BLACHEFAN

The Mark of Zorro (1940) Under Rouben Mamoulian's inventive direction, Tyrone Power plays Don Diego, son of a 19th-century Los Angeles governor who has been unseated by a mercenary despot and his sadistic captain, portrayed by Basil Rathbone. Convincingly foppish by day, Don Diego conceals his heroic alter-ego to avenge his father and the terrorized citizenry, carving his signature "Z" with his trusty sword as he goes. Mamoulian cleverly cuts in and out of scenes to heighten the drama and action as the film crescendos to a thrilling duel between Rathbone and Power.

Knute Rockne, All American (1940) Knute Rockne, who led Notre Dame University's "Fighting Irish" from 1918 to 1930, is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in college football history. His sudden, dramatic death in an airplane accident in 1931 triggered a national outpouring of grief comparable to the deaths of presidents. Based on personal papers and remembrances by family and friends, this biography of the coach, memorably played by Pat O'Brien, is considered less a factual document than a loving tribute to a man for whom many Americans felt a sentimental attachment. Ronald Reagan portrays player George Gipp who dies prematurely and prompts the screen Rockne to inspire his team with the often quoted line, "Let's win this one for the Gipper," a slogan Ronald Reagan would later adopt as a catchphrase during his presidency.

His Girl Friday (1940) Director Howard Hawks converts the 1931 buddy picture "The Front Page" into a fiery and funny battle of the sexes by casting one of its protagonists as a woman. Cary Grant plays the editor and ex-husband of hardboiled reporter Rosalind Russell whose impending marriage to Ralph Bellamy is sidetracked by a breaking news story. Hawks retains much of the dialog from the original play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and masterfully overlaps lines to great comic effect and a vibrant pace.

The Great Dictator (1940) Charlie Chaplin's first all-talking film gives the Little Tramp the opportunity to mix politics with comedy while he stars in a dual role as a Jewish barber and as dictator Adenoid Hynkel. Hynkel despises all Jews and regularly wreaks havoc on the Tomanian Jewish ghetto where lives the little barber and the feisty Hannah (Paulette Goddard) with whom he has a fond friendship. Outraged that a Jewish banker has refused to finance his impending war with Austerlitz, dictator Hynkel begins bearing down heavily on the ghetto. Near the end of the film, when the dictator is expected to make another one of his hate-filled, war-mongering speeches, the barber steps up to the microphones and, out of character and as himself, Chaplin delivers an impassioned plea for peace and tolerance. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/great_dictator.pdf

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) John Ford's Oscar-winning depiction of Okies flocking to California in droves during the Depression was based on John Steinbeck's best seller. Seen by many as more "respectable" than Ford's later westerns, but Gregg Toland's stark photography and Henry Fonda's memorably penetrating performance as hero Tom Joad elevate it to American artistry.

Fantasia (1940) Disney studios' most ambitious animated feature, "Fantasia" integrates famous works of classical music with imagery that ranges from dancing hippos to abstract geometrics as it endeavors to combine high art with mass culture. Among the combinations of sight and sound – some kitschy, others more elegant – are an abstract representation of J.S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor"; a performance of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" danced by flowers and fairies; and an irreverent treatment of Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony." The film's most famous segment, Paul Dukas's "Sorcerer's Apprentice," stars Mickey Mouse (the last time Walt would voice his creation) as a goldbricking assistant undone by a magic hat. A commercial failure initially, the film's popularity has grown steadily over the decades with subsequent re-releases and video sales.

Down Argentine Way (1940) Betty Grable and Don Ameche discuss their horseracing prospects. Library of Congress Collection. Betty Grable's first starring role in a Technicolor musical happened only because Alice Faye had an attack of appendicitis, but Grable took advantage of the situation and quickly made herself as important to 20th Century-Fox as Faye. Released just over a year before America entered World War II, this film and others starring Grable established her as the **** queen. The title explains much, with Grable traveling to South America and falling in love with Don Ameche. Carmen Miranda makes her American film debut, and the Nicolas Brothers' unparalleled dance routines dazzle. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/down_argentine.pdf

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) Although there were numerous women filmmakers in the early decades of silent cinema, by the 1930s directing in Hollywood had become a male bastion—with one exception. Dorothy Arzner graduated from editing to directing in the late 1920s, often exploring the conflicted roles of women in contemporary society. In "Dance, Girl, Dance," two women (Lucille Ball and Maureen O'Hara) pursue life in show business from opposite ends of the spectrum: burlesque and ballet. The film is a meditation on the disparity between art and commerce. The dancers strive to preserve their own feminist integrity, while fighting for their place in the spotlight and for the love of male lead Louis Hayward. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/dance_girl_dance.pdf

Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940 (1940) This selection of field recordings made by a pioneering ethnographic film team led by anthropologist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston. This amazing footage is especially worthy of recognition because synchronous sound recordings were made capturing singing, instrumental music, sermons, and religious services among this South Carolina Gullah community. These audio recordings have recently been rediscovered and are being reunited with the film footage. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/commandment_keeper_church.pdf

