100 Greatest 1940-1949 Movies
by jordanhores | created - 07 Jul 2018 | updated - 10 months ago | PublicList of best films from 1940 to 1949 of USA. Excluding Disney films and films with mixed/negative/panned reception. --Night Plane from Chungking
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1. The Green Hornet (1940)
Approved | 258 min | Adventure, Crime, Family
A newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide.
Directors: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor | Stars: Gordon Jones, Wade Boteler, Keye Luke, Anne Nagel
Votes: 713
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2. Remedy for Riches (1940)
60 min | Comedy, Romance
A college friend of the local soda-jerk comes to town and lets it be known that he's looking for property on which to build a resort. When he buys some land and suddenly "discovers" there's... See full summary »
Director: Erle C. Kenton | Stars: Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, Edgar Kennedy, Maude Eburne
Votes: 98
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3. Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)
Approved | 110 min | Biography, Drama, History
Humble Abraham Lincoln gains the respect of his Illinois neighbors, growing in stature and respect until he is elected President in 1860 and departs for Washington.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Gordon, Mary Howard
Votes: 2,060
4. The Courageous Dr. Christian (1940)
Not Rated | 67 min | Drama
A doctor fights an epidemic that breaks out in the poor section of town and tries to get the rest of the town to help out.
Director: Bernard Vorhaus | Stars: Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, Robert Baldwin, Tom Neal
Votes: 106
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5. 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: 5,384
6. She Couldn't Say No (II) (1940)
Approved | 62 min | Comedy
Wally is a lawyer with no clients so when he gets a job to buy a lake and the surrounding 1000 acres for Trans Atlantic Airlines, he jumps at the chance. But when ole man Potter puts a load... See full summary »
Director: William Clemens | Stars: Roger Pryor, Eve Arden, Cliff Edwards, Clem Bevans
Votes: 192
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7. Angels Over Broadway (1940)
Passed | 79 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
A cuckolded embezzler on the verge of suicide is helped by a tout, an alcoholic playwright, and a pick-up girl to reimburse the money with a gambling sting.
Directors: Ben Hecht, Lee Garmes | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen
Votes: 1,336
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8. The Man with Nine Lives (1940)
Approved | 74 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A medical researcher visits the deserted home of a pioneer in cryogenic science who disappeared 10 years earlier and finds him frozen in ice but still alive.
Director: Nick Grinde | Stars: Boris Karloff, Roger Pryor, Jo Ann Sayers, Stanley Brown
Votes: 1,108
9. Arise, My Love (1940)
Passed | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A dashing pilot and a vivacious reporter have romantic and dramatic adventures in Europe as World War II begins.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Ray Milland, Dennis O'Keefe, Walter Abel
Votes: 1,037
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10. Dr. Kildare's Strange Case (1940)
Passed | 77 min | Crime, Drama
Young Dr. Kildare tries to help an unlucky brain surgeon and his seemingly insane patient.
Director: Harold S. Bucquet | Stars: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Shepperd Strudwick
Votes: 615
11. Arizona (1940)
Passed | 125 min | Drama, Western
In Tucson of the 1860s, a pioneer woman struggles to succeed in the freight and cattle business while at risk at the hands of corrupt and violent local businessmen and rampaging Indians.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Jean Arthur, William Holden, Warren William, Porter Hall
Votes: 1,490
12. Dr. Kildare Goes Home (1940)
Passed | 79 min | Drama
Dr. James Kildare has just completed his internship at Blair General Hospital and is assigned to work with his mentor, Dr. Leonard Gillespie. But fearing for the health of his father, Dr. ... See full summary »
Director: Harold S. Bucquet | Stars: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Samuel S. Hinds
Votes: 450
13. The Bank Dick (1940)
Not Rated | 72 min | Comedy
Henpecked Egbert Sousé has comic adventures as a substitute film director and unlikely bank guard.
Director: Edward F. Cline | Stars: W.C. Fields, Cora Witherspoon, Una Merkel, Evelyn Del Rio
Votes: 7,803
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14. 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
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15. The Blue Bird (1940)
Approved | 88 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, a woodchopper's children, are led by the Fairy Berylune on a magical trip through the past, present, and future to locate the Blue Bird of Happiness.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Shirley Temple, Spring Byington, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard
Votes: 1,973
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16. Boom Town (1940)
Passed | 119 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a ten-year period both love the same woman.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr
Votes: 3,779 | Gross: $9.17M
17. Brigham Young (1940)
Approved | 114 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
In 1844, after the assassination of Mormon leader Joseph Smith by an angry mob in Illinois, the Mormons choose Brigham Young as their new leader and follow him to a new promised land in Utah.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Dean Jagger, Brian Donlevy
Votes: 1,140
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18. 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: 2,783
19. 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: 3,170
20. Calling Philo Vance (1940)
Passed | 62 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Despite an exclusive contract with the U.S. government, designer Archer Coe's design is being bid on by German, Japanese, and Italian agents - until he's murdered.
Director: William Clemens | Stars: James Stephenson, Margot Stevenson, Henry O'Neill, Edward Brophy
Votes: 490
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21. Castle on the Hudson (1940)
Approved | 77 min | Crime, Drama
An arrogant mobster, sentenced to a long prison term in Sing Sing, becomes a changed man when given a chance by the fair and progressive warden.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: John Garfield, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Burgess Meredith
Votes: 857
22. Charlie Chan in Panama (1940)
Approved | 67 min | Adventure, Mystery
Inspector Chan investigates a group of travelers, one of whom is a saboteur.
Director: Norman Foster | Stars: Sidney Toler, Jean Rogers, Lionel Atwill, Mary Nash
Votes: 1,517
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23. 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: 1,750
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24. 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: 4,265
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25. 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
26. Blackout (1940)
Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Early in World War II, Danish sea captain Andersen, delayed in a British port, tangles with German spies.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Hay Petrie, Joss Ambler
Votes: 1,352
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27. Convicted Woman (1940)
Approved | 65 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Jobless Betty Andrews, although innocent, is convicted of a department store theft and, despite the best efforts of her lawyer and noted social worker Mary Ellis and a reporter, Jim Brent ... See full summary »
Director: Nick Grinde | Stars: Rochelle Hudson, Frieda Inescort, June Lang, Lola Lane
Votes: 285
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28. Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
When a troupe of danseuses becomes unemployed, one of them takes up burlesque dancing while another dreams of performing ballet.
Directors: Dorothy Arzner, Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, Lucille Ball, Virginia Field
Votes: 3,078
29. Dark Command (1940)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Romance, War
In Kansas during the Civil War, opposing pro-Union and pro-Confederate camps clash and visiting Texan Bob Seton runs afoul of William Cantrell's Raiders.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Walter Pidgeon, Roy Rogers
Votes: 3,034
30. A Dispatch from Reuters (1940)
Approved | 90 min | Biography, Drama
Starting with a small flock of carrier pigeons, nineteenth-century entrepreneur Julius Reuter turns his small company into Europe's most respected news wire service.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Edna Best, Eddie Albert, Albert Bassermann
Votes: 664
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31. Doomed to Die (1940)
Approved | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Mr. Wong and a girl reporter investigate a shipping magnate's murder.
Director: William Nigh | Stars: Boris Karloff, Marjorie Reynolds, Grant Withers, William Stelling
Votes: 1,367
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32. Down Argentine Way (1940)
Approved | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
An American girl on vacation in Argentina falls for a wealthy racehorse owner.
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood
Votes: 1,364
33. Dr. Cyclops (1940)
Passed | 77 min | Adventure, Drama, Horror
A mad scientist working in the South American jungle miniaturizes his colleagues when he feels his megalomania is threatened.
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Albert Dekker, Thomas Coley, Janice Logan, Charles Halton
Votes: 2,889
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34. 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: 1,825
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35. Edison, the Man (1940)
Passed | 107 min | Biography, Drama
82 year old inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Alva Edison is honored in 1929 and he reflects back on his sixty year career of scientific achievement.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Rita Johnson, Lynne Overman, Charles Coburn
Votes: 1,776
36. 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: 1,133
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37. The Fatal Hour (1940)
Approved | 68 min | Crime, Mystery
When Captain Street's best friend Dan Grady is murdered, Street receives help from Chinese detective James Lee Wong and local newspaper reporter Bobbie Logan.
Director: William Nigh | Stars: Boris Karloff, Marjorie Reynolds, Grant Withers, Charles Trowbridge
Votes: 1,308
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38. Flowing Gold (1940)
Approved | 81 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In the American oilfields, a fugitive from justice's destiny is intertwined with the fortunes and the misfortunes of a small oil company that hires him as a roughneck.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: John Garfield, Frances Farmer, Pat O'Brien, Raymond Walburn
Votes: 522
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39. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Votes: 23,709 | Gross: $3.48M
40. Four Sons (1940)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, History, War
When the Germans invade Czechoslovakia the four sons of a Czecho-German family follow different paths: Czech patriot, Nazi supporter, artist in America, and heroic German soldier.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: Don Ameche, Eugenie Leontovich, Mary Beth Hughes, Alan Curtis
Votes: 146
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41. French Without Tears (1940)
86 min | Comedy
The love affairs of three young Englishmen at a language cramming school in the south of France. Diana, the sister of one of the boys, arrives in town to flirt with all of her brothers' schoolmates.
Director: Anthony Asquith | Stars: Ray Milland, Ellen Drew, Janine Darcey, David Tree
Votes: 119
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42. The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Passed | 85 min | Comedy
A radio broadcaster, his quaking manservant and an heiress investigate the mystery of a haunted castle in Cuba.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson, Paul Lukas
Votes: 4,155
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43. Go West (1940)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Musical, Western
The Marx Brothers come to the rescue in the Wild West when a young man, trying to settle an old family feud so he can marry the girl he loves, runs afoul of crooks.
Director: Edward Buzzell | Stars: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, John Carroll
Votes: 5,825
44. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Passed | 129 min | Drama
An Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin
Votes: 99,907 | Gross: $0.06M
45. The Great Dictator (1940)
G | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 237,246 | Gross: $0.29M
46. The Great McGinty (1940)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy
Dan McGinty has great success in his chosen field of crooked politics, but he endangers it all in one crazy moment of honesty.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, Allyn Joslyn
Votes: 4,410
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47. Green Hell (1940)
Passed | 87 min | Adventure, Romance
In the jungles of the Amazon, a group of Western adventurers and two local native guides try to locate a lost treasure buried beneath an ancient Incan city.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Bennett, John Howard, George Sanders
Votes: 403
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48. His Girl Friday (1940)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 63,125 | Gross: $0.30M
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49. 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
50. The Howards of Virginia (1940)
Approved | 116 min | Drama, History, War
Just prior to the American War of Independence, aristocratic Virginian Jane Peyton marries unsophisticated rustic farmer and surveyor Matt Howard who takes her to his Shenandoah Valley plantation and later goes to war.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Cary Grant, Martha Scott, Cedric Hardwicke, Alan Marshal
Votes: 1,263
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51. Hullabaloo (1940)
Passed | 78 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A movie musical centered on merrily befogged Merriweather's attempt to restore his career - all while reuniting with his three children (from his three alimony-seeking ex-wives!).
Director: Edwin L. Marin | Stars: Frank Morgan, Virginia Grey, Dan Dailey, Billie Burke
Votes: 259
52. 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: 3,802
53. 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: 5,287
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54. The Invisible Woman (1940)
Approved | 72 min | Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
An attractive model with an ulterior motive volunteers as guinea pig for an invisibility machine.
Director: A. Edward Sutherland | Stars: Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore, John Howard, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 3,352
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55. It All Came True (1940)
Approved | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
After crooked nightclub owner Chips Maguire murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to allow him to stay at his eccentric mother's boarding house.
Director: Lewis Seiler | Stars: Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Jeffrey Lynn, Zasu Pitts
Votes: 1,467
56. Kitty Foyle (1940)
Passed | 108 min | Drama, Romance
A hard-working white-collar girl from a middle-class family meets and falls in love with a young socialite, but she soon clashes with his family.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Eduardo Ciannelli
Votes: 4,053
57. Lady with Red Hair (1940)
Approved | 78 min | Biography, Drama
A messy divorce leaves Mrs. Leslie Carter shunned by Chicago society for being an adulteress and forbidden from having custody of her son. She's determined to return to her hometown in a ... See full summary »
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, Claude Rains, Richard Ainley, Laura Hope Crews
Votes: 416
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58. The Letter (1940)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort
Votes: 14,586
59. The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, War
A merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Ward Bond
Votes: 4,922
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60. The Marines Fly High (1940)
Passed | 68 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Marine lieutenants Dan and Jim fight bandits in the South American jungle, while competing for the attention of beautiful Joan Grant.
Directors: George Nicholls Jr., Benjamin Stoloff | Stars: Richard Dix, Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Steffi Duna
Votes: 201
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61. The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Approved | 94 min | Action, Adventure, Family
A young Spanish aristocrat must masquerade as a fop in order to maintain his secret identity of Zorro as he restores justice to early California.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard
Votes: 10,974 | Gross: $4.36M
62. The Mortal Storm (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Drama
The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. When the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Breitner, a family friend, is caught up in the turmoil.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan
Votes: 6,035
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63. The Mummy's Hand (1940)
Approved | 67 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Horror
Archaeologists defile the tomb of mummified Kharis, who was buried alive for falling in love with an Egyptian princess.
Director: Christy Cabanne | Stars: Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, Wallace Ford, Eduardo Ciannelli
Votes: 4,701
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64. My Favorite Wife (1940)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
Missing for seven years and presumed dead, a woman returns home on the day of her husband's second marriage.
Director: Garson Kanin | Stars: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick
Votes: 11,511
65. My Little Chickadee (1940)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Western
After a scandal runs a gold-digger out of town, she meets a con artist and becomes embroiled in a string of petty deceits.
Director: Edward F. Cline | Stars: Mae West, W.C. Fields, Joseph Calleia, Dick Foran
Votes: 3,058
66. New Moon (1940)
Passed | 105 min | Adventure, Musical, Romance
On a Louisiana-bound ship, a nobleman planning a campaign for liberty encounters an heiress.
Directors: Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Mary Boland, George Zucco
Votes: 641
67. North West Mounted Police (1940)
Passed | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Western
In 1885, a Texas Ranger travels to Canada to arrest a trapper who's wanted for murder and who's stirring up the Natives in a rebellion against the Canadian government.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Paulette Goddard, Preston Foster
Votes: 1,830
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68. 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: 3,901
69. One Million B.C. (1940)
Passed | 80 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
Tale of Prehistoric survival and love between a male and a female belonging to opposing tribes that happened to be at slightly different stages of evolution.
Directors: Hal Roach Jr., Hal Roach | Stars: Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Lon Chaney Jr., Conrad Nagel
Votes: 1,683
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70. One Night in the Tropics (1940)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Jim "Lucky" Moore (Allan Jones), an insurance salesman, comes up with a novel policy for his friend, Steve (Robert Cummings): a 'love insurance policy', that will pay out $1-million if ... See full summary »
Director: A. Edward Sutherland | Stars: Allan Jones, Nancy Kelly, Robert Cummings, Bud Abbott
Votes: 1,855
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71. Our Town (1940)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Family, Romance
Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: William Holden, Martha Scott, Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi
Votes: 2,971
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72. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Not Rated | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 73,819
73. Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Approved | 118 min | Drama, Romance
The arrival of wealthy bachelors in town causes an uproar when families with single daughters aggressively seek engagements, including the Bennet family, with five eligible daughters.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver
Votes: 9,221
74. Primrose Path (1940)
Approved | 93 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A young woman from a family of prostitutes falls in love with a hard-working man, but when he finds out the truth about her background, their romance becomes jeopardized.
Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, Marjorie Rambeau, Henry Travers
Votes: 1,793
75. Queen of the Yukon (1940)
Passed | 73 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Sadie owns a riverboat that gold-miners are using to travel to their claims, while gambling and drinking on the way. The Yukon Mining Company sends Thorne to take over Sadie's boat and then cheat the miners out of their claims.
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: Charles Bickford, Irene Rich, June Carlson, Dave O'Brien
Votes: 94
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76. Rebecca (1940)
Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 146,650 | Gross: $4.36M
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77. Remember the Night (1939)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Love blooms between a sympathetic attorney and the comely shoplifter he has taken home for the Christmas holiday.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson
Votes: 7,188 | Gross: $0.17M
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78. Rhythm on the River (1940)
92 min | Comedy, Musical
Popular songwriter Oliver Courtney has been getting by for years using one ghost writer for his music and another for his lyrics. When both writers meet at an inn, they fall in love and ... See full summary »
Director: Victor Schertzinger | Stars: Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, Basil Rathbone, Oscar Levant
Votes: 416
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79. Road to Singapore (1940)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Two playboys try to forget previous romances in Singapore - until they meet a beautiful dancer.
Director: Victor Schertzinger | Stars: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Charles Coburn
Votes: 4,090
80. Saps at Sea (1940)
G | 56 min | Comedy
Oliver suffers a nervous breakdown as a result of working in a horn factory, but when he follows doctor's orders about sea air, he finds an ex-con is aboard.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Ben Turpin
Votes: 3,083
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81. The Sea Hawk (1940)
Approved | 127 min | Action, Adventure, History
Geoffrey Thorpe, a buccaneer, is hired by Queen Elizabeth I to nag the Spanish Armada. The Armada is waiting for the attack on England and Thorpe surprises them with attacks on their galleons where he shows his skills on the sword.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp
Votes: 10,730
82. Seven Sinners (1940)
Approved | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Banished from various U.S. protectorates in the Pacific, a saloon entertainer uses her femme-fatale charms to woo politicians, navy personnel, gangsters, riff-raff, judges and a ship's doctor in order to achieve her aims.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford
Votes: 1,658
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83. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Votes: 38,439 | Gross: $0.20M
84. The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
Approved | 102 min | Drama, Romance
General Gurko Lanen is the dictator of Lichtenburg, a country set in the Balkans. With the help of Napoleon II, the rightful ruler Grand Duchess Zona aims to overthrow the general. She is also helped by the visiting Count of Monte Cristo.
