The Best Movies of the 1930s

The 1930s ranked by our composite score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls — not one critic's opinion, but the weight of the whole canon.

Gone with the Wind (1939) leads with a composite score of 3.68. Top 100 of 394 films in our library.

1
Gone with the Wind1939 · Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood · United States · romance, drama, war
3.68
Oscar Best Picture winner 1939 · AFI 100 (2007) #6 · AFI 100 (1998) #4
2
City Lights1931 · Charlie Chaplin · United States · comedy, romance, drama
3.40
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #36 · AFI 100 (2007) #11 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #52
3
It Happened One Night1934 · Frank Capra · United States · comedy, romance
3.27
Oscar Best Picture winner 1934 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1934 #5 · AFI 100 (2007) #46
4
All Quiet on the Western Front1930 · Lewis Milestone · United States · war, drama
3.26
Oscar Best Picture winner 1929 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1930 #1 · AFI 100 (1998) #54
5
The Wizard of Oz1939 · Victor Fleming, King Vidor · United States · fantasy, musical, adventure
3.17
AFI 100 (2007) #10 · AFI 100 (1998) #6 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1939
6
Modern Times1936 · Charlie Chaplin · United States · comedy, romance, drama
2.97
Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #72 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #78 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1938 #4
7
La Grande Illusion1937 · Jean Renoir · France · drama
2.53
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1949 #2 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1938 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #146
8
The Rules of the Game1939 · Jean Renoir · France · drama, romance
2.38
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #13 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #38 · Scorsese's 39 essential foreign films
9
Stagecoach1939 · John Ford · United States · western, drama, action
2.24
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1940 #2 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1939 · AFI 100 (1998) #63
10
Grand Hotel1932 · Edmund Goulding · United States · drama, romance
2.19
Oscar Best Picture winner 1931 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1933 #9 · National Film Registry (inducted 2007)
11
You Can't Take It With You1938 · Frank Capra · United States · comedy, romance
1.93
Oscar Best Picture winner 1938 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1939 #4
12
Duck Soup1933 · Leo McCarey · United States · musical, comedy
1.92
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #211 · AFI 100 (2007) #60 · AFI 100 (1998) #85
13
Mutiny on the Bounty1935 · Frank Lloyd · United States · adventure
1.90
Oscar Best Picture winner 1935 · AFI 100 (1998) #86 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
14
The Life of Emile Zola1937 · William Dieterle · United States · drama, biography
1.89
Oscar Best Picture winner 1937 · National Film Registry (inducted 2000) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
15
Olympia1938 · Leni Riefenstahl · German Reich · documentary
1.76
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1940 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1940 #5 · TIME All-TIME 100
16
King Kong1933 · Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack · United States · adventure, horror, fantasy
1.74
AFI 100 (2007) #41 · AFI 100 (1998) #43 · TIME All-TIME 100
17
The Awful Truth1937 · Leo McCarey · United States · comedy, romance
1.69
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1937 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1938 #8 · TIME All-TIME 100
18
Morocco1930 · Josef von Sternberg · United States · drama, romance
1.68
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1931 #1 · National Film Registry (inducted 1992) · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
19
Cavalcade1933 · Frank Lloyd · United States · drama, war
1.67
Oscar Best Picture winner 1933 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
20
M1931 · Fritz Lang · Germany / Weimar Republic · thriller, film-noir, drama
1.66
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #36 · Letterboxd Top 250 #175 · Empire 500 (2008) #212
21
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington1939 · Frank Capra · United States · comedy, drama
1.57
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1939 · AFI 100 (2007) #26 · AFI 100 (1998) #29
22
Dodsworth1936 · William Wyler · United States · drama, romance
1.54
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1936 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1937 #4 · TIME All-TIME 100
23
L'Atalante1934 · Jean Vigo · France · drama, romance
1.54
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #34 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #46 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
24
Bringing Up Baby1938 · Howard Hawks · United States · comedy, romance
1.53
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #108 · AFI 100 (2007) #88 · AFI 100 (1998) #97
25
Only Angels Have Wings1939 · Howard Hawks · United States · drama
1.53
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #122 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1940 #4 · National Film Registry (inducted 2017)
26
Cimarron1931 · Wesley Ruggles · United States · western, drama
1.50
Oscar Best Picture winner 1930
27
The Great Ziegfeld1936 · Robert Z. Leonard · United States · biography, musical, drama
1.50
Oscar Best Picture winner 1936
28
Ninotchka1939 · Ernst Lubitsch · United States · comedy, romance
1.47
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1939 · TIME All-TIME 100 · National Film Registry (inducted 1990)
29
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs1937 · David Hand, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Percival C. Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen · United States · romance, fantasy, musical
1.39
AFI 100 (2007) #34 · AFI 100 (1998) #49 · National Film Registry (inducted 1989)
30
Trouble in Paradise1932 · Ernst Lubitsch · United States · comedy, romance, crime
1.36
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #136 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1933 #9 · National Film Registry (inducted 1991)
31
À Nous la Liberté1931 · René Clair · France · comedy, musical
1.33
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1932 #1 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #160
