20 Best Movies of the 1940s, Ranked (2024)

The 1940s was a tumultuous decade in history, given that World War II began at the tail-end of the '30s and defined the first half of the '40s, not officially ending until 1945. Then, of course, came the years-long recovery from a global conflict that took millions of lives, so the second half of the decade was also shaped by war. Still, in other areas of life, things tried to go on as usual, and the film industry was one such area. Many 1940s movies dealt with the war and its aftermath, while others aimed to provide entertainment and distraction from everything going on.

The best of these movies from this decade still hold up all these decades later, and can be appreciated not just for their historical value, but also for simply being very good films. To highlight just a handful from a span of 10 years will lead to some omissions, of course, but the following aims to shed light on some of the best of the best. For anyone interested in exploring more cinema from the 1940s - both Hollywood and international productions - the following titles represent great places to start.

20 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' (1949)

Director: Robert Hamer

An outstanding dark and satirical comedy that still feels unique, despite its age, Kind Hearts and Coronets is very dry, very British, and very funny. It follows a young man who’s willing to go to great lengths to obtain the fortune of a family that wronged his own, with his inheritance-related plan involving the execution of a series of murders; essentially, all those who’d inherit the fortune before him.

Such a premise would already be amusing enough when played for dark laughs, but Kind Hearts and Coronets also has an extra layer of novelty: Alec Guinness (an accomplished British actor who eventually became most well-known for playing Obi-War Kenobi in Star Wars) plays all the members of the family that need murdering. It’s all outlandish, uneasily hilarious, and still very biting considering its age, standing as one of the best comedy films of the 1940s.

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19 'Beauty and the Beast' (1946)

Director: Jean Cocteau

Those familiar with the story of Beauty and the Beast thanks to Disney’s takes on the story (whether animated or in live-action) might think they’ve seen all a movie adaptation has to offer, but this 1946 film would prove them wrong. Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast is up there with the best live-action fantasy movies of all time, and takes an eerier and oftentimes dreamlike approach to the familiar fairy tale at its center.

The story still revolves around an unlikely fantastical love between a prince cursed to be a beast and a young woman, but this take gets considerably darker than anything comparable released by Disney. It’s not a horror movie or anything, but Beauty and the Beast can prove haunting and strange, though the atmosphere it conjures up is undeniably distinct and hard to forget, and worth experiencing at least once for fans of fantasy.

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18 'Rope' (1948)

Director: Alfred Hitchco*ck

Rope is a brilliantly tense exploration of evil, standing as not only one of Alfred Hitchco*ck’s most morbid movies, but also one of his very best. It stars Farley Granger and John Dall as two young people who murder one of their classmates in cold blood. They then believe they can get away with it by not only hiding the body almost in plain sight, but inviting the murdered man’s family and friends around to their place for a party, all the while the body is just out of reach.

James Stewart’s character, a prior teacher of the two young men, begins to get suspicious, with Rope more or less building tension throughout about when he will make the dreaded discovery, and what might happen after he does. It’s all shot very ambitiously, with less than a dozen shots that are all stitched together to make the entire film look like one take, and the approach makes things even more intense and engrossing than they’d otherwise be.

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17 'The Grapes of Wrath' (1940)

Director: John Ford

One of John Ford’s best and most notable movies that wasn’t a Western, nor starred John Wayne, The Grapes of Wrath is a straightforward and emotionally powerful adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Steinbeck. It’s a story that captures the hardships of an event that largely defined the 1930s, The Great Depression, focusing on a family’s attempts to travel from Oklahoma to California, hoping the latter state will allow for a more prosperous life.

It captures the realistic tone and deep sadness of its source material well, even if a few things had to be altered for film censorship standards of the time. The Grapes of Wrath is expertly shot, deeply empathetic, and benefits from having one of Henry Fonda’s greatest-ever performances, here playing Tom Joad, the protagonist within an ensemble cast of characters all trying to survive during a particularly harsh and unforgiving time in history.

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16 'The Great Dictator' (1940)

Director: Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was behind some of the best movies of the 1920s, and then even into the 1930s, once just about everyone else had moved on from silent movies, he continued to be like Depeche Mode and enjoyed the silence, releasing City Lights and Modern Times, arguably his two best films. Then the next decade came around, and Chaplin decided to finally embrace sound… as it turned out, he could also do great things with words.

The Great Dictator is particularly famous for the speech delivered at the end of it, meaning the film really needed to be made the way it was. It’s a dramedy about the events that would lead to World War II, with Chaplin portraying two characters, and of them being a dictator of a fictional country, the dictator being a stand-in for Adolf Hitler, and the country clearly being Nazi Germany. It’s a bold and sometimes heavy-going film, but stands as a powerful condemnation of both war and those who attempt to rule a nation of people in an authoritarian manner.

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15 'Rebecca' (1940)

Director: Alfred Hitchco*ck

Though Rebecca might not be the best Alfred Hitchco*ck movie (it’s up there as a very good one, in any event), it does have the distinction of being the only Hitchco*ck movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture. It centers on a young woman who marries a widower, only to find he’s still dangerously obsessed with (or at least haunted by) his last partner, with the marriage getting increasingly strange as things go on.

As a psychological thriller, it certainly feels comparable to certain Hitchco*ck movies he’d make later in the decade and then into the 1950s and ‘60s, though Rebecca is also a good deal more gothic and perhaps “old-fashioned” feeling than some of the filmmaker’s best-known work. Those qualities help make it distinctive, in the end, and as a slow-burn film, Rebecca is absolutely worth one’s attention.

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14 'Rome, Open City' (1945)

Director: Roberto Rossellini

Though it was released shortly after World War II concluded, Rome, Open City is still a film undeniably tied to the massive global conflict, and one that retold what was then a very recent historical story. It’s set in 1944, and takes place in the titular city, revolving around resistance fighters clashing with Nazi forces that occupied the city for almost a year, between September 1943 and June 1944.

It's one of the most significant Italian Neorealism films, and was also noteworthy for being filmed largely on location, and among ruined buildings destroyed – either partially or wholly – during the occupation being recreated. Rome, Open City is about as realistic as non-documentary films get, for this decade, and stands to this day as both a compelling story and a highly important historical document; a film about the final year or so of World War II, released right after the end of World War II.

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13 'The Best Years of Our Lives' (1946)

Director: William Wyler

Like Rome, Open City, The Best Years of Our Lives is a film made in the shadow of World War II, with a premise that doesn’t focus on the war’s end necessarily, but instead on the early days of post-war recovery. It’s an American film about U.S. soldiers doing their best to settle back into civilian life, even though they carry great burdens from what they’ve experienced, be they psychological or physical.

The Best Years of Our Lives can be sad in parts, but it is also a hopeful film seemingly made to recharge and rejuvenate the spirits of filmgoers in the 1940s, who themselves were trying to readjust in similar ways to the film’s characters. It’s a long, moving, and rewarding film, and an undeniably important historical document of how the American people were feeling shortly after World War II ended.

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12 'White Heat' (1949)

Director: Raoul Walsh

Old-school gangster movies simply don’t get much better than White Heat. This is a definitive crime film for the entire decade, and builds expertly on the sorts of rise-and-fall gangster movies that were exceedingly popular in the 1930s. The protagonist is a ruthless man who wants to pull off an extremely large-scale job, only for him to get carried away in various ways, leading, ultimately, to violence, death, and disaster.

James Cagney was always great in gangster movie roles, but his lead performance in White Heat is something else entirely, and he goes so big that the entire thing has to be seen to be believed. It’s an exciting and explosive crime movie, and has aged better than just about any other from its era. For its time, it was boundary-pushing, and it still feels tough, lean, and in-your-face, even when watched some three-quarters of a century later.

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11 'The Third Man' (1949)

Director: Carol Reed

Sometimes, the same things that excited and thrilled one generation of movie fans retain the power to do the same to a whole other generation entirely, decades later. This is the case for The Third Man, which is justifiably considered one of the best mystery/thriller movies of all time, having a deliberately paced yet engrossing story that revolves around one man’s search for the truth about a close friend’s sudden death.

The Third Man starts simple, but gradually increases the complexity of its premise scene by scene, eventually unfolding a surprising conspiracy contained within postwar Vienna. The distinctive setting is incredibly well-utilized, and the entire film is well-acted and genuinely intriguing. It feels unique by film noir standards, and is undoubtedly one of the best entries within that category of movies. Also, the less said about the specifics of the plot, the better.

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10 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' (1943)

Directors: Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp can’t be categorized simply as a war movie, but that is one genre it fits into, and that does indeed make it one of the best war films of all time. Not content to simply be about one war, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp unfolds across decades and covers three different wars (the Boer War and both World Wars), all the while also being a moving drama, a romance movie, and a surprisingly funny film.

With a runtime of 163 minutes, it also feels like something of an epic, but more than justifies its length by telling a wide-scale story about one man’s involvement in various conflicts, and the various relationships he held while off fighting. It’s a hugely ambitious film, but it somehow manages to chew everything it bites off, and the results are wonderfully entertaining and oftentimes fascinating to experience.

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9 'Double Indemnity' (1944)

Director: Billy Wilder

Telling a gripping crime story that feels at once unpredictable and tragically inevitable, Double Indemnity might well be the greatest of all film noir movies… or at least it would be, had its director, Billy Wilder, not made the arguably even better Sunset Boulevard. Still, that 1950 film does branch off from the more “typical” idea of film noir in some ways, ensuring Double Indemnity might well stand as the best of the “pure” film noir movies.

Everything you’d expect to see is on offer here, with voiceover narration, morally questionable characters, a shadow-heavy visual style, a simple plan that spirals out of control, a femme fatale, and a climax where no one feels safe from the grim reaper. It’s easy to see how Double Indemnity influenced both other film noir movies and the eventual neo-noir movies released after the end of the age of film noir, and it’s still a blast to watch to this day.

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8 'Children of Paradise' (1945)

Director: Marcel Carné

While it might not be the first film most people think of when they hear the term “great epic movie,”Children of Paradise should be considered up there with the best of cinema’s biggest films. It’s a French film that runs for over three hours, and tells a story that ends up being a real emotional rollercoaster that’s sometimes charming, sometimes romantic, and sometimes quite sad, all focusing on one woman who finds herself desired by four different men.

The runtime and age can make a movie like Children of Paradise potentially daunting to actually sit down and watch, but those willing to give it their time will be rewarded immensely for their efforts. It moves incredibly gracefully for a film of its age, and its storytelling is still powerful enough to hit hard, making it stand as debatably the greatest epic movie of its decade.

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7 'Brief Encounter' (1945)

Director: David Lean

Another 1945 romantic movie that is still greatly impactful to this day, Brief Encounter is otherwise very different from the aforementioned Children of Paradise, most notably because it’s about 100 minutes shorter. Its scope is small-scale, rather than epic (even though its director, David Lean, would go on to make some of the most successful epics of all time), and it really just centers on two people for most of its runtime.

A housewife meets a doctor by chance, and the two (each married to someone already) quickly become friends. The tension of the film revolves around the fact that their feelings for each other are clearly becoming more romantic, yet they each feel conflicted about whether they can leave behind the people they already love separately and start a new life together. It’s simple but strikingly effective, and is easily up there with the most emotional movies of the entire 1940s.

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6 'It’s a Wonderful Life' (1946)

Director: Frank Capra

When it comes to selecting the most iconic and overall best Christmas movie of all time, It’s a Wonderful Life is always going to be a contender for the #1 spot. Containing perhaps James Stewart’s most acclaimed performance, and also being one of the greatest movies by its director, Frank Capra, it encapsulates the holiday period in a beautifully emotional way, and has a story that’s resonated across various generations.

Stewart plays a man who’s having something of an emotional crisis one Christmas Eve, and genuinely believes he has little to nothing to offer the world, until a guardian angel visits him and shows him what the world would look like had he never existed. It’s a Wonderful Life is indeed life-affirming and quite joyous in all the best ways, being a compelling and easily approachable film about getting through hard times in life and coming out the other side with a newfound appreciation for its better moments.

