The Glamorous 1940's: Movies and Movie Stars

Movies from the 1930's to the 1960's are some of the best movies ever made. There's a sincerity to them, the kind that happens when the movie-maker concentrates on the story, rather than on epic special effects. Movies like "The Wizard of Oz" and the original "Ocean's 11" really manage to capture that. While the effects for that time were ground-breaking, they only knew how to do so much -- and they had no computers to take advantage of.

Being a future-film-maker, I am ashamed to say that I have seen only a few movies from the 1940's: A couple Hitchcock films, and, of course, "It's A Wonderful Life". But since "Wonderful Life" is my seventh favorite movie of all time, I think we can concentrate on that for a while.

If "It's A Wonderful Life" represents movies from the 1940's, all movies from that decade were fabulous. You have, of course, the soft black and white visuals, the eloquent way of speaking that I've tried to recapture but can never quite manage, and a story that has continued to touch people every Christmas (and for me, throughout the rest of the year) for decades and decades, generations and generations. Plus, you have the gorgeous Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart (<3) in the same picture together. It's genius.

I mean, just look at this scene. 

Sigh! Aren't they just perfect together?

This movie is probably what really got me into the 1940's in the first place. Look at Donna's hair in the scene you just watched. Isn't it lovely? And her dress, here:

She's stunning! And her clothes in this movie are fabulous. I wanted to dress like her and talk like her and wear my hair like her. Nowadays celebrities dress either in saggy, ripped up clothing, too-tight everything, or dresses that show off... Well, everything that shouldn't be shown off. Well, that's fine. That's how they want to dress. But I want to dress like Mary from "It's A Wonderful Life".

That's just the surface stuff, though.

The story is wonderful. A man spends his life sacrificing himself to make others' lives better, believes that he is worthless, contemplates suicide, and then an angel shows him what the world would be like without him. It's beautiful. This past Christmas season I stayed up till three watching it and rewatching it,  because no matter how exhausted I was I didn't want it to end. It's amazing. I know it's technically considered a "Christmas Special", but I watch it in March. In my opinion, it's in the top 10 list of best movies ever made. That's saying a lot, because I LOVE movies.

Of course, I'm sure not all movies from the 1940's were all that great ("The Jungle Goddess"). But obviously some were. They've influenced today's movies, and without them, we wouldn't know a thing about story-telling.

I think we oughta make a pact. We all go watch as many movies from the 1940's that we haven't seen as we can, and then we (or at least I) blog about them. Pact made? Okay! :D