1939 Movies
Take a nostalgic look back at the top movies of 1939, celebrating the films, directors and actors that defined the year and left a lasting legacy in the world of entertainment.
The Four Feathers
Directed by: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Heath Ledger, Kate Hudson, Wes Bentley, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Sheen, James Cosmo
Country: United States of America
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Directed by: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Country: United States of America
Outline: A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Directed by: Sam Wood, Sidney Franklin
Starring: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills
Country: United States of America
Outline: An aged teacher and former headmaster of a boarding school recalls his career and his personal life over the decades.
Dodge City
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot
Country: United States of America
Outline: A Texas cattle agent witnesses first hand, the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City and takes the job of sheriff to clean the town up.
Drums Along the Mohawk
Directed by: John Ford
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, Eddie Collins
Country: United States of America
Outline: Newlyweds Gil and Lana Martin try to establish a farm in the Mohawk Valley but are menaced by Indians and Tories as the Revolutionary War begins.
Jesse James
Directed by: Henry King, Irving Cummings
Starring: Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott
Country: United States of America
Outline: After railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank turn to banditry for revenge.
The Rains Came
Directed by: Clarence Brown
Starring: Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, George Brent, Brenda Joyce
Outline: Living in India with her crude husband, a British aristocrat is reunited with an old flame at a party, though she truly has her sights set on a handsome doctor.
Babes in Arms
Directed by: Busby Berkeley
Starring: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee
Outline: A group of vaudevillians struggling to compete with talkies hits the road hoping for a comeback. Frustrated to be left behind, all of their kids put on a show themselves to raise money for the families and to prove they've got talent, too.
Ninotchka
Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
Starring: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi
Country: United States of America
Outline: A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
Stagecoach
Directed by: John Ford
Starring: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine
Country: United States of America
Outline: A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.
The Roaring Twenties
Directed by: Raoul Walsh
Starring: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Gladys George
Country: United States of America
Outline: Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Directed by: William Dieterle
Starring: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell
Country: United States of America
Outline: In 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.
Beau Geste
Directed by: William A. Wellman
Starring: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy
Country: United States of America
Outline: Three adopted English brothers join the French Foreign Legion in North Africa, after one of them steals their adoptive family's famous heirloom sapphire.
Of Mice and Men
Directed by: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Charles Bickford
Country: United States of America
Outline: Two itinerant migrant workers, one mentally disabled and the other his carer, take jobs as ranch hands during the Great Depression to fulfill their shared dream of owning their own ranch.
La fin du jour
Directed by: Julien Duvivier
Starring: Victor Francen, Michel Simon, Louis Jouvet, Madeleine Ozeray
Outline: Aged penniless actors are living in a old people's home. They always talk about their past glory or failures. One day Raphael Saint-Clair comes; he has been a famous actor and had a lot of ...
On Borrowed Time
Directed by: Harold S. Bucquet
Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Cedric Hardwicke, Beulah Bondi, Una Merkel
Outline: A cantankerous old man takes in his beloved, orphaned grandson, whom he must protect at all costs, including from an agent of Death with the help of a magical apple tree.
Wuthering Heights
Directed by: William Wyler
Starring: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson
Country: United States of America
Outline: A servant in the house of Wuthering Heights tells a traveler the unfortunate tale of lovers Cathy and Heathcliff.
Only Angels Have Wings
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Starring: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Richard Barthelmess
Country: United States of America
Outline: At a remote South American trading port, the manager of an air freight company is forced to risk his pilots' lives in order to win an important contract.
Destry Rides Again
Directed by: George Marshall
Starring: Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger
Country: United States of America
Outline: When a tough western town needs taming, the mild-mannered son of a hard-nosed sheriff gets the job.
The Old Maid
Directed by: Edmund Goulding
Starring: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, George Brent, Donald Crisp
Outline: The arrival of an ex-lover on a young woman's wedding day sets in motion a chain of events which will alter her and her cousin's lives forever.
Remember the Night
Directed by: Mitchell Leisen
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson
Outline: A shoplifter and her prosecuter fall in love, creating tensions in their family lives.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Directed by: Sidney Lanfield
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene, Wendy Barrie
Country: United States of America
Outline: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate the legend of a supernatural hound, a beast that may be stalking a young heir on the fog-shrouded moorland that makes up his estate.
Dark Victory
Directed by: Edmund Goulding
Starring: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Country: United States of America
Outline: A young socialite is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and must decide whether or not she'll meet her final days with dignity.
The Four Feathers
Directed by: Zoltan Korda
Starring: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez
Country: United States of America
Outline: A timid British Army officer has quit and burns his last day summons to a war in Egypt. Calling him a coward, his girl friend and 3 officer friends give him a white feather. In redemption, he shadows his friends in war to save their lives.
What happened in 1939?
Discover what the world looked like in 1939: