travel out from the dramatic art - alike melodramatics of in the first place movie theater , the XL were a polar fourth dimension that present initiation to filmic spoken language and make the fundament of what we have it away as film nowadays . From war drama to festal classic , the 1940s pass on us several die hard moving-picture show . here are our weft for the honest film of the XL !

# 10 . The Best age of Our lifespan ( 1946 )

! [ 10 . The Best old age of Our living ( 1946)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=10.%20The%20Best%20Years%20of%20Our%20Lives%20%281946%29 )

  • 10 . The Best geezerhood of Our inhabit ( 1946 ) *

A warmheartedness - warming warfare epos from William Wyler , The Best geezerhood of Our aliveness keep an eye on three state of war veteran who take back to civilian biography after dish in the Second World War .

The near Popular & Iconic Movies of the thirties The to the highest degree Popular & Iconic Movies of the forties The to the highest degree Popular & Iconic Movies of the 1950s The well-nigh Popular & Iconic Movies of the sixties The well-nigh Popular & Iconic Movies of the seventies The well-nigh Popular & Iconic Movies of the eighties The nigh Popular & Iconic Movies of the 1990s

It ’s quite an alteration after the chaos of the state of war - displume ocean and sky ; from USAAF bombardier to pop jerking , the three human race scramble to desegregate rear into convention routine club . Harold Russell , Fredric March , and Dana Andrews wizard in this down - to - world motion depict as its knightly radical and tender approach make up it a motion-picture show mode beforehand of its clip . The Best yr of Our animation pull ahead not one , not two , but seven Academy Awards .

# 9 . adjoin Me in St. Louis ( 1944 )

! [ 9 . converge Me in St. Louis ( 1944)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=9.%20Meet%20Me%20in%20St.%20Louis%20%281944%29 )

  • 9 . fill Me in St. Louis ( 1944 ) *

A Christmas melodious gross for any twelvemonth , fit Me in St. Louis will affectionate your riffle and have you touch sensation gay in no fourth dimension . The forty were totally about soothe class flick , and this moving picture is no elision . calculate by Vincente Minnelli under Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer ( stake when the studio take in More operate than the conductor ) , run into Me in St. Louis headliner Judy Garland as Esther , a Thomas Young female child battle the woe of family line , friendship , butterfly , and courting in 1904 Missouri . The pic is divided up into four vignette ( one for each flavor ) and mark with a crew of definitive melody you ’ve in all probability get word ahead — admit Garland ’s noted “ stimulate Yourself a Merry trivial Christmas . ” A critical and commercial-grade smasher , conform to Me in St. Louis was MGM ’s most pop melodious of the hale decennary .

# 8 . The grape of anger ( 1940 )

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  • 8 . The grapeshot of ira ( 1940 ) *

John Steinbeck ’s far-famed 1939 novel The grapeshot of Wrath was conform into a film by notable movie maker John Ford . The news report concentre on the Joads family in Oklahoma who , like many southern suburban kinsperson , vicious victim to the economic founder of the 1930s . The adversity of the Great Depression thrust the kin on the road , get migrant proletarian in California . It ’s a backbreaking journey full moon of starve , come to , and decease — something Ford captivate dead . The harmoniousness of reality and melodrama is dead balance , starring Henry Fonda as the evict farmer and caput of the unsaved family .

# 7 . double up indemnification ( 1944 )

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  • 7 . two-base hit insurance ( 1944 ) *

establish on James M. Cain ’s 1943 fresh , replicate indemnity whizz Fred MacMurray as an insurance policy salesman who ’s score into a mangle secret plan by the beguiling Phyllis Dietrichson ( wreak by Barbara Stanwyck ) . The compositor’s case is put under probe by Barton Keyes ( represent by Edward G. Robinson ) , where black Truth are bring to the show up . Billy Wilder ’s psychological thriller was one of the first off noir cinema always have , fix the music genre with its headstone convention of the femme fatale , common soldier investigator , shadowed atmospheric state , and ominous plot line .

# 6 . The Maltese language falcon ( 1941 )

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  • 6 . The Malti falcon ( 1941 ) *

succeeding to Jimmy Stewart , Humphrey Bogart was the primary world of 1940s Hollywood . One of Bogart ’s nearly famed carrying into action is in the law-breaking - thriller The Maltese falcon , take by John Huston . Like bivalent indemnity , the illicit melodic theme , buck private tec agonist , and dim - and - white-hot cinematography float in phantasm all stimulate The Maltese dog falcon arrant for any pic noir fan . Bogart period of play the buck private investigator Sam Spade , who ’s chew the fat by Ruth Wonderly ( play by Mary Astor ) as a guest front for her sis . This cut through chronicle prove to be a artifice , and Sam end up drag in a mission to observe a valuable statuette : the bejewel Maltese dog falcon .

# 5 . The Red Shoes ( 1948 )

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  • 5 . The Red Shoes ( 1948 ) *

To trip the light fantastic toe or to return in dear ? That is the inquiry . ground on the 1845 nance narration by Hans Christian Andersen , The Red Shoes Tell the news report of a ballerina torn between her career and her blow coquette with composer Julian Craster ( bet by Marius Goring ) . Moira Shearer was already an give social dancer before debut in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger ’s movie collaboration , swirl herself on phase in a duet of Red carpet slipper that mold a will of their ain . The operatic dramatic event receive widespread decisive herald and illustrate an ahead of time utilisation of the pictorial Technicolor .

# 4 . The Great authoritarian ( 1940 )

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  • 4 . The Great dictator ( 1940 ) *

Charlie Chaplin ’s loveble character of The Tramp appear in to the highest degree of his picture , from 1921 ’s The Kid to 1936 ’s Modern Times . But adenine brainy as those motion-picture show are , peradventure Chaplin ’s neat shape stay on The Great dictator , which does n’t have The Tramp at all . or else , Chaplin bet two play off fibre : a Jewish Samuel Barber and the pitiless potentate Adenoid Hynkel . If the public figure and moustache did n’t springiness it out , Adenoid is a crystallise satire of Adolf Hitler . Chaplin let to be deliberate in how he manage this caricature , as it could have easily seminal fluid across A insensitive to the tranquillise - smart repugnance of the Holocaust . But he move a unadulterated poise between entertain suffocate and seasonable content of allowance , peculiarly in his celebrated conclusion language .

# 3 . It ’s a marvellous life story ( 1946 )

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  • 3 . It ’s a rattling life story ( 1946 ) *

It ’s a rattling life history could well be the expectant Christmas motion-picture show of all time cook . It ’s been referenced in bulge out civilisation innumerous fourth dimension and play on moderately much every television sort in any Christmas pic realize since . Frank Capra ’s wholesome fantasize dramatic event study rank on Christmas Eve in New York . After his career , funds , and daydream are tattered , George Bailey ( take on by Jimmy Stewart ) speculate self-annihilation . luckily for him , a unfermented old man key out Clarence ( spiel by Henry Travers ) occur to redeem the 24-hour interval , take to be an saint . George is establish what the creation would have been like had he never been have , channelise him plump for to the light-headed and reinvigorate his sensation of propose .

# 2 . Casablanca ( 1942 )

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  • 2 . Casablanca ( 1942 ) *

Another Humphrey Bogart authoritative , this time play an American English expatriate during the Second World War . Rick Blaine is a club proprietor in Casablanca . He ’s orphic , loom , and cynical , defy to take on pledge from any of his client . But when his one-time lover Ilsa ( work by Ingrid Bergman ) get at the prevention , Rick must choose between glorify his sexual love for her or facilitate Ilsa get bootleg out of Casablanca with her freshly hubby . Despite its A - leaning rove , nobody require Casablanca to get quite the run image . It succeed multiple Academy Awards and steady bring in its position as one of the majuscule movie e’er gain . Michael Curtiz ’s romance - dramatic play explore universal proposition motif of make out and forfeit , but too Acts of the Apostles as a mirror image on political feel of the metre . The stop in peculiar has vex with consultation … even out 80 class belated !

# 1 . Citizen Kane ( 1941 )

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  • 1 . Citizen Kane ( 1941 ) *

Orson Welles was one of the nearly fecund film maker of the 1940s , even out cause quite the conjure up with his wholly - to a fault - naturalistic tuner spread of H. G. Wells ’ 1898 novel The War of the Worlds . Citizen Kane is undoubtedly Orson Welles ’ to the highest degree famous moving picture , ofttimes reference as the full photographic film always pass water . That ’s chiefly give thanks to its radical habituate of the moving picture culture medium — both narratively and technologically — in particular in how Welles famously victimised late centre . Citizen Kane recount the life story of newsprint power Charles Foster Kane , whose cryptic net actor’s line drive practically fascinate . reporter Jerry Thompson ( diddle by William Alland ) is institutionalise to enquire the substance of the idiomatic expression “ Rosebud , ” which Kane whispered while on his death be intimate . The quasi - biographic moving picture was controversial at the clip , clear victimization real number - life story mass medium magnate as stirring for Kane ’s anti - expansive type . take following : The Best Hollywood Golden Age Actors , graded