The Top Ten Films of 1945
At the end of the year, as we do every year, we’ll be counting down the Top Ten Films of 2015 according to Flickchart’s global rankings. In the months leading up to that, we’re going to be taking a look back and seeing what Flickchart users think are the best movies of ten, twenty, thirty years ago and so on.
Previously we’ve looked at 2005 and 1975, but don’t worry! We’ll get back to all the years in between.
May of 1945 saw the end of World War II, the 6-year worldwide conflict that marks the bloody midpoint of the 20th century in terms of cultural and historical impact, if not quite in terms of actual years. World War I may have been the “Great War” and pulled warfare into the modern age, but WWII solidified and perfected the killing technology developed in WWI and consumed some 50 to 85 million lives in battles and skirmishes throughout Europe, Northern Africa, Asia, and beyond, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. Details of the Holocaust were beginning to become public knowledge, though the far-reaching implications of Nazi war crimes would go unanswered for years and even decades. It’s hard to overestimate the impact of the war on every aspect of life, in almost every developed country in the world, and just because it ended in 1945 certainly didn’t mean everything went back to “normal.”
The war had made its mark on the film industry already, from the war effort expended by Hollywood celebrities to actors and directors joining the armed forces directly, and in the parallel trends of escapist films (often in the form of Technicolor musicals and comedies) and the dark existentialism of film noir. The top-grossing films of the year show both these tendencies, with the heartwarming The Bells of St. Mary’s topping the charts (a sequel to 1944’s Oscar winner Going My Way), followed closely by three noirs (Spellbound, Leave Her to Heaven, and Mildred Pierce, then a bright and happy musical, Anchors Aweigh. A realistic look at alcoholism, The Lost Weekend, would ultimately walk off with most of the major Oscars for the year.
As you will see, the darker films have fared better over the years, and Flickchart’s Top Ten includes noir, doomed romance, horror, and in the pair of European films included, films directly and indirectly about the devastation of war. The difficulty of returning home from war would be felt soon, but in this set of films, the angst of a world out of balance and a crisis of traditional values is already visible.
10. Detour
Film noir is a notoriously slippery term – no one can decide whether film noir is a genre, style, aesthetic, etc, but if there is such a thing as a quintessential noir, Detour might be it. It’s a B movie, made on the shoestring budget of Poverty Row, by a director (Edgar G. Ulmer) who came out of Germany’s UFA steeped in 1920s Expressionism, and its plot and style read like a checklist of noir elements. Desperate protagonist fated for a bad end through little fault of his own? Check. Femme fatale that leads him astray from his journey to reunite with his girlfriend into a life of unintended crime? Check. A sense of inevitable doom no matter how much he tries to escape? Check. A fatalistic voiceover that tells his story in flashback? Check. There’s even the requisite musical bit, as our protagonist is a musician struggling in New York who heads across country to LA where his girlfriend has made a success of herself as a singer. The title itself is a perfect description of the common noir plot – a character is trying to play straight, achieve the American dream, but through desperate circumstance or a femme fatale, veers off course, into crime and defeat. This makes it sound depressing, but noir is nothing if not reliably entertaining, even as we watch people self-destruct. Detour also doesn’t overstay its welcome, weaving its bitter tale in a mere 67 minutes. If you want an hour-long crash course in the elements of a noir story, watch Detour. – Jandy Hardesty
Currently ranked #1359
Ranked 6542 times by 418 users
Wins 47% of its matchups
9. I Know Where I’m Going!
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (aka The Archers) are best known for their Technicolor masterpieces Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes – in fact, I was gratified to see this quiet little romance make the 1945 list, because it generally seems rather forgotten to me, and undeservedly so, because it’s really quite charming. Wendy Hiller is a confident and brash young woman on her way to the Scottish Hebrides to marry her fiancé, a wealthy industrialist. Along the way a massive storm maroons her on one of the intermediate islands along with another man. You can see where this is going…and despite Hiller’s oft-repeated refrain of “I know where I’m going!”, it’s clear that sometimes life takes us a different path than we’d intended. The romance is muted and yet also passionate, as befits the wild Scottish moors. – Jandy Hardesty
Currently ranked #1373
Ranked 4663 times by 284 users
Wins 48% of its matchups
8. Dead of Night
Anthology horror films have a long history, and though Dead of Night may not be the first one, it certainly provides a template for many to come. A man wakes up with a weird feeling of deja vu, but shakes it off and heads to an engagement at a country house. When he arrives, things quickly get subtly but unshakably uncanny, and to break the tension, each guest tells a story of some supernatural phenomenon they’ve experienced or heard about. These stories vary wildly from comic to terrifying (and each was directed by a different director). The most memorable section features Michael Redgrave and his amoral ventriloquist’s dummy (I’m pretty sure my deep distrust of ventriloquist’s dummies stems from seeing this too young), but several of the others are quite good as well. The real kicker, though, is the resolution of the frame story, which first goes surreal and nightmarish, and then ends with a chill. It’s perfect for this type of film, since your mileage may vary on each individual section, but the film leaves you on a terrifically unsettling note. – Jandy Hardesty
Currently ranked #1268
Ranked 5117 times by 380 users
Wins 46% of its matchups
7. Scarlet Street
In 1944, director Fritz Lang teamed up with Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea to make a quiet but memorable and romantic noir called The Woman in the Window. It turned out so well that they decided to do it again in 1945 with Scarlet Street, and they actually improved on their first collaboration. Robinson was an amazingly versatile actor (he was far more than the gangster roles he’s remembered for today), and here he plays a middle-aged amateur painter lured away from his loveless marriage and routine job by the lovely Bennett. The film works so well because Robinson is so truly empathetic and tragic a character, whose hopes and dreams are dashed just when he starts to believe they’re coming true. For whatever reason, Scarlet Street isn’t as well-known a noir as films like Double Indemnity or Out of the Past, but it absolutely deserves to be. Its high ranking on Flickchart is heartening, though its low number of users is not. – Jandy Hardesty
Currently ranked #1213
Ranked 5502 times by 316 users
Wins 51% of its matchups
6. Rome, Open City
Though Italy had a healthy film industry in the silent era and into the 1930s, there was virtually no film industry at all during WWII, thanks to wartime restrictions, uncertainty, and physical devastation. As the war neared its end, Roberto Rossellini made Rome, Open City, about that very devastation, and the fear and trauma undergone by the people of Rome during the war, as well as the resistance they put up. The film’s production woes and eventual influence on film history has rather overshadowed the film itself – with raw film stock very difficult to obtain, Rossellini eventually finished the film using discarded stock from the US Signal Corps, which might be short pieces or fogged or scratched. He also used non-actors in most of the roles to maintain realism – the sense of visceral experience the film ultimately conveyed led to it being considered a leading film in the burgeoning Neo-realist movement. – Jandy Hardesty
Currently ranked #729
Ranked 5946 times by 345 users
Wins 56% of its matchups
5. Mildred Pierce
Adapted from the novel by James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce elevates a psychological melodrama into a stylish female-centric film noir. The plot was simplified from the book, and the narrative was restructured – the film begins near the end, and then reveals most of the story in flashback sequences. Directed by Michael Curtiz (who had an amazing run from The Adventures of Robin Hood through Casablanca) the film has great cinematography and uses German Expressionistic style to transform sunny coastal California into a suitably dark and gloomy Film Noir setting. The entire cast delivers wonderful performances, but the centerpiece is the Oscar-winning title role by Joan Crawford (who was not the first, second, or even third choice of the director). Her screen test won her the part – which she plays with nuance, complexity, and emotion. There is plenty of drama as a central question is explored throughout the film: “How much will a mother sacrifice for her child?” – Ben Shoemaker
Currently ranked #556
Ranked 11950 times by 823 users
Wins 48% of its matchups
4. Spellbound
Alfred Hitchcock is so popular among Flickchart users that it’s almost a given his films will be in the Top Ten. Spellbound is an interesting case because it was basically a contract fulfillment film for Hitchcock’s producer David O. Selznick. Hitchcock tended to follow a “one for the studio, one for me” policy, and Spellbound was the “one for the studio.” Hence, this film about a man (Gregory Peck) who takes over a asylum but turns out to have amnesia and repressed memories and the psychologist (Ingrid Bergman) who figures out the truth shows the signs of Selznick’s interference, but it also has a lot of great Hitchcockian touches, like the Salvador Dali-designed dream sequence. Selznick reportedly didn’t like the dream sequence at all and cut it drastically, but today it remains the one part of the film that most people remember. Hitchcock and Bergman enjoyed a close working relationship as well, one that would do well by them on their immediate follow-up Notorious – Hitchcock’s “one for me.” Spellbound isn’t top-tier Hitchcock, but it’s amazing what solid films he made even when he didn’t really care about them. – Jandy Hardesty
