100 Greatest 1940-1949 Movies
List of best films from 1940 to 1949 of USA. Excluding Disney films and films with mixed/negative/panned reception.
--Night Plane from Chungking
--Night Plane from Chungking
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- DirectorFord BeebeRay TaylorStarsGordon JonesWade BotelerKeye LukeA newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide.--
- DirectorErle C. KentonStarsJean HersholtDorothy LovettEdgar KennedyA 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 oil underneath it--and generously offers to sell the townspeople shares in his newly found oil reserves--Dr. Christian suspects a swindle and sets out to prove it.--
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsRaymond MasseyGene LockhartRuth GordonHumble 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.
- DirectorBernard VorhausStarsJean HersholtDorothy LovettRobert BaldwinA 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.--
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsBette DavisCharles BoyerJeffrey LynnA duchess' irrational behavior toward her children's governess triggers tragic events that will change her family's lives forever.
- DirectorWilliam ClemensStarsRoger PryorEve ArdenCliff EdwardsWally 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 after old man Potter puts a load of buckshot in his rear, Wally gets him to hire his firm to represent him in a breach of promise suit. Then, Wally cannot be found and Banjo gets Alice to take the case - which is her first. Her fee for defendant Potter is the lake and the 1000 acres. At the trial, Wally shows up, and he has the plaintiff Pansy as a client - and his fee is the same as Alice's.--
- DirectorBen HechtLee GarmesStarsDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Rita HayworthThomas MitchellA 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.--
- DirectorNick GrindeStarsBoris KarloffRoger PryorJo Ann SayersA 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.
- DirectorMitchell LeisenStarsClaudette ColbertRay MillandDennis O'KeefeA dashing pilot and a vivacious reporter have romantic and dramatic adventures in Europe as World War II begins.--
- DirectorHarold S. BucquetStarsLew AyresLionel BarrymoreLaraine DayYoung Dr. Kildare tries to help an unlucky brain surgeon and his seemingly insane patient.
- DirectorWesley RugglesStarsJean ArthurWilliam HoldenWarren WilliamIn 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.
- DirectorHarold S. BucquetStarsLew AyresLionel BarrymoreLaraine DayDr. 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. Stephen Kildare, he returns to his parents home to help him with his excessive workload. Dr. Kildaire Sr. is servicing a wide area ever since the doctors in neighboring towns moved elsewhere. Noting that three doctors at Blair General are doing menial jobs because they can't start their own practices, Kildare conceives the idea of building a clinic in Parkersville to be serviced by the three doctors and financed by the townsfolk paying ten cents a week to subscribe to the service. But influential men in Parkersville provide serious opposition to the plan.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineStarsW.C. FieldsCora WitherspoonUna MerkelHenpecked Egbert Sousé has comic adventures as a substitute film director and unlikely bank guard.--
- DirectorArthur LubinStarsBoris KarloffBela LugosiStanley RidgesDr. 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.--
- DirectorWalter LangStarsShirley TempleSpring ByingtonNigel BruceMytyl 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.--
- DirectorJack ConwayStarsClark GableSpencer TracyClaudette ColbertTwo buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a ten-year period, are in love with the same woman.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsTyrone PowerLinda DarnellDean JaggerIn 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.--
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsFred AstaireEleanor PowellGeorge MurphyJohnny 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.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsEdward G. RobinsonHumphrey BogartAnn SothernAfter retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and his former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.
- DirectorWilliam ClemensStarsJames StephensonMargot StevensonHenry O'NeillDespite 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.--
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsJohn GarfieldAnn SheridanPat O'BrienAn 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.
- DirectorNorman FosterStarsSidney TolerJean RogersLionel AtwillInspector Chan investigates a group of travelers, one of whom is a saboteur.--
- DirectorLynn ShoresStarsSidney TolerVictor Sen YungC. Henry GordonAn 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.--
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsDick PowellEllen DrewRaymond WalburnAfter 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?--
- DirectorAnatole LitvakJean NegulescoStarsJames CagneyAnn SheridanArthur KennedyDanny 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.