GREAT MOVIES FROM 1940

1940
*Rebecca
Lawrence Olivier and Joan Fontaine nominated for best actor and actress. shy ladies' companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Mandalay, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Mandalay.


All This, and Heaven Too
The film tells the story of Henriette Deluzy-Desportes (Bette Davis). When Mademoiselle Deluzy-Desportes starts teaching at a girls school, she is confronted with gossip tales about her, which have become common knowledge amongst her students. Provoked by her students, she decides to tell them her life story. Mademoiselle Deluzy-Desportes once was governess to the four children of the Duc de Praslin and his wife, the Duchesse de Praslin. When, as a result of their unhappy marriage, the Duke finally resolved to kill the Duchess, Henriette was suspected of being an accomplice in the murder.


Foreign Correspondent Johnny Jones is an action reporter on a New York newspaper. The editor appoints him European correspondent because he is fed up with the dry, reports he currently gets. Jones' first assignment is to get the inside story on a secret treaty agreed between two European countries by the famous diplomat, Mr. Van Meer. However things don't go to plan and Jones enlists the help of a young woman to help track down a group of spies. Movie stars Joel McCrea and Larraine Day. Remade in 1999

The Grapes of Wrath
Henry Fonda, nominated; Jane Darwell wins supporting actress. Tom Joad's played by Henry Fonda, point of view just after he is paroled from prison for homicide. On his journey home, he meets a now-former preacher, Jim Casy, whom he remembers from his childhood, and the two travel together. When they arrive at his childhood farm home, they find it deserted. Disconcerted and confused, he and Casy go to his Uncle John's home nearby where he finds his family loading a converted truck with what remains of their possessions; the crops were destroyed in the dust bowl and as a result, the family had to default on their loans. With their farm repossessed, the Joad’s seek solace in hope; hope inscribed on the handbills which are distributed everywhere in Oklahoma describing the beautiful and fruitful country of California and high pay to be had in that state. The Joad’s, along with Jim Casy, are seduced by this advertising and invest everything they have into the journey. Although leaving Oklahoma would be breaking parole, Tom decides that it is a risk, albeit minimal, that he has to take.


While en route, they discover that all of the roads and the highways are saturated with other families who are also making the same trek, ensnared by the same promise. As the Joad’s continue on their journey and hear many stories from others, some coming from California, they are forced to confront the possibility that their prospects may not be what they hoped. This realization, supported by the deaths of Grandpa and Grandma and the departure of Noah (the eldest Joad son) and Connie (the husband of the pregnant Joad daughter, Rose of Sharon), is forced from their thoughts: they must go on because they have no choice--there is nothing remaining for them in Oklahoma.

The Great Dictator
Charlie Chaplin, nominated. This is the story of the period between two world wars--an interim during which insanity cut loose, liberty took a nose dive, and humanity was kicked around somewhat. With this pithy opening title, Charles Chaplin begins his first all-talking feature film.


Kitty Foyle
Ginger Rogers wins best actress. Centered on the high society of Philadelphia's Main Line and those who wish to marry into it, the film addresses issues of class in America. Having grown up on the wrong side of the tracks, Kitty eventually becomes a successful executive in a New York fashion house.


The Letter
Bette Davis nominated. Leslie is placed under arrest and put in prison in Singapore as a matter of form to await trial for murder. Everyone believes she acted heroically, with the exception of her attorney, Howard Joyce, who is clearly suspicious. Howard's suspicions seem justified when his clerk Ong Chi Seng shows him a copy of a letter Leslie wrote Hammond the day she killed him, informing him she would be home alone that evening and pleading with him to visit her. Ong Chi Seng tells Howard that the letter is in the possession of Hammond's widow, a Eurasian woman who lives in the Chinese quarter of town. Howard then confronts Leslie with the damning evidence and forces her to confess to Hammond's cold-blooded killing; but Leslie cleverly manipulates the attorney into agreeing to buy back the letter. It is so Bette Davis!

The Long Voyage
Starring John Wayne. The film tells the story of the crew aboard an cargo ship named the SS Glen cairn, during World War Two on the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England. The ship carries a cargo of high-explosives.

Our Town
Martha Scott nominated. Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. People grow up, get married, live, and die. Milk and the newspaper get delivered every morning, and nobody locks their front doors.

The Philadelphia Story
James Stewart wins best actor; Katherine Hepburn nominated. Dexter Haven played by Cary Grant as he's being tossed out of his palatial home by his wife, Tracy Lord played by Katherine Hepburn. Adding insult to injury, Tracy breaks one of C.K.'s precious golf clubs. He gallantly responds by knocking her down on her million-dollar keester. A couple of years after the breakup, Tracy is about to marry George Kittredge, played by John Howard a wealthy stuffed shirt whose principal recommendation is that he's not a Philadelphia "mainliner," as C.K. was. Still holding a torch for Tracy, C.K. is galvanized into action when he learns of her marriage.

How many have you seen?

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