Top Ten 1940s
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 at 11:33PM We're almost done with these quickie surveys of my favorites and yours from decades past. Herewith the 1940s which I hesitated jotting down as there are more classics from this decade that I haven't seen than in arguably any other. If I keep waiting until I've watched everything it would never be posted. In truth, I need a project which forces me to fully deal with the gaps in my 40s viewing. A pleasurable project it would be, surely. But for now, off the top of my list-manic head....
Black Narcissus (1947)
top ten
01 The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
02 Casablanca (1943)
03 The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
04 Meet Me in St Louis (1944)
05 Double Indemnity (1944)
06 Black Narcissus (1947)
07 Citizen Kane (1941)
08 Notorious (1946)
09 It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
10 Gilda (1946)
with apologies to other greats
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1945), Beauty and the Beast (1948), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Lady Eve (1941), Red River (1948), The Bicycle Thief (1949), Pinnochio (1940)
honorable mention
Rope (1948), The Heiress (1949), Spellbound (1945), Now Voyager (1942), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), The Search (1948), Fantasia (1940)
I'll admit I don't love these three quite as much you're supposed to...
His Girl Friday (1940), Rebecca (1940), All the Kings Men (1949)
I've never seen (gulp)
Too many to list. More than in any of these other quickie top tens I'll gladly take your word for it with your top ten lists in the comments. Maybe we'll do a poll to force me into a handful of 40s films as follow up.
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Reader Comments (61)
Here is my Top 10:
1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
3. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
4. The Third Man (Carol Reed)
5. The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)
6. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
7. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
8. Roma città aperta (Roberto Rossellini)
8. The Little Foxes (William Wyler)
9. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor)
Special mentions: His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks), Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock), Germania anno zero (Roberto Rossellini), The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks), The Maltese Falcone (John Huston), The Letter (William Wyler) among others...
Great list (and sub lists) but The Lady Eve is one of my favorite films of all time and would rank as #1 for me.
Errata corrige:
9. The Little Foxes (William Wyler)
10. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor)
It's amazing how this decade was really dominated by American cinema, with gigantic directors as William Wyler, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks and George Cukor doing some of their best work ever...
I could easily go all noir here, but...
1 - Raw Deal, Anthony Mann
2 - Citizen Kane, Welles
3 - To Have and Have Not, Hawks
4 - Late Spring, Ozu
5 - Germany Year Zero, Rossellinni
6 - Three Godfathers, Ford
7 - Detour, Ulmer
8 - The Shop Aroung the Corner, Lubitsch
9 - Duel in The Sun, Vidor
10 - The Bicycle Thieves, De Sica
Yeah, way too many blank spots in every decade for me, but the '40s are one of the most shameful. Alas...
1. Cat People (Tourneur)
2. The Third Man (Reed)
3. The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)
4. Philadelphia Story (Cukor)
5. Casablanca (Curtiz)
6. Double Indemnity (Wilder)
7. Gaslight (Cukor)
8. The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger)
9. Gilda (Vidor)
10. Beauty and the Beast (Coteau)
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I'm probably echoing a lot of other people, but in no particular order:
1) Casablanca
2) The Philadelphia Story
3) To Have and Have Not
4) The Bishop's Wife
5) Citizen Kane
6) La Belle et La Bete
7) It's a Wonderful Life
8) How Green Was My Valley
9) Rebecca
10) PInocchio
And if you want to swap out "To Have and Have Not" for "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Big Sleep," and "Bambi" for "Pinocchio," I'd have a very hard time arguing with you.
Oh, and I just realized "The Heiress" is from the 1940's too, as is "The Grapes of Wrath." I don't know if I'd put "The Heiress" in my Top 10 1940's movies, but Olivia De Havilland's performance is easily one of the best of the decade, if not all-time.
Citizen Kane, Casablanca and The Third Man are three excellent examples of perfect films. I have yet to meet one sensible, intelligent person who dislikes a single one of these three.
A complete Top 10 in chrono order:
The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
Laura (Otto Preminger)
Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné)
A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
An honorable mention goes to Preston Sturges, who doesn't have a single film that made my Top 10 for the decade, but no lesser than five (Sullivan's Travles, The Lady Eve, The Palm Peach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Unfaithfully Yours) that came close. (Which reminds me I have yet to see Hail the Conquering Hero).
