The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)

While this depiction of Pasteur's life is over-simplified and fictionalized in parts, it still correctly paints him as a man too few of us credit today. I thought of him only as the man who taught us to boil stuff to kill bacteria--hence pasteurization. But he's also one of the founders of germ theory who develop vaccines and helped to get doctors to wash their hands.

A very strong film, showing one man willing to fight for the scientific truth no matter the cost to him professionally when the establishment refuses to believe him. Paul Muni won the Oscar for best actor for playing Pasteur. A year later he was nominated again for playing another famous Frenchman in the best picture winner The Life of Emile Zola.

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Four Daughters (1938)

Pretty solid. Essentially it boils down to a love triangle between two of the sisters and a family friend whom they both pine for. There's plenty of quick, witty dialogue that prevents the whole thing from feeling too dated. I laughed out loud in the first few minutes when their father, played by Claude Rains responds to his daughters' teasing by saying, "I'm going down to the hall of records to strike my name off of your birth certificates."

Three of the four titular daughters are played by the real life Lane sisters and there are two less heralded sequels - Four Wives and Four Mothers. The film is directed by Michael Curtiz who had an amazing year in 1938. He was nominated for directing both Four Daughters and Angels with Dirty Faces that year and wasn't nominated for his best known 1938 film - The Adventures of Robin Hood. Four years later he would go on to direct Casablanca.

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The Long Voyage Home (1940)

Nothing spectacular, but definitely a couple of poignant moments. There's no real through-plot, which makes sense when you consider the film is based off of four one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill. While John Wayne gets top billing, it's much more of an ensemble piece about men aboard a so-called tramp steamer. The movie doesn't clearly establish where this long voyage takes place to or from, but according to Wikipedia they're traveling from the West Indies to Baltimore to England. Ultimately, I suppose, that's not what matters. It's more about the men's lives and what's important to them as WWII is in its infancy.

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