Take a Break From the War and See a Movie, a Look at the Films that got Americans Through WWII

Sullivans Travels

Americans did not suffer anywhere near as much during the second world war as did people in such countries as Russia, England, France, Germany and Poland, to name but a few. Indeed those were horrific times for many nations with constant bombings, enemy occupation, horrible deprivations, mass arrests, executions, the destruction of homes, torture and displacement. In the U.S. there was rationing, restrictions on travel and the sadness of loved ones going overseas to fight, many never to return or to come back maimed. You could also be one of those slated to serve in battle zones, waiting anxiously waiting deployment. Or you could have recently returned living with horrible memories or perhaps permanent injuries.

Family and friends were a necessary solace in such times as was entertainment in various forms, most affordably, movies. (Movies were about 25 cents in those days, the equivalent of just under $5 today). While the United States was making war planes, ships, bombs, weapons and all other necessary materials of war at a rate that stunned the world, it was also still making movies and good ones too.

So if you’d spent a busy day as a Rosie the Riveter or were worried about a family member off at war or were enjoying a short leave before shipping out, or were just stressed from following war news, what better way to relax than at the local theater? This was a time when you could enjoy a double feature, newsreels, cartoons, shorts and travelogues. But would the feature presentation be worthwhile? Let’s have a look at what you could see.

December 1941

Right after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war, four terrific films were released. Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake, which is to me one of the great films of all time hit theaters shortly after the U.S. entered the war. It was followed by a classic screwball comedy from Howard Hawks, Ball of Fire starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. If you liked horror films then you could enjoy The Wolf Man with Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains.

1942 was a terrific year for U.S. releases. For example: Casablanca, Talk of the Town, To Be Or Not to Be, Palm Beach Story and Now Voyager. You’re getting Bogie, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Bette Davis a classic Lubitsch and another from Preston Sturges. For icing on the cake there was also All Through the Night with Bogie taking on Nazis in New York, This Gun For Hire with more Veronica Lake this time with Alan Ladd and The Magnificent Ambersons directed by Orson Welles. A banner year.

By 1943 the releases were all made after the war started. Look at what you got: Shadow of a Doubt, one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films, the wild and wacky Arsenic and Old Lace with Cary Grant and a supporting cast that included Peter Lorre, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson and James Gleason (plus the adorable Priscilla Lane). There was yet another gem from Sturges, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. The highly diverting Cabin in the Sky with Lena Horne. The heavy and powerful Ox-Bow Incident with Henry Fonda. A comedy about the war time housing crunch in Washington D.C., The More the Merrier featuring Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea. And there were some good pictures about the war such as Destination Tokyo (Cary Grant again) Five Graves to Cairo an earlier and excellent directorial effort by Billy Wilder. Air Force directed by Hawks, a criminally underrated film and Fritz Lang’s powerful Hangmen Also Die. Meanwhile Jean Renoir had gotten out of France and directed This Land is Mine set in a fictional Nazi-occupied town, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara. Finally for more chuckles there was another from Lubitsch, Heaven Can Wait with Gene Tierney and Don Ameche.

1944 didn’t produce quite as much but there was still good quality. Sturges came through again with his classic satire on hero worship and politics, Hail the Conquering Hero. Bogie was back this time with Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not ("You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow.") Hitchcock struck again with Lifeboat. Fritz Lang released another thriller, Ministry of Fear starring Ray Milland in one of his better roles. There was also noir as Dick Powell played Philip Marlowe -- surprisingly well -- in Murder My Sweet. To top it off you had Ingrid Bergman again, this time with Charles Boyer in George Cukor’s Gaslight. The movie title that created a verb.

We close with 1945 which was the weakest by far of the war years with very few really good films released (although as the war was winding down there were some terrific films coming out in Europe such as Rome: Open City, Brief Encounter, I Know Where I’m Going, Children of Paradise.) In the states the Yuletide classic Christmas in Connecticut was released — in the summer? There were also The Southerner, The Story of GI Joe and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Not much. Might be interesting to figure out why the paucity of films in ’45. To be fair there were a few good ones released after hostilities ceased, namely: Mildred Pierce, Spellbound and The Lost Weekend. That’s still not a lot.

The war was not a terrible time to be a cinephile. It just sucked to be a soldier.