1930s War Drama Movies

64 movies found (page 1/3):

Grand Illusion(1937)

FSK: 12+ years

3.9/5 (with 283 votes)

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

Directed by Jean Renoir - With Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Erich von Stroheim, Pierre Fresnay, Marcel Dalio, Gaston Modot, ...

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Drums Along the Mohawk(1939)

FSK: 12+ years

| 1h 40min | Drama, History, War

3.3/5 (with 43 votes)

Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in the Mohawk River Valley, but soon their growing prosperity and happiness are threatened by the sinister sound of drums that announce dark times of revolution and war.

Directed by John Ford - With Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, John Carradine, Ward Bond, Eddie Collins, ...

Hell's Angels(1930)

2h 11min | Drama, War, Action

3.3/5 (with 36 votes)

When World War I breaks out, brothers Roy and Monte Rutledge, each attending Oxford university, enlist with the Royal Flying Corps.

Directed by Howard Hughes, James Whale, Edmund Goulding - With Jean Harlow, Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jane Winton, Wyndham Standing, Stephen Carr, ...

Westfront 1918(1930)

FSK: 16+ years

| 1h 37min | War

3.4/5 (with 18 votes)

A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.

Directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst - With Fritz Kampers, Gustav Diessl, Hans Joachim Moebis, Claus Clausen, Gustav Püttjer, Carl Balhaus, ...

Wooden Crosses(1932)

1h 50min | Drama, War

3.6/5 (with 18 votes)

The young and patriotic student Demachy joins the French army in 1914 to defend his country. But he and his comrades soon experience the terrifying, endless trench war in Champagne, where more and more wooden crosses have to be erected for this cannon fodder.

Directed by Raymond Bernard - With Antonin Artaud, Charles Vanel, Christian-Jaque, Gabriel Gabrio, Géo Laby, Jean Galland, ...

The Dawn Patrol(1938)

1h 43min | Action, Drama, War

3.4/5 (with 16 votes)

In 1915 France, Major Brand commands the 39th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps. The young airmen go up in bullet-riddled "crates" and the casualty rate is appalling, but Brand can't make the "brass hats" at headquarters see reason. Insubordinate air ace Captain Courtney is another thorn in Brand's side...but finds the smile wiped from his face when he rises to command the squadron himself. Everyone keeps a stiff upper lip.

Directed by Edmund Goulding - With Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Barry Fitzgerald, Carl Esmond, Donald Crisp, ...

Peace on Earth(1939)

9min | Animation, War

3.6/5 (with 22 votes)

Two baby squirrels ask grandpa to explain what "men" are when he comes in singing "peace on earth, goodwill to men". Grandpa tells the story of man's last war. This classic animation short was an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee.

Directed by Hugh Harman

Luciano Serra, Pilot(1938)

1h 42min | War, Drama

2.5/5 (with 5 votes)

Successful WWI pilot Luciano Serra has problems adjusting to an ordinary life in peace, so he leaves his family and becomes a pilot in America. In the 30s, his son in Italy wants also to become a pilot, and Luciano accepts an offer of a double dealing agent for a flight from Rio to Rome, but his plane crashes in the Atlantic. For the world Luciano Serra is missing, but he has entered the Italian army under a new name to fight in Ethiopia. The train in which his unit travels is attacked by Ethiopian soldiers, his son flying a reconasaince mission is shot down and wounded by the same attacking enemies. Will Luciano be able to fly the plane back, to get close air support for the outnumbered Italian troups?

Directed by Goffredo Alessandrini - With Amedeo Nazzari, Germana Paolieri, Roberto Villa, Mario Ferrari, Guglielmo Sinaz, Andrea Checchi, ...

Chapayev(1934)

1h 33min | Drama, History, War

3.3/5 (with 10 votes)

This film is based on the book about Vasili Ivanovich Chapaev (1887 - 1919) who was in real life the Commander of the 25th Division of the Red Army. Chapaev is an uneducated peasant and a decorated hero in the World War I and later in the Russian Civil War, that followed the Russian revolution. This man of action is fighting on the side of the poor people. His troops consist of peasants, just like him. Unable to write, he can brilliantly demonstrate various battle tactics by moving potatoes on the table. He is street smart. He never lost a battle against the experienced Generals of the Tzar's Army.

Directed by Georgi Vasilyev, Sergei Vasilyev - With Boris Babochkin, Georgiy Zhzhonov, Boris Blinov, Varvara Myasnikova, Leonid Kmit, Illarion Pevtsov, ...

Blockade(1938)

1h 25min | War, Drama

2.8/5 (with 4 votes)

A simple peasant is forced to take up arms to defend his farm during the Spanish Civil War. Along the way he falls in love with a Russian girl whose father is involved in espionage.

Directed by William Dieterle - With Madeleine Carroll, Henry Fonda, Leo Carrillo, John Halliday, Vladimir Sokoloff, Robert Warwick, ...

