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Best War Movies of the 1930s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
37 war films from the 1930s are in our catalog; the 37 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Gone with the Wind (1939), at 8.2 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.1. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Hell's Angels, 7.2 on IMDb against 39 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gone with the Wind '1939 | Drama / War / Romance | 8.2 | 90% | 97 | 7.9 | Victor Fleming |
| 2 | All Quiet on the Western Front '1930 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 98% | 91 | 7.8 | Lewis Milestone |
| 3 | Grand Illusion '1937 | Drama / War | 8.0 | 97% | - | 7.9 | Jean Renoir |
| 4 | Duck Soup '1933 | Comedy / War | 7.7 | 91% | 93 | 7.3 | Leo McCarey |
| 5 | Alexander Nevsky '1938 | Drama / War | 7.5 | 91% | - | 7.1 | Sergei Eisenstein |
| 6 | Beau Geste '1939 | Drama / War | 7.5 | 92% | 69 | 7.0 | William A. Wellman |
| 7 | Block-Heads '1938 | Comedy / War | 7.5 | - | - | 7.0 | John G. Blystone |
| 8 | The Four Feathers '1939 | Drama / War | 7.4 | 91% | - | 7.1 | Zoltan Korda |
| 9 | The Dawn Patrol '1938 | Action / Drama / War | 7.5 | - | - | 6.8 | Edmund Goulding |
| 10 | Wooden Crosses '1932 | Drama / War | 7.7 | - | - | 7.1 | Raymond Bernard |
| 11 | Shanghai Express '1932 | Drama / Romance / War | 7.3 | 96% | 83 | 7.0 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 12 | Peace on Earth '1939 | Animation / War | 7.5 | - | - | 7.1 | Hugh Harman |
| 13 | Waterloo Bridge '1931 | Drama / Romance / War | 7.4 | - | - | 6.9 | James Whale |
| 14 | Gunga Din '1939 | War / Action | 7.2 | 89% | - | 6.5 | George Stevens |
| 15 | Lady Killer '1937 | War / Drama / Romance | 7.3 | - | - | 6.9 | Jean Grémillon |
| 16 | Hell's Angels '1930 | Drama / War / Action | 7.2 | 76% | 39 | 6.6 | Howard Hughes |
| 17 | Pack Up Your Troubles '1932 | Comedy / War | 7.2 | - | - | 6.8 | Ray McCarey |
| 18 | Westfront 1918 '1930 | War / Drama | 7.3 | 100% | - | 6.6 | G.W. Pabst |
| 19 | Dishonored '1931 | Drama / War / Romance | 7.2 | 90% | - | 7.0 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 20 | Drums Along the Mohawk '1939 | Drama / War | 7.0 | 82% | - | 6.5 | John Ford |
| 21 | The Charge of the Light Brigade '1936 | Drama / War | 7.0 | 67% | - | 6.5 | Michael Curtiz |
| 22 | Outskirts '1933 | War / Drama / Comedy | 7.1 | - | - | 6.3 | Boris Barnet |
| 23 | The Spy in Black '1939 | War / Thriller | 6.9 | 100% | - | 6.4 | Michael Powell |
| 24 | J'Accuse '1938 | War / Drama / Sci-Fi | 7.0 | - | - | 6.4 | Abel Gance |
| 25 | The Eagle and the Hawk '1933 | War / Drama / Action | 7.0 | - | - | 6.6 | Stuart Walker |
| 26 | The Dawn Patrol '1930 | War / Drama / Action | 7.1 | 100% | - | 6.6 | Howard Hawks |
| 27 | The Bitter Tea of General Yen '1933 | Drama / Romance / War | 6.9 | 86% | - | 6.3 | Frank Capra |
| 28 | Confessions of a Nazi Spy '1939 | Drama / War | 6.7 | 92% | - | 6.1 | Anatole Litvak |
| 29 | Chapayev '1934 | Drama / War | 7.0 | - | - | 6.0 | Sergey Vasilev |
| 30 | The Plainsman '1936 | Western / War / Romance | 6.8 | 100% | - | 6.5 | Cecil B. DeMille |
| 31 | The Littlest Rebel '1935 | Comedy / Drama / Musical / War | 6.7 | 89% | - | 6.3 | David Butler |
| 32 | The Flying Deuces '1939 | Comedy / War | 6.7 | 83% | - | 6.4 | A. Edward Sutherland |
| 33 | The Lost Patrol '1934 | Action / War | 6.8 | 100% | 85 | 6.6 | John Ford |
| 34 | The Last of the Mohicans '1936 | Western / Drama / War | 6.6 | - | - | 6.4 | George B. Seitz |
| 35 | Dark Journey '1937 | Thriller / War / Romance / Drama / Crime | 6.2 | - | - | 6.5 | Victor Saville |
| 36 | A Farewell to Arms '1932 | Drama / Romance / War | 6.4 | 88% | - | 6.2 | Frank Borzage |
| 37 | Cavalcade '1933 | Drama / War | 5.7 | 62% | 73 | 5.5 | Frank Lloyd |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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Other genres in the 1930s
Action of the 1930s Animation of the 1930s Comedy of the 1930s Crime of the 1930s Drama of the 1930s Fantasy of the 1930s Horror of the 1930s Musical of the 1930s Mystery of the 1930s Romance of the 1930s Thriller of the 1930s Western of the 1930s
Directors on this list
Victor Fleming Lewis Milestone Jean Renoir Leo McCarey Sergei Eisenstein William A. Wellman Edmund Goulding Josef von Sternberg James Whale George Stevens G.W. Pabst John Ford
Actors on this list
Vivien Leigh Clark Gable Jean Gabin Groucho Marx Harpo Marx Gary Cooper Ray Milland Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Ralph Richardson Errol Flynn Basil Rathbone