Golden Age Horror
1930s horror films, in order of greatness
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- DirectorJames WhaleStarsClaude RainsGloria StuartWilliam HarriganA scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane.A wonderful adaptation of the H.G. Wells book, with groundbreaking special effects and a chilling performance by Claude Rains. Just a shame it wasn't a little longer.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsFredric MarchMiriam HopkinsRose HobartDr. Jekyll faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run wild with a potion that transforms him into the animalistic Mr. Hyde.More great effects, which still hold up today, enhance a brutal, sensual story about the animal lusts within us all. A terrific dual performance from Fredric March.
- DirectorRowland V. LeeStarsBoris KarloffBasil RathboneBela LugosiReturning to the ancestral castle long after the death of the monster, the son of Dr. Frankenstein meets a mad shepherd who is hiding the comatose creature. To clear the family name, he revives the creature and tries to rehabilitate him.The best of the original Frankenstein films. Partly because it's a more fleshed out, balanced narrative than the first two, and partly because Karloff gets wonderful support this time from Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill.
- DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsBoris KarloffBela LugosiDavid MannersAmerican honeymooners in Hungary become trapped in the home of a Satan-worshipping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.Karloff and Lugosi, at the peak of their powers, clash in this brooding, sinister story of devil worship, jealousy, revenge and brutality.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffElsa LanchesterColin CliveMary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.A little OTT in places, nonetheless this is a classic of its time with some iconic moments and a stunning performance from Karloff, swinging between savagery and heartbreaking sorrow.
- DirectorTod BrowningKarl FreundStarsBela LugosiHelen ChandlerDavid MannersTransylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.Okay, it loses momentum in the second half, but the opening half hour is as good as classic horror gets, and Lugosi's prince of darkness is mesmeric throughout.
- DirectorKarl FreundStarsBoris KarloffZita JohannDavid MannersA resurrected Egyptian mummy searches Cairo for the girl he believes to be his long-lost princess.An eerie, dream-like film with yet another terrific, haunting performance from Karloff. It's a twisted love story at its heart, and the opening segment where the Mummy comes to life is unforgettable.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsWallace FordLeila HyamsOlga BaclanovaA circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.Using people with real deformities, rather than prosthetics, this isn't always an easy watch. But it is a truly unique film, and has some of the most chilling scenes you will ever see.
- DirectorLambert HillyerStarsOtto KrugerGloria HoldenMarguerite ChurchillWhen Countess Marya Zaleska appears in London, mysterious events occur that lead Dr. Von Helsing to believe that the Countess must be a vampire.Seriously underrated follow-up to the Lugosi classic, this was ahead of its time - exploring the psychological torment of being vampire, with some lesbian undercurrents thrown in for good measure.
- DirectorIrving PichelErnest B. SchoedsackStarsJoel McCreaFay WrayLeslie BanksA psychotic big game hunter deliberately strands a luxury yacht on a remote island, where he begins to hunt its passengers for sport.It never quite delivers on it's glorious premise, of a man being hunted for sport by the insane ruler of a remote island. But what a premise! The build-up, as the horror of the hero's predicament is gradually revealed, is just brilliant.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsLionel AtwillFay WrayGlenda FarrellThe disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.
- DirectorRobert StevensonStarsBoris KarloffAnna LeeJohn LoderDr. Laurience, a brilliant but unstable scientist experimenting with transferring minds, becomes vengeful when his magnate patron withdraws his support.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsBoris KarloffRicardo CortezEdmund GwennAfter hapless pianist and ex-con John Elman is framed for murder, he is resurrected by a scientist after his execution.
- DirectorVictor HalperinStarsBela LugosiMadge BellamyJoseph CawthornA young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.
- DirectorRoy William NeillStarsBoris KarloffMarian MarshRobert AllenIgnoring an ancient prophecy, evil brother Gregor seeks to maintain his feudal power on his his Tyrolean estate by murdering and impersonating his benevolent younger twin.
- DirectorA. Edward SutherlandStarsCharles RugglesLionel AtwillGail PatrickA monomaniacal zoologist is pathologically jealous of his beautiful but unfaithful wife Evelyn and will not stop short of murder to keep her.
- DirectorT. Hayes HunterStarsBoris KarloffCedric HardwickeErnest ThesigerAn Egyptologist returns from the dead to take revenge on those who have violated his tomb.
- DirectorKarl FreundStarsPeter LorreFrances DrakeColin CliveIn Paris, a demented surgeon's obsession with a British actress leads him to secretly replace her concert-pianist husband's mangled hands with those of a guillotined murderer with a gift for knife-throwing.
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsBela LugosiSidney FoxLeon AmesA mad scientist seeks to mingle human blood with that of an ape, and resorts to kidnapping women for his experiments.
- DirectorStuart WalkerStarsHenry HullWarner OlandValerie HobsonAfter botanist Wilfred Glendon travels to Tibet in search of a rare flower, the Mariphasa, he returns to a London haunted by murders that can only be the work of bloodthirsty werewolves.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsColin CliveMae ClarkeBoris KarloffDr Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffMelvyn DouglasCharles LaughtonSeeking shelter from a storm, five travelers are in for a bizarre and terrifying night when they stumble upon the Femm family estate.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsHumphrey BogartRosemary LaneWayne MorrisA hotshot reporter and a young doctor team up to investigate a series of grisly murders and a mysterious sample of synthetic blood.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsLionel BarrymoreElizabeth AllanBela LugosiWhen a nobleman is murdered, a professor of the occult blames vampires, but not all is what it seems.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsLionel AtwillFay WrayLee TracyA wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.