1939 in film

Years in film
1870s
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1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
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1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
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2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
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2020s 2020

The year 1939 in motion pictures is widely considered the most outstanding one ever,^[1] when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year (considered as a percentage of the population in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom at that time).

Events

• Motion picture and film historians often rate 1939 as "the greatest year in the history of Hollywood."^[2][3] Hollywood movies produced in Southern California are at the height of their Golden Age (in spite of many cheaply made or indistinguished films also being produced, something to be expected with any year in commercial cinema), and during 1939 there are the premieres of an outstandingly large number of exceptional motion pictures, many of which become honored as all-time classic films.
  • August 15 – The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles.
  • October 17 – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington premiered in Washington, D.C.
  • December 15 – Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, with a three-day-long festival.
• March 31 – Release of the 20th Century Fox film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, first of a Sherlock Holmes film series starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.
• Canada establishes a National Film Commission, predecessor of the National Film Board of Canada, with John Grierson as first Commissioner.

Nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture

The year 1939 was one in which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated ten films for Best Picture:

• Dark Victory
• Gone with the Wind (Best Picture winner)
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips
• Love Affair
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
• Ninotchka
• Of Mice and Men
• Stagecoach
• The Wizard of Oz
• Wuthering Heights

These films came from a wide variety of film genres and sources for their stories and settings, including: historical fiction (Gone with the Wind), contemporary affairs (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Of Mice and Men), love stories, classic novels (Wuthering Heights), fantasies/musicals, (The Wizard of Oz), tragic plays (Dark Victory), westerns (Stagecoach), and comedies (Ninotchka).

Each of the five nominees for Best Director of 1939 went on to become legendary film directors with multiple acclaimed films to their credit: Frank Capra, Victor Fleming, John Ford, Sam Wood, and William Wyler.

Top-grossing films

These figures, as reported in the Box Office Digest of March 1940,^[4] are not necessarily the sums that were taken in during 1939 – and in particular for films that made their premieres in October, November, and December. Note that the number one film in this list premiered in mid-December, and it certainly did not take in $200,000,000 in December 1939. At the time, box office numbers were reported as a percentage of business for each theater in comparison to "normal" business. For example, Jesse James performed at 182% and The Wizard of Oz at 156%. This puts the astounding 388% that Gone with the Wind performed at in perspective for the time. This type of reporting is one reason that exact dollar grosses for films of this period are unreliable at best.

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Gone with the Wind – David O. Selznick; Selznick International, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Best Director: Victor Fleming – Gone with the Wind
• Best Actor: Robert Donat – Goodbye, Mr. Chips
• Best Actress: Vivien Leigh – Gone with the Wind
• Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Mitchell – Stagecoach
• Best Supporting Actress: Hattie McDaniel – Gone with the Wind

Notable films released in 1939

U.S.A. unless stated

AB

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney and Rex Ingram
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• Allegheny Uprising, starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne
• Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• The Angels Wash Their Faces, starring Ann Sheridan and the Dead End Kids
• Another Thin Man, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
• The Arizona Kid, starring Roy Rogers
• The Arsenal Stadium Mystery – (GB)
• Ask a Policeman, starring Will Hay, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott – (GB)
• At the Circus, starring the Marx Brothers
• Babes in Arms, directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland
• Bachelor Mother, starring Ginger Rogers and David Niven
• Bad Lands, starring Robert Barrat and Robert Coote
• Barricade, starring Alice Faye and Warner Baxter
• Beau Geste, directed by William Wellman, starring Gary Cooper and Ray Milland
• Bel Ami – (Germany)
• Blackmail, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Blue Montana Skies, starring Gene Autry
• Boy Slaves
• Boys' Reformatory, starring Frankie Darro and
• Blue Montana Skies
• The Bronze Buckaroo, starring Herb Jeffries

CD

• The Cat and the Canary, starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard
• Cesta do hlubin študákovy duše - (Czechoslovakia)
• Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, starring Sidney Toler
• Charlie Chan in Reno, starring Sidney Toler and Ricardo Cortez
• Cheer Boys Cheer, starring Nova Pilbeam (GB)
• Confessions of a Nazi Spy, starring Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders, Paul Lukas
• Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan
• Daughter of the Tong, starring Evelyn Brent and Grant Withers
• Days of Jesse James, directed by Joseph Kane, starring Roy Rogers
• Destry Rides Again, directed by George Marshall, starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart
• Dodge City, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
• Drums Along the Mohawk, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert

EF

• Each Dawn I Die, starring James Cagney and George Raft
• The Empress Wu Tse-tien – (China)
• Eva tropí hlouposti (Eva Fools Around) - (Czechoslovakia)
• Everything Happens at Night, starring Sonja Henie and Ray Milland
• Fifth Ave Girl, starring Ginger Rogers and Walter Connolly
• First Love, starring Deanna Durbin and Robert Stack
• Five Came Back, directed by John Farrow, starring Lucille Ball and Chester Morris
• The Four Feathers, starring John Clements and Ralph Richardson – (GB)
• The Four Just Men, directed by Walter Forde (GB)
• Frontier Marshal, starring Randolph Scott, John Carradine, Lon Chaney, Jr.

GH

• The Girl from Mexico, starring Lupe Velez
• A Girl Must Live, directed by Carol Reed, starring Margaret Lockwood – (GB)
• Golden Boy, starring Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Adolphe Menjou
• Gone with the Wind, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, Hattie McDaniel – Academy Awards for best picture, director, actress and supporting actress
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips, directed by Sam Wood, starring Robert Donat and Greer Garson – (GB)
• Gulliver's Travels, starring Jessica Dragonette and Lanny Ross
• Gunga Din, directed by George Stevens, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sam Jaffe
• The Hardys Ride High, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence, starring Glenn Ford
• Hello Janine!, starring Marika Rökk - (Germany)
• Hollywood Cavalcade, starring Alice Faye, Don Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg, Alan Curtis
• Honolulu, starring Eleanor Powell, Burns and Allen
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, first in Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, directed by William Dieterle, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara

IJK

• I Met a Murderer, starring James Mason – (GB)
• Idiot's Delight, starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer
• In Name Only, starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Kay Francis
• Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday, starring Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim – (GB)
• Intermezzo, starring Ingrid Bergman and Leslie Howard
• It's a Wonderful World, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, starring James Stewart and Claudette Colbert
• Jamaica Inn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara – (GB)
• Jesse James, starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott
• Juarez, starring Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Claude Rains, John Garfield, Brian Aherne
• Le Jour se lève (Daybreak), directed by Marcel Carné, starring Jean Gabin and Arletty – (France)
• Judge Hardy and Son, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• King of the Underworld, starring Humphrey Bogart and Kay Francis

LM

• The Lambeth Walk, directed by Albert de Courville, starring Lupino Lane and Sally Gray – (GB)
• The Last Turning (Le Dernier Tournant), starring Michel Simon – (France)
• Lenin in 1918 (Lenin v 1918 godu) - (USSR)
• Let Us Live, starring Maureen O'Sullivan and Henry Fonda
• The Little Princess, starring Shirley Temple and Richard Greene
• Love Affair, starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer (Academy Award nominee)
• Lucky Night, starring Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor
• Made For Each Other, starring Carole Lombard, James Stewart, and Charles Coburn
• Maisie, starring Robert Young and Ann Sothern
• The Man in the Iron Mask, starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William
• Man of Conquest, starring Richard Dix, Gail Patrick, Joan Fontaine
• Mexicali Rose, starring Gene Autry
• Midnight, starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche
• The Mikado, a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, first British film shot in Technicolor – (GB)
• Million Dollar Legs, starring Betty Grable
• Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation, starring Peter Lorre
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, directed by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains
• Mr. Wong in Chinatown, starring Boris Karloff
• The Mystery of Mr. Wong, starring Boris Karloff

