And here we go!
This is the nominations thread for the eighth portion of The Great Movie Tournament (eighth of ten) where we'll nominate and second our favorite movies for the decade of the 1940s (from 1940 to 1949). For our purposes, an eligible film must be a feature narrative film (no short films or documentaries) and its first release date must be between January 1, 1940 and December 31, 1949 according to IMDb (sometimes films will premiere at festivals one year but have a wide release the following year; we'll use the IMDb and Wikipedia convention of the year of initial exhibition).
Participation is very much encouraged and extremely welcomed, but please do follow these guidelines for this nomination process (subject to adjustment):
- You can nominate one film per post, and you can nominate another film after one other member has made their nomination.
- You can second one film per post, and you can second another film after two other members has made their seconds.
- If possible, please include a trailer and/or a scene from the film using Spoiler tags (this version and delete the s in https for YouTube links when embedding a video, making sure to use the full URL from the address bar, not the sharing link).
- Nominations can also be optionally accompanied by year of release and director.
Once 128 nominated films have been seconded, the tournament will begin, following the structure shown below (an overall event overview thread is posted with links to all the polls so members can easily navigate during the tournament). Each poll will be open for 7 days and any tiebreaker polls will be open for 4 days.
- Round 1: 32 groups of 4 titles - top 3 move on
- Round 2: 32 groups of 3 titles - top 2 move on
- Round 3: 16 groups of 4 titles - top 2 move on
- Round 4: 16 groups of 2 titles - top 1 moves on
- Octofinals: 8 groups of 2 titles - top 1 moves on
- Quarterfinals: 4 groups of 2 titles - top 1 moves on
- Semifinals: 2 groups of 2 titles - top 1 moves on
- Final: 1 group of 2 titles - top 1 is the winner
This post will be updated with the list of nominated and seconded titles as they come in. You can also keep up to date with this handy Google Sheet.
Enjoy and have fun!
List of seconded films:
- Citizen Kane (1941), dir. Orson Welles
- The Great Dictator (1940), dir. Charlie Chaplin
- Rebecca (1940), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Casablanca (1942), dir. Michael Curtiz
- Double Indemnity (1944), dir. Billy Wilder
- The Maltese Falcon (1941), dir. John Huston
- Notorious (1946), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- The Third Man (1949), dir. Carol Reed
- It's a Wonderful Life (1946), dir. Frank Capra
- Rope (1948), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Fantasia (1940), dir. Samuel Armstrong, Wilfred Jackson, et al
- The Philadelphia Story (1940), dir. George Cukor
- Bambi (1942), dir. David Hand
- The Red Shoes (1948), dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
- Cat People (1942), dir. Jacques Tourneur
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), dir. John Huston
- Laura (1944), dir. Otto Preminger
- His Girl Friday (1940), dir. Howard Hawks
- Gaslight (1940), dir. Thorold Dickinson
- Bicycle Thieves (1948), dir. Vittorio De Sica
- Suspicion (1941), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- The Big Sleep (1946), dir. Howard Hawks
- To Be or Not to Be (1942), dir. Ernst Lubitsch
- Children of Paradise (1945), dir. Marcel Carné
- The Uninvited (1944), dir. Lewis Allen
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940), dir. John Ford
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947), dir. George Seaton
- Late Spring (1949), dir. Yasujirō Ozu
- Drunken Angel (1948), dir. Akira Kurosawa
- Black Narcissus (1947), dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
- Mildred Pierce (1945), dir. Michael Curtiz
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- The Lady Eve (1941), dir. Preston Sturges
- Stray Dog (1949), dir. Akira Kurosawa
- The Mark of Zorro (1940), dir. Rouben Mamoulian
- The Wolf Man (1941), dir. George Waggner
- Detour (1945), dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
- Foreign Correspondent (1940), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Gilda (1946), dir. Charles Vidor
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Pinocchio (1940), dir. Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske
- Beauty and the Beast (1946), dir. Jean Cocteau
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), dir. Frank Capra
- Red River (1948), dir. Howard Hawks
- Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), dir. Vincente Minnelli
- Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), dir. H. C. Potter
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), dir. Victor Fleming
- The Thief of Bagdad (1940), dir. Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan
- Saboteur (1942), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- The Lady from Shanghai (1947), dir. Orson Welles
- The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), dir. Orson Welles
- Murder, My Sweet (1944), dir. Edward Dmytryk
- The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), dir. William Dieterle
- The Spiral Staircase (1946), dir. Robert Siodmak
- I Married a Witch (1942), dir. René Clair
- Waterloo Bridge (1940), dir. Mervyn LeRoy
- Spellbound (1945), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- The Bishop's Wife (1947), dir. Henry Koster
- Key Largo (1948), dir. John Huston
- Out of the Past (1947), dir. Jacques Tourneur
- The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), dir. Tay Garnett
- The Stranger (1946), dir. Orson Welles
- The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), dir. William Wyler
- Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), dir. Charles Barton
- Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), dir. Michael Curtiz
- Great Expectations (1946), dir. David Lean
- The Snake Pit (1948), dir. Anatole Litvak
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), dir. Albert Lewin
- My Darling Clementine (1946), dir. John Ford
- Dumbo (1941), dir. Ben Sharpsteen
- Holiday Inn (1942), dir. Mark Sandrich
- I Walked with a Zombie (1943), dir. Jacques Tourneur
- Nightmare Alley (1947), dir. Edmund Goulding
- On the Town (1949), dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
- Christmas in Connecticut (1945), dir. Peter Godfrey
- White Heat (1949), dir. Raoul Walsh
- Phantom of the Opera (1943), dir. Arthur Lubin
- The Heiress (1949), dir. William Wyler
- A Night in Casablanca (1946), dir. Archie Mayo
- Lifeboat (1944), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
- Gentleman's Agreement (1947), dir. Elia Kazan
- Stormy Weather (1943), dir. Andrew L. Stone
- The Killers (1946), dir. Robert Siodmak
- Sullivan's Travels (1941), dir. Preston Sturges
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), dir. Elia Kazan
- How Green Was My Valley (1941), dir. John Ford
- Dead of Night (1945), dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer
- A Matter of Life and Death (1946), dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
- Twelve O'Clock High (1949), dir. Henry King
- My Little Chickadee (1940), dir. Edward F. Cline
- All The King's Men (1949), dir. Robert Rossen
- The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), dir. William A. Wellman
- Sergeant York (1941), dir. Howard Hawks
- To Have and Have Not (1944), dir. Howard Hawks
- Mrs. Miniver (1942), dir. William Wyler
- Mighty Joe Young (1949), dir. Ernest B. Schoedsack
- Day of Wrath (1943), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
- Brief Encounter (1945), dir. David Lean
- The Lost Weekend (1945), dir. Billy Wilder
- Remember the Night (1940), dir. Mitchell Leisen
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), dir. Robert Hamer
- Hamlet (1948), dir. Laurence Olivier
- The Pride of the Yankees (1942), dir. Sam Wood
- The Leopard Man (1943), dir. Jacques Tourneur
- The Shop Around the Corner (1940), dir. Ernst Lubitsch
- The Yearling (1946), dir. Clarence Brown
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
- Adam's Rib (1949), dir. George Cukor
- I Was a Male War Bride (1949), dir. Howard Hawks
- The Little Foxes (1941), dir. William Wyler
- National Velvet (1944), dir. Clarence Brown
- The Major and the Minor (1942), dir. Billy Wilder
- A Woman's Face (1941), dir. George Cukor
- Angel and the Badman (1947), dir. James Edward Grant
- The Palm Beach Story (1942), dir. Preston Sturges
- The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943), dir. Preston Sturges
- The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), dir. Irving Reis
- Jane Eyre (1943), dir. Robert Stevenson
- Hail the Conquering Hero (1944), dir. Preston Sturges
- Lassie Come Home (1943), dir. Fred M. Wilcox
- They Were Expendable (1945), dir. John Ford
- Going My Way (1944), dir. Leo McCarey
- The Bank Dick (1940), dir. Edward F. Cline
- Heaven Can Wait (1943), dir. Ernst Lubitsch
- The Body Snatcher (1945), dir. Robert Wise
- The Enchanted Cottage (1945), dir. John Cromwell
- Unfaithfully Yours (1948), dir. Preston Sturges
- Little Women (1949), dir. Mervyn LeRoy
List of films not seconded:
- Rome, Open City (1945), dir. Roberto Rosselini
- Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), dir. W. S. Van Dyke
- The Razor's Edge (1946), dir. Edmund Goulding
- Don't Fence Me In (1945), dir. John English
- The Mortal Storm (1940), dir. Frank Borzage
- The Silence of the Sea (1949), dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
- The Scarlet Claw (1944), dir. Roy William Neill
- Crossfire (1947), dir. Edward Dmytryk
- The Farmer's Daughter (1947), dir. H. C. Potter
- Murder, He Says (1945), dir. George Marshall
- Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), dir. Dorothy Arzner
- Crook's Tour (1941), dir. John Baxter
- Battleground (1949), dir. William A. Wellman
- Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940), dir. Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor
- The Naughty Nineties (1945), dir. Jean Yarbrough
- Cabin in the Sky (1943), dir. Vincente Minnelli
- The Naked City (1948), dir. Jules Dassin
- A Letter to Three Wives (1949), dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Brute Force (1947), dir. Jules Dassin
- The Big Street (1942), dir. Irving Reis
- The Queen of Spades (1949), dir. Thorold Dickinson
- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), dir. Mervyn LeRoy
- Scarlet Street (1945), dir. Fritz Lang
- The Letter (1940), dir. William Wyler
- Not Wanted (1949), dir. Elmer Clifton and Ida Lupino
- The Seventh Victim (1943), dir. Mark Robson
- Since You Went Away (1944), dir. John Cromwell
- Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941), dir. George B. Seitz
- In This Our Life (1942), dir. John Huston
- Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), dir. Roy William Neill
- The Curse of the Cat People (1944), dir. Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise
- Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), dir. Edward F. Cline
- Bedlam (1946), dir. Mark Robson
- Hellzapoppin' (1941), dir. H. C. Potter
- Man Hunt (1941), dir. Fritz Lang
- Le Corbeau (1943), dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
- Lured (1947), dir. Douglas Sirk
- They Drive by Night (1940), dir. Raoul Walsh