Reviews

Whenever director Cecil B. DeMille's name appeared on theater marquees, long lines snaked out the doors. His newest film, a Technicolor extravaganza, October 1940 "North West Mounted Police," was no exception. With Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard and Madeleine Carroll, the Canadian setting enticed enough viewers to make it one of Paramount Pictures' top movies in 1940.

"North West Mounted Police's" premier in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, drew rave reviews, including Variety gushing the "scripters weave a story which has its exciting moments, a reasonable and convincing romance." Adapted from R. C. Fetherstonhaugh's 1938 'The Royal Canadian Mountain Police,' this sprawling blockbuster was the first complete Technicolor picture for DeMille as well as for actor Gary Cooper. Technicolor's vivid crisp look, especially the red uniforms of the Canadian Mountain Police, gave the director a new dimension to work with.

"North West Mounted Police" takes place during Canada's North-West Rebellion in 1885, involving 200 indigenous people from the Metis Indian tribe, led by discontented Louis Riel. The protest culminated in a military confrontation between Canadian police and the natives. Amidst the battle scenes in DeMille's picture was romance galore, with Mountie Ronnie Logan's (Robert Preston) affair with mixed Indian Louvette Corbeau (Paulette Goddard). Meanwhile, Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers (Cooper) is caught in the middle of the rebellion while chasing wanted criminal Jacques Corbeau (George Bancroft), who happens to be the rebel leader North West Mounted Police Sergeant Jim Brett (Preston Foster) wants to apprehend. Both Jim and Dusty find themselves vying for the attention of nurse April Logan (Madeleine Carroll).

"North West Mounted Police" was the second straight Western Cooper appeared, but was his last until after World War Two. Joel McCrae, the original choice to play Dusty, traded places with Cooper, who didn't want to be in Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 "Foreign Correspondent," a decision he later regretted. Paulette Goddard was an unlikely choice to play Corbeau's flighty half-Indian daughter since DeMille was seriously considering Marlene Dietrich and Vivien Leigh among others. Goddard stepped into DeMille's office dressed in Indian garb and spoke pidgin English, impressing the director so much she received the part with the caveat she wear high heels.

There were critics of the film, including Leonard Maltin, saying "North West Mountain Police," is a "superficial tale of Texas Ranger searching for fugitive in Canada. Much of the outdoor action filmed was on obviously indoor sets." Harry Medved's 1978 book 'The Fifty Worst Films of All Time' lists the DeMille epic in his book, although a number of film scholars discount the author's work as not worth reading.

"North West Mountain Police" was nominated for five Academy Awards, for Color Art Direction, Color Cinematography, Original Musical Score (Victor Young) and Best Sound Recording, winning Best Editing (Anne Bauchens).

Revisionist Westerns, where the anti-hero emerged in such movies as directed by Sergio Leone, saw its early beginnings in September 1940 "The Westerner," introducing a new slant to the gritty genre. The milestone film, starring Gary Cooper, lent a psychological twist to the normal good guy/bad guy roles blurring its heroes and villains to become interchangeable.

At the core of "The Westerner" is the relationship between drifter Cole Harden (Cooper) and Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan). Film reviewer Jeff Arnold wrote director William Wyler "thought it was essentially a story of a needling love/hate relationship between Harden and Bean." Wyler himself said of the movie, "There was subtle comedy in there." Wyler's biographer Jan Herman observed the "critics agreed that Wyler had made something unusual, a horse opera that subverted the genre's conventions. It had shoot-outs, cowboy chases, an epic range war and a spectacular fire. But it was also an intimate character study filled with comic overtones about the peculiar friendship between a hanging judge and the mild-mannered drifter who outfoxes him."

When Cooper read the initial script of "The Westerner" he refused the role. "You can't make a western without a gunfight," he told producer Samuel Goldwyn, whom he was under contract. The actor also protested his Cole Harden played second fiddle to Brennan's Judge Roy Bean. After bringing in another screenwriter to spice up the action scenes and elevate Harden's presence, Cooper still wasn't happy. Goldwyn reminded the actor he had spent $400,000 on the production so far, and without Cooper the film would flail at the box office. The persuasive lobbying finally brought Cooper around.

The director appreciated Cooper's acting, even though the actor labeled Wyler years later as "a laborious plodder with an inflated reputation." Wyler, the director of such classics as 1959's "Ben Hur," paid Cooper an ultimate complement when filming wrapped on "The Westerner." "If you tell Gary that here, after this line, is a chance for a funny look, he'll get the idea," said Wyler. "He'll do something with that look that no one else can do." Wyler's wife Talli observed the actor on the set and related, "Cooper would do a scene, and it looked like nothing. He just seemed to stand there like a block of wood. The next night, I'd go to view the rushes. It was incredible. Everything showed in his face. It was all there. He had something special with the camera, really extraordinary."

Despite the elevated status of the movie's Cole Harden, it is Walter Brennan's role as the Judge which dominates "The Westerner." Harden is brought before the judge at his saloon where he holds court for horse stealing. The two establish a certain bond despite Roy Bean enforcing a hanging sentence meted out by the judge's drinking customers as the jury. A mutual admiration for British entertainer Lily Langtry, whom in real life Judge Bean renamed the town he was practicing, links the unusual friendship between the jurist and the drifter. When the actual horse thief turns up, Harden is given a two week reprieve to retrieve a tuft of Lily's hair he claims he possesses. Meanwhile, Harden is caught in a war between the ranchers and the cattlemen who want to drive their livestock through ranch land, whom the judge favors. The drifter meets Jane Ellen Mathews (Doris Davenport), a rancher's daughter, and both fall head-over-heels with one another.

Brennan won his third Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the judge, snaring three Academy Award wins in five years. Back in the day film extras had the power to vote in the Academy's awards, and Brennan was a particular favorite for many of those seen in the background. They came out in force when he won for his acting in 1936's 'Come and Get It' and 1938's 'Kentucky." Brennan was somewhat embarrassed by the process when he won his third Oscar, the most of any actor at the time. After the awards ceremony, the Academy stripped the union members representing film extras the right to vote, resulting in Brennan never earning another Oscar.

"The Westerner" was the film debut of Forrest Meredith Tucker, known as television's Sergeant Morgan O'Rourke in 'F Troop.' The Plainfield, Indiana native moved near Washington D. C. as a teenager, graduating from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. Always an entertainer, Tucker dabbled in vaudeville and stage acting before a Hollywood screen test stereotyped him in the large "ugly guys" category in the vein of Wallace Beery and Victor McLaglen. Tucker is seen as the farmer in "The Westerner" who has a monumental fist fight with Cooper.

Assisting Wyler was cinematographer Gregg Toland, a deep focus expert which particularly came in handy filming the spectacular crop fire sequence ignited by the cattlemen. Wyler called Toland "an artist," who shortly helped rookie director Orson Welles in his 1941 classic "Citizen Kane."

Director Anatole Litvak loved to place his camera and actors in constant motion while filming September 1940 "City For Conquest." He failed to appreciate how difficult it was for actors to stop exactly where their marks were laid out on the floor while walking and speaking their lines at the same time. Litvak's instructions to his cameraman, James Wong Howe, consisted of complex dollying and panning shots all the while framing the actors going in all directions. The rehearsals were long and brutal largely because of all the movement, causing friction on the set, especially in the high strung star of the movie, James Cagney.

Actor Elia Kazan remembered Cagney taking subtle command of the set despite Litvak's volatile temperament. In one instance, Kazan recalled Cagney sporting a make-up scar over one eye for the movie after a boxing scene. "Toward the end of the afternoon, Cagney, whose contract specified that he was through at five-thirty, would look at his watch, and if, in his opinion Cagney's, not Tola's (Litvak's nickname), not the cameraman's, there wasn't enough time to get the shot the electricians were preparing, Jimmy would pull off the scar and so bring the day's work to a close. He'd walk off the set without a word to Litvak."

The two never got into blows with one another, which is probably a good thing for the director since Cagney was a former New York State lightweight boxer runner-up. His talent in the sport came in handy since he plays Denny Kenny, a truck driver who won the state's Golden Glove title. Denny's brother Eddie (Arthur Kennedy in his film debut) is an aspiring composer lacking money to put himself through music school. Even though he harbors a dislike for boxing, Denny forces himself into the ring to earn tuition money for Eddie. Meanwhile, Denny's girlfriend Peggy Nash (Ann Sheridan) dreams of a professional dancing career and wins a local contest with accomplished dancer Murray Burns (Anthony Quinn), who entices Peggy to take lessons from him. Denny becomes insanely jealous of the pair's closeness and calls off his wedding with her. Peggy eventually regrets her decision to stick with Murray as the dancer becomes abusive. Frank Craven reprises his role of a narrator in "City From Conquest' similar to his part in 1940's "Our Town," this time as a tramp who talks onto the camera while praising the merits of New York City.

The Worcester, Massachusetts native Arthur Kennedy, 26, was one of many of talented Group Theatre actors in New York City making their way to Hollywood. He moved to Los Angeles in 1938 to act on the stage there when Cagney saw him and recommended Warner Brothers hire him as his brother for "City For Conquest." Kennedy became one of Hollywood's more active lead and character actors for the next fifty years. Anthony Quinn and he were in four movies together, including 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia." When actor Edmond O'Brien suffered a heart attack while filming scenes in the David Lean-directed desert epic, Quinn recommended Kennedy as his replacement.

