The 40 most popular 1930s war movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Gone with the Wind
1939 · 3h 58m
country: United States
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.


All Quiet on the Western Front
1930 · 2h 13m
country: United States
When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.


Grand Illusion
1937 · 1h 54m
country: France
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.


Duck Soup
1933 · 1h 8m
country: United States
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.


Shanghai Express
1932 · 1h 22m
country: United States
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.


Shock Troop
1934 · 1h 58m
country: Germany
This powerful anti-war film statement focuses on the plight of a German unit in World War I that finds itself surrounded by British and French forces.
Marshal Forward
Marshal Forward
1932
country: Germany
No overview available


Militiaman Bruggler
1936 · 1h 30m
country: Germany
Chronicles the Alpine war experiences of young Toni Bruggler (Ludwig Kerscher), a Tyrolean-German member of the Standschützen (militiamen), comprised of those who are too young or old to fight in the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg army.


Gunga Din
1939 · 1h 57m
country: United States
British army sergeants Ballantine, Cutter and MacChesney serve in India during the 1880s, along with their native water-bearer, Gunga Din. While completing a dangerous telegraph-repair mission, they unearth evidence of the suppressed Thuggee cult. When Gunga Din tells the sergeants about a secret temple made of gold, the fortune-hunting Cutter is captured by the Thuggees, and it's up to his friends to rescue him.


Hell's Angels
1930 · 2h 11m
country: United States
When the Great War breaks out, brothers Roy and Monte Rutledge, each attending Oxford University, enlist with the Royal Flying Corps.


The Flying Deuces
1939 · 1h 9m
country: United States
Ollie falls in love with a woman. When he discovers she's already married, he unsuccessfully attempts suicide but he and Stan then decide to join the Foreign Legion to get away from their troubles. When they’re arrested for soon trying to desert the Legion—they escape a firing squad by stealing an aircraft.


The Four Feathers
1939 · 2h 9m
country: United Kingdom
A disgraced officer risks his life to help his childhood friends in battle.


The Plainsman
1936 · 1h 53m
country: United States
Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill go up against Indians and a gunrunner.


A Farewell to Arms
1932 · 1h 29m
country: United States
A tale of the World War I love affair, begun in Italy, between American ambulance driver Lt. Frederic Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley. Eventually separated by Frederic's transfer, tremendous challenges and difficult decisions face each as the war rages on.


Block-Heads
1938 · 57m
country: United States
It's 1938, but Stan doesn't know the war is over; he's still patrolling the trenches in France, and shoots down a French aviator. Oliver sees his old chum's picture in the paper and goes to visit Stan who has now been returned to the States and invites him back to his home.


Shadow of Pancho Villa
1933
country: Mexico
A 1933 film.


Drums Along the Mohawk
1939 · 1h 40m
country: United States
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.


Cavalcade
1933 · 1h 52m
country: United States
A cavalcade of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 is seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners Jane and Robert Marryot. Amongst events touching their family are the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, and the Great War.


Alexander Nevsky
1938 · 1h 49m
country: Soviet Union
When German knights invade Russia, Prince Alexander Nevsky must rally his people to resist the formidable force. After the Teutonic soldiers take over an eastern Russian city, Alexander stages his stand at Novgorod, where a major battle is fought on the ice of frozen Lake Chudskoe. While Alexander leads his outnumbered troops, two of their number, Vasili and Gavrilo, begin a contest of bravery to win the hand of a local maiden.


Napoléon Bonaparte
1935 · 2h 20m
country: Unknown
A second version of Gance's Napoléon, with sound.


Dishonored
1931 · 1h 31m
country: United States
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.


Waterloo Bridge
1931 · 1h 21m
country: United States
In World War I London, Myra is an American out-of-work chorus girl making ends meet by picking up men on Waterloo Bridge. During a Zeppelin air raid she meets Roy, a naive young American who enlisted in the Canadian army. After they fall for each other, Roy tricks Myra into visiting his family, who live in a country estate outside London, his mother having remarried to a retired British Major. Myra is reluctant to continue the relationship with Roy, he not aware of her past.


The Eagle and the Hawk
1933 · 1h 13m
country: United States
The pilots of a Royal Air Force squadron in World War I face not only physical but mental dangers in their struggle to survive while fighting the enemy.


British Agent
1934 · 1h 20m
country: United States
In the days leading up to the Russian Revolution, Stephen Locke, a minor British diplomat in St Petersburg, falls in love with a Russian spy.


The Drum
1938 · 1h 44m
country: United Kingdom
Set in the India of the British Raj, the evil and untrustworthy Prince Guhl (Raymond Massey) plans to wipe out the British troops as they enjoy the hospitality of Guhl's spacious palace. It's up to the loyal young Prince Azim (Sabu) to warn the troops of Guhl's treachery by tapping out a message on his drum.


