The 10 Best Movies That Defined the 1940s, Ranked

Some of the best movies of the 1940s, like The Best Years of Our Lives and Casablanca, also happened to be the ones that most defined the decade.

November 24, 2024 · 1 min · 53 words · Crystal Weaver

NEXT:The Worst Movies of the Last 25 Years, Ranked

Citizen Kane - 1941 - poster

Image via RKO Radio Pictures

Double Indemnity 1944 Movie Poster

Bicycle Thieves - 1948

Image via Ente Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche

Charles Chaplin as The Great Dictator plays with an inflated globe on his desk

Image via United Artists

the-great-dictator-1940-poster-charlie-chaplin-as-hitler.jpg

Setsuko Hara and Yumeji Tsukioka in Late Spring

Image via Shochiku

Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey pointing at Lionel Barrymore’s Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life

Image via RKO Pictures

James Cagney’s Cody talking to Virginia Mayo’s Verna in White Heat

Image via Warner Bros.

Moira Shearer as Victoria looking at the camera while dancing in The Red Shoes

Image via General Film Distributors

Milly and Al Stephenson (Myrna Loy and Fredric March), Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Butch Engle (Hoagy Carmichael), and Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) in The Best Years of Our Lives

Image via RKO Radio Pictures

Dorothy Comingore looking at Orson Welles in Citizen Kane

Image via Warner Bros.

Rick next to Ilsa looking outside a window in ‘Casablanca’.

Image via Warner Bros.

Casablanca

Citizen Kane