Favorite films from the 1940s
by jrsl88 | created - 22 Feb 2015 | updated - 12 Nov 2022 | PublicFilms release from 1940 to 1949 that are my favorites. Arranged in ABC order.
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1. Adam's Rib (1949)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
Domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell
Votes: 22,916
2. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
Approved | 68 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
An animated adaptation of "The Wind in the Willows" followed by an adaptation of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".
Directors: James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney | Stars: Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone, Eric Blore, John McLeish
Votes: 17,890
3. The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943)
Passed | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A missionary tries to outwit the U.S. government and smuggle Chinese orphans into the country.
Directors: Bruce Manning, Jean Renoir | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Edmond O'Brien, Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Treacher
Votes: 393
4. Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Passed | 140 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Musical
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star.
Directors: George Sidney, Joseph Barbera, William Hanna | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly, José Iturbi
Votes: 9,435
5. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 74,975
6. Babes on Broadway (1941)
Approved | 118 min | Comedy, Family, Musical
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney star in a musical directed by Busby Berkeley as two talented teenagers dreaming of success as Babes on Broadway.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Fay Bainter, Virginia Weidler
Votes: 1,653 | Gross: $3.85M
7. Bambi (1942)
G | 69 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
The story of a young deer growing up in the forest.
Directors: James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, David Hand, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Norman Wright, Arthur Davis, Clyde Geronimi | Stars: Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander, Bobette Audrey, Peter Behn
Votes: 154,098 | Gross: $102.80M
8. The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Passed | 109 min | Comedy, Musical
A married musical team splits up so the wife can become a serious actress.
Director: Charles Walters | Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant, Billie Burke
Votes: 3,502
9. Bathing Beauty (1944)
Passed | 101 min | Comedy, Musical
A contrived misunderstanding leads to the breakup of a songwriter and his fiancée. She returns to work as a gym teacher at an all-girls school, but a legal loophole allows the man to enroll as one of her students.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone, Bill Goodwin
Votes: 1,880
10. Battleground (1949)
Approved | 118 min | Action, Drama, History
True tale about a squad of the 101st Airborne Division coping with being trapped by the Germans in the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy
Votes: 7,864 | Gross: $10.29M
11. Bedlam (1946)
Approved | 79 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Nell Bowen, the protégé of Lord Mortimer, wants to help change the conditions of notorious St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum (Bedlam). Though she tries to reform Bedlam, the cruel Master Sims ... See full summary »
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House, Richard Fraser
Votes: 4,376
12. The Beginning or the End (1947)
Passed | 112 min | Biography, Drama, History
A docudrama detailing the research, development and deployment of the first atomic bomb, as well as the bombing of Hiroshima.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler
Votes: 749 | Gross: $2.66M
13. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,528 | Gross: $6.54M
14. The Bishop's Wife (1947)
G | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A debonair angel comes to Earth to help an Episcopalian bishop and his wife in their quest to raise money for the new church.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven, Monty Woolley
Votes: 20,903
15. The Black Swan (1942)
Approved | 87 min | Adventure, Drama
An ex-pirate contends with rowdy buccaneers and a love/hate relationship with an aristocratic woman who's tougher than she seems.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 5,085 | Gross: $1.01M
16. Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
Approved | 99 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
After losing her young son, Edna Gladney opposes the unfair laws discriminating against children whose parents are unknown, and opens an orphanage for those children.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Felix Bressart, Marsha Hunt
Votes: 2,293
17. The Blue Bird (1940)
Approved | 88 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, a woodchopper's children, are led by the Fairy Berylune on a magical trip through the past, present, and future to locate the Blue Bird of Happiness.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Shirley Temple, Spring Byington, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard
Votes: 1,978
18. Blue Skies (1946)
Approved | 99 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
An ex-dancer and New York radio star narrates his love story for a band singer who loved a self-centered man who was unable to commit to his nightclub business or his family.
