Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Below, events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison; May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. An Academy Award-winner, Wayne was among the top box office draws for three decades, and was named the all-time top money-making star. An enduring American icon, he epitomized rugged masculinity and is famous for his demeanor, including his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height.
Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa but his family relocated to the greater Los Angeles area when he was four years old. He found work at local film studios when he lost his football scholarship to USC as a result of a bodysurfing accident. Initially working for the Fox Film Corporation, he mostly appeared in small bit parts. His acting breakthrough came in 1939 with John Ford's Stagecoach, making him an instant star. Wayne would go on to star in 142 pictures, primarily typecast in Western films.
Among his best known films are The Quiet Man (1952), which follows him as an Irish-American boxer and his love affair with a fiery spinster played by Maureen O'Hara; The Searchers (1956), in which he plays a Civil War veteran who seeks out his abducted niece; Rio Bravo (1959), playing a Sheriff with Dean Martin; True Grit (1969), playing a humorous U.S. Marshal who sets out to avenge a man's death in the role that won Wayne an Academy Award; and The Shootist (1976), his final screen performance in which he plays an aging gunslinger battling cancer.
Julien Duvivier (8 October 1896, Lille – 29 October 1967, Paris) was a French film director. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930-1960. Amongst his most original films, chiefly notable are La Bandera, Pépé le Moko, Panique, Voici le temps des assassins and Marianne de ma jeunesse.
It was as an actor, in 1916 at the Théâtre de l'Odéon under the direction of Andre Antoine, that Duvivier's career began. In 1918 he moved on to Gaumont, as a writer and assistant of, amongst others, André Antoine, Louis Feuillade and Marcel L'Herbier. In 1919 he directed his first film. In the 1920s several of his films had a religious concern; - Credo ou la tragédie de Lourdes, L'abbé Constantin and La Vie miraculeuse de Thérèse Martin - a film about the Carmelite saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. On 19 April 1955, he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.
Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or "MacGuffins" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the extremely complex psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon. Hitchocks reputation as a filmmaker is offset by claims that he engaged in obsessive and controlling behaviour towards many of his leading ladies, and that in some cases this extended to physical abuse and sexual harrassment.
Sir John Mills CBE (22 February 1908 – 23 April 2005), born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.
Mills was born at the Watts Naval School in North Elmham, Norfolk, England, and grew up in Belton, where his father was the headmaster of the village school and in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where he lived in a modest house in Ham's Road. He was educated at Norwich High School for Boys, where it is said that his initials can still be seen carved into the brickwork on the side of the building in Upper St. Giles Street. He made his acting debut on the stage of the Sir John Leman School in Beccles in a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream when he played the part of Puck.[citation needed] Upon leaving school he worked as a clerk at a corn merchants in Ipswich.
Mills took an early interest in acting, making his professional debut at the London Hippodrome in The Five O'Clock Girl in 1929. He also starred in the Noël Coward revue Words and Music. He made his film debut in The Midshipmaid (1932), and appeared as Colley in the 1939 film version of Goodbye, Mr Chips, opposite Robert Donat.
THE EXECUTION ENDS, ANOTHER ONE LINES UP
WE WAIT IN SILENCE ON THE MISTED HILLS
WE RAISE OUR BARRELS, AND THE STORY HERE BEGINS
THEY TOOK OUR MEN, BUT LET’S JUST SEE WHO WINS
IT WAS A NIGHT WHICH SEEMED TO LAST FOREVERMORE
WITH SPLINTERED BONES AND BLEEDINGS WE ARE APPROACHED
OUR RANGE
A BULLET WITH MY NAME THEN SHOT ME TO THE GROUND
I SAW TWO FEET IN FRONT OF ME, RED CROSS ON HIS ARM
MERCENARY:
“UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE NOW, STAND UP
RAISE YOUR HEAD, CHARGE YOUR WEAPON INTO WAR
NEVER GIVE IN TO THE ENEMY
KEEP YOUR MIND SET ON YOUR SANITY
UNLESS YOU WANT A SHALLOW GRAVE, FIND YOU STRENGTH
PICK UP YOUR BULLETS. ON YOUR FEET. BETTER RUN
WE NEVER GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT, NEVER WILL
BE A SOLDIER. THAT’S AN ORDER, NOW GO!”
WITH AMMO IN OUR GUNS AND GRENADE IN OUR HANDS
WE LIT THE NIGHT WITH FLAMES SO HIGH. WE FOUGHT OUR WAY
COMBINING STRATEGY WITH A HUNGER FOR THE KILL
WE MADE IT THROUGH THE BARRIERS. FIRE IN OUR WILL
PILES OF BODIES AS FAR AS THE EYE COULD SEE
A SMELL OF DEATH COMBINES WITH BURNING GASOLINE
IT IS A VISION I SHALL BEAR INTO MY GRAVE
I’D RATHER TAKE A STAB OR TWO AND HAVE THEM SAVED
WITH ALL THE HATRED IN THIS WORLD, WE SHALL AVENGE
THE TWISTED BODIES WHO CANNOT SEEK THEIR REVENGE
WE TRIED TO SAVE THEM, (BUT) NOW THE PLAN IS LAID TO
WASTE
GOT TO FIND THEM, HUNT THEM DOWN
WE CAUGHT THEM ONE BY ONE. NO MERCY COULD PROTECT
THE AIM WAS KILL AND KILL AGAIN TILL NOTHING LEFT
FOR EVERY DROP OF BLOOD THAT FELL UNTO THE EARTH
SHALL JUSTIFY OUR HISTORY FROM HERE INTO ETERNITY
STILL TO THIS DAY I CAN STILL HEAR THEM SCREAM
EVERY NIGHT THEY COME TO ME TO SET THEM FREE
THE STENCH OF BURNING FLESH IN EVERY BREATH I TAKE
HOW I WISH I COULD GO BACK AGAIN…
PILES OF BODIES AS FAR AS THE EYE COULD SEE
A SMELL OF DEATH COMBINES WITH BURNING GASOLINE
IT IS A VISION I SHALL BEAR INTO MY GRAVE
I’D RATHER TAKE A STAB OR TWO AND HAVE THEM SAVED
WITH ALL THE HATRED IN THIS WORLD, WE SHALL AVENGE
THE TWISTED BODIES WHO CANNOT SEEK THEIR REVENGE
WE TRIED TO SAVE THEM, (BUT) NOW THE PLAN IS LAID TO
WASTE
It was night, when the ship pulled ashoreTo collect, the
comrades of war
When a man, my old man's old man
Spied a dame, that lit up his heart with a bang
And that night, that night
That moon, shone about as bright as it could shine
Those stars, climbed about as high as they could climb
They knew, something strange was going on
When the man, who was Stan,
saw the dame, by the name, of Joan
But her face, was soon lost in the crowd
Morning came, and that chance was drowned
At his post, he moped then leapt when he saw
She'd be there, to share the whole of the war
And that night, that night
That moon, shone about as bright as it could shine
Those stars, climbed about as high as they could climb
They knew, something strange was going on
When the man, who was Stan,
met the dame, by the name, of Joan
In a frame, on a shelf, in the lounge
They look old, black and white, buttoned down
You forget, that they lived, and they ripped, and they