At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus leads his troupe through the devastated American landscape, lifting the spirits of audiences along the way. During their travels, they discover a man without limbs at a carnival sideshow. However, after an intriguing encounter with the showman, he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed.
Husband and father Will Rogers tells his spoiled wife and children that they have to economize.
Southern California's Hotel Coronado caters to and is frequented by members of the social upper-crust. Although she lives on the wrong side of the San Diego track, in a tent-city with her father. Otto, and ditzy sister, Violet, June Wray is a singer with the Eddy Duchin Orchestra appearing to the hotel. Johnny Marvin, an aspiring songwriter and the son of a wealthy automobile manufacturer, is staying at the hotel and, from they moment June and Johnny meet, they fall instantly in love. Trouble arises when Johnny's father objects to the romance, and complications and help arrive in the form of two Marine-hating sailors,Chuck Hornbostel and "Pinky" Falls, when Chuck marries June's ditzy sister.
Socialite Carol Morgan romps through the Depression and her wealth while breaking up with Bill Wade and getting back together with him.
A high living society playboy marries a nightclub singer, and she soon realizes that, though they're genuinely in love, the husband's endless partying completely dominates and is destroying their marriage.
Threatened with separation, two young brothers escape from an orphanage and make a perilous journey from New York to Boys' Town in Nebraska.
Tough Aggie gives a street guy polish and a rich kid gumption.
A down on his luck young man stumbles into a gang of robbers who all get landed in prison. Will he be reformed, or is he ensnared into a life of crime?
A Navy veteran with one leg fights to make himself a success.
In the midst of the Depression, a crotchety doctor, whose practice is in the Brooklyn slums, takes an interest in a local teenager, whose hostility and erratic behavior the doctor believes is due to more than just his environment.
Jussi Ketola, returns to Finland from the great depression struck America only to face growing political unrest. One summer night of 1930, nationalist thugs violently abduct Ketola from his home. Beaten and forced to walk the Eternal Road towards a foreign Soviet Russia, where cruelty seems to know no end, his only dream is to return to his family cost it what it may. Hope dies last.
Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
A young man befriends the last surviving Civil War veteran, intending to rob him of $50,000.
Cecilia is a waitress in New Jersey, living a dreary life during the Great Depression. Her only escape from her mundane reality is the movie theatre. After losing her job, Cecilia goes to see 'The Purple Rose of Cairo' in hopes of raising her spirits, where she watches dashing archaeologist Tom Baxter time and again.
Fictional documentary about the life of human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act like whoever is around him. Clever editing places Zelig in real newsreel footage of Woodrow Wilson, Babe Ruth, and others.
One day Sammy and his younger sister Ellie happen upon a cabin where Alice, a young, partially deaf girl with epilepsy is being kept by her abusive stepfather. The three soon become friends and hope to get Alice an education and help her escape from the torture she undergoes daily. However, Alice's stepfather soon finds out about the friendship Alice has struck up and punishes her brutally. This story of friendship and youth shows that everyone is human and deserves to be treated so, no matter their disability or weakness.
After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.
In the depression, Chaney, a strong silent streetfighter, joins with Speed, a promoter of no-holds-barred street boxing bouts. They go to New Orleans where Speed borrows money to set up fights for Chaney, but Speed gambles away any winnings.
During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent school teacher.