Highest-Rated Movies about '1880s'

The Elephant Man (1980), The Miracle Worker (1962), Rio Bravo (1959), The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), High Noon (1952), My Darling Clementine (1946), Babette's Feast (1987), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best 1880s movies.

#1. The Elephant Man (1980)

Storyline: Joseph "John" Merrick is an intelligent and friendly man, but he is hated by his Victorian-era English society because he is severely deformed. Once he is discovered by a doctor, however, he is saved from his life in a freak show and he is treated like the human being that he really is.

Plot Keywords: psychological torture, hospital, cruelty, isolation, sideshow, dignity, exploitation ...

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#2. The Miracle Worker (1962)

Storyline: Young Helen Keller, blind, deaf, and mute since infancy, is in danger of being sent to an institution. Her inability to communicate has left her frustrated and violent. In desperation, her parents seek help from the Perkins Institute, which sends them a "half-blind Yankee schoolgirl" named Annie Sullivan to tutor their daughter. Through persistence and love, and sheer stubbornness, Annie breaks through Helen's walls of silence and darkness and teaches her to communicate.

Plot Keywords: blindness, deafness, based on play, 1880s, boston massachusetts, communication, tutor ...

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#3. Rio Bravo (1959)

Storyline: Sheriff John T. Chance has his hands full after arresting Joe Burdette for murder. He knows that Burdette's brother Nathan, a powerful rancher, will go to any lengths to get him out of jail. Chance's good friend Pat Wheeler offers to help but within 20 minutes of making the offer is gunned down in the street, shot in the back. That leaves his elderly deputy Stumpy, the town drunk Dude - once a deputy and a pretty good shot when he was sober - and a young hand, Colorado, who used to work for Wheeler. Nathan Burdette meanwhile has a couple of dozen men at his disposal. Chance does his best to prepare all the while romancing a pretty gambler who goes by the name of Feathers.

Plot Keywords: gunfighter, prisoner, alcoholic, old west, gambler, cripple, sheriff ...

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#4. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)

Storyline: Two drifters are passing through a Western town, when news comes in that a local farmer has been murdered and his cattle stolen. The townspeople, joined by the drifters, form a posse to catch the perpetrators. They find three men in possession of the cattle, and are determined to see justice done on the spot.

Plot Keywords: hanging, lynch mob, posse, miscarriage of justice, false accusation, cowboy, frontier town ...

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#5. High Noon (1952)

Storyline: On the day he gets married and hangs up his badge, Marshal Will Kane is told that a man he sent to prison years before, Frank Miller, is returning on the noon train to exact his revenge. Having initially decided to leave with his new spouse, Will decides he must go back and face Miller. However, when he seeks the help of the townspeople he has protected for so long, they turn their backs on him. It seems Kane may have to face Miller alone, as well as the rest of Miller's gang, who are waiting for him at the station.

Plot Keywords: one against many, morality, quick draw, real time, gunfight, brawl, fistfight ...

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#6. My Darling Clementine (1946)

Storyline: Wyatt Earp and his brothers Morgan and Virgil ride into Tombstone and leave brother James in charge of their cattle herd. On their return they find their cattle stolen and James dead. Wyatt takes on the job of town marshal, making his brothers deputies, and vows to stay in Tombstone until James' killers are found. He soon runs into the brooding, coughing, hard-drinking Doc Holliday as well as the sullen and vicious Clanton clan. Wyatt discovers the owner of a trinket stolen from James' dead body and the stage is set for the Earps' long-awaited revenge.

Plot Keywords: arizona territory, arizona, pistol whip, playing trumpet, cigar smoking, church service, coughing ...

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#7. Babette's Feast (1987)

Storyline: In a remote 19th-century Danish village, two sisters lead a rigid life centered around their father, the local minister, and their church. Both had opportunities to leave the village: one could have married a young army officer and the other, a French opera singer. Their father objected in each case, and they spent their lives caring for him. Many years later - their father is now deceased - they take in French refugee, Babette Hersant, who agrees to work as their servant. After winning the lottery, Babette wants to repay the sisters for their kindness and offers to cook a French meal for them and their friends on the 100th anniversary of their father's birth. It proves to be an eye-opening experience for everyone.

Plot Keywords: cooking, food, religion, piano, mother son relationship, feast, father daughter relationship ...

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#8. The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Storyline: This adaptation of the famous short story by Rudyard Kipling tells the story of Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnahan, two ex-soldiers in India when it was under British rule. They decide that the country is too small for them, so they head off to Kafiristan in order to become Kings in their own right. Kipling is seen as a character that was there at the beginning, and at the end of this glorious tale.

Plot Keywords: adventurer, afghanistan, social commentary, epic, superstition, british empire, impostor ...

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#9. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Storyline: Rancher Dan Evans heads into Bisbee to clear up issues concerning the sale of his land when he witnesses the closing events of a stagecoach robbery led by famed outlaw Ben Wade. Shortly thereafter, Wade is captured by the law in Bisbee and Evans finds himself one of the escorts who will take Wade to the 3:10 to Yuma train in Contention for the reward of $200. Evans's effort to take Wade to the station is in part an effort to save his land but also part of an inner battle to determine whether he can be more than just a naive rancher in the eyes of his impetuous and gunslinging son William Evans. The transport to Contention is hazardous and filled with ambushes by Indians, pursuits by Wade's vengeful gang and Wade's own conniving and surreptitious demeanor that makes the ride all the more intense.

