Lost Movies From 1931
US movies from 1931 (third year of the "pre-code" era) which are listed as lost on IMDB. Many of these films have user ratings and reviews. The mere existence of reviews didn't cause a film to be excluded from this list. Some reviews could be from people who saw the film before it was lost. On the other hand, some reviews seem based not on actually having seen the movie, but on something the reviewer has read elsewhere, or that the reviewer does/doesn't like an actor/the director, doesn't like old movies, or whatever, and wants to chime in based on that. And frankly, some reviews I have read come across as fabrications ("I had an exclusive showing of this otherwise lost film in the home of a private collector").
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- DirectorRobert F. HillStarsFrancis X. Bushman Jr.Alberta VaughnTom LondonThe manager of The Big Circus plots to marry the owner's daughter and gain control of the outfit.
- DirectorWilliam A. O'ConnorStarsHelen FosterJohn DarrowDorothy GrangerA naive high school girl (Helen Foster) falls for the school's star football player. Her ignorance in the matters of sex leads to pregnancy and heartbreak.
- DirectorLeander De CordovaStarsJay WilseyWanda HawleyTom LondonA wagon train of "Forty-Niners" heading for the California gold fields includes a girl, her father and an old black servant, who have hidden their family jewels and life savings in their wagon. One of the men in the train plots with some Indians to attack the caravan and steal the family's wealth. In order to isolate their wagon, the villain has one of his men pose as a small pox victim so that the wagon train will leave them behind. After they fight with the Indians and the band of outlaws, the girl and her family are saved by the leader of the wagon train.
- DirectorAlan JamesStarsHal TaliaferroVirginia Brown FaireWalter MillerTexas Rangers Captain Wally is leading a troop of Rangers in pursuit of the Valdez brothers, border bandits. There is an encounter with a portion of the outlaw band in which Jose Valdez is killed by Wally. The Rangers head for the Flores ranch where Carlos and Manuel Valdez are hiding out. Before they get there Carlos and Manuel hear of Jose's death and ride out for vengeance. Rosita Flores, Jose's sweetheart and daughter of ranch owner Don Flores, also thirsts for vengeance and demands that the Ranger Captain be brought back to her alive. For his part, old man Flores has had more than enough of the Valdez brothers. The Rangers are trapped in Hell's Valley, Wally is severely wounded and his force scattered. He is brought back to the ranch where Rosita promises the Valdez brothers to nurse him back to life so that he can be tortured. Oh, yeah, that the teekit. But the Valdez brothers have no contigency plan in the event Rosita falls in love with her patient, especially with both brothers now having an eye on Rosita since Jose is out of the picture. But after some fighting, shooting, riding, intrigue and a smooch or two between Wally and Rosita, Carlos is tricked into shooting Manuel and is, in turn, killed by Rosita's father.
- DirectorRobert J. HornerStarsJack PerrinJosephine HillBuzz BartonA young cowboy is in love with the ranch owner's daughter. When they learn that the girl's father plans to send her to a nearby city to live with her aunt, the two decide to elope. The girl is not surprised when she is kidnapped from the stagecoach because she believes that her fiance planned the whole thing. Actually, it is the cowboy's rival who has arranged her kidnapping. The girl discovers the truth when the rival arrives at the shack where she is being held. The cowboy arrives just in time to rescue her from the rival's unwelcome advances.
- DirectorRaymond CannonStarsGrant WithersThelma ToddPhilo McCulloughA power company floods a sleepy Tennessee Valley for a dam to run a hydraulic power plant. Garry, a Northern engineer on the project, falls in love with Caroline, Colonel Bradford's adopted daughter. The colonel's nephew, Jack Bradford, uses his power of attorney to sell a valuable portion of the colonel's estate to Morton, head of the power project. The colonel confronts Jack and is killed in the struggle. When Garry finds the body and Jack accuses him of the murder, he escapes, but is pursued by bloodhounds. Jack witnesses Garry retrieving the deed of sale from Morton and blows up the dam to prevent him from returning. The waters sweep Jack away and trap Caroline in a cave. Garry rescues her and the two become engaged.
- DirectorRay TaylorStarsKenneth HarlanEdna MurphyGayne WhitmanThe Secret Service sets out to break up a smuggling ring.
