Lost Movies From 1930
by Crabhain | created - 13 Jan 2014 | updated - 18 Aug 2014 | PublicUS movies from 1930 (second year of the "pre-code" era of 1929-1934) which are listed as lost on IMDB. Many of these films have user ratings and reviews. The mere existence of reviews didn't cause a film to be excluded from this list. Some reviews could be from people who saw the film before it was lost. On the other hand, some reviews seem based not on actually having seen the movie, but on something the reviewer has read elsewhere, or that the reviewer does/doesn't like an actor/the director, doesn't like old movies, or whatever, and wants to chime in based on that. And frankly, some reviews I have read come across as fabrications ("I had an exclusive showing of this otherwise lost film in the home of a private collector").
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1. The Voice from the Sky (1929)
Sci-Fi
A crazed scientist calling himself The Voice from the Sky broadcasts his voice all across the globe, and threatens to suspend all energy in the earth's atmosphere and turn day into night ... See full summary »
Director: Ben F. Wilson | Stars: Hal Taliaferro, Neva Gerber, Robert Walker, J.P. Lockney
2. No, No, Nanette (1930)
98 min | Comedy, Musical
A bible publisher is falling in love with a chorus girl and finds himself backing a Broadway show.
Director: Clarence G. Badger | Stars: Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray, Lucien Littlefield, Louise Fazenda
Votes: 41
3. Second Choice (1930)
Passed | 67 min | Drama, Romance
Drama of thwarted love and marriage.
Director: Howard Bretherton | Stars: Dolores Costello, Chester Morris, Jack Mulhall, Edna Murphy
4. Cameo Kirby (1930)
70 min | Drama
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: J. Harold Murray, Norma Terris, Douglas Gilmore, Robert Edeson
Votes: 31
5. Call of the Circus (1930)
60 min | Drama, Romance
A retired circus clown, Herbert Rawlinson, finds love entering his life when he marries a member of the circus troupe, Ethel Clayton and the adoption of an orphaned circus girl, Joan Wyndham... See full summary »
Director: Frank O'Connor | Stars: Francis X. Bushman, Ethel Clayton, Joan Wyndham, William C. Kirby
6. The Rampant Age (1930)
60 min | Drama
Wealthy playboy Sandy Benton falls for pretty but decidedly less wealthy neighbor Doris Lawrence. She rebuffs his attentions, but scheming golddigger Estelle has her own plans for Sandy. ... See full summary »
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: James Murray, Merna Kennedy, Eddie Borden, Margaret Quimby
Votes: 45
7. The Climax (1930)
65 min | Thriller
Young Italian girl wants to become a great opera singer.
Director: Renaud Hoffman | Stars: Jean Hersholt, Kathryn Crawford, LeRoy Mason, John Reinhardt
Votes: 22
8. Screen Snapshots Series 9, No. 11 (1930)
9 min | Short
Eddie Lambert leads the tour; Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Joan Crawford return from their honeymoon trip; Carl Laemmle, Jr. welcomes Paul Whiteman to Hollywood; Edward Everett shows off his ... See full summary »
Director: Ralph Staub | Stars: Eddie Lambert, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Crawford, Carl Laemmle Jr.
Votes: 140
9. The Grand Parade (1930)
Passed | 70 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An alcoholic minstrel has hit rock bottom while in a relationship with a no-good burlesque dancer, until he recuperates under the care of a kind maid. They get married and she joins the troupe, but the dancer tries to rope him back in.
