Highest-Rated Movies about 'Year 1865'

Little Big Man (1970), The Old Maid (1939), Lincoln (2012), How the West Was Won (1962), Free State of Jones (2016), The Conspirator (2010), Lady Macbeth (2016), Mysterious Island (1961) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Year 1865 movies.

#16. The Toast of New York (1937)

Storyline: The story starts just before the Civil War, showing Fisk, Boyd, and Luke conning Southern townsfolk into buying bars of soap that, might, have a $10 gold piece inside. Found out, they're chased out of town and escape across the Mason-Dixon Line just as the war starts. Fisk hatches a plan for him and Boyd to return to the South and buy cotton then smuggle it to the North where Luke is to sell it to the Northern textile mills. By the end of the war they have made millions, only to find out that Luke had been re-investing their money into Confederate Bonds. This fact-based movie shows Jim Fisk as one of the greatest con-men and entrepreneurs in history. It concludes with his involvement in "Black Friday", the Financial Panic of 1869, with fellow financier Jay Gould (who's not represented in the movie) and their attempt to corner the U.S. gold market. There's a love triangle between Fisk, Boyd and Mansfield, which is also based on historical accounts.—AzRanger

Plot Keywords: based on book, opera house, partnership, photographer, railroad, romantic rivalry, self sacrifice ...

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#17. Escort West (1959)

Storyline: In 1865 in Nevada, former Confederate Captain Ben Lassiter and his daughter Abbey travel through Modoc territory on their way to Oregon. At Fenniman's Station they stop for a meal, a bath and supplies. Inside the way-station, a group of Union soldiers, led by Lieutenant Weeks, are enjoying a meal. The patrol escorts an Army payroll and two sisters to meet another patrol, led by Captain Howard Poole. One of the sisters, Beth Drury, is engaged to Poole. The other sister, Martha Drury, is bitter at having lost her fiance during the American Civil War. When Ben Lassiter and his daughter sit for a meal inside the way-station, Martha Drury reacts badly toward the former Confederate officer and asks the Union patrol to arrest Lassiter. However, the Union patrol commander explains the civil war is over, shrugs Martha's suggestion off and orders the patrol to move on. Unknown to them, the Modocs have already set up a nearby ambush while other Modocs have surrounded Captain Poole's troop, pinning them down. Ben Lassiter and his daughter Abbey are the last to leave Fenniman's Station. Resuming their journey, they travel all day and they set up a night camp just off the trail. During the night, Ben Lassiter scouts around and notices a group of drunken Modoc Indians carrying liquor jugs, similar to those sold at Fenniman's Station. Fearing that the Indians have attacked Fenniman's Station, Ben Lassiter decides to wait for the sunrise and warn Lieutenant Weeks' payroll escort of the danger. Ironically, a former Confederate officer is attempting to save Union soldiers' lives.—nufs68

Plot Keywords: two word title, dead soldier, mountain, widower, single father, trapdoor, gunshot wound ...

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#18. Mad Dog Morgan (1976)

Storyline: Australia in the 1850s. Daniel Morgan, like hundreds of other ex-patriots from the British Isles (he is from Ireland), has come Downunder to seek his fortune. There is a gold rush going on, and Morgan wants to strike it rich. As fate would have it, Morgan soon finds himself on the other side of the law, broke and desperate. A single act of highway robbery gets him 12 years of hard labor. While in prison, he is systematically abused. Upon release, Morgan vows revenge on those who wronged him. With the help of an aborigine named Billy, and a growing legend of audacity, Morgan soon becomes a hero. The locals love him, while the wealthy and powerful fear his influence. They want this outlaw dead or alive, and will stop at nothing to see that their sense of justice is done. But Morgan only wants those to pay for the crimes they have committed, to recognize that he wasn't always a bushranger - he was made into one. It wasn't only his mind that made him bad. It was society that turned him into Mad Dog Morgan.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: posing for a photograph, revolver, pistol, flintlock rifle, flintlock pistol, musket, fire ...

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#19. The Keeping Room (2014)

Storyline: Left without men in the dying days of the American Civil War, three Southern women - two sisters and one African-American slave - must fight to defend their home and themselves from two rogue soldiers who have broken off from the fast-approaching Union Army.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: female gunfighter, american civil war, female protagonist, strong female character, strong female lead, sister sister relationship, nudity ...

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#20. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

Storyline: At the age of 9, Abraham Lincoln witnesses his mother being killed by a vampire, Jack Barts. Some 10 years later, he unsuccessfully tries to eliminate Barts but in the process makes the acquaintance of Henry Sturgess who teaches him how to fight and what is required to kill a vampire. The quid pro quo is that Abe will kill only those vampires that Henry directs him to. Abe relocates to Springfield where he gets a job as a store clerk while he studies the law and kills vampires by night. He also meets and eventually marries the pretty Mary Todd. Many years later as President of the United States, he comes to realize that vampires are fighting with the Confederate forces. As a result he mounts his own campaign to defeat them.

Plot Keywords: vampire hunter, undead, hanging upside down, shopkeeper, nightmare, full moon, martial arts training ...

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#21. El Paso (1949)

Storyline: Ex-confederate officer Clay Fletcher jumps at the chance to reunite with his once lady-friend, Susan Jeffers, when his father, Judge Fletcher, sends him on an errand to El Paso, Texas to get the signature of Susan's father, Judge Jeffers, on a legal document. Once there he finds the judge has become a drunk and a laughing stock, doing the bidding of local magnate Bert Donner and his running dog, Sheriff La Farge. Just as Clay starts straightening out the town's problems, events occur which force him to abandon the legal system and instead adopt the murderous tactics of a vigilante.—Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net>

Plot Keywords: street shootout, corrupt sheriff, mexican, orphan, marriage proposal, stagecoach, rancher ...

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#22. The Naked Hills (1956)

Storyline: Tracy Powell, an Indiana farmer, gets the gold fever and heads for Stockton, California in 1849. There, he abandons his first partner, Bert Killian, and teams up with Sam Wilkins, a claim jumper employed by Willis Haver. Six years later, Powell returns to Indiana and his sweetheart, Julie. They marry and he tries farming again but, on the night their son is born, he takes off again searching for gold. This time he heads for the hills with an inveterate prospector, Jimmo McCann. A decade later, the two are still hunting for their big strike when McCann is killed in an accident. Powell returns home with news of a big strike but the deserted Julie will have nothing to do with him. His friend Killian will not believe him but Haver, now a banker gives him a small loan and then beats him out of his claim. Many years pass before he comes home, now sixty-years-old, and this time, his wife and son open their home to him. But he vows to go prospecting come next spring.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: death of friend, double cross, deception, saloon, barfly, bartender, gold mine ...

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#23. Five Guns West (1955)

Storyline: Shalee Jethro (Dorothy Malone) helps her father run a desert stagecoach station. Five desperate outlaws arrive at the station to await a gold shipment they plan to rob, and Shalee becomes their hostage bait in several ways, and then the men begin to fight among themselves. four of them attack her but she is saved by Govern Sturges (John Lund), who also turns out to be a Confederate officer planted among the gang.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: gambler, dancer, alcoholic, ghost town, outlaw, year 1865, rifle ...

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