| Rank | Title | Year | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | It Happened One Night | 1934 | Frank Capra | 53 |
| 2 | The Grapes of Wrath | 1940 | John Ford | 68 |
| 3 | The Best Years of Our Lives | 1946 | William Wyler | 96 |
| 4 | The Gold Rush | 1925 | Charles Chaplin | 60 |
| 5 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | 1948 | John Huston | 69 |
| 6 | Bringing Up Baby | 1938 | Howard Hawks | 44 |
| 7 | Shane | 1953 | George Stevens | 146 |
| 8 | Stagecoach | 1939 | John Ford | 76 |
| 9 | From Here to Eternity | 1953 | Fred Zinnemann | 152 |
| 10 | The Birth of a Nation | 1915 | D.W. Griffith | 112 |
| 11 | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | 1939 | Frank Capra | 109 |
| 12 | An American in Paris | 1951 | Vincente Minnelli | 169 |
| 13 | Double Indemnity | 1944 | Billy Wilder | 40 |
| 14 | Greed | 1924 | Erich von Stroheim | 162 |
| 15 | The Magnificent Ambersons | 1942 | Orson Welles | 142 |
| 16 | The African Queen | 1951 | John Huston | 71 |
| 17 | Ninotchka | 1939 | Ernst Lubitsch | 190 |
| 18 | All Quiet on the Western Front | 1930 | Lewis Milestone | 119 |
| 19 | On the Waterfront | 1954 | Elia Kazan | 29 |
| 20 | The Lady Eve | 1941 | Preston Sturges | 125 |
| 21 | The Philadelphia Story | 1940 | George Cukor | 81 |
| 22 | A Streetcar Named Desire | 1951 | Elia Kazan | 99 |
| 23 | City Lights | 1931 | Charles Chaplin | 55 |
| 24 | Top Hat | 1935 | Mark Sandrich | 132 |
| 25 | Yankee Doodle Dandy | 1942 | Michael Curtiz | 257 |
| 26 | Red River | 1948 | Howard Hawks | 183 |
| 27 | The Maltese Falcon | 1941 | John Huston | 33 |
| 28 | Mutiny on the Bounty | 1935 | Frank Lloyd | 300 |
| 29 | How Green Was My Valley | 1941 | John Ford | 342 |
| 30 | The General | 1927 | Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton | 42 |
| 31 | Intolerance | 1916 | D.W. Griffith | 133 |
| 32 | High Noon | 1952 | Fred Zinnemann | 45 |
| 33 | All about Eve | 1950 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 35 |
| 34 | A Place in the Sun | 1951 | George Stevens | 313 |
| 35 | Sunrise | 1927 | F.W. Murnau | 95 |
| 36 | Notorious | 1946 | Alfred Hitchcock | 121 |
| 37 | Meet Me in St. Louis | 1944 | Vincente Minnelli | 204 |
| 38 | Modern Times | 1936 | Charles Chaplin | 92 |
| 39 | Sunset Blvd. | 1950 | Billy Wilder | 34 |
| 40 | A Star Is Born | 1954 | George Cukor | 224 |
| 41 | His Girl Friday | 1940 | Howard Hawks | 86 |
| 42 | Bonnie and Clyde | 1967 | Arthur Penn | 41 |
| 43 | Duck Soup | 1933 | Leo McCarey | 56 |
| 44 | Laura | 1944 | Otto Preminger | 207 |
| 45 | Nashville | 1975 | Robert Altman | 70 |
| 46 | M*A*S*H | 1970 | Robert Altman | 117 |
| 47 | Midnight Cowboy | 1969 | John Schlesinger | 120 |
| 48 | Adam's Rib | 1949 | George Cukor | 270 |
| 49 | Paths of Glory | 1957 | Stanley Kubrick | 144 |
| 50 | Wuthering Heights | 1939 | William Wyler | 299 |
| 51 | To Be or Not to Be | 1942 | Ernst Lubitsch | 197 |
| 52 | Sullivan's Travels | 1941 | Preston Sturges | 113 |
| 53 | East of Eden | 1955 | Elia Kazan | 413 |
| 54 | Swing Time | 1936 | George Stevens | 307 |
| 55 | The Crowd | 1928 | King Vidor | 258 |
| 56 | To Have and Have Not | 1944 | Howard Hawks | 332 |
| 57 | A Night at the Opera | 1935 | Sam Wood | 232 |
| 58 | Marty | 1955 | Delbert Mann | 462 |
| 59 | The Manchurian Candidate | 1962 | John Frankenheimer | 93 |
| 60 | My Darling Clementine | 1946 | John Ford | 211 |
| 61 | The Bank Dick | 1940 | Edward F. Cline | 380 |
| 62 | The Ox-Bow Incident | 1943 | William A. Wellman | 396 |
| 63 | Trouble in Paradise | 1932 | Ernst Lubitsch | 262 |
| 64 | The Lost Weekend | 1945 | Billy Wilder | 341 |
| 65 | White Heat | 1949 | Raoul Walsh | 249 |
| 66 | Out of the Past | 1947 | Jacques Tourneur | 222 |
| 67 | Gigi | 1958 | Vincente Minnelli | 426 |
| 68 | The Grand Illusion | 1937 | Jean Renoir | 89 |
| 69 | The Band Wagon | 1953 | Vincente Minnelli | 335 |
| 70 | The Shop around the Corner | 1940 | Ernst Lubitsch | 344 |
| 71 | Grand Hotel | 1932 | Edmund Goulding | 677 |
| 72 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | David Hand | 87 |
| 73 | Giant | 1956 | George Stevens | 412 |
| 74 | The Palm Beach Story | 1942 | Preston Sturges | 360 |
| 75 | Born Yesterday | 1950 | George Cukor | 541 |
| 76 | 42nd Street | 1933 | Lloyd Bacon | 290 |
| 77 | Gunga Din | 1939 | George Stevens | 388 |
| 78 | My Man Godfrey | 1936 | Gregory La Cava | 515 |
| 79 | The Miracle of Morgan's Creek | 1944 | Preston Sturges | 433 |
| 80 | Camille | 1936 | George Cukor | 437 |
| 81 | The Awful Truth | 1937 | Leo McCarey | 393 |
| 82 | The Caine Mutiny | 1954 | Edward Dmytryk | 577 |
| 83 | The Heiress | 1949 | William Wyler | 650 |
| 84 | The Thin Man | 1934 | W.S. Van Dyke | 337 |
| 85 | American Graffiti | 1973 | George Lucas | 179 |
| 86 | The Blue Angel | 1930 | Josef von Sternberg | 244 |
| 87 | It's a Gift | 1934 | Norman Z. McLeod | 450 |
| 88 | The Last Picture Show | 1971 | Peter Bogdanovich | 239 |
| 89 | Touch of Evil | 1958 | Orson Welles | 49 |
| 90 | Woman of the Year | 1942 | George Stevens | 566 |
| 91 | Mister Roberts | 1955 | John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy | 681 |
| 92 | The Big Parade | 1925 | King Vidor | 444 |
| 93 | Dodsworth | 1936 | William Wyler | 578 |
| 94 | Dinner at Eight | 1933 | George Cukor | 692 |
| 95 | McCabe and Mrs. Miller | 1971 | Robert Altman | 251 |
| 96 | The Rules of the Game | 1939 | Jean Renoir | 58 |
| 97 | The Big Sleep | 1946 | Howard Hawks | 122 |
| 98 | Tootsie | 1982 | Sydney Pollack | 186 |
| 99 | The Jazz Singer | 1927 | Alan Crosland | 528 |
| 100 | The Wind | 1928 | Victor Sjöström | 410 |