1940

Film Decades: 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theatears)

  • Abe Lincoln in Illinois, starring Raymond Massey
  • All This and Heaven Too, starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer
  • And One Was Beautiful – directed by Robert B. Sinclair, starring Robert Cummings, Laraine Day, & Jean Muir
  • Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, and Fay Holden
  • Angels Over Broadway – starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Rita Hayworth
  • Anne of Windy Poplars, starring Anne Shirley
  • The Ape, starring Boris Karloff
  • Arise, My Love – starring Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland
  • Arizona – starring Jean Arthur and William Holden
  • Band Waggon, directed by Marcel Varnel, starring Arthur Askey – (GB)
  • The Bank Dick, written by and starring W.C. Fields
  • Before I Hang, starring Boris Karloff
  • The Biscuit Eater, directed by Stuart Heisler
  • Bismarck, starring Paul Hartmann – (Germany)
  • Black Friday – starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
  • The Blue Bird, starring Shirley Temple
  • Boom Town – starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr
  • The Boys from Syracuse, starring Allan Jones
  • Boys of the City, starring the East Side Kids
  • Brigham Young – directed by Henry Hathaway, starring Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell, with Vincent Price
  • British Intelligence, starring Boris Karloff
  • Broadway Melody of 1940 – starring Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell – final film of series
  • Brother Orchid – starring Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, Humphrey Bogart
  • Calling Philo Vance, starring James Stephenson
  • Castle on the Hudson, directed by Anatole Litvak, starring John Garfield and Ann Sheridan
  • The Catacombs (Katakomby), directed by Martin Frič – (Czechoslovakia)
  • Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum, starring Sidney Toler
  • Charlie Chan in Panama, starring Sidney Toler
  • Christmas in July – written & directed by Preston Sturges
  • A Chump at Oxford, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, featuring a young Peter Cushing
  • City for Conquest, starring James Cagney
  • Confucius – (China)
  • Contraband, directed by Michael Powell, starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson – (GB)
  • Convicted Woman, starring Rochelle Hudson and June Lang
  • Convoy – directed by Pen Tennyson, starring Clive Brook, John Clements (UK)
  • Crimes at the Dark House, directed by George King, starring Tod Slaughter – (GB)
  • Dance, Girl, Dance – starring Maureen O’Hara, Louis Hayward, Lucille Ball
  • Dark Command – starring John Wayne
  • Dead Man’s Shoes, directed by Thomas Bentley, starring Leslie Banks – (GB)
  • The Devil Bat – starring Bela Lugosi
  • A Dispatch from Reuter’s, starring Edward G. Robinson
  • Dívka v modrém – (Czechoslovakia)
  • Doomed to Die, starring Boris Karloff
  • Down Argentine Way, starring Don Ameche, Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda
  • Dr. Cyclops, directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Albert Dekker
  • Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet, starring Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Gordon, Otto Kruger, Donald Crisp
  • Dr. Kildare’s Crisis – directed by Harold S. Bucquet, starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, & Laraine Day
  • East Side Kids, starring Leon Ames and the East Side Kids
  • Edison, the Man – starring Spencer Tracy
  • Ergens in Nederland (Somewhere in the Netherlands) – (Netherlands)
  • Escape, starring Norma Shearer and Robert Taylor
  • Fantasia, directed by Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen, David D. Hand, Hamilton Luske, Jim Handley, Ford Beebe, T. Hee, Norman Ferguson and Wilfred Jackson
  • The Fatal Hour, starring Boris Karloff
  • The Fighting 69th – directed by William Keighley, starring James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, George Brent, Dennis Morgan, Alan Hale Sr.
