1930s

A waitress from Chicago falls in love with a man from rural Minnesota and marries him, with the intent of living a better life - but life on the farm has its own challenges.

In Depression-era Japan, a man commits a robbery to save his critically ill daughter and escapes with the funds, but complications arise.

An actress returns to Tokyo after a successful stint in Hollywood to reclaim—with the help of her gangster brother—the daughter she abandoned years before.

1931 film by Mikio Naruse

An amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side.

1931 film by Mário Peixoto

1931 film by Jean Renoir

In Depression-era Japan, a courteous bus driver carries an eclectic group of passengers from the mountainous Izu to Tokyo.

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..

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.

Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.

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.

1937 film by Julien Duvivier

Kanji is a poor peasant widower who struggles to earn a living for his daughter and himself and to pay off his father-in-law's debts.

In this dramatized account of his early law career in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln is born into a modest log cabin, where he is encouraged by his first love, Ann Rutledge, to pursue law. Following her tragic death, Lincoln establishes a law practice in Springfield, where he meets a young Mary Todd. Lincoln's law skills are put to the test when he takes on the difficult task of defending two brothers who have been accused of murder.

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

In his review of Feminine Melancholy in Kinema Junpo, critic Mizumachi Seiji praises Irie's performance as the best of her talkie career. However, he is very critical of the film itself, which he sees as a typical story of a woman in an unhappy marriage. He is not sympathetic toward the heroine's patient suffering and describes the nagging mother-in-law as a "hackneyed theme." Naruse's detailed "documentation" of Hiroko's role in the household is dismissed as a "manneristic obsession," and Mizumachi suggests that the director is hiding behind "the shadow of the materials." Most severely, he criticizes Naruse for "abandoning his authority as an auteur" by resorting to "shinpa-tragedy," which is seen as a capitulation to a form that has "wielded a powerful hold over the imagination of the masses." Although Mizumachi notes that Naruse has probed into "the deepest recess of the female psyche," he doesn't recognize this as the film's achievement, perhaps because he is looking for something else from the director. His review reveals the difficulties Naruse faced in maintaining his "auteur status" while moving with the tides of popular culture. For Mizumachi, the character of Yoko is the most typical Naruse heroine, perhaps because she is dragged down by her delinquent lover; however, in retrospect, it is evident that Hiroko's tenacious survival of adverse circumstances looks forward to Naruse's postwar heroines.

本片是山中貞雄的遺作，也是他的“時代劇的庶民電影”的代表作之一。他在片中吸取了美國電影和法國電影的影響，並受到摯友兼老師小津安二郎的“小庶民電影 ”美學影響，將歷史上江戶時代的小人物形像注入現代庶民的語言、性格、行止、靈魂，成就了一部難得的社會現實主義的佳作。故事發生於十八世紀德川幕府時代，以悲涼調子訴說德川幕府時期低下層的生活，開頭與結尾都是自殺場景，映照出舊時日本社會草根階層的悲哀。另外，山中的剪輯流暢自如，視覺風格鋒如日本繪畫，演員表演也很自然。此片公認為山中最好的作品，也是他僅存的三部電影之一。
Humanity and Paper Balloons,unlike most other Japanese films of this period,is a historical film with a critical edge.Refusing to glorify samurai,the film insteaddeflates the myth around them with a gentle humanity. The film opens directly after a penurious ronin samurai has taken his own life.At his funeral his neighbors from his slum mourn his death. Here the film introduces another ronin samurai who lives in equal poverty. Having pawned his sword for food,the samurai searches for work but to no avail. The family's only income comes from the little balloon children's toys made by the wife.Out of desperation,the samurai abets in an attempted kidnapping. After finding out,the wife kills him in his sleep and then takes her own life, closing the film's narrative circle.
Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide.

Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.

On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.