Currently ranked #463
Ranked 25088 times by 1819 users
Wins 44% of its matchups
3. The Lost Weekend
In a storied filmography such as Billy Wilder‘s, some films are bound to be overlooked when discussion arises of his best films. All too often, The Lost Weekend falls into this category. It shouldn’t. The film became notable back in the 40’s for being the first film to seriously address the effects of alcoholism. It tackles the issue in a stark and uncompromising way showing every detail of main character, Don Birnams’, descent. Ray Milland delivers a wonderful performance capturing the pain and betrayal of everyone he loves with a saddening realism. Despite the numerous films that have been made since then on the subject, The Lost Weekend remains as one the best films on the subject thanks to Charles Brackett’s and Wilder’s simple but developed script. Wilder’s direction helps draw you into the character despite what some have deemed a simplistic handling of the material. Regardless of whether you think it has aged well, The Lost Weekend is a wonderfully constructed and made film that is worth a viewing by any fan of Wilder or anyone interested in seeing the best pre-Requiem for a Dream films on the subject. – Connor Adamson
Currently ranked #390
Ranked 20174 times by 1218 users
Wins 46% of its matchups
2. Children of Paradise
Children of Paradise has been called the greatest French film ever made and considering its incredibly difficult production and it actually living up to the bombastic title “the French answer to Gone With the Wind,” it’s hard to argue with that. Children of Paradise was often filmed in secret in Nazi-occupied France. Often in the production, freedom fighters would be secretly working alongside pro-Nazi collaborators in order to finish the film. When the Nazis enforced that no film could be made exceeding 90 minutes, director Michael Carné made two films that he knew would be put together once the war was ended. It’s even said that every day, there is a screening of Children of Paradise in Paris. Even if Carné didn’t have this difficult production worthy of a film itself, Children of Paradise is still a fantastic story about a courtesan and the four men who love her. Carné fought to create an epic story of love, deception and intrigue in one of the most terrifying situations imaginable. Yet long after the Nazis left, his wonderful film lives on seventy years later to still leave audiences in awe every day at some Parisian theatre. – Ross Bonaime
Currently ranked #373
Ranked 8241 times by 393 users
Wins 62% of its matchups
1. Brief Encounter
David Lean’s film directorial career began with Noël Coward; the two co-directed In Which We Serve (written for the screen by Coward), after which Lean filmed three consecutive adaptation of his mentor’s plays. Brief Encounter, the last of the three, explores one of the grayest areas of morality: the temptation of infidelity. Celia Johnson’s Laura is married to Cyril Raymond’s Fred. Fred is a decent, warm, and devoted husband…but he’s also rather boring. When Laura encounters Trevor Howard’s Alec, though, sparks fly. They create a series of pretexts to see one another, stealing away during the daytime to enjoy one another’s company, the tension escalating with each rendezvous. Voice overs in film are often superfluous, but Laura’s confessional narration is the element that makes Brief Encounter more than just another morality tale. It is instead a nuanced contemplation that refrains from passing judgment on its characters on behalf of the viewer, allowing them to confront that themselves. – Travis McClain
Currently ranked #209
Ranked 16991 times by 821 users
Wins 58% of its matchups
Blogger’s Picks
The above list is Flickchart’s Global Top 10 for 1945, calculated based on the rankings of all users. We wanted to showcase some of our own personal favorites, so each of us picked a favorite film of 1945 NOT included in the Global Top 10.
Jandy Hardesty – The Clock
Judy Garland is, of course, best known as a singer, from her early days as the “little girl with the great big voice” all the way to her triumphant concert tour culminating at Carnegie Hall. She was also perfectly capable of acting without singing, though she did it rarely. The Clock is one of those rare times, and it’s a wonderfully charming film that deserves to be far better known that it is. Robert Walker is a young soldier on a 48-hour leave who meets Garland and ends up spending much of his leave with her. It’s a quiet but adorable little whirlwind romance that somehow manages to be believable, thanks to Garland and Walker’s sincerity. The film is directed by Vincente Minnelli, who would marry Garland a month after its release.
Currently ranked #5474
Ranked 1116 times by 54 users
Wins 55% of its matchups
Ben Shoemaker – And Then There Were None
This film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1939 mystery novel follows quite closely to story of the stage version from 1943. The story was eventually adapted three more times (each titled “Ten Little Indians”) but this is the best of the bunch. Ten strangers find themselves on an island at the request of an unknown host. It becomes clear that each guest has a questionable past, but as they are murdered one-by-one, in the pattern of a nursery rhyme, the remaining guests struggle to identify the killer. Directed with a light touch and well acted by a great ensemble cast. Classic mystery fans will enjoy this macabre (and at times amusing) tale that keeps you guessing right up until the end.
