Perhaps no event in history has inspired more films than World War II. (That was the 1940s, for those of you under 30 who get the various wars confused.) It was the Western democracies' finest hour, when the bad guys were really bad and the good guys were pretty good, and stars like Audie Murphy and John Wayne and Frank Sinatra and Henry Fonda saved the world from the Axis Powers.

They also made some damned good war films in the 1940s. Not to mention the 50s, 60s, and 70s. If you want to see the Big War through the eyes of Hollywood, here are some of your best bets, beginning with a focus on a few stars who appeared in some of the most memorable efforts, followed by a list of some of the greatest classic WW II films (with links to their pages on the Internet Movie Database). My personal recommendations are marked with a *.

Audie Murphy

America's most decorated WW II hero was also a fine actor, who appeared in numerous films, including the story of his WW II experiences, To Hell and Back (1955). Richard Rodgers' Audie Murphy site has a great collection of To Hell and Back Photos from that film.

Henry Fonda

Hank played so many actual generals and such that a lot of people probably thought he was the real thing... including Admiral Nimitz in Midway, Teddy Roosevelt in The Longest Day, and Lt. Col. Kiley in The Battle of the Bulge. Then there was The President in Fail-Safe and, of course, Mr. Roberts in the movie of the same name. It was somehow comforting to know that Henry Fonda was in charge when things got rough.

John Wayne

In Sands of Iwo Jima and other films, The Duke was the prototypical American soldier hero.

Quite a few other actors, most of whom don't have Web pages (yet), fought the War many times on film, including Tony Curtis, Jimmy Cagney, James Mason, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Anthony Quinn, William Holden, Alec Guinness, Gregory Peck, Clark Gable, Trevor Howard, Curt Jergens, Burt Lancaster, Jack Lemmon, Cary Grant, and Spencer Tracy. Now let's take a look at some of those great films.

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The Films

• Rue Madeleine (1946)
  James Cagney as one of a trio of O.S.S. agents working behind enemy lines during the War.
  
  
• 5 Fingers (1952)
  Based on a true story of an ambitious valet to the British Ambassador to Turkey during WW II. Starring James Mason.
  
  
• *Across The Pacific (1942)
  Exciting spy thriller directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet.
  
  
• The Angry Hills (1959)
  Robert Mitchum as an American soldier in Greece pursued by both Nazis and Greek resistance fighters.
  
  
• Another Time, Another Place (1958)
  Journalist Lana Turner has an affair with BBC correspondent Sean Connery during WW II.
  
  
• Appointment with Venus (1951)
  David Niven and Glynis Johns as cow-nappers!
  
  
• Back to Bataan (1945)
  John Wayne and Anthony Quinn lead the resistance after the fall of Bataan.
  
  
• Battle at Bloody Beach (1961)
  The second Audie Murphy WW II movie after To Hell and Back.
  
  
• Battle Cry (1955)
  Raoul Walsh directed this movie version of the Leon Uris novel, starring Aldo Ray, Van Heflin, and James Whitmore
  
  
• Battle of Britain (1969)
  Reenactment of the air war over England, starring a Who's Who of war-weary British actors, including Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Chistopher Plummer, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Robert Shaw, and Sir Larry, too.
  
  
• The Battle of Midway (1941)
  A John Ford documentary narrated by Henry Fonda, among others. Not to be confused with Midway, which Hank didn't make until 1976, playing Admiral Nimitz.
  
  
• Battle of the Bulge (1965)
  Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, and others reenact one of the last great battles in Europe.
  
  
• Battle of the Coral Sea (1959)
  Cliff Robertson doesn't play JFK this time, but still saves the world from the enemy at sea.
  
  
• The Bells Go Down (1943)
  Tribute to London's Auxiliary Fire Service, who fought the fires of the German blitz.
  
  
• *The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  This great story of WW II veterans returning home to small-town America stars Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, and Teresa Wright.
  
  
• The Big Blockade (1942)
  Lots of familiar names in this WW II propaganda film about the economic blockade of Germany.
  
  
• The Bridge at Remagen (1969)
  George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, and others in a story about the last bridge over the Rhine.
  
  
• * The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
  Stirring, award-winning prison camp tale starring Alec Guiness, William Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa.
  
  
• Bridge Too Far, A (1977)
  Though a little past the deadline for "classic" films, this one has almost as many classic stars wearing helmets as The Longest Day!
  
• * The Caine Mutiny (1954)
  Humphrey Bogart as the disturbed ship captain is brilliant in an unusual role for him.
  
  
• Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
  A comedy/drama with Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, and Angie Dickinson running the psychiatric unit of a U.S. Veterans Hospital.
  
  
• * Casablanca(1942)
  Though not technically a "war" movie, this great film was as much about WW II as anything else. With Bogart, Bergman, Henreid, and Rains ganging up on them, the Nazis (who wore grey) didn't have much of a chance.
  
  
• Catch-22 (1970)
  Mike Nichols' filmed version of Joseph Heller's great novel has its moments, despite what a few critics said, helped by some great and often goofy casting, including Art Garfunkel as Nately and Bob Newhart as Major Major Major.
  
  
• Cockleshell Heroes (1956)
  Exciting action as Jose Ferrer and Trevor Howard arrive in kayaks to wreak havoc on German shipping in France.
  
  
• Command Decision(1948)
  Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, and Van Johnson star in this film adaptation of the stage play about war and politics.
  
  
• The Conspirators (1944)
  A great cast, headed by Peter Lorre, Hedy Lamarr, Sydney Greenstreet, and Paul Henreid, in a WW II spy thriller set in Lisbon.
  
  
• Corvette K-225 (1943)
  This time Randolph Scott is a Canadian captaining a newly-build Corvette (not the car, the ship), whose crew includes James Brown (not the singer, the actor).
  
  
• The Cruel Sea (1953)
  Jack Hawkins serves as captain in this British tale of a convoy escort ship in the early days of the War.
  
  
• D-Day, the Sixth of June (1956)
  Robert Taylor and Richard Todd pine over the same woman on their way to invade France, which takes place in the last 15 minutes of the film.
  
  
• The Dam Busters (1954)
  Michael Redgrave stars in this British film dramatization of an actual World War II bombing raid on Germany.
  
  
• * The Desert Fox (1951)
  James Mason is German Field Marshall Irwin Rommel, the brilliant tactician who tried to overthrow Hitler. One of Mason's two movie portrayals of Rommel, the other being in The Desert Rats (1953), with Richard Burton.
  
  
• The Dirty Dozen (1967)
  Unbelievable but exciting and sometimes humorous yarn about condemned soldiers on a suicide mission. Great cast includes Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, and Donald Sutherland.
  
  
• Don't Go Near the Water (1957)
  Glenn Ford stars in a comedy about Navy PR officers who never see a ship.
  
  
• * The Enemy Below (1957)
  Robert Mitchum vs. Curt Jurgens in an exciting battle between a U.S. destroyer and a German submarine.
  
  
• Flying Leathernecks (1951)
  John Wayne leads U.S. aviators into the battle of Guadalcanal.
  
  
• * From Here to Eternity (1953)
  Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, and Frank Sinatra in the award-winning drama set in Hawaii just before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
  

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