My Favorite Films of the 1940s

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."

Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch
Music by Max Steiner
Cinematography by Arthur Edeson
Editing by Owen Marks

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another."

Directed by Charles Chaplin
Written by Charles Chaplin
Music by Charles Chaplin and Meredith Willson
Cinematography by Karl Struss and Roland Totheroh
Editing by Willard Nico and Harold Rice

"Do you know, when I was a girl I used to read quite a bit."
"We all do strange things in our childhood."

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Hume Cronyn, Arthur Laurents and Ben Hecht
Music by David Buttolph
Cinematography by William V. Skall and Joseph A. Valentine
Editing by William H. Ziegler

"Don't be so gloomy. After all, it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly."

Directed by Carol Reed
Written by Graham Greene, Orson Welles, Alexander Korda and Carol Reed
Music by Anton Karas
Cinematography by Robert Krasker
Editing by Oswald Hafenrichter

"A lie keeps growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on your face."

Directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts and Ben Sharpsteen
Written by Ted Sears, Otto Englander, Webb Smith, William Cottrell, Joseph Sabo, Erdman Penner and Aurelius Battaglia
Music by Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith, Frank Churchill and Edward H. Plumb
Cinematography by
Editing by

"The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it? Wake up, Charlie. Use your wits. Learn something."

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson and Alma Reville
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography by Joseph A. Valentine
Editing by Milton Carruth

"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."

Directed by George Waggner
Written by Curt Siodmak
Music by Charles Previn, Hans J. Salter and Frank Skinner
Cinematography by Joseph A. Valentine
Editing by Ted J. Kent

"Here, on Walpurgnisnacht, which is the equivalent of our own Halloween, the creatures of evil gather to worship their master. Under his spell, they dance furiously until the coming of dawn and the sounds of church bells send the infernal army slinking back into their abodes of darkness."

Directed by James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe Jr., Norman Ferguson, David Hand, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield and Ben Sharpsteen
Written by Joe Grant, Dick Huemer, Lee Blair, Elmer Plummer, Phil Dike, Sylvia Moberly-Holland, Norman Wright, Albert Heath, Bianca Majolie, Graham Heid, Perce Pearce, Carl Fallberg, William Martin, Leo Thiele, Robert Sterner, John McLeish, Otto Englander, Webb Smith, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, Bill Peet, Vernon Stallings, Campbell Grant, Arthur Heinemann and Phil Dike
Music by
Cinematography by James Wong Howe
Editing by

"Power, yes... I want that as much as you want your job, or that girl. We all have different tastes as you can see, only I'm willing to back my tastes with the necessary force."

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison and Dorothy Parker
Music by Frank Skinner
Cinematography by Joseph A. Valentine
Editing by Otto Ludwig and Edward Curtiss

"What happened, Mother? Why did we all run?"
"Man was in the forest."

Directed by James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, David Hand, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Norman Wright, Arthur Davis and Clyde Geronimi
Written by Perce Pearce, Larry Morey, Vernon Stallings, Mel Shaw, Carl Fallberg, Chuck Couch and Ralph Wright
Music by Frank Churchill, Edward H. Plumb and Leigh Harline
Cinematography by
Editing by Thomas Scott