Best History Movies of 1951

Captain Horatio Hornblower leads his ship HMS Lydia on a perilous transatlantic voyage, during which his faithful crew battle both a Spanish warship and a ragged band of Central American rebels.

The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.

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.

King David enters into an adulterous affair with the beautiful Bathsheba, which has tragic consequences for his family and Israel.

Actor becomes Hitler's valet, murders him, takes his place and ruins Nazi Germany's war efforts.

Murder in the Cathedral is a story about Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his struggles against temptation and personal vanity prior to his murder in the great Cathedral.

In 1866, a new gold discovery and an inconclusive conference force the U.S. Army to build a road and fort in territory ceded by previous treaty to the Sioux...to the disgust of frontier scout Jim Bridger, whose Cheyenne wife led him to see the conflict from both sides. The powder-keg situation needs only a spark to bring war, and violent bigots like Lieut. Rob Dancy are all too likely to provide this. Meanwhile, Bridger's chance of preventing catastrophe is dimmed by equally wrenching personal conflicts. Unusually accurate historically.

Two old friends find themselves on opposite sides during the Civil War in a desperate battle atop an impregnable mountain.

Falsely accused by the corrupt Governor Elden of Charleston of fencing stolen pirate booty, young Davey Crandall and friend Tom Botts buy passage on the ship of local buccaneer Bloodthirsty Ben. They avoid being killed by faking a case of the pox, which causes the panicked captain and crew to desert the ship. The two find themselves alone, and when a lucky cannon shot hits a mast on a British ship, they find themselves mistaken for pirates. They sail to Tortuga, where they recruit such notorious corsairs as Henry Morgan, Captain Kidd, Anne Bonney, and Blackbeard to lay siege to Chaleston and expose the villain Elden.

A Civil Defense film that focuses on what the average American can do to protect himself if caught out in the open or at home during a nuclear attack.

Story of a revolt against England in 1830s Canada.

This documentary which opens with a ten-minute period drama about the importance of Williamsburg in 1774, explains the mission of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin in the 1920s to restore Williamsburg to a colonial American icon. Through the painstaking research of curator, historians, and architects, the town's restoration plan is mapped out. Construction tradesmen from the twentieth century transform rundown exteriors into period edifices. Interiors are modified and restored to livable, sometimes elegant, period condition. This vast undertaking leads to mid-century historical interpretation about the importance of the people and ideas of Williamsburg that forged a new nation.