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Ranking 1940s Best Picture Winners

Unlike the first decade for Best Picture, the 1940s fared much better with more deserving winners overall, though a couple were quite questionable for sure. But for the most part the Academy did choose the best or at least one of the best movies to represent most of these years, which resulted in what is one of the best decades ever for this category. Without further ado, here is my ranking of all ten Best Picture winners from the forties.

 

10. How Green Was My Valley

How Green Was My Valley an immensely cozy, charming and good-looking movie fueled by great family values. The performance from Donald Crisp is terrific and John Ford’s directing was reliably strong. But the movie’s third act was very emotionally manipulative and the character development left a lot to be desired. It was one of the earliest Oscar-bait movies, resulting in ten nominations and five wins, (in)famously beating ‘Citizen Kane’ and ‘The Maltese Falcon’ in the process, though I would have personally picked ‘The Little Foxes’ for the win this year. Either way, Valley sure as hell did not deserve to win in this stacked slate, so it’s dead last here.

 

Film Should Have Won: The Little Foxes

Best Film of the Year: Sullivan’s Travels

 

9. Going My Way

Going My Way is a perfectly pleasant, wholesome musical dramedy that benefits from strong acting performances from Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. It also has a solid soundtrack and a big heart. The problem here is that the script is uninspired, the pacing too slow and the third act’s tone was borderline mawkish. It won Best Picture over ‘Double Indemnity’, which remains one of the Academy’s worst choices in the history of the award. It’s easy to like this movie, but it’s hard to love it. It’s by far the slightest winner of this decade.

 

Film Should Have Won: Double Indemnity

Best Film of the Year: Double Indemnity

 

8. All the King’s Men

All the King’s Men is one of those Best Picture winners that was respected for the importance of its themes more than the quality of the picture itself. This is a very uneven political drama that deals with the dangers of political corruption and rise to power mostly effectively, but its second act is so messy that it negatively impacted everything that came before and after it. Broderick Crawford was phenomenal in the memorable main role, but others were sidelined in comparison. 1949 wasn’t the greatest year for cinema, but there were still much better choices than this one.

 

Film Should Have Won: A Letter to Three Wives

Best Film of the Year: Late Spring

 

7. Mrs. Miniver

Mrs. Miniver was a huge movie back when it was released. It was the highest-grossing film of 1942 and it received the whopping 12 Academy Award nominations, winning six including Best Picture. Nowadays, it has lost a lot of its importance, but I would counter that it’s still a very good movie, just not a great one. It is emotionally manipulative for sure. The entire second half pretty much constitutes war effort propaganda. However, it is still very well executed in that area with the final sermon being quite effective even today. It’s a wonderfully acted film too. In this strong slate this movie has to contend with the seventh spot as the above six movies are where we pretty much enter greatness.

 

Film Should Have Won: In Agreement

Best Film of the Year: Casablanca

 

6. Gentleman’s Agreement

Gentleman’s Agreement is one of the most underrated Best Picture winners that is nowadays criticized for being too tame in its tackling of bigotry, but for its time it was quite brave and it remains very moving, especially in its powerful ending. The movie was quite daring for its time, very sophisticated in its dialogue and wonderfully directed by Elia Kazan, but the highlight is the acting from its superb ensemble with the standouts being the excellent Gregory Peck, very memorable Dorothy McGuire and moving John Garfield, who stole the show in a very small role. Nobody talks about this one anymore, which is a shame as it’s a darn good drama that actually rightfully won the award as it was the best picture in this year’s slate.

 

Film Should Have Won: In Agreement

Best Film of the Year: Black Narcissus

 

5. Hamlet

Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet is truly one of the best Shakespeare adaptations of all time. The main takeaway message is a wrong one, but otherwise the story is very faithful to the original text. The reduced runtime, character count and some minor plot points made this a more streamlined and accessible version of the story. Olivier’s directing is outstanding, the score is superb, the stark cinematography is gorgeous, and the sets and costumes are stunning throughout. It’s a film that was clearly influenced by the noir genre and German expressionism, making for a very interesting, distinctly 1940s take on this oft-told story. It’s a great film that only comes third in this year’s BP slate, but that’s only because it was up against truly timeless classics, so it winning was far from a bad choice by the Academy.

 

Film Should Have Won: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Best Film of the Year: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

 

4. Rebecca

Rebecca isn’t one of Hitchcock’s best, but it comes close with top-notch performances, an unforgettable and creepy villain in Mrs. Danvers, an involving plot and many memorable scenes that stay with you. It is also one of the finest looking black-and-white films thanks to some gorgeous imagery, an undeniably artistic look to it and absolutely amazing production design. Atmospheric and authentic, it is a thoroughly delightful gothic mystery that still did not deserve to win the Oscar in the year of the iconic comedy that is Chaplin’s ‘Great Dictator’. But it was the second best choice, and although it’s an odd Best Picture winner and far from the best film from the master of suspense, I am still glad that a Hitchcock film actually won this award once.

 

Film Should Have Won: The Great Dictator

Best Film of the Year: Pinocchio

 

3. The Best Years of Our Lives

This quintessential WWII drama that explores the aftermath of this war and what the returning veterans went through in very realistic detail. Dana Andrews, Harold Russell and Fredric March all gave outstanding performances in perfectly written and believable roles. The movie is also highly engaging, which was a huge accomplishment given its epic runtime. It has stood the test of time gloriously and it still remains one of the greatest Best Picture winners of all time that somehow is not regarded as such by most people, but I am here to right that wrong and put it in this very high place on this list. It would have been even higher had it not been for the two even more impactful classics that defined the forties even more. It winning over ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was questionable, but this was a Sophie’s Choice if ever there was one, so I do not blame the Academy for choosing the more relevant for the period movie to represent this year.

 

Film Should Have Won: It’s a Wonderful Life

Best Film of the Year: It’s a Wonderful Life

 

2. The Lost Weekend

Masterfully edited, shot and directed, Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend is one of the director’s best movies and one of the greatest 1940s films. It offered a wonderfully hopeful and optimistic outlook on humanity in that moving finale while previously being consistently suspenseful and noirish in its atmosphere. Ray Milland delivered his career-best performance that was rightfully honored by the Academy while Jane Wyman was also terrific as his ever-supporting partner. The film’s attention to detail is incredible and so is its honest, realistic take on the issue of alcoholism. Another highlight is the brilliant score by Miklos Rozsa that elevated every scene from already great to downright incredible. The Lost Weekend is truly a masterpiece that has stood the test of time with flying colors and was the right film to win BP this year.

 

Film Should Have Won: In Agreement

Best Film of the Year: In Agreement

 

1. Casablanca

And of course the best BP winner of the 1940s has to be Casablanca, a timeless classic that ranks among the best romantic movies ever made. Highly romantic but also deeply melancholic in its tone, Casablanca is a rare romance picture that runs through the whole gamut of emotions highly successfully. It also famously employed war drama and spy thriller elements, both to genuinely rewarding and intense results. The iconic performances from the entire brilliant cast, the amazing cinematography and the beautiful score all led to this film being one of the most unlikely, but greatest Hollywood productions ever. Its iconic dialogue full of lines that are still remembered fondly today is its biggest achievement. This was actually a stupendous list of winners, making this one of the best decades in the history of the Academy Awards, but not putting Casablanca at number one would be very wrong, which is why I am not doing it.

 

Film Should Have Won: In Agreement

Best Film of the Year: In Agreement