# The best movies of the 1940s

From Citizen Kane and Casablanca to the Neorealism of Bicycle Thieves and Rome, Open City: the 1940s films at the top of Bastardi per la Gloria's ranking and among the decade's best Italian films according to Il Sorpasso.

- 28 votes · 15 items
- Aug 12, 2020 · Francesco Martino
- https://even.best/en/l/4320/the-best-movies-of-the-1940s

## Top 12

1. **Citizen Kane (1941)** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Orson Welles: the life of tycoon Kane and the mystery of 'Rosebud'.
2. **Paisan (1946)** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Roberto Rossellini: six episodes of the Allied advance through Italy.
3. **Casablanca (1942)** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Michael Curtiz: Rick, Ilsa and a Moroccan nightclub in wartime.
4. **The Third Man (1949)** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Carol Reed: Orson Welles in post-war Vienna.
5. **It's a Wonderful Life (1946)** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Frank Capra: an angel shows George Bailey the world without him.
6. **Rome, Open City (1945)** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Roberto Rossellini: the Resistance in occupied Rome, with Anna Magnani.
7. **The Great Dictator (1940)** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Charlie Chaplin: a Jewish barber mistaken for the dictator Hynkel.
8. **Bicycle Thieves (1948)** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Vittorio De Sica: a father and son search Rome for a stolen bicycle.
9. **Bitter Rice (1949)** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Giuseppe De Santis: rice weeders, paddies and Silvana Mangano.
10. **Double Indemnity (1944)** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Billy Wilder: an insurance man and a wife who wants rid of her husband.
11. **To Be or Not to Be (1942)** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Ernst Lubitsch: a Polish theatre company against the Nazis.
12. **Germany, Year Zero (1948)** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Roberto Rossellini: a boy among the ruins of Berlin.
13. **Ossessione (1943)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Luchino Visconti: a drifter, an innkeeper's wife and a murder in the Po valley.
14. **La Terra Trema (1948)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Luchino Visconti: Sicilian fishermen in Aci Trezza.
15. **Shoeshine (1946)** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Vittorio De Sica: two shoeshine boys sent to a reformatory.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.