Plot Keywords: outlaw, based on short story, homoeroticism, time in title, stagecoach, rancher, arizona desert ...

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#10. The Bear (1988)

Storyline: The director of Quest for Fire (1981) creates yet another film in nature with almost no human dialogue in this picturesque story of an orphaned bear cub who is adopted by an adult male bear and must avoid hunters. Bart the Bear stars in this anthropomorphic fantasy.

Plot Keywords: 19th century, based on novel, wilderness, bear attack, hunting, survival, 1880s ...

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#11. Hobson's Choice (1954)

Storyline: 1880s Salford, England. Widowed Henry Hobson, owner and operator of Hobson's Boots, lives with his three adult daughters, Maggie, Alice, and Vicky, in a flat attached to the shop. Henry is miserly, dipsomaniacal, and tyrannical, not allowing his daughters to date since their sole purpose in life is in service to him and the shop (receiving no wages for their services). He changes his mind about Alice and Vicky, for whom he will choose husbands, despite these romantic ones already having chosen the men they would marry if given the opportunity. Henry will, however, not provide them with a dowry, which may prove to be a challenge in finding them men he would consider suitable husbands. Concerning Maggie, he believes her far too useful to him as the overly efficient and organized one to let go, and too old at age thirty for any man to want anyway. Incensed by her father's attitude, Maggie decides she must show him how wrong he is about her being an unmarryingable spinster. As such, she makes a proposal to timid Willy Mossop, the shop's poor, uneducated, and illiterate boot hand (yet best boot maker, apparently better than any boot maker in nearby Manchester), who has known no other professional life than the shop. They enter into a marriage of convenience. Despite the differences in their social classes, Maggie believes she can show her father that she can find a husband while also forcing him to treat Willy better (and by association her) in paying him decent wages, otherwise she will use her wifely influence to convince Willy to take his and her valuable services elsewhere. If their hands are forced, Maggie believes their best weapon is wealthy and particular Mrs. Hepworth, who said she will have no one else but Willy make her boots. Maggie has even taken into consideration what effect her actions will have on her sisters' nuptials, vowing to them that all will be all right in that regard. Although she truly has no idea how her father will react, she also may not have considered Willy, who may already have a life of his own outside the shop. If he does agree, what effect will her plan have on him and his entire being?—Huggo

Plot Keywords: sister sister relationship, alcoholism, basement, workshop, apron, proposal, park ...

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#12. The Illusionist (2006)

Storyline: In late nineteenth century Vienna, renowned illusionist Eisenheim is reunited with the Duchess von Teschen when she is volunteered from the audience to participate in an illusion during one of his performances. Despite having not seen each other in fifteen years when they were teenagers, they almost immediately recognize each other as Eduard Abramovich and Sophie von Teschen, they who had a doomed romance at that time due to their class differences. The Duchess is soon to be wed to the Crown Prince Leopold in what would be for him a marriage solely in pursuit of power: overthrowing his father, the Emperor Leopold, as well as overtaking the Hungarian side of the empire. The Crown Prince is known to use violence against women if it suits his needs or purposes. As such, the Duchess, who realizes that she still loves Eisenheim and he her, can never leave the Crown Prince without it jeopardizing her life. After Eisenheim humiliates the Crown Prince at a private show which results in an ...

Plot Keywords: magician, backstage, castle, fiance fiancee relationship, first love, vienna austria, star crossed lovers ...

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#13. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Storyline: After outlaw leader Ben Wade is captured in a small town, his gang continue to threaten. Small-time rancher Dan Evans is persuaded to take Wade in secret to the nearest town with a railway station to await the train to the court at Yuma. Once the two are holed up in the hotel to wait it becomes apparent the secret is out, and a battle of wills starts.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Plot Keywords: arizona, western hero, justice, standoff, cowboys and outlaws, cowboy, drought ...

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#14. Ludwig (1973)

Storyline: Historical evocation of Ludwig, king of Bavaria, from his crowning in 1864 until his death in 1886, as a romantic hero. Fan of Richard Wagner, betrayed by him, in love with his cousin Elisabeth of Austria, abandonned by her, tormented by his homosexuality, he will little by little slip towards madness.—Yepok

Plot Keywords: homoerotic, loner, kingdom, homosexual subtext, empress, 1880s, 1870s ...

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#15. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

Storyline: In 1886, in the Victorian London, the corrupt Lord Henry Wotton meets the pure Dorian Gray posing for talented painter Basil Hallward. Basil paints Dorian's portrait and gives the beautiful painting and an Egyptian sculpture of a cat to him while Henry corrupts his mind and soul telling that Dorian should seek pleasure in life. Dorian wishes that his portrait could age instead of him. Dorian goes to a side show in the Two Turtles in the poor neighborhood of London and he falls in love with the singer Sibyl Vane. Dorian decides to get married with her and tells to Lord Henry that convinces him to test the honor of Sibyl. Dorian Gray leaves Sibyl and travels abroad and when he returns to London, Lord Henry tells him that Sibyl committed suicide for love. Along the years, Dorian's friends age while he is still the same, but his picture discloses his evilness and corruptive life. Can he still have salvation or is his soul trapped in the doomed painting?

Plot Keywords: painting, character name in title, based on novel, london england, eternal youth, 1890s, portrait painting ...

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