1932 in film

Years in film
1870s
1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
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1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
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1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
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The following is an overview of 1932 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.

Events

The Film Daily Yearbook listed the following as the ten leading headline events of the year.^[1]

• Sidney Kent leaves Paramount Pictures and joins Fox Film
• Merlin H Aylesworth succeeds Hiram S Brown as president of RKO
• Jesse L. Lasky leaves Paramount and becomes an independent producer for Fox
• Sam Katz leaves Paramount
• James R Grainger leaves Fox and is succeeded by John D Clark formerly of Paramount
• Publix and Fox decentralization of cinemas
• New industry program, including standard exhibition contract along lines of 5-5-5, proposed by Motion Picture Theater Owners of America and Allied
• Joe Brandt retires from Columbia Pictures joins World-Wide and later resigns again
• Two Radio City theaters open, under direction of "Roxy", with coincident acquisition of the Rockefeller interests of 100,000 shares of RKO stock and 100,000 shares of RCA stock
• Experimentation with exclusive runs

Other notable events include:

• Ingrid Bergman's film career begins
• Cary Grant's film career begins
• Katharine Hepburn's film career begins
• Shirley Temple's film career begins
• Disney releases Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor
• Santa, first sound film made in Mexico, released
• The term "Tollywood" is first used to describe the cinema of West Bengal, based at Tollygunge

Top-grossing films

Top Ten Money Making Stars

Exhibitors selected the following as the Top Ten Money Making Stars for 1931-1932 in Quigley Publishing Company's first annual poll.^[4]

Academy Awards

The 5th Academy Awards were conducted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on November 18, 1932,^[5] at a ceremony held at The Ambassador Hotel^[5] in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was hosted by Conrad Nagel.^[5] Films screened in Los Angeles between August 1, 1931, and July 31, 1932, were eligible to receive awards.^[5]

Film poster of Grand Hotel

The Best Picture of the 5th Academy Awards went to Grand Hotel for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Note: Prior to 1933 awards were not based on calendar years, which is how there are no Best Actor, Best Actress or Best Director awards for 1932 films. The 1931-32 awards went to 1931 films.

