Best-of-the-Decade Series: the 1950s

As reluctant as I am to re-hash an overused Dickens quote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," really does seem fitting for this decade in cinematic history. Whole new frontiers were opening their doors, and at the same time studios were facing their most dire financial crises as their audiences were being stolen by television. Of course those two media would learn to get along eventually, but for the moment they were each other's worst enemies. The sad part about the conflict was that movies started getting gimmicky to draw people in instead of relying on the tried-and-true methods of good acting and storytelling. This Cole Porter written for 1957's Silk Stockings lyric describes the situation perfectly:

"Today to get the public to attend the picture show
It's not enough to advertise some famous star they know
If you want to get the crowds to come around,
You gotta have glorious Technicolor, breathtaking Cinemascope, and stereophonic sound!"

Despite this, there were still plenty of good films made in that decade, and some even rank among the greatest of all time. I could probably fill this list just with memorable Hitchcock films made in this decade, but that would be unfair to the many other great movies that came out. I'm going to forget honorable mentions this time and simply list the films that have the greatest merit and watch-ability in my book. Please do not be offended if you think I've left out one of the many memorable films from this decade. I'm most likely aware of them, but they're not to my taste.


11. The Quiet Man (1952)
When John Ford made a sort of romantic comedy set in his beloved Ireland and decided to film it on location, everyone thought he was nuts. But he made it anyway, and 50 years later, it's still a great movie. John Wayne stars as an Irish-American prizefighter who hangs up his gloves and returns to his ancestral village in Ireland. He instantly falls for the local beauty played by Maureen O'Hara, but runs afoul of her surly brother, the town squire played by Victor McLaglen. Wayne's character has problems adjusting to this backwards, honor-based culture where fistfights are the only way to settle disputes, women can't marry without their guardian's permission, and dowries constitute a wife's self-respect. When Maureen's brother refuses to pay hers, John Wayne must either seriously reconsider his stance on renouncing violence or risk losing the woman he loves. Despite the seemingly dramatic plot, this move is quite funny, and all of the character actors are completely charming, especially Ward Bond as the parish priest, and Barry Fitzgerald as the town bookie and drunk. The brawl at the end was the longest fight every recorded for a movie, and it's hilarious. I really love this movie. The dialog is witty, the actors are great, and Ireland lives in all its verdant beauty.

10. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Based on an Agatha Christie play, this movie boasts a stellar performance from one of my favorite character actors, Charles Laughton. He plays an aging lawyer suffering from severe heart problems and takes on a case of an innocent man who seems to have a hopeless circumstantial case mounted against him. Marlene Dietrich is coldly brilliant as the defendant's wife who appears as a witness for the prosecution. This film made waves when it was released because of its shocking twist ending, and audience members were actually forbidden to tell anyone what happened, something that was parodied on an episode of The Honeymooners. The reason that this movie doesn't rank higher on this list is mostly do to Tyrone Power's hammy performance as the defendant.

9. An Affair to Remember (1957)
Being a woman, I had to include this film. I know it's sappy, but I cry every time I see the ending. Why is this film so great, though? What keeps people coming back to it despite its faults? Well, first of all Cary Grant breaks our hearts, especially in that final scene. The writing is really good. The script is witty and touching, and the music strikes all the right chords. Really the funny, charming beginning of the romance only highlights the tragedy that occurs in the middle and the glimpse of healing love we get at the end. Leo McCarey originally wrote this for Cary Grant and Irene Dunne back in 1939 but was unhappy with the result because he couldn't get Grant for the role. There's a lot of argument about the two films' comparative merits, but I like this one better because Grant does a much better job capturing our pathos, and since his character is the reformed rake, if that doesn't ring true for us, the rest of the film won't work.

8. North by Northwest (1959)
One of Hitchcock's most iconic films, North by Northwest follows the story of an innocent man who accidentally get implicated in a spy conspiracy, and must chase across the country to avoid their assassins. The two scenes that everyone remembers are the scene where Cary Grant gets chased by a crop-duster in a cornfield and the scene where he's hanging off Mt. Rushmore. It's certainly one of the best examples of the plotting and suspense for which Hitchcock is so rightly famous, but it falls down my list because Eva Marie Saint is such an abysmal actress in this film. She's just completely wooden, and it doesn't come off as being from her spy training. Also I feel like character is sacrificed in this in favor of action, and that's never something I can stomach. Still, it's a really good movie.

7.Some Like It Hot (1959)
I'm not much of a Marilyn fan, but I love this movie with Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis. People who don't think that guys and drag are funny have obviously never seen this film. After witnessing the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, two jazz musicians in 1920s Chicago go into hiding as women musicians bound for Florida. Situations just keep getting funnier as Tony falls for Marilyn and Jack finds himself with a rich suitor. We also get to see Curtis' famous Cary Grant impersonation when he pretends to be a millionaire in order to woo Marilyn but still maintain his female cover. "Well, nobody's perfect," it ends, and I'll leave you to find out why that line's so funny.

6. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Apart from making Passepartout Spanish instead of French, it's really a fairly good adaptation of Jules Verne's famous novella about a rich Englishman who embarks on a journey to go around the world in less than three months during the Victorian Era. David Niven is delightful as the punctilious and unflappable Phileas Fogg, and the film features the best array of cameos ever assembled. Old movie fans will be delighted to see Ronald Coleman, Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Buster Keaton, Ceasar Romero, Peter Lorre, Charles Coburn, John Mills, and countless other famous faces flit across the scene in bit parts. And it's just fun to see the characters go everywhere from Bombay to San Francisco and back.

5. High Noon (1952)
There's a lot of cliches in the western genre, but none more iconic than the showdown at high noon. Gary Cooper and Grace Kelley star in this classic gunslinger filmed in real-time. That's right: all the action in this two-hour film takes place in the two hours leading up to the duel at high noon. There's 5something poignant about this situation where everyone in town is too frightened to stand up and do the right thing except one man. Even Cooper's wife is opposed to his fighting because she's a Quaker.  But in the end, there are things worth fighting for and sacrifices worth being made, and this film affirms that so well that most other westerns pale in comparison.

4. Ben-Hur (1959)
This is probably the best movie of the epic genre that was popular in the '50s and early '60s. It is not, however, a particularly faithful adaptation of the novel by Lew Wallace. It won Best Picture, and Charlton Heston took home the Oscar for Best Actor on the strength of the compelling narrative and the sweeping ultra-widescreen in which it was filmed. The journey of Judah Ben-Hur from wealthy Jew to Roman Slave to nobleman, and ultimately from revenge to forgiveness for the false friend who betrayed him had captured imaginations of of people for it to be made twice as a silent movie, the latter of these by DeMille, but this is the one that most people remember. It certainly doesn't let us down in capturing the emotion of the character as well as a spectacular visual tour of the known world of the time. And then there's the chariot race. That scene has inspired countless homages including the pod race scene in Star Wars: Episode I, which is pretty much a moment-by-moment recreation of the scene, especially at the finale.

3. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

I've only recently discovered the brilliance of this film, but I don't hesitate to tout its merits. Sir Alec Guinness won an Oscar for his role as the ranking British officer in a Japanese POW camp, forced to build a railroad bridge in Thailand to aid the enemy. Guinness struggles to maintain dignity for himself and his men while forced to labor under inhuman conditions. At first he refuses to do the labor himself, since it's against the Geneva convention for officers to do manual labor, but eventually he decides to go along with it if only to help his men, and his example grants them a modicum of self-respect needed to survive. Meanwhile William Holden and a band of Allied saboteurs trek across hostile territory to destroy the bridge before it's completed. Truly a fascinating film about how two men on the same side of a war can each be doing the right thing yet end up fighting each other. It really challenges our notions of what duty and honor mean.

2. Rear Window (1954)
This is without a doubt my favorite Hitchcock film, and arguably his finest of the decade--although people make cases for Vertigo and North by Northwest. James Stuart plays an invalid who believes he witnessed the murder of one of his neighbors from his apartment window, but his evidence is purely circumstantial. Thelma Ritter steals the show as Stuart's wisecracking nurse, and Grace Kelly is devastatingly beautiful and spunky as his girlfriend. Perhaps what makes this film so good is that it's got so many subplots in the lives of the many neighbors on whom Jimmy Stuart spies. In order to appreciate these nuances, though, this  movie requires a large screen preferably with an HD setting,

1. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
What can I say that hasn't been said or that I didn't already say last week in my Top 10 Movie Musicals? It's the greatest musical ever made, it made the top 10 of AFIs 100 Greatest Movies of All Time both the original time and for the 10-year anniversary. In fact it got bumped up five slots when it was re-assessed. The dancing is beautiful, the songs are great, the script is corny but really entertaining, and Donald O'Connor is way too funny for his own good. Jean Hagen is unbelievable as Lina Lamont and really fun to imitate with her squeaky, nasal voice. I just want to reiterate once more, however, that Gene Kelly is an inferior dancer to Fred  Astaire because he makes his audience feel how hard his dances are instead of making them free and effortless as the best dancers do.

Best-of-the-Decade Series: The '40s

Surprisingly enough, a decade devastated by war still managed to put out some of the most memorable movies of all time. Despite many Hollywood notables enlisting in the great conflict and most of the films made during the war being rubbish, studio output at the beginning and end of the decade almost got back up to the brilliance of the '30s. There were even some good films made along with the propaganda fluff of WWII, though they were fewer and further between.

Please note that there were a lot more famous and really deserving films that didn't make the cut on this list, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate them. I am especially remiss about leaving out all the great Bogart and Bacall films, the best of which is The Big Sleep, and my favorite of which is the oft-overlooked  Dark Passage. My reason for leaving them off is because I tried to include at least one movie from as many genres as possible, though I did allow myself two Hitchcocks. It's also interesting to note that all these films were in black-and-white because not a lot of color films were made until the end of the decade, and

Honorable Mentions: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)/ Holiday Inn (1942)

James Cagney sings and dances? Really?!? Actually the famous tough guy got his start as a hoofer on the vaudeville circuits, and while he's no Fred Astaire--then again, who is, really?--he puts on a good show as the great American Broadway composer George M. Cohan, who gave us such songs as "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "You're a Grand Old Flag," and "Over There." Of course the story is completely fictional, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.

Meanwhile that very same year somebody had the idea to team up the greatest dancer of his generation Fred Astaire, with the greatest singer of his generation, Bing Crosby. The result was this charmer which introduced the song "White Christmas" to the world. Sadly despite the popularity of this movie Fred and Bing would only make one more picture together because Bing was too busy doing the "Road To" movies with Bob Hope.

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are lost in the Sahara Desert in
the opening to Road to Morocco.

Road to Morocco (1942)

Speaking of Hope and Crosby, "Like Webster's Dictionary, we're Morocco-bound!" in this film which is generally considered the best of their movies, and certainly one of my favorites. These are just some of the most wonderful comedies ever made because the two stars did a lot of improv and had heavy say in the script to start out with. There's no fourth wall, and references are made to things like Bob's lust for an Oscar, which Bing Crosby took home for his performance in Going My Way, another movie that should have made this list, but one that I will ask you to buy in the double feature package with Holiday Inn. Perhaps the most memorable part of this delightful film is the opening song where they sing about being on the road to Morocco and in another "Road To" film in general, with the memorable line, "I'll lay you eight-to-five that we'll meet [their co-star in all of the "Road To" movies] Dorothy Lamour."

And the winners.:

Pegasi frolic through Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony

10. Fantasia (1940)

My goodness! I actually put a Disney movie on this list. Before Disney became an evil empire, the founder Walt was actually capable of inspired thinking. He'd already done some short films in which animation is paired with classical music and no dialog, and spurred by the success of these, he went for a really daring, artistic experiment in which the animation would be inspired directly by the music. The final "Night on Bald Mountain"/"Ave Maria" sequence was so controversial that it was actually banned in several countries. Disney also highly offended classical music buffs by turning Beethoven's "pastorale" symphony into a Greek mythical picnic/orgy led by Bacchus himself. Apparently that was irreverent to the sacred cow of the classical world. I also have to admit that I never liked Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," but the creation of the world/dinosaurs theme works really well with it. I actually think that my favorite sequence is the fairy scene set to the Nutcracker Suite just because I'm overly fond of that piece of music like most ballet devotees.