  • Flowing Gold, starring John Garfield and Frances Farmer
  • Foreign Correspondent – directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Basserman, Robert Benchley, & Edmund Gwenn
  • Four Sons, directed by Archie Mayo, starring Don Ameche
  • The Fox of Glenarvon, directed by Max W. Kimmich – (Germany)
  • French Without Tears, starring Ray Milland – (GB)
  • Gaslight, starring Anton Walbrook – (GB)
  • The Ghost Breakers, starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard
  • Girl in the News, starring Margaret Lockwood – (GB)
  • Give Us Wings, starring the Dead End Kids
  • Go West, starring the Marx Brothers
  • The Grapes of Wrath – directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda
  • The Great Dictator – directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin with Paulette Goddard and Jack Oakie
  • The Great McGinty – written & directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy
  • Green Hell – directed by James Whale, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Joan Bennett, with Vincent Price
  • Here Is the Point (Ahí está el detalle), starring Cantinflas – (Mexico)
  • His Girl Friday – directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy
  • Hoots Mon!, directed by Roy William Neill, starring Max Miller and Florence Desmond (Britain)
  • The House Across the Bay, starring George Raft
  • The House of the Seven Gables – directed by Joe May, starring George Sanders, Vincent Price
  • The Howards of Virginia – starring Cary Grant and Martha Scott
  • Hullabaloo, starring Frank Morgan
  • I Love You Again, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
  • I Take This Woman – starring Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr
  • The Invisible Man Returns – directed by Joe May, starring Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price
  • The Invisible Woman, starring Virginia Bruce and John Barrymore
  • It All Came True – starring Ann Sheridan, Jeffrey Lynn, Humphrey Bogart
  • June Nights (Juninatten), starring Ingrid Bergman – (Sweden)
  • King of the White Elephant (Prajao Changpeuk) – (Thailand)
  • Kitty Foyle – starring Ginger Rogers
  • Laddie, starring Tim Holt
  • Lady with Red Hair, starring Miriam Hopkins
  • The Letter – directed by William Wyler, starring Bette Davis
  • Lillian Russell, starring Alice Faye and Henry Fonda
  • Little Men, starring George Bancroft and Kay Francis
  • The Long Voyage Home – starring John Wayne
  • Maddalena, Zero for Conduct – directed by and starring Vittorio De Sica – (Italy)
  • The Man from Dakota, starring Wallace Beery
  • The Man Who Talked Too Much, starring George Brent
  • The Marines Fly High, starring Lucille Ball and Richard Dix
  • The Mark of Zorro, starring Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell
  • The Middle Watch, directed by Thomas Bentley, starring Jack Buchanan and Greta Gynt (Britain)
  • The Minister’s Girlfriends (Přítelkyně pana ministra) – (Czechoslovakia)
  • Millionaires in Prison, starring Lee Tracy
  • The Mortal Storm – starring Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart
  • The Mummy’s Hand, starring Dick Foran
  • My Favorite Wife – starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant
  • My Little Chickadee, starring Mae West and W.C. Fields
  • My Son, My Son! – directed by Charles Vidor, starring Madeleine Carroll, Brian Aherne, Louis Hayward, & Laraine Day
  • New Moon, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
  • Night Train to Munich, directed by Carol Reed, starring Margaret Lockwood and Rex Harrison – (GB)
  • No Time for Comedy – directed by William Keighley, starring James Stewart, Rosalind Russell, Genevieve Tobin and Charlie Ruggles
  • North West Mounted Police – starring Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Madeleine Carroll
  • Northwest Passage – directed by King Vidor, starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Young
  • One Million B.C. (aka The Cave Dwellers), starring Carole Landis
  • One Night in the Tropics, film debut of Abbott and Costello
  • Our Town – starring William Holden and Martha Scott
  • Pastor Hall, directed by Roy Boulting – (GB)
  • The Philadelphia Story** – directed by George Cukor, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart
  • Pinocchio, directed by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, starring Dickie Jones
  • Pride and Prejudice, starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier
  • Primrose Path – starring Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea
  • The Proud Valley, starring Paul Robeson – (GB)
  • Queen of the Yukon, starring Charles Bickford
  • Rebecca – directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier – Oscar for best picture
  • Remember the Night – directed by Mitchell Leisen, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray
  • Rhythm on the River, starring Bing Crosby and Mary Martin
  • Road to Singapore, starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope – first in the series
  • Saps at Sea, starring Laurel and Hardy
  • The Sea Hawk – directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains
  • Seven Sinners – starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne
  • The Shop Around the Corner – directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart
  • The Siege of the Alcazar (L’Assedio dell’Alcazar) – (Italy)
  • Sky Murder, starring Walter Pidgeon
  • Son of Ingagi, directed by Richard Kahn
  • The Son of Monte Cristo, starring Louis Hayward and Joan Bennett
  • Spring Parade, starring Deanna Durbin
  • The Stars Look Down, directed by Carol Reed, starring Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood – (GB)
  • The Stationmaster (Der postmeister) – (Germany)
  • Strange Cargo – starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford
  • Stranger on the Third Floor – starring Peter Lorre
  • Strike Up the Band – directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney
  • South of Suez, starring George Brent
  • Swiss Family Robinson, starring Thomas Mitchell and Edna Best
  • They Drive by Night – directed by Raoul Walsh, starring George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino
  • They Knew What They Wanted, directed by Garson Kanin, starring Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard
  • The Thief of Bagdad, starring Conrad Veidt and Sabu – (GB)
  • ‘Til We Meet Again, starring Merle Oberon and George Brent
  • Tom Brown’s School Days, starring Cedric Hardwicke
  • Too Many Girls, starring Lucille Ball
  • Too Many Husbands, starring Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, Melvyn Douglas
  • Tørres Snørtevold – (Norway)
  • Torrid Zone – directed by William Keighley, starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, and Pat O’Brien
  • Turnabout, starring John Hubbard and Carole Landis
  • Vigil in the Night, starring Carole Lombard
  • Virginia City – directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scott, Humphrey Bogart
  • Waterloo Bridge – starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor
  • The Well-Digger’s Daughter (La Fille du puisatier), directed by Marcel Pagnol, starring Raimu and Fernandel – (France)
  • The Westerner – starring Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Dana Andrews, Forrest Tucker
  • Where’s That Fire?, starring Will Hay – (GB)
  • Women in War, starring Elsie Janis and Patric Knowles
  • Young People, starring Shirley Temple
  • Young Tom Edison, starring Mickey Rooney
  • You’re Not So Tough, starring the Dead End Kids