1940s CLASSICS : UNDER THE RADAR
by glowinthedarkscars | created - 30 Sep 2014 | updated - 6 months ago | PublicExcellent films that I enjoyed which didn't make it on the Classic 200 List (Nothing is rated lower than a 6) (*excludes non-english language and Christmas movies)
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1. Impact (1949)
Passed | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn, Helen Walker
Votes: 4,722
2. Border Incident (1949)
Passed | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Mexican and American federal agents tackle a vicious gang exploiting illegal farm workers in southern California.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva, James Mitchell
Votes: 2,738
3. Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong
Votes: 3,414
4. The Racket (1951)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In New York, two honest cops try to hinder a crime syndicate from moving into the precinct and also to prevent the mob's plan of electing a corrupt prosecutor to a judgeship.
Directors: John Cromwell, Mel Ferrer, Tay Garnett, Edmund Grainger, Nicholas Ray, Sherman Todd | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan, William Talman
Votes: 3,366
5. Winter Meeting (1948)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Romance
Bette Davis is a successful poetess who falls in love with a war hero in this romantic melodrama that is a moving film experience any time of year.
Director: Bretaigne Windust | Stars: Bette Davis, Janis Paige, Jim Davis, John Hoyt
Votes: 1,522
6. Tomorrow Is Forever (1946)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Romance, War
An American World War I soldier whose disfigured face is reconstructed by Austrian plastic surgeons returns home after 20 years, but no one recognizes him, his widow is married to another man, and his son is a grown young man.
Director: Irving Pichel | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, George Brent, Lucile Watson
Votes: 2,985 | Gross: $3.25M
7. T-Men (1947)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Two US Treasury agents hunt a successful counterfeiting ring.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Dennis O'Keefe, Wallace Ford, Alfred Ryder, Mary Meade
Votes: 3,910
8. Colorado Territory (1949)
Approved | 94 min | Western
Outlaw Wes McQueen escapes jail to pull a railroad robbery but, upon meeting pretty settler Julie Ann, he wonders about going straight.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone, Henry Hull
Votes: 3,179
9. The Miracle of the Bells (1948)
Approved | 120 min | Drama
A press agent brings a dead actress home for burial. To promote her one film, he asks churches to ring bells for 3 days, hoping to get the studio head to release it.
Director: Irving Pichel | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Alida Valli, Frank Sinatra, Lee J. Cobb
Votes: 1,126
10. Blithe Spirit (1945)
96 min | Comedy, Fantasy
A man and his second wife are haunted by the ghost of his first wife.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford
Votes: 8,023
11. The Body Snatcher (1945)
Approved | 78 min | Horror, Thriller
A ruthless doctor and his young prize student find themselves continually harassed by their murderous supplier of illegal cadavers.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell, Edith Atwater
Votes: 10,195
12. The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
Passed | 81 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him invisible, despite its side effect: gradual madness.
Director: Joe May | Stars: Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, John Sutton
Votes: 5,298
13. Three Strangers (1946)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Three strangers, each dealing with a serious problem, share a sweepstakes ticket which they wished upon together before a Chinese idol.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Joan Lorring
Votes: 2,563
14. Tall in the Saddle (1944)
Approved | 87 min | Western
Ranch hand Rocklin arrives in town to start his new job but his employer has been murdered and the locals don't seem too friendly.
Director: Edwin L. Marin | Stars: John Wayne, Ella Raines, Ward Bond, George 'Gabby' Hayes
Votes: 3,484
15. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Western
When a posse captures three men suspected of killing a local farmer, they become strongly divided over whether or not to lynch the men.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn
Votes: 24,967 | Gross: $1.64M
16. Duel in the Sun (1946)
Passed | 129 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Beautiful, biracial Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between two brothers, one good and the other bad.
Directors: King Vidor, Otto Brower, William Dieterle, Sidney Franklin, William Cameron Menzies, David O. Selznick, Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 9,488 | Gross: $20.41M
17. Yellow Sky (1948)
Approved | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Western
A pistol-packing tomboy and her grandfather discover a band of bank robbing bandits taking refuge in the neighboring ghost town.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark, Robert Arthur
Votes: 5,767
18. 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: 27,694 | Gross: $7.57M
19. The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Approved | 156 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, living in a small town in the south of 1850s France, claims to have seen a divine vision, prompting extreme skepticism, concern from her family, and religious and political turmoil.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, William Eythe, Vincent Price
Votes: 7,645
20. The Captive Heart (1946)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, War
In 1940, a concentration camp escapee assumes the identity of a dead British officer, only to become a prisoner of war.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Rachel Kempson, Frederick Leister, Mervyn Johns
Votes: 1,177
21. Hangover Square (1945)
Passed | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A promising classical musician finds his life poisoned by a music hall dancer -- and by the strange gaps in his memory.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders, Glenn Langan
Votes: 4,139
22. The Snake Pit (1948)
Approved | 108 min | Drama, Mystery
A detailed chronicle of a woman during her stay in a mental institution.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm
Votes: 8,435 | Gross: $10.00M
23. Mr. Lucky (1943)
Approved | 100 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
A gambler has plans to swindle money from a charity program, but starts to have second thoughts when he falls for a rich society girl.
Director: H.C. Potter | Stars: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper
Votes: 3,539
24. Lassie Come Home (1943)
Passed | 89 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
After her destitute family is forced to sell her, a collie named Lassie escapes from her new owner and begins the long trek from Scotland to her Yorkshire home.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 5,936
25. Courage of Lassie (1946)
G | 92 min | Drama, Adventure, Family
Academy Award-winner Elizabeth Taylor stars in this touching family drama about a young girl who rehabilitates an Army's shell-shocked collie.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Morgan, Tom Drake, Selena Royle
Votes: 1,684
26. Johnny Belinda (1948)
Unrated | 102 min | Drama
A kind doctor volunteers to tutor a deaf-mute woman, but scandal starts to swirl when his pupil is raped and falls pregnant.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 5,318
27. The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
Unrated | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After leaving her family's farm to study nursing in the city, a young woman finds herself on an unexpected path towards politics.
Director: H.C. Potter | Stars: Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Charles Bickford
Votes: 2,883
28. This Happy Breed (1944)
Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy, Drama
Just after World War I, the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. They live an ordinary life throughout the years, but everything changes when World War II breaks out.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, John Mills, Kay Walsh
Votes: 4,003
29. The Upturned Glass (1947)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama
A British brain surgeon punishes the murderess of his lover.
Director: Lawrence Huntington | Stars: James Mason, Rosamund John, Pamela Mason, Ann Stephens
Votes: 1,358
30. The Suspect (1944)
Passed | 85 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
An unhappily married man begins a flirtation with a younger woman. When his wife threatens to ruin her, he decides to take action.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, Dean Harens, Stanley Ridges
Votes: 3,551
31. You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
Passed | 97 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
In Buenos Aires, a man who has decreed that his daughters must marry in order of age allows an American dancer to perform at his club under the condition that he play suitor to his second-oldest daughter.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Adolphe Menjou, Isobel Elsom
Votes: 4,088 | Gross: $0.67M
32. Portrait of Jennie (1948)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
In Depression-era New York, an impoverished painter has a chance encounter with an enigmatic, old-fashioned little girl in Central Park who inspires him and changes his destiny.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish
Votes: 7,629
33. The Verdict (1946)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After an innocent man is executed in a case for which he was not responsible, a Scotland Yard superintendent finds himself investigating the murder of his key witness.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, George Coulouris
Votes: 2,831
34. Pitfall (1948)
Not Rated | 86 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Married insurance adjuster John Forbes falls for femme fatale Mona Stevens while her boyfriend is in jail and all suffer serious consequences as a result.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr
Votes: 4,544
35. The Big Clock (1948)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A magazine tycoon commits a murder and pins it on an innocent man, who then tries to solve the murder himself.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Ray Milland, Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Laughton, George Macready
Votes: 9,541
36. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett
Votes: 13,669
37. Enchantment (1948)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Romance
Uncle Rollo finally retires to the house he was brought up in. Lost in thoughts of his lost love, Lark, he does not want to be disturbed in his last days. However, the appearance of his ... See full summary »
Director: Irving Reis | Stars: David Niven, Teresa Wright, Evelyn Keyes, Farley Granger
Votes: 1,400
38. In Which We Serve (1942)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, War
This "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.
