The Top 100 Dramas of the 1940s

Rank This Chart

Best  |  Worst
Detailed  |  List  |  Gallery
per page
The Top 100 Dramas of the 1940s
Global
Ranking
Movie Title Release
Year
Director MPAA
Rating
Your
Ranking
24 Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz PG -
42 Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles NR -
61 The Red Shoes 1948 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
71 Bicycle Thieves 1948 Vittorio De Sica NR -
78 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 John Huston NR -
139 Rope 1948 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
150 It's a Wonderful Life 1946 Frank Capra NR -
170 Brief Encounter 1945 David Lean NR -
174 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 William Wyler NR -
197 The Shop Around the Corner 1940 Ernst Lubitsch NR -
213 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
229 Black Narcissus 1947 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
254 Late Spring 1949 Yasujirô Ozu NR -
294 Children of Paradise 1945 Marcel Carné NR -
338 The Grapes of Wrath 1940 John Ford NR -
393 To Have and Have Not 1944 Howard Hawks NR -
399 The Lost Weekend 1945 Billy Wilder NR -
415 Stray Dog 1949 Akira Kurosawa NR -
427 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 Orson Welles PG -
429 Mildred Pierce 1945 Michael Curtiz NR -
439 Rome, Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini NR -
528 Gilda 1946 Charles Vidor NR -
538 My Darling Clementine 1946 John Ford NR -
586 The Killers 1946 Robert Siodmak NR -
600 Lifeboat 1944 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
615 Spellbound 1945 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
764 Meet Me in St. Louis 1944 Vincente Minnelli NR -
889 The Heiress 1949 William Wyler NR -
890 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946 Tay Garnett NR -
902 Scarlet Street 1945 Fritz Lang NR -
903 The Stranger 1946 Orson Welles NR -
927 Detour 1945 Edgar G. Ulmer NR -
967 Letter From An Unknown Woman 1948 Max Ophüls NR -
1004 Now, Voyager 1942 Irving Rapper NR -
1048 High Sierra 1941 Raoul Walsh NR -
1075 Nightmare Alley 1947 Edmund Goulding NR -
1081 Leave Her to Heaven 1945 John M. Stahl NR -
1097 Great Expectations 1946 David Lean NR -
1114 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 Michael Curtiz NR -
1128 The Pride of the Yankees 1942 Sam Wood NR -
1141 Day of Wrath 1943 Carl Theodor Dreyer NR -
1144 Meet John Doe 1941 Frank Capra NR -
1159 Mrs. Miniver 1942 William Wyler NR -
1168 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947 Joseph L. Mankiewicz NR -
1187 Drunken Angel 1948 Akira Kurosawa PG13 -
1214 How Green Was My Valley 1941 John Ford NR -
1261 The Set-Up 1949 Robert Wise NR -
1270 The Naked City 1948 Jules Dassin NR -
1346 I Know Where I'm Going! 1945 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
1414 Sergeant York 1941 Howard Hawks NR -
1443 The Woman in the Window 1944 Fritz Lang NR -
1448 Odd Man Out 1947 Carol Reed NR -
1528 The Fallen Idol 1948 Carol Reed NR -
1605 Hamlet 1948 Laurence Olivier NR -
1612 Brute Force 1947 Jules Dassin NR -
1669 They Live by Night 1948 Nicholas Ray NR -
1734 Paisan 1946 Roberto Rossellini NR -
1743 The Uninvited 1944 Lewis Allen NR -
1764 All the King's Men 1949 Robert Rossen NR -
2086 A Letter to Three Wives 1949 Joseph L. Mankiewicz NR -
2102 The Letter 1940 William Wyler NR -
2106 Oliver Twist 1948 David Lean NR -
2113 The Picture of Dorian Gray 1945 Albert Lewin NR -
2145 A Canterbury Tale 1944 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
2192 Twelve O'Clock High 1949 Henry King NR -
2228 The Spiral Staircase 1945 Robert Siodmak NR -
2250 The Talk of the Town 1942 George Stevens NR -
2268 The Devil and Daniel Webster 1941 William Dieterle NR -
2277 Germany Year Zero 1948 Roberto Rossellini NR -
2298 Gentleman's Agreement 1947 Elia Kazan NR -
2342 Shoeshine 1946 Vittorio De Sica NR -
2345 Kiss of Death 1947 Henry Hathaway NR -
2442 Criss Cross 1949 Robert Siodmak NR -
2448 Henry V 1944 Laurence Olivier NR -
2456 Call Northside 777 1948 Henry Hathaway NR -
2488 Ministry of Fear 1944 Fritz Lang PG -
2557 Remember the Night 1940 Mitchell Leisen NR -
2572 Christmas in Connecticut 1945 Peter Godfrey NR -
2628 Force of Evil 1948 Abraham Polonsky PG -
2670 The Big Clock 1948 John Farrow NR -
2707 Five Graves to Cairo 1943 Billy Wilder NR -
2717 Thieves' Highway 1949 Jules Dassin NR -
2734 The Strange Love of Martha Ivers 1946 Lewis Milestone NR -
2802 Sands of Iwo Jima 1949 Allan Dwan NR -
2814 The Bells of St. Mary's 1945 Leo McCarey NR -
2837 They Were Expendable 1945 John Ford NR -
2862 They Drive By Night 1940 Raoul Walsh NR -
2868 A Tree Grows In Brooklyn 1945 Elia Kazan NR -
2896 The Little Foxes 1941 William Wyler NR -
2928 Born to Kill 1947 Robert Wise NR -
2958 Going My Way 1944 Leo McCarey NR -
2973 3 Godfathers 1948 John Ford NR -
2997 Macbeth 1948 Orson Welles NR -
3001 The Snake Pit 1948 Anatole Litvak NR -
3025 Jane Eyre 1943 Robert Stevenson NR -
3026 Crossfire 1947 Edward Dmytryk NR -
3039 The Blue Dahlia 1946 George Marshall NR -
3095 Ossessione 1943 Luchino Visconti NR -
3301 Dead Reckoning 1947 John Cromwell NR -
3315 Portrait of Jennie 1948 William Dieterle NR -

Build A Custom Chart

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