My Top Ten Movies of the '40s

I like to think of myself as fairly well-versed in movies, but my movie-viewing could use some brushing up, especially when it comes to films from the predominantly black-and-white era.  Still, I've seen enough movies in the '40s to have a few favorites.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - Henry Fonda gives perhaps his greatest performances as Tom Joad, champion of the oppressed, alongside Jane Darwell as his formidable mother, who holds the suffering family together as they trek across the wasted landscape during the Dust Bowl in search of food and meager employment. A riveting tale of survival in the face of ordinary evil, it concludes with one of cinema's most stirring and often-referenced speeches.

Pinocchio (1940) - One of Disney's best, it's the standout in a productive decade for the House of Mouse. Adventurous enough to appease modern audiences, it includes timeless lessons on the values of honesty, bravery and unselfishness. When You Wish Upon a Star remains synonymous with Disney, and Jiminy Cricket is equally iconic, though my favorite character is the gentle Geppetto, first of the great Disney dads.

Dumbo (1941) - It's a single parent again in this Disney film, though a mom in this case. Mrs. Jumbo is fiercely proud of her son despite his physical abnormality. One of many tales along the lines of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer in which an apparent defect becomes the ticket to greatness, Dumbo encourages perseverance. Steadfast mouse Timothy operates much like Jiminy Cricket, helping his young friend achieve his goals. Dumbo's exhilarated flights, the extended scene in which the befuddled stork delivers bundles of joy to the circus animals and the trippy Pink Elephants on Parade sequence are memorable movie moments, and the Baby Mine is heartbreaking.

Bambi (1942) - Three Disneys in a row, and then I'll give it a rest for a while. Set in a pristine forest, Bambi includes some of Disney's most glorious animation. It's a good thing the visuals are so stunning, since there's precious little dialogue, and the rather shrill songs are background rather than belonging to particular characters. The movie is best in its opening half, when Bambi and his friends, enthusiastic rabbit Thumper and shy skunk Flower, are busy exploring their world, getting into all sorts of entertaining mischief. The second half is disturbingly dark, but its full-circle ending is one again tranquil. An excellent precursor to The Lion King.

Casablanca (1942) - I'm not usually much for wartime epics, but this one's so iconic I can't leave it out. Humphrey Bogart is particularly terrific in this story of star-crossed love and a world in turmoil. Some of the most quotable lines of the decade come from this film. Even if they are sometimes misquoted...

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - Jimmy Stewart gained a reputation for playing decent everymen, and George Bailey seems to be the first character on most people's minds when they make that association. George isn't perfect; by the time the angel Clarence comes to intervene in his life, he's downright surly. But then, he has a right; his life hasn't gone the way he'd intended, and now he's on the verge of bankruptcy because of a stupid mistake that wasn't his fault. Like Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' Christmas classic, George has an opportunity to see where the decisions of his past have led him and those around him. But in his case, it's a positive revelation. It's the perfect movie to watch when you're feeling down and out, the perfect reminder that the good things we do make an impact, even if we can't always see the results for ourselves.

The Bishop's Wife (1947) - In a similar vein to the above, this one stars suave Cary Grant, who comes into the life of an overworked man of the cloth in an effort to improve his circumstances, though falling for his wife in the process complicates matters. It's hard to say whether I prefer this or the '90s remake, The Preacher's Wife. Both are gently humorous, romantic and Christmassy.

Miracle on 34th St. (1947) - Same goes for this one, in which Natalie Wood plays the serious little girl who comes to believe that the elderly gentleman she's befriended really is Santa Claus. This, too, had a remake in the '90s, and again, I find it hard to decide between the two. But for years, this was the ultimate Santa Claus movie, with nothing really to rival it. Give it a whirl some Thanksgiving and you'll soon see why.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) - This one will be getting the remake treatment, but it's not there yet. We studied the story in my freshman year of English, and the movie puts the talents of Danny Kaye to good use in adapting this tale of a hen-pecked daydreamer for the big screen. Mike Myers is no Danny Kaye, but I'm curious to see what he will do with the character...

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) - It's not a full-length masterpiece, but two beloved stories get the animated Disney treatment here. Gangly Ichabod Crane of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and rambunctious Mr. Toad of The Wind in the Willows spring from the screen with vitality, each as idiosyncratic as the other. Ichabod puts me in mind of Halloween, while Toad makes me long for warm, leisurely summer days, but both are magnificent characters year-round.

Cary Grant Patches Lives and Steals Hearts in The Bishop's Wife

I was in high school when The Preacher's Wife hit theaters. Though I'd wanted to see it back then, I didn't get around to it until this year. My mom, meanwhile, had been hearing good things about The Bishop's Wife, on which the former is based, so once I kicked off my Christmas movie watching with the angelic Denzel, I figured I might as well move on to Cary Grant.

The Bishop's Wife is directed by Henry Koster and written by Leonardo Bercovici and Robert Sherwood. The first major difference between the two movies is that this 1948 film is in black and white, a condition I always find gravely disappointing, but if the movie is engaging enough it stops bugging me after a little while. This one is. The second significant difference is that while every major character in The Preacher's Wife is black, every major character in this movie is white.

It's a very different sort of setting, and David Niven, as Bishop Henry Brougham, has a decidedly aristocratic air. He's English, detached from his family and lives in a mansion, where he is attended by servants, one of whom is played by Elsa Lanchester, who I know as sourpuss nanny Katie Nana in Mary Poppins. So when Dudley (Grant) shows up with his little bag of angelic tricks to help Henry get control over his life, I couldn't help but think this movie has as much in common with Mary Poppins as with The Preacher's Wife.

I found Loretta Young more engaging than Whitney Houston in the role of the wife, Julia, who supports her husband's ministry but is beginning to feel neglected. She's a warm, passionate woman, and her vivacity increases in Dudley's presence. In this original version, Dudley has always been an angel, an entirely different order of being from humans, and he's been averting calamities for centuries. He's hobnobbed with ancient royalty, but he's never before become so entranced by a woman that he actually wishes he could stop being an angel. It comes to that in this movie, and Julia is the one who must ultimately decide the course of Dudley's future.

The plot is pretty similar overall. In both films, Henry is pressured by someone very wealthy to agree to the building of an opulent cathedral. In this case, it's elderly Mrs. Hamilton (Gladys Cooper), who seems cold as ice but whose past hides a private pain that Dudley is uniquely qualified to unlock. He oversteps his bounds a bit by taking Julia to a restaurant of great importance to her and her husband and spends an idyllic evening ice skating with her in the park.

Because this Dudley is an angel in a truer sense of the word than Washington's Dudley, he does a lot more than change just the Bishop. He has a profound impact on several minor characters who don't have counterparts in the remake, including world-weary cabbie Sylvester (James Gleason) and atheistic history professor Wutheridge (Monty Woolley). Of course, because he's Cary Grant, he has a different sort of impact on every woman he meets. All the swooning gets a little silly after a while. And I get the impression that these ladies were not acting.

It's hard to say which of the two films I liked better, as there were aspects of each that I preferred. While I would much rather watch The Bishop's Wife in color, the movie is vibrant enough to make up for it, much like its contemporary, It's a Wonderful Life. While Bishop Henry is no George Bailey, we want his life to turn around, and it sure is fun to see just how that happens.