In 1939,
Lou Gehrig’s streak of 2130 consecutive games played ended;
The University of Oregon won the first NCAA college basketball tournament;
Francisco Franco came to power in Spain;
Billie Holliday recorded “Strange Fruit;”
Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27;
Teddy Roosevelt’s head on Mount Rushmore was dedicated;
Germany invaded Poland;
President Franklin Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial;
Al Capone was released from Alcatraz;
Ferrari was founded;
Bobby Hull; Sal Mineo; Maury Povich; Phil Everly; Ray Stevens; Germaine Greer, Michael Cimino, Mike Farrell, Roberta Flack, Ray Manzarek, Tommy Tune, Brian Mulroney, Volker Schlöndorff, Ali MacGraw, Phil Niekro, Marvin Gaye, Francis Ford Coppola, David Frost, George Harrison, Seamus Heaney, Paul Sorvino, Dusty Springfield, Lee Majors, Judy Collins, Paul Gleason, Harvey Keitel, Ian McKellen, Paul Winfield, Dixie Carter, Dick Scobee, Brent Musburger, Al Unser, Michael J. Pollard, Cleavon Little, Dick Vitale, Lou Brock, John Negroponte, Wes Craven, Skip Caray, Valerie Harper, Carl Yastrzemski, Joel Schumacher, Lily Tomlin, George Lazenby, Richard Kiel, David Souter, Larry Linville, Paul Hogan, Ralph Lauren, Lee Harvey Oswald, F. Murray Abraham, John Cleese, Jane Alexander, Grace Slick, Margaret Atwood, Brenda Vaccaro, Tina Turner, Harry Reid, and Phil Spector were born;
While William Butler Yeats, Charles Eastman, Ford Maddox Ford, Sigmund Freud, Carl Laemmle, James Naismith, Douglas Fairbanks, and Ma Rainey died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite movies released in 1939:
10) Of Mice and Men
This film’s portrayal of a gentle giant who doesn’t know his own strength has seeped into our shared cultural consciousness.
It features world class performances from Burgess Meredith (George) and Lon Chaney Jr. (Lennie); their relationship has become the template for countless film pairings. Chaney would endear himself to many with his run in the Universal Horror films as the titular Wolf Man. Meredith’s storied career would span another fifty years and include memorable portrayals of the Penguin in the 1960s Batman TV series and Mickey in the Rocky films.
John Steinbeck built a career exploring the shattered dreams of the American working class during the Great Depression; this semi-companion piece to his seminal The Grapes of Wrath features as bleak an ending as you’re likely to see. George’s mercy killing of Lennie is understandable but perhaps not justifiable. We sympathize, but I’m unsure we can forgive him.
Charles Edward Chippng (Robert Donat) reminisces about his career at Brookfield Public School: especially the awkwardness of his early years, his wife, Katherine (Greer Garson) and their short, blissful union. Although his wife and child died in childbirth, Katherine’s gentle love and encouragement transformed him into a professor so beloved a cadre of his former charges demanded the school abandon plans to force him into retirement.
Robert Donat’s film career was short, but he’s wonderful here and Greer Garson is sublime in this beautiful film about purpose and growing into yourself. It’s a wonderful ode to teachers and a love song to the simple beauty in a job well done.
8) Beau Geste
The orphaned Geste brothers, Beau (Gary Cooper), Digby (Robert Preston), and John (Ray Milland), were adopted by the aristocratic Brandon family. After Lord Brandon announces plans to sell a valuable diamond heirloom (The Blue Sapphire), it’s stolen; Beau and Digby disappear, leaving behind competing confessions.
John tracks his wayward brothers to find they’ve joined the French Legionnaires. There, the siblings clash with the cruel Sergeant Markoff, who learns about the sapphire and plots to steal it for himself.
Eventually, Beau, John and Markoff are trapped in a fort under attack by Arab forces. They survive the assault, but Markoff’s attempt to acquire the gem has fatal consequences.
In a final twist, we learn Beau stole the gem, but it was a fake. Years ago, Lady Barton had sold the actual Blue Sapphire; unbeknownst to her, Beau witnessed the transaction. He stole the counterfeit to save her reputation.
Cooper, Preston, and Milland are wonderful as the three brothers in this lovely film about loyalty, honor, love, and the bond of brotherhood.
To prove himself to his vaudevillian parents, Mickey Moran (Mickey Rooney) recruits Patsy Barton (Judy Garland) to stage a Broadway style musical.
Mickey and Patsy fall in love; Martha Steele (Margaret Hamilton) tries to have the kids taken from their homes for nebulous reasons; movie star Baby Rosalie briefly joins the show, causing tension between Mickey and Patsy.
All of this is a flimsy excuse for Rooney and Garland to sing and dance. Their chemistry is pitch perfect, their energy infectious. Everything is delightful except for an awkward, jarring blackface scene which is hard to reconcile with contemporary attitudes, but this reminds us how prevalent such toxic ideas were less than a century ago.
6) The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums
In 1885 Japan, Kiku wants to continue his family’s tradition in the kabuki theater, but only Otoku, a female servant in his father’s household, believes in his talent, but his family dismisses her to discourage their union.
Kiku chooses Otoku, abandoning his family and continuing his training elsewhere. Years later, Otoku travels to Tokyo, begging Kiku’s brother to give him a chance to perform with the company. The family agrees on the condition Otoku will leave Kiku.
Kiku’s performance is a rousing success, but he’s devastated to learn he must sacrifice his love for his career to continue. He’s reluctant, but realizes if he doesn’t embrace this opportunity, Otoku’s sacrifice will have been for nothing.
After Kiku becomes a successful actor, he learns Otuku is dying of tuberculosis. His family does the right thing and lets him go to her, finally giving their blessing to their love, but she dies soon after their reconciliation.
This is heartbreaking film is amplified by the delicate, patient camerawork director Mizoguchi employs while the sexual dynamics of kabuki theater provide a counterpoint to the central relationship.
All of the later criticism is true: the film romanticizes the South, casting the Civil War as a last, heroic attempt to preserve and prolong a way of life. It simultaneously gave African Americans a vital role in a major creative work (winning Hattie McDaniel an Oscar), while portraying them as glorified household appliances.
From a young age, Scarlett is taught her beauty and charm are currency and, with little resources, uses her sex appeal to keep her station in life.
I love the first half and its closing line of defiance as Scarlett refuses to succumb to her circumstance.
I don’t care as much for the second half of the film. Scarlett’s relentless pursuit of Rhett is demeaning. At least Rhett responds in a human way to the unbearable loss of their child: he sees the reality of his life and takes small steps towards repentance.
Whatever you may think of its revisionist depictions of the causes of the American Civil War, the film’s portrayal of the conflict (in particular Sherman’s burning of Atlanta) is a searing depiction of the carnage of war.
4) Ninotchka
Three Russians arrive in Paris to sell the jewelry they pilfered during the Russian Revolution. Count Leon d’Algout (Melvyn Douglas) works for the original owner to retrieve the jewels, while the Soviet Union sends the titular Ninotchka (Greta Garbo) to acquire them and bring the men back for punishment. Despite their differences, the Count and Ninotchka fall in love.
There’s tons of sly commentary about communism vs. capitalism, which seems tame now, but was brazen in 1939.
Douglas is as suave as they come, and this, one of the few straight up comedies featuring Garbo, is fantastic, proving she’s a capable comedienne.
Written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo. It would have been surprising if this wasn’t awesome.
3) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
When US Senator Sam Foley dies, the governor chooses the naïve Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) as his successor.
The state’s senior senator, Joseph Paine (Claude Rains) mentors the overwhelmed Smith until the junior senator introduces legislation which would inadvertently ruin a corrupt land graft scheme involving Paine. At that point, the corrupt senator plots to destroy Smith’s reputation and career.
Fortunately, Smith’s secretary, Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), convinces the despondent new senator to fight, resulting in the most famous filibuster in American history.
Courageous and principled, Smith is the ideal political figure in the eyes of many and the role cemented Stewart as the prototypical American every man. In his storied career, he would occasionally play duplicitous and villainous characters, but will be remembered as pure hearted and straight like his character here.
Jean Arthur deserves all the praise. Her work with Capra in the second half of the 1930s is a master class in playing a romantic leading lady.
Claude Rains is well cast as the troubled senior senator. He’s an underrated actor, now almost exclusively remembered for Casablanca.
Capra’s film was initially accused of undermining American democracy, but, on the contrary, it takes a realistic view: people will use their political influence to enrich themselves. While this realization is unsettling, the film holds out hope this can be overcome by a commitment to principles and the truth. This is the promise of the American experiment.
2) Gunga Din
In the late nineteenth century, three British sergeants, MacChesney (Victor McLaglen), Cutter (Cary Grant), and Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) investigate a lost outpost where they encounter the long dormant Thuggee, a rebellious, indigenous group on the Indian subcontinent.
Among the local camp workers assigned to aid the group in their mission is Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe) who dreams of being a solider in the Queen’s army.
It’s a straightforward adventure tale, but the cast is incredible. Grant was coming into his own as the epitome of mid-twentieth century sophistication. McLaglen is a forgotten name, but was a reliable performer. Fairbanks never escaped the formidable shadow of his father; this was the best film of his career.
The best part of the film is Jaffe as the plucky would be hero. As the lens of cultural appropriation and political correctness sheds new light on once beloved relics, some have found Jaffe’s performance as an Indian who admires English culture problematic. However, shifting attitudes don’t diminish the artistry of the film. Gunga Din’s drive to be a hero and rise above his station is a universal desire and, regardless of the cultural implications, is a beauty to behold.
A lion, a scarecrow, a mechanical man.
Munchkins, a wicked witch, flying monkeys.
A magical, trans-dimensional tornado.
On paper, this sounds ridiculous, but, thanks to incredible performances, inventive use of color, upbeat songs, and a whimsical production design, it works.
Because of its annual showing on television during their formative years, baby boomers have developed a nostalgic love of the film, and Judy Garland has become an icon.
Most children’s films feel schizophrenic; trying to please two audiences with a smattering of more mature jokes aimed at presumably bored parents. This celebration of childhood imagination steadfastly refuses such pandering and is all the better for it.