Director: Noël Coward | Stars: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson
Votes: 6,451 | Gross: $0.45M
39. Man Hunt (1941)
Passed | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
British hunter Thorndike vacationing in Bavaria has Hitler in his gun sight. He is captured, beaten, left for dead, and escapes back to London where he is hounded by German agents and aided by a young woman.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine
Votes: 6,440
40. The Unsuspected (1947)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
The secretary of an affably suave radio mystery host mysteriously commits suicide after his wealthy young niece disappears.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Claude Rains, Joan Caulfield, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett
Votes: 3,636
41. 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: 5,844
42. Caught (1949)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ambitious young LA department store model gets her wish of marrying a millionaire but she eventually discovers that rich life isn't always a happy one.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, Frank Ferguson
Votes: 4,358
43. The Queen of Spades (1949)
95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
An army officer becomes obsessed with learning the secret to a card game for which an elderly countess sold her soul years earlier.
Director: Thorold Dickinson | Stars: Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell, Ronald Howard
Votes: 2,399
44. A Canterbury Tale (1944)
Not Rated | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price, John Sweet
Votes: 6,488
45. Champion (1949)
Passed | 99 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Sport
Boxer Midge Kelly rises to fame...mainly by stepping on other people.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Marilyn Maxwell, Paul Stewart
Votes: 4,759
46. Northwest Passage (1940)
Passed | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Langdon Towne and Hunk Marriner join Major Rogers' Rangers as they wipe out an Indian village. They set out for Fort Wentworth, but when they arrive they find no soldiers and none of the supplies they expected.
Directors: King Vidor, Jack Conway, W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 3,907
47. All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
Approved | 141 min | Drama, Romance
A duchess' irrational behavior toward her children's governess triggers tragic events that will change her family's lives forever.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 5,388
48. Conflict (1945)
Passed | 86 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
An engineer trapped in an unhappy marriage murders his wife in the hope of marrying her younger sister.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet, Rose Hobart
Votes: 4,613
49. Cry of the City (1948)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Police Lieut. Candella, longtime friend of the Rome family, walks a tightrope in the case of cop-killer Martin Rome.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark, Shelley Winters
Votes: 3,735
50. The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
Passed | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A nineteenth-century New Hampshire farmer makes a pact with Satan for economic success, then enlists famed orator Daniel Webster to extract him from his contract.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, Jane Darwell, Simone Simon
Votes: 5,615
51. This Land Is Mine (1943)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, War
A mild-mannered school teacher in a German-occupied town during World War II finds himself torn between collaboration and resistance.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders, Walter Slezak
Votes: 3,731
52. A Woman's Face (1941)
Passed | 106 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Conrad Veidt, Osa Massen
Votes: 3,783
This is good.. but not as good as the Ingrid Bergman version
53. A Stolen Life (1946)
Passed | 109 min | Drama
When a woman's twin sister is drowned, she assumes her identity in order to be close to the man she feels her sister took from her years before.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Dane Clark, Walter Brennan
Votes: 4,090
54. 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: 5,132
55. The Great Lie (1941)
Approved | 108 min | Drama
After a newlywed's husband apparently dies in a plane crash, she discovers that her rival for his affections is pregnant with his child.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Bette Davis, George Brent, Mary Astor, Lucile Watson
Votes: 4,347
56. The Street with No Name (1948)
Approved | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A covert FBI agent infiltrates a ruthless gangster mob, but his life is at risk from a mysterious informant who funnels inside information to the hoodlums.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Mark Stevens, Richard Widmark, Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Lawrence
Votes: 3,340
57. 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: 4,105
58. Watch on the Rhine (1943)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, Thriller
A German-born engineer, his American wife and their children travel from Mexico to the United States to visit her family, but a Romanian count complicates their plans.
Directors: Herman Shumlin, Hal Mohr | Stars: Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lucile Watson
Votes: 4,976
59. Come Live with Me (1941)
Passed | 86 min | Comedy, Romance
Seeking US citizenship, a Viennese refugee arranges a marriage of convenience with a struggling writer.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: James Stewart, Hedy Lamarr, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale
Votes: 2,458
60. Vacation from Marriage (1945)
Passed | 102 min | Drama, Romance
A dull married couple, separated by their enlistment during World War II, reunite after three years to find that they have become very different people.
Director: Alexander Korda | Stars: Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns, Ann Todd
Votes: 1,526
61. The Clock (1945)
Passed | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1945, during a 48-hour leave, a soldier accidentally meets a girl at Pennsylvania Station and spends his leave with her, eventually falling in love with the lovely New Yorker.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, James Gleason, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 4,048 | Gross: $2.78M
62. Tales of Manhattan (1942)
Passed | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A formal tailcoat that gets passed from one owner to another affects each life in a significant way.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda
Votes: 2,515
63. Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)
Passed | 78 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
The happy tranquility of Buggsville is shattered when the populace learns that a colossal skyscraper is to be built over their tiny town.
Director: Dave Fleischer | Stars: Kenny Gardner, Jack Mercer, Tedd Pierce, Carl Meyer
Votes: 1,406
64. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
Passed | 102 min | Musical
Johnny Brett and King Shaw are an unsuccessful dance team in New York. A producer discovers Brett as the new partner for Clare Bennett but Brett, who thinks he is one of the people they lent money to, gives him the name of his partner.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan
Votes: 2,789
65. The Valley of Decision (1945)
Passed | 119 min | Drama, Romance
An Irish maid falls for the son of her wealthy boss, though their disapproving fathers and a bitter strike at the steel mill complicate matters.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 2,376
66. Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
PG | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
The story of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott's 1912 expedition and his quest to be the first to reach the South Pole.
Director: Charles Frend | Stars: John Mills, Derek Bond, Diana Churchill, Harold Warrender
Votes: 2,438
67. Romance on the High Seas (1948)
Approved | 99 min | Comedy, Musical, Mystery
Romantic misunderstandings abound when spouses suspect each other of being unfaithful, and a nightclub singer takes a cruise under a false identity.
Directors: Michael Curtiz, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Doris Day, Don DeFore
Votes: 2,739
68. Beyond the Forest (1949)
Approved | 97 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
Resentful of her small-town life, a married woman schemes to run off with a rich businessman.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, David Brian, Ruth Roman
Votes: 2,773
69. Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942)
Passed | 98 min | Drama, Romance
Cheated out of his estate by his sadistic uncle, young Benjamin Blake goes to the South Seas to make his fortune so he can return to claim his birthright.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, George Sanders, Frances Farmer
Votes: 1,831
70. Christmas in July (1940)
Passed | 67 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After the co-workers of an ambitious clerk trick him into thinking he has won $25,000 in a slogan contest, he begins to use the money to fulfill his dreams. What will happen when the ruse is discovered?
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn, Alexander Carr
Votes: 4,269
71. Sitting Pretty (1948)
Approved | 83 min | Comedy, Family
A family that hires a live-in babysitter is surprised when he turns out to be a man who's a quirky genius.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Robert Young, Maureen O'Hara, Clifton Webb, Richard Haydn
Votes: 2,726
72. Love Crazy (1941)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
A wife suspecting infidelity starts divorce proceedings, so the husband pretends to be insane in order to delay the divorce and clear up the misunderstanding.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick, Jack Carson
Votes: 3,438
73. The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
Passed | 126 min | Drama, Romance, War
Susan travels with her father to England for a vacation. Invited to a ball, Susan meets Sir John Ashwood and marries him after a whirlwind romance. However, American Susan never quite adjusts to life as a new member of the British gentry.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Roddy McDowall, Frank Morgan
Votes: 1,805
74. I Love You Again (1940)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh, Edmund Lowe
Votes: 3,806
75. Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
Passed | 71 min | Comedy, Musical
A filmmaker attempts to sell a surreal script he has written, which comes to life as he pitches it.
