Greatest War Movies - 1940s
Greatest War Movies
Film Title/Year/Director, War-time Setting and Brief Description
Screenshots
d. Alfred Hitchcock
Britain               during WWII
When the war in Europe commenced in 1939, British film             directors tried to alert Americans to the looming German and Italian             Fascist threat. Alfred Hitchcock's political/war-time thriller - his             second American film, contained many memorable scenes, including             the assassination scene of a Dutch diplomat in a crowded sea of umbrellas,             a murder attempt in Westminster Cathedral Tower, and a spectacular             trans-Atlantic ocean plane crash.
It concluded with a plea to the American public to             enter the war by NY crime reporter Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) in             Europe: ("It's as if the lights were all out everywhere, except             in America. Keep those lights burning there! Cover them with steel!             Ring them with guns! Build a canopy of battleships and bombing planes             around them! Hello, America! Hang on to your lights. They're the             only lights left in the world..")
The Great Dictator (1940)
d. Charlie Chaplin
Spoof               of the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler
Charlie Chaplin lampooned Adolf Hitler (in the role             of Adenoid Hynkel) and The Third Reich in this film, the director/actor's             first all-talking picture - it was Chaplin's last film with the Little             Tramp character. The film was a slapstick satire on world conditions             and fascism at the start of World War II.
Chaplin played a dual role: as a poor, unnamed Jewish             ghetto barber, and as a Hitler look-alike, the ruthless tyrannical             dictator Adenoid Hynkel of the European country of Tomania. Hynkel's             rival was Mussolini-like Benzino Napaloni (Jack Oakie) of Bacteria.             The barber and the dictator became involved in a case of mistaken             identities.
With a memorable scene of Hynkel dancing with a world             globe balloon. The film concluded with a lengthy monologue about             hope and human rights. Hitler banned German audiences from viewing             the picture due to its offensive characterization and even some American             audiences believed that Chaplin had become self-indulgent.
Northwest Passage (1940)
d. King Vidor
During               the French and Indian War (or Seven Years' War) in the late 1750s
This misleadingly-named film included the retaliatory             attack by Rogers' Rangers, a rag-tag colonial army led by Major Robert             Rogers (Spencer Tracy), on Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec,             a settlement of the Abenaki Indians.
The adventure-war film dramatized part of Kenneth Roberts'             1937 epic novel of the same name.
The purpose of the brutal raid in 1759 was to avenge             the many attacks on British settlers and deter further attacks by             French-allied Indians. The force of 160 men, after meeting with starvation             and being stranded, was whittled down to about 50 survivors after             a long agonizing retreat.
The Sea Hawk (1940)
d. Michael Curtiz
Time               of Spanish Armada's assault on England in 1588
This exciting swashbuckler,             one of the best of its kind, was adapted from the novel by Rafael             Sabatini. Set in the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I of England (Flora Robson) suspected that Spanish King Phillip II (Montagu Love) and             his crafty ambassador Don Jose Alvarez de Cordoba (Claude Rains)             were planning to spread their influence over the continent. The Spaniards             were getting ready to launch a naval attack with their armada against             England. The Queen secretly commissioned swashbuckling privateer,             British sea captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn), "the Sea             Hawk," to raid Spanish settlements and ships.
While threatening the Spanish, the beautiful daughter             of the ambassador Donna Maria (Brenda Marshall) fell in love with             Thorpe. He and his crew were ambushed and imprisoned by Spanish forces.             With Maria's aid, he escaped slavery aboard a Spanish galleon slave             ship, and helped alert the Queen to the impending Armada attack.
Sergeant York (1941)
d. Howard Hawks
WWI in Europe, specifically the Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918 (Battle of Argonne Forest)
One of the most effective          films to promote heroic US patriotism was this war-related film starring          Gary Cooper (who won his first Best Actor Academy Award for his role) as  real-life,        backwoods, conscientious-objecting Tennessee backwoods mountain boy/farmer and pacifist Alvin C. York.
It was the true, but unusual story of World War I's biggest war hero, who fought in the war, mostly as a great marksman,           and single-handedly captured a large regiment of 132 German soldiers           during the Battle of Argonne, becoming the most decorated soldier of           the war.
With fast-paced action sequences and some wartime propagandizing.
They Died With Their Boots On (1941)
d. Raoul Walsh
Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Montana Territory), late June 1876
Although wildly historically inaccurate, Raoul Walsh's           sweeping and entertaining Hollywoodish portrait of the West included           a dashing view of General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn),           opposite his devoted wife Elizabeth (Olivia de Havilland). Anthony           Quinn also starred as Crazy Horse.
The formulaic         adventure film was released during wartime to meet audiences' demands         for a flamboyant military hero.
d. Michael Curtiz
Casablanca, an outpost of Vichy France in Morocco, during WWII
The best-loved film of all time, a perennial-favorite, a must-see classic and   Best Picture. A tale of pre World War II intrigue, patriotism, romance, love lost, heroism, and conscience,   with a well-paced dialogue, sentimental script, moody and atmospheric sets, and   a first-rate cast of memorable characters.