Outskirts(1933)

1h 39min | Drama, War

3.3/5 (with 11 votes)

Outskirts is an internationally renowned masterpiece of early sound cinema. In a remote Russian village during World War I, colorful and nuanced characters experience divided loyalties: family loyalty vs. personal desire, nationalism vs. transcendent humanism.

Directed by Boris Barnet - With Yelena Alexandrovna Kuzmina, Nikolai Bogolyubov, Nikolai Kryuchkov, Sergei Komarov, Mikhail Zharov, Nikolay Bogolyubov, ...

If War Comes Tomorrow(1938)

1h 2min | Drama, Documentary, War

The propaganda documentary about the readiness of the Red Army to repulse any enemy is based on documentary shots taken during the real maneuvers of the Red Army. Armadas of tanks, immense columns of infantry, dozens of fighters and bombers, thousands of cavalry, legendary divisions of the Civil War. The film glorifies Soviet military power and shows the Soviet people what the war will be like when the imperialists attack the USSR — quick, victorious, almost bloodless.

Directed by Efim Dzigan, Lazar Antsi-Polovsky, Georgy Beryozko - With Vsevolod Sanayev, Inna Fyodorova

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Nurse Edith Cavell(1939)

1h 37min | Drama, War

3.2/5 (with 5 votes)

British nurse Edith Cavell is stationed at a hospital in Brussels during World War I. When the son of a former patient escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp, she helps him flee to Holland. Outraged at the number of soldiers detained in the camps, Edith, along with a group of sympathizers, devises a plan to help the prisoners escape. As the group works to free the soldiers, Edith must keep her activities secret from the Germans.

Directed by Herbert Wilcox - With Anna Neagle, Bert Roach, Edna May Oliver, Frank Reicher, Fritz Leiber, George Sanders, ...

Flight Into Darkness(1935)

1h 51min | Drama

3.4/5 (with 2 votes)

During the First World War, before joining a squadron at the front in 1918, Herbillon (Jean-Pierre Aumont) has a liaison with Helene (Annabella), a married woman. The young man discovers that his mistress is none other than the wife of Maury (Charles Vanel), an aviator friend.

Directed by Anatole Litvak - With Alexandre Rignault, Annabella, Charles Camus, Charles Vanel, Daniel Mendaille, Eugène Stuber, ...

Dawn(1933)

1h 25min | War, Drama

2.4/5 (with 4 votes)

Released three days after Adolf Hitler became Reichskanzler, it was the first film to have its screening in Nazi Germany. It became a symbol of the new times touted by the Nazi regime. The title (literally "morning-red") is the German term for the reddish coloring of the east sky about a half hour before the sunrise. On patrol Captain Liers and his submarine crew sink an important British ship, but while returning to harbour, they're lured into a trap by a British vessel disguised as a neutral Danish one. They sink it after it attacks them without warning, but while they prepare to rescue survivors, a British destroyer sinks the sub. On the sea bed 60 feet down, with all but the bridge flooded, the 10 surviving crew have only 8 rescue devices. Liers orders the crew to use them, but they disobey - either all escape or nobody does.

Directed by Vernon Sewell, Gustav Ucicky - With Rudolf Forster, Fritz Genschow, Paul Westermeier, Camilla Spira, Gerhard Bienert, Friedrich Gnaß, ...

Idiot's Delight(1939)

1h 47min | Comedy, Drama

2.9/5 (with 4 votes)

A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.

Directed by Clarence Brown - With Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Edward Arnold, Charles Coburn, Joseph Schildkraut, Burgess Meredith, ...

Beloved Enemy(1936)

1h 30min | Drama, Romance / Love

2.8/5 (with 2 votes)

In 1921, British Lord Athleigh arrives in Dublin with his daughter, Helen, to engage in peace talks. As wanted Irish rebel leader Dennis Riordan is not recognized in public, he is able to move about freely and saves the Athleighs from an assassination attempt by a radical faction. Dennis and Helen meet again and, unaware of his position, Helen falls in love with him. Later when Dennis admits his identity, Helen must make a fateful decision.

Directed by H. C. Potter - With Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, David Niven, Henry Stephenson, Karen Morley, Jerome Cowan, ...

Men Without Women(1930)

1h 17min | Drama, Action

3.4/5 (with 3 votes)

Made during the early days of sound cinema, this tense submarine adventure is an intriguing example of a hybrid silent-talkie. A disgraced English sub commander changes his name to Burke and joins the American Navy. When the U.S. submarine on which he is serving as a torpedo launcher begins to sink, Burke must make the ultimate sacrifice to save as many crew men as possible..

Directed by John Ford - With Frank Albertson, J. Farrell MacDonald, Warren Hymer, Walter McGrail, Stuart Erwin, John Wayne, ...

The Road to Glory(1936)

1h 43min | Drama, War

3.2/5 (with 2 votes)

- No description / details available yet. -

Directed by Howard Hawks - With Fredric March, Warner Baxter, Lionel Barrymore, June Lang, Gregory Ratoff, Jean De Briac, ...

Shanghai Madness(1933)

1h 8min | Drama, Adventure

In the 1920s Pat Jackson destroys a Chinese post and is discharged from the Navy. Li Po Chang hires him to run a gunboat up the river. He drops Wildeth off at a mission for safety, but when his boat returns the mission is being attacked by communists.

Directed by John G. Blystone

Hearts in Bondage(1936)

1h 12min | Drama, History

2.3/5 (with 3 votes)

Best friends Kenneth Reynolds and Raymond Jordan are U.S. Navy officers, and Kenneth is engaged to Raymond's sister. But the eruption of the Civil War divides them, as Raymond stands by his native Virginia while Kenneth remains on duty as a Northern officer. Kenneth's uncle, John Ericsson, designs a new kind of ship, an ironclad he calls the Monitor. Eventually the war pits Kenneth, on board the Monitor, against his friend Raymond, serving aboard the South's own ironclad, the Merrimac (as it is called here). A naval battle ensues, one that will go down in history.

Directed by Lew Ayres - With James Dunn, Mae Clarke, David Manners, Henry B. Walthall, Fritz Leiber, George Irving, ...

Who Goes Next?(1938)

1h 25min | War

2.8/5 (with 1 vote)

During the First World War, a number of captured British officers attempt to escape a prisoner-of-war camp.

Directed by Maurice Elvey - With Barry K. Barnes

The Last Train from Madrid(1937)

1h 18min | Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance / Love, War

2.7/5 (with 3 votes)

The story of seven people: their lives and love affairs in Madrid during the Civil War.

Directed by James P. Hogan - With Alan Ladd, Anthony Quinn, Charles Middleton, Dorothy Lamour, Evelyn Brent, Gilbert Roland, ...

Sable Cicada(1938)

1h 30min | Drama, Romance / Love, War

Diaochan (aka Diau Charn and Sable Cicada), one of the Four Beauties of China, is supposed to be so stunningly lovely that the moon was shamed to hide behind clouds. Despite being the only Beauty among the four who is not a real historical figure but one conjured by storytelling imagination and embellished by public fascination, her story was nonetheless incorporated by author Luo Guangzhong into his popular and influential novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Her tale is one of Machiavellian intrigue, in which she schemes with her godfather Wang Yun to restore moral order to the land, sowing discord between the corrupt Minister Dong Zhuo and his adopted son Lu Bu, a man of martial and military prowess.

Directed by Bu Wancang

A Man from Wyoming(1930)

1h 10min | War, Romance / Love

4.5/5 (with 1 vote)

A story about a man from Wyoming who enlists in the Army and is sent to the front during World War I. There he saves the life of an American society girl working in the Ambulance Corps. Afterwards at a rest camp, they meet again, fall in love, and are secretly married.

Directed by Rowland V. Lee - With Gary Cooper, June Collyer, Regis Toomey, Morgan Farley, Frances Dee, William B. Davidson, ...

El Cementerio De Las Aguilas(1938)

1h 34min

2.8/5 (with 2 votes)

Historical drama, French occupation of the 1830s.

Directed by Luis Lezama - With Jorge Negrete, Margarita Mora, Manolo Fábregas, Crox Alvarado, Rafael Baledón, Manuel Dondé, ...

Amalia(1936)

1h 44min | Drama, Romance / Love, History

The romance between Amalia Sáenz de Olabarrieta –a widow living in Buenos Aires– and the young Unitarian Eduardo Belgrano. Based on the novel by José Mármol.

Directed by Luis Moglia Barth - With Floren Delbene, Miguel Gómez Bao, Ernesto Raquén, José Ruzzo, Herminia Franco, Herminia Mancini, ...

British Agent(1934)

1h 20min | Romance / Love, Drama, History, War

2.8/5 (with 5 votes)

An Englishman falls in love with a Russian spy.

Directed by Michael Curtiz - With Leslie Howard, Kay Francis, William Gargan, Cesar Romero, Irving Pichel, Phillip Reed, ...

The Girlfriends(1936)

1h 33min | War, Drama

2.5/5 (with 1 vote)

Girlfriends Zoya, Natasha and Asya live in Petrograd. Before the Civil War, young heroines are aware of the social injustice of life. When the war begins, the girls are recorded by the orderlies of the working group to protect the Bolshevik Petrograd from the advance of the whites.

Directed by Lev Arnshtam - With Zoya Fyodorova, Yanina Zhejmo, Boris Chirkov, Stepan Kayukov, Stepan Krylov

Hell Below(1933)

1h 41min | Romance / Love, Drama, War

3.4/5 (with 5 votes)

On leave in Italy, Lt. Tommy Knowlton falls in love with Jean Standish, who's not only married, but is the daughter of his submarine's commander. Friction between the two officers becomes intolerable once at sea and after Commander Toler is forced to abandon Tommy's best friend topside while the sub dives to escape enemy planes, Tommy is no longer able to contain his anger.

Directed by Jack Conway - With Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Madge Evans, Charles Sullivan, Henry Kolker, Frank Marlowe, ...