... The Forgettable ... Of The 1940s
First of all, most movies on this list are not really bad. But they are not good either. In order not to bore you with every average movie I have seen I will restrain myself only to those of interest. That means you will find movies here that were successful at the box office but did not deserve that undue success or movies that did not stand the test of time. Other entries concern movies that are acclaimed by critics but to me are nothing short of being pretentious. Other titles could include films that were much talked about for whatever reason upon their initial release and therefore hold some kind of reputation that, however, do not qualify them for quality movies. You may also find movies here to which famous actors or directors contributed to but which are a let-down in the end nevertheless.
So, have fun browsing through my selection of the odds and sods of the movie world and let me know what you think.
PS: This list is by no means complete as I will add new worthwhile films as I stumble across them.
So, have fun browsing through my selection of the odds and sods of the movie world and let me know what you think.
PS: This list is by no means complete as I will add new worthwhile films as I stumble across them.
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- DirectorIrving PichelStarsWarner BaxterAndrea LeedsLynn BariA murdered man (Baxter) helps his widow (Leeds) bring his killer (Bari) to justice.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsVictor McLaglenJon HallFrances FarmerThe son of an island chieftain, young Kehane defiantly opposes the efforts by crooked pearl hunter Bucko Larson to invade his domain. Larson and his minions hope to dissuade our hero by introducing him to seductive Ruby.
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsRay MillandPatricia MorisonAkim TamiroffDr. Bill Crawford, on a hunting trip to Canada, is attacked by a bear and his guide, Joe Easter, saves his life and takes the badly-mauled Crawford to his cabin home, where he lives with his beautiful young wife, Alverna. Leaning Bill there to recover, Joe goes on a prolonged hunting trip and Bill and Alverna fall in love. The local doctor, Billar, dies during an operation which Bill completes and then decides to remain in Lost Lake and continue his practice there...close to Alverna. The lovers decide that, in fairness to Joe, Bill must return to his former city. But an epidemic of streptococcus breaks out in the Lost Lake village. Bill, untrained in the ways of the primeval woods, sets out in a raging blizzard, in search of the messenger who had been sent to the nearest town for a special serum needed to break the epidemic. Fearing for his life, Alverna follows him and they find the messenger dead in his automobile, with the serum by his side. Exhausted they stagger into a deserted cabin and drowse into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, Joe, back from his hunting trip, is persuaded by the village gossips that his wife has run off with Bill. He starts after them, in his dog-sled, with murder in his heart.
- DirectorDavid BurtonStarsLloyd NolanJean RogersRichard ClarkeA man involved in a crime (Nolan) kills his key witness by mistake and resigns himself to death. He changes his name so as not to harm his family. The law is not content with his explanation, however.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsGeorge BrentBrenda MarshallGeorge TobiasGreedy diamond mine owner Eli Snedeker, resentful that his ex-foreman John Gamble stopped him from taking over kindly, but drunken, mine owner Roger Smythe's mine just as he was about to strike it rich, kills Smythe and blames it on Gamble. Grabbing the diamonds, Gamble flees Africa to England where he changes his name and begins a new life. What he hasn't counted on, though, is meeting and falling in love with Smythe's daughter Katherine, who falls in love with him but can't marry him until she can deal with her hatred of John Gamble, the man she believes killed her father.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsHenry FondaDorothy LamourLinda DarnellCountry boy joins a circus in the 1840s and falls in love with Albany the star equestrian rider. Later he falls in love with Caroline another runaway who becomes the Circus' new bareback rider.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsLinda DarnellJohn PayneRoland YoungCarolyn Sayres, rejected by talent scout Brooke, falls in love with Bud Borden, helping her become a star. Wharton parodies Zanuck's early Hollywood experiences.
- DirectorH.C. PotterStarsFred AstairePaulette GoddardArtie ShawWhen perennial college students Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are forced to make it on their own, the competitive pair get jobs with Artie Shaw's band and reunite with ex-manager Ellen Miller.
- DirectorBasil DeanStarsVivien LeighLeslie BanksLaurence OlivierAfter Larry accidentally kills his lover Wanda's estranged blackmailing husband, someone else is arrested for the crime. Larry and Wanda nervously await the verdict: if the innocent suspect is found guilty then Larry will give himself up.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandRaymond MasseyIn 1854, Jeb Stuart, George Custer and other graduates from West Point are posted to Kansas to help pacify the territory before railroad construction to Santa Fe can resume.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsAnn SheridanHumphrey BogartJeffrey LynnAfter crooked nightclub owner Chips Maguire murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to allow him to stay at his eccentric mother's boarding house.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsJohn GarfieldBrenda MarshallMarjorie RambeauTwo troublesome boys grow into very different men, one becoming a hoodlum and the other embracing college, but both are in love with the same girl.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsGeorge RaftJoan BennettLloyd NolanAn aircraft designer falls for the wife of an imprisoned gangster. All goes well until the gangster gets out of prison...
