Best Films - American films - Drama

American cinema: Drama (Page 1 of 15)

12 Angry Men (1957)

Sidney Lumet

In a New York court room, a lengthy murder trial is nearing its conclusion. Once the judge has delivered his closing statements, the twelve members of the jury are led away to the jury room. Here, they must decide whether the defendant, a young Puerto Rican man, is guilty or innocent of the charge of stabbing his father to death... [More...]

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Stanley Kubrick

Millions of years ago, a tribe of herbivorous apelike hominids discover a mysterious black monolith which immediately exerts a strange influence over them. They learn how to kill other animals, to fashion bones into weapons and to assert their control over the world around them. Cut to the year 2001 AD, and Dr Heywood Floyd arrives at an American base on the moon where a remarkable discovery has been made... [More...]

7th Heaven (1927)

Frank Borzage

Paris, 1914. Chico, an atheistic loner, has grown tired of toiling in the sewers and hopes that one day he will become a street washer like his neighbour Gobin. Meanwhile, sisters Diane and Nana receive an unexpected visit from their wealthy relatives, who offer them the prospect of a better life. When Diane admits to being a prostitute, her relatives turn their back on her and her sister... [More...]

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Richard Attenborough

September, 1944. D-Day has come and gone but the allied advance has slowed to a crawl owing to over-extended supply lines. Field Marshal Montgomery and General Paton are both confident that they can win the war with one more decisive push. U.S. President Eisenhower backs Montgomery’s plan – codenamed Operation Market Garden - to land 35,000 paratroops behind enemy lines to secure half a dozen bridges in Holland... [More...]

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Stanley Kubrick

Alex DeLarge is a Beethoven-loving juvenile delinquent who spends his evenings indulging in orgies of violence with his droogies. This involves beating up rival gangs, breaking into houses and generally having a good time before heading back to the Korova Milk Bar for some nourishing lactose-based refreshment... [More...]

A Double Life (1947)

George Cukor

Anthony John is a renowned stage actor who, against his better judgement, allows himself to be coaxed into playing the lead role in Shakespeare’s Othello. The part of the jealous husband who ultimately murders his beloved wife turns out to be appropriate for John, for he has a jealous streak and still claims ownership of his ex-wife Brita... [More...]

A Farewell to Arms (1932)

Frank Borzage

During World War I, a young American, Frederick Henry, enlists as an ambulance driver in the Italian army. He meets and falls in love with a young English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Badly injured in a bombardment, Henry ends up in a hospital in Milan, where he is cared for by his beloved Catherine. As Henry recovers, he and Catherine pursue an idyllic romance, which ends all to soon when Henry is sent back to the Front... [More...]

A Passage to India (1984)

David Lean

In the 1920s, Adela Quested makes the journey from England to India, where she intends to marry her fiancé, Ronny Heaslop, the magistrate of a provincial town named Chandrapore. She is accompanied by Heaslop’s elderly mother, Mrs Moore, who, having barely set foot in the country, becomes disgusted by the way in which the local population suffer under British colonialism... [More...]

A Place in the Sun (1951)

George Stevens

George Eastman, the son of poor missionary workers, is surprised when his uncle, the successful businessman Charles Eastman, offers him a job at one of his factories. George is happy to start as a production line worker believing that this will lead to better things, although he is not yet aware of the enormous social gulf that separates him from the wealthy Eastmans... [More...]

A Star Is Born (1954)

George Cukor

Onetime matinee idol Norman Maine has lost both his public and the confidence of the studio bosses who employ him, and he hastens his decline by drowning his sorrows in alcohol. One evening, he is intent on making a spectacle of himself at a charity gala event, but he is rescued by a young nightclub singer, Esther Blodgett... [More...]

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Elia Kazan

Having lost her job and her grand Mississippi home, Blanche DuBois heads to New Orleans to visit her sister, Stella. Blanche can hardly believe the level to which Stella has fallen. She lives in a cramped apartment in a seedy district of the town, married to a labourer named Stanley, who looks and behaves as if he has just walked out of the Stone Age... [More...]

A Woman of Paris (1923)

Charles Chaplin

Marie St Clair and her lover Jean Millet plan to leave their French village and start a new life in Paris as man and wife. On the eve of their departure, Marie is locked out of her house by her cruel stepfather and Jean tries to persuade his parents to let her spend the night in their house. Knowing that Marie is a woman of ill repute, Jean’s father refuses and so Jean and Marie decide to elope to Paris that night... [More...]

The African Queen (1951)

John Huston

In 1914, Rose Sayer assists her brother, the Reverend Samuel Sayer, in leading a missionary village in German East Africa. Their supplies are brought to them by Canadian Charlie Allnut on his steam-driven barge, The African Queen. The Sayers disregard Charlie’s advice to leave the village now that Germany is at war with England and decide to stay on... [More...]

All About Eve (1950)

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

The night Eve Harrington wins her award for the best stage actress of the year, the people who unwittingly brought about her success reflect on her meteoric rise to fame. It seems only yesterday that Karen Richards, wife of the famous playwright Lloyd Richards, befriended the unknown Eve Harrington, who had been hanging around theatre exits, anxious to catch a glimpse of her idol, Margo Channing... [More...]

All I Desire (1953)

Douglas Sirk

In 1910, Naomi Murdock is an itinerant actress who earns barely enough to live on, performing at rundown theatres in provincial towns across America. One day, she receives a letter from her daughter Lily with an invitation to visit her on the eve of her graduation from high school. Naomi hasn’t seen her family for several years and is unsure how she will be greeted by the husband she walked out on to pursue her far from spectacular acting career... [More...]

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Lewis Milestone

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, a German schoolmaster is urging his class of idealistic youths to enlist and do their bit to save the Fatherland. Unable to resist the call that beckons, Paul Bäumer and his fellow classmates sign up and find themselves in a training camp where their former postmaster, Himmelstoss, is determined to knock them into shape... [More...]

All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

Anatole Litvak

In the 1840s, French teacher Henriette Deluzy arrives in America and finds work in a girls’ school. When her pupils pick up on rumours of her recent past, she decides to tell them her story. A few years ago, Henriette was engaged as governess to the aristocratic Praslin family. The Duke, her employer, is impressed by the compassionate way in which she treats his three young daughters and his weakling son, and begins to fall in love with her... [More...]

Anastasia (1956)

Anatole Litvak

Paris, 1928. A decade after Tsar Nicolas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks, rumours continue to circulate that the tsar’s daughter, Anastasia, somehow survived. A Russian general, Bounine, has a plan to pass off an unknown woman as Anastasia so that he can claim her inheritance, lodged in a British bank... [More...]

And the Violins Stopped Playing (1988)

Alexander Ramati

Poland, 1942. Dymitr Mirga is a Romani gypsy whose skills as a violin player are very much appreciated by German officers. But when he learns that Polish Jews have been cleared from the ghettos, Dymitr suspects that the gypsies will be the Nazis’ next target. Fearful of what may lie ahead, he urges his leader to order an evacuation to Hungary, a country that has so far avoided the scourge of Nazi occupation... [More...]

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Robert Wise

Returning to Earth after probing the dark reaches of space, a satellite drifts off course and crashes into Piedmont, a small town in New Mexico. The team who are sent to recover the satellite find the town strewn with dead bodies. The only survivors are a drunken old man and a baby. Everyone else has died from a mysterious blood-clotting condition... [More...]

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