Rich and Strange (1931)

Rich and Strange (1931)

[5] This early Alfred Hitchcock movie certainly lives up to the latter half of its title. Henry Kendall and Joan Barry play Fred and Emily Hill, a bored suburban couple from London who are thrilled to receive an inheritance that allows them…
The Skin Game (1931)

The Skin Game (1931)

[5] In this middling, early Alfred Hitchcock film, the aristocratic Hillcrist family battles with the industrialist Hornblower family over a plot of land in a small English village. The Hornblowers want to build a factory and erect unsightly smoke stacks, while the…
Murder! (1930)

Murder! (1930)

[4] In this early Alfred Hitchcock film, an actress (Diana Baring) is found in a fugue state next to a bloody fire poker and a murdered acquaintance. She's sentenced to death for a crime she doesn't remember committing, but a skeptical juror…
Juno and the Paycock (1930)

Juno and the Paycock (1930)

[5] Alfred Hitchcock adapts Sean O'Casey's popular stage play about a poor Irish family that inherits a small fortune but ends up losing so much more. Juno (Sara Allgood) is the matriarch, who's constantly cleaning up after her husband (Edward Chapman), 'The…
The Roaring Twenties (1939)

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

[7] In this quintessential '30s gangster flick, James Cagney stars as a World War I vet who has a hard time finding a job when he returns home to New York City. He resorts to transporting liquor to speak-easies during Prohibition, which…
Quality Street (1937)

Quality Street (1937)

[4] Katharine Hepburn is remembered as one of Hollywood's brightest stars, but after having a few early hits like Morning Glory and Little Women, her career went into a tailspin for several years. In the mid-'30s she was even labeled 'box office…
Frisco Kid (1935)

Frisco Kid (1935)

[4] James Cagney (The Public Enemy, The Mayor of Hell) stars as an aimless sailor who makes a name for himself in 1850s San Francisco, running bars and casinos on the notoriously violent Barbary Coast. He falls in love with an upper-crust…
Invisible Stripes (1939)

Invisible Stripes (1939)

[7] George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden star in this better-than-average gangster flick. Raft and Bogart play convicts just released from prison. Raft reunites with his mother (Flora Robson) and younger brother (Holden) and tries to start a clean, new life,…
Dead End (1937)

Dead End (1937)

[8] Humphrey Bogart's star was on the rise when he appeared in this ensemble drama based on a popular Broadway play by Sidney Kingsley. Bogart plays a murderous gangster who returns to his riverside slum in New York City after undergoing plastic…
Black Fury (1935)

Black Fury (1935)

[4] Paul Muni (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, The Life of Emile Zola) stars as an immigrant coal worker who unwittingly finds himself a union representative in a volatile dispute with the mine owners. When the owners hire 'scabs'…