Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "pre-world-war-two"
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1. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
PG-13 | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
When a murder occurs on the train on which he's travelling, celebrated detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench
Votes: 296,629 | Gross: $102.83M
2. The Seventh Cross (1944)
Passed | 112 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
In 1936, seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp. The Nazis put up seven crosses for demonstrative executions. This story about one of the fugitives, who relies on own courage and compassion of people to avoid the seventh cross.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Signe Hasso, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy
Votes: 2,992
3. The King's Speech (2010)
R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
Director: Tom Hooper | Stars: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi
Votes: 708,020 | Gross: $138.80M
4. In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
NC-17 | 109 min | Drama, Romance
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda, Aoi Nakajima, Yasuko Matsui
Votes: 22,808
5. Gosford Park (2001)
R | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Set in the 1930s, a group of pretentious rich and famous get together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Maggie Smith, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 94,032 | Gross: $41.31M
6. The Way We Were (1973)
PG | 118 min | Drama, Romance
During post-WWII McCarthyism, a diametrically opposed couple come together only to find out that genuine friendship and physical attraction is not enough to overcome fundamental societal beliefs.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman, Lois Chiles
Votes: 27,481
7. Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
When a grisly murder shocks Los Angeles in 1938, Detective Tiago Vega and his partner Lewis Michener become embroiled in an epic story that reflects the troubled history of the city.
Stars: Natalie Dormer, Daniel Zovatto, Kerry Bishé, Adriana Barraza
Votes: 10,663
8. Mudbound (2017)
R | 134 min | Drama, War
Two men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war.
Director: Dee Rees | Stars: Jason Mitchell, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Mary J. Blige
Votes: 54,413
9. Mr. Jones (2019)
119 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
A Welsh journalist breaks the news in the western media of the famine in Ukraine in the early 1930s.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: James Norton, Vanessa Kirby, Peter Sarsgaard, Joseph Mawle
Votes: 16,249
10. The Adolescent (1979)
PG | 90 min | Drama
In the summer of 1939, 13-year-old Marie goes with her parents to visit her grandmother in a small town near Avignon. Although rumors of war reach the countryside, it's an idyllic place, ... See full summary »
Director: Jeanne Moreau | Stars: Edith Clever, Francis Huster, Jacques Weber, Jean-François Balmer
Votes: 328
11. Swing Kids (1993)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, Music
A group of teens adores forbidden music in Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War II.
Director: Thomas Carter | Stars: Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, Barbara Hershey
Votes: 17,351 | Gross: $5.63M
12. The Damned (1969)
R | 157 min | Drama, War
The dramatic collapse of a wealthy, industrialist/Junker family during the reign of the Third Reich.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem, Helmut Berger
Votes: 9,927 | Gross: $0.63M
13. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Romance
Guinevere Pettigrew, a middle-aged London governess, finds herself unfairly dismissed from her job. An attempt to gain new employment catapults her into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse.
Director: Bharat Nalluri | Stars: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciarán Hinds, David Alexander
Votes: 29,735 | Gross: $12.29M
14. Playmates (1941)
Passed | 96 min | Comedy, Music
For the sake of a lucrative radio contract, John Barrymore agrees to turn bandleader Kay Kyser into a Shakespearian actor.
Director: David Butler | Stars: Kay Kyser, John Barrymore, Lupe Velez, Ginny Simms
Votes: 353
15. Jules and Jim (1962)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Romance
Decades of a love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Vanna Urbino
Votes: 44,418
16. The Rules of the Game (1939)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély
Votes: 31,332
17. A Special Day (1977)
Approved | 106 min | Drama
Two neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in May 1938.
Director: Ettore Scola | Stars: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon, Françoise Berd
Votes: 15,837
18. Julia (1977)
PG | 117 min | Drama
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Maximilian Schell
Votes: 10,413
19. 13 Minutes (2015)
R | 114 min | Biography, Drama, War
In November 1939, Georg Elser's attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler fails, and he is arrested. During his confinement, he recalls the events leading up to his plot and his reasons for deciding to take such drastic action.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Christian Friedel, Katharina Schüttler, Burghart Klaußner, Johann von Bülow
Votes: 10,067 | Gross: $0.16M
20. The Sound of Music Live! (2013 TV Special)
TV-PG | 180 min | Biography, Drama, Family
A live telecast of the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
Directors: Rob Ashford, Beth McCarthy-Miller | Stars: Carrie Underwood, Stephen Moyer, Laura Benanti, Christian Borle
Votes: 3,956
21. Rise of the Nazis (2019–2023)
60 min | Documentary, History
Powerful and resonant series that looks at how Hitler and the Nazis seized power in Germany and ushered in the death of democracy.
Stars: Richard John Evans, Kate Fleetwood, Heike B. Görtemaker, Richard Overy
Votes: 1,171
22. Clean Slate (1981)
Not Rated | 128 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life - and resorts to drastic means to do so.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier | Stars: Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Marielle
Votes: 6,715
23. Buck Privates (1941)
Passed | 84 min | Comedy, Musical, War
Two sidewalk salesman enlist in the army in order to avoid jail, only to find that their drill instructor is the police officer who tried having them imprisoned.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lee Bowman, Jane Frazee
Votes: 4,732 | Gross: $4.00M
24. Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010)
R | 106 min | Action, Drama, History
Chen Zhen, believed dead, returns to 1930s Shanghai under a false name. He joins a mob boss for info on the Japanese incl. a long kill list and at night fights the Japanese masked.
Director: Andrew Lau | Stars: Donnie Yen, Alex Ahlstrom, Shu Qi, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong
Votes: 11,071 | Gross: $0.05M
25. The Lady Vanishes (1979)
PG | 95 min | Action, Comedy, Mystery
While travelling by rail in interwar Nazi Germany, a young socialite finds that a fellow female passenger has disappeared from the train, but nobody else remembers her having been on board.
Director: Anthony Page | Stars: Elliott Gould, Cybill Shepherd, Angela Lansbury, Herbert Lom
Votes: 2,995
26. Glorious 39 (2009)
R | 129 min | Drama, History, Mystery
The adopted daughter of a privileged British politician uncovers a family secret in the weeks leading up to World War II.
Director: Stephen Poliakoff | Stars: Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne, Juno Temple, Toby Regbo
Votes: 5,701
27. Guernica (2016)
R | 110 min | Drama, History, Romance
The fates of Henry - a cynical American correspondent who has lost his soul - and Teresa, one of the Republic's censors and in charge of overseeing the news that journalists can send abroad, cross in Gernika.
Director: Koldo Serra | Stars: James D'Arcy, María Valverde, Jack Davenport, Ingrid García Jonsson
Votes: 2,497
28. The Serpent's Egg (1977)
R | 119 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Berlin, 1923. Following the suicide of his brother, American circus acrobat Abel Rosenberg attempts to survive while facing unemployment, depression, alcoholism and the social decay of Germany during the Weimar Republic.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Liv Ullmann, David Carradine, Gert Fröbe, Heinz Bennent
Votes: 6,357
29. Time to Kill (1989)
R | 110 min | Drama, War
In 1936, when Ethiopia is being invaded by the Italian army, Lieutenant Silvestri sets off for the nearest camp hospital to take care of a toothache. En route he meets a young Ethiopian ... See full summary »
Director: Giuliano Montaldo | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Ricky Tognazzi, Patrice-Flora Praxo, Gianluca Favilla
Votes: 985
30. Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
Passed | 116 min | Drama, Romance
Stopped in Mexico by U.S. Immigration, Georges Iscovescu hopes to get into the country by marrying a citizen.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen
Votes: 2,805
31. Love in Thoughts (2004)
89 min | Drama, Romance
A posthumous look at the last days of Guenther's life as he, his best friend, and his sister let loose on a four-day binge of alcohol, drugs, and sex.
Director: Achim von Borries | Stars: Daniel Brühl, August Diehl, Anna Maria Mühe, Jana Pallaske
Votes: 4,286
32. Cluny Brown (1946)
Passed | 100 min | Comedy, Romance, War
A free-spirited parlor maid and a Czech refugee surprise an English village with their unconventional ways.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Charles Boyer, Jennifer Jones, Peter Lawford, Helen Walker
Votes: 4,110
33. The Beginning or the End (1947)
Passed | 112 min | Biography, Drama, History
A docudrama detailing the research, development and deployment of the first atomic bomb, as well as the bombing of Hiroshima.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler
Votes: 749 | Gross: $2.66M
34. A Month by the Lake (1995)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
At a Lake Como resort, Miss Bentley, an attractive older guest, meets a handsome, well-to-do bachelor. But when he's more interested in a beautiful young flirt, the mischievous Miss Bentley goes to outrageous lengths to reel in her catch.
Director: John Irvin | Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox, Uma Thurman, Alida Valli
Votes: 2,618 | Gross: $2.20M
35. Vabank (1981)
108 min | Comedy, Crime
The famous safecracker Kwinto, after leaving prison, decided to quit. But the news of the death of a friend abruptly changes his plans. He decides to "take" Kramer's bank. And, of course, he takes. Elegant, fun and twisted.
Director: Juliusz Machulski | Stars: Jan Machulski, Leonard Pietraszak, Witold Pyrkosz, Ewa Szykulska
Votes: 4,972
36. Conspiracy (1939)
Approved | 58 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Radio officer Kendall discovers seaman Carlson sending unauthorized messages. Carlson is killed, and Kendall flees ashore, meeting Carlson's sister Nedra, part of a sabotage ring. Nedra seeks help as both saboteurs pursue Kendall.
Director: Lew Landers | Stars: Allan Lane, Linda Hayes, Robert Barrat, Charley Foy
Votes: 191
37. Faubourg 36 (2008)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Music, Musical
When Chansonia, a nightclub, is shut down by the landlord, the stage manager Pigoil is forced to look for a new job. He finds hope when he discovers a young woman with a lovely singing voice.
Director: Christophe Barratier | Stars: Gérard Jugnot, Clovis Cornillac, Kad Merad, Nora Arnezeder
Votes: 2,935 | Gross: $0.85M
38. Morometii (1987)
142 min | Drama
The story of a family: Problems, marriage, taxes, revenge, friendship, army and much more.
Director: Stere Gulea | Stars: Victor Rebengiuc, Luminita Gheorghiu, Gina Patrichi, Dorel Visan
Votes: 4,228
39. China Girl (1942)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, War
With America still neutral, an American news photographer on assignment in Burma is courted by both the Japanese and The Flying Tiger volunteers fighting for China to film the strategic Burma Road.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Gene Tierney, George Montgomery, Lynn Bari, Victor McLaglen
Votes: 683 | Gross: $1.40M
40. Phantom of Chinatown (1940)
Approved | 62 min | Mystery
Detective James Lee Wong is on the scene as archaeologist Dr. John Benton, recently returned from an expedition in China where a valuable ancient scroll was recovered, is murdered while giving a lecture on the expedition.
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: Keye Luke, Lotus Long, Grant Withers, Charles Miller
Votes: 831
41. The Gay Falcon (1941)
Passed | 67 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
The Falcon investigates jewel thieves who are working with hard up socialites to defraud insurance companies. First of the Falcon series.
Director: Irving Reis | Stars: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Allen Jenkins, Nina Vale
Votes: 1,229
42. Down Argentine Way (1940)
Approved | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
An American girl on vacation in Argentina falls for a wealthy racehorse owner.
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood
Votes: 1,365
43. The Boy Soldier (1981)
118 min | Drama, War
This is a coming of age drama adapted from the 1952 Yves Gibeau novel of the same title. A young anti-militarist is forcibly sent to military school by his father. He's a bookish pacifist ... See full summary »
Director: Yves Boisset | Stars: Lucas Belvaux, Jean Carmet, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jean-François Stévenin
Votes: 361
44. The Nazis: A Warning from History (1997)
292 min | Documentary, History, War
An examination of how a cultured people could have allowed Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
Stars: Samuel West, Adolf Buchner, Jutta Rüdiger, Günther Ruschin
Votes: 1,722
45. Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990)
115 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Canadian surgeon Dr. Norman Bethune (Donald Sutherland) journeys 1,500 miles into China to reach Mao Zedong's eighth route Army in the Wu Tai mountains where he will build hospitals, ... See full summary »
Director: Phillip Borsos | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Helen Mirren, Helen Shaver, Colm Feore
Votes: 414
46. Why We Fight (1942)
Not Rated | 52 min | Documentary, War
The official World War II US Government film statement defining the various enemies of the Allies and why they must be fought.
Directors: Frank Capra, Anatole Litvak | Stars: Walter Huston, Victor Bulwer-Lytton, Kai-Shek Chiang, Walter Darré
Votes: 2,409
47. Petrijin venac (1980)
99 min | Drama, Romance, War
This film takes place in a small mining town in Serbia within a time span covering the prewar, war, and postwar periods. "Petria's wreath" is a story about the tragic life of an illiterate ... See full summary »
Director: Srdjan Karanovic | Stars: Mirjana Karanovic, Dragan Maksimovic, Pavle Vuisic, Marko Nikolic
Votes: 870
48. Snow Treasure (1968)
G | 95 min | Action, Drama, War
This movie is based on a book by Marie McSwigan. It is 1940 in Norway, a neutral, peace-loving country that is invaded by Nazi Germany. A gang of Norwegian children do what Norwegian children like to do best - ski.
Director: Irving Jacoby | Stars: Paul Austad, Tina Austad, Wilfred Breistrand, James Franciscus
Votes: 106
49. Paragraph 175 (2000)
Not Rated | 81 min | Documentary, History, Romance
Historian Klaus Müller interviews survivors of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals because of the German Penal Code of 1871, Paragraph 175.
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman | Stars: Rupert Everett, Klaus Müller, Karl Gorath, Pierre Seel
Votes: 2,192 | Gross: $0.07M
50. Brainwashed (1960)
102 min | Drama, Sport, War
In 1938 Austria shortly after the Nazi occupation, a prominent Viennese intellectual, Werner von Basil, is arrested for smuggling art treatures out of the country and imprisoned by the ... See full summary »
Director: Gerd Oswald | Stars: Curd Jürgens, Claire Bloom, Hansjörg Felmy, Mario Adorf
Votes: 656