"City For Conquest's" Elia Kazan as gangster Googi Zucco marked his first movie appearance. The Turkish-born Kazan immigrated to the United States at four and later graduated from the Yale University School of Drama. He joined the Group Theatre as an actor in 1932, and directed his first play in the mid-1930s. Kazan learned some valuable lessons in screen acting from Cagney while working on the film. In his autobiography Kazan wrote, "Jimmy was a completely honest actor. I imagine he'd have figured out each scene at home, what he'd do and how he'd do it, then come to work prepared. But what he did always seemed spontaneous. Jimmy didn't see scenes in great complexity; he saw them in a forthright fashion, played them with savage energy, enjoyed his work."

Film reviewer Patrick Nash observed that "Cagney worked out hard to get in shape for this picture and it shows. At 40 this would be the last time he realistically pulled off playing a 'young' man."

Millionaire John D. Rockefeller Jr, who had spent over a decade reconstructing Colonel Williamsburg in Virginia, offered Columbia Pictures the use of the newly restored historic grounds for the studio's September 1940 "The Howards of Virginia." The tight-fisted head of the studio, Harry Cohn, readily agreed. The exteriors of the Revolutionary War era film serve as a time-capsule of how 'the world's largest living history museum,' including the colonial Capitol, Raleigh Tavern, and the Governor's Palace appeared in the early 1940s. The offer saved Cohn a tremendous amount of money on a film Columbia's president felt added to his studio's patriotic messages he felt his movies needed to send out with the United States facing the very real prospect of fighting in the European war.

Actor Cary Grant yearned to become an American citizen in the country he had lived in since arriving from his native England as a teenager. Cohn convinced the free-lancing actor to take the role of Matt Howard, a backwoodsman who sells his family's farm in the East to move to Ohio, so Grant could improve his chances of U. S. citizenship in the face of a ton of applicants flooding the State Department. The actor did receive his naturalized United States citizenship in June 1942. In "The Howard's of Virginia," Matt's plans to move to Ohio are thwarted when his friend Thomas Jefferson (Richard Carlson) convinces him to buy a 1,000 acre farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley after Howard falls in love with Jane (Martha Scott), whose brother is royalist Fleetwood Peyton (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). A quickie marriage between Matt and Jane creates unbearable tension when her brother, loyal to England's cause, locks horns with the colonial American patriot Matt and his friend Tom Jefferson.

The decision to make an anti-British movie was one Columbia Pictures soon regretted when its release coincided with the German Luftwaffe bombing of England in the beginning stages of the Battle of Britain. Grant, 36, was remorseful in appearing in "The Howards of Virginia," portraying a rebel fighting the British, and was especially morose over some of the scathing reviews the movie received. The actor was in the middle of his most robust year in film in 1940, appearing in "My Girl Friday," "My Favorite Wife" and the soon-to-be released "The Philadelphia Story" with Katherine Hepburn. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times noticed in Grant's acting "There is a familiar comic archness about his style which is disquieting in his present serious role, and he never quite overcomes a bumptiousness which is distinctly annoying." The reviews were the most critical in his thirty-five years of acting. Grant was most upset with Cohn, finding himself miscast in the film, and vowed he would never be in another historic-period movie again. However, seventeen years later a more mature Grant found himself in the Napoleonic-era war film 1957's "The Pride and the Passion" with Sophia Loren.

Despite such harsh contemporary reviews, today's critics find the historical aspects of "The Howards of Virginia" intriguing since it's one of a select few Hollywood movies about the Revolutionary War. Writes film reviewer Jonathan Lewes, the motion picture is "a significant entry in Grant's early film career and a surprisingly gritty portrayal of soldiering during the campaign for American independence."

Alfred Hitchcock had just relocated to the United States when his native England became embroiled in its conflict with Germany. On the heels of his Oscar-winning Best Picture "Rebecca," the director's second Hollywood film was August 1940 "Foreign Correspondent," a white-knuckled thriller in Great Britain and the Netherlands in the months leading up to World War Two. After filming wrapped in June 1940, Hitchcock journeyed to England to check on his family and friends. He told the movie's producer Walter Wanger the country was expected to be bombed by the Germans any day, igniting the aerial Battle of Britain. Hearing Hitchcock's prediction Wanger corralled writer Ben Hecht to rewrite the movie's conclusion. The new ending has newspaper reporter John Jones (Joel McCrea) read a dispatch to his stateside radio audience "to keep those lights burning" as bombs are heard in the background. It was a brilliant revision since the actual air raids in England began shortly after the scene was edited into the film.

Hitchcock was loaned out by his contracted boss David O. Selznick to Wagner Productions for "Foreign Correspondent," nominated for the Academy Awards Best Picture. Wanger bought the film rights to journalist Vincent Sheean's 1935 'Personal History,' and constantly revised its script as developments unfolded overseas. Hitchcock, though, felt keeping up with the fast events was futile and stuck to the original screenplay. The director didn't want to throw away all his meticulous pre-production planning. Wanger noticed the pages of the film's script contained Hitchcock's "dialogue corrections on one side, sketches showing the composition of scenes, medium shots and close-ups on the other," Wagner said. "In addition to having art directors prepare many sketches showing lights, shades, and suggested composition, Hitchcock will make as many as three hundred quick pencil sketches of his own to show the crew just how he wants scenes to look."

"Foreign Correspondent" is known for three set pieces: the windmill scene, the assassination of a Dutch diplomat on the rainy stairs flanked by a sea of black umbrellas on both sides, and the spectacular airplane crash from enemy fire towards the end. The film follows Hitchcock's pattern of an ordinary man caught up in dangerous intrigue. Jones (McCrea), reporter for the New York Morning Globe, is assigned to interview Dutch diplomate Van Meer (Albert Basserman) in England. Once there he meets and falls for Carol Fisher (Laraine Day), daughter of the head of the Universal Peace Party, Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall). He follows Van Meer to Amsterdam, where the diplomat is assassinated on the stairs. Jones jumps into a cab to chase the assassin where he coincidentally meets Carol and a reporter friend Scott "ffolliott" (George Sanders). Thus begins the harrowing scene in a rural windmill where Jones discovers an espionage ring. The 'MacGuffin' in the movie was a secret Clause 27 in the treaty Van Meer knew about which his kidnappers tortured him to reveal.

"What really sells this movie is the visuals," commented film reviewer J. P. Roscoe. "Mostly combining stock footage and scale models, the movie looks great." The sets for "Foreign Correspondent," laid out by award-winner production designer William Cameron Menzies, involved over 600 workers, including electricians, carpenters and prop personnel on the re-creation of Waterloo Station and a replica of an Amsterdam square costing over $200,000. Wanger sent a second unit film crew over to London and Amsterdam during the early stages of WW2 for rear screen projection footage in the studio. The ship carrying the film crew over to Europe was hit by a German torpedo and all the equipment was lost. New cameras and accessories had to be purchased. An interior of a Clipper airplane was constructed in the Hollywood studio. The cockpit window made of rice paper projected footage shot from a stunt plane showing the plane crashing onto the ocean's surface. Hitchcock cued two outside chutes filled with water aimed at the windows and pressed the button to ignite tons of water into the cockpit, sending the pilots scampering.

Gary Cooper turned down the role of reporter John Jones, feeling it was beneath him to make a thriller, a decision he later regretted. Hitchcock wanted Joan Fontaine to play Carole Fisher, but Selznick, who owned her contract, felt the movie was too small for such a follow-up of the actress who earned a Best Actress nomination for her last movie in "Rebecca." His second choice was Barbara Stanwyck, who was unavailable. Hitch turned to Roosevelt, Utah-native Laraine Day, 19, as Jones' love interest. After brief high school stage appearances, Day entered movies in 1938, and became well known for her role as nurse Mary Lamont in the 'Dr. Kildare' film series. After a number of movies, Day appeared in several television roles from the 1950s through 1986, her last in 'Murder, She Wrote.' Playing the notorious spy Stephen Fisher in "Foreign Correspondent," the usually mild-mannered good-guy actor Herbert Marshall plays in a mean-spirited villainous role, while George Sanders, still active in the detective film series "The Saint," assists fellow reporter Jones on his espionage investigative caper.

Nominated for six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Basserman, the Dutch diplomat, for Best Supporting Actor, Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison for Best Original Screenplay, Rudolph Mate for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Visual Effects, the Hitchcock film received zero Oscars. But Hitchcock did become the fifth of (currently) ten directors to have two of their movies nominated for Best Picture Oscar in one year-the last Steven Soderbergh for "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic" in the 2001's 73rd Academy Awards.

Hollywood magic with a star-studded cast creates an experience theater-goers grow giddy over. That was the case in August 1940's "Boom Town." Capitalizing on its previous successes matching their actors, MGM decided the great chemistry between Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, which worked in 1934's "It Happened One Night" as well as Gable with Spencer Tracy in their third film together would produce a mega-hit. Add a dose of stunning Hedy Lamar, and MGM's hunch was correct as "Boom Town" emerged as the number one box office feature film for the year 1940.

"Boom Town was a big show with a big promotion," film reviewer Glenn Erickson noted. "Ads show the four stars walking arm in arm on a treadmill, all puffed up and ready to fill America with their smiles."

For Clark Gable, less than a year past his much talked-about performance in 1939's "Gone With The Wind," filming "Boom Town" was personal for him. His father was an oil "wildcatter" who took chances on drilling for black gold in areas where oil fields weren't known to exist. As a teenager, Clark worked in the Oklahoma oil fields as a rigger where he was hired to remove sludge from the fields where oil overflowed. Gable patterned his character Big John McMasters after his father William.

Hedy Lamarr, playing Karen Vanmeer, an advisor to McMasters' refinery competitors, had warm words to say about Gable during the filming of "Boom Town." She recalled, "Clark was kind to me all during the film. Spencer was aloof but worked hard. When a picture is going good everyone feels it. We felt all during the filming we had a good one. And it was." At this period of his career Tracy was getting tired of playing second fiddle to Gable after his previous films, 1936's "San Francisco" and 1938's "Test Pilot" placed him in the background. In "Boom Town," he plays "Square John" Sand, who invites his girlfriend Betsy Bartlett (Colbert) to travel out West for a visit. Upon arriving, she meets McMasters, spending a most enjoyable night on the town. The two fall for one another. Meanwhile, Square John couldn't even entice Karen, who also was starry-eyed towards McMasters. Tracy, not enjoying another role where Gable gets his girl, took out his frustrations on Lamarr in a scene where she's moving in on McMasters' marriage with Betsy. While the camera rolls, Tracy emphasized his message a bit too much as he poked Lamarr with his finger repeatedly into her chest. The perceptive viewer can readily see Hedy's temper rising with each forceful stab before she pushes him away. This was the last film Tracy appeared with Gable.

In "Boom Town," the business partnership of McMasters and Square John goes through a series of boom/bust cycles, affecting their wallets. The stress of romantic and financial relationships end up splitting the two, only to find each other at the climatic trial where McMasters is charged with violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Harold Rosson, cameraman for 1939's "The Wizard of Oz," was nominated for Best Black and White Cinematography while the picture earned a nomination for Best Special Effects, notably for the spectacular oil derrick fire sequence.

Sometimes a movie bombs on its initial release, only to be rejuvenated later when significant developments change the world. Such was the case of August 1940's "Dance, Girl, Dance," when the feminist movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s sparked a renewed interest in Dorothy Arzner's last completely directed film.

"Dance, Girl, Dance," starring Lucille Ball and Maureen O'Hara, was an abject failure when it was originally released, losing an astronomical $400,000. Arzner, sadly Hollywood's only female director, was in the middle of directing a 1943 feature when she came down with a case of pleurisy, forcing her major studio retirement at 46. After making Women's Army Corps training films and TV commercials before teaching at UCLA, Arzner lived long enough to see a resurgence in her popularity, especially in the early 1970s when "Dance, Girl, Dance" was reexamined for its feminist focus on a group of struggling women dancers. The movie contrasts the high art of Judy O'Brien (O'Hara), whose ambition is to be a ballet dancer, and the low art exhibited by Bubbles (Ball), who rationalizes her talents in burlesque is the best way to make money and ensnare a rich man.

"Dance, Girl, Dance's" filming was at first handled by director Roy Del Ruth, a veteran of several musicals such as 1936's "Born to Dance" and "Broadway Melody of 1938." He quit after two weeks, not understanding the point of the script. Arzner stepped in and gave the screenplay a fresh look, saying, "I decided the theme should be 'The Art Spirit,' (O'Hara) versus the commercial 'Go-Getter' (Ball).'" Besides the pair's independent spirits, feminists loved the climatic speech by Judy, reacting to the catcalls from the audience from her ballet movements on the burlesque stage. "I know you want me to tear my clothes off so's you can look your fifty cents worth," barks Judy to the lecherous men in the audience. "Fifty cents for the privilege of staring at a girl the way your wife won't let you, so you can go home when the show's over and strut before your wives and sweethearts and play at being the stronger sex for a minute. I'm sure they see through you just like we do."

Never was there such a speech on the defense of women seen on film before. "Arzner's female perspective was not only rare at the time but singular," notes film historian Sheila O'Malley. By Judy dressing down her audience, "She calls out the dirty secret of what looking is all about, reminding everyone that the looked-ats know exactly what's going on, and may have some feelings of their own about the exchange. Judy shatters the unspoken contract between audience and performer. The scene has a fourth-wall-breaking power to this day."

"Dance, Girls, Dance" was O'Hara's third movie. Historian O'Malley says the Arzner film "allows her to call forth all kinds of qualities she wasn't often asked to utilize: tenderness, innocence, vulnerability, shame." Beside all the drama, "Dance, Girls, Dance" contains a great amount of dancing, including O'Hara's ballet expertise. A body double was used for her more complex moves, with her face always pointing away from the camera.

O'Hara and Lucille Ball became lifelong friends while making "Dance, Girls, Dance." Right after filming her impassioned speech, O'Hara was standing next to Ball in the studio commissary waiting to grab a bite to eat when she bumped into Desi Arnaz, who was prepping for his first movie 'Too Many Girls.' Wearing make-up including a black eye and bandages for the catfight scene with O'Hara, Ball failed to make an impression on the handsome orchestra leader. O'Hara later recalled the reaction of Lucy when she first spotted Desi: "It was like Wow! A bolt of lightening! Lucille fell like a ton of bricks. Friends and family warned Ball away from Arnaz as their courtship heated up, but Ball was inflexible. 'I had flipped,' she admitted." Arnaz later warmed up to Ball when the two appeared together in 'Too Many Girls.' Coincidently years later the married Lucy and Desi bought the RKO sound stages and the back lot where the two movies were filmed.

Robert Wise was the editor of "Dance, Girls, Dance." The Winchester, Indiana-born Wise had a brother working at RKO when Robert expressed interest in film. Beginning in the shipping department in the early 1930s, Wise went from a sound and music editor to an assistant editor for William Hamilton, helping him cut such films as 1937's "Stage Door" and 1939's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." He had his first solo editing assignment for 1939's "Bachelor Mother" and "My Favorite Wife." Immediately after "Dance, Girl, Dance," Wise's next assignment was to edit Orson Welles' 1941 "Citizen Kane." He later turned to directing, handling 1961's "West Side Story" and 1965's "The Sound of Music."

Modern critics have labeled Arzner's work as a bone fide feminist masterpiece. "Dance, Girl, Dance" has become a women's cult film, and is the highlight every year in a number of film festivals. It's included as '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'

Film historians trace the movie genre known as 'film noir' beginning with the low budget August 1940 "Stranger on the Third Floor." Film noir, a cinematic style not fully recognized until the mid-1950s, was immensely popular in the later 1940s and into the 1950s. The 'Neo-Noir' look is still found in today's movies. The style evolved from the early German Expressionistic silent films and was evident in many European directors' works throughout the 1930s. But the ingredients of film noir began to come together with a combination of Hollywood's talent admiring the look, all merging in this Grade B-listed RKO motion picture.

Film noir historian Robert Porfirio wrote "Stranger on the Third Floor" offered "a distinct break in style and substance with the preceding mystery, crime, detection and horror films of the 1930s." Noir specialist Eddie Muller described the term as "technically the French word for 'black,' but it's used to mean darkness." In a noir flick shadows extend from people and objects, populated by less than reputable characters, rooms are dimly lit, and dark alleys and streets are seen throughout. The spark of World War Two introduced the cynical style of noirs after a nation, weary from the Great Depression, was facing yet another dreary prospect of a major conflict.

Although there's much disagreement on 1941's "The Maltese Falcon" as the first true film noir, most historians acknowledge the "Stranger on the Third Floor" inaugurated the noir craze. A former student of Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, the film's director Boris Ingster had been hired in Hollywood as a scriptwriter in the mid-1930s, writing such screenplays as 1935's "The Last Days of Pompeii." His directing debut was "Stranger on the Third Floor." Cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, a cameraman since 1922 with over 100 films under his belt, had shown hints of favoring the noir look in his 1938 'Night Spot' and 1939's "Five Came Back," and would later shoot 1942's "Cat People" and 1947's "Out of the Past." Van Nest Polglase's art direction, who later sketched the sets for 1941's "Citizen Kane," lent a claustrophobic atmosphere to almost every scene he designed.

The Frank Partos story places newspaper reporter Michael Ward (John McGuire) as the key witness to a murder where he saw cab driver Joe Briggs (Elisha Cook) standing over a dead man. On the basis of the reporter's testimony, Briggs is found guilty. Meanwhile Ward's fiancee, Jane (Margaret Tallichet), who attended the trial, has doubts about Briggs' guilt, and makes her feelings known. Ward, who lives in a boarding house, bickers with his neighbor Albert (Charles Halton) while a stranger (Peter Lorre) hovers nearby. Ward's surrealistic nightmare about being accused of murdering his neighbor turns into reality when he later discovers Albert's dead body.

Borrowing elements from German director Robert Wiene's 1920 "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," the dream sequence is described by writers Todd McCarthy and Charles Flynn as filled with "strong contrasts in lighting, angular shadow patterns, and distorted, emblematic architecture; in short, a kind of total stylization that manages to be both extremely evocative and somewhat theatrical." According to film historian Anthony D'Ambra, "The nightmare sequence in this picture has to be the best dream-scape ever produced by Hollywood."

Although "Stranger on the Third Floor" doesn't check all the boxes of a classic film noir, it does set the pattern of the genre with its lighting and a plot containing psychoanalysis of the main character. Add to this Peter Lorre, owing two days of work to RKO to fulfill his contract, was the stranger seen in the boarding house and chasing Jane around the 'noir' streets. His role in the 1931 Fritz Lang-directed "M" contains many German Expressionistic elements many film historians say is one of the earliest movies to display many of the noir aesthetics.

Although the RKO picture failed to make a profit because it had a slew of negative press reviews on its departure from the normal Hollywood crime melodrama, "Stranger on the Third Floor" introduced a new era in movie making. For Boris Ingster, he would direct only two more films before turning to television. He was proliferate in directing a number of episodes of programs such as 'Wagon Train' and 'The Man from U. N. C. L. E."

