Home > 1939 in film

1 Events

Movie historians and film buffs often look back on the year 1939 as "the greatest year in film history." Hollywood was at the height of its Golden Age, and this particular year saw the release of an unusually large number of exceptional movies, many of which have been honored as memorable classics when multitudes of other films of the era have been largely forgotten.

2 Top grossing films

1. Gone with the Wind
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. Ninotchka
4. The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

3 Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Gone With the Wind - Selznick, MGM
• Best Actor: Robert Donat - Goodbye, Mr. Chips
• Best Actress: Vivien Leigh - Gone With the Wind

4 Movies released

Movies released in 1939 include:

• Ask A Police Man
• Another Thin ManAnother Thin Man is a 1939 film, the third in the series of six "Thin Man" movies starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles and based on the writings of Dashiell Hammett. The film introduces their son, Nicky Jr. The cast also includes
• At The Circus
• Babes In Arms
• Barricade
• Bachelor MotherBachelor Mother ( Garson Kanin; US, 1939) is a comedy film starring Ginger Rogers (in a non-dancing, non-singing role), David Niven and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna based on a story by Felix Jackson (aka Felix Joachimson).
• Beau Geste
• Dark VictoryDark Victory is a 1939 film which tells the story of a young woman who falls in love with, and marries, the doctor who has operated on her for a brain tumor. When she discovers that the tumor may return she becomes depressed, until another lover tells her
• Daughter of The Tong
• Destry Rides AgainJames Stewart and Marlene Dietrich Destry Rides Again is a 1939 western film directed by George Marshall, starring James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey and Una Merkel. Stewart plays th
• Dodge CityDodge City is a western movie starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Directed by Hungarian-turned- Hollywood filmmaker Michael Curtiz and based on a story by Robert Buckner, it was filmed in early Technicolor. As a classic western, Dodge City conta
• Drums Along the MohawkDrums Along the Mohawk is a historical novel of the American Revolution written by Walter D. Published in 1936 and extremely popular, it was the basis for a 1939 John Ford movie starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert. The setting for both movie and no, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert
• Everything Happens At Night
• Fools For Scandal
• Frontier Marshall
• Gone with the Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips, starring Robert Donat
• Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Sam Jaffe
• Gulliver's Travels
• Hollywood Cavalcade
• Jesse James
• King Of The Underworld
• Mexicali Rose
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starring James Stewart
• Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire and Bela Lugosi
• Of Mice and Men
• The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir
• Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Berton Churchill
• The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver and Walter Brennan
• The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr
• The Women, starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell
• Wuthering Heights, starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven and Flora Robson