1. The Red Shoes
2. Mildred Pierce
3. Black Narcissus
4. The Lady Eve
5. La Belle et La Bete
6. Now, Voyager
7. Rebecca
8. Laura
9. Cat People
10. A Letter to Three Wives
The 40s is my favorite film decade. You should check out 'Waterloo Bridge,' an underseen gem with fab performances from Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor.
My Top 10 would be:
1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)-Simply the most romantic, beautifully simple film ever made.
2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)-Perfect from start to finish-few films so completely encapsulate one man's humanity
3. Laura (Otto Preminger)-I love this movie more than words. I still think back to the first time I saw it, trying to deduce the mysteries on display and falling desperately for Gene Tierney.
4. Pinocchio (Norman Ferguson)-The best film Disney ever made? I'd buy that argument.
5. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor)-I drunkenly fall for a different character every time. My it's yar.
6. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)-Sentimental favorite. Don't judge. Plus, it's actually very good.
7. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)-I sometimes quote Mrs. Danvers to freak out people, and then am saddened when they have no idea what I'm quoting.
8. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio de Sica)-Hauntingly beautiful, so tragic, and so scarily modern, even today.
9. The Third Man (Carol Reed)-Not 100% certain this is the 1940's or 1950's (Oscar put it in 1950, but AMPAS has odd rules). Either way, it's deliciously evil and I'd watch Orson Welles read the phonebook (which, late in his career, he probably would have done if it met his asking price).
10. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)-I would have offed Tom Powers too for a chance with Barbara Stanwyck.
Mike M-I love Waterloo Bridge. Put that and Brief Encounter together for a good, long 1940's swoon-and-cry movie marathon.
No list is complete without The Red Shoes. I watch it yearly and fall under its spell every time.
This was Hollywood's golden decade in my opinion, lasting pretty much until the advent of television. There are so many to choose from - these are the ones that sprang to mind:
The Phladelphia Story
The Red Shoes
On The Town
Double Indemnity
Rebecca
It's A Wonderful Life (yeah, I'll go there)
A Letter To Three Wives
Meet Me In St. Louis
National Velvet (why not?)
Now Voyager (my guilty pleasure is a makeover movie and this might be the best)
And there are many that I haven't fully seen or haven't seen in years that might make the list like A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Brief Encounter, etc.
In alphabetical order (oops, I have eleven):
- Beauty and the Beast
- Bicycle Thieves
- The Big Sleep
- Black Narcissus
- Double Indemnity
- Laura
- Late Spring
- Notorious
- The Philadelphia Story
- Rebecca (Mrs. Danvers, Nat, come on!!!!)
- The Third Man
RU: Citizen Kane (out of a sense of High Duty more than out of passion)
ALTS: The Lady Eve. Sullivan's Travels. Detour. Brief Encounter. The Heiress.
NEED TO SEE THEM AGAIN BEFORE I JUDGE: Casablanca (yes, I only saw it once as a kid!). The Magnificent Ambersons.
WOULD PROBABLY BE ON MY LIST IF I HAD SEEN IT: Letter From an Unknown Woman
HAVE NEVER FELT THE MAGIC: It's a Wonderful Life. The Red Shoes.
GUILTY FOR NEVER HAVING SEEN: Children of Paradise. Open City. His Girl Friday!
Cal - I love Anthony Mann! Raw Deal is one of my few remaining blind spots with him!!! I shall remedy this immediately.
Anyway, my ten:
01. The Third Man, Reed
02. Citizen Kane, Welles
03. Notorious, Hithcock
04. The Great Dictator, Chaplin
05. Hail the Conquering Hero, Sturgess
06. High Sierra, Walsh
07. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Huston
08. Young Abe Lincoln, Ford
09. Ball of Fire, Hawks
10. I Walked With a Zombie, Tourneur
With apologies to: The Red Shoes, Ossessione, La Terra Trema, Heaven Can Wait, Rome Open City, The Miracle of Morgan Creek, Stray Dogs, The Bicycle Thief, White Heat, The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, Gun Grazy, Nightmare Alley, Arabesque, The Magnificent Ambersons and many more
I could do this entirely with Bogart movies.
Here's a top ten with only 2 Bogies:
1. Casablanca
2. To Have and Have Not
3. Arsenic and Old Lace
4. Notorious
5. Fort Apache
6. Rebecca
7. Meet Me in St. Louis
8. It's a Wonderful Life
9. The Best Years of Our Lives
10. Fantasia
And here's another 14 I love, including 3 more Bogies:
1. My Darling Clementine
2. White Heat
3. High Sierra
4. The Maltese Falcon
5. Random Harvest
6. Shadow of a Doubt
7. The Clock
8. The Big Sleep
9. Black Narcissus
10. Out of the Past
11. La Belle et La Bete
12. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
13. Gilda
14. The Third Man
1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. Casablanca
3. Double Indemnity
4. Meet Me In St. Louis
5. Laura
6. Lady Eve
7. Citizen Kane
8. Rope
9. Notorious
10. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Also loved: Fantasia, Maltese Falcon, Black Narcisssus, The Third Man
Never seen: Magnificent Ambersons, Red Shoes
without over-thinking it...
01 The Third Man
02 The Lady Eve
03 The Maltese Falcon
04 Dumbo
05 His Girl Friday
06 Double Indemnity
07 Citizen Kane
08 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
09 Casablanca
10 Notorious
1. Citizen Kane- Do not call this a boring choice. It is rich and magnificently crafted.
2. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek- One of the zaniest comedies ever made, especially that this got by the Hays Code censors of the 1940s.
3. Casablanca
4. La Belle et La Bete
5. Pinocchio
6. The Third Man- The Harry Lime theme is my ring tone on my smart phone
7. The Red Shoes- The Archers are actually a blind spot. I've seen neither A Matter of Life and Death or Colonel Blimp
8. It's A Wonderful Life
9. The Best Years of Our Lives
10. Out of the Past
Others: Notorious, The Lady Eve, The Grapes of Wrath, Double Indemnity, Rossellini's War Trilogy, Brief Encounter, Ivan the Terrible Part 1, Rebecca, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Great Dictator, How Green Was My Valley, The Maltese Falcon, Mildred Pierce, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Bicycle Thieves, Fantasia, Dumbo, The Big Sleep, Red River, The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad, Laura, Cat People, and I Walked With a Zombie
top of the head...
Casablanca
Brief Encounter
It's a Wonderful Life
Citizen Kane
Mildred Pierce
Double Indemnity
The Best Years of our Lives
Shadow of a Doubt
Laura
Dumbo
Meet Me in St. Louis (my hometown [not actually filmed in my hometown] represent!!!)
Style AND Substance in this decade.
De Sica's The Bicycle Thieves is my favorite film of all time.
My favorite is Notorious. Favorite screen romance of all time.
Also love Double Indemnity, The Lady Eve, His Girl Friday, Ball of Fire, It's a Wonderful Life, and of course Casablanca.
The 1940's are my favorite film decade too. So my 40's faves number in the hundreds. But as a listoholic (though I draw the line at making practical ones), I'm always ready to re-organize my troops and trot 'em out for inspection. So here goes:
In cases like these, I'm a two list person - one for the films I consider indisputably great artistic achievements and one for the movies dearest to my heart.
List A-THE GREATEST(chronological)
1. CITIZEN KANE(Orson welles)
2. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS(Orson Welles)
3. OSSESSIONE(Luchino Visconti)
4. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS(Vincente Minnelli)
5. LA BELLE ET LA BETE(Jean Cocteau)
6. GERMANIA ANNO ZERO(Roberto Rossellini)
7. THE PIRATE(Vincente Minnelli)
8. THE RED SHOES(Michael Powell,Emeric Pressburger)
9. LADRI DI BICICLETTE(Vittorio De Sica)
10. GUN CRAZY(Joseph H. Lewis)
LIST B -MY FAVORITES(chronological)
1. I TAKE THIS WOMAN(W.S. Van Dyke)
2. THE SEVENTH VICTIM(Mark Robson)
3. TOGETHER AGAIN(Charles Vidor)
4. THE WICKED LADY(Leslie Arliss)
5. CENTENNIAL SUMMER(Otto Preminger)
6. LA BELLE ET LA BETE(Jean Cocteau)
7. THE PARADINE CASE(Alfred Hitchcock)
8. ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN(Charles Barton)
9. THE PIRATE(Vincente Minnelli)
10. GUN CRAZY(Joseph H. Lewis)
But I just couldn't do LIST B without a tip of the hat to these runners-up, all of which I adore:
1. SIS HOPKINS(Joseph Santley)
2. SUN VALLEY SERENADE(Bruce Humberstone)
3. CAT PEOPLE(Jacques Tourneur)
4. THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE(Robert Wise,Gunther von Fritsch)
5. ZIEGFELD FOLLIES(Vincente Minnelli)
6. THE RAZOR'S EDGE(Edmund Goulding)
7. THE KISSING BANDIT(Laslo Benedek)
8. ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN(Vincent Sherman)
9. BEYOND THE FOREST(King Vidor)
10. PRINCE OF FOXES(Henry King)
Arrgh! I can't believe I forgot Shadow of a Doubt!
Great decade for film. You could almost do a top ten out of 1946 alone: Beauty and the Beast; The Best Years of Our Lives; The Big Sleep; Gilda; Great Expectations; It's A Wonderful Life; The Killers; A Matter of Life and Death; My Darling Clementine; Notorious ... and then complain because you left out The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Preston Sturges was hot, Powell and Pressburger were hot, Val Lewton did everything he did in his entire career, Bogart was at his peak, Orson Welles was at his peak, Billy Wilder started directing, film noir was born, foreign films started showing up again after the war. Gene Tierney, Greer Garson, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Rosalind Russell ...
All of which is my way of avoiding the question.
Ten favorites, in chronological order:
The Philadelphia Story
His Girl Friday
Citizen Kane
The Maltese Falcon
Casablanca
To Be Or Not To Be
It's A Wonderful Life
My Darling Clementine
Notorious
Out of the Past
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Third Man
Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Which is 13. A baker's dozen. Close enough.
Plus one purely idiosyncratic choice, my personal cheese and macaroni comfort food: The Big Steal, which Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer.
1. THE HEIRESS
2. Brief Encounter
3. Notorious
4. The Letter
5. My Foolish Heart
6. Waterloo Bridge
7. The Spiral Staircase
8. Mr. Skeffington
9. Humoresque
10. Portrait of Jennie
11. The Little Foxes
12. Foreign Correspondent
The greatest decade for cinema.
1. Random Harvest
2. The Letter
3. Portrait of Jennie
4. The Song of Bernadette
5. The Grapes of Wrath
6. Spellbound
7. All This and Heaven Too
8. The Heiress
9. Cluny Brown
10. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Oh, hell. I can't do just a top 10 anymore. My apologies -- so here's a top 18:
Out of the Past
Double Indemnity
The Philadelphia Story
It's a Wonderful Life
The Bicycle Thief
La Belle et la Bete
Now, Voyager
The Letter
Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Andersons
The Palm Beach Story
The Maltese Falcon
Casablanca
His Girl Friday
Notorious
Sullivan's Travels
Adam's Rib
Woman of the Year
Argh!! I can't believe I forgot "Laura"!
My favorite decade!
1. The Best Years of our Lives
2. Double Indemnity
3. The Razor's Edge (My guilty pleasure movie. Tyrone Power's character is so much like me)
4. The Ox-Bow Incident (very very surprised that few or none have mentioned it so far)
5. Mrs Miniver (I love WW2 allied propoganda films... see 10)
6. It's a Wonderful LIfe
7. Laura
8. Mildred Pierce
9. The Pride of the Yankees
10. 49th Parallel
"My Little Chickadee" got left out. Ida, Joan & Bette all @ Warners in the mid forties. Nobody will ever photograph as well as Rita in "Gilda".
THE THIRD MAN!!! delicious performance from Orson Welles!
Is this really the last decade to go in your surveys? Aw, too bad. So, I started with a list of 25 and I know I've forgotten something.
Leave Her to Heaven- The one I re-watch the most, probably. If it's playing anywhere within reason, I'll go see it.
Casablanca- No, I lied. Casablanca is the one I re-watch the most. Even watched it with Spanish dubbing on an airplane last summer.
Red River- my favorite western of all time, hands down.
Meet Me in St. Louis- such darkness and melancholy
Fallen Idol- I've only seen this one once but it's brilliant Carol Reed and indisputably of the 1940s
Letter to Three Wives- has no right to be as good as it is
Palm Beach Story- so many Sturgeses to choose from and I'm going with this one because I was literally clapping my hands and rolling with laughter by the end of this one. Plus, Rudy Vallee- who knew?
Shadow of a Doubt- favorite Hitchcock of the decade
Children of Paradise- my only non-English language movie on the list. Saw it for the first time a few months ago and different images will still pop into my brain randomly.
It's a Wonderful Life- I changed out the last one five times before settling on this because it's probably one of the first movies I ever loved, having been exposed to it playing on tv so much as a kid.
With profound apologies to: Adam's Rib, Double Indemnity, Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve, Notorious, Laura, Maltese Falcon, Big Sleep, Rebecca, Red Shoes, Sullivan's Travels, Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Now Voyager, His Girl Friday, and the Philadelphia Story. How could I have left any of them off a top ten????
Yup, totally forgot Lady From Shanghai which happens to be my favorite Orson Welles of the decade. "Maybe I'll live so long that I'll forget her. Maybe I'll die trying."
THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER? Thats Jimmy Stewart at one of his most endearing and one of my faves from Lubitsch. Or TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT? In which we were introduced to Lauren Bacall in one the greatest debuts ever.
I loved THE THIRD MAN too but release dates back then confused me, so I'll go with Oscar and say 1950 :)
You must see it, Nat
Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
I Know Where I'm Going
Lifeboat
The Search
The Queen of Spades
Rebecca
The Grapes of Wrath
Double Indemnity
Dead Of Night
My ten:
A+:
1. Bicycle Thieves
2. It's a Wonderful Life (really, it's only the last TWO MINUTES that clinch it for Bicycle Thieves. It's just WRENCHING work otherwise.)
3. Kind Hearts and Coronets
4. A Matter of Life and Death
5. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
6. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
7. Citizen Kane
8. The Third Man
A:
9. His Girl Friday (It's fun, sparkly and VERY witty, but doesn't have the insane level of true thematic depth that KH&C does)
10. Black Narcissus
Those top three, by the way, are in my top ten BEST of all time (5, 6 and 10), and the third is probably, on most days, my absolute #1 FAVOURITE.
1. Casablanca (1943) - the balls everyone had to make this movie in the middle of a war is what nobody talks about
2. Citizen Kane (1941) - I think about what makes this film so great once in a while and it just makes me happy it exists
3. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - the best postwar film ever
4. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - probably the best holiday movie ever and certainly inspirational. Small town magic!
5. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - everyone remembers Cagney as a gangster, but it's as George M. Cohan that I saw his brilliance. The '40s has so many inspirational gems and this is one of them
6. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - really not looking forward to the supposed remake. Nothing beats Fonda and that speech. Darwell with her earrings is heartbreaking
7. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) - perfect Hemingway. I love the teaming of Cooper and Bergman and the supporting cast is superb. "But where do the noses go?"
8. The Maltese Falcon (1941) - this is the definitive noir film and has inspired so many movies that have come after it. When I saw Looper for the first time, this movie was all I could think about
9. Since You Went Away (1944) - World War II as seen from the eyes of those in the States, this movie has some of the best performances by women in the 1940s and you have to love Joseph Cotten. Colbert solidifies her place as one of my favorite actresses here.
10. The Ox-Bow Incdient (1943) - I love Westerns for the morals they try they teach.The best ones are just short of preachy that it they seem profound, this one falls right in there
"Don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."
(in alphabetical order)
Citizen Kane
My Favorite Wife
The Lady Eve
Leave Her to Heaven
Notorious
Now, Voyager
The Palm Beach Story
The Philadelphia Story
Rebecca
Red River
Good Lord this one is tough! The 40's are my favorite film decade, a top 10 is next to impossible but here goes, in no particular order:
1-Saboteur-My favorite of all Hitchcock's. The fact that the stars aren't supernova film stars, although I adore Priscilla Lane, helps give the movie a more relatable touch than some of his others.
2-A Letter to Three Wives-The framework thanks to cell phones maybe obsolete but the problems presented are as contemporary today as they were when the film was made. Plus extraordinary performances across the board.
3- Married a Witch-Entrancing fantasy with a truly bewitching Veronica Lake in the lead.
4-Watch on the Rhine-A cautionary tale about the insidiousness of evil and the dangers of complacency. Again a timely message even if the film is 70 years old.
5-Casablanca-Studio film making at it's peak. A perfect storm of ideal casting , craftmanship, and excellent writing all coming together and jelling properly.
6-Deadline at Dawn-A super tidy noir with a tough as nails Susan Hayward navigating her way though night time New York with a callow Bill Williams and trying to clear him of murder.
7-Lifeboat-One of my runners-up for my second favorite Hitchcock, there are many. A fascinating microcosm of people trapped in the title object. All hail Tallulah!
