1940
1. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, USA)
2. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, USA)

3. The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, USA)

4. Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen, USA)
5. The Westerner (William Wyler, USA)
6. Stranger on the Third Floor (Boris Ingster, USA)
7. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, USA)

8. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, USA)

9. Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy, USA)

10. Escape (Mervyn LeRoy, USA)
11. The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline, USA)
12. Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, USA)
13. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
14. The Great McGinty (Preston Sturges, USA)
15. Primrose Path (Gregory La Cava, USA)

16. Three Faces West (Bernard Vorhaus, USA)
17. Torrid Zone (William Knighley, USA)
18. Saps at Sea (Gordon Douglas, USA)

1941
1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, USA)
2. Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
3. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, USA)
4. The Devil and Daniel Webster (William Dieterie, USA)
5. High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, USA)
6. Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, USA)
7. I Wake Up Screaming (Bruce Humberstone, USA)
8. The Devil and Miss Jones (Sam Wood, USA)

9. How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, USA)

10. It Started with Eve (Henry Koster, USA)

11. Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, USA)
12. The Wolf Man (George Waggner, USA)
13. Hold That Ghost (Arthur Lubin, USA)

1942
1. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, USA)
2. Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges, USA)
3. To Be Or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, USA)
4. Woman of the Year (George Stevens, USA)
5. The Magnificent Ambersons  (Orson Welles, USA)
6. Mrs. Minivar (William Wyler, USA)
7. Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
8. I Married A Witch (Rene Clair, USA)
9. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, USA)

10. The Talk of the Town (George Stevens, USA)

11. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, USA)
12. The Ghost of Frankenstein (Erle C. Kenton, USA)
13. Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy, USA)

14. Lady Gangster (Robert Florey, USA)
15. King’s Row (Sam Wood, USA)

1943
1. Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer, Denmark) (RELEASED IN USA IN 1948)
2. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
3. I Walked With A Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, USA)
4. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, USA)
5. The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, USA)
6. The More the Merrier (George Stevens, USA)

7. Journey into Fear (Norman Foster/Orson Welles, USA)
8. The Ghost Ship (Mark Robson, USA)
9. A Guy Named Joe (Victor Fleming, USA)

10. Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, USA)
11. The Return of the Vampire (Lew Landers, USA)
12. Carnival of Sinners (Maurice Tourneur, France) (Released in USA in 1947)

13. This Land Is Mine (Jean Renoir, USA)
14. Watch on the Rhine (Herman Shumlin, USA)

 

The Falcon and the Co-Eds (William Clemens, USA)

1944
1. Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, USA)
2. The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, USA)
3. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges, USA)

4. Going My Way (Leo McCarey, USA)
5. Ministry of Fear (Fritz Lang, USA)
6. The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fritsch/Robert Wise, USA)

7. Address Unknown (William Cameron Menzies, USA)
8. The Children Are Watching Us (Vittorio De Sica, Italy) (RELEASED IN USA IN 1947)
9. Gaslight (George Cukor, USA)
10. Laura (Otto Preminger, USA)

11. Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
12. The Mask of Dimitrios (Jean Negulesco, USA)

13. Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, USA)
14. Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, USA)

1945
1. The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, USA)
2. Leave Her to Heaven (John M, Stahl, USA)
3. Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
4. Ivan the Terrible: Part One (Sergei M. Eisenstein, Soviet Union) (RELEASED IN USA IN 1947)
5. Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, USA)
6. I Know Where I’m Going! (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, UK) (RELEASED IN USA IN 1947)
7. The Enchanted Cottage (John Cromwell, USA)
8. Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, USA)
​9. My Name Is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, USA)
10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, USA)
11. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, USA)
12. Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson, USA) 
13. Dead of Night “Hearse Driver” Segment (Basil Dearden, UK)
14. Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, USA)

15. They Were Expendable (John Ford, USA)
16. Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger, USA)
17. The Great Flamarion (Anthony Mann, USA)
18. The Spiral Staircase (Robert Siodmak, USA)

19. Lady on a Train (Charles David, USA)

1946
1. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
2. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, France)
3. Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch, USA)
4. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, USA)

5. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, USA)
6. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, USA)
7. It’s A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, USA)
8. Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, USA)
9. The Killers (Robert Siodmak, USA)
10. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, USA)

11. House of Horrors (Jean Yarbrough, USA)
12. The Stranger (Orson Welles, USA)
13. Dragonwyck (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, USA)
14. Brief Encounter (David Lean, UK)
15. The Beast with Five Fingers (Robert Florey, USA)

16. Duel in the Sun (King Vider, USA)

17. Deception (Irving Rapper, USA)
18. Three Strangers (Jean Negulesco, USA)

1947
1. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, France)
2. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, UK)
3. Green for Danger (Sidney Gilliat, UK)
4. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, USA)
5. Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, USA)
6. Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway, USA)
7. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, USA)
8. The Red House (Delmer Daves, USA)

9. The Long Night (Anatole Litvak, USA)
10. Great Expectations (David Lean, UK)
11. Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, USA)

12. The Fugitive (John Ford, USA)

13. Repeat Performance (Alfred L. Werker, USA)
14. Brighton Rock (John Boulting, UK) (RELEASED IN USA IN 1951)
15. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, USA)

16. Lured (Douglas Sirk, USA)

17. It Happened on Fifth Avenue (Roy Del Ruth, USA)

18. The Bishop's Wife (Henry Koster, USA)

19. Driftwood (Allan Dwan, USA)

20. The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir, USA)

21. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, USA)
22. The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (Preston Sturges, USA)

1948
1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, USA)
2. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, UK)
3. Fort Apache (John Ford, USA)

4. The Big Clock (John Farrow, USA)
5. Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa, Japan) (RELEASED IN USA IN 1959)
6. Moonrise (Frank Borzage, USA)

7. 3 Godfathers (John Ford, USA)

8. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
9. The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak. USA)
10. The Naked City (Jules Dassin, USA)
11. Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterie, USA)
12. I Remember Mama (George Stevens, USA)

13. The Search (Fred Zinnemann, USA)
14. Wake of the Red Witch (Edward Ludwig, USA)
15. Key Largo (John Huston, USA)
16. Raw Deal (Anthony Mann, USA)
17. The Bride Goes Wild (Norman Taurog, USA)

1949
1. The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed, UK)
2. I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller, USA)
3. The Set-Up (Robert Wise, USA)

4. Reign of Terror (Anthony Mann, USA)

5. Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown, USA)
6. White Heat (Raoul Walsh, USA)
7. I Was A Male War Bride (Howard Hawks, USA)

8. Easy Living (Jacques Tourneur, USA)
9. The Window (Ted Tetzlaff, USA)

10. Impact (Arthur Lubin, USA)

11. Shockproof (Douglas Sirk, USA)
12. Champion (Mark Robson, USA)