Films of 1931
by christopherpip | created - 07 Jul 2013 | updated - 22 Mar 2022 | PublicThese are the films I have seen from the year 1931.
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1. 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: 4,967
2. 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: 1,991
3. The Bachelor Father (1931)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Old man invites three of his illegitimate children to live with him.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Marion Davies, Ralph Forbes, C. Aubrey Smith, Ray Milland
Votes: 1,236
4. 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: 1,602
5. Berlin-Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf (1931)
90 min | Crime, Drama
Franz Biberkopf has served four years in prison. His return to normal life is not successful.
Director: Phil Jutzi | Stars: Heinrich George, Maria Bard, Margarete Schlegel, Bernhard Minetti
Votes: 782
6. Blonde Crazy (1931)
TV-G | 79 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
The adventures of an egoistic con man and his glamorous accomplice.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Louis Calhern, Noel Francis
Votes: 2,324
7. 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: 3,620
8. La Chienne (1931)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama
Maurice Legrand, a meek cashier married to a nagging wife, has a secret passion: he's a Sunday painter. He falls in love with Lulu, a young woman dominated by Dédé, the pimp who she works for. Dédé pushes Lulu into a relationship with him.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant, Roger Gaillard
Votes: 4,837
9. 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: 6,922
10. 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: 195,960 | Gross: $0.02M
11. City Streets (1931)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Man joins a gang to free his girlfriend from prison.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Lukas, William 'Stage' Boyd
Votes: 1,872
12. Congress Dances (1931)
85 min | Comedy, History, Musical
Vienna glove-sales-lady Christl falls in love to Czar Alexander. Metternich tries to use this to keep him out of the conferences of the Vienna Congress from 1815.
Director: Erik Charell | Stars: Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch, Otto Wallburg, Conrad Veidt
Votes: 598
13. Cracked Nuts (1931)
Approved | 65 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
To impress his fiancee's aunt, a young man tries to become king in a small kingdom, but the people there have already crowned one, who has won this honor by gambling. So he plans a coup ... See full summary »
Director: Edward F. Cline | Stars: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Edna May Oliver
Votes: 395
14. The Cuban Love Song (1931)
Passed | 86 min | Musical, Romance
A guilt-ridden U.S. Marine returns to Cuba to try to find his illegitimate child.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Lawrence Tibbett, Lupe Velez, Ernest Torrence, Jimmy Durante
Votes: 227
15. David Golder (1931)
86 min | Drama
David is a poor but ambitious Polish Jew who reinvents himself as a powerful New York business magnate. After gaining wealth, he relocates to Paris, only to have his selfish and demanding wife squander his fortune.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Harry Baur, Paule Andral, Jackie Monnier, Jean Bradin
Votes: 326
16. Daybreak (1931)
Passed | 85 min | Drama
Willi, a brash young lieutenant in the Austrian Imperial Guard, bent on an evening of pleasure, visits a gambling parlor and house of ill-repute. He meets Laura, a sweet innocent girl and ... See full summary »
Director: Jacques Feyder | Stars: Ramon Novarro, Helen Chandler, Jean Hersholt, C. Aubrey Smith
Votes: 206
17. Delicious (1931)
106 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A comic group of Europeans coming to the USA have romantic and immigration troubles.
Director: David Butler | Stars: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, El Brendel, Raul Roulien
Votes: 245
18. Dirigible (1931)
Passed | 100 min | Adventure
Jack Bradon is tasked to reach the South Pole with a dirigible.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jack Holt, Fay Wray, Ralph Graves, Hobart Bosworth
Votes: 703
19. 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: 3,193
20. 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: 15,802 | Gross: $2.79M
21. 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: 58,584
22. 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: 5,096
23. East Lynne (1931)
Passed | 102 min | Drama, Romance
The refined Lady Isabel Carlisle, after leaving her family and enduring nearly a decade of hardships, learns that her son has fallen ill. Despite being nearly blinded as the result of an explosion, she returns home to see her son again.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Ann Harding, Clive Brook, Conrad Nagel, Cecilia Loftus
Votes: 336
24. Emil and the Detectives (1931)
75 min | Adventure, Family, Drama
Emil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and a group of children to save the day.