Director: Rowland V. Lee | Stars: Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, Florence Bates
Votes: 880
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85. Spring Parade (1940)
Approved | 89 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A Hungarian woman whose fortune predicts that she will marry may find it coming true when she meets an army drummer.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Robert Cummings, Mischa Auer, Henry Stephenson
Votes: 382
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86. Strange Cargo (1940)
Passed | 113 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure (Ian Hunter).
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre
Votes: 2,972
87. Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Approved | 64 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An aspiring reporter is the key witness at the murder trial of a young man accused of cutting a café owner's throat and is soon accused of a similar crime himself.
Director: Boris Ingster | Stars: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet, Charles Waldron
Votes: 4,609
88. Strike Up the Band (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A high-school boy wants to become a professional musician, and his gal pal wants to become his best girl. They work together staging big-band shows with fellow classmates in the hopes of hitting it big.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Paul Whiteman, June Preisser
Votes: 1,940
89. They Drive by Night (1940)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When one of two truck-driving brothers loses an arm, they both join a transport company where the other is falsely charged as an accessory in the murder of the owner.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino
Votes: 8,813
90. They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
Approved | 96 min | Drama, Romance
While courting a young woman by mail, a rich farmer sends a photograph of his foreman instead of his own, which leads to complications when she accepts his marriage proposal.
Director: Garson Kanin | Stars: Carole Lombard, Charles Laughton, William Gargan, Harry Carey
Votes: 493
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91. The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Not Rated | 106 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
After being tricked and cast out of Bagdad by the evil Jaffar, King Ahmad joins forces with a thief named Abu to reclaim his throne, the city, and the Princess he loves.
Directors: Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, Alexander Korda, Zoltan Korda, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez, John Justin
Votes: 14,493 | Gross: $0.27M
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92. 'Til We Meet Again (1940)
Approved | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Dying Joan Ames meets criminal Dan Hardesty on a luxury liner as he is being transported back to America by policeman Steve Burke to face execution. Joan and Dan fall in love, their fates unbeknownst to one another.
Directors: Edmund Goulding, William K. Howard, William Keighley, Anatole Litvak | Stars: Merle Oberon, George Brent, Pat O'Brien, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Votes: 749
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93. Too Many Girls (1940)
Passed | 85 min | Comedy, Music, Sport
A young lady goes to college, and without her knowledge, her father sends four football players as her bodyguards. They eventually join the college team and turn it into one the best--and one of them falls in love with her.
Director: George Abbott | Stars: Lucille Ball, Richard Carlson, Ann Miller, Eddie Bracken
Votes: 1,026
94. Too Many Husbands (1940)
Passed | 81 min | Comedy, Romance
Long-missing Bill Cardew returns to find his wife Vicky remarried...and in no hurry to settle for just one husband.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, Melvyn Douglas, Harry Davenport
Votes: 1,696
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95. Torrid Zone (1940)
Passed | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Plagued by revolutionaries that harass his plantation in a banana republic, fruit company exec Steve Case rehires former nemesis Nick Butler to restore order and profits.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Andy Devine
Votes: 1,493
96. Turnabout (1940)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue of Buddha and wind up living each other's life.
Director: Hal Roach | Stars: Adolphe Menjou, Carole Landis, John Hubbard, William Gargan
Votes: 756
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97. Vigil in the Night (1940)
Passed | 96 min | Drama, Romance
A nurse loses her job after selflessly taking the blame for a fatal mistake her sister and co-worker made. She is subsequently employed at a poorly-equipped hospital, where she finds romance and tragedy.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Carole Lombard, Anne Shirley, Brian Aherne, Julien Mitchell
Votes: 1,037
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98. Virginia City (1940)
Passed | 121 min | Western
Union officer Kerry Bradford escapes from Confederate Prison and is set to Virginia City, Nevada, where he finds out that the former commander of his prison, Vance Irby, is planning to send $5 million in gold to save the Confederacy.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scott, Humphrey Bogart
Votes: 2,959
99. Waterloo Bridge (1940)
Passed | 108 min | Drama, Romance, War
Myra and Roy meet and fall in love on Waterloo Bridge during an air raid. Their love will be one of the war's unspoken casualties.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson, Virginia Field
Votes: 10,925
100. The Westerner (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, Western
Judge Roy Bean, a self-appointed hanging judge in Vinegarroon, Texas, befriends saddle tramp Cole Harden, who opposes Bean's policy against homesteaders.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Fred Stone
Votes: 6,794
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