1940's

1940:
1. His Girl Friday (Hawks)
2. Rebecca (Hitchcock)
3. The Philadelphia Story (Cukor)
4. Pinnochio (Luske/Sharpsteen)
5. The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch)
6. The Grapes of Wrath (Ford)
7. Fantasia (various)
8. The Great Dictator (Chaplin)
9. Christmas in July (Sturges)
10. Foreign Correspondent (Hitchcock)

Nearly missed:
The Bank Dick (Cline)


1941:
1. Citizen Kane (Welles)
2. The Maltese Falcon (Huston)
3. Sullivan’s Travels (Sturges)
4. The Lady Eve (Sturges)
5. Dumbo (Sharpsteen)
6. The Devil and Daniel Webster (Dieterle)
7t. Suspicion (Hitchcock)
7t. Sergeant York (Hawks)
9. Ball of Fire (Hawks)


1942:
1. Casablanca (Curtiz)
2. The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)
3. To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch)
4t. The Palm Beach Story (Sturges)
4t. Cat People (Tourneur)
6. Bambi (Hand)
7. This Gun for Hire (Tuttle)
8. The Talk of the Town (Stevens)


1943:
1. Meshes of the Afternoon (Deren/Hammid)
2. Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock)
3. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell/Pressburger)
4. The Ox-Bow Incident (Wellman)
5. I Walked With a Zombie (Tourneur)
6t. Le Corbeau (Clouzot)
6t. Red Hot Riding Hood (Avery)
8. The Seventh Victim (Robson)
9. Day of Wrath (Dreyer)
10. Hangmen Also Die! (Lang)

Very close:
The Leopard Man (Tourneur)


1944:
1. Double Indemnity (Wilder)
2. Lifeboat (Hitchcock)
3. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Sturges)
4. Laura (Preminger)
5. At Land (Deren)
6. To Have and Have Not (Hawks)
7. Ivan the Terrible, Part One (Eisenstein)
8t. Arsenic and Old Lace (Capra)
8t. The Children are Watching Us (De Sica)
8t. A Canterbury Tale (Powell/Pressburger)

Not quite:
Meet Me in St. Louis (Minnelli)


1945:
1. Children of Paradise (Carné)
2. Brief Encounter (Lean)
3. Rome, Open City (Rossellini)
4. I Know Where I’m Going! (Powell/Pressburger)
5. Detour (Ulmer)
6. The Lost Weekend (Wilder)
7. Scarlet Street (Lang)
8. Mildred Pierce (Curtiz)
9. And Then There Were None (Clair)
10. Spellbound (Hitchcock)

Not quite:
The Body Snatcher (Wise)


1946:
1. Notorious (Hitchcock)
2. The Big Sleep (Hawks)
3. It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra)
4. Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau)
5. Shoeshine (De Sica)
6. The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler)
7. The Killers (Siodmak)
8. Great Expectations (Lean)
9. My Darling Clementine (Ford)
10. A Matter of Life and Death (Powell/Pressburger)

Oh so close:
Gilda (C. Vidor)


1947:
1. Out of the Past (Tourneur)
2. Black Narcissus (Powell/Pressburger)
3. The Lady from Shanghai (Welles)
4. Quai des Orfevres (Clouzot)
5. Odd Man Out (Reed)
6. Monsieur Verdoux (Chaplin)
7. Fireworks (Anger)
8t. Daisy Kenyon (Preminger)
8t. Ride the Pink Horse (Montgomery)
8t. Brute Force (Dassin)

Not quite:
Miracle on 34th Street (Seaton)


1948:
1. The Bicycle Thief (De Sica)
2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Huston)
3. The Red Shoes (Powell/Pressburger)
4t. Rope (Hitchcock)
4t. Portrait of Jennie (Dieterle)
6. Red River (Hawks/Rosson)
7. Germany Year Zero (Rossellini)
8. Force of Evil (Polonsky)
9. Unfaithfully Yours (Sturges)
10. They Live By Night (N. Ray)

Near misses:
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophüls)
Key Largo (Huston)

1949:

1. The Third Man (Reed)

2. Stray Dog (Kurosawa)

3. Late Spring (Ozu)

4. White Heat (Walsh)

5. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer)

6. Blood of the Beasts (Franju)

7. The Set-Up (Wise)

8. The Heiress (Wyler)

9. Thieves' Highway (Dassin)

10. I Shot Jesse James (Fuller)