My favorite movies of the 1930s
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- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsAnne ChevalierMatahiHituOn the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsCary GrantJean ArthurRita HayworthAt a remote South American trading port, the manager of an air-freight company is forced to risk his pilots' lives in order to win an important contract as a traveling American showgirl stops in town.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMarcel DalioNora GregorPaulette DubostA bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinVirginia CherrillFlorence LeeWith the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardHenry BergmanThe Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsStepan ShkuratSemyon SvashenkoYuliya SolntsevaIn the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsSylvia SidneyHenry FondaBarton MacLaneThe public defender's secretary and an ex-convict get married and try to make a life together, but a series of disasters sends their lives spiraling out of control.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinDita ParloPierre FresnayDuring WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMarlene DietrichHerbert MarshallMelvyn DouglasA woman and her husband take separate vacations, and she falls in love with another man.
- DirectorBoris BarnetSamad MardanovStarsYelena KuzminaLev SverdlinNikolay KryuchkovTwo best friends shipwreck on an island in the Caspian Sea and fall in love with the same woman while helping the villagers of their new home.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMiriam HopkinsKay FrancisHerbert MarshallA gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsIrene DunneCharles BoyerMaria OuspenskayaA French playboy and an American former nightclub singer fall in love aboard a ship.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsSylvia BatailleJane MarkenGeorges D'ArnouxThe family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love with a man at the inn, where they spend the day.
- DirectorEdward H. GriffithStarsMargaret SullavanJames StewartRay MillandA young married couple's relationship becomes strained when he is assigned overseas as a foreign correspondent and she becomes a major stage star.
- DirectorHenry KingIrving CummingsStarsTyrone PowerHenry FondaNancy KellyAfter railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank turn to banditry for revenge.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsJulian WestMaurice SchutzRena MandelA drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneClaire TrevorAndy DevineA group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.
- DirectorMark DonskoyStarsAleksei LyarskyVarvara MassalitinovaMikhail TroyanovskiyA drama reveals the great writer's inauspicious early years as an orphan raised by conniving relatives.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsShôtarô HanayagiKôkichi TakadaRyôtarô KawanamiThe adopted son of a legendary actor, and an aspiring star himself, turns to his infant brother's wet nurse for support and affection - only for her to give up everything for her beloved's glory.
- DirectorDziga VertovHow the miners of the Don coal basin (one of the industrial regions of Ukraine) were striving to fulfill in four years their part of the Five Year Plan.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsVictor MooreBeulah BondiFay BainterAn elderly couple are forced to live hundreds of miles apart when they lose their house and none of their five children will take both parents in.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinDmitriy VasilevStarsNikolay CherkasovNikolai OkhlopkovAndrei AbrikosovThe story of how a great Russian prince led a ragtag army to battle an invading force of Teutonic Knights.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsDita ParloJean DastéGilles MargaritisNewly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaAlice BradyMarjorie WeaverA fictionalized account of the early life of the American president as a young lawyer facing his greatest court case.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsCharles BlavetteCelia MontalvánJenny HéliaIn the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down permanently - like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman. Even a well-ordered existence is not immune from boredom, friendship, love, or enmity, and Toni gets entangled in a web of increasingly passionate relationships. For there is his best pal Fernand, but also Albert, his overbearing foreman; there is Sebastian, a steady Spanish peasant, but also Gabi, his young rogue relative; there is Marie, but there is also Josefa.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsLionel BarrymoreNancy CarrollPhillips HolmesFrench soldier travels to Germany to find a family of a man he killed during World War I.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsWill RogersTom BrownAnita LouiseJudge Priest, a proud Confederate veteran, uses common sense and considerable humanity to dispense justice in a small town in the Post-Bellum Kentucky.
- DirectorMark DonskoyStarsAleksei LyarskyIrina ZarubinaVarvara MassalitinovaFor the family really no money, Alexei began to make a living. Everything was limited to dirty chores, but while reading could end his depression. After hard working experience, he was determined to Kazan in the passion of being a strongmen.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeOtto WernickeThomy BourdelleA criminal mastermind uses hypnosis to rule the rackets after death.
- DirectorHoward HawksRichard RossonStarsPaul MuniAnn DvorakKaren MorleyAn ambitious and nearly insane violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsYvon Le Mar'hadourFrancis GourvilFrançois ViguierBallad-type drama-documentary spoken in the Breton language and set in a Breton fishing community, telling of the impossible love between a fisherman and the lady of the manor.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsWill RogersAnne ShirleyIrvin S. CobbA Louisiana con man enters his steamboat into a winner-take-all race with a rival while trying to find a witness to free his nephew, about to be hanged for murder.
- DirectorRaffaello MatarazzoStarsMarcello SpadaLina GennariCarlo PetrangeliA story about the comic adventures of a group of summertime travelers.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsMadeleine CarrollFranchot ToneReginald DennyRichard Girard is part of a New Orleans family working closely with the English Warburtons. When Richard meets Mary Warburton she is engaged to Erik von Gerardt. He does wed Mary but their time in America is financially difficult.
- DirectorJosé Val del Omar
- DirectorMario PeixotoStarsOlga BrenoTatiana ReyRaul SchnoorThree people (Raul Schnoor, Olga Breno and Tatiana Rey) sail aimlessly while remembering their past.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinJulien CaretteSimone SimonIn this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsCharles FarrellMary DuncanDavid TorrenceA Chicago waitress falls in love with a Minnesota farmer, and decides to face a life in the country.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChôko IidaShin'ichi HimoriMasao HayamaA widow sends her only son away to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him, finding him a poor school teacher with a wife and son.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsRichard BarthelmessDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Neil HamiltonWorld War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but Courtney is soon promoted to squadron commander and learns harsh lessons about sending subordinates to their deaths.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsVictor McLaglenHeather AngelPreston FosterIn 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsIsuzu YamadaYôko UmemuraBenkei ShiganoyaTwo geisha sisters lead a hard life in the Gion district of Kyoto. After one of them feels obliged to support a bankrupt businessman, the other sister sets up various schemes to get rid of him.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsJean DastéRobert le FlonLouis LefebvreIn a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the direction on a celebration day.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMichel SimonJanie MarèseGeorges FlamantMaurice Legrand, a meek cashier married to a nagging wife, has a secret passion: he's a Sunday painter. He falls in love with Lulu, a young woman dominated by Dédé, the pimp who she works for. Dédé pushes Lulu into a relationship with him.
- DirectorHiroshi ShimizuStarsReikichi KawamuraMitsuko YoshikawaMasao HayamaTwo young boys are usurped from being the head of their gang of children. Their father is fired and arrested for this, and they are sent to live with their uncle, only to spend their time thinking of ways to escape back home.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsDolores IbárruriNadezhda KrupskayaVladimir LeninThree anonymous songs about Lenin provide the basis for this documentary that celebrates the achievements of the Soviet Union and Lenin's role in creating them.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsSachiko ChibaYuriko HanabusaToshiko ItôWhen she reaches adulthood, a precocious young woman sets out to find her biological father, who, as her mother tells her, abandoned them for another woman.
- DirectorGrigoriy AleksandrovSergei EisensteinStarsMara GriyA short, experimental, slightly poetic montage of city and abstract images.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMichel SimonMarcelle HainiaSévérine LerczinskaA bookseller saves a tramp from drowning and shelters him, but the tramp's odd behavior starts to wear everyone down.
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsDita ParloGeymond VitalJeanne Marie-LaurentHans has killed the dog of Firmin, a shepherd. Wild with rage, Firmin kidnaps Elsi, Hans' fiancée and locks her up at his home. Hans, a peddler, vows to find the missing girl. This is what he does and he manages, with the help of Mathias, a trader who travels between both villages, to give Elsi a letter. On seeing her, the changeling falls in love at first sight with the young woman. Elsi soon realizes that Mânu, the village idiot, can become her instrument of vengeance.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenrietta CrosmanHeather AngelNorman FosterA possessive mother pushes her son into World War I service rather than see him get married.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTatsuo SaitôTomio AokiMitsuko YoshikawaTwo young brothers throw a tantrum when they discover that their father isn't the most important man in his workplace.
