"NEW YORK TIMES"

NOTE: Up to 1968, the lists are in the order in which the films were released in New York. For 1969-90 the order is alphabetical, for 1995-96 preferential, and for 1997-98 alphabetical again. 

The "Times" critics behind these lists are Mordaunt Hall (1931-34), Andre Sennwald (1935), Frank Nugent (1936-39), Bosley Crowther (1940-67), Renata Adler (1968), Vincent Canby (1969-90) and Janet Maslin (1994-98). Someday I'll probably update with post-'98 lists, though it gets a bit confusing for the years when they had three different lead critics.  

For the years 1948-61, for reasons beyond my comprehension, foreign-language films were not included in the Top Ten, but were exiled to best-of lists of their own. I haven't included any of these "specialised" (i.e. ghettoised) lists, but only the Official Ten for each year.

Many thanks to faithful reader Paul B. Clark for the 1976 list (with 7 films instead of the usual 10, for some reason) and 1997-98, as well as 1991-93 when apparently "instead of one 10 Best list, several 'Times' critics cited films that impressed them for a variety of reasons". Um, okay...  

1931

• The Guardsman
• City Lights
• The Smiling Lieutenant
• Arrowsmith
• Tabu
• Bad Girl
• Frankenstein
• Skippy
• Private Lives
• A Connecticut Yankee

1932

• Maedchen in Uniform
• Trouble in Paradise
• Der Raub der Mona Lisa
• Grand Hotel
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• The Mouthpiece
• One Hour with You
• A Bill of Divorcement
• The Doomed Batallion
• Reserved for Ladies

1933

• Cavalcade
• Reunion in Vienna
• Morgenrot
• State Fair
• Dinner at Eight
• Berkeley Square
• The Private Life of Henry VIII
• Little Women
• The Invisible Man
• His Double Life

1934

• It Happened One Night
• The House of Rothschild
• The Battle
• The Thin Man
• Catherine the Great
• The First World War
• One Night of Love
• The Lost Patrol
• Man of Aran
• Our Daily Bread

1935

• The Informer
• Ruggles of Red Gap
• David Copperfield
• Lives of a Bengal Lancer
• Les Miserables
• The Scoundrel
• Chapayev
• The Man Who Knew Too Much
• Sequoia
• Love Me Forever

1936

• La Kermesse Heroique
• Fury
• Dodsworth
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
• Winterset
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Green Pastures
• The Ghost Goes West
• The Story of Louis Pasteur
• These Three

1937

• The Life of Emile Zola
• The Good Earth
• Stage Door
• Captains Courageous
• They Won't Forget
• Make Way for Tomorrow
• I Met Him in Paris
• A Star is Born
• Camille
• Lost Horizon

1938

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• The Citadel
• To the Victor
• Pygmalion
• A Slight Case of Murder
• Three Comrades
• The Lady Vanishes
• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• A Man to Remember
• Four Daughters

1939

• Made for Each Other
• Stagecoach
• Wuthering Heights
• Dark Victory
• Juarez
• Goodbye Mr. Chips
• The Women
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
• Ninotchka
• Gone with the Wind

1940

• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Baker's Wife
• Rebecca
• Our Town
• The Mortal Storm
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Great McGinty
• The Long Voyage Home
• The Great Dictator
• Fantasia

1941

• The Lady Eve
• Citizen Kane
• Major Barbara
• Sergeant York
• The Stars Look Down
• Here Comes Mr. Jordan
• Target for Tonight
• Dumbo
• How Green was my Valley
• One Foot in Heaven

1942

• In Which we Serve
• Journey for Margaret
• Casablanca
• One of our Aircraft is Missing
• Wake Island
• Mrs. Miniver
• Yankee Doodle Dandy
• The Gold Rush
• Woman of the Year
• Sullivan's Travels

1943

• Air Force
• Desert Victory
• The Ox-Bow Incident
• The More the Merrier
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Report from the Aleutians
• Watch on the Rhine
• Corvette K-225
• Sahara
• Madame Curie

1944

• Destination Tokyo
• The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
• The Purple Heart
• Going my Way
• Wilson
• Hail the Conquering Hero
• 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
• None but the Lonely Heart
• Meet me in St. Louis
• National Velvet

1945

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• The Way Ahead
• Anchors Aweigh
• Pride of the Marines
• The House on 92nd Street
• The Story of GI Joe
• Spellbound
• The Last Chance
• The Lost Weekend
• They Were Expendable

1946

• Open City
• Road to Utopia
• The Green Years
• Henry V
• Notorious
• Brief Encounter
• The Well-Digger's Daughter
• The Best Years of our Lives
• My Darling Clementine
• A Matter of Life and Death / Stairway to Heaven

1947

• The Yearling
• Great Expectations
• Miracle on 34th Street
• Crossfire
• Life with Father
• Shoeshine
• Gentleman's Agreement
• To Live in Peace
• The Bishop's Wife
• The Fugitive

1948

• Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• The Pearl
• The Search
• A Foreign Affair
• Louisiana Story
• Hamlet
• Johnny Belinda
• Apartment for Peggy
• The Red Shoes
• The Snake Pit

1949

• Command Decision
• A Letter to Three Wives
• The Quiet One
• Lost Boundaries
• Pinky
• The Heiress
• All the King's Men
• Battleground
• The Fallen Idol
• Intruder in the Dust

1950

• The Titan
• Twelve O'Clock High
• Father of the Bride
• The Asphalt Jungle
• Destination Moon
• The Men
• Sunset Boulevard
• Trio
• All About Eve
• Born Yesterday

1951

• Fourteen Hours
• The Brave Bulls
• Oliver Twist
• A Place in the Sun
• People Will Talk
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• An American in Paris
• Detective Story
• Death of a Salesman
• Decision Before Dawn

1952

• The Greatest Show on Earth
• Cry, the Beloved Country
• Viva Zapata!
• Five Fingers
• High Noon
• Ivanhoe
• The Quiet Man
• Limelight
• The Sound Barrier
• Come Back, Little Sheba

1953

• Moulin Rouge
• Lili
• Shane
• Julius Caesar
• Man on a Tightrope
• Stalag 17
• From Here to Eternity
• Roman Holiday
• Martin Luther
• The Conquest of Everest

1954

• The Glenn Miller Story
• Genevieve
• Knock on Wood
• Mr. Hulot's Holiday
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
• On the Waterfront
• The Little Kidnappers
• Sabrina
• The Country Girl
• Romeo and Juliet

1955

• The Bridges at Toko-Ri
• Bad Day at Black Rock
• A Man Called Peter
• Marty
• The Great Adventure
• Mister Roberts
• The Phenix City Story
• It's Always Fair Weather
• Oklahoma!
• The Prisoner

1956

• Richard III
• The King and I
• Moby Dick
• Bus Stop
• Lust for Life
• The Silent World
• Giant
• Around the World in 80 Days
• Friendly Persuasion
• Anastasia

1957

• The Great Man
• Funny Face
• Twelve Angry Men
• The Green Man
• A Hatful of Rain
• Silk Stockings
• Love in the Afternoon
• Les Girls
• Sayonara
• The Bridge on the River Kwai

1958

• Teacher's Pet
• Gigi
• The Goddess
• God's Little Acre
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• The Defiant Ones
• Damn Yankees
• The Horse's Mouth
• I Want to Live!
• A Night to Remember

1959

• The Diary of Anne Frank
• Room at the Top
• The Nun's Story
• Porgy and Bess
• Anatomy of a Murder
• A Hole in the Head
• North by Northwest
• Pillow Talk
• Ben-Hur
• On the Beach

1960

• I'm All Right Jack
• The Apartment
• Psycho
• Elmer Gantry
• Sunrise at Campobello
• The Entertainer
• Inherit the Wind
• The Angry Silence
• Exodus
• Tunes of Glory

1961

• The Facts of Life
• A Raisin in the Sun
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
• Fanny
• The Hustler
• Splendor in the Grass
• West Side Story
• El Cid
• Judgment at Nuremberg
• One, Two, Three

