1939
by Baceseras | created - 12 Sep 2013 | updated - 13 Sep 2013 | PublicThis is a list-in-progress of some favorite films from 1939. The numbers are not rankings; the list is alphabetical, although the displayed form of titles may not reflect this.
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Bel Ami (1939)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama
Shortly after being demobilized, Georges Duroy becomes aware of his power over women in the arms of Rachel, a young singer. Thanks to his good looks and his charming manners and his ... See full summary »
Director: Willi Forst | Stars: Willi Forst, Olga Tschechowa, Johannes Riemann, Ilse Werner
Votes: 139
2. The Phantom Wagon (1939)
93 min | Drama, Fantasy
A nun suffering from TB is desperately trying to save an alcoholic tramp and to bring him back to his wife and kids.He has a friend who died last year and became the coachman of the "Ghost Wagon" .
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Pierre Fresnay, Marie Bell, Micheline Francey, Louis Jouvet
Votes: 283
3. Circonstances atténuantes (1939)
85 min | Comedy
A retired criminal-court judge on vacation finds himself stranded in a nest of thieves, who show him a friendlier side of crime.
Director: Jean Boyer | Stars: Michel Simon, Arletty, Dorville, Andrex
Votes: 217
4. The Last Turning (1939)
90 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Frank, a hobo, ends up in a garage-truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Nick Marino, its older, kind and naive owner, is married to Cora, a sexy and mercenary woman half his age. Frank, ... See full summary »
Director: Pierre Chenal | Stars: Fernand Gravey, Michel Simon, Marcel Vallée, Auguste Bovério
Votes: 301
5. Destry Rides Again (1939)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Western
Deputy sheriff Destry tames the town of Bottle Neck, including saloon singer Frenchy.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger
Votes: 12,531 | Gross: $0.35M
6. Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, Romance, War
Newlyweds Gil and Lana Martin try to establish a farm in the Mohawk Valley but are menaced by Indians and Tories as the Revolutionary War begins.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, Eddie Collins
Votes: 6,783 | Gross: $1.00M
7. Only One Night (1939)
TV-PG | 90 min | Drama, Romance
Funfair worker Valdemar is unaware that he is the illegitimate son of rich landowner Colonel Von Brede. The colonel knows, and employs Valdemar as his stable master. The colonel has a young... See full summary »
Director: Gustaf Molander | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Edvin Adolphson, Aino Taube, Olof Sandborg
Votes: 382
8. La fin du jour (1939)
99 min | Drama
Aged penniless actors are living in a old people's home. They always talk about their past glory or failures. One day Raphael Saint-Clair comes; he has been a famous actor and had a lot of love affairs. Passions come back, and jealousies.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Victor Francen, Michel Simon, Louis Jouvet, Madeleine Ozeray
Votes: 1,027
9. Fric-Frac (1939)
92 min | Comedy
Marcel works as assistant to a jeweller whose bossy daughter Renée keeps hitting on him. When he meets lovely Loulou and her lazy friend Jo, he is fascinated by the girl and somehow ... See full summary »
Directors: Maurice Lehmann, Claude Autant-Lara | Stars: Fernandel, Michel Simon, Arletty, Hélène Robert
Votes: 547
10. A Girl Must Live (1939)
92 min | Comedy, Drama
A runaway schoolgirl falls amongst chorus girls planning to marry into nobility.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Renee Houston, Lilli Palmer, George Robey
Votes: 237
11. Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Unrated | 114 min | Drama, Romance
An aged teacher and former headmaster of a boarding school recalls his career and his personal life over the decades.
Directors: Sam Wood, Sidney Franklin | Stars: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills
Votes: 11,575
12. The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
The zany plot follows nitwit Gracie Allen trying to help master sleuth Philo Vance solve a murder. Allen's uncle fixes her up with Bill at a company picnic. When the two go out to a ... See full summary »
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Gracie Allen, Warren William, Ellen Drew, Kent Taylor
Votes: 254
13. Gunga Din (1939)
Approved | 117 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
In 19th century India, three British soldiers and a native waterbearer must stop a secret mass revival of the murderous Thuggee cult before it can rampage across the land.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Votes: 12,791
14. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate the legend of a supernatural hound, a beast that may be stalking a young heir on the fog-shrouded moorland that makes up his estate.
Director: Sidney Lanfield | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene, Wendy Barrie
Votes: 11,673
15. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Passed | 116 min | Drama, Romance
In 15th-century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 12,263 | Gross: $3.27M
16. Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
Not Rated | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Jean Gabin, Jacqueline Laurent, Arletty, Jules Berry
Votes: 8,261 | Gross: $0.03M
17. Love Affair (1939)
Approved | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A French playboy and an American former nightclub singer fall in love aboard a ship.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman
Votes: 6,406
18. Midnight (1939)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A chorus girl stranded in Paris is set up by a millionaire to break up his wife's affair with another man, while being romantically pursued by a cab driver.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer
Votes: 5,599
19. The Mikado (1939)
Not Rated | 90 min | Comedy, Musical
The son of the Mikado of Japan, a wandering minstrel, falls for a girl who is engaged to her guardian.
Director: Victor Schertzinger | Stars: Kenny Baker, John Barclay, Martyn Green, Sydney Granville
Votes: 820
20. The Night of Nights (1939)
Approved | 86 min | Drama
Dan O'Farrell and Barry Keith Trimble, two actors, prepare for the opening night of Laughter , a new play written by Dan, by getting drunk at the Lambs Club. By the time they go on stage, ... See full synopsis »
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Olympe Bradna, Roland Young, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 39
21. Ninotchka (1939)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Romance
A stern Soviet woman sent to Paris to supervise the sale of jewels seized from Russian nobles finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi
Votes: 22,865 | Gross: $1.19M
22. Personal Column (1939)
106 min | Musical, Romance, Thriller
After one of her fellow taxi dancers is murdered by an unknown man who she met through a personal column advert, Adrienne Charpentier is recruited by the police to answer a series of similar adverts to try to track down the killer.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Pierre Renoir, Marie Déa, Erich von Stroheim
Votes: 409
23. The Rules of the Game (1939)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély
Votes: 31,285
24. Stagecoach (1939)
Passed | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine
Votes: 53,682
25. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)
Not Rated | 148 min | Drama, Romance
The adopted son of a legendary actor, and an aspiring star himself, turns to his infant brother's wet nurse for support and affection - only for her to give up everything for her beloved's glory.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Shôtarô Hanayagi, Kôkichi Takada, Ryôtarô Kawanami, Kinnosuke Takamatsu
Votes: 4,387
26. They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A champion boxer on the lamb, believed to have committed murder while drunk, takes refuge and finds redemption at a farm for delinquent youths.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: John Garfield, Claude Rains, The Dead End Kids, Ann Sheridan
Votes: 2,587
27. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.
Directors: Victor Fleming, King Vidor | Stars: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr
Votes: 428,125 | Gross: $2.08M
28. Wuthering Heights (1939)
Passed | 104 min | Drama, Romance
A servant in the house of Wuthering Heights tells a traveler the unfortunate tale of lovers Cathy and Heathcliff.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson
Votes: 19,744 | Gross: $0.76M
29. You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939)
Approved | 79 min | Comedy, Family
The owner of a debt-ridden circus contends with pursuing bill collectors and sheriffs, and his beloved daughter's relationships with one of his performers and a stuffy but wealthy young man.
Directors: George Marshall, Edward F. Cline | Stars: W.C. Fields, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson
Votes: 1,886
Tell Your Friends