Every Decade Of Cinema - Ranked

Notable films: The Wizard of Oz; Gone with the Wind; Bringing Up Baby; Frankenstein; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; Little Caesar; King Kong; A Star is Born; All Quiet on the Western Front; It Happened One Night; Modern Times; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Dracula.

The 1930s are widely considered to be the beginning of the Golden Age of Hollywood. As the thirties rolled in, so too did economic strife in the form of the Great Depression, and political strife in the form of fascist governments rising up in Europe.

Films became pieces of escapism, offering people a way out of the hardship in which they found themselves. Swashbuckling adventure films became a hot commodity, their spectacle enhanced by innovations like Technicolor and Kodachrome. Horror films also took off, reflecting a growing sense of dread and uncertainty.

The thirties saw the rise of some of the most famous names in film history, with people like Errol Flynn, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, and Clark Gable taking their place among the Hollywood pantheon.

This decade also saw the rise of the Hays Code, which heavily restricted what sort of content movies could feature.