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Best Drama Movies of the 1930s

Drama films released 1930–1939, ranked by TMDB rating among titles with at least 500 votes.

1. 
   #1 Modern Times (1936) · ★ 8.3 · 4,209 votes · 1h 27m · comedy, romance, drama

   A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..…

2. 
   #2 City Lights (1931) · ★ 8.2 · 2,534 votes · 1h 27m · comedy, romance, drama

   A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.…

3. 
   #3 M (1931) · ★ 8.1 · 2,547 votes · 1h 50m · thriller, drama, crime

   In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellan…

4. 
   #4 Gone with the Wind (1939) · ★ 7.9 · 4,498 votes · 3h 58m · romance, drama, war

   The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.…

5. 
   #5 Grand Illusion (1937) · ★ 7.9 · 796 votes · 1h 54m · drama, history, war

   A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and…

6. 
   #6 Freaks (1932) · ★ 7.8 · 1,343 votes · 1h 4m · drama, horror

   A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.…

7. 
   #7 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) · ★ 7.8 · 1,230 votes · 2h 10m · comedy, drama

   After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battl…

8. 
   #8 All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) · ★ 7.8 · 976 votes · 2h 13m · drama, war

   When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities o…

9. 
   #9 Stagecoach (1939) · ★ 7.6 · 1,279 votes · 1h 36m · adventure, drama, western

   A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo, and learn something about each other in the process.…

10. 
    #10 Frankenstein (1931) · ★ 7.5 · 1,856 votes · 1h 10m · drama, horror, science-fiction

    Henry Frankenstein pieces together body parts in the hope of bringing a human-like creature to life. The mad scientist’s dreams are shattered by his monstrous creation awakening wi…

11. 
    #11 The Rules of the Game (1939) · ★ 7.5 · 678 votes · 1h 50m · comedy, romance, drama

    The Marquis de la Chesnaye and his wife host a weekend gala where a variety of complicated romantic and social entanglements between guests and servants lead to tragedy, all agains…

12. 
    #12 Scarface (1932) · ★ 7.4 · 715 votes · 1h 33m · action, thriller, romance

    In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the crim…

13. 
    #13 The Mummy (1932) · ★ 6.7 · 726 votes · 1h 13m · fantasy, drama, horror

    An ancient Egyptian priest named Imhotep is revived when a British archaeological expedition finds his mummy and one of the researchers accidentally reads an ancient life-giving sp…

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