5 of the Best WWII Films You Never Heard of

This personally curated list highlights several great WWII films that you may not have known were made and have since fallen out of public view. I can say that I never get tired of these films, even after watching them several times, and often prefer them to later, big-budget modern remakes.

Dunkirk (1958)

This original version of this film tells the story of Operation Dynamo from two seperate perspectives, which are beautifully intertwined into a single narrative starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough, and Bernard Lee. One storyline follows Lance Corporal Binns (Mills), who is in charge of a group of privates stuck behind enemy lines, unsure of the whereabouts of the rest of their company, and must make their way to the beaches of Dunkirk. Along the way, they face the realities of war as civilian refugees are straffed, defensive positions are bombed, and fellow wounded comrades must be left behind.

The opposing storyline follows newspaperman Charles Forman (Lee) and his neighbor, garage owner and a man who works in a protected profession, John Holden (Attenborough). Both have been ordered to release their small civilian craft for the needed rescue mission and sail them to the english side rendezvous point. While Forman attempts to uncover the truth behind the propaganda disseminated by the British government, Holden faces objections from his wife, complacency stemming from his experience with the "Phoney War" against Hitler, and his conflicted feelings about war. Both end up delivering their craft to Sheerness, but volunteer to pilot their civilian craft across the channel to rescue the army on the beaches. This is where the stories converge, but not all from either group will survive.

Dunkirk (1958). Ealing Studios, 1958. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051565/.

In Which We Serve

This Film was written, directed, and starred Noel Coward, with additional directing by David Lean. Other starring cast members include John Mills, Bernard Miles, and Richard Attenborough in his first screen role. Coward serves as Ship's Captain E.V. Kinross of the HMS Torrin. The film starts with an opening narration of "This is the story of a Ship." The story begins with the sinking of the Torrin by German Bombers in 1941, and the film proceeds to tell her story through the use of flashbacks featuring the captain and her crew, including the Captain, several non-commissioned officers, and junior enlisted personnel. The various stories include the building and commissioning of the ship, the civilian lives of the different crew, and the engagements they fought together. The focus is not on great battles or heroics of some expert sailor, but the everyday issues faced by a ship and her crew. The screenplay was based in part on the exploits of the HMS Kelly and its captain, Lord Louis Mountbatten, great-uncle to King Charles III.

In Which We Serve. British Lion Films, 1942. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034891/.

The Cruel Sea

This 1953 British film stars Jack Hawkins as Lieutenant Commander George Ericson, Royal Naval Reserve, and Donald Sinden as Sub-Lieutenant Keith Lockhart, RNVR, and their commands of the Flower-class corvette Compass Rose and later the Castle-class corvette Saltash Castle. Both ships are assigned to Atlantic Convoy duty, with the Compass Rose being sunk by submarine torpedoes. The captain must pull together a completely green officer corps, including one overly abusive First Lieutenant James Bennet, and two sub-lieutenants, Lockhart and Ferraby, who have never served at sea. Their missions included launching depth charges into a group of survivors to destroy the submarine lurking below them, as cover, for which the survivors later thanked the captain. They also dealt with the disadvantages of poor weather and rough seas, as well as the Captains stuggle of the loss of most of the crew from the Compass Rose. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Monsarrat, a former naval officer during WWII.

The Cruel Sea. Ealing Studios, 1953. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045659/.

Command Decision

This 1949 film stars Clark Gable as Brigadier General Casey Dennis, alongside a full cast that includes Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Charles Bickford, and Brian Donlevy. The movie is based on both the stage play and novel written by William Wister Haines, who served as an Intelligence officer for the Army Air Force in WWII.

After putting up heavy losses in planes and men during a recent bombing mission, journalist Elmer Brockhurst (Bickford) begins to investigate the mission, leading him to the commander of the bombing group, Brig. Gen. Casey Dennis. The first mission reported was part of a three-day operation deep into German territory, aimed at paralyzing German war production. Brockhurst arrives to see the planes taking off for phase II, and tries to get more information but is held at bay by Tech Sergeant Evans. Subplots contributing to the public relations nightmare include the arrest of a decorated non-commissioned officer for failing to fly a mission, as well as visits by Dennis' commanding officers and a Congressional subcommittee, one of whose members is related to the NCO under arrest. The climax of the film culminates in a magnificent monologue by Dennis to the assembled higher officers, detailing the benefits of the daylight raids by the American bomber command, preventing the production of the new German jet fighter, and explaining its necessity in completing the mission. This is counterbalanced by an equally inspirational response from Pidgeon's character about the struggles he has faced in promoting the need for airpower, detailing "the statistics I've juggled, the photos I've doctored, and the reports I've gilded and suppressed." And I'd do it all again." Although the overall three-phase mission is completed before the end of the film, it has not been completed by Dennis. Also, several key characters are lost during the second phase.

Command Decision. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1949. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040242/.

PT-109

Released in July of 1963, just a few months before his assassination, PT-109 tells the story of Lieutenant Junior Grade John F. Kennedy and his command of the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 during the Solomon Islands Campaign during World War II. Cliff Robertson plays Kennedry in a script adapted by Bincent FLaherty and Howard Sheehan from the book PT 109: John F. Kennedy in World War II. The story picks up with his assignment to the Solomon Islands at Tulagi. He is given the nearly Mothballed 109 and a crew of green seamen to get the ship back into fighting condition. Once successfully outfitted and restored, the crew completes several rescue missions. During its last mission, the ship is rammed by a Japanese destroyer, instantly killing 2 of the crew, wounding several others, including Kennedy. He manages to get his crew to swim to a nearby island, and after several days, they are rescued.

PT 109. Warner Brothers, 1963. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057393/.