Mr. Movie: 1939 the best movie year ever?

Yep, I was born in 1939. You can do the math. Anyway, it so happens that this was a great year for movies.

Many movie fans would pick 1939 as the best year in the history of motion pictures, primarily because two of the most popular movies ever made were both released in that year. The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind are each shown on TV at least once a year and most everyone has seen and liked both. 

The Wizard of Oz has been on TV so much it has been referred to as The Oz Bowl Game, but who wouldn’t like Judy and Ray and Bert cavorting along the yellow brick road. (The fourth actor, the guy who played the tin man and the one nobody can ever remember, was Jack Haley). The truth is, it holds up very well indeed and is that rare film that appeals equally to kids and grown-ups. And, it spawned the hugely successful prequel Wicked, which is still kicking.

Gone With The Wind is epic in sweep and the story is a winner. Never mind that it is really just an overblown soap opera and Vivien Leigh is simply dreadful. (Do you know anyone who talks like that?)  But Gable is excellent, the photography and music are great, and it’s just so darn big you have to at least be awed by it. The Technicolor in both of these movies is just amazing, and no, they don’t make them like that anymore.

Well, there aren’t a whole lot of years that produce two absolute legends, and 1939 also produced the definitive Hunchback of Notre Dame, the one with Charles Laughton. Laughton has been constantly downgraded since he died, and this is a mistake. The man could play absolutely anything and this film proves it. Forget all those dreary remakes and catch this one. Director William Dieterle pulls one of the neatest tricks in Hunchback: When Quasimodo swings from a rope to rescue Desdemona, Dieterle suddenly cuts all sound — no dialogue, no crowd noise, no music. It is an unforgettable moment.

Of Mice and Men also first came out in 1939. Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr., give career performances in the Steinbeck story of the feeble-minded Lenny and his pal and mentor Curly, who desperately want a place of their own. (Steinbeck characters always want a place of their own and have not a prayer of ever having it. They just don’t know it.)

Jimmy Stewart’s first Everyman role appears in 1939, in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The faintly socialistic, do-good Smith would get booed off the screen by today’s me-first crowd, but it’s a darn good performance. Stewart also found time that same year to star in Destry Rides Again, along with the legendary Marlene Dietrich. Destry was the philosophical godfather of Maverick, for those of you keeping score. He would rather joke than fight.             

Hollywood hadn’t been quite able to decide what to do with Big John Wayne until 1939. When Stagecoach came out, he became The American Cowboy Hero, and he always will be. This also happens to be a good western that holds up quite well.

■ Rusty Hammond, a former judge, has watched, studied and reviewed movies for various publications.