1. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), directed by Frank Lloyd, follows the exploits of Fletcher Christian, who leads a mutiny against the vengeful Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty.

2. Young Mr. Lincoln (1939).

3. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).

Comments:

“Mutiny on the Bounty is so compelling because it warns us about what can happen when the law and the power that attaches to it are abused by unfair and power-hungry people. It is brilliantly filmed and acted with particularly moving performances by Clark Gable and Charles Laughton (who always plays a great bad guy). —Bonnie Eskenazi

“This decade (1935-44) was a great decade for commercial movies built upon strong plot-lines and compelling character-based narratives. Mutiny on the Bounty and A Tale of Two Cities are both wonderful stories, populated by compelling characters; both have compelling plots that purportedly turn on the law, with themes about justice and injustice that morphs into tyranny. These two stories are also compelling ‘Hollywood’ melodramas—with virtuous heroes and nasty villains and villainy. On the other hand, John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln is one of the best, if not the best, of the truly ‘heroic’ lawyer narratives. But ultimately, the most important film—that still says much about who are—is the darker and seemingly smaller The Ox Bow Incident. It is a brilliant transformation of the novel into a parable about violence and vigilantism. We still exist in a potentially lawless and dangerous anarchic territory on the edge of civilization, don’t we?” —Philip N. Meyer

“The Ox-Bow Incident is a dark, brooding film that evokes both the thoughtless clamor for quick justice, and the agonizing guilt of justice gone awry. Henry Fonda is pitch perfect as an uninvolved stranger who joins the lynch mob posse to avoid being a suspect, and finds himself powerless to hold it back.” —Allen Pusey