This page contains links to all the films I have reviewed from the first “golden age” of Hollywood. Film noir, melodramas, screwball comedies, lavish costume dramas and directors like Ford, Welles, Hawks, Hitchcock, Reed and Wilder ruled the roost.

1940

	All This and Heaven Too – slow scandal drama, as a count falls in love with a governess and murders his wife	Director: Anatole Litvak Cast: Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Barbara O’Neil
	Foreign Correspondent – spy thriller in the Blitz, as Hitchcock pleads for America to join the war	Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, George Sanders
	The Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck’s novel becomes a richly moving, humanitarian fable	Director: John Ford Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
	The Great Dictator – Chaplin takes on Hitler in this daring satire on the vileness of the Nazi regime	Director: Charlie Chaplin Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie
	His Girl Friday – one of the most popular fast-talking comedies of all time. Secret confession: I’m not a huge fan	Director: Howard Hawks Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy
	Kitty Foyle – a woman is torn between two men in this judgemental and surprisingly unromantic comedy	Director: Sam Wood Cast: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig
	The Letter – melodrama in which a fatal letter leads to life or death	Director: William Wyler Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson
	The Philadelphia Story – Hepburn saves her career in this brilliant remarriage comedy	Director: George Cukor Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart
	Pride and Prejudice – oddly costumed and strangely adapted Austen classic	Director: Robert Z Leonard Cast: Laurence Olivier, Greer Garson, Mary Boland
	Rebecca – superb Best Picture winning du Maurier adaptation of a second wife who can’t live up to the first	Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson
	The Westerner – Ford western bromance between a cowboy and Judge Roy Bean	Director: William Wyler Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport

1941

	All That Money Can Buy – the Devil and Daniel Webster fight for a man’s soul in this beautifully made film	Director: William Dieterle Cast: Walter Huston, Edward Arnold, James Craig
	Citizen Kane – possibly the greatest film ever made; ignore the doubters, like the poster says “it’s terrific!”	Director: Orson Welles Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Dorothy Comingore
	How Green Was My Valley – Best Picture winning coming-of-age tale in a ‘Welsh’ mining village	Director: John Ford Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Donald Crisp
	Here Comes Mr Jordan – after a mix-up in heaven, a boxer returns to life as an aged millionaire	Director: Alexander Hall Cast: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains
	Hold Back the Dawn – a man tries to win a green card in this cynical story that turns sweet romance	Director: Mitchell Leisen Cast: Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard
	The Lady Eve – a confidence trickster seduces a snake obsessed heir to a fortune – brilliant screwball comedy	Director: Preston Sturges Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn
	Sergeant York – a heroic true story, bought to the screen with warmth and energy	Director: Howard Hawks Cast: Gary Cooper, Joan Leslie, Walter Brennan
	Sullivan’s Travels – film director hits the road to learn about ‘life’ in a sharp Hollywood satire	Director: Preston Sturges Cast: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick
	Suspicion – Cary Grant might be a murderer in this middle-of-the-road Hitchcock thriller	Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke

1942

	In Which We Serve – British stiff-upper lip war film about the loss at sea of a destroyer	Director: Noel Coward, David Lean Cast: Noel Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles
	The Magnificent Ambersons – Welles cruelly cut-to-ribbons Kane follow-up, an American family saga	Director: Orson Welles Cast: Joseph Cotton, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead
	Mrs Miniver – Best Picture winning homefront saga, as a woman holds house and home together in the Blitz	Director: William Wyler Cast: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Theresa Wright
	Now, Voyager – a woman escapes her domineering mother and falls in love with a married man during a cruise	Director: Irving Rapper Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
	Random Harvest – classic weepie as an amnesiac falls in love; then forgets his wife when his memory returns	Director: Mervyn LeRoy Cast: Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Susan Peters
	The Talk of the Town – delightful buddy comedy, with three stars at the top of their game	Director: George Stevens Cast: Cary Grant, Ronald Colman, Jean Arthur
	To Be or Not To Be – brilliantly done Lubitsch comedy set among an acting troupe in occupied Warsaw	Director: Ernst Lubitsch Cast: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack
	Yankee Doodle Dandy – all-singing, all-dancing Broadway legend biopic	Director: Michael Curtiz Cast: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston

1943

	Casablanca – legendary Best Picture winner; a cynical cafe owner helps his lost love escape the Nazis	Director: Michael Curtiz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
	Five Graves to Cairo – a British corporal has to outfox Rommel in this overlooked wartime spy thriller	Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Erich von Stroheim
	Hangmen Also Die! – Brecht and Lang write a gangster noir themed version of the assassination of Heydrich	Director: Fritz Lang Cast: Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee
	The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp – an army officer is the epitome of British fair play and decency	Director: Powell & Pressburger Cast: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook
	The Ox Bow Incident – Fonda struggles to swing the ‘jury’ in this brilliant lynching drama	Director: William A. Wellman Cast: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Harry Morgan
	Shadow of a Doubt – a man corrupts a small town family in this small-scale thriller, Hitchcock’s favourite of his films	Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotton, Macdonald Carey
	Sherlock Holmes in Washington – modernised Holmes in a noir actioner	Director: Roy William Neill Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Lord
	The Song of Bernadette – Christian biopic of Saint Bernadette – but surprisingly good	Director: Henry King Cast: Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper
	Watch on the Rhine – dated at the time anti-Nazi film, too wordy and not dramatic enough	Director: Herman Shumlin Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, Lucile Watson

1944

	Double Indemnity – quite simply one of the best film noir/femme fatale films ever made	Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
	Gaslight – Hamilton play adaptation of a manipulated wife – improves the original play	Director: George Cukor Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotton
	Going My Way – sickly sweet Best Picture winner about a noble, singing priest	Director: Leo McCarey Cast: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh
	Henry V – hugely influential Shakespeare adaptation, a technicolour triumph	Director: Laurence Olivier Cast: Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, Leslie Banks
	Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 & 2 – Eisenstein turns Stalin’s dream project into a criticism. Arty but brave.	Director: Sergei Eisenstein Cast: Nikolay Cherkasov, Serafima Birman, Pavel Kadochnikov
	Laura – a detective falls in love with a murder victim in this influential noir	Director: Otto Preminger Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
	Lifeboat – one-location mini-masterpiece as survivors of a shipwreck drift on the seas	Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak
	Meet Me in St Louis – unashamedly nostalgic feel-good movie, full of Hollywood magic	Director: Vincente Minnelli Cast: Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor
	Ministry of Fear – a man is framed for murder in this WW2 spy thriller	Director: Fritz Lang Cast: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond
	Wilson – Zanuck’s dream project, a very earnest biography of Woodrow Wilson	Director: Henry King Cast: Alexander Knox, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Cedric Hardwicke

1945 

	Anchors Aweigh – overlong musical, nowhere near as interesting as later Gene Kelly films	Director: George Sidney Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly
	The Bells of St Mary’s – superior sequel to Going My Way but also more of the same	Director: Leo McCarey Cast: Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers
	Brief Encounter – the classic romance-that-can-never-be, it’s a film it’s impossible not to love	Director: David Lean Cast: Trevor Howard, Celia Johnson, Stanley Holloway
	Les Enfants du Paradis – perhaps the greatest film about theatre ever made, France’s Gone with the Wind	Director: Marcel Carné Cast: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur
	I Know Where I’m Going – opposite attracts romance in the North of Scotland	Director: Powell & Pressburger Cast: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown
	The Lost Weekend – Best Picture winning drama about alcohol addiction, still very effective and powerful	Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman,. Phillip Terry
	Mildred Pierce – superb murder mystery melodrama about a mother and her terminally ungrateful child	Director: Michael Curtiz Cast: Joan Crawford, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth
	Spellbound – psychiatry as Christie whodunnit in this middle-brow Hitchcock effort	Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov
	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – sentimental tear-jerker on the tough life of an Irish-American family	Director: Elia Kazan Cast: Peggy Ann Garner, Dorothy McGuire, James Dunn

1946

	The Best Years of Our Lives – wonderful Best Picture winning veterans drama, one of the best winners of all time	Director: William Wyler Cast: Frederic March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell
	The Big Sleep – legendary Bogie and Bacall Chandler vehicle: makes no sense but never mind	Director: Howard Hawks Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall
	Great Expectations – the all-time classic Dickens adaptation	Director: David Lean Cast: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles
	It’s a Wonderful Life – the most beloved Christmas film of all time and rightly so	Director: Frank Capra Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
	The Killers – femme fatales and murders in this masterful film noir	Director: Robert Siodmark Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien
	A Matter of Life and Death – superb fantasy, as a pilot is stuck between Earth and “Heaven”	Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger Cast: David Niven, Roger Livesey, Kim Hunter
	My Darling Clementine – myth-making Wyatt Earp biopic, Ford’s romanticism at its best	Director: John Ford Cast: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature
	The Razor’s Edge – literary adaptation that aims for art but is really a big silly soap	Director: Edmund Goulding Cast: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb

1947

	Black Narcissus – sex leads to madness in a secluded nunnery in this beautifully made film	Director: Powell & Pressburger Cast: Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar
	Gentleman’s Agreement – Best Picture winning anti-semitism drama, heavy-handed and self-satisfied	Director: Elia Kazan Cast: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield
	The Lady from Shanghai – an Irish drifter is made a dangerous offer in Welles’ for-the-money thriller	Director: Orson Welles Cast: Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane
	Miracle on 34th Street – can Santa be real? You’ll want to believe it in this charming Christmas treat	Director: George Seaton Cast: Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwenn, John Payne
	Odd Man Out – Gripping man on the run drama, told with a dreamlike intensity	Director: Carol Reed Cast: James Mason, Kathleen Ryan, Robert Newton
	They Made Me a Fugitive – don’t get confused with Odd Man Out… impressive man on the run drama	Director: Alberto Calvalcanti Cast: Trevor Howard, Sally Jones, Griffith Jones

1948

	Bicycle Thieves – hugely influential neo-realist film: one man goes to huge lengths to find his vital bike	Director: Vittorio de Sica Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola
	The Fallen Idol – a boy’s hero worship of a butler leads to disaster in this fabulously sad thriller	Director: Carol Reed Cast: Ralph Richardson, Bobby Henrey, Michèle Morgan
	Fort Apache – a martinet colonel leads his regiment to near disaster in this gripping Western	Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Ward Bond
	Hamlet – one of the most influential Shakespeare films, the Best Picture winning Hamlet noir	Director: Laurence Olivier Cast: Laurence Olivier, Basil Sydney, Eileen Herlie
	Joan of Arc – flat and preachy Joan of Arc biopic, even its director apologised for	Director: Victor Fleming Cast: Ingrid Bergman, José Ferrer, Francis L Sullivan
	Johnny Belinda – excellently made small-town drama of prejudice, very well acted	Director: Jean Negulesco Cast: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford
	Letter From an Unknown Woman – Ophüls lusciously filmed study of romance and (perhaps) obsession	Director: Max Ophüls Cast: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan
	Macbeth – Welles first stab at film Shakespeare is a mix of genius and absolute mess.	Director: Orson Welles Cast: Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O’Herlihy
	Red River – legendary western cattle trail movie, that descends into obsession, rivalry and violence	Director: Howard Hawks Cast: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanna Dru
	The Red Shoes – a ballet dancer is torn between art and romance in this visually stunning masterpiece	Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moria Shearer
	Scott of the Antarctic – flag-waving biopic, with Scott as the ultimate boys own hero	Director: Charles Frend Cast: John Mills, Diana Churchill, Harold Warrander
	The Snake Pit – psychological drama about a woman struggling to understand reality in an asylum	Director: Anatole Litvak Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn
	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – brilliant gold hunting drama of obsession, greed and mistrust	Director: John Huston Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt

1949

	Adam’s Rib – battle of the sexes courtroom drama, as a married couple take opposite sides in a big case	Director: George Cukor Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday
	All the King’s Men – Best Picture winning political corruption drama who definitely isn’t Huey P Long	Director: Robert Rossen Cast: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge
	Battleground – GIs struggle through the Battle of the Bulge in this very effective war movie	Director: William A Wellman Cast: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalbán
	Champion – a champ is a heel in this entertaining melodrama	Director: Mark Robson Cast: Kirk Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Marilyn Maxwell
	The Heiress – a young man woos a plain girl – is it just for her money? Superb Henry James adaptation	Director: William Wyler Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson
	Kind Hearts and Coronets – a disowned relative bumps off his noble family in this brilliant black	Director: Robert Hamer Cast: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson
	Late Spring – a daughter must leave her father’s home in Ozu’s heart-rending, small-scale drama	Director: Yasujirō Ozu Cast: Chishū Ryū, Satsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka
	A Letter to Three Wives – soapy small-town drama, written brilliantly, about a trouble-stirring letter	Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern
	On the Town – three sailors fall in love on a New York shore leave in a musical that’s huge fun	Director: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller
	The Reckless Moment – a gangster does everything he can to help the woman he’s blackmailing	Director: Max Ophüls Cast: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks
	She Wore a Yellow Ribbon – beautifully shot but slightly dry “day in a life” of the cavalry western	Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Joanna Dru, John Agar
	The Third Man – one of the greatest films ever made, a naive American finds the truth about his dead friend	Director: Carol Reed Cast: Joseph Cotton, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard, Alida Valli
	Twelve O’Clock High – a hot shot general tries not to buckle under pressure during WW2	Director: Henry King Cast: Gregory Peck, Dean Jagger, Hugh Marlowe
	White Heat – Cagney makes it to the top of the world as the most psychotic gangster this side of Goodfellas	Director: Raoul Walsh Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O’Brien