HOME * REVIEWS * MIDTOWN * FESTIVALS * TOP 10 PROJECT

ESSAYS & ARTICLES * ODDS & ENDS * LINKS * CONTACT

THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. 47
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 FILMS OF THE 1940's:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) 113 28 12
#2 Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) 85 24 7
#3 The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) 44 14 3
#4 The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) 26 8 1
#5 Les Enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945) 24 8 1
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

With absolutely no surprise whatsoever, this week's winner was Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, running away with the top prize with a total of 113 points (second highest total in Top 5 Project history - Vertigo's 121 points back in the Hitchcock week still holds the record).

Second place was also no surprise with Michael Curtiz's Casablanca grabbing 85 points, beating out Carol Reed's The Third Man, coming in (appropriately enough) third place with a grand total of 44 points.

Rounding out this week's top 5 is De Sica's The Bicycle Thief and Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis with 26 and 24 points respectively. About a kazillion films just missed out on making the final cut.

Individual lists:

Albert H. Muth
Auteurophile

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. Ivan the Terrible I & II (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944/46)

  3. The Third Man (Sir Carol Reed, 1949)

  4. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

  5. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

For you revisionists who try to degrade Citizen Kane, wake up and learn what cinema is all about. I recently saw it on the big screen in Gettysburg, and it was spectacular, every shot perfection


David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics

Chronological order; limited to English-language films:

  • [tie]The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941) / The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)

  • [tie]Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) / The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

  • Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  • The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)

  • White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949)

Runners-up, alphabetical order: Adam's Rib; The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad; Bedlam; The Best Years of Our Lives; Double Indemnity; Fireworks; His Girl Friday; How Green Was My Valley; I Walked with a Zombie; Kiss of Death; Lifeboat; Meet Me in St. Louis; Meshes of the Afternoon; My Darling Clementine; Notorious; Pinocchio; Red River; The Red Shoes; The Seventh Victim; Shadow of a Doubt; Sullivan's Travels.


Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic, Cinematical.com, Las Vegas Weekly,
San Jose Metro, Combustible Celluloid.com

  1. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)

  2. Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943)

  3. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)

  4. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

  5. The Red Shoes (Powell/Pressburger, 1948)

And: Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945), Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949), Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944), My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946), To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944).


Christopher Null
Film Critic &
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  3. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)

  4. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)

  5. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)



Erik Childress
Film Critic, efilmcritic.com

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

  3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  4. It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

  5. Fantasia (Ben Sharpsteen and Disney, 1940)



David Oppedisano
Film Critic and Researcher

  1. The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg, 1941)

  2. Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945)

  3. Les Anges du Péché (Robert Bresson, 1943)

  4. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, 1947)

  5. Ivan the Terrible I & II (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944/46)

Runners-Up: It's a Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946), His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940), Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942), Rebecca (Hitchcock, 1940), The Enchanted Cottage (Cromwell, 1945), The Philadelphia Story (Cukor, 1940), The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles, 1942), Day of Wrath (Dreyer, 1943), Now, Voyager (Rapper, 1942), The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941), Meet Me in St Louis (Minnelli, 1944), Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946), The Lady Eve (Sturges, 1941).


Peter Sobczynski
Film Critic, eFilmCritic.com

  1. Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, 1941)

  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  3. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

  4. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)

  5. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

Hey, I like "Kane" as much as anyone else--I just like these five films better. In fact, if I was going to put a Welles film down, I probably would have gone with "Ambersons".


Michael Parent
Film Student

  1. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)

  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  3. Les Enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)

  4. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)

  5. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)

    Well this week it was too hard to narrow it to just 5. So here are 5 more I couldn’t forget on a list…

  6. It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

  7. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  8. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  9. Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943)

  10. The Red Shoes (Powell/Pressburger, 1948)

Runners-up : His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940), Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941), Rome Open City (Rossellini, 1945), Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945), La Belle et la Bête (Cocteau, 1946), Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946), Out of the Past (Tourneur, 1947), Quai des Orfèvres (Clouzot, 1947), The Bicycle Thief (De Sica, 1948), The Treasure of The Sierra Madre (Huston, 1948), The Set-Up (Wise, 1949), Stray Dog (Kurosawa, 1949).


