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Best Crime Movies of the 1940s
#1 Double Indemnity (1944) · ★ 8.1 · 2,104 votes · 1h 47m · thriller, crimeAn insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator.…
#2 Rope (1948) · ★ 7.9 · 3,086 votes · 1h 21m · thriller, drama, crimeTwo young men attempt to prove they committed the perfect murder by hosting a dinner party for the family of a classmate they just strangled to death.…
#3 The Maltese Falcon (1941) · ★ 7.7 · 1,946 votes · 1h 40m · thriller, crime, mysteryA private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a beautiful liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.…
#4 Notorious (1946) · ★ 7.7 · 1,801 votes · 1h 43m · thriller, romance, dramaIn order to help bring Nazis to justice, U.S. government agent T.R. Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman, the American daughter of a convicted German war criminal, as a spy. As they beg…
#5 Out of the Past (1947) · ★ 7.7 · 667 votes · 1h 37m · thriller, romance, crimeThe peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.…
#6 White Heat (1949) · ★ 7.7 · 561 votes · 1h 54m · thriller, drama, crimeA psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy t…
#7 The Big Sleep (1946) · ★ 7.6 · 1,206 votes · 1h 54m · thriller, romance, dramaPrivate Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees m…
#8 Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) · ★ 7.6 · 1,069 votes · 1h 58m · comedy, crimeMortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright, and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick tr…
#9 Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) · ★ 7.6 · 627 votes · 1h 44m · comedy, crimeWhen his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum,…
#10 Shadow of a Doubt (1943) · ★ 7.5 · 1,193 votes · 1h 48m · thriller, crime, mysteryIn sleepy Santa Rosa, restless young Charlie’s world brightens when her sophisticated Uncle Charlie arrives for a long visit. But as his behavior grows increasingly strange, she be…
#11 Key Largo (1948) · ★ 7.5 · 602 votes · 1h 40m · thriller, crimeA hurricane swells outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm within the hotel at Key Largo. There, sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco holes up - and holds at gunpoint hotel owner…
#12 Gaslight (1944) · ★ 7.5 · 590 votes · 1h 54m · thriller, drama, crimeA newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.…
#13 Spellbound (1945) · ★ 7.4 · 1,012 votes · 1h 51m · thriller, romance, dramaWhen Dr. Anthony Edwardes arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwardes is actually an…
#14 His Girl Friday (1940) · ★ 7.4 · 980 votes · 1h 32m · comedy, romance, dramaWalter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit…
#15 The Lady from Shanghai (1947) · ★ 7.3 · 744 votes · 1h 27m · thriller, drama, crimeA romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.…
#16 The Stranger (1946) · ★ 7.2 · 661 votes · 1h 35m · thriller, crimeAn investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi, who may be hiding out in a small town in the guise of a distinguished professor enga…