Directors: Stuart Heisler, Mark Sandrich | Stars: Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Joan Caulfield, Billy De Wolfe
Votes: 1,568
19. The Body Snatcher (1945)
Approved | 78 min | Horror, Thriller
A ruthless doctor and his young prize student find themselves continually harassed by their murderous supplier of illegal cadavers.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell, Edith Atwater
Votes: 10,191
20. The Boy with Green Hair (1948)
Approved | 82 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
This parable looks at public reaction when the hair of an American war orphan mysteriously turns green.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Barbara Hale, Dean Stockwell
Votes: 3,260
21. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
Passed | 102 min | Musical
Johnny Brett and King Shaw are an unsuccessful dance team in New York. A producer discovers Brett as the new partner for Clare Bennett but Brett, who thinks he is one of the people they lent money to, gives him the name of his partner.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan
Votes: 2,787
22. Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong
Votes: 3,411
23. Can't Help Singing (1944)
Passed | 90 min | Musical, Romance, Western
A senator's daughter (who can't help singing) follows her boyfriend West in the days of the California gold rush.
Director: Frank Ryan | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Robert Paige, Akim Tamiroff, David Bruce
Votes: 650
24. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A 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.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 606,047 | Gross: $1.02M
25. Cat People (1942)
Not Rated | 73 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
An American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if they are intimate together.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph
Votes: 25,993 | Gross: $4.00M
26. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 465,999 | Gross: $1.59M
27. City for Conquest (1940)
Passed | 104 min | Drama, Sport
Danny is a content truck driver, but his girl Peggy shows potential as a dancer and hopes he too can show ambition. Danny acquiesces and pursues boxing to please her, but the two begin to spend more time working than time together.
Directors: Anatole Litvak, Jean Negulesco | Stars: James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp
Votes: 2,709
28. The Clock (1945)
Passed | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1945, during a 48-hour leave, a soldier accidentally meets a girl at Pennsylvania Station and spends his leave with her, eventually falling in love with the lovely New Yorker.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, James Gleason, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 4,045 | Gross: $2.78M
29. Crossfire (1947)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of demobilized soldiers he met in a bar. But which one? And why?
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame
Votes: 9,705 | Gross: $1.30M
30. Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
When a troupe of danseuses becomes unemployed, one of them takes up burlesque dancing while another dreams of performing ballet.
Directors: Dorothy Arzner, Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, Lucille Ball, Virginia Field
Votes: 3,080
31. A Date with Judy (1948)
Not Rated | 113 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Hyperactive teenager Judy Foster (Jane Powell) challenges, and is challenged by, her overly-proper parents, pesky brother Randolph (Jerry Hunter), and boyfriend Ogden "Oogie" Pringle (Scotty Beckett).
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Wallace Beery, Jane Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, Carmen Miranda
Votes: 1,447
32. Diamond Horseshoe (1945)
Approved | 104 min | Musical, Romance
A medical student who wants to be a crooner gets involved with a showgirl who has an ulterior motive.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: Betty Grable, Dick Haymes, Phil Silvers, William Gaxton
Votes: 310
33. The Dolly Sisters (1945)
Approved | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Musical
Two sisters from Hungary become famous entertainers in the early 1900s. Fictionalized biography with lots of songs.
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Betty Grable, John Payne, June Haver, S.Z. Sakall
Votes: 849
34. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A 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.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 167,467 | Gross: $5.72M
35. Down Argentine Way (1940)
Approved | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
An American girl on vacation in Argentina falls for a wealthy racehorse owner.
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood
Votes: 1,365
36. Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)
Passed | 101 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A nightclub's coatroom attendant who's in love with the club's singer accidentally sips a drugged drink that makes him dream he's French King Louis XV, courting the infamous Madame Du Barry.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly, Virginia O'Brien
Votes: 1,724
37. Dumbo (1941)
G | 64 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Ridiculed because of his enormous ears, a young circus elephant is assisted by a mouse to achieve his full potential.
Directors: Samuel Armstrong, Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen, John Elliotte | Stars: Sterling Holloway, Edward Brophy, Herman Bing, Billy Bletcher
Votes: 142,089 | Gross: $1.60M
38. Easter Parade (1948)
G | 103 min | Musical, Romance
A nightclub performer hires a naive chorus girl to become his new dance partner to make his former partner jealous and to prove he can make any partner a star.
Director: Charles Walters | Stars: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Ann Miller
Votes: 11,090 | Gross: $9.03M
39. Fantasia (1940)
G | 124 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
A series of eight famous pieces of classical music, conducted by Leopold Stokowski and interpreted in animation by Walt Disney's team of artists.
Directors: James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe Jr., Norman Ferguson, David Hand, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen | Stars: Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Corey Burton
Votes: 103,991 | Gross: $76.41M
40. Fighting Father Dunne (1948)
Approved | 93 min | Action, Biography, Crime
In 1905, a crusading priest tries to help poor newsboys.
Director: Ted Tetzlaff | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Darryl Hickman, Charles Kemper, Una O'Connor
Votes: 234
41. For Me and My Gal (1942)
Not Rated | 104 min | Musical, Romance, War
Two vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Gene Kelly, Mártha Eggerth
Votes: 3,844 | Gross: $4.37M
42. Force of Evil (1948)
Passed | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An unethical lawyer who wants to help his older brother becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.
Director: Abraham Polonsky | Stars: John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Beatrice Pearson, Marie Windsor
Votes: 7,667
43. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Votes: 23,719 | Gross: $3.48M
44. Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
Approved | 73 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Jiminy Cricket hosts two Disney animated shorts: "Bongo," about a circus bear escaping to the wild, and "Mickey and the Beanstalk," a take on the famous fairy tale.
Directors: Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, William Morgan, Bill Roberts | Stars: Edgar Bergen, Dinah Shore, Luana Patten, Anita Gordon
Votes: 9,407
45. Gallant Bess (1946)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, War
An orphaned young man, Tex, has loved and trained his loyal horse, keeping alive his father's dream of starting a ranch. He decides to put his life on hold to serve the United States during... See full summary »
Director: Andrew Marton | Stars: Marshall Thompson, George Tobias, Clem Bevans, Donald Curtis
Votes: 219
46. Gallant Sons (1940)
Approved | 76 min | Mystery
Two childhood friends have a falling out because of their fathers' occupations, which lands one father in jail.
Director: George B. Seitz | Stars: Jackie Cooper, Bonita Granville, Gene Reynolds, Gail Patrick
Votes: 299
47. The Gang's All Here (1943)
Passed | 103 min | Musical, Romance
A soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman
Votes: 2,058
48. Gaslight (1944)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Ten years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the home rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, May Whitty
Votes: 33,903
49. Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama, Romance
A reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and personally discovers the true depths of bigotry and hatred.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm
Votes: 17,774
50. The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Passed | 85 min | Comedy
A radio broadcaster, his quaking manservant and an heiress investigate the mystery of a haunted castle in Cuba.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson, Paul Lukas
Votes: 4,158
51. The Ghost Ship (1943)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Third Officer Tom Merriam accuses Captain Will Stone of being a homicidal maniac, but no one believes him.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Richard Dix, Russell Wade, Edith Barrett, Ben Bard
Votes: 3,789
52. Gilda (1946)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 35,277
53. Girl Crazy (1943)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Musical
A philandering young playboy is sent to college somewhere in the American West, and organizes a show, together with his sweetheart, to save the college from closure due to falling enrollments.
Directors: Norman Taurog, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Gil Stratton, Robert E. Strickland
Votes: 2,245 | Gross: $3.77M
54. The Glass Key (1942)
Passed | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Director: Stuart Heisler | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Brian Donlevy, Bonita Granville
Votes: 7,399
55. Going My Way (1944)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
When young Father O'Malley arrives at St. Dominic's, old Father Fitzgibbon doesn't think much of the church's newest member.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, James Brown
Votes: 13,456 | Gross: $16.30M
56. Good News (1947)
Approved | 93 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Golden Globe winner June Allyson and Peter Lawford star in this enjoyable musical about a football hero who falls in love with his French tutor.
Director: Charles Walters | Stars: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Patricia Marshall, Joan McCracken
Votes: 2,819
57. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Passed | 129 min | Drama
An 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.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin
Votes: 99,957 | Gross: $0.06M
58. The Great Dictator (1940)
G | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 237,359 | Gross: $0.29M
59. The Green Years (1946)
Passed | 127 min | Drama
An orphaned young boy is guided by his great-grandfather and strives to go to university to become a doctor. However, the boy's harsh grandfather stands in his way.