32
The Thin Man1934 · W. S. Van Dyke, Lesley Selander · United States · comedy, thriller, drama
1.26
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1934 · National Film Registry (inducted 1997) · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
33
Swing Time1936 · George Stevens · United States · musical, comedy, romance
1.26
AFI 100 (2007) #90 · TIME All-TIME 100 · National Film Registry (inducted 2004)
34
Ruggles of Red Gap1935 · Leo McCarey · United States · comedy, romance
1.26
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1935 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1936 #9 · National Film Registry (inducted 2014)
35
The Informer1935 · John Ford · United States · drama, crime
1.23
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1935 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1935 #5 · National Film Registry (inducted 2018)
36
Make Way for Tomorrow1937 · Leo McCarey · United States · drama
1.19
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1937 #5 · National Film Registry (inducted 2010) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
37
Tsuchi1939 · Tomu Uchida · Japan · drama
1.18
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1939 #1 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
38
The Front Page1931 · Lewis Milestone · United States · comedy
1.18
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1933 #3 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1930 · National Film Registry (inducted 2010)
39
Pépé le Moko1937 · Julien Duvivier · France · crime, drama, romance
1.16
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1939 #1 · Criterion Collection spine #172
40
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town1936 · Frank Capra · United States · comedy, drama, romance
1.12
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1936 #3 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1936 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
41
I Was Born, But...1932 · Yasujirō Ozu · Japan · comedy, drama, silent
1.11
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1932 #1 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
42
Passing Fancy1933 · Yasujirō Ozu · Japan · silent
1.11
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1933 #1 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
43
Top Hat1935 · Mark Sandrich · United States · comedy, romance, musical
1.09
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1935 · National Film Registry (inducted 1990) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
44
The Adventures of Robin Hood1938 · Michael Curtiz, William Keighley · United States · action, adventure, drama
1.09
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1938 · National Film Registry (inducted 1995) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
45
Wuthering Heights1939 · William Wyler · United States · drama, romance
1.08
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1939 · AFI 100 (1998) #73 · National Film Registry (inducted 2007)
46
One Hundred Men and a Girl1937 · Henry Koster · United States · musical, comedy
1.08
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1938 #2 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1937
47
Bride of Frankenstein1935 · James Whale · United States · horror, sci-fi
1.04
TIME All-TIME 100 · National Film Registry (inducted 1998) · Empire 500 (2008) #204
48
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang1932 · Mervyn LeRoy · United States · drama, crime
1.03
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1933 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1933 #6 · National Film Registry (inducted 1991)
49
The Lady Vanishes1938 · Alfred Hitchcock · United Kingdom · thriller, comedy, crime
1.03
BFI Top 100 British films #35 · Empire 500 (2008) #268 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
50
A Star Is Born1937 · William A. Wellman · United States · drama, romance, musical
1.00
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1937 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1938 #5 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
51
Dead End1937 · William Wyler · United States · drama, crime
1.00
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1937 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1939 #5 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
52
What Made Her Do It?1930 · Shigeyoshi Suzuki · Japan · silent, drama
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1930 #1
53
Mädchen in Uniform1931 · Leontine Sagan · German Reich · drama, romance
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1933 #1
54
The Neighbor's Wife and Mine1931 · Heinosuke Gosho · Japan · comedy
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1931 #1
55
A Story of Floating Weeds1934 · Yasujirō Ozu · Empire of Japan · silent, drama
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1934 #1
56
Le Paquebot Tenacity1934 · Julien Duvivier · France · comedy
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1934 #1
57
Carnival in Flanders1935 · Jacques Feyder · France / Germany · comedy, romance
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1937 #1
58
Pension Mimosas1935 · Jacques Feyder · France · drama
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1936 #1
59
Wife! Be Like a Rose!1935 · Mikio Naruse · Japan · drama
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1935 #1
60
Sisters of the Gion1936 · Kenji Mizoguchi · Japan · drama
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1936 #1
61
Kagirinaki Zenshin1937 · Tomu Uchida · Japan · drama
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1937 #1
62
Un carnet de bal1937 · Julien Duvivier · France · drama
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1938 #1
63
Five Scouts1938 · Tomotaka Tasaka · Japan · war
1.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1938 #1
64
The Good Earth1937 · Sidney Franklin, Victor Fleming, Gustav Machatý · United States · romance, drama
0.95
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1937 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1937 #7 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
65
The 39 Steps1935 · Alfred Hitchcock · United Kingdom · thriller, mystery, crime
0.92
BFI Top 100 British films #4 · Criterion Collection spine #56 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
66
Under the Roofs of Paris1930 · René Clair · France / Germany · musical
0.90
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1931 #2 · Criterion Collection spine #161 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
67
Love Affair1939 · Leo McCarey · United States · drama, romance
0.89
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1939 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #1114
68
Goodbye, Mr. Chips1939 · Sam Wood · United Kingdom · drama
0.86
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1939 · BFI Top 100 British films #72 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
69
State Fair1933 · Henry King · United States · musical, comedy, drama
0.84
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1933 · National Film Registry (inducted 2014) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
70
Lost Horizon1937 · Frank Capra, Andrew Marton · United States · fantasy, drama, sci-fi
0.84
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1937 · National Film Registry (inducted 2016) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
71
Imitation of Life1934 · John M. Stahl · United States · romance, drama
0.84
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1934 · National Film Registry (inducted 2005) · Criterion Collection spine #1167
72
The Only Son1936 · Yasujirō Ozu · Japan · drama
0.84
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1936 #4 · Criterion Collection spine #525 · Roger Ebert's Great Movies
73
Love Me Tonight1932 · Rouben Mamoulian · United States · musical, comedy
0.84
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1932 #5 · National Film Registry (inducted 1990) · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
74
Little Women1933 · George Cukor · United States · drama, romance
0.84
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1933 · Vatican film list · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
75
Our Neighbour, Miss Yae1934 · Yasujirō Shimazu · Japan · drama
0.81
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1934 #2 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
76
A Farewell to Arms1932 · Frank Borzage · United States · romance, drama, war
0.81
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1933 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1933 #6
77
Fury1936 · Fritz Lang, Lesley Selander · United States · drama, crime
0.79
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1937 #10 · National Film Registry (inducted 1995) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
78
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum1939 · Kenji Mizoguchi · Japan · drama
0.79
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1939 #2 · Criterion Collection spine #832
79
42nd Street1933 · Lloyd Bacon · United States · musical, drama
0.79
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1933 · National Film Registry (inducted 1998) · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
80
The Story of Louis Pasteur1936 · William Dieterle · United States · biography, drama
0.78
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1936 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1936 #7
81
La Chienne1931 · Jean Renoir · France · drama
0.76
Sarris's annual top 10 1976 #2 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #818
82
The Smiling Lieutenant1931 · Ernst Lubitsch · United States · comedy, romance, musical
0.75
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1931 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1931 #9
83
Frankenstein1931 · James Whale · United States · horror, sci-fi
0.74
AFI 100 (1998) #87 · National Film Registry (inducted 1991) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
84
One Hour with You1932 · Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor · United States · comedy, romance, musical
0.73
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1931 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
85
You Only Live Once1937 · Fritz Lang · United States · drama, crime, film-noir
0.69
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1937 #9 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
86
Vampyr1932 · Carl Theodor Dreyer · France / Germany · horror
0.69
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #146 · Criterion Collection spine #437 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
87
My Man Godfrey1936 · Gregory La Cava · United States · comedy, romance
0.69
National Film Registry (inducted 1999) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Criterion Collection spine #114
88
She Done Him Wrong1933 · Lowell Sherman · United States · comedy, romance, drama
0.68
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1933 · National Film Registry (inducted 1996)
89
Naughty Marietta1935 · Robert Z. Leonard, W. S. Van Dyke · United States · musical, romance, adventure
0.68
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1935 · National Film Registry (inducted 2003)
90
Jezebel1938 · William Wyler · United States · romance, drama
0.68
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1938 · National Film Registry (inducted 2009)
91
Dishonored1931 · Josef von Sternberg · United States · drama, romance, thriller
0.66
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1931 #5 · Criterion Collection spine #932 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
92
It's a Gift1934 · Norman Z. McLeod · United States · comedy
0.66
TIME All-TIME 100 · National Film Registry (inducted 2010) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
93
A Night at the Opera1935 · Sam Wood · United States · musical
0.65
AFI 100 (2007) #85 · National Film Registry (inducted 1993) · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
94
Dracula1931 · Tod Browning, Karl Freund · United States · horror, drama
0.64
National Film Registry (inducted 2000) · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Roger Ebert's Great Movies
95
The Scoundrel1935 · Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur · United States · drama, film-noir
0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1935 #6 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
96
Young Miss1930 · Yasujirō Ozu · Japan · silent
0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1930 #2
97
Der Kongreß tanzt1931 · Erik Charell · Germany / France · musical
0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1934 #2
98
Road to Life1931 · Nikolai Ekk · Soviet Union · drama, crime
0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1932 #2
99
July 141932 · René Clair · France · comedy, drama
0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1933 #2
100
The Water Magician1933 · Kenji Mizoguchi · Japan · drama, silent
0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1933 #2

