Best Movies of the 1930s
This is my personal ranking of the best movies of the decade 1930-1939. In this list I considered movies, TV movies and mini-series, but not TV series.
Directors with more than a film in this list:
Jean Renoir 5 (Movies)
Leo McCarey 3
Jean Vigo 2
Charles Chaplin 2
Fritz Lang 2
Victor Fleming 2
Howard Hawks 2
John Ford 2
James Whale 2
Joseph Von Sternberg 2
Leni Riefenstahl 2
Alfred Hitchcock 2
Marcel Carné 2
Directors with more than a film in this list:
Jean Renoir 5 (Movies)
Leo McCarey 3
Jean Vigo 2
Charles Chaplin 2
Fritz Lang 2
Victor Fleming 2
Howard Hawks 2
John Ford 2
James Whale 2
Joseph Von Sternberg 2
Leni Riefenstahl 2
Alfred Hitchcock 2
Marcel Carné 2
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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardHenry BergmanThe Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
- DirectorVictor FlemingKing VidorStarsJudy GarlandFrank MorganRay BolgerYoung Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsFay WrayRobert ArmstrongBruce CabotA film crew goes to a tropical island for a location shoot, where they capture a colossal ape who takes a shine to their blonde starlet, and bring him back to New York City.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorZahari ZhandovStarsBogomil SimeonovSlavka SlavovaGinka StanchevaCustoms, jealousy, friendship and love haul up the lives of the villagers in Bulgarian countryside.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsClark GableClaudette ColbertWalter ConnollyA rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorWilliam CottrellDavid HandWilfred JacksonStarsAdriana CaselottiHarry StockwellLucille La VerneExiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffElsa LanchesterColin CliveMary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsRené LefèvreFlorelleJules BerryThe boss of a publishing company is a womanizer and a jerk, but what would happen if he suddenly disappeared?
- 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.
- DirectorMark SandrichStarsFred AstaireGinger RogersEdward Everett HortonAn American dancer comes to Britain and falls for a model whom he initially annoyed, but she mistakes him for his goofy producer.
- 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.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsMarlene DietrichJohn LodgeSam JaffeA German noblewoman enters into a loveless marriage with the dim-witted, unstable heir to the Russian throne, then plots to oust him from power.
- 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.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsColman 'Tiger' KingMaggie DirraneMichael DirraneIn this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEmil JanningsMarlene DietrichKurt GerronAn elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsColin CliveMae ClarkeBoris KarloffDr Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaAlice BradyMarjorie WeaverA fictionalized account of the early life of the American president as a young lawyer facing his greatest court case.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldCharles RugglesA Parisian tailor finds himself posing as a baron in order to collect a sizeable bill from an aristocrat, only to fall in love with an aloof young princess.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsIrene DunneCary GrantRalph BellamyA married couple file an amicable divorce, but find it harder to let go of each other than they initially thought.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeOtto WernickeThomy BourdelleA criminal mastermind uses hypnosis to rule the rackets after death.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsAnnabellaRené LefèvreJean-Louis AllibertAn impoverished painter and his rival engage in a race across Paris to recover a jacket concealing a winning lottery ticket.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsJean GabinMichel SimonMichèle MorganA military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a foggy, French port city.
- 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.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsJean GabinJacqueline LaurentArlettyAfter committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsDavid AlbrittonArvo AskolaJack BeresfordThe document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin.