Direction: William Wyler

The best movies, series, and documentaries directed by William Wyler. Explore exceptional titles that showcase a unique filmmaking vision.


The Best Years of Our Lives

1946 · Movie · 170 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Dana Andrews · Fredric March · Myrna Loy · Harold Russell

Plot After the Second World War, the soldiers who survived, some of them with physical problems, came back to the United States. Initially, they were treated as heroes, but afterwards they...

8.2

8K votes

8.2

8K votes

The Little Foxes

1941 · Movie · 116 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Bette Davis · Teresa Wright · Herbert Marshall · Patricia Collinge

Plot An ambitious woman takes on her corrupt brothers and honest husband in her drive for wealth. In the deep South at the turn of the 20th century, shrewish Regina Giddens...

8.1

6K votes

8.1

6K votes

The Heiress

1949 · Movie · 115 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Olivia de Havilland · Montgomery Clift · Ralph Richardson · Miriam Hopkins

Plot Catherine Sloper is a shy and backwards young woman who lives with her father, Dr. Austin Sloper, in 1849 New York. By all accounts Catherine's mother was a beautiful and...

8.1

7K votes

8.1

7K votes

The Big Country

1958 · Movie · 159 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Gregory Peck · Jean Simmons · Charlton Heston · Burl Ives

Plot In a dry, parched canyon located in the southwest, a rich rancher battles it out with a poor counterpart for water rights. Yet in fact, neither man has control of...

8.0

12K votes

8.0

12K votes

Ben-Hur

1959 · Movie · 211 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Charlton Heston · Jack Hawkins · Stephen Boyd · Haya Harareet

Plot Anno Domini: the seventh year of Augustus Caesar's reign. In the Roman province of Judea, Jews return to the city of their birth for the census. A bright star in...

7.9

66K votes

7.9

66K votes

Roman Holiday

1953 · Movie · 118 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Gregory Peck · Audrey Hepburn · Eddie Albert · Hartley Power

Plot On a diplomatic visit to Rome, Anne (Audrey Hepburn) escapes her royal retainers and scampers incognito through the Eternal City. She happens to meet American journalist Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck),...

7.9

33K votes

7.9

33K votes

The Children's Hour

1961 · Movie · 107 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Audrey Hepburn · Shirley MacLaine · James Garner · Miriam Hopkins

Plot Karen (Hepburn) and Martha (MacLaine) are the headmistresses of an exclusive school for girls. When they discipline a malicious little girl, the vindictive child twists an overheard comment into slander...

7.8

7K votes

7.8

7K votes

The Collector

1965 · Movie · 119 min. · United Kingdom

Direction William Wyler

Cast Terence Stamp · Samantha Eggar · Mona Washbourne · Maurice Dallimore

Plot Freddie Clegg isn't sure if he can carry out his plan for "her" until he stumbles across an isolated house for sale in the English countryside, the house he spots...

7.7

6K votes

7.7

6K votes

Jezebel

1938 · Movie · 103 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Bette Davis · Henry Fonda · George Brent · Margaret Lindsay

Plot Set in antebellum New Orleans during the early 1850's, this film follows Julie Marsden through her quest for social redemption on her own terms. Julie is a beautiful and free...

7.7

4K votes

7.7

4K votes

The Letter

1940 · Movie · 91 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Bette Davis · Herbert Marshall · James Stephenson · Frieda Inescort

Plot The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense. Her poise, graciousness and stoicism impress nearly everyone who meets her. Her husband...

7.6

5K votes

7.6

5K votes

Wuthering Heights

1939 · Movie · 103 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Merle Oberon · Laurence Olivier · David Niven · Flora Robson

Plot The Earnshaws are Yorkshire farmers during the early 19th Century. One day, Mr. Earnshaw returns from a trip to the city, bringing with him a ragged little boy called Heathcliff....

7.4

5K votes

7.4

5K votes

The Westerner

1940 · Movie · 100 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Gary Cooper · Walter Brennan · Doris Davenport · Fred Stone

Plot "Cole Harden just doesn't look like a horse thief", Jane-Ellen Matthews tells Judge Roy Bean as she steps up to the bar. Cole says he can't take it with him...

7.4

2K votes

7.4

2K votes

Dodsworth

1936 · Movie · 96 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Walter Huston · Ruth Chatterton · Mary Astor · David Niven

Plot Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) sells his automobile company at great profit. But his success has come at the expense his dutiful wife, Fran (Ruth Chatterton). She persuades him to take...

7.4

1K votes

7.4

1K votes

Detective Story

1951 · Movie · 103 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Kirk Douglas · Eleanor Parker · Lee Grant · William Bendix

Plot On a day in the life of the 21st Precinct detective squad, we meet a batty old lady; petty embezzler Arthur, and the wonderful girl whose unrequited love may redeem...

7.3

2K votes

7.3

2K votes

Carrie

1952 · Movie · 118 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Laurence Olivier · Jennifer Jones · Miriam Hopkins · Eddie Albert

Plot When Carrie steps onto the train that will take her to Chicago, she regards the trip as a grand adventure. But her glorious dreams of the big city quickly die,...

7.2

703 votes

7.2

703 votes

Mrs. Miniver

1942 · Movie · 134 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Greer Garson · Walter Pidgeon · Christopher Severn · Richard Ney

Plot A moving drama about a middle-class English family learning to cope with war, told in a series of dramatic vignettes. The family, headed by the lovely and gracious matriarch, endures...

7.2

3K votes

7.2

3K votes

The Desperate Hours

1955 · Movie · 112 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Humphrey Bogart · Fredric March · Arthur Kennedy · Martha Scott

Plot After escaping from prison, Glenn Griffin, his brother Hal and a third inmate Sam Kobish randomly select a house in a well-to-do suburb of Indianapolis in which to hide out....

7.2

2K votes

7.2

2K votes

These Three

1936 · Movie · 93 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Miriam Hopkins · Merle Oberon · Joel McCrea · Catherine Doucet

Plot Karen and Martha, college roommates, graduate and face the future with no place and no money. Karen, however, has inherited a farmhouse from her grandmother, and gets the idea that...

7.1

578 votes

7.1

578 votes

Dead End

1937 · Movie · 93 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Sylvia Sidney · Joel McCrea · Humphrey Bogart · Wendy Barrie

Plot Dead End is the prototypical social-problem drama about a Manhattan slum in the 1930s. Lillian Hellman's engaging script, based on Sidney Kingsley's hit play, finds the neighborhood residents struggling to...

7.1

2K votes

7.1

2K votes

Friendly Persuasion

1956 · Movie · 131 min. · United States

Direction William Wyler

Cast Gary Cooper · Dorothy McGuire · Marjorie Main · Anthony Perkins

Plot The story of a family of Quakers in Indiana in 1862. Their religous sect is strongly opposed to violence and war. It's not easy for them to meet the rules...

7.0

2K votes

7.0

2K votes