The Academy got it right.
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The Academy and the numbers agree.
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Dir. Frank Capra · Clark Gable · Claudette Colbert · Walter Connolly · Roscoe Karns
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.
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Dir. W.S. Van Dyke · William Powell · Myrna Loy · Maureen O'Sullivan · Nat Pendleton
A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
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Dir. Jean Vigo · Michel Simon · Dita Parlo · Jean Dasté · Gilles Margaritis
Newly married couple Juliette and ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'Atalante along with the captain's first mate and a cabin boy.
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Dir. Josef von Sternberg · Marlene Dietrich · John Lodge · Sam Jaffe · Louise Dresser
During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.
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Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · Takeshi Sakamoto · Chōko Iida · Kōji Mitsui · Emiko Yagumo
An aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunites with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in heartbreak for all.
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Dir. John M. Stahl · Claudette Colbert · Louise Beavers · Warren William · Rochelle Hudson
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
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Dir. Mark Sandrich · Fred Astaire · Ginger Rogers · Alice Brady · Edward Everett Horton
Seeking a divorce from her absentee husband, Mimi Glossop travels to an English seaside resort. There she falls in love with dancer Guy Holden, whom she later mistakes for the corespondent her lawyer hired.
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Dir. Harold Young · Leslie Howard · Merle Oberon · Raymond Massey · Nigel Bruce
18th century English aristocrat Sir Percy Blakeney leads a double life. He appears to be merely the effete aristocrat, but in reality is part of an underground effort to free French nobles from Robespierre's Reign of Terror.
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Dir. Howard Hawks · John Barrymore · Carole Lombard · Walter Connolly · Roscoe Karns
A temperamental Broadway producer trains an untutored actress, but when she becomes a star, she proves a match for him.
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Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer · Boris Karloff · Bela Lugosi · David Manners · Julie Bishop
After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor.
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Dir. Alfred Hitchcock · Leslie Banks · Edna Best · Peter Lorre · Frank Vosper
While vacationing in St. Moritz, a British couple receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.
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Dir. John Cromwell · Bette Davis · Leslie Howard · Frances Dee · Kay Johnson
A young man finds himself attracted to a cold and unfeeling waitress who may ultimately destroy them both.
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Dir. Cedric Gibbons · Johnny Weissmüller · Maureen O'Sullivan · Neil Hamilton · Paul Cavanagh
Harry Holt returns to Africa with his friend Martin Arlington to head up a large ivory expedition.
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Dir. Gus Meins · Stan Laurel · Oliver Hardy · Charlotte Henry · Henry Brandon
Ollie Dee and Stannie Dum try to borrow money from their employer, the toymaker, to pay off the mortgage on Mother Peep's shoe and keep it and Little Bo Peep from the clutches of the evil Barnaby. When that fails, they trick Barnaby, enraging him.
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Dir. Norman Z. McLeod · W.C. Fields · Baby LeRoy · Kathleen Howard · Jean Rouverol
After he inherits some money, Harold Bissonette ("pronounced bis-on-ay") decides to give up the grocery business, move to California and run an orange grove. Despite his family's objections and the news that the land he bought is worthless, Bissonette packs up and drives out to California with his nagging wife Amelia and children.
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Dir. Sidney Franklin · Norma Shearer · Fredric March · Charles Laughton · Maureen O'Sullivan
Remarkable poet Elizabeth Barrett is slowly recovering from a crippling illness with the help of her siblings, especially her youngest sister, Henrietta, but feels stifled by the domestic tyranny of her wealthy widowed father. When she meets fellow poet Robert Browning in a romantic first encounter, her heart belongs to him. However, her controlling father has no intention of allowing her out of his sight.
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Dir. Cecil B. DeMille · Claudette Colbert · Warren William · Henry Wilcoxon · Joseph Schildkraut
The queen of Egypt barges the Nile and flirts with Mark Antony and Julius Caesar.
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Dir. Alfred L. Werker · George Arliss · Boris Karloff · Loretta Young · C. Aubrey Smith
The story of the rise of the Rothschild financial empire founded by Mayer Rothschild and continued by his five sons. From humble beginnings the business grows and helps to finance the war against Napoleon, but it's not always easy, especially because of the prejudices against Jews.
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Dir. Jack Conway · Wallace Beery · Leo Carrillo · Fay Wray · Donald Cook
In this fictionalized biography, young Pancho Villa takes to the hills after killing an overseer in revenge for his father's death.
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Dir. Lloyd Bacon · James Cagney · Pat O'Brien · Gloria Stuart · Frank McHugh
A cocky guy joins the Navy for the wrong reason but finds romance and twice is cited for heroism.
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Dir. Irving Cummings · Loretta Young · John Boles · Dorothy Wilson · Muriel Kirkland
The title represents the hopeful, ambitious students at a hospital training school and is primarily a story of the stern discipline and laborious physical and mental toil they endure in order to become nurses and join the White Parade. It is told mainly through the character of June Arden who finds romance with Ronald Hall III on the way, with side stories of the other girls who find failure, success, laughs and tears on the way.
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Dir. Victor Schertzinger · Grace Moore · Tullio Carminati · Lyle Talbot · Mona Barrie
Mary Barrett is an aspiring opera singer who is taken under the wings of a famous operatic maestro, Guilio Monterverdi. After spending endless working hours together and arguing, their relationship develops into love. But, jealousy and misunderstandings prevent Mary and Guilio from acknowledging their true feelings.
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Dir. Frank Borzage · Dick Powell · Ruby Keeler · Pat O'Brien · Ross Alexander
A private stationed in Hawaii gets involved with the general's engaged daughter. In order to avoid a scandal, the pair break up, but meet again years later when he's at West Point producing the annual play that turns out to star her.
How scoring works: films are ranked by a composite of a weighted (Bayesian) IMDb rating — the same method as the IMDb Top 250, so a high score from few voters can't outrank a strong score from many — blended with TMDB. Box office is a tiebreaker and a badge, never part of the score. Raw IMDb ratings and vote counts are shown on each card.