1941

Citizen Kane is considered by most to be the greatest movie ever made.  By default, then, it is the greatest film of 1941.  But many other great films were released in that year – the year of Pearl Harbor, DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, and the creation of the USO.

Listed below are eleven other great films from 1941 … the Two Through Twelve to Citizen Kane’s Number One.

The Maltese Falcon

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet

Directed by John Huston

This film showcases Bogart’s breakout performance as legendary private eye Sam Spade, navigating a minefield of twists and unseemly characters.

The Lady Eve

Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda

Directed by Preston Sturges

Fonda is just as perfect as a hapless heir as Stanwyck is as the con woman who falls in love with him in this textbook screwball comedy.

How Green Was My Valley

Starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O’Hara

Directed by John Ford

This sentimental epic about a turn-of-the-century Welsh coalmining family covers 50 years of that family’s existence.  Oh, and it beat Citizen Kane for the Best Picture Oscar.

Ball of Fire

Starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and Dana Andrews

Directed by Howard Hawks

Stanwyck’s sexy nightclub singer (and wonderfully named) Sugarpuss O’Shea meets cute, and falls for, Cooper’s Professor Potts, whose professorial colleagues were based on the dwarfs from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Sergeant York

Starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan

Directed by Howard Hawks

The titular crack marksman is drafted to serve during World War I, resists due to his Christian beliefs, but soon helps defeat the enemy.  This performance gave Cooper his first Oscar.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Starring Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, and Claude Rains

Directed by Alexander Hall

A boxer taken too soon gets a second chance at life, love, and a boxing career … in the body of a millionaire.  This fantasy film was later remade as Heaven Can Wait (1978) starring Warren Beatty, and Down to Earth (2001) starring Chris Rock.

The Devil and Miss Jones

Starring Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, and Edmund Gwenn

Directed by Sam Wood

A department store owner secretly infiltrates his own store to learn which employees are organizing a union.  It’s the Undervcover Boss of its time.

Meet John Doe

Starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward Arnold

Directed by Frank Capra

A fictitious letter written by newspaper reporter Stanwyck, but signed “John Doe,” inspires a politically downtrodden public.  This requires Stanwyck to hire Cooper to become the face of John Doe.  The three leads shine in this message-heavy Capra classic.

Suspicion

Starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock’s first teaming with Grant has the actor playing a rogue con man who meets, woos, and marries a wealthy heiress (Fontaine), who soon thinks he is planning to kill her.  You cannot go wrong with Grant/Hitchcock.

Love Crazy

Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Gail Patrick

Directed by Jack Conway

A wife (mistakenly) thinks her husband is cheating on her, so she files for divorce.  His only chance to save his marriage is to act insane.  She has him committed.  This isn’t the best Powell-Loy film, but none of the 14 (yes, 14) films they made together is bad.

Sun Valley Serenade

Starring Sonja Henie, John Payne, and Glenn Miller

Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone

This is my guilty pleasure of the list because the film is nothing more than an excuse to hear Glenn Miller and His Orchestra perform classics like “In the Mood” and the Oscar-nominated “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.”  It’s also a great chance to see Dorothy Dandridge and Nicholas Brothers perform, too.

This list certainly doesn’t cover them all, and I’m sure your Two Through Twelve is different – not better or worse, just different – than mine.