My Favorite Dramatic films
by ja_kitty_71 | created - 13 Jul 2013 | updated - 12 Dec 2022 | PublicHere are all of my favorite dramatic films, some of which are also historical and biblical films.
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1. The Scarlet Letter (1934)
G | 69 min | Drama, Romance
In the seventeenth century, in Massachusetts, a young woman is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her dress for bearing a child out of wedlock.
Director: Robert G. Vignola | Stars: Colleen Moore, Hardie Albright, Henry B. Walthall, Cora Sue Collins
Votes: 499
2. A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
Not Rated | 128 min | Drama, History, Romance
A pair of lookalikes, one a former French aristocrat and the other an alcoholic English lawyer, fall in love with the same woman amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution.
Directors: Jack Conway, Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Ronald Colman, Elizabeth Allan, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen
Votes: 6,297
3. The Little Princess (1939)
Approved | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A little girl is left by her father in an exclusive seminary for girls, when her father fights in the Second Boer War. Later, when he is presumed dead she is forced to become a servant.
Directors: Walter Lang, William A. Seiter | Stars: Shirley Temple, Richard Greene, Anita Louise, Ian Hunter
Votes: 6,736
4. Keep Your Powder Dry (1945)
Passed | 93 min | Drama, War
A disparate group of women try to adjust to their new lives after enlisting in the Women's Army Corps.
Director: Edward Buzzell | Stars: Lana Turner, Laraine Day, Susan Peters, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 604
5. Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)
Approved | 123 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
At the height of the Roman Civil War, a young Cleopatra (Vivien Leigh) meets a middle-aged Julius Caesar (Claude Rains), who teaches her how to rule Egypt.
Director: Gabriel Pascal | Stars: Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Stewart Granger, Flora Robson
Votes: 3,138
6. The Green Promise (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Drama
After the Matthews family buys a farm, the father suffers a severe injury, which puts his four children in charge. Daughter Deborah and her kid sister Susan take the lead--with help from the handsome local agricultural agent.
Director: William D. Russell | Stars: Marguerite Chapman, Walter Brennan, Robert Paige, Natalie Wood
Votes: 688
7. The Robe (1953)
Approved | 135 min | Drama, History, Romance
In the Roman province of Judea during the 1st century, Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio is ordered to crucify Jesus of Nazareth but is tormented by his guilty conscience afterwards.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Michael Rennie
Votes: 11,733 | Gross: $36.00M
8. Beau Brummell (1954)
Approved | 113 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1796, Captain George Bryan "Beau" Brummell of the 10th Royal Hussars Regiment offends the Prince of Wales with his straightforward outspokenness and gets fired from the Army but is chosen as the Prince's personal advisor.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley
Votes: 1,745
9. Cleopatra (1963)
G | 192 min | Biography, Drama, History
Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt experiences both triumph and tragedy as she attempts to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.
Directors: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Pamela Brown
Votes: 37,396 | Gross: $57.78M
10. The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
G | 260 min | Biography, Drama, History
An all-star, large scale epic movie that chronicles the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Directors: George Stevens, David Lean, Jean Negulesco | Stars: Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Charlton Heston, Michael Anderson Jr.
Votes: 11,913 | Gross: $15.47M
11. The Bible in the Beginning... (1966)
Unrated | 174 min | Drama, Family
Extravagant production of the first part of the book of Genesis. Its main highlights are the Garden of Eden, the first brothers, Noah and his family obeying God to build an ark for the Flood and Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Michael Parks, Ulla Bergryd, Richard Harris, John Huston
Votes: 6,251 | Gross: $34.90M
12. Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
During the sixteenth century, the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots engages in over two decades of religious and political conflict with her cousin, the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England, amidst political intrigue in her native land.
Director: Charles Jarrott | Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Patrick McGoohan, Timothy Dalton
Votes: 4,882 | Gross: $2.33M
13. King Lear (1983 TV Movie)
158 min | Drama
Aging King Lear invites disaster when he abdicates to his two disloyal and obsequious daughters while rejecting the one who truly loves him.
Director: Michael Elliott | Stars: Colin Blakely, Leo McKern, Robert Lindsay, Laurence Olivier
Votes: 866
14. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 427,864 | Gross: $51.97M
15. Anne of Green Gables (1985)
TV-G | 100 min | Drama, Family
An orphan girl, sent to an elderly brother and sister by mistake, charms her new home and community with her fiery spirit and imagination.
Stars: Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Farnsworth, Patricia Hamilton
Votes: 22,645
16. Silas Marner (1985 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 92 min | Drama
When a respectable weaver is wrongfully accused of theft, he becomes a virtual hermit until his own fortune is stolen and an orphaned child is found on his doorstep.
Director: Giles Foster | Stars: Ben Kingsley, Jenny Agutter, Patrick Ryecart, Freddie Jones
Votes: 701
17. The Name of the Rose (1986)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Helmut Qualtinger, Elya Baskin
Votes: 117,208 | Gross: $7.15M
18. Little Women (1994)
PG | 115 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The March sisters live and grow in post-Civil War America.
Director: Gillian Armstrong | Stars: Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes
Votes: 63,563 | Gross: $50.08M
19. Nell (1994)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama
In a remote woodland cabin, a small-town doctor discovers Nell - a beautiful young hermit-woman with many secrets.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson, Richard Libertini
Votes: 30,862 | Gross: $33.68M
20. The Crucible (1996)
PG-13 | 124 min | Drama, History
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Director: Nicholas Hytner | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield, Joan Allen
Votes: 40,164 | Gross: $7.34M
21. The Nativity Story (2006)
PG | 101 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
A drama that focuses on the period in Mary and Joseph's life where they journeyed to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus.
Director: Catherine Hardwicke | Stars: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Oscar Isaac, Hiam Abbass
Votes: 12,355 | Gross: $37.63M
22. Ballet Shoes (2007 TV Movie)
PG | 85 min | Drama, Family, Musical
In 1930s London, three orphan girls are adopted by their great uncle, who is an eccentric paleontologist, and his niece.
Director: Sandra Goldbacher | Stars: Emma Watson, Yasmin Paige, Lucy Boynton, Emilia Fox
Votes: 9,171
23. Tolkien (2019)
PG-13 | 112 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Tolkien's novels were inspired by his mom's storytelling, falling in love with another orphan, Edith, forming a brotherhood with 3 other misfits at school, the trench war of WWI and later telling stories to his own kids.
Director: Dome Karukoski | Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Colm Meaney, Derek Jacobi
Votes: 46,587 | Gross: $4.54M
24. Harriet (I) (2019)
PG-13 | 125 min | Action, Biography, Drama
The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
Director: Kasi Lemmons | Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn
Votes: 30,705
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