9. Beauty and the Beast (1946)

What better way for the French to celebrate their independence than to make this spectacular version of the classic fairytale? It has a lot of subtlety in it's storytelling that Hollywood completely lacks. There are no bells, whistles, or amazing special effects. Instead it's just the story of a girl who falls in love with a beast, a story driven entirely by plot and character. Leave it to the French to give us Americans a lesson in beauty.

Gary Cooper as a dying Lou Gehrig gives his "Luckiest
Man" Speech with Babe Ruth (left) looking on.

8. The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

There were plenty of sports movies both before and after this, but few can touch our hearts as much as the tragically true story of Lou Gehrig, "the luckiest man on the face of the earth," played by Gary Cooper who greatly resembled the great Yankees slugger in real life. Perhaps what makes this movie so good is that it's more of a biopic than a sports film. Although it does chronicle the career of Lou Gehrig including the '27 Yankees' World Series and his consecutive game record, it also focuses heavily on Gehrig's relationship with his overbearing mother who wanted him to be an engineer and his spirited wife.

Great supporting roles go to Walter Brennan as Gehrig's reporter friend, and Babe Ruth as himself, a treat for all baseball fans. No one but Gary Cooper could have portrayed Gehrig's shy awkwardness in such an endearing light, and by the time he begins to succumb to the fatal disease that now bears his name, we shed genuine tears. Like so many other films on this list, the final scene of The Pride of the Yankees, as Gehrig makes his "Luckiest Man" speech with his wife sobbing in the background, and then he walks off the field painfully alone just as the umpire shouts "Play ball!"

7. Laura (1944)

I've already reviewed this movie, and I refer you to that for a detailed synopsis. Memorable performances by Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and horror king Vincent Price highlight this tale of a detective brought in to uncover the murder of Laura Hunt, a beautiful woman both inwardly and outwardly who had more foes that she deserved. The mystery is baffling, especially when Laura comes back from a long weekend to find the police camped out in her apartment and a dead body that everyone assumed was her.

6. Sullivan's Travels (1941)

One of my favorite underrated actors Joel McCrea stars with Veronica Lake in this gem of a comedy by Preston Sturges. McCrea plays a Hollywood director of light comedies that takes a pretentious turn and decides to make a film about the downtrodden and poor--something he knows nothing about. To learn about it, though, he sets off on an adventure to live as a hobo and experience it first-hand. Along the way he meets the charming and goofy Veronica Lake with whom he falls madly in love, as they struggle down the road together.

But things don't go exactly as Sullivan plans them, and he ends up in a pit of misery and despair with seemingly no hope until it comes to him from an unexpected source. Surprisingly deep and a great affirmation of the genre we all love, Sullivan's Travels is easily the best comedy of the decade.

5. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Humphrey Bogart and a whole assortment of shady characters including Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet hunt for "the stuff dreams are made of," in this adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel. Bogart plays a San Francisco detective with a shady past who finds himself in a tight spot when his partner is murdered. Suspicion immediately falls on Spade because he was having an affair with his partner's wife. In addition Spade must deal with a slick, lying damsel-in-distress who asks for his help and the men chasing her, trying to find the whereabouts of the Maltese Falcon, a treasure of the Knights Templar that has been missing for hundreds of years.

This film is the quintessential film noir detective story as done by two masters of the genre, novelist Dashiell Hammett and actor Humphrey Bogart. It's also the film that made Bogart into a legitimate leading man despite his less-than-glamorous looks, so it's safe to say that without this film, it's safe to say that there would have been no Casablanca the following year nor would there be the great films he made with Lauren Bacall late in the decade.

4. Notorious (1946)

Ingrid Bergman risks her life when she marries a Nazi in
order to spy on him in Notorious.

I only intended to put one Hitchcock on this list, but I found I simply couldn't choose between them because they are such different films. While Rebecca bears the marks of Hitchcock's genius direction, it's essentially a movie by its producer David O. Selznick, and while a great movie, one in which Hitchcock had very little artistic control. Notorious, on the other hand, is a quintessential Hitchcock film. It also has the further distinction of featuring the great director's favorite actor, Cary Grant, along with Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains.

