This was supposed to be a compendium of not-to-be-missed films from the '30s, '40s, and maybe '50s, but truth be told, excepting maybe for King Kong and Snow White, the 1930s really don't deserve all that much ink. Along with some over-the-top Ziegfeld-y musicals and rudimentary westerns, the Depression-era decade gave us a lot of forgettable flicks designed to arouse social consciousness. Most of them sank like a stone. The '40s were quite another story.