Gilda (1946)

1946 | USA | Charles Vidor | ★★★★

Charles Vidor's beautifully crafted Gilda is an entertaining Argentina-set gangster film, featuring gorgeous black and white photography, unpredictable plotting, and memorable performances from the roguishly handsome Glenn Ford and the drop-dead gorgeous Rita Hayworth.

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“Gilda, are you decent? Rita Hayworth tosses her hair back and slyly responds, Me? in one of the great star entrances in movie history. Gilda, directed by Charles Vidor, features a sultry Hayworth in her most iconic role, as the much-lusted-after wife of a criminal kingpin (George Macready), as well as the former flame of his bitter henchman (Glenn Ford), and she drives them both mad with desire and jealousy. An ever-shifting battle of the sexes set on a Buenos Aires casino’s glittering floor and in its shadowy back rooms, Gilda is among the most sensual of all Hollywood noirs." The Criterion Collection

Great Expectations (1946)

1946 | UK | David Lean | ★★★★★

David Lean's masterful Great Expectations is a stunningly photographed, majestically directed adaptation of the Dickens novel, stuffed with remarkable imagery, memorable set-pieces, and unforgettable performances from John Mills, Valerie Hobson, et al.

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"In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker." TMDb

See also:

Stotty's 1940s Favourites