Overview of the events of 1934 in film
The following is an overview of 1934 in film , including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Top-grossing films (U.S.) [ edit ]
The top ten 1934 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:
Highest-grossing films of 1934
Rank
Title
Distributor
Domestic rentals
1
Cleopatra
Paramount
$1,929,161[1]
2
Forsaking All Others
MGM
$1,399,000[2]
3
It Happened One Night
Columbia
$1,366,000[3]
4
Chained
MGM
$1,301,000[2]
5
Wonder Bar
Warner Bros. /First National
$1,264,000[4]
6
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
MGM
$1,258,000[2]
7
Here Comes the Navy
Warner Bros.
$1,183,000[4]
8
Judge Priest
Fox Film
$1,176,000[3]
9
Treasure Island
MGM
$1,164,000[2]
10
The Gay Divorcee
RKO
$1,077,000[5]
January 26 – Samuel Goldwyn (formerly of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ) purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.
February 19 – Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade .
April 19 – Fox Studios releases Stand Up and Cheer! , with five-year-old Shirley Temple in a relatively minor role. Shirley steals the film and Fox, which had been near bankruptcy, finds itself owning a goldmine.
May 18 – Paramount releases Little Miss Marker , with Shirley Temple, on loan from Fox, in the title role.
June 13 – An amendment to the Production Code establishes the Production Code Administration , and requires all films to obtain a certificate of approval before being released.
July 28 – Canadian-born actress Marie Dressler , best known for starring in films such as Min and Bill and Emma , dies from cancer in Santa Barbara, California at the age of 65. For her performance in Min and Bill , Dressler received the Academy Award for Best Actress .
October 19 – Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers wham audiences again with their first joint starring roles in The Gay Divorcee , grossing $1.8 million[5] to add to the $1.5 million[5] earned by Flying Down to Rio released at the end of 1933.
November 12 – The musical Babes in Toyland debuts, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as comic relief.
December 11 – Fox releases the Sol M. Wurtzel production of Bright Eyes , starring their hot new property, Shirley Temple. Shirley sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop ", and wins the first Academy Award ever given to a child, for her endearing portrayal of Shirley Blake.
Academy Awards [ edit ]
The 7th Academy Awards was held on February 27, 1935, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles . They were hosted by Irvin S. Cobb . For the first time, the Academy standardized the practice – still in effect, notwithstanding changes to the 93rd and 94th Academy Awards as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic – that the award eligibility period for a film would be the preceding calendar year.
Most nominations: One Night of Love (Columbia Pictures ) – 6
Major Awards
Most Awards: It Happened One Night – 5
It Happened One Night became the first film to perform a "clean sweep" of the top five award categories : Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay . This feat would later be duplicated by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1976 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1992 . It also was the first romantic comedy to be named Best Picture.
1934 film releases [ edit ]
United States unless stated
January–March [ edit ]
January 1934
6 January
19 January
22 January
26 January
Unknown
February 1934
1 February
2 February
3 February
9 February
10 February
14 February
16 February
22 February
23 February
25 February
March 1934
3 March
17 March
30 March
31 March
April–June [ edit ]
April 1934
5 April
7 April
9 April
10 April
15 April
16 April
26 April
27 April
May 1934
1 May
2 May
3 May
4 May
9 May
15 May
18 May
25 May
26 May
31 May
June 1934
1 June
2 June
4 June
6 June
8 June
13 June
28 June
30 June
July–September [ edit ]
July 1934
6 July
13 July
20 July
21 July
30 July
August 1934
3 August
4 August
6 August
13 August
15 August
16 August
17 August
19 August
23 August
24 August
30 August
31 August
September 1934
5 September
11 September
12 September
14 September
