The Lists: Must See Movies, 1940-1949

Citizen Kane. Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Video

Boldfaced titles with asterisk (*) indicate top 10 of the decade.

Fantasia (1940, James Algar and George Beebe)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940, John Ford)
The Great Dictator (1940, Charles Chaplin)
His Girl Friday (1940, Howard Hawks)
The Mortal Storm (1940, Frank Borzage)
The Philadelphia Story (1940, George Cukor)
Pinocchio (1940, Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske)
Rebecca (1940, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940, Ernst Lubitsch)
Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles) *
Dumbo (1941, Ben Sharpsteen)
How Green Was My Valley (1941, John Ford)
The Lady Eve (1941, Preston Sturges)
The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston) *
Meet John Doe (1941, Frank Capra)
Sergeant York (1941, Howard Hawks)
Sullivan's Travels (1941, Preston Sturges)
The Wolf Man (1941, George Waggner)
Bambi (1942, James Algar and Samuel Armstrong)
Cat People (1942, Jacques Tourneur)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles) *
To Be Or Not To Be (1942, Ernst Lubitsch)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, Michael Curtiz)
Casablanca (1943, Michael Curtiz) *
Day of Wrath (1943, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren)
Ossessione (1943, Luchino Visconti)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943, William A. Wellman)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Alfred Hitchcock)
Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder) *
Gaslight (1944, George Cukor)
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944, Preston Sturges)
Henry V (1944, Laurence Olivier)
Ivan the Terrible, Parts I and II (1944, Sergei Eisenstein)
Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Vincente Minnelli)
The Woman in the Window (1944, Fritz Lang)
Children of Paradise (1945, Marcel Carne) *
Detour (1945, Edward G. Ulmer)
The Lost Weekend (1945, Billy Wilder)
Mildred Pierce (1945, Michael Curtiz)
Open City (1945, Roberto Rossellini)
Spellbound (1945, Alfred Hitchcock)
Beauty and the Beast (1946, Jean Cocteau)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William Wyler)
The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
Brief Encounter (1946, David Lean)
A Day in the Country (1946, Jean Renoir)
Duel in the Sun (1946, King Vidor)
Gilda (1946, Charles Vidor)
My Darling Clementine (1946, John Ford)
Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)
Paisan (1946, Roberto Rossellini)
Stairway to Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death) (1946, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
The Stranger (1946, Orson Welles)
Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
Brute Force (1947, Jules Dassin)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947, Joseph Mankiewicz)
Odd Man Out (1947, Carol Reed)
Out of the Past (1947, Jacques Tourneur)
Shoeshine (1947, Vittorio De Sica)
The Bicycle Thief (1948, Vittorio De Sica) *
Force of Evil (1948, Abraham Polonsky)
Fort Apache (1948, John Ford)
It's a Wonderful Life (1948, Frank Capra) *
Key Largo (1948, John Huston)
The Lady from Shanghai (1948, Orson Welles)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948, Max Ophuls)
Red River (1948, Howard Hawks)
The Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
Rope (1948, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, John Huston) *
Adam's Rib (1949, George Cukor)
All the King's Men (1949, Robert Rossen)
Gun Crazy (1949, Joseph H. Lewis)
The Heiress (1949, William Wyler)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, Rober Hamer)
Late Spring (1949, Yasujiro Ozu)
The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed) *
White Heat (1949, Raoul Walsh)