1940s

Creature features, psychological horror, and a hidden painting.

A list of the 100 greatest movies of the 1940s compiled by Digital Dream Door.

The Top 100 British Films of the 20th Century was produced by the British Film Institute in 1999. Over 27,000 votes were cast from people throughout the film industry - among them; actors, directors, producers, distributors and critics. The list was eventually published on the BFI website. Below are the films of the 1940s in the order of the year of release with their original position in the top 100.

The list of titles is enough to make even the most hard-boiled hero quake in his gum-soled shoes. For our timeline of film noir, however, we've chosen a narrower focus. Below is our list of classic noir films of the 1940s and '50s - with a few B movies thrown in for good measure.

The 1940s was a watershed decade for American cinema and the nation. Shaking off the grim legacy of the Depression, Hollywood launched an unprecedented wave of production, generating some of its most memorable classics, including Citizen Kane, Rebecca, The Lady Eve, Sergeant York, and How Green Was My Valley

The hit movie was inspired by a story in TIME

Instead of facing shortages like most people, the movie industry in the 1940s was well supported by the government thanks to its morale boosting qualities.

A list of the most popular films from the 1940s.

Hundreds of full-length films were produced during the decade of the 1940s. The great actor Humphrey Bogart made his most memorable films in this decade. Frank Capra's masterpiece It's a Wonderful Life and Orson Welles's masterpiece Citizen Kane were released.

The early years of the 40s decade were not promising for the American film industry, especially following the late 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, and the resultant loss of foreign markets.