Subgenre Sampler
Classics > Drama: 991 Films to Buy & Rent
Fighting 69th, The (1940)
- Dir. William Keighley
Feat. James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, George Brent
- James Cagney plays a loudmouthed braggart who alienates his comrades and officers, but the regimental chaplain (Pat O'Brien) has faith that he'll…
Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- Dir. John Ford
Feat. Henry Fonda, John Carradine
- Henry Fonda stars in this masterful humanist film about a group of destitute Oklahoma farmers that trek to California in hope of a better life. One…
Howards Of Virginia, The (1940)
- Dir. Frank Lloyd
Feat. Cary Grant, Martha Scott, Sir Cedric Hardwicke
- Cary Grant rather bumbles through this melodrama set during the American Revolution, playing a rugged surveyor who marries aristocrat and royalist…
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…
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…
Northwest Passage (1940)
- Dir. King Vidor
Feat. Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan…
- Rousing adventure yarn set during the French–Indian war with Tracy and team opening up trade routes and leading raids. Splendid Technicolour…
Our Town (1940)
- Dir. Sam Wood
Feat. Frank Craven, William Holden, Martha Scott
- Affectionate study of small–town American life, set in New Hampshire over a twelve year period. Frank Craven narrates our tour of the community…
Rebecca (1940)
- Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
- A masterful gothic romance about a nobleman's second wife who becomes haunted by the image of his beloved first. Hitchcock's first American film was…
Remember the Night (1940)
- Dir. Mitchell Leisen
Feat. Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi…
- Preston Sturges scripted this forgotten yuletide gem, about an assistant D.A. (MacMurray) who, feeling sorry for a glamorous jewel thief (Stanwyck),…