1930 Movies
Take a nostalgic look back at the top movies of 1930, celebrating the films, directors and actors that defined the year and left a lasting legacy in the world of entertainment.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Directed by: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
Country: United States of America
Outline: A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
The Dawn Patrol
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Starring: Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Neil Hamilton, Frank McHugh
Country: United States of America
Outline: World War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but Courtney is soon promoted to squadron commander and learns harsh lessons about sending subordinates to their deaths.
Whoopee!
Directed by: Thornton Freeland
Starring: Eddie Cantor, Ethel Shutta, Paul Gregory, Eleanor Hunt
Country: United States of America
Outline: Western 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...
Check and Double Check
Directed by: Melville W. Brown
Starring: Freeman F. Gosden, Charles J. Correll, Sue Carol, Irene Rich
Country: United States of America
Outline: Typical Amos 'n Andy storyline has the boys trying to make a go of their "open-air" taxi business while they get caught up in a society hassle, involving driving musicians to a fancy party....
Sweethearts on Parade
Directed by: Marshall Neilan
Starring: Alice White, Lloyd Hughes, Marie Prevost, Kenneth Thomson
Outline: Helen and Nita work in a department store to make ends meet while they search for millionaire husbands. They meet Bill and Hank, who make them reconsider whether they really need millionaires to be happy.
The Blue Angel
Directed by: Josef von Sternberg
Starring: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti
Outline: The Blue Angel is a sleazy bar and the local boys go there to see Lola who is the dancer. The teacher goes there to confront his students only to fall for the dancer.
Way Out West
Directed by: Fred Niblo
Starring: William Haines, Leila Hyams, Polly Moran, Cliff Edwards
Outline: Wise-guy carnival barker Windy bilks a group of cowboys out of their money, gets caught and is forced into working off the debt on their ranch. He falls in love with Molly, the pretty owner...
City Girl
Directed by: F.W. Murnau
Starring: Charles Farrell, Mary Duncan, David Torrence, Edith Yorke
Country: United States of America
Outline: A Chicago waitress falls in love with a Minnesota farmer, and decides to face a life in the country.
The Blue Angel
Directed by: Josef von Sternberg
Starring: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti
Country: United States of America
Outline: An elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.
Animal Crackers
Directed by: Victor Heerman
Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, The Marx Brothers
Country: United States of America
Outline: Mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding.
The Girl Said No
Directed by: Sam Wood
Starring: William Haines, Leila Hyams, Polly Moran, Marie Dressler
Outline: A brash, pushy young man gets a job in a bank and sets his cap for his boss's secretary, but the death of his father makes him reassess his priorities.
Way for a Sailor
Directed by: Sam Wood
Starring: John Gilbert, Wallace Beery, Jim Tully, Leila Hyams
Outline: Jack is a sailor who lives to go to sea. A typical sailor, he is always broke and has been in seven jails in the last seven ports. The one girl he tries to impress the most is in London and...
Earth
Directed by: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
Starring: Stepan Shkurat, Semyon Svashenko, Yuliya Solntseva, Yelena Maksimova
Country: United States of America
Outline: In the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.
L'Age d'Or
Directed by: Luis Buñuel
Starring: Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Caridad de Laberdesque, Max Ernst
Country: United States of America
Outline: A 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.
Little Caesar
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr.
Country: United States of America
Outline: A small-time criminal moves to a big city to seek bigger fortune.
Morocco
Directed by: Josef von Sternberg
Starring: Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Adolphe Menjou, Ullrich Haupt
Country: United States of America
Outline: A cabaret singer and a Legionnaire fall in love, but their relationship is complicated by the results of his womanizing and due to the appearance of a rich man who wants her for himself.
The Light of Western Stars
Directed by: Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf
Starring: Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, Harry Green, Regis Toomey
Outline: A friend of Dick Bailey is killed by a mysterious assailant, whom Dick suspects to be Stack, who is in league with the crooked sheriff. Out on a spree Dick swears he will marry the first ...
Spring Is Here
Directed by: John Francis Dillon
Starring: Lawrence Gray, Alexander Gray, Bernice Claire, Louise Fazenda
Outline: Betty a young woman is going steady with Terry but falls for an exciting new comer to town Steve. Betty's father wants her to marry Terry but she doesn't see that she actually is in love ...
Show Girl in Hollywood
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy
Starring: Alice White, Jack Mulhall, Blanche Sweet, Ford Sterling
Outline: '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, promises ...
The Silent Enemy
Directed by: H.P. Carver
Starring: Chief Yellow Robe, Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, Chief Akawanush, Mary Alice Nelson Archambaud
Outline: A documentary about the life of Indians in Northern Canada.
Anna Christie
Directed by: Clarence Brown
Starring: Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion, Marie Dressler
Country: United States of America
Outline: A young woman reunites with her estranged father and falls in love with a sailor, but struggles to tell them about her dark past.
The Texan
Directed by: John Cromwell
Starring: Gary Cooper, Fay Wray, Emma Dunn, Oscar Apfel
Outline: An outlaw, the Llano Kid is the scourge of south Texas and a Bible quoting lawman named Thacker. The kid joins a con man in a plot to deceive a wealthy old woman that he's her long-lost son...
Liliom
Directed by: Frank Borzage
Starring: Charles Farrell, Rose Hobart, Estelle Taylor, H.B. Warner
Outline: Liliom, a merry-go-round barker at a Budapest amusement park, becomes enamored of Julie, a servant girl, and though under the influence of Madame Muskat, a sideshow entrepreneur, he marries...
For the Defense
Directed by: John Cromwell
Starring: William Powell, Kay Francis, Scott Kolk, William B. Davidson
Country: United States of America
Outline: William 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 ...
The Bat Whispers
Directed by: Roland West
Starring: Chance Ward, Richard Tucker, Wilson Benge, DeWitt Jennings
Country: United States of America
Outline: A master criminal terrorizes the occupants of an isolated country mansion.
What happened in 1930?
Discover what the world looked like in 1930: