Which is your favorite Hollywood film from the magical year of 1939?

[meltzerboy]

The year 1939 is said to be the year that Hollywood produced its finest films ever. (Of course, other events happened during that fateful year which were far from wonderful.)

Which film of 1939 is your favorite? Some of them include Gone with the Wind, Wuthering Heights, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (the original), The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Dark Victory (the original), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Babes in Arms, Destry Rides Again, Of Mice and Men, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jesse James, The Women, Drums Along the Mohawk, Gunga Din, etc., etc.

 

[7_Sorrows]

There were a lot of great movies made in 1939!!

For me it would be Gone With The Wind followed by The Wizard of Oz.

Honorable mention would be Wuthering Heights, Stagecoach and Dark Victory.

 

[tawny]

Have to go with GWTW.

 

[jaimeleglise]

Gone with the wind is my favorite. I also love Dark Victory, “I’ll have another serving of prognosis negative”.

 

[johnnyc176]

Tie between Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Stagecoach. Both are among my favorite films of all time.

 

[Lost_Sheep]

Here’s a list. Of the one’s I’ve seen, it would be GWTW.

imdb.com/year/1939/?ref_=tt_ov_inf

 

[Gertabelle]

Favorite:
Gone With the Wind

When I was in high school, my friends and I went to an old movie theater in Los Angeles to see a special showing of the movie. It was a great experience to see the movie in a theater with a large audience

Honorable Mention:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
**Goodbye, Mr. Chips **(a favorite among teachers )
The Little Princess

 

[7_Sorrows]

Here’s a list. Of the one’s I’ve seen, it would be GWTW.

imdb.com/year/1939/?ref_=tt_ov_inf

It is a toss up between GWTW and TWOO. Those 2 movies were great cinematic accomplishments in so many ways. Really hard to choose between the two. Interesting list by IMDB.

 

[JimG]

I would go with GWTW. It is impossible to make long movies anymore. I think our attention span has shortened. I find GWTW trivia fascinating. It was shot using Technicolor movie cameras, which had to have camera operators employed by the Technicolor corporation. There were only seven such cameras in existence at the time, and every single one of them was in use on the GWTW set. (Technicolor cameras did not use color film; they used three rolls of B&W panchromatic film.)

 

[7_Sorrows]

I would go with GWTW. It is impossible to make long movies anymore. I think our attention span has shortened. I find GWTW trivia fascinating. It was shot using Technicolor movie cameras, which had to have camera operators employed by the Technicolor corporation. There were only seven such cameras in existence at the time, and every single one of them was in use on the GWTW set. (Technicolor cameras did not use color film; they used three rolls of B&W panchromatic film.)

How did they do the part that was in color for Wizard of Oz? Was that Technicolor or something else?

 

[meltzerboy]

It is a toss up between GWTW and TWOO. Those 2 movies were great cinematic accomplishments in so many ways. Really hard to choose between the two. Interesting list by IMDB.

I go with The Wizard of Oz. It’s the one film I’ve seen more times than I can recall and never get tired of. Yet the Oscar went to Gone with the Wind and the New York Film Critics gave the award for best picture that year to Wuthering Heights. Go figure. But what a group of superior films to choose from, unlike nowadays.

 

[esieffe]

GWTW of course. I really hated it when the theater where the film opened burned. I did some electrical work at the Georgian Terrace renovation where the leading cast members stayed, when I was in my 20s. I was watching Carol Burnett when she did her spoof of GWTW. Anyone remember that?

 

[esieffe]

The year before “Jezebel” with Bette Davis came out. That was great, but the year after in 1940 Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” came out. I like that as much as GWTW. Below Miss Danvers is coaxing Mrs. DeWinter to jump out the window.

 

[DaisymaeD]

Gone With the Wind

 

[JimG]

How did they do the part that was in color for Wizard of Oz? Was that Technicolor or something else?

The final print was in color. It was a composite of 3 layers. The shooting was done with three rolls of black & white film backed by red, green, and blue filters. Those B&W prints were then dyed with the appropriate color and finally layered together to get the final print.

How Technicolor Created Ruby Red Slippers without Using Color Film

The upside is the B&W film doesn’t fade. So the color print could always be recreated from the original 3 reels of B&W film.

 

[7_Sorrows]

The final print was in color. It was a composite of 3 layers. The shooting was done with three rolls of black & white film backed by red, green, and blue filters. Those B&W prints were then dyed with the appropriate color and finally layered together to get the final print.

How Technicolor Created Ruby Red Slippers without Using Color Film

The upside is the B&W film doesn’t fade. So the color print could always be recreated from the original 3 reels of B&W film.

Wow! Amazing! Thanks for the explanation.

 

[7_Sorrows]

The year before “Jezebel” with Bette Davis came out. That was great, but the year after in 1940 Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” came out. I like that as much as GWTW. Below Miss Danvers is coaxing Mrs. DeWinter to jump out the window.

Love the film Rebecca! Yes Bette Davis got to play a Southern belle in Jezebel. That was a good movie and I also liked Jane Eyre with Orson Wells and Joan Fontaine (or was it her sister Olivia de Haviland?). Not sure when Jane Eyre was made.

 

[Irishmom2]

GWTW of course. I really hated it when the theater where the film opened burned. I did some electrical work at the Georgian Terrace renovation where the leading cast members stayed, when I was in my 20s. I was watching Carol Burnett when she did her spoof of GWTW. Anyone remember that?

I remember that. It’s probably one of her most memorable spoofs. Hilarious.

I also agree with GWTW, but that was also the year for Shirley Temple in “The Little Princess.” She was a terrific child actress.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Son of Frankenstein.

I’m a huge film buff, but I absolutely cannot stand Gone With the Wind. I was dragged to the rerelease of it over and over again when I was a kid, and it seemed to be interminable. I haven’t been able to watch it again to this day.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Son of Frankenstein.

I’m a huge film buff, but I absolutely cannot stand Gone With the Wind. I was dragged to the rerelease of it over and over again when I was a kid, and it seemed to be interminable. I haven’t been able to watch it again to this day.

I don’t know how old you were as a kid, but that is a long movie for a kid to sit through and sort of adult themes. Not exactly a movie a kid would enjoy. Now if it was at one of the Phoenix drive ins that would be different!!!