The Ghost Comes Home (1940)
[4] Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz) stars in this goofy comedy about a pet shop owner who gets mistaken for dead. His family cashes in his insurance policy, so when he surprises them all by being alive, they work…
Desire Me (1947)
[6] Greer Garson, Richard Hart, and Robert Mitchum star in this twisted romantic drama about a woman who learns of her husband's death from his visiting WWII buddy. She and the man then strike up their own romantic relationship, but…
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
[8] James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star in this fluffy romantic comedy from director Ernst Lubitsch. Stewart and Sullavan play clerks at a Hungarian general store during Christmastime. Both are courting anonymous, romantic pen pals, with no idea that the…
All the King’s Men (1949)
[7] Broderick Crawford plays a small-town hick who attracts a populist following that takes him all the way to the governor's mansion, even though his ascent is riddled with corruption and crime. All the King's Men is really about Crawford's…
An Ideal Husband (1947)
[7] Paulette Goddard leads an ensemble cast in this telling of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. Goddard plays the conniving Mrs. Cheveley, arriving in London from abroad, with the intent to blackmail a politician into publicly supporting a dubious financial…
Pinky (1949)
[7] Elia Kazan directs a trio of Oscar-nominated performances in this adaptation of the Cid Ricketts Sumner novel. Jeanne Crain (State Fair, A Letter to Three Wives) stars as Pinky, a light-skinned African American woman returning to her impoverished southern…
Beauty and the Beast (1947)
[7] Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast is ripe with indelible images of pure fantasy. That it was achieved with a modest budget in post-war France makes it even more impressive. The sets are exquisite -- you'll find them echoed…
The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
[7] In this potpourri of Middle-Eastern folklore, a banished king (John Justin) and a street boy (Sabu) team up to stop an evil magician (Conrad Veidt) from marrying a beautiful princess (June Duprez). The Thief of Bagdad tries to combine…
Yellow Sky (1948)
[6] Gregory Peck stars in William Wellman's (The Ox-Bow Incident, The Story of G.I. Joe) eerie western about a band of thieves that wander into a Death Valley ghost town where a young woman (Anne Baxter) and her grandfather have…
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
[7] This isn't the romanticized WWII of modern cinema, it's probably closer to the real thing. The Story of G.I. Joe is based on print journalist Ernie Pyle's interviews with soldiers in the field. Pyle was in the foxholes with…