TASCHEN 1940
by gusgao | created - 03 Jul 2013 | updated - 07 Jul 2013 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Mortal Storm (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Drama
The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. When the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Breitner, a family friend, is caught up in the turmoil.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan
Votes: 6,053
2. Sergeant York (1941)
Passed | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
A Tennessee farmer and marksman is drafted in World War I, and struggles with his pacifist inclinations before becoming one of the most celebrated war heroes.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
Votes: 19,795 | Gross: $16.40M
3. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, Romance
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
Directors: Orson Welles, Fred Fleck, Robert Wise | Stars: Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter
Votes: 26,772
4. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Fantasy, Mystery
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
Directors: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Stars: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Votes: 15,215
5. Fires Were Started (1943)
63 min | Drama, War
A tale of firefighters in London during the Blitz.
Director: Humphrey Jennings | Stars: Philip Dickson, George Gravett, Fred Griffiths, Johnny Houghton
Votes: 1,327
6. The Man in Grey (1943)
Approved | 90 min | Drama, History, Romance
After a brutish, hedonistic Marquis marries a pretty young Clarissa to act as a 'brood sow,' he begins an affair with her friend who plots to take her place.
Director: Leslie Arliss | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger
Votes: 1,594
7. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Western
When a posse captures three men suspected of killing a local farmer, they become strongly divided over whether or not to lynch the men.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn
Votes: 24,966 | Gross: $1.64M
8. San Pietro (1945)
Unrated | 32 min | Documentary, Short, War
Director John Huston documents the Battle of San Pietro Infine in December 1943.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Mark W. Clark, John Huston
Votes: 2,459
9. The Killers (1946)
Passed | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker
Votes: 23,655
10. Odd Man Out (1947)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, F.J. McCormick
Votes: 11,428
11. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Romance
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel Journet
Votes: 13,650
12. Spring in a Small Town (1948)
98 min | Drama, Romance
A lonely housewife finds her monotonous life altered when her childhood sweetheart returns to town.
Director: Mu Fei | Stars: Chaoming Cui, Wei Li, Yu Shi, Wei Wei
Votes: 3,356
13. Red River (1948)
Passed | 133 min | Drama, Western
Dunson leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, to its destination in Missouri. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted son.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson | Stars: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan
Votes: 34,423
14. The Paleface (1948)
Approved | 91 min | Comedy, Family, Western
Calamity Jane is dispatched to find out who's smuggling rifles to the Indians, and winds up married to a hapless correspondence-school dentist as part of her cover.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Robert Armstrong, Iris Adrian
Votes: 4,567
15. Whisky Galore! (1949)
Approved | 82 min | Comedy, Crime
Scottish islanders try to plunder 50,000 cases of whisky from a stranded ship.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, Catherine Lacey, Bruce Seton
Votes: 6,655
16. The Reckless Moment (1949)
Not Rated | 82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks, Henry O'Neill
Votes: 5,660
17. The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Approved | 94 min | Action, Adventure, Family
A young Spanish aristocrat must masquerade as a fop in order to maintain his secret identity of Zorro as he restores justice to early California.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard
Votes: 10,985 | Gross: $4.36M
18. Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
Passed | 71 min | Comedy, Musical
A filmmaker attempts to sell a surreal script he has written, which comes to life as he pitches it.
Director: Edward F. Cline | Stars: W.C. Fields, Gloria Jean, Leon Errol, Billy Lenhart
Votes: 2,643
19. The Black Swan (1942)
Approved | 87 min | Adventure, Drama
An ex-pirate contends with rowdy buccaneers and a love/hate relationship with an aristocratic woman who's tougher than she seems.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 5,090 | Gross: $1.01M
20. The Major and the Minor (1942)
Passed | 100 min | Comedy, Romance
A frustrated city girl disguises herself as a youngster in order to get a cheaper train ticket home. But little "Sue Sue" finds herself in a whole heap of grown-up trouble when she hides out in a compartment with a handsome Major.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley
Votes: 7,651 | Gross: $6.38M
21. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1943)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Adventure, Fantasy
This lavish, impudent, adult fairy tale takes the viewer from 18th-century Braunschweig to St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Venice, and then to the moon using ingenious special effects, stunning location shooting.