15 September
17 September
19 September
21 September
22 September
28 September
October–December [ edit ]
October 1934
1 October
2 October
4 October
5 October
8 October
13 October
18 October
19 October
22 October
November 1934
2 November
3 November
9 November
10 November
16 November
17 November
23 November
26 November
29 November
30 November
December 1934
1 December
7 December
9 December
10 December
11 December
14 December
21 December
23 December
28 December
31 December
Notable films released in 1934 [ edit ]
United States unless stated
Babes in Toyland , starring Laurel and Hardy
Baby, Take a Bow , starring Shirley Temple
The Barretts of Wimpole Street , starring Norma Shearer , Fredric March and Charles Laughton
The Battle , starring Merle Oberon , Charles Boyer and John Loder – (GB /France )
Belle of the Nineties , starring Mae West and Johnny Mack Brown
The Big Road (Dalu), directed by Sun Yu – (China )
The Big Shakedown , starring Bette Davis and Charles Farrell
The Black Cat , starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
Bolero , starring George Raft and Carole Lombard
Boots! Boots! , starring George Formby – (GB – first film by Blakeley's Productions )
Born to Be Bad , starring Cary Grant , Loretta Young , Jackie Kelk
Bright Eyes , starring Shirley Temple
Broadway Bill , directed by Frank Capra , starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back , starring Ronald Colman
The Captain Hates the Sea , starring Victor McLaglen and John Gilbert in his last film role
Carolina , starring Janet Gaynor and Lionel Barrymore
The Case of the Howling Dog , starring Warren William (as Perry Mason )
The Cat and the Fiddle , starring Ramón Novarro and Jeanette MacDonald
The Cat's-Paw , starring Harold Lloyd
Chained , starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable
Chapayev – winner of National Board of Review "Best Foreign Film" Award in 1935 – (U.S.S.R. )
Charlie Chan in London , starring Warner Oland and Ray Milland
Charlie Chan's Courage , starring Warner Oland
The Circus Clown , starring Joe E. Brown
City Limits
Cleopatra , directed by Cecil B. DeMille , starring Claudette Colbert and Warren William
Colonel Blood , starring Frank Cellier
The Count of Monte Cristo , starring Robert Donat
Crime Without Passion , starring Claude Rains
Dames , choreographed by Busby Berkeley , starring Joan Blondell , Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler
David Harum starring Will Rogers
Dark Hazard , starring Edward G. Robinson
Death on the Diamond , starring Robert Young
Death Takes a Holiday , starring Fredric March
The Dream Car (Meseautó), directed by Béla Gaál and starring Zita Perczel , Ella Gombaszögi and Klári Tolnay – (Hungary )
Don't Make Grandpa Angry (Nezlobte dědečka), directed by Karel Lamač , starring Vlasta Burian , Čeněk Šlégl and Adina Mandlová – (Czechoslovakia )
Gambling , starring George M. Cohan
Gambling Lady , starring Barbara Stanwyck
The Gay Bride , starring Carole Lombard
The Gay Divorcee , starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
The Girl from Missouri , starring Jean Harlow
Girl o' My Dreams , starring Mary Carlisle , Edward J. Nugent , Lon Chaney Jr. , Sterling Holloway
Glamour , starring Paul Lukas
The Goddess (Shen nu) – (China )
Grand Canary , starring Warner Baxter
Le Grand Jeu (The Great Game), directed by Jacques Feyder – (France )
Great Expectations , starring Henry Hull and Jane Wyatt
The Lady Is Willing , starring Leslie Howard and Cedric Hardwicke – (GB )
The Last Round-Up , starring Randolph Scott
Lieutenant Kijé – (U.S.S.R. )
Liliom , directed by Fritz Lang , starring Charles Boyer – (France )
Limehouse Blues , starring George Raft and Jean Parker
Little Man, What Now? , starring Margaret Sullavan and Douglass Montgomery
The Little Minister , starring Katharine Hepburn and John Beal
Little Miss Marker , starring Shirley Temple
A Lost Lady , starring Barbara Stanwyck
The Lost Patrol , starring Victor McLaglen , Boris Karloff and Wallace Ford
The Lucky Texan , starring John Wayne
Madame Du Barry , starring Dolores del Río
The Man from Utah , starring John Wayne
Man of Aran (documentary), directed by Robert Flaherty – (GB )
