The Naked and the Dead (1958) Based on the novel by Norman Mailer, this gritty film stars Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson, and Raymond Massey. Buy this movie!
No Man is an Island (1962) Jeffrey Hunter portrays George Tweed, the only American serviceman not captured by the Japanese on the island of Guam. Buy this movie!
The North Star (1943) Controversial pro-Soviet paean to noble peasants withstanding German invasion, also known as Armored Attack. Scripted by Lillian Hellman and featuring an all-star American cast pretending to be Russian.* Buy this movie!
Notorious (1946) Alfred Hitchcock classic starring Ingrid Bergman as a spy married to a Nazi played by Claude Rains, and Cary Grant as her contact and rather confused love interest. Buy this movie!
Objective, Burma! (1945) Once again Errol Flynn leads men on a desperate mission, this time in the Pacific. Directed by Raoul Walsh and nominated for several Oscars. Buy this movie!
*Operation Petticoat (1959) Cary Grant and Tony Curtis mug their way through this screwball comedy about a pink submarine with five women on board. Buy this movie!
Operation Secret (1952) Above-average espionage yarn about a Nazi secret weapon. Starring Cornel Wilde, Steve Cochran, Phyllis Thaxter and Karl Malden. Wilde is a mystery man, Thaxter is a phony nun, and Malden is part of the French Foreign Legion. Good B-17 footage for the air power buffs. Buy this movie!
O.S.S. (1946) Alan Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald spying behind enemy lines in wartime France. One of the trio of "now-it-can-be-told" postwar films (the others being Cloak and Dagger and 13 Rue Madeleine). Buy this movie!
Passage to Marseilles (1944) Though often compared to Casablanca because of similarities in cast and situation, the movie should be judged on its own merits as a Michael Curtiz-directed WWII propaganda film with some good acting and decent action sequences to balance out the cliched script. Buy this movie!
The Password is Courage (1962) Dirk Bogarde in the true story of a British officer trying to escape from German captivity, earning the Iron Cross in the process.
*Patton (1970) George C. Scott delivers an Oscar-winning performance in this Best Picture winner about General George S. Patton. Buy this movie!
The Pawnbroker (1945) Rod Steiger was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a Jewish survivor of a Nazi concentration camp dealing with his memories of the past and his grim present. Buy this movie!
Pride of the Marines (1945) A sort of poor-man's Best Years of Our Lives, chronicling the rehabilitation of blinded hero Al Schmid, and featuring a bravura performance by John Garfield. Screenwriter Albert Maltz would later become one of the blacklisted Hollywood 10.* Buy this movie!
PT 109 (1963) Cliff Robertson does a nice job portraying future President John F. Kennedy as the captain of a PT (Patrol Torpedo) boat operating in Japanese-controlled waters during World War II. Based on a true story, it is obviously as much legend as fact, but is an entertaining tale despite the over two hours length. Robert Culp, Norman Fell, James Gregory, Ty Hardin and Robert Blake co-star. Buy this movie!
The Purple Heart (1944) Shocking companion piece to 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, as Dana Andrews and seven other B-25 flyers endure torture during a face-saving Japanese trial after the famous Doolittle raid.* Buy this movie!
Reach For Glory (1962) A haunting and disturbing story based on John Rae's novel The Custard Boys. It tells the story of a group of London adolescents evacuated to a small town during WW II and their shocking descent into cruelty. Buy this movie!
Sahara (1943) This propaganda film turned out better than it should have, thanks to the talents of Humphrey Bogart, J. Carroll Naish, and the rest of the cast. Buy this movie!
The Sea Chase (1955) John Wayne as a German ship captain who hates the Nazis, but is trying to make it home to Germany from Australia. With Lana Turner. Buy this movie!
Sealed Cargo (1951) Dana Andrews and Claude Rains star in a classic World War II B-movie featuring German U-Boats and a mysterious Danish schooner off the coast of Nova Scotia. Buy this movie!
The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968) Paul Newman is a crackup in this comedy about the rescue of four Allied generals held prisoner by stereotypically inept Italian troops. Buy this movie!
Sink the Bismarck (1960) Exciting British chronicle of the successful hunt for the German battleship, which also inspired a popular song in the 60s. Buy this movie!
So Proudly We Hail (1943) Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake, and Paulette Godard as WWII nurses recalling their experiences in the Phillipines as they return home. Buy this movie!
Sole Survivor (1970-TV) Based on the true story of an American bomber found in the Libyan desert in 1960, it is really a wartime ghost story, and a good one, starring Vince Edwards, Richard Basehart, and William Shatner. The story was also done as a Twilight Zone episode. Buy this movie!
*South Pacific (1958) This list wouldn't be complete without a musical... and what a musical! One of Rodgers and Hammerstein's best, filled with great songs and some actual battle footage. Buy this movie!
*Stalag 17 (1953) William Holden won a Best Actor Oscar as a suspected collaborator in this great prisoner-of-war tale directed by Billy Wilder and featuring Otto Preminger as the Nazi commandant. Buy this movie!
Stand By For Action (1942) Stirring WW II naval adventure with some surprising comic elements benefits from a strong lead and supporting cast, including Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Charles Laughton, Walter Brennan, and Chill Wills. "David and Goliath" yarn was made during the War and is clearly meant as a morale builder. Buy this movie!
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) The tale of war correspondent Ernie Pyle, featuring some of the real people who were part of his life. Buy this movie!
Submarine X-1 (1968) British film features James Caan fighting the war at sea in a midget submarine. Better than it sounds from the title or the description.
Swing Shift Maisie (1943) Meanwhile, on the home front, Ann Sothern is building airplanes and falling in love with a handsome pilot. Buy this movie!
They Were Expendable (1945) John Wayne, Robert Montgomery, and Donna Reed defending the Phillipines against the Japanese invasion. Buy this movie!
They Were Not Divided (1950) Chistopher Lee stars in a film about the famed British Guards tank unit.
This Is the Army (1943) Michael Curtiz directed this musical which featured a future Senator and a future President and Irving Berlin's only movie singing performance! Buy this movie!
Three Came Home (1950) Claudette Colbert stars as a women held in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps from 1941 to the end of the War. Buy this movie!
*To Be or Not to Be (1942) Ernst Lubitsch directed Jack Benny and Carole Lombard (her last role) in this hilarious farce about a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Poland. Buy this movie!
Tobruk (1967) Rock Hudson and George Peppard lead a disparate band of commandos on a mission crucial to the Allied landing in North Africa. Buy this movie!
Too Late the Hero (1970) Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, and Henry Fonda fight the Japanese on a Pacific Island. Buy this movie!
Torpedo Run (1958) Glenn Ford is the commander of an American submarine who is sent to destroy the giant Japanese aircraft carrier that launched the Pearl Harbor attack, but his wife and child were captured and are being used as human shields. Buy this movie!
The Train (1965) Burt Lancaster and Paul Scofield in a drama about a Nazi train filled with priceless art. Buy this movie!
*Twelve O'Clock High (1949) Gregory Peck commands a bomber group in this gripping, Oscar-nominated film. Dean Jagger won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Buy this movie!
Up in Arms (1944) A Technicolor musical starring Danny Kaye as a hypochondriac who ends up in the Army during World War II, and you know he is either going to be court-martialed or given a medal. Dinah Shore and Constance Dowling co-star as a pair of nurses who fall for Danny and his unlucky roommate, played by Dana Andrews. Buy this movie!
Up Periscope (1959) Exciting yarn starrring James Garner as a Navy frogman trying to infiltrate a Japanese-held island after being brought there on a submarine commanded by Edmond O'Brien. Buy this movie!
The Victors (1963) Try and count the American and European stars in this episodic drama about the futility of war.
*Von Ryan's Express (1965) Watchable yarn starring Frank Sinatra as an American pilot who masterminds an escape from an Italian prison camp and outsmarts the Nazis, too. Buy this movie!
The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1960) Jack Lemmon is in great form in this comedy/drama about a sailing ship on a secret suicide mission. Ricky Nelson co-stars, nicely balancing Lemmon's nuttiness. Buy this movie!
Wake Island (1942) The first of the great war films upon America's entry into the war, depicting the heroic defense of the strategic Pacific stronghold. Strong performance by Brian Donlevy, Oscar nomination for William Bendix.* Buy this movie!
The War Lover (1962) Steve McQueen is great as the daredevil bomber pilot in this film version of the John Hersey novel. Buy this movie!
The Way Ahead (1944) David Niven stars in a British film about soldiers training in the early days of the War.
We Dive at Dawn (1943) Durable British actor John Mills commands a submarine on a dangerous mission to sink a German battleship. Exciting undersea action. Buy this movie!
Where Eagles Dare (1969) Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood team up in this exciting film adaptation by Alistair Maclean of his best-welling WWII novel about an attack on a German castle in the mountains. Buy this movie!
The Young Lions (1958) Marlon Brando is the German and Montgomery Clift is the American, in their only film together. Guess which one is disillusioned with the War? Buy this movie!
