1930

Film Decades: 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

• Abi and Rabi by Ovanes Ohanian (Iran)
• Abraham Lincoln – directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Walter Huston
• L’Âge d’Or (The Golden Age), directed by Luis Buñuel – (France)
• Alraune – (Germany)
• All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Lew Ayres
• A Lady to Love – directed by Victor Sjöström, starring Vilma Bánky, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Ames, Richard Carle, & Lloyd Ingraham
• A Man from Wyoming – directed by Rowland V. Lee, starring Gary Cooper, June Collyer, & Regis Toomey
• Animal Crackers, starring the Marx Brothers
• Anna Christie, starring Greta Garbo
• The Arizona Kid, starring Warner Baxter and Carole Lombard
• The Bad Man – starring Walter Huston
• The Benson Murder Case, starring William Powell
• The Bat Whispers, starring Chester Morris and Una Merkel
• Big Boy, a musical comedy with Al Jolson
• The Big House, starring Chester Morris and Wallace Beery
• The Big Pond – directed by Hobart Henley, starring Maurice Chevalier & Claudette Colbert
• The Big Trail – directed by Raoul Walsh, starring John Wayne
• Billy the Kid, starring Johnny Mack Brown
• The Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d’un Poete), directed by Jean Cocteau – (France)
• The Blue Angel – directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings, and Kurt Gerron – aka Der blaue Engel – Germany
• Borderline, starring Paul Robeson – (GB)
• Bride of the Regiment, starring Walter Pidgeon
• Bright Lights – directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Dorothy Mackaill, Frank Fay, Noah Beery, & Frank McHugh – a musical comedy in Technicolor
• Call of the Flesh, starring Ramón Novarro, a musical romance with Technicolor sequences
• The Cat Creeps, starring Helen Twelvetrees, a mystery film released by Universal
• Chasing Rainbows, starring Bessie Love, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Check and Double Check, a comedy based on Amos ‘n’ Andy radio show
• Children of Pleasure, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• City Girl – directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Charles Farrell & Mary Duncan
• Common Clay, starring Constance Bennett
• The Cuckoos, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Danger Lights, starring Louis Wolheim
• The Dawn Patrol – directed by Howard Hawks, starring Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
• Dangers of the Engagement Period – directed by Fred Sauer, starring Marlene Dietrich, Willi Forst, & Lotte Lorring – aka Gefahren der Brautzeit & Nights of Love – Germany
• The Devil to Pay!, starring Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Myrna Loy
• The Divorcee, directed by Robert Z. Leonard, starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery
• Dixiana, starring Bebe Daniels, a lavish musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Doughboys, a World War I comedy starring Buster Keaton
• Earth (Zemlya), directed by Alexander Dovzhenko – (U.S.S.R.)
• Elstree Calling – a British revue with color sequences, co-directed by Alfred Hitchcock – (GB)
• Escape, directed by Basil Dean, starring Gerald du Maurier, Edna Best (GB)
• Fast and Loose, starring Miriam Hopkins in her film debut, with Carole Lombard and Frank Morgan
• Feet First, a comedy starring Harold Lloyd
• Holiday, starring Buster Keaton
• The Florodora Girl, directed by Harry Beaumont; starring Marion Davies, Lawrence Gray, and Ilka Chase
• The Flute Concert of Sanssouci – (Germany)
• Follow Thru, starring Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• General Crack, a drama with Technicolor sequences starring John Barrymore
• The Girl Said No, directed by Sam Wood
• The Golden Age, directed by Luis Buñuel
• Good News, starring Bessie Love, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Hell’s Angels, directed by Howard Hughes, starring Jean Harlow and Ben Lyon
• Hell’s Heroes – directed by William Wyler, starring Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, & Fred Kohler
• Her Man, starring Helen Twelvetrees
• High Society Blues – directed by David Butler, starring Janet Gaynor & Charles Farrell
• Hold Everything, starring Joe E. Brown, a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Holiday, starring Ann Harding and Mary Astor
• Imperial and Royal Field Marshal (C. a k. polní maršálek) – (Czechoslovakia)
• Ingagi, exploitation-documentary on gorilla-worshiping women encountered by an explorer. Box-office hit was revealed to be a hoax.