Adam Trovillion
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ((John Huston, 1948)

  2. I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller, 1949)

  3. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

  4. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  5. The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944)



Jeff Cardarelli
Film Enthusiast

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  3. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

  4. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

  5. A Matter of Life and Death (Powell/Pressburger, 1946)



Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com

  1. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1949)

  2. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  4. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)

  5. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)



Matt Severson
Film Enthusiast
& Photograph Department Supervisor, Margaret Herrick Library

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  3. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  4. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

  5. Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)



Andrew Horbal
Film Enthusiast

  1. A Canterbury Tale (Powell/Pressburger, 1944)

  2. The Red Shoes (Powell/Pressburger, 1948)

  3. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949)

  4. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)

  5. The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

    A few flicks further:

  6. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

  7. I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

  8. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  9. Germany, Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)

  10. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)

That's a top ten that can stand toe-to-toe with any decade's. . . .


Kevin Cassidy
Film Enthusiast

  1. Spring In a Small Town (Fei Mu, 1948)

  2. Leave Her To Heaven (John Stahl, 1945)

  3. There Was A Father (Yasujiro Ozu, 1942)

  4. The Loyal 47 Ronin (Kenji Mizaguchi, 1941)

  5. They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945)



Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  3. Kind Heart and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)

  4. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  5. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)



Joel Webb
Film Enthusiast

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  3. Les Enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)

  4. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

  5. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)



Kevin LaForest
Film Critic, Montreal Film Journal

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  3. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

  4. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  5. It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)



Jesse Richards
Filmmaker

  1. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

  2. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947)

  3. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, 1945)

  4. The Black Angel (Roy William Neill, 1946)

  5. Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)

Also in alphabetical order: Act of Violence, Adventures of Captain Marvel (serial), Arsenic and Old Lace, Cat People, Fallen Angel, Too Late For Tears, The Gang’s All Here, Gun Crazy, Hangover Square, I Wake Up Screaming, Laura, The Mark of Zorro, Nightmare Alley, Out of the Past, The Sea Hawk, The Set Up, The Seventh Victim, The Shanghai Gesture, The Spiral Staircase, Thieves Highway, They Live By Night, The Third Man, To Be Or Not To Be, White Heat, The Wolf Man.


Dustin Bohannon
Film Enthusiast

  1. A Matter of Life and Death (Powell/Pressberger, 1946)

  2. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)

  3. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)

  4. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)

  5. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)

Runners-up: Casablanca (1942), Rebecca (1940), Brief Encounter (1945), Letter From and Unknown Woman (1948), The Third Man (1949).


Bill Georgaris
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

(in chronological order)

  • The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

  • Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)

  • Black Narcissus (Powell/Pressburger, 1946)

  • Raw Deal (Anthony Mann, 1948)

  • Caught (Max Ophüls, 1949)

So many significant films were made during this extraordinary filmmaking period. Here’s some more-: Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Bresson), The Philadelphia Story (Cukor), The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch), The Eternal Return (Delannoy), The Lady Eve (Sturges), Meshes of the Afternoon (Deren), The Seventh Victim (Robson), The Children Are Watching Us (De Sica), Monsieur Verdoux (Chaplin), Double Indemnity (Wilder), The Long Voyage Home (Ford), Detour (Ulmer), Duel in the Sun (Vidor), La Terra trema (Visconti), The Red House (Daves), Germany Year Zero (Rossellini), Born to Kill (Wise), Moonrise (Borzage), The Red Shoes (Powell/Pressburger),Thieves’ Highway (Dassin), The Rocking Horse Winner (Pelissier), Late Spring (Ozu), Beyond the Forest (King Vidor), Torment (Sjoberg), and so on, and so on…

Maybe not quite contenders for the best of the 1940’s, but these films are often seriously under-appreciated-: Shepherd of the Hills (Hathaway), H.M. Pulham Esq. (King Vidor), The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (Clouzot), Lady in the Dark (Leisen), Strange Illusion (Ulmer), Road to Utopia (Hal Walker), Decoy (Jack Bernhard), Strange Impersonation (Mann), Ramrod (de Toth), The Devil Thumbs a Ride (Felix E. Feist), Jassy (Bernard Knowles), The Late George Apley (Mankiewicz), Forever Amber (Preminger), Blanche Fury (Marc Allegret), Les Parents Terribles (Cocteau), Saraband for Dead Lovers (Dearden), The Paleface (McLeod), Hollow Triumph (Sekely), The Walls of Jericho (Stahl), Yellow Sky (Wellman), Rendez-vous de Juillet (Becker), The Queen of Spades (Dickinson), Rope of Sand (Dieterle), Madeleine (David Lean).


