50 movies from 1942 worth watching
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50 titles
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsHumphrey BogartIngrid BergmanPaul HenreidA cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
- DirectorOrson WellesFred FleckRobert WiseStarsTim HoltJoseph CottenDolores CostelloThe spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
- DirectorJames AlgarSamuel ArmstrongDavid HandStarsHardie AlbrightStan AlexanderBobette AudreyThe story of a young deer growing up in the forest.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsCarole LombardJack BennyRobert StackDuring the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJames CagneyJoan LeslieWalter HustonThe life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer, and singer George M. Cohan.
- DirectorIrving RapperStarsBette DavisPaul HenreidClaude RainsA frumpy spinster blossoms under therapy and becomes an elegant, independent woman.
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsClaudette ColbertJoel McCreaMary AstorA New York inventor needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire with a capricious high-society sister.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsSimone SimonTom ConwayKent SmithAn American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if they are intimate together.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsSpencer TracyKatharine HepburnFay BainterRival reporters Sam and Tess fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess' hectic lifestyle.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsAnn SheridanRobert CummingsRonald ReaganThe dark side and hypocrisy of provincial American life is seen through the eyes of five children as they grow to adulthood at the turn of the century.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsBette DavisAnn SheridanMonty WoolleyAn acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in with a Midwestern family.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGreer GarsonWalter PidgeonTeresa WrightA British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsCary GrantJean ArthurRonald ColmanAn escaped prisoner has to prove his innocence to a stuffy law professor with the help of a spirited school teacher.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsGary CooperTeresa WrightBabe RuthThe story of the life and career of famed baseball player Lou Gehrig.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsRonald ColmanGreer GarsonPhilip DornAn amnesiac World War I veteran falls in love with a music hall star, only to suffer an accident which restores his original memories but erases his post-war life.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsGinger RogersRay MillandRita JohnsonA frustrated city girl disguises herself as a youngster in order to get a cheaper train ticket home. But little "Sue Sue" finds herself in a whole heap of grown-up trouble when she hides out in a compartment with a handsome Major.
- DirectorNoël CowardStarsNoël CowardJohn MillsBernard MilesThis "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsErrol FlynnAlexis SmithJack CarsonAs bare-knuckled boxing enters the modern era, brash extrovert, Jim Corbett, uses new rules and dazzlingly innovative footwork to rise to the top of the top of the boxing world.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsTyrone PowerMaureen O'HaraLaird CregarAn ex-pirate contends with rowdy buccaneers and a love/hate relationship with an aristocratic woman who's tougher than she seems.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsPriscilla LaneRobert CummingsOtto KrugerA young man accused of sabotage goes on the run to prove his innocence.
- DirectorFrank TuttleStarsAlan LaddVeronica LakeRobert PrestonWhen assassin Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his beautiful female companion dead, he is paid off in marked bills by his treasonous employer who is working with foreign spies.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsFredric MarchVeronica LakeRobert BenchleyA beautiful 17th-century witch returns to life to plague politician Wallace Wooley, descendant of her persecutor.
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiStarsLeslie BanksC.V. FranceValerie TaylorAn English village is occupied by disguised German paratroopers as an advance post for a planned invasion.
- DirectorAlbert LewinStarsGeorge SandersHerbert MarshallDoris DudleyLoosely inspired by Gauguin's life, the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbrocker who abandons his middle-class life, his family, and his duties to start painting, as he has always wanted to do. He is from then on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.
- DirectorStuart HeislerStarsAlan LaddVeronica LakeBrian DonlevyA crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsBrian DonlevyRobert PrestonMacdonald CareyDecember, 1941. With no hope of relief or re-supply, a small band of United States Marines tries to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island base.
- DirectorBusby BerkeleyStarsJudy GarlandGeorge MurphyGene KellyTwo vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsGodfrey TearleEric PortmanHugh WilliamsDuring a raid on Germany a British bomber crew is forced to bail out after their plane is damaged. They land in Holland and are aided by Dutch civilians.
- DirectorElliott NugentStarsHenry FondaOlivia de HavillandJoan LeslieA college English teacher suddenly finds himself the center of a free-speech debate on campus.
- DirectorRoy BoultingStarsMichael RedgraveJames MasonBarbara MullenCynical, embittered newspaperman David Charleston (Michael Redgrave) is tormented, then inspired, by visions he keeps having of people who have drowned.
- DirectorDavid ButlerStarsBing CrosbyBob HopeDorothy LamourTwo carefree castaways on a desert shore find an Arabian Nights city, where they compete for the luscious Princess Shalmar.
- DirectorMark SandrichRobert AllenStarsBing CrosbyFred AstaireMarjorie ReynoldsAt an inn which is open only on holidays, a crooner and a hoofer vie for the affections of a beautiful up-and-coming performer.
- DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsFred AstaireRita HayworthAdolphe MenjouIn Buenos Aires, a man who has decreed that his daughters must marry in order of age allows an American dancer to perform at his club under the condition that he play suitor to his second-oldest daughter.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsSabuJoseph CalleiaJohn QualenA boy raised by wild animals tries to adapt to human village life.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsGeorge MontgomeryAnn RutherfordGlenn Miller and His OrchestraConnie Ward is in seventh heaven when Gene Morrison's band rolls into town. She is swept off her feet by trumpeter Bill Abbot. After marrying him, she joins the bands tour and learns about life as an orchestra wife, weathering the catty attacks of the other band wives.
- DirectorSidney LanfieldStarsBob HopeMadeleine CarrollGale SondergaardKaren Bentley, an English secret agent, links up with Larry Haines and his star penguin Percy in an attempt to outwit German spies.
- DirectorIrving PichelStarsMonty WoolleyRoddy McDowallAnne BaxterWhile traveling in France during the Nazi invasion of 1940, an Englishman is entrusted with the care of a group of refugee children.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsRay MillandJohn WaynePaulette GoddardFlorida ship salvager Loxi falls for Jack, captain of a ship wrecked on the Key West shore. However, their romance is complicated by the arrival of another suitor.
- DirectorRichard WallaceStarsLoretta YoungBrian AherneJeff DonnellA mystery writer and his newlywed wife move into a Greenwich Village apartment and find themselves with a corpse and a half dozen red herrings.
- DirectorRobert StevensonStarsMichèle MorganPaul HenreidThomas MitchellAn RAF squadron is brought down over occupied France. The flyers reach Paris in spite of the fact that the youngest is injured; his wounds need treating and he must stay hidden. The Gestapo has already issued orders for their arrest.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsEdward G. RobinsonJane WymanBroderick CrawfordThree ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers...
- DirectorJohn HustonVincent ShermanStarsHumphrey BogartMary AstorSydney GreenstreetIn December 1941, ex-army captain Rick Leland boards a Japanese ship heading to Asia via the Panama Canal where his Japanese hosts show interest in the American defense plans for the canal zone.
- DirectorDavid MillerStarsJohn WayneJohn CarrollAnna LeeCapt. Jim Gordon's command of the famed American volunteer fighter group in China is complicated by the recruitment of an old friend who is a reckless hotshot.
- DirectorClaude Autant-LaraStarsOdette JoyeuxFrançois PérierJulien CaretteFrance, 1855. Zélie Fontaine, a twenty-odd-year-old widow and the post mistress of the small provincial town of Argenson, has accepted to receive love letters to Hortense de la Jacquerie, the prefect's wife, under her name. But Hortense decides to break up with her lover, François du Portal. François will not hear of it and, with a view to regaining her love, manages to be appointed deputy prosecutor in Argenson. Trouble can't help following.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsCharles BoyerRita HayworthGinger RogersA formal tailcoat that gets passed from one owner to another affects each life in a significant way.
- DirectorRenato CastellaniStarsAssia NorisFosco GiachettiAntonio CentaCount Anikoff, a Russian officer, challenges his best friend, Sergei, to a duel when he finds him courting the young woman he, too, is in love with. Sergei can't bring himself to kill his friend. He fires only after taking the bullet out of his pistol. Now, it is the Count's turn to fire...
- DirectorVictor FlemingStarsSpencer TracyHedy LamarrJohn GarfieldDanny, a poor northern Californian Mexican-American, inherits two houses from his grandfather and is quickly taken advantage of by his vagabond friends.
- DirectorGoffredo AlessandriniStarsFosco GiachettiAlida ValliRossano BrazziThe time is the Russian Revolution. The place is a country burdened with fear - the midnight knock at the door, the bread hidden against famine, the haunted eyes of the fleeing, the grublike fat of the appeasers and oppressors. In a bitter struggle of the individual against the collective, three people stand forth with the mark of the unconquered in their bearing: Kira, who wants to be a builder, and the two men who love her - Leo, an aristocrat, and Andrei, a Communist. In their tensely dramatic story, Ayn Rand shows what the theories of Communism mean in practice. We the Living is not a story of politics but of the men and women who have to struggle for existence behind the Red banners and slogans. It is a picture of what dictatorship - of any kind - does to human beings, what kind of men are able to survive, and which of them remain as the ultimate winners. What happens to the defiant ones? What happens to those who succumb? Who are the winners in this conflict? Against a vivid panorama of political revolution and personal revolt, Ayn Rand offers an answer that challenges the modern conscience.
- DirectorJosef BerneStarsDuke EllingtonRay NanceRex StewartDuke Ellington and Orchestra perform 'C Jam Blues'.