Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "cold-war-era"

51. Smiley's People (1982)

TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Mystery

The murder of a Soviet defector forces his old handler, British spymaster George Smiley, out of retirement. His investigation leads to an old nemesis, the Soviet spymaster known only as "Karla". This will be their final dance.

Stars: Alec Guinness, Eileen Atkins, Bill Paterson, Vladek Sheybal

Votes: 4,777

52. Summer of Rockets (2019)

60 min | Drama

Cold war drama following a Russian Jewish inventor and his family living in Britain.

Stars: Toby Stephens, Keeley Hawes, Lily Sacofsky, Linus Roache

Votes: 2,173

53. Pickup on South Street (1953)

Passed | 80 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery

A pickpocket unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.

Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Murvyn Vye

Votes: 16,198

54. JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass (2021)

TV-14 | 118 min | Documentary, History

Declassified files related to President Kennedy's assassination in a far larger context, aiming to shine more light on what really happened in 1963.

Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Whoopi Goldberg, Oliver Stone, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Votes: 4,257

55. The Colbys (1985–1987)

60 min | Drama

This spin-off of Dynasty (1981) featured the adventures of Jeff and Fallon Colby and Jeff's other wealthy relatives in California.

Stars: Charlton Heston, John James, Katharine Ross, Emma Samms

Votes: 1,178

56. The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)

Approved | 110 min | Comedy, Romance

After a series of misunderstandings, the head of an aerospace research laboratory begins to suspect that his new girlfriend is a Russian spy.

Director: Frank Tashlin | Stars: Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Arthur Godfrey, John McGiver

Votes: 5,254

57. Il Divo (2008)

Not Rated | 110 min | Biography, Drama

The story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946.

Director: Paolo Sorrentino | Stars: Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci

Votes: 19,042 | Gross: $0.24M

58. Billion Dollar Brain (1967)

Not Rated | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

British spy-turned-detective Harry Palmer stumbles upon an oil tycoon's plot to overthrow Communism using a supercomputer.

Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Michael Caine, Karl Malden, Ed Begley, Oscar Homolka

Votes: 6,035

59. JFK: What the Doctors Saw (2023)

92 min | Documentary, History

Startling medical observations about JFK's wounds when seven doctors who were in the Parkland Hospital ER reunite to discuss a day none of them can forget.

Director: Barbara Shearer | Stars: Ronald C. Jones, Lawrence E. Klein, Joe D. Goldstrich, Kenneth Salyer

Votes: 580

60. McCarthy (II)

Biography, Drama, History | Pre-production

A personal look at the influential former politician who rose to fame as a driving force behind anti-communist and anti-homosexual U.S. political sentiment during the Cold War.

Director: Václav Marhoul | Stars: Emilia Clarke, Michael Shannon, Dane DeHaan, Scoot McNairy

61. The Looking Glass War (1970)

M/PG | 108 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

From the John le Carré novel about a British spy who sends a Polish defector to East Germany to verify missile sites.

Director: Frank Pierson | Stars: Christopher Jones, Pia Degermark, Ralph Richardson, Paul Rogers

Votes: 1,444 | Gross: $0.17M

62. Lola (1981)

R | 115 min | Drama, Romance

A seductive cabaret singer-prostitute pits a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, launching an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything-and everyone-is for sale.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Matthias Fuchs

Votes: 6,851

63. Scorpio (1973)

PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

During the Cold War, the CIA orders free-lance operative Scorpio to assassinate his former CIA mentor Cross and a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues.

Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Paul Scofield, John Colicos

Votes: 5,221

64. OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009)

Not Rated | 101 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

Another mission of world-known French secret agent leads him to exotic Brazil.

Director: Michel Hazanavicius | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Louise Monot, Rüdiger Vogler, Alex Lutz

Votes: 16,576 | Gross: $0.09M

65. Guilty by Suspicion (1991)

PG-13 | 105 min | Drama

Returning to Hollywood 1951 after working in France, a movie director meets McCarthyism head-on.

Director: Irwin Winkler | Stars: Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig

Votes: 9,608 | Gross: $9.48M

66. Silk Stockings (1957)

Approved | 117 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

A Russian government official is sent to Paris to bring back her comrades; she soon gets a taste of Paris life and falls in love with an American movie producer.

Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre

Votes: 4,334

67. Totems (2021– )

52 min | Drama, Thriller

In 1965, in the midst of the Cold War, a French rocket scientist is thrown in the field for a nearly impossible spy mission and falls for a Soviet woman secretly working for the KGB.

Stars: Niels Schneider, Vera Kolesnikova, José Garcia, Lambert Wilson

Votes: 974

68. The Ugly American (1963)

Approved | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller

An ambitious American scholar becomes the ambassador to Sarkan, a southeast Asian country where civil war is brewing.

Director: George Englund | Stars: Marlon Brando, Eiji Okada, Sandra Church, Pat Hingle

Votes: 2,481

69. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (2000 Video Game)

T | Action, Sci-Fi, War

You play either side of a new Allied/Soviet war when the real villian is an evil master of mind control.

Director: Joseph D. Kucan | Stars: Ray Wise, Udo Kier, Barry Corbin, Kari Wuhrer

Votes: 3,179

70. The Tamarind Seed (1974)

PG | 125 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller

During a Caribbean vacation, a British civil servant finds herself falling in love with a Russian Agent.

Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Julie Andrews, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Dan O'Herlihy

Votes: 2,478 | Gross: $2.02M

71. Amerika (1987)

870 min | Action, Drama

America has been bloodlessly taken over by the Soviet Union, leading to slave-labor camps for some, collaboration for others and rebellion for yet others.

Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Robert Urich, Wendy Hughes, Sam Neill

Votes: 657

72. A Very Secret Service (2015–2018)

TV-MA | 26 min | Comedy

Andre Merlaux, a young officer, under the leadership of his three seniors, needs to protect and defend the interests of France and participate in dangerous operations.

Stars: Hugo Becker, Wilfred Benaïche, Christophe Kourotchkine, Karim Barras

Votes: 3,918

73. Night People (1954)

Approved | 93 min | Adventure, Crime, Mystery

During the Cold War, an American soldier is abducted in West Berlin, sparking a recovery effort led by Colonel Steve Van Dyke.

Director: Nunnally Johnson | Stars: Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, Anita Björk, Rita Gam

Votes: 1,519

74. The Iron Curtain (1948)

Approved | 87 min | Biography, Crime, History

The story of Soviet cypher-clerk Igor Gouzenko who was posted to the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa,Canada in 1943 and defected in 1945 to reveal the extent of Soviet espionage activities directed against Canada.

Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, June Havoc, Berry Kroeger

Votes: 1,115

75. The Liquidator (1965)

Approved | 105 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

Colonel Mostyn of the British Intelligence Service suspects there is a leak in his department and hires an American expatriate to eliminate various targets working for the Soviets.

Director: Jack Cardiff | Stars: Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard, Jill St. John, Wilfrid Hyde-White

Votes: 1,300

76. Stalin (1992 TV Movie)

TV-MA | 172 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.

Director: Ivan Passer | Stars: Robert Duvall, Julia Ormond, Maximilian Schell, Jeroen Krabbé

Votes: 2,797

77. JFK: Destiny Betrayed (2021)

TV-MA | 214 min | Documentary, History

Filmmaker Oliver Stone revisits material used in the making of the film JFK along with additional material that has come to light since.

Stars: Whoopi Goldberg, Donald Sutherland, Douglas Horne, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Votes: 506

78. The Journey (1959)

Approved | 126 min | Drama, Romance, War

A British woman trying to escape Hungary with her freedom fighter lover and a group of Westerners, as the Soviet Union moves to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, finds herself the obsession of an enigmatic Communist officer.

Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Jason Robards, Robert Morley

Votes: 1,854

79. The Atomic Cafe (1982)

Not Rated | 86 min | Documentary, History

Disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.

Directors: Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty | Stars: Paul Tibbets, Harry S. Truman, W.H.P. Blandy, Brien McMahon

Votes: 4,549 | Gross: $0.02M

80. The Assets (2014)

60 min | Thriller

CIA counter-intelligence officer Sandy Grimes works to save Soviet intelligence officers from being exposed by a mole inside her organization.

Stars: Jodie Whittaker, Paul Rhys, Harriet Walter, Ralph Brown

Votes: 2,363

81. Truman (1995 TV Movie)

PG | 135 min | Biography, Drama

Though considered unqualified, Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd president following the April 1945 death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Director: Frank Pierson | Stars: Gary Sinise, Diana Scarwid, Richard Dysart, Colm Feore

Votes: 2,499

82. The Silent Revolution (2018)

PG | 111 min | Drama, History

A group of twelfth-grade pupils in East Germany decide to show their solidarity with the victims of the 1956 Hungarian uprising by staging two minutes of silence during lessons.

Director: Lars Kraume | Stars: Leonard Scheicher, Tom Gramenz, Lena Klenke, Isaiah Michalski

Votes: 6,046

83. Company Business (1991)

PG-13 | 98 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

A retired CIA agent is recruited to participate in a prisoner exchange with the Russians.

Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: Gene Hackman, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kurtwood Smith, Terry O'Quinn

Votes: 3,304 | Gross: $1.50M

84. Houston, We Have a Problem! (2016)

88 min | Documentary, History

Explores the myth of the secret multi-billion-dollar deal behind America's purchase of Yugoslavia's clandestine space program in the early 1960s.

Director: Ziga Virc | Stars: Slavoj Zizek, Josip Broz Tito, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson

Votes: 3,655

85. Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn (2019)

TV-MA | 94 min | Documentary

A look at the life and work of New York power broker Roy Cohn.

Director: Ivy Meeropol | Stars: Cindy Adams, Joey Adams, Peter L. Allen, Noreen Bahring

Votes: 935

86. Celia (1989)

Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror

An imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia.

Director: Ann Turner | Stars: Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie, Victoria Longley, Mary-Anne Fahey

Votes: 1,515

87. The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968)

Unrated | 113 min | Comedy

A beautiful East German Olympic hopeful pole-vaults over the Berlin Wall to freedom.

Director: George Marshall | Stars: Elke Sommer, Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, Joey Forman

Votes: 304

88. The Little World of Don Camillo (1952)

107 min | Comedy

A determined priest and a Communist mayor develop a grudging friendship in spite of their official rivalry.

Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Fernandel, Gino Cervi, Vera Talchi, Franco Interlenghi

Votes: 4,861

89. The Tunnel (2001)

150 min | Drama, History, Thriller

During the Cold War, Germany was divided into two states - East and West. This epic story tells about their dramatic connections.

Director: Roland Suso Richter | Stars: Heino Ferch, Nicolette Krebitz, Sebastian Koch, Alexandra Maria Lara

Votes: 6,411 | Gross: $0.01M

90. Sun Alley (1999)

101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A group of kids grows up on the east side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to one of the few border crossings between East and West Germany. The antics of the people on Sonnenallee all show the absurdity of their everyday life.

Director: Leander Haußmann | Stars: Alexander Scheer, Alexander Beyer, Robert Stadlober, Teresa Weißbach

Votes: 7,270

91. The Red Menace (1949)

Approved | 81 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller

An ex-GI becomes involved with the American Communist party, and falls in love with his instructor. The pair quickly realise their mistake, when they see how party leaders handle a member ... See full summary »

Director: R.G. Springsteen | Stars: Robert Rockwell, Hanna Axmann-Rezzori, Betty Lou Gerson, Barbra Fuller

Votes: 274

92. B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989 (2015)

92 min | Documentary, Music

Unreleased footage captures West Berlin's underground scene in the 1980s, from punk to Love Parade, portraying the city's creative energy before the Berlin Wall fell.

Directors: Jörg A. Hoppe, Heiko Lange, Klaus Maeck | Stars: Andi, Bela B., Blixa Bargeld, Ben Becker

Votes: 2,200

93. The Missiles of October (1974 TV Movie)

150 min | Drama, History, Thriller

In October 1962, the Kennedy administration struggles to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Director: Anthony Page | Stars: William Devane, Ralph Bellamy, Howard Da Silva, James Hong

Votes: 1,128

94. The Ear (1970)

94 min | Drama, Thriller

After coming home from a Party gathering one night, a Czech official becomes convinced that he is about to be the subject of a political purge and tries to do damage control, while also dealing with his turbulent marriage.

Director: Karel Kachyna | Stars: Jirina Bohdalová, Radoslav Brzobohatý, Gustav Opocenský, Miroslav Holub

Votes: 3,333

95. Call Me Bwana (1963)

Not Rated | 93 min | Comedy

A returning moon capsule with vital information goes off-course and lands in Africa, where the little-known Ekele tribesmen find it. Washington orders African expert, Matthew Merriwether - ... See full summary »

Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Bob Hope, Anita Ekberg, Edie Adams, Lionel Jeffries

Votes: 882

96. Serangoon Road (2013)

561 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Serangoon Road is a detective noir series set against the tumultuous backdrop of 1960s Singapore.

Stars: Don Hany, Joan Chen, Maeve Dermody, Alaric

Votes: 697

97. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon (2001 Video)

47 min | Documentary, History

A documentary on the evidence which shows that the Apollo 11 astronauts never actually landed on the moon.

Director: Bart Sibrel | Stars: Anne Tonelson, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins

Votes: 714

98. Meeting Gorbachev (2018)

Not Rated | 90 min | Documentary, Biography, History

The life of Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final President of the Soviet Union in chronological order.

Directors: Werner Herzog, André Singer | Stars: Mikhail Gorbachev, Werner Herzog, André Singer, Leonid Brezhnev

Votes: 2,748 | Gross: $0.25M

99. Disco: Soundtrack of A Revolution (2023)

Documentary, History, Music

From the sweaty basement bars of 70s New York to the glittering peak of the global charts, how disco conquered the world - its origins, its triumphs, its fall and its legacy.

Stars: David Depino, Nicky Siano, Ana Matronic, Allen Roskoff

Votes: 61

100. Carol for Another Christmas (1964 TV Movie)

84 min | Drama, Fantasy

Daniel Grudge, a wealthy industrialist and fierce isolationist long embittered by the loss of his son in World War II, is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve who lead him to reconsider his attitude toward his fellow man.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Percy Rodrigues, Sterling Hayden, Ben Gazzara, Barbara Ann Teer

Votes: 1,462