• Journey’s End, directed by James Whale – (GB/US)
• Just Imagine, directed by David Butler
• King of Jazz, a revue with Paul Whiteman and his orchestra entirely in Technicolor
• Ladies Love Brutes, a comedy directed by Rowland V. Lee, starring George Bancroft and Mary Astor
• Ladies of Leisure – directed by Frank Capra, starring Barbara Stanwyck
• Leathernecking, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences starring Irene Dunne
• Let’s Go Native – directed by Leo McCarey, starring Jack Oakie & Jeanette MacDonald
• Liliom, starring Charles Farrell and Rose Hobart
• Loose Ankles – directed Ted Wilde, starring Loretta Young and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
• Lord Byron of Broadway, a musical drama with Technicolor sequences
• The Lottery Bride, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences starring Jeanette MacDonald
• Madam Satan – directed by Cecil B. DeMille
• Mamba, first talking drama entirely in Technicolor starring Jean Hersholt and Eleanor Boardman
• Mammy, a musical comedy starring Al Jolson with Technicolor sequences
• The Man from Blankley’s, comedy drama directed by Alfred E. Green starring John Barrymore
• Manslaughter – directed by George Abbott, starring Claudette Colbert and Fredric March
• Min and Bill, starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery
• Montana Moon, starring Joan Crawford and Johnny Mack Brown
• Monte Carlo, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Jack Buchanan and Jeanette MacDonald
• Morocco – directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Gary Cooper & Marlene Dietrich
• Murder! – directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Herbert Marshall – (GB)
• The Mystery of the Yellow Room [fr] (Le Mystère de la chambre jaune), directed by Marcel L’Herbier – (France)
• Nerone, directed by Alessandro Blasetti – (Italy)
• Night Birds directed by Richard Eichberg (Germany/GB)
• Not So Dumb – directed by King Vidor, starring Marion Davies and Elliott Nugent
• One Romantic Night – directed by Paul L. Stein, starring Lillian Gish, Rod La Rocque, Conrad Nagel
• The Other (Der Andere), directed by Robert Wiene – (Germany)
• Outside the Law, directed by Tod Browning, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Paid, starring Joan Crawford and Robert Armstrong
• Paramount on Parade, an all-star revue with Technicolor sequences
• Part Time Wife – directed by Leo McCarey, starring Edmund Lowe, Leila Hyams, Tommy Clifford, Walter McGrail, Louis Payne, & Sam Lufkin
• Peacock Alley, a musical drama with Technicolor sequences starring Mae Murray
• People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag), directed by Robert Siodmak – (Germany)
• Prix de Beauté (Beauty Prize), starring Louise Brooks – (France)
• Puttin’ On the Ritz, directed by Edward Sloman, starring Joan Bennett, with Technicolor sequences
• Raffles, featuring Ronald Colman and Kay Francis
• Reaching for the Moon, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• Renegades, starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy
• The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu, starring Warner Oland and Jean Arthur
• The Rogue Song, a musical operetta entirely in Technicolor directed by Lionel Barrymore
• The Royal Family of Broadway, starring Fredric March
• Show Girl in Hollywood, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences directed by Mervyn LeRoy
• Son of the Gods, a drama with Technicolor sequences starring Richard Barthelmess
• Song o’ My Heart, a musical starring Irish tenor John McCormack, directed by Frank Borzage, and shot in both 35mm and 70mm Fox Grandeur formats
• The Song of Love (La canzone dell’amore) directed by Gennaro Righelli, starring Dria Paola, Isa Pola – (Italy)
• Spring Is Here musical directed by John Francis Dillon
• St. Jorgen’s Day (Prazdnik svyatogo Yorgena) – (U.S.S.R.)
• Soup to Nuts, a comedy and film debut for The Three Stooges
• Street of Chance, starring William Powell and Jean Arthur
• Sweet Kitty Bellairs, a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Tarakanova, directed by Raymond Bernard – (France)
• The Temporary Widow, starring Lilian Harvey and Laurence Olivier – (GB)
• Three Faces East, starring Erich von Stroheim
• The Three from the Filling Station (Die Drei von der Tankstelle), directed by Wilhelm Thiele and starring Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey – (Germany)
• Tom Sawyer, starring Jackie Coogan
• True to the Navy, starring Clara Bow and Fredric March
• Two Hearts in Waltz Time (Zwei Herzen im 3/4 Takt) – (Germany)
• Under a Texas Moon – directed by Michael Curtiz, a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Under the Roofs of Paris (Sous les toits de Paris), directed by René Clair – (France)
• Up the River – directed by John Ford, starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart
• The Vagabond King, a musical drama entirely in Technicolor starring Jeanette MacDonald
• Viejo smoking (Old Smoking Jacket) – (Argentina)
• The W Plan, directed by Victor Saville, starring Brian Aherne and Madeleine Carroll – (GB)
• Wara Wara, directed by José Maria Velasco Maidana; now the only surviving silent Bolivian feature film
• Way for a Sailor, starring John Gilbert and Wallace Beery
• Westfront 1918 (Vier von der Infanterie), directed by G. W. Pabst – (Germany)
• Whoopee!, a musical comedy in Technicolor with Eddie Cantor
• Wild Company – directed by Leo McCarey, starring Frank Albertson, Joyce Compton, Sharon Lynn, H. B. Warner, Richard Keene, & Frances McCoy
• Young Man of Manhattan – starring Claudette Colbert, Charles Ruggles and Ginger Rogers
• Young Woodley, directed by Thomas Bentley, starring Madeleine Carroll (Britain)