The 40 most popular 1940s adventure movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Spy Smasher
1942 · 3h 35m · US
Prior to the United States' involvement in World War II, the masked vigilante Spy Smasher fights Nazi agents operating within the US, led by the treacherous sabotage leader codenamed The Mask.


The Hawk
1940 · 1h 29m · MX
A 1940 film directed by Ramón Pereda.


Jungle Goddess
1948 · 1h 2m · US
When a plane carrying the daughter of a millionaire crashes in an African jungle, two pilots set out to collect the reward. They discover that she has become the goddess of a primitive tribe. An insurgent witch doctor and fierce wild animals make escape from the jungle difficult for the trio.


The Pirate
1948 · 1h 42m · US
A girl is engaged to the local richman, but meanwhile she has dreams about the legendary pirate Macoco. A traveling singer falls in love with her and to impress her he poses as the pirate.


Unconquered
1947 · 2h 27m · US
England, 1763. After being convicted of a crime, the young and beautiful Abigail Hale agrees, to escape the gallows, to serve fourteen years as a slave in the colony of Virginia, whose inhabitants begin to hear and fear the sinister song of the threatening drums of war that resound in the wild Ohio valley.


Der Bagnosträfling
1949 · DE
No overview available


The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1948 · 2h 6m · US
Two jobless Americans convince a prospector to travel to the mountains of Mexico with them in search of gold. But the hostile wilderness, local bandits, and greed all get in the way of their journey.


Boom Town
1940 · 1h 59m · US
Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a twenty year period both love the same woman. McMasters and Sand come to oil towns to get rich. Betsy comes West intending to marry Sand but marries McMasters instead. Getting rich and losing it all teaches McMasters and Sand the value of personal ties.


Radio Ranch
1940 · 1h 10m · US
Re-edited feature version of serial The Phantom Empire (1935). Singer Gene Autry discovers a race of advanced humans living beneath the earth.


Jungle Man
1941 · 1h 3m · US
An expedition sets out to darkest Africa to find the fabled City of the Dead, and must battle thick jungle, hostile natives, wild animals and a deadly epidemic.


Devil Ship
1947 · 1h 2m · US
Captain Biff Brown owns a boat used to ferry prisoners from the mainland to Alcatraz. The police find some escape tools on his boat and, although Brown isn't involved, his contract is terminated and he goes back to tuna fishing. Brown takes his friend Sanderson to his boarding house and introduces him to his sweetheart Madge Harris and Sanderson also falls in love with her. A gang headed by Red Mason and trying to escape the country bribe Brown's engineer, Venatti, and are hiding on the boat the next time Brown and Sanderson take it out. They take over the boat but a storm is approaching...


Nazty Nuisance
1943 · 43m · US
Germany's Adolf Hitler, with his Axis-stooges, Italy's Mussolini and Japan's Suki Yama, although he tried to avoid taking them, is on his way, via submarine, to a tropical country to negotiate a treaty with the High Chief Paj Mab. However, an American P.T-boat crew is already there and have some plans for schickenbit-grubber and his buddies.


Fun and Fancy Free
1947 · 1h 13m · US
Jiminy Cricket hosts two Disney animated shorts: Bongo about a circus bear escaping to the wild, and Mickey and the Beanstalk, a take on the famous fairy tale.


Boys' Ranch
1946 · 1h 37m · US
A juvenile delinquent is sent to a rehabilitation ranch, but he immediately proves to be a troublemaker.


Canal Zone
1942 · 1h 19m · US
A cocky pilot at a Panama Canal bomber station clashes with his trainer over recklessness and a woman. After causing a fatal crash while hungover, he seeks redemption when his rivals crash in the jungle.


The Thief of Bagdad
1940 · 1h 47m · UK
When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess.


Adventures of Don Juan
1948 · 1h 46m · US
Spanish Lothario Don Juan, the legendary lover and adventurer returns to Spain following a scandal and comes to the aid of his queen, who is under threat from sinister forces.


Ladies Courageous
1944 · 1h 28m · US
Loretta Young stars in this drama about female pilots during WWII.


War Dogs
1942 · 1h 4m · US
A young boy donates his pet, a police dog, to the army to be trained as a war dog.


Riff-Raff
1947 · 1h 20m · US
A private detective foils the plans of villains attempting to take over Panamanian oil fields while he searches for a valuable map hidden in plain sight.


Manon
1949 · 1h 41m · FR
Port of Marseille, France, recently liberated from the German yoke. Caught as stowaways aboard a ship, Manon, a young woman who was accused of collaborating with the Nazis, and Robert, a freedom fighter who saved her from reprisals, tell the captain about the many challenges they have had to face in order to survive.


