I voted 70's 'cause there are just too many classic from then, however, 2 years ago I would've said 90s. Then there's the 40s, from which I've only seen 17 films, and yet 4 of them I gave perfect 10s to (Rebecca, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and The Killers), andwith way too many widely regarded as classics, like Double Indemnity, Grapes of Wrath, and It's a Wonderful Life still left to see, I may change my tune someday.

Gotta pick the decade the "Movie Brats" started (if you people even know who they are)... 1970's.

My vote goes for the 70's. The 40's and 60's probably had an equal amount of great films, but more than any other decade, the 70's were when the directors were the superstars who had all the power and control. The past five years or so, I've noticed a gradual return to directors and writers with household name recognition - here's hoping that trend catches on again.

Probably the 1940's for me, with the 50's coming in a close 2nd. Of course, I'm a huge film-noir fan, so this was a pretty easy decision for me.

1940
Rebecca
The Philadelphia Story
The Great Dictator
The Grapes of Wrath
His Girl Friday
The Shop Around the Corner
Foreign Correspondent
The Sea Hawk
Fantasia
The Bank Dick

1941
Citizen Kane
The Maltese Falcon
Sullivan's Travels
Sergeant York
The Lady Eve
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Shadow of the Thin Man
Suspicion
Meet John Doe
High Sierra

1942
Casablanca
To Be Or Not To Be
Yankee Doodle Dandy
The Magnificent Ambersons
Talk of the Town
I Married a Witch
The Palm Beach Story
The Glass Key
Reap the Wild Wind
Woman of the Year

1943
Shadow of a Doubt
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Ox-Bow Incident
Phantom of the Opera
A Guy Named Joe
Sahara
Heaven Can Wait
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Five Graves to Cairo
Destination Tokyo

1944
Arsenic and Old Lace
Double Indemnity
To Have and Have Not
Lifeboat
Hail the Conquering Hero
Meet Me in St. Louis
Gaslight
Laura
The Canterville Ghost
The Fighting Sullivans

1945
The Lost Weekend
Mildred Pierce
Spellbound
Detour
Scarlet Street
The Thin Man Goes Home
They Were Expendable
Children of Paradise
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
The Woman in the Window

1946
Notorious
It's A Wonderful Life
The Big Sleep
Brief Encounter
Great Expectations
The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Killers
My Darling Clementine
The Stranger
The Blue Dahlia

1947
Brute Force
Black Narcissus
Miracle on 34th Street
Out of the Past
The Paradine Case
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Life with Father
Song of the Thin Man
Kiss of Death
Ride the Pink Horse

1948
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Lady From Shanghai
Key Largo
Red River
Hamlet
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Sorry, Wrong Number
The Naked City
The Bicycle Thief
Rope

1949
The Third Man
White Heat
Kind Hearts and Coronets
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Adam's Rib
Sands of Iwo Jima
I Was a Male War Bride
The Heiress
All the King's Men
The Fountainhead


I would have a really hard time finding 100 better movies from a different decade.

My first impulse was the 1940's (Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon being the impetus there) but I decided on the 1960's. Considering that Godard, Bergman, Bunuel, Truffaut, Antonioni, and Kubrick peaked in that decade, I think it was the best. I don't think any decade has five films that can hold their own against Contempt, Persona, Viridiana, Blow-Up, and 2001 combined.

i have to admit a good case is being made for a decade i never gave much thought to- the 40's.

i'd agree that the 50's and the 80s were vast wastelands sprinkled with a few real gems here and there.

filmakers in the 70s were able to exploit trends in the changing social structure in this country, to make some really exciting stuff -especially if you compare it to to the decades preceding it.

however, i don't know if all this freedom ended up doing us much good in the long run, because it seemed to supplant imagination and creativity.
the production code could be viewed as creatively stifling (which it often was), or an obstacle that stimulated creative solutions and workarounds, by committed artists.

when all is permissable, a lot of artists become hacks.

jmo

hmm tough call. But I'd have to go with the 70s-80s