1940
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73 titles
- DirectorGeoffrey BellThe application of peace-time skills to war production.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMargaret SullavanJames StewartFrank MorganTwo employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsCary GrantKatharine HepburnJames StewartWhen a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsAlice FayeBetty GrableJack OakieSongwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England, and Katy joins her after the boys give a new song to Nora Bayes. All are reunited when the boys, now in the army, show up in England.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaJane DarwellJohn CarradineAn Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsMichael RedgraveMargaret LockwoodEdward RigbyIn a small coal-mining village, Bob Fenwick leads a strike over safety standards at the local colliery. Meanwhile, his son David goes off to university with the hope one day to return to help the miners with their working conditions.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsMargaret LockwoodRex HarrisonPaul HenreidAfter Germany invades Czechoslovakia, the German and the British intelligence services try to capture Czech scientist Dr. Axel Bomasch (James Harcourt), inventor of a new type of armor-plating.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsFred AstaireEleanor PowellGeorge MurphyJohnny Brett and King Shaw are an unsuccessful dance team in New York. A producer discovers Brett as the new partner for Clare Bennett but Brett, who thinks he is one of the people they lent money to, gives him the name of his partner.
- DirectorH.C. PotterStarsFred AstairePaulette GoddardArtie ShawWhen perennial college students Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are forced to make it on their own, the competitive pair get jobs with Artie Shaw's band and reunite with ex-manager Ellen Miller.
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsDick PowellEllen DrewRaymond WalburnAfter the co-workers of an ambitious clerk trick him into thinking he has won $25,000 in a slogan contest, he begins to use the money to fulfill his dreams. What will happen when the ruse is discovered?
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsRonald ColmanGinger RogersJack CarsonTwo strangers share a sweepstakes ticket and then embark on an "imaginary" honeymoon with their "winnings".
- DirectorEduard von BorsodyStarsHedwig BleibtreuJoachim BrenneckeHeinz GoedeckeAt the Olympic games in Berlin 1936 Inge Wagner falls in love with Luftwaffenleutnant (Airforce Lieutenant) Herbert Koch. They want to marry, but he receives orders to go to Spain - incognito, without permission for any contacts to his friends and relatives. Inge is still waiting for him. After the beginning of WW II, German radio starts broadcasting the "Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht" - a program made of wishes from the soldiers. He hears the song, he wanted to hear, and so does Inge. A friend of Inge, who hopes she is willing to marry him, comes to the same squadron where Koch flies. Koch and Inge arrange a date at a Hamburg restaurant, but he and Ilse's friend are shot down the day before. In the hospital Koch finds out, that he and his friend love the same girl. He thinks they are already engaged and is willing to give her up.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsCary GrantRosalind RussellRalph BellamyA newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsHenry FondaGene TierneyJackie CooperFrank James continues to avoid arrest in order to take revenge on the Ford brothers for their murder of his brother Jesse.
- DirectorDorothy ArznerRoy Del RuthStarsMaureen O'HaraLouis HaywardLucille BallWhen a troupe of danseuses becomes unemployed, one of them takes up burlesque dancing while another dreams of performing ballet.