Saludos Amigos
1942 · 42m · US
A whimsical blend of live action and animation, "Saludos Amigos" is a colorful kaleidoscope of art, adventure and music set to a toe-tapping samba beat. From high Andes peaks and Argentina's pampas to the sights and sounds of Rio de Janeiro, your international traveling companions are none other than those famous funny friends, Donald Duck and Goofy. They keep things lively as Donald encounters a stubborn llama and "El Gaucho" Goofy tries on the cowboy way of life....South American-style.


Monsieur Hector
1940 · 1h 25m · FR
In a palace in Nice, a modest valet is confused with his master, a viscount chased by a man-eater.


Red River
1948 · 2h 13m · US
Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting journey, his persistence becomes tyrannical in the eyes of Matthew Garth, his adopted son and protégé.


Texas Renegades
1940 · 59m · US
Marshal Tim Smith is sent to Rawhide to battle rustlers. When the outlaw gang attempts to kill the new Marshal, they get the wrong man. Tim puts his identification on the dead man and poses as a known outlaw. This gets him into the gang where he is given the job of posing as the new Marshal.


Mighty Joe Young
1949 · 1h 34m · US
A young woman, Jill Young, grew up on her father's ranch in Africa, raising a large gorilla named Joe from an infant. Years later, she brings him to Hollywood to become a star.


Strange Journey
1946 · 1h 5m · US
Reformed racketeer "Lucky" Leeds flees from the police when he thinks they are about to arrest him for a murder he didn't commit. He and his wife Patti fly to his privately-owned remote island and have to crash land. Also on the island is a group of shipwrecked people, including a German professor, his daughter, an English journalist, a wealthy widow, a sailor and a Nazi Agent.


Sinbad the Sailor
1947 · 1h 56m · US
Daredevil sailor Sinbad embarks on a voyage across the Seven Seas to find the lost riches of Alexander the Great. His first stop is the port of Basra, where his ship is seized and scheduled for auction. In his attempt to win it back, he befriends beautiful concubine Shireen. But when her master, the nefarious Emir, calls her back to duty, Sinbad must interrupt his adventure to save the "Jewel of Persia."


Bambú
1945 · 1h 38m · ES
Alejandro is a young composer from Madrid who, overwhelmed by a sentimental and artistic failure, decides to enlist as a volunteer soldier and go to war-torn Cuba, where he befriends Antonio, who becomes his best friend.


Sullivan's Travels
1941 · 1h 31m · US
Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.


The Black Swan
1942 · 1h 27m · US
When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former partners in ridding the Caribbean of buccaneers. When one of them apparently abducts the previous governor's pretty daughter and joins up with the rebels, things are set for a fight.


Las inquietudes de Shanti-Andía
1947 · 1h 36m · ES
Shanti Andía, a veteran sailor, puts together the fragments of a personal diary that he has written through years of tribulations: his childhood in the Basque Country, his youth in the lands of Cádiz, and his many adventures and misadventures as a ship captain.


Sideral Cruises
1942 · 1h 28m · FR
Robert and Françoise Monier make a hot air balloon to fly to the stratosphere. After a visit to Venus, they return home, but have only aged 15 days whereas 25 years have passed on Earth.


The Three Musketeers
1948 · 2h 5m · US
In 17th century France, young D'Artagnan wants to join the King's Musketeers, but instead befriends three legendary musketeers—Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—and together, they become embroiled in the political intrigue surrounding King Louis XIII and his adversaries, particularly the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.


The Mark of Zorro
1940 · 1h 34m · US
Returning from Spain, the son of a California nobleman comes home to find his native land under a villainous dictatorship. On one hand, he plays the useless fop, while on the other, he is the masked avenger Zorro.


Los Tres Mosqueteros
1946 · 1h 30m · AR
An attempt to bring the famous novel by Dumas to the cinema, where the promenades of Montevideo such as Parque Rivera and the Castillo del Parque Rodó are transformed into French settings.


For Whom the Bell Tolls
1943 · 2h 50m · US
Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan—who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era—has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a crucial bridge in order to halt the enemy's progress.


La monja alférez
1944 · 1h 28m · MX
A 17th century woman, imprisoned for fighting in a bar, recounts her past to a priest. She tells of her father teaching her how to fence, of being sent to a convent by her aunt when her father died, of escaping by dressing as a man, and of her life as a man following the escape.


Slave Girl
1947 · 1h 20m · US
Tongue-in-cheek adventure tale of an American attempting to free sailors held as hostages and becoming involved in middle-East tribal wars.


To Have and Have Not
1945 · 1h 40m · US
A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.
1940s cinema is split by the war: propaganda and home-front melodrama, then the darker, more cynical film noir that followed. Italian neorealism emerged from the rubble at the decade's end.
Adventure films are built on journey and discovery: lost worlds, long voyages, and heroes far from home. The genre overlaps heavily with fantasy and action, but its engine is always forward motion into unfamiliar territory.