Any film with some combination of William Powell, Myrna Loy, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Spencer Tracy.
Mildred Pierce with Joan Crawford
Saratoga Trunk with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman.
Meet Me in St Louis with Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien.
The Red Shoes with Moira Shearer.
Oh hell, the absolute best: I Know Where I’m Going by the Powell-Pressburger team
Oh, wow, I just remembered the award-winning Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, with Fredric March, from 1931.
They didn’t leave it out… they implied it. In its own way, much sexier than the more explicit remake.
That’s the first thing to pop into my mind after reading the title.
**My favorite Brunette ** is a close second.
Thin man and Marx Brothers movies rank up there too.
I have to start off with “The Best Years of our Lives”
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - IMDb . I think that this is the greatest movie ever made.
and
“All Through the Night”
as previously mentioned.
I also love “An Act of Murder” with Frederic March.
“Dark Passage” w/Bogie and Bacall.
Ooops, forgot: “It’s a Wonderful Life”. (Sorry! :
: )
Here’s today’s batch of "Oh but I should’ve said"s. I’ll forgo linking.
Notorious, My Favorite Wife, The Women, Gaslight, Adam’s Rib,
For nostalgia rather than cinematic greatness: any of the Bowery Boys/East Side Kids, Flash Gordon: Trip to Mars
And coming in under the wire in 1949 is a movie I’ve only seen once, just partially, and would dearly like to see again is one called It’s a Great Feeling, which is a movie about the movie business, and has a cameo from almost everyone under contract to Warner Brothers. It’s worth checking out for Joan Crawford’s scene alone.
Hey! Here’s the clip.
This thread is making me think about reconnecting cable so I can get Turner Classic again. But in another thread I’ve just sworn off television and vowed to read more…woe is me.
Did Powell and Pressburger ever make a bad movie? 
Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
(Look for Dracula’s reflection in a mirror 2/3 the way thru)
I used to think that Bringing up Baby was the best screwball comedy ever, but that was before I saw The Awful Truth.
Has no one else seen that one? Irene Dunne has probablythe funniest scene in cinema ever toward the end of the film.
They implied it very, very, very, very gently. Which is OK. It’s a fine film on its own terms. I’m just pissed that an ace team like Lawton and Tournier had to work under the Hayes Code, while the remake, done without Hayes Code censorship, fell into the hands of Schrader, who’s not half the director Lawton was. I’m not saying Lawton and Tournier would have made full-on furry porn out of it, just they would have made a more powerful film if they had not had to put kid gloves on every sexual element.
An excellent choice. Powell could be stuffy and whimsical at the same time, and I fell a bit for Carole Lombard the first time I saw it. I didn’t find her screechy; just a perfect combination of '30s rapid-fire wit and starry-eyed romantic.[sup]*[/sup] The final scene kills me, and (Some Like it Hot be damned) it has the funniest closing line in movie history.
Right this minute I’m watching one of my favorites, one I absolutely LOVE and always forget about. “Night Must Fall”, 1937, Rosalind Russell, Robert Montgomery, and Dame May Whitty as the mean old harridan in a wheelchair mesmerized by her smooth talking new ‘bad boy’ servant. Roz is a poor relative ‘companion’, in glasses and twinsets, both attracted and repelled by Robert Montgomery. And suspicious of that hat box in his closet…
Chock full of English country garden charm, dread, humor from the comical servants, and suspense.
I am actually amazed that most of my favorites have already been mentioned. Ignoring the obvious ones like Casablanca and Gone With the Wind, my list includes:
Bringing up Baby
Ninotchka
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
While 1939 probably had the greatest number of excellent movies, if we were including 1950 I would have to add:
All About Eve
Born Yesterday
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard was 1950, so it doesn’t quite make the cut, but great film.
Well, having gotten away with Harvey (so far), I say let it stay.
It was released in 1950, anyway. I can’t find anything saying it was made in '49, but I’m grasping at straws here.
Ooh. Must find this one…
I think I’d have a shorter list of movies I don’t care fore made prior to 1950.
Another vote among the many for Casablanca.
Also a second vote for Rebecca, and surprise that this great film doesn’t have more of a following. Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers was so especially effective that I remember fantasizing about being able to magically appear inside the film just so I could settle her hash.
Good think Hitch was able to successfully block the studio edit.
I always thought that Godfrey should’ve hooked up with the older sister, played by Gail Patrick; she seemed intelligent and cool-headed, and had turned into a fairly decent person by movie’s end.
