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Best Romance Movies of the 1930s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
209 romance films from the 1930s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Modern Times (1936), at 8.5 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.7. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Pépé le Moko, 7.6 on IMDb against 98 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Modern Times '1936 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 8.5 | 98% | 96 | 8.3 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 2 | City Lights '1931 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 8.5 | 95% | 99 | 8.2 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 3 | Gone with the Wind '1939 | Drama / War / Romance | 8.2 | 90% | 97 | 7.9 | Victor Fleming |
| 4 | It Happened One Night '1934 | Comedy / Romance | 8.1 | 98% | 87 | 7.8 | Frank Capra |
| 5 | Make Way for Tomorrow '1937 | Drama / Romance | 8.2 | 100% | - | 7.5 | Leo McCarey |
| 6 | The Adventures of Robin Hood '1938 | Romance / Action | 7.9 | 100% | 97 | 7.5 | William Keighley |
| 7 | The Rules of the Game '1939 | Drama / Comedy / Romance | 7.9 | 97% | 99 | 7.5 | Jean Renoir |
| 8 | Trouble in Paradise '1932 | Comedy / Crime / Romance | 7.9 | 90% | - | 7.4 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 9 | Bringing Up Baby '1938 | Comedy / Romance | 7.8 | 97% | 91 | 7.5 | Howard Hawks |
| 10 | You Can't Take It with You '1938 | Comedy / Romance | 7.8 | 94% | - | 7.5 | Frank Capra |
| 11 | Mr. Deeds Goes to Town '1936 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 90% | - | 7.5 | Frank Capra |
| 12 | Goodbye, Mr. Chips '1939 | Drama / Romance | 7.9 | 81% | - | 7.4 | Sam Wood |
| 13 | Ninotchka '1939 | Comedy / Romance | 7.8 | 95% | - | 7.5 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 14 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame '1939 | Drama / Romance / Horror | 7.8 | 93% | - | 7.3 | William Dieterle |
| 15 | Top Hat '1935 | Musical / Comedy / Romance | 7.7 | 100% | 93 | 7.2 | Mark Sandrich |
| 16 | Libeled Lady '1936 | Comedy / Romance | 7.8 | 81% | - | 7.3 | Jack Conway |
| 17 | Holiday '1938 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.3 | George Cukor |
| 18 | L'Atalante '1934 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.5 | Jean Vigo |
| 19 | A Tale of Two Cities '1935 | Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 93% | 87 | 6.9 | Jack Conway |
| 20 | Dodsworth '1936 | Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 91% | - | 7.1 | William Wyler |
| 21 | Port of Shadows '1938 | Romance / Drama / Crime | 7.7 | 97% | - | 7.4 | Marcel Carné |
| 22 | Pygmalion '1938 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.0 | Leslie Howard |
| 23 | The Awful Truth '1937 | Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | 94% | 87 | 7.2 | Leo McCarey |
| 24 | Midnight '1939 | Comedy / Romance | 7.8 | 94% | 79 | 7.4 | Mitchell Leisen |
| 25 | Lost Horizon '1937 | Fantasy / Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 92% | - | 6.9 | Frank Capra |
| 26 | Only Angels Have Wings '1939 | Romance / Drama | 7.6 | 100% | 86 | 7.3 | Howard Hawks |
| 27 | Pépé le Moko '1937 | Drama / Crime / Romance | 7.6 | 100% | 98 | 7.2 | Julien Duvivier |
| 28 | The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum '1939 | Romance / Drama | 7.8 | 94% | - | 7.8 | Kenji Mizoguchi |
| 29 | The Prisoner of Zenda '1937 | Romance | 7.6 | 91% | - | 7.5 | John Cromwell |
| 30 | Wuthering Heights '1939 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 92% | 83 | 7.2 | William Wyler |
| 31 | The Petrified Forest '1936 | Crime / Drama / Romance / Thriller | 7.5 | 94% | - | 7.1 | Archie Mayo |
| 32 | Horse Feathers '1932 | Comedy / Romance | 7.5 | 97% | 83 | 6.9 | Norman Z. McLeod |
| 33 | The Good Earth '1937 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 95% | - | 6.3 | Sidney Franklin |
| 34 | La Bête Humaine '1938 | Drama / Romance / Thriller | 7.5 | 94% | - | 7.1 | Jean Renoir |
| 35 | Queen Christina '1934 | Romance / Drama | 7.5 | 81% | - | 6.9 | Rouben Mamoulian |
| 36 | City Girl '1930 | Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 63% | - | 7.5 | F. W. Murnau |
| 37 | Easy Living '1937 | Comedy / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.2 | Mitchell Leisen |
| 38 | Marius '1931 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 100% | - | 7.4 | Alexander Korda |
| 39 | The Scarlet Empress '1934 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 87% | - | 6.9 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 40 | Les Misérables '1935 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 85% | - | 7.1 | Richard Boleslawski |
| 41 | Jezebel '1938 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 96% | 82 | 7.0 | William Wyler |
| 42 | Shall We Dance '1937 | Comedy / Romance | 7.4 | 89% | - | 7.3 | Mark Sandrich |
| 43 | Swing Time '1936 | Romance / Comedy | 7.4 | 96% | 91 | 6.8 | George Stevens |
| 44 | Imitation of Life '1934 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 88% | 72 | 7.0 | John M. Stahl |
| 45 | Dark Victory '1939 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 83% | - | 7.0 | Edmund Goulding |
| 46 | Stella Dallas '1937 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 82% | - | 6.9 | King Vidor |
| 47 | Bachelor Mother '1939 | Comedy / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.2 | Garson Kanin |
| 48 | Love Me Tonight '1932 | Comedy / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 6.6 | Rouben Mamoulian |
| 49 | Design for Living '1933 | Comedy / Romance | 7.4 | 76% | - | 7.1 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 50 | One Way Passage '1932 | Romance / Drama | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Tay Garnett |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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All movies of the 1930s
Romance in other decades
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Other genres in the 1930s
Action of the 1930s Animation of the 1930s Comedy of the 1930s Crime of the 1930s Drama of the 1930s Fantasy of the 1930s Horror of the 1930s Musical of the 1930s Mystery of the 1930s Thriller of the 1930s War of the 1930s Western of the 1930s
Directors on this list
Charlie Chaplin Victor Fleming Frank Capra Leo McCarey William Keighley Jean Renoir Ernst Lubitsch Howard Hawks Sam Wood William Dieterle Mark Sandrich Jack Conway
Actors on this list
Charlie Chaplin Paulette Goddard Vivien Leigh Clark Gable Claudette Colbert Beulah Bondi Errol Flynn Olivia de Havilland Miriam Hopkins Katharine Hepburn Cary Grant Jean Arthur