Movie Listings by Genre

Director: James Whale    More Info
Starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye, Lionel Belmore, Michael Mark, Pauline Moore, Francis Ford

 Boris Karloff plays Frankenstein's monster in this "father of horror films." It is the story of Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) who digs up new graves in search of body parts for his experiments in the creation of human life. Frankenstein does succeed, but the life he creates has a violent and murderous brain. When Frankenstein's fiancee Elizabeth (Mae Clarke) arrives at his laboratory with Victor (John Boles) and Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan), they find an eerie scene and a totally changed Frankenstein obsessed with the creation of his monster.

Director: Jean Renoir    More Info
Starring: Michel Simon, Janie Mareze, Georges Flamant, Magdeleine Berubet, Roger Gaillard, Jean Gehret, Alexandre Rignault, Lucien Mancini, Romain Bouquet, Max Dalban

 Painfully shy Maurice Legrand (Michel Simon) paints pictures as an escape from his miserable home life with his nagging wife, Adele (Magdeleine Berubet). One night, he meets Lulu (Janie Mareze) and becomes her lover, but Lulu is really a manipulative prostitute working for her pimp, Dede (Georges Flamant). Together, Lulu and Dede contrive to sell Maurice's paintings for their own financial benefit. Finally, Maurice lashes out and kills Lulu. Police question him but believe he does not fit the pattern of a murderer. In an intriguing twist, it is Dede who is charged with, and convicted of, Lulu's murder.

Director: Fritz Lang    More Info
Starring: Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Grundgens, Theodor Loos, Theo Lingen, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Franz Stein, Friedrich Gnab, Fritz Odemar

 In Peter Lorre's first film role, he plays a child killer who is being hunted by both police and the underworld. A chilling Fritz Lang masterpiece.

Director: Alexander Korda    More Info
Starring: Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin, Alida Rouffe, Paul Dullac, Alexandre Mihalesco, Robert Vattier, Edouard Delmont, Milly Mathis

 In this the first of Marcel Pagnol's trilogy–"Fanny" (1932) and "Cesar" (1936) would follow–the story begins in Marseilles in the late 1920s. Marius (Pierre Fresnay) and Fanny (Orane Demazis) are in love, but Marius delays marriage because he longs to go to sea. Fanny, at long last, understands his desire and grants him his wish.

Director: William A. Wellman    More Info
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell, Ben Lyon, Charles Winninger, Clark Gable, Edward J. Nugent, Blanche Friderici, Walter McGrail, Ralf Harolde, Vera Lewis

 Student nurse Lora Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) learns of a plot to starve her young patients Nanny (Marcia Mae Jones) and Desney (Betty Jane Graham) who are heirs to a large inheritance. The family chauffeur Nick (Clark Gable) plans to marry the children's mother (Charlotte Merriam), and he wants to take control of the inheritance. Now it is up to Lora's nurse friend B. Maloney (Joan Blondell) and bootlegging boyfriend Mortie (Ben Lyon) to come to Laura's aid and save the children.

Director: Alan James    More Info
Starring: Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Allene Ray, Niles Welch, Tom O'Brien, Sheldon Lewis, Wilfred Lucas, Violet Knights, William Gould, Bobby Dunn, William Jackie

 A killer known as "The Phantom" escapes from jail and sets out to avenge his conviction by killing the District Attorney (Wilfred Lucas). But young reporter Dick Mallory (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) is on the case and tracks the mad man to an insane asylum he is running. Played for laughs as well as chills.

Director: Michael Curtiz    More Info
Starring: Lionel Atwill, Lee Tracy, Fay Wray, Preston Foster, Mae Busch, Robert Warwick, Tom Dugan

 While investigating a series of grisly murders involving cannibalism, Lee (Lee Tracy) finds the trail leads to Doctor Xavier's (Lionel Atwill) clinic.

Director: Rouben Mamoulian    More Info
Starring: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Halliwell Hobbes, Holmes Herbert, Edgar Norton, Douglas Walton, Sam Harris, Tempe Pigott, Eric Wilton

 Fredric March won the Oscar for his performance in this, the first, sound production of the famous tale by Robert Louis Stevenson. Dr. Jekyll (March) experiments with good and evil and drinks a potion after which his dark side emerges as the evil Mr. Hyde whose lecherous appetite is unrestrained. Dr. Jekyll is unable to restrain Mr. Hyde, and tragedy ensues.

Director: Tod Browning    More Info
Starring: Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova, Leila Hyams, Roscoe Ates, Henry Victor, Edward Brophy, Matt McHugh, Rose Dione, Harry Earles, Daisy and Violet Hilton

 This is producer Irving Thalberg's classic film about circus sideshow "freaks." "Little person" Hans (Harry Earles) marries trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), but Cleopatra is planning to kill him, collect his money, and run off with strongman Hercules (Henry Victor). However, there is a code of honor among circus freaks, and they are keeping an eye on Cleopatra. The freaks uncover Cleopatra's scheme after she poisons Hans, and they transform her into a Feathered Hen. This insightful horror film forces the viewer to rethink preconceived ideas about those who are "different."

Director: Charles Brabin    More Info
Starring: Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy, Jean Hersholt, David Torrence, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Lawrence Grant, Herbert Bunston

 Fu Manchu (Boris Karloff) plots to obtain the mask of Genghis Khan, which will give him the necessary means to rule the world. Falling into his torture chamber are Terrence Granville (Charles Starrett) and Sheila (Karen Morley), but Scotland Yard's Investigator Nayland Smith (Lewis Stone) enters the picture and saves both the hapless couple and the world from the influence of Fu Manchu.

Director: Frank R. Strayer    More Info
Starring: Rex Lease, Vera Reynolds, Sheldon Lewis, Mischa Auer, Martha Mattox, Sidney Bracey, Willie Best

 Ruth (Vera Reynolds) inherits an estate from her scientist father who also left her an ape used in his experiments. Ruth and Ted (Rex Lease) arrive at the estate to claim the inheritance. But, nasty Uncle Robert (Sheldon Lewis) wants the estate for himself. So, he plots to have the mentally challenged son (Mischa Auer) of his housekeeper (Martha Mattox) and the ape take care of Ruth. But things go wrong in this "Old Dark House" tale.

Director: Irving Pichel    More Info
Starring: Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Leslie Banks, Noble Johnson, Steve Clemente, Hale Hamilton, William B. Davidson, Oscar "Dutch" Hendrian, James Flavin

 Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks) lives in his castle on his remote island while awaiting boats that often wreck on the island. When one unfortunate ship wrecks, the count greets the three boaters graciously. But it soon becomes clear that he loves to hunt humans. Let the sports begin! This is the first (and best) filming of this often-told story, which was remade as "A Game of Death" and "Run for the Sun." Producer Ernest B. Schoedsack, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and others in this movie were filming "King Kong" at the same time.

Director: Robert Florey    More Info
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox, Leon Ames, Brandon Hurst, Arlene Francis, Bert Roach, Noble Johnson, D'Arcy Corrigan, Herman Bing, Betty Ross Clarke

 Dr. Mirakle (Bela Lugosi) is especially fiendish in this film adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's story of the attempt to cross an ape with a woman.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock    More Info
Starring: Leon M. Lion, Anne Grey, Donald Calthrop, John Stuart, Barry Jones, Ann Casson, Garry Marsh, Henry Caine, Herbert Langley

 When a hobo (Leon M. Lion) comes across their hideout, his discovery brings him to the attention of a band of jewel thieves. The great train crash scene is worth watching. A good early Alfred Hitchcock comedy/ thriller.

Director: James Whale    More Info
Starring: Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, Raymond Massey, Lilian Bond, Ernest Thesiger, Elspeth Dudgeon, Eva Moore, Brember Wills

 Coming in from the cold was not necessarily good for a group of travelers–Philip and Margaret Waverton (Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart) and their friend Penderel (Melvyn Douglas)–who seek shelter in a spooky old house. After banging on the door, they are coldly greeted by butler Morgan (Boris Karloff) and the Fenn family–Horace (Ernest Thesiger) and his deaf sister Rebecca (Eva Moore). Wind-blown travelers Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and chorus girl Gladys (Lilian Bond) also seek refuge at the house. Matters deteriorate when Morgan gets drunk and releases psychotic pyromaniac Saul Fenn (Brember Wills) who tries to kill Penderel and set the house on fire.

Director: Frank R. Strayer    More Info
Starring: Lloyd Whitlock, Doris Hill, Glenn Tryon, Vera Reynolds, Sidney Bracey, Gene Morgan, Ethel Wales, Syd Saylor, Monaei Lindley, James B. Leong

 After a forced landing in the desert, passengers and crew of a plane bound for Los Angeles find refuge in an old house. Then the lights go out, one passenger is murdered, and his bag of diamonds is missing. An insurance investigator (Sidney Bracey) has his work cut out for him to identify the killer before more murders and mayhem ensue.

Director: George Archainbaud    More Info
Starring: Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Myrna Loy, Jill Esmond, Florence Eldridge, Kay Johnson, Mary Duncan, C. Henry Gordon, Peg Entwistle, Harriet Hagman

 Years after her alienation from a group of sorority sisters, a woman (Myrna Loy) is determined to seek revenge for their callous racial biases.

Director: Victor Halperin    More Info
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn, Robert Frazer, John Harron, Clarence Muse, Brandon Hurst, George Burr Macannan, Frederick Peters, Annette Stone

 Monsieur Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer) is the wealthy owner of an island, and he uses zombies led by "Murder" Legendre (Bela Lugosi) to control his world. Charles convinces Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) and Neil (John Harron) to get married on his plantation. Then, Charles gets Legendre to turn Madeleine into a zombie. Using Madeleine as a hold over Charles, Legendre refuses to release her soul. A grieving Neil, with help from missionary Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn), searches for and rescues Madeleine from a Living Death.

Director: T. Hayes Hunter    More Info
Starring: Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Hyson, Ralph Richardson, Anthony Bushell, Kathleen Harrison, Harold Huth, D.A. Clarke-Smith, George Relph

 An eccentric Egyptologist, Professor Morlant (Boris Karloff), was buried with a jewel that guaranteed immortality. After his grave is robbed, Morlant's corpse rises from the crypt during the next full moon. He sets out after the robbers, and murders ensue before Morlant retrieves the jewel and then returns to his crypt with it.

Director: James Whale    More Info
Starring: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, Una O'Connor, Henry Travers, William Harrigan, Holmes Herbert, E.E. Clive, Dudley Digges, Walter Brennan, John Carradine

 H.G. Wells wrote the story, which was then adapted to film in this excellent, early-era movie that marks the film debut of Claude Rains. The plot involves a scientist (Rains) who invents an invisibility serum with one bad side effect: using it causes the person to go insane, and he does.

Director: Erle C. Kenton    More Info
Starring: Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen, Kathleen Burke, Leila Hyams, Arthur Hohl, Stanley Fields, Randolph Scott, Tetsu Komai, Alan Ladd

 Adapted from the H.G. Wells story, "The Island of Dr. Moreau," this film is about a mad scientist who turns wild animals into monster humans. Better than the more recent versions, despite its age. That's young Alan Ladd and Randolph Scott as ape-men.

Director: Merian C. Cooper    More Info
Starring: Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot, Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson, Frank Reicher, Sam Hardy, James Flavin, Paul Porcasi, Etta McDaniel, Vera Lewis

 This film about a huge ape that terrorizes New York City is a classic. It is worth watching for the exciting climax when King Kong takes the "light of his life" (Fay Wray) in his arms and climbs to the top of the Empire State Building where he is attacked by an airplane. Good viewing–even better the second time around.

Director: Michael Curtiz    More Info
Starring: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Allen Vincent, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gavin Gordon, Edwin Maxwell, Holmes Herbert, DeWitt Jennings

 Following his hideous disfigurement in a fire at his London wax museum, the owner relocates to America where he opens a new museum. This time his figures are his own murder victims encased in wax. This is the first horror film not set in the usual old, gloomy manse and was remade with Vincent Price in the lead as "House of Wax."

Director: Benjamin Stoloff    More Info
Starring: Sally Blane, Wallace Ford, Tully Marshall, Bela Lugosi, George Meeker, Edwin Maxwell, Bryant Washburn

 A psychotic lurks on the grounds of a large estate with its occupants as the intended victims.

Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack    More Info
Starring: Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, Frank Reicher, John Marston, Victor(2) Wong, Ed Brady, Lee Kohlmar, Clarence Wilson, Kathrin Clare Ward, Noble Johnson

 In this follow-on to the highly successful "King Kong," explorer Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) returns to the place where he found Kong. He also had to get away from the hassles of the aftermath of Kong's "visit" to New York City. Upon his return, he finds Kong's son who befriends the party after they save his life. Together, they fight the many beasts in the area. Lighthearted and comedic but cheaply made, and it shows.