The Mortal Storm - 1940 *****

'The Mortal Storm' is a powerful and utterly heart-breaking film about the destruction and pain people can cause others because of their small mindedness and routine precision with power and gain. James Stewart acts wonderfully as a German who refuses to go with the crowd and leave his small town where he has grown up and support the Nazis. He then falls in love with a beautiful Jew whose father, a professor at the local university does not agree with the current political situation and is eventually captured by the Germans. This leaves the couple in a horrendous situation - do they stay together and defy the odds or break apart to save themselves?
Beautifully shot and mesmerizingly painful to experience, Frank Borzage is a true master of his art and has painted a sumptuously powerful picture that needs to be seen.

My Favourite Wife - 1940 ****

An extremely funny but tender rom-com from Leo McCarey where Cary Grant marries a new wife before finding out that his old one isn't as dead as he thought. Irene Dunne has been shipwrecked on an island for seven years and finally comes home. Her happiness is blighted however when she finds out that Cary Grant has just married someone else after declaring her legally dead! Mix ups ensue for a veritable banquet of screwball comedy.

Foreign Correspondent - 1940 **** 1/2

What started off as a mediocre picture, turned into something utterly compelling and fast-paced. Joel McCrea is an American Reporter who is sent to cover some exciting stories and see if he can expose any enemy spies in wartime Britain. Of course he gets tangled up in espionage and is before long fearing for his life when he uncovers a dangerous spy ring which is too close for comfort. He also meets lovely and innocent Laraine Day, whose father (played superbly by Herbert Marshall) is not all that he seems. Add George Sanders into the mix and you have a damn good film, especially baring in mind that filming for it finished only a week before the War broke out for real. Quite heart-breaking when you watch it from that angle. Hitchcock remains the Master of Suspense.

Christmas in July - 1940 ***

As another viewer quite rightly pointed out, this has all the makings of a 'B' not an 'A' movie. Dick Powell is average, this time playing an office clerk who has dreams of winning a huge amount of money and being able to marry his girlfriend and give her a good life. Several of his colleagues overhear his wishes and decide to play a prank on him, sending him a letter pretending to be from the winning company. However events do not go as they planned.

It's not a bad film, and I am trying to see all of Preston Sturges movies, but I can't honestly say that this is one of his best.

Night Train to Munich - 1940 ****

A gripping 1940s thriller from the excellent Carol Reed. Rex Harrison plays a British undercover officer posing as an entertainer who meets up with Margaret Lockwood and they both become embroiled in a terrifying plot to do with German concentration camps.

Reed always delivers on his films, and this was no exception. I have never seen Harrison play such a two-sided character before; one minute a sharp and arrogant German with a monocle, the next a charming and suave British performer who wooes Margaret Lockwood.

Lockwood and Harrison make a pretty good couple. I'm impressed.

Gaslight - 1940 ***

I was surprised how little I enjoyed this compared to the far superior (in my opinion) version with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman which is one of my favourite films.

The story is basically the same, but with the names and locations changed.

A man and his wife move to a beautiful address in London where a mysterious murder took place years earlier. The man begins to accuse his wife of misplacing objects and forgetting things and soon she believes that she is going mad, as she can also hear noises from above, although it is clear that there is no one else there.

'Gaslight' is an appropriate name for this movie, because most of the action is shrouded in the foggy depths of 19th century London, and it really adds to the mysterious and eerie feel of the story. Worth watching, but if it's a choice between this and the later version then I would choose the latter.