The Top 100 Movies of the 1940s

Rank This Chart

Best  |  Worst
Detailed  |  List  |  Gallery
per page
The Top 100 Movies of the 1940s
Global
Ranking
Movie Title Release
Year
Director MPAA
Rating
Your
Ranking
25 Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz PG -
33 Double Indemnity 1944 Billy Wilder NR -
41 The Third Man 1949 Carol Reed NR -
42 Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles NR -
61 The Red Shoes 1948 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
70 Bicycle Thieves 1948 Vittorio De Sica NR -
78 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 John Huston NR -
85 Notorious 1946 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
105 The Philadelphia Story 1940 George Cukor NR -
112 A Matter of Life and Death 1946 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger PG -
116 Shadow of a Doubt 1943 Alfred Hitchcock PG -
117 His Girl Friday 1940 Howard Hawks NR -
121 Out of the Past 1947 Jacques Tourneur NR -
123 The Maltese Falcon 1941 John Huston NR -
125 The Big Sleep 1946 Howard Hawks NR -
134 The Great Dictator 1940 Charles Chaplin G -
139 Rope 1948 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
150 It's a Wonderful Life 1946 Frank Capra NR -
151 Sullivan's Travels 1941 Preston Sturges NR -
162 Rebecca 1940 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
163 Brief Encounter 1945 David Lean NR -
164 Laura 1944 Otto Preminger NR -
171 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 William Wyler NR -
175 To Be or Not to Be 1942 Ernst Lubitsch NR -
197 The Shop Around the Corner 1940 Ernst Lubitsch NR -
209 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
228 Black Narcissus 1947 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
239 White Heat 1949 Raoul Walsh NR -
253 Late Spring 1949 Yasujirô Ozu NR -
260 Arsenic and Old Lace 1944 Frank Capra NR -
293 Children of Paradise 1945 Marcel Carné NR -
307 The Lady Eve 1941 Preston Sturges NR -
322 Key Largo 1948 John Huston NR -
326 Red River 1948 Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson NR -
340 The Grapes of Wrath 1940 John Ford NR -
364 Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 Robert Hamer NR -
377 Gaslight 1944 George Cukor NR -
383 The Ox-Bow Incident 1943 William A. Wellman NR -
388 To Have and Have Not 1944 Howard Hawks NR -
396 The Lost Weekend 1945 Billy Wilder NR -
410 Stray Dog 1949 Akira Kurosawa NR -
417 Mildred Pierce 1945 Michael Curtiz NR -
433 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 Orson Welles PG -
442 Rome, Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini NR -
456 The Lady from Shanghai 1947 Orson Welles NR -
476 Beauty and the Beast 1946 Jean Cocteau NR -
514 Gilda 1946 Charles Vidor NR -
542 My Darling Clementine 1946 John Ford NR -
565 Ball of Fire 1941 Howard Hawks NR -
578 The Killers 1946 Robert Siodmak NR -
597 Lifeboat 1944 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
611 Spellbound 1945 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
612 Suspicion 1941 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
656 Foreign Correspondent 1940 Alfred Hitchcock NR -
687 Cat People 1942 Jacques Tourneur NR -
771 Meet Me in St. Louis 1944 Vincente Minnelli NR -
858 Murder, My Sweet 1944 Edward Dmytryk NR -
861 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946 Tay Garnett NR -
883 The Heiress 1949 William Wyler NR -
890 Scarlet Street 1945 Fritz Lang NR -
893 Fantasia 1940 James Algar G -
901 Detour 1945 Edgar G. Ulmer NR -
921 The Stranger 1946 Orson Welles NR -
931 Letter From An Unknown Woman 1948 Max Ophüls NR -
946 The Wolf Man 1941 George Waggner NR -
970 The Palm Beach Story 1942 Preston Sturges NR -
974 Now, Voyager 1942 Irving Rapper NR -
977 Adam's Rib 1949 George Cukor NR -
986 Monsieur Verdoux 1947 Charles Chaplin NR -
1047 High Sierra 1941 Raoul Walsh NR -
1050 Dark Passage 1947 Delmer Daves NR -
1057 Nightmare Alley 1947 Edmund Goulding NR -
1073 Saboteur 1942 Alfred Hitchcock PG -
1075 Leave Her to Heaven 1945 John M. Stahl NR -
1098 Great Expectations 1946 David Lean NR -
1111 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 Michael Curtiz NR -
1119 Mrs. Miniver 1942 William Wyler NR -
1122 Meet John Doe 1941 Frank Capra NR -
1129 The Pride of the Yankees 1942 Sam Wood NR -
1141 Day of Wrath 1943 Carl Theodor Dreyer NR -
1161 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947 Joseph L. Mankiewicz NR -
1164 Drunken Angel 1948 Akira Kurosawa PG13 -
1188 How Green Was My Valley 1941 John Ford NR -
1210 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon 1949 John Ford NR -
1223 The Set-Up 1949 Robert Wise NR -
1254 The Naked City 1948 Jules Dassin NR -
1271 I Walked with a Zombie 1943 Jacques Tourneur NR -
1308 And Then There Were None 1945 René Clair NR -
1349 I Know Where I'm Going! 1945 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger NR -
1372 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948 Charles Barton NR -
1408 Dead of Night 1945 Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer NR -
1418 Sergeant York 1941 Howard Hawks NR -
1419 Miracle on 34th Street 1947 George Seaton G -
1421 Odd Man Out 1947 Carol Reed NR -
1430 Fort Apache 1948 John Ford NR -
1441 The Woman in the Window 1944 Fritz Lang NR -
1446 On the Town 1949 Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly NR -
1458 Pinocchio 1940 Hamilton Luske G -
1462 Unfaithfully Yours 1948 Preston Sturges NR -
1512 Heaven Can Wait 1943 Ernst Lubitsch NR -

Build A Custom Chart

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