1962

• Lover Come Back
• Last Year at Marienbad
• Whistle Down the Wind
• A Taste of Honey
• Divorce Italian Style
• The Longest Day
• Long Day's Journey into Night
• Sundays and Cybele
• Freud
• Electra

1963

• Heavens Above!
• The L-Shaped Room
• Hud
• Cleopatra
• 8 1/2
• Tom Jones
• Any Number Can Win
• Il Posto / A Sound of Trumpets
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
• America, America

1964

• Dr. Strangelove
• The Servant
• That Man from Rio
• One Potato, Two Potato
• A Hard Day's Night
• Woman in the Dunes
• Mary Poppins
• My Fair Lady
• The Americanisation of Emily
• Marriage Italian Style

1965

• The Pawnbroker
• Ship of Fools
• Darling
• Repulsion
• Juliet of the Spirits
• The Eleanor Roosevelt Story
• The Red Desert
• Kwaidan
• To Die in Madrid
• Thunderball

1966

• The Shop on Main Street
• The Gospel According to St. Matthew
• Dear John
• Morgan!
• The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Georgy Girl
• Loves of a Blonde
• A Man for all Seasons
• Blow-Up

1967

• La Guerre est Finie
• Ulysses
• The Hunt
• In the Heat of the Night
• Father
• Elvira Madigan
• Closely Watched Trains
• Cool Hand Luke
• In Cold Blood
• The Graduate

1968

• Charlie Bubbles
• The Two of Us
• Belle de Jour
• Faces
• Les Carabiniers
• The Bride Wore Black
• The Fifth Horseman is Fear
• Petulia
• Rosemary's Baby
• Report on the Party and the Guests

1969

• Alice's Restaurant
• The Damned
• If...
• La Femme Infidele
• Midnight Cowboy
• Stolen Kisses
• Topaz
• True Grit
• The Wild Bunch
• Z

1970

• The Ballad of Cable Hogue
• Catch-22
• Fellini Satyricon
• Little Big Man
• Loving
• M.A.S.H.
• My Night at Maud's
• The Passion of Anna
• Tristana
• The Wild Child

1971

• Bed and Board
• Carnal Knowledge
• Claire's Knee
• A Clockwork Orange
• The Conformist
• Derby
• The French Connection
• The Last Picture Show
• Le Boucher
• Sunday, Bloody Sunday

1972

• Chloe in the Afternoon
• Cries and Whispers
• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
• Fat City
• Frenzy
• The Godfather
• The Heartbreak Kid
• Tokyo Story
• Traffic
• Two English Girls

1973

• American Graffiti
• Day for Night
• Heavy Traffic
• Last Tango in Paris
• The Long Goodbye
• Love
• Mean Streets
• Memories of Underdevelopment
• Playtime
• Sleeper

1974

• Amarcord
• Badlands
• California Split
• Claudine
• Daisy Miller
• Harry and Tonto
• Lacombe, Lucien
• Man Is Not A Bird
• Le Petit Theatre de Jean Renoir
• The Phantom of Liberty
• Scenes from a Marriage

1975

• Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
• Barry Lyndon
• Distant Thunder
• Hearts and Minds
• Love and Death
• The Magic Flute
• Nashville
• Shampoo
• The Story of Adele H.
• Swept Away...by an unusual destiny in the blue sea of August

1976 (Top 7)

• All the President's Men
• Face to Face
• The Memory of Justice
• Network
• Seven Beauties
• The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
• Taxi Driver

1977

• Annie Hall
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Effi Briest
• The Goalkeeper's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
• Handle with Care
• The Late Show
• The Man Who Loved Women
• Star Wars
• Stroszek
• That Obscure Object of Desire

1978

• California Suite
• Days of Heaven
• The Deer Hunter
• A Geisha
• Movie Movie
• Perceval
• Pretty Baby
• A Slave of Love
• Straight Time
• Violette

1979

• Breaking Away
• Escape from Alcatraz
• Fedora
• Hair
• Kramer versus Kramer
• Love on the Run
• Manhattan
• The Marriage of Maria Braun
• "10"
• The Tree of Wooden Clogs

