Best Movies of 1940The Usual Choices
Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin)
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor)
Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
But how about...
The Long Voyage Home (John Ford)
Yes, yes, The Grapes of Wrath is the more historically and culturally significant John Ford film of 1940, but I swear that TLVH is the more emotionally affecting. Firstly, it has a greater sense of melancholy than TGoW, but done without any of the soon-to-be-rife John Ford sentimentality (and only one tiny bit of flag-waving business, which I can forgive because it is done so subtly). Next, it has a gathering of some of the great character actors of the era (Thomas Mitchell; Barry Fitzgerald) with no big-name stars elbowing them out of the spotlight. And most importantly, there is no equivalent to the cringing "We are the people" speech from Ma Joad...always TGoW's most grating display of social sledge-hammering. And you gotta hear John Wayne tackle a Swedish accent.
...and what about...
Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen)
Barbara Stanwyck was the greatest of all the early talkie actresses (sorry Bette; sorry Kate) and now she is rarely mentioned in art-of-acting discussions. In RtN, Barbara again takes a fairly-lacklustre tale and acts it into cinematic gold. Hell, she even has the grace to help make Fred MacMurray look good as a leading man. All about a prosecution lawyer who drives his intended next jailee (shoplifter Barb) home for Christmas to meet his family (!!!) and the couple falls in love (as you do). What a stupid plotline! And yet, it is pure cinematic beauty...a lightness of touch; a dispelling of cynicism; a warming of the heart. And no cop-out saccharine ending to make you gag. Criminally overlooked, just like Barbara.
...not to mention...
The Letter (William Wyler)
Bette Davis shooting her lover point blank until the gun runs out of bullets: now there is a surefire guarantee of entertainment. This is my favourite early-Bette role and she milks it for all the pathos it is worth. Unusually for her, she doesn't leave her co-stars in the acting dust (something Willy Wyler can be thanked for I am sure); Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson match her anguish for anguish. And while Gale Sondergaard uncomfortably mimics one of those oh-brother Asian spider-ladies, her cliched emoting is balanced out by the gorgeous cinematography and the all-stops-out melodrama. Great fun from power-packed beginning to satisfying cosmic-justice ending.
...and one personal unmentionable...
The Thief of Bagdad (Michael Powell; Ludwig Berger; Tim Whelan)
A British Technicolor Arabian Fantasy which was interrupted by the outbreak of WWII and consequently finished in California, it's amazing the film was made at all. For it to be regarded as a children's classic and a cinematic milestone (first major use of bluescreen SFX) is proof that great artists and craftsmen can successfully work under the most stressful of circumstances. So, what's my gripe? Well, even as a kid, I couldn't stand films where people spoke lines like "may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits" and "thy mother mated with a serpent", and characters such as laughing genies and pathetic princesses. Just not a 1001 Nights kinda guy.
My Top 10 Films of 1940
 |
| Frank unwisely laughs off his escalating dandruff problem. |
#02 A+ The Long Voyage Home (Ford)
#03 A Remember the Night (Leisen)
#04 A The Letter (Wyler)
#06 A The Grapes of Wrath (Ford)
#07 A His Girl Friday (Hawks)
#08 A They Drive By Night (Walsh)
#09 A The Philadelphia Story (Cukor)
#10 A Pride and Prejudice (Leonard)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- Waterloo Bridge (LeRoy)
#12 A- My Favourite Wife (Kanin)
#13 A- Foreign Correspondent (Hitchcock)
#14 A- A Dispatch from Reuter's (Dieterle)
#15 A- Torrid Zone (Keighley)
#16 A- Busman's Honeymoon / Haunted Honeymoon (Woods)
#17 A- The Sea Hawk (Curtiz)
#18 A- The Mortal Storm (Borzage)
#19 A- Abe Lincoln in Illinois (Cromwell)
#20 B+ Brother Orchid (Bacon)
#21 B+ Gaslight (Dickinson)
#22 B+ Night Train to Munich (Reed)
#23 B+ Christmas in July (Sturges)
#24 B+ The Bank Dick (Cline)
#25 B+ The Man With Nine Lives (Grinde)
#26 B+ Tom Brown's School Days (Stevenson)
#27 B+ The Great Dictator (Chaplin)
#28 B+ Stranger on the Third Floor (Ingster)
#29 B+ Dark Command (Walsh)
#30 B+ Arise, My Love (Leisen)
#31 B+ The Stars Look Down (Reed)
#32 B+ I was an Adventuress (Ratoff)
#33 B+ All This and Heaven Too (Litvak)
#34 B+ Dance, Girl, Dance (Arzner)
#35 B+ The Westerner (Wyler)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Boom Town [straight off the production line]
> B I Love You Again [fluff which William & Myrna are obviously tiring of]
> B City for Conquest [I've seen this story a hundred times, with different titles and actors]
> B The Thief of Bagdad [the genie needs to trim his toenails]
> B Too Many Husbands [screwball comedy made when the genre was sliding into tail-end formula]
> B Go West [the obligatory Marx Brothers Western]
> B Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet [biopic about the cure for syphilis which apparently has nothing to do with sex]
> B It All Came True [a musical gangster romantic comedy featuring motherlove & Bogie...geez]
> B Edison, The Man [complete bullshit, but still quite likeable in an MGM kinda way]
> B Charlie Chan in Panama [Mr Chan vs Spies, brightened with poison cigarettes, bubonic rats and nitro]
> B- Our Town [fatally stagebound]
> B- The Ghost Breakers [for Bob Hope fans only]
> B- Lucky Partners [Ronald & Ginger shine; the story very doesn't]
> B- My Little Chickadee [just between you and me...was Mae West ever really funny?]
> B- Strange Cargo [what a bizarre little film...but not in a good way]
> B- Dr Cyclops [wants to join the pantheon of horror greats but is let down by its words]
> B- Road to Singapore [the tedious franchise begins]
> B- The Invisible Man Returns [I miss Claude Rains...and Una O'Connor...and James Whale]
> B- Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise [not-too-bad Chan but too much comic relief from #2 son]
> B- No Time for Comedy [they shoulda found the time]
> B- Seven Sinners ["Hey! I know! Marlene was a hit in Destry Rides Again! She can play that person again!"]
> C Kitty Foyle [zzzzzzz...and it's a Ginger Rogers movie!]
> C They Knew What They Wanted [Charles Laughton plays a tootsie-fruitsie Italian farmer and his love interest is...wait for it...Carole Lombard...and it's a drama...]
> C Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum [great creepy setting, but they don't do enough with it]
> C The Invisible Woman [screwball fantasy featuring John Barrymore at his comedic least]
> C My Son, My Son! [plausibility-stretching slop with a villain who selfishly and unsatisfyingly reforms]
> D Murder Over New York [Sidney Toler's #8 Charlie Chan...bland with a boring villain]
> D Angels Over Broadway [woeful & ineptly made]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1940 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Best Performances of 1940
Oft-Mentioned Choices
Judith Anderson in Rebecca
Walter Brennan in The Westerner
Charles Chaplin in The Great Dictator
Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath
Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath
Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story
But how about...
James Stewart & Margaret Sullavan in The Shop Around the Corner
The greatest star-crossed lovers in the greatest romantic comedy ever made. Jimmy and Margaret are a perfect couple-in-love-who-don't-know-it, perpetually bickering while trying to remain socially polite. Their chemistry as a performance partnership is immediate and natural, demonstrating the ultimate thespian goal: the acting is hidden. Never again would this version of James Stewart appear on our screens (flying bombers over WWII Europe understandably changed him), and Margaret's mental health problems increasingly dominated her persona. But here, as a snapshot for the ages, is true romance between a man and a woman, cherished and presented to us in its ideal form. Hollywood Art.
...and what about...
Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner
Frank was one of the great Hollywood character actors and this was his best performance: comedic, full of bluster and temper, anguished, at his rope's end, humbled and forgiving. His big scene is the attempted suicide which, although carried out offscreen, is visibly played out in our minds due to the indelibility of Frank's character. We can completely believe that it's come to this point for this funny little man, and we deeply feel for him. In many ways it presages James Stewart's personal crunch-time in It's a Wonderful Life. While the romance between Jimmy and Margaret is the heart of the film, Frank's performance is its soul.
...not to mention...
Vivien Leigh in Waterloo Bridge
1940 was the greatest year in movie history for lead actresses in regards to the number of excellent performances given (I count 12). Let's face it: the blokes usually had a surfeit of meaty roles to choose from, while the women were handed mousy types, marital appendages or objects-of-lust to compete for. And then you had those actresses who took any role and through sheer talent made them the centrepiece of the movie. Vivien in WB did exactly that: what should have been a soppy fallen-woman saga became an absolute tour de force in her hands. Scarlet O'Hara was so last year; THIS is the performance where Viv showed how sizable her acting talent really was. For a while anyway.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Laurence Olivier in Rebecca
As we all know, Lord Larry is considered one of the greatest actors of all time, regardless of medium. I agree of course, but I don't think his early usually-lauded movie performances (Fire Over England; Wuthering Heights) were particularly good. The man initially seemed uncomfortable with film, only really getting the hang of it with Carrie in 1952. In Rebecca, he was all pinched-face and unpleasant, totally failing to create anything about the man which was endearing or sympathetic. In fact, I hated the arrogant bastard - the single flaw in an otherwise terrific movie. Happily, Larry redeemed himself somewhat by an appealing turn in the same year's Pride and Prejudice. So I guess even the gods must serve their apprenticeship.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1940
#01 James Stewart & Margaret Sullavan in The Shop Around the Corner
#02 Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath
#03 Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
#04 Barbara Stanwyck in Remember the Night
#05 Bette Davis in The Letter
#06 Vivien Leigh in Waterloo Bridge
#07 Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell & Ralph Bellamy in His Girl Friday
#08 Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner
#09 Judith Anderson in Rebecca
#10 Laurence Olivier in Pride and Prejudice
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story
#12 Irene Dunne My Favourite Wife
#13 James Stephenson in The Letter
#14 Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
#15 John Carradine in The Grapes of Wrath
#16 Greer Garson in Pride and Prejudice
#17 Walter Brennan in The Westerner
#18 Peter Lorre in I was an Adventuress
#19 Edward G. Robinson in Brother Orchid
#20 Ann Sheridan in Torrid Zone
#21 Virginia Weidler in The Philadelphia Story
#22 Flora Robson in The Sea Hawk
#23 Joseph Schildkraut in The Shop Around the Corner
#24 Una O'Connor in It All Came True
#25 Herbert Marshall in Foreign Correspondent
#26 Albert Dekker in Strange Cargo
#27 Lucille Ball in Dance, Girl, Dance
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator [if he just hadn't made that speech...]
> Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath [if she just hadn't made that speech...]
> Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle [this is not what should have won her the Oscar]
> James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story [he's fine...but that's all he is]
> Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois [his vocal mannerisms sometimes replace his acting]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1940 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
SILVER: The Long Voyage Home (John Ford)
BRONZE: Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Henry Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath)
SILVER: Laurence Olivier (Pride & Prejudice)
BRONZE: Walter Brennan (The Westerner)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Joan Fontaine (Rebecca)
SILVER: Barbara Stanwyck (Remember the Night)
BRONZE: Vivien Leigh (Waterloo Bridge)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Frank Morgan (The Shop Around the Corner)
SILVER: James Stephenson (The Letter)
BRONZE: John Carradine (The Grapes of Wrath)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Judith Anderson (Rebecca)
SILVER: Ruth Hussey (The Philadelphia Story)
BRONZE: Flora Robson (The Sea Hawk)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: James Stewart & Margaret Sullavan (The Shop Around the Corner)
SILVER: Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell & Ralph Bellamy (His Girl Friday)
BRONZE: Peter Lorre & Erich von Stroheim (I was an Adventuress)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Virginia Weidler (The Philadelphia Story)
SILVER: Jimmy Lydon (Tom Brown's School Days)
BRONZE: Sabu (The Thief of Bagdad)
The Alternate Razzies for 1940 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Angels Over Broadway (Ben Hecht)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Charles Laughton (They Knew What They Wanted)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Rita Hayworth (Angels Over Broadway)
#19 A- Abe Lincoln in Illinois (Cromwell)
#20 B+ Brother Orchid (Bacon)
#21 B+ Gaslight (Dickinson)
#22 B+ Night Train to Munich (Reed)
#23 B+ Christmas in July (Sturges)
#24 B+ The Bank Dick (Cline)
#25 B+ The Man With Nine Lives (Grinde)
#26 B+ Tom Brown's School Days (Stevenson)
#27 B+ The Great Dictator (Chaplin)
#28 B+ Stranger on the Third Floor (Ingster)
#29 B+ Dark Command (Walsh)
#30 B+ Arise, My Love (Leisen)
#31 B+ The Stars Look Down (Reed)
#32 B+ I was an Adventuress (Ratoff)
#33 B+ All This and Heaven Too (Litvak)
#34 B+ Dance, Girl, Dance (Arzner)
#35 B+ The Westerner (Wyler)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Boom Town [straight off the production line]
> B I Love You Again [fluff which William & Myrna are obviously tiring of]
> B City for Conquest [I've seen this story a hundred times, with different titles and actors]
> B The Thief of Bagdad [the genie needs to trim his toenails]
> B Too Many Husbands [screwball comedy made when the genre was sliding into tail-end formula]
> B Go West [the obligatory Marx Brothers Western]
> B Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet [biopic about the cure for syphilis which apparently has nothing to do with sex]
> B It All Came True [a musical gangster romantic comedy featuring motherlove & Bogie...geez]
> B Edison, The Man [complete bullshit, but still quite likeable in an MGM kinda way]
> B Charlie Chan in Panama [Mr Chan vs Spies, brightened with poison cigarettes, bubonic rats and nitro]
> B- Our Town [fatally stagebound]
> B- The Ghost Breakers [for Bob Hope fans only]
> B- Lucky Partners [Ronald & Ginger shine; the story very doesn't]
> B- My Little Chickadee [just between you and me...was Mae West ever really funny?]
