Best 1940s Dramas

Pulse of Cinema lists 737 drama films from the 1940s, ranked by the Pulse Score blended from IMDb, Letterboxd and TMDB. Standouts include It's a Wonderful Life, The Great Dictator, Bicycle Thieves.

8.3

It's a Wonderful Life

1946

8.3

The Great Dictator

1940

8.2

Bicycle Thieves

1948

8.1

Casablanca

1943

8.0

Late Spring

1949

8.1

Double Indemnity

1944

8.0

Citizen Kane

1941

8.0

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1948

8.1

Children of Paradise

1945

8.0

The Red Shoes

1948

7.9

The Third Man

1949

7.8

The Best Years of Our Lives

1946

7.8

The Grapes of Wrath

1940

7.7

Brief Encounter

1945

8.1

The Shop Around the Corner

1940

8.0

Rome, Open City

1945

7.9

Rebecca

1940

7.8

A Matter of Life and Death

1946

7.8

The Heiress

1949

7.8

Shoeshine

1946

7.7

White Heat

1949

7.9

Rope

1948

7.7

The Ox-Bow Incident

1943

7.5

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

1943

8.0

Day of Wrath

1943

7.7

Notorious

1946

7.7

Out of the Past

1947

7.6

Laura

1944

7.6

Mildred Pierce

1945

7.5

Beauty and the Beast

1946

7.7

The Maltese Falcon

1941

7.6

The Lost Weekend

1945

7.6

The Big Sleep

1946

7.4

Sullivan's Travels

1941

7.8

Letter from an Unknown Woman

1948

7.6

Stray Dog

1949

7.5

Gaslight

1944

7.5

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1945

7.4

His Girl Friday

1940

7.4

Miracle on 34th Street

1947

7.7

Monsieur Verdoux

1947

7.6

Germany, Year Zero

1948

7.5

Black Narcissus

1947

7.5

My Darling Clementine

1946

7.5

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

1947

7.5

The Little Foxes

1941

7.5

Shadow of a Doubt

1943

7.5

To Have and Have Not

1945