Director: Edward F. Cline | Stars: W.C. Fields, Gloria Jean, Leon Errol, Billy Lenhart
Votes: 2,643
76. Swamp Water (1941)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Attempting to find his lost dog in a vast Georgia swamp, Ben Ragan stumbles upon wanted murderer Tom Keefer who convinces Ben he was framed for the murder by the real killer.
Directors: Jean Renoir, Irving Pichel | Stars: Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews
Votes: 2,114
77. Forever and a Day (1943)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, History
During World War II, an American travels to Britain to sell an old house near London that belongs to his family. However, he meets Leslie Trimble who lives in the house and who is ... See full summary »
Directors: Edmund Goulding, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville, Robert Stevenson, Herbert Wilcox, René Clair | Stars: George Kirby, Doreen Munroe, May Beatty, Connie Leon
Votes: 795
78. The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Mystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued after the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson
Votes: 3,962
79. Johnny Apollo (1940)
Approved | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The son of a jailed Wall Street broker turns to crime to pay for his father's release.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, Edward Arnold, Lloyd Nolan
Votes: 1,502
80. Love Letters (1945)
Passed | 101 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Allen Quinton writes a fellow soldier's love letters; tragedy results. Later, Allen meets a beautiful amnesiac who fears postmen...
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway
Votes: 1,788
81. Nobody Lives Forever (1946)
Approved | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Ex-GI Nick Blake gets involved in a scheme to fleece a rich, young widow, but finds himself falling for her, much to the displeasure of his racketeer cohorts.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Walter Brennan, Faye Emerson
Votes: 1,874
82. My Reputation (1946)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A recent widow meets an army major while skiing and despite pressures from friends and family becomes romantically involved with him.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Warner Anderson, Lucile Watson
Votes: 1,837
83. I Became a Criminal (1947)
Approved | 78 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After WW2, former RAF airman Clem Morgan joins a gang of black-market smugglers-thieves but when a robbery goes wrong, Clem is caught , framed for a policeman's murder, and is sent to prison where he plots his escape and revenge.
Director: Alberto Cavalcanti | Stars: Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Griffith Jones, Rene Ray
Votes: 1,924
84. Uncertain Glory (1944)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After a career criminal is recaptured and knows he faces the guillotine, he offers to exchange his life for 100 hostages slated for execution by the Germans.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Errol Flynn, Paul Lukas, Lucile Watson, Faye Emerson
Votes: 1,495
85. Journey for Margaret (1942)
Passed | 81 min | Drama, Romance, War
John Davis, a married American newspaper reporter in London, covers the story of a home for children displaced by the war and meets two kids who grow attached to him.
Directors: W.S. Van Dyke, Herbert Kline | Stars: Robert Young, Laraine Day, Fay Bainter, Nigel Bruce
Votes: 965
86. Brother Orchid (1940)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
When retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sothern, Donald Crisp
Votes: 3,171
87. City for Conquest (1940)
Passed | 104 min | Drama, Sport
Danny is a content truck driver, but his girl Peggy shows potential as a dancer and hopes he too can show ambition. Danny acquiesces and pursues boxing to please her, but the two begin to spend more time working than time together.
Directors: Anatole Litvak, Jean Negulesco | Stars: James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp
Votes: 2,710
88. Nothing But the Truth (1941)
Approved | 90 min | Action, Comedy, Romance
A stockbroker's new partner bets $10,000 that he can only tell the truth for twenty-four hours.
