40s Curios
by dmkuehn | created - 15 Sep 2018 | updated - 29 May 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Gorilla Man (1943)
Passed | 84 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Commando Captain Craig Killian, carrying important military information, is wounded and taken to a hospital on the South Coast of England, operated by Doctor Joseph Wolf. The hospital is ... See full summary »
Director: D. Ross Lederman | Stars: John Loder, Ruth Ford, Marian Hall, Richard Fraser
Votes: 135
2. Forced Landing (1941)
Passed | 67 min | Adventure
On faraway Mosaque, an American pilot finds that he is in a desperate struggle with a military officer intent on sabotaging a local fort.
Director: Gordon Wiles | Stars: Richard Arlen, Eva Gabor, J. Carrol Naish, Nils Asther
Votes: 90
3. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron
Votes: 24,835
4. Hotel Reserve (1944)
Approved | 79 min | Thriller
A hunt for a spy, in an hotel in the South of France just before World War Two.
Directors: Lance Comfort, Mutz Greenbaum, Victor Hanbury | Stars: James Mason, Lucie Mannheim, Raymond Lovell, Julien Mitchell
Votes: 911
5. Confirm or Deny (1941)
74 min | Drama, War
Newsman Mitch and teletype operator Jennifer, whose job is to see he doesn't send inappropriate stuff out of the country, dodge bombs during the blitz of London while falling in love.
Directors: Archie Mayo, Fritz Lang | Stars: Don Ameche, Joan Bennett, Roddy McDowall, John Loder
Votes: 310
6. The Uninvited (1944)
Passed | 99 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
A composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house's unsavory past.
Director: Lewis Allen | Stars: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner
Votes: 12,462
7. It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Fantasy
A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy
Votes: 2,858
8. Reign of Terror (1949)
Approved | 89 min | History, Romance, Thriller
Robespierrre, a powerful figure in the French revolution, is desperately looking for his black book, a death list of those marked for the guillotine.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, Richard Hart, Arlene Dahl
Votes: 2,120
9. And Now Tomorrow (1944)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, Romance
A wealthy woman who lost her hearing to meningitis meets a doctor who is concocting a serum that will cure deafness.
Director: Irving Pichel | Stars: Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, Susan Hayward, Barry Sullivan
Votes: 469
10. Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill (1948)
Approved | 90 min | Drama
An elderly British schoolmaster is upset when a new teacher comes to the school and is an immediate success with the boys. The older man thinks he is not getting the respect he deserves.
Director: Lawrence Huntington | Stars: Marius Goring, David Farrar, Greta Gynt, Raymond Huntley
Votes: 237
11. To Each His Own (1946)
Approved | 122 min | Drama, Romance
An unwed mother, forced to give up her child to avoid scandal, follows her son's life from afar even as she prospers in business.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Olivia de Havilland, John Lund, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver
Votes: 3,024
12. Lure of the Sila (1949)
75 min | Drama
Returning home after a night of love spent in a woodman's hut with Orsola, Pietro is arrested by the police for a crime he did not commit. His mother and youngest sister, Rosaria, go to ... See full summary »
Director: Duilio Coletti | Stars: Amedeo Nazzari, Silvana Mangano, Jacques Sernas, Luisa Rossi
Votes: 133
13. The Walking Hills (1949)
Passed | 78 min | Adventure, Thriller, Western
A group of treasure hunters search for a wagon load of gold, buried years before in Death Valley.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Randolph Scott, Ella Raines, William Bishop, Edgar Buchanan
Votes: 1,116
14. Not Wanted (1949)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama
After a beautiful but unsophisticated girl is seduced by a worldly piano player and gives up her out-of-wedlock baby, her guilt compels her to kidnap another child.
Directors: Elmer Clifton, Ida Lupino | Stars: Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle, Leo Penn, Dorothy Adams
Votes: 938
15. Canyon City (1943)
Passed | 57 min | Western
Craig Morton, fronting for an eastern electric concern, and town banker Emerson Wheeler are scheming to gain control of a water-supply dam owned by local ranchers. The bank is to foreclose ... See full summary »
Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet | Stars: Don 'Red' Barry, Wally Vernon, Helen Talbot, Twinkle Watts
Votes: 12
16. Manpower (1941)
Passed | 104 min | Comedy, Drama
Two friends, who are members of a road crew employed by a Los Angeles power company, battle the elements to restore electrical power, and trade punches over the same woman.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, George Raft, Alan Hale
Votes: 1,699
17. Killer McCoy (1947)
Approved | 104 min | Drama
Following a mishap in the ring, hard-nosed lightweight Tommy "Killer" McCoy gets mixed up with a big time gambler and falls for his educated daughter Sheila, against her father's better wishes.
Director: Roy Rowland | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Brian Donlevy, Ann Blyth, James Dunn
Votes: 506 | Gross: $2.00M
18. Someone to Remember (1943)
80 min | Drama
An elderly woman whose son disappeared refuses to move when her apartment building is turned into a college dormitory, as she is convinced that he will return one day. She grows attached to a student whom she believes is her grandson.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Mabel Paige, Harry Shannon, John Craven, Dorothy Morris
Votes: 110
19. Conspirator (1949)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In Cold War London, young American Melinda Greyton marries British Army Major Michael Curragh, who is a Communist spy working for the Soviets.
