Top 10 Films of 1941

1. "Citizen Kane" (Orson Welles, RKO)

2. "The Maltese Falcon" (John Huston, Warner)

3. "The 47 Ronin: Part 1" (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)

4. "The Lady Eve" (Preston Sturges, Paramount)

5. "Dumbo" (Ben Sharpsteen, Disney)

6. "Sullivan's Travels" (Preston Sturges, Paramount)

7. "Sun Valley Serenade" (H. Bruce Humberstone, Fox)

8. "The Little Foxes" (William Wyler, RKO)

9. "Ornamental Hairpin" (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)

10. "High Sierra" (Raoul Walsh, Warner)

Other great films:

The 49th Parallel (UK)
All The Money Can Buy
Ball Of Fire
The Big Store
Birth Of The Blues
Blues In The Night
Brothers And Sisters Of The Toda Family (Japan)
Buck Privates
The Chocolate Soldier

La Corona di Ferro (Italy)

The Devil And Miss Jones
Dive Bomber

Escort Girl

Here Comes Mr Jordan
Hold Back The Dawn
Hoppity Goes To Town
How Green Was My Valley

Introspection Tower (Japan)

The Invisible Woman
Ja tu rzadze (Poland)
Lady Be Good
Love Crazy

Major Barbara (UK)
Montmartre-sur-Seine (France)
Moon Over Miami
Never Give A Sucker An Even Break

Nocni motyl (Böhmen und Mähren)

Ohm Kruger (Germany)

The Reluctant Dragon
Road To Zanzibar
Sergeant York
Shadow Of The Thin Man

Sundown
Suspicion

Swamp Water
That Hamilton Woman (UK)

They Wear No Clothes

Topper Returns
Valery Chkalov (Soviet Union)
The Villain Still Pursued Her
Week-End In Havana
The Wolf Man
You'll Never Get Rich
Ziegfeld Girl
Zona i nie zona (Poland)

Short Top 3:

1. "Churchill's Island" (Stuart Legg, NFB, Canada)

2. "Words For Battle" (Humphrey Jennings, UK)

3. "Christmas Under Fire" (Harry Watt, Charles Hasse, UK)

Other great shorts:

Acorns (Japan)

Canadian Landscape (Canada)

The Dentist
The Gay Parisian
Menighedens Bornehave Arnkilgade (Denmark)

Top Commercial:

"America Runs On Bulova Time" (Bulova)

Cartoon Top 10

1. "The Crackpot Quail" (Tex Avery, Warner)

2. "Superman" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

3. "The Great Cheese Mystery" (Arthur Davis, Columbia)

4. "The Heckling Hare" (Tex Avery, Warner)

5. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B" (Walter Lantz, Universal)

6. "Porky's Preview" (Tex Avery, Warner)

7. "Raggedy Ann And Raggedy Andy" (Dave Fleischer, Paramount)

8. "Truant Officer Donald" (Jack King, Disney)

9. "The Screwdriver" (Walter Lantz, Universal)

10. "Rhapsody In Rivets" (Friz Freleng, Warner)

Other great cartoons:

Abdul The Bulbul Ameer
All This And Rabbit Stew
American March
Boogie Doodle 
The Cagey Canary
The Cat's Tale
Chef Donald
Dizzy Kitty
The Fox And The Grapes
A Gentleman's Gentleman
Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt
Hollywood Steps Out 
Hoola Boola
Joe Glow The Firefly
Lend A Paw
The Little Mole
The Little Whirlwind
The Mechanical Monsters
The Midnight Snack
Night Before Christmas
Notes To You
Orphans' Benefit
Pantry Panic
Porky's Bear Facts
Porky's Pooch
The Prospecting Bear
Rhythm In The Ranks
The Rookie Bear
Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat
The Tangled Angler
Timber
Tortoise Beats Hare
The Trial Of Mr Wolf
Wabbit Twouble
Woody Woodpecker

Weak films of 1941:

All-American Co-Ed
Billy The Kid
Blood And Sand
Blossoms In The Dust

Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

The Flame Of New Orleans
The Great Lie
Heimkehr (Germany)

King Of The Zombies
The Man Who Came To Dinner
Meet John Doe

Notes Of An Itinerant Performer (Japan)
Penny Serenade

Record Of A Female Doctor (Japan)

Sieg im Westen (Germany)
Son Of Monte Christo
The Strawberry Blonde
Target For Tonight
Tarzan's Secret Treasure
That Uncertain Feeling
This Woman Is Mine
Tom, Dick And Harry

Weak shorts:

Ain't Misbehavin'
Bomber
Forty Boys And A Song
Kings Of The Turf
A Quiet Fourth
Sing America - America The Beautiful
The Tanks Are Coming
Warclouds In The Pacific (Canada)

Weak cartoons:

The Alley Cat
Andy Panda's Pop
The Art Of Self Defense
The Art Of Skiing
Aviation Vacation
Baggage Buster
Brave Little Bat
The Bug Parade
Canine Caddy
A Coy Decoy
The Cute Recruit
Dance Of The Weed
Donald's Camera
Elmer's Pet Rabbit
Farm Frolics
The Field Mouse
The Fighting 69 1/2th
Fire Cheese
The Flying Bear
Golden Eggs
A Goodtime For A Dime
Goofy Groceries 
The Goose Goes South
The Haunted Mouse
The Henpecked Duck
How War Came
Inki And The Lion
It's A Hap-Hap-Happy Day  
Little Cesario
Meet John Dougboy
The Nifty Nineties
Officer Pooch
Old McDonald Duck
Pluto's Playmate
Porky's Ant
Porky's Midnight Matinee
Porky's Prize Pony
Porky's Snooze Reel
Robinson Crusoe Jr
Rookie Review
Saddle Silly
Seven Wise Dwarfs
Sniffles Bells The Cat
Snowtime For Comedy
Sport Chumpions
Thrifty Pig
Toy Trouble
Two For The Zoo
Wacky Worm
We The Animals - Squeak!