Set during World War II in Casablanca   (North Africa)             at a seedy Algerian saloon/nightclub run by cynical saloonkeeper         Richard "Rick" Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). The Cafe Americain was filled with   European refugees, smugglers, thieves and Nazis (commanded by Major Strasser -- Conrad Veidt). Into his joint walked   now-married long-lost-love Ilsa Lund Laszlo (Ingrid Bergman) and her underground   Resistance freedom-fighter husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), who were trying   to arrange their escape from the Nazis.
The popular film emphasized the atmospheric intrigue             and tension surrounding Humphrey Bogart's decision to assist the             war effort and get involved by securing transit visas - and give             up the one-time love of his life, the often tragic consequences for       lovers caught up in wartime experiences.
In Which We Serve (1942, UK)
d. David Lean
WWII, during the Battle of Crete in 1941
The            British cinema continued to produce many propagandist, flag-waving war films            glorifying their "finest hour" of battle against Germany and Japan, including          this inspiring film.  This was a stirring, patriotic, British WWII drama. The         film was the directorial debut of David Lean with Noel Coward as producer,         writer, co-director, and star.
The story, about a valiant            torpedoed crew of Lord Mountbatten's British destroyer (HMS Torrin),           commanded by Captain Kinross (director Noel Coward) during the Battle           of Crete in WWII, was told in a non-linear fashion with vignettes or           flashbacks. It was filmed like a documentary, with narration recounting           the historic efforts of the crew as they survived the ship's sinking           and struggled on a raft, while they flashed back to memories of their       loved ones.
Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
d. Lewis Seiler
WWII, Guadalcanal, in Solomon Islands in South Pacific Coral Sea area, August, 1942
This exciting, flag-waving, documentary-style            adventure film was adapted from war correspondent Richard Tregaskis' 1943 non-fiction   book. It starred Anthony Quinn (as Latino Jesus 'Soose' Alvarez),          William Bendix (as pugnacious New Yorker soldier Corporal "Taxi" Potts), Richard Jaeckel (as young "Chicken"), Lloyd Nolan (as gunnery Sergeant Hook Malone) and Preston Foster (as Father Donnelly).
This propagandistic, slightly sanitized film bolstered             homefront morale -- it was rapidly released soon after the actual             battle -- as it portrayed the US Marine Corps' courageous and bloody             months-long battle for the Japanese-held Solomon Islands during the       opening stages of the war in the South Pacific.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943, UK)
d. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Britain during WWI and WWII
The Technicolor film that satirized           the British military establishment  used the name of Sir David Low's           comic strip, The           Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, "Colonel           Blimp" in the           film's title referred to a 1930s English cartoon character, not a real         personage. The film was held up in its release to the U.S. until 1945.
Powell and Pressburger's satirical character study was           a controversial wartime film that angered Winston Churchill for its           portrait of a 'fuddy-duddy' 40 year career soldier, in the character           of rotund Clive Candy (Roger Livesey). He fought in the Boer conflict           and through both world wars - although he still maintained outdated           notions about how to be a gentlemanly soldier and conduct war by following           the rules, unable to adapt to the methods and realities of modern warfare.           During his life, Candy kept a friendship with his German counterpart           - a former German soldier Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). During           the course of his life, dedicated to the king and his country through           changing times, he also met and loved three women: Edith Hunter / Barbara           Wynne / Johnny Cannon (all played by Deborah Kerr in a very versatile         role).
Sahara (1943)
d. Zoltan Korda
WWII, North Africa in Sahara Desert,  summer of 1942
Zoltan Korda's          dramatic action picture was centered in the N. African          Libyan desert, with Humphrey Bogart as Army Sgt. and Lulubelle tank commander Joe Gunn - the head of a British-American unit        fighting the Germans.
Cut off by German General Rommel's forces, he was forced           to cross the Sahara desert, picking up various Allied soldier-stragglers           (of various nationalities) on their way to an oasis - also the destination       of outnumbering German troops.
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
d. Preston Sturges
WWII, US
A fast paced, zany Preston Sturges comedy satire on war-time patriotism and hysteria,   human nature, motherhood, and hero-worship. World War II Marine Corps 4-F reject   (due to hay fever) Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken), ashamed   and embarrassed to admit his lack of fitness for duty, masqueraded as a soldier   - he worked in a defense plant/shipyard but wrote letters home telling of his military   exploits.
He allowed a group of sympathetic yet drunken Marines           to pass him off as a true war hero to deceive his hometown folks when       he returned home. Woodrow was "hailed as the conquering hero." The   people in the small town of Oakridge believed the charade that he was a hero, and   even nominated him for mayor to replace the current corrupt one (Raymond   Walburn).
Henry V (1944,                 UK) (aka The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His                 Battell Fought at Agincourt in France)
d. Laurence Olivier
Battle at Agincourt during the Hundred Years War between England and France
Laurence Olivier adapted, produced/directed (his first and most successful   effort), and starred as the title character in one of the greatest Shakespearean   adaptations ever made. It told the tale of Britain's victory over the French at Agincourt (and was famous for the   line: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more").
During   England's besieged condition against the Nazis,           the Technicolor epic was dedicated to the fighting forces and stiff           resolve of Britons. Olivier masterfully merged the set of the Globe         Theatre with on-location set-pieces.
The film wasn't released in the         US until 1946, when Olivier received a special Honorary Academy Award         for "his outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in   bringing Henry V to       the screen."
The Greatest War Movies