1980

• Airplane!
• Dressed to Kill
• Every Man for Himself
• Melvin and Howard
• Mon Oncle d'Amerique
• Ordinary People
• Raging Bull
• Stardust Memories
• The Third Generation
• Wise Blood

1981

• Arthur
• Atlantic City
• Body Heat
• Four Friends
• Pixote
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Reds
• Stevie
• True Confessions
• The Woman Next Door

1982

• Chan is Missing
• E.T. AND Poltergeist
• Fitzcarraldo
• Gregory's Girl
• Le Beau Mariage
• Lola
• Missing
• Smash Palace
• Tootsie
• Victor / Victoria

1983

• Berlin Alexanderplatz
• Betrayal
• The Big Chill
• Fanny and Alexander
• Heart Like a Wheel
• The King of Comedy
• Local Hero
• The Right Stuff
• Tender Mercies
• Zelig

1984

• The Bostonians
• Broadway Danny Rose
• Entre Nous
• The Family Game
• Greystoke
• A Love in Germany
• A Passage to India
• Places in the Heart
• Stranger than Paradise
• This is Spinal Tap

1985

• Desperately Seeking Susan
• Kiss of the Spiderwoman
• Prizzi's Honor
• The Purple Rose of Cairo
• Ran
• Secret Honor
• 7 Up AND 28 Up
• Shoah
• The Trip to Bountiful
• Young Sherlock Holmes

1986

• Blue Velvet
• The Color of Money
• Down by Law
• Hannah and her Sisters
• Menage / Tenue de Soiree
• My Beautiful Laundrette
• Platoon
• A Room with a View
• Smooth Talk
• Summer

1987

• Barfly
• The Dead
• Empire of the Sun
• Full Metal Jacket
• House of Games
• Housekeeping
• Radio Days
• Tampopo
• Tin Men
• The Untouchables

1988

• Au Revoir les Enfants
• Hotel Terminus
• Married to the Mob
• Mississippi Burning
• Patty Hearst
• A Taxing Woman
• Things Change
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
• Working Girl

1989

• Chocolat
• Crimes and Misdemeanours
• Do the Right Thing
• Enemies, a Love Story
• High Hopes
• Little Vera
• Mystery Train
• Roger and Me
• sex, lies and videotape
• True Love

1990

• Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
• Alice
• Dick Tracy
• Goodfellas
• The Grifters
• Metropolitan
• Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
• My 20th Century
• Reversal of Fortune
• Sweetie

1991

• Barton Fink
• Beauty and the Beast
• Bugsy
• Cape Fear
• The Fisher King
• Life Is Sweet
• My Own Private Idaho
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Thelma and Louise

1992

• The Crying Game
• A Few Good Men
• Gas Food Lodging
• Howards End
• Malcolm X
• The Match Factory Girl
• One False Move
• Reservoir Dogs
• Savage Nights
• The Story of Qiu Ju

1993

• Belle Epoque
• Farewell My Concubine
• The Joy Luck Club
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Piano
• The Remains of the Day
• Schindler's List

1994

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Hoop Dreams
3. Quiz Show
4. 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould
5. To Live
6. The Last Seduction
7. Four Weddings and a Funeral
8. Red
9. Caro Diario
10. Nobody's Fool

1995

1. Apollo 13
2. Toy Story
3. Persuasion
4. Crumb
5. Lamerica
6. Before the Rain
7. To Die For
8. Leaving Las Vegas
9. Living in Oblivion
10. Dead Man Walking

1996

1. The English Patient
2. The People vs. Larry Flynt
3. Breaking the Waves
4. Lone Star
5. Flirting with Disaster
6. Secrets and Lies
7. Looking for Richard
8. Fargo
9. The Crucible
10. Mother

1997

• The Apostle
• Boogie Nights
• Deconstructing Harry
• In the Company of Men
• L.A. Confidential
• The Pillow Book
• Ponette
• The Sweet Hereafter
• Titanic
• Ulee's Gold

1998

• The Butcher Boy
• The Celebration
• The General
• Happiness
• Henry Fool
• Life Is Beautiful
• The Opposite of Sex
• Saving Private Ryan
• Shakespeare in Love
• A Simple Plan
• The Thin Red Line