1939: "The Greatest Year in Film History"

Film historians and movie buffs often look back on 1939 as "the greatest year in film history". This particular year saw the release of an unusually large number of exceptional movies, many of which have been honored as all-time classics.

The most popular of them include the following:

Gone with the Wind:It is a stunning Civil War panoramic story of the transformed lives of leading families as the Southern aristocracy crumbles and the South is defeated. From the stories of the lives of a number of memorable characters including a pampered, spoiled, headstrong beautiful young woman Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), a dashing cavalier Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a loyal black slave Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett's saintly cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), and the ineffectual character of Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), the story is told through great spectacle, romance, despair, conflict and travail. With a terrific, lyrical musical score by one of the greatest film composers of all time, Max Steiner.

The Wizard of Oz:

A farm girl Dorothy (Judy Garland) from Kansas (in sepia-tone) is transported with her dog Toto in a twister to the magical fantasy land of Oz (in Technicolor). There she meets delightfully colorful characters including the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) and three companions - the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), the Tin Man (Jack Haley), and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr). With them she sets off on the yellow brick road to seek the Wizard's (Frank Morgan) help to get home. The Wizard grants all of their wishes when they subdue the Witch. In the land of Oz, she discovers that things aren't always better somewhere else. With the well-known theme song, "Over the Rainbow."

Of Mice and Men:

A bittersweet, tragic story of two ranch hands traveling together in California's Salinas Valley. Two migrant field workers, Lenny (Lon Chaney, Jr.) a large, physically-strong but dim-witted individual with a great passion for soft furry things, and George (Burgess Meredith), Lenny's protector, only want to live peacefully on their own small ranch. But Lenny's innocence, feeble-mindedness, his clumsy misuse of his physical strength, and finally a brutal set of circumstances kills their dream.

Mr Smith Goes to Washington:

One of Frank Capra's time-honored classic comedy/dramas about the triumph of the ordinary man over the corrupt political elite, restoring faith in democracy. An idealistic, naive Boy Rangers leader Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is drafted by his state's governor to the Senate in Washington as a freshman senator to complete the remaining term of a dead Senator. The corrupt "political machine," led by his state's senior Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains) believes he will easily be controllable, but when Jefferson discovers the land-scam plans of his supporters, he becomes stubbornly determined to not forsake his dreams and to do what's right against the corrupt, greedy forces running his state. With the support of his secretary Saunders (Jean Arthur), he delivers a powerful, rousing and passionate filibuster on the Senate floor in the final climactic moments

The Hunchback of Notre Dame:

A hideously deformed, grotesque, outcast hunchback Quasimodo (Charles Laughton) lives as the bell-ringer in the towers of Notre Dame's Cathedral. The hunchback is scorned by an angry mob one day, but is shown pity and kindness by a beautiful Gypsy dancer girl, Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara). He develops a tragic fondness for the girl, and rescues her from being hanged in the public square for being a witch, taking her back into the bell tower and claiming sanctuary.