Top Movies of 1930s


The top movies of 1930s list is calculated by community movie ratings and members' "Top Movies List". Lists are updated daily.

31. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

Year of Release: 1932
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Actors: Paul Muni, Helen Vinson, Allen Jenkins, Glenda Farrell, Edward Ellis, Hale Hamilton
Plot: Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.

32. Rules of the Game, The ( règle du jeu, La )

Year of Release: 1939
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Comedy/Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Jean Renoir
Actors: Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Odette Talazac, Claire Gérard, Marcel Dalio
Plot: Bored French aristocrats meet for a hunting party, and as they relax and the soap operas of their lives unfold, the witty satire gradually develops into high tragedy.

33. The Maltese Falcon

Year of Release: 1931
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Romance
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Actors: Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel, Robert Elliott, Thelma Todd
Plot: P.I. and a cast of shady characters seek the aforementioned statue. Pre-dates the Bogart version, but a good adaptation nonetheless.

34. You Can't Take It with You

Year of Release: 1938
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Romance/Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Frank Capra
Actors: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, Ann Miller, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer
Plot: A couple decides to have their families meet - one a rich well to do tycoon, the other a zanny crazy off beat family - to which they insult each other and have no understanding of the others life and actions.

35. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Year of Release: 1939
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: William Dieterle
Actors: Charles Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell, Maureen O'Hara, Edmond O'Brien, Alan Marshal
Plot: Frollo, Chief Justice, becomes entralled by the gypsy Esmerelda and coerces the deformed Quasimodo to capture her. After being caught by captain of the guard Phoebus, he is flogged with only Esmerelda taking pity on him. Esmerelda and Phoebus meet, and when the man winds up dead, Frollo pins the murder on Esmerelda. Quasimodo makes it his mission to save the girl from death by hanging.

36. Libeled Lady

Year of Release: 1936
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy/Romance
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Jack Conway
Actors: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Walter Connolly, Charley Grapewin
Plot: Warren Haggerty is the chief editor of the New York Evening Star. He keeps on delaying his marriage with Gladys because of problems his newspapers must face. When it is filed a 5 million dollars claim by Connie Allenbury for having printed she is a marriage-breaker, he organizes the unconsummated marriage of Gladys and the don Juan Bill Chandler. The goal is to catch Connie alone with a married man.

37. Angels With Dirty Faces

Year of Release: 1938
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Michael Curtiz
Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft, Billy Halop
Plot: A priest tries to stop his old friend, a gangster, from corrupting a gang of teens any further than they already are.

38. Blue Angel, The ( blaue Engel, Der )

Year of Release: 1931
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: German
Genre: Drama/Musical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Actors: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti, Hans Albers, Reinhold Bernt
Plot: A bachelor professor finds out some of his students are frequenting a speakeasy in order to see Lola Lola, a popular dancer at the Blue Angel establishment. Yet in confronting his students, he himself becomes entranced by the woman, and his life begins to spiral out of control as her influence exerts its hold over him.

39. Bachelor Mother

Year of Release: 1939
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy/Romance
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Garson Kanin
Actors: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn, Frank Albertson, E.E. Clive, Elbert Coplen Jr.
Plot: When Polly Parish goes looking for a new job she sees an woman leave a baby on the steps of a foundling home. Worried that the baby may roll off she picks it up, only to have the home think she is the mother. Despite her emphatic denial, the home contacts Merlin Jr. of Merlin and Son department store, where Polly was seasonally employed. Merlin rehires her so she can be reunited with her baby, but Polly refuses to be assigned a family and tries to return the baby to Merlin, causing another employee the mistaken idea that Merlin is the father. He then uses this information to blackmail his way to a promotion. Merlin Sr. then decides to take the baby away from Polly, but she has become quite attached. More mix-ups lead to a happy ending.

40. Grand Hotel

Year of Release: 1932
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Romance
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Edmund Goulding
Actors: John Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Purnell Pratt
Plot: The lives of several guests collide at the Grand Hotel, where "nothing ever happens."

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