IOWA
- 1934 - Our Daily Bread. (84 minutes) Director: King Vidor: Cast: Karen Morley, Tom Keene, John Qualen. Summary: Set in a fictitious Centre County in Ottaway Township, this social drama independently produced and directed by King Vidor focuses on a young couple during the Depression attempting to make a go of a communal farm society with city folk sharing their skills, trades, and ingenuity to survive from the land. [IOWA; MINNESOTA, OREGON, CALIFORNIA mentioned in the dialogue]
- 1941 - The Major and the Minor. (111 minutes) Director: Billy Wilder. Cast: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley, Diana Lynn. Summary: In 1941 New York City, Susan Applegate, an Iowan woman, decides to give up city life after 25 jobs and to return home only to find that the train fare has gone up. Her only solution is to disguise herself as a 12-year old and purchase a child's fare ticket. Keeping in character is a challenge as is being discovered so that she is trapped in her role. Brought to a military academy in Indiana by the military instructor who befriends her as Uncle Philip on the train, she finds herself falling in love with him, who is to be shortly married. [NEW YORK; ; INDIANA; IOWA]
- 1944 - The Fighting Sullivans. (111 minutes) Director: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: Thomas Mitchell, Anne Baxter. Summary: Based on the true-life five brothers who grew up in Waterloo, Iowa and died together in World War II on the German-topedoed "Juneau." [IOWA]
- 1945 - State Fair. (100 minutes) Director: Walter Lang. Cast: Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, Vivian Blaine, Dick Haymes, Fay Bainter, Charles Wininger, Donald Meek, Frank McHugh, Percy Kilbridge, Harry Morgan. Summary: Adventures of a farm family at the Iowa State Fair. [IOWA]
- 1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives. (170 minutes) Director: William Wyler. Cast: Myrna Loy, Frederic March, Dana Andrews, , Harold Russell, Teresa Wright, Hoagy Carmichael, Virginia Mayo. Summary: Three WWII servicemen of different social backgrounds and military histories share a plane returning home to Boone City from overseas, become friends, interact with their families, and try to blend into the at home society. [IOWA]
- 1952 - Phone Call From A Stranger. (96 minutes) Director: Jean Negulesco. Cast: Shelley Winters, Bette Davis, Keenan Wynn, Gary Merrill, Evelyn Varden, Craig Stevens, Michael Rennie. Summary: While traveling from Iowa to California, an attorney leaving his family becomes involved with the families of three other air passengers of a plane crash. [CALIFORNIA; IOWA]
- 1962 - The Music Man. (151 minutes) Director: Morton Da Costa. Cast: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Ron Howard, Buddy Hackett. Summary: A smooth-talking salesman persuades the parents of River City, Iowa youngsters into buying band instruments and uniforms. [IOWA]
- 1976 - Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings. (121 minutes) Director: John Badham. Cast: Richard Pryor, Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones. Summary: Based on thenovel by William Brashler, this movie tells of a group of 1930's spirited renegade Negro ballplayers leave the Black League to begin their own team traveling through the Midwest states of Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa as they barnstorm other teams and fight against the unfair rules and poor treatment inflicted upon them by their Negro League owners. [OHIO; KENTUCKY; IOWA; MINNESOTA]
- 1989 - Field of Dreams. (106 minutes) Director: Phil Alden Robinson. Cast: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Ray Liotta, Timothy Busfield. Summary: An Iowan farmer hears a voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. [IOWA]
- 1991 - Sleeping with the Enemy. (99 minutes) Director: Joseph Ruben. Cast: Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin, Kevin Anderson, Elizabeth Lawrence, Kyle Secor. Summary: A woman believed her husband was attentive until they were married and she discovered he was really compulsive, controlling, and dangerously violent. After three years of living in fear, she plans to escape by faking her death by drowning in a boating accident on Cape Cod and relocating to Iowa. All is fine until, even with a new look and identity, her obsessed and demented husband wants her to pay for deceiving him. [MASSACHUSETTS, IOWA]
- 1993 - What's Eating Gilbert Grape. (118 minutes) Director: Lasse Hallstrom. Cast: Johnny Depp, Mary Steenburgen, Leonardo Di Caprio. Summary: Story of a small-town Iowan grocery clerk who cares for his 500 pound recluse mother and mentally challenged brother. [IOWA]
- 1995 - Bridges of Madison County. (135 minutes) Director: Clint Eastwood. Cast: Meryl Streep, Clint Eastwood, Annie Corley, Victor Slezak. Summary: A romantic meeting of a free-spirited photographer for National Geographic magazine and an emotionally neglected Iowan farmer's wife. [IOWA]
- 1997 - Michael. (106 minutes) Director: Nora Ephron. Cast: John Travolta, Andie MacDowell, William Hurt, Bob Hoskins. Summary: Two reporters from a Chicago tabloid investigate an old woman's claim that she shared a real angel at her motel. [IOWA]
- 1997 - A Thousand Acres. (104 minutes) Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse. Cast: Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jason Robards, Jr., Keith Carradine, Colin Firth. Summary: Two sisters face a land conflict brought on by their father. [based on a Jane Smiley novel] [IOWA]
- 1999 - The Straight Story. (112 minutes) Director: David Lynch. Cast: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek. Summary: Ailing 73-year old Alvin Straight decides to visit his estranged brother to whom he has not spoken in ten years and drives a 1966 John Deere riding mower from Iowa to his home. [IOWA]
- 2000 - Cora Unashamed. (95 minutes) Director: Deborah M. Pratt. Cast: Regina Taylor, Cherry Jones, Ellen Muth, Michael Gaston. Summary: 1920s/1930s [based on a Langston Hughes story] [IOWA]
KANSAS
- 1940 - Dark Command. (94 minutes) Director: Raoul Walsh. Cast: John Wayne, Walter Pidgen, Claire Trevor. Summary: The people must face Quantrell's Raiders, a renegade group in the Kansas Territory. [KANSAS]
- 1945 - Abilene Town. (89 minutes) Director: Edwin Marin. Cast: Randolph Scott, Rhonda Fleming. Summary: 1870s conflict between the cattlemen and the homesteaders. [KANSAS]
- 1950 - Winchester '73. (82 minutes) Director: Anthony Mann. Cast: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally. Summary: History of the ownership of a Winchester Rifle 1873 from a Dodge City, Kansas contest winner back to him after revengeful conflict for the killing of his father. [KANSAS]
- 1954 - Kansas Pacific. (73 minutes) Director: Ray Nazarro. Cast: Sterling Hayden. Summary: creation of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. [KANSAS]
- 1955 - Picnic. (115 minutes) Director: Joshua Logan. Cast: William Holden, Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell. Summary: Based on a William Inge play, this tells of a drifter to a small Kansas town during a Labor Day weekend, falls in love with a friend's fiance. [KANSAS]
- 1967 - Thoroughly Modern Millie. (138 minutes) Director: George Roy Hill. Cast: Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing, James Fox, Beatrice Lillie, John Gavin, Pat Morita, Jack Soo. Summary: A view of the 1920s Jazz Age, burlesque, flappers, and choreographed expressions with characters native to Kansas who go to New York City. [KANSAS]
- 1969 - The Learning Tree. [KANSAS]
- 1973 - Paper Moon. (102 minutes) Director: Peter Bogdanovich. Cast: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal. Summary: Adventures of a conman and a kid in the 1936 Kansas and Missouri. [KANSAS]
- 1975 - The Last Day. (100 minutes) Director: Vincent McEveety. Cast: Richard Widmark, Robert Conrad, Christopher Connelly, Richard Jaeckel, Tim Matheson, Barbara Rush, Tom Skerritt. Summary: The 1892 shootout in Coffeyville, Kansas by the townspeople against the Daltons. [KANSAS]
- 1980 - Resurrection. (103 minutes) Cast: Ellen Burstyn. Summary: A recently widowed woman in rural Kansas loses the use of her legs in a freak accident and realizes that she has the power to heal herself and others. [KANSAS]
- 1991 - Sarah, Plain and Tall. (98 minutes) Director: Glenn Jordan. Cast: Glenn Close, Christopher Walken. Summary: A MAINE mail-order bride travels to Kansas to marry and raise a widower's family. [KANSAS]
- 1992 - Leap of Faith. (110 minutes) Director: Richard Pearce. Cast: Steve Martin, Debra Winger, Lolita Davidovich, Liam Neeson, Lukas Haas. Summary: A flimflam reverend's bus dies in Rustwater, Kansas which inspires the preacher to create a miracle. [KANSAS]
- 1992 - Skylark. (98 minutes) Director: Joseph Sargent. Cast: Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Lexi Randall, Christopher Ball. Summary: A mail-order bride from Maine travels to Kansas with her cat to be married and raise the family of a farmer. [based on a Patricia MacLahlan novel] [MAINE/KANSAS] [KANSAS]
- 1996 - Twister. (117 minutes) Director: Jan De Bont. Cast: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, Lois Smith. Summary: Tornado followers track twisters in Kansas. [KANSAS]
- 1997 - The Locusts. (125 minutes) Director: John Patrick Kelley. Cast: Vince Vaughn, Kate Capshaw, Jeremy Davies, Ashley Judd. Summary: In 1960s a drifter hires on to work on the farm of a Kansas widow with a 21-year old son who is recently released from a mental asylum. [KANSAS]
KENTUCKY
- 1949 - The Fighting Kentuckian. (100 minutes) Director: George Waggner. Cast: John Wayne, Vera Ralston. Summary: Frontiersmen come to the aid of Napoleonic French homesteaders. [KENTUCKY]
- 1958 - Thunder Road. (93 minutes) Director: Arthur Ripley. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Gene Barry, Sandra Knight. Summary: An outwitting bootlegger. [KENTUCKY]
- 1976 - Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings. (121 minutes) Director: John Badham. Cast: Richard Pryor, Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones. Summary: Based on thenovel by William Brashler, this movie tells of a group of 1930's spirited renegade Negro ballplayers leave the Black League to begin their own team traveling through the Midwest states of Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa as they barnstorm other teams and fight against the unfair rules and poor treatment inflicted upon them by their Negro League owners. [OHIO; KENTUCKY; IOWA; MINNESOTA]
- 1980 - Coal Miner's Daughter. (125 minutes) Director: Michael Apted. Cast: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens, Beverly D'Angelo. Summary: Follows Loretta Lynn's birth in Butcher Hollow Kentucky to her marriage to a World War II veteran at age thirteen, the birth of her children, her performances at Grand Ole Opry and her career. [KENTUCKY]
- 1981 - Pride of Jesse Hallam. (105 minutes) Director: Gary Nelson. Cast: Johnny Cash, Brenda Vaccaro, Ben Marley, Eli Wallach. Summary: Character seeks literacy. [KENTUCKY]
- 1985 - Coal Miner's Daughter. (124 minutes) Director: Michael Apted. Cast: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo, Levon Helm. Summary: The life of country and western singer, Loretta Lynn. [KENTUCKY]
- 1987 - The Dollmaker. (140 minutes) Director: Daniel Petrie. Cast: Jane Fonda, Levon Helm, Amanda Plummer, Geraldine Page. Summary: Life of Gertie Nevels in 1944 Kentucky. [KENTUCKY]
- 1999 - Simpatico. Cast: Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Sharon Stone. Summary: Three Kentucky friends and a secret.
- 1999 - The Songcatcher. (105 minutes) Director: Maggie Greenwald. Cast: Janet McTeer, Aidan Quinn, Pat Carroll, Jane Adams, Greg Cook, Emmy Rossum, Taj Mahal. Summary: A female music scholar at the beginning of the 20th century, being passed over for research projects by her male counterparts, discovers a treasure trove of ancient Scot and Irish ballads when visiting her sister in a rural school in Appalachia. She begins to record the songs on wax cylinders until she begins to wonder that she might be exploiting the people who trusted her. [APPALACHIA]
- 2000 - Harlan County War. (104 minutes) Director: Tony Bill. Cast: Holly Hunter, Stellan Skarsgard, Ted Levine. Summary: Depiction of the 1973 coal mining strike. [KENTUCKY]
LOUISIANA
- 1938 - Jezebel. (104 minutes) Director: William Wyler. Cast: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Fay Bainter. Summary: In 1850s New Orleans, a strong-willed southern belle becomes engaged to a Northern banker, but never marries. Instead he marries a Northern bridge and returns to the South where the two women battle. [LOUISIANA]
- 1946 - Saratoga Trunk. (135 minutes) Director: Sam Wood. Cast: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman. Summary: A Creole woman whose mother had been wronged years ago in Louisiana returns after groing up in France seeking revenge and money. Based on the Edna Ferber novel, she meets and falls in love with a handsome Texan. Both of them seek wealth and neither of them has it. She follows him to a spa at Saratoga, New York where she goes husband-hunting. The Texan seeks his wealth by seeking revenge against railroad men along the Saratoga trunk of the railroad. [LOUISIANA; NEW YORK]
- 1949 - All the King's Men. (109 minutes) Director: Robert Rossen. Cast: Broderick Crawford, Mercedes McCambridge, Joanna Dru. Account of a corrupt politician's rise to power. [based on a Robert Penn Warren novel] [LOUISIANA]
- 1951 - A Streetcar Named Desire. (122 minutes) Director: Elia Kazan. Cast: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden, Kim Hunter. Summary: A southern belle moves in with her sister and brother-in-law. [Tennessee Williams' novel] [LOUISIANA]
- 1958 - King Creole.