Henry Fonda vowed never to work with Fritz Lang again after his experience with him in August 1940's "The Return of Frank James." The actor, nicknamed 'One-Take Fonda' for his ability to knock out a scene in one take through his meticulous rehearsals, was coming off a string of immensely popular pictures, almost unprecedented in Hollywood. But working under the former German director's great attention to detail, Fonda became increasingly frustrated by Lang's scrupulous habits on the set. Lang was an odd choice for 20th Century Fox to direct his third Hollywood movie. Leaving Germany in 1933 after Adolf Hitler's rise in power, the director was totally unfamiliar with the heritage of the Old West. But Lang rationalized his selection in the Frank James film during a 1959 interview, saying Westerns are "based on a very simple and essential ethical code. Even with Shakespeare the moral is simple. The struggle of good against evil is as old as the world."

His deliberate and methodical style of directing is seen in "The Return of Frank James," a sequel to the Henry King-directed 1939 "Jesse James." The follow-up movie begins where the previous one left off, showing Jesse, played by Tyron Power, shot in the back while hanging a picture in his living room by friend Bob Ford (John Carradine) and his brother Charlie (Charles Tannen). After his brother is killed, Frank James retreats secretly to a farm where his farmhands are the son of a former gang member, Clem (Jackie Cooper), and Pinky (Ernest Whitman). At first Frank is happy at the thought justice will be served by the Ford's conviction of his brother's murder-until he hears they've been pardoned and released. He becomes so upset he embarks on a vendetta seeking revenge.

Even though the movie uses names of real characters, "The Return of Frank James" plays loose with the facts. The real Frank James turned himself in to the governor of Missouri five months after his brother's death. He was tried for only two robberies and murders, and acquitted. He lived with his mother in Oklahoma and worked a series of jobs, including as a theatre ticket taker and a lecturer, spinning yarns about his adventures, dying in 1915. None of this appears in the "Jesse James" sequel, where he meets the daughter of a Denver newspaper owner, aspiring reporter Eleanor Stone (Gene Tierney). While Frank is chasing the Fords, Clem concocts a story overheard by bar patrons about his death in Texas, amplified when Eleanor interviews Frank's friend.

"Return of Frank James" was Gene Tierney' film debut. The Brooklyn, New York born and Westport, Connecticut-raised daughter of a successful insurance broker, Tierney later starred in such classics as 1944 "Laura" and 1947 "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." Attending Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Ct., Tierney was infected by the acting bug, taking lessons in Greenwich Village. Through connections, she made her Broadway debut in 1938's 'What a Life!' carrying a bucket of water across the stage. One Variety reviewer noted, "Miss Tierney is certainly the most beautiful water carrier I've ever seen!" Several stage appearances later she was noticed by Darryl Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, who signed her to play in the James film. When Tierney, 20, first saw herself on the big screen during the movie's premier, she was startled. "I could not believe how high and strident my voice came across," she said. "I sounded like an angry Minnie Mouse. My God, I thought, if that's really how I sound, I'll never make it." To lower her voice, she began to smoke cigarettes, a habit leading later in life to emphysema. In her memoirs she related the Harvard University Lampoon named her 'The Worst Female Discovery of 1940,' where she humbly remarked "I did not feel undeserving of the award."

Jackie Cooper, 17, continued his fame as a young actor first noticed in 1931 "The Champ" and "Skippy," where he was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Actor, the youngest ever in that category at nine. He enlisted in the United States Navy during World War Two and remained in the Naval Reserves as an officer for several decades. After the war Cooper resumed his movie and television acting, most notably as newspaper editor Perry White in 1978's film "Superman."

For Lang, "The Return of Frank James" was the first of three Westerns he directed as well as his first Technicolor movie. Film critic Robert Dana of the New York Herald Tribune noticed the deliberate direction of Lang's, writing his "emphasis on small things like gestures and shadows and sounds of nature reveal the Western in a new and interesting light."

In the Three Stooges 47th short Columbia picture, June 1940's "Nutty But Nice," they have an elongated sequence in their search for a missing father who has been kidnapped transporting $300,000 worth of bonds for his bank. In order to cheer up his depressed daughter, the Stooges, as singing waiters, volunteer to search for her father, Mr. Williams. In a series of mistaken identities because they're only given a verbal description of the father, the Three Stooges accost several men on the street, including lighting matches they stick inside the souls of one pedestrian's shoes so they could determine, as the kidnapped banker's profile reads, how tall the man's height is "in his stocking feet."

Today's viewers may recognize the kidnapped banker, actor Ned Glass. Even though he was a neighbor of Moe Howard's, Glass didn't benefit from knowing the comic personally when he got the part of the father of Betty Williams, the little girl who is sobbing to have him free. Not only was Glass, with his distinctive bald head and New York City accent, in several high profile movies such as 1961's "West Side Story" and 1963's "Charade," his claim to fame was his familiar face in nearly every TV series sit-coms up until his last appearance in 1982's 'Cagney & Lacey.'

The Three Stooges were masters in creating memorable skits by stretching the simplest of tasks and making them sidesplitting hilarious. A prime example finds Curly struggling to get his tight sweater off in July 1940's "How High is Up?" Moe and Larry lend a hand, only to compound his problems. The three are paid tinkers who think they can do any job that comes their way-except for removing sweaters.

Between jobs, Curly's tight-fitting sweater causes him fits. Instead of simply pulling off the sweater over his head, Curly's head can't fit through the neck opening. Moe has the bright idea of using tools in his company's arsenal. Wedging two crowbars around Curly's neck, Moe and Larry attempt to slip the sweater over the tools, but instead press his nose between the two bars. Moe then takes the tactic to hit Curly in the head with a giant hammer while lifting the sweater in an attempt to smash down his skull through its neckline. Alas, after several wacks, Moe's hammer still hasn't produced the intended results. Finally, Moe opts for pulling the sweater over Curly's head and cutting his prized apparel with scissors. The plan has its disadvantages by destroying Curly's valuable sweater. But he finds himself with two mittens out of the carnage.

"How High is Up?" gets its title from the Stooges standing on the 97th floor of a building under construction. To drum up work, the three tinkers come across a construction site where the workers lunch pails are lined up. As Larry pokes holes in the containers, Moe offers to fix the workers' pails before the targets realize they've been had. Ducking into the site where the foreman (Edmund Cobb) is hiring riveters, Moe brags how he and his two colleagues are proficient in the task. One of the extras waiting in line for a job is actor Bruce Bennett, an Olympian silver medalist shot putter who played in the Rose Bowl for the University of Washington football team. He was picked by MGM to be its first sound version of Tarzan. But he broke his shoulder while filming the 1931 movie 'Touchdown,' and was replaced by Johnny Weissmuller. He later played roles in such classics as 1945's "Mildred Pierce" and 1948's "The Treasure of Sierra Madre."

The English government begged Hollywood to produce pro-British movies after the United Kingdom found itself enmeshed in World War Two. Warner Brothers listened to England's persuasion even though the United States remained neutral, and produced the pro-British swashbuckler July 1940 "The Sea Hawk." Even though the movie was set in the Elizabethan era during the late 1500s when England was preparing for war with Spain, "The Sea Hawk's" script by Howard Koch and Seton Miller was revised to reflect the current political situation in Europe.

"The Sea Hawk" was actor Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz's tenth film together, and became a huge box office hit, especially with the British pubic. It also was a morale booster for imperiled England in the summer of 1940 when its Royal Air Force was fighting the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Clearly the movie draws many parallels to the European conglict in the early 1940s, beginning with its opening scenes of King Philip of Spain expressing his desire to conquer England in his quest for world domination. Queen Elizabeth 1, acting as a later-day Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, insists diplomacy is the only way to peace in the face of Spain's increasingly efforts to arm itself to the teeth, as the Nazis had done. When she finally realizes what the King of Spain's intentions are, the queen gives a speech which could have been applied to Hitler: "when the ruthless ambition of a man threatens to engulf the world, it becomes the solemn obligation of all free men to affirm that the earth belongs not to any one man, but to all men, and that freedom is the deed and title to the soil on which we exist." Film critic Ken Peary admits "The Sea Hawk" is a thinly "veiled propaganda piece that attempts to get Americans solidly into the war effort." Reviewer Danielle Solzman adds, "While the film takes place in the late 1500s, one can definitely see how they use the launch of the Spanish Armada as an allegory for Nazi Germany seeking to expand their own land. Look no further than the Queen's speech towards the end of the film."

"The Sea Hawk" also entertains with its intrigues, romance, and epic sword fighting scenes. Warner Brothers delved into its film library to insert footage from its 1924 silent movie predecessor of the same name as well as from its 1935 "Captain Blood" to illustrate the battles in the open seas. To complement those clips the studio built two replicas of ships of that era into its massive sound stage called the 'Maritime Stage.' It was the second largest film stage for its time in Hollywood, only behind MGM's enormous Stage 15. A water tank inside the studio created the illusion of the sea. The 1940 movie "The Sea Hawk" is based on Seton Miller's story 'Beggars of the Sea.' Flynn plays Geoffrey Thorpe, a Sir Francis Drake-type personality who commands a privateer ship raiding Spanish merchants. Thorpe gives most of his prizes to Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson), who uses the money to fund England's Navy. Thorpe concocts a land raid in Panama to ambush a caravan laden with Spanish gold, just as Drake did. Thorpe's plans are thwarted when he and his men are captured, when they overhear plans for the Spanish invasion of England by its Armada.

In only her second year in film, actress Brenda Marshall serves as Thorpe's love interest. She's Doria Maria, niece to Spanish envoy Don Alvarez (Claude Rains). Marshall, who despised her stage name given by the studio, wanted to be called her real name, Ardis Ankerson. She was wedded to William Holden in 1941, culminating in an unhappy marriage, even though they were matron of honor and best man in Ronald and Nancy Reagan's 1952 wedding. Her film career lasted until 1950, when she gave up acting to raise two sons.

