Top 25 movies of the 40s

Forgot about the Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer... Great flick from this decade

 

The 40s had seven classic Christmas movies... if you haven't seen them all, definitely all are a must watch. Really enjoyed the underrated classics, Holiday Affair and Remember the Night. All are in my top 25 for the decade:

Miracle on 34th Street
Holiday Affair
It's A Wonderful Life
The Bishop's Wife
Shop Around the Corner
Christmas in Connecticut
Remember the Night

 

For American movies, it’s my second-favorite decade after the '70s. But for non-English language films, the '50s rule, IMO.

 

In no order:

Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Out of the Past
Double Indemnity
Late Spring
Casablanca
Mildred Pierce
A Matter of Life and Death
Black Narcissus
The Third Man
Utamaro and His Five Women
Rome, Open City
Bicycle Thieves
Gaslight (either version)
Laura
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Nightmare Alley
Scarlet Street
Gilda
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Whisky Galore!
Sullivan’s Travels

Surprised I’m the only one so far to mention Ozu’s Late Spring. For obvious reasons, the 1940s was not a great decade for world cinema, but this stands out as a true masterpiece, and it often appears on lists of the greatest films of all time.

 

The Big Sleep
Black Narcissus
Brief Encounter
Casablanca
Cat People
Citizen Kane
Double Indemnity
Les Enfants du Paradis
Gilda
His Girl Friday
The Lady Eve
Laura
Letter from an Unknown Woman
The Maltese Falcon
A Matter of Life and Death
Mildred Pierce
Notorious
Out of the Past
Rebecca
Red River
The Red Shoes
Shadow of a Doubt
The Third Man
To Be or Not To Be
To Have and Have Not

I had to remove some of my favourites in order to get the list down to 25

 

No order

The Third Man
White Heat
Blood Of the Beasts
Double Indemnity
Treasure Of the Sierra Madre
The Big Sleep
The Ox Bow Incident
Citizen Kane
Sullivan’s Travels
The Great Dictator
The Bank Dick
The Killers
Bicycle Thieves
Nightmare Alley
Red River
Red Hot Riding Hood
The Lady From Shanghai
Portrait Of Jennie
Dead Of Night
Out Of the Past
Arsenic and Old Lace
Notorious
Mildred Pierce
The Seventh Victim
This Gun’sFor Hire

 

Is this the first mention of this one?

 

I was debating whether to include that or "Miracle of Morgan's Creek"

 

La Belle et la Bête
The Best Years of Our Lives
Bicycle Thieves
Black Narcissus
Brief Encounter
Casablanca
Cat People
Citizen Kane
Double Indemnity
'Fires Were Started'
Gaslight
Gaslight
Gilda
Great Expectations
It's a Wonderful Life
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Meet Me in St. Louis
Monsieur Verdoux
Notorious
Rome, Open City
Shadow of a Doubt
Spellbound
Sullivan's Travels
The Third Man
The Woman in the Window

 

Off the top of my head, in no particular order.

Casablanca
High Sierra
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Children of Paradise
Citizen Kane
The Third Man
White Heat
Rebecca
Lifeboat
Notorious
Shadow of a Doubt
The Philadelphia Story
Double Indemnity
The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Lady Eve
Best Years of Our Lives
Arsenic and Old Lace

 

In no particular order:

Stranger on the Third Floor
Torrid Zone
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
The Mark of Zorro
Rebecca
Suspicion
The Best Years of Our Lives
Raw Deal
The Third Man
The Killers
This Gun For Hire
Kid Glove Killer (yeah, it's a B-movie, but it's Fred Zinnemann's first as a director and it features Ava Gardner in a bit role, and I've always been partial to Marsha Hunt)
Act of Violence
Out of the Past
Crossfire
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Twelve O'clock High
Fallen Angel
Detour
White Heat
Gun Crazy
The Big Sleep
Key Largo
Gilda

 

Is there a 40’s film noir dvd box set?

 

I'm curious about The Glass Key.
Wonder if I'd like it more than The Blue Dahlia.

 

Not as good.

 

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Arsenic and Old Lace
Cat People
Citizen Kane
Curse of the Cat People
Dead of Night
Double Indemnity
Gaslight
House of Frankenstein
It's a Wonderful Life
Mighty Joe Young
Nightmare Alley
Out of the Past
Rebecca
The Red House
The Scarlet Claw
Scarlet Street
The Seventh Victim
Shadow of a Doubt
Shop Around the Corner
Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Too Late for Tears
Weird Woman
Who Done It?
The Wrong Rut

 

Why are you narrowing your list? There are hundreds of films worth watching from the 40s.

 

It’s not a list of what’s worth watching, but just a list of favorites for discussion and to see what other films people would list. This was made almost 2 years ago and is already very outdated. Many favorite films are missing I have seen lately. These lists are just a fun exercise. I thought 25 was a good number. I’m sure many people would have a very hard time coming up with 10 let alone 25 films from the 40s.

 

Fair enough. It's just that there so many movies that I haven't seen, in general, going over the same ones gets a bit dull. Here's my list of 25 1940s films that I have yet to watch but look intriguing -

Band Waggon, directed by Marcel Varnel
The Biscuit Eater, directed by Stuart Heisler
Edison, the Man, starring Spencer Tracy
Gaslight, starring Anton Walbrook
The 47 Ronin, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Here Comes Mr. Jordan, starring Robert Montgomery
I Wake Up Screaming, starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis
The Sea Wolf, starring Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, John Garfield
Sullivan's Travels, directed by Preston Sturges, starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake
Suvorov, directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin and Mikhail Doller
Tobacco Road, directed by John Ford, starring Gene Tierney
The Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney, Jr.
Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder
There Was a Father, directed by Yasujirō Ozu
Saboteur, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Tales of Manhattan, directed by Julien Duvivier
Bataan, directed by Tay Garnett, starring Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan
Day of Wrath, directed by Carl Dreyer
Ivan The Terrible, Parts I & II
The Spider Woman, a Sherlock Holmes mystery featuring Gale Sondergaard
The Uninvited, directed by Lewis Allen, starring Ray Milland
The Woman in the Window, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett
Fort Apache, directed by John Ford
Sanshiro Sugata, directed by Akira Kurosawa (watching this one tonight!)
Cabin in the Sky, directed by Vincente Minnelli

 

Good list. I have seen a few on here. I’ll have to look up the others. There are so many great ones to choose from. I love Kurosawa and have seen the majority of his films but I don’t recall Sanshiro Sugata. I have been going through all Bergman’s films lately. From his 40s films, I loved Thirst. Port of Call is also worth checking out.

 

Great movie.
" There's no sugar for the coffee. There's no coffee. There's maggots in the meat and the meat's mule "

 

one of my favorite decades! there is not a one I don't like!

 

Thank you!

 

It was the first pairing with Veronica Lake, William Bendix is in it. Worth getting regardless.

 

Ah - yeah I was debating, I worry about blind buys. I like This Gun For Hire more than the Blue Dahlia.
It came after This Gun For Hire though.
I've wished they'd show it on Comcast sometime.

 

#1 with a bullet would be A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven in the US). So perfect and so bloody English.

The rest in alphabetical order

A Canterbury Tale
Bambi
Bicycle Thieves
Black Narcissus
Blood of the Beasts
Brief Encounter
Citizen Kane
Double Indemnity
Foreign Correspondent
His Girl Friday
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Meshes of the Afternoon
Mildred Pierce
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House
My Darling Clementine
Out of the Past
Pinocchio
Rebecca
Rome Open City
Shadow of a Doubt
Sullivan's Travels
The Red Shoes
The Third Man
To Be or Not to Be