1949

1. Orpheus- Jean Cocteau
2. The Third Man- Carol Reed
3. Late Spring- Yasujiro Ozu
4. The Set-Up- Robert Wise
5. Kind Hearts and Coronets- Robert Hamer
6. On the Town- Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly
7. Stray Dog- Akira Kurosawa
8. Puce Moment- Kenneth Anger [short]
9. Gun Crazy- Joseph H. Lewis
10. White Heat- Raoul Walsh
11. Adam's Rib- George Cukor
12. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon- John Ford
13. The Blood of Beasts- Georges Franju [short]

Ripe for re-appraisal: Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius)

Need to see: 12 O’Clock High (Henry King), Begone Dull Care (Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart), The Big Steal (Don Siegel), Caught (Max Ophuls), Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak), Follow Me Quietly (Richard Fleischer), The Fountainhead (King Vidor), The Heiress (William Wyler), Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown), I Shot Jesse James (Sam Fuller), I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks), A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), My Love Has Been Burning (Kenji Mizoguchi), Only a Mother (Alf Sjoberg), The Reckless Moment (Max Ophuls), Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. DeMille), The Small Back Room (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger), Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini), Thieves’ Highway (Jules Dassin), They Live By Night (Nicholas Ray), Whisky Galore (Alexander Mackendrick), The Window (Ted Tetzlaff)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: All the King’s Men (Robert Rossen)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
Cannes, Grand Prix: The Third Man
Venice, Golden Lion: Manon (Henri-Georges Clouzot)

1948

1. The Red Shoes- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
2. [Letter From An Unknown Woman- Max Ophüls]
3. Red River- Howard Hawks
4. The Bicycle Thief- Vittorio de Sica
5. It Always Rains on Sunday- Robert Hamer
6. Force of Evil- Abraham Polonsky
7. Treasure of the Sierra Madre- John Huston
8. Unfaithfully Yours- Preston Sturges
9. The Lady From Shanghai- Orson Welles
10. Fort Apache- John Ford
11. The Fallen Idol- Carol Reed
12. Rope- Alfred Hitchcock

Ripe for re-appraisal: Easter Parade (Charles Walters), Jour de Fete (Jacques Tati), Key Largo (John Huston), Three Godfathers (John Ford)

Need to see: Act of Violence (Fred Zinnemann), Berlin Express (Jacques Tourneur), The Big Clock (John Farrow), Call Northside 777 (Henry Hathaway), Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa), A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder), Good Sam (Leo McCarey), A Hen in the Wind (Yasujiro Ozu), Macbeth (Orson Welles), Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty), Moonrise (Frank Borzage), The Naked City (Jules Dassin), Oliver Twist (David Lean), The Pirate (Vincente Minnelli), Pitfall (Andre de Toth), Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle), Raw Deal (Anthony Mann), A Song Is Born (Howard Hawks), Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu), State of the Union (Frank Capra), La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Hamlet (Laurence Olivier)
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: Hamlet

1947

1. Monsieur Verdoux- Charlie Chaplin
2. Black Narcissus- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
3. Out of the Past- Jacques Tourneur
4. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir- Joseph L. Mankiewicz
5. Quai des Orfèvres- Henri-Georges Clouzot
6. Fireworks- Kenneth Anger [short]
7. Dark Passage- Delmer Daves
8.
9.
10.

Ripe for re-appraisal: The Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery)

Need to see: Angel and the Badman (James Edward Grant), Antoine and Antoinette (Jacques Becker), The Bishop’s Wife (Henry Koster), Body and Soul (Robert Rossen), Born to Kill (Robert Wise), Brute Force (Jules Dassin), Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk), Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger), A Double Life (George Cukor), Fiddle-De-Dee (Norman McLaren), Gentleman’s Agreement (Elia Kazan), Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini), Good News (Charles Walters), Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway), Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding), Odd Man Out (Carol Reed), The Paradine Case (Alfred Hitchcock), Pursued (Raoul Walsh), Record of a Tenant Gentleman (Yasujiro Ozu), La Silence de la Mer (Jean-Pierre Melville), T-Men (Anthony Mann)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Gentleman’s Agreement
BAFTA Film Awards, Best Film: The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)

1946

1. Notorious- Alfred Hitchcock
2. The Big Sleep- Howard Hawks
3. Beauty and the Beast- Jean Cocteau
4. Stairway to Heaven- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
5. Brief Encounter- David Lean
6. The Best Years of Our Lives- William Wyler
7. My Darling Clementine- John Ford
8. [Great Expectations- David Lean]
9. Gilda- Charles Vidor
10. Rome, Open City- Roberto Rossellini
11. It's a Wonderful Life- Frank Capra
12. The Murderers Are Among Us- Wolfgang Staudte
13. The Killers- Robert Siodmak

Ripe for re-appraisal:

Need to see: La Bataille du Rail (Rene Clement), Bedlam (Mark Robson), Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur), Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch), Devil in the Flesh (Claude Autant-Lara), Diary of a Chambermaid (Jean Renoir), Fragment of Seeking (Curtis Harrington), Green For Danger (Sidney Gilliat), The Harvey Girls (George Sidney), Hoppity Pop (Norman McLaren), Humoresque (Jean Negulesco), Iris and the Lieutenant (Alf Sjoberg), The Man I Love (Raoul Walsh), My Reputation (Curtis Bernhardt), No Regrets For Our Youth (Akira Kurosawa), Paisan (Roberto Rossellini), The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett), Ritual in Transfigured Time (Maya Deren), A Scandal in Paris (Douglas Sirk), Shoeshine (Vittorio De Sica), The Stone Flower (Aleksandr Ptushko), The Stranger (Orson Welles), Utamaro and His Five Women (Kenji Mizoguchi),

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
Cannes, Grand Prix: (tie) Torment (Alf Sjöberg), The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder), The Red Meadows (Bodil Ipsen and Lau Lauritzen Jr.), Brief Encounter, Portrait of Maria (Emilio Fernández), Neecha Nagar (Chetan Anand), The Turning Point (Fridrikh Markovitch Ermler), La symphonie pastorale (Jean Delannoy), The Last Chance (Leopold Lindtberg), Men Without Wings (František Čáp), Rome, Open City

1945

1. Children of Paradise- Marcel Carne
2. Detour- Edgar G. Ulmer
3. Dead of Night- Cavalcanti / Basil Dearden / Robert Hamer / Charles Crichton
4. [Ivan the Terrible, Part I- Sergei Eisenstein]
5. Les Dames du Bois du Boulogne- Robert Bresson
6. I Know Where I'm Going!- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
7. The Lost Weekend- Billy Wilder
8. Leave Her to Heaven- John M. Stahl
9. The Clock- Vincente Minnelli
10. Mildred Pierce- Michael Curtiz

Ripe for re-appraisal:

Need to see: And Then There Were None (Rene Clair), Blithe Spirit (David Lean), Blood on the Sun (Frank Lloyd), The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise), Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings), Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger), Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson), Know Your Enemy: Japan (Frank Capra and Joris Ivens), Murder, He Says (George Marshall), Objective, Burma! (Raoul Walsh), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (Roy Rowland), Paris Frills (Jacques Becker), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Albert Lewin), Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang), The Southerner (Jean Renoir), The Story of G.I. Joe (William A. Wellman), Study in Choreography For Camera (Maya Deren), They Were Expendable (John Ford), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan), A Walk in the Sun (Lewis Milestone), The White Gorilla (Harry L. Fraser), Wonder Man (H. Bruce Humberstone)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: The Lost Weekend

1944

1. Double Indemnity- Billy Wilder
2. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek- Preston Sturges
3. Laura- Otto Preminger
4. Hail the Conquering Hero- Preston Sturges
5. Phantom Lady- Robert Siodmak
6. Henry V- Laurence Olivier
7. Torment- Alf Sjöberg
8. Meet Me In St. Louis- Vincente Minnelli
9. To Have and Have Not- Howard Hawks
10. [The Great Moment- Preston Sturges]
11. A Canterbury Tale- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
12. Murder, My Sweet- Edward Dmytryk

Ripe for re-appraisal: Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock)

Need to see: At Land (Maya Deren), Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra), Bon Voyage (Alfred Hitchcock), C’est L’Aviron (Norman McLaren), The Children Are Watching Us (Vittorio De Sica), The Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise and Gunther von Fritsch), Going My Way (Leo McCarey), Home in Indiana (Henry Hathaway), The Immortal Battalion (Carol Reed), Jammin’ the Blues (Gjon Mili), The Mask of Dimitrios (Jean Negulesco), Ministry of Fear (Fritz Lang), On Approval (Clive Brook), Summer Storm (Douglas Sirk), The Three Caballeros (Norman Ferguson), Under the Bridges (Helmut Kautner), The Uninvited (Lewis Allen), The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang),

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Going My Way

1943

1. Day of Wrath- Carl Theodor Dreyer
2. Les Anges du Péché- Robert Bresson
3. Shadow of a Doubt- Alfred Hitchcock
4. Meshes of the Afternoon- Maya Deren
5. Le Corbeau- Henri-Georges Clouzot
6. [Fires Were Started...- Humphrey Jennings]
7. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
8. I Walked With a Zombie- Jacques Tourneur
9. Heaven Can Wait- Ernst Lubitsch
10. Douce- Claude Autant-Lara

Ripe for re-appraisal:

Need to see: Above Suspicion (Richard Thorpe), Air Force (Howard Hawks), Bataan (Tay Garnett), Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli), Crazy House (Eddie Cline), December 7th (John Ford and Gregg Toland), Five Graves to Cairo (Billy Wilder), Hangmen Also Die (Fritz Lang), Hi Diddle Diddle (Andrew L. Stone), Holy Matrimony (John M. Stahl), The Human Comedy (Clarence Brown), Lady of Burlesque (William A. Wellman), The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur), The More the Merrier (George Stevens), Munchhausen (Josef von Baky), My Learned Friend (Basil Dearden and Will Hay), Northern Pursuit (Raoul Walsh), The Ox-Bow Incident (Sam Wood), The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson), This Land Is Mine (Jean Renoir), Victory Through Air Power (Various), Willoughby’s Magic Hat (Ub Iwerks and Bob Wickersham)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)

1942

1. Casablanca- Michael Curtiz
2. The Palm Beach Story- Preston Sturges
3. The Magnificent Ambersons- Orson Welles
4. Ossessione- Luchino Visconti
5. To be or Not to Be- Ernst Lubitsch
6. Cat People- Jacques Tourneur
7. Listen to Britain- Humphrey Jennings [short]
8. Bambi- David Hand
9. [Yankee Doodle Dandy- Michael Curtiz]
10. Sullivan's Travels- Preston Sturges

Ripe for re-appraisal: Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler), La Nuit Fantastique (Marcel L’Herbier)

Need to see: The 47 Ronin, Part II (Kenji Mizoguchi), Across the Pacific (John Huston), Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh), The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler), In Which We Serve (Noel Coward and David Lean), Journey Into Fear (Norman Foster), Kings Row (Sam Wood), The Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder), The Man Who Came to Dinner (William Keighley), The Murderer Lives at Twenty-One (Henri-Georges Clouzot), Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper), One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger), Once Upon a Honeymoon (Leo McCarey), Pip-Eye, Pup-Eye, Poop-Eye an’ Peep-Eye (Dave Flesicher), The Pride of the Yankees (Sam Wood), Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy), Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock), Talk of the Town (George Stevens), This Gun For Hire (Frank Tuttle), Les Visiteurs du Soir (Marcel Carne), Went the Day Well? (Cavalcanti), Woman of the Year (George Stevens)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Mrs. Miniver

1941

1. Citizen Kane- Orson Welles
2. The Lady Eve- Preston Sturges
3. The Maltese Falcon- John Huston
4. 49th Parallel- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
5. Ball of Fire- Howard Hawks
6. Suspicion- Alfred Hitchcock
7. Dumbo- Ben Sharpsteen
8. An Airman’s Letter to His Mother- Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger [short]
9. [How Green Was My Valley- John Ford]
10. Sergeant York- Howard Hawks

Ripe for re-appraisal:

Need to see: The 47 Ronin (Kenji Mizoguchi), The Devil and Daniel Webster (William Dieterle), Hellzapoppin’ (H.C. Potter), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Alexander Hall), High Sierra (Raoul Walsh), The Little Foxes (William Wyler), Look Who’s Laughing (Allan Dwan), Major Barbara (Gabriel Pascal), Meet John Doe (Frank Capra), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Alfred Hitchcock), Never Give a Sucker An Even Break (Eddie Cline), Penny Serenade (George Stevens), The Road to Zanzibar (Victor Schertzinger), The Sea Wolf (Michael Curtiz), The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg), The Strawberry Blonde (Raoul Walsh), The Tell-Tale Heart (Jules Dassin), That Hamilton Woman (Alexander Korda), That Uncertain Feeling (Ernst Lubitsch), They Died With Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh), Tobacco Road (John Ford), Western Union (Fritz Lang), A Woman’s Face (George Cukor)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: How Green Was My Valley

1940

1. The Shop Around the Corner- Ernst Lubitsch
2. Rebecca- Alfred Hitchcock
3. Pinocchio- Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske
4. His Girl Friday- Howard Hawks
5. The Great McGinty- Preston Sturges
6. [The Thief of Bagdad- Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, and Tim Whelan]
7. Foreign Correspondent- Alfred Hitchcock
8. The Bank Dick- Edward Cline
9. The Sea Hawk- Michael Curtiz
10. The Letter- William Wyler
11. The Grapes of Wrath- John Ford
12. The Philadelphia Story- George Cukor
13. The Long Voyage Home- John Ford
14. The Great Dictator- Charlie Chaplin

Ripe for re-appraisal: Christmas in July (Preston Sturges), Fantasia (Various)

Need to see: Abe Lincoln in Illinois (John Cromwell), Flight Command (Frank Borzage), Gaslight (Thorald Dickinson), The Mark of Zorro (Rouben Mamoulian), The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage), My Favorite Wife (Garson Kanin), Night Train to Munich (Carol Reed), Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen), Strange Cargo (Frank Borzage), They Drive By Night (Raoul Walsh), Travelling Actors (Mikio Naruse), Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy), The Westerner (William Wyler)

Academy Awards (USA), Best Picture: Rebecca