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Defining Era
1940 — 1949

THE 1940S

NOIR AND THE WAR
Out of the shadows of wartime came film noir, Welles, and the films that taught Hollywood it could mean something.
1940 — 1949
1,686
Films Catalogued
67.3
Avg Master Score
6.7
Avg IMDb
RAOUL WALSH
Top Director
134
Oscar-Nominated
The Defining Three

ESSENTIAL VIEWING

Top-ranked by master score. If you only saw three films from this decade, these are the three.

No.01
MS92.9
HOWARD HAWKS|1946
THE BIG SLEEP

“The picture they were born for!”

No.02
MS92.2
WILLIAM WYLER|1946
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

“Three wonderful loves in the best picture of the year!”

No.03
MS91.9
MARCEL CARNÉ|1945
CHILDREN OF PARADISE

“AT LAST! The Celebrated French Film.”

Filter the List
1,686/1,686 films
Master Score
Awards
Showing 50 of 1686
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01
The Big Sleep
1946 · Howard Hawks
92.9
02
The Best Years of Our Lives
1946 · William Wyler · 8 Oscars
92.2
03
Children of Paradise
1945 · Marcel Carné
91.9
04
Notorious
1946 · Alfred Hitchcock
91.7
05
Kind Hearts and Coronets
1949 · Robert Hamer
91.3
06
Rome, Open City
1945 · Roberto Rossellini
91.3
07
The Shop Around the Corner
1940 · Ernst Lubitsch
91.1
08
Late Spring
1949 · Yasujirô Ozu
91.1
09
The Great Dictator
1940 · Charles Chaplin
90.5
10
Shadow of a Doubt
1943 · Alfred Hitchcock
90.0
11
Day of Wrath
1943 · Carl Theodor Dreyer
90.0
12
His Girl Friday
1940 · Howard Hawks
89.9
13
Casablanca
1942 · Michael Curtiz · 3 Oscars
89.8
14
Out of the Past
1947 · Jacques Tourneur
89.7
15
Brief Encounter
1945 · David Lean
89.5
16
To Have and Have Not
1944 · Howard Hawks
89.3
17
The Ox-Bow Incident
1943 · William A. Wellman
89.1
18
Arsenic and Old Lace
1944 · Frank Capra
89.0
19
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
1947 · Joseph L. Mankiewicz
88.9
20
The Killers
1946 · Robert Siodmak
88.8
21
Monsieur Verdoux
1947 · Charles Chaplin
88.6
22
The Little Foxes
1941 · William Wyler
88.5
23
Ball of Fire
1941 · Howard Hawks
88.5
24
Bambi
1942 · James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, David Hand
88.4
25
The Maltese Falcon
1941 · John Huston
88.4
26
The Lost Weekend
1945 · Billy Wilder · 4 Oscars
88.3
27
Letter from an Unknown Woman
1948 · Max Ophüls
88.1
28
The Lady Eve
1941 · Preston Sturges
88.0
29
Drunken Angel
1948 · Akira Kurosawa
87.7
30
The Red Shoes
1948 · Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger · 2 Oscars
87.3
31
Mrs. Miniver
1942 · William Wyler · 6 Oscars
87.3
32
The Fallen Idol
1948 · Carol Reed
87.3
33
Odd Man Out
1947 · Carol Reed
87.2
34
Cat People
1942 · Jacques Tourneur
87.0
35
Sahara
1943 · Zoltan Korda
86.7
36
It's a Wonderful Life
1946 · Frank Capra
86.6
37
Brute Force
1947 · Jules Dassin
86.4
38
Murder, My Sweet
1944 · Edward Dmytryk
86.3
39
The Letter
1940 · William Wyler
86.3
40
The Big Clock
1948 · John Farrow
86.2
41
Adam's Rib
1949 · George Cukor
86.2
42
Random Harvest
1942 · Mervyn LeRoy
86.1
43
The Magnificent Ambersons
1942 · Orson Welles, Fred Fleck, Robert Wise
86.0
44
Citizen Kane
1941 · Orson Welles · 1 Oscar
85.8
45
Fantasia
1940 · James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe Jr. · 2 Oscars
85.6
46
Meet John Doe
1941 · Frank Capra
85.6
47
The Woman in the Window
1944 · Fritz Lang
85.6
48
La Terra Trema
1948 · Luchino Visconti
85.6
49
W
Went the Day Well?
1942 · Alberto Cavalcanti
85.5
50
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
1948 · Charles Barton, Walter Lantz
85.5
Continue the Timeline

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THE 1930S
THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE

The Hays Code arrived, screwball comedies ran riot, and the studios learned how to make magic by the foot.

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THE 1950S
CINEMASCOPE AND THE CRISIS

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