The 40 most popular 1930s comedy movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Modern Times
1936 · 1h 27m
country: United States
A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...


It Happened One Night
1934 · 1h 45m
country: United States
A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leaves them behind.


Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1939 · 2h 10m
country: United States
After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battling political corruption.


Bringing Up Baby
1938 · 1h 42m
country: United States
David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo have a series of misadventures which include a leopard called Baby.


City Lights
1931 · 1h 27m
country: United States
A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.


Donald's Nephews
1938 · 8m
country: United States
Donald's sister Dumbella sends her three sons Huey, Dewey, and Louie to visit their uncle Donald. They prove to be quite a handful for Donald, even with help from his book on child rearing.


No te engañes corazón
1937 · 1h 30m
country: Mexico
No te engañes corazón (released in English as Don't Fool Yourself Dear) is the first full-feature film of Cantinflas after becoming a star of the carpa circuit (folk theater). It was also one of the earliest films of Sara García and Carlos Orellana and the first where they share the screen. Don Boni (Orellana) is diagnosed with a deadly disease and decides to spend his last days doing good deeds. He leaves his wife and decides to help people. He then gets drunk and wakes up with a winning lottery ticket and realizes that the doctor who diagnosed him has been sent to prison for fraud.


Goofy and Wilbur
1939 · 8m
country: United States
Goofy goes fishing with his best friend, Wilbur, a grasshopper.


Ninotchka
1939 · 1h 50m
country: United States
A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.


Um Apólogo
1939 · 14m
country: Brazil
An adaptation of Machado de Assis' eponymous short story, preceded by a short telling of the author's life and works.


Three Little Pigs
1933 · 8m
country: United States
The two pigs building houses of hay and sticks scoff at their brother, building the brick house. But when the wolf comes around and blows their houses down (after trickery like dressing as a foundling sheep fails), they run to their brother's house. And throughout, they sing the classic song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?".


You Can't Take It with You
1938 · 2h 6m
country: United States
Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don't turn out the way Alice had hoped.


Barnyard Olympics
1932 · 8m
country: United States
Mickey and his friends are staging a sort of olympics in a makeshift stadium on his farm. The main event is a sort of quadrathlon, with running, pole vaulting, rowing, and cycling. Mickey gets a late start due to some foul play by Pete, and that's not the only foul play.


The Thin Man
1934 · 1h 31m
country: United States
Former detective Nick Charles has retired from police work, preferring a life of cocktails, parties, and relaxation with his wealthy wife, Nora. Their holiday is interrupted when the daughter of Nick’s former client asks for help finding her missing father, eccentric inventor Clyde Wynant. When Wynant’s body is discovered, Nick is drawn back into the investigation, with Nora eagerly joining him. As the couple questions Wynant’s family, friends, and business associates, a tangled web of greed, deception, and murder begins to unravel. Directed by W. S. Van Dyke and adapted from Dashiell Hammett’s novel, The Thin Man combines witty dialogue, sophisticated comedy, romance, and classic mystery. William Powell and Myrna Loy are perfectly matched as Nick and Nora Charles, whose playful banter and effortless chemistry made them one of Hollywood’s most beloved screen couples. This stylish 1934 mystery remains a landmark of classic American cinema.


Mickey's Steam Roller
1934 · 7m
country: United States
While streetworker Mickey romances Minnie, Mickey's nephews Morty and Ferdie take control of his steamroller and it's full speed ahead on a very destructive ride.


The Dream Car
1934 · 1h 29m
country: Hungary
A light hearted comedy, from the thirties. One of the most successful ones in Hungary. The ever enchanting story of a beautiful girl falling in love with a rich man.


Henpecked Husband
1938 · 1h 21m
country: Unknown
Nelly has as many as two suitors; the handsome but light-minded Miklós, - who even made a conquest of mother - and Gyula, the inhibited weakling yet with a secure income.


The Wise Little Hen
1934 · 8m
country: United States
Join Donald Duck in his debut in the classic animated short The Wise Little Hen. The Little Hen is planting corn and would like to have help from Peter Pig and Donald Duck, but they refuse stating they each have a "tummy ache." When it comes time to harvest the corn, Peter Pig and Donald still refuse to help the Hen, so she and her chicks do the harvest by themselves. Finally, the hen cooks the corn and offers some to Donald and Peter Pig, but when they look more carefully they discover a surprise.


The Rules of the Game
1939 · 1h 50m
country: France
The Marquis de la Chesnaye and his wife host a weekend gala where a variety of complicated romantic and social entanglements between guests and servants lead to tragedy, all against the backdrop of a looming war.


Donald's Cousin Gus
1939 · 8m
country: United States
Donald Duck's gluttonous cousin, Gus Goose, comes for a visit and practically eats him out of house and home. When the direct approach to getting rid of his voracious houseguest fails, Donald resorts to desperate measures to dislodge him.


A Night at the Opera
1935 · 1h 31m
country: United States
The Marx Brothers take on high society and the opera world to bring two lovers together. A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.


Ferdinand the Bull
1938 · 8m
country: United States
This Oscar-winning short tells of a bull who preferred to sit under trees and smell flowers to clashing horns with his fellow animals. As luck would have it, an untimely bee reveals Ferdinand's ferocious side via pained howls and wild stomping. This lands him in the bull-fighting arena amidst characters based on Walt's animators with a matador reportedly modeled after Walt himself.


Samvetsömma Adolf
1936 · 1h 26m
country: Sweden
Operetta singer Adolf Berg will be called up for military duty just as he gets assigned a major role in an operetta. On the train he meets Ulla Wern and complications occur.


Miss Madame
1934 · 1h 25m
country: Germany
On their honeymoon in St. Moritz,a new husband who is much older than his young bride is driven to despair when he thinks she prefers to spend her time with a younger man there, an actor.


The Women
1939 · 2h 13m
country: United States
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.


The Last
1937 · 15m
country: Spain
A social drama about alcoholism.


Duck Soup
1933 · 1h 8m
country: United States
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.


On Borrowed Time
1939 · 1h 39m
country: United States
Young Pud is orphaned and left in the care of his aged grandparents. The boy and his grandfather are inseparable. Gramps is concerned for Pud's future and wary of a scheming relative who seeks custody of the child. One day Mr. Brink, an agent of Death, arrives to take Gramps "to the land where the woodbine twineth." Through a bit of trickery, Gramps confines Mr. Brink, and thus Death, to the branches of a large apple tree, giving Gramps extra time to resolve issues about Pud's future.


Spaßvögel
1939 · 1h 19m
country: Germany
Mayor Eberhorn is known as a womanizer to everyone in the village. Katchen, his wife, is constantly trying to convert him to a proper way of life … but in vain. When one morning, Casanova finds a stroller with a clever slogan referencing his affairs at his front door, Eberborn seeks revenge. Top suspects for the prank? The “Spassvogel”: seven friends led by the former sailor Hannes Strobel.


Holiday
1938 · 1h 37m
country: United States
Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionaire — and she's agreed to marry him. But when Johnny plans a holiday for the two to enjoy life while they are still young, his fiancée has other plans & that is for Johnny to work in her father's bank!


Destry Rides Again
1939 · 1h 34m
country: United States
Tom Destry, son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn’t believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent.


Purple Lilacs
1934 · 1h 13m
country: Hungary
Tóth Manci, a milliner turned dancer, meets Pali, a handsome banker, and falls madly in love. But she waits in vain for a word of encouragement from him, because he loves Lili, the belladonna. So Manci, in her grief, goes to Russia. By the time Pali realizes that he loves Manci too and wants to follow her, war breaks out, and he can only follow her as a soldier.


42nd Street
1933 · 1h 29m
country: United States
Broadway director Julian Marsh needs just one more hit show so he can retire and recover his health. It looks like he just may pull it off until temperamental star Dorthy Brock breaks her ankle on the eve of the show's premiere and has to be replaced by her understudy Peggy.


Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1936 · 1h 55m
country: United States
Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.


Libeled Lady
1936 · 1h 38m
country: United States
When a major newspaper accuses wealthy socialite Connie Allenbury of being a home-wrecker, and she files a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit, the publication's frazzled head editor, Warren Haggerty, must find a way to turn the tables on her. Soon Haggerty's harried fiancée, Gladys Benton, and his dashing friend Bill Chandler are in on a scheme that aims to discredit Connie, with amusing and unexpected results.


My Man Godfrey
1936 · 1h 35m
country: United States
Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock needs a "forgotten man" to win a scavenger hunt, and no one is more forgotten than Godfrey Park, who resides in a dump by the East River. Irene hires Godfrey as a servant for her riotously unhinged family, to the chagrin of her spoiled sister, Cornelia, who tries her best to get Godfrey fired. As Irene falls for her new butler, Godfrey turns the tables and teaches the frivolous Bullocks a lesson or two.


Vzhůru nohama
1939 · 1h 24m
country: Czechoslovakia
No overview available


At the Circus
1939 · 1h 27m
country: United States
Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10,000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter's accomplices steal the money so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.


The Awful Truth
1937 · 1h 31m
country: United States
Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.


The Bird Seller
1935 · 1h 16m
country: Germany
The film is an adaptation of the 1891 operetta Der Vogelhändler by composer Carl Zeller, with libretto by Moritz West and Ludwig Held, though it incorporates few of the original songs, using them mostly instrumentally or in the background. The plot follows Adam, a Tyrolean bird seller in 18th-century Rhineland, who hopes to marry his beloved Christl, a postmaster's daughter; to secure his future, she arranges for him to perform at court, but complications arise when she is mistakenly suspected of an affair with a philandering prince.
The 1930s were the studio system at full power, with sound now fully integrated and the Production Code arriving mid-decade to sharply narrow what films could depict. It's the decade of the Universal monster cycle, screwball comedy, and the first Technicolor spectacles.
Comedy is the genre that travels least well and dates fastest, which makes the films that survive genuinely remarkable. Screwball, satire, slapstick, and cringe each have their own era and their own rules.