1939: Film's finest year

Young Mr. Lincoln
Henry Fonda

Fonda played the youthful future president as a promising frontier lawyer faced with a big case. ''It took them three hours just to put the makeup on me,'' said Fonda of his screen test for the role. ''And subsequently, they call me and I come in and I see it, and this guy on the screen — right away — it was Lincoln.''

Destry Rides Again
Marlene Dietrich

In this classic Western, Dietrich starred as a lawless saloon gal opposite Jimmy Stewart's noble lawman Destry. ''I believe it was Marlene who made Destry Rides Again a hit,'' said Stewart. ''After a week's work on the picture, I fell in love with her. She was beautiful, friendly, enchanting, and as expert at movie acting as anyone I'd ever known.''

The Wizard of Oz
Judy Garland, Toto & Co.

With fantastical sets like Munchkinland, Oz must have been an absolute blast to film. Not so, revealed Jack Haley, who played the Tin Man. ''People question me, say, 'It must have been fun making that picture,''' he said. ''Fun? Like hell it was fun. It was a lot of hard work. It was not fun at all. There was nothing funny about it.''

Gunga Din
Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Wrote Fairbanks in his memoir The Salad Days about the action-adventure film, ''When I asked Cary which part he intended to play, he answered, 'Whichever one you don't want! I want us to be together in this so badly — I think the two of us, plus old McLaglen as our top sergeant, MacChesney, will make this picture more than just another big special.'''

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Director Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart

For Capra, Stewart was the perfect man to portray the title character in the do-good political drama. ''I knew he would make a hell of a Mr. Smith,'' said Capra. ''He looked like the country kid, the idealist. It was very close to him. I think there's no doubt that this picture shaped the public image of him, of the real Jimmy Stewart.''

Dark Victory
Bette Davis and George Brent

Davis played an heiress afflicted with a brain tumor, an emotionally taxing role that made filming difficult for the legendary actress. ''Dark Victory really affected me,'' said Davis. ''I was personally so upset about being so upset that after the first week, I went to Hal Wallis [the film's producer] and asked if I could give up the part. Hal said to me, 'Stay upset.'''

Ninotchka
Greta Garbo and cinematographer William Daniels

''She was a provocative girl,'' said Melvyn Douglas about Garbo, his costar in the romantic comedy. ''I found working with her an extraordinary experience. She wasn't a trained actress — and she was aware of that herself — but she had extraordinary intuitions, especially in the realm of erotic experience. Her acting made you feel that here was a woman who knew all there was to know about all aspects of love.''