Mildred Pierce - 1945

Mildred Pierce Framed Art Print
16 in. x 22 in.

Buy at AllPosters.com


One of the best melodramatic, 'women's pictures' and film noir classics of the 1940s - and Joan Crawford's comeback film. Adapted from James M. Cain's novel. Begins with the murder of Monte Beragon (Scott) in a beach house. Suspect Mildred Pierce (Crawford) is interrogated by police for the killing of her second husband. In flashback, housewife Mildred is divorced from her husband Bert (Bennett). The hardworking, dowdy woman obsessively dotes on her two daughters, especially rotten, spoiled elder daughter Veda (Blyth), so she is forced to become a waitress. Through determination and will-power, she opens up a small restaurant, develops it into a successful chain, receives assistance from realtor/rebuffed beau Wally Fay (Carson), and marries socially-prominent playboy Monte Beragon. The petulant, selfishly-ungrateful Veda romances her own step-father behind the restaurateur's long-suffering back. The murder mystery concludes with a resolution to the question - who murdered Monte?

Yankee Doodle Dandy - 1942

Yankee Doodle Dandy Framed Art Print
16 in. x 22 in.

Buy at AllPosters.com


Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is one of Hollywood's greatest, grandest and slickest musicals. The nostalgic, shamelessly-patriotic, entertaining film also supported the war effort as it paid tribute in its mostly fictional story to a popular Irish/American entertainer and the grand American gentleman of the theatre in the early 20th century.

The timeliness of its release, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, helped the 'propaganda machine' of going to European battlegrounds overseas with a song that was a rousing theme song written years earlier for WW I - Over There. And a second song, You're a Grand Old Flag, contributed to morale-boosting, flag-waving patriotism and love of one's country. And it was the first time that a living US President (FDR in this case, played by Jack Young) was portrayed in a motion picture.

Casablanca - 1942

Casablanca Art Print
Casaro, Renato
24.3 in. x 36.75 in.
Buy at AllPosters.com
Framed


The classical and well-loved romantic melodrama Casablanca (1942), still on the top-ten lists of movies, is a masterful account of two men vying for the love of one woman in a love triangle. The story of political espionage and romantic backdrop of war conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. [The date given for the film is often given as 1942 and 1943. This is because its first was limited in 1942, but the movie does not play nationally, or in Los Angeles until 1943.]

With a rich atmosphere and smoke, propaganda anti-Nazi, Max Steiner score great music, suspense, characters unforgettable (supposedly 34 nationalities are included in its cast) and lines of memorable dialogue (eg, "Here's lookin 'at you, children, and misrepresentation of the city "Play It Again, Sam"), it is one of the most popular, magical (and flawless) films of all time - focused on themes of love lost, honor and duty, self-sacrifice and romance within a chaotic world.

Play It Again Woody Allen, Sam (1972) reverential tribute to the film, like the movies less Cabo Blanco (1981) and Barb Wire (1996), and Bugs Bunny animated short Carrotblanca (1995). The line "Play it again, Sam" appeared in the Marx Brothers' A Night in Casablanca (1946). References to films or videos have been used in Play It Again, Sam (1972), Brazil (1985), My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988) and When Harry Met Sally (1989).