# Looking for film recommendations (1940s/1950s) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928 "2011-10-17T16:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/41 "2011-10-18T17:38:16Z")
We just watched _The Bride of Frankenstein_ and I very much enjoyed it - does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/42 "2011-10-18T17:40:56Z")
\*\*Stagecoach \*\*might be too westerny. **Spencer’s Mountain** looks good. Both **Sullivan’s Travels** (which I love) and **The Lady Eve** are now on the list. mmm ---
**Author:** ![lew\_cody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@lew\_cody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lew_cody)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/43 "2011-10-18T17:49:34Z")
Here’s another one that no one’s mentioned: A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945). It was released on DVD as part of an Elia Kazan collection and hasn’t been issued on its own, but Netflix may carry it. It’s a wonderful (and at times, terribly sad) look at growing up in Brooklyn in the early 20th century. The action is mostly seen through the eyes of young Francie Nolan (played by Peggy Ann Garner), and Kazan seems to take her P.O.V. seriously and never condescends to her. We’re utterly sympathetic to her when she encounters a librarian reluctant to let her check out a “grown-up” book and one of her teachers who has no patience for Francie’s intelligence. You won’t quickly forget the other happy, tragic characters who make their way as best they can: Francie’s mother Katie Nolan (Dorothy McGuire) who keeps the family together, Aunt Sissy (Joan Blondell) who cheerfully defies social convention and keeps getting married, and most of all Johnny Nolan (James Dunn), Francie’s ne’er-do-well, dreamy father who inspires her and who is her closest friend. In spite of his alcoholism, their relationship is one of the finest depictions of unconditional love between parent and child that has ever been on the screen. You won’t be disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Philliam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/philliam/32/3011_2.png) [@Philliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philliam)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/44 "2011-10-18T18:30:05Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Rats, didn’t see this soon enough. Casablanca is very good, but by no means the best ever. I could understand how you feel if you an were adult in 1942, but if not, you must not have seen a lot of great movies. This wasn’t even Bogie’s best movie. But “The African Queen” might be. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/45 "2011-10-18T20:42:45Z")
> [@lew\_cody](#): > > Here’s another one that no one’s mentioned: A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945)…You won’t be disappointed. As it turns out, I am disappointed. It’s not Netflixable. mmm ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/46 "2011-10-19T06:37:48Z")
I agree with the suggestion of [To Be or Not To Be](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035446/). [I Remember Mama](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040458/) and [Born Yesterday](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042276/) are good ones, too. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/47 "2011-10-19T11:55:54Z")
Probably OT, but the 1940’s and 1950’s were the golden age for many other countries’ film industries, as they caught up with Hollywood and Western Europe. This was when Fellini, Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray were active, and on a less arty level, the best soap-operatic Egyptian movies, Mexican masked wrestler movies, Soviet Mosfilm, etc. for exotic and downright weird fare. ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/48 "2011-10-19T13:37:33Z")
Out of the Past (1947) Mitchum and Douglas ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/49 "2011-10-19T16:39:36Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I agree with the suggestion of [To Be or Not To Be](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035446/). [I Remember Mama](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040458/) and [Born Yesterday](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042276/) are good ones, too. _I Remember Mama_ – love that movie. Also _Mrs. Miniver_, _Goodbye, Mr. Chips_, _The Magnificent Ambersons_, _The Little Foxes_, _The Ghost and Mrs. Muir_. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928/50 "2011-10-19T17:55:03Z")
On the Town (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and the line “The Floradora Girls!” which is a hoot, in context) and The Band Wagon (Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, and the lyric "MGM has got a leo/But Mama has got a trio!) The Fifties was the Golden Age of the Hollywood Musical. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-film-recommendations-1940s-1950s/599928.md?page=2)