Pre-Code 1930s Movies
A list of the Pre-Code Hollywood films in Danny Peary's Guide For The Film Fanatic.
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- DirectorMillard WebbStarsMary EatonEddie CantorHelen MorganThe rise of a showgirl, Gloria Hughes, culminating in a Ziegfeld extravaganza "Glorifying the American Girl".
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsJohn BarrymoreMarian MarshDonald CrispThrough hypnotism and telepathic mind control, a sinister music maestro controls the singing voice, but not the heart, of the woman he loves.
- DirectorJohn M. StahlStarsClaudette ColbertWarren WilliamRochelle HudsonA struggling widow and her daughter take in a Black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsWallace BeeryGeorge RaftJackie CooperIn New York's Bowery during the Gay Nineties, a saloon owner and a rebel share a rivalry.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenrietta CrosmanHeather AngelNorman FosterA possessive mother pushes her son into World War I service rather than see him get married.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeStarsHarry CareyEdwina BoothDuncan RenaldoTwo white traders in the darkest Africa of the 1870s find a missionary's daughter, who was captured as a child by a savage tribe and now worshiped as a goddess.
- DirectorEdward LudwigStarsClaude RainsJoan BennettLionel AtwillA brilliant but impoverished writer, who is a pacifist, goes to work for a publisher and writes anti-war editorials. When he discovers that the publisher has betrayed him and is in league with munitions manufacturers to make money off of war, he goes insane.
- DirectorJohn M. StahlStarsIrene DunneJohn BolesGeorge MeekerA woman's love for and devotion to a married man results in her being relegated to the "back streets" of his life.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsDick PowellRuby KeelerPat O'BrienMusical-romance with Powell as private in Hawaii involved with general's daughter Keeler. Break up to avoid scandal but reunite years later when he produces play at West Point starring her.
- DirectorHarry BeaumontStarsMarion DaviesLawrence GrayWalter CatlettA New York chorus girl's friends encourage her to pursue a handsome socialite.
- 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.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsWalter HustonUna MerkelWilliam L. ThorneAn episodic biography of the 16th President of the United States.
- 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 SternbergStarsPhillips HolmesSylvia SidneyFrances DeeA poor factory worker employed by a wealthy uncle falls in love with a beautiful heiress, but his happiness and promising future are jeopardized by a previous affair with a coworker he impregnated.
- DirectorVictor HeermanStarsGroucho MarxHarpo MarxChico MarxMayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding.
- 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.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsRonald ColmanHelen HayesRichard BennettA medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use of a vaccine.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsBarbara StanwyckGeorge BrentDonald CookA young woman, sexually exploited all her life, decides to turn the tables and exploit the hapless men at a big city bank by gleefully seducing her way to the top.
- DirectorFrank CapraAllan DwanRoy William NeillStarsWalter HustonPat O'BrienKay JohnsonSocially-conscious banker Thomas Dickson faces a crisis when his protégé is wrongly accused for robbing the bank, gossip of the robbery starts a bank run, and evidence suggests Dickson's wife had an affair...all during the same day.
- DirectorGus MeinsCharley RogersStarsStan LaurelOliver HardyVirginia KarnsOpposing the evil Barnaby, Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try and fail to pay-off Mother Peep's mortgage and mislead his attempts to marry Little Bo. Enraged, Barnaby's Bogeymen are set on Toyland.
- DirectorRaoul WalshLouis R. LoefflerStarsJohn WayneMarguerite ChurchillEl BrendelBreck Coleman leads hundreds of settlers in covered wagons from the Mississippi River to their destiny out West.
- DirectorSidney FranklinStarsNorma ShearerFredric MarchCharles LaughtonElizabeth Barrett's tyrannical father has forbidden any of his family to marry. Nevertheless, Elizabeth falls in love with the poet Robert Browning.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsMae WestRoger PryorJohnny Mack BrownRuby Carter, the American Beauty queen of the night club-sporting world, shifts her operations from St. Louis to New Orleans, mostly to get away from prizefighter Tiger Kid. Installed as the prize attraction of "The Sensation Club", ran by Ace Lamont, she quickly becomes the toast of the town and also marked as personal property by Ace, arousing the fury of Ace's former flame, Molly Brant. The not-overly-bright Tiger comes to town and is set for a title match with the champ by Ace, while the latter also has him steal some of Ruby's jewels. Ruby, no dumb-belle, figuring Ace has the fix in on the fight, uses some of her other jewels to lay a trap for Ace. Tiger confesses, after the fight, to Ruby his role in the jewel robbery while she hints that Ace was the one who slipped him the knock-out drops. Tiger goes after Ace, who, for his own reasons, has Molly locked in a closet.
- 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.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJohn BarrymoreKatharine HepburnBillie BurkeA man, Hilary Fairfield returns home after fifteen years in a mental asylum. However, he finds things are not the way they were when he left.