1940s

Even while considering the wretched corners of the human psyche that Alfred Hitchcock has probed all through his career, perhaps the intensive character study of Shadow of a Doubt is his most disturbing, as he paints a twisted portrait of two Charlies, uncle and niece, locked in a deadly secret seeping with subtext of incest, grooming, and sexual abuse. 

Even when it isn’t at the forefront of Out of the Past’s narrative, Jacques Tourneur is quietly underscoring that lurking threat that comes from behind in this landmark film noir, fatalistically drawing Robert Mitchum’s hardboiled detective back into old transgressions he would much rather hide from than confront directly.

Through some force of nature or the winds of fate, poetic justice finds its way home in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, as John Huston undercuts humanity’s indulgent pursuit of wealth in this cautionary tale of gold-mining prospectors and brutal bandits.

There may be screwball comedies that can match His Girl Friday in sheer narrative lunacy, but Howard Hawks’ satirical take on the newspaper industry stands unparalleled in its breakneck pacing which, when combined with its rhythmic, rattling screenplay and the verbal gifts of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, becomes an accelerating effort to keep outdoing…

Preston Sturges’ trademark commitment to running gags and expeditious pacing is present here in one of his earliest films, Christmas in July, and the faith individuals place in mainstream opinions rather than thinking for themselves is a perfect target for a director with such a skill in crafting farcical escalations.

The irony of a corrupt political system defeating itself through its own artifice is not easily lost in The Great McGinty, especially as Preston Sturges finds the humour in the unpredictability of life in the public eye, marking a modest debut from one of the great comedic directors of Hollywood.