NOP

• Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, starring Bonita Granville
• Never Say Die, starring Martha Raye and Bob Hope
• Ninotchka, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi
• Of Mice and Men, directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney Jr.
• Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise, a comedy short starring The Three Stooges
• The Oklahoma Kid, starring James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Donald Crisp
• The Old Maid, starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins
• On Borrowed Time, starring Lionel Barrymore and Cedric Hardwicke
• On Dress Parade, starring The Dead End Kids
• On the Night of the Fire (aka The Fugitive), starring Ralph Richardson – (GB)
• On Your Toes, screenplay by Lawrence Riley, starring Vera Zorina and Eddie Albert
• Only Angels Have Wings, starring Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth and Jean Arthur
• Prisioneros de la tierra (Prisoners of the Land) - (Argentina)
• The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, starring Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland

QRS

• Q Planes, starring Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier – (GB)
• The Rains Came, starring Tyrone Power and Myrna Loy
• Range War, a Hopalong Cassidy western starring William Boyd
• Remember?, starring Greer Garson, Robert Taylor, Lew Ayres
• The Return of Doctor X, a horror film starring Humphrey Bogart
• The Roaring Twenties, starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart
• The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), directed by Jean Renoir – (France)
• The Saint in London, starring George Sanders
• The Saint Strikes Back, starring George Sanders
• Seven Little Australians, directed by Arthur Greville Collins – (Australia)
• Son of Frankenstein, starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi
• De Spooktrein (The Ghost Train) - (Netherlands)
• The Spy in Black, directed by Michael Powell, starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson – (GB)
• Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Berton Churchill, John Carradine
• Stanley and Livingstone, starring Spencer Tracy and Cedric Hardwicke
• The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (Zangiku monogatari), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi – (Japan)
• The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
• Susannah of the Mounties, starring Shirley Temple and Randolph Scott

TUV

• Tarzan Finds a Son!, starring Johnny Weissmuller
• These Glamour Girls, starring Lew Ayres, Lana Turner, Tom Brown
• They Made Me a Criminal, starring John Garfield
• They Shall Have Music, starring Jascha Heifetz, Joel McCrea, Andrea Leeds, Walter Brennan
• The Three Musketeers, starring Don Ameche and The Ritz Brothers
• Three Smart Girls Grow Up, starring Deanna Durbin and Robert Cummings
• Three Texas Steers, directed by George Sherman, starring John Wayne
• Tower of London, starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price
• The Trip to Tilsit (Die Reise nach Tilsit) – (Germany)
• Union Pacific, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea
• Vasilisa the Beautiful (Vasilisa prekrasnaya) – (U.S.S.R.)
• The Vyborg Side (Vyborgskaya storona) – (U.S.S.R.)

WXYZ

• Way Down South, directed by Leslie Goodwins and Bernard Vorhaus
• Wilton's Zoo (Boefje), directed by Douglas Sirk - (Netherlands)
• The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Margaret Hamilton
• The Women, directed by George Cukor, starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell
• Wuthering Heights, directed by William Wyler, starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson
• Wyoming Outlaw, starring John Wayne, directed by George Sherman
• You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, starring W. C. Fields
• Young Man's Fancy, directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Anna Lee – (GB)
• Young Mr. Lincoln, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda and Alice Brady
• Zenobia, directed by Gordon Douglas, starring Oliver Hardy

Serials

• Buck Rogers, starrng Buster Crabbe
• Dick Tracy's G-Men, starring Ralph Byrd
• Daredevils of the Red Circle, starring Herman Brix and Charles B. Middleton
• Flying G-Men
• The Lone Ranger Rides Again
• Mandrake the Magician, starring Warren Hull
• The Oregon Trail
• Overland with Kit Carson
• The Phantom Creeps, starring Bela Lugosi
• Scouts to the Rescue
• Zorro's Fighting Legion, starring Reed Hadley