Director: Josef von Báky | Stars: Hans Albers, Wilhelm Bendow, Michael Bohnen, Hans Brausewetter
Votes: 2,185
22. Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
Passed | 96 min | Thriller, War
In the North African campaign a British straggler manages to pass himself off as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Fortunio Bonanova
Votes: 6,839
23. Bathing Beauty (1944)
Passed | 101 min | Comedy, Musical
A contrived misunderstanding leads to the breakup of a songwriter and his fiancée. She returns to work as a gym teacher at an all-girls school, but a legal loophole allows the man to enroll as one of her students.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone, Bill Goodwin
Votes: 1,882
24. The Woman in the Window (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a conservative middle aged professor engages in a relationship with a femme fatale, he's plunged into a nightmarish world of blackmail and murder.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, Edmund Breon
Votes: 17,798
25. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 75,001
26. Great Freedom No. 7 (1944)
111 min | Drama, Music, Romance
The film tells the story of the blond "singing sailor" Hannes Kröger who works in a St. Pauli club on the Große Freiheit 7, and falls in love with a girl. But she prefers his rival Willem and Hannes returns to the sea.
Director: Helmut Käutner | Stars: Hans Albers, Ilse Werner, Hans Söhnker, Hilde Hildebrand
Votes: 1,044
27. The Punch Bowl (1944)
97 min | Comedy, Family
A successful writer, home-schooled in his youth, masquerades as a student at a secondary school to experience all the fun and pranks he missed out on.
Director: Helmut Weiss | Stars: Heinz Rühmann, Karin Himboldt, Hilde Sessak, Erich Ponto
Votes: 6,616
28. The Spiral Staircase (1946)
Approved | 83 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
In 1916, a shadowy serial killer is targeting women with "afflictions"; one night during a thunderstorm, the mute Helen feels menaced.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith
Votes: 11,279
29. Under the Bridges (1946)
99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two barge skippers fall in love with the same woman.
Director: Helmut Käutner | Stars: Hannelore Schroth, Carl Raddatz, Gustav Knuth, Margarete Haagen
Votes: 866
30. Murderers Among Us (1946)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Staudte | Stars: Hildegard Knef, Elly Burgmer, Erna Sellmer, Hilde Adolphi
Votes: 2,547
31. Body and Soul (1947)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Sport
A talented boxer's young career hits difficult terrain when an unethical promoter takes interest in him.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere
Votes: 5,367
32. Call Northside 777 (1948)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a decade-old murder case.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker
Votes: 10,249
33. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
The Wolf Man tries to warn a dimwitted porter that Dracula wants his brain for Frankenstein monster's body.
Directors: Charles Barton, Walter Lantz | Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi
Votes: 19,581 | Gross: $4.80M
34. A Foreign Affair (1948)
Approved | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In occupied Berlin, an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi café singer and the U.S. congresswoman investigating her.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, Millard Mitchell
Votes: 8,563
35. Fort Apache (1948)
Passed | 128 min | Drama, Western
At Fort Apache, an honorable and veteran war captain finds conflict when his regime is placed under the command of a young, glory hungry lieutenant colonel with no respect for the local Indian tribe.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Pedro Armendáriz
Votes: 19,704
36. The Emperor Waltz (1948)
Approved | 106 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A brash American gramophone salesman tries to get Emperor Franz Joseph's endorsement in turn-of-the-century Austria.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Bing Crosby, Joan Fontaine, Roland Culver, Lucile Watson
Votes: 1,918
37. Jour de Fête (1949)
Not Rated | 70 min | Comedy
A village postman with no sense of humour delivers his mail via bicycle on the day the travelling fair comes to town. He is disrupted by a short film about US speed and efficiency and the playful teasing of the village folk.
Director: Jacques Tati | Stars: Jacques Tati, Guy Decomble, Paul Frankeur, Santa Relli
Votes: 9,058
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