Best 1940s Movies
Ranking my favourite movies from perhaps the greatest decade in film making.
List activity
1.5K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
99 titles
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsRita HayworthOrson WellesEverett SloaneFascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.10/10 - "Everybody is somebody's fool".
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardJack OakieDictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.9/10 - "Do you ever daydream? I do. That's the only time I'm really happy. Dreaming".
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsLucille BallClifton WebbWilliam BendixA secretary tries to help her boss who's been framed for murder.10/10 - "Love is not the exclusive province of adolescence, my dear; it's a heart ailment that strikes all age groups-like my love for you. My love for you is the only malady I've contracted since the usual childhood diseases. And it's incurable".
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsCelia JohnsonTrevor HowardStanley HollowayMeeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.9/10 - "I've been so foolish. I've fallen in love. I'm an ordinary woman. I didn't think such violent things could happen to ordinary people".
- DirectorRobert HamerStarsDennis PriceAlec GuinnessValerie HobsonA distant poor relative of the Duke D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.9/10 - " I made an oath that I would revenge the wrongs her family had done her. It was no more than a piece of youthful bravado, but it was one of those acorns from which great oaks are destined to grow".
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsMyrna LoyDana AndrewsFredric MarchThree World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartWalter HustonTim HoltTwo down-on-their-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.9/10 - "I know what gold does to men's souls".
- DirectorBusby BerkeleyStarsJudy GarlandGeorge MurphyGene KellyTwo vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.9/10 - "You'll never be big time because you're small time in your heart".
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsFred MacMurrayBarbara StanwyckEdward G. RobinsonA Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.9/10 - "How could I have known that murder could sometimes smell like honeysuckle?"
- DirectorJoseph H. LewisStarsNina FochMay WhittyGeorge MacreadyJulia Ross secures employment through a rather nosy employment agency, with a wealthy widow, Mrs. Hughes, and goes to live at her house. 2 days later, she awakens - in a different house, in different clothes and with a new identity. She's told she is the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Hughes and has suffered a nervous breakdown. Is Julia really 'Julia', or is it true that she's lost all memory of who she is?
- DirectorFritz LangStarsEdward G. RobinsonJoan BennettDan DuryeaA man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, though her fiancé persuades her to con him out of the fortune they mistakenly assume he possesses.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsJames StewartDonna ReedLionel BarrymoreAn angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.9/10 - "All you can take with you is that which you've given away".
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsHumphrey BogartIngrid BergmanPaul HenreidA cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.9/10 - "You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust".
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsRobert NewtonAlec GuinnessKay WalshIn Charles Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home.9/10 - "Cry your hardest now, it opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes and softens down the temper. So cry away".
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsDavid NivenKim HunterRobert CooteA British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.9/10 - "A weak mind isn't strong enough to hurt itself. Stupidity has saved many a man from going mad".
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMargaret SullavanJames StewartFrank MorganTwo employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.9/10 - "There might be a lot we don't know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of things to find the inner truth".
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsLaurence OlivierJoan FontaineGeorge SandersA self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.9/10 - "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again".
- DirectorJohn M. StahlStarsGene TierneyCornel WildeJeanne CrainA writer falls in love with a young socialite and they're soon married, but her obsessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of them both as well as everyone around them.
- DirectorNorman FergusonT. HeeWilfred JacksonStarsDickie JonesChristian RubMel BlancA living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.9/10 - "Little puppet made of pine, awake. The gift of life is thine".
- DirectorIrving RapperStarsBette DavisPaul HenreidClaude RainsA frumpy spinster blossoms under therapy and becomes an elegant, independent woman.9/10 - "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars".
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJoan CrawfordJack CarsonZachary ScottA hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsJoel McCreaVeronica LakeRobert WarwickHollywood director John L. Sullivan sets out to experience life as a homeless person in order to gain relevant life experience for his next movie.9/10 - "There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan".
- DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsTom NealAnn SavageClaudia DrakeThe life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaJane DarwellJohn CarradineAn Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsArlettyJean-Louis BarraultPierre BrasseurThe theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan in 1830s Paris and the four men who love her.8/10 - "Their lives are small, but their dreams are vast".