Best Movies of 1938 by Rank
79
1
Howard Hawks
Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald
Family / Romance / Comedy
USA
English
145
2
Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles
Action / Adventure / Romance / Family
USA
English
478
4
Sergei M. Eisenstein, Dmitri Vasilyev
Nikolai Cherkasov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Andrei Abrikosov
War / Action / Drama / History / Epic / Biography
Soviet Union
Russian
491
5
Leni Riefenstahl
Jesse Owens, Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Leni Riefenstahl
Documentary / Sports / History
Germany
German
544
6
Leni Riefenstahl
Rolf Wernicke, Glenn Morris
Documentary / Sports / History
Germany
German
545
7
Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller
Drama / Comedy / Romance
UK
English
703
8
Alfred Hitchcock
Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave
Mystery / Thriller / Drama / Spy / Comedy
UK
English
755
9
Michael Curtiz
James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan
Crime / Drama / Gangster
USA
English
798
10
Marcel Pagnol
Raimu, Ginette Leclerc, Robert Vattier, Robert Bassac
Comedy / Drama
France
French
920
11
Marcel Carné
Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan
Drama / Romance / Crime / Gangster / Pre-Noir
France
French
1069
12
Frank Borzage
Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young
Drama / Romance
USA
English
1244
14
George Cukor
Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres
Comedy / Drama / Romance
USA
English
1396
15
Frank Capra
Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer
Comedy / Romance
USA
English
1527
16
Lloyd Bacon
Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly
Comedy / Crime / Gangster
USA
English
1550
17
Henry King
Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman
Musical / Drama / Romance / Biography
USA
English
1567
18
Jean Renoir
Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux, Blanchette Brunoy
Drama / Crime / Pre-Noir
France
French
1625
19
Michael Curtiz
Claude Rains, John Garfield, May Robson, Priscilla Lane
Drama / Romance
USA
English
1763
20
Henry King
Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Alice Brady
Drama / Action / Musical / Period Film
USA
English
1783
21
Jean Renoir
Pierre Renoir, Lise Delamare, Léon Larive, William Aguet, Elisa Ruis
History / Period Film / War
France
French
1788
22
W.S. Van Dyke
Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley, Anita Louise
Biography / Drama / Romance / History / Epic
USA
English
1789
23
Mark Donskoy
Aleksei Lyarsky, Varvara Massalitinova, Mikhail Troyanovsky
Biography / Drama
Soviet Union
Russian
1915
24
Richard Wallace
Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Paulette Goddard, Roland Young, Billie Burke
Comedy / Drama
USA
English
2185
25
John G. Blystone
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Minna Gombell
Comedy / War / Family
USA
English
2231
27
Edmund Goulding
Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp, Melville Cooper
War / Drama
USA
English
2235
28
George B. Seitz
Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lewis Stone
Comedy / Romance
USA
English
2320
29
John Cromwell
Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, Hedy Lamarr, Joseph Calleia, Alan Hale
Drama / Romance / Gangster / Detective
USA
English
2347
30
Victor Fleming
Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore
Drama / Romance / Adventure
USA
English
2363
31
Mark Sandrich
Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear, Jack Carson
Comedy / Musical / Romance
USA
English
2371
32
Julien Duvivier, Victor Fleming, Josef von Sternberg
Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravey, Miliza Korjus, Hugh Herbert, Lionel Atwill
Biography / Drama / Musical
USA
English
2390
33
Norman Taurog, George Cukor, H.C. Potter, William A. Wellman
Tommy Kelly, Jackie Moran, Ann Gillis, May Robson, Walter Brennan
Family / Adventure / Comedy
USA
English
2418
34
Joseph Kane
Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette, Carol Hughes, Maple City Four, Guy Usher
Western / Musical
USA
English
2483
35
Zoltan Korda
Sabu, Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Valerie Hobson
Adventure / War / Drama
UK
English
2633
36
Len Lye, Norman McLaren, William Coldstream, Pat Jackson, Lotte Reiniger, Harry Watt, Basil Wright
John Grierson, Stuart Legg, Evelyn Corbett, Dwight Godwin, Charlotte Leigh
Documentary / Musical / Animation / Short / Experimental / Comedy / Romance
UK / Canada
English
2633
36
Ben Sharpsteen, Clyde Geronimi, Dick Lundy, Jack King, Jeff Kurtti
Florence Gill, Clarence Nash, Pinto Colvig, Billy Bletcher, Cliff Edwards
Animation / Family / Comedy / Documentary / Serial
USA
English
2689
37
Carol Reed
John Lodge, Margaret Lockwood, Hugh Williams, René Ray, Merle Tottenham
Drama / Romance / Comedy
UK
English
2689
37
Mitchell Leisen
W.C. Fields, Martha Raye, Dorothy Lamour, Shirley Ross, Lynne Overman, Bob Hope
Comedy / Musical / Romance
USA
English
2689
37
William Dieterle
Madeleine Carroll, Henry Fonda, Leo Carrillo, John Halliday, Vladimir Sokoloff
Drama / War / Adventure
USA
English
2689
37
Frank R. Strayer
Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Gene Lockhart, Jonathan Hale
Comedy / Family / Comic
USA
English
2689
37
Fridrikh Ermler
Nikolai Bogolyubov, Ivan Bersenyov, Oleg Zhakov, Zoya Fyodorova, Boris Poslavsky
Drama / War
Soviet Union
Russian
2689
37
John English, William Witney
Silver King the Horse, Chief Thundercloud, Lynne Roberts, Stanley Andrews
Western / Serial / Comic / Cult
USA
English
2689
37
Vladimir Petrov
Nikolai Simonov, Alla Tarasova, Nikolai Cherkasov, Irina Zarubina, Mikhail Zharov
Biography / Drama / History / War / Epic
Soviet Union
Russian
2689
37
Ben Holmes
Louis Hayward, Kay Sutton, Sig Ruman, Jonathan Hale, Jack Carson, Paul Guilfoyle
Crime / Mystery / Drama / Thriller / Detective / Gangster
USA
English
2689
37
Allan Dwan
Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Annabella, J. Edward Bromberg, Joseph Schildkraut
Drama / History / Romance / Adventure / Biography
USA
English
2689
37
Grigori Aleksandrov
Igor Ilyinsky, Lyubov Orlova, Pavel Olenev, Andrei Tutyshkin, Sergei Antimonov
Comedy / Musical / Romance
Soviet Union
Russian
2689
37
Jack Conway
Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Vivien Leigh, Edmund Gwenn
Drama / Comedy / Sports
UK
English
2689
37
Harold S. Bucquet
Lionel Barrymore, Lew Ayres, Lynne Carver, Nat Pendleton, Jo Ann Sayers
Drama
USA
English
2740
39
Jean Benoît-Lévy
Jean Perier, Mady Berry, Claire Gérard, Micheline Boudet
Comedy / Drama
France
French
2740
39
Erich Pommer, Bartlett Cormack
Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Robert Newton, Tyrone Guthrie
Drama / Romance
UK
English
2740
39
Clarence Brown
Walter Huston, James Stewart, Beulah Bondi, Gene Reynolds
Drama
USA
English
2740
39
Adolf Minkin, Gerbert Rappaport
Sergei Mezhinsky, E. Nikitina, Vladimir Chestnokov
Drama / War
Soviet Union
Russian
2740
39
Wesley Ruggles
Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, Donald O'Connor, Elizabeth Patterson
Musical / Romance / Comedy
USA
English
2740
39
Victor Saville
Edna Best, Ralph Richardson, Edmund Gwenn, Ann Todd
Drama
UK
English
2740
39
Robert Stevenson
Will Fyffe, John Loder, Margaret Lockwood, Graham Moffatt
Drama
UK
English
2756
40
Jack Glenn
Jackson Beck, Adolf Hitler, Fritz Kuhn
Documentary / Short / War
USA
English
2756
40
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Herbert Kline
Documentary / War
USA
English
2771
41
Goffredo Alessandrini
Mario Ferrari, Germana Paolieri, Amedeo Nazzari, Roberto Villa
War / Drama / Adventure
Italy
Italian
2788
42
Tomotaka Tasaka
Isamu Kosugi, Shirô Izome, Bontarô Miyake
War / Drama
Japan
Japanese
2788
42
Carl Froelich
Zarah Leander, Heinrich George, Ruth Hellberg, Lina Carstens
Drama
Germany
German
2788
42
Léonide Moguy
Annie Ducaux, Corinne Luchaire, Ginette Leclerc, Roger Duchesne
Drama / Comedy
France
French
2792
43
Fritz Lang
Sylvia Sidney, George Raft, Barton MacLane, Harry Carey
Drama / Comedy / Crime / Romance
USA
English
2807
44
Anatole Litvak
Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins, Donald Crisp
Comedy / Drama / Crime / Gangster / Caper
USA
English
2807
44
Ernst Lubitsch
Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, David Niven
Comedy / Romance
USA
English
2807
44
Edwin L. Marin
Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn, Barry MacKay
Drama / Fantasy / Comedy / Family
USA
English
2807
44
Tex Avery
Elvia Allman, Tex Avery, Mel Blanc, Bill Days, Paul Taylor Group, Bernice Hansen
Animation / Short / Comedy / Family / Fantasy
USA
English
2807
44
H.C. Potter
Gary Cooper, Merle Oberon, Patsy Kelly, Walter Brennan, Fuzzy Knight
Comedy / Drama / Romance / Western
USA
English
2807
44
Tex Avery
Tex Avery, Sara Berner, Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher, Arthur Q. Bryan, Hugh Farr
Animation / Short / Comedy / Family
USA
English
2807
44
unknown
Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli
Short / Documentary / Biography / Music
UK
English
2807
44
David Butler
Loretta Young, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, Douglass Dumbrille, Karen Morley
Drama / Romance / Sports
USA
English
2807
44
Norman Taurog
Deanna Durbin, Herbert Marshall, Gail Patrick, Arthur Treacher, William Frawley
Comedy / Drama / Musical
USA
English
2807
44
Wilfred Jackson
Clarence Nash
Comedy / Family / Animation / Short
USA
English
2807
44
Charley Chase
Joe Smith, Charles Dale, Gloria Blondell, Polly Chase, Chester Conklin, Dick Curtis
Comedy
USA
English
2807
44
Dave Fleischer
William Costello, Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
Animation / Short / Musical / Comedy / Fantasy / Comic / Documentary / Serial
USA
English
2807
44
Henry Hathaway
Henry Fonda, George Raft, Dorothy Lamour, Louise Platt, John Barrymore
Action / Romance / Adventure
USA
English
2807
44
Orson Welles
Joseph Cotten, Virginia Nicholson, Edgar Barrier, Arlene Francis, Ruth Ford
Short / Comedy
USA
English
2860
45
Marcel Carné
Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty
Drama
France
French
2860
45
Abel Gance
Victor Francen, Line Noro, Marie Lou, Jean-Max
Drama / Horror / War
France
French
NR
-
William A. Seiter
Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Frank Albertson
Comedy / Family
USA
English
