| 1. Citizen Kane- Welles |
| 2. Bicycle Thieves- De Sica |
| 3. The Magnificent Ambersons- Welles |
| 4. The Third Man- Reed |
| 5. Casablanca- Curtiz |
| 6. It’s a Wonderful Life- Capra |
| 7. The Big Sleep- Hawks |
| 8. Notorious- Hitchcock |
| 9. Rome, Open City- Rossellini |
| 10. Late Spring- Ozu |
| 11. White Heat- Walsh |
| 12. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp- Powell & Pressburger |
| 13. Black Narcissus- Powell & Pressburger |
| 14. Double Indemnity- Wilder |
| 15. Red River- Hawks |
| 16. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre- Huston |
| 17. My Darling Clementine- Ford |
| 18. Out of the Past- Tourneur |
| 19. Germany Year Zero- Rossellini |
| 20. The Grapes of Wrath- Ford |
| 21. The Maltese Falcon- Huston |
| 22. Pinocchio- Sharpsteen |
| 23. Letter from an Unknown Woman- Ophuls |
| 24. Great Expectations- Lean |
| 25. His Girl Friday- Hawks |
| 26. A Matter of Life and Death- Powell & Pressburger |
| 27. A Hen in the Wind- Ozu |
| 28. Rope- Hitchcock |
| 29. Shadow of a Doubt- Hitchcock |
| 30. The 47 Ronin- Mizoguchi |
| 31. The Lady From Shanghai- Welles |
| 32. There Was a Father- Ozu |
| 33. Paisan- Rossellini |
| 34. Beauty and the Beast- Cocteau |
| 35. Ivan the Terrible Part II- Eisenstein |
| 36. To Have and Have Not- Hawks |
| 37. Ivan the Terrible Part I- Eisenstein |
| 38. Ossessione – Visconti |
| 39. Day of Wrath- Dreyer |
| 40. Fort Apache- Ford |
| 41. The Red Shoes- Powell & Pressburger |
| 42. The Lady Eve- P. Sturges |
| 43. Meet Me in St. Louis- Minnelli |
| 44. How Green Was My Valley- Ford |
| 45. Shoeshine- De Sica |
| 46. Sullivan’s Travels- P. Sturges |
| 47. The Philadelphia Story- Cukor |
| 48. The Shop Around the Corner- Lubitsch |
| 49. Detour- Ulmer |
| 50. The Best Years of Our Lives- Wyler |
| 51. The Palm Beach Story- P. Sturges |
| 52. The Reckless Moment- Ophuls |
| 53. The Miracle of Morgan Creek- P. Sturges |
| 54. Henry V- Olivier |
| 55. Laura- Preminger |
| 56. Fallen Angel- Preminger |
| 57. Brief Encounter- Lean |
| 58. Children of Paradise- Carne |
| 59. Scarlet Street- Lang |
| 60. Kind Hearts and Coronets- Hamer |
| 61. All the King’s Men- Rossen |
| 62. The Little Foxes- Wyler |
| 63. They Live by Night- N. Ray |
| 64. To Be or Not to Be- Lubitsch |
| 65. Rebecca- Hitchcock |
| 66. Oliver Twist- Lean |
| 67. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon- Ford |
| 68. The Letter- Wyler |
| 69. The Thief of Bagdad- Powell |
| 70. Arsenic and Old Lace- Capra |
| 71. Sergeant York- Hawks |
| 72. 49th Parallel- Powell |
| 73. I Know Where I’m Going!- Powell & Pressburger |
| 74. Dead of Night- Cavalcanti, Crichton, Dearden, Hamer |
| 75. Brute Force- Dassin |
| 76. The Lost Weekend- Wilder |
| 77. They Drive By Night- Walsh |
| 78. Mildred Pierce- Curtiz |
| 79. Duel in the Sun- Vidor |
| 80. The Fountainhead- Vidor |
| 81. A Letter to Three Wives- Mankiewicz |
| 82. Yankee Doodle Dandy- Curtiz |
| 83. Cat People- Tourneur |
| 84. Miracle on 34th Street- Seaton |
| 85. Odd Man Out- Reed |
| 86. I Walked With a Zombie- Tourneur |
| 87. The Ox-Box Incident- Wellman |
| 88. Bambi- Hand |
| 89. The Fallen Idol- Reed |
| 90. D.O.A – Mate |
| 91. Raw Deal- A. Mann |
| 92. He Walked by Night- Werker |
| 93. The Sea Hawk- Curtiz |
| 94. The Razor’s Edge- Goulding |
| 95. Gentleman Jim- Walsh |
| 96. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir – Mankiewicz |
| 97. Portrait of Jennie- Dieterle |
| 98. Pursued- Walsh |
| 99. Unfaithfully Yours- P. Sturges |
| 100. The Postman Always Rings Twice- Garnett |
1. Citizen Kane
2. Bicycle Thieves
3. Casablanca
4. The Third Man
5. Children of Paradise
6. The Magnificent Ambersons
7. It’s a Wonderful Life
8. The Best Years of Our Lives
9. The Red Shoes
10. Double Indemnity
Lots of similarities– love the list- the one i can’t get behind is “Amberson” behind “children of paradise”. I just think Welles puts so much in every sequence/frame. if i were picking the 10 most beautiful sequences/ between the two films i think all 10 would come from the Welles film
I like your lists! Marry me. LOL. I will post mine later.
@Larry. haha. Great- yes please share your list when you have time.
I’ve never get why you have some films in such high regard, like The Searchers (even tho I like it). But the one that really troubles me might be Casablanca. I know why is it considered a great movie, a classic maybe. But a top 100? I just don’t get it. Even though I love Ingrid Bergman, i can think of a lot movies (of the time) with all the elements that make Casablanca great that are way down on the list. The only real asset might be the script but I think it has to do more with the factor of nostalgia than the quality of the film itself
@Alejandro, Rewatching Casablanca helped me a lot. Black and White romances (especially Casablanca) have undeniable power. They have been tributed (Cinema Paradiso) in modern cinema and they have a great influence in modern cinema.
I love black and white romances, I love Notorious, The M Ambersons, is just that I find it way too overrated I can name a lot of films way down the list that are in the same level as Casablanca even better
@Alejandro – I’m surprised to read this. Casablanca is not usually a movie people struggle to understand
@Drake, what I meant is that I struggle to see why is so great, it does has some fine lies the ending is quite touching but it bothers me a bit whenever I see anyone praising the movie and regarding it so highly (even by critics) I can’t see nothing more than a nostalgia factor than quality of the film itself I can’t see it been better than a lot of the films down on the list
@Alejandro– I’m not sure what you mean by nostalgia factor. All of these movies came out in the 1940’s. But Casablanca holds up to close inspection and study. It is undoubtedly one of the best films of the 1940’s.
Drake, it only happens to me, or your answer disappeared where did you mention that you did not know many movie enthusiasts who did not appreciate the searchers
@Alejandro. Would you have Children of Paradise over Casablanca? I still need to see her again like you told me
Or what examples are you referring to?
Great site, I’m just wondering, how many films are in your “archives”. Also where can I watch I am cuba for free
@ Chris– thanks for the nice comment on the site. I’m not exactly sure how many are in the archives at this point. I did a rough count on January 2014 and there were 2841 films. I add and subtract them as warranted so we’re over 3000 i’m sure. Tough on “I Am Cuba”– it took me forever to find it. I think it’s easier now but when i saw it it was on TCM- Turner Classic Movies and I DVR’ed it. Good luck- i hope you can catch up with it- it’s worth it- an amazing film.
Most apparitions in the « Best Performances of the Year » category, in the 40’s :
Humphrey Bogart (6) :
} 1# en 1941.
} 3# en 1941.
} 1# en 1942.
} 2# en 1944.
} 2# en 1946.
} 2# en 1948.
John Garfield (3) :
} 4# en 1946.
} 4# en 1947.
} 5# en 1948.
James Cagney (2) :
} 2# en 1942.
} 1# en 1949.
Henry Fonda (2) :
} 1# en 1940.
} 3# en 1946.
James Stewart (2) :
} 3# en 1940.
} 1# en 1946.
Laurence Olivier (2) :
} 1# en 1944.
} 6# en 1948.
Joseph Cotton (2) :
} 2# en 1943.
} 3# en 1949.
Orson Welles (2) :
} 2# en 1941.
} 4# en 1949.
Roger Livesey (1) :
} 1# en 1943.
Edward G. Robinson (1) :
} 1# en 1945.
Robert Mitchum (1) :
} 1# en 1947.
John Wayne (1) :
} 1# en 1948.
Cary Grant (1) :
} 2# en 1940.
Ray Miland (1) :
} 2# en 1945.
Kirk Douglas (1) :
} 2# en 1947.
Broderick Crawford (1) :
} 2# en 1949.
Errol Flynn (1) :
} 3# en 1942.
Gary Cooper (1) :
} 3# en 1943.
Bing Crosby (1) :
} 3# en 1944.
Burt Lancaster (1) :
} 3# en 1947.
Lamberto Maggiorani (1) :
} 3# en 1948.
Montgomery Clift (1) :
} 4# en 1948.
Frederic March (1) :
} 5# en 1946.
William Powell (1) :
} 5# en 1947.
@Drake- you obviously updated this category so I’m just asking in which film, did Powell play in 1947 to be in top 5 of the year?
@RujK- Life with Father
Where is The Great Dictator(1940)?
@Chris- I didn’t keep going after 100– but it would be somewhere between 101-150
1. Casablanca
2. The Best Years of Our Lives
3. The Philadelphia Story
4. The Bicycle Thieves
5. Black Narcissus
6. Red River
7. Double Indemnity
8. Notorious
9. Late Spring
10. Out of the Past
Just now discovering this place Not as easy to navigate and get around as TSPDT, but I assume it is a work in progress. It is nice, however, to have a sort of counterpoint to that site. We do love our lists! Figured I would throw up my own list from the ’40s. A couple of surprises I suppose, but mostly lock step with those in your top 20. Anyways, great job! Definitely will be checking out the rest of your joint!
@Bonehica- thank you for visiting the site and for your comment here. No Citizen Kane huh? Or Ambersons? I mean you have a great list of films here on your list- I’m just asking.
Hi Drake! Kane and Ambersons are lurking right there just outside the top 10. But these films right here touched me in ways those two never did. I respect Welles and his craft. He is truly a master, but sometimes a film will resonate with you even if it is made by a “lesser” artist. The Wyler/Gregg Toland collaboration on The Best Years of Our Lives and their use of deep focus to show multiple storylines at the same time is remarkable. I don’t find it any less amazing than the Welles/Toland collaboration on Kane. Oh, and I am a huge film noir fan, hence three of the greatest in my top 10!
@Bonehica- thanks for the share here. Makes me eager to revisit The Best Years of Our Lives
These are the results of my 1940s study. Probably the film I regret the most not seeing is Miracle of Morgan Creek.
1. Citizen Kane (1941- Welles, MP)
2. Bicycle Thieves (1948- De Sica, MP)
3. The Third Man (1949- Reed, MP)
4. Casablanca (1942- Curtiz, MP)
5. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942- Welles, MP)
6. It`s a Wonderful Life (1946- Capra, MP)
7. My Darling Clementine (1946- Ford, MP)
8. Notorious (1946- Hitchcock, MP)
9. Black Narcissus (1947- Powell, Pressburger, MP)
10. Rome, Open City (1945- Rossellini, MP)
11. Double Indemnity (1944- Wilder, MP)
12. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943- Powell, Pressburger, MP)
13. Germany Year Zero (1948- Rossellini, MP)
14. Red River (1948- Hawks, MP)
15. A Matter of Life and Death (1946- Powell, Pressburger, MP)
16. Ossessione (1943- Visconti, MP)
17. Children of Paradise (1945- Carne, MP)
18. The Big Sleep (1946- Hawks, MP)
19. Late Spring (1949- Ozu, MP)
20. La Terra Trema (1948- Visconti, MP)
21. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948- Huston, MP)
22. The Red Shoes (1948- Powell, Pressburger, MP)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940- Ford, MP)
24. Out of the Past (1947- Tourneur, MP)
25. White Heat (1949- Walsh, MP)
26. His Girl Friday (1940- Hawks, MP)
27. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946- Wyler, MP)
28. Laura (1944- Preminger, MP)
29. Great Expectations (1946- Lean, MS/MP)
30. The Killers (1946- Siodmak, MS/MP)
31. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948- Ophüls, MS/MP)
32. The Maltese Falcon (1941- Huston, MS/MP)
33. A Hen in the Wind (1948- Ozu, MS/MP)
34. The Lady from Shanghai (1947- Welles, MS/MP)
35. Rope (1948- Hitchcock, MS/MP)
36. Pinocchio (1940- Sharpsteen, Luske, MS/MP)
37. Ivan the Terrible (1944-1946- Eisenstein, MS/MP)
38. Shadow of a Doubt (1943- Hitchcock, MS/MP)
39. Beauty and the Beast (1946- Cocteau, MS/MP)
40. Paisan (1946- Rossellini, MS)
41. The 47 Ronin (1941- Mizoguchi, MS)
42. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949- Ford, MS)
43. Fort Apache (1948- Ford, MS)
44. Shoeshine (1946- De Sica, MS)
45. How Green Was My Valley (1941- Ford, MS)
46. The Lady Eve (1941- Sturges, MS)
47. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944- Minnelli, MS)
48. Sullivan`s Travels (1941- Sturges, MS)
49. Stray Dog (1949- Kurosawa, MS)
50. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943- Deren, Hackenschmied, MS)
51. There Was a Father (1942- Ozu, MS)
52. The Little Foxes (1941- Wyler, MS)
53. Detour (1945- Ulmer, MS)
54. Brief Encounter (1945- Lean, MS)
55. To Have and Have Not (1944- Hawks, MS)
56. To Be or Not To Be (1942- Lubitsch, MS)
57. Henry V (1944- Olivier, MS)
58. Fallen Angel (1945- Preminger, MS)
59. Scarlet Street (1945- Lang, MS)
60. Unfaithfully Yours (1948- Sturges, MS)
61. The Palm Beach Story (1942- Sturges, MS)
62. All the King`s Men (1949- Rossen, MS)
63. The Reckless Moment (1949- Ophüls, MS)
64. Odd Man Out (1947- Reed, MS)
65. Day of Wrath (1943- Dreyer, MS)
66. Rebecca (1940- Hitchcock, MS)
67. Kind Heart and Coronets (1949- Hamer, MS)
68. The Philadelphia Story (1940- Cukor, HR/MS)
69. Brute Force (1947- Dassin, HR/MS)
70. Shop Around the Corner (1940- Lubitsch, HR/MS)
71. The Letter (1940- Wyler, HR/MS)
72. Drunken Angel (1948- Kurosawa, HR/MS)
73. Cat People (1942- Tourneur, HR/MS)
74. They Live by Night (1948- Ray, HR/MS)
75. The Great Dictator (1940- Chaplin, HR/MS)
76. Hamlet (1948- Olivier, HR/MS)
77. I Know Where I`m Going (1945- Powell, Pressburger, HR/MS)
78. Oliver Twist (1948- Lean, HR)
79. Force of Evil (1948- Polonsky, HR)
80. Duel in the Sun (1946- Vidor, HR)
81. The Fallen Idol (1948- Reed, HR)
82. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943- Wellman, HR)
83. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944- Capra, HR)
84. The Razor`s Edge (1946- Goulding, HR)
85. The Thief of Bagdad (1940- Powell, Berger, Whelan, HR)
86. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942- Curtiz, HR)
87. 49th Parallel (1941- Powell, HR)
88. Dead of Night (1945- Cavalcanti, Hamer, Crichton, Dearden, HR)
89. The Lost Weekend (1945- Wilder, HR)
90. Krakatit (1948- Vavra, HR)
91. I Walked with a Zombie (1943- Tourneur, HR)
92. Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947- Ozu, HR)
93. The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941- Dieterle, HR)
94. The Lady in the Lake (1946- Montgomery, HR)
95. D.O.A. (1949- Mate, HR)
96. The Fountainhead (1949- Vidor, HR)
97. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946- Garnett, HR)
98. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947- Mankiewicz, HR)
99. A Letter to Three Wives (1949- Mankiewicz, HR)
100. The Murderer Lives At Number 21 (1942- Clouzot, HR)
Top 10 Best Directors:
1. Powell & Pressburger
or
2. Welles
3. Ford
4. Hawks
5. Rossellini
6. De Sica
7. Hitchcock
8. Visconti
9. Ozu
10. Reed
Top 10 Best Performances
1. Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
2. Stewart in It`s a Wonderful Life
3. Bergman in Notorious
4. Bogart in Casablanca
5. Bergman in Casablanca
6. Cagney in White heat
7. Wayne in red River
8. Kerr in Black Narcissus
9. Magnani in Rome, Open City
10. Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath
Top 10 Best Performers:
1. Bogart
2. Bergman
3. Fonda
4. Stewart
5. Olivier
6. Ryu
7. Stanwyck
8. Cagney
9. Wayne
10. G. Robinson
@RujK – congrats, how long did this study take? It’s so thoroughly done, I have only seen 36 of these although I have seen most of the top 20
I especially like The Big Sleep above Maltese Falcon, they are both great but many lists seem to rank Maltese Falcon ahead and it’s certainly great in its own right but The Big Sleep is a top 5 noir of all time.
I love My Darling Clementine ranking so high, I think it gets over looked but I believe it is John Ford’s most beautiful film aside from The Searchers and possibly The Quiet Man.
Of those I have seen I think my tp 10 would go
1. Citizen Kane
2. The 3rd Man
3. Notorious
4. Double Indemnity
5. Bicycle Thieves
6. The Magnificient Ambersens
7. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
8. Casablanca
9. The Big Sleep
10. My Darling Clementine
I have not seen any of the Rossellini films and only have watched It’s a Wonderful Life once but will watch again near Christmas time.
This is super impressive, awesome work
@RujK- Very impressive! I have to seek out Krakatit
Incredibly impressive job with this. It must be very revealing and rewarding to study cinema in this way, moving through its history in chronological order. Keep up the fantastic work, looking forward to seeing your own website whenever you launch it.
@James Trapp, @Matthew- thank you for the kind words. I probably started in January or February and I finished just few days ago. Now I have started with the 50s, I hope I will finish until the next January.
My goal is to come to 2020s and then I will launch my website that I am working on and is paralleled with my study.
That’s awesome that you’re doing one for every decade. Was the 40s the starting point or have you already done the previous decades (30s, 20s). I’ll also eventually do something like that for each decade, but that won’t be until much farther down the line due to the sheer volume of films and me watching films at a relatively slower pace. I also plan on launching a website one day for the fun of it, but I’m still way too early in my film journey for that right now. Probably when I’ve seen enough to have a study similar to yours for all of the decades
@Matthew- I have done decades from 1910s forward. My results are on 1910s & 1920s and 1930s pages of this website.
Looking forward to see your study, and eventually the website.
Did a lil 40s watching during the month of September, figured I’d throw together a top 20 and share it with you wonderful people. Still have some big ones to knock out (White Heat, Grapes of Wrath, Children of Paradise), but I’ll probably get to other stuff I’m missing from other decades and loop back since my brain could really use some non 40s movies right now.
1. Citizen Kane
2. Late Spring
3. Bicycle Thieves
4. The Third Man
5. The Magnificent Ambersons
6. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
7. Letter from an Unknown Woman
8. The Lady from Shanghai
9. My Darling Clementine
10. The Best Years of Our Lives
11. How Green Was My Valley
12. A Day in the Country
13. Brief Encounter
14. Day of Wrath
15. Notorious!
16. The Ox-Bow Incident
17. A Hen In The Wind
18. Ritual in Transfigured Time
19. It’s A Wonderful Life
20. Great Expectations
Some points:
– Welles totally killed it this decade, all 3 of his big 3 works feature nearly unparalleled ambition for this period of time. I couldn’t move The Lady from Shanghai out of the top 10 even with its faults (some suspect acting and the studio hack job), since the film is still so simultaneously entertaining and atmospheric and features maybe the best singular scene of the entire decade.
– Italian Neorealism had a lot of near misses on my top 20, with Shoeshine being probably #21 and Rome, Open City and The Earth Trembles being not far behind. I do think Bicycle Thieves is the clear best one though, it’s made with such precision and is masterful in so many ways.
– The Ophuls was absolutely revelatory, we all know about his ability to manipulate the camera but there were also so many spectacular individual frames and WHAT a performance from Joan Fontaine. Feel very dumb for totally ignoring him until now and will be watching his 50s material soon.
– Hawks kind of disappointed me honestly, although I haven’t seen everything by him in the 40s what I did see really did not astound me. His Girl Friday especially did not sit right with me, as it just felt continually that the visual side of things was too much of an afterthought for my personal tastes. Big Sleep and Red River were more solid, but still not anything truly wowing.
– I’m aware this really isn’t the place for experimental shorts, but Ritual in Transfigured Time is well worth any cinephile’s time to watch. Its ambition feels more tangibly cinematic with an expertly put together party scene featuring a smoothly gliding camera, in addition to some highly interesting freeze frames near the end.
– Drake says A Hen In The Wind is underrated. He is correct. Watch it.
– Drake says Great Expectations is underrated. He is correct. Watch it. It could maybe surpass Brief Encounter on a rewatch thanks to its generally stronger visuals, but for now I feel good with Brief Encounter’s phenomenal acting and pacing giving it a slight edge.
– Really wanted to get 3 John Ford movies on there with She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, but couldn’t quite find room. It’d be in the “honourable mention” range with stuff like Shoeshine, The Maltese Falcon, and A Matter of Life and Death.
@ga- Thank you for sharing not only the films but the individual points here. Very interesting on Hawks- I have been sort of trending that way myself
My top 10 of the 1940s films :
1 – Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
2 – Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell)
3 – Bicycle Thieves (1948, Vittorio De Sica)
4 – Late Spring (1949, Yasujirô Ozu)
5 – The Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell)
6 – My Darling Clementine (1946, John Ford)
7 – Rope (1948, Alfred Hitchcock)
8 – Stray Dogs (1949, Akira Kurosawa)
9 – Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)
10 – It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)
It’s really hard to do, I don’t know how you make a top 100, so many choices. Thanks for Ozu and my biggest « découverte » of the year is Powell, thanks Mr. Scorsese.
@KidCharlemagne – great list, I especially love seeing My Darling Clementine (1946) on your list. I think its Ford’s best film after The Searchers and my personal favorite amongst Fords films. One of most gorgeous black and white films.