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The year 1939 in film involved some significant events.

Events

Movie historians and film buffs often look back on 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 all-time classics, when multitudes of other films of the era have been largely forgotten.

August 15 - The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, USA.

October 17 - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington premieres in Washington D.C.

December 15 - Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta, Georgia, USA with a 3-day festival.

Top grossing films

Academy Awards

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

Films released in 1939

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney and Rex Ingram as Jim
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker and Fay Holden
• Another Thin Man, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
• The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
• Ask a Policeman, starring Will Hay, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott
• At the Circus, starring Groucho Marx, Chico Marx and Harpo Marx
• Babes in Arms, Srarring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland
• Bachelor Mother, starring Ginger Rogers and David Niven
• Barricade starring Alice Faye and Warner Baxter
• Beau Geste, starring Gary Cooper and Ray Milland
• Boys' Reformatory, starring Frankie Darro and Grant Withers
• Confessions of a Nazi Spy, starring Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, George Sanders and Paul Lukas
• Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis (favorite role), George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Ronald Reagan (Academy Award Nominee)
• 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
• Everything Happens At Night, starring Sonja Henie and Ray Milland
• The Four Feathers starring John Clements and Ralph Richardson
• Five Came Back starring Lucille Ball and Chester Morris
• Frontier Marshal, starring Randolph Scott, John Carradine and Lon Chaney, Jr.
• Gone with the Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh (Academy Award for Best Picture)
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips, starring Robert Donat and Greer Garson (Academy Award Nominee)
• The Gorilla, starring Jimmy Ritz, Harry Ritz and Al Ritz
• Gulliver's Travels starring Jessica Dragonette and Lanny Ross
• Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Sam Jaffe
• The Hardys Ride High, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker and Fay Holden
• Hollywood Cavalcade, starring Alice Faye, Don Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg and Alan Curtis
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara
• The Marines Fly High, starring Lucille Ball and Richard Dix
• In Name Only, starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis
• Idiot's Delight, starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer
• Intermezzo, starring Ingrid Bergman and Leslie Howard
• Jamaica Inn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Charles Laughton and Horace Hodges
• Jesse James, starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly and Randolph Scott
• Judge Hardy and Son starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker and Fay Holden
• Le Jour se lève (Daybreak)
• Let Us Live starring Maureen O'Sullivan and Henry Fonda
• The Light that Failed, starring Ronald Colman
• The Little Princess, starring Shirley Temple and Richard Greene
• Love Affair, starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer (Academy Award Nominee)
• Mexicali Rose, starring Gene Autry
• Midnight, starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring James Stewart, Jean Arthur and Claude Rains (Academy Award Nominee)
• Mr. Wong in Chinatown, starring Boris Karloff
• The Mystery of Mr. Wong, starring Boris Karloff
• The Oklahoma Kid, starring James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Donald Crisp
• Of Mice and Men, starring Burgess Meredith, Betty Field and Lon Chaney Jr. (Academy Award Nominee)
• The Old Maid, starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins
• On Dress Parade, starring The Dead End Kids
• Only Angels Have Wings, starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur
• On Your Toes, screenplay by the playwright Lawrence Riley et al. (film mentioned in article)
• Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire and Bela Lugosi (Academy Award Nominee)
• The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn
• Q Planes, starring Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier
• Range War, a Hopalong Cassidy western starring William Boyd
• The Roaring Twenties, starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane and Humphrey Bogart
• The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir
• Seven Little Australians directed by Arthur Greville Collins
• Son of Frankenstein, starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
• The Spy in Black, starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson
• They Shall have Music, starring Jascha Heifetz, Joel McCrea, Andrea Leeds and Walter Brennan
• Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Berton Churchill and John Carradine (Academy Award Nominee)
• Stanley and Livingstone, starring Spencer Tracy and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
• The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, a Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
• The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
• Susannah of the Mounties, starring Shirley Temple and Randolph Scott
• The Three Musketeers, starring Don Ameche and The Ritz Brothers
• Three Texas Steers, starring John Wayne, directed by George Sherman
• Tower of London (1939 film), starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Vincent Price
• The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley (Academy Award Nominee)
• The Women, starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell
• Union Pacific, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea and directed by Cecil B. DeMille
• Wuthering Heights, starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven and Flora Robson (Academy Award Nominee)
• Wyoming Outlaw, starring John Wayne, directed by George Sherman
• 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 (1914-1940)
• Lupino Lane (1915-1939)
• Buster Keaton (1917-1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921-1945)
• Our Gang (1922-1944)
• The Marx Brothers (1929-1946)
• The Three Stooges (1933-1962)

Animated short film series

• Krazy Kat (1925-1940)
• Mickey Mouse (1928-1953)
• Silly Symphonies
  • The Practical Pig
  • The Ugly Duckling
• Looney Tunes (1930-1969)
• Terrytoons (1930-1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931-1969)
• Scrappy (1931-1941)
• Betty Boop (1932-1939)
• Popeye (1933-1957)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934-1949)
• Donald Duck (1937-1956)
• Walter Lantz Cartunes (also known as New Universal Cartoons or Cartune Comedies) (1938-1942)
• The Captain and the Kids (1938-1939)
• Goofy (1939-1955)
• Andy Panda (1939-1949)
• Nertsery Rhyme Cartoons (1939)
• Crackpot Cruise Cartoons (1939)
• Lil' Eightball (1939)
• Count Screwloose and J.R. (1939)

Births

• January 10 - Sal Mineo, actor (+ 1976)
• February 3 - Michael Cimino, director
• February 6 - Mike Farrell, American actor
• February 9 - Janet Suzman, actress
• March 5 - Samantha Eggar, actress
• April 7 - Francis Ford Coppola, director, producer, writer
• April 12 - Alan Ayckbourn, writer
• April 13 - Paul Sorvino, actor
• May 13 - Harvey Keitel, actor
• May 19 - Nancy Kwan, actress
• May 25 - Ian McKellen, actor
• May 30 - Michael J. Pollard, actor
• July 30 - Peter Bogdanovich, director
• July 31 - France Nuyen, actress
• August 2 - Wes Craven, director, producer, writer
• August 12 - George Hamilton, actor
• August 25 - John Badham, director
• August 29 - Joel Schumacher, director
• August 30 - Elizabeth Ashley, actress
• September 1 - Lily Tomlin, actress
• September 18 - Frankie Avalon, actor, singer
• September 29 - Larry Linville, American actor (d. April 10, 2000)
• October 8 - Paul Hogan, actor
• October 22 - Tony Roberts, actor
• October 24 - F. Murray Abraham, actor
• October 27 - John Cleese, actor
• October 28 - Jane Alexander, actress
• November 22 - Allen Garfield, actor

Film Debuts

• Greer Garson
• Maureen O'Hara
• William Holden
• Veronica Lake
• Anne Gwynne

Deaths

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