The Bank Dick (1940) Bank guard W.C. Fields is outwitted by would-be robbers Al Hill and Dick Purcell. Library of Congress Collection. Perhaps more than any other film comedian in the early days of movies, W.C. Fields is an acquired taste. His absurdist brand of humor, at once dry and surreal, endures for the simple reason that the movies bear up under repeated viewings; in fact, it's almost a necessity to watch them over and over, if only to figure out why they're so funny. In his second-to-last feature, The Bank Dick (which he wrote under the moniker "Mahatma Kane Jeeves"), Fields as unemployed layabout Egbert Souse -- Soosay, if you don't mind -- replaces drunk movie director A. Pismo Clam on a location shoot in his hometown of Lompoc, California before chance lands him in the job of bank detective -- after which the movie becomes a riff on the comic possibilities of his new-found notoriety. The stellar comic supporting cast includes future Stooge Shemp Howard as the bartender at Fields' regular haunt, The Black ****, and Preston Sturges regular Franklin Pangborn as bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/bank_dick.pdf

Rebecca (1940) Courtesy of Walt Disney Co. "Rebecca," Daphne du Maurier's most famous book ("Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…"), found its perfect cinematic interpreter in Alfred Hitchcock, here directing his first American motion picture. Powerhouse producer David O. Selznick had just imported the "master of suspense" from his native England. Laurence Olivier stars as Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine in her breakthrough role co-stars as Maxim's new (and never given a first name) wife. However, it is two other women who dominate the film—the intimidating housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (played by Judith Anderson) and the film's title woman, the deceased first Mrs. de Winter whose powerful shadow still hangs heavily over this great estate and all its inhabitants. Winner of the Oscar for best picture that year, "Rebecca" is stylish, suspenseful and a classic.

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) Director John Ford had a banner year in 1939 with the release of the iconic Western "Stagecoach," the technicolor extravaganza "Drums Along the Mohawk," and the folksy "Young Mr. Lincoln." The Oscar-nominated original story by Lamar Trotti spotlights the future president's early years as a clerk eager for learning, then as a pragmatic lawyer trying his first court case. Ford guides Henry Fonda in his most significant role up to that point, and the two would work together six more times during their careers.

Wuthering Heights (1939) William Wyler directed Laurence Olivier in the role of Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Cathy in this abbreviated adaptation of Emily Brontë's her first and only published novel. Producer Samuel Goldwyn always claimed credit for the film, reportedly once saying: "I made "Wuthering Heights;" Wyler only directed it." Gregg Toland's deep-focus cinematography deftly creates the moody, ethereal atmosphere of haunted love in a film acclaimed as one of cinema's great romances.

The Women (1939) Probably no movie in history has combined more leading Hollywood ladies (Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine) without, as advertising noted, "a man in sight." Yet "It's all about men." Based on the hit play by Clare Boothe Luce, "The Women" explores the new options open to women with the possibility of divorce, following several intertwining paths to the courts in Reno. The characters learn of the various affairs and entanglements of their husbands with others, and are forced to decide between "freedom" and surrendering pride for love. "See them with their hair down, and their claws out!" promised MGM, and delivered. George Cukor secured his reputation as a women's director with this movie.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) A genuine American classic, the film is based on L. Frank Baum's story of a little girl from Kansas who dreams of a better life somewhere "Over the Rainbow" and discovers a magical world of mysterious creatures. Outstanding performances — particularly by Judy Garland — fanciful sets and an unforgettable score by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg combine to create cinema perfection. The expanded essay is below the description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/wizard_oz.pdf

Verbena tragica (1939) In the early years of sound motion pictures, studios often filmed foreign language versions of American productions. Some utilized subtitles, others were dubbed. In some cases, American stars spoke foreign dialog from a script written phonetically on a blackboard just off camera. More commonly, however, the films featured an entirely different cast. Spanish-language productions were the most common of these alternate versions, thanks to sizeable Latino audiences in Los Angeles and other metropolitan markets, as well as those in Latin American countries. Directed by Charles Lamont and starring Spanish-born actress Luana Alcañiz and Mexican star Fernando Soler, this melodrama surrounds a boxer, released after eight months in jail, who comes home to a recently pregnant wife. Produced at low-budget Columbia studio, "Verbena tragica" was unusual for the multi-version formula in that an English-language version was never made, most likely due to the film's themes of adultery and revenge. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/verbena_tragica.pdf

Tevye (1939) Loosely based on stories by renowned Jewish writer Sholom Aleichem (whose work also inspired the stage play and motion picture "Fiddler on the Roof"), "Tevye" (also known as "Tevya" and Tevye der Milkhiker") is the story of a Jewish Ukranian milkman, his wife and their daughters, one of whom falls in love and marries the son of a Christian peasant. Tevye's paternal love causes tremendous inner conflict with his devout faith and loyalty to tradition, a foreshadowing of the growing conflict between Russian Christians and Jews in the early 1900s. The Yiddish language film was written and directed by and starred Maurice Schwartz who had performed the role of Tevye on stage two decades earlier. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/tevye.pdf

