New Year For The New Year
Our friend Jesse Walker has come up with his top ten film list for 1940. Good year for Hollywood, not so good for Europe.
https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2021/01/rolling-down-decades-ive-posted-my.html
Here it is:
1. The Philadelphia Story
2. His Girl Friday
3. The Bank Dick
4. A Wild Hare
5. They Drive By Night
6. Rebecca
7. Christmas In July
8. Dance, Girl, Dance
9. The Grapes Of Wrath
10. Contraband
Without checking, I think this is Jesse's first top ten list with only English-language films (for understandable reasons).
Hard to argue with the top two (though I will, since I think an honorable mention should be on top). Both are classic Cary Grant comedies made when Hollywood knew how to make them.
I'm not as big a fan of W. C. Fields as I am of the Marx Brothers, but The Bank Dick is one of his best--from his late, surreal period--and deserves a spot in the top ten.
A Wild Hare is an animated short.
They Drive By Night is a fun but minor drama (that has some trouble keeping the story under control). I'm surprised George Raft didn't turn it down, since that was his specialty at the time.
Rebecca won Best Picture at the Oscars but I consider it less interesting than much of Hitchcock.
Christmas In July practically defines minor Sturges, though I can see it making the top ten. I especially like Raymond Walburn.
Dance, Girl, Dance is okay, though I'm not sure what all the fus is about.
The Grapes Of Wrath is considered an all-time classic, but I've never warmed to it. Seems to be trying too hard.
Contraband is okay Powell. Haven't seen it in a long time.
Honorable Mentions:
11. Foreign Correspondent
12. The Shop Around The Corner
13. The Thief Of Bagdad
14. The Great McGinty
15. Pinocchio
16. Swinging The Lambeth Walk
17. The Westerner
18. Seven Sinners
19. Tarantella
20. The Ghost Breakers
11 is the better Hitchcock film of the year. 13 is the better Powell film of the year. 14 is the better Sturges film of the year. So there.
And 12 is the best film of the year, indeed, one of the best of all time.
While we're at it, 15 may be Disney's best feature. Certainly the most technically impressive.
16 and 19 are shorts.
17 is a fascinating film, since the story is a western drama but a comedy keeps popping out. I don't recall 18 being that much. 20 is a nice early Bob Hope comedy.
Jesse notes he likes the shaving sequence in The Great Dictator. I know he's got an aversion to Chaplin, so we don't see Charlie's films on his lists. Well, I've got an aversion to Chaplin talking, so I don't mind this film didn't make the list. But it's almost perverse to note one scene from the film and it not be the one with the globe.
Other films I like, at least in part:
Broadway Melody Of 1940, Buck Benny Rides Again, A Chump At Oxford, Fantasia (some parts much better than others), Down Argentine Way, Gaslight (the original), Go West (even weak Marx Brothers is worth watching), Johnny Apollo, The Mark Of Zorro, My Favorite Wife (quite a year for Cary Grant), My Little Chickadee (though not great Fields), No Time For Comedy, Northwest Passage, Primrose Path, The Return Of Frank James, Road To Singapore (the first Road film, and they don't quite have it down yet), Strike Up The Band, Remember The Night, Tin Pan Alley, Saps At Sea, The Sea Hawk, Second Chorus (though it's second-class Astaire)
Other films of note:
Abe Lincoln In Illinois, All This And Heaven Too, Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Angels Over Broadway, Bitter Sweet, The Blue Bird, Boom Town (biggest hit of the year), The Boys From Syracuse, Brigham Young, Chad Hanna, Dr. Cyclops, The Eternal Jew, The Fighting 69th, The Howards Of Virginia (not every Cary Grant film is a gem), It's A Date, Kitty Foyle (Ginger leaves Fred and wins an Oscar), Knute Rockne All American, The Letter, Li'l Abner, Little Men, Little Nellie Kelly, The Long Voyage Home, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, The Mortal Storm, Night Train To Munich, North West Mounted Police, One Million B.C., Our Town, Pride And Prejudice, Star Dust, Strange Cargo, Swiss Family Robinson, They Knew What They Wanted, Too Many Husbands, Turnabout, Vigil In The Night, Young Tom Edison
posted by LAGuy @ 1:02 PM
4 Comments:
The globe ballet is dull. So there.
1. His Girl Friday;
2. The Bank Dick;
3. The Philadelphia Story;
4. Fantasia;
5. Foreign Correspondent;
6. The Great Dictator;
7. Pinnochio;
8. The Grapes of Wrath;
9. British Intelligence;
10.Rebecca;
I've seen about a dozen others but besides My Little Chickadee they're all pretty forgettable.
More I mostly like (except for the first two which are great) and a couple at the end that are just okay. I usually like Powell but Thief of Bagdad left me cold, effexts are too hokey for it to work as a spectacle.
Without checking, I think this is Jesse's first top ten list with only English-language films (for understandable reasons).
OK, I just checked. Chronologically, this is indeed the first one with only English-language films—all the pre-1940 lists include some foreign-language entries.
In the lists I've posted for later years, the all-English configuration happens (again understandably) three more times during World War II. After that it becomes rare again: once in the late '40s, twice in the '70s, and twice in the '90s. And in all of the post-WW2 years, unlike 1940, you can find at least one foreign-language picture in the honorable mentions.
Underappreciated: Strike Up The Band is a pretty good Rooney/Garland musical.
Northwest Passage is a solid adventure.
Above all, The Letter is one of Bette Dsvis's and William Wyler's best.
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