Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "depression-era"
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1. King Kong (2005)
PG-13 | 187 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
A greedy film producer assembles a team of moviemakers and sets out for the infamous Skull Island, where they find more than just cannibalistic natives.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann
Votes: 446,819 | Gross: $218.08M
2. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft
Votes: 283,490 | Gross: $25.00M
3. Perry Mason (2020–2023)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, History
In booming 1932 Los Angeles, a down-and-out defense attorney takes on the case of a lifetime.
Stars: Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Shea Whigham
Votes: 28,776
4. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
R | 111 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman
Votes: 120,588
5. Butterfly (1981)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama
In 1937 Nevada, silver mine caretaker Jess Tyler is reunited with his teenage daughter Kady who will do anything to persuade Jess to let her have claim to the mine.
Director: Matt Cimber | Stars: Stacy Keach, Pia Zadora, Orson Welles, Lois Nettleton
Votes: 1,556
6. Live by Night (2016)
R | 129 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: Ben Affleck | Stars: Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, Chris Messina
Votes: 59,817 | Gross: $10.38M
7. My Man Godfrey (1936)
Approved | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler - but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye.
Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick
Votes: 26,448
8. 12 Mighty Orphans (2021)
PG-13 | 118 min | History, Sport
Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high-school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.
Director: Ty Roberts | Stars: Luke Wilson, Vinessa Shaw, Wayne Knight, Martin Sheen
Votes: 8,706
9. Genius (2016)
PG-13 | 104 min | Biography, Drama
A chronicle of Max Perkins's time as the book editor at Scribner, where he oversaw works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.
Director: Michael Grandage | Stars: Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney
Votes: 21,361 | Gross: $1.36M
10. Fools' Parade (1971)
GP | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Thriller
In 1935, after forty years in a West Virginia prison, three released convicts wish to open a legitimate business using the $25,000 earned in prison, but a crooked prison guard in cahoots with the town banker plans to defraud them.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: James Stewart, George Kennedy, Anne Baxter, Strother Martin
Votes: 1,657 | Gross: $0.06M
11. Summer Heat (1987)
R | 80 min | Drama
Roxy, a Depression-era farmer, feels alone and neglected by her husband, who works too much, and is drawn into an ill-advised affair with Jack, her day laborer.
Director: Michie Gleason | Stars: Lori Singer, Anthony Edwards, Bruce Abbott, Kathy Bates
Votes: 415 | Gross: $0.35M
12. In Dubious Battle (2016)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, History
An activist gets caught up in the labor movement for farm workers in California during the 1930s.
Director: James Franco | Stars: Nat Wolff, James Franco, Vincent D'Onofrio, Selena Gomez
Votes: 4,515
13. Wildflower (1991 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Romance
An abused, partially-deaf girl is helped back into society by two resourceful children.
Director: Diane Keaton | Stars: Beau Bridges, Susan Blakely, William McNamara, Reese Witherspoon
Votes: 1,648
14. Made for Each Other (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
While on a business trip, an ambitious young lawyer meets and immediately falls in love with a stranger. They wed the following day, and tragedy soon strikes.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Carole Lombard, James Stewart, Charles Coburn, Lucile Watson
Votes: 4,103
15. Bombshell (1933)
Passed | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone
Votes: 3,143
16. Roman Scandals (1933)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Musical
A kind-hearted young man is thrown out of his corrupt home town of West Rome, Oklahoma. He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the days of olden Rome, where he gets mixed up with court intrigue and a murder plot against the Emperor.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, Gloria Stuart, Edward Arnold
Votes: 804 | Gross: $5.33M
17. The Automat (2021)
TV-PG | 79 min | Documentary, History
Documentary centers on the vending machine popularized in the 20th century that offered fresh cooked meals in a commissary-style eatery.
Director: Lisa Hurwitz | Stars: Mel Brooks, John W. Romas, Carl Reiner, Krystyna Romas
Votes: 1,563
18. A Girl Named Sooner (1975 TV Movie)
85 min | Drama
A young girl in the hills of Indiana, who had been abandoned by her family and raised by a bootlegging old woman, is taken by the authorities and made the ward of a childless couple.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Lee Remick, Richard Crenna, Don Murray, Anne Francis
Votes: 303
19. Girls Can Play (1937)
Passed | 59 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Foy Harris (John Gallaudet) is a bootlegger selling illegal booze and also running a girl's professional softball team and is romancing the team's catcher Sue Collins (Rita Hayworth). The ... See full summary »
Director: Lambert Hillyer | Stars: Julie Bishop, Charles Quigley, Rita Hayworth, John Gallaudet
Votes: 157
20. Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982)
180 min | Biography, Drama
The story deals with Gloria Vanderbilt's difficult coming-of-age when, at eleven, she was a pawn in a custody battle between her sybaritic mother and her aunt.
