Editing 1940s (section)

==Popular culture==
===Film===
{{Main|1940s in film}}
[[File:Orson Welles-Citizen Kane1.jpg|thumb|right|[[Orson Welles]] as Charles Foster Kane in ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941)]]
[[File:Casablanca, Trailer Screenshot.JPG|thumb|[[Humphrey Bogart]] and [[Ingrid Bergman]] as Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund in the trailer for ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' (1942)]]
* Oscar winners: ''[[Rebecca (1940 film)|Rebecca]]'' (1940), ''[[How Green Was My Valley (film)|How Green Was My Valley]]'' (1941), ''[[Mrs. Miniver]]'' (1942), ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' (1943), ''[[Going My Way]]'' (1944), ''[[The Lost Weekend (film)|The Lost Weekend]]'' (1945), ''[[The Best Years of Our Lives]]'' (1946), ''[[Gentleman's Agreement]]'' (1947), ''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'' (1948), ''[[All the King's Men (1949 film)|All the King's Men]]'' (1949).
* Some of Hollywood's most notable [[Blockbuster (entertainment)|blockbuster films]] of the 1940s include: ''[[The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)|The Maltese Falcon]]'' directed by [[John Huston]] (1941), ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' directed by [[Frank Capra]] (1946), ''[[Double Indemnity]]'' directed by [[Billy Wilder]] (1944), ''[[Meet Me in St. Louis]]'' directed by [[Vincente Minnelli]] (1944), ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' directed by [[Michael Curtiz]] (1942), ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' directed by [[Orson Welles]] (1941), ''[[The Great Dictator]]'' directed by [[Charlie Chaplin]] (1940), ''[[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|The Big Sleep]]'' directed by [[Howard Hawks]] (1946), ''[[The Lady Eve]]'' directed by [[Preston Sturges]] (1941), ''[[The Shop Around the Corner]]'' directed by [[Ernst Lubitsch]] (1940), ''[[White Heat]]'' directed by [[Raoul Walsh]] (1949), ''[[Yankee Doodle Dandy]]'' directed by [[Michael Curtiz]] (1942), and ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]], (1946). The [[Walt Disney Pictures|Walt Disney Studios]] released the animated feature films ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'' (1940), ''[[Dumbo]]'' (1941), ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'' (1940), and ''[[Bambi]]'' (1942).

Although the 1940s was a decade dominated by [[World War II]], important and noteworthy films about a wide variety of subjects were made during that era. Hollywood was instrumental in producing dozens of classic films during the 1940s, several of which were about the war and some are on most lists of all-time great films. [[European cinema]] survived although obviously curtailed during wartime and yet many films of high quality were made in the [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]], [[Cinema of France|France]], [[Cinema of Italy|Italy]], the [[Cinema of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] and elsewhere in Europe. The [[cinema of Japan]] also survived. [[Akira Kurosawa]] and other directors managed to produce significant films during the 1940s.

Polish filmmakers in Great Britain created anti-nazi color film Calling Mr. Smith (1943) about current nazi crimes in occupied Europe during the war and about lies of nazi propaganda.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/cAXbMp|title=Calling Mr Smith|website=Centre Pompidou|access-date=2021-02-13|archive-date=2021-02-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221202910/https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/cAXbMp|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Film Noir]], a film style that incorporated crime dramas with dark images, became largely prevalent during the decade. Films such as ''[[The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)|The Maltese Falcon]]'' and ''[[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|The Big Sleep]]'' are considered classics and helped launch the careers of legendary actors such as [[Humphrey Bogart]] and [[Ava Gardner]]. The genre has been widely copied since its initial inception.

