my favorite movies of 1941:

(1) Citizen Kane

(2) Sullivan’s Travels

(3) The Sea Wolf

(4) Love Crazy

favorite of 1941:

Citizen Kane

(Orson Welles, Dorothy Comingore, Joseph Cotten, Ruth Warrick, Everette Sloane, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead. Directed by Welles.)

I don’t agree with those who say this is the greatest movie of all time. But it might have some of the greatest scene-to-scene transitions of all time, like this:

But what’s so great about Orson Welles’s first full-length movie? Why do filmmakers still want to know how to “Citizen Kane” their movies? Here are some answers:

I always gagged on that silver spoon.

2nd favorite of 1941:

Sullivan’s Travels

(Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake. Directed by Preston Sturges.)

A successful director of Hollywood comedies (played by Joel McCrea) wants to make a more serious movie that addresses poverty. To gain experience for this project, he goes on the road as a homeless man, when he meets a nameless woman (played by Veronica Lake).

It’s a funny thing how everything keeps shoving me back to Hollywood or Beverly Hills. … Almost like gravity, as if some force were saying: get back where you belong. … Maybe there’s a universal law that says: “Stay put! As you are, so shall you remain!” Maybe that’s why tramps are always in trouble. They don’t vote. They don’t pay taxes. They violate the law of nature. … But nothing is gonna stop me. I’m gonna find out how it feels to be in trouble, without friends, without credit, without checkbook, without name, alone.

Stream Sullivan’s Travels on these sites.

3rd favorite of 1941:

The Sea Wolf

(Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, John Garfield. Directed by Michael Curtiz.)

In this nautical noir based on a Jack London novel, Edward G. Robinson plays the title character, the Sea Wolf, a captain who runs his ship as a vicious tyrant. The Sea Wolf is about more than sea-adventure movie cliches like mutiny plots and men overboard; it’s about class conflicts and clashing intellectual visions. One of the more contemplative scenes reveals that the Sea Wolf is surprisingly erudite: he’s been reading Nietzsche, Darwin, and Herbert Spencer (the social Darwinist who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest”). The Sea Wolf quotes Milton’s Paradise Lost:

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

The strong cast is rounded out by John Garfield and Ida Lupino. They play fugitives, but their legal problems are less important than how they struggle to see themselves fitting into civilized society on solid ground.

John Garfield tragically died in his 30s, apparently having been beaten down by the stress of being blacklisted, which ruined his career. His role in The Sea Wolf has him pushing up against the senseless prevailing order.

Ida Lupino plays the only woman on the ship — a prescient role for Lupino, who later became a path-breaking director at a time when it was almost unheard of for women to direct Hollywood movies.

The Sea Wolf was directed by Michael Curtiz, who gave the movie a dark but romantic atmosphere that might call to mind his best-known work, my favorite movie of 1942: Casablanca.

Until 2017, 13 crucial minutes were believed to be lost from The Sea Wolf, so you didn’t get to see all the material that fleshed out the Sea Wolf’s character (described here by Leonard Maltin). Fortunately, those scenes have been found and restored, and now we can appreciate The Sea Wolf like never before. You can stream it on Tubi (free with ads) or these sites.

4th favorite of 1941:

Love Crazy

(William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick, Jack Carson. Directed by Jack Conway.)

William Powell and Myrna Loy had such good chemistry that they were paired up in 14 movies. In this one, he’s so crazy about her that he’s willing to act truly crazy if that will stop her from divorcing him.

Stream Love Crazy on these sites.

Click here for the full list of my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020.