20 Greatest Movies of Each Year 1940s

  #. Movie Title - (Directors Name)

---

  1. The Third Man - (Carol Reed)
  2. Kind Hearts and Coronets - (Robert Hamer)
  3. White Heat - (Raoul Walsh)
  4. Late Spring - (Yasujirô Ozu)
  5. On the Town - (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly)
  6. Adam's Rib - (George Cukor)
  7. The Heiress - (William Wyler)
  8. Stray Dog - (Akira Kurosawa)
  9. Samson and Delilah - (Cecil B. DeMille)
10. Twelve O'Clock High - (Henry King)
11. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - (John Ford)
12. All the King's Men - (Robert Rossen)
13. The Set-Up - (Robert Wise)
14. A Letter to Three Wives - (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
15. Jour de fête - (Jacques Tati)
16. D.O.A. - (Rudolph Maté)
17. Battleground - (William A. Wellman)
18. Whisky Galore! - (Alexander Mackendrick)
19. Sands of Iwo Jima - (Allan Dwan)
20. Criss Cross - (Robert Siodmak)

  1. Bicycle Thieves - (Vittorio De Sica)
  2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - (John Huston)
  3. The Red Shoes - (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
  4. Red River - (Howard Hawks)
  5. Rope - (Alfred Hitchcock)
  6. Letter from an Unknown Woman - (Max Ophüls)
  7. Hamlet - (Laurence Olivier)
  8. Fort Apache - (John Ford)
  9. Germany Year Zero - (Roberto Rossellini)
10. Oliver Twist - (David Lean)
11. They Live by Night - (Nicholas Ray)
12. Johnny Belinda - (Jean Negulesco)
13. Key Largo - (John Huston)
14. La terra trema - (Luchino Visconti)
15. Drunken Angel - (Akira Kurosawa)
16. Spring in a Small Town - (Fei Mu)
17. The Fallen Idol - (Carol Reed)
18. The Naked City - (Jules Dassin)
19. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein - (Charles Barton)
20. Force of Evil - (Abraham Polonsky)

  1. Out of the Past - (Jacques Tourneur)
  2. Black Narcissus - (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
  3. Miracle on 34th Street - (George Seaton)
  4. The Lady from Shanghai - (Orson Welles)
  5. Monsieur Verdoux - (Charles Chaplin)
  6. Odd Man Out - (Carol Reed)
  7. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
  8. Crossfire - (Edward Dmytryk)
  9. Gentleman's Agreement - (Elia Kazan)
10. Quai des Orfèvres - (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
11. Body and Soul - (Robert Rossen)
12. Nightmare Alley - (Edmund Goulding)
13. Dark Passage - (Delmer Daves)
14. Kiss of Death - (Henry Hathaway)
15. The Bishop's Wife - (Henry Koster)
16. Brute Force - (Jules Dassin)
17. It Always Rains on Sunday - (Robert Hamer)
18. The Spring River Flows East - (Cai Chusheng & Zheng Junli)
19. Boomerang! - (Elia Kazan)
20. The Cat Concerto - (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera)

  1. It's a Wonderful Life - (Frank Capra)
  2. The Best Years of Our Lives - (William Wyler)
  3. Notorious - (Alfred Hitchcock)
  4. Beauty and the Beast - (Jean Cocteau)
  5. My Darling Clementine - (John Ford)
  6. A Matter of Life and Death - (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
  7. The Big Sleep - (Howard Hawks)
  8. Paisan - (Roberto Rossellini)
  9. Ivan the Terrible, Part ll - (Sergei M. Eisenstein)
10. Gilda - (Charles Vidor)
11. Great Expectations - (David Lean)
12. Shoeshine - (Vittorio De Sica)
13. The Killers - (Robert Siodmak)
14. Partie de campagne - (Jean Renoir)
15. The Postman Always Rings Twice - (Tay Garnett)
16. Duel in the Sun - (King Vidor)
17. The Spiral Staircase - (Robert Siodmak)
18. The Stranger - (Orson Welles)
19. Cluny Brown - (Ernst Lubitsch)
20. The Yearling - (Clarence Brown)

  1. Rome, Open City - (Roberto Rossellini)
  2. Children of Paradise - (Marcel Carné)
  3. Brief Encounter - (David Lean)
  4. The Lost Weekend - (Billy Wilder)
  5. Mildred Pierce - (Michael Curtiz)
  6. Detour - (Edgar G. Ulmer)
  7. Dead of Night - (Basil Dearden, Alberto Cavalcanti, Robert Hamer & Charles Crichton)
  8. Spellbound - (Alfred Hitchcock)
  9. Leave Her to Heaven - (John M. Stahl)
10. Scarlet Street - (Fritz Lang)
11. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - (Elia Kazan)
12. I Know Where I'm Going! - (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
13. They Were Expendable - (John Ford)
14. The Bells of St. Mary's - (Leo McCarey)
15. Anchors Aweigh - (George Sidney)
16. The Story of G.I. Joe - (William A. Wellman)
17. The Picture of Dorian Gray - (Albert Lewin)
18. And Then There Were None - (René Clair)
19. The Clock - (Vincente Minnelli)
20. Objective, Burma! - (Raoul Walsh)

  1. Double Indemnity - (Billy Wilder)
  2. Meet Me in St. Louis - (Vincente Minnelli)
  3. Laura - (Otto Preminger)
  4. Ivan the Terrible, Part l - (Sergei M. Eisenstein)
  5. To Have and Have Not - (Howard Hawks)
  6. Arsenic and Old Lace - (Frank Capra)
  7. Henry V - (Laurence Olivier)
  8. Gaslight - (George Cukor)
  9. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek - (Preston Sturges)
10. The Woman in the Window - (Fritz Lang)
11. Going My Way - (Leo McCarey)
12. National Velvet - (Clarence Brown)
13. Murder, My Sweet - (Edward Dmytryk)
14. The Uninvited - (Lewis Allen)
15. A Canterbury Tale - (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
16. Hail the Conquering Hero - (Preston Sturges)
17. Lifeboat - (Alfred Hitchcock)
18. Since You Went Away - (John Cromwell)
19. Torment - (Alf Sjöberg)
20. Thirty Seconds over Tokyo - (Mervyn LeRoy)

  1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
  2. Shadow of a Doubt - (Alfred Hitchcock)
  3. Meshes of the Afternoon - (Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid)
  4. Day of Wrath - (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
  5. Ossessione - (Luchino Visconti)
  6. Heaven Can Wait - (Ernst Lubitsch)
  7. I Walked with a Zombie - (Jacques Tourneur)
  8. Le corbeau - (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
  9. For Whom the Bell Tolls - (Sam Wood)
10. The Song of Bernadette - (Henry King)
11. Lassie Come Home - (Fred M. Wilcox)
12. Cabin in the Sky - (Vincente Minnelli)
13. The Seventh Victim - (Mark Robson)
14. The More the Merrier - (George Stevens)
15. Sahara - (Zoltan Korda)
16. Stormy Weather - (Andrew L. Stone)
17. Destination Tokyo - (Delmer Daves)
18. Red Hot Riding Hood - (Tex Avery)
19. The Outlaw - (Howard Hughes)
20. Five Graves to Cairo - (Billy Wilder)

  1. Casablanca - (Michael Curtiz)
  2. To Be or Not to Be - (Ernst Lubitsch)
  3. Bambi - (David Hand et al.)
  4. The Ox-Bow Incident - (William A. Wellman)
  5. Cat People - (Jacques Tourneur)
  6. The Magnificent Ambersons - (Orson Welles)
  7. Now, Voyager - (Irving Rapper)
  8. Mrs. Miniver - (William Wyler)
  9. Yankee Doodle Dandy - (Michael Curtiz)
10. The Palm Beach Story - (Preston Sturges)
11. Random Harvest - (Mervyn LeRoy)
12. The Pride of the Yankees - (Sam Wood)
13. Woman of the Year - (George Stevens)
14. This Gun for Hire - (Frank Tuttle)
15. Holiday Inn - (Mark Sandrich)
16. Gentleman Jim - (Raoul Walsh)
17. The Talk of the Town- (George Stevens)
18. In Which We Serve - (Noël Coward & David Lean)
19. Road to Morocco - (David Butler)
20. Kings Row - (Sam Wood)

  1. Citizen Kane - (Orson Welles)
  2. The Maltese Falcon - (John Huston)
  3. The Lady Eve - (Preston Sturges)
  4. How Green Was My Valley - (John Ford)
  5. Sullivan's Travels - (Preston Sturges)
  6. Dumbo - (Ben Sharpsteen et al.)
  7. Sergeant York - (Howard Hawks)
  8. The Wolf Man - (George Waggner)
  9. The Little Foxes - (William Wyler)
10. Meet John Doe - (Frank Capra)
11. Ball of Fire - (Howard Hawks)
12. High Sierra - (Raoul Walsh)
13. Hellzapoppin' - (H.C. Potter)
14. Suspicion - (Alfred Hitchcock)
15. Here Comes Mr. Jordan - (Alexander Hall)
16. 49th Parallel - (Michael Powell)
17. They Died with Their Boots On - (Raoul Walsh)
18. The Devil and Daniel Webster - (William Dieterle)
19. Man Hunt - (Fritz Lang)
20. Buck Privates - (Arthur Lubin)

  1. The Great Dictator - (Charles Chaplin)
  2. Fantasia - (Ben Sharpsteen et al.)
  3. The Grapes of Wrath - (John Ford)
  4. Pinocchio - (Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen et al.)
  5. Rebecca - (Alfred Hitchcock)
  6. His Girl Friday - (Howard Hawks)
  7. The Philadelphia Story - (George Cukor)
  8. The Thief of Bagdad - (Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger & Tim Whelan)
  9. The Shop Around the Corner - (Ernst Lubitsch)
10. The Bank Dick - (Edward F. Cline)
11. Foreign Correspondent - (Alfred Hitchcock)
12. The Letter - (William Wyler)
13. The Mortal Storm - (Frank Borzage)
14. The Mark of Zorro - (Rouben Mamoulian)
15. The Sea Hawk - (Michael Curtiz)
16. Pride and Prejudice - (Robert Z. Leonard)
17. Waterloo Bridge - (Mervyn LeRoy)
18. The Westerner- (William Wyler)
19. Dance, Girl, Dance - (Dorothy Arzner)
20. The Great McGinty - (Preston Sturges)