Jeff Vorndam
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

  2. Les Enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)

  3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  4. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

  5. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)



R. J. Ashmore
Cinephile

  1. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)

  2. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

  3. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  4. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  5. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)



Vasili Mamulashvili
Geographer & Film Enthusiast from Tbilsi, Geaorgia

  1. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

  2. The Big Land (Sergei Gerasimov, 1944)

  3. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)

  4. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  5. The Man Who Thread on the Tiger's Tail (Akira Kurosawa, 1945)



Brian Leonard
Film Enthusiast

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  4. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

  5. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges, 1944)

I still can't believe Sturges got away with that film.

6th place (almost appropriately) would go to: Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947)

Very honorable mentions, chronologically: The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline, 1940) The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940) Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 1941) The Pride of the Yankees (Sam Wood, 1942) Ivan The Terrible, Part One (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944) Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946) Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 1947) Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949) On The Town (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1949


Jason Mlinarsik
Film Enthusiast

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  3. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  4. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

  5. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, 1945)



Luke Stadel
Film Studies MA student at the University of Iowa

  1. Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges, 1944)

  2. Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)

  3. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

  4. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

  5. I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)



Eric Enders
Film Critic, Out There in the Dark

For a decade like this, five films can't possibly be enough. Here are fifteen.



  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  3. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

  4. Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)

  5. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)

  6. It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

  7. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

  8. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)

  9. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  10. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

  11. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

  12. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

  13. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

  14. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

  15. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)



Ryan Steinke
Boston University film student

  1. Black Narcissus (Powell/Pressburger, 1947) - Erotic, moody and truly innovative. This magnificent study of a timeless battle (humanity vs. spirituality)- set against the jaw-dropping beauty of the Himalayas- is observed with a poet’s eye for carnal desire. Easily one of the most enchanting film’s ever shot in Technicolor, it builds to a fierce, resounding climax. *I’ll admit when all is said and done, “Kane” is probably the superior work here- but “Narcissus” is a close second… and my personal favorite of the 1940s.

  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) - An undisputed masterpiece. But with good reason; in terms of visual storytelling, Welles’s fascinating, groundbreaking wonder is fairly immaculate.

  3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) - A true classic. Hollywood’s “golden-age” delivered this timeless, iconic romance in all it’s nostalgic glory.

  4. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) - Heart-wrenching, minimalist tale of desperation and survival in Italy's devastating post-war depression. A cinematic landmark that helped define Italian neo-realism and, in the process, painted a poignant father-son portrait that’s as indelible as the film’s poetic imagery.

  5. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) - One of the quintessential film noirs also happens to be one of Wilder’s finest achievements. Brilliantly atmospheric with the find of scintillating dialogue, shadowy cinematography and captivating characters (including a femme-fatale played flawlessly by Stanwyck) that are the workings of a classic.



Wirkman Virkkala
Film Enthusiast

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  2. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)

  3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  4. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)

  5. The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline, 1940)



Domingo Peeters
Film Enthusiast

  1. Les Enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carne, 1945)

  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  3. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)

  4. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)

  5. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

Just Short: Double Indemnity, Citizen Kane, Brief Encounter.


Hans Lucas
Film Student

  1. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

  2. Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943)

  3. Paisà (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)

  4. At Land (Maya Deren, 1944)

  5. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945)



Stan Czarnecki
Film Enthusiast & Critic

  1. Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)

  2. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

  3. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

  4. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)

  5. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)



Dennis Schwartz
Film Critic Ozu's World Movie Reviews

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  3. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  4. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell/Pressburger, 1943)

  5. Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943)



Jerry Johnson
Former Programming Director of the Austin Film Society

  1. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

  2. Day of Wrath (Carl Dreyer, 1943)

  3. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)

  4. Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949)

  5. A Canterbury Tale (Powell/Pressburger, 1944)



Rich Cline
Film Critic and Creator of Shadows on the Wall.

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

  3. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)

  4. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943)

  5. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)



Ben Dalton
Lover of Film

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, 1945)

  3. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)

  4. Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)

  5. Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941)

Runners-Up: Christmas In July (Preston Sturges, 1940), The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942), To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942), Day of Wrath (Carl Dreyer, 1943), The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943), Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943), Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson, 1945), Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945), It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946), My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946), The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948), Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948) & The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).


Nathan Deen
Film Buff & Staff Writer, FilmSchoolRejects.com

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)

  3. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

  4. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  5. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)

This was a tough list, so honorable mentions are mandatory here: The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946), Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, 1945), Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944), It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946), My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946), Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946), The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940), Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943).


