Year by year: 1934
by cafg-0 | created - 13 Dec 2021 | updated - 9 months ago | PublicMy 30 favorite films of 1934
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1. 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: 112,266 | Gross: $4.36M
2. The Thin Man (1934)
TV-PG | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton
Votes: 32,537
3. The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Passed | 104 min | Drama, History, Romance
A German noblewoman enters into a loveless marriage with the dim-witted, unstable heir to the Russian throne, then plots to oust him from power.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser
Votes: 7,237
4. L'Atalante (1934)
Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Newly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.
Director: Jean Vigo | Stars: Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre
Votes: 17,471
5. A Story of Floating Weeds (1934)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama
A kabuki actor's mistress hatches a jealous plot to bring down her lover's son.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Takeshi Sakamoto, Chôko Iida, Kôji Mitsui, Emiko Yagumo
Votes: 3,462
6. The Gay Divorcee (1934)
Approved | 107 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A woman thinks a flirting man is the co-respondent her lawyer has hired to expedite her divorce.
Director: Mark Sandrich | Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton
Votes: 8,638
7. The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
Passed | 109 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Elizabeth Barrett's tyrannical father has forbidden any of his family to marry. Nevertheless, Elizabeth falls in love with the poet Robert Browning.
Director: Sidney Franklin | Stars: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan
Votes: 2,127
8. Of Human Bondage (1934)
Passed | 83 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A young man finds himself attracted to a cold, unfeeling waitress who might ultimately destroy them both.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Bette Davis, Leslie Howard, Frances Dee, Kay Johnson
Votes: 8,386
9. The Merry Widow (1934)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
When a small kingdom's main taxpayer leaves for Paris, its king dispatches a dashing count to win back her allegiance.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Marcel Vallée
Votes: 3,257
10. The Black Cat (1934)
Not Rated | 65 min | Crime, Horror, Romance
American honeymooners in Hungary become trapped in the home of a Satan-worshipping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Julie Bishop
Votes: 12,993 | Gross: $0.51M
11. Man of Aran (1934)
Not Rated | 76 min | Documentary, Drama
In this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
Director: Robert J. Flaherty | Stars: Colman 'Tiger' King, Maggie Dirrane, Michael Dirrane, Pat Mullin
Votes: 2,323
12. Twentieth Century (1934)
91 min | Comedy, Romance
A flamboyant Broadway impresario who has fallen on hard times tries to get his former lover, now a Hollywood diva, to return and resurrect his failing career.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 7,251
13. Shen nu (1934)
TV-PG | 85 min | Drama
Street walker by night, devoted mother by day, a woman fights to get her young son an education amid criminal and social injustice in China.
Director: Yonggang Wu | Stars: Lingyu Ruan, Tian Jian, Zhizhi Zhang, Keng Li
Votes: 2,474
14. Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Passed | 79 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
The Grim Reaper takes the form of a Prince in an attempt to relate to humans and, along the way, also learns what it is to love.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Fredric March, Evelyn Venable, Guy Standing, Katharine Alexander
Votes: 2,412
15. Angele (1934)
Not Rated | 145 min | Drama
A young and naive peasant girl in Provence, who has been seduced and abandoned, moves to Marseilles and becomes a street-walker after having her baby.
Director: Marcel Pagnol | Stars: Orane Demazis, Fernandel, Henri Poupon, Jean Servais
Votes: 425
16. Ecstasy (1933)
TV-MA | 82 min | Drama, Romance
Eva has just got married to an older gentleman. She leaves him, and one day, she meets a young man, and they fall in love. Fate brings the husband together with the young lover that has taken Eva from him.
Director: Gustav Machatý | Stars: Hedy Lamarr, Zvonimir Rogoz, Aribert Mog, Leopold Kramer
Votes: 2,780
17. Our Daily Bread (1934)
Passed | 80 min | Drama, Romance
A group of down-on-their-luck workers combine their abilities to make a Gallafentian-style commune... and bread!
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Karen Morley, Tom Keene, Barbara Pepper, Addison Richards
Votes: 2,195
18. Madame Bovary (1934)
101 min | Drama
Soon after the death of his first wife (whose dowry was inadequate), Charles Bovary, a country doctor in Normandy, marries Emma Rouault, who is well-endowed in every sense. In her new home,... See full summary »
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Max Dearly, Valentine Tessier, Pierre Renoir, Robert Le Vigan
Votes: 546
19. Treasure Island (1934)
Passed | 110 min | Adventure, Family
Young Jim Hawkins is torn between his loyalty to his benefactors and his affection for lovable rogue Long John Silver in their struggle to recover a buried pirate treasure.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore, Otto Kruger
Votes: 3,165 | Gross: $2.54M
20. Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Passed | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.
Directors: W.S. Van Dyke, Jack Conway, George Cukor | Stars: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Leo Carrillo
Votes: 4,804
21. Imitation of Life (1934)
Approved | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a Black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
Director: John M. Stahl | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks
Votes: 5,646
22. Operator 13 (1934)
Passed | 85 min | Drama, History, Musical
Union spy Gail Loveless impersonates a black maid in the early days of the Civil War, but complications arise when she falls in love with a Confederate officer.
Director: Richard Boleslawski | Stars: Marion Davies, Gary Cooper, Jean Parker, Katharine Alexander
Votes: 1,503
23. Dood water (1934)
106 min | Drama
After building a dam, closing off the Zuiderzee from the sea, it effectively turns the former sea into a lake and the fishermen call it "dead water". They desperately attack the dam with spades and even explosives, culminating in tragedy.
Director: Gerard Rutten | Stars: Jan Musch, Theo de Maal, Betsy Ranucci-Beckman, Arnold Marlé
Votes: 40
24. It's a Gift (1934)
Passed | 68 min | Comedy
A henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol, Julian Madison
Votes: 5,760
25. Liliom (1934)
Unrated | 118 min | Drama, Fantasy
Two women love the same man in a world of few prospects. In Budapest, Liliom is a "public figure," a rascal who's a carousel barker, loved by the experienced merry-go-round owner and by a ... See full summary »
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Charles Boyer, Madeleine Ozeray, Robert Arnoux, Roland Toutain
Votes: 1,267
26. Hide-Out (1934)
Passed | 81 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Farmers take in an injured racketeer and try to reform him.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Maureen O'Sullivan, Edward Arnold, Elizabeth Patterson
Votes: 881
27. The Richest Girl in the World (1934)
Passed | 76 min | Comedy, Romance
An heiress switches places with her secretary in order to find a man who will love her for who she is and not for her money.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Henry Stephenson
Votes: 1,019
28. What Every Woman Knows (1934)
Passed | 89 min | Comedy
The story takes place in Scotland, where plain Maggie Wylie's family, fearing she may become a spinster, finances young John Shand's studies in return for his agreement to marry her in five... See full summary »
Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne, Madge Evans, Lucile Watson
Votes: 439
29. The House of Rothschild (1934)
Passed | 88 min | Biography, Drama, History
The wealthy Rothschild family undergoes prejudice from the anti-Semitic society they live within.
Directors: Alfred L. Werker, Sidney Lanfield | Stars: George Arliss, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young, Robert Young
Votes: 1,325
30. Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
Passed | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
The idyllic life of Tarzan and Jane is challenged by men on safari who come seeking ivory, and come seeking Jane as well.
Directors: Cedric Gibbons, James C. McKay, Jack Conway | Stars: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Neil Hamilton, Paul Cavanagh
Votes: 5,570
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