Ingrid Bergman plays the daughter of a convicted Nazi spy who is hired by a handsome CIA agent (Cary Grant) to spy for the US against Nazi defectors in Rio. Although she is madly in love with Cary Grant's character and determined to give up her drinking and misbehaving for his sake, she doesn't get the chance to make good on her promise because the government wants her to seduce the leader of the Nazis in Rio. Claude Rains plays her victim who becomes so besotted with Bergman that he asks her to marry him. But a marriage between a spy and her target, especially when that target is the leader of a dangerous organization, is a ticking time bomb, and Cary Grant soon has his hands full extricating Bergman before the Nazis uncover her secret and deal with her treachery.

3. Rebecca (1940)

This movie also made my top film adaptations list because it sticks close to the book, which is one of my all-time favorites. Joan Fontaine captures our pathos as the young bride who gets in way over her head when she finds that her husband's estate is being psychologically haunted by the spirit of his first wife Rebecca. Joan Fontaine gives an Oscar-worthy performance as the second wife. Laurence Olivier is incredibly handsome and brooding as Maxim de Winter, whom--like Elizabeth Bennett with Mr. Darcy--I would definitely marry for his house except that it burns down at the end of the novel. The character who really steals the show, however, is Judith Anderson as the evil Mrs. Danvers, plotting for Rebecca to defeat the  newlywed couple from beyond the grave. For that performance she ranked #31 on the villain side of AFI's Heroes and Villains list.

James Stuart learns how wonderful life is with the help of his
guardian angel Clarence.

2. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

The late '40s boasted a slough of memorable Christmas movies, but this one tops them all, probably because Christmas is only a secondary concern to good storytelling. Only Frank Capra can tell a heartwarming American story like this, and he's at the top of his form using his good friend and favorite actor James Stuart as the lead.

If you haven't seen either this movie or the next one on my list, go shoot yourself or spend the next few hours amending that effrontery to good taste. Yes, I know that people have legitimately faulted the special effects in this movie and the spotty theology in the portrayal of angels, but those are minor concerns in my book. For  those of you who have been living in a cave all your lives, the story centers on a small-town businessman  named George Bailey who spends his whole life sacrificing his personal ambitions for the sake of others. On Christmas Eve one year a calamity occurs, and he finds himself about to his little all and contemplating suicide. Fortunately a novice guardian angel gives him a reason to keep on living by showing him how much worse off the world would be had he never been born.

The line that always gets me at the end of this movie is when George's younger brother comes in and gives a toast, "To my brother George, the richest man in town." I cannot keep a dry eye at that. Just to show the iconic status of this film, not only is it #11 on AFI's Top 100 Films of all time, but George Bailey is #9 on the Heroes list, and Mr. Potter is #6 on the Villains list.

The iconic picture from the greatest film of all time. "Well
always have Paris." And we'll always have Casablanca.

1. Casablanca (1942)

I strongly believe in the case for this movie being the greatest of all time. It certainly has the highest rating on IMDb of any movie, and the most famous quotes of any movie by a long shot. Apart from the memorable quips, however, this movie succeeds because of the very human dilemma faced by the three main characters, and the willingness of all three of them to be noble and sacrifice for each other. Humphrey Bogart's character Rick Blaine ranks #4 on AFI's Heroes list, behind only James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Atticus Finch.

There's also a slough of great performances by famous character actors like Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet, my favorite of which is Rains's show-stealer as the lascivious Captain Renault. And of course the ending, which took scriptwriters forever to get right, is probably the greatest of any movie ever. Really, this film has everything: action, romance, comedy, a jaded hero looking for a reason to fight, and of course the ultimate bad guys in the Nazis. Do I even need to mention "As Time Goes By"?

Best-of-the-Decade Special: the 1939 Bumper Crop

The burning of Atlanta provides the back-lighting for this
iconic kiss between Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and Scarlett
O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) in Gone with the Wind

1939 marked two major milestones in the history of Western Civilization: the outbreak of World War II in Europe, and the undisputed greatest year in movie history. Each of the ten films nominated for Best Picture that year would have taken home the Oscar had they been made any other year, but pitted against each other and the worldwide sensation that was Gone with the Wind, they did not get the acknowledgment they deserved. The ten nominated films themselves had stiff competition just for the spot at contention, with several four-star movies not even making the list.