Director: Elliott Nugent | Stars: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Edward Arnold, Leif Erickson
Votes: 993
89. Pride of the Marines (1945)
Approved | 120 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Marine hero Al Schmid is blinded in battle and returns home to be rehabilitated. He readjusts to his civilian life with the help of his soon to be wife.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: John Garfield, Eleanor Parker, Dane Clark, John Ridgely
Votes: 1,645
90. Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940)
Approved | 103 min | Biography, Drama
True story of the doctor who considered it was not immoral to search for a drug that would cure syphillis.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Gordon, Otto Kruger, Donald Crisp
Votes: 1,831
91. The Late George Apley (1947)
Passed | 93 min | Comedy, Romance
George and Catherine Apley of Boston lead a proper life in the proper social circle, as did the Apleys before them. After grown daughter Eleanor falls in love with Howard (from New York!), ... See full summary »
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Ronald Colman, Vanessa Brown, Richard Haydn, Charles Russell
Votes: 942
92. Dear Ruth (1947)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A family is befuddled when a World War II serviceman shows up to meet and marry his pen pal sweetheart. Everyone's in the dark about the romance by mail. Then they discover Ruth's younger sister was the culprit.
Director: William D. Russell | Stars: Joan Caulfield, William Holden, Mona Freeman, Edward Arnold
Votes: 715
93. The House of the Seven Gables (1940)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Thriller
Based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this classic film follows a family feud between two brothers and an ancient curse that haunts them.
Director: Joe May | Stars: George Sanders, Margaret Lindsay, Vincent Price, Dick Foran
Votes: 1,516
94. The Man I Married (1940)
77 min | Drama, Mystery
Anti-Nazi tract laced with 1938 newsreel footage finds American girl (Bennett) married to a German (Lederer) gradually learning he is a Nazi, trying to get their son to America.
Director: Irving Pichel | Stars: Joan Bennett, Francis Lederer, Lloyd Nolan, Anna Sten
Votes: 600
95. The Green Years (1946)
Passed | 127 min | Drama
An orphaned young boy is guided by his great-grandfather and strives to go to university to become a doctor. However, the boy's harsh grandfather stands in his way.
Director: Victor Saville | Stars: Charles Coburn, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler, Hume Cronyn
Votes: 1,079
96. Apartment for Peggy (1948)
Approved | 96 min | Drama, Romance
A retired professor rents his attic apartment to pregnant Peggy and her GI-Bill-student husband. The professor ponders if his life is no longer useful while the young couple faces the challenges shared with many WW II veterans' families.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: Jeanne Crain, William Holden, Edmund Gwenn, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 1,141
97. June Bride (1948)
Approved | 96 min | Comedy
A magazine's staff, including bickering ex-lovers Linda and Carey, cover an Indiana wedding, which goes slightly wrong...
Director: Bretaigne Windust | Stars: Bette Davis, Robert Montgomery, Fay Bainter, Betty Lynn
Votes: 2,090
98. Holy Matrimony (1943)
Not Rated | 87 min | Comedy, Drama
From Arnold Bennett's novel "Buried Alive". An artist returning from years abroad takes the identity of his dead valet to escape the attentions of the press.
Director: John M. Stahl | Stars: Monty Woolley, Gracie Fields, Laird Cregar, Una O'Connor
Votes: 897
99. Sorrowful Jones (1949)
Not Rated | 88 min | Comedy, Drama
A young girl is left with the notoriously cheap Sorrowful Jones as a marker for a bet. Her father disappears and he learns that taking care of her cramps his free-wheeling life. Sorrowful must evade gangsters and do some horse-thieving.
Director: Sidney Lanfield | Stars: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, William Demarest, Bruce Cabot
Votes: 860
100. Escape (1940)
Passed | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In 1936, a young man arrives in Hitler's Germany, frantically seeking information about his missing German mother, and finds she is pending execution at a concentration camp.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor, Conrad Veidt, Alla Nazimova
Votes: 1,153
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