This documentary focuses on the great films from 1939--a year that is considered by many to represent the pinnacle of American film making. The production is narrated by Kenneth Branagh and is filled with interviews and tons of film clips. As for the clips, since most of the great films of this year were from MGM, Turner Entertainment (who made the documentary) had easy access to the footage. Among the great films discussed were: "Ninotchka", "Goodbye Mr. Chips", "Gone With the Wind", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "The Wizard of Oz", "The Women", "The Roaring Twenties", "Dodge City", "Old Maid", "Dark Victory", "Confessions of a Nazi Spy", "Beau Geste", "Midnight", "Union Pacific", "Gunga Din", "Stagecoach", "Only Angels Have Wings", "Of Mice and Men". Is the film any good? Yup--with exactly the quality and entertainment we've come to expect from Turner.

I really enjoyed this "sampler" of Hollywood's greatest hits of 1939 - a year which (as the title implies) many consider to be Hollywood's greatest. Somewhat thin and rushed in its overall feel, one nevertheless can't deny that this documentary makes a sincere effort to open the eyes of today's movie lovers to a bygone era of Hollywood greatness.The deficiency of this documentary can best be explained very simply: Not enough time! That is to say, the subject matter is really too vast to be condensed neatly into a 75-minute documentary with any expectation that it will reveal enough facts, figures, anecdotes, history and lore of late-30's Hollywood to even begin to satisfy the more serious film buff. So in effect, the documentary comes across more as a compilation of trailers and previews of all those great films of 1939, rather than any sort of serious history lesson.The viewer nevertheless does get a sense of the historical "place" of 1939 Hollywood: it is made apparent that the preceding 8 or 9 years of hard economic times, i.e. The Great Depression, culminated in an end-of-decade perfect storm of masterful film productions. Whether this is cause and effect or something else entirely, is left up to the viewer to decide. Also, one can see that 1939 was a transitional year on a global scale, what with war clouds looming on the horizon, which indubitably cast long shadows into the movie studios of the time. Further, there were some interesting comments about the manner by which major Hollywood studios controlled not only production of their films, but distribution as well (in the form of wholly-owned theater chains), leading to members of U.S. Congress leveling charges of monopoly tactics.I wish there would have been a lot more to this documentary, but I also wonder, how much could they really do with 75 minutes? At what point did they decide to "draw the line," and leave much of the historical context on the cutting room floor, and simply concentrate more on showcasing the finished product - i.e. the films themselves? I think in that regard they did the right thing. As I noted above, the subject matter is too vast for a 75-minute documentary.As a movie lover, and as someone who enjoys exploring movies from the bygone era of Hollywood, I commend this documentary for allowing me to see some of my favorites - Ninotchka, Gone With The Wind, Gunga Din, Stagecoach, etc. - in a new light. In addition, I thank this work for showing some snippets of movies that I have not yet seen, but really must check out: Midnight, Dodge City, The Women, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, etc. If nothing else, I would highly recommend this documentary to anyone interested in getting some "movie night" ideas. Hopefully there is a video store near you that carries many of these movie titles from 1939, "Hollywood's Greatest Year."

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.

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.