#16. Arise, My Love (1940)

Storyline: In 1939, American Tom Martin, who fought in the Spanish Civil War, awaits execution at the hands of the Fascist victors when reporter Augusta 'Gusto' Nash, for a scoop, aids him in an audacious escape. Of course, Tom tries to romance Gusto; but though she likes him, her career comes first, and Tom himself prefers freedom-fighting to settling down. Comedy becomes drama as their mixed feelings lead them on a circuitous path through the deepening chaos and catastrophe of the early days of World War II.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: pilot, journalist, editor, priest, love interest, lighthearted, witty ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#18. Virginia City (1940)

Storyline: During the American Civil War, Captain Kerry Bradford escapes from a notorious confederate prison. He and two of his men are sent to Virginia City where Confederate sympathizers are prepared to donate $5 million dollars to the cause of Southern independence. The war is going badly for the Confederacy and money may tip the war in their favor. On the stagecoach to Virginia City, Bradford meets and falls in love with Julia Hayne not realizing that she is one of the conspirators. When he gets to Virginia City, he also runs into Confederate Captain Vance Irby who has been sent to collect and safely deliver the gold. Irby manages to get out of the city but the Union cavalry is in hot pursue. When Bradfoed catches up with them, he not only has to fight Irby but also John Murrell, a bandit who has his own plans for the gold. He also—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: southerner, commander, intelligence officer, bandit, friend, engaging, gripping ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#19. Jungle Fighters (1961)

Storyline: A troop of British soldiers are out in the jungle to record jungle noises and troop noises in the jungle so that the recordings can be played back by other troops to divert the enemy to their whereabouts. As they progress to what they think is closer to the base camp they find themselves farther and farther from radio range until the only channel they can get clearly is that of a Japanese broadcast. They now realize they are probably only 10 to 15 miles from a Japanese camp! The tension is added to by rowdy and openly admitted "non-hero" Private Bamforth who has nothing good to say about anyone and especially Corporal Johnstone (who holds an equal dislike for Bamforth). When a Japanese soldier is taken as their prisoner, the true colors of each man comes to the surface ...—McGinty <McGinty@aol.com>

Plot Keywords: sergeant, prisoner of war, corporal, private, soldier, tense, emotional ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#20. Escape From Fort Bravo (1953)

Storyline: A ruthless Union captain is renowned throughout his prison fort as the toughest soldier in the business, capable of capturing every escaped convict under his supervision. However, when he falls in love with a visiting woman some of the prisoners seize the advantage and try to escape while he is in a more "mellow" mood.—Jonathon Dabell <J.D.@pixie.ntu.ac.uk>

Plot Keywords: warden, soldier, indian, pretty woman, gutsy, spirited, thrilling ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#21. Back to Bataan (1945)

Storyline: The US Army's defense of its Philippines colony and the allied Malay countries/colonies behind it counted on its island fortress of Corregidor on Luzon -and a few others- but loses it in the 6 May 1942 Japanese combined forces attack. Colonel Joseph Madden is among the escaping survivors who are ordered by general Douglas McArthur to organize a guerrilla. As he finds many native Filipinos inclined to resist the occupier's vision of returning to the South Asian fold under a paternalistic empire which doesn't hesitate to 'spank the unruly', but is mainly civilian, unprepared, inept in military matters, Madden appeals to the legendary anti-US freedom fighter Andres Bonifácio's homonymous grandson Captain Andrés Bonifácio, who is luckily rescued from a POW dead march, to inspire the resistance -once his own fighting spirit is rekindled- with him in a still very unsure war, retaliated by bloody, ten to one repression. When the Japanese realize the people side against them, they stage fake independence under imperial prince Ito, but are betrayed. While the tide of war turns against Japan all around the Pacific, the bitter fight intensifies further...—KGF Vissers

Plot Keywords: colonel, soldier, guerrilla fighter, girlfriend, tense, spirited, island ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#22. Two Arabian Knights (1927)

Storyline: Americans Sgt. Peter O'Gaffney and one of his soldiers, privileged "pretty boy" W. Daingerfield Phelps III (who is always drawing caricatures), are captured and interred at a POW camp in Northern Germany near the end of WWI. Their relationship has always been an antagonistic one based on what Phelps sees as O'Gaffney pushing him around. O'Gaffney's rank is despite being wanted by the police back home as a con man. It is because of these differences that their resulting friendship at camp is so unlikely, the friendship based on both having the nerve to attempt to escape. On a snow-covered day, they do manage to escape, in part by stealing white robes to camouflage themselves against the snow. In their adventures and misadventures on the outside in trying to get to safety, those adventures which include being mistaken for Arab prisoners, they find themselves as stowaways on board a cargo ship headed to Arabia. It is there that they meet a beautiful Arab woman named Mirza, who they save from drowning. They are both immediately smitten by her, which is why they are so disappointed to learn that she is betrothed in an arranged marriage to the ruthless Shevket Ben Ali. As the two try to reach the safety of an American consulate, they also decide to try and liberate Mirza, which may be more dangerous than fighting in the trenches in the battlefields of France.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: soldier, colonel, servant, fiancé, consul, amusing, madcap ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#23. The Great Raid (2005)

Storyline: Set in the Philippines in 1945 towards the end of WWII, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci and Captain Robert Prince, the 6th Ranger Battalion undertake a daring rescue mission against all odds. Traveling thirty miles behind enemy lines, they intend to liberate over 500 American Soldiers from the notorious Cabanatuan Japanese POW camp in the most audacious rescue ever.

Plot Keywords: lieutenant, captain, soldier, prisoner of war, japanese soldier, gripping, inspiring ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#24. Hannibal Brooks (1969)

Storyline: In WW2, captured British soldier Stephen Brooks is on a prison train to Germany.On the train he meets an American prisoner, Packy, who's obsessed with escaping.Brooks tries to temper Packy and reminds him that escaped prisoners are shot if recaptured.Packy is insistent despite Brooks' warnings. On arrival at the POW camp Stalag 7A, Brooks and other fellow POWs are sent to work at the local Munich zoo, to care for the animals.Brooks is assigned to care for Lucy the elephant.The German caretaker in charge of Lucy is asked to train Brooks in his new job.At first, Brooks hates the assignment, considering the large amount of animal waste to be cleaned daily.However, he eventually becomes attached to Lucy the elephant.After a devastating bombing raid that kills some of the animals and zoo staff it is decided to evacuate the surviving animals.Lucy is scheduled to be transported by train to Innsbruck, Austria.On the departure day, the train is commandeered by a moody SS Colonel, for his troops.The colonel jokes that Brooks can walk the elephant all the way to Austria, if he wishes.The joke gives Brooks the idea of walking the elephant to Austria, with two armed guards and a Polish maid as cook.The Munich Zoo director, worried for Lucy's safety, agrees to evacuate her and send her to Austria on foot.Two soldiers provide the armed guard.One is Willy,a friendly Austrian soldier, and the other is Kurt,a brutal German soldier who gets drunk often, insults everyone and threatens to shoot the elephant.The group leaves Munich on a sunny day but the voyage to Austria isn't a promenade in the park when they start running into trouble.—nufs68

Plot Keywords: prisoner of war, soldier, englishman, elephant, escaped convict, zookeeper, charming ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#25. Nurse Edith Cavell (1939)

Storyline: English nurse Edith Cavell is matron in a small private hospital in German-occupied Brussels during WWI. When the son of a recently deceased patient escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp, Cavell aids him to reach Holland and safety. This leads to Cavell, a local noblewoman, the grandmother of the escaped prisoner-of-war, and others to form an organization to help Belgian, French, English and other soldiers escape as well. Eventually the Germans become aware of what's happening and take action.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>

Plot Keywords: nurse, patient, soldier, prisoner, spy, engaging, disheartening ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#26. The Camp on Blood Island (1958)

Storyline: Deep in Malaya, as World War II is rapidly coming to an end, men, women and children, trapped by the Japanese invasion, are held captive in the Blood Island prison camp. Knowing that Yamamitsu, the sadistic commandant, will murder them all when he learns of his country's defeat, Dutch, a Dutch planter, smashes the camp radio. British officer Lambert and, in the women's prison, the recently-widowed Kate, join Dutch in arming the prisoners.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: prisoner of war, prisoners, brutal, engaging, powerful, british malaya, prison camp ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#27. The Happy Thieves (1962)

Storyline: During an evacuation in the waning days of the Korean War, three American soldiers retrieve an enemy airman and take him prisoner aboard the civilian ship returning them to their lines. When an order comes down from their superiors to kill the prisoner, the sergeant in charge, Briscoe, orders his men, Dennison and Hackett, to carry out the execution. But first one and then the other refuse to follow the order. A tense stand-off ensues between the seemingly heartless sergeant and his conscience-stricken men.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Plot Keywords: sergeant, private, prisoner of war, enemy, soldier, gripping, passionate ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#28. Sobibor (2018)

Storyline: "Sobibor" is based on the history of the Sobibór extermination camp uprising during WWII and Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky. When he was a POW in Sobibor, he managed to do the impossible - to organize a revolt and mass escape of the prisoners. Many of the escapees were later caught and died - the rest led by Pechersky managed to join the partisans. Script based on the book by Ilya Vasiliev: "Alexander Pechersky: Breakthrough to Immortality"

Plot Keywords: prisoner of war, soviet soldier, concentration camp survivor, lieutenant, nazi, sergeant, dark ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#29. Desire Me (1947)

Storyline: Shortly after WWII, flashbacks tell the story of Marise, her husband Paul, and Jean, who was imprisoned with Paul in a German camp. While attempting to escape from the camp Paul is shot, and Jean goes to see Marise, confirming the news she had gotten already about Paul's death. Jean has fallen in love with Marise through the stories Paul told him, and wants to stay with her in the seaside town in Brittany where Paul owned a small business.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>

Plot Keywords: patient, woman, psychiatrist, soldier, husband, friend, touching ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#30. Instrument of War (2017)

Storyline: When U.S. B-24 bomber pilot Clair Cline is shot down and captured in northern Germany, one war ends and another begins -- to keep hope alive. Now behind German barbed wire and oppression, Cline and his fellow POWs must find a way to bond together to not just survive but transcend their captivity. Inspired by true events.

Plot Keywords: bomber pilot, prisoner of war, british soldier, nazi, german soldier, tense, suspenseful ...

Movie Details Click Here!