Stars: Angela Lansbury, Maureen Stapleton, Martin Balsam, Glynis Johns
Votes: 876
21. Bootleggers (1974)
PG | 115 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Details the lives of two feuding families of bootleggers, the Pruitts and the Woodalls, in rural 1920s and 1930s Arkansas.
Director: Charles B. Pierce | Stars: Paul Koslo, Dennis Fimple, Slim Pickens, Jaclyn Smith
Votes: 184
22. Red-Haired Alibi (1932)
Passed | 75 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A young girl new to the big city gets a job as a man's companion. What she doesn't know is that the man is a notorious gangster.
Director: Christy Cabanne | Stars: Merna Kennedy, Theodore von Eltz, Grant Withers, Purnell Pratt
Votes: 263
23. Stan (2006 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 59 min | Biography
Based on the Neil Brand's critically acclaimed radio play of the same name, the drama follows Stan Laurel's last visit to his dying friend and comedy partner Oliver 'Babe' Hardy and Stan's ... See full summary »
Director: Jon Sen | Stars: Jim Norton, Trevor Cooper, Dearbhla Molloy, Lorelei King
Votes: 272
24. Convicts 4 (1962)
Approved | 105 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
After his death sentence is commuted to life in prison, John Resko (Ben Gazzara) is transferred from Sing-Sing to Dannemora Prison where, with the help of a humane prison guard, he becomes a rehabilitated man and a successful painter.
Director: Millard Kaufman | Stars: Ben Gazzara, Stuart Whitman, Ray Walston, Vincent Price
Votes: 546
25. Gambling with Souls (1936)
Unrated | 70 min | Drama
Young girls are cheated in rigged gambling games and then forced into prostitution to pay off their debts.
Director: Elmer Clifton | Stars: Martha Chapin, Wheeler Oakman, Bryant Washburn, Gay Sheridan
Votes: 211
26. Hard to Handle (1933)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Small time con artist Lefty Merrill has co-organized a crooked dance marathon and set up his girlfriend to win the prize money. When his partner disappears with money before the contest is ... See full summary »
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: James Cagney, Mary Brian, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly
Votes: 896
27. The Chimp (1932)
Passed | 25 min | Short, Comedy
Two bumbling circus performers inadvertently help drive the circus into ruin and then end up in possession of a flea circus and an oversized chimp.
Director: James Parrott | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Bobby Burns, Baldwin Cooke
Votes: 1,502
28. The Brat (1931)
60 min | Comedy
A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon her behavior has forever altered their snobbish ways.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Sally O'Neil, Alan Dinehart, Frank Albertson, William Collier Sr.
Votes: 215
29. Below Zero (1930)
Approved | 20 min | Short, Comedy, Family
In winter-time, the boys fail to earn any money by playing their musical instruments in a bad neighborhood but their luck seems to improve when they find a wallet full of money on the street.
Director: James Parrott | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Bobby Burns, Baldwin Cooke
Votes: 1,891
30. Waterfront Women (1950)
80 min | Drama
A worthless sailor walks out on his young family leaving them to fend for themselves in the Liverpool slums. They make a go of their lives, but the eldest daughter is not happy when her father decides to return.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Robert Newton, Kathleen Harrison, Avis Scott, Susan Shaw
Votes: 488
31. Twin Rivers (2007)
106 min | Drama
Set in 1939 Australia, two brothers embark on a 500 mile journey on foot across New South Wales following a dream. A chance encounter with a fellow traveler changes the course of their journey and ultimately, the course of their lives.
Director: Matthew Holmes | Stars: Darren Holmes, Matthew Holmes, Joshua Jaeger, Robyn Dickinson
Votes: 138
32. Slightly Married (1932)
Passed | 65 min | Comedy, Romance
A drunk stranger offers to provide a woman accused of prostitution with an alibi in court. Things escalate quickly, and before the court hearing is over, the judge has married the two.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Evalyn Knapp, Walter Byron, Marie Prevost, Jason Robards Sr.
Votes: 185
33. Scram! (1932)
Passed | 20 min | Comedy, Short
Commanded to "scram" out of town by a cantankerous judge, poor vagabonds, Stan and Ollie, slip into something more comfortable to spend the night at a sympathetic inebriate's home; however, is this the right house?
Directors: Ray McCarey, Lloyd French, Jack Lloyd | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Richard Cramer, Arthur Housman
Votes: 1,517
34. Virginia Hill (1974 TV Movie)
74 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Virginia Hill, a former prostitute who was the girlfriend of 1940s killer and gangster Bugsy Siegel.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Dyan Cannon, Harvey Keitel, Allen Garfield, Robby Benson
Votes: 165
35. Blondie Johnson (1933)
Passed | 67 min | Crime, Drama
The story of a Depression-downtrodden waif who uses her brains instead of her body to rise from tyro con artist to crime boss.
Directors: Ray Enright, Lucien Hubbard | Stars: Joan Blondell, Chester Morris, Allen Jenkins, Earle Foxe
Votes: 786
36. One Good Turn (1931)
Passed | 20 min | Short, Comedy
A kindly old widow serves a free meal to the penniless boys but her greedy landlord wants to evict her for non payment of her mortgage, prompting the boys to come to her rescue.
Director: James W. Horne | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mary Carr, James Finlayson
Votes: 1,684
37. The Battlers (1994)
240 min | Drama
Fairly sensitive melodrama about life on the back-roads in Australia at the height of the Great Depression. Centring on the developing romance between two drifters this presents a ... See full summary »
Stars: Gary Sweet, Jacqueline McKenzie, Marcus Graham, Peter Stonham
Votes: 49
38. The Pharmacist (1933)
Passed | 19 min | Comedy, Short
A henpecked but stoic pharmacist tries to maintains his precarious balance while dealing with demanding customers and his dysfunctional family.
Director: Arthur Ripley | Stars: W.C. Fields, Marjorie Kane, Elise Cavanna, Grady Sutton
Votes: 908
39. Cheating Blondes (1933)
Passed | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A reporter sets out to prove that the woman who rejected his marriage proposal is a murderer. Meanwhile, she's hiding in plain sight: posing as her missing twin sister.
Director: Joseph Levering | Stars: Thelma Todd, Ralf Harolde, Inez Courtney, Milton Wallis
Votes: 75
40. Young Bride (1932)
Passed | 76 min | Drama, Romance
A shy, naive New York children's librarian must become stronger and wiser after she discovers that her new husband is a liar, a cheat, and a fraud.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: Helen Twelvetrees, Eric Linden, Arline Judge, Roscoe Ates
Votes: 253
41. Irving Thalberg: Prince of Hollywood (2005 TV Movie)
75 min | Documentary, Biography
A tribute to producer Irving Thalberg.
Director: Robert Trachtenberg | Stars: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Cari Beauchamp, Wallace Beery
Votes: 158
42. The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939)
Approved | 55 min | Drama
The Middleton family visits the 1939 New York World's Fair and witnesses the advent of the future, encountering robots and dishwashers for the first time.
Director: Robert R. Snody | Stars: Marjorie Lord, Jimmy Lydon, Ruth Lee, Harry Shannon
Votes: 200
43. Crashing Hollywood (1931)
20 min | Comedy, Short
A farm girl visits her cousin, an out-of-work actress, in Hollywood. Men flock to the fresh-faced newcomer, including the head of a movie studio, whose house they borrow to throw a wild Hollywood party.
Director: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle | Stars: Virginia Brooks, Rita Flynn, Phyllis Crane, Edward J. Nugent
Votes: 33
44. Asleep in the Feet (1933)
19 min | Comedy, Short
The girls moonlight as taxi dancers in order to earn some extra money.
Director: Gus Meins | Stars: Zasu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Billy Gilbert, Eddie Dunn
Votes: 180
45. Legend of the Wa-ya
Horror, Sci-Fi | Announced
When her superstitious, Depression-era, Appalachian community is besieged by deadly "wild dog" attacks that are connected to a legend, local outcast and tomboy, Adelaide Bradley must face a terrifying secret in order to save her family.
Star: Dani Lennon
46. Hollywood Lights (1932)
20 min | Short, Comedy, Romance
The aspiring actresses get a call offering all three an acting job. The problem is, while celebrating their good fortune, no one asked which studio hired them, so they set off in search of the job.
Director: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle | Stars: Rita Flynn, Virginia Brooks, Tut Mace, Ted O'Shea
Votes: 14
47. Cracked Shots (1934)
20 min | Comedy, Short
A gambler foolishly loses a week's pay at dice. No problem--he'll just win it back at a shooting competition. Never mind that he has never shot a gun in his life. Warning: Gun violence played for comedy.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Tom Kennedy, Will Stanton, Helen Starr, Nat Carr
Votes: 15
48. Twin Rivers: Outtakes Reel (2009 Video)
11 min | Documentary, Short, Comedy
Stars: Andrew Crispe, Robyn Dickinson, Darren Holmes, Matthew Holmes
49. The Boudoir Butler (1932)
22 min | Short, Comedy
A woman pretends to be a widow to get a job, with her husband posing as her butler. Little do they know that the potential employer they have over to dinner is a wanted bunco artist.
Director: Leslie Pearce | Stars: Andy Clyde, Irene Thompson, Joe Donahue, Tom Kennedy
Votes: 12
50. The Great Pie Mystery (1931)
22 min | Comedy, Short
A stolen garter. A kidnapped girl thrown off a bridge. A mother's kiss. A father's kiss - and plenty of pies in the face. Who threw those pies?
Director: Del Lord | Stars: Harry Gribbon, May Boley, Alma Bennett, Harry Myers
Votes: 19