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5 'Late Spring' (1949)

Director: Yasujirō Ozu

Standing as arguably the most iconic Yasujirō Ozu film that isn’t 1953's Tokyo Story, Late Spring is another excellently made family drama by the iconic Japanese filmmaker. Notably, it was also one of Akira Kurosawa’s personal favorite movies, which is mostly worth highlighting because both Ozu and Kurosawa are considered two of the best and most important filmmakers to ever hail from Japan, with their works getting international recognition at a time when there wasn’t as much of a global/international cinema.

Like a good many Ozu films, the premise of Late Spring is rather simple, focusing on a young woman who doesn’t want to get married, even though her father and others around her seem to think it’s what she has to do, given she’s approaching the age of 30. Societal attitudes have changed, of course, but that doesn’t make the story here any less affecting, with Late Spring being a moving and empathetic film that does have some conflict, but not in a way where anyone is necessarily villainized. As far as the filmmaking and storytelling go, it’s all very human, understanding, and remarkably down-to-earth.

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4 'Citizen Kane' (1941)

Director: Orson Welles

Citizen Kane has the kind of reputation that may set modern-day viewers up for disappointment. It’s known for often being touted as one of the greatest movies of all time, owing to its radical and groundbreaking technical accomplishments, its inventively told story, and the hugely compelling performances it features throughout. It is also a fairly direct drama that’s heavy on dialogue and not always super fast-paced, meaning it’s best to approach it with slightly less lofty expectations.

It might not be one’s favorite movie of all time, nor even the very best of its decade, but watching it with an open mind does reveal why some have chosen to hold it in such high regard. Citizen Kane is a searing character study and an effectively absorbing psychological drama, with Orson Welles playing the lead character incredibly well, and also delivering outstanding direction in what was his feature film debut. It’s a hugely impressive film, and is, at the very least, worthy of being considered up there with the most important and compelling of its decade.

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3 'The Red Shoes' (1948)

Directors: Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell

As many of the above images inevitably show, the 1940s was a decade where most movies were still filmed in black-and-white. Most films shot in color therefore stand out at least a little by default, but then there’s something like The Red Shoes, which pushes things much further and looks even more visually striking. Just as the late 1930s had The Wizard of Oz as perhaps the defining color film of its decade, there’s an argument to be made that The Red Shoes represents the same for the ‘40s.

It's appropriate, too, considering there’s a color in the title and all. Beyond how the film looks, it’s also one that tells a great story and features some unforgettable sequences, including an extended (and dreamy) dance number that has a certain power not seen in any other musical or music-related movie from this era in filmmaking history. The Red Shoes is superb, and a must-watch classic, regardless of whether the idea of watching a movie about a ballerina sounds interesting to you or not.

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2 'Bicycle Thieves' (1948)

Director: Vittorio De Sica

The aforementioned Rome, Open City is one of the greatest Italian Neorealism films, but it’s arguably 1948’s Bicycle Thieves that stands as the absolute greatest Italian Neorealism film. It has such a simple premise, yet it’s one that’s executed perfectly, showcasing the lengths a father and his son will go to after the former’s bicycle is stolen, and with it, the chance for him to earn an honest living for his family in a struggling postwar Rome.

Bicycle Thieves is unbelievably authentic, prioritizing non-professional actors and real-world locations to make the drama as grounded and believable as possible. The approach undoubtedly worked, because the film is still impactful more than 75 years on from its initial release. For those new to the entire Italian Neorealism Movement, there’s probably no better starting point than Bicycle Thieves.

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1 'Casablanca' (1942)

Director: Michael Curtiz

1942 was a strong year for movies, sure, but nothing that came out that year could ever top Casablanca, which stands as quite possibly the very best film of the entire decade. It’s a film that shows how long runtimes aren’t needed to earn Oscar gold and status as a classic, because it runs for a lean 102 minutes and manages to tell a compelling and dramatic war/romance story while also featuring plenty of excitement and humor for good measure.

It's uncanny how all the different elements of Casablanca came together so smoothly for one masterful film, but the world of cinema is a richer place because they did. Casablanca more than lives up to the hype, and still feels as fresh today as it must’ve felt for audiences who watched it back in the 1940s. It’s not too difficult to declare it the best of its decade, and it’s one movie that every single film buff owes it to themselves to watch at least once.

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