Best Picture 1931
by logandarko | created - 23 Mar 2011 | updated - 5 months ago | PublicFilms I've seen form best to worst
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1. City Lights (1931)
G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers
Votes: 195,430 | Gross: $0.02M
2. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 167,918 | Gross: $0.03M
3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Passed | 98 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Dr. Jekyll faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run wild with a potion that transforms him into the animalistic Mr. Hyde.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert
Votes: 15,759 | Gross: $2.79M
4. The Threepenny Opera (1931)
Not Rated | 104 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
The Gangster Macheath secretly marries the daughter of beggar king Peachum. When Peachum finds out, he instructs the police chief Brown to arrest and hang Macheath. If not, all the beggars of Soho will disturb the upcoming coronation.
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Rudolf Forster, Lotte Lenya, Carola Neher, Reinhold Schünzel
Votes: 2,529
5. Safe in Hell (1931)
Passed | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After accidentally killing the man who raped her and forced her into prostitution, a New Orleans woman flees to a Caribbean island. While she awaits her fiancé, the vicious local police chief sets his sights on her.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Dorothy Mackaill, Donald Cook, Ralf Harolde, John Wray
Votes: 2,023
6. Street Scene (1931)
Passed | 80 min | Drama, Romance
Twenty-four hours elapse on the stoop of a Hell's Kitchen tenement as a microcosm of the American melting pot interconnects during a summer heatwave.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, William Collier Jr., Estelle Taylor, Beulah Bondi
Votes: 2,048
7. Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
Passed | 87 min | Drama, Romance
At an all-girls boarding school, Manuela falls in love with a teacher, to terrific consequences.
Directors: Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich | Stars: Dorothea Wieck, Hertha Thiele, Emilia Unda, Hedy Krilla
Votes: 3,716
8. Waterloo Bridge (1931)
81 min | Drama, Romance
A prostitute's self-loathing makes her reluctant to marry an idealistic soldier during World War I.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Mae Clarke, Douglass Montgomery, Doris Lloyd, Frederick Kerr
Votes: 3,159
9. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
TV-PG | 86 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
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.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Anne Chevalier, Matahi, Hitu, Bill Bambridge
Votes: 6,366
10. The Front Page (1931)
Approved | 101 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Adolphe Menjou, Pat O'Brien, Mary Brian, Edward Everett Horton
Votes: 3,418
11. The Maltese Falcon (1931)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel
Votes: 3,335
12. Bad Girl (1931)
Passed | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: James Dunn, Sally Eilers, Minna Gombell, Frank Darien
Votes: 1,588
13. Night Nurse (1931)
Passed | 72 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A nurse enlists the help of a petty criminal to foil a sinister plot to murder two children.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell, Clark Gable
Votes: 4,473
14. The Public Enemy (1931)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell
Votes: 22,962 | Gross: $1.01M
15. Frankenstein (1931)
Passed | 70 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Dr Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, John Boles
Votes: 79,397
16. À Nous la Liberté (1931)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy, Musical
Seeking better life, two convicts escape from prison.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Rolla France, Paul Ollivier
Votes: 4,946
17. Five Star Final (1931)
Not Rated | 89 min | Crime, Drama
The City Editor of a sleazy tabloid goes against his own journalistic ethics to resurrect a twenty year old murder case... with tragic results.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H.B. Warner, Anthony Bushell
Votes: 2,514
18. The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
Passed | 93 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
An amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 4,101
19. La destrucción de Oaxaca (1931)
12 min | Documentary, Short
Footage of the aftermath of the January 14 1931 Earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Votes: 200
20. Tokyo Chorus (1931)
90 min | Comedy, Drama
A married Tokyo man faces unemployment after standing up for an older colleague.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Tokihiko Okada, Emiko Yagumo, Hideo Sugawara, Hideko Takamine
Votes: 1,567
21. Comradeship (1931)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama
Plea against war and for friendship between peoples, through the story of French miners rescued by German colleagues after a firedamp explosion.
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Alexander Granach, Fritz Kampers, Ernst Busch, Elisabeth Wendt
Votes: 1,737
22. The Miracle Woman (1931)
Passed | 90 min | Drama, Romance
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?
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, Sam Hardy, Beryl Mercer
Votes: 2,257
23. Platinum Blonde (1931)
Passed | 89 min | Comedy, Romance
A young woman from a very rich family impulsively marries a reporter, but each assumes the other is the one whose lifestyle must change.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Harlow, Loretta Young, Robert Williams, Halliwell Hobbes
Votes: 3,445
24. Cimarron (1931)
Passed | 123 min | Drama, Western
A newspaper editor settles in an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife at the end of the nineteenth century.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor, Nance O'Neil
Votes: 6,892
25. Devotion (1931)
Approved | 81 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The poor, downtrodden (beautiful, of course) "dutiful" daughter of a London society family falls for a barrister, disguises herself, and takes a job as governess to his son. Adapted from the novel, "A Little Flat in the Temple"
Director: Robert Milton | Stars: Ann Harding, Leslie Howard, Robert Williams, O.P. Heggie
Votes: 260
26. Bad Sister (1931)
Passed | 68 min | Drama
Marianne falls in love with a con artist who has a hidden agenda.
Director: Hobart Henley | Stars: Conrad Nagel, Sidney Fox, Bette Davis, Zasu Pitts
Votes: 1,498
27. The Guardsman (1931)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy, Drama
A jealous stage actor disguises himself as a Russian guardsman in order to test his actress wife's loyalty.
Director: Sidney Franklin | Stars: Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Roland Young, Zasu Pitts
Votes: 584
28. Taris (1931)
Not Rated | 10 min | Documentary, Short, Sport
Jean Vigo films the talents of great swimming champion Jean Taris performing different acts. Vigo film technique allied with Taris swimming style are intertwined with grace and effect.
Director: Jean Vigo | Star: Jean Taris
Votes: 2,503
29. Dracula (1931)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.
Directors: Tod Browning, Karl Freund | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye
Votes: 58,373
30. Stolen Heaven (1931)
76 min | Drama, Romance
Engineering a $20,000 robbery, Mary and Joe draw up a pact to spend all the money foolishly and then commit suicide.
Director: George Abbott | Stars: Nancy Carroll, Phillips Holmes, Louis Calhern, Edward Keane
Votes: 145
31. The Champ (I) (1931)
Passed | 86 min | Drama, Family, Sport
An alcoholic ex-boxer struggles to provide a good living for his son.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich, Roscoe Ates
Votes: 3,600
32. Little Caesar (1931)
Not Rated | 79 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A small-time criminal moves to a big city to seek bigger fortune.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr.
Votes: 14,444
33. East of Shanghai (1931)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Believing that an unexpected inheritance will bring them happiness, a married couple instead finds their relationship strained to the breaking point.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Henry Kendall, Joan Barry, Percy Marmont, Betty Amann
Votes: 4,879
34. Drácula (1931)
Unrated | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Centuries-old vampire Dracula preys upon the innocent Eva and her friends.
Director: George Melford | Stars: Carlos Villarías, Lupita Tovar, Barry Norton, Pablo Álvarez Rubio
Votes: 5,078
35. Dishonored (1931)
Approved | 91 min | Drama, Romance, War
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Victor McLaglen, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Warner Oland
Votes: 3,176
36. Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931)
Approved | 76 min | Drama, Romance
Fleeing her cruel uncle and an arranged marriage Susan Lenox falls in love with a kind stranger but circumstances force her to become a woman of easy virtue.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan
Votes: 1,354 | Gross: $0.81M
37. Mata Hari (1931)
Passed | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A semi-fictionalized account of the life of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer who was accused of spying for Germany during World War I.
Director: George Fitzmaurice | Stars: Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone
Votes: 3,940 | Gross: $0.93M
38. Possessed (1931)
Passed | 76 min | Drama, Romance
An ambitious factory girl meets a handsome, wealthy lawyer, but he's interested in her as a mistress, not a wife.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Wallace Ford, Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher
Votes: 2,302
39. Mickey's Orphans (1931)
Approved | 7 min | Family, Comedy, Animation
At Christmastime, Mickey Mouse, Minnie and Pluto are beset by an enormous litter of bratty orphan cats.
Director: Burt Gillett | Stars: George Magrill, Barbara Brewster, Gloria Brewster, Pinto Colvig
Votes: 929
40. Svengali (1931)
Approved | 81 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
Through hypnotism and telepathic mind control, a sinister music maestro controls the singing voice, but not the heart, of the woman he loves.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Crisp, Bramwell Fletcher
Votes: 2,478
41. Laughing Sinners (1931)
Passed | 72 min | Drama, Romance
Cabaret performer Ivy Stevens in an affair with a low-rent traveling salesman is dumped in a 'Dear Jane' letter and finds solace in joining the Salvation Army.
Director: Harry Beaumont | Stars: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Neil Hamilton, Marjorie Rambeau
Votes: 790
42. Arrowsmith (1931)
Approved | 108 min | Drama
A medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use of a vaccine.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard Bennett, A.E. Anson
Votes: 1,988
43. A Free Soul (1931)
Passed | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
An alcoholic lawyer who successfully defended a notorious gambler on a murder charge objects when his free-spirited daughter becomes romantically involved with him.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable
Votes: 2,924
44. Inspiration (1931)
Passed | 74 min | Drama, Romance
Yvonne is a beautiful model who loves frequenting the Parisian bohemian life, because she loves hobnobbing with artists.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Greta Garbo, Robert Montgomery, Lewis Stone, Marjorie Rambeau
Votes: 627 | Gross: $0.73M
45. Friends and Lovers (1931)
Passed | 68 min | Drama, Romance, War
British Army Captain Geoff Roberts carries on an affair with Alva, the wife of the cruel Victor Sangrito. Sangrito, however, is well aware of the affair, as he uses his beautiful wife to ... See full summary »
Director: Victor Schertzinger | Stars: Adolphe Menjou, Lili Damita, Laurence Olivier, Erich von Stroheim
Votes: 440
46. Labor on the Douro River (1931)
20 min | Documentary, Short
A documentary that looks at the people working in the river Douro, around the city of Porto.
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Votes: 765
47. Beau Hunks (1931)
Passed | 37 min | Short, Comedy, Family
Jilted by his girlfriend, "Jeanie-Weenie," Oliver joins the Foreign Legion to forget, bringing Stanley along with him. They wilt under the scorching desert sun and under the harsh ... See full summary »
Director: James W. Horne | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James W. Horne, Charles Middleton
Votes: 1,940
48. Skippy (1931)
Passed | 85 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Skippy, the mischievous son of a wealthy doctor, meets Sooky in poverty-ridden Shantytown, and together they try to save Sooky's pet from a cruel dogcatcher.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Jackie Cooper, Robert Coogan, Mitzi Green, Jackie Searl
Votes: 987
49. Trader Horn (1931)
Passed | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
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.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Harry Carey, Edwina Booth, Duncan Renaldo, Mutia Omoolu
Votes: 1,110
50. The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)
Passed | 75 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Out of jail for a crime she did not commit, Madelon turns to prostitution and thievery to send her illegitimate son to medical school.
Director: Edgar Selwyn | Stars: Helen Hayes, Lewis Stone, Neil Hamilton, Robert Young
Votes: 1,125
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