Best Movies of 1938

The highest-rated films from 1938 according to MovieMagicScore. Rankings based purely on what viewers actually think.

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Bringing Up Baby

1938 · 1,028 ratings

David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo have a series of misadventures which include a leopard called Baby.

7.5

The Adventures of Robin Hood

1938 · 809 ratings

Robin Hood fights nobly for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian.

7.5

The Lady Vanishes

1938 · 982 ratings

On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel in a fictional European country, young Iris befriends elderly Miss Froy. When the train resumes, Iris suffers a bout of unconsciousness and wakes to find the old woman has disappeared. The other passengers ominously deny Miss Froy ever existed, so Iris begins to investigate with another traveler and, as the pair sleuth, romantic sparks fly.

7.4

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

1938 · 7,782 ratings

A beautiful girl, Snow White, takes refuge in the forest in the house of seven dwarfs to hide from her stepmother, the wicked Queen. The Queen is jealous because she wants to be known as "the fairest in the land," and Snow White's beauty surpasses her own.

7.1

You Can't Take It with You

1938 · 427 ratings

Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don't turn out the way Alice had hoped.

7.5

Angels with Dirty Faces

1938 · 336 ratings

Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.

7.5

Port of Shadows

1938 · 291 ratings

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.

7.4

Holiday

1938 · 270 ratings

Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionaire — and she's agreed to marry him. But when Johnny plans a holiday for the two to enjoy life while they are still young, his fiancée has other plans & that is for Johnny to work in her father's bank!

7.3

Mickey's Trailer

1938 · 181 ratings

Goofy's in the driver's seat, Mickey's in the kitchen, and Donald's in bed in Mickey's high-tech house trailer. When Goofy comes back to eat breakfast, leaving the car on autopilot, it takes them onto a dangerous closed mountain road. When Goofy realizes this, he accidentally unhooks the trailer, sending it on a perilous route. They come very close to disaster several times, while the oblivious Goofy drives on and hooks back up to them.

7.4

#10

La Bête Humaine

1938 · 229 ratings

Returning by train to the French port of Le Havre, Jacques Lantier, a tormented railwayman, meets by chance the impulsive stationmaster Roubard and Séverine, his wife.

7.1

#11

Hôtel du Nord

1938 · 153 ratings

A young couple's suicide pact goes awry, leaving the woman to face her survival with a new admirer while pining for her lost love.

7.2

#12

Alexander Nevsky

1938 · 221 ratings

When German knights invade Russia, Prince Alexander Nevsky must rally his people to resist the formidable force. After the Teutonic soldiers take over an eastern Russian city, Alexander stages his stand at Novgorod, where a major battle is fought on the ice of frozen Lake Chudskoe. While Alexander leads his outnumbered troops, two of their number, Vasili and Gavrilo, begin a contest of bravery to win the hand of a local maiden.

7.0

#13

Jezebel

1938 · 209 ratings

In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.

7.0

#14

Pygmalion

1938 · 152 ratings

When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.

7.0

#15

A Christmas Carol

1938 · 146 ratings

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

7.0

#16

Block-Heads

1938 · 137 ratings

It's 1938, but Stan doesn't know the war is over; he's still patrolling the trenches in France, and shoots down a French aviator. Oliver sees his old chum's picture in the paper and goes to visit Stan who has now been returned to the States and invites him back to his home.

6.9

#17

Brave Little Tailor

1938 · 130 ratings

When a giant threatens the land, the cityfolk mistake Mickey's boast of killing seven flies with one blow to be giants. He is then forced to fight the giant for real.

6.9

#18

Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations

1938 · 119 ratings

Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

6.8

#19

Ferdinand the Bull

1938 · 191 ratings

This Oscar-winning short tells of a bull who preferred to sit under trees and smell flowers to clashing horns with his fellow animals. As luck would have it, an untimely bee reveals Ferdinand's ferocious side via pained howls and wild stomping. This lands him in the bull-fighting arena amidst characters based on Walt's animators with a matador reportedly modeled after Walt himself.

6.7

#20

Tell Your Children

1938 · 125 ratings

High-school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll relates to an audience of parents that marijuana can have devastating effects on teens: a drug supplier entices several restless teens, Mary and Jimmy Lane, sister and brother, and Bill, Mary's boyfriend, into frequenting a reefer house. Gradually, Bill and Jimmy are drawn into smoking dope, which affects their family lives.

4.3

About 1938 Movies

These are the best-rated movies released in 1938 according to MovieMagicScore. Our ranking system aggregates genuine viewer ratings to give you an honest picture of what audiences actually think about these films.

From blockbusters to indie gems, discover what made 1938 memorable in cinema based on the collective opinion of movie lovers worldwide.

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