As spectacular a year as it was for the movie industry, however, 1939 sadly marked the end of quality film-making for most of the '40s because of the devastation of the Second World War. This list, therefore, represents the swansong of a golden age of Hollywood production that shall never be equaled.

Had I added these films to my Best of the '30s list, they would have wiped out so many of the other great films made in the decade as to give the impression that Hollywood was a mediocre establishment until that year, which is simply untrue. For this special I shall exceed my limit of 10 to give you my choice of best movies from the greatest year in cinema history.

11. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

As with most adaptations of this novel, the ending does not stick with the downer that Victor Hugo originally wrote, but it certainly stay closer to the book than the Disney version. Charles Laughton shows his versatility as an actor by tackling the role of Quasimodo, imbuing the character, with innocence and intuition that make him incredibly sympathetic while his deformities still make him pathetically an outsider, almost a thing. Maureen O'Hara is breathtakingly lovely as Esmeralda, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as sinister a Frollo as ever graced the silver screen (and certainly more nuanced than his Disney counterpart). Surprisingly, too, Thomas Mitchell makes a great villain as Clopin.

10. Love Affair

If you haven't heard of this film, you've probably heard of the remake, 1957's An Affair to Remember. Director/writer Leo McCarey wanted Cary Grant for the romantic lead in this film alongside Irene Dunne, with whom he had already made the delightful comedy The Awful Truth. Grant, however, was unavailable, and McCarey had to settle with French actor Charles Boyer, whose delivery of the touching script lacked emotional depth, particularly in the memorable final scene. The movie endures mostly because of the strength of the story and the heartfelt performance of Irene Dunne. If you haven't see it, you should watch either the original or An Affair to Remember ASAP. I won't give away the plot.

9. Stagecoach

This film is generally credited with making John Wayne a star in the western movie genre. More than just a shoot-'em-up, this movie gives us a glimpse of the marginalized people in the frontier west such as Mexicans and prostitutes, as they ride beside the middle-class in a stagecoach. Other characters posses notable vices such as avarice, alcoholism, and obsessive vengeance, but in a pinch they prove their worth, with Thomas Mitchell nearly stealing the show as the drunken Doc Boone.

8. Ninotchka

In her only comedic role, Greta Garbo shines as a straight-laced Soviet commissar who succumbs to the beauty and capitalist decadence of Paris. While light and at times hilarious, it makes a biting commentary on the foibles of both capitalism and communism, including a hilarious scene with a letter from Paris that gets completely censored by the Soviet government. The movie was so popular that it was remade as a musical in the '50s with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charise, but while it's also enjoyable, the remake feels more like Cold War propaganda, despite a good score from Cole Porter.

7. Only Angels Have Wings

Probably the darkest of my choices, this film stars Cary Grant and Jean Arthur in a drama about the brutal life of American mail pilots in the Peruvian Andes. Cary Grant plays their leader, whose volatile profession makes him reticent to commit to a relationship with Jean Arthur's character. Great supporting roles by Rita Hayworth as the girl Grant left behind and Thomas Mitchell (noticing a pattern?) as a personable but over-the-hill pilot make this picture a movingly memorable.

6. Midnight

This film represents everything that's best about the screwball romantic comedy genre: it's smart, hilarious, and touching at the right moments. Cluadette Colbert sparkles as a would-be gold-digger hired by Mary Astor's husband (a memorable performance, as always, by John Barrymore) to seduce her lover away. Her plan goes horribly awry, however, when the humble taxi driver she loves shows up claiming to be her husband!

5. Gunga Din

Considered in retrospect to be the Star Wars of it's day, Gunga Din has everything a good action film should have: fun characters with heart, a sense of adventure with urgency, and really evil villains. That being said, we do get an idea from this movie about both the good and bad side of British imperialism in India, though it's understated, to be sure. As a woman, I have to admit that I take great pleasure in watching two incredibly handsome actors in this film: Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., both of whom give spirited performances as two very different characters.

4. Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Before school films such as Dead Poet's Society, Mr. Holland's Opus, and The Emperor's Club came into being, there was this superb Robert Donat film based on the novella of the same title. It chronicles the development of Mr. Chipping, an almost neurotically disciplined teacher at a British boarding school whose life is changed when he falls in love over a long holiday. The joy he experiences transforms him from one of the most hated to the most beloved teachers in school, and sustains him even through great tragedies. Like the great teacher movies that followed it, this movie is prevented from being sappy by the very human struggles and frailties of its characters. I dare you to keep a dry eye at the ending.

