Best films set in London
With examples like the dark, brooding city in 'Night and the City' and the swinging sixties captured in 'Blow-Up', this is a chronological list charts London’s best moments on the big screen.
(Note: The criteria for this list is that London has to play a significant role in the film. Films that were not shot in London, Mary Poppins, From Hell etc, are included because they are significant films about London)
(Note: The criteria for this list is that London has to play a significant role in the film. Films that were not shot in London, Mary Poppins, From Hell etc, are included because they are significant films about London)
List activity
48K views
• 184 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
- 116 titles
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJune TrippIvor NovelloMarie AultA landlady suspects that her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.
- DirectorEwald André DupontStarsGilda GrayAnna May WongJameson ThomasA young Chinese woman working in the kitchen at a London dance club is given the chance to become the club's main act, which leads to a plot of betrayal, forbidden love, and murder.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsSylvia SidneyOscar HomolkaDesmond TesterA Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsVivien LeighRobert TaylorLucile WatsonMyra and Roy meet and fall in love on Waterloo Bridge during an air raid. Their love will be one of the war's unspoken casualties.
- DirectorsMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsRoger LiveseyDeborah KerrAnton WalbrookFrom the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsCharles BoyerIngrid BergmanJoseph CottenTen years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the house rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsRobert NewtonCelia JohnsonJohn MillsJust after World War I, the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. They live an ordinary life throughout the years, but everything changes when World War II breaks out.
- DirectorJohn BrahmStarsLaird CregarLinda DarnellGeorge SandersA promising classical musician finds his life poisoned by a music hall dancer -- and by the strange gaps in his memory.
- DirectorRobert HamerStarsGoogie WithersJack WarnerJohn McCallumAn escaped convict tries to hide out at his former lover's house, but she has since married and is reluctant to help him.
- DirectorCharles CrichtonStarsAlastair SimFrederick PiperHarry FowlerA gang of street boys foil a master crook who sends commands for robberies by cunningly altering a comic strip's wording each week, unknown to writer and printer. The first of the Ealing comedies.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsRalph RichardsonMichèle MorganSonia DresdelA butler working in a foreign embassy in London falls under suspicion when his wife accidentally falls to her death, the only witness being an impressionable young boy.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsRobert NewtonAlec GuinnessKay WalshIn Charles Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home.
- DirectorSidney GilliatStarsRichard AttenboroughAlastair SimWylie WatsonPercy Boon lives with his mother in a shared rented house with an assortment of characters in central London. Although well intentioned, Percy becomes mixed up with gangsters and a murder. The story focuses on the effects this has on Percy and the other residents.
- DirectorEdward DmytrykStarsRobert NewtonSally GrayNaunton WayneClive Riordan plans a devilish revenge against his wife's lover.
- DirectorHenry CorneliusStarsStanley HollowayBetty WarrenBarbara MurrayResidents of a part of London declare independence after they discover an old treaty, which leads to the need for a "Passport to Pimlico".
- DirectorRobert HamerStarsDennis PriceAlec GuinnessValerie HobsonA distant poor relative of the Duke D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
- DirectorJules DassinStarsRichard WidmarkGene TierneyGoogie WithersA small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.This is an underrated 1950 Film-Noir thriller from Jules Dassin, a filmmaker who ending up being blacklisted in Hollywood. The chase scenes through the capital, capture the foggy, barely lit essence of post-war London perfectly.
- DirectorBasil DeardenStarsJack WarnerDirk BogardeJimmy HanleyThe daily routine of two London policemen is interrupted by a killer.
- DirectorCharles CrichtonStarsAlec GuinnessStanley HollowaySidney JamesA meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.
- DirectorBasil DeardenStarsBonar ColleanoSusan ShawRenée AshersonWhen their ship docks the crew disembark as usual to pick up their lives in postwar London. For one of them his petty smuggling turns more serious when he finds himself caught up with a robbery in the City.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsRay MillandGrace KellyRobert CummingsA London playboy plots the perfect murder of his rich, unfaithful Wife.
- DirectorVal GuestStarsBrian DonlevyJack WarnerRichard WordsworthProfessor Bernard Quatermass' manned rocket ship returns to Earth, but two of the astronauts are missing and the survivor seems ill and unable to communicate.
- DirectorAlexander MackendrickStarsAlec GuinnessPeter SellersCecil ParkerFive oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartDoris DayBrenda de BanzieAn American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.
- DirectorBasil DeardenStarsNigel PatrickYvonne MitchellMichael CraigThe murder of a young woman in London exposes deep racial tensions and prejudices inherent in the area.
