A Special Day (1977), October (1928), Les Misérables (1998), My Best Girl (1927), Stormy Weather (1943), A Woman of Affairs (1928), Smouldering Fires (1925), The Cocoanuts (1929) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Historical Film movies.
Storyline: It's the late 1930's Rome. It's a national holiday in Italy today for the first state visit of Adolf Hitler to the country. The occasion is being marked by a lavish parade with both Hitler and Benito Mussolini to celebrate their political friendship/alliance in the name of fascism. Most of the Roman populace will attend the parade to celebrate with their leader. Two that will not be are the following. Antonietta Taberi, who would have liked to have gone to the parade, has to stay at home to attend to her domestic chores in duty to her husband Emanuele and their six children, all who have gone to the parade without her. Gabriele is a former announcer on Italian Public Radio. Despite living in the same apartment complex (Gabriele only for the last two months) with their apartment windows facing each other across the courtyard, Antonietta and Gabriele meet for the first time today in Antonietta's need to access his apartment to retrieve her escaped myna bird. Their encounter is important to both of them if only for this one day. It takes Antonietta out of her humdrum life, where she is unappreciated and taken for granted by her family, her husband who she does not truly love. And Antonietta's arrival halts what Gabriele was contemplating doing in light of the reason behind he not wanting to go to the parade and he no longer working as a radio announcer, that act which would replace the alternative of what will be happening to him later in the day.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: drama, fascism, 1970s cinema, housewife, loneliness, social outcasts, oppressive atmosphere ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917 to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and of land in November of that year. Lenin returns in April. In July, counter-revolutionaries put down a spontaneous revolt, and Lenin's arrest is ordered. By late October, the Bolsheviks are ready to strike: ten days will shake the world. While the Mensheviks vacillate, an advance guard infiltrates the palace. Anatov-Oveyenko leads the attack and signs the proclamation dissolving the provisional government.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: silent film, black and white, experimental film, avant-garde, classic film, art film, symbolism ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
Plot Keywords: french film, drama, literary adaptation, social injustice, poverty, redemption, law and justice ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Joe Merrill, son of the millionaire owner of a chain of 5 and 10 cent stores, poses as Joe Grant, and takes a job in the stockroom of one of his father's stores, to prove that he can be a success without his father's influence. There he meets stockroom girl Maggie Johnson, and they fall in love. This causes problems, because Mrs. Merrill had planned for her son to marry Millicent Rogers, a high society girl.—John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>
Plot Keywords: romance, comedy, silent film, classic, american film, 1920s, romantic comedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Dancing great Bill 'Williamson' sees his face on the cover of Theatre World magazine and reminisces: just back from World War I, he meets lovely singer Selina Rogers at a soldiers' ball and promises to come back to her when he "gets to be somebody." Years go by, and Bill and Selina's rising careers intersect only briefly, since Selina is unwilling to "settle down." Will she ever change her mind? Concludes with a big all-star show hosted by Cab Calloway.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, dance, show business, jazz, 1940s, classic hollywood, cabaret ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Even when Diana, Neville and David played together as children, Diana knew that she loved Nevs. But Morton, Nevs' father, did not like any Merrick. Since Nevs did not have any money, Morton sent him off to Egypt to work and also talked him out of marrying Diana before he left. Diana waited two years and then married David, who Jeffry thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread. While in Paris, David jumps to his death when the cops come after him and Diana lies about the reason for the sake of Jeffry. Of course Jeffry, who has been a drunk all his life, cuts all ties with Diana. While Nevs still loves Diana, she does not return to England for seven years - just 3 days before Nevs' wedding to Constance.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, silent film, classic, 1920s, hollywood, tragedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A successful businesswoman falls in love with one of her (much younger) factory workers. She doesn't know that he is in love with her younger sister.
Plot Keywords: silent film, drama, romance, melodrama, classic hollywood, love triangle, social class ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Mr. Hammer runs a bankrupt Florida hotel. He'll try anything to make money, even make love to rich Mrs. Potter. But his main scheme, selling real estate, is in danger of sabotage from zanies Chico and Harpo, who also reduce the schemes of a pair of jewel thieves to chaos. A subplot involves the star-crossed love of Polly Potter and architect Bob Adams.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: comedy, musical, 1920s, black and white, silent film, classic hollywood, musical film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The crew of a submarine is trapped on the sea floor when it sinks. How can they be rescued before they run out of air?
Plot Keywords: war film, action film, drama, british film, black and white film, 1950s, based on true events ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Susie, a plain young country girl, secretly loves a neighbor boy, William. She believes in him and sacrifices much of her own happiness to promote his own ambitions, all without his knowledge. Eventually he rises to a position of success and sophistication, and Susie realizes that she has through her own efforts raised him to a level where he is inaccessible to her.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
Plot Keywords: romance, drama, silent film, american film, rural life, innocence, sacrifice ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: It's Prohibition, and the boys wind up behind bars after Stan sells some of their home-brew beer to a policeman. In prison, Stan's loose tooth "buzzes" when he talks and keeps getting him in trouble, because it sounds like he's giving everybody a rasp- berry. But it earns him the respect of The Tiger, a rough prisoner, and the boys manage to slip away during The Tiger's escape attempt. They disguise themselves in blackface and hide on a cotton plantation, but are recaptured when the warden happens by and here's Stan's buzzing tooth which causes to realize who the pair are. Back in the big house, they find themselves in a hail of bullets, caught between the state militia and gun-toting prisoners, when The Tiger tries another escape. Eventually the boys are pardoned by the senior warden, who erroneously believes that they intentionally warned the prison guards of the impending firestorm by firing the first shots.—Paul Penna <tterrace@wco.com>
Plot Keywords: comedy, black and white, classic, american film, prison, escape, silent film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean when he fails to meet her at the railway station. She goes off to Paris alone. A year later, mistress of wealthy Pierre Revel, she meets Jean again. Misinterpreting events she bounces back and forth between apparent security and true love.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: silent film, drama, romance, 1920s, france, social class, tragedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The comfortable and amiable Daniel Boone Brown, a resident of New York's water front, becomes the victim of a mad scientist's psychological experiments. For days, Dr. Ulrich Metz messes up Daniel's life, bringing on failing health, restless sleep, a nervous and irritable disposition, tardiness for work, and superstitions that cause worry and fear. Several months into the ordeal, one of Metz's minions, hired as Daniel's livery, feeds him a midnight snack of spring onions, lobster, Welsh rarebit and mince pie. We see the contents of his stomach causing pain and distress; then he has vivid and surreal nightmares. Will Metz succeed in driving Daniel to suicide?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: comedy, romance, silent film, american film, black and white, classic film, fantasy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The story of Madame DuBarry, the mistress of Louis XV of France, and her loves in the time of the French revolution.
Plot Keywords: silent film, romance, drama, european cinema, black and white, classic film, early cinema ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The famous matinee idol and blackface comedian, Don Wilson, heads out of town to escape adulation. There, calling himself Harry Mann, he accidentally joins a traveling acting troupe, and falls in love with Ginger Bolivar, who runs the troupe and stars in their Civil War melodrama. Don's producer sees the play, and thinks it's a comic masterpiece, and just what Don's Broadway show needs. But when Ginger finds out she's been played for a fool, will she forgive Don?—Kathy Li
Plot Keywords: comedy, romance, silent film, hollywood, 1920s, black and white, theater ...
Movie Details Click Here !