In France during the war the tour de force ''[[Children of Paradise]]'' directed by [[Marcel Carné]] (1945), was shot in Nazi occupied Paris.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Dr-Ex/Les-Enfants-du-Paradis.html|title=Les Enfants du Paradis - Film (Movie) Plot and Review - Publications|website=www.filmreference.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eufs.org.uk/films/les_enfants_du_paradis.html |title=Les Enfants du Paradis |website=www.eufs.org.uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113153911/http://www.eufs.org.uk/films/les_enfants_du_paradis.html |archive-date=2009-01-13 }} Gio MacDonald, Edinburgh University Film Society program notes, 1994–95</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020106/REVIEWS08/201060301/1023|title=Quoted by Roger Ebert, ''Children of Paradise'', ''Chicago Sun-Times'', 6 January 2002 review of the Criterion DVD release|access-date=27 December 2021|archive-date=20 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920084900/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20020106%2FREVIEWS08%2F201060301%2F1023|url-status=dead}}</ref> Memorable films from post-war England include [[David Lean]]'s ''[[Great Expectations (1946 film)|Great Expectations]]'' ([[1946 in film|1946]]) and ''[[Oliver Twist (1948 film)|Oliver Twist]]'' ([[1948 in film|1948]]), Carol Reed's ''[[Odd Man Out]]'' ([[1947 in film|1947]]) and ''[[The Third Man]]'' ([[1949 in film|1949]]), and [[Powell and Pressburger]]'s ''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]'' ([[1946 in film|1946]]), ''[[Black Narcissus]]'' ([[1946 in film|1946]]) and ''[[The Red Shoes (1948 film)|The Red Shoes]]'' ([[1948 in film|1948]]), [[Laurence Olivier]]'s ''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'', the first non-American film to win the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]] and ''[[Kind Hearts and Coronets]]'' ([[1949 in film|1949]]) directed by [[Robert Hamer]]. [[Italian neorealism]] of the 1940s produced poignant movies made in post-war Italy. ''[[Roma, città aperta]]'' directed by [[Roberto Rossellini]] (1945), ''[[Sciuscià]]'' directed by [[Vittorio De Sica]] (1946), ''[[Paisà]]'' directed by Roberto Rossellini (1946), ''[[La terra trema]]'' directed by [[Luchino Visconti]] (1948), ''[[The Bicycle Thief]]'' directed by [[Vittorio De Sica]] (1948), and ''[[Bitter Rice]]'' directed by [[Giuseppe De Santis]] (1949), are some well-known examples.

In Japanese cinema, ''[[The 47 Ronin (1941 film)|The 47 Ronin]]'' is a 1941 black and white two-part [[Cinema of Japan|Japanese film]] directed by [[Kenji Mizoguchi]]. ''[[The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail]]'' (1945), and the post-war ''[[Drunken Angel]]'' (1948), and ''[[Stray Dog (film)|Stray Dog]]'' (1949), directed by [[Akira Kurosawa]] are considered important early works leading to his first masterpieces of the 1950s. ''Drunken Angel'' (1948), marked the beginning of the successful collaboration between Kurosawa and actor [[Toshiro Mifune]] that lasted until 1965.[[File:Frank Sinatra in Till the Clouds Roll By.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Frank Sinatra]] gained massive popularity during the decade, becoming one of the first [[teen idol]]s, and one of the pop artists who sold the most records in the 1940s]]
===Music===
{{expand section|date=July 2018}}
{{Main|1940s in music}}

* [[Bing Crosby]] was the bestselling pop artist of the 1940s. Crosby was the leading figure of the crooner sound as well as its most iconic, defining artist. By the 1940s, he was an entertainment superstar who mastered all of the major media formats of the day, movies, radio, and recorded music.[[File:Anibal Troilo 1971.png|thumb|[[Aníbal Troilo]], one of the most famous [[Bandoneon]] players in the Golden Age of Tango]]
* The most popular music style during the 1940s was [[swing music|swing]], which prevailed during World War II. In the later periods of the 1940s, less swing was prominent and crooners like [[Frank Sinatra]], along with genres such as bebop and the earliest traces of rock and roll, were the prevalent genre.
* [[Tango music|Tango]] remained popular worldwide and several of the most famous tangos were composed in this decade, such as ''[[Malena (song)|Malena]], [[:es:Garúa_(tango)|Garúa]], [[:es:Nada_(tango)|Nada]], [[:es:Naranjo_en_flor|Naranjo en flor]],'' and many others.

