My 100 favorite movies from the 1940s
In order, from favorite to not as favorite.
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100 titles
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenDorothy ComingoreFollowing the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsVan JohnsonJohn HodiakRicardo MontalbanTrue 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsJudy GarlandMargaret O'BrienMary AstorYoung love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
- 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.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsDana AndrewsJane WyattLee J. CobbThe true story of a prosecutor's fight to prove the innocence of a man accused of a notorious murder.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsMyrna LoyDana AndrewsFredric MarchThree World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsTyrone PowerJoan BlondellColeen GrayThe rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall.
- DirectorJules DassinStarsBurt LancasterHume CronynCharles BickfordAt a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.
- 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.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsCary GrantPriscilla LaneRaymond MasseyMortimer Brewster, a Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage, risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things grow complicated when he learns that his beloved maiden aunts Abby and Martha are serial murderers.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsRalph RichardsonMichèle MorganSonia DresdelA butler working in a foreign embassy in London falls under suspicion when his wife accidentally falls to her death, the only witness being an impressionable young boy.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsDavid NivenKim HunterRobert CooteA British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
- DirectorJohn CromwellEdward F. ClineTay GarnettStarsClaudette ColbertJennifer JonesJoseph CottenWith her husband away to fight in World War II, a housewife must care for their two daughters alone.
- DirectorHoward HawksArthur RossonStarsJohn WayneMontgomery CliftJoanne DruDunson leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, to its destination in Missouri. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted son.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMargaret SullavanJames StewartFrank MorganTwo employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsJames StewartRichard ConteLee J. CobbChicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a decade-old murder case.
- 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.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsTyrone PowerGene TierneyJohn PayneAn adventuresome young man goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. But when he returns 10 years later, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsJudy GarlandGene KellyWalter SlezakA girl is engaged to the local rich man, but meanwhile she has dreams about the legendary pirate Macoco. A traveling singer falls in love with her and to impress her he poses as the pirate.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGreer GarsonWalter PidgeonTeresa WrightA British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsDeborah KerrDavid FarrarFlora RobsonA group of nuns struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad.
- 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.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsJennifer JonesCharles BickfordWilliam Eythe14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, living in a small town in the south of 1850s France, claims to have seen a divine vision, prompting extreme skepticism, concern from her family, and religious and political turmoil.