My Movie Hit-List: 1930s
by dmlauricella | created - 6 months ago | updated - 3 hours ago | PublicWith my one, single "movies I want to see" list having become increasingly large and unwieldy, I decided it would just be easier to divide them up by decades. This is the 1930s list.
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1. Camille (1936)
Passed | 109 min | Drama, Romance
A Parisian courtesan must choose between the young man who loves her and the callous baron who wants her, even as her own health begins to fail.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan
Votes: 8,751 | Gross: $1.15M
2. The Gilded Lily (1935)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Romance
A stenographer becomes a famed entertainer and is courted by an English nobleman and an informal American reporter.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ray Milland, C. Aubrey Smith
Votes: 793
3. Private Worlds (1935)
Unrated | 84 min | Drama
The work of a progressive female psychiatrist and her colleague at a mental hospital is threatened by the arrival of a conservative new supervisor, who disapproves of both her methods and the fact that she is a woman in a "man's field."
Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joan Bennett, Helen Vinson
Votes: 396
4. Under Two Flags (1936)
Passed | 112 min | Adventure
Sergeant Victor comes to the French Foreign Legion after taking the blame for his brother's crime. Cigarette falls in love with him though Major Doyle is in love with her. Doyle sends ... See full summary »
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Ronald Colman, Claudette Colbert, Victor McLaglen, Rosalind Russell
Votes: 508
5. Midnight (1939)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A chorus girl stranded in Paris is set up by a millionaire to break up his wife's affair with another man, while being romantically pursued by a cab driver.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer
Votes: 5,609
6. Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, Romance, War
Newlyweds Gil and Lana Martin try to establish a farm in the Mohawk Valley but are menaced by Indians and Tories as the Revolutionary War begins.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, Eddie Collins
Votes: 6,793 | Gross: $1.00M
7. Tower of London (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Drama, History
In the 15th century Richard Duke of Gloucester, aided by his club-footed executioner Mord, eliminates those ahead of him in succession to the throne, then occupied by his brother King ... See full summary »
Director: Rowland V. Lee | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Barbara O'Neil, Ian Hunter
Votes: 2,232
8. Five Came Back (1939)
Passed | 75 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A plane has engine trouble while flying over a jungle inhabited by cannibals.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine
Votes: 2,359
9. Stage Door (1937)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A chronicle of the ambitions, dreams, and disappointments of aspiring actresses who all live in the same boarding house.
Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick
Votes: 9,025
10. Little Women (1933)
Passed | 115 min | Drama, Family, Romance
A chronicle of the lives of sisters growing up in 19th-century New England.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas, Edna May Oliver
Votes: 7,935 | Gross: $4.58M
11. Big Brown Eyes (1936)
Passed | 77 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Sassy manicurist Eve Fallon is recruited as an even more brassy reporter and she helps police detective boyfriend Danny Barr break a jewel theft ring and solve the murder of a baby.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Bennett, Walter Pidgeon, Lloyd Nolan
Votes: 1,173
12. Three Godfathers (1936)
Passed | 81 min | Western
Three fugitives risk their lives to bring a newborn baby out of the desert to safety.
Director: Richard Boleslawski | Stars: Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Walter Brennan, Irene Hervey
Votes: 965
13. Kid Galahad (1937)
Passed | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fight promoter Nick Donati grooms a bellhop as a future champ, but has second thoughts when the 'kid' falls for his sister.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Wayne Morris
Votes: 3,933
14. A Slight Case of Murder (1938)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Crime
Former bootlegger Remy Marco has a slight problem with forclosing bankers, a prospective son-in-law, and four hard-to-explain corpses.
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly
Votes: 2,567
15. Union Pacific (1939)
Passed | 135 min | Drama, Western
In 1862, Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads compete westward across the wilderness toward California.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston
Votes: 3,386
16. The Jungle Princess (1936)
Approved | 85 min | Adventure
Christopher Powell is in Malaysia with his fiancée and her father, capturing wild animals. While out hunting, he is attacked by a tiger, and his native guides run away, leaving him for dead... See full summary »
Director: Wilhelm Thiele | Stars: Dorothy Lamour, Ray Milland, Akim Tamiroff, Lynne Overman
Votes: 205
17. The Last Train from Madrid (1937)
Passed | 85 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The story of seven people: their lives and love affairs in Madrid during the Civil War.
Director: James P. Hogan | Stars: Dorothy Lamour, Lew Ayres, Gilbert Roland, Karen Morley
Votes: 306
18. High, Wide and Handsome (1937)
Passed | 110 min | Adventure, Music, Musical
Pennsylvania, 1859. Railroad tycoon Brennan (Alan Hale) is muscling in on oil-drilling farmers, led by Peter Cortland (Randolph Scott). Cortland must try to save their oil business, while also saving his marriage to Sally (Irene Dunne).
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Dorothy Lamour, Elizabeth Patterson
Votes: 409
19. The Hurricane (1937)
Approved | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A Polynesian sailor unjustly imprisoned after defending himself against a colonial bully is relentlessly persecuted by his island's martinet French governor.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith
Votes: 3,042
20. Spawn of the North (1938)
Approved | 110 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
Friends since childhood, two men are on opposite sides in a salmon fishing conflict.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: George Raft, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff
Votes: 589
21. Frankenstein (1931)
Passed | 70 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Dr Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, John Boles
Votes: 79,771
22. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Not Rated | 75 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson
Votes: 53,299 | Gross: $4.36M
23. Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Returning to the ancestral castle long after the death of the monster, the son of Dr. Frankenstein meets a mad shepherd who is hiding the comatose creature. To clear the family name, he revives the creature and tries to rehabilitate him.
Director: Rowland V. Lee | Stars: Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill
Votes: 11,706
24. They Won't Forget (1937)
Passed | 95 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A politically ambitious district attorney, unscrupulous tabloid journalists, and regional prejudice combine to charge a teacher with the murder of his student.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris, Otto Kruger
Votes: 1,942
25. Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
Passed | 91 min | Comedy, Romance
Andy has problems raising the last payment for a used car and juggling three pretty girls with an upcoming country club dance scheduled.
Director: George B. Seitz | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lewis Stone, Cecilia Parker
Votes: 2,056
26. Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938)
Passed | 72 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A rich businessman wants to marry his secretary, but first he has to pass muster with her middle-class family.
Director: Reinhold Schünzel | Stars: Robert Young, Lana Turner, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 395
27. Calling Dr. Kildare (1939)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Dr. Gillespie tries to teach Jimmy Kildare a lesson by tossing him into a street clinic. Only Kildare gets called to take a bullet out of a suspected murderer, and when the cops collar him ... See full summary »
Director: Harold S. Bucquet | Stars: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Nat Pendleton
Votes: 583
28. Dancing Co-Ed (1939)
Passed | 84 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
After discovering his star dancer is expecting and can't perform, film producer H.W. Workman and his publicist concoct a scheme to stage a college dance contest to find a new star.
Director: S. Sylvan Simon | Stars: Lana Turner, Richard Carlson, Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, Artie Shaw
Votes: 534
29. Call of the Wild (1935)
Passed | 95 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
During the Klondike Gold Rush, a traveler purchases a dog to lead the way toward the treasure, but reconsiders his journey when he finds a jilted married woman.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Jack Oakie, Reginald Owen
Votes: 2,530
30. Dodge City (1939)
Approved | 104 min | Western
A Texas cattle agent witnesses first hand, the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City and takes the job of sheriff to clean the town up.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot
Votes: 5,766
31. The Old Dark House (1932)
Passed | 72 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Seeking shelter from a storm, five travelers are in for a bizarre and terrifying night when they stumble upon the Femm family estate.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart
Votes: 13,112 | Gross: $0.03M
32. Dead End (1937)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The lives of a young man, a young woman, an notorious gangster, and a group of street kids converge one day in a volatile New York City slum.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie
Votes: 8,591
33. Scarface (1932)
PG | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An ambitious and nearly insane violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson | Stars: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins
Votes: 30,337
34. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Approved | 75 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
An ordinary British couple vacationing in Switzerland suddenly find themselves embroiled in a case of international intrigue when their daughter is kidnapped by spies plotting a political assassination.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre, Frank Vosper
Votes: 21,181
35. Of Mice and Men (1939)
Passed | 106 min | Adventure, Drama
A mentally disabled giant and his level headed guardian find work at a sadistic cowboy's ranch in depression era America.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Charles Bickford
Votes: 6,861
36. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Passed | 132 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
First mate Fletcher Christian leads a revolt against his sadistic commander, Captain Bligh, in this classic seafaring adventure, based on the real-life 1789 mutiny.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin
Votes: 24,867
37. Grand Hotel (I) (1932)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Romance
A group of very different individuals staying at a luxurious hotel in Berlin deal with each of their respective dramas.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery
Votes: 20,887 | Gross: $2.69M
38. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Passed | 116 min | Biography, Drama
The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden
Votes: 9,025
39. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Passed | 176 min | Drama, Musical
The ups and downs of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., famed producer of extravagant stage revues, are portrayed.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan
Votes: 8,996
40. Svengali (1931)
Approved | 81 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
Through hypnotism and telepathic mind control, a sinister music maestro controls the singing voice, but not the heart, of the woman he loves.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Crisp, Bramwell Fletcher
Votes: 2,501
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