Before, During, and After the War
by Matthias_B | created - 28 May 2020 | updated - 09 Feb 2021 | PublicThe films that chronicled the fight against the Axis powers, at home & abroad, during World War II.
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1. Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, War
FBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-war espionage activities of the German-American Bund.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, George Sanders, Francis Lederer, Paul Lukas
Votes: 2,133
2. The Mortal Storm (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Drama
The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. When the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Breitner, a family friend, is caught up in the turmoil.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan
Votes: 6,030
3. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Votes: 23,681 | Gross: $3.48M
4. Night Train to Munich (1940)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
After Germany invades Czechoslovakia, the German and the British intelligence services try to capture Czech scientist Dr. Axel Bomasch (James Harcourt), inventor of a new type of armor-plating.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul Henreid, Basil Radford
Votes: 5,567
5. The Great Dictator (1940)
G | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 237,163 | Gross: $0.29M
6. Man Hunt (1941)
Passed | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
British hunter Thorndike vacationing in Bavaria has Hitler in his gun sight. He is captured, beaten, left for dead, and escapes back to London where he is hounded by German agents and aided by a young woman.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine
Votes: 6,432
7. 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941)
Passed | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Professor Horatio Smith, while seeming very unassuming, rescues victims of Nazi persecution during World War II.
Director: Leslie Howard | Stars: Leslie Howard, Francis L. Sullivan, Allan Jeayes, Mary Morris
Votes: 1,848
8. 49th Parallel (1941)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama, Thriller, War
A World War II U-boat crew are stranded in northern Canada. To avoid internment, they must make their way to the border and get into the still-neutral U.S.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier, Richard George, Eric Portman
Votes: 7,640
9. Across the Pacific (1942)
Passed | 97 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In December 1941, ex-army captain Rick Leland boards a Japanese ship heading to Asia via the Panama Canal where his Japanese hosts show interest in the American defense plans for the canal zone.
Directors: John Huston, Vincent Sherman | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Charles Halton
Votes: 5,438
10. Desperate Journey (1942)
Passed | 107 min | Drama, War
When the crew of a downed British bomber escape from their Nazi captors with Top Secret intelligence, they make a desperate journey to get out of Germany alive.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey
Votes: 2,586
11. All Through the Night (1942)
Approved | 107 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Runyonesque Broadway gamblers turn patriotic when they stumble onto a cell of Nazi saboteurs.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Karen Verne, Jane Darwell
Votes: 4,923
12. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 605,470 | Gross: $1.02M
13. Saboteur (1942)
Passed | 109 min | Thriller, War
A young man accused of sabotage goes on the run to prove his innocence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger, Alan Baxter
Votes: 27,951
14. To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance, War
During the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart
Votes: 42,943
15. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, War
A British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, May Whitty
Votes: 19,449 | Gross: $13.50M
16. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Passed | 126 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer, and singer George M. Cohan.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf
Votes: 16,847 | Gross: $11.80M
17. This Land Is Mine (1943)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, War
A mild-mannered school teacher in a German-occupied town during World War II finds himself torn between collaboration and resistance.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders, Walter Slezak
Votes: 3,727
18. Edge of Darkness (1943)
Passed | 119 min | Drama, War
After two years under German rule, a small Norwegian fishing village rises up and revolts against the occupying Nazis.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Nancy Coleman
Votes: 3,000
19. Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
Passed | 96 min | Thriller, War
In the North African campaign a British straggler manages to pass himself off as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Fortunio Bonanova
Votes: 6,819
20. The Fallen Sparrow (1943)
Passed | 94 min | Film-Noir, Mystery
In 1940, an American former Republican prisoner during the Spanish Civil War, John McKittrick, is determined to find the killer of NYPD Lieutenant Louie Lepetino, who had helped him escape.
Director: Richard Wallace | Stars: John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison
Votes: 1,989
21. Hangmen Also Die! (1943)
Passed | 134 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
After the German administrator of Czechoslovakia is shot, his assassin tries to elude the Gestapo and struggles with his impulse to give himself up as hostages are executed.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 6,384
22. Sahara (I) (1943)
Approved | 97 min | Action, Drama, War
After the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.
Director: Zoltan Korda | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, J. Carrol Naish, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 9,740
23. So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
Passed | 126 min | Drama, Romance, War
A group of nurses returning from the war in the Philippines recall their experiences in combat and in love.
Director: Mark Sandrich | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, George Reeves
Votes: 2,081
24. Destination Tokyo (1943)
Passed | 135 min | Adventure, War
In order to provide information for the first air raid over Tokyo, a U.S. submarine sneaks into Tokyo Bay and places a spy team ashore.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Cary Grant, John Garfield, Alan Hale, John Ridgely
Votes: 5,748
25. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Passed | 138 min | Drama, History, War
In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Tim Murdock
Votes: 6,454
26. Bataan (1943)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, History, War
In 1942, in the Bataan peninsula of the Philippines, a ragtag American unit commanded by Sergeant Bill Dane attempts to blow-up a bridge in order to slow the Japanese advance.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Robert Taylor, George Murphy, Lloyd Nolan, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 2,694
27. Lifeboat (1944)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, War
Several survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the crew members of the U-boat that sank their ship.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix
Votes: 31,155
28. Ministry of Fear (1944)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Stephen Neale has just been released from an asylum during World War II in England when he accidentally stumbles onto a deadly Nazi spy plot and tries to stop it.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke
Votes: 8,913
29. Since You Went Away (1944)
Approved | 177 min | Drama, Romance, War
With her husband away to fight in World War II, a housewife must care for their two daughters alone.
Directors: John Cromwell, Edward F. Cline, Tay Garnett, David O. Selznick | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple
Votes: 5,094
30. Hollywood Canteen (1944)
Passed | 124 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Bette Davis, John Garfield, The Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny
Votes: 2,529
31. 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: 2,936
32. Passage to Marseille (1944)
Passed | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Five patriotic convicts are helped to escape imprisonment in Devil's Island so they can fight for occupied Free French forces against the Nazis.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Michèle Morgan, Philip Dorn
Votes: 5,030
33. To Have and Have Not (1944)
Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Comedy, Film-Noir
During World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Moran
Votes: 37,972
34. Cornered (1945)
Approved | 102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
Canadian flyer Laurence Gerard finds that his wife has been murdered by a French collaborator. His quest for justice leads him to Switzerland and Argentina.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, Micheline Cheirel, Nina Vale
Votes: 2,463
35. Back to Bataan (1945)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, War
In 1942, after the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese, U.S. Army Col. Joseph Madden stays behind to organize the local resistance against the Japanese invaders.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Fely Franquelli
Votes: 4,368
36. Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
Approved | 108 min | Biography, Drama, War
At the close of WWII, Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle travels with the U.S. Army's Company C Division during their liberation of Italy.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Burgess Meredith, Robert Mitchum, Freddie Steele, Wally Cassell
Votes: 3,720
37. They Were Expendable (1945)
Approved | 135 min | Drama, War
A Navy commander fights to prove the battle-worthiness of the PT boat at the start of World War II.
Directors: John Ford, Robert Montgomery | Stars: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed, Jack Holt
Votes: 9,256
38. Cloak and Dagger (1946)
Passed | 106 min | Adventure, Film-Noir, Romance
In WW2, the Allies race against time to persuade two nuclear scientists working for the Germans to switch sides.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Gary Cooper, Robert Alda, Lilli Palmer, Vladimir Sokoloff
Votes: 3,437
39. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Approved | 170 min | Drama, Romance, War
Three World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Teresa Wright
Votes: 70,476 | Gross: $23.65M
40. Notorious (1946)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
The daughter of a convicted German spy is asked by American agents to gather information on a ring of German scientists in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
Votes: 107,189 | Gross: $10.46M
41. Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama, War
A tough-as-nails general (Gregory Peck as General Savage) takes over a B-17 bomber unit suffering from low morale and whips them into fighting shape.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell
Votes: 15,785
42. Battleground (1949)
Approved | 118 min | Action, Drama, History
True tale about a squad of the 101st Airborne Division coping with being trapped by the Germans in the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy
Votes: 7,857 | Gross: $10.29M
43. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,704 | Gross: $0.45M
44. Three Came Home (1950)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama, War
During Word War II, American author Agnes Newton Keith is imprisoned by the Japanese in various POW camps in North Borneo and Sarawak.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Patric Knowles, Florence Desmond, Sessue Hayakawa
Votes: 2,136
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