Reel Archive

Decade

1940s

11 films · 1940–1949

Films released in the 1940s.

His Girl Friday

1940 · 92 min · Comedy · United States

Directed by Howard Hawks

Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy

Hilarious romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Russell is rough and tumble reporter looking to get out of the news racket by marrying and becoming a house wife after her divorce from newspaper publisher Grant. Just when she is about to leave town with her husband-to-be the still lovesick Grant drafts her to cover one final breaking news sensation. Along with plenty of laughs a

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Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

Meet John Doe

1941 · 123 min · Comedy · United States

Directed by Frank Capra

Starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold

As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement.

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Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

Jungle Book

1942 · 105 min · Adventure · United Kingdom

Directed by Zoltan Korda

Starring Sabu, Joseph Calleia, John Qualen

Teenaged Mowgli, who was raised by wolves, appears in a village in India and is adopted by Messua. Mowgli learns human language and some human ways quickly, though keeping jungle ideas. Influential Merchant Buldeo is bigoted against 'beasts' including Mowgli; not so Buldeo's pretty daughter, whom Mowgli takes on a jungle tour where they find a treasure, setting the evil of human greed in motion. N

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Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

Kismet

1943 · 143 min · Crime · India

Directed by Gyan Mukherjee

Starring Ashok Kumar, Shah Nawaz, Mumtaz Shanti

A former theater owner and his crippled daughter live in poverty until a chance encounter with a young pickpocket brings romance for the petty criminal and daughter as well as a chance by the father to get back at the villainous new theater owner who ousted him from the business years before.

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Rights: Film copyright expired in India (Copyright Act 1957, s.26: 60 years from release). Songs and music may be separately protected.

Scarlet Street

1945 · 103 min · Film Noir · United States

Directed by Fritz Lang

Starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea

Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find out that art dealers are interested in Chris's work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her…

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Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

The Stranger

1946 · 91 min · Film Noir · United States

Directed by Orson Welles

Starring Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Orson Welles

Set Connecticut after World War II, The Stranger is a cat and mouse game between Wilson (Edward G. Robinson), a member of the Allied War Crimes Commission and Franz Kindler (Orson Welles), a Nazi who has assumed the false identity of Dr. Charles Rankin. To complete his new intelligentsia disguise, Kindler marries Mary Longstreet, daughter of a Supreme Court justice.

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Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

Neecha Nagar

1946 · 102 min · Drama · India

Directed by Chetan Anand

Starring Rafiq Anwar, Uma Anand, Kamini Kaushal

Wealthy landlord Sarkar decides to direct all waste into the village to make space for his real estate project. However, the poor villagers agitate against his plan and the protest is led by Balraj.

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Rights: Film copyright expired in India (Copyright Act 1957, s.26: 60 years from release). Songs and music may be separately protected.

Mahal

1949 · 165 min · Horror · India

Directed by Kamal Amrohi

Starring Madhubala, Ashok Kumar, Vijayalakshmi

A young lawyer is involved with a ghostly woman in his new house, where the builder and his fiancée died shortly after it was built.

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Rights: Film copyright expired in India (Copyright Act 1957, s.26: 60 years from release). Songs and music may be separately protected.