1940s Cinema Quotes

It's an institution that was born with my brother Chetan and me. I did it for him. I was becoming a big star in the late 1940s, and he needed a company to make films. So when he left Navketan, I brought in Goldie, and when Goldie left, I carried on alone. No book on Indian cinema is complete without mention of Navketan.

I've always loved the '40s romantic comedies and the idea of those mistaken identities and lovers' misunderstandings.

It's weird, because American films in the 1930s and '40s, particularly melodramas, were made for woman, from Bette Davis to Joan Crawford to Barbara Stanwyck to Katherine Hepburn, and for some reason we've taken a step backward in this sense.

For some reason, the movies in the '40s have the best personalities: Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, and all those people. For some reason, I seem to gravitate more toward the '40s, and I don't necessarily know why. I just love the people.

My favorite film is Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power in The Razor's Edge.

I could never understand the attraction of Bette Davis. I always preferred Jane Russell.

Ugarte: You despise me, don't you? Rick Blaine: If I gave you any thought I probably would.

One of the fine moments in 1940s film is no longer than a blink: Bogart, as he crosses the street from one bookstore to another, looks up at a sign.

Rick: Here's looking at you, kid.

My father used to take me to the movies on Saturdays. In 1940, when I was four years old, we encountered 'Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe.' I loved it. Especially the rocket ship, which I later realized had no airlock and no washroom. But they managed to get to Mongo with it.

I was very entertained by Betty Grable and Judy Garland.

Women were real box office stars in the '40s, more so than men. People loved to see women's films. I think it was better then, except for the studio system.

What's amazing about 'White Heat' is that, even for its time, it's very truthful in the way it deals with violence.

I think that we all fantasize about that teeny tiny time in the film industry when women ruled, back in the '40s.

I am a passionate devotee of the Howard Hawks' screwball comedies of the 1930s and the 1940s, where I think that the relations between men and women were at their civilized height in terms of banter and exchange of wit and equality.