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 · US
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 · US
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.


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


Fridericus
1937 · 1h 38m · DE
In 18th century Europe, King Friedrich II of Prussia leads his army through the seven-years-war with neighboring states, and after numerous near defeats, eventually brings a victorious army back to Berlin.


Napoléon Bonaparte
1935 · 2h 20m
A re-edited version of Napoléon (1927), with added sound effects, post-dubbed dialogue, and new scenes with new cast members.


The Mayor's Dilemma
1939 · 1h 45m · FR
At the beginning of World War I in a village in the country of La Marne, two families are against the marriage of their children. The war changes the positions.


Tannenberg
1932 · DE
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I August 1914, Eastern Front. The Russian surprise attack on the northeasternmost part of the country causes serious problems for the German defenders.


British Agent
1934 · 1h 20m · US
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.


Wooden Crosses
1932 · 1h 50m · FR
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.


Grand Illusion
1937 · 1h 54m · FR
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 · US
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.


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


Block-Heads
1938 · 57m · US
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.
Marshal Forward
Marshal Forward
1932 · DE
No overview available


Texas Buddies
1932 · 59m · US
Kincade and Blake cause a mail plane carrying a payroll to make a forced landing in the desert. When they try to get the money, prospectors Ted and Si drive them away. With the pilot shot, Ted takes over as pilot figuring another attempt will be made and this time the Sheriff will be there.


Four Flights to Love
1939 · 1h 31m · FR
In pre-World Ward I in Paris, a budding artist, Pierre LeBlanc, falls in love and marries Janine, a dressmaker's assistant. Pierre has a flair for designing clothes, and he and his bride live in a blissful paradise, until the war breaks out and he becomes a soldier. Janine dies in childbirth and, no longer desiring to live, Pierre volunteers for a dangerous patrol behind German lines. While recuperating in the hospital from a wound he received on the mission, Pierre spends his time drawing sketches of dresses. He becomes rich and famous after the war. Years later, after devoting himself to his daughter, Pierre seeks a marriage with a girl no older than his daughter. A conflict develops and to ensure his daughter's happiness, Pierre sacrifices his own plans.


Drums Along the Mohawk
1939 · 1h 40m · US
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.


Another Dawn
1937 · 1h 13m · US
While on leave, British officer Col. John Wister meets Julia Ashton, a widow who steals his heart despite her overwhelming grief. Enamored, Wister begs her to be his bride, assuring her she will someday learn to love again. After she agrees and they've wed, she accompanies him to a hostile desert region. As predicted, she does find love. However, it is not for her husband but for the handsome Capt. Denny Roark.


Hell Below
1933 · 1h 41m · US
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.


Port Arthur
1936 · 1h 23m · FR
French-language version of Port Arthur (1936), a German language film (q.v.) co-produced by German, French and Czechoslovakian film interests. About espionage, action and romance in the Russo-Japanese War, as the conflict threatens Russian naval officer Boris Ranewsky and his Japanese wife Youki.


A Farewell to Arms
1932 · 1h 29m · US
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.


Refugees
1933 · 1h 27m · DE
Propaganda film detailing the plight of ethnic Germans, known as "Volga Germans", in the Soviet province of Manchuria.


The Treasure of Pancho Villa
1935 · 1h 4m · MX
The last soldier alive with the knowledge of where Pancho Villa's treasure is buried, tries to get it back.


Moscow Nights
1934 · 1h 35m
During the First World War, the Russian officer Captain Ivan Ignatoff falls in love with his nurse, Natasha Kovrin. But she is subject to an upcoming marriage of family convenience to Brioukow, a wealthy industrialist of peasant stock. Brioukow is unjustifiably jealous, since Natasha has not betrayed him. He forces Ignatoff into his debt as a means of humiliating him. When Ignatoff's new friend, Madame Sabline, offers to pay his debt, preventing his ruin, Ignatoff comes quickly to realize that Madame Sabline has an ulterior motive, one that could prove dangerous to more lives than just Ignatoff's.


White Slaves
1937 · 1h 51m · DE
Amid the Russian Revolution of 1917, a mutiny aboard the battleship Sevastopol helps revolutionary forces seize control of the port city. Maria, the daughter of the deposed governor, struggles to protect her family and reunite with her lover while a ruthless former servant, now a revolutionary commissar, pursues her. A dramatic blend of romance, naval action, and revolutionary violence, this 1937 Nazi propaganda film presents the upheaval through an intensely anti-communist perspective.


Shadow of Pancho Villa
1933 · MX
A 1933 film.


Dirigible
1931 · 1h 40m · US
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.


Port Arthur
1936 · 1h 21m
Espionage, war and romance in the Far East in 1904: Russian naval officer Boris Ranewsky marries Youki, the sister of a fanatical Japanese officer, but war is imminent.


Furlough on Parole
1938 · 1h 27m · DE
In 1918, a German regiment is granted five-hours leave in Berlin.


Black Shirt
1933 · 1h 33m · IT
An Italian blacksmith who emigrated is wounded during the war on the French front, losing his memory. Hospitalized in a German hospital, he recovers it three years later and returns home from Tunisia, happy for the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes and the inauguration of the city of Littoria.


Blood on Wolf Mountain
1936 · 1h 10m · CN
Blood on Wolf Mountain tells the story of a village that is beset by a pack of wolves. Made just prior to the commencement of full-scale war with the Japanese, the film itself is often considered an allegory of conflict between China and Japan.


The Charge of the Light Brigade
1936 · 1h 51m · US
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 Last of the Mohicans
1936 · 1h 31m · US
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.


Die Reiter von Deutsch-Ostafrika
1934 · 1h 29m · DE
German colonial soldiers fight against the British during World War I.


The Big Road
1935 · 1h 44m · CN
Six young men from the city take jobs building roads for the Chinese Army


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


The Lost Patrol
1934 · 1h 13m · US
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.


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


Alexander Nevsky
1938 · 1h 49m · SU
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.


Hell's Angels
1930 · 2h 11m · US
As the Great War breaks out in Europe, English brothers Roy and Monte enlist in the Royal Flying Corps to fight for king and country, while their Oxford College friend Karl is ordered back to Germany. As a love triangle develops involving Monte, Roy, and Roy's girlfriend, Helen, the brothers' disparate personalities, and Monte's cowardice in the face of war soon threaten to compromise a top-secret bombing mission over German territory.
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.