- DirectorClarence G. BadgerStarsSidney BlackmerLila LeeRaymond HattonJudith Temple has come West to Arizona for some excitement. As she says goodbye to her brother and his wife, who are returning to the East, Dr. Neil Cranford, who is in love with her, is called away to tend the broken ribs of a man injured in a barroom brawl. The three other men involved in the fight, Geoffrey Bland, Joao and Kempen, force their way into Judith's room and throw dice to see which one will win her. She begs Bland to save her, so he pays one man off and beats up the other one. Taking Judith away with him, he marries her against her will. Judith helps him build a new home in the mountains but refuses to live with him. Bland has fallen in love with her and reluctantly agrees to her terms. Ore is found on Bland's land, and while he is away arranging financing for a mine, Judith goes into town to sell some mats she has woven. She runs into her brother, his wife and Cranford there. Returning home, she pretends in front of her friends that everything is fine in her marriage. Later, however, she tries to buy her freedom from Bland with nuggets she purchased from Joao. Since she is pregnant, Bland agrees to send her back East with her brother. After the birth of the baby, Judith's mental state is so strange that her mother sends for Bland. She refuses to see him and tells her mother the story of her marriage. After hearing it, her brother threatens Bland, but Judith realizes that she has grown to love Bland and returns with him to Arizona.
- DirectorHamilton MacFaddenStarsWarner OlandJohn GarrickMarguerite ChurchillCharlie steps in to solve the murder of a wealthy American found dead in a London hotel. Settings include London, Nice, San Remo, Honolulu, and Hong Kong. Fast-paced with lots of wisecracking.Before dubbing in alternate languages became common, films were sometimes shot simultaneously in different languages, using the same sets, but with different casts. The Spanish language version of this film survives, although the English version is lost.
- DirectorMelville W. BrownStarsMary AstorJack HoltRicardo CortezAfter years of wilderness living, multi-millionaire Gordon Kent, who has made his fortune as a mining engineer, returns to New York City for good times and "white shoulders." There he meets penniless showgirl Norma Selbee and, intoxicated by her beauty, proposes marriage the same night. Confident that she will fall in love with him in time, Norma accepts Gordon's impetuous proposal, and the couple marries. While on her European honeymoon, however, Norma grows weary of Gordon's displays of generosity and adoration and secretly curses him for not trying to win her love. Then, in France, Norma runs into Lawrence Marchmont, an old friend, who uses his skills as a womanizer to seduce the newlywed. Driven to hysterics by Gordon's uncontrolled affection, Norma denounces her husband for never trying to romance her and locks herself in her bedroom. Although Gordon breaks down the door and enters Norma's room, she leaves for Paris with Marchmont the next day. Heartbroken and angry, Gordon follows the couple to Paris and swears to them that if they ever separate he will send both of them to jail. Gordon then reveals that he has discovered that Norma's first husband, Jim Selbee, never officially divorced her and that Marchmont, whose real name is Tommy Pierce, is a wanted embezzler and swindler. To keep his vow, Gordon hires private detectives to shadow the couple after they return to New York. There Norma soon sees that Gordon was correct about Marchmont when she is forced to resume her showgirl career to support him and his drinking habit. Although Norma grows to hate Marchmont, Gordon forces his rival to remain with her, even after he tries to flee with her jewels. Eventually Norma is confronted by Selbee and, to protect Gordon from his blackmail, agrees to return to her first marriage. While Norma discusses the matter with Gordon, Selbee shows up at the Kent estate and finds a drunken Marchmont there. Together Selbee and Marchmont plot to steal Norma's jewels, but as Selbee is opening Gordon's safe, Marchmont shoots and kills him. After Marchmont is apprehended by the police, Gordon finds Norma and begs her to forgive him. Although Norma at first refuses to reconcile with her husband, her roommate tells Gordon that, in spite of her words, Norma truly loves him. Thus discovered, Norma finally admits her love and reunites with her husband.
- DirectorJames P. HoganStarsJack PerrinDorothy BauerFred HargreavesJack, an outlaw but innocent of the crimes he is being accused of, is running from a posse when he discovers a baby whose parents have been killed by raiders. He takes the baby and tends it even though it means he will be captured. But the sheriff knows something about the baby that Jack doesn't.