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsJohn GarfieldAnne ShirleyClaude RainsAfter meeting each other as fellow employees at J.B. Martin Co., forthright twenty-two year old Bobby Halevy and twenty-five year old Rims Rosson, who has his head in the clouds in coming up with one useless invention after another, fall in love and get married. The marriage is despite Bobby treating this, her first job, as an experience like everything she does and not as a means to become a "Mrs." like many other women, such as her colleague Gert Mills, seem to do. And on the advice of her older game-playing married sister Florrie Sands, Bobby also resorted to "tricks", so unlike the way she usually acts, to get Rims to marry her instead of he accepting his dream job in the Philippines to pursue one of his more practical invention ideas. Although they love each other, Bobby and Rims hit one hurdle after another as wife and husband, those hurdles largely outside of their control. As such, Bobby has to decide what to do to bring happiness back into her and Rims' lives, those actions which may make her resort to further games. Beyond having Florrie and her husband Willie Sands and her parents' own marriages as examples, each couple who truly loves each other despite their own problems, Bobby will also have the direct advice of both Florrie and her father Henry Halevy, a bookkeeper at Martin who has always had his own special thoughts of what he has wanted for his youngest daughter.
- DirectorFrank LloydStarsCary GrantMartha ScottCedric HardwickeJust prior to the American War of Independence, aristocratic Virginian Jane Peyton marries unsophisticated rustic farmer and surveyor Matt Howard who takes her to his Shenandoah Valley plantation and later goes to war.
- DirectorBernard VorhausStarsJohn WayneSigrid GurieCharles CoburnAustrian refugees Dr Braun and his daughter Leni join the town's plan to relocate to Oregon. The town leader falls for Leni, but she is betrothed to the man who helped them escape from the Third Reich.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJoan CrawfordFredric MarchRuth HusseySusan Trexel is a wealthy socialite who, while vacationing in Europe undergoes a religious transformation. On her return to America, Susan takes on the task of spreading her new-found religious experience with her closest friends - only to drive them crazy. Meanwhile, her husband Barrie, and daughter Blossom yearn for a stable family life. Barrie will even become sober, hoping that Susan will heed her own advice, and save their marriage and family.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsGinger RogersDennis MorganJames CraigA hard-working white-collar girl from a middle-class family meets and falls in love with a young socialite, but she soon clashes with his family.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsTyrone PowerLinda DarnellDean JaggerIn 1844, after the assassination of Mormon leader Joseph Smith by an angry mob in Illinois, the Mormons choose Brigham Young as their new leader and follow him to a new promised land in Utah.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsHenry FondaGene TierneyJackie CooperFrank James continues to avoid arrest in order to take revenge on the Ford brothers for their murder of his brother Jesse.
- DirectorTay GarnettStarsMarlene DietrichJohn WayneAlbert DekkerBanished from various U.S. protectorates in the Pacific, a saloon entertainer uses her femme-fatale charms to woo politicians, navy personnel, gangsters, riff-raff, judges and a ship's doctor in order to achieve her aims.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsGary CooperMadeleine CarrollPaulette GoddardIn 1885, a Texas Ranger travels to Canada to arrest a trapper who's wanted for murder and who's stirring up the Natives in a rebellion against the Canadian government.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsClark GableJoan CrawfordIan HunterConvicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure (Ian Hunter).
- DirectorHerbert WilcoxStarsAnna NeagleRay MillandRoland YoungSent by her employers on an errand to the home of the wealthy Mrs. Vincent, Irene O'Dare meets Don, a friend of Mrs. Vincent's son Bob. Attracted to Irene, Don decides to invest some money in Bob's latest venture, the "Madame Lucy" dress shop, in order to give Irene a job there as a model. She is very successful and Bob also becomes attracted to her. Smith, the manager, assigns Irene and other models to display gowns at Mrs. Vincent's charity ball, but Irene ruins the gown she was to wear, and appears instead in a quaint blue dress that had belonged to her mother--and it is a big hit. A guest, Princess Minetti, places her as the niece of Ireland's Lady O'Dare, and Irene does not deny the relationship. Smith decides to set her up in a Park Avenue suite as Lady O'Dare's niece so she can attend socially-important gatherings, wearing and displaying "Madame Lucy" gowns. A jealous model tells the truth to a newspaper columnist who writes an expose' that strains the relationship between Irene and Don, who had been away and was unaware of the scheme--and is the real owner behind the "Madame Lucy" front.
- DirectorMitchell LeisenStarsBarbara StanwyckFred MacMurrayBeulah BondiLove blooms between a sympathetic attorney and the comely shoplifter he has taken home for the Christmas holiday.