===Literature===
{{Main|List of years in literature|List of years in poetry}}
* ''[[For Whom the Bell Tolls]]'' by [[Ernest Hemingway]] in 1940.
* ''[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]'' by [[Albert Camus]] in 1942.
* ''[[The Stranger (Camus novel)|The Stranger]]'' by [[Albert Camus]] in 1942.
* ''[[The Little Prince]]'' by [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]] in 1943.
* ''[[Anti-Semite and Jew]]'' by [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] in 1943.
* ''[[The Fountainhead]]'' by [[Ayn Rand]] in 1943.
* ''[[Ficciones]]'' by [[Jorge Luis Borges]] in 1944.
* ''[[No Exit]]'' by [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] in 1944.
* ''[[Pippi Longstocking (book)|Pippi Longstocking]]'' by [[Astrid Lindgren]] in 1945.
* ''[[The Diary of a Young Girl|The Diary of Anne Frank]]'' by [[Anne Frank]] in 1947.
* ''[[Death of a Salesman]]'' by [[Arthur Miller]] in 1949.
* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' by [[George Orwell]] in 1949.
* ''[[The Glass Menagerie]]'' by [[Tennessee Williams]] in 1944.
* ''[[The Aleph and Other Stories|The Aleph]]'' by [[Jorge Luis Borges]] in 1949.

===Fashion===
[[File:Katharine Hepburn publicity photograph.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Katharine Hepburn]] {{Circa|1941}}, who popularized [[trousers]] for women]]
Because fashion items and fabrics were [[Rationing|rationed]] due to [[World War II]], fashion became more utilitarian. Women's fashion started including suits, which were feminized with straight knee-length skirts and accessories. There were challenges imposed by shortages in rayon, nylon, wool, leather, rubber, metal (for snaps, buckles, and embellishments), and even the amount of fabric that could be used in any one garment.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goles |first=Kelly |date=2023-01-19 |title=What Not to Wear: Clothing Rationing During World War II {{!}} In Custodia Legis |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/01/what-not-to-wear-clothing-rationing-during-world-war-ii/ |access-date=2025-04-06 |website=The Library of Congress}}</ref> After the fall of France in 1940, Hollywood drove fashion in the United States almost entirely, with the exception of a few trends coming from wartorn London in 1944 and 1945, as America's own rationing hit full force. The idea of function seemed to overtake fashion, if only for a few short months until the end of the war. Fabrics shifted dramatically as rationing and wartime shortages controlled import items such as silk and furs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Clothes Rationing Affected Fashion In The Second World War |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-clothes-rationing-affected-fashion-in-the-second-world-war |access-date=2025-04-06 |website=Imperial War Museums |language=en}}</ref> Floral prints dominated the early 1940s, with the mid-to-late 1940s also seeing what is sometimes referred to as "atomic prints" or geometric patterns and shapes. In response to the war effort, patriotic nautical themes and dark greens and khakis dominating the color palettes, as trousers and wedges slowly replaced the dresses and more traditional heels due to shortages in stockings and gasoline. The most common characteristics of this fashion were the straight skirt, pleats, front fullness, squared shoulders with v-necks or high necks, slim sleeves and the most favorited necklines were sailor, mandarin and scalloped.

<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.womeninwwii.com/fashion/1940sfashion.asp |title=1940's Fashion Trends |access-date=2011-03-01 |archive-date=2011-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718075216/http://www.womeninwwii.com/fashion/1940sfashion.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>
{{See also|1930–1945 in fashion|1945–1960 in fashion}}