The Academy Award Best Picture analysis continues with the 1940s.

LB is the Last Blog in Cyberspace, JL is Jeffery L., a Chicago film buff and Academy Award historian...

OVERVIEW, 1940-49

LB: We've crossed the Rubicon of the golden year, 1939, and we're into the WWII era.

JL: Surprisingly, only three about the war. You can argue that only 'Mrs. Miniver' (1942), deals directly with the war, while 'Casablanca' (1943) and 'Best Years of Our Lives' (1946) deal indirectly.

This decade is more spread out as far as themes. Story lines are more diverse, you have Shakespeare, corrupt politicians and more chances being taken in storytelling.

LB: I see it as the swansong of the studio system. The golden age of that factory movie-making, from the mid-1920's through about 1948, wanes at the end of the decade and television is coming.

"BEST" BEST PICTURES, 1940-49

LB: Your number 5, sir.

JL: My number 5 is 'Hamlet' (1948).

LB: Hamlet, which was my number 3.

JL: I had problems with director Lawrence Olivier's cuts to the story, but I loved the art direction. I thought the acting was stiff and stagy.

LB: The situation with Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, was highly incestuous in this production, which was the interpretation of the era. You always had to cast a "hot" actress to play Hamlet's mother, in this case Eileen Herlie.

Olivier used techniques of film making that were directly influenced by Orson Welles, making it almost 'Citizen Dane.'

My number 5 was 'Going My Way' (1944).

JL: That was my number 7, a little too sentimental to make my top 5.

LB: I just get sucked in, maybe because of my Catholic roots. Number 4?

JL: 'All the King's Men' (1949).

LB: I loved the unflinching look at the corruption in this film, and I have read the novel. You would think with such a story that the recent remake would have done better, but it was trashed.

In the '49 version, which is definitive, they were also handcuffed by no swearing and dialing down the sexual element. Maybe it was Broderick Crawford?

JL: I think it was just a poor choice for a remake, considering the Best Picture credibility of the original.

LB: My number 4 was 'The Best Years of Our Lives' (1946).

JL: Which was my number 3.

LB: When you are talking about a film made in the times, dealing with contemporary issues and are able to pull it off as director William Wyler did, there isn't much else to say. Your number 2?

JL: Here is a film I know you do not like, 'How Green Was My Valley' (1941).

LB: ARRRRRRGH! (Laughing)

JL: It was a microcosm of this little Welsh village, and I bought it, I loved it. I thought it was visually beautiful and I thought the story telling was fine.

LB: The only thing I will say is that I'm glad director John Ford is represented in the Best Picture canon.

And also I didn't buy the situation in the way he framed it. And when that happens, it's like a boulder rolling down a hill. That was my least favorite of the decade, I plain didn't like it.

Your number 1, sir

JL: We share the same number 1, 'Casablanca' (1943).

LB: YES! (high fives exchanged) There will always be Casablanca. It was years after I first saw it, probably when I was 16 or 17, that I realized it was a Best Picture.

It was enthralling when I first saw it, and thereafter I probably saw it once a year for the next 10 years.

JL: This will be shocking, but I saw this film for first time about two years ago. At the age of 41.

LB: "I am shocked, shocked" (ED NOTE: Quoting the famous Claude Rains line from the film).

JL: I avoided it because of the overindulgent love people have for this film and I'm not a Bogart fan. I thought it would be boring. But I was completely blown away by it, a wonderful story, great acting and just all those great quotes.

LB: It was a happy accident in film history. It was a standard studio film based on an obscure play, 'Everyone Comes to Ricks,' and it was highly symbolic of the American reluctance to enter WWII.

I'm no metaphor expert, but when the French Louie and the American Rick begin their "beautiful friendship" at the end, that's pretty much sums it up. USA! USA!

"WORST" BEST PICTURES, 1940-49

LB: My number 8, and granted it's a 3 star picture, is 'Lost Weekend' (1945).

JL: For me that was number 6.

LB: It uses the disease of alcoholism as a dramatic device and it was just too melodramatic for me.

JL: Especially the scene in the public mental institution.

LB: You remind me of that and I could put it even lower. What is your number 8?

JL: 'Rebecca' (1940).

LB: Again, I'm glad that director Alfred Hitchcock is represented in the Best Pictures, but this was probably one of his more stilted efforts.

JL: He had just come to Hollywood, and the film making seems uncomfortable.

My number 9 from that decade is Mrs. Miniver, which I think is a complete piece of crap.

LB: Be prepared to be beat up in any British pub.

JL: I'm sure. I liked Greer Garson, but it was basically sentimental mush.

LB: My number 10, as we discussed, was How Green Was My Valley. What was your 10?

JL: 'Gentleman's Agreement' (1947), which by far is one of the worst films ever to receive the honor.

LB: This was one of the last Best Pictures I've seen, in the last couple of years, and I was totally prepared for it to stink. The premise of Gregory Peck posing as a Jew, forget it.

JL: I could have bought that, but I didn't. Dorothy McGuire was horrendous.

LB: It was better than I thought it would it be, so I gave it a ***1/2 star rating, but I guess it could be a ***. So we move on...

THEY GOT ROBBED, 1940-49

JL: It is another John Ford film, 'The Grapes of Wrath,' which should have won instead of Rebecca in 1940.

LB: Mine is 'Citizen Kane' over How Green is My Valley in 1941 and I agree with you also about The Grapes of Wrath. But Kane is the one.

JL: I think that is an overrated film.

LB: Okay.

TOMORROW: Jeffery and I "double down" on the Best Pictures of the 1950s and 1960s. It's Oscar week at The Last Blog in Cyberspace!