Dave Tompkins :: DVD Library :: IMDb Charts :: Top by Decade :: 1940s


(text-only version)

1.  It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would had been like if he never existed.

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2.  Casablanca (1942)

Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

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3.  The Great Dictator (1940)

In Chaplin's satire on Nazi Germany, dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a double... a poor Jewish barber... who one day is mistaken for Hynkel.

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4.  Double Indemnity (1944)

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

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5.  Citizen Kane (1941)

Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.

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6.  The Bicycle Thief (1948)

A man and his son search for a stolen bicycle vital for his job.

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7.  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled...

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8.  The Third Man (1949)

Arriving in Vienna, Holly Martins learns that his friend Harry Lime, who has invited him, recently died in a car accident.

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9.  The Red Shoes (1948)

A young ballet dancer is torn between the man she loves and her pursuit to become a prima ballerina.

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10.  Rebecca (1940)

When a naive young woman marries a rich widower and settles in his gigantic mansion, she finds the memory of the first wife maintaining a grip on her husband and the servants.

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11.  The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Three WWII veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.

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12.  Children of Paradise (1945)

This tragic tale centers around the ill-fated love between Baptiste, a theater mime, and Claire Reine...

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13.  To Be or Not to Be (1942)

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.

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14.  The Maltese Falcon (1941)

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

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15.  The Heiress (1949)

A young naive woman falls for a handsome young man who her emotionally abusive father suspects is a fortune hunter.

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16.  Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

A distant poor relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.

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17.  Sullivan's Travels (1941)

A director of escapist films goes on the road as a hobo to learn about Life...which gives him a rude awakening.

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18.  White Heat (1949)

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. Shortly after the plan takes place, events take a crazy turn

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19.  The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.

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20.The Little Foxes (1941)
21.  Notorious (1946)

A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?

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22.  Laura (1944)

A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.

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23.  Brief Encounter (1945)

Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.

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24.  The Big Sleep (1946)

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.

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25.  Rome, Open City (1945)

Rome, 1944. Giorgio Manfredi, one of the leaders of the Resistance, is tracked down by the Nazis. He goes to his friend Francesco's...

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26.  The Philadelphia Story (1940)

When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.

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27.  The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

Two drifters are passing through a Western town, when news comes in that a local farmer has been murdered and his cattle stolen...

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28.  Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family.

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29.  Out of the Past (1947)

Jeff Bailey, small-town gas pumper, has his mysterious past catch up with him one day when he's ordered to meet with gambler Whit Sterling...

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30.  The Lost Weekend (1945)

The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four day drinking bout.

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31.  The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realizing that they're falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

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32.  His Girl Friday (1940)

A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.

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33.A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
34.  The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Portrays in warm-hearted detail the life and loves of one extraordinary man. We meet the imposingly rotund General Clive Wynne-Candy...

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35.  Rope (1948)

Two young men strangle their ''inferior'' classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the ''perfection'' of their crime.

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36.  Now, Voyager (1942)

Boston spinster blossoms under therapy and finds impossible romance.

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37.  The Lady Eve (1941)

Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike meets con-artist Jean Harrington on a ship...

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38.  Black Narcissus (1947)

Sister Clodah is dispatched with four other nuns to establish a new convent far in the Himalayas. It's...

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39.  Mildred Pierce (1945)

After her cheating husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce proves she can become independent and successful, but can't win the approval of her spoiled daughter.

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40.  To Have and Have Not (1944)

Harry Morgan and his alcoholic sidekick, Eddie, are based on the island of Martinique and crew a boat available for hire...

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41.  Late Spring (1949)

Noriko is 27 years old and still living with her widowed father. Everybody tries to talk her into marrying, but Noriko wants to stay taking care of her father.

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42.  Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

A young woman discovers her visiting ''Uncle Charlie'' may not be the man he seems to be.

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43.  Great Expectations (1946)

A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.

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44.Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
45.  Beauty and the Beast (1946)

A half-ruined merchant lives in the country with his son Ludovic and his three daughters. Two of the daughters...

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46.The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
47.Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
48.  Key Largo (1948)

A man visits his old friend's hotel and finds a gangster running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other.

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49.  The Palm Beach Story (1942)

An inventor needs cash to develop his big idea. His wife, who loves him, decides to raise it for him by divorcing him and marrying a millionaire.

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50.  The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

In 1900, a young widow finds her seaside cottage is haunted...and forms a unique relationship with the ghost.

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Count: 45 / 50