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Digital Dream Door's 100 Greatest Movies of the '40s There are a lot of movie lists at Digital Dream Door, but they're wildly variable in quality and some are easy to tear apart. The most thought out seem to be their 1940s and especially their 1950s lists, full of stunning films and the epitome of lists to use as starting points to explore their respective eras. The original version of the list can be found behind the Digital Dream Door. The List # Title Year Director IMDb 1 Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles IMDb 2 Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz IMDb 3 The Third Man 1949 Carol Reed IMDb 4 It's a Wonderful Life 1946 Frank Capra IMDb 5 The Grapes of Wrath 1940 John Ford IMDb 6 The Maltese Falcon 1941 John Huston IMDb 7 The Philadelphia Story 1940 George Cukor IMDb 8 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 John Huston IMDb 9 The Bicycle Thief 1948 Vittorio De Sica IMDb 10 Double Indemnity 1944 Billy Wilder IMDb 11 Notorious 1946 Alfred Hitchcock IMDb 12 The Big Sleep 1946 Howard Hawks IMDb 13 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 William Wyler IMDb 14 The Killers 1946 Robert Siodmak IMDb 15 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 Michael Curtiz IMDb 16 White Heat 1949 Raoul Walsh IMDb 17 Hamlet 1948 Laurence Olivier IMDb 18 The Red Shoes 1948 Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger IMDb 19 Great Expectations 1946 David Lean IMDb 20 The Great Dictator 1940 Charles Chaplin IMDb 21 Fantasia 1940 Samuel Armstrong et al IMDb 22 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 Orson Welles IMDb 23 Beauty and the Beast 1946 Jean Cocteau IMDb 24 My Darling Clementine 1946 John Ford IMDb 25 Pinocchio 1940 Hamilton Luske & Ben Sharpsteen IMDb 26 Red River 1948 Howard Hawks IMDb 27 Rebecca 1940 Alfred Hitchcock IMDb 28 Children of Paradise 1945 Marcel Carne IMDb 29 Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini IMDb 30 Laura 1944 Otto Preminger IMDb 31 His Girl Friday 1940 Howard Hawks IMDb 32 Sullivan's Travels 1941 Preston Sturges IMDb 33 The Ox-Bow Incident 1943 William A. Wellman IMDb 34 Meet Me in St. Louis 1944 Vincente Minnelli IMDb 35 Out of the Past 1947 Jacques Tourneur IMDb 36 The Lady Eve 1941 Preston Sturges IMDb 37 To Be or Not to Be 1942 Ernst Lubitsch IMDb 38 Shadow of a Doubt 1943 Alfred Hitchcock IMDb 39 The Bank Dick 1940 Edward Cline IMDb 40 Adam's Rib 1949 George Cukor IMDb 41 Henry V 1944 Laurence Olivier IMDb 42 Bambi 1942 David Hand IMDb 43 The Thief of Bagdad 1940 Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell & Tim Whelan IMDb 44 A Matter of Life and Death 1946 Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger IMDb 45 Dumbo 1941 Ben Sharpsteen IMDb 46 Cat People 1942 Jacques Tourneur IMDb 47 Key Largo 1948 John Huston IMDb 48 The Lost Weekend 1945 Billy Wilder IMDb 49 Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 Robert Hamer IMDb 50 Late Spring 1949 Yasujiro Ozu IMDb 51 On the Town 1949 Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly IMDb 52 Ossessione 1943 Luchino Visconti IMDb 53 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger IMDb 54 Miracle on 34th Street 1947 George Seaton IMDb 55 Brief Encounter 1945 David Lean IMDb 56 The Shop Around the Corner 1940 Ernst Lubitsch IMDb 57 How Green Was My Valley 1941 John Ford IMDb 58 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946 Tay Garnett IMDb 59 Here Comes Mr Jordan 1941 Alexander Hall IMDb 60 I Walked with a Zombie 1943 Jacques Tourneur IMDb 61 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon 1949 John Ford IMDb 62 The Stranger 1946 Orson Welles IMDb 63 Oliver Twist 1948 David Lean IMDb 64 The Little Foxes 1941 William Wyler IMDb 65 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 1945 Elia Kazan IMDb 66 Day of Wrath 1943 Carl Theodor Dreyer IMDb 67 Champion 1949 Mark Robson IMDb 68 All the King's Men 1949 Robert Rossen IMDb 69 Kings Row 1942 Sam Wood IMDb 70 The Yearling 1946 Clarence Brown IMDb 71 The Palm Beach Story 1942 Preston Sturges IMDb 72 Mrs Miniver 1942 William Wyler IMDb 73 Gun Crazy 1950 Joseph H. Lewis IMDb 74 Heaven Can Wait 1943 Ernst Lubitsch IMDb 75 National Velvet 1944 Clarence Brown IMDb 76 Mildred Pierce 1945 Michael Curtiz IMDb 77 Now, Voyager 1942 Irving Rapper IMDb 78 Shoeshine 1946 Vittorio De Sica IMDb 79 The Inspector General 1949 Henry Koster IMDb 80 To Have and Have Not 1944 Howard Hawks IMDb 81 The Pride of the Yankees 1942 Sam Wood IMDb 82 I Know Where I'm Going! 1945 Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger IMDb 83 Dead of Night 1945 Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer IMDb 84 Woman of the Year 1942 George Stevens IMDb 85 Gaslight 1944 George Cukor IMDb 86 Sergeant York 1941 Howard Hawks IMDb 87 Unfaithfully Yours 1948 Preston Sturges IMDb 88 Gentleman's Agreement 1947 Elia Kazan IMDb 89 I Remember Mama 1948 George Stevens IMDb 90 Sahara 1943 Zoltan Korda IMDb 91 In Which We Serve 1942 Noel Coward & David Lean IMDb 92 Letter from an Unknown Woman 1948 Max Ophüls IMDb 93 The Letter 1940 William Wyler IMDb 94 The Miracle of Morgan's Creek 1944 Preston Sturges IMDb 95 The Earth Trembles 1948 Luchino Visconti IMDb 96 Johnny Belinda 1948 Jean Negulesco IMDb 97 Intruder in the Dust 1949 Clarence Brown IMDb 98 The Heiress 1949 William Wyler IMDb 99 Going My Way 1944 Leo McCarey IMDb 100 The Man Who Came to Dinner 1942 William Keighley IMDb

Last update: 18th August, 2025