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Best Western Movies of the 1940s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
38 western films from the 1940s are in our catalog; the 38 best are ranked below. Top of the list is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), at 8.2 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.0. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Red River, 7.7 on IMDb against 96 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre '1948 | Drama / Western | 8.2 | 100% | 98 | 8.0 | John Huston |
| 2 | The Ox-Bow Incident '1943 | Western | 8.0 | 90% | - | 7.7 | William A. Wellman |
| 3 | Red River '1948 | Western / Drama | 7.7 | 100% | 96 | 7.3 | Howard Hawks |
| 4 | My Darling Clementine '1946 | Western | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.5 | John Ford |
| 5 | High Diving Hare '1949 | Animation / Comedy / Western | 7.9 | - | - | 7.4 | Friz Freleng |
| 6 | Fort Apache '1948 | Western | 7.4 | 100% | - | 7.0 | John Ford |
| 7 | Bugs Bunny Rides Again '1948 | Animation / Comedy / Western | 7.8 | - | - | 6.7 | Friz Freleng |
| 8 | Yellow Sky '1948 | Western | 7.4 | 100% | - | 7.0 | William A. Wellman |
| 9 | She Wore a Yellow Ribbon '1949 | Drama / Western | 7.2 | 91% | 87 | 6.9 | John Ford |
| 10 | The Westerner '1940 | Western | 7.3 | 100% | 78 | 7.1 | William Wyler |
| 11 | Pursued '1947 | Western / Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 100% | - | 6.5 | Raoul Walsh |
| 12 | Colorado Territory '1949 | Western / Crime / Romance | 7.2 | - | - | 7.0 | Raoul Walsh |
| 13 | They Died with Their Boots On '1941 | Western / War / Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 71% | 75 | 6.7 | Raoul Walsh |
| 14 | The Yearling '1946 | Drama / Western | 7.1 | 100% | 89 | 6.7 | Clarence Brown |
| 15 | The Harvey Girls '1946 | Musical / Western / Romance / Comedy | 7.0 | 100% | 65 | 6.6 | George Sidney |
| 16 | Canyon Passage '1946 | Western | 6.9 | 100% | - | 6.8 | Jacques Tourneur |
| 17 | 3 Godfathers '1948 | Western | 7.0 | 88% | 82 | 6.8 | John Ford |
| 18 | Blood on the Moon '1948 | Western / Romance | 6.9 | 83% | - | 6.2 | Robert Wise |
| 19 | The Man from Colorado '1948 | Western / Drama | 6.7 | - | - | 6.9 | Henry Levin |
| 20 | Return of the Bad Men '1948 | Drama / Western / Action | 6.3 | - | - | 6.3 | Ray Enright |
| 21 | Boom Town '1940 | Drama / Romance / Western | 7.0 | - | - | 7.0 | Jack Conway |
| 22 | The Shepherd of the Hills '1941 | Drama / Western | 6.9 | - | - | 6.6 | Henry Hathaway |
| 23 | I Shot Jesse James '1949 | Western / Drama | 6.8 | 78% | - | 6.2 | Samuel Fuller |
| 24 | Ramrod '1947 | Western | 6.7 | - | - | 6.5 | André de Toth |
| 25 | Tall in the Saddle '1944 | Western | 6.9 | - | - | 6.6 | Edwin L. Marin |
| 26 | Angel and the Badman '1947 | Western / Romance / Action | 6.8 | 71% | - | 6.4 | James Edward Grant |
| 27 | Go West '1940 | Comedy / Western | 6.8 | 90% | - | 6.6 | Edward Buzzell |
| 28 | Western Union '1941 | Western | 6.7 | 75% | - | 6.0 | Fritz Lang |
| 29 | Dark Command '1940 | Drama / Romance / Western | 6.7 | 100% | - | 6.4 | Raoul Walsh |
| 30 | The Paleface '1948 | Comedy / Western | 6.6 | 100% | - | 6.1 | Norman Z. McLeod |
| 31 | The Spoilers '1942 | Drama / Western | 6.7 | - | - | 6.2 | Ray Enright |
| 32 | Duel in the Sun '1946 | Western / Drama / Romance | 6.7 | 79% | - | 6.4 | King Vidor |
| 33 | In Old Oklahoma '1943 | Western | 6.4 | - | - | 6.2 | Albert S. Rogell |
| 34 | The Return of Frank James '1940 | Western | 6.6 | 71% | - | 6.3 | Fritz Lang |
| 35 | North West Mounted Police '1940 | Action / Western / Romance | 6.3 | - | - | 6.4 | Cecil B. DeMille |
| 36 | The Fighting Kentuckian '1949 | Western / Romance | 6.4 | - | - | 6.0 | George Waggner |
| 37 | Santa Fe Trail '1940 | Western | 6.2 | 56% | - | 5.7 | Michael Curtiz |
| 38 | The Outlaw '1943 | Western / Drama | 5.4 | 71% | - | 5.4 | Howard Hughes |
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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Directors on this list
John Huston William A. Wellman Howard Hawks John Ford Friz Freleng William Wyler Raoul Walsh Clarence Brown George Sidney Jacques Tourneur Robert Wise Jack Conway
Actors on this list
Humphrey Bogart Walter Huston Henry Fonda Dana Andrews John Wayne Montgomery Clift Linda Darnell Mel Blanc Gregory Peck Anne Baxter Gary Cooper Walter Brennan