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 historians and film often rate 1939 as "the greatest year in the history of Hollywood."^[2][3] Hollywood movies produced in Southern California were at the height of their Golden Age (in spite of many cheaply-made or indistinguished films also being produced, something one expects with any year in commercial cinema), and during 1939 there were the premieres of an outstandingly large number of exceptional motion pictures, many of which have been 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.

• Canada establishes a National Film Commission, predecessor of the National Film Board of Canada, with John Grierson as first Commissioner.

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture

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

• Dark Victory
• Gone With the Wind (The 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 these: Historical novels (Gone with the Wind), contemporary affairs (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Of Mice and Men), love stories, classic novels (Wuthering Heights), a fantasy-musical (The Wizard of Oz), a tragedy (Dark Victory), a story of the Old West (Stagecoach), and a comedy (Ninotchka).

The five nominees for Best Director of 1939 all went on to become legendary film directors with multiple stellar films to their credit. In alphabetical order: Frank Capra, Victor Fleming, John Ford, Sam Wood, and William Wyler.

Top films in gross income

These figures are not necessarily the sums that were taken in during 1939 and in particularly 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 $400,000,000 in December 1939.

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Gone with the Wind David O. Selznick, Selznick International
• 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

Select List of films premiered in 1939

U.S.A. unless stated

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney and Rex Ingram
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• 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 Arsenal Stadium Mystery (U.K.)
• Ask a Policeman, starring Will Hay, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott (U.K.)
• At the Circus, starring the Marx Brothers
• Babes in Arms, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland
• Bad Lands, starring Robert Barrat and Douglas Walton
• Bachelor Mother, starring Ginger Rogers and David Niven
• Barricade, starring Alice Faye and Warner Baxter
• Beau Geste, directed by William Wellman, starring Gary Cooper and Ray Milland
• Bel Ami (Germany)
• Boys' Reformatory, starring Frankie Darro and Grant Withers
• The Bronze Buckaroo, starring Herb Jeffries
• The Cat and the Canary, starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard
• Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, starring Sidney Toler
• Confessions of a Nazi Spy, starring Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders, Paul Lukas
• Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis (favorite role), George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan
• Daughter of the Tong, starring Evelyn Brent and Grant Withers
• Destry Rides Again, starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart
• Dodge City, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
• Drums Along the Mohawk, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert
• Each Dawn I Die, starring James Cagney and George Raft
• The Empress Wu Tse-tien (China)
• Everything Happens at Night, starring Sonja Henie and Ray Milland
• First Love, starring Deanna Durbin and Robert Stack
• Five Came Back, starring Lucille Ball and Chester Morris
• The Four Feathers, starring John Clements and Ralph Richardson (U.K.)
• Frontier Marshal, starring Randolph Scott, John Carradine, Lon Chaney, Jr.
• A Girl Must Live, directed by Carol Reed, starring Margaret Lockwood (U.K.)
• 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, starring Robert Donat and Greer Garson (U.K.)
• The Gorilla, starring the Ritz Brothers
• Gulliver's Travels starring Jessica Dragonette and Lanny Ross
• Gunga Din, 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
• Hollywood Cavalcade, starring Alice Faye, Don Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg, Alan Curtis
• 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
• Idiot's Delight, starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer
• In Name Only, starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Kay Francis
• 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 (U.K.)
• 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 l ve (Daybreak), directed by Marcel Carn , starring Jean Gabin and Arletty (France)
• Judge Hardy and Son starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• The Lambeth Walk directed by Albert de Courville and starring Lupino Lane and Sally Gray (U.K.)
• The Last Turning (Le Dernier Tournant), starring Michel Simon (France)
• 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
• The Man in the Iron Mask, starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William
• Mexicali Rose, starring Gene Autry
• Midnight, starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche
• The Mikado Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, first British film shot in Technicolor (U.K.)
• 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
• 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, starring Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney Jr.
• These Glamour Girls, starring Lew Aryes, Lana Turner, and Tom Brown
• 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
• ...One Third of a Nation..., starring Sylvia Sidney, Lief Erickson, and Myron McCormick
• On Dress Parade, starring The Dead End Kids
• On Your Toes, screenplay by Lawrence Riley
• Only Angels Have Wings, starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur
• The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, starring Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland
• Q Planes, starring Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier (U.K.)
• Range War, a Hopalong Cassidy western starring William Boyd
• The Return of Doctor X, horror film starring Humphrey Bogart
• The Roaring Twenties, starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart
• The Rules of the Game (La r gle du jeu), by Jean Renoir (France)
• Seven Little Australians directed by Arthur Greville Collins (Australia)
• Son of Frankenstein, starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi
• The Spy in Black, directed by Michael Powell, starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson (U.K.)
• Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Berton Churchill, John Carradine
• Stanley and Livingstone, starring Spencer Tracy and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
• The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, 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
• Tarzan Finds a Son!, starring Johnny Weissmuller
• They Made Me a Criminal
• 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, starring John Wayne, directed by George Sherman
• Tower of London, starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price
• Union Pacific, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
• The Vyborg Side (U.S.S.R.)
• The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Margaret Hamilton
• The Women, 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 Mr. Lincoln, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda and Alice Brady

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
• 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
• 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 27 John Cleese, English actor, comedian and producer
• October 28 Jane Alexander, actress
• November 10 Anton Gorchev, Bulgarian actor
• November 22 Allen Garfield, actor

Deaths

• January 25 Helen Ware, actress
• June 9 Owen Moore, actor
• August 23 Sidney Howard, writer
• September 24 Carl Laemmle, producer
• October 23 Zane Grey, writer of novels
• October 28 Alice Brady, actress
• December 12 Douglas Fairbanks, actor

Debuts

• Richard Conte, actor
• Greer Garson, actress
• Anne Gwynne, actress
• Maureen O'Hara, actress
• Veronica Lake, actress

References

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