- DirectorMichael PowellStarsConrad VeidtValerie HobsonHay PetrieEarly in World War II, Danish sea captain Andersen, delayed in a British port, tangles with German spies.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsMargaret LockwoodBarry K. BarnesEmlyn WilliamsNurse Anne is acquitted of murder after her patient has died under suspicious circumstances. Changing her name, she gets a position nursing Edward Bentley who soon dies of what appears to be a copycat murder. Again Anne is arrested.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsVivien LeighRobert TaylorLucile WatsonMyra and Roy meet and fall in love on Waterloo Bridge during an air raid. Their love will be one of the war's unspoken casualties.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnBrenda MarshallClaude RainsGeoffrey Thorpe, a buccaneer, is hired by Queen Elizabeth I to nag the Spanish Armada. The Armada is waiting for the attack on England and Thorpe surprises them with attacks on their galleons where he shows his skills on the sword.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsJohn GarfieldAnne ShirleyClaude RainsAfter meeting each other as fellow employees at J.B. Martin Co., forthright twenty-two year old Bobby Halevy and twenty-five year old Rims Rosson, who has his head in the clouds in coming up with one useless invention after another, fall in love and get married. The marriage is despite Bobby treating this, her first job, as an experience like everything she does and not as a means to become a "Mrs." like many other women, such as her colleague Gert Mills, seem to do. And on the advice of her older game-playing married sister Florrie Sands, Bobby also resorted to "tricks", so unlike the way she usually acts, to get Rims to marry her instead of he accepting his dream job in the Philippines to pursue one of his more practical invention ideas. Although they love each other, Bobby and Rims hit one hurdle after another as wife and husband, those hurdles largely outside of their control. As such, Bobby has to decide what to do to bring happiness back into her and Rims' lives, those actions which may make her resort to further games. Beyond having Florrie and her husband Willie Sands and her parents' own marriages as examples, each couple who truly loves each other despite their own problems, Bobby will also have the direct advice of both Florrie and her father Henry Halevy, a bookkeeper at Martin who has always had his own special thoughts of what he has wanted for his youngest daughter.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJoan CrawfordFredric MarchRuth HusseySusan Trexel is a wealthy socialite who, while vacationing in Europe undergoes a religious transformation. On her return to America, Susan takes on the task of spreading her new-found religious experience with her closest friends - only to drive them crazy. Meanwhile, her husband Barrie, and daughter Blossom yearn for a stable family life. Barrie will even become sober, hoping that Susan will heed her own advice, and save their marriage and family.
- DirectorJoe MayStarsGeorge SandersMargaret LindsayVincent PriceBased on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this classic film follows a family feud between two brothers and an ancient curse that haunts them.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsTyrone PowerDorothy LamourEdward ArnoldThe son of a jailed Wall Street broker turns to crime to pay for his father's release.
- DirectorHerbert MasonStarsMichael RedgraveSally GrayPaul LukasA passerby witnesses a murder through the windows of a passing train, then tries to track down the killer.
- DirectorA. Edward SutherlandStarsAllan JonesNancy KellyRobert CummingsJim "Lucky" Moore (Allan Jones), an insurance salesman, comes up with a novel policy for his friend, Steve (Robert Cummings): a 'love insurance policy', that will pay out $1-million if Steve does not marry his fiancee, Cynthia (Nancy Kelly). The upcoming marriage is jeopardized by Steve's ex-girlfriend, Mickey (Peggy Moran), and Cynthia's disapproving Aunt Kitty. The policy is underwritten by a nightclub owner, Roscoe (William Frawley), who sends two enforcers - Abbott and Costello - to ensure that the wedding occurs as planned. Everyone involved in the situation winds up sailing or flying to San Marcos (a fictional South American country), where another complication arises, when Lucky falls for Cynthia. Lucky winds up marrying Cynthia, but Roscoe does not have to pay the $1-million because Steve ends up marrying Mickey.
- DirectorMitchell LeisenStarsBarbara StanwyckFred MacMurrayBeulah BondiLove blooms between a sympathetic attorney and the comely shoplifter he has taken home for the Christmas holiday.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsOlivia de HavillandJeffrey LynnEddie AlbertAmelia is a gifted violinist who is in danger of quitting the Brissac Academy of Music. Julius arranges to have a scholarship given to her through his employee Tony so Julius can escort Amelia to every musical event in the city. The trouble begins when he cannot meet her one night and Tony goes in his place. Tony believes that Julius and Amelia are a couple, then his son Paul thinks that Tony and Amelia are a couple, as he is sending her the money. The worst part is that Amelia might leave classical music for swing music with classmates Dusty, Joy, and the band.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsJohn BarrymoreMary Beth HughesGregory RatoffBarrymore lampoons himself. A famous actor, given to drink, nearly destroys the show, but his leading lady returns to save it. Meanwhile a young girl tries to reform him.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnMiriam HopkinsRandolph ScottUnion officer Kerry Bradford escapes from Confederate Prison and is sent to Virginia City, Nevada, where he finds out that the former commander of his prison, Vance Irby, is planning to send $5 million in gold to save the Confederacy.
