Best Picture 1938
by logandarko | created - 23 Mar 2011 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicFilms I've seen from best to worst
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1. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Passed | 102 min | Comedy
While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett
Votes: 66,108
2. Pygmalion (1938)
89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A phonetics and diction expert makes a bet that he can teach a cockney flower girl to speak proper English and pass as a lady in high society.
Directors: Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard | Stars: Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson, Marie Lohr
Votes: 9,663 | Gross: $3.05M
3. The Young in Heart (1938)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
Thrown out of the Riviera, a family of grifters meets a lonely, vulnerable rich old woman and insinuate themselves into her life while they sponge off her.
Directors: Richard Wallace, Lewis Milestone, Gilbert Pratt, Richard Thorpe | Stars: Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Roland Young, Billie Burke
Votes: 1,618
4. Hotel du Nord (1938)
83 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
On the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian Hôtel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty
Votes: 3,238
5. Port of Shadows (1938)
Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a foggy, French port city.
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur
Votes: 9,966 | Gross: $0.03M
6. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
PG | 102 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement.
Directors: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains
Votes: 54,512 | Gross: $3.98M
7. A Slight Case of Murder (1938)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Crime
Former bootlegger Remy Marco has a slight problem with forclosing bankers, a prospective son-in-law, and four hard-to-explain corpses.
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly
Votes: 2,568
8. Gorky 1: The Childhood of Maxim Gorky (1938)
98 min | Biography, Drama
A drama reveals the great writer's inauspicious early years as an orphan raised by conniving relatives.
Director: Mark Donskoy | Stars: Aleksei Lyarsky, Varvara Massalitinova, Mikhail Troyanovskiy, Elizaveta Alekseeva
Votes: 779
9. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Not Rated | 96 min | Mystery, Thriller
While travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, May Whitty
Votes: 57,181
10. Three Comrades (1938)
Passed | 98 min | Drama, Romance
The close friendship of three German soldiers is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman, who is dying of tuberculosis.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young
Votes: 2,078
11. La Bête Humaine (1938)
Not Rated | 100 min | Crime, Drama
In this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Jean Gabin, Julien Carette, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux
Votes: 8,424
12. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,914 | Gross: $4.66M
13. Jezebel (1938)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, Romance
In 1850s Louisiana, a free-spirited Southern belle loses her fiancé due to her stubborn vanity and pride, and vows to win him back.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay
Votes: 15,056
14. The Dawn Patrol (1938)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, War
British flying aces in World War I contend with the harsh realities of war.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp
Votes: 3,420
15. Les disparus de St. Agil (1938)
98 min | Drama, Mystery
Strange things happen at night at the Saint-Argil secondary school. Baume, Sorgues and Macroy, three of the school's pupils, discover a suspicious man on the premises. Shortly after this unsettling event, pupils begin to go missing.
Director: Christian-Jaque | Stars: Erich von Stroheim, Michel Simon, Armand Bernard, Aimé Clariond
Votes: 952
16. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Passed | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan
Votes: 23,212
17. If I Were King (1938)
Passed | 101 min | Adventure, History
Vagabond poet François Villon rises to high office in 1463 Paris.
Director: Frank Lloyd | Stars: Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone, Frances Dee, Ellen Drew
Votes: 1,019
18. Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (1938)
Not Rated | 111 min | Documentary, Sport
The document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin.
Director: Leni Riefenstahl | Stars: David Albritton, Arvo Askola, Jack Beresford, Erwin Blask
Votes: 5,239
19. A Christmas Carol (1938)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An elderly miser learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve.
Director: Edwin L. Marin | Stars: Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn
Votes: 8,752
20. Le schpountz (1938)
Passed | 160 min | Comedy
Meeting a movie team on location near his house, a young man gets a lot of encouragement for his dreaming career as a movie star in what was only sarcasm from the members of the team. This ... See full summary »
Director: Marcel Pagnol | Stars: Fernandel, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin, Léon Belières
Votes: 786
21. A Woman's Face (1938)
Unrated | 100 min | Drama
An embittered woman, leader of a criminal gang, has a change of heart.
Director: Gustaf Molander | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Tore Svennberg, Anders Henrikson, Georg Rydeberg
Votes: 1,161
22. Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (1938)
Not Rated | 90 min | Documentary, Sport
The document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin, orchestrated as Nazi propaganda.
Director: Leni Riefenstahl | Stars: Sheigo Arai, Jack Beresford, Ralf Berzsenyi, Ferenc Csík
Votes: 4,325
23. Carefree (1938)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else.
Director: Mark Sandrich | Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear
Votes: 4,316
24. A Yank at Oxford (1938)
Passed | 102 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Robert Taylor, Vivien Leigh, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan
Votes: 1,366
25. Merrily We Live (1938)
Passed | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
Dizzy society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome "tramp" who shows up at her doorstep and soon ends up in a ... See full summary »
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne, Alan Mowbray, Billie Burke
Votes: 2,268
26. Vivacious Lady (1938)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Romance
A professor marries a nightclub singer, much to the consternation of his family and friends back home.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, James Ellison, Beulah Bondi
Votes: 4,186
27. The Toy Wife (1938)
Passed | 96 min | Drama, History, Romance
The beautiful, frivolous wife of a plantation owner in antebellum Louisiana proves unsatisfactory at running the household, leading her serious-minded husband to enlist the help of her unmarried sister.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Luise Rainer, Melvyn Douglas, Robert Young, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 400
28. Holiday (1938)
Passed | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A young man in love with a girl from a rich family finds his unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée's eccentric sister and long-suffering brother.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres
Votes: 18,254
29. Marie Antoinette (1938)
Passed | 149 min | Biography, Drama, History
The tragic life of Marie Antoinette, who became queen of France in her late teens.
Directors: W.S. Van Dyke, Julien Duvivier | Stars: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley
Votes: 3,286
30. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
Passed | 91 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witnessing a murder.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Tommy Kelly, Jackie Moran, Ann Gillis, May Robson
Votes: 2,239
31. The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama
A brilliant Park Avenue doctor becomes a criminal in order to do research into the criminal mind.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkins
Votes: 2,982
32. Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
Passed | 85 min | Comedy, Romance
After learning her multi-millionaire fiancé has already been married seven times, the daughter of a penniless marquis decides to tame him.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, David Niven
Votes: 4,543
33. The Citadel (1938)
Passed | 110 min | Drama
An enthusiastic young doctor happily embarks on his career, but it isn't long before he finds out what being a doctor really entails.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Richardson, Rex Harrison
Votes: 2,374
34. Anma to onna (1938)
66 min | Drama
Two blind masseurs travel to a mountain retreat. One of them falls for a visiting lady from Tokyo and investigates a series of thefts.
Director: Hiroshi Shimizu | Stars: Mieko Takamine, Shin Tokudaiji, Shin'ichi Himori, Jun Yokoyama
Votes: 814
35. Mickey's Trailer (1938)
Approved | 8 min | Animation, Short, Adventure
Mickey and Donald ride in a trailer pulled by Goofy, who doesn't realize his car has separated from the trailer as they travel down a mountain.
Director: Ben Sharpsteen | Stars: Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, Richard Edwards, Clarence Nash
Votes: 3,632
36. Dramatic School (1938)
Passed | 80 min | Drama, Romance
Aspiring actress Louise Mauban attends the prestigious Paris School of Drama during the day and works at a dreary factory assembling gas meters at night. She daydreams and "acts" her way ... See full summary »
Director: Robert B. Sinclair | Stars: Luise Rainer, Paulette Goddard, Alan Marshal, Lana Turner
Votes: 476
37. The Great Waltz (1938)
Passed | 104 min | Biography, Drama, Music
In 1845 Vienna, Johann Strauss II (Fernand Gravey) - 'Jonahi' to his friends - would rather write and perform waltzes than anything else, this at a time when a waltz is not considered ... See full summary »
Directors: Julien Duvivier, Victor Fleming, Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravey, Miliza Korjus, Hugh Herbert
Votes: 1,306
38. Brave Little Tailor (1938)
Approved | 9 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Inspired by the Grimm's fairy tale, this classic 1938 Mickey cartoon finds our hero (voiced by Walt Disney) battling a hilariously huge "problem.
Directors: Burt Gillett, Bill Roberts | Stars: Walt Disney, Marcellite Garner, Eddie Holden, Billy Sheets
Votes: 3,341
39. White Banners (1938)
Approved | 92 min | Drama
A homeless woman named Hannah drifts into the lives of the kindly Ward family, in a small Indiana town in 1919. Hannah makes herself useful as a cook and housekeeper and stays with the ... See full summary »
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Claude Rains, Fay Bainter, Jackie Cooper, Bonita Granville
Votes: 469
40. Of Human Hearts (1938)
Passed | 103 min | Drama, Western
Ethan Wilkins is a poor and honest man who ministers to the human soul, while his son Jason yearns to be a doctor, helping people in the earthly realm.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Walter Huston, James Stewart, Gene Reynolds, Beulah Bondi
Votes: 1,358
41. Algiers (1938)
Passed | 96 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A wanted jewel thief ensconced in the Casbah meets a beautiful woman who makes him long for an escape.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, Sigrid Gurie, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 3,248
42. Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938)
Approved | 106 min | Drama, Music, Musical
This send-up of ragtime song and dance begins in 1915 San Francisco when society boy Roger Grant decides to pursue popular rather than serious music.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman
Votes: 2,321
43. Room Service (1938)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy
A penniless theatrical producer must outwit the hotel efficiency expert trying to evict him from his room, while securing a backer for his new play.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Lucille Ball
Votes: 5,546
44. Ferdinand the Bull (1938)
Approved | 8 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Ferdinand is a quiet, gentle bull who only wants to stop and smell the flowers. After he is stung by a bee, the townspeople believe he is ferocious and take him to the bullfight.
Director: Dick Rickard | Stars: Don Wilson, Walt Disney, Milt Kahl
Votes: 3,630
45. Good Scouts (1938)
Approved | 8 min | Animation, Short, Adventure
Donald Duck is Scoutmaster of his nephews on a camping trip at Yellowstone National Park, but his lack of leadership skills results in the Scouts having to help the Scoutmaster out of one predicament after another.
Director: Jack King | Star: Clarence Nash
Votes: 1,098
46. Test Pilot (1938)
Passed | 119 min | Drama, Romance
Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 2,745
47. Four Daughters (1938)
Approved | 90 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A musician is blessed with four musical prodigies, all girls, and cursed when a troubled young composer enters the lives of his Four Daughters.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Claude Rains, John Garfield, Jeffrey Lynn, Frank McHugh
Votes: 2,226
48. Boys Town (1938)
Passed | 96 min | Biography, Drama, Family
When a death row prisoner tells him he wouldn't have led a life of crime if only he had had one friend as a child, Father Edward Flanagan decides to start a home for young boys.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton
Votes: 6,357
49. Mad About Music (1938)
Approved | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A young woman at a girl's school in Switzerland makes up stories about, and writes herself letters, from an imaginary explorer-adventurer father, and is eventually put in a position where ... See full summary »
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Herbert Marshall, Gail Patrick, Arthur Treacher
Votes: 666
50. They Drive by Night (1938)
84 min | Crime, Thriller
A convict, just out of prison, is implicated in a murder and goes on the run, hitching a ride with a truck driver.
Director: Arthur B. Woods | Stars: Emlyn Williams, Anna Konstam, Allan Jeayes, Ernest Thesiger
Votes: 365
51. The Strange Monsieur Victor (1938)
103 min | Crime, Drama
An innocent man spends time in prison for murder, then escapes and falls in love with the wife of the real perpetrator.
Director: Jean Grémillon | Stars: Raimu, Pierre Blanchar, Madeleine Renaud, Marcelle Géniat
Votes: 347
52. In Old Chicago (1938)
Passed | 95 min | Action, Drama, Musical
The O'Leary brothers--honest Jack and roguish Dion--become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Alice Brady
Votes: 2,628
53. Block-Heads (1938)
Approved | 57 min | Comedy, Family, War
Stan, who has remained faithfully at his World War I post for twenty years, finally comes home where his best friend, Ollie, takes him in, thus allowing him to discover the many conveniences of the modern world.
Director: John G. Blystone | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Minna Gombell
Votes: 4,515
54. The Mad Miss Manton (1938)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Mystery
After the murdered body discovered by beautiful, vivacious socialite Melsa Manton disappears, police and press label her a prankster until she proves them wrong.
Director: Leigh Jason | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene, Frances Mercer
Votes: 2,827
55. Kentucky (1938)
Passed | 96 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
Romeo and Juliet story set amidst horse racing in Kentucky. The family feud of lovers Jack and Sally goes back to the Civil War and is kept alive by her Uncle Peter.
Director: David Butler | Stars: Loretta Young, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, Douglass Dumbrille
Votes: 681
56. Maid's Night Out (1938)
Passed | 64 min | Romance, Comedy
A millionaire's son works as a milkman for a month to win a bet with his father. While delivering milk he falls in love with a young debutante whom he mistakes for a maid.
Director: Ben Holmes | Stars: Joan Fontaine, Allan Lane, Billy Gilbert, Cecil Kellaway
Votes: 467
57. The Sidewalks of London (1938)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy
Pickpocket Libby gets support from street performer Charles, and her dancing leads to her invitation to theater patron Harley's party which in turn launches Libby's stage career while Charles keeps on struggling in the streets.
Director: Tim Whelan | Stars: Charles Laughton, Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Larry Adler
Votes: 1,468
59. Blond Cheat (1938)
Approved | 62 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
Socially prominent Michael Ashburn, is the chief assistant to Rufus Trent, wealthy London loan broker. He has allowed himself to become engaged to the Rufus' daughter, Roberta, the match ... See full summary »
Director: Joseph Santley | Stars: Joan Fontaine, Derrick De Marney, Cecil Kellaway, Cecil Cunningham
Votes: 315
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