The Man Who Knew Too Much , directed by Alfred Hitchcock , starring Leslie Banks , Edna Best and Peter Lorre – (GB )
The Man with Two Faces , starring Edward G. Robinson
Managed Money , starring Shirley Temple
Mandalay , starring Kay Francis
Manhattan Melodrama , starring Clark Gable , William Powell and Myrna Loy
Maniac , starring Horace B. Carpenter
Mauvaise Graine , directed by Billy Wilder – (FR )
The Merry Widow (La veuve joyeuse), directed by Ernst Lubitsch , starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald – (France /US )
Les Misérables , directed by Raymond Bernard , starring Harry Baur and Charles Vanel – (France )
The Mighty Barnum , starring Wallace Beery
Murder at Monte Carlo , starring Errol Flynn – (GB )
Now and Forever , starring Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard
Now I'll Tell , starring Spencer Tracy
Radio Parade of 1935 , starring Will Hay – (GB )
Red Ensign , starring Leslie Banks – (GB )
The Return of Bulldog Drummond , starring Ralph Richardson and Ann Todd – (GB )
The Richest Girl in the World , starring Miriam Hopkins , Joel McCrea and Fay Wray
Riptide , starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery
The Rise of Catherine the Great , starring Elisabeth Bergner and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. – (GB )
Road House , directed by Maurice Elvey , starring Violet Loraine and Gordon Harker (GB)
Le Roi des Champs-Élysées (The King of the Champs-Élysées), starring Buster Keaton – (France )
Sadie McKee , starring Joan Crawford
The Scarlet Empress , directed by Josef von Sternberg , starring Marlene Dietrich and John Lodge
The Scarlet Pimpernel , starring Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon – (GB )
Servants' Entrance , starring Janet Gaynor
She Loves Me Not , starring Miriam Hopkins and Bing Crosby
Shirin and Farhad , starring Roohangiz Saminejad (Iran)
The Silver Streak , starring Charles Starrett
Sing as We Go , starring Gracie Fields and Stanley Holloway – (GB )
Six of a Kind , starring Charles Ruggles , Mary Boland and W. C. Fields
Something Always Happens , directed by Michael Powell , starring, Ian Hunter , Nance O'Neil , Peter Gawthorne , Muriel George – (GB )
The Song of Ceylon , documentary directed by Basil Wright – (GB )
Song of the Fishermen (Yu guang qu) – (China )
Spitfire , starring Katharine Hepburn
The St. Louis Kid , starring James Cagney
Stand Up and Cheer! , starring Warner Baxter and Madge Evans , featuring 5-year-old Shirley Temple
A Story of Floating Weeds (Ukikusa monogatari), directed by Yasujirō Ozu – (Japan )
The Tars – (Netherlands)
Tarzan and His Mate , starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan
The Thin Man , directed by W. S. Van Dyke , starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
Thirty-Day Princess , starring Sylvia Sidney and Cary Grant
Those Were the Days , directed by Thomas Bentley , starring Will Hay and John Mills – (GB )
The Trail Beyond , starring John Wayne
Treasure Island , starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper
Twentieth Century , directed by Howard Hawks , starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard
Twenty Million Sweethearts , starring Pat O'Brien , Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers
Waltzes from Vienna , directed by Alfred Hitchcock , starring Esmond Knight and Jessie Matthews – (GB )
We're Not Dressing , starring Bing Crosby and Carole Lombard
We're Rich Again , starring Edna May Oliver and Billie Burke
What Every Woman Knows , starring Helen Hayes
Whirlpool , starring Jack Holt and Jean Arthur
The White Parade , starring Loretta Young
A Wicked Woman , starring Mady Christians , Jean Parker and Charles Bickford
The Woman of the Port (La Mujer del Puerto) – (Mexico )
Wonder Bar , starring Al Jolson
Workers, Let's Go (Hej rup!), directed by Martin Frič – (Czechoslovakia )
Serials [ edit ]
Comedy film series and shorts [ edit ]
Harold Lloyd (1913 –1938 )
Lupino Lane (1915 –1939 )
Buster Keaton (1917 –1944 )
Laurel and Hardy (1921 –1945 )
Our Gang (1922 –1944 )
Harry Langdon (1924 –1936 )
Wheeler & Woolsey (1929 –1937 )
Ted Healy and His Stooges (1933–1934 )
The Three Stooges (1934 –1959 )
Animated short film series [ edit ]
Krazy Kat .
January 6 – Sylvia Syms , English actress (d. 2023 )
January 8 – Roy Kinnear , British character actor (d. 1988 )
January 11 – Mitchell Ryan , American actor (d. 2022 )
January 14 – Richard Briers , English actor (d. 2013 )
- Priscilla Morgan , English actress
January 20 – Tom Baker , British actor
January 21
January 22 – Bill Bixby , American actor (d. 1993 )
January 23 – Carmine Caridi , American actor (d. 2019 )
January 25 – Donald W. Ernst , American editor and producer (d. 2023 )
February 5 - Jimmy Flynn , American actor (d. 2022 )
February 10 – Tatyana Lolova , Bulgarian actress (d. 2021 )
February 11 – Tina Louise , American actress
February 12
February 13 – George Segal , American actor and musician (d. 2021 )
February 14 - Florence Henderson , American actress (d. 2016 )
February 17
February 21 – Rue McClanahan , American actress (d. 2010 )
March 4 – Anne Haney , American actress (d. 2001 )
March 5
March 9
March 12 - Henryk Bista , Polish actor (d. 1997)
March 22 – May Britt , Swedish actress
March 26
March 27 – Peter Schamoni , German director (d. 2011)
March 30 - Count Prince Miller , British actor and musician (d. 2018)
March 31
April 2 – Shirley Douglas , Canadian actress (d. 2020)
April 4 - Helen Hanft , American actress (d. 2013)
April 7 – Ian Richardson , Scottish actor (d. 2007)
April 14 – Josef Somr , Czech actor (d. 2022)
April 16 – Robert Stigwood , Australian-born British producer (d. 2016)
April 24 – Shirley MacLaine , American actress
April 25 – Denny Miller , American actor (d. 2014)
May 1 – John Meillon , Australian character actor (d. 1989)
May 3 – Ivan Andonov , Bulgarian film director (d. 2011)
May 11 – André Gregory , French-born American director, writer and actor
May 18 – Dwayne Hickman , American actor, producer and director (d. 2022)
May 22 – Fred Roos , American film producer (d. 2024)
May 24 – Kiril Gospodinov , Bulgarian actor (d. 2003)
May 29 – Marina Cicogna , Italian producer (d. 2023)
June 1
June 8 – Millicent Martin , English actress, singer and comedian
June 15
June 16
June 21
June 26 – Josef Sommer , German-American actor
July 1
July 5 – Nikolay Binev , Bulgarian actor (d. 2003)
July 8 – Marty Feldman , English comedian and actor (d. 1982)
July 10 – Jerry Nelson , American puppeteer (d. 2012)
July 15 – Eva Krížiková , Slovak actress (d. 2020)
July 22
July 23 – Silvana Bosi , Italian actress (d. 2020)
July 26 – Ken Pogue , Canadian actor (d. 2015)
July 29 – Sergio Fiorentini , Italian actor and voice actor (d. 2014)
August 5 – Zakes Mokae , South African-American actor (d. 2009)
August 7 – Marija Kohn , Croatian actress (d. 2018)
August 14 – Vernon Dobtcheff , British actor
August 24 – Kenny Baker , English-born actor (d. 2016)
August 30 – Helen Craig , English children's author and illustrator (Angelina Ballerina )
September 2 - Chuck McCann , American actor, comedian, puppeteer and television host (d. 2018)
September 5 - Dennis Letts , American actor (d. 2008)
September 11 – Ian Abercrombie , English-American actor and comedian (d. 2012)
September 18 - Eddie Jones , American actor (d. 2019)
September 20
September 24 - Robert Lang , English actor (d. 2004)
September 27
September 28 – Brigitte Bardot , French actress
September 29 – Alan Hopgood , Australian actor (d. 2022)
October 13 – Savely Kramarov , Russian-American actor (d. 1995)
October 15 – Peter Haskell , American actor (d. 2010)
October 19 – Glória Menezes , Brazilian actress
October 20 – Timothy West , English actor
October 28 - Charles A. Gargano , Italian-American actor
October 31 - Suzanne Shepherd , American actress (d. 2023)
November 5 – Kira Muratova , Russian director (d. 2018)
November 10
November 11
November 13 – Garry Marshall , American director, actor, producer, writer and voice artist (d. 2016)
November 15 – Joanna Barnes , American actress (d. 2022)
November 21
November 23 – Michael Wayne , American producer and actor (d. 2003)
November 25 – Ann Davies , English actress (d. 2022)
November 28 – Jaakko Pakkasvirta , Finnish film director and screenwriter (d. 2018)
December 9 – Judi Dench , English actress
December 16 – Pete Schrum , American actor (d. 2003)
December 26 – Matt Zimmerman , Canadian actor (d. 2022)
December 28 – Maggie Smith , English actress
December 29 – Forugh Farrokhzad , Iranian poet and film director (d. 1967)
December 30 – Russ Tamblyn , American actor
March 21 – Lilyan Tashman , 34, American actress (cancer)
May 31 – Lew Cody , 50, American actor
June 8 – Dorothy Dell , 19, American actress (road accident)
July 6 – Harry A. Pollard , 55, American actor & director
July 28 – Marie Dressler , 65, Canadian-born American Academy Award winning actress (cancer)
References [ edit ]
^ Birchard, Robert S. (2004). Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood . University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813123240 .
^ a b c d The Eddie Mannix Ledger , Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study .
^ a b "All-Time Film Rental Champs". Variety . October 15, 1990. p. M150.
^ a b Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 15 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
^ a b c Richard Jewel, "RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951", Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television , Vol. 14, No. 1, 1994, p.55
^ Eesti Draamateater Archived 2017-09-23 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 30 November 2016.
External links [ edit ]