- DirectorJohn P. McCarthyStarsLloyd HughesDorothy SebastianCharles MiddletonA cruel sea captain (Charles Middleton) oversees a rough crew.
- DirectorJames CruzeStarsRalph GravesHelen ChandlerSally O'NeilYoung Nell loses her job and home and her father is sent to prison. She joins the Salvation Army and tries to redeem him when he comes out bent on continuing his life of crime.
- DirectorStuart PatonStarsGrant WithersMarjorie BeebeWheeler OakmanBuddy Hollins (brother of Lil Hollins), a young dance-hall girl, gets involved with a gang of crooks, led by Michael Rush. He double-crosses them on a safe-cracking job by stealing the loot ahead of the gang. Later, he is shot by a policeman and taken to a hospital. The gang kidnaps him from the hospital and takes him to their hideout to make him divulge where he hid the robbery money. They also kidnap a young doctor, Ralph Ingram, the sweetheart of his sister.
- DirectorDavid KirklandStarsHal TaliaferroBuzz BartonFred ChurchThis film and "Flying Lariats,1931" were filmed in a week on location in Sonora, California (interiors shot at Universal) with the exact same cast in both films. Both were produced (for Big 4) by a company named Hooper-Connell Corp.,Ltd, which was cameraman R.B. Hooper and brothers Robert and Charles T. Connell. Hooper shot both films, David Kirkland wrote and directed both and Charles T. Connell edited both, minus a credit line. Common mistakes regarding both films is that an elder actor named Joe Lawliss was in both (and billed as such) but some source has evidently decided Joe Lawliss didn't know how to spell his own name and has incorrectly changed it to Joe Lawless. Some source also thinks that the Don Wilson credited in both films is the same Don Wilson that was the announcer on the Jack Benny radio and television programs. He ain't. Etta Delmas is in both films (same cast in both) but some source has decided that her role in "Flying Lariats" was played by an actress that doesn't exist named Etta Dalsing. Well, she didn't exist until said source created her. The plot of "Riders of the Cactus" must have taken four of the seven shooting days as it is more involved than the one in "Flying Lariats." This one revolves around an old Latin parchment which holds the secret to the location of a buried Spanish treasure. American tourist Josie Casey and her Aunt Sarah come into possession of the document, but transposing Latin is neither's strong suit, which need not be meant to imply that acting was. But Jake McKeever/Jake Wenzel does and intends to acquire it. He has his wife Pearl (Tete Brady), bar girl wearing a one-piece bathing suit or corset or something but making whatever it is look really good, distract Border Patrolman Bob Bronson while Jake gets the document from the Caseys. Jake and his gang head for the Sonoran desert. They are followed by a prospector leading a blanket-covered mule train. Jake and his men are a little miffed when Border Patrolmen and Mexican Rurales come out from under the blankets. There were several of these Hopper-McConnell westerns shot over a short period of time, and a few of them appear like they mixed up some reels in the editing process, as character names and situations sometimes change in a New York minute. But that doesn't account for the Joe Lawless/Etta Delsing/Don Wilson errors. Those have been created in the past few years.
- DirectorMichael PowellStarsJohn LongdenJane WelshJerry VernoA murderer is out for revenge on those who gave evidence against him.
- DirectorStuart PatonStarsCharles DelaneyVera ReynoldsCarroll NyeSan Francisco newspaper reporter Jimmy Gray turns detective to bring the killer of the brother of his sweetheart, Ellen Garwood, to justice. His city editor is so confident that he will that he 'holds the presses", and then puts a stuttering man on the re-write-desk telephone.
- DirectorVin MooreStarsRobert ArmstrongJean ArthurJason Robards Sr.A man gets in trouble with his girlfriend when a beautiful movie star and her fiance come to his small town.The one review says the film is not lost. The film does have many ratings, may be so, although I haven't seen it.
- DirectorLawrence C. WindomStarsMary NolanJohnnie WalkerLou TellegenThe Lady cop Florence Vinton goes undercover to get the goods on rival gangsters Eddie Swan and Larry Marsh. Just at the point in which Florence looks like she's going to be rubbed out, Swan and Marsh shoot each other down.
- DirectorLawrence C. WindomStarsMary NolanJohnnie WalkerLou TellegenThe Lady cop Florence Vinton goes undercover to get the goods on rival gangsters Eddie Swan and Larry Marsh. Just at the point in which Florence looks like she's going to be rubbed out, Swan and Marsh shoot each other down.
- DirectorAlan CroslandStarsMargaret SchillingPaul GregoryTom PatricolaWhile picking apples in her father's orchard, Molly Standing and her girl friend, Gertie, meet Tommy Melville and Gus Schultz. Molly and Tommy fall in love, as do Gus and Gertie. Wealthy art patrons Gerald Winters and his mother hear Molly sing, and attracted by her beauty, Gerald urges his mother to sponsor her studies abroad. Molly has just become engaged to Tommy and is reluctant to accept, but needing the money to replace a payroll stolen from her drunken father, she accepts. Eighteen months later, Molly is given the chance to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, where she is a great success. Tommy attends the reception and realizing how far apart they have grown, breaks their engagement. Shortly after, Molly's engagement to Gerald is announced. When Molly's health fails, family physician Dr. Joe Thompson takes her for a ride through the apple orchards, where she relives her happy memories of Tommy. By chance, she meets Tommy there and decides to give up her career to marry him. The doctor explains to her manager that Molly has lost her voice and will no longer be able to sing, except perhaps, a lullaby.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsClara Kimball YoungMarian NixonPaul PageDaisy Bowman runs a boarding house in New York City and becomes romantically involved with new boarder Jake. Among the other boarders are shopgirl Betty and her taxi-driver fiance Eddie. Eddie is framed for murder by a gangster and sent to prison. He keeps the fact of his arrest secret from Betty, who believes he has left her. Jake makes a play for Betty, which makes Daisy jealous. Jake and Daisy quarrel and he is about to strangle her when her young blind son shoots and kills him. Pete, another gangster, gets Betty drunk. He wants to spend the night with her and, when Daisy tries to prevent him, he threatens to tell the police who really killed Jake. Meanwhile, Eddie has been released from jail, and when he returns to find Betty drunk with Pete, he is disgusted. Jake's brother, thinking that Eddie murdered Jake, tries to shoot him, but Daisy tells him that Pete killed his brother. The brother kills Pete, then dies shortly afterward of a wound inflicted by Pete. With her son in the clear, Daisy helps Eddie and Betty reunite.
- DirectorNoel M. SmithStarsRichard TalmadgeBlanche MehaffeyRobert EllisA fisherman on Catalna Island tries to break into "society" and winds up helping a rich young girl mixed up with kidnappers.
- DirectorJack IrwinStarsBuddy RooseveltBarbara WorthTom LondonJohn Smith is a writer of western novels but has never been west of the Hudson River. Hlen Parker invites him to visit her Texas ranch and get a real feel of the real west. Once he arrives, she and her cowhands frame him to appear as a notorious bandit. But, then, the real bandit shows up.
- DirectorRoy William NeillStarsJack HoltMary DoranRichard CromwellA shady lady has an affair with one deep sea diver, marries his buddy and breaks up their friendship. Ere long, she cheats on her husband and runs off with an oily yacht owner. Shortly afterward the yachtsman scutttles his ship and she is trapped in a sunken ship beneath the deep blue sea, as is the first diver who got trapped trying to save her. Will the husband be able to rescue them both?
- DirectorGeorge B. SeitzStarsRichard CromwellSally BlaneNoah BeeryCaptain Angus Swope (Noab Beery), known as The Black Yankee, skipper of the Golden Bough, treats his crew shamefully and he treats women no better, as evidenced by his handling of a woman he has abducted, together with her baby daughter, Mary (Sally Blaine), from seaman Newman (Willard Robertson). When the woman dies as a result of his cruelty, he brings up Mary as his own daughter.
- DirectorThomas BentleyStarsJames HarcourtViola LyelFrank PettingellHenry Hobson runs a successful boot-maker's shop in nineteenth-century Salford. A widower with a weakness for the pub opposite, he tries forcefully to run the lives of his three unruly daughters. When he decrees 'no marriages' to avoid the expensive matter of settlements, eldest daughter Maggie rebels and sets her sights on Will Mossop, Hobson's star boot-maker. Maggie and Will leave to start up in competition, and she then turns her mind to helping her sisters marry their chosen partners.
- DirectorStuart PatonStarsRex LeaseHenry B. WalthallBlanche MehaffeyStern district attorney John Raymond sentences innocent June Lawrence to prison along with her guilty husband Dan. After she dies in prison, her brother, reporter Jerry Heath, vows revenge. He gets his opportunity when he is sent to cover a police raid. His photographer takes a picture of Raymond's daughter Kay dancing on a table in her underwear. Jerry saves her from the raid in order to get her exclusive story for his paper. The next day, Raymond is furious with Kay for embarrassing him in that way. Dan, who has been released from prison, steals the incriminating photograph and uses it to blackmail Kay. She assumes that Jerry is involved in the scheme and will not listen to his explanations. When Dan is murdered, Jerry finds one of Kay's gloves next to the body and, assuming she is guilty, offers no defense when he is arrested for the crime. He is sentenced to death until Kay goes to her father with the truth. Raymond intervenes, the police arrest Shorty Gray, who confesses to the crime, and Jerry is released from prison to find Kay waiting for him.
- DirectorFrank LloydStarsBillie DoveCharles StarrettLois WilsonA wife does not want children, her husband leaves her and marries a woman who does.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsBebe DanielsWarren WilliamAlan MowbrayHonor of the Family is a 1931 American Pre-Code drama film released by First National Pictures (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.), starring Bebe Daniels and Warren William. It was based on the play by Emil Fabre, from the Honoré de Balzac novel, La Rabouilleuse. This was the talkie debut for Warren William who would become one of the major stars for Warner Brothers over the next five years. It also marked Dita Parlo's first English-speaking role.
- DirectorHenry EdwardsStarsIsobel ElsomGarry MarshDerrick De MarneyA novelist living in a boarding house imagines a murder that involves his fellow boarders.
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsMarion ShillingBeryl MercerRex BellA drama set in filmland, following the triumphs and heartaches of women who try to succeed in the movie industry.
- DirectorBert GlennonStarsSue CarolNoah BeeryFrancis McDonaldAn RCMP officer is on the trail of a woodsman accused of murdering a man who wronged him. Circumstances arise in which the fugitive saves the Mountie's life, and the Mountie falls in love with the man's daughter. He's torn between his love for the girl and his duty to bring back the man he's sworn to find.
- DirectorJohn G. AdolfiStarsRose HobartBen LyonFlorence BrittonPoor working-class girl Stella marries wealthy Sidney Brock, recently jilted by his fiancée and social equal Connie. The two go through contentious times with the Brock patriarch, but when Stella becomes a mother, she seems to becomes accepted, although it's used as a way to shift Sidney's and the child's affections from her. Connie comes back into their lives, now seeking to reclaim Sidney, and manipulates the situation to convince Stella that he's been seeing her. So Stella decides to get a divorce, but fortunately, Sidney becomes aware of the deception in time.
- DirectorLloyd NoslerStarsTom TylerBetty MackAl BridgeThe local express agent, the father of Tom McGuire, is killed during a robbery. In the chase that follows Tom is wounded and taken by his friend, Sandy Thompson, to the home of Janice Warren to recover. Janice and Tom soon fall in love, and that brings complications as Sandy is also in love with Janice, and Tom believes that her brother Cliff, is one of the gang members that robbed the express office. Cliff challenges Tom to a shoot-out in the street. Tom accepts, not knowing that his guns have been emptied by the jealous Sandy. The latter, in a change of heart, steps into the duel and shoots Cliff just before he is shot down from ambush by saloon owner Willis, the secret leader of the gang. Willis is captured by Tom and Tom takes Sandy to the doctor. Cliff confesses before dying to his role in the robbery, and Tom and Janice are reconciled.
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsJameson ThomasFlorence BrittonThomas E. JacksonA murder mystery evolves during a weekend at an exclusive mansion.
