Prince Hal - Just listened to "Men of Harlech" on Spotify. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

My wife just watched Penny Serenade and absolutely HATED it. She's a big Cary Grant fan, but she had nothing good to say about it.

I checked my movie list and I have a tie between Citizen Kane and Suspicion. Not that I don’t love The Maltese Falcon and The Wolf Man and some of the other films that have been mentioned. But these two are my favorite, and Suspicion is my favorite Hitchcock film except for The Birds.

One that hasn’t been mentioned yet that I still watch a lot is Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.

I love the studio ending!

I don’t think it would be nearly as good if it followed the original script.

Onward to 1942.

And, honestly, there's no reason to play around.  My favorite movie of all time came out in 1942 (though it didn't open wide until 1943).  So my favorite of the year is pretty obvious.  And it is...

Casablanca - This is just everything good about the studio system and early American film-making distilled in to one fabulous film.  The cast is stellar.  From Humphrey Bogart, in the role that moved him from a mega-star to an all-time film icon, to Ingrid Bergman as the classic love interest, to the best supporting cast imaginable in Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet and Conrad Veidt.  Even to the tertiary characters, like Leonid Kinskey as Sascha, Madeleine Lebeau as Yvonne, and S. Z. Sakall as Carl are note perfect.  It doesn't matter that the exit visas are a McGuffin that makes absolutely no sense.  The dialogue is sharp, the direction is excellent and the music, particularly Dooley Wilson's singing, is outstanding.  There are so many moments from the film that have soaked into, not just the consciousness of film, but of our culture in general.  Just absolutely my favorite movie.  And this scene never fails to raise goosebumps. 



So what do you do when the favorite is so crystal clear?  Well one could just move on, but I'll mention a few other films from 1942 of which I'm fond. 


This Gun For Hire - This is another film that, in the right year, could be a winner.  This is just an incredibly important early film noir that made a star of Alan Ladd and cemented Veronica Lake as THE prototypical film noir femme fatale.  It probably helps that, at 5'2" Lake was one of the few leading ladies who didn't tower over the diminutive Ladd. 



I really need to re-watch Cat People, To Be or Not to Be, and Saboteur.  I know I like them all, but it's been soooo long. 

The Fleisher Superman shorts remained the apex of animated shorts, while the boys in Termite Terrace kept inching the Looney Tunes films to the greatness to come.  

1942 in film for those who want a look.  

Edit: Apparently The Ox-Bow Incident is from 1943.  So...yeah.  I'm a dumbass.  

Additional edit.  So apparently it was released in Dec. 1942 in St. Louis.  But the New York premiere was in 43.  So I have to think about what I'm going to do with this. 

In a Category All Its Own

"Casablanca" 
So many scenes indelibly etched in your memory that you might as well just memorize the whole movie, visually and aurally.
But this is THE scene, not just in the movie, but in all cinema.



The Club d'Excellence
Any of these might be the best if there had been no "Casablanca."

"The Ox-Bow Incident"
Another top of the line performance from Henry Fonda supported by a great ensemble anchors this bleak, realistic look at mob mentality. Luckily humankind has grown out of mob psychology.

"Magnificent Ambersons"
Mercilessly butchered by the suits when thet sent Welles out of the country. What's left, though, is absolutely "cherce."  Agnes Moorehead gives her usual exquisite performance and an acting lesson or two as a bonus.  

"To Be or Not to Be"
Ernst Lubitsch. What more is there to be said? Bonus: he mocks Nazis left, right and center, but never does the film lose its sense of dread and repulsion for Fascists.

"Saboteur"
Solid Hitchcock. A reverse of the trip in "North by Northwest" and a variation on "The 39 Steps" with Robert Cummings chasing fifth columnists while handcuffed to a girl he doesn't know. The final scene on the Statue of Liberty is still frightening even though it's so well known. Ironic trivia point: Norman Lloyd, who plays a key part in that scene and only recently died at 105(!), was born in Jersey City, just out of sight of the Statue. 

Best Horror Movie of 1942

"Cat People" Producer Val Lewton does what he did best, transforming a B-movie budget and sets into as chilling a movie as you'll see. Like vampire movies, the sub-text is sexualtity. The sorta-kinda sequel, "Curse of the Cat People" (1944), is also stellar.

“Women’s Movies” Disparage these not, though they were marketed mostly towards women as heavy on the romance. Avoid them at your own risk.

"Mrs. Miniver"
Watch it now with Ukraine and its valiant people in mind. Subtract the pre-Downton Abbey class issues if you must, but do understand that everyone's life frequently veers into melodrama and you'll understand why it was so successful and beloved. Greer Grason is her usual radiant self. Speaking of creepy: Greer married the guy who plays her son. 

"Now, Voyager"
A weepie, a soap opera, a melodrama, yes, guilty. But Bette Davis is brilliant as the ugly duckling from a Boston Brahmin family. Can't think of another actress who would have done to herself what she did here, decades before "dressing down" to play a character became fashionable. Gladys Cooper, always a pro, is the original Mommie Dearest, with a tongue that is a stilleto in disguise. You'll want to kill her.
Random Harvest

Americana
"Kings Row"
The novel was the "Peyton Place" of its day, a scathing American Gothic about the evil that hides behind the facade of every small town. Much of the decadence is only hinted at compared to the lurid details in the novel, but it is still effective. Charles Coburn, playing against type as a sadistic doctor, ain't exactly Uncle Jovial, and neither he nor Claude Rains will get the MD of the Year Award. Kind of a B picture, given the cast (Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, and Ann Sheridan, but Sheridan is very good and Reagan (no pun intended) ain't half-bad. 

"George Washington Slept Here"
YMMV, but as I like Ann Sheridan, this farcical sit-com (beleagured hubby, loving wife) about a city family stumbling into a money-pit of an old house, gased on the Kaufman play, tickles my funny bone. 

War Movies Propaganda, yes, but, if you can slip inot your twelve-year-old skin to enjoy all those comics, you'll love the heroism, courage and battle scenes. 

"Flying Tigers"
John Wayne has to school a wise-guy buddy who's just in China for the money. Guess who sacrifices his life for the rest of the guys at the end?

"Wake Island"
The Alamo of the Pacific is first up for the studios as a "based-on-fact" account of what peopel didn't even see in the newsreels. Standard stuff, but it was a pretty high standard back then. Not a Hollywood ending, either.

"Desperate Journey"
If you only watch one of these war movies, make it this one about a group of multi-national on secret mission in Nazi territory. Yes, it's the Blackhawks come to life, with Errol Flynn as Blackhawk, Alan Hale, Jr. as Hendrickson, etc., etc. Reagan has a good scene confusing a German officer that's right out of a comic book. 

Great Serial

"Perils of Nyoka"
Kay Aldridge is a real wonder woman here, especially when she wresteles the evil Vultura, queen of the Tiger-Men! Clayton Moore is Steve Trevor.

Casablanca is the easy choice here, though I have a lot of time for To Be or Not To Be (and Lubitsch in general, for that matter), and The Palm Beach Story is one of Preston Sturges' best.