1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 193619371938 1939

1937 Movies

Take a nostalgic look back at the top movies of 1937, celebrating the films, directors and actors that defined the year and left a lasting legacy in the world of entertainment.

1937 Academy Awards

Lost Horizon
Written by: Robert Riskin, James Hilton, Sidney Buchman
Directed by: Frank Capra
Starring: Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, John Howard, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton
Country: United States of America
Outline: A British diplomat and his companions crash in the Himalayas, discovering the utopian valley of Shangri-La, where they grapple with the choice to stay or return to the outside world. The film explores themes of idealism and the human desire for paradise.
source: imdb.com
A Day at the Races
Written by: Robert Pirosh, George Seaton, Irving Brecher
Directed by: Sam Wood
Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Allan Jones, Maureen O'Sullivan
Country: United States of America
Outline: A veterinarian posing as a doctor teams with a singer and his friends to save an upstate New York sanitarium with the help of a misfit racehorse. The film is a comedy featuring the Marx Brothers' antics.
source: imdb.com
Stella Dallas
Written by: Robert E. Sherwood, Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman
Directed by: King Vidor
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley, Barbara O'Neil, Alan Hale
Country: United States of America
Outline: A working-class woman strives to provide a better life for her daughter, leading to personal sacrifices and societal challenges. The film delves into themes of motherhood and social class.
source: imdb.com
Broadway Melody of 1938
Written by: James Seymour, Norman Houston, George Oppenheimer
Directed by: Roy Del Ruth
Starring: Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Buddy Ebsen, Frank Morgan, Alice Brady
Country: United States of America
Outline: A Broadway dancer returns to her hometown to star in a new show, rekindling old relationships and facing new challenges. The film is a musical comedy featuring elaborate dance sequences.
source: imdb.com
Saratoga
Written by: Ernest Vajda, William Anthony McGuire, George Oppenheimer
Directed by: Jack Conway
Starring: Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Una Merkel
Country: United States of America
Outline: A racehorse trainer and a gambler team up to win a big race, leading to romantic entanglements and comedic situations. The film is a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of horse racing.
source: imdb.com
Confession
Written by: Hans Rameau
Directed by: Joe May
Starring: Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Basil Rathbone, Jane Bryan
Country: United States of America
Outline: A scene-for-scene remake of the 1935 German film 'Mazurka', this American drama follows a love triangle involving a pianist, his wife, and a composer.
source: en.wikipedia.org
The Awful Truth
Written by: Vera Caspary, Arthur Richman
Directed by: Leo McCarey
Starring: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D'Arcy
Country: United States of America
Outline: A lighthearted comedy about a divorcing couple who find themselves entangled in romantic misadventures as they attempt to move on with their lives.
source: imdb.com
Stage Door
Written by: Edna Ferber, George S. Kaufman
Directed by: Gregory La Cava
Starring: Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Eve Arden
Country: United States of America
Outline: A group of aspiring actresses share a boarding house in New York City, navigating the challenges of the theater world and their personal relationships.
source: imdb.com
Way Out West
Written by: Charley Rogers, Felix Adler, James Parrott, Jack Jevne, Arthur V. Jones
Directed by: James W. Horne
Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynn, James Finlayson, Rosina Lawrence, Stanley Fields, Vivien Oakland
Country: United States of America
Outline: Stan and Ollie are tasked with delivering a gold mine deed to Mary Roberts in Brushwood Gulch, but they encounter deception and misadventures along the way.
source: rottentomatoes.com
Tim Tyler's Luck
Written by: Wyndham Gittens, Norman S. Hall, Ray Trampe, Lyman Young
Directed by: Ford Beebe, Wyndham Gittens
Starring: Frankie Thomas, Frances Robinson, Jack Mulhall, Al Shean, Norman Willis
Country: United States of America
Outline: Tim Tyler stows away on a ship bound for Africa to find his father, Professor James Tyler, and meets Lora Lacey, who is chasing the criminal 'Spider' Webb.
source: en.wikipedia.org
Pépé le Moko
Written by: Henri La Barthe, Julien Duvivier
Directed by: Julien Duvivier
Starring: Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Lucas Gridoux, Gabriel Gabrio
Country: France
Outline: A French gangster hides in the Casbah of Algiers, where he falls in love with a beautiful woman, leading to his eventual downfall.
source: imdb.com
Shall We Dance
Written by: Allan Scott, Ernest Pagano
Directed by: Mark Sandrich
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Arnold, Jerome Cowan, Eric Blore
Country: United States of America
Outline: A Broadway dancer and a ballerina fake a marriage to fool their employers, leading to comedic misunderstandings and romantic entanglements.
source: imdb.com
Bizarre, Bizarre
Written by: Jacques Prévert
Directed by: Marcel Carné
Starring: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Roger Blin, Marcel Herrand
Country: France
Outline: A surrealist film that intertwines multiple stories, exploring themes of love, death, and the absurdity of life.
source: imdb.com
You Only Live Once
Written by: Norman Reilly Raine, Jo Swerling
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon, Edward Arnold
Country: United States of America
Outline: A man with a criminal past tries to start anew but is drawn back into a life of crime, leading to tragic consequences.
source: imdb.com
The Edge of the World
Written by: Michael Powell
Directed by: Michael Powell
Starring: Niall MacGinnis, Belle Chrystall, Eric Berry
Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Outline: A young man leaves his home in Scotland to seek adventure in the Shetland Islands, where he becomes entangled with the islanders' struggles against the encroaching modern world.
source: imdb.com
Dead End
Written by: Lillian Hellman, Sidney Kingsley
Directed by: William Wyler
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart
Country: United States of America
Outline: In a New York City slum, the lives of a young man, a young woman, a notorious gangster, and a group of street kids converge, highlighting the harsh realities of urban poverty.
source: imdb.com
Night Must Fall
Written by: John Van Druten
Directed by: Richard Thorpe
Starring: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Dame May Whitty
Country: United States of America
Outline: In a small English village, a charming young man named Danny becomes a live-in companion to a wealthy widow, Mrs. Bramson. As suspicions arise about his involvement in a local woman's disappearance, his true nature is revealed.
source: imdb.com
Kid Galahad
Written by: Seton I. Miller
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Wayne Morris
Country: United States of America
Outline: A young man, Ward Guisenberry, is discovered by boxing manager Nick Donati and trained to become a boxer. As he rises in the ranks, he becomes entangled in a love triangle and the corrupt world of boxing.
source: imdb.com
The Life of Emile Zola
Written by: Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, Norman Reilly Raine
Directed by: William Dieterle
Starring: Paul Muni, Gloria Holden, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut
Country: United States of America
Outline: The film chronicles the life of French writer Émile Zola and his involvement in defending Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer falsely accused of treason.
source: imdb.com
Heidi
Written by: Johanna Spyri, Paul Bern
Directed by: Allan Dwan
Starring: Shirley Temple, Jean Hersholt, Arthur Treacher
Country: United States of America
Outline: A young orphaned girl, Heidi, is sent to live with her reclusive grandfather in the Swiss Alps. Her presence brings joy and healing to the isolated man and the community.
source: imdb.com
They Won't Forget
Written by: Ward Greene, Robert Rossen, Aben Kandel
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy
Starring: Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris, Lana Turner
Country: United States of America
Outline: A southern town is rocked by scandal when teenager Mary Clay is murdered on Confederate Memorial Day. The governor commutes the death sentence of the accused, leading to his lynching by the townsfolk.
source: imdb.com