The Lost Patrol
1934 · 1h 13m
country: United States
A World War I British Army patrol is crossing the Mesopotamian desert when their commanding officer, the only one who knows their destination, is killed by the bullet of unseen bandits. The patrol's sergeant keeps them heading north on the assumption that they will hit their brigade. They stop for the night at an oasis and awaken the next morning to find their horses stolen, their sentry dead, the oasis surrounded and survival difficult.


The Real Glory
1939 · 1h 37m
country: United States
Fort Mysang, southern Philippine Islands, under US rule, 1906. A small group of army officers and native troops resist the fierce and treacherous attacks of the ruthless Alisang and his fanatical followers.


Beau Geste
1939 · 1h 52m
country: United States
Brothers Beau, John and Digby Geste join the Foreign Legion, where they fall under the rule of tyrannical Sergeant Markoff. Beau and John are assigned to Fort Zinderneuf, where Markoff tries to break their spirit, aware of a dark family secret concerning a fabulous jewel one of them carries. As tensions rise, Arabs attack the fort and rivalries must be thrown aside in a desperate battle for life.


Westfront 1918
1930 · 1h 37m
country: Germany
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.


Chapayev
1934 · 1h 33m
country: Soviet Union
An account of the peasant turned mythical military hero Vasily Chapayev, charting his campaign in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War.


Ever in My Heart
1933 · 1h 8m
country: United States
World War I brings tribulations to an American woman married to a German.


Confessions of a Nazi Spy
1939 · 1h 44m
country: United States
FBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-War espionage activities of the German-American Bund.


The Last of the Mohicans
1936 · 1h 31m
country: United States
The story is set in the British province of New York during the French and Indian War, and concerns—in part—a Huron massacre (with passive French acquiescence) of between 500 to 1,500 Anglo-American troops, who had honorably surrendered at Fort William Henry, plus some women and servants; the kidnapping of two sisters, daughters of the British commander; and their rescue by the last Mohicans.


They Gave Him a Gun
1937 · 1h 34m
country: United States
With no other prospects, a World War I veteran puts the skills they taught him in the War to use.


Pack Up Your Troubles
1932 · 1h 8m
country: United States
The story begins in 1917 with Stan and Ollie being drafted into the U.S. Army to fight in World War I. While in the Army, the pair befriend a man named Eddie Smith, who is killed by the enemy during a battle. After the war is over, Stan and Ollie venture to New York City, where they begin a quest to reunite Eddie's little daughter with her rightful family. The task proves both monumental and problematic as the boys discover just how many people in New York have the last name Smith.


Dirigible
1931 · 1h 40m
country: United States
Dirigible commander Jack Braden and Navy pilot 'Frisky' Pierce fight over the glory associated with a successful expedition to the South Pole and the love of beautiful Helen, Frisky's wife. After Braden's dirigible expedition fails, Frisky tries an expedition by plane. Unfortunately he crashes and strands his party at the South Pole. Braden must decide between a risky rescue attempt by dirigible and remaining safely at home with Helen.


Sable Cicada
1938 · 1h 30m
country: Hong Kong
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.


Another Dawn
1937 · 1h 13m
country: United States
Colonel John Wister, on duty with the British army in the desert region of Dubik, returns to England on leave. There he falls in love with Julia Ashton, who cares deeply for him but believes herself incapable of love following the death of her fiancé; some time before. Wister convinces her that he loves her enough to live without her romantic love and that she should marry him. She does so and returns to Dubik with him. There she meets his adjutant, Captain Denny Roark. Roark is a dashing young man who reminds Julia thoroughly of her lost love. Soon she finds she is indeed capable of love, but it is Roark with whom she falls in love, not her husband. As warfare with the local tribes heats up and as Wister gains awareness of the unconsummated romance growing between his wife and best friend, tragedy lurks.


Struggling
1932 · 1h 25m
country: China
A Chinese couple in the 1930s struggle to survive. Things get complicated for them when he enlists to fight the war against Japan.


The Charge of the Light Brigade
1936 · 1h 51m
country: United States
In 1853, as the British and Russian empires compete to gain and maintain their place in the dreadful Great Game of political intrigues and alliances whose greatest prize is the domination of India and the border territories, Major Geoffrey Vickers must endure several betrayals and misfortunes before he can achieve his revenge at the Balaclava Heights, on October 25, 1854, the most glorious day of the Crimean War.
The 1930s were the studio system at full power, with sound now fully integrated and the Production Code arriving mid-decade to sharply narrow what films could depict. It's the decade of the Universal monster cycle, screwball comedy, and the first Technicolor spectacles.
War films range from combat spectacle to anti-war argument, and often try to be both at once. The genre is a reliable index of how a country understands its own history.