Flora Robson gives her second rendition of Queen Elizabeth following her stirring performance in 1937's "Fire Over England." Film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, noted for his rousing score in 1935's "Captain Blood" and 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood," composed his final swashbuckler in "The Sea Hawk." Korngold enjoyed a resurgence of popularity 15 years after his death by the release of 1972's RCA's album 'The Sea Hawk: The Classic Film Scores of Korngold" by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, which introduced his movie compositions to a new generation of listeners.

Korngold was nominated by the Academy Awards for his Original Score, while "The Sea Hawk" was also nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Sound Recording, and Best Special Effects. A Winston Churchill favorite, the swashbuckler was nominated by the American Film Institute as one of Hollywood's Most Thrilling Movies and Best Film Scores.

George Raft was probably the best thing to come the way of Warner Brothers' contract actor Humphrey Bogart. Although respected in Hollywood by his tough edged on-screen personality, Raft had a habit for refusing parts which turned out to be massive hits. Soon after he and Bogart appeared in July 1940's "They Drive By Night," considered one of director Raoul Walsh's best films, Raft was offered a role where he dies as Roy Earle in 1941's "High Sierra." He refused, opening the door for Bogart in what was his breakout film. Raft later turned down the lead in 1941's "The Maltese Falcon" and reportedly 1942's "Casablanca," all movies Bogart was his replacement, furthering his star status.

But in "They Drive By Night," Raft did accept top billing as Joe Fabrini, who along with his brother Paul (Bogart) criss-cross the country delivering goods by truck. Using elements from the Paul Muni and Bette Davis' 1935 'Bordertown,' Joe is hired by good friend and truck business owner Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale) after Paul lost his arm in an accident and is unable to drive. Trouble enters when Ed's wife, Lana (Ida Lupino), who had a crush on Joe for years, renews her passion for him. She eventually kills her inebriated husband Ed, which police rule as an accident. Lana then entices Joe a share of her late-husband's business. But Joe loves waitress Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan), setting Lana's head steaming.

"They Drive By Night" was the big break for actress Ida Lupino. Later Hollywood's only female director in the 1950s, Lupino was encouraged as a child by her musical comedian father to go into acting. The British native Lupino had a photographic memory, learning in every Shakespearean play the entire female dialogue by the age of ten. The film debut of Lupino, 13, was 1931's British film 'Her First Affair.' Soon Lupino earned the moniker "the English Jean Harlow" because of her good girl/bad girl roles. After a dozen films, Lupino was signed by Warner Brothers to play Lana. Critics say she dominated "They Drive By Night" with her crazy dramatic courtroom testimony. Film reviewer Anthony Clarke says "Watch for Ida Lupino's courtroom scene towards the film's close. Without giving anything away, it's easy to see why she stole the movie." In her next pict she plays Roy Earle's girlfriend in 1941's "High Sierra." Years later Lupino directed Alan Hale's son in several 'Gilligan's Island' television episodes. Alan Hale Jr. As the Skipper wore the gold ring his father is seen wearing in "They Drive By Night" for the rest of his life in honor of his dad, whom he was very close.

"They Drive By Night" would never have seen the light of day if it weren't for Gladys Glad, wife of producer Mark Hellinger. She had a habit of reading scripts her husband would bring home after work. She insisted Mark read the adaptation of A. I. Bezzerides' 1938 novel 'Long Haul.' Hellinger, after reading the script, told her, "nobody would pay money to see a bunch of truck drivers." Through Gladys' persistence, Warner Brothers eventually made the film, becoming one of the studio's sleeper hits of the year, taking in more than $4 million at the box office on a $400,000 budget.

Warner Brothers was impressed by Raft's performance in "They Drive By Night," but he continued to reject scripts left and right. "Our association with Raft was a constant struggle from start to finish," recalled studio producer Hal Wallis. "Hypersensitive to public accusations of underworld connections, he flatly refused to play the heavy in any film. Time and time again we offered him gangster parts and time and time again he turned them down." Filmlink Magazine complemented Raft's acting in the Warner Brothers film, but saw the movie "a sensationally entertaining flick that was a solid box office success and should have convinced Raft that his new employers knew what they were doing, but his judgement continued to get worse." Thankfully for Humphrey Bogart, he capitalized on Raft's bad decisions.

Charles Boyer was one of the first Hollywood actors to enlist in World War Two when his native France declared war on Germany in September 1939. Because of Boyer's age, 40, and his movie popularity, he was assigned to desk duty, a job he loathed. After listening to his complaints, the French government felt the actor would be more effective to his county's cause by making Hollywood films than pushing paper. The military discharged him in November so he could appear in July 1940's "All This, and Heaven Too" with Bette Davis, nominated for the Academy Awards Best Picture.

Boyer didn't talk much about his limited 'war' service. By the time he returned to Warner Brothers' studio to make the period picture "All This, and Heaven Too," set in 1847 France, Boyer was sporting a receding hairline and a paunch. To tuck in his bulging stomach while filming, he had to wear a corset underneath his outer clothes. Seeing him for the first time without his hairpiece, Davis failed to recognize the famous actor and called the studio's security to have 'the stranger' removed from the set. Boyer was also shorter than she ever imagined, a stature requiring him to stand on a box next to others, especially for the actresses who towered over him. Despite his short comings, film reviewer Patrick Nash observed, "He holds his own with Davis and in fact has the scene with the biggest emotional impact." That scene has Boyer's character, the Duke de-Praslin, killing his cruel wife Francoise (Barbara O'Neil). The duke had earlier hired Henriette Deluzy-Desportes (Bette Davis) to tutor the family's four girls. The jealous Francoise is cold to her children, her husband and especially to the new teacher, who lives in the household. "All This, and Heaven Too" is based on a true story, which Rachel Field wrote her 1938 novel of the same name. The author had personal insight on the murder. Her great aunt was the family tutor Henriette, and the murder of the duke's wife caused a scandal in King Louis-Philippe's administration in 1847, one of many compounding political events leading up to the French Revolution of 1848.

Many film historians point to the long two hours and twenty minutes movie as Warner Brothers' answer to producer David O. Selznick's four-hour 1939 "Gone With The Wind." Studio head Jack Warner spent almost $1.4 million on this elaborate prestige pictures, nearly three-quarters of the budget spent on 65 exterior sets and 35 interiors, meticulously displayed with real antique furniture and 150 paintings and sculptures from the King Louis Philippes period. Davis wore 37 different dresses with several layers of undergarments and corsets, which took her 40 minutes each day to put on. The relationship between the Warners' film and "Gone With The Wind" is uncanny: the bed in the duchess' bedroom was the same Scarlett O'Hara slept on when married to Rhett Butler, and actress Barbara O'Neill, 30, (the duchess) played Scarlett's mother. The St. Louis-born O'Neill as a teenager played in summer stock and attended the Yale School of Drama, making her Broadway debut in 1932 and her inaugural film in 1937's "Stella Dallas." She was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress for her role as the duchess in "All This, and Heaven Too." Married to stage and film director Joshua Logan for only one year, she took a break from film until 1948, remaining single after her divorce.

Director Anatole Litvak and Davis were having an affair during the production of "All This, and Heaven Too." Litvak's marriage to actress Miriam Hopkins, who was considered for the role of the duchess, ended shortly before filming began. Hopkins and Davis had a rivalry ever since they appeared in 1939's "Old Maid" and continued in their second movie together, 1943 "Old Acquaintance." Despite the love arrows between them, Davis was disdainful toward Litvak's direction, saying later, "Litvak had it all on paper; he planned every move. There is not the spontaneity or flexibility." Some critics say Litvak's style didn't suit the more free-wheeling two-time Oscar winner Davis.

Playing the oldest daughter of the Praslin family was child actress June Lockhart, 14, who latter was in television's "Lassie" and "Lost in Space." "All This, and Heaven Too" was nominated not only for Best Picture and O'Neil's performance but Ernest Haller for Best Black and White Cinematography. Film Daily's national poll at the time listed the Warner Brothers' picture the fifth best movie of 1940.

Popular movies based on classic novels almost assure a revival in interest in the books. In cinema's first adaptation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel, MGM's July 1940 "Pride and Prejudice," the hit film immediately created a wave of Austen-fever which centered around Elizabeth Bennett and her male counterpart, Mr. Darcy. Five editions of the 19th-century novel hit the bookstands shortly after the motion picture was released. Less than a decade later twenty-one printings could still barely keep up with public demand. So in vogue was the movie the now prestigious Jane Austen Society was formed in the United Kingdom soon after its release in 1940.

On Harpo Marx's suggestion, the late MGM producer Irving Thalberg bought the rights to Helen Jerome's popular 1936 Broadway play based on Austen's book. Irving had planned to have his wife Norma Shearer play Elizabeth and Clark Gable as Mr. Darcy. But his untimely death put a hold on the project until MGM decided to produce it at its England studio. The war put the kibosh to those plans after MGM shuttered its British facility. Back in Hollywood, the studio decided to cast "Pride and Prejudice" largely with English actors, who, once hired demanded-and received-their daily afternoon tea time. England's Laurence Olivier was a shoe-in to be Mr. Darcy after his performances in 1939 "Wuthering Heights" and 1940 "Rebecca." Just as in his other movies, Olivier demanded his soon-to-be wife Vivien Leigh be co-star alongside him. And as always, the studio rejected his demands feeling the couple's scandalous relationship would have turned off American audiences. In just her second movie, British actress Greer Garson received the role of Elizabeth.

