1942

Film Decades: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 theaters)

  • Across the Pacific – directed by John Huston and Vincent Sherman, starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet
  • The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine, starring Dennis O’Keefe and Ruth Terry
  • A-Haunting We Will Go, starring Laurel and Hardy
  • Ala-Arriba! – (Portugal)
  • Alias Boston Blackie, Starring Chester Morris, Adele Mara, and Richard Lane
  • Alibi, starring Margaret Lockwood and James Mason – (GB)
  • All Through the Night – starring Humphrey Bogart
  • American Empire, starring Richard Dix
  • Andy Hardy’s Double Life, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
  • Aniki-Bóbó – (Portugal)
  • Arabian Nights, starring Sabu, Jon Hall, Maria Montez
  • Attack on Baku, starring Willy Fritsch, René Deltgen (Germany)
  • El Baisano Jalil – (Mexico)
  • Bambi, directed by David Hand, starring Bobby Stewart, Donnie Dunagan, Hardie Albright and John Sutherland
  • The Battle of Midway – directed by John Ford – documentary
  • The Big Blockade, starring Leslie Banks, Michael Redgrave and Will Hay – (UK)
  • The Big Shot – starring Humphrey Bogart
  • The Big Street, starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball
  • The Black Sheep of Whitehall, starring Will Hay and John Mills – (GB)
  • The Black Swan – directed by Henry King, starring Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara
  • Blue, White and Perfect, starring Lloyd Nolan
  • Bullet Scars, starring Regis Toomey
  • Captains of the Clouds – directed by Michael Curtiz, starring James Cagney
  • Casablanca** – directed by Michael Curtiz (Oscar winner), starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre
  • Cat People, starring Simone Simon and Tom Conway
  • China Girl – directed by Henry Hathaway, starring Gene Tierney, George Montgomery, Lynn Bari, Victor McLaglen
  • Commandos Strike at Dawn – directed by John Farrow, starring Paul Muni, Anna Lee, Lillian Gish, Cedric Hardwicke, Robert Coote
  • The Corpse Vanishes – starring Bela Lugosi
  • The Courtship of Andy Hardy, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
  • Derailed (Afsporet) – (Denmark)
  • Desperate Journey – directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Errol Flynn & Ronald Reagan
  • The Devil’s Envoys (Les Visiteurs du Soir), directed by Marcel Carné, starring Arletty – (France)
  • Eagle Squadron, directed by Arthur Lubin
  • Escape from Hong Kong, starring Marjorie Lord
  • Eyes in the Night – directed by Fred Zinneman, starring Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Donna Reed
  • The Falcon Takes Over, starring George Sanders
  • Fingers at the Window – directed by Charles Lederer, starring Lew Ayres, Laraine Day, & Basil Rathbone
  • The First of the Few, directed by Leslie Howard, starring Howard and David Niven – (GB)
  • The Fleet’s In – starring Dorothy Lamour and William Holden
  • Flying Fortress, starring Richard Greene (GB)
  • Flying Tigers – starring John Wayne
  • The Foreman Went to France, starring Clifford Evans and Tommy Trinder – (GB)
  • For Me and My Gal – directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly
  • Four Steps in the Clouds (Quattro passi fra le nuvole) – (Italy)
  • Un Garibaldino al Convento – directed by Vittorio De Sica – (Italy)
  • The Gaucho War (La guerra gaucha) – (Argentina)
  • The Gay Sisters – directed by Irving Rapper, starring Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, Gig Young
  • Gentleman Jim – directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, William Frawley, and Ward Bond
  • George Washington Slept Here – directed by William Keighley, starring Jack Benny, Ann Sheridan, Charles Coburn, Percy Kilbride, and Hattie McDaniel
  • The Ghost of Frankenstein – starring Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi
  • The Glass Key, starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake
  • The Goose Steps Out, starring Will Hay – (GB)
  • The Great Impersonation, directed by John Rawlins, starring Ralph Bellamy
  • The Great King (Der große König) – (Germany)
  • The Great Man’s Lady – directed by William A. Wellman, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea
  • The Great Mr. Handel, directed by Norman Walker, starring Wilfrid Lawson (GB)
  • Hatter’s Castle, starring Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr, James Mason – (GB)
  • Her Cardboard Lover, starring Robert Taylor and Norma Shearer
  • Holiday Inn – starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire
  • Historia de un gran amor (A Great Love Story) – (Mexico)
  • I Married an Angel, starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald
  • I Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake and Fredric March
  • In Old California – starring John Wayne
  • In This Our Life – directed by John Huston, starring Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland
  • In Which We Serve – directed by David Lean and Noël Coward, starring Coward and John Mills – (GB)
  • Invisible Agent, starring Jon Hall
  • Jackass Mail, starring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main
  • Johnny Eager, starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner
  • Journey for Margaret – directed by W.S. Van Dyke, starring Robert Young, Laraine Day, Fay Bainter, Nigel Bruce, & Margaret O’Brien
  • Jungle Book, directed by Zoltan Korda, starring Sabu
  • Kid Glove Killer – the directorial debut of Fred Zinnemann
  • The Kids Grow Up (Los Chicos crecen) – (Argentina)
  • Kings Row, starring Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, Claude Rains
  • Kokoda Front Line!, an Academy Award winning documentary film – (Australia)
  • Larceny, Inc., starring Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford
  • Listen to Britain, propaganda film directed by Humphrey Jennings – (GB)
  • The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe, starring Linda Darnell
  • The Magnificent Ambersons – directed by Orson Welles, starring Joseph Cotten and Dolores Costello
  • The Major and the Minor – directed by Billy Wilder, starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland
  • The Male Animal – starring Henry Fonda and Olivia De Havilland
  • The Man Who Came to Dinner – directed by William Keighley, starring Bette Davis, Monty Woolley, Jimmy Durante
  • The Man Who Wanted to Kill Himself (El hombre que se quiso matar) – (Spain)
  • Miss Annie Rooney, starring Shirley Temple
  • Moontide, starring Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino
  • Mrs. Miniver – directed by William Wyler, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon
  • The Mummy’s Tomb, starring Lon Chaney Jr.
  • The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (L’Assassin habite au 21), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Pierre Fresnay – (France)
  • My Favorite Blonde, starring Bob Hope and Madeleine Carroll
  • My Gal Sal – starring Rita Hayworth
  • My Sister Eileen, starring Rosalind Russell
  • ‘Neath Brooklyn Bridge, starring The East Side Kids
  • The Next of Kin, starring Mervyn Johns – (GB)
  • Northwest Rangers
  • Now, Voyager, starring Bette Davis and Paul Henreid
  • One of Our Aircraft is Missing, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger – (GB)
  • Overland Mail, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Noah Beery, Jr., Noah Beery, Sr.
  • Pacific Rendezvous, starring Lee Bowman
  • The Palm Beach Story – written & directed by Preston Sturges, starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Rudy Vallée
  • Panama Hattie, starring Ann Sothern and Lena Horne
  • Pardon My Sarong, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
  • O Pátio das Cantigas (The Courtyard of Songs) – (Portugal)
  • People of the Mountains, directed by István Szőts – (Hungary)
  • The Pied Piper, starring Monty Woolley and Roddy McDowall
  • A Pilot Returns (Un pilota ritorna) – directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Massimo Girotti, Michela Belmonte and Piero Lulli – Italy
  • A Pistol Shot, starring Assia Noris, Fosco Giachetti (Italy)
  • Pittsburgh – directed by Lewis Seiler, starring Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, and John Wayne
  • Pride of the Yankees – starring Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, Babe Ruth
  • Random Harvest, starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson
  • Reap the Wild Wind – directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring, John Wayne, Ray Milland, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, and Susan Hayward
  • Reunion in France, starring Joan Crawford
  • Ride ‘Em Cowboy, starring Abbott and Costello
  • Rings on Her Fingers – starring Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney
  • Rio Rita, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
  • Road to Morocco, starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope
  • The Rock of the Souls (El Peñón de las Ánimas) – (Mexico)
  • Roti (Bread) – (India)
  • Roxie Hart – starring Ginger Rogers
  • Saboteur – directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Priscilla Lane and Robert Cummings
  • Saludos Amigos, a Walt Disney animated film starring Donald Duck and Goofy (released in South America in 1942 and in the U.S. in 1943)
  • Somewhere I’ll Find You – starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner
  • Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake – starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney
  • Song of the Islands, a Darryl F. Zanuck production starring Betty Grable and Victor Mature
  • Sons of the Pioneers, starring Roy Rogers and George ‘Gabby’ Hayes
  • The Spoilers – starring Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, and John Wayne
  • Springtime in the Rockies, starring Betty Grable, John Payne, Carmen Miranda and Cesar Romero
  • Star Spangled Rhythm, featuring an all-star cast
  • Sweater Girl, starring Eddie Bracken, June Preisser, and Betty Jane Rhodes
  • Syncopation, starring Adolphe Menjou
  • Tales of Manhattan, directed by Julien Duvivier with an all-star cast
  • The Talk of the Town – starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman
  • Tarzan’s New York Adventure, starring Johnny Weissmuller
  • Ten Gentlemen from West Point – directed by Henry Hathaway, starring George Montgomery and Maureen O’Hara
  • Tennessee Johnson, starring Van Heflin and Ruth Hussey
  • There Was a Father (chichi ariki), directed by Yasujirō Ozu (Japan)
  • There’s One Born Every Minute, starring Hugh Herbert and Peggy Moran
  • This Above All – directed by Anatole Litvak, starring Tyrone Power, Joan Fontaine
  • This Gun for Hire, starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd
  • This Was Paris, starring Ann Dvorak (GB)
  • Time to Kill, starring Lloyd Nolan
  • Thunder Birds – starring Gene Tierney
  • Thunder Rock, starring Michael Redgrave and James Mason – (GB)
  • To Be or Not to Be, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Jack Benny and (in her last film) Carole Lombard
  • Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die, starring Richard Dix
  • Tortilla Flat – directed by Victor Fleming, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield
  • Uncensored, directed by Anthony Asquith – (GB)
  • The Undying Monster, starring James Ellison
  • Valentin the Good (Valentin Dobrotivý), directed by Martin Frič – (Czechoslovakia)
  • Valley of the Sun, starring Lucille Ball and James Craig
  • The Voice of Terror – starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
  • Wake Island, starring Brian Donlevy and Robert Preston
  • Went the Day Well?, directed by Cavalcanti, starring Leslie Banks and Mervyn Johns – (GB)
  • Who Done It? – starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
  • Whom the Gods Love, directed by Karl Hartl (Germany-Austria)
  • Woman of the Year – starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn
  • A Yank at Eton, starring Mickey Rooney
  • A Yank on the Burma Road (1942) – directed by George B. Seitz, starring Laraine Day & Barry Nelson – aka China Caravan and Yanks on the Burma Road
  • Yankee Doodle Dandy – directed by Michael Curtiz, starring James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf
  • The Young Mr. Pitt, directed by Carol Reed, starring Robert Donat – biopic of William Pitt the Younger – (GB)
  • You Were Never Lovelier – starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth