The Lists: Must See Movies, 1930-1939

Bringing Up Baby. Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Video.

Boldfaced titles with asterisk (*) indicate top 10 of the decade.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, Lewis Milestone) *
The Blood of a Poet (1930, Jean Cocteau)
The Blue Angel (1930, Josef von Sternberg)
Earth (1930, Aleksandr Dovzhenko)
L' Age d'Or (1930, Luis Bunuel)
Little Caesar (1930, Mervyn LeRoy)
City Lights (1931, Charles Chaplin)
Dracula (1931, Tod Browning)
Frankenstein (1931, James Whale)
Le Million (1931, Rene Clair)
M (1931, Fritz Lang) *
The Public Enemy (1931, William A. Wellman)
Vampyr (1931, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932, Jean Renoir)
Freaks (1932, Tod Browning)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932, Mervyn LeRoy)
Scarface: The Shame of a Nation (1932, Howard Hawks)
Shanghai Express (1932, Josef von Sternberg)
Trouble in Paradise (1932, Ernst Lubitsch)
Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)
Footlight Parade (1933, Lloyd Bacon)
King Kong (1933, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper)
L'Atalante (1933, Jean Vigo)
Queen Christina (1933, Rouben Mamoulian)
She Done Him Wrong (1933, Lowell Sherman)
Zero for Conduct (1933, Jean Vigo)
The Black Cat (1934, Edward G. Ulmer)
It Happened One Night (1934, Frank Capra) *
Manhattan Melodrama (1934, W.S. Van Dyke)
The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg)
The Thin Man (1934, W.S. Van Dyke)
The 39 Steps (1935, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale)
David Copperfield (1935, George Cukor)
The Informer (1935, John Ford)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935, Frank Lloyd)
A Night at the Opera (1935, Sam Wood)
Triumph of the Will (1935, Leni Riefenstahl)
Dodsworth (1936, William Wyler)
Fury (1936, Fritz Lang)
Modern Times (1936, Charles Chaplin) *
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936, Frank Capra)
My Man Godfrey (1936, Gregory La Cava)
Sabotage (1936, Alfred Hitchcock)
Swing Time (1936, George Stevens)
The Awful Truth (1937, Leo McCarey)
Captains Courageous (1937, Victor Fleming)
The Life of Emile Zola (1937, William Dieterle)
Lost Horizon (1937, Frank Capra)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937, Leo McCarey)
Pepe Le Moko (1937, Julien Duvivier)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, David Hand)
A Star is Born (1937, William A. Wellman)
Stella Dallas (1937, King Vidor)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938, Michael Curtiz)
Alexander Nevsky (1938, Sergei Eisenstein)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938, Michael Curtiz)
Bringing Up Baby (1938, Howard Hawks) *
Grand Illusion (1938, Jean Renoir) *
The Lady Vanishes (1938, Alfred Hitchcock)
Olympia: Festival of the Nations (1938, Leni Riefenstahl)
Destry Rides Again (1939, George Marshall)
Gone with the Wind (1939, Victor Fleming) *
Gunga Din (1939, George Stevens)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939, Frank Capra) *
Ninotchka (1939, Ernst Lubitsch)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Howard Hawks)
The Roaring Twenties (1939, Raoul Walsh)
The Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir) *
Stagecoach (1939, John Ford) *
The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (1939, Kenji Mizoguchi)
The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)
Wuthering Heights (1939, William Wyler)