Uh, Mike, luv ya guy (in a very manly, heterosexual sense), but Ken's absolutely right on this. The US had broken both the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) and Japanese diplomatic codes in 1940. FDR knew what it would take to get Japan to attack (he had an 8-point plan drawn up) AND he knew the attack on Pearl was coming. FDR wanted us to get us into Europe's war, and he provoked Japan into attacking us to justify it. Now, let me say that I think we would have had a war with Japan at some point regardless (our interests in the Pacific would have come into conflict), BUT it was criminal for FDR to sacrifice 3000 American lives to get what he couldn't get in Congress.

I don't blame FDR completely for this (his greatest blunder was creating our welfare state, for which we still pay a horrendous price), because, like Churchill, his government was infiltrated with Soviet moles who influenced our foreign policy. Also, if that idiot Hitler hadn't declared war on us, maybe we would have stayed out of the European conflict and given Hitler a better chance to beat the damned commies. We never should have sent those Godless commies any assistance against the Germans.

Yeah, it would have been an inspiring spectacle to watch the Nazis and the Godless commies bleed each other dry, but alas, the old saw holds true: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

William Powell feigning amnesia in The Thin Man. He's been "trick" shooting ornaments on the Christmas tree with his new BB pistol and an errant shot has just shattered the window. He lies back, pretends he's just waking up, and says: "Where am I?"

Oops! That was 1934, not the 1940's...

I think it's the final scene in "Mighty Joe Young" where the big ape has sacrificed himself to save .... someone (probably the girl, can't remember) and we see his big finger jutting from the sea, wrapped in a ragged bandage, waving its final goodbye. Oh do I cry!

I love the Halloween scene from "Meet Me in St. Louis" with the wonderful little Margaret O'Brien.

And is it in "Key Largo" that Bacall teaches Bogie how to whistle?

Edited to add: Oops. Checked with my screenwriter friend. That whistle quote is from "To Have and Have Not" (1944).

And is it in "Key Largo" that Bacall teaches Bogie how to whistle?

I think it's "To Have and Have Not", or maybe "The Big Sleep". I've seen both and can't recall which.

So many of my favorite '40s scenes were in Bogie movies. What was it that Sidney Greenstreet said in The Maltese Falcon? "I love to talk to a man who loves to talk" or something. I remember it was funny. And in the same movie Bogie said something about women and "A smack in the mouth or a slug from a .45". In Casablanca Louis Renault (Claude Rains) tells Rick "You shouldn't throw away beautiful women like that; some day they might be scarce".

My favorite '40s actors were Bogie, Tyrone Powers, Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Basil Rathbone. My favorite movies were anything with Bogie, swashbucklers, "Beau Geste", The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series.