1935 in film explained
The following is an overview of 1935 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. The cinema releases of 1935 were highly representative of the early Golden Age period of Hollywood. This period was punctuated by performances from Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and the first teaming of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. A significant number of productions also originated in the UK film industry.
Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top ten 1935 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:
Highest-grossing films of 1935| Rank | Title | Distributor | Domestic rentals |
|---|
| 1 | Mutiny on the Bounty | MGM | $2,250,000[1] [2] |
|---|
| 2 | Top Hat | RKO | $1,782,000[3] [4] |
|---|
| 3 | China Seas | MGM | $1,710,000 |
|---|
| 4 | Broadway Melody of 1936 | $1,655,000 |
|---|
| 5 | David Copperfield | $1,621,000 |
|---|
| 6 | Steamboat Round the Bend | 20th Century Fox | $1,528,000[5] |
|---|
| 7 | The Crusades | Paramount | $1,491,471[6] |
|---|
| 8 | Roberta | RKO | $1,467,000 |
|---|
| 9 | In Old Kentucky | 20th Century Fox | $1,438,000 |
|---|
| 10 | The Littlest Rebel | $1,431,000 | |
|---|
Events
- February 22 – The Little Colonel premieres starring Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore and Bill Robinson, featuring a famous stair dance with Hollywood's first interracial dance couple
- February 23 – Gene Autry stars as himself as the Singing Cowboy in the serial The Phantom Empire. He would later be voted the number one Western star from 1937 to 1942.
- February 27 – Seven-year-old Shirley Temple wins the first special Academy Juvenile Award.
- March – The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment is started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.[7]
- May 31 – Fox Film and Twentieth Century Pictures merge to form 20th Century Fox.
- June 13 – Following the merger of six smaller independent film companies including Monogram Pictures, Mascot Pictures, Liberty Pictures and Majestic Pictures, Herbert J. Yates completed the formation of Republic Pictures.
- August 15 – Will Rogers who the previous year was voted the Top Money Making Star dies in a plane crash.
- August 25 – William Boyd appears in his first of 66 films as Hopalong Cassidy in Hop-Along Cassidy.
- September – Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
- September 5 – Gene Autry appears in his first film for the newly formed Republic Pictures – Tumbling Tumbleweeds, named after his second million-selling record.
- November 30 – The British-made film Scrooge, the first all-talking film version of Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol, opens in the U.S. after its U.K. release on November 26. Seymour Hicks plays Ebenezer Scrooge, a role he has played onstage hundreds of times. The film is criticized by some for not showing all of the ghosts physically, and quickly fades into obscurity. Widespread interest does not surface until the film is shown on television in the 1980s, in very shabby-looking prints. It is eventually restored on DVD.
Academy Awards
See main article: 8th Academy Awards.
The 8th Academy Awards were held on March 5, 1936, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. They were hosted by Frank Capra. This was the first year in which the gold statuettes were called "Oscars".
Most nominations: Mutiny on the Bounty (MGM) – 8
Major Awards
Most Awards: The Informer (RKO) – 4 (Actor, Director, Adaptation, Scoring)
Top Ten Money Making Stars
Exhibitors selected the following as the Top Ten Money Making Stars of the Year in Quigley Publishing Company's annual poll.[8]
1935 film releases
United States unless stated.
January–March
- January 1935
- 11 January
- 18 January
- 23 January
- 25 January
- 27 January
- 31 January
- February 1935
- 1 February
- 2 February
- 4 February
- 8 February
- 11 February
- 19 February
- 22 February
- March 1935
- 8 March
- 16 March
- 22 March
- 25 March
- 28 March
- 30 March
April–June
- April 1935
- 10 April
- 11 April
- 18 April
- 19 April
- 20 April
- 22 April
- 25 April
- 27 April
- 30 April
- May 1935
- 9 May
- 11 May
- 13 May
- 16 May
- 18 May
- 26 May
- 31 May
- June 1935
- 6 June
- 7 June
- 13 June
- 15 June
- 28 June
July–September
- July 1935
- 6 July
- 8 July
- 12 July
- 15 July
- 18 July
- 19 July
- 20 July
- 26 July
- 31 July
- August 1935
- 2 August
- 3 August
- 9 August
- 15 August
- 19 August
- 25 August
- 29 August
- 30 August
- September 1935
- 5 September
- 6 September
- 7 September
- 8 September
- 9 September
- 14 September
- 19 September
- 20 September
- 24 September
- 25 September
October–December
- October 1935
- 4 October
- 5 October
- 8 October
- 13 October
- 16 October
- 18 October
- 24 October
- 25 October
- 27 October
- 28 October
- 30 October
- 31 October
- November 1935
- 2 November
- 4 November
- 8 November
- 14 November
- 15 November
- 21 November
- 22 November
- 26 November
- 30 November
- December 1935
- 3 December
- 6 December
- 9 December
- 17 December
- 19 December
- 20 December
- 25 December
- 27 December
- 28 December
- 30 December
- 31 December
Notable films released in 1935
See also: United States unless stated.
0–9
A
B
- La Bandera, directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Jean Gabin (France)
- Barbary Coast, starring Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson and Joel McCrea
- Becky Sharp, starring Miriam Hopkins (first feature made in Three Strip Technicolor)
- Black Fury, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Paul Muni
- The Black Room, starring Boris Karloff
- Bordertown, starring Paul Muni and Bette Davis
- Boys Will Be Boys, starring Will Hay (GB)
- Brewster's Millions, starring Jack Buchanan and Lili Damita (GB)
- The Bride Comes Home, starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray
- Bride of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, starring Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester
- Broadway Melody of 1936, starring Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, Robert Taylor
C
- The Call of the Wild, starring Clark Gable
- Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
- Car of Dreams, starring John Mills (Britain)
- Carnival in Flanders (La Kermesse héroïque), directed by Jacques Feyder (France)
- Charlie Chan in Egypt, starring Warner Oland
- China Seas, starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery
- Coal Face, a documentary directed by Alberto Cavalcanti (GB)
- Crime and Punishment, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Peter Lorre
- The Crime of Dr. Crespi, starring Erich Von Stroheim
- The Crusades, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Henry Wilcoxon and Loretta Young
- Curly Top, starring Shirley Temple
D
- Dandy Dick, starring Will Hay (GB)
- Dangerous, starring Bette Davis and Franchot Tone
- Dante's Inferno, starring Spencer Tracy and Claire Trevor
- The Dark Angel, starring Fredric March and Merle Oberon
- David Copperfield, directed by George Cukor, starring Edna May Oliver, Freddie Bartholomew, W. C. Fields
- Death Drives Through, directed by Edward L. Cahn
- Devdas (India)
- The Devil Is a Woman, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich
- Dinky, starring Jackie Cooper and Mary Astor
- Doubting Thomas, starring Will Rogers
- Drake of England, starring Matheson Lang and Jane Baxter (GB)
E-F
- Escapade, starring William Powell
- Escape Me Never, directed by Paul Czinner, starring Elisabeth Bergner (GB)
- Every Night at Eight, starring George Raft and Alice Faye
- The Farmer Takes a Wife, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Janet Gaynor and Henry Fonda
- Foreign Affaires, directed by and starring Tom Walls (Britain)
- Four Hours to Kill!, starring Richard Barthelmess
- Frisco Kid, starring James Cagney
- Front Page Woman, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Bette Davis and George Brent
G
- G Men, starring James Cagney and Ann Dvorak
- The Ghost Goes West, directed by René Clair, starring Robert Donat, Jean Parker, Eugene Pallette (GB)
- The Gilded Lily, starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray
- The Girl from 10th Avenue, starring Bette Davis
- The Glass Key, starring George Raft
- Go Into Your Dance, starring Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler
- Goin' to Town, starring Mae West
- Gold Diggers of 1935, a Busby Berkeley musical starring Dick Powell and Gloria Stuart
- The Good Fairy, starring Margaret Sullavan and Herbert Marshall
- The Great Impersonation, directed by Alan Crosland, starring Edmund Lowe and Valerie Hobson
H
I-J
L
M
- Mad Love (aka The Hands of Orlac), starring Peter Lorre
- Magnificent Obsession, starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor
- The Making of a King (Der alte und der junge König), starring Emil Jannings (Germany)
- Man of the Moment, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (GB)
- Man on the Flying Trapeze, starring W. C. Fields
- The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, starring Ronald Colman and Joan Bennett
- Men of Action, starring Frankie Darro and Barbara Worth
- Midshipman Easy, directed by Carol Reed, starring Hughie Green and Margaret Lockwood (GB)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle
- The Million Ryo Pot (Tange Sazen Yowa: Hyakuman Ryō no Tsubo) (Japan)
- Les Misérables, starring Fredric March and Charles Laughton
- Mississippi, starring Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields and Joan Bennett
- Moscow Nights, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Laurence Olivier (GB)
- The Murder Man, starring Spencer Tracy
- Music Hath Charms, directed by Thomas Bentley, starring Henry Hall (Britain)
- Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood, starring Claude Rains and Valerie Hobson
N
- Naughty Marietta, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
- The New Gulliver, directed by Aleksandr Ptushko, a stop motion-animated film (U.S.S.R.)
- New Women (Xīn nǚxìng) (China)
- A Night at the Opera, directed by Sam Wood, starring the Marx Brothers, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones
- The Night Is Young, starring Ramon Navarro
- No Limit, starring George Formby (GB)
- No More Ladies, starring Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery
O-P
- Our Little Girl, starring Shirley Temple
- Page Miss Glory, starring Marion Davies, Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Mary Astor, and Patsy Kelly
- Party Wire, starring Jean Arthur and Victor Jory
- The Passing of the Third Floor Back, starring Conrad Veidt (GB)
- Peter Ibbetson, directed by Henry Hathaway, starring Gary Cooper and Ann Harding
- Police Chief Antek (Antek policmajster) (Poland)
- Princess Tam Tam, starring Josephine Baker (France)
- Private Worlds, starring Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea
- Professional Soldier, starring Victor McLaglen
- Public Hero No. 1, starring Lionel Barrymore and Jean Arthur
R
- The Raven, starring Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi
- Reckless, a musical starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Franchot Tone
- Red Passport, directed by Guido Brignone, starring Isa Miranda (Italy)
- Remember Last Night?, directed by James Whale, starring Edward Arnold and Constance Cummings
- Rendezvous (1935), starring William Powell
- Roberta, a musical starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, with an uncredited appearance by Lucille Ball
- Royal Cavalcade, a historical film celebrating George V's silver jubilee with six directors and a large ensemble cast (GB)
- Ruggles of Red Gap, directed by Leo McCarey, starring Charles Laughton
S
T
V-Y
- Villa for Sale (Ez a villa eladó) (Hungary)
- The Village Squire, starring Vivien Leigh (GB)
- Waterfront Lady, starring Ann Rutherford, Frank Albertson
- The Wedding Night, starring Gary Cooper and Anna Sten
- Werewolf of London, starring Henry Hull, Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson
- Westward Ho, starring John Wayne
- The Whole Town's Talking, starring Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur
- Way Down East, starring Henry Fonda
- Xin nü xing (directed by: Chusheng Cai), starring: Ruan Lingyu, Naidong Wang and Junli Zheng.
- The Youth of Maxim (Yunost Maksima) (USSR)
Serials
Comedy film series
Animated short film series
Births
- January 2 – John Considine, American writer and actor
- January 5 – Gerald R. Molen, American producer and actor
- January 8 – Elvis Presley, American rock singer and actor (died 1977)
- January 9 – Bob Denver, American comic actor (died 2005)
- January 22 – Seymour Cassel, American actor (died 2019)
- January 28 – Nicholas Pryor, American actor
- January 30 – Elsa Martinelli, Italian actress (died 2017)
- February 3 - Jeremy Kemp, English actor (died 2019)
- February 17 – Christina Pickles, British-American actress
- February 25 – Sally Jessy Raphael, American former tabloid talk show host
- February 26
- March 11 – Nancy Kovack, American retired actress
- March 15 – Judd Hirsch, American actor
- March 18
- March 19 - Burt Metcalfe, Canadian-American actor (died 2022)
- March 22 – M. Emmet Walsh, American character actor and comedian (died 2024)
- March 24 - Mary Berry, English television presenter
- March 27 – Julian Glover, English actor
- April 4 – Kenneth Mars, American actor and voice actor (died 2011)[9]
- April 5 – Enrique Álvarez Félix, Mexican actor (died 1996)
- April 9 – Motomu Kiyokawa, Japanese actor and voice actor (died 2022)
- April 10 – Álvaro de Luna, Spanish actor (died 2018)
- April 16 – Bobby Vinton, American singer, songwriter and actor
- April 19 – Dudley Moore, English-born comic actor and musician (died 2002)[10]
- April 20 – Mario Camus, Spanish director (died 2021)[11]
- April 21 – Charles Grodin, American actor (died 2021)[12]
- April 22 - Mario Machado, Chinese-American actor and broadcaster (died 2013)
- April 23 - Franco Citti, Italian actor (died 2016)
- April 27
- April 29 - Lennie Weinrib, American actor, comedian and writer (died 2006)
- May 2
- May 11 – Doug McClure, American actor (died 1995)
- May 19 - David Hartman, American television personality and media host
- May 25 - George Roubicek, Austrian actor
- May 26 – Sheila Steafel, British actress (died 2019)
- May 27
- May 28 - Anne Reid, English actress
- May 30 – Ruta Lee, Canadian-American actress and dancer
- June 2 - Roger Brierley, English actor (died 2005)
- June 3 - Irma P. Hall, American actress
- June 16 – James Bolam, English actor
- June 21 - Monte Markham, American actor
- June 26 - Edwin Hodgeman, Australian actor
- June 27 – Ramon Zamora, Filipino martial arts actor (died 2007)
- June 29 - Keith Walker, American writer, producer and actor (died 1996)
- July 1 – David Prowse, English bodybuilder, weightlifter and character actor (died 2020)[15]
- July 5 – Christian Doermer, German actor (died 2022)
- July 8 - Steve Lawrence, American singer and actor (died 2024)
- July 9 - Michael Williams, British actor (died 2001)
- July 13 – Gregorio Casal, Mexican actor (died 2018)
- July 15
- Gianni Garko, Croatian-born Italian actor
- Alex Karras, American football player, professional wrestler and actor (died 2012)
- July 17
- Diahann Carroll, African American singer and actress (died 2019)
- Donald Sutherland, Canadian-born actor (died 2024)
- July 22 - Stanley Ralph Ross, American writer and actor (died 2000)
- July 25 - Barbara Harris, American actress (died 2018)
- July 31 - Geoffrey Lewis, American actor (died 2015)
- August 2 – Amidou, Moroccan-French actor (died 2013)
- August 3 – Omero Antonutti, Italian actor and voice actor (died 2019)[16]
- August 5
- August 7 – Yoná Magalhães, Brazilian actress (died 2015)
- August 8 - Donald P. Bellisario, American television producer and screenwriter
- August 12 – John Cazale, American actor (died 1978)[17]
- August 15 – Jim Dale, English actor, director and singer
- August 16 – Janet Henfrey, British actress
- August 23 – Ronald Falk, Australian actor (died 2016)
- August 24 – Lando Buzzanca, Italian actor (died 2022)
- August 28 – Sonny Shroyer, American actor and singer
- August 29 – William Friedkin, American director, producer and screenwriter (died 2023)
- August 31 – Rosenda Monteros, Mexican actress (died 2018)
- September 2 – Kenneth Tsang, Hong Kong actor (died 2022)
- September 9
- September 21 - Henry Gibson, American actor, singer and songwriter (died 2009)
- September 24 – Sean McCann, Canadian actor (died 2019)
- September 28 - Ronald Lacey, English actor (died 1991)
- September 29 - Mylène Demongeot, French actress (died 2022)
- October 1 – Julie Andrews, English-born singer and actress
- October 3 – Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Soviet Russian-Armenian actor (died 2020)[18]
- October 4 - Eddie Applegate, American actor (died 2016)
- October 18 – Peter Boyle, American actor (died 2006)
- October 20 – Jerry Orbach, American actor and singer (died 2004)
- October 24 – Rosamaria Murtinho, Brazilian actress
- October 27 - Frank Adonis, American actor (died 2018)
- November 7
- Billy "Green" Bush, American actor
- Judy Parfitt, English actress
- November 8 - Alain Delon, French actor (died 2024)
- November 13 - Tom Atkins, American actor
- November 21 – Michael Chapman, American cinematographer (died 2020)
- November 22 - Michael Callan, American actor (died 2022)
- November 24 – Salim Khan, Indian Bollywood screenwriter
- November 29
- November 30 – Woody Allen, American comedian, director and actor[20]
- December 2 - Hy Pyke, American character actor (died 2006)
- December 5 – Basabi Nandi, Indian actress (died 2018)
- December 8
- December 10 – Jaromil Jireš, Czechoslovak director (died 2001)
- December 14
- December 18 - Rosemary Leach, British actress (died 2017)
- December 21
- December 24 - Tommy Dysart, Scottish-born Australian actor (died 2022)
- December 28 - William Bassett, American actor
- December 30 - Jack Riley, American actor, comedian and writer (died 2016)
Deaths
- January 19 – Lloyd Hamilton, American comedy actor (born 1891)[22]
- February 7 – Frederick Warde, English Shakespearean actor (born 1851)
- March 8 – Ruan Lingyu, Chinese silent film actress, committed suicide (born 1910)
- March 23 – Florence Moore, American singer and silent film actress (born 1886)
- May 4 – Junior Durkin, American actor, in a road accident (born 1915)[23]
- May 13 – Clarence Geldart, Canadian-American actor (born 1867)
- August 14 – Léonce Perret, French actor, director and producer (born 1880)[24]
- August 15 – Will Rogers, American humorist and actor (born 1879)[25]
- August 25 – Mack Swain, American actor (born 1876)[26]
- September 28 – William Kennedy Dickson, British film pioneer, cancer (born 1860)
- December 16 – Thelma Todd, American actress, carbon monoxide poisoning (born 1906)
External links
Notes and References
- H. Mark. Glancy. MGM film grosses, 1924-1948: The Eddie Mannix Ledger. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 12. 2. 1992. 127–144. 10.1080/01439689200260081.