Comedy film series

• Charlie Chaplin (1914–40)
• Lupino Lane (1915–39)
• Buster Keaton (1917–44)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921–45)
• Our Gang (1922–44)
• The Marx Brothers (1929–46)
• The Three Stooges (1933–62)

Animated short film series

• Krazy Kat (1925–40)
• Mickey Mouse (1928–53)
• Silly Symphonies
  • The Practical Pig
  • The Ugly Duckling
• Looney Tunes (1930–69)
• Terrytoons (1930–64)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–69)
• Scrappy (1931–41)
• Betty Boop (1932–39)
• Popeye (1933–57)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934–49)
• Donald Duck (1937–56)
• Walter Lantz Cartunes (also known as New Universal Cartoons or Cartune Comedies) (1938–42)
• The Captain and the Kids (1938–39)
• Goofy (1939–55)
• Andy Panda (1939–49)
• Nertsery Rhyme Cartoons (1939 only)
• Crackpot Cruise Cartoons (1939 only)
• Lil' Eightball (1939 only)
• Count Screwloose and J.R. (1939 only)

Births

• January 10 – Sal Mineo, actor (died 1976)
• February 3 – Michael Cimino, director; producer; screenwriter (died 2016)
• February 9 – Janet Suzman, South African actress and director
• March 5 – Samantha Eggar, English actress
• April 7 – Francis Ford Coppola, director; producer; screenwriter
• April 13 – Paul Sorvino, actor
• May 4 – Paul Gleason, actor (died 2006)
• May 13 – Harvey Keitel, actor
• May 19 – James Fox, English actor
• May 22 – Paul Winfield, actor (died 2004)
• May 25 – Ian McKellen, English actor
• May 30 – Michael J. Pollard, actor
• July 22 – Terence Stamp, English actor
• July 30 – Peter Bogdanovich, director; producer; screenwriter
• July 31 – France Nuyen, French actress
• August 2 – Wes Craven, director; producer; screenwriter (died 2015)
• August 12 – George Hamilton, actor
• August 25 – John Badham, director
• August 29 – Joel Schumacher, director; producer; screenwriter
• August 30 – Elizabeth Ashley, actress
• September 1 – Lily Tomlin, actress; comedian; producer
• September 18 – Frankie Avalon, singer and actor
• October 8 – Paul Hogan, Australian comedian and actor
• October 22 – Tony Roberts, actor
• October 24 – F. Murray Abraham, actor
• October 25 – Nikos Nikolaidis, Greek film director (died 2007)
• October 27 – John Cleese, English actor, comedian and producer
• October 28 – Jane Alexander, actress
• November 10 – Anton Gorchev, Bulgarian actor (died 2000)
• November 22 – Allen Garfield, actor

Deaths

• January 25 – Helen Ware, 61, American actress, Morning Glory, Abraham Lincoln
• April 22 - Ann Murdock, 48, American actress, Outcast, Please Help Emily
• May 5 - Clara Schønfeld, 82, Danish actress, Master of the House, Praesten i Vejlby
• June 9 – Owen Moore, 54, Irish actor, A Star is Born, She Done Him Wrong, The Red Mill, Cinderella
• August 23 – Sidney Howard, 48, American writer, Gone with the Wind, Dodsworth, Arrowsmith, A Lady to Love
• September 24 – Carl Laemmle, 72, German producer, Frankenstein, Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera
• October 13 - Ford Sterling, 55, American actor, Tango Tangles, The Show Off, Between Showers
• October 23 – Zane Grey, 67, American writer, Fighting Caravans, Riders of the Purple Sage, Western Union, Born to the West
• October 28 – Alice Brady, 46, American actress, My Man Godfrey, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Gay Divorcee, In Old Chicago
• December 12 – Douglas Fairbanks, 56, American actor, The Thief of Bagdad, The Black Pirate, Robin Hood, Mr. Robinson Crusoe

Debuts

• Dirk Bogarde - Come on George!
• Richard Conte - Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence
• Anne Gwynne - Unexpected Father
• Veronica Lake - Sorority House
• Marcello Mastroianni - Marionette

References