Scott Klus
Film Enthusiast

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  3. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  4. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)

  5. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

Just Missed: Bicycle Thieves (1948), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Children of Paradise (1945), Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).


Szabolcs Dömötör
Film Enthusiast and Amateur Film Critic

  1. Macbeth (Orson Welles, 1948)

  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  3. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)

  4. Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)

  5. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

Runners-up: The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946), Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940), Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949), The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949), Beszterce ostroma (Márton Keleti, 1948).


Doug Riblet
Cinephile

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

  3. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

  4. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

  5. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)



Josh Tschantret
Film Enthusiast

After a long vacation, I'm back for the top five project. The '40s was an amazing decade, but one that I haven't fully explored yet. Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon barely missed the cut. Also, I've added a section for my five favorite '40s noir films, considering that it was the pinnacle decade of American film noir. Brute Force barely missed the cut, mostly because I haven't viewed Brute Force or Caught for a few years. That list was also going to include In a Lonely Place and Where the Sidewalk Ends, that is until I found out that both were released in 1950.

  1. Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)

  2. I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller, 1949)

  3. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, 1945)

  4. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

  5. Dreams that Money Can Buy (Hans Richter, 1947)

Top 5 Film Noir of the 1940's:

  1. The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944)

  2. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  3. The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1948)

  4. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

  5. Caught (Max Ophüls, 1949)



James Monteith
Retired Projectionist

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  3. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

  4. Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)

  5. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, 1945) - best "B" movie of the 1940s.



Film Prophet
Film Critic, FilmProphet.com

  1. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  3. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

  4. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)

  5. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)



Tristan Anthony Johnson
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell/Pressburger, 1943)

  3. Black Narcissus (Powell/Pressburger, 1947)

  4. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

  5. A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder, 1948)

I'm sad to leave out the ladies:
Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)


Mathieu Ricordi
Director

  1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell/Pressburger, 1943)

  2. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

  3. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)

  4. Quai des Orfevres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947)

  5. Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943)

Most Overrated: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

Comments: Powell and Pressburger virtually owned this decade. I could have filled up the entire Top 5 with their films alone.


Burt Gold
Amateur Filmmaker

  1. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

  2. Bambi (David Hand, 1942)

  3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  4. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

  5. Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1949)



Jesse Walker
Film Enthusiast and Managing Editor, Reason Magazine

The greatest decade in Hollywood history. Only the '70s come close to being as rich.

  1. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)

  2. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1949)

  3. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  4. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

  5. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

A baker's dozen of honorable mentions, listed alphabetically: The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946), Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942), Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941), I Know Where I'm Going! (Powell & Pressburger, 1945), Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, 1943), My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946), The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940), Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948), Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949), The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949), To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944), White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949).


Matthew Griffiths
Film Enthusiast

  1. Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945)

  2. Dead of Night (Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer, 1946)

  3. The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)

  4. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

  5. Pink String and Sealing Wax (Robert Hamer, 1945)



Le Hinton
Jazz Aficionado & Film Enthusiast

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  2. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

  3. Citizen Kane (Orson Wells, 1941)

  4. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)

  5. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)



Ricardo Luis Alvarez
Film Enthusiast

  1. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)

  2. Bambi (David Hand, 1942)

  3. Key Largo (John Huston, 1948)

  4. Day of Wrath (Carl Dreyer, 1943)

  5. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)



Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

  2. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

  3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

  4. Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)

  5. The Red Shoes (Powell/Pressburger, 1948)

    To complete a Top 30:

  6. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

  7. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

  8. La Belle et la Bête (Jean Cocteau, 1946)

  9. Day of Wrath (Carl T. Dreyer, 1944)

  10. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  11. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)

  12. Paisan (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)

  13. Ivan the Terrible I & II (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944/46)

  14. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)

  15. La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti, 1948)

  16. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)

  17. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)

  18. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)

  19. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)

  20. The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)

  21. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)

  22. I Walked With A Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

  23. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

  24. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

  25. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)

  26. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)

  27. Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943)

  28. Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941)

  29. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)

  30. The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946)


*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created


The Next Topic is:
Name The Top 5 Fassbinder Films

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #48,
no later than 6pm on Sunday, September 14, 2008.

HOME * REVIEWS * MIDTOWN * FESTIVALS * TOP 10 PROJECT * ESSAYS & ARTICLES * ODDS & ENDS * LINKS * CONTACT