Top Films of the 1930s
Log in to copy items to your own lists.
1.
The Rules of the Game
(1939)
A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau. (110 mins.)
Director: Jean Renoir
2.
M
(1931)
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt. (117 mins.)
Director: Fritz Lang
3.
La Grande Illusion
(1937)
During the First World War, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German POW camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from. (114 mins.)
Director: Jean Renoir
4.
L'Atalante
(1934)
Newly 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. (89 mins.)
Director: Jean Vigo
5.
City Lights
(1931)
With 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. (87 mins.)
Director: Charles Chaplin
6.
Modern Times
(1936)
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman. (87 mins.)
Director: Charlie Chaplin
7.
The Wizard of Oz
(1939)
Dorothy Gale is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home. (102 mins.)
Director: Victor Fleming
8.
Gone with the Wind
(1939)
A manipulative Southern belle carries on a turbulent affair with a blockade runner during the American Civil War. (238 mins.)
Director: Victor Fleming
9.
Bringing Up Baby
(1938)
While 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." (102 mins.)
Director: Howard Hawks
10.
Viridiana
(1961)
Viridiana, a young nun about to take her final vows, pays a visit to her widowed uncle at the request of her Mother Superior. (90 mins.)
Director: Luis Buñuel
11.
Duck Soup
(1933)
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale. (68 mins.)
Director: Leo McCarey
12.
Stagecoach
(1939)
A 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. (96 mins.)
Director: John Ford
13.
Freaks
(1932)
A 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. (64 mins.)
Director: Tod Browning
14.
Vampyr
(1932)
A traveler obsessed with the supernatural visits an old inn and finds evidence of vampires. (83 mins.)
Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
15.
Only Angels Have Wings
(1939)
At 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. (121 mins.)
Director: Howard Hawks
16.
Top Hat
(1935)
An American dancer comes to Britain and falls for a model whom he initially annoyed, but she mistakes him for his goofy producer. (101 mins.)
Director: Mark Sandrich
17.
Trouble in Paradise
(1932)
A gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme. (83 mins.)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
18.
King Kong
(1933)
A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star. (100 mins.)
19.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(1939)
A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down. (129 mins.)
Director: Frank Capra
20.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937)
Snow White, pursued by a jealous queen, hides with the Dwarfs; the queen feeds her a poison apple, but the handsome prince awakens her with a kiss. (83 mins.)
Director: William Cottrell, David Hand
21.
The Bride of Frankenstein
(1935)
Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Dr. Frankenstein (goaded by an even madder scientist) builds his monster a mate. (75 mins.)
Director: James Whale
22.
It Happened One Night
(1934)
A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who's actually a reporter looking for a story. (105 mins.)
Director: Frank Capra
23.
Ninotchka
(1939)
A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest. (110 mins.)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
24.
Frankenstein
(1931)
An obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses. (70 mins.)
Director: James Whale
25.
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
(1931)
In his final film, F.W. Murnau presents the tale of two young lovers on the idyllic island of Bora Bora in the South Pacific... (86 mins.)
Director: F.W. Murnau
26.
The Lady Vanishes
(1938)
While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train. (96 mins.)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
27.
Swing Time
(1936)
A performer and gambler travels to New York City to raise the $25,000 he needs to marry his fiancée, only to become entangled with a beautiful aspiring dancer. (103 mins.)
Director: George Stevens
28.
Boudu Saved from Drowning
(1932)
Boudu, a tramp, jumps into the Seine. He is rescued by Mr Lestingois, a gentle and good bookseller, who gives shelter to him... (85 mins.)
Director: Jean Renoir
29.
Triumph of the Will
(1935 Documentary)
The infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany. (114 mins.)
Director: Leni Riefenstahl
30.
The Women
(1939)
A study of the lives and romantic entanglements of various interconnected women. (133 mins.)
Director: George Cukor
31.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
(1938)
When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army. (102 mins.)
Director: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
32.
Mutiny on the Bounty
(1935)
Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on avenging his captors. (132 mins.)
Director: Frank Lloyd
33.
Captain Blood
(1935)
An enslaved doctor and his comrades in chains escape and become pirates of the Caribbean. (119 mins.)
Director: Michael Curtiz
34.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
(1939)
An aged teacher and former headmaster of a boarding school recalls his career and his personal life over the decades. (114 mins.)
Director: Sam Wood
35.
I'm No Angel
(1933)
The bold Tira works as dancing beauty and lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent need of money, she... (87 mins.)
Director: Wesley Ruggles
36.
Dark Victory
(1939)
A young socialite is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, and must decide whether she'll meet her final days with dignity. (104 mins.)
Director: Edmund Goulding
37.
A Christmas Carol
(1938)
On Christmas Eve, an old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the spirit of his former partner... (69 mins.)
Director: Edwin L. Marin