Best movies like Destination Unknown

Two Against Jap Treachery!

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Destination Unknown Starring William Gargan, Irene Hervey, Sam Levene, Turhan Bey, and more. If you liked Destination Unknown then you may also like: Unseen Enemy, The Unwritten Code, Von Ryan's Express, War Correspondent, We've Never Been Licked and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

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Unseen Enemy

The Unseen Enemy in this wartime meller is Nick (Leo Carrillo), the outwardly effusive manager of a San Francisco waterfront café. To make enough money to ensure his daughter Gen's (Irene Hervey) entree into society, Nick sells his services to a gang of foreign spies, who then use Nick's establishment as a rendezvous point. The plan is to covertly send out a Japanese vessel for the purpose of raiding and destroying American merchant ships. The spies' secret code is hidden in the lyrics of a song called "Lydia", which the unwitting Gen performs on request day after day.

The Unwritten Code

The Unwritten Code is an offbeat, better-than-average Columbia wartime "B" picture. Though Ann Savage and Tom Neal are top-billed, the central character is supporting-actor Roland Varno. He plays a Nazi spy who sneaks into the U.S., hoping to release hundreds of German prisoners. He fails, but not until plenty of bullets have been spent. The most interesting aspect of The Unwritten Code is the casting of Savage and Neal as the "good" characters: in 1945, these two cult favorites would play the decidedly unsavory protagonists of the film noir classic Detour.

Von Ryan's Express

Von Ryan's Express stars Frank Sinatra as a POW colonel who leads a daring escape from WWII Italy by taking over a freight train, but he has to win over the British soldiers he finds himself commanding.

War Correspondent

In this war drama, a brave reporter tries to remain detached while covering the war in Shanghai. While there, he falls for an ex-streetwalker, but must compete with a mercenary pilot for her love. By the end, the correspondent loses his objectivity after he helps the pilot save the woman from the enemy. The rescue costs the pilot his life.

We've Never Been Licked

Young Brad Craig enters the military school with a chip on his shoulder which upperclassmen quickly knock off. Once adjusted, Craig falls in love with a professor's beautiful daughter, only to find she is in love with his roommate.

Women of Valor

A group of American Army nurses are captured by the Japanese in April 1942 and spend three years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Bataan. Lt Margaret Ann Jessup, the head army nurse, survives the camp and testifies against the Japanese in front of the United States Congressional subcommittee years later as a colonel.

Nightmare

An ex-gambler helps a beautiful widow, and becomes involved with a murder, secret agents, and saboteurs.

Remember Pearl Harbor

A man tries to redeem himself after ducking out on his comrades before the fatal attack.

Jungle Moon Men

Priestess Oma is forever young in this Jungle Jim knockoff of "She" or the La of Opar stories from "Tarzan". The Jungle Jim-type character is played by Weissmuller using his own name.

Across the Pacific

Rick Leland makes no secret of the fact he has no loyalty to his home country after he is court-marshaled out of the army and boards a Japanese ship for the Orient in late 1941. But has Leland really been booted out, or is there some other motive for his getting close to fellow passenger Doctor Lorenz? Any motive for getting close to attractive traveller Alberta Marlow would however seem pretty obvious.

Charlotte Gray

This is a drama set in Nazi-occupied France at the height of World War II. Charlotte Gray tells the compelling story of a young Scottish woman working with the French Resistance in the hope of rescuing her lover, a missing RAF pilot. Based on the best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks.

Prison Ship

Panic arises among Allied POWs aboard a Japanese freighter when they learn that the ship is actually a decoy target for American submarines on night patrol. The prisoners unite and attack their Japanese captors just as an American sub surfaces and, not knowing the prisoners are aboard, prepares to torpedo the ship.

Don Winslow of the Coast Guard

Don Winslow (titular hero of the serial "Don Winslow of the Navy") is reassigned to the United States Coast Guard, to guard the coast against saboteurs and sneak attacks.

Empire of the Sun

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

Letters from Iwo Jima

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.

The McKenzie Break

A German U-Boat commander and 600 prisoners plan a daring escape from a PoW camp in Scotland.

Golden Earrings

A British colonel escapes from the Gestapo to the Black Forest and poses as a Gypsy's mate.

Shanghai Express

A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.

The Gorilla Man

A wounded soldier discovers his hospital is secretly run by the Nazis.

The Steel Claw

A Marine stationed in the Philippines loses a hand in an accident and is discharged from the Corps. When the Japanese invade the Philippines, he is called back into service to rescue a general held by Filipino guerrillas behind Japanese lines. Attaching a steel prosthetic in place of his missing hand, he and his men set out on the mission, which turns out to be not quite what he was told it was.

Secret Command

Sam Gallagher returns home to Los Angeles as an undercover spy for the Navy, getting a job at the shipyards where his brother, Jeff, is a foreman. Jeff still resents Sam for abandoning the family years ago and fears he may steal away Lea Damaron, his current girlfriend -- who is Sam's old flame. While Sam tries to sniff out Nazi saboteurs in the plant, he grows closer to Jill McGann, the agent tasked with pretending to be his wife.

The Hurricane Express

The Wrecker wrecks trains on the L & R Railroad. One of his victims is Larry Baker's father. Baker wants to find the evildoer, among a host of suspects, but it will be difficult since the Wrecker can disguise himself to look like almost anyone

The Black Parachute

A paratrooper drops behind enemy lines to rescue the deposed king of a mythical Balkan nation.

Careful, Soft Shoulders

In this espionage movie, set in Washington during WW II, the daughter of an ex-senator has become a dress model. She is approached by an American counter-espionage agent who offers her a chance to serve her country. The carefree son of a naval official receives a similar offer. He is asked to secure secret Naval plans. Unbeknownst to them, the man they work for is actually a Nazi spy. The two dupes finally figure it out, and the spy kidnaps them. Somehow they escape and break up the spy ring.

Secret Enemies

FBI agents Carl Becker and John Trent raid a New York hotel, sending Nazi spies to an upstate hunting lodge.

The Man from Dakota

A frontier scout, a Boston officer and a Russian girl escape with a map past Confederates.

North of Nome

John Raglan is a seal hunter being hounded by hijackers, so he strands himself on an isolated island in the Bering Sea that is owned by a corporation. During a fierce sea-storm, Raglan rescues the passengers of a floundering ship, which includes the owner of the island, his daughter and her fiancée. The owner threatens to charge Ragland with poaching on private property, and then a gang of seal-skin thieves make an entrance.

The Deadly Game

A pre-World War II saber-rattler that finds a munitions inventor kidnapped, a federal agent killed and a beautiful refugee mysteriously missing as Washington's deadly game of espionage and intrigue thunders on...as the FBI hunts the nation's invisble foes! They may have been invisible but their accents and billing names von Morhart, William Vaughn (William von Brincken already hiding under another name before hostilities were formally declared), Frederick Gierman and Walter Bonn---provide clues aplenty as to their country of origin and paymaster.

The Hour Before the Dawn

A beautiful Austrian refugee in England--who is also a Nazi agent--marries a scholarly English pacifist. He lives near a secret military base she needs to get information about so she can help in Hitler's planned invasion of England.

The Spy Ring

Two American-army officers are working on a new type of machine-gun for anti-aircraft warfare, when one of them is murdered. The other vows to get the spies that are after the invention and avenge his friend's death.

Bombay Clipper

Someone has absconded with $4,000,000 worth of diamonds, and that someone may very well be a passenger on the Bombay Clipper.

Sergeant Murphy

An Army private proves his horse is fit for service and wins his colonel's daughter.

Singapore

After the war, Matt Gordon returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls. Arrived, he reminisces in flashback about his prewar fiancée, alluring Linda, and her disappearance during the Japanese attack. But now Linda resurfaces...with amnesia and married to rich planter Van Leyden. Meanwhile, sinister fence Mauribus schemes to get Matt's pearls.

Flat Top

A rock hard commander trains Navy Carrier Pilots during the Second World War

By Whose Hand?

A man tries to hide aboard a moving train after murdering a jewelry magnate.

Return from the River Kwai

A group of war prisoners has spilt blood, sweat and tears to construct a bridge over the river Kwai in Thailand. Just when the bridge is ready, an American bomber arrives and destroys it. Camp commander Tanaka wants to set an example and orders that some of the prisoners must be executed. Just in time major Harada arrives with orders that the healthiest prisoners must be transported to Japan by train and boat. A treacherous journey since the allied forces keep a close eye on railroads and practically own the seas.

Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen

Detective Ellery Queen aids Free Dutch agents battle Nazi spies over a prize of industrial diamonds.

Tokyo Rose

Lotus Long plays the title role, an American-educated Japanese woman broadcasting enemy propaganda to American troops. Captured GI Pete Sherman is one of a group of POWS slated to be interviewed on Tokyo Rose's radio program. Instead of advising his comrades to surrender (as ordered), Sherman uses his innate Yankee knowhow to hoist the treacherous deejay on her own petard. Managing to make his escape, Sherman hooks up with the Japanese Underground, convincing anti-militarist Charlie Otani to aid in a kidnapping plot aimed at Tokyo Rose.

Pacific Rendezvous

A code expert working for Naval Intelligence is assigned to decode enemy messages despite his desire for active duty.

Carolina Cannonball

Judy and her grandpa run a trolley between a train depot and a ghost town in Nevada, near the California border. Three spies intent of tracking down an atomic missile gone astray arrive. When the trolley breaks down, Judy and Grandpa unwittingly install the engine from the nearby crashed missile.

Pacific Inferno

After the fall of the Philippines in World War II, the Japanese discover that Gen. MacArthur ordered millions of dollars in silver dumped in Manila Bay in order that it not fall into enemy hands. Among the prisoners the Japanese have taken are two American U.S. Navy deep-sea divers, whom they then force to dive in search of the sunken treasure.

The Last Rescue

World World II: Shortly after D-Day, three American soldiers and two Army Corps nurses are stranded behind enemy lines. They take a high-ranking German officer as their prisoner and try to orchestrate an escape.

The Lady Has Plans

Some dastardly criminals have stolen some top secret plans and tattoo them on the back of a woman so she can sell them to the highest bidder in Lisbon. This woman plans to take the place of a 'Sidney Royce', a legitimate traveler going to Lisbon as a reporter. Crossed signals allows the real Sidney to reach Portugal first, where she is pursued by those trying to obtain the plans and US government agents trying to prevent the sale.

Counter-Attack

Two Russians fight to escape the seven Nazi soldiers trapped with them in a bombed building.

The Secret Invasion

During World War II, convicts are recruited by the Allies for an extremely hazardous mission.

First Yank into Tokyo

A U.S. pilot undergoes plastic surgery and drops into Japan to get a captive scientist's (Marc Cramer) atomic secrets.

Shadows of Sing Sing

Muriel Rossi (Mary Brian), the sister of a racketeer, Al Rossi (Harry Woods), falls in love with Bob Martel (Bruce Cabot), the son of a police detective, Joe Martel (Grant Mitchell). Their love affair causes bot families problems when Bob is framed, but saved as a result of his father's access to police department films.

Samurai

A young Japanese-American orphan in California is taken in by a priest who is actually a Japanese secret agent and a samurai warrior. Due to the samurai's training, the boy murders his English teacher, kills the American parents who have adopted him, smuggles Japanese secret plans into the country, and eventually becomes the governor of California with plans to infiltrate Japanese spies into the state so they can take over.

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