Best Films Of 1944
by kgustafson2167 | created - 18 Feb 2011 | updated - 05 Mar 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Lifeboat (1944)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, War
Several survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the crew members of the U-boat that sank their ship.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix
Votes: 31,169
2. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A 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.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 167,422 | Gross: $5.72M
3. The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
Passed | 70 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
The young, friendless daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed befriends her father's dead first wife and an aging, reclusive actress.
Directors: Gunther von Fritsch, Robert Wise | Stars: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Ann Carter
Votes: 7,174
4. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943)
Approved | 98 min | Comedy, Romance, War
After an all-night send-off party for the troops, a small-town girl with an awkward boyfriend wakes up to find herself married and pregnant, but with no memory of her husband's identity.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, William Demarest
Votes: 7,941
5. Laura (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 51,404 | Gross: $4.36M
6. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 74,960
7. Going My Way (1944)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
When young Father O'Malley arrives at St. Dominic's, old Father Fitzgibbon doesn't think much of the church's newest member.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, James Brown
Votes: 13,450 | Gross: $16.30M
8. The Lodger (1944)
Passed | 84 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A landlady suspects that her new lodger is Jack the Ripper.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Laird Cregar, Merle Oberon, George Sanders, Cedric Hardwicke
Votes: 4,102
9. Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
Passed | 101 min | Comedy, War
Woodrow is discharged from the military for hay fever, but fabricates receiving a heroic honorable discharge before returning home.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, Raymond Walburn, William Demarest
Votes: 5,140
10. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Passed | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer
Votes: 27,676 | Gross: $7.57M
11. National Velvet (1944)
Passed | 123 min | Drama, Family, Sport
A jaded former jockey helps a young girl prepare a wild but gifted horse for England's Grand National Sweepstakes.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere
Votes: 8,000
12. Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger
Votes: 14,701
13. It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Fantasy
A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy
Votes: 2,858
14. The Children Are Watching Us (1943)
Not Rated | 84 min | Drama
Four-year-old Pricò becomes the subject of emotional folly by his capricious parents and negligent relatives.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Emilio Cigoli, Luciano De Ambrosis, Isa Pola, Adriano Rimoldi
Votes: 3,051
15. To Have and Have Not (1944)
Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Comedy, Film-Noir
During World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Moran
Votes: 37,997
16. Phantom Lady (1944)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A devoted secretary risks her life to try to find the elusive woman who may prove her boss didn't murder his selfish wife.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Aurora Miranda
Votes: 5,750
17. The Uninvited (1944)
Passed | 99 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
A composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house's unsavory past.
Director: Lewis Allen | Stars: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner
Votes: 12,462
18. The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)
Approved | 130 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The dramatized life of immortal humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, from his days as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River until his death in 1910 shortly after Halley's Comet returned.
Director: Irving Rapper | Stars: Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale
Votes: 1,360
19. Between Two Worlds (1944)
Approved | 112 min | Mystery, Drama, Fantasy
Passengers on an ocean liner can't recall how they got on board or where they are going yet, oddly enough, it soon becomes apparent that they all have something in common.
Director: Edward A. Blatt | Stars: John Garfield, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Eleanor Parker
Votes: 2,349
20. The Spider Woman (1943)
Passed | 63 min | Mystery, Thriller
Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of so-called "pajama suicides". He knows the female villain behind them is as cunning as Moriarty and as venomous as a spider.
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Dennis Hoey
Votes: 5,128
21. The Scarlet Claw (1944)
Approved | 74 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When a gentlewoman is found dead with her throat torn out, the villagers blame a supernatural monster. But Sherlock Holmes, who gets drawn into the case from nearby Quebec, suspects a human murderer.
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gerald Hamer, Paul Cavanagh
Votes: 5,835
22. The Pearl of Death (1944)
Passed | 69 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
When a valuable pearl with a sinister reputation is stolen, Sherlock Holmes must investigate its link to a series of brutal murders.
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Dennis Hoey, Evelyn Ankers
Votes: 4,853
23. The Canterville Ghost (1944)
Passed | 95 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
The descendent of a ghost imprisoned for cowardice hopes to free the spirit by displaying courage when under duress.
Directors: Jules Dassin, Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Charles Laughton, Robert Young, Margaret O'Brien, William Gargan
Votes: 3,346
24. The Whistler (1944)
Passed | 59 min | Film-Noir, Mystery
A depressed man hires an assassin to kill him when he least expects it, but when his life takes an upward turn, he finds he now wishes to live.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Richard Dix, Gloria Stuart, J. Carrol Naish, Alan Dinehart
Votes: 1,120
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