Pretty Good

Great Film overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This documentary focuses on the great films from 1939--a year that is considered by many to represent the pinnacle of American film making. The production is narrated by Kenneth Branagh and is filled with interviews and tons of film clips. As for the clips, since most of the great films of this year were from MGM, Turner Entertainment (who made the documentary) had easy access to the footage. Among the great films discussed were: "Ninotchka", "Goodbye Mr. Chips", "Gone With the Wind", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "The Wizard of Oz", "The Women", "The Roaring Twenties", "Dodge City", "Old Maid", "Dark Victory", "Confessions of a Nazi Spy", "Beau Geste", "Midnight", "Union Pacific", "Gunga Din", "Stagecoach", "Only Angels Have Wings", "Of Mice and Men". Is the film any good? Yup--with exactly the quality and entertainment we've come to expect from Turner.

I fell asleep twice. The greatest year of movies? It was more like attending a college lecture. No passion. No excitement. The director brought no sense of style or storytelling to a vast canvas known as 1939.No info here that you couldn't get on Google or Wikipedia, in fact that might be more informative.Barely a whisper about Hattie McDaniel's historic Oscar win. Apparently Ingrid Bergman is no big deal either. WIZARD OF OZ could have been the centerpiece but again, it just breezes by.HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.Classic year, boring documentary. Maybe someday someone will pay the proper respect to the greatest year in cinema...1939.

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year (2009) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely entertaining documentary from Warner takes a look at 1939, which many film buffs and historians consider the greatest year for movies. The documentary has Kenneth Branagh doing the narration and features interviews with Leonard Maltin, Rudy Behlmer and many others as they look over the countless great films released that year. They break the movies down by studios and is pretty level in regards to all of them with the exception of Universal and Paramount. No clips from either of those studios are shown and the movies themselves get very little mention, although Maltin does mention SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. The spotlight is certainly on MGM as they released the two monsters in GONE WITH THE WIND as well as THE WIZARD OF OZ. We also take a look at the work done by John Ford with YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK and STAGECOACH. Capra and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON is also a favorite here as are discussion of NINOTCHKA, OF MICE AND MEN, GUNGA DIN, DODGE CITY, THE ROARING TWENTIES and countless other gems. The documentary does a great job at introducing these films to those who might not be familiar with them or the legend of 1939 but I think the one weak spot is that there's never really any talk of why the studios were pumping out so many great movies in this one year. There's a brief mention of coming out of the Depression and going for it all but more discussion here would have been a plus. Coming in at just under 70-minutes, the documentary is a good introduction to these films.

Narrated by KENNETH BRANAGH, I'd give this one even higher points if the narration included even more key points when discussing actors like Errol Flynn. Scant mention is made of his famous co-star Olivia de Havilland and certainly the fact that they became a great screen team after their first film in 1935 (CAPTAIN BLOOD). Instead we get a brief glimpse of Olivia (a covered wagon close-up from DODGE CITY) and one brief scene arguing with Flynn. Anyone would think their screen team magic in eight films wasn't worth a mention. Indeed, all of his best films were with Olivia at his side.I could mention a few other omissions, but you get the drift. As always in these sort of tributes to studios and stars, there are some that really needed to be pointed out. Spending so much time on STAGECOACH when honoring John Ford westerns without a single scene from his other '39 masterpiece, DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, is an oversight hard to forgive--especially since the narration mentions the stunning new use in '39 of a little thing called Technicolor.The films and stars that get the most attention are NINOTCHKA (because of Garbo), the Bette Davis era at Warner Brothers, the Cagney/Raft gangster films, and the most unusual Warner melodrama that dealt with the Nazis--CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY.At Paramount, we get brief mention of Cecil B. DeMille and Claudette Colbert.At Fox, it's Darryl F. Zanuck and director John Ford's talent for making westerns but still no mention of DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK. Instead, it's the Tyrone Power film JESSE JAMES that's called the most popular western of the year and given the full Technicolor treatment.Then a brief look at United Artists which was formed back in the '30s by icons like Chaplin, Fairbanks and Pickford--and how independent producers like Walter Wanger and Hal Roach found a niche and made some great films. A clip from OF MICE AND MEN shows a tense scene between Lon Chaney, Jr. and Betty Field.At RKO, it's GUNGA DIN directed by George Stevens that cost the most to make and proved highly successful at the box-office. The other biggie is THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and Maureen O'Hara tells how awestruck she was by the masterful sets recreated entirely on a sound stage. The narration mentions that both of these films had underlying significance for audiences at that time--freedom from oppression being the theme in a world on the brink of war.A brief clip of Fred and Ginger from THE STORY OF VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE, and a love scene from LOVE AFFAIR are shown for the conclusion of the RKO segment.Then it's on to Selznick's independent feature GONE WITH THE WIND and all the obstacles in the producer's path before the film was finally made and declared an outstanding success.As noted before, it's the omissions that will grate on some people--but all in all a good treatment of Hollywood's most incredibly creative year under the studio system.