The decade sound finished conquering

By 1930 the talkies had won, and the argument now was what to do with them. The silent era's international parity collapsed as dialogue tied a film to its language, and Hollywood answered by industrializing: the studio system reached the vertically integrated efficiency that would define its Golden Age, while the Production Code, drafted in 1930 and enforced without mercy from 1934, drew the boundaries every picture worked inside. The genres that still date the decade were built in these years — Universal's monster cycle (Dracula and Frankenstein, both 1931) taught horror to talk, and screwball comedy turned the new soundtrack into a weapon of overlapping, machine-gun wit.

That last invention still owns the top of our ranking. Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934) sits third on the decade by composite score, behind only the era's commercial colossus and Chaplin's silent City Lights — laughter holding two of the decade's three top rungs — proof that a form once dismissed as light has accumulated more canonical weight than most of the decade's prestige dramas. Leo McCarey's Duck Soup (1933) and The Awful Truth (1937), Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938) and the Astaire–Rogers vehicle Top Hat (1935) carry the same argument down the list.

1939, and what re-ranking reveals

Our page takes every film released between 1930 and 1939 and re-sorts it by cross-list score, and the exercise keeps returning to a single year. Gone with the Wind (1939) tops the decade at a composite score of 3.68; The Wizard of Oz (1939), Stagecoach (1939) and Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game (1939) all appear high on the list, joined by Ninotchka, Wuthering Heights and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington — every one of them from that same twelve months. No other year in the library concentrates so much of a decade's surviving reputation.

The re-ranking also rescues what the box office once undervalued. Renoir's La Grande Illusion (1937) is the decade's highest-scoring foreign-language entry, a work that has outlasted the era's louder spectacles. Chaplin's City Lights (1931), a silent picture made deep into the sound era, still outscores several of the decade's Best Picture winners; Modern Times (1936) followed the same defiant path a few rows below. And because the order is ours and not any single critic's, a French poetic-realist masterpiece can sit within reach of a Marx Brothers farce — exactly the cross-canon collision the 1930s earned.