Movies Set in 1940

105 movies found (page 1/4):

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(2005)

| 2h 23min | Adventure, Kids & Family, Fantasy

3.6/5 (with 4,763 votes)

Siblings Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter step through a magical wardrobe and find the land of Narnia. There, they discover a charming, once peaceful kingdom that has been plunged into eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Aided by the wise and magnificent lion, Aslan, the children lead Narnia into a spectacular, climactic battle to be free of the Witch's glacial powers forever.

Directed by Andrew Adamson - With William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Liam Neeson, Tilda Swinton, ...

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The Pianist(2002)

| 2h 30min | Drama, War

4.2/5 (with 4,313 votes)

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

Directed by Roman Polanski - With Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox, Udo Kroschwald, Maureen Lipman, ...

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Malena(2000)

| 1h 49min | Drama

3.7/5 (with 1,024 votes)

During WWII, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.

Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore - With Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Gaetano Aronica, Gabriella Di Luzio, Angelo Pellegrino, ...

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The Key(1983)

1h 50min | Drama, Romance / Love

3.0/5 (with 166 votes)

Art professor Nino Rolfe attempts to break down his wife Teresa's conventional modesty. Noticing her affection for their daughter's fiancé, Nino instigates her sexual interest in him - setting off a chain of unexpected events and emotional complications...

Directed by Tinto Brass - With Stefania Sandrelli, Frank Finlay, Franco Branciaroli, Barbara Cupisti, Ugo Tognazzi, Ricky Tognazzi, ...

Casablanca(1943)

| 1h 42min | Drama, Romance / Love

4.1/5 (with 2,753 votes)

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

Directed by Michael Curtiz - With Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, ...

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Dunkirk(2017)

PG-13

| 1h 47min | War, Action, Drama

3.8/5 (with 7,599 votes)

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

Directed by Christopher Nolan - With Kenneth Branagh, Olivia Wilde, Armie Hammer, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy, Cillian Murphy, ...

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Darkest Hour(2017)

2h 5min | Drama, History

3.7/5 (with 2,286 votes)

A thrilling and inspiring true story begins on the eve of World War II as, within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the threat of invasion is imminent, and with an unprepared public, a skeptical King, and his own party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to change the course of world history.

Directed by Joe Wright - With Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Stephen Dillane, Ronald Pickup, Ben Mendelsohn, ...

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Bedknobs and Broomsticks(1971)

| 1h 57min | Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Kids & Family, Music

3.5/5 (with 417 votes)

Three children evacuated from London during World War II are forced to stay with an eccentric spinster. The children's initial fears disappear when they find out she is in fact a trainee witch.

Directed by Robert Stevenson - With Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Cindy O'Callaghan, Roddy McDowall, Sam Jaffe, John Ericson, ...

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Mank(2020)

| 2h 13min | Drama, History

3.4/5 (with 685 votes)

1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.

Directed by David Fincher - With Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tuppence Middleton, Arliss Howard, Charles Dance, ...

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Tora! Tora! Tora!(1970)

| 2h 24min | Drama, History, War

3.6/5 (with 230 votes)

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words use by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.

Directed by Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda - With Joseph Cotten, Jason Robards, Martin Balsam, James Whitmore, E. G. Marshall, Keith Andes, ...

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The Time Machine(1960)

| 1h 43min | Thriller, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance / Love

3.7/5 (with 373 votes)

A Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and finds that humanity has divided into two hostile species.

Directed by George Pal - With Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot, Whit Bissell, Tom Helmore, ...

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Return to Never Land(2002)

| 1h 12min | Adventure, Fantasy, Animation, Kids & Family

3.3/5 (with 1,078 votes)

In 1940, the world is besieged by World War II. Wendy, all grown up, has two children; including Jane, who does not believe Wendy's stories about Peter Pan.

