W.W.II Era Movies

It's time to take your character to the movies!  Click on a movie poster below and read a brief description of the film.  Then decide which film would your character most like to see. Click on the button beneath each poster to hear a film trailer.

In the Lobby
While you are waiting in line to buy tickets consider the following: Who are you going with? How much does it cost to get in? What are you anticipating this movie is about?

During Intermission:
You head to the lobby. What do you do when you get there? You turn to your friend and say...? So far, is the film living up to your expectations?

After the Movie:
How do you get home? On the way you turn to your friend and say...? Now that you are home, take out a pen and a piece of paper. Who do you write to and what do you say?

Casablanca (1942)

One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine, a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the height of WW II. Despite pressure from the local authorities, notably the crafty Capt. Renault , Rick's café has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit which will allow them to escape to America. One day, to Rick's great surprise, he is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo and his wife Ilsa, Rick's true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She still wants Victor to escape to America, but now that she's renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca. "You must do the thinking for both of us", she says to Rick. He does, and his plan brings the story to its satisfyingly logical, if not entirely happy, conclusion. 

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Re-creating the role she originated in Philip Barry's wickedly witty Broadway play, Katharine Hepburn stars as the spoiled and snobby socialite Tracy Lord in this sparkling 1940 screen adaptation of The Philadelphia Story, one of the great romantic comedies from the golden age of MGM studios. Applying her impossibly high ideals to everyone but herself, Tracy is about to marry a stuffy executive when her congenial ex-husband (Cary Grant), arrives to protect his former father-in-law from a potentially scandalous tabloid exposé. In an Oscar-winning role, James Stewart is the scandal reporter who falls for Tracy as her wedding day arrives, throwing her into a dizzying state of premarital jitters. Who will join Tracy at the altar? Snappy dialogue flows like sparkling wine under the sophisticated direction of George Cukor in this film that turned the tide of Hepburn's career from "box-office poison" to glamorous Hollywood star.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Arguably the greatest of American films, Orson Welles's 1941 masterpiece, made when he was only 26, still unfurls like a dream and carries the viewer along the mysterious currents of time and memory to reach a mature (if ambiguous) conclusion: people are the sum of their contradictions, and can't be known easily. Welles plays newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. The result is that every well-meaning or tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event. Written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, and photographed by Gregg Toland, the film is the sum of Welles's awesome ambitions as an artist in Hollywood. He pushes the limits of then-available technology to create a true magic show, a visual and aural feast that almost seems to be rising up from a viewer's subconsciousness. As Kane, Welles even ushers in the influence of Bertolt Brecht on film acting. This is truly a one-of-a-kind work, and in many ways is still the most modern of modern films this century.

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