Currently ranked #1541
Ranked 5740 times by 317 users
Wins 55% of its matchups
Ross Bonaime – Anchors Aweigh
Most of the time when I watch an older musical, all I ask for is to be charmed. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers together usually do the trick, yet in between 1939 and 1949, this duo split ways to create lesser solo films. Gene Kelly came to pick up the slack in 1945 – years before his more famous An American in Paris and Singin’ in the Rain – with the absolutely charming Anchors Aweigh. Kelly and Frank Sinatra are wonderful together as two Navy sailors on leave for four days in Hollywood, just trying to spent time with the women they are interested in. Anchors Aweigh is incredibly simple, yet endlessly enjoyable, giving us such wonderful scenes as Kelly dancing along with the animated Jerry the mouse. Anchors Aweigh is a delightfully fun film that fills the hole left by Astaire and Rogers years before.
Currently ranked #2185
Ranked 5201 times by 403 users
Wins 38% of its matchups
David Conrad – A Walk in the Sun
A Walk in the Sun came out in December 1945, months after the war was won. But the soldiers of Sergeant Tyne’s (Dana Andrews, Laura) platoon don’t think the war will ever end. One is sure that they’ll all be fighting in Tibet in 1958. Another thinks that “in five years the whole world will be eating C-rations,” the Army food that tastes like it comes out of the sewer. The only real optimist in the group is Rivera (Richard Conte, The Godfather), the machine gun operator. He expects he’ll get back to civilian life by, oh, say 1983 at the latest. In short, this group of men invading southern Italy is tired. They walk, they wait, they fight, they walk again: a cycle they’ve learned is endless. Most of them cope by talking, not so much with each other but at each other. Even their dialogue is cyclical. It kicks off with a dry observation like “It’s cold,” then spins into riffs on the number of countries in the world or whether trains were invented for the benefit of traveling salesmen, and finally comes back around to the immediate fact of the cold. Some of these vignettes are dramatically overscripted, but their cumulative effect feels real enough. Army life, says A Walk in the Sun, is grudging camaraderie born of monotony. In addition to its strong cast, the movie is notable for featuring a subplot about PTSD in which a character observes “you don’t have to be bleeding to be wounded.”
Currently ranked #9457
Ranked 473 times by 35 users
Wins 48% of its matchups
Hannah Keefer – Christmas in Connecticut
While most Christmas movies rely on a willingness to indulge in some holiday spirit, this flick is just as good as a standalone romantic comedy. Barbara Stanwyck plays successful food writer Elizabeth Lane, whose articles center around her life as a Connecticut housewife and are full of domestic tips and elaborate recipes. In reality, she lives alone in a New York City apartment and can’t even boil an egg. When her boss decides to invite himself and a celebrated war hero to her fictional farm for Christmas, she must scramble to pull together a farm, a husband, a baby, and some cooking skills long enough to convince them she’s the real deal. Stanwyck is hilarious in this (as is the entire supporting cast), the romance is charming, and the lengths everyone has to go to keep up the charade are delightfully farcical. Well worth a watch, whether it’s December or June.
Currently ranked #3353
Ranked 2248 times by 143 users
Wins 48% of its matchups
Elia Kazan – A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
I was shocked to see it only at #29. It’s one of my favourite films ever, and it’s definitely my favourite Hollywood film. I would’ve thought it would be ranked much higher, but only 75 people rated it so that’s probably why :-(
It also surprised me to see I Know Where I’m Going! is in the regular top 10. I love P&P films, so it’s nice to see other people like them too. Thanks for a great write up, and I guess now I’m going to have to try and find Children of Paradise and A Walk in the Sun somewhere. They seem like great films.
Yeah, the rankings for a lot of the older years depend greatly on what people have seen. That’s one reason Hitchcock is almost always highly ranked, simply because he’s someone a lot of people gravitate toward, so his films have more people ranking them. That’s one reason I really like doing the “blogger’s picks” section, because that lets us highlight some favorites that not enough people have seen, like A Walk in the Sun.
Thanks for the comment!
I agree. The personal touch of picking favourites brings out some nice surprises in the best-of-the-best lists that usually contain a lot of the same films anyway. So in that spirit let me offer another little Dorothy McGuire gem called The Enchanted Cottage, directed by John Cromwell. It definitely deserves some more attention and viewers. McGuire sure owned 1945, as she also played in yet another (!) great film The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak). It’s hard to imagine any actor or actress today pulling off three fantastic films in one year. But then again it’s no studio system world anymore either.