My Favourite Films: 1930-1939
A list of my favourite films of the 1930s. Taking in the best of the first decade of 'the talkies', the final German Expressionist and Soviet avant-garde films, the British documentary movement and GPO films, and plenty more.
List activity
13 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
85 titles
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsLew AyresLouis WolheimJohn WrayA German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEmil JanningsMarlene DietrichKurt GerronAn elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorIrene StarewiczWladyslaw StarewiczStarsClaude DauphinRomain BouquetSylvain ItkineWhen Renard the Fox's mischievous pranks go too far, King Lion is forced to attempt to bring the trickster to justice.
- DirectorHerman G. WeinbergStarsErna BergmanWilly HildebrandA story told with few words. We see a solitary man and a solitary woman, each alone with their thoughts. She is in the country, staring out a window. Nature is quiet, waiting for spring, trees are bare. He is in the city, walking from the docks, watching, somewhat aimless. She walks a country lane. Both are alone. She writes him a letter, offering an opportunity. Will he take it?
- DirectorJay LeydaArrival in the Bronx is shown with a view from an elevated train as it enters the city. Then follows a montage of sights from the Bronx. Many typical neighborhood activities are shown, along with scenes from many local businesses.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorTod BrowningKarl FreundStarsBela LugosiHelen ChandlerDavid MannersTransylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraA documentary that looks at the people working in the river Douro, around the city of Porto.
- DirectorOswell BlakestonFrancis BruguièreLight plays over the surfaces of paper cut-outs, abstract shapes with curved lines. The movement of the light (which are small spots) speeds up, following the rhythms of the piano accompaniment. A small spot opens and closes; Shadows sometimes dominate. The lights, movement, and music take on a mechanical mood. Then, the opening images return.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsGroucho MarxHarpo MarxThe Marx BrothersOn a transatlantic crossing, The Marx Brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship.
- DirectorAlexander HammidA portrait of the Prague Castle.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsRaymond CordyHenri MarchandRolla FranceSeeking better life, two convicts escape from prison.
- DirectorHenwar RodakiewiczWithout sound, in three movements. Title cards declare that what a person likes and his manner of liking them reveals character. There are long looks at forms and rhythms. The film begins and ends with the sea: the tide coming in, small breakers running up on a beach. In the first movement, rocks appear, light and dark play on water. From time to time, machines turn. The light makes dappled patterns. In the second movement, a leafy tree branch gives way to water then shots of the sky and clouds. The third movement returns to the shore, with long takes looking out far, past the beach to outcroppings under the horizon. Small breakers interrupt the patterns of light on water.
- 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.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsJean TarisJean Vigo films the talents of great swimming champion Jean Taris performing different acts. Vigo film technique allied with Taris swimming style are intertwined with grace and effect.
- DirectorDorothy ArznerStarsJudith WoodDorothy HallCharles 'Buddy' RogersTwo sisters, May, older, naive, and June, younger and worldly, arrive in New York straight from the country and settle down in a boarding house. Their search for jobs leads them to find beaus and romantic trouble.
- DirectorJean CocteauStarsEnrique RiveroElizabeth Lee MillerPauline CartonTold in four episodes - an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsWallace FordLeila HyamsOlga BaclanovaA circus' beautiful trapeze artist Cleopatra agrees to marry Hans the leader of side-show performers, but Hans' deformed friends discover that she is only marrying him for his inheritance. So they seek revenge.
- DirectorHenri StorckStarsBenito MussoliniPhilippe PétainTsar Nicholas IIA caustic documentary where newsreel footage of the 1928 anti-war pact signed by 60 nations is juxtaposed with 1932 scenes of the negative elements in society that would lead to another world conflict.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsGroucho MarxChico MarxHarpo MarxQuincy Adams Wagstaff, Huxley University's new president, accidentally hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against their rival, Darwin University.
- DirectorBerthold BartoschWhen a liberal idea emerges in a tyranny ruled society, power and wealth unite to bring it down.