Top 10 Films of the 1940s

1. Citizen Kane
2. Casablanca
3. The Third Man
4. The Bycicle Thief
5. Its a Wonderful Life
6. The Maltese Falcon
7. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
8. How Green Was My Valley
9. The Great Dictator
10. The Lady From Shanghai

My list of best 40's movies:

1. Casablanca (1942)
2. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
3. Citizen Kane (1941)
4. Double Indemnity (1944)
5. The Third Man (1949)
6. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
7. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
8. The Great Dictator (1940)
9. Rebecca (1940)
10. Bicycle Thieves (1948)

The Big Sleep
Detour
The Great Dictator
His Girl Friday
Gilda
It's a Wonderful Life
The Killers
Notorious
The Philadelphia Story
White Heat

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A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.
~Mae West

Just an update as to my top ten of the 1940's:

1. Casablanca
2. The Grapes of Wrath
3. The Best Years of Our Lives
4. It's a Wonderful Life
5. Arsenic and Old Lace
6. Pinocchio
7. The Lost Weekend
8. Notorious
9. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
10. Rebecca


On a side note, I've actually only seen 18 movies from the 40's, so this is a rather "early" top 10 listing.

- Children Of Paradise ***************************
- The Red Shoes
- Bicycle Thieves
- Rome Open City
- The Great Dictator
- Double Indemnity
- Hamlet
- La Belle et La Bete
- Ivan The Terrible
- Late Spring

Must get on that ************************** then.

__________________
"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

The Grapes of Wrath is a really, really good movie. Easily shoots up to #2 for the 40's for me. Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell give really great performances and the emotion is portrayed so well.

Out of the movies I've seen in the 1940's, my list goes:

1. Bambi
2. Pinocchio
3. Fantasia

After seeing Citizen Kane:

1. Casablanca
2. The Grapes of Wrath
3. The Best Years of Our Lives
4. Citizen Kane
5. It's a Wonderful Life
6. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (shot up upon another viewing)
7. Arsenic and Old Lace
8. Pinocchio
9. The Lost Weekend
10. Notorious

Sorry Maltese Falcon, Bicycle Thieves, Rebecca, Shop Around the Corner, Rope, Gaslight etc. etc.

1 Citizen Kane
2 The Grapes of Wrath
3 It's a wonderful life
4 Casablanca
5 White Heat
6 The Third man
7 Double Indemnity
8 Pinnochio
9 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
10 The Best Years of our Lives

My top 10:

10. The Killers. Great noir with the quintessential tough-talking hitmen in the beginning of the film.
9. The Third Man. I thought it was great, but I wished there was more Orson Welles!
8. The Philadelphia Story. My wife can't stand the sound of Cary Grant's or Jimmy Stewart's voice (that whole clipped, Mid-Atlantic English thing) when I watch a movie with either of them, so this is a good one to drive her crazy, haha. Hard to top those two and Hepburn.
7. The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Walter Huston's dance is the best thing.
6. Double Indemnity. Great framing plot device, and great film noir dialogue and feel.
5. Citizen Kane. I don't know if people have heard of this one, but it's pretty good!
4. Shadow of a Doubt. One of my favorites by Hitchcock.
3. Casablanca. Another under-the-radar great. /sarcasm
2. Notorious. So great, and criminally underwatched (at least in relation to other great Hitchcock films).
1. It's a Wonderful Life. Call me a sentimentalist, but this one gets me every time. An exceptional film, and Jimmy Stewart gives one of my favorite acting performances.

1) Casablanca
2) Double Indemnity
3) the Maltese Falcon
4) Pinocchio
5) It's a Wonderful Life
6) White Heat
7) Citizen Kane
8) Fantasia
9) the Big Sleep
10) the Third Man

Another 1940s update here:

1. Casablanca
2. Grapes of Wrath
3. Double Indemnity
4. The Best Years of Our Lives
5. It's a Wonderful Life
6. Citizen Kane
7. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
8. Notorious
9. Arsenic and Old Lace
10. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

In no particular order

A Matter of Life and Death (Powell, 1946)
Under the Bridges (Käutner, 1945)
Children of Paradise (Carne, 1945)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophüls, 1948)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer, 1949)
I Walked With a Zombie (Tourneur, 1943)
Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)
The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch, 1940)
Red River (Hawks, 1948)
Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946)

1.) White Heat
2.) The Big Sleep
3.) The Maltese Falcon
4.) The Third Man
5.) Citizen Kane
6.) High Sierra
7.) All Through the Night
8.) The Killers
9.) Key Largo
10.) Dark Passage