Thunder Birds (1942, USA) – Semi-educational movie about life at a flight school, with a thin layer of story on top. Watched it all, but I’ll probably raise my standards for war movies when I’ve watched some more of them.
Pride of the Yankees (1942, USA) – A heroic sports movie about Lou Gehrig, who plays something called baseball. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in an ironic twist, he ends up dying from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Watched: 7 minutes.
Journey into Fear (1943, USA) – Stupid war intrigues in Istanbul. Strangely made, but not interesting, except for the opening scene, where a man gets dressed while a broken record plays in the background. Watched: 14 minutes. IMDB reviewers praise it somewhat, but their logic is inverted: Movies don’t become great just because they may have been touched by Orson Welles at some point.
Saludos Amigos (1942, USA) – Disney being experimental again. A team of artists go to South America for inspiration, and return with a mix of film and cartoons. I love this old Disney stuff, even the non-classics are memorable. Watched it all.
Arabian Nights (1942, USA) – A poor echo of The Thief of Baghdad. Watched: 7 minutes.
Hitler – Dead or Alive (1942, USA) – A rich American hires three gangsters to go and assasinate Adolf Hitler. Interesting idea, great title, dreadful movie. Someone should remake this. Watched: 17 minutes.
I forgot to with you Happy New Year. May 1942 be your best filmic (sic) year ever. You weren’t kidding when you said it might take you until 2014 (or did you write 2012? -can’ remember) before you reached the Seventies.
Thanks! It’s hard to estimate how long this will take. The only thing I know is that the number of movies I find for each year rises by about a factor of 2 for each decade. So ..
Thunder Birds is an OK film but forget the story. It isn’t so much a real war movie as it is a slice of the American attitude in 1942.
Also, it had some beautiful cinematography for it’s time. I don’t think there’s any earlier film that showed off the Arizona landscape as well.