Top 10 Films of 1939

1. "La Règle du jeu" (Jean Renoir, France)

2. "Midnight" (Mitchell Leisen, Paramount)

3. "The Wizard Of Oz" (Victor Fleming, MGM)

4. "Gone With The Wind" (Victor Fleming, MGM)

5. "Tale Of Late Chrysantemums" (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)

6. "Le Jour se lève" (Marcel Carné, France)

7. "Ninotchka" (Ernst Lubitsch, MGM)

8. "Only Angels Have Wings" (Howard Hawks, Columbia)

9. "Stagecoach" (John Ford, United Artists)

10. "Wuthering Heights" (William Wyler, United Artists)

Other great films:

The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes
L'amore si fa cosi (Italy)
Another Thin Man
At The Circus
Babes In Arms
Bachelor Mother
Beau Geste
Dark Victory
Daughters Courageous
Destry Rides Again
Doktor Murek (Poland)

Fiery Summer (Böhmen und Mähren)

The Four Feathers

Four Seasons Of Children (Japan)
The Great Citizen Part 2 (Soviet Union)
Gulliver's Travels
Gunga Din
Honolulu
The Hound Of The Baskervilles

Hurra ich bin Papa (Germany)

It's A Wonderful World
Klamstwo Krystyny (Poland)
Love Affair
The Man In The Iron Mask
Mr Smith Goes To Washington
Der Opernball (Germany)
The Phantom Creeps
The Real Glory

The Roaring Twenties
Rose Of Washington Square

Second Fiddle
Shchors (Soviet Union)
Singing Lovebirds (Japan)
Son Of Frankenstein
The Spy In Black (UK)
The Story Of Vernon And Irene Castle
Swanee River
Union Pacific
Way Down South
Wloczegi (Poland)
The Women
You Can't Cheat An Honest Man
Young Mr Lincoln

Short Top 3:

1. "Sword Fishing" (DeLeon Anthony, Warner, USA)

2. "How To Eat" (Roy Rowland, MGM, USA)

3. "Hoagy Carmichael" (Leslie Roush, Paramount, USA)

Other great shorts: 

Det unge Grænseværn (Denmark)

The World Parade: Bali Paradise Isle

Cartoon Top 10

1. "Peace On Earth" (Hugh Harman, MGM)

2. "Thugs With Dirty Mugs" (Tex Avery, Warner)

3. "The Pointer" (Clyde Geronimi, Disney)

4. "Small Fry" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

5. "Jitterbug Follies" (Milt Gross, MGM)

6. "Mama's New Hat" (Friz Freleng, MGM)

7. "Wise Quacks" (Robert Clampett, Warner)

8. "Goofy And Wilbur" (Dick Huemer, Disney)

9. "The Practical Pig" (Dick Rickard, Disney)

10. "Ugly Duckling" (Jack Cutting, Disney)

Other great cartoons:

Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp
The Autograph Hound
The Bear That Couldn't Sleep

The Blue Danube
Daffy Duck And The Dinosaur
Dangerous Dan McFoo
Donald's Cousin Gus
Donald's Lucky Day

The Good Egg
Hare-Um Scare-Um
The Hockey Champ
It's An Ill Wind
Jeepers Creepers
Life Begins For Andy Panda
The Little Lion Hunter
Officer Duck
Petunia Natural Park
Porky's Movie Mystery
Presto Change-o
Scalp Trouble
Seal Skinners
Sea Scouts
Sniffles And The Bookworm
Snow Man's Land
Society Dog Show
Wanted: No Master

Weak films of 1939:

Bezdomni (Poland)
The Devil's Daughter
Drums Along The Mohawk
Eternally Yours
The Flying Deuces
Golden Boy
Goodbye, Mr Chips
Hollywood Cavalcade
The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame
I Grandi magazzini (Italy)
Intermezzo
Juarez
Lady Of The Tropics
The Little Princess
Midnight Shadow
Nurse Edith Cavell
O czym sie nie mowi (Poland)
Of Mice And Men
The Old Maid
The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex
The Rains Came
Susannah Of The Mounties
Tarzan Finds A Son
They Made Me A Criminal
Topper Takes A Trip
Torture Ship
When Tomorrow Comes

