Drama Films
(1890 – 2010)
~~~~~ Drama Films Intro ~~~~~
STARK DRAMA!
Abraham Lincoln (1930) – 90 minutes
Walter Huston is Lincoln in D.W. Griffith's last film.
Angel on My Shoulder (1946) – 101 minutes, Paul Muni, Anne Baxter, Claude Rains
Murdered convict Paul Muni is sent back to Earth by Satan as a respected judge, then attempts to outwit him.
Animal Kingdom (1932) – 85 minutes
Leslie Howard, Myrna Loy and marital discord.
The Big Lift (1950) – 120 minutes
Montgomery Clift in historic treatment of the Berlin air lift, filmed on location in bombed-out Berlin.
The Bigamist (1953) – 80 minutes
Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, Edmund O’Brien marriage triangle!
Blood on the Sun (1945) – 98 minutes
James Cagney works in Japan in the 1930's, but is virtually helpless to stop the trouble he smells coming.
The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) -- Color, 100 minutes
John Travolta plays teenager with medical deficiency that confines him inside a sterile world.
Carnival Story (1954) -- Color, 98 minutes
High-diver Lyle Bettger takes young Anne Baxter on to teach her the ropes, but a romantic triangle develops.
Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941) – 95 minutes
Martha Scott is an elderly schoolteacher who reminisces about her life.
Dr. Kildare's Strange Case (1940) – 76 minutes
Lew Ayres stars as Dr. Kildare, who tries to cure mental patient.
The Great Dan Patch (1949) – 94 minutes
Dennis O’Keefe and Gail Russell in true story of the famous harness-race horse.
The Great Gabbo (1929) – 100 minutes
Erich von Stroheim is a crazed puppeteer during Broadway musical with bizarro numbers.
Great Guy (1936) – 67 minutes, James Cagney, Mae Clark
James Cagney is an inspector crusading against corruption in the meat packaging industry.
Guest in the House (1944) – 121 minutes
Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy in gripping melodrama about neurotic young woman in household of her betrothed.
Home Town Story (1951) – 61 minutes, Donald Crisp, Jeffrey Lynn, Marilyn Monroe (in a small, early role)
A journalist takes on big business .
The Town short and Edgar Kennedy comedy Good Housewrecking
I Cover the Waterfront (1933) – 70 minutes
Waterfront reporter Ben Lyon romances Claudette Colbert to trap her father, Ernest Torrence, who has been smuggling Chinese immigrants.
Jack London (1943) – 94 minutes
Biography of the author, with Susan Hayward.
Letter of Introduction (1938) – 104 minutes, Adolphe Menjou
An aging actor, trying to make a comeback on Broadway, is surprised when his estranged daughter shows up.
Meet John Doe (1941) – 123 minutes
Naive Gary Cooper is chosen as the average American man for a goodwill drive that benefits a corrupt politician.
Our Daily Bread (1934) – 71 minutes
Landmark experiment by director King Vidor. Displaced people band together in a communal farming project during the Great Depression.
Sin Takes a Holiday (1930) – 81 minutes
Married Constance Bennett falls in love with Basil Rathbone in Paris.
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947) – 103 minutes
Susan Hayward (Oscar nomination) is excellent as an insecure night club singer who weds a radio star, then sinks into alcoholism.
The Southerner (1945) – 91 minutes, Zachary Scott, Betty Field
Superb drama by the great director Jean Renoir about a farm family struggling to survive against overwhelming odds.
The Stars Look Down (1939) – British, 110 minutes
Carol Reed classic about Welsh coal miners.
They Made Me a Criminal (1939) – 92 minutes, Busby Berkeley
John Garfield thinks he has killed someone and lams out West with the Dead End Kids, pursued by Claude Rains.
Tulsa (1949) -- Color, 90 minutes
Cattlewoman Susan Hayward enters the wildcat oil business to avenge the death of her father, but loses her values along the way.
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ROMANTIC DRAMA!
Algiers (1938) – 99 minutes
Hedy Lamarr and Charles Boyer have torrid romance in the Casbah.
Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953) – 63 minutes
American Jennifer Jones meets her Italian lover, Montgomery Clift, one last time in Rome’s railway station.
The Last Time I saw Paris (1954) -- Color, 115 minutes
Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson play struggling lovers in the reckless gaiety of post-World War-II Paris.
Love Affair (1939) – 87 minutes
Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer meet on shipboard. Plans to continue the romance meet tragedy.
Made for Each Other (1939) – 93 minutes
Jimmy Stewart and Carole Lombard are a young married couple struggling with jobs, illness and lack of money.
Mr. Imperium (1951) -- Color, 87 minutes
Lana Turner, Enzio Pinza romance.
Of Human Bondage (1934) – 83 minutes
The darker side of obsessive love finds Leslie Howard inexplicably pursuing an affair with vulgar waitress Bette Davis.
Penny Serenade (1941) – 120 minutes
Classic tearjerker directed by George Stevens. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, meet, love, marry and then drift apart when their unborn baby dies.
A Star is Born (1937) -- Color, 111 minutes
Star-struck Janet Gaynor gets a break in Hollywood thanks to movie star Fredric March. They fall in love and marry, but her star rises as his falls.
Swing High, Swing Low (1937) – 95 minutes
Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray fall in and out of love.
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ADAPTED FROM LITERATURE!
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) – 112 minutes
Oscar-winning performance by Jose Ferrer as the tragic 17th century lover renowned for his nose but longing for love of a beautiful lady.
A Farewell to Arms (1932) – 78 minutes
Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes in Hemingway’s WWI classic.