- DirectorJack ConwayStarsClark GableSpencer TracyClaudette ColbertTwo buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a ten-year period, are in love with the same woman.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsGinger RogersDennis MorganJames CraigA hard-working white-collar girl from a middle-class family meets and falls in love with a young socialite, but she soon clashes with his family.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsLaurence OlivierJoan FontaineGeorge SandersA 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.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsEdward G. RobinsonEdna BestEddie AlbertStarting with a small flock of carrier pigeons, nineteenth-century entrepreneur Julius Reuter turns his small company into Europe's most respected news wire service.
- DirectorBasil DeanStarsVivien LeighLeslie BanksLaurence OlivierAfter Larry accidentally kills his lover Wanda's estranged blackmailing husband, someone else is arrested for the crime. Larry and Wanda nervously await the verdict: if the innocent suspect is found guilty then Larry will give himself up.
- DirectorLen LyeA film made without a camera by painting directly onto the celluloid.
- DirectorHans SteinhoffStarsHeidemarie HatheyerSepp RistEduard KöckWally is the daughter and only child to Fender, a rich, widowed mountain farmer in the Ötztal valley in the Tyrolian Alps. She is young, beautiful, intrepid and, most of all, strong-minded. When she at great risk catches a vulture's young from its nest she carries the respect of her father, but also the scorn of Bear-Jospeh, assistant hunter to the local squire. He mocks her as "Geierwally" (Vulture-Wally), as he thinks young women shouldn't wear pants and climb around in the mountains hunting. What he doesn't yet know is that Wally is almost mad with love for him - and too stiff with pride to admit the slightest idea of that. To make it complicated, her father wants her to marry Vinzenz, a neighbouring farmer. But Wally, loathing Vinzenz and burning with desire for Joseph refuses. Mad with frenzy, Old Fender bludgeons her with a heavy stick, and, as she still won't budge, he orders her away to a sole hut high up in the mountains, where she has to live in snow and ice beyond the clouds until she gives in. She leaves with Hansl, the vulture she's tamed, as only companion ...
- DirectorVictor SchertzingerStarsBing CrosbyMary MartinBasil RathbonePopular songwriter Oliver Courtney has been getting by for years using one ghost writer for his music and another for his lyrics. When both writers meet at an inn, they fall in love and then try to sell their songs under their own name. The problem is every song publisher thinks they're copying Courtney's style.
- DirectorHarry D. DonahueStarsWendell NilesDee LowranceMary MartinB-movie actresses board a TWA flight to Albuquerque, NM, Phoenix, AZ, and Boulder City, NV. The women don new outfits for every activity when staying at a dude ranch and exploring Native American ruins. A narrator comments on their style.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsGeorge RaftHumphrey BogartAnn SheridanWhen one of two truck-driving brothers loses an arm, they both join a transport company where the other is falsely charged as an accessory in the murder of the owner.
- DirectorAnthony AsquithStarsRay MillandEllen DrewJanine DarceyThe love affairs of three young Englishmen at a language cramming school in the south of France. Diana, the sister of one of the boys, arrives in town to flirt with all of her brothers' schoolmates.
- DirectorMark SandrichStarsJack BennyFred AllenMary MartinJack Benny is preparing his New Year's Eve radio broadcast but takes time out to take his valet Rochester to meet his girlfriend Josephine arriving on a steamer. Fred Allen and his sister Barbara are also en route to the dock to meet Barbara's daughter Mary, returning from a personal appearance tour in South America. Josephine is her maid. Their cars get involved in an accident and, in a bumping contest, Fred reduces Jack's old Maxwell to junk, and is taken to jail. Mary loses her dress in an accident and Jack offers to get her another one, but winds up being arrested for stealing. Barbara tells Mary that Fred is a nervous wreck because of Jack's continual slander of him on Jack's radio program. Jack hires the Merry Macs away from Fred and Fred decides to go to Miami for a rest. Jack decides to open his radio program from Miami. They meet, have another brawl, and end up in jail again. The two are in a motorboat accident where both are knocked unconscious and Mary, in an effort to end the feud, tells Fred that Jack saved his life. They have dinner together at Fred's apartment and Rochester, whom Fred has hired away from Jack, appears and the feud is on again.
- DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsDeanna DurbinKay FrancisWalter PidgeonAn aspiring actress is offered the lead in a major new play, but discovers that her mother, a more seasoned performer, expects the same part. The situation is further complicated when they both become involved with the same man.
