There must have been something in the water in Hollywood that year. The great movies of 1939 are among the most enduring classics in film history, and many of the lesser-known titles will knock your socks off, too. Here‘s just a few of the fabulous classic films of 1939, the greatest year in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
1. ‘Gone With the Wind’
MGM
2. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’
Columbia
3. ‘The Wizard of Oz’
MGM
A work of wild imagination and tremendous creativity, sweet and scary, The Wizard of Oz is one of the finest children’s movies ever made. With lovely music, trippy sets, and the indelible characters drawn from Frank Baum’s novels. Judy Garland charms as Dorothy and Margaret Hamilton terrifies as the Wicked Witch, with her hideous flying monkeys. Plus munchkins! Directed by Victor Fleming, perhaps the only director to produce two undisputed classic movie masterpieces in the same year. (The other was Gone With the Wind.)
4. ‘Stagecoach’
United Artists
A classic American western with young John Wayne as the falsely accused Ringo Kid, Claire Trevor as a lady of the evening, and a sterling cast of misfits riding the stage through dangerous Apache territory. Nonstop action with a strong story, it was the first film that director John Ford shot in Utah’s Monument Valley, the awe-inspiring rocky landscape that still resonates as a symbol of the American West the world over.
5. ‘Ninotchka’
MGM
Ernst Lubitsch’s witty, sophisticated take on a capitalist guy romancing a communist gal in Paris. Legend Greta Garbo is gorgeous and delightfully funny as the chilly, tough-minded Russian seduced by the suave Melvyn Douglas with pre-code double entendre. Both of them get great wardrobes in this sharp political satire wrapped in a charming romantic comedy - a Lubitsch specialty.
6. ‘Destry Rides Again’
Universal
7. ‘Wuthering Heights’
United Artists
8. ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’
RKO Radio Pictures
9. ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’
mGM
The sweetly sentimental story of a shy teacher at a British boarding school who overcomes early difficulties to become a beloved institution. Robert Donat is the charming teacher, and Greer Garson the young, vivacious wife who helps draw out his sterling qualities. Donat’s performance surprisingly beat out Stewart’s Mr. Smith, Gable’s Rhett Butler and Olivier’s Heathcliff for the Best Actor Oscar award for 1939.
10. ‘Dark Victory’
Warner Brothers
