Movies of the Forties

by Ann Lloyd (Editor), David Robinson (Consultant Editor)

Offers profiles of important actors, actresses, directors, and producers of the forties, highlights influential films, and discusses documentaries, blacklisting, and popular film genres

219 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some time ago, I found Movies of the Thirties (also edited by Ann Lloyd) at a used book shop and enjoyed its comprehensive overview of that decade. So, when I stumbled across Movies of the Forties at a different used shop, I quickly snapped it up. The books are British, released in the early '80s, and therefore recount things from that perspective. But the focus is international, with essays about many of the major national cinemas (France, Japan, Britain, Hollywood), genres (neo-realism, film noir, westerns, documentaries, animation, war, musicals), stars (Ingrid Bergman, Alec Guinness, Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield, Rita Hayworth, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn), directors (Hawks, Rossellini, Visconti, De Sica, Welles, Wyler, Reed, Powell, Huston, Wellman, Sturges, Walsh, Disney), studios (Rank, Ealing, Paramount, RKO), key films (Les Enfants du Paradis, The Story of G.I. Joe, Bicycle Thieves, Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Maltese Falcon), and so much more. Each of the 60 or so essays is written by a different critic/writer and thus they vary dramatically in tone and content but the vast majority are incredibly detailed, informative, and thoughtful about this important decade in cinema history. I ate it up, even though many of the films mentioned (often in passing) are now impossible to see.