The Whole Family Works (Japan)

Weak shorts:

Class In Swing
Information Please
Mystery Plane
Prophet Without Honor
Sons Of Liberty
We Want Our Mummy

Weak cartoons:

Art Gallery
Bars And Stripes Forever
Beach Picnic
Believe It Or Else
The Bookworm
Chicken Jitters
The Curious Puppy
A Day At The Zoo
Detouring America
Dog Gone Modern
Donald's Penguin
Fagin's Freshman
The Film Fan
Fresh Fish
Goldilocks And The Three Bears
Gold Rush Daze
Hamateur Night
Hobo Gadget Band
It's The Natural Thing To Do
Kristopher Kolumbus Jr
Land Of The Midnight Fun
Little Brother Rat
The Little Goldfish
The Lone Stranger And Porky
Mad Maestro
Musical Mountaineers
My Friend The Monkey
Naughty But Mice
Naughty Neighbors
Nell's Yells
Old Glory
One Mother's Family
Pied Piper Porky
Polar Pals
Porky And Teabiscuit
Porky's Hotel
Porky's Picnic
Porky's Tire Trouble
Porky The Giant Killer
Rhythm On The Reservation
Robin Hood Makes Good
The Scared Crows 
Screwball Football
Sioux Me
So Does An Automobile

Top 3 Musicals of 1939

1. "The Wizard Of Oz" (Victor Fleming, MGM)

2. "Babes In Arms" (Busby Berkeley, MGM)

3. "Second Fiddle" (Sidney Lanfield, 20th-Fox)

Gone With The Wind (1939) *****

Le Jour se lève (1939) ****

Tale Of Late Chrysanthemums (1939) ****

Exquisitely directed Japanese drama about the life of a famous kabuki actor. 

Way Down South (1939) ***

Dixie musical about an evil plantation overseer trying to sell the slaves.

Klamstwo Krystyny (1939) ***

Piosenka Henryka Warsa:

"Lim Pam Pom"  ***

Shchors (1939) ***

Uneven film by Alexander Dovzhenko, with many fabulously directed outdoor and battle sequences, and some dreadful indoor dialogue scenes.

Fiery Summer (1939) ***

Second Fiddle (1939) ***

Pleasant musical starring Sonja Henie, inspired by Hollywood's search for Scarlett O'Hara. Songs: 

"An Old Fashioned Tune Is Always New" *

"The Song Of The Metronome" *

"Back To Back" **

"When Winter Comes" **

"I Poured My Heart Into A Song" **

"I'M Sorry For Myself" **

L'Amore si fa cosi (1939) ***

A "telefoni bianchi" comedy with plenty of white telephones.

The Great Citizen Part 2 (1939) ***

Set in 1934, the events leading to the assassination of a Stalinist leader by a Trotskyist conspiracy.

Wloczegi (1939) ***

Szczepcio i Toncio. Piosenki Henryka Warsa i Emanuela Schlechtera:

"Tylko we Lwowie"  ***
"Dobranoc oczka zmruz"  **
"Cos zrobila z sercem mym"  **

Union Pacific (1939) ***

Epic western about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Uneven, but impressive.

Der Opernball (1939) ***

Pleasant musical from Germany.

Four Seasons Of Children (1939) ***

Written by Joji Tsubota. The film is available here.

Rose Of Washington Square (1939) ***

Al Jolson and Alice Faye star as singers, while Tyrone Power plays a crook in this memorable musical. Songs:

"Pretty Baby"  *
"I'M Sorry I Made You Cry"  *
"Ja-da"  *
"The Vamp"  **
"Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody"  **
"Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye"  **
"I'M Just Wild About Harry"  **
"California Here I Come"  **
"I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak"  **
"Rose Of Washington Square"  **
"My Mammy"  **
"My Man"  **

Hurra ich bin Papa (1939) ***

The Man in The Iron Mask (1939) ***

It starts slow, but the second half of this swashbuckler is marvelously entertaining.