Director: Victor Saville | Stars: Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Flemyng, Harold Warrender
Votes: 1,109
20. We Were Strangers (1949)
Approved | 106 min | Adventure, Drama, Film-Noir
In 1930's Cuba, a bank clerk and an American mercenary assist a revolutionary group in a plan to kill the President but the Cuban Secret Police chief and the dictator's military complicate the plan's execution.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendáriz, Gilbert Roland
Votes: 1,324
21. The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947)
Approved | 83 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
An obsessively bitter war widow and one of the men her husband saved in WW2 meet. He tries to convince her the sacrifice was necessary, but her problem isn't that simple. And can she help ... See full summary »
Director: Henry Levin | Stars: Rosalind Russell, Melvyn Douglas, Sid Caesar, Betsy Blair
Votes: 608
22. The Great Sinner (1949)
Approved | 110 min | Drama
In the 1860s, in the casino resort town of Wiesbaden, Germany, a reformed gambling addict, Pauline Ostrovsky, tenderly nurses the talented Russian writer Fedja, who is a physical wreck.
Directors: Robert Siodmak, Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston
Votes: 1,621
23. The Constant Nymph (1943)
Passed | 112 min | Drama, Music, Mystery
The daughter (Joan Fontaine) of a musical mentor (Montagu Love) is hopelessly in love with her cousin's husband (Charles Boyer), a handsome composer.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Brenda Marshall, Alexis Smith
Votes: 1,584
24. The Way Ahead (1944)
Approved | 91 min | Drama, War
World War II drama that follows a group of British draftees, starting with their rigorous basic training, and ending with their deployment in North Africa.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: David Niven, Stanley Holloway, James Donald, John Laurie
Votes: 2,223
25. Beyond Glory (1948)
Approved | 82 min | Drama
Thinking he may have caused the death of his commanding officer Captain Daniels in Tunisia, Rocky visits Daniels' widow. She falls for him, he falls for her, she encourages him to go to ... See full summary »
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Alan Ladd, Donna Reed, George Macready, George Coulouris
Votes: 296
26. Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (1948)
76 min | Comedy, Romance
A would-be playwright and a young woman escaping from a job at a gas station meet cute and fall in love.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Guy Madison, Diana Lynn, James Dunn, Michael Chekhov
Votes: 429
27. Smart Woman (1948)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A crusading district attorney, Robert Larrimore, butts heads in court with defense attorney Paula Rogers.
Director: Edward A. Blatt | Stars: Brian Aherne, Constance Bennett, Barry Sullivan, Michael O'Shea
Votes: 259
28. A Canterbury Tale (1944)
Not Rated | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price, John Sweet
Votes: 6,482
29. The Seventh Veil (1945)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Music
A concert pianist with amnesia fights to regain her memory.
Director: Compton Bennett | Stars: James Mason, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom, Hugh McDermott
Votes: 2,371
30. Night Unto Night (1949)
Approved | 84 min | Drama, Romance
A scientist afflicted with the incurable illness epilepsy, meets a beautiful woman haunted by the voice of her dead husband.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford, Rosemary DeCamp
Votes: 521
31. Youth on Trial (1945)
Approved | 59 min | Drama
A female juvenile court judge learns that her own daughter is one of the town delinquents.
Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Cora Sue Collins, David Reed, Eric Sinclair, Georgia Bayes
Votes: 23
32. A Guy, a Gal and a Pal (1945)
Passed | 62 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young woman devises a clever scheme to secure a train reservation by pretending to be married to a stranger.
Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Ross Hunter, Lynn Merrick, Ted Donaldson, George Meeker
Votes: 23
33. The Hard Way (1943)
Passed | 109 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Embittered, ambitious Helen Chernen sees an opportunity to escape her drab small-town life by becoming a 'stage mother' to her musically-talented younger sister.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Ida Lupino, Joan Leslie, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson
Votes: 1,493
34. I Take This Woman (1940)
Passed | 98 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A doctor (Spencer Tracy) marries a suicidal woman (Hedy Lamarr) but begins to doubt her fidelity.
Directors: W.S. Van Dyke, Frank Borzage, Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, Verree Teasdale, Kent Taylor
Votes: 715
35. Keeper of the Flame (1942)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, Mystery
Journalist Steve O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) wants to write a biography of a national hero who died when his car ran off a bridge. Steve receives conflicting reports and tales that make him question what the truth about the hero is.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Whorf, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 3,222
36. Edward, My Son (1949)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Romance
A businessman's desire to protect his corrupt son's fortune leads to tragedy.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Deborah Kerr, Ian Hunter, James Donald
Votes: 1,411
37. Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942)
Passed | 98 min | Drama, Romance
Cheated out of his estate by his sadistic uncle, young Benjamin Blake goes to the South Seas to make his fortune so he can return to claim his birthright.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, George Sanders, Frances Farmer
Votes: 1,829
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