8-The Heiress-A bruising examination of cruelty and what it can do to people with great work from the whole cast but none more than Olivia de Havilland.
9-Between Two Worlds-Strange, moody updating of Outward Bound with the Warners stock company tearing it up as souls headed to their destinies.
10-Christmas in Connecticut-Along with White Christmas my favorite holiday film. Cheery nonsense with a delightful Barbara Stanwyck taking a break from suffering as a 40's Martha Stewart caught in one wacky situation after another with the dreamy Dennis Morgan singing. Sydney Greenstreet, Una O'Connor and "Cuddles" Sakall are all along to add to the merriment.
Bubbling just below and on another day might make the top group:
Cry Havoc!, Now, Voyager, Mildred Pierce, The Maltese Falcon, Laura, Dark Passage, Heaven Can Wait, Notorious, Waterloo Bridge, Since You Went Away, The Shop Around the Corner, Out of the Past, Hangover Square, They Drive by Night, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, This Gun for Hire, It Started with Eve, The Man I Love, Good News, The Best Years of Our Lives, Mrs. Miniver
Then there's these which I love too:
Christmas Holiday, Nightmare Alley, Forever Amber, Meet Me in St Louis, The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer, Humoresque, Torrid Zone, Man Hunt, They Won't Believe Me, Strange Cargo, State of the Union, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Philadelphia Story, The Letter, Fallen Angel, The Doughgirls, Ziegfeld Girl, Easter Parade, To Be or Not To Be, The Reckless Moment, Scarlet Street, No Time for Comedy, The Magnificent Ambersons, Brief Encounter and Lady on a Train.
Like I said, so tough! And being a true actressexual I can happily watch anything from that decade with Bette, Judy, Linda Darnell, any of the Joan's (Crawford, Bennett & Blondell), Margaret Sullavan, Eve Arden, Lana, Ann Sheridan, Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Greer Garson etc; etc.
However I'm with you Nathaniel on Rebecca, while I loved Judith Anderson the picture as a whole left me decidedly underwhelmed. I'm sure I'll get rapped in the teeth for this too but Citizen Kane leaves me cold.
And it pained me to leave off The Clock, Gilda, The Magnificent Ambersons, Mildred Pierce, On the Town, Rope and The Third Man.
I'll just name the first ten that come to mind, and accept that I'll never be able to do the 40's justice through 10 films.
Shadow of a doubt
Meet Me in St. Louis
Christmas in Connecticut
The Devil and Miss Jones
How Green Was My Valley
I Know Where I'm Going
Black Narcissus
Now Voyager
The Philadelphia Story
Brief Encounter
There are so many more, but it's sunny outside.
I'm also surprised more people haven't mentioned The Ox-Bow Incident; just a terrific film.
Like you Nathaniel, I haven't seen enough from this decade (or really anything pre-1970's) but would like to mention Monsieur Verdoux, Thieves' Highway, Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves, and Notorious (my absolute favourite HItchcock).
"The Postman Always Rings Twice". Lana was giving me a knife to the ribs until she got a second mention. Fun mention to "Somewhere I'll Find You" (Gable) where she plays the only Woolworth's sales clerk to own a chinchilla coat.
Where's:
"The Red Shoes" and "The Philadelphia Story" on this list? I'm just so interested that "Black Narcissus" is on here but "The Red Shoes" isn't.
01 The Red Shoes
02 Casablanca
03 Citizen Kane
04 Fantasia
05 The Maltese Falcon
06 It's a Wonderful Life
07 La Belle et La Bête
08 Black Narcissus
09 Meet Me in St. Louis
10 The Third Man
HM: Double Indemnity, Letter from an Unknown Women & Bambi
I'd love to see what our favorites are collectively for each decade. That would be fun. Sort of like our own academy.
So tough!
Today's list:
The Lady Eve
Casablanca
Citizen Kane
The Philadelphia Story
Ball of Fire
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
The Shop Around the Corner
His Girl Friday
The Palm Beach Story
Rebecca
Also: It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas in Connecticut, Laura, The Third Man, Meet Me in St. Louis, Sullivan's Travels, Leave Her to Heaven, To Be or Not to Be, Fantasia, The Grapes of Wrath, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Little Foxes, Mildred Pierce, Red River, Now, Voyager
Haven't seen: The Magnificent Ambersons, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, The Bicycle Thief