376 Films & TV Shows Set In North America During The 1940s
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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 Joker Is Wild
Illinois The 1940s The 1930s The 1920sThe Most Electric Performance That Ever Shocked and Fascinated an Audience! — Prohibition-era nightclub crooner Joe E. Lewis (Frank Sinatra) has his career and nearly his life cut short when his throat is slashed as payback for leaving the employ of Chicago mob boss Georgie Parker (Ted de Corsia). A broken alcoholic, Joe is brought back from the abyss by his faithful piano player, Austin Mack (Eddie Albert), who helps turn the former singer into a successful stand-up comedian. But Joe's demons plague his romantic life even as he reaches new heights of success.
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Giant
Texas The 1940s The 1930s The 1920sNOW HE'S TOO RICH TO KILL. — Giant is a movie of huge scale and grandeur in which three generations of land-rich Texans love, swagger, connive and clash in a saga of family strife, racial bigotry and conflict between cattle barons and newly rich oil tycoons.
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Miracle in the Rain
New York The 1940sYou will see a picture of very, very special greatness. — Wartime romance about a lonely man and woman who meet one rainy afternoon in New York.
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The Revolt of Mamie Stover
California Hawaii The 1940sWhy Did Mamie Stover Have to Leave San Francisco? — In 1941, prostitute Mamie Stover (Jane Russell) has no choice but to flee San Francisco when the police turn on her and want her out of town. Figuring Hawaii would be a great place to begin anew, Stover books a trip aboard a Honolulu-bound boat, where she happens to meet writer Jim Blair (Richard Egan), who is quite taken with the former streetwalker. However, when the ship reaches Hawaii, Stover soon falls back into her old ways and begins working at a nightclub, much to Blair's dismay.
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Bad Day at Black Rock
California The 1940sJust the way it happened! — One-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy steps off a train at the sleepy little town of Black Rock. Once there, he begins to unravel a web of lies, secrecy, and murder.
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It's Always Fair Weather
New York The 1940s The 1950sMGM's Gigantic and Joyous Musical — Three World War II buddies promise to meet at a specified place and time 10 years after the war. They keep their word only to discover how far apart they've grown. But the reunion sparks memories of youthful dreams that haven't been fulfilled -- and slowly, the three men reevaluate their lives and try to find a way to renew their friendship.
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I'll Cry Tomorrow
California The 1910s The 1920s The 1930s The 1940sThe frank, revealing story of Lillian Roth's life! Best-seller now a film sensation. — Deprived of a normal childhood by her ambitious mother, Katie (Jo Van Fleet), Lillian Roth (Susan Hayward) becomes a star of Broadway and Hollywood before she is twenty. Shortly before her marriage to her childhood sweetheart, David Tredman (Ray Danton), he dies and Lillian takes her first drink of many down the road of becoming an alcoholic.
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Battle Cry
California The 1940sThe men who fought. The women who waited. And the stolen moments they shared. — The dramatic story of US marines in training, in combat and in love during World War II. The story centres on a major who guides the raw recruits from their training to combat. Based on the novel by Leon Uris.
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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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Suddenly
California The 1940sA cold-blooded thriller! — The tranquility of a small town is marred only by sheriff Tod Shaw's unsuccessful courtship of widow Ellen Benson, a pacifist who can't abide guns and those who use them. But violence descends on Ellen's household willy-nilly when the U.S. President passes through town... and slightly psycho hired assassin John Baron finds the Benson home ideal for an ambush.
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Carmen Jones
Illinois North Carolina Louisiana The 1940sSomething Really New! Something Truly Different! — The tale of the cigarette-maker Carmen and the Spanish cavalry soldier Don Jose is translated into a modern-day story of a parachute factory worker and a stalwart GI named Joe who is about to go to flying school. Conflict arises when a prize-ring champ captures the heart of Carmen after she has seduced Joe and caused him to go AWOL.