> B- Strange Cargo [what a bizarre little film...but not in a good way]
> B- Dr Cyclops [wants to join the pantheon of horror greats but is let down by its words]
> B- Road to Singapore [the tedious franchise begins]
> B- The Invisible Man Returns [I miss Claude Rains...and Una O'Connor...and James Whale]
> B- Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise [not-too-bad Chan but too much comic relief from #2 son]
> B- No Time for Comedy [they shoulda found the time]
> B- Seven Sinners ["Hey! I know! Marlene was a hit in Destry Rides Again! She can play that person again!"]
> C Kitty Foyle [zzzzzzz...and it's a Ginger Rogers movie!]
> C They Knew What They Wanted [Charles Laughton plays a tootsie-fruitsie Italian farmer and his love interest is...wait for it...Carole Lombard...and it's a drama...]
> C Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum [great creepy setting, but they don't do enough with it]
> C The Invisible Woman [screwball fantasy featuring John Barrymore at his comedic least]
> C My Son, My Son! [plausibility-stretching slop with a villain who selfishly and unsatisfyingly reforms]
> D Murder Over New York [Sidney Toler's #8 Charlie Chan...bland with a boring villain]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1940 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Before I Hang (Grinde); The Biscuit Eater (Heisler); Black Friday (Lubin); Brigham Young - Frontiersman (Hathaway); Contraband / Blackout (Powell & Pressburger); Crimes at the Dark House (King); The Door With Seven Locks / Chamber of Horrors (Norman Lee); The Earl of Chicago (Thorpe); Escape (LeRoy); French Without Tears (Asquith); The Girl in the News (Reed); The Great McGinty (Sturges); Let George Do It (Varnel); The Mark of Zorro (Mamoulian); The Mummy’s Hand (Cabanne); Northwest Passage (Vidor); The Return of Frank James (Lang); Santa Fe Trail (Curtiz); Stranger on the Third Floor (Ingster); Third Finger, Left Hand (Leonard); Tin Pan Alley (Lang); Victory (Cromwell); Vigil in the Night (Stevens); A Window in London / Lady in Distress (Mason)
Best Performances of 1940
Judith Anderson in Rebecca
Walter Brennan in The Westerner
Charles Chaplin in The Great Dictator
Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath
Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath
Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story
But how about...
James Stewart & Margaret Sullavan in The Shop Around the Corner
The greatest star-crossed lovers in the greatest romantic comedy ever made. Jimmy and Margaret are a perfect couple-in-love-who-don't-know-it, perpetually bickering while trying to remain socially polite. Their chemistry as a performance partnership is immediate and natural, demonstrating the ultimate thespian goal: the acting is hidden. Never again would this version of James Stewart appear on our screens (flying bombers over WWII Europe understandably changed him), and Margaret's mental health problems increasingly dominated her persona. But here, as a snapshot for the ages, is true romance between a man and a woman, cherished and presented to us in its ideal form. Hollywood Art.
...and what about...
Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner
Frank was one of the great Hollywood character actors and this was his best performance: comedic, full of bluster and temper, anguished, at his rope's end, humbled and forgiving. His big scene is the attempted suicide which, although carried out offscreen, is visibly played out in our minds due to the indelibility of Frank's character. We can completely believe that it's come to this point for this funny little man, and we deeply feel for him. In many ways it presages James Stewart's personal crunch-time in It's a Wonderful Life. While the romance between Jimmy and Margaret is the heart of the film, Frank's performance is its soul.
...not to mention...
Vivien Leigh in Waterloo Bridge
1940 was the greatest year in movie history for lead actresses in regards to the number of excellent performances given (I count 12). Let's face it: the blokes usually had a surfeit of meaty roles to choose from, while the women were handed mousy types, marital appendages or objects-of-lust to compete for. And then you had those actresses who took any role and through sheer talent made them the centrepiece of the movie. Vivien in WB did exactly that: what should have been a soppy fallen-woman saga became an absolute tour de force in her hands. Scarlet O'Hara was so last year; THIS is the performance where Viv showed how sizable her acting talent really was. For a while anyway.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Laurence Olivier in Rebecca
As we all know, Lord Larry is considered one of the greatest actors of all time, regardless of medium. I agree of course, but I don't think his early usually-lauded movie performances (Fire Over England; Wuthering Heights) were particularly good. The man initially seemed uncomfortable with film, only really getting the hang of it with Carrie in 1952. In Rebecca, he was all pinched-face and unpleasant, totally failing to create anything about the man which was endearing or sympathetic. In fact, I hated the arrogant bastard - the single flaw in an otherwise terrific movie. Happily, Larry redeemed himself somewhat by an appealing turn in the same year's Pride and Prejudice. So I guess even the gods must serve their apprenticeship.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1940
 |
| "Jeezus. I wish he'd stop all this hand-kissing crap and just give me a damned good rodgering." |
#02 Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath
#03 Joan Fontaine in Rebecca
#04 Barbara Stanwyck in Remember the Night
#05 Bette Davis in The Letter
#06 Vivien Leigh in Waterloo Bridge
#08 Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner
#09 Judith Anderson in Rebecca
#10 Laurence Olivier in Pride and Prejudice
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story
#12 Irene Dunne My Favourite Wife
#13 James Stephenson in The Letter
#14 Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
#15 John Carradine in The Grapes of Wrath
#16 Greer Garson in Pride and Prejudice
#17 Walter Brennan in The Westerner
#18 Peter Lorre in I was an Adventuress
#19 Edward G. Robinson in Brother Orchid
#20 Ann Sheridan in Torrid Zone
#21 Virginia Weidler in The Philadelphia Story
#22 Flora Robson in The Sea Hawk
#23 Joseph Schildkraut in The Shop Around the Corner
#24 Una O'Connor in It All Came True
#25 Herbert Marshall in Foreign Correspondent
#26 Albert Dekker in Strange Cargo
#27 Lucille Ball in Dance, Girl, Dance
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator [if he just hadn't made that speech...]
> Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath [if she just hadn't made that speech...]
> Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle [this is not what should have won her the Oscar]
> James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story [he's fine...but that's all he is]
> Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois [his vocal mannerisms sometimes replace his acting]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1940 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
SILVER: The Long Voyage Home (John Ford)
BRONZE: Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Henry Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath)
SILVER: Laurence Olivier (Pride & Prejudice)
BRONZE: Walter Brennan (The Westerner)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Joan Fontaine (Rebecca)
SILVER: Barbara Stanwyck (Remember the Night)
BRONZE: Vivien Leigh (Waterloo Bridge)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Frank Morgan (The Shop Around the Corner)
SILVER: James Stephenson (The Letter)
BRONZE: John Carradine (The Grapes of Wrath)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Judith Anderson (Rebecca)
SILVER: Ruth Hussey (The Philadelphia Story)
BRONZE: Flora Robson (The Sea Hawk)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: James Stewart & Margaret Sullavan (The Shop Around the Corner)
SILVER: Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell & Ralph Bellamy (His Girl Friday)
BRONZE: Peter Lorre & Erich von Stroheim (I was an Adventuress)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Virginia Weidler (The Philadelphia Story)
SILVER: Jimmy Lydon (Tom Brown's School Days)
BRONZE: Sabu (The Thief of Bagdad)
The Alternate Razzies for 1940 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Angels Over Broadway (Ben Hecht)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Charles Laughton (They Knew What They Wanted)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Rita Hayworth (Angels Over Broadway)
