... The Forgettable ... Of The 1930s
First of all, most movies on this list are not really bad. But they are not good either. In order not to bore you with every average movie I have seen I will restrain myself only to those of interest. That means you will find movies here that were successful at the box office but did not deserve that undue success or movies that did not stand the test of time. Other entries concern movies that are acclaimed by critics but to me are nothing short of being pretentious. Other titles could include films that were much talked about for whatever reason upon their initial release and therefore hold some kind of reputation that, however, do not qualify them for quality movies. You may also find movies here to which famous actors or directors contributed to but which are a let-down in the end nevertheless.
So, have fun browsing through my selection of the odds and sods of the movie world and let me know what you think.
PS: This list is by no means complete as I will add new worthwhile films as I stumble across them.
So, have fun browsing through my selection of the odds and sods of the movie world and let me know what you think.
PS: This list is by no means complete as I will add new worthwhile films as I stumble across them.
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- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsWalter HustonUna MerkelWilliam L. ThorneAn episodic biography of the 16th President of the United States.
- DirectorLudwig BergerErnst LubitschStarsDennis KingJeanette MacDonaldO.P. HeggieThe story takes place in medieval France. Poet-rogue Francois Villon, sentenced to hang by King Louis XI for writing derogatory verses about him, is offered a temporary reprieve. His hanging will be postponed for 24 hours, and in that time he must defeat the invading Burgundians and win the love of the beautiful Katherine.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsMary NolanEdward G. RobinsonOwen MooreFingers is planning a half-million-dollar bank robbery in gang boss Cobra Collins' territory. Fingers' moll Connie tries to bluff Cobra into thinking the hit won't be for another week when the call comes through saying it's now.
- DirectorFrank TuttleStarsGary CooperMary BrianPhillips HolmesA Union captain (Gary Cooper) in the Civil War volunteers for spy duty, then meets and falls for a Southern belle (Mary Brian).
- DirectorRowland V. LeeStarsGary CooperJune CollyerRegis ToomeyWhen World War One pulls the U.S. in, builder Jim Baker goes enthusiastically. The misery of life in the trenches seems to take any romantic edge off, until adventure seeking general's daughter Patricia Hunter is caught foolishly wandering around the front line. At length, they fall in love and marry. When he is reported dead, she becomes irresponsible and turns her family's mansion into a wild party site, one which Jim eventually comes to.
- DirectorEdward H. GriffithStarsAnn HardingMary AstorRobert AmesHoliday is a 1930 American Pre-Code romantic comedy film which tells the story of a young man who is torn between his free-thinking lifestyle and the tradition of his wealthy fiancée's family.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsLew AyresJames CagneyDorothy MathewsDespite his efforts to go straight, a young gangster keeps falling back into crime.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsNancy CarrollRichard ArlenWarner OlandHeyst, a hermit on his own tropical island, plays unwilling host to red-headed stowaway Alma. Danger looms...
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsWilliam PowellKay FrancisScott KolkWilliam Powell plays William Foster, a slick attorney who stays within the law, but specializes in representing crooks and shady characters. He's adept at keeping them out of jail, winning acquittals, and having decisions reversed, thus springing criminals out of prison. He is romantically involved with dancer Irene Manners (Kay Francis), who is two-timing him, although she wants to marry him. She kills a man driving while out with her other man, Jack Defoe (Scott Kolk), who takes the blame. Unfortunately, a ring Foster had just given Irene is found at the crime scene. Foster ends up defending Jack, but when the ring is found, he thinks he is protecting Irene, so pleads guilty to jury tampering, which he had done for the first time to save Irene. After his plea, the the prosecuting DA confides that Jack would have gotten off...
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsGary CooperFay WrayEmma DunnAn outlaw and con-man's plan to bilk an old woman out of a fortune takes an unexpected turn.
- DirectorTed WildeStarsLoretta YoungDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Louise FazendaIn this light romantic comedy, 17-year old Loretta Young is cast as wealthy socialite Ann Harper, who has inherited a fortune provided that the family is involved in no scandals appearing in print, and her two aunts and uncle consent to the marriage. Put off by all this, she is determined to cause a scandal so that none of the family will receive any of the inheritance. An arrow-straight Fairbanks is volunteered to be the one to "compromise" her, but the two end up falling for each other. Upon being discovered in Loretta's boudoir, Fairbanks makes a hasty exit out of the nearest window. The romance seems destined to fail, but Fairbanks (and his two friends) have other ideas, which are accidentally "aided" by the two prudish aunts.
- DirectorRichard WallaceStarsGary CooperBeryl MercerDaisy BelmoreBased on J.M. Barrie's play "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals," about a young Canadian soldier (Gary Cooper) wounded while fighting in World War I. While recovering from his wounds in London, a YMCA worker tells him that a Scottish widow (Beryl Mercer) without a son believes that he is in fact her son. To comfort the widow, the soldier agrees to pretend to be her Scottish son. After fighting with British sailors who make fun of his kilts, he wants to desert, but moved by his mother's patriotism he returns to the war front and is killed in battle. Later the proud Scottish widow receives the medals that her "son" was awarded for bravery. Produced by Louis D. Lighton and Richard Wallace for Paramount Pictures, the film was released on January 25, 1930 in the United States, (Wikipedia)
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsJohn BarrymoreLoretta YoungWilliam AustinWhen a nobleman loses his way in the fog and enters a house where there's a party going on, he's mistaken for a hired butler.
- DirectorFrank TuttleStarsClara BowRalph ForbesCharles RugglesAn American movie star vacationing in France gets mixed up with a songwriter, mistaken identity, and winds up married to someone she doesn't know.
- DirectorPaul L. SteinStarsLillian GishRod La RocqueConrad NagelA scheming mother wishes to make a successful match between her daughter and a prince, yet another man, a commoner, may stand in the way.
- DirectorLouis J. GasnierStarsWilliam PowellMarion ShillingNatalie MoorheadJohn Nelson, a well-to-do businessman, is escorting a woman he knows as Ethel Barry to the door of her apartment suite when a man steps out of the shadows and angrily demands to know where she has been. The embarrassed Nelson excuses himself and goes to his rooms in the same hotel. The woman rushes into his apartment followed by the man who met her in the hall. The man threatens her with violence and Nelson comes to her defense. In the ensuing fight, the man is knocked out of the window and falls to his death to the pavement many stories down. He is charged with the killing and his only witness that can prove self-defense for him has disappeared, and can not be found.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineStarsAlice WhiteEdward G. RobinsonNeil HamiltonVice lord Dominic has brought Swifty Dorgan east to do a job for him. When Swifty appears to have died falling from a train, detective Henderson impersonates him hoping to get into the mob. When he's killed his sister Polly poses as Swifty's widow and gets a singing job at Dominic's nightclub. Then the real Swifty shows up.
- DirectorRussell MackStarsEddie QuillanSally StarrFrances UptonAs assistant window-dresser, Willie is the lowest man on the totem pole at a department store. To add insult to injury, he is also the store's designated "Fired Man": when a disgruntled customer demands that somebody-must-be-fired, Willie is summoned and summarily fired, only to be rehired when the now-satisfied customer has departed. Willie inadvertently adopts a 4-year-old orphan at a cost of $10-a-week, and things go from bad to worse since Willie doesn't make $10-a-wee. But with the help of beautiful young nurse Mary, Willie manages to turn some corners and improve his lot in life--with some skids along the way.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsKay JohnsonReginald DennyLillian RothAngela and Bob Brooks are an upper-class couple. Unfortunately, Bob is an unfaithful husband, but Angela has a plan to win back her husband's affections.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsColin CliveIan MaclarenDavid MannersIn France, 1917, an alcoholic captain is afraid that his new replacement, his sweetheart's brother, will betray his downfall.
- DirectorRussell MackStarsEdward Everett HortonEsther RalstonLaura La PlanteA lonely husband whose wife has been away hires a lookalike impersonator to fill his place and fool his mother-in-law while he plays around with a pretty coquette. Confusion prevails when his wife returns that evening.
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsGreta GarboCharles BickfordGeorge F. MarionA young woman reunites with her estranged father and falls in love with a sailor, but struggles to tell them about her dark past.
- DirectorLloyd BaconMichael CurtizStarsDorothy MackaillLewis StoneNatalie MoorheadLarry Fellowes of Fellowes Publishing wants Kate to write her next book about the 'Office Wife'. The personal secretary/stenographer spends more time with the busy executive and makes more decisions than his wife ever will. This creates a bond between the secretary and boss that the wife cannot hope to equal. What Larry doesn't know is that sometimes literature mirrors life.
- DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsDorothy MackaillBasil RathboneLeila HyamsPhyllis wants to marry Bobby, but Father won't permit it until older sister Celia weds. So Celia invents a military fiancée in Arabia, unimaginatively christens him John Smith, writes him a love letter, and then kills him off. Only there really is a Col. John Smith.
- DirectorVictor FlemingStarsWarner BaxterMyrna LoyNoah BeeryFour one-for-all and all-for-one privates in the French Foreign Legion are all in jail for disorderly conduct, but they break out and rejoin their regiment and fight off a band of marauding Arabs, and are soon in Casablanca getting decorated by the French Minister of War. Deucalion spots Eleanor, a spy who had done him dirt and after tangling with the local gendarmes, they take her and head back for Morocco where they are charged with desertion, and have to go out and defeat some more marauding natives, and dodge the machine-gun fire directed at them by the highly-displeased Eleanor, and one thing just follows another.
- DirectorRaoul WalshLouis R. LoefflerStarsJohn WayneMarguerite ChurchillEl BrendelBreck Coleman leads hundreds of settlers in covered wagons from the Mississippi River to their destiny out West.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsJohnny Mack BrownWallace BeeryKay JohnsonIn this version of the Billy the Kid legend, Billy, after shooting down land baron William Donovan's henchmen for killing Billy's boss, is hunted down and captured by his friend, Sheriff Pat Garrett. He escapes and is on his way to Mexico when Garrett, recapturing him, must decide whether to bring him in or to let him go.
- DirectorRobert Z. LeonardStarsNorma ShearerRobert MontgomeryChester MorrisWhen a woman discovers that her husband has been unfaithful to her, she decides to respond to his infidelities in kind.
- DirectorSidney FranklinStarsRuth ChattertonBasil RathboneRalph ForbesA famous British actress gets involved with two members of a reserved British noble family, whose plan to get rid of her backfires.
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsEvelyn BrentLouis WolheimJean ArthurA salmon fisherman has to choose between a bad girl and a society doll.
- DirectorJack ConwaySam WoodStarsGus VanJoe SchenckBessie LoveWhen Jack and Jerry are not playing professional baseball with the Blue Sox, they are packing them in on the Vaudeville circuit. Jack is engaged to Mary, but a gold digger named Daisy has worked her way into his confidence. When Mary sees Jack and Daisy together, she leaves Jack and Jack marries Daisy the next day. When Daisy decides that she wants into the Vaudeville act, she has Jack dump both Jerry and his baseball contract. But Jack soon finds that - no act - means no money - means no Daisy.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsMarion DaviesElliott NugentRaymond HackettNot-so-smart chatterbox Dulcy Parker does and says all the wrong things, but they right themselves to prove she's not so dumb after all.
- DirectorFred SauerStarsMarlene DietrichWilli ForstAlbert HörrmannDuring a railway journey, Baron van Geldern meets an attractive young woman Evelyne in the same carriage. After the train is derailed, they spend a night together at a hotel, and he falls in love with her. Complications ensue when he discovers that she is engaged to his American friend.
- DirectorJack ConwayStarsLon ChaneyLila LeeElliott NugentProfessor Echo, a ventriloquist, forms a burglary ring. He disguises himself as an elderly pet store owner selling talking birds to the wealthy, using his skills to make the birds seem to talk while casing the homes for robberies.
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsGreta GarboLewis StoneGavin GordonYoung Harry is in love and wants to marry an actress, much to the displeasure of his family. Harry thinks that Bishop Armstrong knows nothing about love, so Armstrong tells him the story of Rita and himself. Rita was an opera star singing in New York, who was at a party given by Cornelius. Armstrong was a 28-year-old rector. He fell for Rita when he saw her and after six weeks he wanted to marry her. Naive as he was, he thought that all of Rita's "relationships" were in the distant past, but Rita lives for the moment and knows that she can never marry Armstrong.
- DirectorVictor FlemingStarsConstance BennettLew AyresTully MarshallYoung Ellen Neal gets work as a servant with the wealthy Fullerton family and falls in love with their handsome young son. But he leaves her with child, and when she attempts to gain recognition for her child, the Fullerton family treats her as a blackmailer. But a surprise awaits them all.
- DirectorEdward SlomanStarsHarry RichmanJoan BennettJames GleasonA vaudeville and nightclub performer becomes successful and forgets who his friends really are.
- DirectorTay GarnettStarsHelen TwelvetreesPhillips HolmesMarjorie RambeauA Havana bar girl with a tough "protector" falls for a young sailor.
- DirectorSidney FranklinStarsGrace MooreReginald DennyWallace BeeryLargely fictionalized biopic of turn-of-the-century nightingale Jenny Lind, highlighted by her true-to-life intersection with showman P.T. Barnum.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsDorothy MackaillFrank FayNoah BeeryA successful Broadway star ready to retire from her wild career announces her engagement. But her tumultuous past isn't done with her yet.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsJeanette MacDonaldJack BuchananClaud AllisterA countess flees to Monte Carlo on the day of her wedding, where she is courted by a count posing as a hairdresser.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsAlice WhiteJack MulhallBlanche Sweet'Rainbow Girls' has just opened and closed on Broadway when Dixie, a actress in it, runs into smooth-talking Hollywood Director Frank Buelow. He tells her she would be a natural and promises her a movie contract, so she goes to Hollywood, but there is no contract for her. She meets washed-up actress Donny (Blanche Sweet) on the lot and they become friends. Frank is fired from his studio and the new director finds that Frank's storyline is actually a copy of 'Rainbow Girls,' the Broadway stage play. They call Jimmy, the author and Dixie's boyfriend, for the rights and he goes to Hollywood to produce it as a movie. Dixie gets the lead, but things start going wrong when dizzy Dixie, spurred on by the fired Director Buelow, thinks that she is better than the picture or the studio and starts to make demands. Interesting note: Good look at early Hollywood, with cameos by Loretta Young, Walter Pigeon, Noah Beery and a young Noah Beery, Jr. make the film fun to watch.
- DirectorGeorge CukorCyril GardnerStarsIna ClaireFredric MarchMary BrianJulie Cavendish comes from a family of great Broadway actors. Her mother Fanny staunchly continues acting. Her boisterous brother Tony is fleeing a breach of promise suit in Hollywood. Her daughter Gwen must decide between going on stage, or settling down in a conventional marriage. Julie is just thinking that it would be nice to retire and get married, when who should turn up but her old beau, Gilmore Marshal, the platinum magnate from South America.
- DirectorDorothy ArznerStarsRuth ChattertonFredric MarchFuller Mellish Jr.After years of abusing his wife, a ne'er-do-well husband disappears with their son--and winds up selling him to a wealthy family. Years later, the wife, now a world-famous opera singer, finally has enough time and money to begin a search for him.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsNancy CarrollPhillips HolmesJames KirkwoodA savvy city girl is hired to sugar an earnest farm boy into a business deal, but loses her heart.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsDouglas FairbanksBebe DanielsEdward Everett HortonWall Street wizard Larry Day, new to the ways of love, is coached by his valet. He follows Vivian Benton on an ocean liner, where cocktails laced with a "love potion," work their magic. He then loses his fortune in the market crash and feels that he has also lost his girl.
