MC Yearly Consensus - 1942

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the voting is closed, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search

[Derek]

1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
2. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
3. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
4. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
5. Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock)

HMs:

Spoiler

Bambi (David Hand)
The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur)
Cat People (Jaques Tourneur)

Not a fan: Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz), Talk of the Town (George Stevens)

[Grouchy]

1. Casablanca
2. The Magnificent Ambersons
3. Cat People

[monolith94]

1. This Gun For Hire
2. Cat People
3. Casablanca
4. The Leopard Man

[The Mike]

1. Casablanca
2. To Be or Not to Be
3. I Married a Witch
4. The Palm Beach Story
5. The Cat People

HM: This Gun for Hire, Saboteur

[Russ]

1. Casablanca
2. The Palm Beach Story
3. This Gun for Hire
4. Bambi
5. The Talk of the Town

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. To be or Not to Be
2. Casablanca
3. The Magnificent Ambersons
4. The Palm Beach Story
5. Cat People

6. Bambi
7. Went the Day Well
8. This Gun for Hire
9. Now, Voyager
10. Saboteur

[soitgoes...]

1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
2. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
3. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
4. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
5. The Battle of Midway (John Ford)
---------------------------------------------------
6. In Which We Serve (Noel Coward, David Lean)
7. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
8. There Was a Father (Yasujiro Ozu)
9. Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler)

[soitgoes...]

World War II definitely hurt cinema this year.

[origami_mustache]

1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
2. The Palm Beach Story
3. The Magnificent Ambersons
4. Bambi
5. Yankee Doodle Dandy

[baby doll]

1. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
2. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
3. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)

Casablanca would probably be two or three but clearly it doesn't need the points.

[baby doll]

Originally Posted by soitgoes...

World War II definitely hurt cinema this year.

But apparently it didn't hurt cinema in 1939 (Only Angels Have Wings, La Règle du jeu), 1940 (The Great Dictator, His Girl Friday, The Shop Around the Corner), 1941 (Citizen Kane, The Lady Eve, The Little Foxes), 1943 (Le Corbeau, Day of Wrath, Hangmen Also Die!, Heaven Can Wait, I Walked With a Zombie, The Leopard Man, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Seventh Victim, Shadow of a Doubt), 1944 (Ivan the Terrible Part 1, Laura, To Have and Have Not) or 1945 (Detour, Fallen Angel).

[baby doll]

Originally Posted by origami_mustache

1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
2. The Palm Beach Story
3. The Magnificent Ambersons
4. Bambi
5. Yankee Doodle Dandy

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but why did you put Curtiz's name in brackets and not Sturges or Welles?

[baby doll]

Originally Posted by Philosophe_rouge

8. This Gun for Hire

I forgot about this one, no doubt because it's director doesn't have a reputation as an auteur.

Sweded:

1. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
2. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
3. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
4. This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle)

[Yxklyx]

1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
2. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
3. This Gun For Hire (Frank Tuttle)
4. Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler)
5. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)

6. Bambi (David Hand)
7. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
8. Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper)
9. Went the Day Well? (Alberto Cavalcanti)
10. Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock)

[Teh Sausage]

01. Casablanca
02. The Magnificent Ambersons
03. Bambi

Not a fan of Saboteur or Now, Voyager. Still need to see Cat People.

[Yxklyx]

Originally Posted by baby doll

But apparently it didn't hurt cinema in 1939 ..,

Well the war started in the Fall of that year and these films were probably filmed early in '39 or in '38 even.

[Yxklyx]

Originally Posted by monolith94

...
4. The Leopard Man

this one's '43.

[Raiders]

1. To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch)
2. Cat People (Tourneur)
3. The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)
4. Casablanca (Curtiz)
5. The Major and the Minor (Wilder)

-------------------------------------

6. Kings Row (Wood)
7. This Gun for Hire (Tuttle)

[Boner M]

1. Cat People
2. Casablanca
3. The Magnificent Ambersons
4. The Palm Beach Story

[soitgoes...]

Originally Posted by baby doll

But apparently it didn't hurt cinema in 1939 (Only Angels Have Wings, La Règle du jeu), 1940 (The Great Dictator, His Girl Friday, The Shop Around the Corner), 1941 (Citizen Kane, The Lady Eve, The Little Foxes), 1943 (Le Corbeau, Day of Wrath, Hangmen Also Die!, Heaven Can Wait, I Walked With a Zombie, The Leopard Man, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Seventh Victim, Shadow of a Doubt), 1944 (Ivan the Terrible Part 1, Laura, To Have and Have Not) or 1945 (Detour, Fallen Angel).

So by listing 2 films for 1939, 3 for 1940, 3 for 1941, 9 for 1943, 3 for 1944 and 2 for 1945 you proved what exactly? That world cinema was able to produce at least 22 films in those 6 years? Of those only 5 were made outside the US?

I would say that WWII did indeed hurt cinema in all those years excepting maybe 1939, as war wasn't declared until September of that year, and the only countries truly affected by out-and-out combat were Poland, Germany, USSR and Finland, and to a lesser extent Japan and China, until April the following year.

France's contributions to cinema after its capitulation are almost negligible. British cinema went all patriotic, and outside of Lean and P&P there wasn't much else of value. German cinema consists of Titanic and Munchausen. Soviet cinema is Ivan. Japan had a few contributions, mostly before their outright attack on the Pacific theater in Dec. 1941. Italian cinema was basically a non-entity (Ossessione excepted) until their capitulation in 1944. It was basically the United Sates, especially in 1942 when everything was most in doubt. Look at what films populate our lists. Almost entirely American. Having one country producing pretty much the entirety of cinema made in the world does constitute a weak year, even if one of those films is considered to be the best all-time by many.

[Pop Trash]

Originally Posted by soitgoes...

So by listing 2 films for 1939, 3 for 1940, 3 for 1941, 9 for 1943, 3 for 1944 and 2 for 1945 you proved what exactly? That world cinema was able to produce at least 22 films in those 6 years? Of those only 5 were made outside the US?

I would say that WWII did indeed hurt cinema in all those years excepting maybe 1939, as war wasn't declared until September of that year, and the only countries truly affected by out-and-out combat were Poland, Germany, USSR and Finland, and to a lesser extent Japan and China, until April the following year.

France's contributions to cinema after its capitulation are almost negligible. British cinema went all patriotic, and outside of Lean and P&P there wasn't much else of value. German cinema consists of Titanic and Munchausen. Soviet cinema is Ivan. Japan had a few contributions, mostly before their outright attack on the Pacific theater in Dec. 1941. Italian cinema was basically a non-entity (Ossessione excepted) until their capitulation in 1944. It was basically the United Sates, especially in 1942 when everything was most in doubt. Look at what films populate our lists. Almost entirely American. Having one country producing pretty much the entirety of cinema made in the world does constitute a weak year, even if one of those films is considered to be the best all-time by many.

Rep. I totally agree. There is a reason why world cinema picked up post war. Of course the Germans never really got back on their cinematic feet until the 70s.

[baby doll]

Originally Posted by soitgoes...

So by listing 2 films for 1939, 3 for 1940, 3 for 1941, 9 for 1943, 3 for 1944 and 2 for 1945 you proved what exactly? That world cinema was able to produce at least 22 films in those 6 years? Of those only 5 were made outside the US?

I would say that WWII did indeed hurt cinema in all those years excepting maybe 1939, as war wasn't declared until September of that year, and the only countries truly affected by out-and-out combat were Poland, Germany, USSR and Finland, and to a lesser extent Japan and China, until April the following year.

France's contributions to cinema after its capitulation are almost negligible. British cinema went all patriotic, and outside of Lean and P&P there wasn't much else of value. German cinema consists of Titanic and Munchausen. Soviet cinema is Ivan. Japan had a few contributions, mostly before their outright attack on the Pacific theater in Dec. 1941. Italian cinema was basically a non-entity (Ossessione excepted) until their capitulation in 1944. It was basically the United Sates, especially in 1942 when everything was most in doubt. Look at what films populate our lists. Almost entirely American. Having one country producing pretty much the entirety of cinema made in the world does constitute a weak year, even if one of those films is considered to be the best all-time by many.