Jane Eyre (1970) -- Color, 110 minutes
George C. Scott stars as the brooding Rochester in Bronte’s classic English tale, with Susannah York as Jane Eyre.
Life With Father (1947) -- Color, 119 minutes
William Powell and Irene Dunne raise a family in 1900 New York in delightful comedy-drama based on Broadway play.
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) – 98 minutes
Young New Yorker Freddie Bartholomew suddenly finds himself a British Lord in this charming film from the classic story.
Little Men (1940) – 80 minutes
The Louisa May Alcott novel brilliantly brought to the screen with Kay Francis, Jack Oakie and Jimmy Lydon.
The Little Princess (1939) -- Color, 91 minutes
Shirley Temple is orphaned when her father goes to war during Victorian era.
Oliver Twist (1933) – 71 minues
Dickie Moore is Oliver to Irving Pichel’s Fagin in Dickens’ classic.
Our Town (1940) – 90 minutes
Thornton Wilder’s play brought to life starring William Holden, Martha Scott.
Rain (1932) – 90 minutes
Somerset Maugham’s tawdry South Seas tale. Joan Crawford is trollop Sadie Thompson and the target of preacher Walter Huston’s reform.
The Scarlet Letter (1934) – 70 minutes
Colleen Moore stars in Nathaniel Hawthorne ’s classic.
Scrooge (1935) – 60 minutes
Faithful adaptation of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol ” with Sir Seymour Hicks an impressive Scrooge .
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) -- Color, 117 minutes
Hemingway adventure with Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward.
Street Scene (1931) – 80 minutes
Sylvia Sidney in play by Elmer Rice directed by King Vidor
The Time of Your Life (1948) – 99 minutes
James Cagney, William Bendix, Broderick Crawford in Pulitzer-Prize winning play by William Saroyan.
Tom Brown's Schooldays (1940) – 86 minutes
Thomas Hughe’s novel brought to life with Freddie Bartholomew in the title role. Life in a Victorian boy’s school.
Winterset (1936) – 77 minutes
Burgess Meredith, John Carradine, Eduardo Cianelli in adaptation of Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson.
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TONS MORE! DRAMATIC B-PICTURES!
Back Door to Heaven (1939) – 85 minutes, Aline MacMahon, Jimmy Lydon, Anita Magee
Bad Boy (1939) – 65 minutes, Johnny Downs, Rosalind Keith, Helen MacKellar
Beggars in Ermine (1934) – 70 minutes, Lionel Atwill, Betty Furness, Henry B. Walthall
Behind Office Doors (1931) – 82 minutes, Mary Astor, Robert Ames, Ricardo Cortez
Beloved Enemy (1936) – 86 minutes, David Niven, Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne
The Big Chance (1933) – 62 minutes
Young prizefighter wins fixed match. Gangsters move in. (With Kid Dynamite (1943) – 66 minutes, East Side Kids in the boxing world.
Blazing Barriers (1937) – 65 minutes, Junior Coughlan, Florine McKinney, Edward Arnold Jr.
Born to Be Wild (1938) – 66 minutes, Ralph Byrd, Doris Weston, Ward Bond
Born to Fight (1938) – 64 minutes, Frankie Darro, Kane Richmond, Jack La Rue
Boy of the Streets (1937) – 75 minutes, Jackie Cooper, Maureen O'Connor, Kathleen Burke
Boys' Reformatory (1939) -- Frankie Darro, Grant Withers, Junior Coghlan
The Mystery Train (1931) – 62 minutes, Hedda Hopper
A group of passengers are trapped in a runaway Pullman car.
By Appointment Only (1933) – 66 minutes, Wilson Benge , Lew Cody, Gladys Blake
Hell's House (1932) – 72 minutes, Bette Davis, Pat O'Brien, Junior Coghlan
Jimmy idolizes bootlegger Matt, and when he refuses to implicate his friend, he is sent to reform school.
Kid Monk Baroni (1952) – 79 minutes
Leonard Nimoy is "Kid" Monk Baroni, the leader of a street gang who becomes a professional boxer to escape his life in "Little Italy" New York.
Kept Husbands (1931) – 76 minutes, Joel McCrea, Dorothy Mackaill, Ned Sparks
The Mark of the Hawk (1958) – 85 minutes, Sidney Poitier, Patrick Allan, Earl Cameron
Mr. Scarface (1977) – 85 minutes, Jack Palance, Al Cliver, Harry Baer
One Third of a Nation (1939) – 79 minutes, Sylvia Sidney, Leif Erickson, Myron McCormick
Ship of Lost Men (1929) – 121 minutes, Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Kortner, Robin Irvine
Shore Leave (1925) – 105 minutes, Richard Barthelmess, Dorothy Mackaill, Ted McNamara
State Department: File 649 (1949) -- Color, 87 minutes
William Lundigan matches wits with a Chinese warlord to try to save American citizens threatened with execution.
The Sundowners (1950) – 83 minutes, Robert Preston, Robert Sterling, Chill Wills
The Swap (1969) – 92 minutes, Robert De Niro, Jarred Mickey, Jennifer Warren
Tango (1936) 65 minutes, Marian Nixon, Barbara Bedford, Herman Bing
Ten Nights in a Barroom (1931) – 70 minutes, William Farnum, Tom Santschi, Peggy Lou Lynd
Under the Red Robe (1936) – 82 minutes, Conrad Veidt, Annabella, Raymond Massey
The Violent Years (1956) 65 minutes, Jean Moorhead, Barbara Weeks, Arthur Millan
Wives under Suspicion (1938) – 69 minutes, Warren William, Gail Patrick, Constance Moore
The World Gone Mad (1933) – 70 minutes, Louis Calhern, Evelyn Brent, Mary Brian
