This Gun for Hire (1942)

This Gun for Hire (1942)

[7] Alan Ladd (Shane) made his breakthrough performance in this unusually dark and violent film noir tale co-starring Veronica Lake and Robert Preston. Ladd plays a hit man hunting down a client (The Lodger's Laird Cregar) who double-crossed him. Lake…
Woman of the Year (1942)

Woman of the Year (1942)

[7] After ending her late '30s career slump with The Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn followed up with another smash hit, Woman of the Year. It was her fateful first pairing with Spencer Tracy, with whom she'd make eight more films.…
Keeper of the Flame (1942)

Keeper of the Flame (1942)

[5] In the second of their nine pairings, Spencer Tracy plays a highly-regarded journalist investigating the death of Katharine Hepburn's husband, a beloved national war hero. At first, information is hard to come by. But once he begins talking with…
Bambi (1942)

Bambi (1942)

[10] With relatively little dialogue and an abundance of montage, Walt Disney's Bambi plays out like a beautiful tone poem on rites of passage, death and rebirth. There's a 'circle of life' undercurrent to the film that makes it especially…
Invisible Agent (1942)

Invisible Agent (1942)

[5] Jon Hall plays the grandson of the original Invisible Man, played by Claude Rains in 1933. In this third sequel, Hall is pressured to take his grandfather's transparency potion to serve the United States as a secret agent in…
Saludos Amigos (1942)

Saludos Amigos (1942)

[3] Vying with Nazi Germany to create ties in South American countries during World War II, the U.S. government guaranteed Walt Disney federal loans to produce animated films celebrating South American culture. Saludos Amigos is the first resulting film from…
Dr. Renault’s Secret (1942)

Dr. Renault’s Secret (1942)

[6] An American (John Shepperd) visits his fiancée (Lynne Roberts) and her father in their rural chateau at the same time a series of murders begins. The father's brutish gardener with a criminal past is a prime suspect. And so…
Across the Pacific (1942)

Across the Pacific (1942)

[7] Maltese Falcon cast mates Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet reunite with director John Huston for this wartime espionage flick. Bogart plays a dishonorably discharged army captain who catches passage on a Japanese steamboat headed for the Panama…
Now, Voyager (1942)

Now, Voyager (1942)

[7] Bette Davis stars as Charlotte Vale, a nervous young woman whose emotionally abusive mother (Gladys Cooper) causes her to submit herself to a sanitarium. Under the care of her doctor (Claude Rains), Charlotte begins to gain the confidence to…
The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942)

The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942)

[6] Fay Bainter (The Children's Hour) stars in this 'war at home' drama about a wealthy widow who ignores the effects of WWII even as her son (Mrs. Miniver's Richard Ney) is drafted into service. Her stubborn refusal to deal…