I think you're being very general. Looking at 1943, it's every bit as impressive as 1955, 1967 or 1972. Like Britain, America "went all patriotic" and produced Hangmen Also Die! and Shadow of a Doubt, both films with clear war-time implications, as well as Heaven Can Wait, I Walked With a Zombie, The Leopard Man and The Seventh Victim, which don't function as propoganda. The last three were all produced by Val Lewton for RKO, and the success he had during this period has little if anything to do with World War II. Returning to the Brits, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (by far the most impressive of all Michael Powell's films, with or without Emeric Pressburger) was intended as propoganda. And Le Corbeau and Day of Wrath were both made in Nazi-occupied countries. If my favorites are slanted towards American product, so would my favorite films of 1955, another amazing year.

[balmakboor]

For additional consideration: I just watched Now, Voyager and it's a pretty terrific and very interesting film. Glances at the lists so far, I haven't really seen all that much from 1942.

[Grouchy]

Originally Posted by baby doll

I Walked With a Zombie, The Leopard Man and The Seventh Victim, which don't function as propoganda. The last three were all produced by Val Lewton for RKO, and the success he had during this period has little if anything to do with World War II.

The success of Horror movies has nothing to do with war?

Think again.

[soitgoes...]

Originally Posted by baby doll

I think you're being very general. Looking at 1943, it's every bit as impressive as 1955, 1967 or 1972. Like Britain, America "went all patriotic" and produced Hangmen Also Die! and Shadow of a Doubt, both films with clear war-time implications, as well as Heaven Can Wait, I Walked With a Zombie, The Leopard Man and The Seventh Victim, which don't function as propoganda. The last three were all produced by Val Lewton for RKO, and the success he had during this period has little if anything to do with World War II. Returning to the Brits, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (by far the most impressive of all Michael Powell's films, with or without Emeric Pressburger) was intended as propoganda. And Le Corbeau and Day of Wrath were both made in Nazi-occupied countries. If my favorites are slanted towards American product, so would my favorite films of 1955, another amazing year.

And I think you're being a bit subjective. I never said good or even great films weren't produced during this period. I said it was weakened due to the war. Which it was. Film production was down in pretty much every country except the US. I can't argue with you if you think the above films are better than a year that produced Rififi, Pather Panchali, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, Floating Clouds, Kiss Me Deadly, To Catch a Thief, Diabolique, Ordet, All That Heaven Allows, Death of a Cyclist, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Night of the Hunter, Bob le flambeur, as well as the ultimate in Chuck Jones' shorts One Froggy Evening. Not to mention Kurosawa's I Live in Fear, a couple minor Mizoguchi films, Nicholas Ray, the first of Wajda's trilogy, Olivier, and Resnais' short. Even if you haven't seen those films or don't like them, the 1955 list screams diversity. It even has films by Clouzot and Dreyer which are generally considered to be better, in Clouzot's case, or at least equal to, in Dreyer's than in 1943.

Again, I don't mean to short change the quality of films in the early 40's. I'm just trying to convey that - in my eyes - there are fewer of them, because there is a smaller pool of films to draw from, especially outside of Hollywood. There is no way to objectively state whether one year is better than another. It's all subjective. The only facts that can be proved are that there was a decrease in global film production during 1941 and 1945, and this can be directly attributed to World War II. This allowed a rise in Hollywood production, many were low budget B-films (Lewton included), in an attempt to fill the vacuum created by war elsewhere.

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Casablanca
2. To Be or Not to Be
3. The Magnificent Ambersons
4. Talk of the Town
5. Donald's Snow Fight

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Casablanca
2. To Be or Not to Be
3. Palm Beach Story
4. The Major and the Minor
5. The Magnificent Ambersons

[Isaac]

1. Casablanca
2. Bambi
3. The Magnificent Ambersons
4. The Talk of the Town
5. To Be Or Not To Be

1942 suuucks. It represents everything I hate about this era of cinema.

[baby doll]

Originally Posted by Grouchy

The success of Horror movies has nothing to do with war?

Think again.

Yeah, yeah, and comic book movies are popular because of 9/11. Personally, I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to Zeitgeist explanations. If Cat People was popular because of the war, why was The Seventh Victim a flop?