Sunday, June 25, 2017


Watchingwell   








             Curated classic films







The 1940s
War Films

     Back to the forties and iconic war films that you should know. Strictly speaking, I am confining this to films concerning World War II, acknowledging that it might exclude fine films about conflicts from other eras.  But during the forties, the preoccupation was obviously with the current war and Hollywood produced many films about the actual fighting and the effects on the home front.  So I have divided the category into War Drama and War Action films.

War Action

1. Bataan (1943)
Directed by Tay Garnett, Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan lead a dependable cast in the story of heroic efforts during the last days of the evacuation from the Philippines.  The audience who first watched it already knew the fate of American forces after the surrender.

2. Battleground (1949)
Directed by William Wellman, a squad of GIs during the Battle of the Bulge is realistically depicted. Starring Van Johnson and John Hodiak.




3 Command Decision (1948)
Directed by Sam Wood and starring Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon, who portray the stress of the air war for the generals who must send young men to their deaths.




4. Cry Havoc (MGM,1943)
Directed by Richard Thorpe, starring Margaret Sullavan, Joan Blondell, Ann Sothern, or

  


So Proudly We Hail (Paramount,1943)
Directed by Mark Sandrich, starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, and Veronica Lake.

Amid all the war films are these two which recognize the contribution of women in the fields of battle -- nurses on Corregidor and the Bataan Peninsula in the weeks before surrender. The only difference is the Paramount film weaves in the story of the men in the lives of the women, whereas the MGM film, which is based on a stage play, concentrates on the women.

5. Destination Tokyo (1943)
Directed by Delmer Daves. Exciting story of Cary Grant and John Garfield on a submarine mission.










6. Pride of the Marines (1945)
Also directed by Delmer Daves, John Garfield gives a great performance as a blinded Marine returning home.  One of the first films to deal with the soldier's readjustment.





7. The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
Directed by William Wellman, correspondent Ernie Pyle is portrayed in this story of infantry, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum.  I read somewhere that Eisenhower thought it was the greatest war movie ever made.



8. They Were Expendable (1945)
Directed by John Ford, starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne in the story of the PT boats in the Pacific.





9. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.  A secret bombing mission over Japan stars Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson and Robert Walker.








10. Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
Directed by Henry King. Gregory Peck stars as the general in charge of whipping into shape a bomber squadron flying from England to Germany.



War DRAMA



1. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Joel McCrea as a journalist who gets caught up with enemy agents in London before the outbreak of war. With Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall and George Sanders.







2.The Great Dictator (1940)
Starring and directed by Charles Chaplin, the classic satire of the fascist regimes in Germany and Italy was the first to take a stand on the evils of Nazism and Anti-Semitism. Co-starring Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie.


3. Journey for Margaret (1942)
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the 3-hanky story of Robert Young and Laraine Day encountering British war orphans, Margaret O'Brien and William Severn.






                                        

4. Lifeboat (1944)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a war drama only in the setting, a group of survivors of a German u-boat attack try to stay alive with a German in the boat. Starring Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak.


                                       
5. The Mortal Storm (1940)
Directed by Frank Borzage, starring James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Robert Young, Robert Stack as villagers in a German mountain town reacting to the Nazi regime.



6. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Director William Wyler's picture of life in an English village at the outbreak of WWII. Released a few months after Pearl Harbor, this patriotic propaganda  for the war effort won Academy Awards all around (Best Picture, Best Actress in a leading role -- Greer Garson, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Teresa Wright, Best Director, Best Writing, Screenplay -- George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, Arthur Wimperis, Best Cinematography, Black and White --Joseph Ruttenberg. Also starring Walter Pidgeon.




7. Notorious (1946)
Another Alfred Hitchcock classic, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains, as American agents trying to thwart Nazis in South America. One of the best.








8. Saboteur (1942)
Alfred Hitchcock again. This time Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Norman Lloyd on a cross-country pursuit of enemy agents ending at the Statue of Liberty.





9. Since You Went Away (1944)
Directed by John Cromwell, the story of one family trying to be strong for the loved ones who are gone to war. Starring Claudette Colbert, with Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple as her daughters. Also starring Robert Walker and Joseph Cotten.


10. Watch on the Rhine 
(1943)
Directed by Herman Shumlin.  Political refugees from Germany visit American relatives before US entry into WWII and clue them in about Nazi regime. Starring Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, Lucille Watson.





    These works, made by contemporaries of the war years, are a window into this eventful decade, as the generation of eye witnesses disappears.