Olivier was disappointed with the movie after filming wrapped. "I was very unhappy with the picture," the actor lamented. "It was difficult to make Darcy into anything more than an unattractive-looking prig, and darling Greer seemed to me all wrong as Elizabeth." It was an odd comment for Olivier since he praised the young actress years earlier in the opening night speech of his 1935 stage play 'Golden Arrow,' which he produced and directed. Garson, 35, was believable as 20-year-old Elizabeth, with film reviewer R. B. Armstrong writing, "Garson's performance brims with intelligence and charm." This was Olivier's final Hollywood film for the next twelve years. He returned to his native England to continue in plays and movies until he went back to California for 1952 "Carrie." One criticism of MGM's "Pride and Prejudice" was it showcases dresses made much later than the setting of Austen's novel. Studio executives felt the early 1800's attire was more akin to night-time pajamas rather than elegant dresses viewers were used to seeing in period films. To cut down expenses, MGM recycled much of 1939 "Gone With The Wind's" clothes for the actresses and extras. Since the costumes and sets were so vibrant, the studio wanted to shoot the picture in color. Technicolor claimed its film stock was low because of the great amount used for "Gone With The Wind." As it was, the picture still earned an Oscar for Best Art Direction in a Black and White Film.

The script for "Pride and Prejudice" was much lighter in tone than in Austen's novel. Screwball comedies were still in vogue, so the studio's ad campaign hyped, "Bachelors beware! Five gorgeous beauties are on a madcap manhunt!" which described the five daughters of the Bennetts looking for suitable mates. Nine writers shaped the Austen adaptation, with writers Jane Murfin and Aldous Huxley injecting humor. The author of 1932's 'Brave New World," Huxley embarked on his first Hollywood scriptwriting assignment since relocating from England in 1937. Jane Murfin's previous works were known for their witty scenarios, including 1935 "Alice Adams" and 1939 "The Women." The American Film Institute nominated "Pride and Prejudice" as one of cinema's Funniest Movies. Film reviewer Chip Lary noticed the difference in humor from the subsequent movies based on the Austen novel. "If you have seen other versions, but not this one, then you should probably watch it to see how it compares with the others," recommends Lary. "It presents the most humor of any of the versions."

"A Wild Hare" was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film, but was nudged out by the winner, MGM's June 1940 "The Milky Way" was the Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film, the first time Walt Disney, placing most of his resources on his feature films at the time, didn't earn an Oscar in that category. In fact he was shut out of the three nominated. Besides "A Wild Hare," MGM's "Puss Gets the Boot," a forerunner to Tom and Jerry cartoons, was the other nominee. In back of their minds the Academy voting members must have remembered the Disney look since "The Milky Way" resembles Walt's 'Silly Symphonies's' cartoons, which he ended in 1939.

The Rudolph Isling-directed "The Milky Way" has three kittens punished by their mother for losing their mittens while playing in the snow, to which they're sent to bed without their milk. They dream of going on a balloon space flight to the Milky Way, where all forms of milk is delivered and gulped down by the ravenous kittens. When they wake up, their mother regrets what she's done and prepares a dinner for them-of milk. The three kittens' stomachs churn just at the thought of milk.

MGM did a movie tie-in with the National Dairy Council, promoting "The Milky Way" with milk bottle caps as well as cards displayed in grocery store windows. The studio also advertised the cartoon on billboards alongside the National Milk Month logo.

Rabbits were common in early animation such as in Walt Disney's 'Oswald the Rabbit.' But the king of all cartoon rabbits is Bugs Bunny. His first official appearance was in July 1940 "A Wild Hare,' co-starring Elmer Fudd as the hunter entrapped by Bugs Bunny's clever antics.

The Merrie Melody cartoon, drawn by the wizard artists at Leon Schlesinger Productions, was part of Warner Brothers distribution arm. The studio had introduced an earlier incarnation of Bugs in 1938's "Porky's Hare Hunt' featuring a frustrated Porky the Pig trying to shoot a clever and elusive rabbit. Four cartoons later of the pesky rabbit Bugs appeared in "A Wild Hare," directed by Tex Avery. Voice actor Mel Blanc employed his Bronx/Brooklyn accent to mimic the rabbit modern viewers are familiar. This is the first cartoon Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?" Director Tex Avery claims he's the one who came up with the phrase from his days living in Texas where it was a commonly said. Mel Blanc, however, said he first ad-libbed the saying spontaneously in the narration booth, and everyone loved it.

Animator Bob Givens was assigned to redesign the previous rabbits into the basic look we see today as Bugs Bunny. Givens lengthened the rabbit's body, and has him standing straight up. There were a couple of attributes as to the origins on Bugs' habit chomping on carrots. One is the famous scene in 1934's Academy Award Best Picture winner "It Happened One Night" where Clark Gable munches on a carrot while Claudette Colbert exhibits her method of hitchhiking. Another is wise-cracking actor Roscoe Karns' character Oscar Shapely in the same movie, who was a big carrot fan.

Bugs Bunny appeared in over 160 cartoons between 1940 and 1964, and has been in more films than any other animated character. Bugs has a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and is Warner Brothers' official mascot.

Comedian actor Dan Aykrod, co-writer for 1984's "Ghostbusters," credits the Bob Hope comedy-horror motion picture, June 1940 "The Ghost Breakers," among one of the major influences for his ever-popular film. Aykrod, who harbors a deep interest in the paranormal inherited from his great-grandfather's research on the subject, watched a number of older horror movies saturated with comedy. Aykrod said, "It was a combination of my family's history and watching films like the Bowery Boys' Ghost Chasers and Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great to update the ghost movies from the '40s?'"

"The Ghost Breakers" was Hollywood's first affirmation that comedy could successfully be combined alongside scary horror plots. Bob Hope had introduced the mix in 1939's "The Cat and the Canary," but his latest incarnation with co-star Paulette Goddard set in a dark, old house amongst ghosts proved to be a major box-office hit. The Paramount Pictures production spawned a number of profitable films melding comedy with horror, including 1941's Abbott and Costello's "Hold That Ghost," 1941's 'The Smiling Ghost" with Alexis Smith and 1951 "Ghost Chasers." Even horror movie star Belli Lugosi got into the swing of comedy with his 1941 "Spooks Run Wild" and 1948's "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein."

"The Ghost Breakers" was the third-and first talkie-version of the 1909 play 'The Ghost Breaker,' beginning with Cecil B. DeMille's 1914 and director Alfred Green's 1922 silent films. Hope's quip in "The Ghost Breakers" alludes to the director of biblical epics when he and Goddard arrive in Cuba, saying "It sounds like a Cecil B. DeMille script." Hope said later this was one of his favorite roles because he was playing a brave hero as radio personality Larry Lawrence rather than his normally witty but cowardly type. Mary Carter (Goddard) inherits a mansion that a couple of Cuban nationals are eager to buy. Mary insists she wants to live there despite warnings it's terribly haunted with ghosts. Larry links up with Mary while running away from a shooting, and both venture to the mansion accompanied by his capable assistant, Alex (Willie Best). Once they arrive, however, the mansion contains all sorts of strange going-ons.

Besides influencing Aykroyd's updated 1984 classic, "The Ghost Breakers" also impacted others, including writer/director Peter Bogdanovich, who in his 1976 "Nickelodeon" used the scene similar to Alex's bowler hat sent upwards as he leans against the wall in fright. Author Joseph Heller's names one of his officers Major Major Major in his 1961 book "Catch 22," mimicking Hope's character when he's first introduced to Mary. She asks, "You mean your name is Lawrence Lawrence?" He answers, "Yeah, and my middle name is Lawrence, too. My folks had no imagination." For the longest time people thought the politically-neutral Hope was a Republican when his character was warned zombies lurked around the mansion. He's told, "It's worse than horrible because a zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes walking around blindly with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring." Hope responds, "You mean like Democrats?"

Today's politically correct viewers roll their eyes at actor Willie Best's characterization of Lawrence's assistant. The Mississippi-native Best was one of the first African-American movie actors largely known to the public, first appearing in Harold Lloyd's 1930 "Feet First." Although there are a few racist lines directed his way, more than a few critics saw his humor in "The Ghost Breakers" outshining Hope. Film reviewer Kevin Lyons observed, "Most of the show is stolen by Best. With Hope stepping back from the comedy, Best gets most of the movie's memorable lines and physical comedy bits." Hope paid Best the supreme compliment, ranking him as "One of the finest actors I've ever worked with."

The definition of 'gaslighting' is a "psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment."

The term came from a 1938 British play 'Gas Light' by Patrick Hamilton that was made into the British movie, June 1940 "Gaslight." The England version is lesser known to the more famous MGM's 1944 Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman film. Bergman won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as a newlywed whose husband is searching for the hidden jewels after he killed her aunt to steal them.

In a practice film historians shake their heads but say was done back then, MGM didn't want its newer version to be judged against the earlier British film. When the studio purchased the American film rights of the play, it insisted all prints, even the negative, of the 1940 movie be destroyed. MGM nearly succeeded in suppressing all traces of the English movie, but director Thorold Dickinson possessed a copy he made before the negative was destroyed.

Film reviewer Andy Webb is thankful for the preservation of the 1940 picture, remarking, "It still remains one of the best movies which features a storyline about a person trying to manipulate a loved one into thinking the are going crazy."

The tale involves the recently married Mallans, Paul (Anton Walbrook) and Bella (Diana Wynyard), who rent a London apartment which hadn't been occupied in quite some time. Shortly after settling down, Paul begins to accuse his wife of misplacing objects. He plays secret tricks on her which triggers Bella to question her sanity. A neighbor, former detective B. G. Rough (Frank Pettingell), who had investigated the murder of elderly Alice Barlow (Marie Wright), hears about the strange occurrences in the apartment where Alice was found dead. Paul has been searching for the missing jewels in the two top floor rooms which have been cordoned off. He uses the apartment's gas system to illuminate the upstairs while rummaging, so much so he inadvertently dims the gas-lit lamps downstairs.