3. The Wizard of Oz

Although this is not a particularly accurate adaptation of the beloved children's book, the movie's iconic status is unquestioned. It made Judy Garland a star overnight, and went down as one of the greatest children's movies of all time. It was helped, of course, by a spectacular array of songs, great character actors such as Ray Bolger and Frank Morgan, and the famous sepia-to-Technicolor transition. With all that said, however, I find the Wicked Witch of the West a little too scary for young children, which is why it falls down my list both of 1939 movies and the greatest children's movies of all time.

2. Gone with the Wind

I am obliged to put the film that swept the Oscars that year in the #2 spot because I feel it's slightly overrated. Along with being one of the most iconic American films of all time, Gone with the Wind is also a surprisingly good adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's +1000 page novel, condensing it in

to about four hours, which was still an unheard-of length for a movie at that time. What Can I say about this film that hasn't been said? Of course they still had to cut a lot from the book, including Scarlett's children from her first two marriages, but the production still captures the essence of the novel to such an extend that we don't seem to mind very much. The four main characters are played to perfection by Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland, and even the supporting cast won Oscars for their incredible work, Hattie McDaniel being the first African-American to win an Oscar, and Thomas Mitchell taking home a statue for his entire 1939 oeuvre, basically.

1. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

James Stuart as Sen. Jefferson Smith finds out how politics
really works as his opponents manufacture public opinion.

Frank Capra commented in his autobiography that he had the misfortune to produce his magnum opus the same year as Gone with the Wind, but many in retrospect feel that he actually made the superior film. Edgy and controversial, Mr. Smith was very nearly banned for its honest portrayal of American politics. Both the media and politicians writhed at the negative light in which the film portrays them, but Americans outside those professions have always appreciated this glimpse at the truth.

In what is perhaps James Stuart's greatest role, he portrays a young idealist used as a patsy by his state's political machine. When Stuart's character finds out what's really going on in Washington, he tries to expose the truth, only to find out that with money and the media in their pocket, his opponents are the creators and absolute arbiters of truth (gee, does that sound like contemporary politics to anyone?).

Surprisingly, it's not Mr. Smith's courage and integrity that make him triumph in the end. He does not win by his own power or the power of the people at all. Instead the corruption topples only when one of its own conspirators has a change of heart. So in this movie political machines cannot be defeated by an ordinary American--that's a dark is a dark message indeed. Apart from wonderful plot and filming, this movie also gains from the incredible supporting cast of Jean Arthur as the Dulcinea to Stewart's Don Quixote (reference's to Cervantes' windmill-tilting hero are made throughout the movie), Claude Rains as the idealist who sold his soul to the devil, and Thomas Mitchell again as Arthur's cynical reporter boyfriend.

Best-of-the-Decade Series: The '30s (Minus 1939)

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced in 9 films
together during the 1930s

Although a terrible time for the rest of America, the 1930s were boom-times for the film industry both artistically and financially. With the dominance of the talkie and the advent of Technicolor, not only did filmmakers have a ton of new toys to play with, but they also had millions of struggling Americans clamoring for the escape which movies offered from their marginal existence. While many lament the creation of the Hayes Code as an act of censorship, I look on it as a challenge to filmmakers to use character and plot instead of mere titillation to hold the audience's attention, and they really pulled it off. Inside this matrix directors like Frank Capra and producers like David O. Selznick were at the height of their artistic powers. Talents like the Marx Brothers were imported from the New York stage, and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced their way into the world's heart.

I have a tremendous love for movies of the '30s, so much so that I am loathed to pick only 10 to represent such a dynamic decade. I've tried, therefore, to pick my favorite from each genre, and I have excluded the 1939 crop because they deserve their own category. So without further ado, a list of the top 10 movies of the 1930s, as deemed by the Supreme Arbitress of Taste

10. A Night at the Opera (1935)
For comedy I prefer the Marx Brothers over the Three Stooges any day. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx all have very different styles of comedy, as well as adding a musical element which the Stooges lack. People will make the argument for Duck Soup being the better Marx Brothers movie, but I take this one better because Harpo gets to play the harp, and we are favored with the superb singing talents of Allan Jones. I love opera, but it takes itself so seriously that it's just ripe for satire, and the Marx Bros. pull it of perfectly with the combination of Groucho's biting quips and Harpo's slapstick sabotage.

9. Showboat (1936)
Operettas were big in the '30s, and although Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy were the established stars of the film genre, the one I think is the most enduring operetta from the decade is the stellar adaptation of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's great American operetta, Showboat, featuring Irene Dunne and Allan Jones as star-crossed lovers, singing a score that features such classics as "Old Man River," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man of Mine," and "Only Make Believe (I love you)."

8. A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
David O. Selznick was the the best book-to-film adapter of the '30s, and Dickens was his favorite author. Ronald Coleman famously shaved his pencil-thin mustache in order to play the tragic hero Sydney Carton in this film. While Selznick's David Copperfield is the more famous adaptation, I think this is the superior adaptation. This stems from the fact that A Tale of Two Cities is a much shorter book, and thus adapting it into a 2-hour movie doesn't make it feel nearly as rushed or chopped-up as Copperfield does.

7. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Although it was remade with Marlon Brando twenty years later, Clark Gable is a much more likable and credible Fletcher Christian, and Charles Laughton plays one of his best roles as Captain Bligh. Despite Gable's lack of a British accent, his performance is charismatic enough to make us overlook it. I even forgive the anachronistic pencil-thin mustache because the movie is so good.

6. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Countless movie versions have been made of the Robin Hood legend, but none can top the 1938 Errol Flynn version. With a fabulous supporting cast including Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marion, Claude Rains as Prince John, and Basil Rathbone as Sir Guy of Gisbourne, this Technicolor extravaganza remains the quintessential Robin Hood film. This movie hits on all marks: funny when it's supposed to be, dramatic at the right moments, credibly romantic, and containing superbly filmed action sequences, including a sword fight between Flynn and Rathbone that showcases both actors' considerable skills.

5. Swing Time (1936)
As with my Marx Bros. pick, this Astaire/Rogers choice isn't as popular as their film Top Hat, but it features an equally impressive score, much better dancing, and a move away from the mistaken identity plot previously employed in Top Hat and The Gay Divorcee. Three songs became jazz standards: "Pick Yourself Up," "A Fine Romance," and "The Way You Look," and the dance number "Never Gonna Dance," is considered the finest routine they ever put together.

4. Bringing up Baby (1938)
The Baby of the title is a tame leopard who gives an overworked paleontologist and a ditsy heiress a run for their money. This movie is considered the quintessential screwball comedy, utilizing Cary Grant's considerable physical and verbal comedic skills. The elaborate conceits that Grant and Katherine Hepburn have to find their way out of have to be seen to be believed.

3. The Thin Man (1934)
Crime-solving couples were born back in the '20s with Agatha Christie's sleuthing duo Tommy and Tuppence, but Nick and Nora Charles were the first to make it to the silver screen. William Powell and Myrna Loy are delightful as they booze and bicker their way through a baffling murder. The tongue-in-cheek dialogue and chemistry between Powell and Loy were enough to spawn a litter of sequels, all of which are entertaining and the fist of which is as good as the original.

2. The 39 Steps (1935)
Alfred Hitchcock's first international hit is a comedic spy thriller about a man who accidentally involves himself in a spy conspiracy. The pacing of this movie is relentless enough so that the audience feels just as haggard as Robert Donat's character as he runs across Scotland trying to escape both the police and the foreign agents who want him dead. If you like this title, by the way, check out The Lady Vanishes, another early Hitchcock of similar brilliance.

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert hitchhike to New York in
one of the best films of the decade, It Happened One Night.

1. It Happened One Night (1934)
This extremely low-budget romantic comedy was the first movie ever to sweep the 4 major Oscars: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. It was also the first of three Best Director awards Frank Capra would garner during the decade. Clark Gable is at his most charming as a quick-witted out-of-work reporter helping an heiress (Claudette Colbert) escape from her overprotective father. The film also features the famous hitchhiking scene where Colbert hitches a ride by hiking up her skirt.