MissSimonetta If you're a seasoned classic film fan or film history buff, then this documentary of Hollywood in 1939 will offer no new insights or information.I was surprised at how many films were glossed over or only briefly examined: Wuthering Heights, Intermezzo: A Love Story, Son of Frankenstein, and The Rains Came are all worthy of attention, yet all are barely given a paragraph. It's sad. As important as The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind are, can't other films from that year get some love for once? There's nothing overtly awful or revisionist about this documentary, but it's nothing special. Only newcomers to classic film will find anything of interest here.

jibbajabba-5 I fell asleep twice. The greatest year of movies? It was more like attending a college lecture. No passion. No excitement. The director brought no sense of style or storytelling to a vast canvas known as 1939.No info here that you couldn't get on Google or Wikipedia, in fact that might be more informative.Barely a whisper about Hattie McDaniel's historic Oscar win. Apparently Ingrid Bergman is no big deal either. WIZARD OF OZ could have been the centerpiece but again, it just breezes by.HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.Classic year, boring documentary. Maybe someday someone will pay the proper respect to the greatest year in cinema...1939.

blanche-2 A barely adequate look at the golden year of 1939, concentrating, as usual, on films owned by TCM and ignoring films they don't own and studios whose libraries they don't have.Turner not only does this in its documentaries but also in their books.I certainly can understand them wanting to push the stars and films they own, but please don't call this film history. Though TCM was not listed as the producer, they in fact were - they farmed it out to New Wave Entertainment, which has made many of their documentaries.Most slighted, as usual, was 20th Century Fox - I'll say this, they did mention it. Usually they leave it out all together. Tyrone Power in 1939 was one of the most popular stars in the world, in the top 10 box office stars - lucky him, they mentioned him once. Amazing.The documentary said that Gone with the Wind "swept" the Oscars, failing to mention that "The Rains Came" beat it - and the Wizard of Oz - in special effects.As usual, people watching this walk away believing the only stars were Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, etc. and the rest of them were people who did some acting on the side. After all, if you weren't with MGM, Warners, or RKO, you were nobody.

Michael_Elliott 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year (2009) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely entertaining documentary from Warner takes a look at 1939, which many film buffs and historians consider the greatest year for movies. The documentary has Kenneth Branagh doing the narration and features interviews with Leonard Maltin, Rudy Behlmer and many others as they look over the countless great films released that year. They break the movies down by studios and is pretty level in regards to all of them with the exception of Universal and Paramount. No clips from either of those studios are shown and the movies themselves get very little mention, although Maltin does mention SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. The spotlight is certainly on MGM as they released the two monsters in GONE WITH THE WIND as well as THE WIZARD OF OZ. We also take a look at the work done by John Ford with YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK and STAGECOACH. Capra and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON is also a favorite here as are discussion of NINOTCHKA, OF MICE AND MEN, GUNGA DIN, DODGE CITY, THE ROARING TWENTIES and countless other gems. The documentary does a great job at introducing these films to those who might not be familiar with them or the legend of 1939 but I think the one weak spot is that there's never really any talk of why the studios were pumping out so many great movies in this one year. There's a brief mention of coming out of the Depression and going for it all but more discussion here would have been a plus. Coming in at just under 70-minutes, the documentary is a good introduction to these films.