1940'S movies
by animefan-08335 | created - 12 Sep 2018 | updated - 22 Jan 2019 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Light of Western Stars (1940)
Passed | 64 min | Drama, Western
Cowhand Ladd dances with cantina girl Estrella and has a part in shooting Sheriff Tyler.
Director: Lesley Selander | Stars: Victor Jory, Jo Ann Sayers, Russell Hayden, Morris Ankrum
Votes: 203
2. One Body Too Many (1944)
Approved | 75 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
An insurance salesman arrives at a creepy mansion to discover his potential eccentric millionaire client already dead. Instead he gets embroiled in a house full of greedy, murderous relatives competing for the inheritance.
Director: Frank McDonald | Stars: Jack Haley, Jean Parker, Bela Lugosi, Blanche Yurka
Votes: 1,564
3. Scared to Death (1946)
Approved | 65 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
From a slab in the morgue, a dead young woman tells the bizarre tale of how she got there, through a maze of murder involving a hypnotist, a midget and a mysterious figure in a green mask.
Director: Christy Cabanne | Stars: Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Molly Lamont, Nat Pendleton
Votes: 1,770
4. The Killers (1946)
Passed | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker
Votes: 23,607
5. Young People (1940)
Approved | 79 min | Drama, Musical
A show-business family leaves the Great White Way and heads for a farm in New England. What results is the difficulties they have before they are accepted by the community.
Director: Allan Dwan | Stars: Shirley Temple, Jack Oakie, Charlotte Greenwood, Arleen Whelan
Votes: 465
6. The Girl Who Dared (1944)
Approved | 56 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A young woman seeking adventure, and several other people have to outwit a mysterious killer on a remote island.
Director: Howard Bretherton | Stars: Lorna Gray, Peter Cookson, Grant Withers, Veda Ann Borg
Votes: 211
7. The Amazing Mr. X (1948)
Passed | 78 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Thriller
On the beach one night, Christine Faber, two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf; then meets a tall dark man Alexis, who seems to know all about such things.
Director: Bernard Vorhaus | Stars: Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O'Donnell, Richard Carlson
Votes: 2,208
8. Topper Returns (1941)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery
A fun-loving young woman is murdered after trading bedrooms with her wealthy friend. Her ghost seeks aid from Topper to find the murderer.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis, Billie Burke
Votes: 3,414
9. Pot o' Gold (1941)
Approved | 86 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Jimmy goes to work with his uncle, the owner of a food factory. Before he gets there, he befriends an Irish family who happens to be his uncle's worst enemy because of their love for music and in-house band who constantly practices.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: James Stewart, Paulette Goddard, Horace Heidt, Charles Winninger
Votes: 2,085
10. Eyes in the Night (1942)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Mystery
A blind detective and his seeing-eye dog investigate a murder and discover a Nazi plot.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Donna Reed, Stephen McNally
Votes: 1,954
11. The Crooked Way (1949)
Passed | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
War hero recovers from amnesia and is confronted by his criminal past.
Director: Robert Florey | Stars: John Payne, Sonny Tufts, Ellen Drew, Rhys Williams
Votes: 1,400
12. Behind Green Lights (1946)
Passed | 64 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
Police lieutenant Sam Carson investigates a political murder after the victim is dumped at the door of police headquarters.
Director: Otto Brower | Stars: Carole Landis, William Gargan, Richard Crane, Mary Anderson
Votes: 1,105
13. The Woman in Green (1945)
Approved | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Sherlock Holmes investigates when young women around London turn up murdered, each with a finger severed. Scotland Yard suspects a madman, but Holmes believes the killings to be part of a diabolical plot.
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Henry Daniell
Votes: 6,863
14. Fear in the Night (1946)
Passed | 72 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man dreams he committed murder, then begins to suspect it was real.
Director: Maxwell Shane | Stars: Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Kay Scott, Ann Doran
Votes: 1,799
15. Whispering Footsteps (1943)
54 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A bank clerk in a small town returns home from a vacation in Indianapolis, and hears a story on the radio about a girl found murdered there. The description of the killer fits him exactly, ... See full summary »
Director: Howard Bretherton | Stars: John Hubbard, Rita Quigley, Joan Blair, Charles Halton
Votes: 212
16. The Hidden Hand (1942)
Approved | 63 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
Peter Thorne (Craig Stevens)is a young attorney who works for an eccentric old woman, Lorinda Channing (Cecil Cunningham), who uses her insane brother, John Channing (Milton Parsons), to ... See full summary »
Director: Benjamin Stoloff | Stars: Craig Stevens, Elisabeth Fraser, Julie Bishop, Willie Best
Votes: 677
17. Apology for Murder (1945)
Approved | 67 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a reporter helps his girlfriend murder her rich husband, an innocent man gets the blame and faces execution.
Director: Sam Newfield | Stars: Hugh Beaumont, Ann Savage, Russell Hicks, Charles D. Brown
Votes: 443
18. The Pay Off (1942)
Passed | 74 min | Action, Crime, Film-Noir
The city's District Attorney is murdered, and a newspaper reporter investigates. He starts finding out that everything wasn't quite as cut and dried as it appeared to be.
Director: Arthur Dreifuss | Stars: Lee Tracy, Tom Brown, Tina Thayer, Evelyn Brent
Votes: 264
19. The Dark Corner (1946)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A secretary tries to help her boss who's been framed for murder.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix, Mark Stevens
Votes: 5,185
20. D.O.A. (1949)
Approved | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Frank Bigelow, told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why.
Director: Rudolph Maté | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Beverly Garland
Votes: 13,072
21. Thieves' Highway (1949)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
A war veteran turned truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce scofflaw.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence
Votes: 6,860
22. To the Ends of the Earth (1948)
Approved | 109 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
After witnessing an incident on a foreign ship off California coast, a U.S. Treasury agent aboard a Coast Guard vessel decides to further investigate the matter by following a crime trail leading to China, Egypt, Lebanon and Cuba.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Dick Powell, Signe Hasso, Maylia, Ludwig Donath
Votes: 948
23. The Devil Bat (1940)
Approved | 68 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A mad scientist develops an aftershave lotion that causes his gigantic bats to kill anyone who wears it.
Director: Jean Yarbrough | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, Dave O'Brien, Guy Usher
Votes: 3,445
24. The Ape Man (1943)
Passed | 64 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A crazed scientist accidentally turns himself into a half ape, half human creature, and scrambles to find a cure.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, Wallace Ford, Henry Hall
Votes: 1,503
25. Invisible Ghost (1941)
Passed | 64 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
The town's leading citizen becomes a homicidal maniac after his wife deserts him.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Polly Ann Young, John McGuire, Clarence Muse
Votes: 2,586
26. Bowery at Midnight (1942)
Approved | 61 min | Crime, Thriller
Kindly soup kitchen operator and professor of criminology Bela Lugosi uses his soup kitchen as a front for a criminal gang who commit a series of daring robberies and murders.
Director: Wallace Fox | Stars: Bela Lugosi, John Archer, Wanda McKay, Tom Neal
Votes: 1,233
27. Bowery at Midnight (1942)
Approved | 61 min | Crime, Thriller
Kindly soup kitchen operator and professor of criminology Bela Lugosi uses his soup kitchen as a front for a criminal gang who commit a series of daring robberies and murders.
Director: Wallace Fox | Stars: Bela Lugosi, John Archer, Wanda McKay, Tom Neal
Votes: 1,233
28. The Corpse Vanishes (1942)
Passed | 64 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A scientist, aided by an old hag and her two sons, kills virginal brides, steals their bodies, and extracts gland fluid to keep his ancient wife alive and young.
Director: Wallace Fox | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Luana Walters, Tristram Coffin, Elizabeth Russell
Votes: 3,510
29. The Ghost and the Guest (1943)
Approved | 61 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A newlywed couple winds up spending their honeymoon night in an old, dark, spooky mansion.
Director: William Nigh | Stars: James Dunn, Florence Rice, Robert Dudley, Mabel Todd
Votes: 300
30. Things Happen at Night (1948)
Not Rated | 79 min | Comedy, Horror
A young girl finds herself possessed by the spirit of a mischievous demon.
Director: Francis Searle | Stars: Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton, Robertson Hare, Olga Lindo
Votes: 239
31. Spooks Run Wild (1941)
Approved | 65 min | Horror, Comedy
The boys are stranded in a small rural town, they hear about a "monster killer" roaming the countryside. At night, they sneak out. Peewee is shot by a grave-digger, and they are forced to seek aid at an old mansion.
