1931 Movies
Take a nostalgic look back at the top movies of 1931, celebrating the films, directors and actors that defined the year and left a lasting legacy in the world of entertainment.
The World's End
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Starring: David Bradley, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg
Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Palmy Days
Directed by: A. Edward Sutherland
Starring: Charlotte Greenwood, Barbara Weeks, Spencer Charters, Paul Page
Outline: An assistant of phony psychic leaves the fraudulent business and becomes an efficiency expert.
A Connecticut Yankee
Directed by: David Butler
Starring: Will Rogers, William Farnum, Frank Albertson, Maureen O'Sullivan
Outline: Will Rogers, beloved American humorist, takes a trip back in time to King Arthur's Court. With Maureen O'Sullivan and Myrna Loy.
Trader Horn
Directed by: W.S. Van Dyke
Starring: Harry Carey, Edwina Booth, Duncan Renaldo, Mutia Omoolu
Outline: Two 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.
Arrowsmith
Directed by: John Ford
Starring: Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard Bennett, A.E. Anson
Country: United States of America
Outline: Based on Sinclair Lewis's novel "Arrowsmith". A medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use of a vaccine.
M
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Starring: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Country: United States of America
Outline: When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Frankenstein
Directed by: James Whale
Starring: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, John Boles
Country: United States of America
Outline: An obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses.
Tonight or Never
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy
Starring: Gloria Swanson, Melvyn Douglas, Alison Skipworth, Ferdinand Gottschalk
Country: United States of America
Outline: A young opera singer finds her career stalled because of her cold and passionless performances, until she finds romance with a handsome admirer.
Gentleman's Fate
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy
Starring: John Gilbert, Louis Wolheim, Leila Hyams, Anita Page
Outline: Jack lives the high life and wants to make Marjorie his one and only. He then learns that his deceased father is alive but dying of lead poisoning. His father sent him away, twenty years ...
Indiscreet
Directed by: Leo McCarey
Starring: Gloria Swanson, Ben Lyon, Monroe Owsley, Barbara Kent
Outline: A young woman jeopardizes the relationship with the man she loves when a no-account from her past shows up.
The Public Enemy
Directed by: William A. Wellman
Starring: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell
Country: United States of America
Outline: A young hoodlum rises up through the ranks of the Chicago underworld, even as a gangster's accidental death threatens to spark a bloody mob war.
Street Scene
Directed by: King Vidor
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, William Collier Jr., Estelle Taylor, Beulah Bondi
Country: United States of America
Outline: Twenty-four hours elapse on the stoop of a Hell's Kitchen tenement as a microcosm of the American melting pot interacts with each other during a summer heatwave.
Le Million
Directed by: René Clair
Starring: Annabella, René Lefèvre, Jean-Louis Allibert, Paul Ollivier
Country: United States of America
Outline: An impoverished painter and his rival engage in a race across Paris to recover a jacket concealing a winning lottery ticket.
Dracula
Directed by: Tod Browning
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye
Country: United States of America
Outline: The ancient vampire Count Dracula arrives in England and begins to prey upon the virtuous young Mina.
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
Directed by: F.W. Murnau
Starring: Anne Chevalier, Matahi, Hitu, Bill Bambridge
Country: United States of America
Outline: On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
Monkey Business
Directed by: Norman Z. McLeod
Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, The Marx Brothers, Chico Marx
Country: United States of America
Outline: On a transatlantic crossing, The Marx Brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship.
The Miracle Woman
Directed by: Frank Capra
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, Sam Hardy, Beryl Mercer
Country: United States of America
Outline: After an unappreciated minister dies, his daughter loses her faith in God, prompting her to open a phony temple with a con man. Can the love of a blind aviator restore her faith and happiness?
The Champ
Directed by: King Vidor
Starring: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich, Roscoe Ates
Country: United States of America
Outline: An alcoholic ex-boxer struggles to provide a good living for his son.
Five Star Final
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H.B. Warner, Anthony Bushell
Outline: The City Editor of a sleazy tabloid goes against his own journalistic ethics to resurrect a twenty year old murder case... with tragic results.
City Streets
Directed by: Rouben Mamoulian
Starring: Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Lukas, William 'Stage' Boyd
Country: United States of America
Outline: Man joins a gang to free his girlfriend from prison.
Blonde Crazy
Directed by: Roy Del Ruth
Starring: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Louis Calhern, Noel Francis
Country: United States of America
Outline: The adventures of an egoistic con man and his glamorous accomplice.
Arizona Terror
Directed by: Phil Rosen
Starring: Ken Maynard, Lina Basquette, Hooper Atchley, Nina Quartero
Outline: Captain Porter's scheme is to buy livestock and then have his men show up later to kill the buyer and retrieve the money. When his men kill the next victim, he frames the Arizonian for the ...
Emma
Directed by: Clarence Brown
Starring: Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy
Outline: After decades of raising the motherless Smith children, housekeeper Emma Thatcher is faced with resentment when she marries their father.
Forbidden
Directed by: Frank Capra
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, Ralph Bellamy, Dorothy Peterson
Country: United States of America
Outline: A librarian takes a cruise and falls for an unobtainable man, a district attorney married to a crippled woman.
Svengali
Directed by: Archie Mayo
Starring: John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Crisp, Bramwell Fletcher
Country: United States of America
Outline: Through hypnotism and telepathic mind control, a sinister music maestro controls the singing voice, but not the heart, of the woman he loves.
What happened in 1931?
Discover what the world looked like in 1931: