MyMovies: Golden Age Hollywood
by rvoight92 | created - 11 Aug 2011 | updated - 11 Aug 2011 | PublicSome must see movies from the 30's through the early 60's.
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1. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
A naive youth leader is appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. His idealistic plans promptly collide with corruption at home and subterfuge from his hero in Washington, but he tries to forge ahead despite attacks on his character.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Votes: 121,410 | Gross: $9.60M
2. Destry Rides Again (1939)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Western
Deputy sheriff Destry tames the town of Bottle Neck, including saloon singer Frenchy.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger
Votes: 12,554 | Gross: $0.35M
3. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Votes: 38,504 | Gross: $0.20M
4. The Mortal Storm (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Drama
The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. When the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Breitner, a family friend, is caught up in the turmoil.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan
Votes: 6,043
5. Penny Serenade (1941)
Not Rated | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A couple's big dreams give way to a life full of unexpected sadness and unexpected joy.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan
Votes: 8,069
6. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,241
7. The Talk of the Town (1942)
Approved | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An escaped prisoner has to prove his innocence to a stuffy law professor with the help of a spirited school teacher.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman, Edgar Buchanan
Votes: 9,128
8. Rear Window (1954)
PG | 112 min | Mystery, Thriller
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 522,211 | Gross: $36.76M
9. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Approved | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A man and his wife decide they can afford to have a house in the country built to their specifications. It's a lot more trouble than they think.
Director: H.C. Potter | Stars: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas, Reginald Denny
Votes: 12,817 | Gross: $6.00M
10. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
PG | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie, Bernard Miles
Votes: 69,590 | Gross: $10.25M
11. Kitty Foyle (1940)
Passed | 108 min | Drama, Romance
A hard-working white-collar girl from a middle-class family meets and falls in love with a young socialite, but she soon clashes with his family.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Eduardo Ciannelli
Votes: 4,055
12. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Approved | 123 min | Drama, Western
A senator returns to a Western town for the funeral of an old friend and tells the story of his origins.
Director: John Ford | Stars: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin
Votes: 82,317
13. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,266 | Gross: $13.28M
14. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A unassuming greeting card poet from a small town in Vermont heads to New York City upon inheriting a massive fortune and is immediately hounded by those who wish to take advantage of him.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander
Votes: 23,223
15. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,913 | Gross: $4.66M
16. Meet John Doe (1941)
Passed | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A penniless drifter is recruited by an ambitious columnist to impersonate a non-existent person who said he'd be committing suicide as a protest, and a social movement begins.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan
Votes: 14,905
17. The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Romance
A tycoon goes undercover to ferret out agitators at a department store, but gets involved in their lives instead.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 4,774
18. Sergeant York (1941)
Passed | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
A Tennessee farmer and marksman is drafted in World War I, and struggles with his pacifist inclinations before becoming one of the most celebrated war heroes.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias
Votes: 19,792 | Gross: $16.40M
19. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, War
A British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, May Whitty
Votes: 19,470 | Gross: $13.50M
20. The Great Escape (1963)
Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson
Votes: 258,978 | Gross: $12.10M
21. The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Approved | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The story of the life and career of famed baseball player Lou Gehrig.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth, Walter Brennan
Votes: 12,002
22. Madame Curie (1943)
Passed | 124 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Despite himself, accomplished physicist and avowed bachelor Pierre Curie falls for brilliant student Marie, and together they embark on the discovery of radium.
Directors: Mervyn LeRoy, Albert Lewin | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Albert Bassermann
Votes: 3,194
23. Move Over, Darling (1963)
Approved | 103 min | Comedy, Romance
After being lost at sea for several years, a missing wife thought long dead returns just after her husband has remarried.
Director: Michael Gordon | Stars: Doris Day, James Garner, Polly Bergen, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 6,489
24. The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944)
Passed | 140 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
When the U.S. forces withdraw from Java, ahead of the Japanese invasion, U.S. Navy doctor Corydon M. Wassell coordinates the remaining wounded servicemen and leads them to safety towards the last Allied evacuation points.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Gary Cooper, Laraine Day, Signe Hasso, Dennis O'Keefe
Votes: 1,102
25. Scandal at Scourie (1953)
Passed | 90 min | Drama
After their orphanage burns down, a group of children are being transported west by train to Manitoba. All of them are available for adoption and at a stop at Scourie, Ontario little Patsy ... See full summary »
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Agnes Moorehead, Donna Corcoran
Votes: 590
26. High Noon (1952)
PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 110,204 | Gross: $9.45M
27. The Happiest Millionaire (1967)
Approved | 141 min | Comedy, Family, Musical
Clever yet hapless new butler John Lawless manages a Philadelphia household for quirky and joyful millionaire Anthony Drexel Biddle, his unflappable wife, Cordelia, and their spitfire daughter, Cordy.
Director: Norman Tokar | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Tommy Steele, Greer Garson, Gladys Cooper
Votes: 2,431
28. Roberta (1935)
Passed | 106 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
An American jazzman and his buddy woo a Russian princess and a fake countess in Paris.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott
Votes: 3,644
29. Follow Me, Boys! (1966)
Approved | 131 min | Drama, Family
A man settles down in a small town and becomes the scoutmaster.
Director: Norman Tokar | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles, Lillian Gish, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 2,608
30. It Happened One Night (1934)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 112,293 | Gross: $4.36M
31. Life with Father (1947)
Passed | 118 min | Comedy, Family
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 6,398
32. Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Approved | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
A food writer who has lied about being the perfect housewife must try to cover her deception when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her home for a traditional family Christmas.
Director: Peter Godfrey | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 12,028
33. Since You Went Away (1944)
Approved | 177 min | Drama, Romance, War
With her husband away to fight in World War II, a housewife must care for their two daughters alone.
Directors: John Cromwell, Edward F. Cline, Tay Garnett, David O. Selznick | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple
Votes: 5,095
34. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Approved | 170 min | Drama, Romance, War
Three World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Teresa Wright
Votes: 70,561 | Gross: $23.65M
35. The African Queen (1951)
PG | 105 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull
Votes: 84,334 | Gross: $0.54M
36. Johnny Belinda (1948)
Unrated | 102 min | Drama
A kind doctor volunteers to tutor a deaf-mute woman, but scandal starts to swirl when his pupil is raped and falls pregnant.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 5,317
37. Pollyanna (1960)
Approved | 134 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A young girl comes to an embittered town and confronts its attitude with her determination to see the best in life.
Director: David Swift | Stars: Jane Wyman, Hayley Mills, Richard Egan, Karl Malden
Votes: 11,348
38. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
After a divorced New York mother hires a nice old man to play Santa Claus at Macy's, she is startled by his claim to be the genuine article. When his sanity is questioned, a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he's not mistaken.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 54,924 | Gross: $2.65M
39. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Approved | 102 min | Musical, Romance, Western
When a backwoodsman in 1850s Oregon brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too.
Director: Stanley Donen | Stars: Jane Powell, Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 27,107 | Gross: $9.40M
40. I Remember Mama (1948)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Family
A young writer recalls her ups and downs of growing up as one of four children to Norwegian immigrant parents in 1910s San Francisco.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka, Philip Dorn
Votes: 6,011
41. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A high school girl falls for a playboy artist, with screwball results.
Director: Irving Reis | Stars: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee
Votes: 9,609
42. Sabrina (1954)
Passed | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A playboy becomes interested in the daughter of his family's chauffeur, but it's his more serious brother who would be the better man for her.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Walter Hampden
Votes: 70,362
43. Charade (1963)
Passed | 113 min | Comedy, Mystery, Romance
Romance and suspense ensue in Paris as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Whom can she trust?
Director: Stanley Donen | Stars: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn
Votes: 85,591 | Gross: $13.47M
44. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 606,143 | Gross: $1.02M
45. Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
Approved | 86 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Myrna Loy plays the wife of the persnickety father of her 12 children, Clifton Webb, who has uniquely humorous methods for dealing with the ordeals such an unwieldy family undoubtedly encounters.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Clifton Webb, Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Betty Lynn
Votes: 5,678 | Gross: $9.65M
46. Belles on Their Toes (1952)
Approved | 89 min | Comedy, Family
The "Cheaper by the Dozen" crew is back, sans Clifton Webb. Lillian is struggling to make ends meet without her husband's income, while Anne, Martha, and even Ernestine find romance.
Director: Henry Levin | Stars: Jeanne Crain, Myrna Loy, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter
Votes: 1,112 | Gross: $4.36M
47. The Sound of Music (1965)
G | 172 min | Biography, Drama, Family
A young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn
Votes: 261,135 | Gross: $163.21M
48. Above and Beyond (1952)
Approved | 122 min | Biography, Drama, War
Col. Paul Tibbets piloted the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in World War II.
Directors: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama | Stars: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, James Whitmore, Larry Keating
Votes: 1,342
49. An Affair to Remember (1957)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A couple falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building - but will it happen?
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson
Votes: 33,079
50. Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Unrated | 114 min | Drama, Romance
An aged teacher and former headmaster of a boarding school recalls his career and his personal life over the decades.
Directors: Sam Wood, Sidney Franklin | Stars: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills
Votes: 11,592
51. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
R | 169 min | Drama, War
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
Votes: 1,496,900 | Gross: $216.54M
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