True Stories
True Stories are those based (sometimes loosely!) on fact. They cover topics as diverse as drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the corruption of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, mental illness and other human struggles. Meet some of history's most intriguing characters, find out what it's really like to climb a mountain or paint a masterpiece. Truly, the True Story is one of cinema's most engaging and enthralling genres.
Bio-pics feature in this section and are also gathered together separately under the 'Biography' sublink left.
Pictured: Inside the Las Vegas mob, Scorsese's unromantic 'Goodfellas'
They Died With Their Boots On (1941)
7.3/10
Director: Raoul Walsh
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, Arthur Kennedy, Gene Lockhart, Anthony Quinn,...
Errol Flynn stars as the eccentric yet (in this version) heroic General George Armstrong Custer, beginning with his time at West Point and ending, nat... Read more
James Stewart: The Shop Around the Corner / The Stratton Story / The FBI Story / The Spirit of St Louis (1940)
8.9/10
Director: Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Mervyn LeRoy, Sam Wood
Starring: Agnes Moorehead, Frank Morgan, James Stewart, June Allyson, Margaret Sullavan, M...
James Stewart Box Set. 'The Shop Around the Corner' (1940) - Alfred Kralik (Stewart) and Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) are employees at Matuschek an... Read more
Jesse James (1939)
7.1/10
Director: Henry King
Starring: Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott, Henry Hull
The classic account of the lives of outlaw brothers Jesse (Tyrone Power) and Frank (Henry Fonda) James, the circumstances that drove them to crime and... Read more
The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex (1939)
7.2/10
Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, Vincent...
A colourful and elaborate costume drama featuring fine performances from Bette Davis as an aging Queen Elizabeth I, and Errol Flynn as her flamboyant... Read more
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
7.3/10
Director: John Ford
Starring: Warner Baxter, Gloria Stuart, John Carradine, Harry Carey
Dr. Samuel Mudd (Warner Baxter) is arrested for being an accomplice to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.) when he unknowingly ai... Read more
Rembrandt (1936)
7.2/10
Director: Alexander Korda
Starring: Elsa Lanchester, Charles Laughton
The depiction of the famous Dutch painter and his struggle to maintain his artistic integrity is related with respectful restraint and attention to fa... Read more
The Private Life Of Henry VIII (1933)
7.2/10
Director: Alexander Korda
Starring: Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Merle Oberon
Charles Laughton is brilliant as the British monarch, set amid the indulgent atmosphere of the 16th century. Politics, statesmanship and international... Read more
Mata Hari (1931)
6.7/10
Director: George Fitzmaurice
Starring: Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley
Who better to play the famous World War I spy than the Swedish Sphinx, Greta Garbo? She is mesmerising as the dancer-turned-German spy in a wartime P... Read more
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Abraham Lincoln (1930)
5.8/10
Director: D W Griffith
Starring: Kay Hammond, Walter Huston
Abraham Lincoln was voted number two of the ten best films of 1930, heralding the comeback to movie-making by one of the world's leading pioneers - D.... Read more
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
8.2/10
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring: Renee Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Andre Berley, Maurice Schutz, Antonin Artaud
With it's stunning camerawork and striking compositions, Dreyer's film convinced the world that movies could be art. Renee Falconetti (in her only rol... Read more