Time Out magazine's reviewer wrote, "Lurking menace hangs in the air like a fog, the atmosphere is electric, and Wynyard suffers exquisitely as she struggles to keep dementia at bay." Playing the confused Bella, Diana Wynyard was known for her Academy Award Best Actress nomination in 1933's Best Movie, "Cavalcade," the first British actress nominated in that category. As the villainous Paul, Austrian actor Anton Walbrook later was known for his roles in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1943 "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" and 1948's "The Red Shoes."

The American version of the play opened on Broadway soon after the movie "Gaslight" premiered in the United Kingdom, with Vincent Price as Paul and Judith Evelyn as Bella. After 1,300 performances, the longest-running melodrama on Broadway at the time, 'Gas Light,' is ranked as the 81st all-time longest-running play in the New York City theatre district. MGM capitalized on its popularity by producing the 1944 movie. Critics recognize the British film remains closer to the play, with many, such as film reviewer Bill Thompson expressing, "I find the 1940 Gaslight to be far superior to the 1944 Gaslight. I tend to like stripped down movies over bloated affairs, and the actors in the 1940 Gaslight outshone their 1944 counterparts by a good margin. Gaslight, the 1940 version, is a really good 'what's he doing' mystery that plays well on the screen and brings you in with the story." Film reviewer Fredrick recognized, "They are respectively excellent examples of British and Hollywood 1940s productions, and even though the basic plot is the same, the two movies are very different. Not only in the details, but also in the entire build-up of the plot and the interplay between the main characters."

Fortunately, MGM didn't realize its objective to squash any evidence of the British movie, allowing today's viewers to draw their own conclusions.

Even though the neutral United States was standing by England and its allies during the opening months of World War Two, Hollywood was still reaping financially by showing its movies in the lucrative German market. A few major studios were beginning to reassess whether it was worth the money after Germany invaded Poland, sparking the major war. MGM finally came to the realization it wasn't by producing its first anti-Nazi film, June 1940 "The Mortal Storm." Adolf Hitler and his subordinates were so appalled by the movie's contents their government not only prohibited the film from playing in German theaters but it enacted a complete ban on all MGM motion pictures. Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda, shuttered Loew's Berlin office, MGM's parent company, causing a crimp in the studio's bottom line.

The war in Europe was less than a year old, and the United States wouldn't enter the conflict for another 18 months, but slowly the German public who flocked to see Hollywood movies were deprived of them. Film reviewer Clayton White wrote of "The Mortal Storm," "It takes a clear, unwavering stance against Nazism, and was one of few Hollywood films at the time that did. The most amazing aspect is that not only does it take a stand, but it clearly shows the ignorance and naivety of Nazi supporters." "The Mortal Storm" was adapted from the 1937 novel of the same name by British author Phyllis Bottome, a teacher-turned-writer who lived in Germany in the 1930s. Her book was one of the earliest anti-fascist fictional stories on what was happening in the Nazi-led country. Bottome managed an Austrian school during the mid-1920s where future writer Ian Fleming attended. Some claim Fleming was inspired to base his James Bond character from Bottome's spy novel 'The Lifeline.' The MGM film "The Mortal Storm" takes place in southern Germany in 1933 when Hitler was named chancellor. The film follows the Roth family, non-Aryans whose patriarch, Viktor (Frank Morgan), finds himself celebrating his 60th birthday with his daughter Freya (Margaret Sullavan), his two step-sons, Otto (Robert Stack) and Erich (William Orr), Freya's fiancee Fritz Marberg (Robert Young) and family friend Martin Breitner (James Stewart). Once they hear Hitler has become head of Germany, Otto, Erich and Fritz are enthusiastic about the Nazis' ideologue. Eventually Professor Roth, who disapproves of the Fuhrer, is removed from his college position and sent to a concentration camp while Martin and Freya secretly refuse to join the party.

Director Frank Borzage's work was hailed by film critic Arsaib Gilbert, saying "There may not be a shot in Borzage's oeuvre as haunting as the one here of Morgan's character emerging from the dark recesses of a prison. It is the last time we see him in the film." "The Mortal Storm" also marked the final of four movies long-time friends Stewart and Sullavan were together. Although the actress displayed periods of erratic behavior on and off the set, Stewart loved working with her. "She had you just a little bit off guard," Stewart said later. "She could do moments that would hit you, maybe a look or a line or two, but they would hit like flashes or earthquakes."

"The Mortal Storm" was only the second credited role for Robert Stack, 21. Moving with his family to Europe from Los Angeles as a baby, Charles Langford Modini Stack did not learn English until he was seven after returning to the states. He later excelled in polo and skeet shooting, winning national championships. While taking drama courses at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, Stack visited Universal Studios where he was spotted by a producer, who gave him a screen test. Studio executives loved what they saw from the college student and signed him to a contract, with his film debut in 1939's 'First Love.' He became famous in the movie for kissing young starlet Deanna Durbin, her first on-screen smooch.

Variety noted that "The Mortal Storm" wasn't "the first of the anti-Nazi pictures, but it is the most effective film exposé to date of the totalitarian idea, a slugging indictment of the political and social theories advanced by Hitler." And The New Yorker John Mosher predicted "The cruel story is told without any of the highlights of horror. We feel that what lies behind is worse than what we are shown." The film is listed in the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" reference book.

Just as in sports, it's nice to have a deep bench for Hollywood studios when it comes to directors. Fortunately for RKO Pictures, when Leo McCarey was involved in a serious car accident right before filming May 1940's "My Favorite Wife," the studio turned to Garson Kanin to direct the Cary Grant and Irene Dunne comedy. The jack-of-all trades playwright and screenwriter who broke into cinema by directing his first movie, 1938's "A Man to Remember," Kanin was prepared to replace McCarey immediately after directing five additional films.

Film critic Pauline Kael noticed that "Garson Kanin was 27 (and at his liveliest) when he directed this screwball-classic hit." Film reviewer John Sinnott added "This is a comic masterpiece, one of the great romantic comedies of the era. Every time I watch it I seem to enjoy it more."

"My Favorite Wife" almost wasn't quite the treasure it turned out to be. McCarey, on his feet after a couple of weeks recuperating, visited the set and saw "My Favorite Wife's" first preview. He noticed "after about five reels, the picture took a dip, and for about two reels or more, it wasn't as funny as what preceded it-it was a lot of unraveling of a tricky plot." The movie opened with a judge presiding over the request from attorney Nick Arden (Cary Grant) to declare his missing wife Ellen (Irene Dunne) dead after her ship sank seven years before. He wanted an official resolution to marry Bianca (Gail Patrick), which the judge approved.

McCarey had Kanin rewrite the conclusion to bring back the judge. "When the film was previewed again, it worked," McCarey remembered. The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther credits actor Granville Bates (Judge Bryson) for making the final scenes a fitting ending. "Mr. Bates deserves a separate mention for his masterpiece of comic creation," praised Crowther. Bates died of a heart attack a few months in July 1940 after filming wrapped.

"My Favorite Wife," based on Lord Alfred Tennyson's 1864 poem 'Enoch Arden' which was previously made into six silent films, switches genders, with the wife declared dead. The missing Ellen returns to find her husband married to Bianca. In one of cinema's more funnier scenes, Irene goes to the hotel where Nick is celebrating his honeymoon. As the elevator door in the lobby closes, Nick spots his 'dead' wife, shifting his head in disbelief as the door closes. "It is a classic scene," writes film reviewer Sinnott. "Cary Grant can get a laugh with a simple facial expression easier than any other actor of his time."

Nick and Ellen eventually link up with their two children and declare their love for each other. But there's a wrinkle in their reunion: During the seven years Ellen was on a deserted island, she spent the entire time with one other survivor, Stephen Burkett (Randolph Scott). That's when things get sticky for everyone involved. Nominated for the Academy Awards' Best Story, "My Favorite Wife" was similar to the earlier Grant/Dunne 1937 classic "The Awful Truth." Film historian Richard Jewell notes, "Both in theme and execution, 'My Favorite Wife' was a quasisequel to 'The Awful Truth.'" This was Grant and Dunne's second of three movies together, which Irene enjoyed immensely. She reminisced, "I appeared with many leading men. But working with Cary Grant was different from working with other actors - he was much more fun! I think we were a successful team because we enjoyed working together tremendously, and that pleasure must have shown through onto the screen." One locale the two especially loved filming was at the famous Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite National Park, where director Stanley Kubrick based the interiors of the hotel in his 1980 "The Shining."

Roy Webb was nominated for composing the Academy Awards Best Score while it was also a Best Art Direction nominee. A 1962 remake of "My Favorite Wife" was in production, "Something's Got to Give" with Dean Martin, Cyd Charisse and Marilyn Monroe before it was abandoned when Monroe underwent a myriad of mental problems and died. A year later, Doris Day and James Garner used the same framework in 1963's "Move Over, Darling," with Garner duplicating Grant's famous elevator scene.

Screen tests for actors and actresses usually are a make or break proposition for those receiving-or rejected from movie roles. Martha Scott, who never was in film, felt her Broadway performance as Emily Webb, a key character in Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning 1938 play, gave her the inside track in May 1940's "Our Town," an Academy Award nominated Best Picture. How wrong she was.

Scott, 30, had screen tested poorly the previous year when she was auditioning for the role of Melanie in "Gone With The Wind," a part Olivia de Havilland eventually got. Casting directors were aware popular stage actors sometimes don't translate well on to the big screen. Producer Sol Lessor laboriously conducted auditions with a number of actresses, both famous and not so famous. Ultimately, though, frustrated on finding the perfect person to play Emily, he selected Scott despite a mediocre previous screen test. In hindsight, it proved to be the correct choice since in her movie debut Scott earned an Academy Awards nomination for Best Actress, a rare feat for a Hollywood first timer.