- H. Mark. Glancy. Appendix. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 12. S2. 1992. 1–20. 10.1080/01439689208604539.
- Richard B.. Jewell. RKO Film Grosses, 1929-1951: the C.J. Tevlin ledger. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 14. 1. 1994. 37–49. 10.1080/01439689400260031.
- Richard B.. Jewell. Appendix 1. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 14. S1. 1994. 1–11. 10.1080/01439689408604545.
- October 15, 1990. All Time Film Rental Champs. Variety. 0042-2738. M140-M196. Lawrence. Cohn.
- Book: Birchard, Robert S.. 2004. Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. 9780813123240.
- Book: Notcutt, L. A. . Latham, G. C. . The African and the Cinema: An Account of the Work of the Bantu Educational Cinema Experiment during the Period March 1935 to May 1937. London. Edinburgh House Press. 1937.
- News: The Biggest Money Making Stars of 1934–1935. Quigley Publishing Company. Motion Picture Herald. December 28, 1935. 13. April 24, 2018.
- News: 2011-02-23. Kenneth Mars, veteran screen and voice actor, dies at 75. Los Angeles Times. February 15, 2011.
- Book: Screen International Film and TV Year Book. 1990. Screen International, King Publications. 114.
- News: 2021-09-18. Film director Mario Camus dies at 86. El País. 2021-09-18.
- Web site: Genzlinger . Neil . Charles Grodin, Star of 'Beethoven' and 'Heartbreak Kid,' Dies at 86 . The New York Times . May 18, 2021 . May 18, 2021.
- Book: Andrew Horton. The Films of Theo Angelopoulos: A Cinema of Contemplation. 12 October 1999. Princeton University Press. 978-0-691-01005-2. 18.
- Book: Contemporary. Contemporary Books. Chase's Annual Events: Special Days, Weeks and Months in 1991. September 1990. McGraw-Hill. 978-0-8092-4087-6. 142.
- Book: Peter Noble. British Film and Television Year Book. 1975. King Publications.
- Book: Dizionario del cinema italiano. Gli attori. A - L . 29 . 3 . Enrico . Lancia . Roberto . Poppi . 26 September 2010 . Gremese Editore . it . 2003 . 978-88-8440-213-4.
- Book: Frederic Ohringer. A Portrait of the Theatre. 1979. Merritt Publishing Company. 978-0-517-53928-6. 168.
- Book: Galina Dolmatovskai︠a︡. I. Shilova. Who's who in the Soviet Cinema. 1979. Progress. 460.
- Book: International Film and TV Year Book. 1981. Screen International, King Publications Limited. 476.
- Book: T. Wynne Griffon. Foretelling the Future. July 1993. Magna Books. 978-1-85422-277-0. 59.
- Book: The Illustrated Weekly of India. 1979. Published for the proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Company, Limited, at the Times of India Press. 67.
- Book: Griffithiana. 1992. Cineteca D.W. Griffith. 206.
- Book: Norman J. Zierold. The Child Stars. 1965. Coward-McCann. 29.
- Book: Eugene Michael Vazzana. Silent Film Necrology. 2001. McFarland. 978-0-7864-1059-0. 416.
- Book: Air Power History. 1993. Air Force Historical Foundation. 42.
- News: . Mack Swain Dead. Pioneer Film Actor. Appeared With Charlie Chaplin in Keystone Comedies Before Days of 'Stars' . . 2015-03-09 .
