Best Films - 1940
by Andre Soares
The Letter is the only film in our annual list that managed to be on top in every single category. There are many good reasons for it. Bette Davis’s calculating murderess, William Wyler’s unflinching direction, Gale Sondergaard’s mysterious blackmailer, James Stephenson’s forceful attorney, and Tony Gaudio’s atmospheric cinematography are only a few of them.
In fact, this cinematic adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel is one of the best movies to come out during Hollywood’s studio era. A primitive 1929 version of The Letter stars Broadway legend Jeanne Eagels. Herbert Marshall, who plays Davis’s husband in the 1940 film, is the villainess-heroine’s lover in the Eagels version.
FILM
The Letter
The Blue Bird
The Grapes of Wrath
Kitty Foyle
The Man I Married
The Mark of Zorro
Pinocchio
Pride and Prejudice
Rebecca
Waterloo Bridge
DIRECTOR
William Wyler (The Letter)
John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath)
John Ford (The Long Voyage Home)
Alfred Hitchcock (Rebecca)
Walter Lang (The Blue Bird)
Robert Z. Leonard (Pride and Prejudice)
Mervyn LeRoy (Waterloo Bridge)
Rouben Mamoulian (The Mark of Zorro)
Irving Pichel (The Man I Married)
Sam Wood (Kitty Foyle)
ACTOR
James Stephenson (The Letter)
Charles Chaplin (The Great Dictator)
Henry Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath)
Cary Grant (His Girl Friday)
Cary Grant (My Favorite Wife)
Cary Grant (The Philadelphia Story)
Joel McCrea (Foreign Correspondent)
Robert Montgomery (Busman’s Honeymoon / Haunted Honeymoon)
Laurence Olivier (Pride and Prejudice)
Tyrone Power (The Mark of Zorro)
ACTRESS
Bette Davis (The Letter)
Joan Crawford (Strange Cargo)
Joan Crawford (Susan and God)
Constance Cummings (Busman’s Honeymoon / Haunted Honeymoon)
Irene Dunne (My Favorite Wife)
Joan Fontaine (Rebecca)
Greer Garson (Pride and Prejudice)
Vivien Leigh (Waterloo Bridge)
Ginger Rogers (Kitty Foyle)
Rosalind Russell (His Girl Friday)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Herbert Marshall (The Letter)
Granville Bates (My Favorite Wife)
J. Edward Bromberg (The Mark of Zorro)
Melville Cooper (Pride and Prejudice)
Edmund Gwenn (Pride and Prejudice)
Cedric Hardwicke (The Howards of Virginia)
Herbert Marshall (Foreign Correspondent)
Jack Oakie (The Great Dictator)
Basil Rathbone (The Mark of Zorro)
Sen Yung (The Letter)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Gale Sondergaard (The Letter)
Judith Anderson (Rebecca)
Florence Bates (Rebecca)
Mary Boland (Pride and Prejudice)
Jane Darwell (The Grapes of Wrath)
Frieda Inescort (Pride and Prejudice)
Marjorie Main (Susan and God)
Edna May Oliver (Pride and Prejudice)
Micheline Presle (La Comédie du bonheur / The Play of Happiness)
Queenie Vassar (The Primrose Path)
SCREENPLAY
Howard Koch (The Letter)
Charles Chaplin (The Great Dictator)
John Tainton Foote, Garrett Fort & Bess Meredyth (The Mark of Zorro)
Oliver H. P. Garrett (The Man I Married)
Aldous Huxley & Jane Murfin (Pride and Prejudice)
Nunnally Johnson (The Grapes of Wrath)
Charles Lederer (His Girl Friday)
Anita Loos (Susan and God)
Robert E. Sherwood & Joan Harrison (Rebecca)
Sam Spewack & Bella Spewack (My Favorite Wife)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Tony Gaudio (The Letter)
George Barnes (Rebecca)
Karl Freund (Pride and Prejudice)
Ernest Haller (All This and Heaven Too)
Arthur C. Miller & Ray Rennahan (The Blue Bird)
Arthur C. Miller (The Mark of Zorro)
Robert Planck (Strange Cargo)
Joseph Ruttenberg (Waterloo Bridge)
Gregg Toland (The Grapes of Wrath)
Gregg Toland (The Long Voyage Home)
ORIGINAL SCORE
Max Steiner (The Letter)
Alfred Newman (The Grapes of Wrath)
Alfred Newman (The Mark of Zorro)
Max Steiner (Virginia City)
Herbert Stothart (Waterloo Bridge)
Herbert Stothart (Pride and Prejudice)
Roy Webb (Kitty Foyle)
"Best Films of …" Annual List
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