265 Films & TV Shows Set In New England During The 20th Century
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Long Day's Journey Into Night
Connecticut The 1910sOn a day in the summer of 1912, the family of retired matinee idol James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of Tyrone's wife Mary, the illness of their youngest son Edmund, and the alcoholism and debauchery of the older son Jamie. As day turns into night, guilt, anger, despair, and regret threaten to destroy the family.
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Silent Night, Bloody Night
Massachusetts The 1970s The 1950sThe mansion… the madness… the maniac… no escape. — On Christmas Eve 1950, Wilfred Butler dies in a burning accident outside his mansion in East Willard, Massachusetts. The residence is bequeathed to his grandson, Jeffrey. Twenty years later, lawyer John Carter arrives in East Willard on Christmas Eve with his assistant and mistress Ingrid, having been charged by Jeffrey (now registered as a patient in a mental asylum) to sell the house. The house, the town, even Jeffrey himself-- all hold dark secrets that will be brought to light.
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The Other
Connecticut The 1930sNiles and Holland are as close as twin brothers can be. Appearances can be deceiving... and deadly. — Chilling and eerie, this supernatural tale of good versus evil coils around twin brothers living with their grandmother in a sleepy rural area during the summer of 1935. After his grandmother encourages Niles to develop what seem to be psychic gifts, Niles starts to suspect that his twin may be involved in recent fatal accidents.
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A Separate Peace
New Hampshire The 1940sGene and Finny are two boys who are best friends living in 1943, at the height of World War II. The idea that the boys will most likely be drafted when they turn eighteen is surrounding them, and they are practically forced to live their lives to the fullest. The two boys attend the Devon School, which prepares them for military life that they will most likely be subjected to. The film begins with a narration by an older Gene, traveling back to Devon some years later. The thing he wishes most to see is the tree, which had a great effect on the boys' lives
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Carnal Knowledge
New York Massachusetts The 1970s The 1960s The 1950s The 1940sIts time has come. — The concurrent sexual lives of best friends Jonathan and Sandy are presented, those lives which are affected by the sexual mores of the time and their own temperament, especially in relation to the respective women who end up in their lives.
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Summer of '42
Massachusetts The 1940sIn everyone's life there's a "Summer of '42" — Over the summer of 1942 on Nantucket Island, three friends -- Hermie, Oscy and Benjie -- are more concerned with getting laid than anything else. Hermie falls in love with the married Dorothy, whose husband is an army pilot recently sent to the battlefront of World War II.
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Sacco & Vanzetti
Massachusetts The 1920sBoston, 1920. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are charged and unfairly tried for murder on the basis of their anarchic political convictions.
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Alice's Restaurant
Massachusetts Montana New York The 1960sEvery Generation Has A Story To Tell. — After getting kicked out of college, Arlo decides to visit his friend Alice for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner is over, Arlo volunteers to take the trash to the dump, but finds it closed for the holiday, so he just dumps the trash in the bottom of a ravine. This act of littering gets him arrested, and sends him on a bizarre journey that ends with him in front of the draft board.
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The Boston Strangler
Massachusetts The 1960sWhy did 13 women willingly open their doors to the Boston Strangler? — Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story, the film follows the investigators path through several leads before introducing the Strangler as a character. It is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of the investigators who have very few clues to build a case upon.
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Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?
New York Connecticut The 1960sWhen the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965 hit, millions of people were left in the dark, including Waldo Zane, a New York executive in the process of stealing a fortune from his company, and two people whose paths he's destined to cross, Broadway actress Margaret Garrison and her husband, Peter.
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The Group
New York Massachusetts Ohio Arizona The 1940s The 1930sSidney Lumet's adaptation of the acclaimed Mary McCarthy novel. It's 1933, and eight young women are friends and members of the upper- class group at a private girl's school, about to graduate and start their own lives. The film documents the years between their graduation and the beginning of the World War in Europe, and shows, in a serialized style, their romances and marriages, their searches for careers or meaning in their lives, their highs and their lows.
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Those Calloways
Vermont The 1930sThey dared to dream the impossible! — Story of Cam Calloway and his family, who live in a densely wooded area in New England. Cam dreams of building a sanctuary for the geese that fly over the area each year, and he tries several schemes to buy a nearby lake for this santuary. He is thwarted at every attempt, it seems; he and his son try to get enough furs from their trapping venture to get the money, but the bottom falls out of the fur market. He uses the little money they get for a down payment on the lake, thereby losing their house when he can't make the mortgage payment. They move to the lake, where their friends help them build a cabin. A salesman stops in town, and tries to get the people to sell their land for a tourist venture; Cam is outraged at his tactics and takes desperate measures after he himself is tricked.