Director: Victor Saville | Stars: Charles Coburn, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler, Hume Cronyn
Votes: 1,078
60. The Harvey Girls (1946)
Passed | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, History
On a train trip West to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley (Judy Garland) meets a cheery crew of young women travelling out to open a "Harvey House" restaurant at a remote whistle-stop.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 4,862
61. Heaven Can Wait (1943)
Passed | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
An old roué arrives in Hades to review his life with Satan, who will rule on his eligibility to enter the Underworld.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main
Votes: 12,372
62. The Heiress (1949)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A naive young woman falls for a handsome young man her emotionally abusive father suspects is only a fortune hunter.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins
Votes: 17,340
63. Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945)
Approved | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
A bellboy at a swanky New York hotel starts to ignore his girlfriend after meeting a beautiful European princess.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Hedy Lamarr, Robert Walker, June Allyson, Carl Esmond
Votes: 847
64. High Barbaree (1947)
Approved | 91 min | Action, Drama, Romance
Van Johnson is a Navy pilot in WWII who has been shot down in the Pacific on a bombing mission. He and a wounded comrade are the only survivors and are lost at sea. As they await rescue, ... See full summary »
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Thomas Mitchell, Marilyn Maxwell
Votes: 488
65. Holiday in Mexico (1946)
128 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
The U.S. Ambassador's (Walter Pidgeon) daughter falls for a Mexican pianist (Jose Iturbi) old enough to be her grandfather.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Ilona Massey, José Iturbi, Roddy McDowall
Votes: 523
66. Holiday Inn (1942)
Passed | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
At an inn which is open only on holidays, a crooner and a hoofer vie for the affections of a beautiful up-and-coming performer.
Directors: Mark Sandrich, Robert Allen | Stars: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale
Votes: 17,627 | Gross: $8.18M
67. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Family
At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp
Votes: 26,486
68. Humoresque (1946)
Approved | 125 min | Drama, Music, Mystery
A classical musician from the slums is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Oscar Levant, J. Carrol Naish
Votes: 4,954 | Gross: $2.28M
69. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett
Votes: 13,665
70. I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947)
Approved | 104 min | Musical
A biopic of the career of Joe Howard (12 February 1878 - 19 May 1961), famous songwriter of the early 20th Century. He wrote the title song, "Goodbye, My Lady Love" and "Hello, My Baby" ... See full summary »
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: June Haver, Mark Stevens, Martha Stewart, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 205
71. In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
Approved | 102 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
In turn-of-the century America, Andrew and Veronica are co-workers in a music shop who dislike one another during business hours but unwittingly carry on an anonymous romance through the mail.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S.Z. Sakall, Spring Byington
Votes: 4,308 | Gross: $6.30M
72. Intruder in the Dust (1949)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Family
In 1940s Mississippi, two teenage boys and an elderly woman combine forces to prevent a miscarriage of justice and clear a black man of a murder charge.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez, Porter Hall
Votes: 2,654
73. Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944)
Approved | 90 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A tunefull account of the life of Ernest R. Ball, composer of many popular Irish songs, including the title's.
Director: Gregory Ratoff | Stars: Monty Woolley, June Haver, Dick Haymes, Anthony Quinn
Votes: 193
74. Isle of the Dead (1945)
Not Rated | 71 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
On a Greek island during the 1912 war, several people are trapped by quarantine for the plague. If that isn't enough worry, one of the people, a superstitious old peasant woman, suspects ... See full summary »
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer, Katherine Emery
Votes: 5,262
75. It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Soldier Danny Miller returns home to Brooklyn after war. Aiming for singing success, he helps friends chasing dreams.