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From Here to Eternity
Hawaii The 1940sPouring out of impassioned pages...brawling their way to greatness on the screen! — In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.
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Thunder Bay
Louisiana The 1940sThe Brawling, Mauling Story of the Biggest Bonanza of Them All ! — Shrimpers and oilmen clash when an ambitious wildcatter begins constructing an off-shore oilrig.
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The Pride of St. Louis
Missouri Texas The 1930s The 1940sThe Story of Dizzy Dean! — The story of Jerome "Dizzy" Dean, a major-league baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie
Illinois The 1920s The 1910s The 1900s The 1940s The 1890sAt the fiftieth anniversary of his town's founding, the town's first barber recalls his long-dead, spirited bride and the flaw in his own character that helped bring about her loss and others.
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Thunderbirds
Oklahoma 🇫🇷 France The 1940sThey had nothing to lose but their lives...and they knew it! — An Oklahoma National Guard unit, comprised mainly of Native Americans, is called up for duty at the start of World War II.
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Go for Broke!
Mississippi 🇫🇷 France 🇮🇹 Italy The 1940sThe story of Japanese-American soldiers who fought in Europe during World War II — A tribute to the U.S. 442nd Regimental Combat Team, formed in 1943 by Presidential permission with Japanese-American volunteers. We follow the training of a platoon under the rueful command of Lt. Mike Grayson who shares common prejudices of the time. The 442nd serve in Italy, then France, distinguishing themselves in skirmishes and battles; gradually and naturally, Grayson's prejudices evaporate with dawning realization that his men are better soldiers than he is.
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No Highway
Newfoundland and Labrador The 1940sEXCITEMENT and SUSPENSE 18,000 Feet Over the Atlantic! — James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design flaw that manifests itself only after the aircraft has flown a certain number of hours. En route to a crash site to prove his theory, Honey discovers that he is aboard a plane rapidly approaching his predicted deadline.
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I Was a Communist for the FBI
Pennsylvania The 1940sI had to sell out my own girl -- so would you! — A fact-based story about a man who posed as an American Communist for years as part of a secret plan to infiltrate their organization.
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I'd Climb the Highest Mountain
Georgia The 1940s The 1930s The 1920s The 1910sA minister from the Deep South is assigned a new parish and moves with his wife to a town in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains, where he tends to the spiritual and emotional needs of his small flock.
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Sealed Cargo
Newfoundland and Labrador The 1940sCargo that blasts the sea wide open! — A Newfoundland fishingboat comes to the aid of a wrecked Danish sailing ship and tows it to a small village, but eventually the captain of the fishingboat realises that it's a U-boat supply ship in disguise, loaded with torpedoes. So, together with his crew and a group of villagers he sets about a plan to blow the ship as well as any U-boats that approach it. Based on the novel "The Gaunt Woman" by Edmund Gilligan.
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Teresa
New York 🇮🇹 Italy The 1940sThe story of a bride. Revealing. Intimate. — An Italian war bride has problems dealing with her husband's possessive mother.
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The Red Pony
California The 1940sPeter Miles stars as Tom Tiflin, the little boy at the heart of this John Steinbeck story set in Salinas Valley. With his incompatible parents -- the city-loving Fred (Shepperd Strudwick) and country-happy Alice (Myrna Loy) -- constantly bickering, Tom looks to cowboy Billy Buck (Robert Mitchum) for companionship and paternal love.
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On the Town
New York The 1940sThey Paint The Town With Joy! — Three sailors - Gabey, Chip and Ozzie - let loose on a 24-hour pass in New York and the Big Apple will never be the same! Gabey falls head over heels for "Miss Turnstiles of the Month" (he thinks she's a high society deb when she's really a 'cooch dancer at Coney Island); innocent Chip gets highjacked (literally) by a lady cab driver; and Ozzie becomes the object of interest of a gorgeous anthropologist who thinks he's the perfect example of a "prehistoric man". Wonderful music and terrific shots of New York at its best.
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