1940 National Board of Review – Best Actor Winner
Escape
Conrad Veidt
1938: A young man arrives in Hitler’s Germany, frantically seeking information about his German mother, and finds she is pending execution at a concentration camp.
Our Town
William Holden
Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. People grow up, get married, live, and die. Milk and the newspaper get delivered every morning, and nobody locks…
Rebecca
George Sanders
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat’s wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife’s spectral presence.
The Baker’s Wife
Raimu
A small village rejoices at the arrival of a new baker. But when his young wife runs off with another man, he is unable to keep baking and the village is thrown into disarray.
The Fugitive
Ralph Richardson
A barber commits a petty theft, which leads to his becoming involved in blackmail and murder.
The Great Dictator
Charles Chaplin
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel’s regime.
The Long Voyage Home
Thomas Mitchell
In 1940, the motley crew of the British tramp steamer SS Glencairn prepares the ship for its perilous voyage from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England.
The Shop Around the Corner
James Stewart
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other’s anonymous pen pal.