- DirectorVictor FlemingGeorge CukorSam WoodStarsClark GableVivien LeighThomas MitchellA sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsFredric MarchGary CooperMiriam HopkinsA woman cannot decide between two men who love her, and the trio agree to try living together in a platonic friendly relationship.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsRobert DonatMadeleine CarrollLucie MannheimA man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsSylvia SidneySpencer TracyWalter AbelWhen a wrongly-accused prisoner barely survives a lynch-mob attack and is presumed dead, he vindictively decides to fake his death and frame the mob for his supposed murder.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsClaudette ColbertHenry FondaEdna May OliverNewlyweds 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.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTakeshi SakamotoChôko IidaKôji MitsuiA kabuki actor's mistress hatches a jealous plot to bring down her lover's son.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsKatharine HepburnCary GrantCharles RugglesWhile trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsMargaret LockwoodMichael RedgravePaul LukasWhile travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsIsuzu YamadaYôko UmemuraChiyoko ÔkuraA young woman becomes a mistress of her boss in order to support her family.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsGreta GarboMelvyn DouglasIna ClaireA stern Soviet woman sent to Paris to supervise the sale of jewels seized from Russian nobles finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTakeshi SakamotoYoshiko OkadaChôko IidaUnemployed Kihachi and his two sons struggle to make ends meet. But that doesn't keep Kihachi from wooing single mother Otaka.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsRichard BarthelmessDavid MannersJohnny Mack BrownWorld War I veterans roam Paris, drinking and admiring a woman they recently met.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsRené LefèvreFlorelleJules BerryThe boss of a publishing company is a womanizer and a jerk, but what would happen if he suddenly disappeared?
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsWallace FordLeila HyamsOlga BaclanovaA circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
- DirectorAbram RoomStarsBoris FerdinandovA. FilippovKarl Gurnyak"The Ghost That Never Returns" is an outstanding Soviet film by Abram Room, the director of Bed and Sofa (1927). Released to little notice in 1930, it joins other very late silents to show the screen still developing high eloquence after the first talkies stopped silent cinema dead in its tracks. This is the original silent version with new English titles and a new musical setting by Rodney Sauer.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoYuliya SolntsevaStarsEvgeniy SamoylovIvan SkuratovLuka LyashenkoBiography of Ukrainian revolutionary Nikolai Alexandrovitch Shchors. Shchors leads the peasants and workers to advance on Kyiv.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJames CagneyPat O'BrienJune TravisWar veteran pilots Dizzy Davis, Texas Clark and Jake Lee are working in an airline in Newark. Dizzy is flirting with the girlfriend of a younger pilot and, due to this, he feigns illness to get Texas to take his flight assignment to Cleveland. Returning from Cleveland to Newark, Texas' plane crashes attempting to land on the airfield under extremely bad weather circumstances and he dies from this accident. Dizzy feels guilty for his friend's death and takes the next flight to Cleveland under even worse circumstances, testing a new anti-ice device on the plane.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsBarbara StanwyckPreston FosterBarry FitzgeraldA husband clashes with his wife over his membership to the Irish citizen army.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsTakako IrieMinoru TakadaEtchanTwo young girls, Nobiko and Tomiko, go to the same school. The less fortunate girl Nobiko is one of the top students, while the rich girl Tomiko is not. At one time Tomiko's father was quite fond of Nobuko's mother.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsClaudette ColbertGary CooperEdward Everett HortonAfter learning her multi-millionaire fiancé has already been married seven times, the daughter of a penniless marquis decides to tame him.
- DirectorBoris KaufmanJean VigoWhat starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsGroucho MarxHarpo MarxChico MarxRufus T. Firefly is named the dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of his wealthy backer Mrs. Teasdale, contending with two inept spies who can't seem to keep straight which side they're on.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsRuth ChattertonLouis CalhernHelen Jerome EddyThe San Francisco earthquake shakes up the life of Jenny, a madam who gives birth to an illegitimate son and gives him up to protect him.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsWarner BaxterGloria StuartClaude GillingwaterThe story of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was imprisoned after innocently treating President Lincoln's assassin in 1865.
- DirectorGeorge CukorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldGenevieve TobinAn unhappily married couple try to come between a happy one.
- DirectorWancang BuStarsLingyu RuanJiqun LiuYan JinA decades-spanning romantic drama about a woman who pays dearly for following her heart.
- DirectorHoward HawksRichard RossonStarsJoan CrawfordGary CooperRobert YoungDuring WWI, two officers, one a pilot and the other in the navy, compete for the same beautiful young woman.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsSetsuko ShinobuAkio IsonoHikaru YamanouchiStory of a waitress whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends up taking a stiflingly domestic turn after a wealthy businessman accidentally hits her with his car.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsWill RogersMarian NixonVera AllenDoc Bull, a no-nonsense country doctor who has served his community for decades, fights small-town prejudice and provincialism in several crises.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsYoshiko OkadaUreo EgawaKinuyo TanakaRyoichi and Chikako are brother and sister. They live together. Chikako works during the day in an office and at night she prostitutes herself to fund her brother's studies at the university. Ryoichi doesn't know about his sister's secret life, but he is dating Harue whose brother is a policeman.
- DirectorDziga Vertov
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiTakuaki SeiryôStarsTokihiko OkadaIchirô SugaiBontarô MiakeThe tragic tale of a woman who despite doing good where she can gets punished by society.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinSuzy PrimLouis JouvetA charismatic thief makes friends with a bankrupt baron who comes to live in the thief's slum. Meanwhile the thief seeks the love of a young woman, who is held emotionally captive by her slumlord family.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierClaudette ColbertMiriam HopkinsAn amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsSachiko ChibaKamatari FujiwaraToshiko ItôThe suitor rejects elder sister Kunie but likes Kimoko, the younger one. Their father and his mistress have separate shops. Kimiko suddenly learns that she is her mother. Business is bad. The police visit when business shortcuts are taken.
- DirectorHoward HawksWilliam WylerRichard RossonStarsEdward ArnoldJoel McCreaFrances FarmerAn ambitious lumberjack abandons his saloon girl lover so that he can marry into wealth, but years later becomes infatuated with the woman's daughter.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsEdward G. RobinsonJean ArthurArthur HohlA meek milquetoast clerk is mistaken for public enemy N° 1, and the notorious killer takes advantage of the situation.
- DirectorSam WoodEdmund GouldingStarsGroucho MarxChico MarxHarpo MarxA sly business manager and the wacky friends of two opera singers in Italy help them achieve success in America while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKinuyo TanakaJôji OkaSumiko MizukuboA gangster tries to find redemption with the inadvertent help of an innocent shop girl and his jealous girlfriend will do anything to keep him.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsSachiko ChibaHeihachirô ÔkawaRanko Akagi
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsGaston ModotLya LysCaridad de LaberdesqueA surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraA documentary that looks at the people working in the river Douro, around the city of Porto.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsFredric MarchWarner BaxterLionel BarrymoreThe story of trench life during World War I through the lives of a French regiment. As men are killed and replaced jaunty Lt. Denet becomes more and more somber. His rival for the affection of nurse Monique is Capt. La Roche.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsUreo EgawaKinuyo TanakaTatsuo SaitôWhen a young man inherits his father's lucrative business, he cheats the system to set up three of his college friends with jobs.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsVictor McLaglenBoris KarloffWallace FordA dozen British soldiers, lost in a Mesopotamian desert during World War I, are menaced by unseen Arab enemies.
- DirectorBoris BarnetStarsYelena KuzminaMikhail ZharovNikolay BogolyubovOutskirts is an internationally renowned masterpiece of early sound cinema. In a remote Russian village during World War I, colorful and nuanced characters experience divided loyalties: family loyalty vs. personal desire, nationalism vs. transcendent humanism.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTokihiko OkadaEmiko YagumoHideo SugawaraA married Tokyo man faces unemployment after standing up for an older colleague.