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The Cardinal
Massachusetts 🇻🇦 Holy See The 1930s The 1920s The 1910sA motion picture that spans two decades of conflict and drama as it tells the story of a young American and his rise to prince of the church. — A young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal.
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Lolita
New Hampshire Ohio The 1950sHow did they ever make a movie of ... — Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.
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Long Day's Journey Into Night
Connecticut The 1910sPRIDE... POWER... PASSION... PAIN! — Over the course of one day in August 1912, the family of retired actor James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of his wife Mary, the illness of their youngest son Edmund and the alcoholism and debauchery of their older son Jamie. As day turns into night, guilt, anger, despair, and regret threaten to destroy the family.
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Jazz on a Summer's Day
Rhode Island The 1950s...love on a summer's night! — Set at the Newport jazz festival in 1958, this documentary mixes images of water and the town with performers and audience. The film progresses from day to night and from improvisational music to Gospel. It's a concert film that suggests peace and leisure, jazz at a particular time and place.
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Auntie Mame
Connecticut The 1940s The 1930s The 1920sTops the Best-Seller! Tops the Play! The One and Only! — Ten-year-old orphan Patrick Dennis has come to live with his marvelously madcap Auntie Mame, who lives life to the hilt. "Life is a banquet," Mame says, "and most poor suckers are starving to death!"
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Peyton Place
New England The 1940sSmall town America will never be the same again. — In the outwardly respectable New England community of Peyton Place, shopkeeper Constance McKenzie tries to make up for a past indiscretion -- which resulted in her illegitimate daughter Allison -- by adopting a chaste, prudish attitude towards all things sexual. In spite of herself, Constance can't help but be attracted to handsome new teacher Michael Rossi. Meanwhile, the restless Allison, who'd like to be as footloose and fancy-free as the town's "fast girl" Betty Anderson, falls sincerely in love with mixed-up mama's boy Norman Page.
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The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Connecticut The 1950sHis loves...his world---both past and present---and the crisis they caused! — Tom Rath (Gregory Peck) is a suburban father and husband haunted by his memories of World War II, including a wartime romance with Italian village girl Maria (Marisa Pavan), which resulted in an illegitimate son he's never seen. Pressed by his unhappy wife (Jennifer Jones) to get a higher-paying job, Rath goes to work as a public relations man for television network president Ralph Hopkins (Fredric March). Drawn into poisonous office politics, Tom finds he must choose his career or his family.
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The Seven Year Itch
New York Maine The 1950sIt TICKLES and TANTALIZES! - The funniest comedy since laughter began! — With his family away for their annual summer holiday, Richard Sherman decides he has the opportunity to live a bachelor's life. The beautiful but ditzy blonde from the apartment above catches his eye and they soon start spending time together—maybe a little too much time!
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White Christmas
New York Vermont The 1950s The 1940sJoyous entertainment for every season, any year!!!! — Two talented song-and-dance men team up after the war to become one of the hottest acts in show business. In time they befriend and become romantically involved with the beautiful Haynes sisters who comprise a sister act.
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The Actress
Massachusetts The 1910sThere's hope and heart-ache in the adventures of a stage-struck daughter! — The true story of Ruth Gordon's early struggles on the road to stage stardom.
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Has Anybody Seen My Gal?
Vermont The 1920sHow you'll cheer the hit songs of the roaring twenties! — When a 1920s millionaire tests the fiber of his Vermont family, a young lady and her boyfriend feel the repercussions.
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Cheaper by the Dozen
Rhode Island New Jersey The 1920sHe's the New Father of His Country! — "Cheaper by the Dozen", based on the real-life story of the Gilbreth family, follows them from Providence, Rhode Island, to Montclair, New Jersey, and details the amusing anecdotes found in large families.
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You're My Everything
Massachusetts The 1920sIn 1924, stage-struck Boston blueblood Hannah Adams picks up musical star Tim O'Connor and takes him home for dinner. One thing leads to another, and when Tim's show rolls on to Chicago a new Mrs. O'Connor comes along as incompetent chorus girl. Hollywood beckons, and we follow the star careers of the O'Connor family in silents and talkies. Includes good imitation "silents" with classic cameo by Buster Keaton.
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