Director: Richard Whorf | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Peter Lawford, Jimmy Durante
Votes: 1,077
76. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An 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.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,176
77. Jane Eyre (1943)
Approved | 97 min | Drama, Romance
After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house, to care for his young daughter.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Margaret O'Brien, Peggy Ann Garner
Votes: 9,495 | Gross: $3.82M
78. The Jolson Story (1946)
Approved | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Music
This movie shows the idealized career of the singer Al Jolson, a little Jewish boy who goes against the will of his father in order to be in showbiz. He becomes a star, falls in love with a... See full summary »
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Larry Parks, Evelyn Keyes, William Demarest, Bill Goodwin
Votes: 1,768
79. Keeper of the Flame (1942)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, Mystery
Journalist Steve O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) wants to write a biography of a national hero who died when his car ran off a bridge. Steve receives conflicting reports and tales that make him question what the truth about the hero is.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Whorf, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 3,226
80. Kings Row (1942)
Passed | 127 min | Drama
The dark side and hypocrisy of provincial American life is seen through the eyes of five children as they grow to adulthood at the turn of the century.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Betty Field
Votes: 5,037
81. Kismet (1944)
Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Fantasy
In ancient Baghdad, Hafiz the King of Beggars dreams of untold riches and of marrying his daughter to a real prince.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, James Craig, Edward Arnold
Votes: 1,295
82. Kitty Foyle (1940)
Passed | 108 min | Drama, Romance
A hard-working white-collar girl from a middle-class family meets and falls in love with a young socialite, but she soon clashes with his family.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Eduardo Ciannelli
Votes: 4,055
83. Knute Rockne All American (1940)
Approved | 98 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The story of legendary Notre Dame football player and coach Knute Rockne.
Directors: Lloyd Bacon, William K. Howard | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan, Donald Crisp
Votes: 2,154
84. Lady Be Good (1941)
Passed | 112 min | Comedy, Music, Musical
A composer and his songwriter wife clash as they succeed in working together, writing hit Broadway shows, but fail in their marriage to the point of getting divorced twice.
Directors: Norman Z. McLeod, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Eleanor Powell, Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 1,174
85. The Lady Eve (1941)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A trio of classy card sharks targets a socially awkward brewery heir, until one of them falls in love with him.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette
Votes: 23,385
86. Lassie Come Home (1943)
Passed | 89 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
After her destitute family is forced to sell her, a collie named Lassie escapes from her new owner and begins the long trek from Scotland to her Yorkshire home.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 5,933
87. Laura (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 51,421 | Gross: $4.36M
88. Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A 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.
Director: John M. Stahl | Stars: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price
Votes: 14,780
89. The Leopard Man (1943)
Approved | 66 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Thriller
A seemingly-tame leopard used for a publicity stunt escapes and kills a young girl, spreading panic throughout a sleepy New Mexico town.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell
Votes: 5,960
90. The Letter (1940)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort
Votes: 14,596
91. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Romance
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel Journet
Votes: 13,643
92. Lifeboat (1944)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, War
Several survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the crew members of the U-boat that sank their ship.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix
Votes: 31,179
93. Little Nellie Kelly (1940)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Family, Musical
Irish colleen Nellie is in love with handsome Jerry Kelly, even though her father objects. Nellie and Jerry soon marry and announce plans to move to New York, which again angers Nellie's ... See full summary »
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Charles Winninger, Douglas McPhail
Votes: 718
94. Little Women (1949)
Approved | 122 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien, Elizabeth Taylor
Votes: 8,235 | Gross: $7.47M
95. The Lost Weekend (1945)
Passed | 101 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 40,197 | Gross: $9.46M
96. Madame Bovary (1949)
Passed | 114 min | Drama, Romance
A provincial doctor's wife's romantic illusions about life and social status lead her to betray her naive husband, take on lovers, and run up ruinous debts.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Jennifer Jones, James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan
Votes: 2,905
97. Madame Curie (1943)
Passed | 124 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Despite himself, accomplished physicist and avowed bachelor Pierre Curie falls for brilliant student Marie, and together they embark on the discovery of radium.
Directors: Mervyn LeRoy, Albert Lewin | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Albert Bassermann
Votes: 3,192
98. Make Mine Music (1946)
Passed | 75 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Animation done to contemporary popular music.
Directors: Robert Cormack, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Joshua Meador | Stars: Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore, Laverne Andrews, Maxene Andrews
Votes: 4,952
99. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Votes: 166,591 | Gross: $2.11M
100. The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Approved | 94 min | Action, Adventure, Family
A young Spanish aristocrat must masquerade as a fop in order to maintain his secret identity of Zorro as he restores justice to early California.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard
Votes: 10,979 | Gross: $4.36M
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