Pat O'Brien's post as top billing in "Knute Rockne, All American" was eclipsed by newcomer Ronald Reagan in a secondary role as George Gipp, one of Coach Rockne's young football players who came down with a terminal illness. "Tell them to go out there with all they've [..]
The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Bob Hope is at his wise-cracking best in the 1940 comedy-horror film "The Ghost Breakers." It is the story of a Manhattan working girl who inherits a mansion in Cuba that is supposedly haunted. Director George Marshall ("The Goldwyn Follies" 1938) and screenwriter Walter DeLeon assembled [..]
The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
The vastly entertaining "The Thief of Bagdad" from 1940 still holds audience's attention today. This Arabian fantasy story filmed in Technicolor won Oscars for special effects, art direction, and cinematography. It was the first movie to employ the use of bluescreening, thanks to the ingenuity of producer Alexander [..]
Too Many Girls (1940)
"Too Many Girls" is not the best of Rodgers & Hart's musical comedies, but is most well known for the first film pairing of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, years before their hit television show "I Love Lucy." The story has Ball playing a young woman going to [..]
My Favorite Wife (1940)
"My Favorite Wife" is a screwball comedy about a woman who returns home after seven years of being shipwrecked on a remote Pacific island, only to find that her husband has declared her legally dead and remarried to another woman. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne have excellent comedy [..]
The Letter (1940)
Bette Davis stars as a woman accused of murder in "The Letter." Director William Wyler ("Wuthering Heights" 1939) does an excellent job at the helm of this melodrama, keeping the film consistently engrossing for the 95 minute running time. The screenplay was written by Howard [..]
Go West (1940)
"Go West" is a western comedy film featuring the burlesque-style humor of the Marx Brothers. The story has Groucho, Harpo, and Chico Marx headed to the American west hoping to make their fortune panning for gold. Complications arise, leading to some comedy and hilarity. [..]
Strange Cargo (1940)
"Strange Cargo" is a melodrama film where Clark Gable plays an escaped prisoner from a penal colony who gets into all sorts of trouble with others of the criminal element, including cafe singer Joan Crawford. Director Frank Borzage ("A Farewell to Arms" 1932) does an excellent job of [..]
Christmas in July (1940)
"Christmas in July" is a classic screwball comedy about an office worker who thinks he has won $25,000 dollars in a national slogan contest for a coffee company, due to a fake telegram placed on his desk by co-workers. To everyone's surprise, the company owner also falls for [..]
The Sea Hawk (1940)
Errol Flynn does his usual swashbuckling routine in the Warner Bros. action-adventure film "The Sea Hawk." With lavish production by Hal B. Wallis, expert direction by Michael Curtiz ("Angels with Dirty Faces" 1938), and a great screenplay by Howard Koch and Seton I. Miller, this movie [..]