- DirectorJack NelsonStarsRobert FrazerConsuelo DawnCarmen LarouxFilmed before the MPPDA production code was instituted (1934), and this one is filled with dialogue and situations that go beyond innuendo and cut right to the chase on a couple of trails the B-western genre seldom rode. Cowhand Bob Blake visits Sally Thompson and her kid brother Jimmy on their hardscrabble homestead adjoining the Steele Ranch where Bob works. He learns that their father just died, and he plans to see if he can make things easier for them. He rides to the Steele ranch to talk to his boss; he isn't there at the moment, but Mrs. Steele is--and she stands very close to Bob and tells him that they should be better friends. She moves even closer and Bob tells her he needs to tend to his cow-punching and makes a quick exit. Mr. Steele shows up and asks Mrs. Steele to go to town with him, but she declines on the basis she has some house-chores to do, and Mr. Steele also exits. Then Burke, town banker and saloon owner, shows up, and since he and Mrs. Steele are already good friends, he is ready to help her with the chores but Mr. Steele comes back and objects to this, which offends Burke to the point that he shoots Mr. Steele dead. The pair then plants evidence here and there and Mrs. Steele rides to town and tells the sheriff that Bob Blake has just killed her husband. But Blake escapes from jail and heads for Mexico. There, he meets saloon girl Rosita, who also thinks she and Bob should be better friends, but her sweetheart--Lopez the Famous Mexican Bandit--shows up and objects but Rosita explains that she thought Blake was Lopez, because Lopez and Blake look exactly alike and she just thought he was Lopez showing up without his sombrero or his accent. And they do look exactly alike. Some time passes, and Blake comes back to Arizona posing as Lopez, the Famous Mexican Bandit, with the plan of clearing his name and extracting some revenge from Mrs. Steele and Burke. In his absence, Burke has hired a gunman named Butch Devlin to kill Mrs. Blake because he now has his eyes on Sally and the Thompson spread on which he holds the mortgage, and Mrs. Steele has now become a liability and bankers don't care much for liabilities, especially liabilities that can talk and might tell the Sheriff just who knocked off the late Mr. Steele. Lopez and Butch, kindred spirits, meet and become partners, even though Butch didn't know he needed a partner. Burke gives Butch the money to kill Mrs. Steele...Blake/Lopez holds him up and takes it away from him... then gives the money to Sally to payoff the mortgage...she pays Burke...Blake/Lopez holds up Burke and takes the money again...and gives it back to Butch, who, while grateful to get the money back, is somewhat confused as to why Blake/Lopez just didn't let him keep it in the first place. But it is all part of the plan.
- DirectorRichard C. KahnStarsGlenn TryonVirginia Brown FaireArthur StoneAn old prospector discovers a bonanza mine of gold on the Diamond Dude Ranch. He tells two men about it and they kill him, and then make plans to acquire the ranch. The property is owned by an easterner named Bob Jordan and is operated for him by John Grant, but it quickly becomes the scene o many mysterious mishaps and the few remaining guests are planning to leave when Jordon arrives. Dr. Pike and Mr. Cooper make an offer to buy the ranch but Joan Grant, the foreman's daughter, tells Bob the ranch can be made to be profitable if he would make some improvements. Bob spends most of his money on the construction of a dam, to improve the water supply, and then hires "Broncho" Wilson, the World's Champion Rider, and his Wild West Rodeo troupe, including Vera McGinnis, the World's Champion Trick Rider, to stage weekly shows. The remaining guests stay on, and many others show up. Among them are Joe Jenkins and his mother who chose the range to quiet her jaded nerves. Joe accidentally overhears Pike and Cooper, the men who killed the prospector, talking about their plan to dynamite the water supply, but they kill him before he can tell anybody and then plant evidence indicating that John Grant was the killer. Later, after Jordan rides after Pike to take him a briefcase he had left at the ranch, he trails Pike and Cooper to the hidden mine. The villains, after cutting the telephone wires, send their henchmen to attack Jordan and Joan at the ranch.
- DirectorHarcourt TemplemanOscar Friedrich WerndorffStarsDonald CalthropJane WelshEdward SinclairMathias, an Alsatian innkeeper, murders a rich Pole staying at his inn But Mathias' conscience will not let him rest, and the murdered man's spirit drives the innkeeper nearly mad. The victim's brother calls for an inquest and brings with him a sideshow mesmerist supposedly able to read minds. Mathias, as burgomaster, is called upon to conduct the inquest, but under the intuitive eye of the mesmerist cannot resist torment of his own conscience.
- DirectorJack IrwinStarsBuddy RooseveltJean KayFred ChurchAn undercover marshal battles a power-mad cattle baron.