The Year in Movies: 1942

1942

Number of Movies I've Seen: 5
Hey... moving on up!

Number of Movies from my original top 365:  1

Oscar Winner:
Mrs. Miniver - pictured above. I watched this movie for this blog and fully expected to not like it. I was right for the first third of the movie. Class struggle between wealthy and wealthier British folks... ho hum... The main character's accents really took me out of it too. This was especially true for Walter Pidgeon's Mr. Miniver who sounded like every other leading man in 1940s Hollywood. And then came the Germans... The last third of this movie transcended everything that is normal about early Hollywood romantic dramas. The blandness of the opening began to matter because we saw what a shock these characters were in for.  I truly understand why Winston Churchill allegedly remarked that "this film had done more for the war effort than a flotilla of destroyers." Easily one of my favorite early Best Picture winners.

Box Office Winner:
Bambi - This category is going to be tough to research for this era because these Disney films were rereleased so many times and the box office shows their all-time gross. I can't find any evidence that Bambi didn't make more than 2nd place Mrs. Miniver so I'll give it to them for this year.

My Top Ten:
1. NEXT POST!

2. Mrs. Miniver

3. Bambi - I probably need a rewatch, but my memories of this one are mostly fluff...

4. Yankee Doodle Dandy - pandering patriotic schlock saved only be one or two pretty cool dance numbers.

5. Holiday Inn - Offensively bad movie that gave us the song White Christmas. It's terrible. Like gleeful blackface terrible....