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall
Votes: 1,826
32. Black Dragons (1942)
Approved | 64 min | Thriller, War
A cabal of American industrialists, all fifth-columnists intent on sabotaging the war effort, are methodically murdered by the malevolent Monsieur Colomb. It is only until detective Dick ... See full summary »
Director: William Nigh | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Joan Barclay, George Pembroke, Clayton Moore
Votes: 1,264
33. Black Friday (1940)
Approved | 70 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Dr. Sovac transplants the brain of a gangster into his professor friend's body to save his life, but there is a side effect that causes a dangerous split personality.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Stanley Ridges, Anne Nagel
Votes: 2,876
34. Cry of the Werewolf (1944)
Passed | 63 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A young woman raised by gypsies hides a deadly secret which she will do anything to protect.
Director: Henry Levin | Stars: Nina Foch, Stephen Crane, Osa Massen, Blanche Yurka
Votes: 1,195
35. Ghosts on the Loose (1943)
Approved | 67 min | Comedy
The East Side Kids try to fix up a house for newlyweds, but find the place next door "haunted" by mysterious men.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Bela Lugosi
Votes: 1,536
36. Voodoo Man (1944)
Approved | 62 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
Dr. Richard Marlowe uses a combination of voodoo and hypnosis in an attempt to revive his dead wife by transferring the life essences of several hapless young girls he has kidnapped and imprisoned in the dungeon beneath his mansion.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, George Zucco, Wanda McKay
Votes: 1,184
37. 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: 4,098
38. Island of Doomed Men (1940)
Passed | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Undercover agent Mark Sheldon gets paroled to a remote tropical island with a diamond mine manned by slave labor run by sadistic Stephen Danel.
Director: Charles Barton | Stars: Peter Lorre, Rochelle Hudson, Robert Wilcox, Don Beddoe
Votes: 626
39. The Creeper (1948)
Approved | 64 min | Adventure, Horror
A man is turned into a "catlike" killer by means of a serum invented by a crazed scientist.
Director: Jean Yarbrough | Stars: Eduardo Ciannelli, Onslow Stevens, June Vincent, Ralph Morgan
Votes: 298
40. Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise (1940)
Passed | 76 min | Crime, Mystery
Charlie tries to discover the identity of a strangler who strikes multiple times on a cruise ship bound from Honolulu to California.
Director: Eugene Forde | Stars: Sidney Toler, Marjorie Weaver, Lionel Atwill, Victor Sen Yung
Votes: 1,473
41. Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940)
Approved | 63 min | Mystery
An escaped convicted murderer hides out at a New York wax museum where he hopes to get plastic surgery, which will help him revenge himself on Charlie Chan.
Director: Lynn Shores | Stars: Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, C. Henry Gordon, Marc Lawrence
Votes: 1,748
42. Murder Over New York (1940)
Passed | 65 min | Mystery
When Charlie's old friend from Scotland Yard is murdered when they attend a police convention in New York, Chan picks up the case he was working on.
Director: Harry Lachman | Stars: Sidney Toler, Marjorie Weaver, Robert Lowery, Ricardo Cortez
Votes: 1,375
43. The Monster Maker (1944)
Approved | 62 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A mad scientist injects his enemies with an acromegaly virus, causing them to become hideously deformed.
Director: Sam Newfield | Stars: J. Carrol Naish, Ralph Morgan, Tala Birell, Wanda McKay
Votes: 1,260
44. Castle in the Desert (1942)
Approved | 62 min | Mystery
Charlie Chan investigates apparent poisonings at a mystery mansion in the Mojave Desert.
Director: Harry Lachman | Stars: Sidney Toler, Arleen Whelan, Richard Derr, Douglass Dumbrille
Votes: 1,442
45. King of the Zombies (1941)
Passed | 67 min | Adventure, Comedy, Horror
On a spooky island, three stranded travelers find an evil doctor working with foreign spies and in control of zombies.
Director: Jean Yarbrough | Stars: Dick Purcell, Joan Woodbury, Mantan Moreland, Henry Victor
Votes: 2,500
46. The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
Approved | 64 min | Mystery
Someone is attempting to steal radium stored in a bank. Death by cobra venom connects a number of murders. Charlie investigates.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Benson Fong, James Cardwell
Votes: 1,239
47. 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941)
Passed | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Professor Horatio Smith, while seeming very unassuming, rescues victims of Nazi persecution during World War II.
Director: Leslie Howard | Stars: Leslie Howard, Francis L. Sullivan, Allan Jeayes, Mary Morris
Votes: 1,848
48. Women in the Night (1948)
Approved | 98 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
As World War II nears its end, beautiful women forced to serve as sex slaves in a German officer's club, do what they can to destroy the plans of a cosmic death ray.
Director: William Rowland | Stars: Tala Birell, William Henry, Richard Loo, Virginia Christine
Votes: 211
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