- DirectorHarry BeaumontStarsMarion DaviesLawrence GrayWalter CatlettA New York chorus girl's friends encourage her to pursue a handsome socialite.
- DirectorLuther ReedStarsBebe DanielsEverett MarshallBert WheelerIn antebellum New Orleans, two men vie for the affections of a beautiful young girl during Mardi Gras.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsFrank AlbertsonJoyce ComptonSharon LynnThe son of a wealthy politician falls in with a notorious gangster planning to rob a night club.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsBenny RubinMarceline DayRex LeaseRex Lease is the football hero whose temper and drinking threaten his spot on the team, and his romantic life..but his naive comical roommate (Benny Rubin) remains his steadfast supporter. Rubin's brush with death becomes the impetus for Lease to turn his life around.
- DirectorHarry BeaumontStarsJoan CrawfordRobert MontgomeryAnita PageThree department-store girls--Connie, Franky, and Jerry--share an apartment on West 91st Street in New York City. Each earns little more than $20 per week. Jerry is the sensible one, but the others throw themselves at amoral rich men in an attempt to hook one and better themselves. They end up being hurt and disappointed despite Jerry's attempts to warn them.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsJoe CookLouise FazendaJoan PeersWoman inherits a traveling circus which brings financial difficulties.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsFritz KampersGustav DiesslHans-Joachim MöbisA group of German solders fight on the front line in France at the end of World War I.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsJoan CrawfordRobert ArmstrongMarie PrevostMary Turner goes up for three years on a crime she didn't commit. Once out she and former prison mates plan a scam in which old men can be sued for breach of promise - the "heart balm" racket. After plotting verious ways to get back at the men who set her up initially, she softens and settles down.
- DirectorGeorge FitzmauriceHarry d'Abbadie d'ArrastStarsRonald ColmanKay FrancisDavid TorrenceA distinguished English gentleman has a secret life--he is the notorious jewel thief the press has dubbed "The Amateur Cracksman". When he meets a woman and falls in love he decides to "retire" from that life, but an old friend comes to him with a predicament that entails him committing one last job.
- DirectorGeorge W. HillWard WingStarsChester MorrisWallace BeeryLewis StoneA convict falls in love with his new cellmate's sister, only to become embroiled in a planned break-out which is certain to have lethal consequences.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsHerbert MarshallNorah BaringPhyllis KonstamA juror in a murder trial, after voting to convict, has second thoughts and begins to investigate on his own before the execution.
- DirectorRoy PomeroyStarsBetty CompsonRalph ForbesMontagu LoveDuring World War 1, German spies will stop at nothing to spy on the allied war plans stored at Gibraltar.
- DirectorWilliam K. HowardStarsEdmund LoweJoan BennettDonald CrispDuring World War I, criminal Dakin Barrolles, fleeing a bank robbery gone awry, has a chance meeting with a rich, drunken banker and his wife. Fascinated by the kind of people he would ordinarily never get to meet, he steals a locket with the banker's picture. Later, in an attempt to elude the police, he joins the army and is sent to the front. Wounded in battle, his face is severely disfigured and a plastic surgeon, finding the locket with the banker's picture, assumes that is what Barrolles looks like and reshapes his face to that of the banker's (who, coincidentally, also joined the army and is now missing in action). After the war Barrolles, now with the banker's face, decides to pretend to be the banker in order to gain enough knowledge to rob the bank--and, as an additional perk, get the banker's beautiful wife.
- DirectorRichard OswaldStarsBrigitte HelmAlbert BassermannHarald PaulsenA scientist, Professor Jakob ten Brinken, interested in the laws of heredity, impregnates a prostitute in a laboratory with the semen of a hanged murderer. The prostitute conceives a female child who has no concept of love, whom the professor adopts. The girl, Alraune, suffers from obsessive sexuality and perverse relationships throughout her life. She learns of her unnatural origins and she avenges herself against the professor.
- DirectorJohn G. BlystoneStarsRichard CromwellNoah BeeryJoan PeersYoung David Kinemon is a good-natured, easy-going lad in a mountain village. Circumstances force him to take his brother's place as mailman for the community, and this brings him into deadly contact with the vicious Hatburn brothers.
- DirectorLeslie PearceStarsJack MulhallMae ClarkeNed SparksWhen a hapless pharmacist loses his job and falls in with criminals, he's soon made The Fall Guy. Unemployed, Johnny Quinlan (Jack Mulhall) starts doing jobs for underworld chieftain Nifty Herman (Thomas Jackson), who plans to use Johnny as a dupe to cover up his own shady activities. Herman plants a illegal drugs on Quinlan, who is nabbed by federal agent Charles Newton (Pat O'Malley). But in a twist, Quinlan convinces Newton to allow him to trick Herman into a confession.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsKenneth MacKennaFrank AlbertsonJ. Farrell MacDonaldU.S. Navy divers race to save the crew of a foundered submarine as the sailors hopelessly prepare to die.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsSpencer TracyClaire LuceWarren HymerWhen paroled trustee Steve and former inmate Judy who try to put their criminal lives behind them are blackmailed, two career criminals come to their rescue.
- DirectorWilhelm ThieleStarsWilly FritschLilian HarveyHeinz RühmannWilly, Kurt and Hans are broke, so they sell their car and open a filling station. Then they all fall in love with the same girl.
- DirectorHarry d'Abbadie d'ArrastStarsNancy CarrollFredric MarchFrank MorganA former chorus girl weds a millionaire after the composer she loves leaves. Meanwhile, she strings along an artist in love with her. When the composer returns, she struggles with her needs for security vs love. High jinks and drama ensue.
- DirectorDavid ButlerStarsEl BrendelMaureen O'SullivanJohn GarrickNew York, 1980: airplanes have replaced cars, numbers have replaced names, pills have replaced food, government-arranged marriages have replaced love, and test tube babies have replaced ... well, you get the idea. Scientists revive a man struck by lightning in 1930; he is rechristened "Single O". He is befriended by J-21, who can't marry the girl of his dreams because he isn't "distinguished" enough -- until he is chosen for a 4-month expedition to Mars by a renegade scientist. The Mars J-21, his friend, and stowaway Single O visit is full of scantily clad women doing Busby Berkeley-style dance numbers and worshiping a fat middle-aged man.
- DirectorJohn Murray AndersonWalter LantzStarsPaul WhitemanJohn BolesLaura La PlanteAmerican Pre-Code color film starring Paul Whiteman and his Jazz orchestra.
- DirectorHobart HenleyStarsMaurice ChevalierClaudette ColbertFrank LyonA tour guide in Venice romances a visiting American tourist whose father owns a chewing-gum factory back in the U.S. She sets out to convince her skeptical father to bring the tour guide to America and give him a job in the plant.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsBarbara StanwyckRalph GravesLowell ShermanAn upper-crust artist hires a 'party girl' as a model; romance follows.
- DirectorPaul L. SteinStarsConstance BennettKenneth MacKennaBasil RathboneA plain secretary works for a womanizing divorce lawyer who only dates married women. To avoid having to deal with the matrimonial pursuits of any of his potential romances, he offers her financial support if she marries him in name only.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsJohn BarrymoreJoan BennettLloyd HughesIn this extremely loose adaptation of Melville's classic novel, Ahab is revealed initially not as a bitter and vengeful madman, but as a bit of a lovable scamp. Ashore in New Bedford, he meets and falls for Faith Mapple, daughter of the local minister and beloved of Ahab's brother Derek. Faith herself quickly returns Ahab's love, as Derek is drab and ignoble. On his next voyage, however, Ahab loses a leg to the monstrous white whale Moby-Dick. When upon his return to New Bedford he mistakenly believes Faith wants nothing to do with him because of his disfigurement, Ahab returns to sea with only one goal in mind -- to find and kill the great white whale.
- DirectorArnold FanckStarsLeni RiefenstahlSepp RistErnst UdetIn the Mont Blanc Observatory works Hannes. The only contact to the outside world is a pilot and Hella over the morse-code-radio. As Hella climbs the mountain with her father, the father dies. Also Hannes gets endangered as his fingers freeze. But Hella gets help.
- DirectorJack RaymondStarsLyn HardingRaymond MasseyAngela BaddeleyAfter her sister dies under mysterious circumstances, a young heiress seeks Holmes' help when she feels threatened by her brutish stepfather.
- DirectorGeorge AbbottStarsClaudette ColbertFredric MarchEmma DunnA spoiled young rich girl is sent to prison for accidentally running down a pedestrian. There she learns about a life and people she had never even imagined existed before. Upon her release, she realizes that she is in love with the District Attorney who reluctantly prosecuted her case, a man who was in love with her but she had previously scorned him.
- DirectorRobert MiltonRay EnrightStarsLeslie HowardDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Beryl MercerLater remade as "Between Two Worlds."
- DirectorJohn FordStarsEdmund LoweCatherine Dale OwenWilliam HarriganHoping to use the publicity to get re-elected, a judge sentences a notorious gangster to fight in the war.
- DirectorGeorge W. HillStarsMarie DresslerWallace BeeryDorothy JordanMin, the owner of a dockside hotel, is forced to make difficult decisions about the future of Nancy, the young woman she took in as an infant.
- DirectorRobert Z. LeonardStarsNorma ShearerRod La RocqueMarie DresslerDowdy housewife Kitty dotes on her self-centered husband but divorces him when his mistress shows up at their home one day to break up their marriage. Bob had become bored with her lackluster appearance, their children and himself. Kitty re-invents herself and becomes a Continental favorite, dressing like a fashion model and behaving gaily. Three years after their divorce, Bob is at the home of a wealthy matron romancing her soon-to-be-married granddaughter, when the matron invites Kitty to a weekend party to steal Bob away from the granddaughter. When Kitty and Bob see each other, neither lets on they have a past, and the party continues as Bob pursues his ex-wife and new conquest equally.
- DirectorEdward SedgwickStarsBuster KeatonSally EilersCliff EdwardsA naive and wealthy young man seeks to impress a girl and then unwittingly signs up for army service.
- DirectorThornton FreelandStarsEddie CantorEthel ShuttaPaul GregoryWestern sheriff Bob Wells is preparing to marry Sally Morgan; she loves part-Indian Wanenis, whose race is an obstacle. Sally flees the wedding with hypochondriac Henry Williams, who thinks he's just giving her a ride; but she left a note saying they've eloped! Chasing them are jilted Bob, Henry's nurse Mary (who's been trying to seduce him) and others.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsOle OlsenChic JohnsonIrene DelroyAn American newspaper reporter is sent to Venice to interview a Romanian general. While there, he falls in love with a young heiress.
- DirectorFrank TuttleStarsClara BowStanley SmithStuart ErwinA young waitress falls for the son of a railroad tycoon and finds herself hobnobbing with the rich when he invites her to spend some time with him and his family in Palm Springs.
- DirectorFrank TuttleStarsClara BowFredric MarchHarry GreenA countergirl at a San Diego soda shop has a lot of sailor "boyfriends", but her heart really belongs to a free-spirited gunner, who doesn't want to be tied down to any one woman.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsCharles FarrellRose HobartEstelle TaylorLiliom learns his wife is pregnant and robs a bank. During the getaway, he is killed and given a chance to return to Earth. He quickly learns the only way to make his wife and daughter happy is to leave them with cherished memories.
- DirectorMalcolm St. ClairStarsJoan CrawfordJohnny Mack BrownDorothy SebastianA vacuous and flirtatious daughter of a wealthy rancher falls in love and marries a Texas cowboy and rancher, who calls her 'Montana', and eventually clash over their different lifestyles, to the point of almost ending their marriage.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsLouis MannRobert MontgomeryElliott NugentA German immigrant to a small American town is a barber with four children. He has saved enough money to invest in a savings-and-loan company with a friend. Unfortunately, one of his sons has been stricken with tuberculosis, and the investment money goes to pay for the son's treatment in Arizona. Twenty years later, the wastrel son of the now-rich man who was to have been his partner, falls in love with the barber's daughter.
- DirectorPaul SloaneStarsBert WheelerRobert WoolseyDorothy LeeThe stage stars Wheeler and Woolsey play two soldiers who go absent without leave in Paris, during World War I.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineStarsBert WheelerRobert WoolseyDorothy LeeTwo fast-talking insurance salesmen meet Mary, who is running away from her wealthy mother, and they agree to help her run a hotel that she owns. When they find out that the hotel is run down and nearly abandoned, they launch a phony PR campaign that presents the hotel as a resort favored by the rich. Their advertising succeeds too well, and many complications soon arise.
- DirectorPaul SloaneStarsBert WheelerRobert WoolseyDorothy LeeTwo phony fortune tellers get mixed up with gypsies.
- DirectorJoseph SantleyStarsHelen TwelvetreesFred ScottDorothy BurgessTo avoid hostilities, Maryan, the ward of Doc May, a medicine show owner, induces Pop Garner, a circus owner, to join forces with her guardian. Doc May and Daphne, his wife, work as clowns; and Garry, a singing soldier of fortune, sings along with Maryan's act. Ruth, Maryan's partner, quits to get married; and Joe, who is jealous of Garry, replaces her with Trixie, his former assistant. When Garry announces his engagement to Maryan, Trixie persuades him to join a strip poker game in a drunken state and "compromises" him in the presence of his fiancée. Grief-stricken, Maryan falls during her act, and Garry, robbed of circus funds, is arrested. In spite of her injuries, Maryan, learning of Trixie's treachery, performs the act with her and forces a confession by threatening to drop her; Garry is released and is welcomed back to the show.
- DirectorJohn G. AdolfiStarsGeorge ArlissDoris KenyonDudley DiggesWith the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, General George Washington took Colonel Hamilton with him into the newly formed government. While the main disagreements in the early days was over paying the soldiers who had fought in the War, Hamilton also dedicated his energies towards a national bank so that the United States would be able to trade with other countries. He fought eight long years for his Assumption Bill while considering the new Residence Bill. While he is engaged in running a clean treasury, his arch rival, Senator Roberts, takes every opportunity to slander and cast Alexander as a dishonorable man.
- DirectorGeorge FitzmauriceStarsGreta GarboRamon NovarroLionel BarrymoreA semi-fictionalized account of the life of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer who was accused of spying for Germany during World War I.
- DirectorJ. Walter RubenStarsRichard DixShirley GreyPurnell PrattRich playboy Pike Winslow dons the mantle of 'The Reckoner', a mysterious avenger, when he learns that his lady friend Barbara Gerry's father has been framed in a bank embezzlement scandal. Using meticulous planning and split-second timing, Pike, along with his associates, the erudite 'Professor' and tough-guy scrapper 'Doc', attempt to find proof that will clear Gerry and identify the real culprits.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsAdolphe MenjouPat O'BrienMary BrianA crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case.
- DirectorHarry BeaumontStarsJoan CrawfordCliff EdwardsLester VailAfter the death of her father and loss of the family fortune, Bonnie (Joan Crawford) gets a job as a cub reporter while her brother (William Bakewell) becomes involved in bootlegging.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsGary CooperSylvia SidneyPaul LukasMan joins a gang to free his girlfriend from prison.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsNancy CarrollFredric MarchPhoebe FosterAmerican drama written and directed by Edmund Goulding. The film stars Nancy Carroll, Fredric March, Phoebe Foster, Alison Skipworth and Alan Hale, Sr.. The film was released on July 18, 1931.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsEunice BrooksStanley MorrellCeleste ColeA young man named Jean in post-World War I Chicago falls in love with a beautiful girl named Edith. He proposes to her, but realizes that she's involved in the rackets and won't leave them, so he goes back home to South Dakota, where he becomes a successful rancher. There he falls for a white girl, but guilt drives him back to Chicago, where he runs into Edith again, and they agree to marry. When Edith is later found murdered, Jean is blamed for the crime.