- DirectorVictor SchertzingerStarsBing CrosbyBob HopeDorothy LamourTwo playboys try to forget previous romances in Singapore - until they meet a beautiful dancer.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJoel McCreaLaraine DayHerbert MarshallOn the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
- DirectorRoy BoultingStarsWilfrid LawsonNova PilbeamSeymour HicksThis film is based on the story of Pastor Martin Neimuller, who was sent to Dachau concentration camp for criticizing the Nazi party. The small German village of Altdorf in the 1930s has to come to terms with Chancellor Hitler and the arrival of a platoon of Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers go about teaching and enforcing "The New Order" but Pastor Hall is a kind and gentle man who won't be cowed. Some villagers join the Nazi party avidly, some just go along with things, hoping for a quiet life, but Pastor Hall takes his convictions to the pulpit.
- DirectorFrank R. StrayerStarsPenny SingletonArthur LakeLarry SimmsDagwood wants to join the trout club and Blondie wants a fur coat. Jealousy reigns when Dag's old girlfriend Joan shows up, but nothing else matters when a drawing at the movie theatre provides money for the coat.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsAlice FayeDon AmecheHenry FondaThe life story of the musical star from her discovery in 1890 by bandleader Tony Pastor until her retirement in 1912, when she married newspaperman Alexander Moore.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsAlice FayeFred MacMurrayRichard GreeneSteamboat inventor Robert Fulton shows up in New York in 1807. Tavern keeper believes in him, but her boyfriend doesn't. All seems lost when sailors afraid of losing their jobs burn his boat.
- DirectorJoseph SantleyStarsTony MartinRita HayworthEdith FellowsRita Hayworth co-stars with famed recording artist Tony Martin in this musical comedy featuring the music of Andre Kostelanetz and his orchestra. Following various comic misunderstandings, the two meet and fall for each other, but will lose their chance at happiness unless destiny calls.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsDon AmecheBetty GrableCarmen MirandaAn American girl on vacation in Argentina falls for a wealthy racehorse owner.
- DirectorTim WhelanStarsRex HarrisonKaren VerneC.V. FranceBob Stevens (Sir Rex Harrison) awakens in a hospital with a gunshot wound to his head, and is told that he has been in Paris for ten days. However, this cannot be true because he insists that he crashed his plane and has no recollection of being anywhere for ten days. Bob decides to follow a note found in his jacket, to the woman who wrote it, "Miss D", and get to the bottom of the whole strange situation.
- DirectorHenry KosterStarsDeanna DurbinRobert CummingsMischa AuerA Hungarian woman whose fortune predicts that she will marry may find it coming true when she meets an army drummer.
- DirectorDavid ButlerStarsBing CrosbyGloria JeanCharles WinningerAfter a fellow bridge builder is killed in an accident, two of his co-workers take his now-orphaned daughter to New York to be adopted by relatives.
- DirectorJames CarrStarsJoseph MacleodA look at what life was like during WWII as a secondary school pupil in Britain.
- DirectorArthur Maria RabenaltStarsRené DeltgenKirsten HeibergLotte KochSpies Karl and Lilly target the German Kettwig company, trying to secure data about an innovative tearproof wire. Bernd Kettwig is wooed by Lilly while his assistant Inge falls for Karl, and two other employees are coerced into treason.
- DirectorLloyd BaconWilliam K. HowardStarsPat O'BrienGale PageRonald ReaganThe story of legendary Notre Dame football player and coach Knute Rockne.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsMickey RooneyFay BainterGeorge BancroftInventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up with disastrous results. As a consequence, the townsfolk all think Tom is crazy, and creates a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Toms only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.
- DirectorMarcel VarnelStarsGeorge FormbyPhyllis CalvertGarry MarshShortly after the start of World War II, a ukulele player (George) takes the wrong boat and finds himself in (still uninvaded) Norway. He is mistaken for a fellow British intelligence agent by a woman (Mary), and becomes involved in trying to defeat German agents.
- DirectorJohn Paddy CarstairsStarsGeorge FormbyDorothy HysonGeorge MerrittA brave wartime copper (policeman) becomes a hero when he thwarts a plot to destroy a battleship. But then the rest of the police get the idea that he is one of the enemy agents.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsShirley TempleJack OakieCharlotte GreenwoodA show business family leaves the Great White Way and heads to a farm in New England. What results are the difficulties they have before they are accepted by the community.