Directed by Donovan Cook, Robin Budd

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Radio Days(1987)

| 1h 30min | Comedy, Drama, Music

3.5/5 (with 233 votes)

The Narrator tells us how the radio influenced his childhood in the days before TV. In the New York City of the late 1930s to the New Year's Eve 1944, this coming-of-age tale mixes the narrator's experiences with contemporary anecdotes and urban legends of the radio stars.

Directed by Woody Allen - With Mia Farrow, Michael Tucker, Julie Kavner, Dianne Wiest, Danny Aiello, Tony Roberts, ...

A Christmas Story(1983)

| 1h 33min | Comedy, Kids & Family

3.6/5 (with 536 votes)

The comic mishaps and adventures of a young boy named Ralph, trying to convince his parents, teachers, and Santa that a Red Ryder B.B. gun really is the perfect Christmas gift for the 1940s.

Directed by Bob Clark - With Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, Zack Ward, Paul Hubbard, Bob Clark, ...

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The Exception(2017)

| 1h 47min | War, Drama

3.5/5 (with 190 votes)

A German soldier tries to determine if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to infiltrate the home of Kaiser Wilhelm in Holland during the onset of World War II, but falls for a young Jewish Dutch woman during his investigation.

Directed by David Leveaux - With Jai Courtney, Lily James, Christopher Plummer, Janet McTeer, Martin Swabey, Eddie Marsan, ...

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Timestalker(2024)

1h 36min | Comedy, Romance / Love, Fantasy

2.5/5 (with 2 votes)

A karmic journey that sees the hapless heroine Agnes reincarnated every time she makes the same mistake: falling in love with the wrong man.

Directed by Alice Lowe - With Jacob Anderson, Nick Frost, Aneurin Barnard, Tanya Reynolds, Mike Wozniak, Kate Dickie, ...

Forbidden Games(1952)

1h 27min | Drama, History

3.9/5 (with 127 votes)

Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette's deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette's stay with Michel's family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.

Directed by René Clément - With Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Philippe de Chérisey, Jacques Marin, Lucien Hubert, Laurence Badie, ...

Psycho IV: The Beginning(1990)

1h 36min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

2.8/5 (with 101 votes)

Norman Bates recalls his childhood with his abusive mother on a radio show about boys who commit matricide.

Directed by Mick Garris - With Anthony Perkins, Henry Thomas, Olivia Hussey, CCH Pounder, Warren Frost, John Landis, ...

The Cremator(1969)

1h 40min | Comedy, Horror, Drama

3.8/5 (with 84 votes)

Mr. Kopfrkingl enjoys his job at a crematorium in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. He likes reading the Tibetan book of the dead and espouses the view that cremation relieves earthly suffering and sets out to save the world. There may be another idealogy that fits snugly with his existing worldview.

Directed by Juraj Herz - With Rudolf Hrušínský, Vlasta Chramostová, Helena Anýžová, Míla Myslíková, Vladimír Menšík, Ilja Prachař, ...

Katyn(2007)

2h 2min | Drama, History, War

3.4/5 (with 121 votes)

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.

Directed by Andrzej Wajda - With Maja Ostaszewska, Danuta Stenka, Artur Żmijewski, Andrzej Chyra, Wiktoria Gąsiewska, ...

Their Finest(2017)

| 1h 57min | Romance / Love, War, Drama

3.4/5 (with 204 votes)

During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.

Directed by Lone Scherfig - With Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Jack Huston, Jake Lacy, Richard E. Grant, ...

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In Which We Serve(1942)

| 1h 55min | Drama, War

3.5/5 (with 35 votes)

The story of the HMS Torrin, from it's construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II. The ship's first and only commanding officer is Captain E.V. Kinross, who trains his men not only to be loyal to him and the country, but—most importantly—to themselves.

Directed by Noël Coward, David Lean - With John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson, Noël Coward, Michael Wilding, James Donald, ...

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Sherlock Holmes(2010)

1h 29min | Fantasy, Horror, Action, Mystery, Science Fiction

2.6/5 (with 49 votes)

Sherlock Holmes and Watson are on the trail of a criminal and scientific mastermind who seems to control monsters and creations which defy belief.

Directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg - With Dominic Keating, Gareth David-Lloyd, Richard Sanderson

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Sardar Udham(2021)

2h 44min | Crime, Drama, History

3.6/5 (with 24 votes)

A young Sardar Udham Singh left deeply scarred by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, escaped into the mountains of Afghanistan, reaching London in 1933-34. Carrying an unhealed wound for 21 years, the revolutionary assassinated Michael O’Dwyer on 13th March, 1940, the man at the helm of affairs in Punjab, April 1919 to avenge the lost lives of his beloved brethren.

Directed by Shoojit Sircar - With Vicky Kaushal, Shaun Scott, Stephen Hogan, Amol Parashar, Banita Sandhu

Battle of Britain(1969)

| 2h 12min | Action, Drama, History, War

3.4/5 (with 120 votes)

In 1940, the Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle against the might of the Luftwaffe for control of the skies over Britain, thus preventing the Nazi invasion of Britain.

Directed by Guy Hamilton - With Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, Robert Shaw, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine, Edward Fox, ...

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion(2001)

PG-13

| 1h 43min | Comedy, Crime, Romance / Love

3.3/5 (with 334 votes)

CW Briggs is a veteran insurance investigator, with many successes. Betty Ann Fitzgerald is a new employee in the company he works for, with the task of reorganizing the office. They don't like each other - or at least that's what they think. During a night out with the rest of the office employees, they go to watch Voltan, a magician who secretly hypnotizes both of them.

Directed by Woody Allen - With Dan Aykroyd, Helen Hunt, Brian Markinson, Wallace Shawn, David Ogden Stiers, Charlize Theron, ...

The Last Train(1973)

1h 35min | Drama, History

3.4/5 (with 20 votes)

Two people, a Frenchman Julien Maroyeur and a Jewish German woman (Anna Kupfer) met on a train while escaping the German army entering France.

Directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre - With Niké Arrighi, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Romy Schneider, Regina, Serge Marquand, Anne Wiazemsky, ...

Alone in Berlin(2016)

| 1h 43min | War, Thriller, Drama

3.4/5 (with 169 votes)

Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.

Directed by Vincent Perez - With Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson, Daniel Brühl, Rainer Egger, Katrin Pollitt, Lars Rudolph, ...

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YellowBrickRoad(2010)

| 1h 39min | Horror, Thriller

2.4/5 (with 72 votes)

In the Fall of 1940, the entire population of Friar, New Hampshire walked together up a winding mountain trail and into the wilderness. Without warning, they left behind everything: their homes, their clothes, and their money. The only clue where they went was a single word etched into stone near the forest’s edge: YELLOWBRICKROAD.

Directed by Andy Mitton, Jesse Holland - With Cassidy Freeman

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De Gaulle(2020)

1h 48min | History, Drama

3.1/5 (with 128 votes)

Paris, June 1940. The de Gaulle couple is confronted with the military and political collapse of France. Charles de Gaulle joins London while Yvonne, his wife, finds herself with her three children on the road of the exodus.

Directed by Gabriel Le Bomin - With Lambert Wilson, Isabelle Carré, Olivier Gourmet

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Movies Set in 1940

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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(2005)

The Pianist(2002)

Malena(2000)

The Key(1983)

Casablanca(1943)

Dunkirk(2017)

Darkest Hour(2017)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks(1971)

Mank(2020)

Tora! Tora! Tora!(1970)

The Time Machine(1960)

Return to Never Land(2002)

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Radio Days(1987)

A Christmas Story(1983)

The Exception(2017)

Timestalker(2024)

Forbidden Games(1952)

Psycho IV: The Beginning(1990)

The Cremator(1969)

Katyn(2007)

Their Finest(2017)

In Which We Serve(1942)

Sherlock Holmes(2010)

Sardar Udham(2021)

Battle of Britain(1969)

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion(2001)

The Last Train(1973)

Alone in Berlin(2016)

YellowBrickRoad(2010)

De Gaulle(2020)

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