compiled by Gary Gordon
A Partial List Of Very Good To Great Movies By Year, 1939-1980, inspired by the comment: "I think 1999 ranks as the best year for movies since 1939."
1939
Destry Rides Again
Gone With The Wind
The Wizard Of Oz
Drums Along The Mohawk
Stagecoach
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
1940
The Grapes Of Wrath
His Girl Friday
The Westerner
The Philadelphia Story
The Great Dictator
1941
Sullivan's Travels
The Maltese Falcon
Meet John Doe
Sergeant York
Citizen Kane
1942
Casablanca
Mrs. Miniver
1943
The Ox-Bow Incident
1944
To Have And Have Not
1946
The Best Years Of Our Lives
The Big Sleep
The Razor's Edge
It's A Wonderful Life
My Darling Clementine
1947
Gentleman's Agreement
Body And Soul
1948
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
Red River
Sorry, Wrong Number
1949
Twelve O'clock High
All The King's Men
1950
Sunset Boulevard
The Asphalt Jungle
1951
The Day The Earth Stood Still
A Place In The Sun
Detective Story
The African Queen
Steel Helmet
The Big Carnival (Ace In The Hole)
A Streetcar Named Desire
1952
High Noon
1953
From Here To Eternity
Stalag 17
The Naked Spur
Shane
1954
On The Waterfront
Executive Suite
The Bridges At Toko-Ri
Caine Mutiny
Salt Of The Earth
1955
Rebel Without A Cause
Bad Day At Black Rock
The Man With The Golden Arm
Blackboard Jungle
Mr. Roberts
1956
The Searchers
Giant
The Killing
The Wrong Man
The Ten Commandments
1957
Paths Of Glory
12 Angry Men
3:10 To Yuma
The Bridge On The River Kwai
A Face In The Crowd
1958
Touch Of Evil
The Buccaneer
The Young Lions
The Defiant Ones
1959
Some Like It Hot
Ben-Hur
On The Beach
Horse Soldiers
Operation Petticoat
North By Northwest
Anatomy Of A Murder
1960
The Magnificent Seven
Inherit The Wind
The Apartment
Elmer Gantry
Psycho
Sink The Bismarck!
Spartacus
Murder, Inc.
Exodus
1961
The Hustler
One-Eyed Jacks
Judgment At Nuremberg
1962
To Kill A Mockingbird
Lawrence Of Arabia
Hell Is For Heroes
The Longest Day
Days Of Wine & Roses
Birdman Of Alcatraz
The Miracle Worker
The Manchurian Candidate
Advise and Consent
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Lonely Are The Brave
1963
The Great Escape
Bye Bye Birdie
Dr. No
The Ugly American
Lilies Of The Field
From Russia With Love
1964
Dr. Strangelove
The Americanization of Emily
Goldfinger
Fail-Safe
Seven Days In May
Zulu
1965
Cat Ballou
Flight Of The Phoenix
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
The Train
1966
The Russians Are Coming...
The Sand Pebbles
After The Fox
A Man And A Woman
The Professionals
Blow-Up
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
1967
Bonnie And Clyde
Don't Look Back
Cool Hand Luke
Hombre
The President's Analyst
The Dirty Dozen
In The Heat Of The Night
The Graduate
1968
The Producers
Rosemary's Baby
Planet Of The Apes
2001: A Space Odyssey
1969
Z
Midnight Cowboy
Alice's Restaurant
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
Oh! What A Lovely War
The Wild Bunch
Easy Rider
The Bed-Sitting Room
Medium Cool
Take The Money And Run
Monterey Pop
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
The Reivers
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
1970
Five Easy Pieces
M*A*S*H
Patton
Kelly's Heroes
The Magic Christian
The Great White Hope
Woodstock
Little Big Man
Brewster McCloud
Fellini Satyricon
Catch-22
Zabriskie Point
1971
The Last Picture Show
McCabe And Mrs. Miller
The French Connection
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Carnal Knowledge
Dirty Harry
200 Motels
Zachariach
Husbands
Klute
Johnny Got His Gun
1972
The Godfather
The Sorrow And The Pity
A Clockwork Orange
Sounder
The Candidate
The Ruling Class
Deliverance
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid
Harold And Maude
Slaughterhouse-Five
1973
Cries And Whispers
Last Tango In Paris
The Exorcist
Bang The Drum Slowly
High Plains Drifter
American Graffiti
Emperor Of The North
The Long Goodbye
Save The Tiger
Mean Streets
A Touch Of Class
Badlands
The Paper Chase
Steelyard Blues
Papillon
Serpico
1974
Day For Night
The Last Detail
Blazing Saddles
Chinatown
Amarcord
Parallax View
My Name Is Nobody
The Three Musketeers
The Conversation
The Godfather, Part II
A Woman Under The Influence
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
1975
Nashville
Night Moves
Shampoo
Jaws
Love And Death
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Dog Day Afternoon
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
1976
All The President's Men
Network
The Front
Bound For Glory
Taxi Driver
Marathon Man
Rocky
Bingo Long...
Buffalo Bill And The Indians
The Man Who Would Be King
The Shootist
1977
Annie Hall
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Saturday Night Fever
Equus
Sorcerer
Harlan County, U.S.A.
Star Wars
1978
An Unmarried Woman
Days Of Heaven
American Hot Wax
The Big Fix
The Wild Geese
Blue Collar
The Buddy Holly Story
Interiors
Opening Night
Coming Home
Halloween
National Lampoon's Animal House
Superman
Who'll Stop The Rain?
The Last Waltz
1979
Hair
Apocalypse Now
Kramer Vs. Kramer
Breaking Away
All That Jazz
Norma Rae
Real Life
Starting Over
North Dallas Forty
The Deer Hunter
Manhattan
The Onion Field
The China Syndrome
Time After Time
1980
Raging Bull
Ordinary People
Brubaker
Airplane
Coal Miner's Daughter
One-Trick Pony
Being There
Stardust Memories
Serial
Where The Buffalo Roam
Return of the Secaucus 7
The Great Santini
The Stunt Man
This partial list does not include several Noir films, cult classics, is light on pre-50's films; does not include Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Martin & Lewis, Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, the Marx Bros., or Charlie Chaplain films, or musicals, has few horror films, contains almost no "teen" films (like the multitude of wayward youth or beach movies), and it contains very few foreign movies. Personally, I'd put any of these years up against 1999 (except maybe 1977), including just the one listing each from 1952, 1943, and 1944.
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