2 Best Movies & Shows Released in The 1940s

While today’s moviegoers would likely pick Black Swan as the ballet film of choice, there is one film classic that brings the title of the best ballet film in contention. That is The Red Shoes. It first divided critics of film and ballet alike, but as time went by, the spectacular drama from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger deservedly garnered acclaim for the brilliant, novel ways of bridging the gap between art forms. Of course, the most obvious of this is the lush, stunning 17-minute dance sequence that first incorporated dynamic camera movement to the choreography, and captured Han Christian Andersen’s story to its essentials. But aside from just depicting the dance, The Archers reconfigured every other single aspect of film to bend toward the movement without breaking the beauty of every shot– the scoring, the casting, the production design, and the ballet-within-a-film plotline. It’s because of this that The Red Shoes garnered a legacy of being one of the best ballet films, one of the best British films, and even one of the greatest films ever made.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Albert Bassermann, Anton Walbrook, Austin Trevor, Bill Shine, Emeric Pressburger, Esmond Knight, Léonide Massine, Ludmilla Tchérina, Marcel Poncin, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Patrick Troughton, Robert Helpmann

Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell

Rating: NR

Nearly a decade after the Hays Code, the time for glorified gangsters was over. However, before Hollywood shifted their gaze to the European-inspired, shadowy film noir, the gangster bid one last adieu in High Sierra. It was this very concept that was the foundation of the story– bringing back a robber for one more heist– but with an excellent Humphrey Bogart and John Huston’s riveting script, the film was something else. It pushed the gangster genre into a different place, as Bogart’s thief reveals a sensitivity that was then uncommon in the genre, and Huston takes advantage of the Code to build up suspense and sympathy as his farm boy-turned-mobster tries to climb his way to freedom. Being their breakthrough moment, it’s no wonder then that Bogart and Huston continued their partnership in brooding, anti-hero film noir dramas, but High Sierra still holds up to this day, cementing some of the tropes that future crime thrillers draw inspiration from.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Barton MacLane, Cornel Wilde, Donald MacBride, Dorothy Appleby, Elisabeth Risdon, George Meeker, Henry Hull, Henry Travers, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Isabel Jewell, Jerome Cowan, Joan Leslie, John Eldredge, Minna Gombell, Paul Harvey, Robert Strange, Spencer Charters, Willie Best

Director: Raoul Walsh

Rating: NR