This has been an underwhelming year thus far for new films and TV programming with no truly outstanding home video releases to recommend other than the occasional upgrade of a previously released film.

The fall film festivals have unearthed several films worth anticipating in theatres later this year such as Hamnet and Bugonia and TV has the annual Emmy awards next Sunday to look forward to, but otherwise the best thing we can do right now for entertainment is to get out our old DVDs and Blu-rays to rewatch.

To determine what to watch, I recommend concentrating on a particular era. For myself, I have decided to focus on the period from 1941-1947 which began with the world at war and ended with it slowly climbing back to normal.

My favorite films of the war years and its immediate aftermath include such home and hearth classics as How Green Was My Valley, Mrs. Miniver, The More the Merrier, The Human Comedy, Meet Me in St. Louis, Since You Went Away, The White Cliffs of Dover,To Each His Own, The Green Years, and The Yearling.

1941’s How Green Was My Valley on Blu-ray from 20th Century-Fox, introduced 12-year-old Roddy McDowall as the youngest son of a Welsh coal-mining family at the turn of the 20th Century. Featuring Donald Crisp as the family patriarch, Sara Allgood as its matriarch, John Loder and Patric Knowles among Roddy’s older brothers, Maureen O’Hara as his sister, and Anna Lee as his oldest brother’s widow, with Walter Pidgeon as the local minister in love with O’Hara. It was timeless then, and timeless now. One of legendary director John Ford’s greatest films, it was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 5 including Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor (Crisp).

1942’s Mrs. Miniver on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, follows a British family in the early days of World War II. Featuring Greer Garson in the titular role of a village wife and mother, Walter Pidgeon as her husband, Richard Ney, Christopher Severn, and Clare Sanders as her children, Henry Travers as the local train station attendant, Dame May Whitty as the town matriarch, and Teresa Wright as Whitty’s daughter who falls in love with Garson’s eldest son, the film was MGM’s highly successful attempt at getting the American public behind the war in Europe. Nominated for 12 Oscars, it won 6 including Best Picture, Director (William Wyler), Actress, and Supporting Actress (Wright).

1943’s The More the Merrier on DVD from Columbia, is a rare comedy gem from the era, focusing on the housing shortage in Washington, D.C. during the war. Jean Arthur stars as a working girl who decides to do her part to alleviate the shortage by renting a room to an elderly gentleman (Charles Coburn) who in turn rents half of his room to a young solder (Joel McCrea). Hilarity and romance follow in equal measure. Nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Director (George Stevens), Actress (Arthur), Supporting Actor (Coburn), and two writing awards, it won for Coburn’s hilarious portrayal of the elderly matchmaker.

1943’s The Human Comedy on DVD from Warner Archive, may have comedy in its title but it is really a dramatic film about the human condition. Mickey Rooney stars a teenage telegraph operator during the war with Frank Morgan as fellow telegrapher and mentor, James Craig as his boss, Marsha Hunt as Craig’s girlfriend, and Fay Bainter, Ray Collins, Van Johnson, Donna Reed, and Jackie “Butch” Jenkins as Rooney’s family members. John Craven is a standout in the huge supporting cast as Johnson’s army buddy. Nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture, Director (Clarence Brown) and Actor (Rooney), it won for William Saroyan’s original story.

1944’s Meet Me in St. Louis on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, takes place at the turn of the 20th Century as St. Louis, Missouri looks forward to the 1903 World’s War coming to their city. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it was only his second film, the one on which he met future wife Judy Garland. Co-starring Margaret O’Brien, Joan Carroll and Lucille Bremer as Garland’s sisters, Henry Daniells as her brother, Mary Astor and Leon Ames as their parents, Harry Davenport as her grandfather, Marjorie Main as the cook, and Tom Drake as the boy next door, it was nominated for four Oscars while O’Brien won an honorary juvenile Oscar for this and other 1944 films.

1944’s Since You Went Away on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, is about the Homefront during the war with a stellar cast headed by Claudette Colbert as the wife who waits for news of her husband with daughters Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple, Joseph Cotton as her husband’s best friend, Monty Woolley as a boarder, Robert Walker as Woolley’s grandson and Jones’ beau, Guy Madiosn as a sailor, Harrie McDaniel as Colbert’s maid, Agnes Moroehad, Lionel Barrymore, Alla Zamimova, and many others. Directed by John Cromwell, the film was nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor (Woolley) and Supporting Actress (Jones). It won for Max Steiner’s score.

1944’s The White Cliffs of Dover on DVD from Warner Archive, is the tearjerker of tearjerkers, a sensitive tale of an American nurse married to a Brit who loses her husband (Alan Baxter) in World War I and her son (Peter Lawford) who dies in her arms in World War II. Roddy McDowall is her son growing up, Gladys Cooper her mother-in-law, Dame May Whitty her son’s nanny, Elizabeth Taylor her son’s girlfriend as a child, June Lockhart the same girl grown up, Frank Morgan as her father, C. Aubrey Smith, Van Johnson, and many others. A huge box-office success, it only received one Oscar nomination for George Folsey’s black-and-white cinematography.

1946’s To Each His Own currently unavailable from any source, is another glorious tearjerker, directed by Mitchell Leisen starring Olivia de Havilland in a much deserved Oscar winning performance as a middle-aged cosmetics tycoon who tells her life story to her shelter captain (Roland Culver), a British Lord, during the London blitz. Her World War I lover (John Lund) perished during the war leaving her pregnant. To avoid scandal, she gave away her baby to a friend but follows her son (also played by John Lund) as he grows up and is about to visit her not knowing she is his mother. The film’s final scene may require a box of tissues to get through but is well worth it.

1946’s The Green Years on DVD from Warner Archive, is another fine family saga about an Irish-Scottish boy brought up Catholic in Ireland but sent to live with his dour Protestant grandparents in Scotland after the death of his parents. Directed by Victor Saville, it is beautifully acted by Dean Stockwell as the boy, Charles Coburn as his devil-may-care great-grandfather (father of his grandmother Selena Royle), Gladys Cooper as his reserved great-grandmother (mother of stingy grandfather Hume Cronyn), and Jessica Tandy as his aunt (Cronyn’s daughter). Tom Drake plays Stockwell’s character as a young man. Oscar nominations went to Coburn and the film’s black-and-white cinematography.

1947’s The Yearling on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, directed by Clarence Brown from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ bestseller, is beautifully filmed with sterling performances by Gregory Peck as Pa, Jane Wyman as Ma, and Claude Jarman, Jr. as the boy with the pet baby deer. Peck and Jarman are easy to take but Wyman’s initially cold mother takes a while to warm up to even though both she and Peck were Oscar nominated for their performances. Jarman won a well-deserved honorary juvenile Oscar. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Director, and several other awards as well, winning for color cinematography and art direction.

Happy viewing.