Located in fictitious Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, "Our Town" was fortunate to have set designer William Menzies, an Honorary Oscar recipient for his work on 1939's "Gone With The Wind," in charge of the look of the village complete with quaint rail fences and homey interiors to reflect its residents' inward comforts while outside their experiences with others were just the opposite.

"Our Town," set in the year 1901, showed according to film reviewer Glenn Erickson, a "combination of nostalgia and wisdom from beyond the grave which addresses the issue of temporality and the fleeting joys of day-to-day life." The film reflects a number of residents undergoing their own personal dramas, especially young George Gibbs (William Holden) and Emily Webb (Martha Scott), and their relationship with their families. George and Emily end up marrying a week after high school graduation, and enter the world of the Grover's Corners' daily routine.

Playwright Wilder, with the help of Frank Craven, who played the 'stage manager' in both the play and the film, and Harry Chandlee, an Oscar nominee for co-writing 1941's "Sergeant York," adapted his play to Hollywood standards. This ranged from realistic sets (his play's staging was spare) to changing the ending to be more upbeat. Emily returns from the dead after experiencing a fatal childbirth where she learns a valuable lesson: she sees the living scurrying through their busy daily routine without stopping and appreciating the treasures life has to offer and their failure to connect with people close to them. She asks the Stage Manager if anyone truly understands the value of life. He hedges his response by saying, "No. The saints and the poets, maybe-they do some."

The Jamesport, Missouri-native Martha Scott, whose mother was the second cousin to President William McKinley, earned a bachelor's degree in drama at the University of Michigan. After several summer stock plays and radio dramas, Scott received her first Broadway role in 1938's "Our Town." After her Oscar nomination, Scott remained busy in Hollywood, most notably as the mother of actor Charlton Heston's characters in 1956's "The Ten Commandments" and 1959 "Ben-Hur." On television she was the mother of Bob Newhart on his show as well as Sue Ellen and Kristin's mother on 'Dallas.' She always remembered her hometown cemetery in Jamesport, Missouri that inspired her in the final act of "Our Town." She told her son, "she used that place as her image because it's so serene and beautiful." Scott is buried at her native Jamesport's Masonic Cemetery, dying in 2003 at 90.

Besides the Academy Awards Best Picture and Scott's nominations, "Our Town" saw composer Aaron Copland nominated for his Best Musical Score and Thomas Moulton for Best Sound.

While British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was negotiating with German chancellor Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s resulting in the Munich Agreement, England refrained from criticizing Germany. That all changed once Germany invaded Poland in the autumn of 1939. One of the first British films portraying Germany in a realistically harsh light after World War Two began was May 1940 "Pastor Hall." Based on a 1939 play of the same name by the late German Jewish exile Ernst Toller, the screenplay 'Pastor Hall' was rejected by the British Board of Film Censors before the opening of WW2. The censors claimed the portrayal of a small town in Germany forced by SS Stormtroopers to submit to Nazi ideology would hamper the negotiations Chamberlain was conducting with Hitler. The script was the first to detail the concentration camps rumored to have existed in Germany in the 1930s. Toller, who fled Germany in 1933, was well aware of the events happening internally in his country. He centered his play loosely on Pastor Martin Niemoller, who refused to preach the Nazi doctrine in his church and was sent to Dachau concentration camp for criticizing the Nazi party.

Film reviewer Gary Tooze said "Pastor Hall" was "one of the first anti-Nazi dramas ever made and had its original production delayed by British censors who were told not to be openly critical of Hitler's regime." The strong-armed tactics of the Nazi Germany were personified by the Storm Troopers made up of unemployed young men looking for a regular paycheck. Pastor Frederick Hall (Wilfred Lawson) just wants normalcy for his congregation and the small village he resides. Yet military commander Fritz Gerte (Marius Goring) flexes his swastika-drapped muscles and sends the pastor to a concentration camp after he refuses to adhere to the Nazi's "New Order" talking points at his church.

"Pastor Hall," although not as graphic in its propaganda as those later Hollywood films produced after Pearl Harbor, is a harbinger of what movie audiences would view for the next five years. It proved to be quite a contrast after the years of appeasement when film studios looked upon the lucrative German cinema market as too valuable to lose.

Actor Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz, who eventually made twelve films together, had been adversaries ever since the mid-1930. Yet they were teamed up once again for May 1940's "Virginia City." Flynn, the lead in the Civil War Western as Captain Kerry Bradford of the Union Army, had locked horns with Curtiz beginning with their monumental blowout in 1936's "Charge of the Light Brigade." In turn, Curtiz loathed Flynn and his co-star Miriam Hopkins, a last-minute replacement for Olivia de Havilland. Compounding the tension on the set, Humphrey Bogart took the place of Victor Jory as a Mexican bandit, and was at odds with both Flynn and Randolph Scott.

"It wasn't a happy set," said film historian Jeff Arnold. "Flynn did not slacken his usual rhythm of heavy drinking and was often late. Curtiz was famously scathing of actors, whom he called bums." A reporter from Hollywood Magazine described the tension on the set: "Tempers flared and feuds raged. For one eventful weekend it appeared that the cast was about to choose sides - the blues and the grays - and refight the Civil War with bare hands, rocks or practical bullets."

Warner Brothers' premier of "Virginia City," named for the Nevada town where the film's opening release was taking place, was just as contentious. People paid a high price for tickets to attend the movie's first showing, with the promise Flynn, Hopkins and others in the cast would be on hand to talk about the film. None showed up, creating a scene unlike any other premier. The crowd took several Warner Brothers' employees hostage, and demanded their money back. The theater manager eventually agreed to refund them minus the standard admittance fee.

Not only was Flynn upset working with his loathed director, but he was upset the studio was so ill prepared going into the production. His role was switched at the last minute from Confederate officer Captain Vance Irby to the Union officer. Randolph Scott inherited the part of Irby, who in the waning days of the Civil War carries out the idea of spy Julia Hayne's (Hopkins) to shanghai $5 million at a rebel-held Nevada gold mine to help finance the Southern cause. Confusing as that was, the cast was faced with a partially-written script. Film historian Peter Valenti defends Flynn's frustration. "He changed from antagonist to protagonist, from Southern to Northern officer, almost as the film was being shot. This intensified Errol's feelings of inadequacy as a performer and his contempt for studio operation."

With all the drama behind the camera, it didn't deter from "Virginia City" becoming a big hit at the box office. The Western genre, so foreign to Flynn before 1939's "Dodge City," which ironically ended with he and de Havilland head to the Nevada town of Virginia City, solidified the Australian actor's image as an American Westerner. Bogart, however, took a step backward in his career as the leader of a gang of Mexican outlaws, John Murrell, whose Latino accent comes and goes like the prairie wind. Says film reviewer Frank Showalter, "Bogart's accent grows more pronounced as the film goes on, starting mild-and even vanishing-during his early scenes, but reaching full parody by the film's end."

The New York Times film critic Frank Nugent summed up the successful Western as containing "enough concentrated action, enough of the old-time Western sweep, to make it lively entertainment." And that was on the screen. Off camera, the drama between personalities was just as rousing.

Roach contracted Laurel and Hardy to make two films, the second May 1940's "Saps at Sea." The pair find themselves working at a horn factory where Oliver is losing his mind with all the constant honking, and is diagnosed with a bad case of "hornophobia." Recuperating at his apartment, Oliver gets little rest where he experiences several accidents, including a plumber's bungled job performed by actor Ben Turpin in his final film appearance. Yearning to escape, Oliver calls Stan to accompany him on a rickety rented boat for rest and relaxation. An unwanted guest, murderer Nick Grainger (Richard Cramer), slinks on the boat to escape the law, a discovery the pair realize only when their drifting boat is miles from land.

The script, co-written by silent movie comedian Harry Langdon, reuses a Three Stooges gag introduced in their 1934 "Punch Drunk" where Curly goes berserk when he hears the song 'Pop Goes the Weasel." In "Saps at Sea," Oliver becomes a raging maniac whenever he hears a horn, which proves beneficial on the boat. Film reviewer Mike McCahill calls "Saps at Sea" "a much underrated work in their canon: an hour of Hollywood Dadaism that commits to pushing a particular comic aesthetic as far as it can conceivably go." British Prime Minister Winston Churchill loved the movie, calling it one of his favorites. He made it a point to show the film on the HMS Prince of Wales to lighten the mood as he and the crew were steaming through German submarine-infested waters to his conference with U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt in Newfoundland, Canada in August 1941.

Many Laurel and Hardy fans consider these two last films they made for Hal Roach their final 'good' motion pictures. Premier magazine readers voted in a 2006 poll "A Chump at Oxford" as one of 'The 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time.' Stan and Ollie historian John Larrabee noted, "Fans may wish that Laurel and Hardy could have continued their relationship with Hal Roach into the 1940s, but the conditions wouldn't have allowed for it even if Stan and Babe had desired to do so. The irony is, of course, that had Roach continued to make films with the Boys, it might have prolonged the careers of all concerned." Roach realized his idea of 'featurette,' or 'streamliners' was viable. With United Artists' insistence Laurel and Hardy were too valuable to subject them to these shorts, Roach released the pair while making a fortune with his cheaply-made 17 streamliners released before Pearl Harbor. Free once again, Stan tried to establish his own film production company, only to see it go nowhere. He and Ollie signed on with Twentieth Century Fox, but the studio's constrictions in their subsequent movies placed a damper to their innovative humor.