Swanee River (1939) ***

Biographic musical about Stephen Foster.

Singing Lovebirds (1939) ***

Wonderful musical from Japan.

Juarez (1939) **

The title is misleading. It's not the film about Mexico's first Indian president, but about its last emperor, Maximilian. In fact, the film's sympathies are entirely on Maximilian's side and Juarez is seen almost as a villain (although the true villain remains Napoleon III, whom the film blames for everything). Compared to most Hollywood biopics, the film is remarkably accurate as far as historical details are concerned, but its political point-of-view is quite naive.

Golden Boy (1939) **

Boxing drama. Good beginning. Lousy ending.

Intermezzo (1939) **

A Hollywood remake of a Swedish melodrama that made Ingrid Bergman a star. 

Lady Of The Tropics (1939) **

Robert Taylor falls in love with Hedy Lamarr in Saigon.

The Devil’s Daughter (1939) **

Strange title for this otherwise devil-free, all-black melodrama set on a Caribbean island. There is some mild voodoo, but no devil worship.

The Old Maid (1939) **

Quintessential "women's picture" about a mother's sacrifice for her (illigitimate) daughter. Hopelessly dated, but quite effective as a tearjerker.

The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex (1939) **

Interesting history lesson about the last years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, with Errol Flynn giving one of the worst performances of his career as a young and ambitious British aristocrat who tries to seduce the aging queen in order to seize power.

Topper Takes A Trip (1939) **

A sequel to "Topper".

The Whole Family Works (1939) **

When Tomorrow Comes (1939) **

Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne in a subtle and classy melodrama.

Eternally Yours (1939) **

The wife of a magician divorces him.

Of Mice And Men (1939) **

A fine adaptation of a grossly overrated (and hopelessly dated) novel by John Steinbeck.

Bezdomni (1939) *

A Yiddish language film, mostly set in New York City, but made in Poland just before World War II. Many people involved in its production (including its director Aleksander Marten, its screenwriter Alter Kacyzne and actress Dora Fakiel) died in the Holocaust.

O czym sie nie mowi (1939) *

Dated Polish melodrama about a prostitute who falls in love with a moralistic fool who despises prostitutes.

The Rains Came (1939) *

Confusing melodrama set in India. It ultimately becomes the story of a British widow falling in love with an Indian doctor, but the first half of the film is about completely different people.

Susannah Of The Mounties (1939) *

Shirley Temple in the Canadian Far West.

I Grandi magazzini (1939) *

One of Mario Camerini's worst films, a "telefoni bianchi" without any white telephones. Only black ones.

Torture Ship (1939) *

There are some medical experiments performed on a mysterious ship, but no torture. A mediocre film adapted from a novel by Jack London.

Wuthering Heights (1939) ****

Superlative adaptation of Emily Bronte's immortal novel about love and revenge. Laurence Olivier's first great role.

Beau Geste (1939) ****

Classic adventure film starring Gary Cooper and Ray Milland. A memorable closing line: "Beau Geste, what a gallant gesture !".

Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) *

A heroic British nurse during the German occupation of Belgium during World War I.

Drums Along The Mohawk (1939) *

Disappointing John Ford drama set in upper-state New York during the American Revolution. The score: Yankee pioneers – good, the British, the Loyalists and their Indian allies – bad. A perfect example of the Roosevelt-era Americana propaganda. There is no doubt that the story would be far more interesting if told from the other point of view. Compared to it, John Ford's later films like "The Searchers" are positively objective and even-handed.

The Little Princess (1939) *

One of Shirley Temple's weakest films.

Goodbye, Mr.Chips (1939) **

Robert Donat's Oscar-winning performance is superb.

Hoagy Carmichael (1939) ***

Directed by Leslie Roush for Paramount. The music of... Hoagy Carmichael.

Det unge Grænseværn (1939) ***

The film is available here.

Sword Fishing (1939) ***

Narrated by Ronald Reagan, a charming little documentary about fishing. Nominated for an Oscar.

How To Eat (1939) ***

Amusing short comedy starring Robert Benchley.

The World Parade: Bali Paradise Isle (1939) ***