The Best Movies: 1945

The 10 Best Movies of 1945

1. Henry V. Directed by Laurence Olivier. Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton. This was made at the height of the German blitz and was designed to strengthen the resolve of the British against the Nazis. It didn’t make it to our shores for another year. Olivier pulled off a neat directorial trick here: As the film opens, it appears he’s simply filming a version of Shakespeare’s tragedy at the Old Globe Theater. But gradually he draws us in as the film moves to more realistic sets and then, finally, returns to the stage of the Old Globe.

2. The Lost Weekend. Directed by Billy Wilder. Ray Milland, Jane Wyman. I have been told that this harrowing portrait of an alcoholic actually scared many into giving up the hard stuff when it was released. A brilliant piece of work that alternates between realism and expressionism, and features a virtuoso portrayal of a drunk by Milland, who justly won an Oscar.

3. Brief Encounter. Directed by David Lean. Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway. A near-perfect love story whose restraint puts off a lot of viewers, but, for me, makes it even more passionate than it otherwise might have been. Johnson and Howard as the two ordinary married people who fall in love with each other are touching in their scenes together.

4. The Way to the Stars. Directed by Anthony Asquith. John Mills, Michael Redgrave. Another magnificent film designed to foster British patriotism during the war, it’s a fascinating war film in that it contains no battle scenes. Instead, it concentrates on the effect war has on romance. Asquith does a fine job of making sure the film never slips into sentimentality. Also known as Johnny in the Clouds.

5. Mildred Pierce. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth. After Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis and Ann Sheridan turned down the role, the “has been” Crawford took it and turned it into one of the greatest “comeback” stories in the history of film. Simply put, this is one of film noir’s greatest soap operas. Everything about the film — the direction, the photography, the score, and especially the acting (Blyth has never been better) — is first rate.

6. Scarlet Street. Directed by Fritz Lang. Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea. Another classic film noir containing all the basic ingredients: a city at night, the femme fatale (Bennett) and the honest man (Robinson) she seduces into engaging in criminal mischief, all wrapped up in that German expressionism by the master himself (Lang).

7. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Directed by Elia Kazan. Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan, Peggy Ann Garner. Kazan’s first film is a grand portrait of urban poor at the beginning of the 20th Century. Kazan wisely avoids most of the pitfalls of many first-time directors (unnecessary cinematic tricks) and instead focuses on the grand performances of his fine cast, the best of which is turned in by Dunn. An honest, timeless drama.

8. I Know Where I’m Going! Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Finlay Currie. Hiller is absolutely brilliant in one of the more low-key Powell/Pressburger collaborations that combines romance, fantasy, mysticism and folklore. There are some incredible shots in this film (the small boat in the whirlpool, the black mist wafting over the sea). There’s also the interesting tidbit that a double was used for Livesey in all the exterior scenes because he was not available to travel to Scotland.

9. A Walk in the Sun. Directed by Lewis Milestone. Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Sterling Holloway. One of the more interesting World War II films in that it’s a character study of a single platoon and all the action takes place one morning as the members of the group question their role in the big picture even though they seem willing to risk their lives for a cause they don’t quite understand. A couple of Milestone’s devices — the voice-overs, the folk song — don’t work all that well, though.

10. Leave Her to Heaven. Directed by John M. Stahl. Gene Tierney, Cornell Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price. Tierney is searing in her portrait of one of the most beautiful and one of the most evil women ever to appear on film. In fact, she’s so fiery, that Wilde and Crain seem way too tame by comparison. I kept wondering what the Tierney character saw in the Wilde character and for the film to really work you have to believe that she is totally consumed by him.