The Top 50 Movies of the 1940s

Rank This Chart

Best  |  Worst
Detailed  |  List  |  Gallery
per page
The Top 50 Movies of the 1940s
Global
Ranking
Movie Title Release
Year
Director MPAA
Rating
Your
Ranking
26 Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz PG -
35 Double Indemnity 1944 Billy Wilder NR -
42 The Third Man 1949 Carol Reed NR -
44 Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles NR -
63 The Red Shoes 1948 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
73 Bicycle Thieves 1948 Vittorio De Sica NR -
79 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 John Huston NR -
87 Notorious 1946 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
110 The Philadelphia Story 1940 George Cukor NR -
111 A Matter of Life and Death 1946 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger PG -
117 Shadow of a Doubt 1943 Alfred Hitchcock PG -
122 His Girl Friday 1940 Howard Hawks NR -
125 Out of the Past 1947 Jacques Tourneur NR -
133 The Big Sleep 1946 Howard Hawks NR -
138 The Great Dictator 1940 Charles Chaplin G -
139 The Maltese Falcon 1941 John Huston NR -
147 Rope 1948 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
151 It's a Wonderful Life 1946 Frank Capra NR -
153 Brief Encounter 1945 David Lean NR -
158 Rebecca 1940 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
166 To Be or Not to Be 1942 Ernst Lubitsch NR -
168 Sullivan's Travels 1941 Preston Sturges NR -
171 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 William Wyler NR -
172 Laura 1944 Otto Preminger NR -
190 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
191 The Shop Around the Corner 1940 Ernst Lubitsch NR -
227 Black Narcissus 1947 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
235 Late Spring 1949 Yasujirô Ozu NR -
242 White Heat 1949 Raoul Walsh NR -
280 Arsenic and Old Lace 1944 Frank Capra NR -
292 Children of Paradise 1945 Marcel Carné NR -
322 The Lady Eve 1941 Preston Sturges NR -
328 Key Largo 1948 John Huston NR -
336 The Grapes of Wrath 1940 John Ford NR -
338 Red River 1948 Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson NR -
366 Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 Robert Hamer NR -
372 To Have and Have Not 1944 Howard Hawks NR -
379 The Ox-Bow Incident 1943 William A. Wellman NR -
381 Gaslight 1944 George Cukor NR -
393 Mildred Pierce 1945 Michael Curtiz NR -
406 The Lost Weekend 1945 Billy Wilder NR -
412 Stray Dog 1949 Akira Kurosawa NR -
423 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 Orson Welles PG -
445 Rome, Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini NR -
468 The Lady from Shanghai 1947 Orson Welles NR -
484 Beauty and the Beast 1946 Jean Cocteau NR -
502 My Darling Clementine 1946 John Ford NR -
544 Gilda 1946 Charles Vidor NR -
546 Ball of Fire 1941 Howard Hawks NR -
605 The Killers 1946 Robert Siodmak NR -

Build A Custom Chart

Here are a few examples of ways
you can filter the charts: