The Greatest Movies Of the 40s
List activity
131 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
22 titles
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsCary GrantRosalind RussellRalph BellamyA newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.Top 40s
- 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.Top 40s
- 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.Top 40s
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenDorothy ComingoreFollowing the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'Top 41s
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartMary AstorGladys GeorgeSan 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.Top 41s
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsHenry FondaDana AndrewsMary Beth HughesWhen a posse captures three men suspected of killing a local farmer, they become strongly divided over whether or not to lynch the men.Top 43s
- 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.Top 44s
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsCelia JohnsonTrevor HowardStanley HollowayMeeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.Top 45s
- 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.Top 45s
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAnna MagnaniAldo FabriziMarcello PaglieroDuring the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.Top 45s
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsRay MillandJane WymanPhillip TerryThe desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.Top 45s
- 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.Top 46s
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChôko IidaHôhi AokiEitarô OzawaA young boy follows Tashiro home to his tenement housing complex on the outskirts of Tokyo, the boy who was separated from his carpenter father somehow and somewhere in Kudan. All Tashiro knows is that the boy and his father came to town from Chigasaki that morning. Despite Tashiro's want to house the kid until they decide what to do more permanently, Tashiro's roommate, Tamekichi, the tenement's head, won't let the kid stay, not liking children and not wanting to get involved. So Tashiro foists the kid onto their neighbor, the widowed Tane, who too protests, she also not liking children and not wanting to get involved. Tane treats the boy with disdain, which only increases by the next morning due to an overnight incident. Amongst the tenement residents, Tane is charged with going to Chigasaki to see if she can find the father or find out what happened to him. On that trip, what she learns by putting the pieces of the story together is that the father purposefully abandoned the boy as he went off to look for work. This news does not change Tane's outlook or poor treatment of the boy. Nothing changes as the week progresses, however Tane's outlook takes a one hundred eighty degree turn when there is the possibility that she may never see the boy again.Top 47s
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsLamberto MaggioraniEnzo StaiolaLianella CarellIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.Top 48s
- 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.Top 48s
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsJoan FontaineLouis JourdanMady ChristiansA pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.Top 48s
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsAnton WalbrookMarius GoringMoira ShearerA young ballet dancer is torn between the man she loves and her pursuit to become a prima ballerina.Top 48s
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTakashi ShimuraToshirô MifuneReizaburô YamamotoA drunken doctor with a hot temper and a violence-prone gangster with tuberculosis form a quicksilver bond.Top 48s
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûSetsuko HaraYumeji TsukiokaSeveral people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.Top 49s
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenAlida ValliPulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.Top 49s
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiGuy DecomblePaul FrankeurA village postman with no sense of humour delivers his mail via bicycle on the day the travelling fair comes to town. He is disrupted by a short film about US speed and efficiency and the playful teasing of the village folk.Top 49s
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartJohn DallFarley GrangerTwo men try to convince themselves they've committed the perfect murder by hosting a dinner party after strangling a former classmate to death.