Subgenre Sampler
Classics: 3631 Films to Buy & Rent
Johnny Apollo (1940)
- Dir. Henry Hathaway
Feat. Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, Edward Arnold…
- Elegant crime drama stars Tyrone Power as a well–heeled graduate who resorts to underworld activities to assist his imprisoned father.
Killer Bats (The Devil Bat) (1940)
- Dir. Jean Yarbrough
Feat. Bela Lugosi, Dave O'Brien
- Although fairly low–tech in its special effects this short horror boasts a committed performance from Lugosi, as a doctor who is developing…
Let George Do It! (1940)
- Dir. Marcel Varnel
Feat. George Formby, Phyllis Calvert, Garry Marsh
- Ealing Studios comedy sees George Formby star as a ukulele player who unwittingly takes the wrong boat and finds himself mistaken for a British…
Letter, The (1940)
- Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson
- Although not quite of the first rank, this sultry melodrama counts as one of Bette Davis' most interesting 1940s works. Set among the frustrated…
Little Men (1940)
- Dir. Norman Z. McLeod
Feat. Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft…
- Based on the inferior follow–up to Louisa May Alcott's hugely successful Little Women, we find Jo March and her husband operating the Plumfield…
Little Nellie Kelly (1940)
- Dir. Norman Taurog
Feat. Judy Garland, George Murphy
- Filmed version of the hit Broadway musical comedy from 1922 about Irish–American immigrants starring Judy Garland, who was fresh to…
Long Voyage Home, The (1940)
- Dir. John Ford
Feat. John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter…
- John Wayne is a Swedish sailor aboard a doom–ridden tramp steamer circa. WWII, in this portmanteau of four stories by Eugene O'Neill. An…
Mark of Zorro, The (1940)
- Dir. Rouben Mamoulian
Feat. Tyrone Power
- Zestful remake of the Fairbanks swashbuckler, this time with Tyrone Power as the masked hero who carves zeds over every available surface.
My Favourite Wife (1940)
- Dir. Garson Kanin
Feat. Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
- Witty marital mixup comedy with the seven–years–shipwrecked Irene Dunne returning home to discover husband Cary Grant about to embark on…
My Little Chickadee (1940)
- Dir. Edward Cline
Feat. Mae West, W.C. Fields
- Mae West and W.C. Fields profitably co–exist in this formula story of marital shenanigans in the Wild West, garlanded with lunatic gags, dirty…