Screenplay: John L. Balderston

Top movies, series, and documentaries with a screenplay by John L. Balderston. Explore the titles that showcase an exceptional writing.


Gaslight

1944 · Movie · 114 min. · United States

Direction George Cukor

Cast Charles Boyer · Ingrid Bergman · Joseph Cotten · Dame May Whitty

Synopsis Gregory Anton (Boyer) is a smooth and cunning gentleman who seduces and marries the gullible Paula Alquist (Bergman). They take up residence in Paula's childhood home, long abandoned since the murder of her aunt years previously. After an all too...

8.0

8K votes

8.0

8K votes

Smilin' Through

1941 · Movie · 100 min. · United States

Direction Frank Borzage

Cast Jeanette MacDonald · Brian Aherne · Gene Raymond · Ian Hunter

Synopsis John Carteret has long been depressed and lonely, because, at his wedding years ago, his bride, Moonyean, was murdered. He accepts into his house Kathleen, the 5 year old orphaned niece of Moonyean, and she quickly grows up to look...

7.6

56 votes

7.6

56 votes

The Bride of Frankenstein

1935 · Movie · 75 min. · United States

Direction James Whale

Cast Boris Karloff · Colin Clive · Valerie Hobson · Elsa Lanchester

Synopsis Owing to the popularity of ‘Frankenstein’, Mary Shelley decides to write a sequel. In her story the Frankenstein monster survives its burning in the mill. It is discovered and taken in by the eccentric philosopher-scientist Dr Pretorius. Pretorious tries to...

7.2

12K votes

7.2

12K votes

The Prisoner of Zenda

1937 · Movie · 101 min. · United States

Direction John Cromwell

Cast Ronald Colman · Madeleine Carroll · C. Aubrey Smith · Raymond Massey

Synopsis An excellent cast and splendid photography make this the definitive film adaptation of Anthony Hope's swashbuckling novel. A British commoner is forced to pose as his cousin, the kidnapped king of a small European country, to save the throne. Complications...

7.2

930 votes

7.2

930 votes

The Prisoner of Zenda

1952 · Movie · 101 min. · United States

Direction Richard Thorpe

Cast Stewart Granger · James Mason · Deborah Kerr · Jane Greer

Synopsis Rudolph Rassendyll (Stewart Granger) is a British tourist visiting the nation of Ruritania in the Balkans. A number of people comment upon Rassendyll's remarkable resemblance to Prince Rudolph, who in a matter of days is to be crowned the nation's...

7.1

7K votes

7.1

7K votes

Mad Love (The Hands of Orlac)

1935 · Movie · 66 min. · United States

Direction Karl Freund

Cast Peter Lorre · Frances Drake · Colin Clive · Ted Healy

Synopsis An insane surgeon's obsession with an actress leads him to replace her wounded pianist's hands with the hands of a knife murderer which still have the urge to throw knives.

7.0

565 votes

7.0

565 votes

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

1935 · Movie · 109 min. · United States

Direction Henry Hathaway

Cast Gary Cooper · Franchot Tone · Richard Cromwell · Guy Standing

Synopsis Sweeping adventure set in India of a gallant trio ordered into border warfare with Afghans and guerillas.

7.0

1K votes

7.0

1K votes

The Mummy

1932 · Movie · 72 min. · United States

Direction Karl Freund

Cast Boris Karloff · Zita Johann · David Manners · Edward Van Sloan

Synopsis The original, and by far the best film version of the mummy legend. Archeologists digging in Egypt uncover a 3000-year-old mummy which comes to life and attempts to restore life to its beloved princess. As he extends his influence over...

6.8

4K votes

6.8

4K votes

Direction Roy Ward Baker

Cast Tyrone Power · Ann Blyth · Michael Rennie · Dennis Price

Synopsis A scientist obsessed with the past transports himself back in time to 18th-century London, where he falls in love with a beautiful young woman.

6.2

80 votes

6.2

80 votes

Berkeley Square

1933 · Movie · 84 min. · United States

Direction Frank Lloyd

Cast Leslie Howard · Heather Angel · Valerie Taylor · Irene Browne

Synopsis A young American man is transported back to London in the time of the American Revolution and meets his ancestors.

6.2

23 votes

6.2

23 votes

The Man Who Changed His Mind

1936 · Movie · 66 min. · United Kingdom

Direction Robert Stevenson

Cast Boris Karloff · Anna Lee · John Loder · Frank Cellier

Synopsis Dr. Laurience, a once-respectable scientist, begins to research the origin of the mind and the soul. The science community rejects him, and he risks losing everything for which he has worked. He begins to use his discoveries to save his...

6.1

64 votes

6.1

64 votes

Little Old New York

1940 · Movie · 100 min. · United States

Direction Henry King

Cast Alice Faye · Fred MacMurray · Richard Greene · Brenda Joyce

Synopsis Steamboat inventor Robert Fulton shows up in New York in 1807. Tavern keeper believes in him, but her boyfriend doesn't. All seems lost when sailors afraid of losing their jobs burn his boat.

6.0

28 votes

6.0

28 votes

Dracula's Daughter

1936 · Movie · 71 min. · United States

Direction Lambert Hillyer

Cast Otto Kruger · Gloria Holden · Marguerite Churchill · Edward Van Sloan

Synopsis Hungarian countess Marya Zaleska seeks the aid of a noted psychiatrist, in hopes of freeing herself of a mysterious evil influence.

5.7

304 votes

5.7

304 votes

Beloved Enemy

1936 · Movie · 90 min. · United States

Direction H.C. Potter

Cast Merle Oberon · Brian Aherne · Karen Morley · Henry Stephenson

Synopsis Irish rebels launch an uprising against the British occupation of Ireland in the 1920s. One of the rebellion's leaders and a beautiful aristocratic Englishwoman meet and, despite the enormous class, cultural, political and social differences between them, fall in love.

5.5

31 votes

5.5

31 votes

Direction Alfred Zeisler

Cast Cary Grant · Mary Brian · Peter Gawthorne · Henry Kendall

Synopsis Ernest Bliss is a rich young man with too little to do. Not realizing the depression he's in is due to boredom, Ernest consults a doctor. Sir James Aldroyd gives Ernest a prescription that he doesn't think Ernest can fill:...

5.4

163 votes

5.4

163 votes

Red Planet Mars

1952 · Movie · 87 min. · United States

Direction Harry Horner

Cast Peter Graves · Andrea King · Herbert Berghof · Walter Sande

Synopsis An American scientist contacts Mars by radio and receives information that Mars is a utopia and that Earth's people can be saved if they return to the worship of God. Revolution sweeps the Earth, including the Soviet Union. But there...

4.8

142 votes

4.8

142 votes

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

1935 · Movie · 87 min. · United States

Direction Stuart Walker

Cast Claude Rains · Douglass Montgomery · Heather Angel · David Manners

Synopsis An opium-addicted choirmaster develops an obsession for a beautiful young girl and will not stop short of murder in order to have her.

Not rated

Not rated

Tennessee Johnson

1942 · Movie · 103 min. · United States

Direction William Dieterle

Cast Van Heflin · Lionel Barrymore · Ruth Hussey · Marjorie Main

Synopsis A chronicle of the life of Andrew Johnson from his first arrival in Tennessee to his time as President of the United States.

Not rated

Not rated

Scotland Yard

1941 · Movie · 68 min. · United States

Direction Norman Foster

Cast Nancy Kelly · Edmund Gwenn · John Loder · Henry Wilcoxon

Synopsis Inspector Cork pursues a bank robber who serves in the army and receives facial injuries. After plastic surgery he shows up as a bank president planning an enormous robbery.

Not rated

Not rated