Movie Polls

Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

Please reference this thread for the rules of this group.

I just posted a blog about The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  One of the things commented on the special features was how this movie was almost outshadowed by the so many other well known movies that also came out of Hollywood in this same year.  I could hardly even list half of films that are still well known today, but I tried my best to pick what would probably be people's most favorites.

Please vote only once in each poll.

Movies referenced in this poll:
Destry Rides Again
Gone with the Wind
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
The Roaring Twenties
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
The Women
Wuthering Heights

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

I haven't seen half of these films because, generally, I don't like films before about 1940. (My fault. Nothing wrong with the films. I just spend all my time noticing old-fashioned things rather than getting immersed in the movie.) But I remember as a kid--no, not in 1939!--loving Stagecoach. I must have been a violent, gun-totin' little critter.

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

What a good year - my vote is for The Wizard of Oz.

...And who can figure out why Stagecoach is also showing up...??? (I can't!)

Tom

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

I was cliche and voted the Wizard of Oz...I know it by heart, after all, but I love many of those movies.  My runners up would be Mr. Smith, Gone with the Wind, and Wuthering Heights in that order.

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

Good year!! Of the films on the list I've seen. I had to go with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington And I don't really have a good reason for that other than Jimmy Stewart is the man.

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

I've always shied away from the Western genre but I've seen Stagecoach half a dozen times and actually just purchased the DVD of the film. I'm fairly certain it's the romantic subplot that pulls at my heartstrings each and every time.

Don't let the recent remake scare any of you from seeing the original The Women. Great ensemble film.

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

I had to say Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  I just love it.  Can't help it.

I saw Stagecoach so long ago, I can't remember many specifics, but I know it was amazing!  Sounds like it's time for a revisit.

Is there anyone here who actually found Gone with the Wind a bit long and grating?  I find Vivien Leigh to be pretty annoying a lot of the time.  But people say she was perfect for the part.  I've never read the book though, so maybe Scarlett O'Hara the characters is just annoying to me.

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

Risselada:

I had to say Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  I just love it.  Can't help it.

I saw Stagecoach so long ago, I can't remember many specifics, but I know it was amazing!  Sounds like it's time for a revisit.

Is there anyone here who actually found Gone with the Wind a bit long and grating?  I find Vivien Leigh to be pretty annoying a lot of the time.  But people say she was perfect for the part.  I've never read the book though, so maybe Scarlett O'Hara the characters is just annoying to me.

Same here with Stagecoach - I just can't remember much about it.  (sigh)  There are too many like that, alas...

There are a few of these films I haven't seen, and it was hard to choose, but in the end I went with Wizard of Oz.  It's such a staple from my childhood -- a very good old friend.  Ditto Gone With the Wind, actually.  I remember being about 5 years old, watching it with my parents at a drive-in.  Hanging over the front seat between my parents, crying during the burning of Atlanta, wondering what all those people with burned homes were going to do - I didn't understand a lot of the rest of it at the time...but I digress.  The film is better than the book, which is written in a rather soap-opera-y style, and everyone's right -- Leigh was the perfect Scarlet.  She's meant to be annoying.  ;-)

I've never liked any version of Wuthering Heights much, though I've seen a few - the story is bizarre rather than romantic, if you ask me; none of the characters are likeable.  So why do I keep watching different versions of it?  Mostly because of who gets cast in them.

Re:Which of these Hollywood films released in 1939 is your favorite?

Risselada:

I had to say Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  I just love it.  Can't help it.

I saw Stagecoach so long ago, I can't remember many specifics, but I know it was amazing!  Sounds like it's time for a revisit.

Is there anyone here who actually found Gone with the Wind a bit long and grating?  I find Vivien Leigh to be pretty annoying a lot of the time.  But people say she was perfect for the part.  I've never read the book though, so maybe Scarlett O'Hara the characters is just annoying to me.

I've read the book, and Leigh was perfect for the part.  And: she's supposed to be annoying, in her own way, but she's sympathetically annoying because she's really just a big child in a world that's bigger than she realizes and certainly bigger than her.  So, yes, Scarlett is, by definition, annoying.  Which is why her tempestuous romance with Rhett, who is deliberately annoying and knows it full well, is ironic.  She wants the stoic and sensitive Ashley, but Rhett is more her equal in every way.

And, at four hours, it is a very long movie.  But, like another poster, Gone with the Wind is a staple from my childhood because it is my mother's favorite movie aside from Casablanca.  So, some people will probably agree with you while others will say it's four hours of epic romantic goodness.  I fall somewhere in the middle leaning toward the epic romantic goodness.  I like Oz and Mr. Smith better :-D.