My Favorites from 1940 – 1949
I won’t make any claims other than these are the movies from the 1940’s that I like best. And without trying I could add a whole bunch more (see the runners up list below).
It’s funny. I have a much different feel about the movies in the ‘30s versus the ‘40s. When I look at the movies from the ‘40s I feel like I’m more jaded or something. I haven’t included a single monster movie. Maybe I shifted to the fairy tales with Sabu like “The Thief of Bagdad” and the “Jungle Book.”
Well, as usual, have at it in the comments.
- The Bank Dick (1940)
- The Great McGinty (1940)
- The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
- The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
- Our Town (1940)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- Sergeant York (1941)
- Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
- Casablanca (1942)
- Jungle Book (1942)
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
- Double Indemnity (1944)
- Gaslight (1944)
- Going My Way (1944)
- Henry V (1944)
- To Have and Have Not (1944)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
- Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)
- The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
- The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
- The Big Sleep (1946)
- Notorious (1946)
- Life with Father (1947)
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
- Hamlet (1948)
- Key Largo (1948)
- Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
- A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
- The Third Man (1949)
Runners-Up List
1940
Dr. Cyclops
Edison, the Man
Foreign Correspondent
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Dictator
His Girl Friday
The Letter
The Philadelphia Story
Rebecca
Road to Singapore
Swiss Family Robinson
The Westerner
Young Tom Edison
1941
Buck Privates
Citizen Kane
The Corsican Brothers
The Devil and Daniel Webster
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dumbo
High Sierra
How Green Was My Valley
The Lady Eve
The Little Foxes
Meet John Doe
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Suspicion
They Died with Their Boots On
Tobacco Road
The Wolf Man
1942
George Washington Slept Here
The Glass Key
Kings Row
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Mrs. Miniver
Now, Voyager
The Pride of the Yankees
Saboteur
Tortilla Flat
Yankee Doodle Dandy
1943
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Human Comedy
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Song of Bernadette
1944
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Canterville Ghost
Hail the Conquering Hero
The Keys of the Kingdom
Lifeboat
The Lodger
National Velvet
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
1945
The Body Snatcher
Brief Encounter
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
Spellbound
The Story of G.I. Joe
They Were Expendable
1946
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Blue Dahlia
Gilda
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Killers
My Darling Clementine
The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Stranger
1947
The Bishop’s Wife
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Lady from Shanghai
Odd Man Out
Out of the Past
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Sinbad the Sailor
1948
3 Godfathers
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Fort Apache
I Remember Mama
Johnny Belinda
Macbeth
The Naked City
Oliver Twist
Red River
Rope
Sorry, Wrong Number
The Three Musketeers
1949
All the King’s Men
The Inspector General
Mighty Joe Young
Sands of Iwo Jima
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Twelve O’Clock High
White Heat