Ten Favorite Films of the 1940s (021)

This will probably be the most difficult decade to narrow down to ten films. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of my all time favorite films came from this decade. The list is predominantly Hollywood movies made during the Hays Code era. I have a thing for Hays Code films and would love to experiment sometime by writing a screenplay with the censorship guidelines enforced by the code. Anyhow, here are the films in chronological order:

1. The Philadelphia Story (1940) - George Cukor
2. The Great Dictator (1940) - Charlie Chaplin
3. To Be Or Not To Be (1942) - Ernst Lubitsch
4. Casablanca (1942) - Michael Curtiz
5. The Palm Beach Story (1942)- Preston Sturges
6. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) - Frank Capra


7. Double Indemnity (1944) - Billy Wilder
8. The Big Sleep (1946) - Howard Hawks
9. The Bicycle Thief (1948) - Vittorio De Sica
10. The Third Man (1949) - Carol Reed

If it wasn't for my rule that directors can only appear once per list, then these two films may have been in the top ten:

His Girl Friday (1940) – Howard Hawks
The Lady Eve (1941) - Preston Sturges