Stagecoach (1939) Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border was one of director John Ford's favorite locations for filming the western films that would come to define his career. With "Stagecoach," Ford forged a model for Westerns (and film drama as a whole) that would last well into the 21st century. A cast of outstanding performers including Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell in an Academy Award-winninger turn, and John Wayne in the role that would jetison him to stardom, portray passengers traveling across dangerous Indian territory by stage. Groundbreaking stunt work by Yakima Canutt contribute to action sequences that inspired countless filmmakers. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/stagecoach.pdf

Ninotchka (1939) In this sparkling romantic comedy, when a beautiful Soviet emissary (Greta Garbo) is sent to Paris on state business, she discovers how the charms of Paris and Melvyn Douglas can melt even the most stoic Soviet, and jeopardizes both national honor and her career. Garbo personifies director Ernst Lubitsch's sophistication and style, delivering dialog cooked up by Billy Wilder and partner Charles Brackett to reveal that the Swedish actress is not only a consummate dramatist, but that, in fact, "Garbo Laughs!" as the ads touted. A trio of Russian delegates played by Sig Rumann, Felix Bressart, and Alexander Granach deliver some of Wilder and Brackett's most satirical lines.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Engaging slice of Americana by director Frank Capra stars Jimmy Stewart as a junior senator disheartened by the corruption he finds in Washington. Bolstered by support from Jean Arthur and Thomas Mitchell, Stewart's Mr. Smith fights back on behalf of his home state constituents. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/mr_smith.pdf

Midnight (1939) Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche and John Barrymore light up the screen in this Mitchell Leisen romantic comedy. Liesen is often described as a "studio contract" director—a craftsman with no particular aesthetic vision or social agenda who is efficient, consistent, controlled, with occasional flashes of panache. Leisen's strength lay in his timing. He claimed he established the pace of a scene by varying the tone and cadence of his voice as he called "ready...right...action!" This technique served to give the actors a proper "beat" for the individual shot. In addition to Leisen's timing, "Midnight" also boasts a screenplay by the dynamic duo of Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. Hilarity ensues when penniless showgirl Colbert impersonates a Hungarian countess, aided by the aristocratic Barrymore, until, despite her best efforts, she falls for a lowly taxi driver (Ameche) —all this amidst a Continental sumptuousness abundant in Paramount pictures of that era. The staggering number of exceptional films released in 1939 has caused this little gem to be overlooked. However, in its day, the New York Times called "Midnight" "one of the liveliest, gayest, wittiest and naughtiest comedies of a long hard season." Reportedly unhappy with Leisen's script changes, Wilder found the motivation to assert more creative control by becoming a director himself. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf

The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939) Produced by Westinghouse for the 1939 World's Fair, this industrial film is a striking hour-long time capsule that documents that historic event within a moralistic narrative. Shot in Technicolor, the film follows a fictional Indiana family of five (mom, dad, son, daughter and grandma) as they venture from grandma's quaint house in Long Island to the fair's popular pavilions. The whole family enjoys the gleaming sights, especially the futuristic technologies located in the Westinghouse Pavilion (including something called "television"). While the entire family is affected by the visit, none are changed so much as daughter Babs (played by a young Marjorie Lord), who eventually sours on her foreign-born, anti-capitalistic boyfriend in favor of a hometown electrical engineer who works at the fair. Both charming and heavy-handed, "The Middleton Family" provides latter-day audiences with a vibrant documentary record of the fair's technological achievements and the heartland values of the age. The expanded essay is below the description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/middleton_family2.pdf

Marian Anderson: the Lincoln Memorial Concert (1939) When Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. refused to allow African American contralto Marian Anderson to perform in its whites-only venue in early 1939, a chain of events led to one of the most celebrated live musical performances in American history: the venue was the Lincoln Memorial and the date Easter Sunday, 1939. An estimated 75,000 people gathered to hear Anderson perform selections including gooseflesh-inducing renditions of "America" and "Ave Maria." The event was broadcast live nationally by the NBC blue radio network, and covered, in part, by several news services. The Registry entry consists of excerpts from a Hearst newsreel story titled "Nation's Capital Gets a Lesson in Tolerance."

Gunga Din (1939) George Stevens directed this adventure epic suggested by the Rudyard Kipling poem. Its screenplay was the brainchild of Joel Sayre, Fred Guiol, and the writing team of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. star as eternally brawling British sergeants in colonial India, with Sam Jaffe as their faithful Indian water bearer, Gunga Din. Grant and McLaglen scheme to keep Fairbanks in the army after he's announced his intentions to retire and marry the lovely Emmy (Joan Fontaine) in a scenario curiously reminiscent of the earlier Hecht-MacArthur collaboration "The Front Page." As the sergeants scheme to keep the trio together, they're tasked with quelling a revolution by a fanatical religious cult. To prove his worthiness to become the regiment's trumpeter, water bearer Gunga Din bravely comes to the rescue.

Gone With the Wind (1939) As one of the most popular and influential American films produced, "Gone With the Wind" remains possibly the definitive example of filmmaking in the Hollywood studio era. More than seven decades after its release, David O. Selznick's production coupled with Margaret Mitchell's best-selling story still has the power to enthrall audiences. A rich score by Max Steiner and top performances from Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel and Clark Gable add to the film's indelibility. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/gwtw.pdf