His Girl Friday

Howard Hawks, 1940, bw (9.0*)
This remake of the Ben Hecht play The Front Page, also made as a film by Lewis Milestone in 1931, has absolutely classic comedic banter between Cary Grant and ex-wife Rosalind Russell as news reporters on a big homicide case. Apparently fearing she wasn't getting many good lines, Russell hired an outside writer to give her some lines to 'improvise' during the shooting. The result is a rapid fire, news teletype style of back and forth wisecracking that's practially the archetype for this style of comedy, often copied on tv sitcoms but never with this much energy.

The story of a convicted murderer about to be executed and escaping takes a back seat to the subliminal romantic repartee of the two stars - Cary Grant was never better, never this sharp again. It's like the Thin Man series on steroids, or a case of Red Bull to start the newsday. This is my favorite Howard Hawks film, maybe his most classic of all. It certainly had an influence on many other comedies to follow. It may be too energetic and 'relentless' to some, but to me Hawks managed this frantic pace well and showed everyone how it could be done.

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The Grapes of Wrath

John Ford, 1940, bw (9.0*)
Perhaps Ford's finest film, for which he won the directing Oscar® is this one of John Steinbeck's famous novel, both branded "communist" at the time for their favoritism shown to the common working man thrown into the great migration westward to California in search of orchard picking work during the Great Depression.

This is a very humane and touching story of the Joad family's attempt at survival from a parched dust bowl beginning in Oklahoma, their travels west, and trials in seeking out a new life elsewhere. The entire cast is perfect, especially the performances by Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, and Oscar®-winning Jane Darwell as Ma Joad.

Steinbeck grew up around Salinas, California, the "lettuce capital" of the U.S., so he witnessed firsthand the plight of migrant farm workers. For his part, Ford has been mostly true to the novel, while filming the story with beautiful lighting and b&w cinematography. A classic.

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The Shop Around the Corner

Ernst Lubitsch, 1940 (8.0*) bw
This is probably the most appealing and successful of famed director Ernst Lubitsch, who excelled in heart-warming comedies with original stories, which spawned generations of copycat plots. In fact Shop was remade first as In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland and Van Johnson (yet still took place in the holidays!), and recently as You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. None hold a candle to the original however, which also takes place at Christmas so this is actually another holiday film that is often overlooked.

James Stewart plays a clerk in a store in Budapest, Hungary (but they all speak perfect English!), working for Frank Morgan (he was the ‘man behind the curtain’ in the Wizard of Oz, also the traveling salesman). Margaret Sullivan is hired in the shop and she and Stewart don’t get along in person. However, each one has a secret pen pal who stirs their hearts and imagination, but they’ve yet to meet in person, each lacking romantic self-confidence; and of course, they are really each other’s secret admirers, and that’s all just the beginning. Down one star for some serious stuff in the middle spoiling the comedic pace, but Stewart and Morgan excel in this. This screenplay and its execution are still more original and fresh today than the copycat remakes and Lubitsch was an early comedy master, so this is a must-see holiday movie.

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Fantasia

James Algar, 1940 (8.5*)
Way ahead of its time, Disney created a series of artistic interpretations of short classical music works, and though each film was animated, the styles (other than the classic Mickey Mouse one) were not the usual Disney cartoons. In fact, some were downright frightening for small children, like "Night on Bald Mountain" or "Rite of Spring". Each viewer will likely have different favorites, and not all will work for everyone, but it's safe to say that Mickey as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" ranks way up there as the best of both animated music and Disney's favorite character. This was an historical film in the history of animation.

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The Philadelphia Story

Dir: George Cukor, 1940, bw (8.8*)

AFI Top 100

Terrific classic comedy of the screwball genre. Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant play ex's who have the perfect love/hate relationship, and somehow can't seem to stay away from each other, while reporter James Stewart (Oscar® winner for Supporting Actor) completes this riotous love triangle. He's there to report on Hepburn's upcoming high society wedding, and no one can figure out why ex Grant is there. One of the best of its era and type. Look for Grant grabbing Hepburn's face and shoving her down to the floor, just like we all would like to do at times! 6 nominations, 2 Oscars® (Screenplay, Supp. Actor)

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