- DirectorA. Edward SutherlandStarsVirginia BruceJohn BarrymoreJohn HowardAn attractive model with an ulterior motive volunteers as guinea pig for an invisibility machine.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsRobert TaylorRuth HusseyWalter PidgeonA rookie flyer, Ens. Alan Drake, joins the famous Hellcats Squadron right out of flight school in Pensacola. He doesn't make a great first impression when he is forced to ditch his airplane and parachute to safety when he arrives at the base but is unable to land due to heavy fog. On his first official outing, his poor shooting skills results in the Hellcats losing an air combat competition. His fellow pilots accept him anyway but they think he's crossed the line when they erroneously conclude that while their CO Bill Gary is away, Drake has a purported affair with his wife Lorna. Drake is now an outcast and is prepared to resign from the Navy but his extreme heroism in saving Bill Gary's life turns things around.
- DirectorGeorge Nicholls Jr.Norman FosterStarsJane WithersJoe Brown Jr.Paul HarveyTexas ranch teenager (Withers) is sent to school in San Antonio where she learns to get along with others.
- DirectorLouis J. GasnierStarsLeon JanneyEleanor HuntEsther MuirRobert Gordon (Leon Janney), a sheltered 18-year-old youth reared in a Catholic school, believes he has a vocation for the priesthood. He is taken to live with his father in his palatial Florida home, where he falls in love with his stepsister Patricia Morrow (Eleanor Hunt), 10 years his senior. He runs away and joins the R.A.F. Shot down in battle, he is rescued and taken to a monastery where he renounces the world to study for the priesthood.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsClark GableJoan CrawfordIan HunterConvicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure (Ian Hunter).
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneThomas MitchellIan HunterA merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war.
- DirectorRuby GriersonStarsHal GordonA drama/documentary in which a matronly housewife performs various low-key good deeds to help keep her family and neighbours (and hence by extension her country) running during the war.
- DirectorFrank McDonaldStarsMary LeeRufe DavisJune StoreyPappy, the manager of the Farmdale orphanage, appropriates five thousand dollars of the taxpayers' money to enroll his charges in a 4-H project that could make the orphanage self-sufficient. This infuriates Hiram Crabtree and Sam Spitz, who profit from selling supplies to the orphanage and therefore have no desire to see it become self-sufficient. Consequently, Crabtree and Spitz charge Pappy with misappropriation of funds and demand that he repay the money immediately. Just when things look bad for Pappy, he learns that he has inherited a nightclub and goes to the city to investigate. There he finds that the club is insolvent and that the performers are demanding their salaries. Pappy suggests that they come to Farmdale to work for their wages, and when the performers learn of the plight of the orphanage, they offer to stage a show to recoup the shortage in funds. Crabtree and Spitz, still trying to retain control of the orphanage, invoke a fire ordinance to prevent the show from being staged in a barn. To invalidate the ordinance, the orphans set fire to a haystack, and as the fire engines speed toward the fire, the youngsters chop down the bridge, stranding the trucks at the barn. The presence of the fire trucks offsets the fire hazard, and the show goes on. After Mrs. Uppington, a local dowager, exposes the motives of Spitz and Crabtree, the orphans continue to work on their 4-H project with the promise that they will be self-sufficient by the fall.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsEdward G. RobinsonRuth GordonOtto KrugerTrue story of the doctor who considered it was not immoral to search for a drug that would cure syphillis.
- DirectorSam NewfieldStarsWarren HullIsabel JewellJohn DilsonBill, a wrongly imprisoned doctor, escapes jail and finds refuge in an Arizona town, but his freedom is threatened when the gangster who framed him forces Bill to guide his criminal crew across the desert.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsShirley TempleSpring ByingtonNigel BruceMytyl and her brother Tyltyl, a woodchopper's children, are led by the Fairy Berylune on a magical trip through the past, present, and future to locate the Blue Bird of Happiness.
- DirectorPen TennysonStarsClive BrookJohn ClementsEdward ChapmanA tale of the highs and lows of life protecting the vital convoys between America & England during WWII.