Top 3 Musicals of 1941

1. "Sun Valley Serenade" (H. Bruce Humberstone, 20th-Fox)


2. "Lady Be Good" (Norman Z. McLeod, MGM)

3. "The Chocolate Soldier" (Roy Del Ruth, MGM)

Citizen Kane (1941) *****

A great American film about a newspaper tycoon who finds out money cannot buy happiness.

The Lady Eve (1941) *****

Uproriously funny comedy starring Henry Fonda as a rich biologist pursued by a smart girl (Barbara Stanwyck).

The Maltese Falcon (1941) *****

One of the greatest films of all time, perfectly scripted, directed, acted and edited.

The Reluctant Dragon (1941) ****

An extremely pleasant film with Robert Benchley visiting the Disney studio, meeting animators, story men, voice artists (including Clarence Nash) and finally Walt Disney himself. He also sees several cartoons at various stages of their production. The first one (a brief black & white sequence about a train) offers a marvelous showcase for sound effects, while the second (a quirky story about an infant genius) reveals the importance of the storyboard. The third sequence (a Goofy cartoon) is followed by an amusing tale about a gentle dragon. Also included are brief animated scenes featuring Donald Duck and Bambi. Ironically, the release of this cheerful film coincided with a bitter strike at the studio.

"Casey Junior" ***
"Baby Weems" ****
"How To Ride A Horse" (J.Kinney) ***
"The Reluctant Dragon" ****

The 47 Ronin: Part 1 (1941) *****

Mizoguchi's version of the famous tale. Superbly directed.

Brothers And Sisters Of The Toda Family (1941) ****

Ornamental Hairpin (1941) ****

Written by Masuji Ibuse and Yoshitomo Nagase.

Swamp Water (1941) ***

Montmartre-sur-Seine (1941) ***

A French musical starring Edith Piaf.

Dive Bomber (1941) ***

A sort of pre-war movie, about US navy pilots and their physicians preparing for WWII.

Sundown (1941) ***

Exciting spy drama set in East Africa. Directed by Henry Hathaway.

Zona i nie zona (1941) ***

Polish melodrama about a wife leaving her husband. Songs by Fred Melodyst:

"Na cale zycie"  *
"Co noc"  *

Sergeant York (1941) ***

Two movies for the price of one: a rural melodrama set in Appalachia and a war movie set in the trenches of WWI.

The Invisible Woman (1941) ***

Ja tu rzadze (1941) ***

Mlody hrabia terminuje u szefca na Starym Miescie w Warszawie. Liczy na to, ze jego matka (Mieczyslawa Cwiklinska) tak sie tym przestraszy, ze zgodzi sie wreszcie sfinansowac jego projekt zalozenia teatru. Ale w miedzyczasie, hrabia zakochuje sie w corce majstra. Komedia Mieczyslawa Krawicza, ukonczona tuz przed wybuchem wojny, ale wypuszczona na ekrany dopiero w 1941. Najdowcipniejsze momenty naleza do polgluchego i roztargnionego wuja hrabiego (swietna kreacja Wladyslawa Grabowskiego), ktory wlacza radio zamiast czajnika, a zelazko zamiast radia. Piosenki Wladyslawa Danilowskiego:

"O ty moja cudna pani" *
"Co moze byc lepszego" **
"O ty moja cudna pani" (powtorka) *
"Abecadlo milosc" **
"Lambeth Walk" (taniec) **

Nocni motyl (1941) ***

Introspection Tower (1941) ***

A Japanese "Road To Life" (1931), but far more complex and subtle. Shimizu wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Ryuji Kumano and Yoshio Toyoshima.

Buck Privates (1941) ***

Patriotic Abbott & Costello musical comedy set in a boot camp.

Escort Girl (1941) ***

Ohm Kruger (1941) ***

They Wear No Clothes (1941) ***

La Corona di Ferro (1941) ***

Valery Chkalov (1941) ***

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.

Billy The Kid (1941) **

Ordinary western about the legendary outlaw.

Notes Of An Itinerant Performer (1941) **

A Hiroshi Shimizu "hahamono" film that feels like it was based on a script rejected by Kenji Mizoguchi. The actual script was written by Taketaka Yagisawa and Kihan Nagase (who did a far better job on Shimizu's later film, "Sayon's Bell").

Blossoms In The Dust (1941) **

Dated melodrama starring Greer Garson as a Texan matron who takes care of orphan children.

The Great Lie (1941) **

Old-fashioned melodrama about a selfless woman (Bette Davis) raising a baby her dead husband had with another woman (Mary Astor).

The Strawberry Blonde (1941) **

James Cagney plays a dentist who spent five years in prison.

Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941) **

Tarzan's family is in danger when white explorers find gold on their land.

Heimkehr (1941) *

As far as Nazi propaganda films go, this is a particularly inept example, especially compared with other contemporary German movies such as “Jew Suss” (1940) or “The Eternal Jew” (1940). This one, made to justify Hitler's invasion of Poland, tries to denounce the alleged persecution of ethnic Germans in Volhynia in 1939, but it mostly consists of hysterical Germans screaming about being persecuted, rather than dramatizing those persecutions in a narratively satisfying way (like “Jew Suss” did quite brilliantly). The best scene shows patriotic Poles singing their national anthem in a movie theatre while Germans sit silently – it's the only moment in the entire film when the Germans are silent. Curiously, in a film set in Volhynia, there are no Ukrainians at all – all non-Germans in the film are Poles, while in reality more than 70% of Volhynians were Ukrainians, and both Germans and Poles were small minorities in that province.