Director: Fred C. Newmeyer | Stars: Helen Twelvetrees, Fred Scott, Richard Carle, Marie Astaire
10. Let's Go Places (1930)
70 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Paul Adams, a singer, assumes the name of operatic tenor Paul Du Bonnet and sets out for a career in Hollywood. En route to the coast, he meets Marjorie Lorraine, who falls in love with him... See full summary »
Director: Frank R. Strayer | Stars: Joseph Wagstaff, Lola Lane, Sharon Lynn, Frank Richardson
Votes: 16
11. The Other Tomorrow (1930)
Passed | 65 min | Romance, Drama
The Other Tomorrow is a lost 1930 American Pre-Code film, directed by Lloyd Bacon and produced by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. The love-triangle drama, from a story... See full summary »
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Billie Dove, Kenneth Thomson, Grant Withers, Frank Sheridan
12. Hello Sister (1930)
80 min | Drama
Olive Borden plays a modern jazz maiden who is forced to be good for six months or lose out on her grandfather's inheritance.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Olive Borden, Lloyd Hughes, George Fawcett, Bodil Rosing
Votes: 32
13. The Big Party (1930)
Passed | 70 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Kitty Collins and Flo Jenkins, a couple of jazz-age cuties with bobbed-hair and rolled-stockings, go in search of good-times and whoopee-making. The party they find also includes some ... See full summary »
Director: John G. Blystone | Stars: Sue Carol, Dixie Lee, Walter Catlett, Frank Albertson
Votes: 25
14. The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1930)
Passed | 91 min | Drama, History, Romance
Sergeant Gischa Patrotkin (Chester Morris), a simple-minded Russian soldier, escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp. He hides out for awhile with a peasant girl named Babka (Betty ... See full summary »
Director: Herbert Brenon | Stars: Chester Morris, Betty Compson, Alec B. Francis, Gustav von Seyffertitz
Votes: 62
15. An Elastic Affair (1930)
10 min | Short, Comedy
A short sketch featuring winners of the 'Film Weekly' acting scholarship.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cyril Butcher, Aileen Despard
Votes: 149
16. Strictly Modern (1930)
63 min | Comedy, Romance
A lady novelist falls deeply in love.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Dorothy Mackaill, Sidney Blackmer, Julanne Johnston, Warner Richmond
Votes: 22
17. Song of the West (1930)
Passed | 82 min | Action, Adventure, Musical
As a wagon train treks west, two men, Lt. Singleton and a Stanton, a scout, are rivals for the attentions of the Colonels's daughter, Virginia. Stanton is held for murder after a fight with... See full summary »
Director: Ray Enright | Stars: John Boles, Vivienne Segal, Joe E. Brown, Marie Wells
Votes: 34
18. The Furies (1930)
69 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Fifi Sands, whose husband is constantly unfaithful, is prevented from obtaining a divorce by her husband's lawyer, Bedlow. At a dinner party given by Smith, a columnist, she announces that ... See full summary »
Director: Alan Crosland | Stars: Lois Wilson, H.B. Warner, Theodore von Eltz, Natalie Moorhead
19. Her Golden Calf (1930)
Passed | 69 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Marybelle Cobb, a plain and old-fashioned girl, is secretary to commercial illustrator Philip Homer, with whom she is secretly in love.
Director: Millard Webb | Stars: Jack Mulhall, Sue Carol, El Brendel, Marjorie White
Votes: 30
20. Hold Everything (1930)
Passed | 74 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
A man is mistaken for a champion fighter.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Joe E. Brown, Winnie Lightner, Georges Carpentier, Sally O'Neil
Votes: 35
21. The Swellhead (1930)
Passed | 70 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
A young fighter, Bill Hickey, achieves success through the help and support of his friends and, once he does, he gets a big case of 'swellhead.' And then he loses his friends, loses his ... See full summary »
Director: James Flood | Stars: James Gleason, Johnnie Walker, Marion Shilling, Natalie Kingston
22. The Jade Box (1930)
Passed | 220 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
One of a group of Americans steals the Jade Box, which holds the secret of invisibility; a murderous Oriental cult wants it back and tracks them down.
Director: Ray Taylor | Stars: Louise Lorraine, Jack Perrin, Monroe Salisbury, Francis Ford
Votes: 31
23. Crazy That Way (1930)
64 min | Comedy, Romance
Young heiress Ann Jordan and her fiancè Frank Oakes would be happy except for the constant appearance of Robert Metcalf, who follows her or them everywhere. This continues into their time ... See full summary »
Director: Hamilton MacFadden | Stars: Kenneth MacKenna, Joan Bennett, Regis Toomey, Jason Robards Sr.
Votes: 18
24. Hide-Out (1930)
59 min | Drama
A bootlegger on the run from the law hides out on a college campus. He disguises himself as a student, and soon becomes the school's star athlete and most popular man on campus.
Director: Reginald Barker | Stars: James Murray, Kathryn Crawford, Carl Stockdale, Lee Moran
Votes: 24
25. Cock o' the Walk (1930)
Passed | 70 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Carlos Lopez is a handsome Argentine sportsman. Many women love him and he toys with them all. His days are filled with romance and intrigue and he manages to get himself feared and hated ... See full summary »
Directors: Walter Lang, Roy William Neill | Stars: Joseph Schildkraut, Myrna Loy, Philip Sleeman, Edward Peil Sr.
Votes: 39
26. The Cheyenne Kid (1930)
54 min | Western
Buck Allen, The Cheyenne Kid, has been accused of holding up the payroll car of the Cody Dam Construction Company, and is being pursued by U.S. Marshal Utah Kane and Sheriff Hank Bates but ... See full summary »
Director: Jacques Jaccard | Stars: Jay Wilsey, Joan Jaccard, Yakima Canutt, Jack Mower
27. Dumbbells in Ermine (1930)
Passed | 70 min | Comedy, Romance
The story of a fighter's romance with a small-town girl.
Director: John G. Adolfi | Stars: Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, Barbara Kent, Claude Gillingwater
Votes: 25
28. The Big Fight (1930)
Passed | 65 min | Action, Drama, Romance
Based on the David Belasco stage production of the Max Marcin play in which heavyweight-champion Jack Dempsey played the role of the fighter, Tiger: This "behind-the-scenes look of a ... See full summary »
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Lola Lane, Ralph Ince, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, Stepin Fetchit
Votes: 34
29. Bride of the Regiment (1930)
79 min | Musical, Romance
Filmed operetta in Technicolor based on hit play/book that opened on Broadway in 1922 and ran 232 performances.
Director: John Francis Dillon | Stars: Vivienne Segal, Allan Prior, Walter Pidgeon, Louise Fazenda
Votes: 42
30. Courage (1930)
Passed | 73 min | Drama, Romance
Mary Colbrook, a widowed mother with seven children, through poor business management is faced with poverty though she is determined to educate her children and give them every advantage. ... See full summary »
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: Belle Bennett, Marian Nixon, Rex Bell, Richard Tucker
31. Ridin' Law (1930)
Passed | 63 min | Western
Remade in 1939 by Harry S. Webb as "Riders of the Sage" with Bob Steele, Claire Rochelle and Carleton Young taking the roles played here, with the role names changed, by Jack Perrin, Renee ... See full summary »
Director: Harry S. Webb | Stars: Jack Perrin, Starlight the Horse, Renee Borden, Yakima Canutt
Votes: 25
32. The Song of the Flame (1930)
96 min | Musical, Romance
This was a screen version of the 1925 operetta by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Herbert Stohart, and George Gershwin. The story of the movie is about a peasant who is known as "The ... See full summary »
Director: Alan Crosland | Stars: Alexander Gray, Bernice Claire, Noah Beery, Alice Gentle
Votes: 62
33. The Lightning Express (1930)
Passed | 220 min | Western
A railroad needs to cross the land belonging to a young woman. Her crooked guardian tries to cheat her so he can get the right-of-way.
Director: Henry MacRae | Stars: Lane Chandler, Louise Lorraine, Al Ferguson, Greta Granstedt
34. Rough Waters (1930)
Passed | 53 min | Drama, Family
A police dog helps to track down two payroll robbers.
Director: John Daumery | Stars: Rin Tin Tin, Lane Chandler, Jobyna Ralston, Edmund Breese
Votes: 16
35. The Last Hour (1930)
77 min | Comedy, Crime, Sci-Fi
A crooked prince uses a death ray to force down airships and steal their cargo.
Director: Walter Forde | Stars: Stewart Rome, Richard Cooper, Kathleen Vaughan, Alexander Field
Votes: 20
36. The Dude Wrangler (1930)
Passed | 60 min | Romance, Western
In order to prove his manliness to the girl he loves, a young urban dandy takes a job at a dude ranch. Predictable misadventure ensues in this poorly-made early talkie.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Tom Keene, Lina Basquette, Francis X. Bushman, Clyde Cook
Votes: 18
37. One Mad Kiss (1930)
Passed | 64 min | Musical, Romance
Estrada, the chief government official of the region, has put a price on the head of José Savedra for causing the local people to rebel against his tax collectors. Dancer Rosario Montes ... See full summary »
Directors: Marcel Silver, James Tinling | Stars: José Mojica, Mona Maris, Antonio Moreno, Tom Patricola
38. Lord Richard in the Pantry (1930)
83 min | Drama
To avoid being accused of stealing money, an aristocrat low on funds takes a job as a butler in someone else's home.
Director: Walter Forde | Stars: Richard Cooper, Dorothy Seacombe, Marjorie Hume, Leo Sheffield
39. Worldly Goods (1930)
71 min | Drama
A businessman who has devoted his whole life to obtaining money and power finds that he can't buy the one thing he craves: love.
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: James Kirkwood, Merna Kennedy, Ferdinand Schumann-Heink, Shannon Day
Votes: 41
40. Easy Street (1930)
Drama
Con artists try to trick an old man out of his life savings.
Director: Oscar Micheaux | Stars: William A. Clayton Jr., Willor Lee Guilford, Richard B. Harrison, Alice B. Russell
41. Night Work (1930)
Passed | 93 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
As assistant window-dresser, Willie is the lowest man on the totem pole at a department store. To add insult to injury, he is also the store's designated "Fired Man": when a disgruntled ... See full summary »
Director: Russell Mack | Stars: Eddie Quillan, Sally Starr, Frances Upton, Tom Keene
Votes: 127
42. Sons of the Saddle (1930)
Passed | 76 min | Drama, Western
Jim Brandon, foreman of the Wind River Ranch owned by Martin Stavnow is in love with "Ronnie", the owner's daughter. Jim is unaware that Harvey, a young cowhand that Jim protects like a ... See full summary »
Director: Harry Joe Brown | Stars: Ken Maynard, Doris Hill, Joseph W. Girard, Carroll Nye
Votes: 21
43. Terry of the 'Times' (1930)
Passed | 200 min | Action, Mystery
Terry Macy (Reed Howes), the son of a newspaper's founder, is assigned to investigate a mysterious warning signed '30' (newspaper term for 'The End)that has been sent to a local politician.... See full summary »
Director: Robert F. Hill | Stars: Reed Howes, Lotus Thompson, Sheldon Lewis, John Oscar
44. Canyon Hawks (1930)
Passed | 57 min | Drama, Western
Cattleman Benson finds Mildred and her brother George living in one of his cabins and their sheep are on his land. Attracted to Mildred, he not only lets her stay, he deeds part of his land... See full summary »
Directors: Alan James, J.P. McGowan | Stars: Yakima Canutt, Renee Borden, Buzz Barton, Robert Walker
Votes: 32
45. The Eyes of the World (1930)
Passed | 80 min | Drama
Unsophisticated young Myra Willard is seduced into "marrying" James Rutledge and bears his child, Gertrude; but in a fit of rage, his legal wife disfigures Myra's face with acid and leaves ... See full summary »
Director: Henry King | Stars: Eulalie Jensen, Hugh Huntley, Myra Hubert, Florence Roberts
Votes: 45
46. Convict's Code (1930)
Passed | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Just before the scheduled electrocution of stockbroker Kenneth Avery for the murder of Mazie Lawrence, Nan Perry makes one last plea to the governor for a stay of execution and relates the ... See full summary »
Director: Harry Revier | Stars: Cullen Landis, Eloise Taylor, William Morris, Robert Cummings
47. Once a Gentleman (1930)
85 min | Comedy, Romance
Director: James Cruze | Stars: Edward Everett Horton, Lois Wilson, Francis X. Bushman, King Baggot
48. The Way of All Men (1930)
Passed | 69 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A variety of broad-painted and unlikely characters are trapped in an underground café when a Mississippi River levee breaks and causes flood havoc above and below.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Dorothy Revier, Robert Edeson, Anders Randolf
Votes: 26
49. What a Widow! (1930)
88 min | Romance, Comedy
A young woman's elderly husband dies and leaves her $5 million. She travels to Paris and becomes part of the "Continental" set and is pursued by a rich playboy and a lawyer who works for her.
Directors: Allan Dwan, Dudley Murphy, James Seymour | Stars: Gloria Swanson, Owen Moore, Lew Cody, Margaret Livingston
Votes: 67
50. Georgia Rose (1930)
Musical
Director: Harry A. Gant | Stars: Clarence Brooks, Irene Wilson, Evelyn Preer, Roberta Hyson
51. Caste (1930)
70 min | Drama
The daughter of a Cockney drunkard marries a young aristocrat who is presumed killed in action (in WWI). When she gets the news she goes to stay with her aristocratic in-laws.
Directors: Campbell Gullan, Michael Powell | Stars: Hermione Baddeley, Nora Swinburne, Alan Napier, Sebastian Shaw
Votes: 63
52. Trails of Danger (1930)
Passed | 63 min | Western
During a rescue of Mary and her father, Bob Bartlett finds a good horse, which later causes him to be mistaken for Butch Coleson, a wanted outlaw. Wounded by a posse, Bob heads for Poker Flats hoping to capture Coleson for the reward.
Director: Alan James | Stars: Hal Taliaferro, Virginia Brown Faire, Jack Perrin, Buck Connors
53. College Lovers (1930)
Romance
Romance on college campus.
Director: John G. Adolfi | Stars: Jack Whiting, Marian Nixon, Frank McHugh, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams
54. The Girl of the Golden West (1930)
Passed | 81 min | Western
A hard-bitten saloon girl falls for a dashing outlaw, and tries to keep the local sheriff from catching him and sending him to prison.
Director: John Francis Dillon | Stars: Ann Harding, James Rennie, Harry Bannister, Ben Hendricks Jr.
Votes: 32
55. Code of Honor (1930)
Passed | 55 min | Western
Cardsharp Jack Cardigan decides to go straight when he meets Doris Bradfield, but is forced to use his talents on behalf of her dad, whose land-grant title has fallen into the hands of Jed ... See full summary »
Director: J.P. McGowan | Stars: Mahlon Hamilton, Doris Hill, Robert Graves, Stanley Taylor
Votes: 46
56. The Fourth Alarm (1930)
60 min | Drama, Romance
A fire inspector discovers that his father, an industrialist, is secretly producing nitroglycerin at his warehouse.
Director: Phil Whitman | Stars: Nick Stuart, Ralph Lewis, Tom Santschi, Ann Christy
57. Big Money (I) (1930)
80 min | Drama, Romance
Eddie, a messenger boy in the George McCall brokerage house, is dispatched to deliver $50,000 in currency to the bank just before before closing time, but his weakness for tossing the dice ... See full summary »
Director: Russell Mack | Stars: Eddie Quillan, Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, Margaret Livingston
Votes: 23
58. Today (1930)
Passed | 80 min | Drama, Romance
A wealthy young society couple loses their fortune. When the husband is forced to take a job like everyone else, the wife cannot deal with the sudden downward plunge of her once-privileged life and drifts into prostitution.
Director: William Nigh | Stars: Conrad Nagel, Catherine Dale Owen, Julia Swayne Gordon, William Bailey
59. The Gorilla (1930)
70 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
A series of murders that take place in an old, dark mansion are suspected of being committed by an ape.
Director: Bryan Foy | Stars: Joe Frisco, Harry Gribbon, Walter Pidgeon, Lila Lee
Votes: 53
60. South of Sonora (1930)
Passed | 55 min | Western
Bill Tracy is a Cattleman's Protective Association agent. Working undercover on his way to Sonora, a town dominated by rustlers, saves Betty Carter from a situation, but her rancher father,... See full summary »
Director: Jacques Jaccard | Stars: Jay Wilsey, Betty Joy, Lew Meehan, Horace B. Carpenter
Votes: 23
61. She Got What She Wanted (1930)
Passed | 81 min | Comedy, Romance
Mahyna, a dissatisfied Russian peasant girl, marries Boris and comes to New York in search of "the soul of love," only to become a drudge in their cheap flat. Meanwhile, Boris, a bookshop ... See full summary »
Director: James Cruze | Stars: Betty Compson, Lee Tracy, Alan Hale, Gaston Glass
Votes: 23
62. The Cat Creeps (1930)
75 min | Horror, Mystery
Disappearances and strange goings-on in a spooky old mansion.
Directors: Rupert Julian, John Willard | Stars: Helen Twelvetrees, Raymond Hackett, Neil Hamilton, Lilyan Tashman
Votes: 95
63. La voluntad del muerto (1930)
Passed | 87 min | Horror, Mystery, Romance
Strange happenings and disappearances take place in an old dark house.
Director: George Melford | Stars: Antonio Moreno, Lupita Tovar, Andrés de Segurola, Roberto E. Guzmán
Votes: 34
Spanish language version of "The Cat Creeps" (also lost), shot at the same time on the same sets, with a different cast and director (a la "Spanish Dracula").
64. Ex-Flame (1930)
Passed | 74 min | Drama, Romance
A woman's uncontrollable jealousy over her husband's former girlfriend results in her losing not only her house but her young son is taken away from her.
Director: Victor Halperin | Stars: Neil Hamilton, Marian Nixon, Judith Barrie, Norman Kerry
65. Riders of the Rio (1931)
Western
Two ranchers are rivals not only over cattle but also over a beautiful young Mexican girl.
Director: Robert Emmett Tansey | Stars: Lane Chandler, Karla Cowan, Sheldon Lewis, Bob Card
66. Fellers (1931)
88 min
Directors: Austin Fay, Arthur Higgins | Stars: Arthur Clarke, Les Coney, Jean Duncan, Arthur Greenaway
67. Hit the Deck (1929)
Passed | 103 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Looloo (Polly Walker), owner of a seaside coffee shop, falls in love with sailor Bilge Smith, who is on shore leave, but her sudden wealth sabotages the romance.
Director: Luther Reed | Stars: Jack Oakie, Polly Walker, Roger Gray, Franker Woods
Votes: 28
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