Movie Auditor › Rankings › 1940
Best Movies of 1940, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
71 films from 1940 are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is The Great Dictator ('1940), at 8.4 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.4. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Pinocchio, 7.4 on IMDb against 99 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Great Dictator '1940 | Comedy / War | 8.4 | 92% | - | 8.3 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 2 | The Grapes of Wrath '1940 | Drama | 8.1 | 100% | 96 | 7.8 | John Ford |
| 3 | Rebecca '1940 | Mystery / Romance / Thriller | 8.0 | 98% | 86 | 7.9 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 4 | The Shop Around the Corner '1940 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 8.0 | 99% | 96 | 8.1 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 5 | The Philadelphia Story '1940 | Comedy / Romance | 7.8 | 100% | 96 | 7.5 | George Cukor |
| 6 | His Girl Friday '1940 | Comedy / Romance / Crime | 7.8 | 99% | 94 | 7.4 | Howard Hawks |
| 7 | Fantasia '1940 | Animation / Fantasy | 7.7 | 95% | 96 | 7.3 | Samuel Armstrong |
| 8 | Waterloo Bridge '1940 | Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 83% | 73 | 7.5 | Mervyn LeRoy |
| 9 | The Sea Hawk '1940 | - | 7.6 | 94% | - | 7.2 | Michael Curtiz |
| 10 | The Mortal Storm '1940 | Drama | 7.7 | 100% | 81 | 7.3 | Frank Borzage |
| 11 | Pinocchio '1940 | Animation / Fantasy | 7.4 | 100% | 99 | 7.1 | Hamilton Luske |
| 12 | The Letter '1940 | Crime / Drama | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.3 | William Wyler |
| 13 | The Mark of Zorro '1940 | Romance | 7.5 | 93% | - | 7.2 | Rouben Mamoulian |
| 14 | Foreign Correspondent '1940 | Thriller / Mystery / Action | 7.4 | 95% | 89 | 7.0 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 15 | Remember the Night '1940 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 7.5 | 100% | 78 | 7.3 | Mitchell Leisen |
| 16 | The Thief of Bagdad '1940 | Fantasy / Romance | 7.4 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Tim Whelan |
| 17 | You’re Missing the Point '1940 | Comedy | 7.9 | - | - | 8.2 | Juan Bustillo Oro |
| 18 | Puss Gets the Boot '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 7.6 | - | - | 7.0 | William Hanna |
| 19 | All This, and Heaven Too '1940 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 83% | - | 7.2 | Anatole Litvak |
| 20 | A Wild Hare '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 7.7 | - | - | 7.3 | Tex Avery |
| 21 | Pride and Prejudice '1940 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 100% | 84 | 6.9 | Robert Z. Leonard |
| 22 | I Love You Again '1940 | Comedy / Romance | 7.4 | 100% | - | 7.2 | W.S. Van Dyke |
| 23 | The Westerner '1940 | Western | 7.3 | 100% | 78 | 7.1 | William Wyler |
| 24 | You Ought to Be in Pictures '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 7.6 | - | - | 7.5 | Friz Freleng |
| 25 | Gaslight '1940 | Thriller / Mystery | 7.3 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Thorold Dickinson |
| 26 | Christmas in July '1940 | Comedy / Romance | 7.3 | 95% | - | 7.0 | Preston Sturges |
| 27 | My Favorite Wife '1940 | Comedy / Romance | 7.2 | 86% | 63 | 7.0 | Garson Kanin |
| 28 | They Drive by Night '1940 | Drama / Crime / Thriller | 7.2 | 93% | - | 6.9 | Raoul Walsh |
| 29 | Broadway Melody of 1940 '1940 | Musical / Romance / Drama | 7.3 | 80% | - | 6.9 | Norman Taurog |
| 30 | Night Train to Munich '1940 | Drama / Thriller / War | 7.2 | 89% | - | 7.2 | Carol Reed |
| 31 | A Chump at Oxford '1940 | Comedy | 7.2 | - | - | 6.9 | Alfred J. Goulding |
| 32 | The Great McGinty '1940 | Comedy | 7.2 | 100% | - | 7.0 | Preston Sturges |
| 33 | The Bank Dick '1940 | Comedy | 7.1 | 96% | - | 6.5 | Edward F. Cline |
| 34 | The Well-Digger's Daughter '1940 | Drama / Romance / Comedy | 7.4 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Marcel Pagnol |
| 35 | Mr. Duck Steps Out '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 7.2 | - | - | 6.6 | Jack King |
| 36 | Saps at Sea '1940 | Comedy | 7.1 | - | - | 6.8 | Gordon Douglas |
| 37 | The Riveter '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 7.2 | - | - | 6.7 | Dick Lundy |
| 38 | The Ghost Breakers '1940 | Comedy / Horror / Mystery | 7.0 | 88% | - | 6.5 | George Marshall |
| 39 | Northwest Passage '1940 | War / Drama | 7.0 | 78% | - | 6.6 | King Vidor |
| 40 | Boom Town '1940 | Drama / Romance / Western | 7.0 | - | - | 7.0 | Jack Conway |
| 41 | Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 7.0 | - | - | 6.5 | Clyde Geronimi |
| 42 | Donald's Vacation '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 7.0 | - | - | 6.5 | Jack King |
| 43 | Fire Chief '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 7.0 | - | - | 6.7 | Jack King |
| 44 | Cantinflas Ruletero '1940 | Comedy | 6.7 | - | - | 7.4 | Fernando A. Rivero |
| 45 | Bone Trouble '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 6.9 | - | - | 6.9 | Jack Kinney |
| 46 | Window Cleaners '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 6.9 | - | - | 6.4 | Jack King |
| 47 | Tugboat Mickey '1940 | Animation / Comedy | 6.9 | - | - | 6.4 | Clyde Geronimi |
| 48 | Strange Cargo '1940 | Drama / Romance | 6.9 | 67% | - | 7.0 | Frank Borzage |
| 49 | Kitty Foyle '1940 | Drama / Romance | 6.9 | 73% | 55 | 6.6 | Sam Wood |
| 50 | The Long Voyage Home '1940 | Drama / War | 6.9 | 100% | - | 6.6 | John Ford |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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