Brien   USA, 114 min – 1949.   “Made it, Ma! Top of the world! Raoul Walsh’s White Heat stars James Cagney as yet another gangster (Cagney being known for other films such as …

Letter From An Unknown Woman Directed by Max Ophüls Starring Louis Jordan and Joan Fontaine USA, 86 min – 1948. “Have you ever shuffled faces like cards, hoping to find one that lies somewhere, just over the edge of your memory?”  In 1900s Vienna, a former concert pianist and notorious womanizer, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) …

The Mummy’s Hand Directed by Christy Cabanne Written by Griffin Jay Starring Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, and Tom Tyler USA, 67 min – 1940. “You are very beautiful…so beautiful I’m going to make you immortal. Like Kharis, you will live forever. What I can do for you I can do for myself. Neither time nor …

David Lean’s Brief Encounter is on the surface a tale about unrequited love, much like many other romantic films past and present (from Casablanca to My Best Friend’s Wedding). What differentiates it from the others is the film’s foray into Laura’s thoughts.

The Ghost Train Directed by Walter Forde Written by J.O.C. Orton, Val Guest, & Marriott Edgar Starring Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Kathleen Harrison, and Carole Lynne UK, 85 min – 1941. “I say, I wonder if I could teach you to talk. I wonder if you could say ‘Heil Hitler.’ Eh? No, not with a …

Out of the Past  Directed by Jacques Tourneur Written by Daniel Mainwaring Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas USA, 97 min – 1947. “I never saw her in the daytime. We seemed to live by night. What was left of the day went away like a pack of cigarettes you smoked. I didn’t …

Le Corbeau Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot Written by Louis Chavance and Henri-Georges Clouzot Starring Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, and Pierre Larquey France, 92 min – 1943.   Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Corbeau is a witch hunt. The site of this “hunt” is a small French town. A mysterious person has begun airing out the town’s immoral …

The Uninvited Directed by Lewis Allen Written by Dodie Smith and Frank Partos Starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp & Gail Russell USA , 99 min – 1944.   “If you listen to it long enough, all your senses are sharpened. You come by strange instincts. You get to recognize a peculiar cold that …

Arabian Nights Directed by John Rawlins Starring Jon Hall, Maria Montez, and Sabu USA, 86 min – 1942. Part of a series of exotic pictures released by Universal in the 1940s (the others of which include Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and White Savage), Arabian Nights places the Hollywood spin on the classic tale …

‘The Wolf Man  Directed by George Waggner Starring Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains, and Evelyn Ankers USA, 70 min – 1941. “The way you walked was thorny through no fault of your own, but as the rain enters the soil, the river enters the sea, so tears run to a predestined end. Now you will …

Forty 1940s Films: ‘Detour’ Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer Starring Tom Neal, Ann Savage, and Edmund MacDonald USA, 67 min – 1945. “Money. You know what that is. It’s the stuff, you never have enough of. Little green things with George Washington’s picture that men slave for, commit crimes for, die for. It’s the stuff …

It’s A Wonderful Life Directed by Frank Capra Starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore USA, 130 min – 1946. Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life opens with a series of prayers for George Bailey (James Stewart), from family and friends. George has fallen on hard times this Christmas Eve. Although he has spent …

The Heiress Directed by William Wyler Written by Augustus and Ruth Goetz Starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, and Ralph Richardson USA, 115 min – 1949. William Wyler’s The Heiress tells the quasi-tragic story of Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland), a plain-jane, Gilded Age heiress, who’s naiveté leads her into a courtship, with fortune-hunter, Morris …

Forty 1940s Films: ‘Black Narcissus Written & Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, and Jean Simmons UK, 100 min – 1947. Black Narcissus recreates the western world’s allure for the exotic – with a twist. This is no escapist, romantic drama in the style of Arabian Nights. With …