1931

Film Decades: 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)

• 6 Cylinder Love – directed by Thornton Freeland, starring Spencer Tracy, Edward Everett Horton
• 24 Hours, starring Clive Brook and Kay Francis
• À nous la liberté (Freedom for Us), directed by René Clair – (France)
• Alam Ara (The Light of the World), directed by Ardeshir Irani – the first Indian talkie
• Alexander Hamilton, starring George Arliss
• Alibi directed by Leslie S. Hiscott (Britain)
• Alice in Wonderland, the first sound version
• Alone (Odna) – (USSR)
• An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Sylvia Sydney
• Anna Christie, directed by Jacques Feyder, starring Greta Garbo – (Germany)
• Arrowsmith – directed by John Ford, starring Ronald Colman and Helen Hayes
• Bachelor Apartment, starring Irene Dunne and Lowell Sherman
• The Bachelor Father, directed by Robert Z. Leonard; starring Marion Davies and Ray Milland
• Bad Girl, directed by Frank Borzage
• Bad Sister, starring Bette Davis
• Battling with Buffalo Bill, starring Tom Tyler
• Berlin-Alexanderplatz film of the novel by Alfred Döblin – (Germany)
• The Black Camel, a Charlie Chan mystery starring Warner Oland
• Blonde Crazy, starring James Cagney and Joan Blondell
• Bought!, starring Constance Bennett
• Business Under Distress (To neznáte Hadimršku) – (Czechoslovakia)
• The Champ, starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper
• La Chienne (The Bitch), directed by Jean Renoir, starring Michel Simon – (France)
• Cimarron, starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne
• The Cisco Kid, starring Warner Baxter
• City Lights – directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin
• City Streets – starring Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney
• A Connecticut Yankee, starring Will Rogers
• The Criminal Code – directed by Howard Hawks, starring Walter Huston
• Daughter of the Dragon, starring Anna May Wong
• David Golder, directed by Julien Duvivier – (France)
• Dishonored, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich and Victor McLaglen
• Down River, starring Charles Laughton – (GB)
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins
• Dracula** – directed by Tod Browning, starring Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye
• Dracula** – directed by George Melford, starring Carlos Villarías and Barry Norton – Spanish language version
• Elisabeth of Austria starring Lil Dagover and Paul Otto – (Germany)
• Emil und die Detektive, starring Rolf Wenkhaus, Käthe Haack and Fritz Rasp – (Germany)
• Expensive Women, starring Dolores Costello and H. B. Warner
• Five and Ten, directed by Robert Z. Leonard, starring Marion Davies and Leslie Howard
• Five Star Final, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive and Mae Clarke
• A Free Soul – directed by Clarence Brown, starring Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable
• From Saturday to Sunday (Ze soboty na neděli) – (Czechoslovakia)
• The Front Page, directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O’Brien
• Girls About Town – directed by George Cukor, starring Kay Francis and Joel McCrea
• Goldie – directed by Benjamin Stoloff, starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy
• The Great Love (Die große Liebe) – directed by Otto Preminger – Austria
• The Guardsman, starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
• Guilty Hands, starring Lionel Barrymore and Kay Francis
• Hell Divers – starring Wallace Beery and Clark Gable
• Her Grace Commands (Ihre Hoheit befiehlt) – (Germany)
• Hobson’s Choice, directed by Thomas Bentley (Britain)
• Honor Among Lovers – starring Claudette Colbert and Fredric March
• Huckleberry Finn, starring Jackie Coogan
• Hyppolit, the Butler (Hyppolit, a lakáj) – (Hungary)
• I Take This Woman – starring Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard
• Illicit – directed by Archie Mayo, starring Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie, Ricardo Cortez, and Natalie Moorhead
• Indiscreet – directed by Leo McCarey, starring Gloria Swanson and Ben Lyon
• Iron Man, starring Lew Ayres and Jean Harlow
• It’s a Wise Child, directed by Robert Z. Leonard; starring Marion Davies and Polly Moran
• Just a Gigolo, starring William Haines and Irene Purcell
• Kalidas, the first Tamil sound film, directed by H.M. Reddy (Tamil)
• Kameradschaft (Comradeship), directed by G.W. Pabst – (Germany)
• Kiki, starring Mary Pickford
• Der Kongreß tanzt (Congress Dances), starring Lilian Harvey – (Germany)
• The Last Flight, starring Richard Barthelmess
• Limite – (Brazil)
• Little Caesar, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Edward G. Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
• M – directed by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre and Otto Wernicke – (Germany)
• The Mad Genius, starring John Barrymore
• Mädchen in Uniform, directed by Carl Froelich, starring Hertha Thiele – (Germany)
• The Maltese Falcon, starring Ricardo Cortez
• Marius, directed by Alexander Korda, starring Raimu and Pierre Fresnay – (France)
• Mata Hari, starring Greta Garbo and Lionel Barrymore
• Le Million, directed by René Clair – (France)
• The Millionaire, starring George Arliss
• The Miracle Woman – directed by Frank Capra, starring Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, and Sam Hardy
• Monkey Business, starring Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo Marx
• My Sin, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Fredric March
• The Neighbor’s Wife and Mine (Madamu to nyōbō) – (Japan)
• Night in Montmartre, directed by Leslie S. Hiscott (Britain)
• Night Nurse – directed by William A. Wellman, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell and Clark Gable
• Other Men’s Women, starring Regis Toomey and Mary Astor
• Palmy Days, starring Eddie Cantor
• Pardon Us, starring Laurel and Hardy
• Parlor, Bedroom and Bath, starring Buster Keaton
• The Peach Girl (Tao hua qi xue ji) – (China)
• Peludópolis (Argentina)
• Platinum Blonde, starring Loretta Young, Robert Williams and Jean Harlow
• Possessed – starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable
• Private Lives, starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery
• The Public Enemy, directed by William A. Wellman, starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell
• Quick Millions – directed by Rowland Brown, starring Spencer Tracy
• Revenge on the Brother, directed Ebrahim Moradi (Iran)
• Sally in Our Alley, starring Gracie Fields – (GB)
• Secret Service, starring Richard Dix
• The Secret Six – starring Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Johnny Mack Brown, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable
• Secrets of a Secretary – starring Claudette Colbert and Herbert Marshall
• Sidewalks of New York, starring Buster Keaton
• The Sin of Madelon Claudet, starring Helen Hayes
• The Sleeping Cardinal, starring Arthur Wontner
• Smart Money, starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney
• The Smiling Lieutenant – directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert and Miriam Hopkins
• The Speckled Band, directed by Jack Raymond, starring Raymond Massey – (GB)
• A Spray of Plum Blossoms (Yi jian mei) – (China)
• The Squaw Man – directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Warner Baxter
• The Stolen Jools – directed by William C. McGann, starring Gary Cooper, Laurel and Hardy, Norma Shearer, Victor McLaglen, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Buster Keaton
• Street Scene – directed by King Vidor, starring Sylvia Sidney
• The Struggle, directed by D.W. Griffith
• Svengali, starring John Barrymore
• Tabu – directed by F. W. Murnau
• Tell England, directed by Anthony Asquith – (GB)
• Ten Cents a Dance – directed by Lionel Barrymore, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ricardo Cortez
• The Theft of the Mona Lisa (Der Raub der Mona Lisa) – (Germany)
• This Modern Age, starring Joan Crawford
• The Threepenny Opera (Die 3 groschen-oper), starring Lotte Lenya – (Germany)
• Tilly of Bloomsbury, directed by Jack Raymond, starring Sydney Howard, Phyllis Konstam (Britain)
• Tokyo Chorus (Tokyo no korasu), directed by Yasujirō Ozu – (Japan)
• Tommi, directed by Yakov Protazanov – (USSR)
• Tonight or Never, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Gloria Swanson and Melvyn Douglas
• Waterloo Bridge, directed by James Whale