Director: Gerhard Lamprecht | Stars: Rolf Wenkhaus, Käthe Haack, Fritz Rasp, Rudolf Biebrach
Votes: 715
25. The Erl King (1931)
52 min | Drama, Fantasy
A man races to save his son's life, but death - incarnated in the child's imagination as the titular Elf King - calls unceasingly.
Director: Marie-Louise Iribe | Stars: Joë Hamman, Otto Gebühr, Mary Costes, Raymond Lapon
Votes: 202
26. 50 Million Frenchmen (1931)
Passed | 74 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Independently-wealthy American Jack Forbes has just arrived in Paris. Because of his wealth he can have any woman on his arm. Currently that role is filled by Marcelle Dubrey, but he ... See full summary »
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, William Gaxton, Helen Broderick
Votes: 163
27. 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: 2,529
28. Flunky, Work Hard! (1931)
29 min | Short, Comedy, Drama
The story of a poor insurance salesman who struggles to provide for his wife and family.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Shizue Akiyama, Seiichi Katô, Tomoko Naniwa, Tokio Seki
Votes: 517
29. Flying High (1931)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
An eccentric inventor and his new flying machine are the focus of this musical comedy.
Director: Charles Reisner | Stars: Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, Pat O'Brien, Kathryn Crawford
Votes: 301
30. 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: 79,656
31. 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: 2,932
32. 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: 3,447
33. The Gay Diplomat (1931)
Passed | 67 min | Drama, Romance
Captain Orloff is sent to Bucharest to capture a Mata Hari type of spy, but many different women fit the bill and are attractive enough to make one question one's allegiance.
Director: Richard Boleslawski | Stars: Genevieve Tobin, Betty Compson, Ivan Lebedeff, Ilka Chase
Votes: 207
34. 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: 597
35. Her Majesty, Love (1931)
Passed | 75 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Wealthy man falls in love with a poor girl and proposes to her, going against the wishes of his family.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Marilyn Miller, Ben Lyon, W.C. Fields, Leon Errol
Votes: 223
36. Ins Blaue hinein... (1931)
36 min | Short
A recent discovery, master cinematographer Schüfftan's only film as a director is a free-spirited, fast-paced ode to being young, free, and hopeful.
Director: Eugen Schüfftan | Stars: Toni van Eyck, Carl Balhaus, Aribert Mog, Theo Lingen
Votes: 94
37. Just a Gigolo (1931)
Passed | 66 min | Comedy, Romance
Haines plays the role of a festive British nobleman whose relatives have arranged a marriage for him. He goes to a European summer resort and poses as a gigolo to meet the girl they have ... See full summary »
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: William Haines, Irene Purcell, C. Aubrey Smith, Charlotte Granville
Votes: 908
38. 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: 1,746
a/k/a 'Kameradschaft'
39. The Lady and the Beard (1931)
75 min | Comedy, Romance
A bearded kendo champion has difficulties in life because of his conservative ways and his unusual beard.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Tokihiko Okada, Hiroko Kawasaki, Chôko Iida, Satoko Date
Votes: 500
40. The Lady Refuses (1931)
Passed | 72 min | Drama, Romance
Father hires a woman to lure his son away from a gold digger.
Director: George Archainbaud | Stars: Betty Compson, John Darrow, Gilbert Emery, Margaret Livingston
Votes: 449
41. 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: 14,518
42. 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: 168,354 | Gross: $0.03M
43. 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: 3,735
44. 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: 3,345
45. Marius (1931)
Not Rated | 130 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Marius is faced with a choice whether to fulfill his passion by sailing the seas or stay and marry the woman he loves.
Director: Alexander Korda | Stars: Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Charpin, Alida Rouffe
Votes: 2,566
46. 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: 3,954 | Gross: $0.93M
47. Le Million (1931)
Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Musical
An impoverished painter and his rival engage in a race across Paris to recover a jacket concealing a winning lottery ticket.
Director: René Clair | Stars: Annabella, René Lefèvre, Jean-Louis Allibert, Paul Ollivier
Votes: 3,839
48. 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: 2,263
49. Monkey Business (1931)
Not Rated | 77 min | Comedy, Family, Musical
On a transatlantic crossing, The Marx Brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, The Marx Brothers, Chico Marx
Votes: 14,272
50. Baby's Laxative (1931)
46 min | Comedy
A porcelain-maker invites a guest to sell him chamber pots, but family problems cause interruptions.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Marguerite Pierry, Jacques Louvigny, Michel Simon, Olga Valéry
Votes: 521
a/k/a 'On purge bebe'
51. One Heavenly Night (1930)
82 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A poor but basically honest flower woman agrees to impersonate a wicked opera star.
Director: George Fitzmaurice | Stars: John Boles, Evelyn Laye, Leon Errol, Lilyan Tashman
Votes: 181
52. Palmy Days (1931)
Approved | 77 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
The assistant of a phony psychic leaves the fraudulent business and becomes an efficiency expert.
Director: A. Edward Sutherland | Stars: Eddie Cantor, Charlotte Greenwood, Barbara Weeks, Spencer Charters
Votes: 645 | Gross: $3.49M
53. Peach O'Reno (1931)
Passed | 63 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
After a quarrel at their 25th wedding anniversary, Joe and Aggie Bruno decide to divorce each other, and both leave for Reno. So do their daughters Prudence and Pansy, but they want to get ... See full summary »
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Zelma O'Neal
Votes: 300
54. 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: 3,454
55. Politics (1931)
Passed | 73 min | Comedy, Romance
Middle-aged widow Hattie Burns becomes fed up when local small-town politicians ignore corruption and decides to run for mayor herself.
Director: Charles Reisner | Stars: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Roscoe Ates, Karen Morley
Votes: 295
56. Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements (1931)
54 min | Documentary
Without sound, in three movements. Title cards declare that what a person likes and his manner of liking them reveals character. There are long looks at forms and rhythms. The film begins ... See full summary »
Director: Henwar Rodakiewicz
Votes: 159
57. 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: 23,011 | Gross: $1.01M
58. Reducing (1931)
Approved | 77 min | Comedy, Drama
A beauty parlor manager has her sister help her with interesting results.
Director: Charles Reisner | Stars: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Anita Page, Lucien Littlefield
Votes: 285
59. 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: 4,895
a/k/a 'Rich and Strange'
60. 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: 2,039
61. 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: 1,130
62. The Skin Game (1931)
TV-G | 85 min | Drama
An old traditional family and a modern family battle over land in a small English village and almost destroy each other.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Edmund Gwenn, Jill Esmond, C.V. France, Helen Haye
Votes: 3,553
63. 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: 1,000
64. 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: 4,114
65. Son of India (1931)
Passed | 73 min | Drama, Romance
A wealthy Indian jewel merchant and an American woman fall in love, only for her family to stand in their way of getting married.
Director: Jacques Feyder | Stars: Ramon Novarro, Conrad Nagel, Marjorie Rambeau, Madge Evans
Votes: 210
66. Stepping Out (1931)
Passed | 73 min | Comedy, Romance
When Sally (Charlotte Greenwood) and Eve (Leila Hyams) take a vacation together to make their rich husbands miss them, the boys (Reginald Denny and Harry Stubbs) promptly invite over two ... See full summary »
Director: Charles Reisner | Stars: Charlotte Greenwood, Reginald Denny, Leila Hyams, Lilian Bond
Votes: 181
67. 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: 2,052
68. 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: 2,496
69. 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: 6,380
70. 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: 2,538
a/k/a 'The 3 Penny Opera'
71. 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: 1,573
72. 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: 1,120
73. 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: 3,163
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