Tom Jolliffe with ten essential films of the 1940s…
We recently took a dive back to the 1950s in a quest to prove Quentin Tarantino wrong in his claim that it was one of the weakest decades for cinema. Sorry QT, but there are just far too many greats to come close to paling in comparison with any decade this century.
Whilst we’re strapped into our time machine we might as well take a look back at the 1940s, which was a defining era in American cinema particularly. Talkies needed a decade of transition to adjust and it took a while for visionary directors to creep into view or to hone their style. The 40s saw trailblazers like Orson Welles and David Lean arrive as well as Alfred Hitchcock really refining his skills and becoming the great he’d be considered by the end of the following decade. So let’s take a look at ten essential films from the 1940s…
Stray Dog
Before transitioning into a career-defining decade, Akira Kurosawa made his first masterpiece with Drunken Angel (his first collaboration with Toshiro Mifune). He’d already made a number of films showing his skill and touches of that brilliance but Stray Dog just hit him up a notch and marked his second film with Mifune as a young cop who manages to lose his gun on a crowded bus. His day is spent searching for the gun as matters escalate and he has to track a criminal on the loose with it.
Mifune’s rookie cop has to delve into the slums of post-war Japan on a sweltering day where everyone drips sweat. He’s aided by an experienced partner played by fellow Kurosawa stalwart, Takashi Shimura. Stray Dog is swift and to the point, and Kurosawa creates rising tension and emphasises the clammy heat that Mifune feels, exacerbated by his mistake (and the subsequent fallout). On top of the stunning framing and editing, the film’s beautiful noir lighting really does look stunning (especially in recent HD restorations). Although Kurosawa is most synonymous with Samurai films and Shakespearean epics, his rare police procedurals are great.
The Maltese Falcon
Firstly, if you get a chance to see the 4k version of this, do so, it’s exquisite. Secondly, The Maltese Falcon is one of the all-time great noir murder mysteries. Based on Dashiell Hammett’s classic novel, this plays things pretty faithful to the source and Humphrey Bogart brings Sam Spade to life with his inimitable cool.
Written and directed by John Huston, this really did set a high bar for the genre early in the decade, a film that (at least didn’t appear to be) hamstrung by the small matter of a war going on at the time. Huston and Robert Foulk’s script is great in that period of time when dialogue just popped. The writer was King and they delivered accordingly. Bogey is offered excellent support from Peter Lorre, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet.
Citizen Kane
Arguably the single most influential and important film in American cinema, Citizen Kane was the work of a bullish and arrogant young director who cast asunder the rule book and reinvented how films could be lit, shot and cut. In fact, Kane was so ahead of its time that it took decades for most directors to catch up. From some of the groundbreaking tracking FX shots to the brilliant use of deep focus, Welles just kept on pushing boundaries. Shots with characters in silhouette, and his choice to mix docu-style interviews with conventional narrative storytelling, as well as jumping in and out of time periods showed how cocksure he was.
Some might claim that Citizen Kane is overrated, but given the performances (not least from Welles himself), the filmmaking craft and stunning photography, it’s hard to agree. It’s an undoubted and essential masterpiece that still tells a fascinating story.
Rebecca
Alfred Hitchcock had already made a number of great films, even as far back as the silent era. Rebecca really saw Hitchcock not only push to the forefront as a cinematic stylist but also as a director with a fascination for complex characters and occasionally macabre stories.
Rebecca is a slow-moving and brooding melodrama with a stunning climax that sees Laurence Olivier as a man obsessed with his late first wife (and hiding a dark secret) and Joan Fontaine as his new love living under the looming shadow of her new man’s ex-wife. The performances are gripping with the two leads both superb but Judith Anderson steals the show as Mrs Danvers. It’s based on the classic Daphne Du Maurier tale and whilst it did recently get a new modern adaptation, nothing beats the skill and the atmosphere created by Hitchcock here.
Le Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast)
We’ve seen numerous versions of this tale over the years with Disney’s animation perhaps the most instantly iconic but the best cinematic adaptation of the classic fairytale is Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film which remains the most visually arresting.
There are some wonderful sets and costumes as well as a wonderfully stark contrast in the black and white cinematography and the titular beast is also impressive for the era. Cocteau’s film is brimming with old gothic atmosphere and striking images, many of which have been recycled countless times in cinema. Grandiose, lavish and above all an engrossing tale.
Brief Encounter
Whilst the notion of a pair of ships in the night who never give into temptation seems quaint nowadays, David Lean’s classic film based on a Noel Coward play is totally compelling. A bored housewife and a Doctor strike up a friendship after regularly meeting at the train station but she slowly feels more and more drawn to the idea of giving up a tired marriage for someone whom she feels more connected to.
For fans of something like In The Mood For Love, Brief Encounter will certainly strike a chord. It’s an antithesis to the grand epics Lean would later become known for and it’s simple intimacy is made enthralling by the performances of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. It’s also beautifully shot.
The Third Man
Liberal use of Dutch angles and dazzling film noir cinematography are in play here as Carol Reed directs the hell out of this trailblazing thriller. The atmosphere, the style, the classic tropes and a killer cameo role for Orson Welles. If you weren’t to know, one might see how far ahead of its time this film is and assume Welles was in the director’s chair, but Reed really creates a game-changing film noir.
Joseph Cotton (who co-starred with Welles in Kane) is also superb as the man investigating the death of his friend. The Third Man has lost none of its magic and the finale is also thrilling.
Casablanca
Bogey’s back. To be fair, his record in the 40s was stellar with films like The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not but above all, and even his Hammett adaptation, is Casablanca. The film has one of the greatest screenplays (Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch) ever as well as a wonderful sense of style thanks to timeless direction from Michael Curtiz.
Rick Blaine (Bogey) has set up a hip bar in Casablanca where a real pick ‘n’ mix of intriguing characters has been displaced during the war. When his ex comes in, hoping to get transit papers for her new love, Rick’s life is turned upside down. Honestly, Casablanca is perfection and still holds up brilliantly. Ingrid Bergman is stunning and Bogey’s old pal Peter Lorre also pops up in a memorable role once again.
Bicycle Thieves
The most important film in Italian Neo-realism and also the best. Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves is a simple story with an incident setting off a chain of events that work against a protagonist just trying to get a break in life. With a job interview waiting, his new bicycle gets stolen, leading him and his son on a chase around Rome to find the culprit and finding themselves getting into trouble in the process.
The quest is enthralling and bittersweet with wonderfully understated performances and it’s still one of the all-time great underdog movies.
The Red Shoes
Given how direct an influence it was on Flickering Myth’s upcoming film The Baby in the Basket, I could have picked Black Narcissus as the essential Powell and Pressburger production of the era, however by a whisker it’s going to be The Red Shoes. Without this film, there’d be no Black Swan among a whole litany of films this technicolour Marvel influenced directly.
The grand scope and stunning visuals are countered with the gruelling intimacy of a woman’s obsession and breakdown (with Moira Shearer’s incredible performance). The design and choreography of the dance numbers are great but it’s really the emotional power driving them that makes this so thrilling to watch.
Honourable mentions go to Sanshiro Sugata, Late Spring, Gilda, The Red House, Double Indemnity, The Woman in the Window, High Sierra (Bogey again), The Stranger, Naked City, Detour, White Heat, It Always Rains on Sunday, It’s A Wonderful Life, Fantasia, Cat People, Notorious, Rope, Shadow of a Doubt, The Spiral Staircase, Gas Light, Brute Force and Grapes of Wrath.
What are your favourite films of the 1940s? Let us know on our socials @FlickeringMyth…
