Maria Tatar's Bluebeard Cycle from the 1940s
by margaret-mcglynn | created - 31 Oct 2016 | updated - 31 Oct 2016 | PublicA series of films in the "female" gothic style made in the 1940s, all echoing the plot and themes of "Bluebeard."
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1. Rebecca (1940)
Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 146,849 | Gross: $4.36M
2. Suspicion (1941)
Approved | 99 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce
Votes: 42,467 | Gross: $4.50M
3. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Passed | 108 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A teenage girl, overjoyed when her favorite uncle comes to visit the family in their quiet California town, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sought by the authorities.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers
Votes: 70,535
4. Dark Waters (1944)
Approved | 90 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A woman returns to the USA after a German U-boat sank her ship, and finds out that someone wants to kill her for her inheritance.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Merle Oberon, Franchot Tone, Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter
Votes: 1,096
5. Experiment Perilous (1944)
Approved | 91 min | Film-Noir, Romance, Thriller
In 1903, a doctor suspects murder in the gothic Bederaux family.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Hedy Lamarr, George Brent, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker
Votes: 2,126
6. Gaslight (1944)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Ten years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the home rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, May Whitty
Votes: 33,937
7. Jane Eyre (1943)
Approved | 97 min | Drama, Romance
After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house, to care for his young daughter.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Margaret O'Brien, Peggy Ann Garner
Votes: 9,505 | Gross: $3.82M
8. Phantom of the Plains (1945)
Approved | 56 min | Western
Red Ryder and Little Beaver return to Blue Springs and learn that the Duchess, Red's aunt, is going to sell her stagecoach line and marry a snooty Englishman Talbot Champneys, who is really... See full summary »
Director: Lesley Selander | Stars: Bill Elliott, Robert Blake, Alice Fleming, Ian Keith
Votes: 57
9. Spellbound (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Romance
A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 52,269 | Gross: $7.00M
10. Dragonwyck (1946)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A simple Connecticut farm girl is recruited by a distant relative, an aristocratic patroon, to be governess to his young daughter in his Hudson Valley mansion.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Vincent Price, Glenn Langan
Votes: 5,402
11. Hiss and Yell (1946)
Approved | 17 min | Comedy, Short
Vera thinks she's witnessed a man decapitating his wife. Actually, she's only seen magician Bluebeard the Great rehearsing his act. Still convinced that the magician is a killer, Vera goes ... See full summary »
Director: Jules White | Stars: Barbara Jo Allen, Barton Yarborough, Symona Boniface, Edmund Cobb
Votes: 53
12. The Madonna's Secret (1946)
Not Rated | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The sister of a murdered model poses for the same artist to try to catch her killer.
Director: Wilhelm Thiele | Stars: Francis Lederer, Gail Patrick, Ann Rutherford, Edward Ashley
Votes: 285
13. Bluebeard (1944)
Passed | 72 min | Crime, Horror, Thriller
In Paris, an artist hires portrait models, and after he finishes their portraits, he strangles them.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: John Carradine, Jean Parker, Nils Asther, Ludwig Stössel
Votes: 2,135
14. Notorious (1946)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
The daughter of a convicted German spy is asked by American agents to gather information on a ring of German scientists in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
Votes: 107,323 | Gross: $10.46M
15. Undercurrent (1946)
Passed | 116 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
Middle-aged bride Ann Hamilton soon begins to suspect that her charming husband is really a psychotic who plans to murder her.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 3,549
16. Love from a Stranger (1947)
Approved | 81 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A newly married woman begins to suspect that her husband is a killer. Even worse, she soon comes to believe that she will be his next victim.
Director: Richard Whorf | Stars: John Hodiak, Sylvia Sidney, Ann Richards, John Howard
Votes: 294
17. Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Passed | 124 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Mady Correll, Allison Roddan, Robert Lewis
Votes: 19,140 | Gross: $0.33M
18. The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An artist forms an attachment with a woman on holiday in the country. As the relationship develops, his behavior and information about his past cause her increasing concern.
Director: Peter Godfrey | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Nigel Bruce
Votes: 4,908
19. Secret Beyond the Door... (1947)
Not Rated | 99 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
After a lovely woman and her new husband settle in an ancient mansion on the East coast, she discovers that he may want to kill her.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, Anne Revere, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 5,719
20. Caught (1949)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ambitious young LA department store model gets her wish of marrying a millionaire but she eventually discovers that rich life isn't always a happy one.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, Frank Ferguson
Votes: 4,358
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