1932 film releases

U.S.A. unless stated

Notable films released in 1932

U.S.A. unless stated

• 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis
• The Age of Consent, directed by Gregory La Cava
• Air Mail, directed by John Ford
• American Madness, directed by Frank Capra, starring Walter Huston
• The Animal Kingdom, starring Leslie Howard, Ann Harding and Myrna Loy
• Anton Spelec, Sharp-Shooter (Anton Špelec, ostrostřelec), directed by Martin Frič - (Czechoslovakia)
• As You Desire Me, starring Greta Garbo
• L'Atlantide, directed by G. W. Pabst, starring Brigitte Helm - (Germany/France)
• Attorney for the Defense, starring Edmund Lowe and Evelyn Brent
• Back Street, starring Irene Dunne and John Boles
• The Bartered Bride (Die verkaufte Braut), directed by Max Ophüls - (Germany)
• The Beast of the City, starring Walter Huston, Jean Harlow and Wallace Ford
• The Big Broadcast, starring Bing Crosby
• Big City Blues, starring Eric Linden and Joan Blondell
• The Big Stampede, starring John Wayne
• A Bill of Divorcement, starring John Barrymore, Billie Burke and Katharine Hepburn in her film debut
• Bird of Paradise, starring Dolores del Río, Joel McCrea and Lon Chaney Jr.
• Das blaue Licht (The Blue Light), starring and directed by Leni Riefenstahl - (Germany)
• A Blonde Dream, starring Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch and Willi Forst - (Germany)
• Blonde Venus, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant
• Blondie of the Follies, directed by Edmund Goulding; starring Marion Davies, Billie Dove, and Robert Montgomery
• Boudu Saved from Drowning (Boudu sauvé des eaux), directed by Jean Renoir, starring Michel Simon - (France)
• Broken Lullaby, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Lionel Barrymore
• Business and Pleasure, starring Will Rogers
• The Cabin in the Cotton, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Richard Barthelmess and Bette Davis
• Call Her Savage, starring Clara Bow
• Charlie Chan's Chance, starring Warner Oland and H. B. Warner
• Cruiser Emden, directed by Louis Ralph - (Germany)
• Dance Pretty Lady, directed by Anthony Asquith (Britain)
• Dancers in the Dark, starring Miriam Hopkins and Jack Oakie
• The Dark Horse, starring Warren William and Bette Davis
• The Dentist, a W. C. Fields short produced by Mack Sennett
• Destry Rides Again, starring Tom Mix
• Devil and the Deep, starring Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton and Cary Grant
• Downstairs, starring John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce and Hedda Hopper
• Emma, starring Marie Dressler
• F.P.1 (F.P.1 antwortet nicht) - (Germany)
• Faithless, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Robert Montgomery
• Fanny, directed by Marc Allégret, starring Raimu - (France)
• A Farewell to Arms, directed by Frank Borzage, starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes
• Fast Life, starring William Haines and Madge Evans
• Flowers and Trees, a Walt Disney animated short
• Forbidden, directed by Frank Capra, starring Barbara Stanwyck
• Freaks, directed by Tod Browning
• Goodnight, Vienna, directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Jack Buchanan and Anna Neagle - (GB)
• Grand Hotel, starring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore
• Horse Feathers, starring the Marx Brothers with Thelma Todd
• Hotel Splendide, directed by Michael Powell - (GB)
• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Paul Muni
• I Was Born, But... (Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo), directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
• If I Had a Million, an anthology comedy film with an all-star cast including W. C. Fields, May Robson, George Raft, Charles Laughton and Gary Cooper
• The Impatient Maiden, starring Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke
• Island of Lost Souls, an adaptation of H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen and Bela Lugosi
• Ivan - directed by Alexander Dovzhenko - (U.S.S.R.)
• Jack's the Boy directed by Walter Forde, starring Jack Hulbert - (GB)
• Jewel Robbery, starring William Powell and Kay Francis
• Kuhle Wampe oder: Wem gehört die Welt? (To Whom Does the World Belong?) - (Germany)
• The Last Mile, starring Preston Foster
• Law and Order, starring Walter Huston and Harry Carey
• The Local Bad Man, starring Hoot Gibson
• Love Me Tonight, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald (as Jeanette Mac Donald)
• The Lucky Number, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Gordon Harker - (GB)
• The Man Who Played God (aka The Silent Voice), starring George Arliss and Bette Davis
• Merrily We Go to Hell, directed by Dorothy Arzner, starring Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney
• The Midshipmaid, starring Jessie Matthews - (GB)
• Million Dollar Legs, starring Jack Oakie and W. C. Fields
• The Most Dangerous Game, starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks and Robert Armstrong, involving much of the same cast and crew of the following year's King Kong.
• The Mouthpiece, starring Warren William
• Movie Crazy, a comedy starring Harold Lloyd
• The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff
• Murders in the Rue Morgue, starring Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox and Leon Ames
• Night After Night, starring George Raft and Mae West in her film debut
• Night at the Crossroads (La Nuit du carrefour), directed by Jean Renoir - (France)
• No Man Of Her Own, directed by Wesley Ruggles, starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard
• Odds 777 - (Denmark)
• The Old Dark House, directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Ernest Thesiger and Raymond Massey
• One Hour with You, starring Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Genevieve Tobin and Charles Ruggles
• One Way Passage, directed by Tay Garnett, starring William Powell and Kay Francis
• Pack Up Your Troubles, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• Payment Deferred, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Sullivan
• The Phantom President, starring George M. Cohan and Claudette Colbert
• Polly of the Circus, directed by Alfred Santell; starring Marion Davies and Clark Gable
• Rain, starring Joan Crawford and Walter Huston
• Rasputin and the Empress, starring John Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore
• Rasputin, Demon with Women, starring Conrad Veidt and Brigitte Horney - (Germany)
• Raid in St. Pauli (Raid in St. Pauli) - (Germany)
• Red Dust, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable
• The Red-Haired Alibi, starring Merna Kennedy Theodore von Eltz Grant Withers and Shirley Temple
• Red-Headed Woman, starring Jean Harlow
• Rome Express, directed by Walter Forde, starring Conrad Veidt and Esther Ralston - (GB)
• Santa - (Mexico)
• Scarface, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Raft and Boris Karloff
• Scarlet Dawn, directed by William Dieterle, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Nancy Carroll
• Shanghai Express, starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong and Warner Oland
• Sherlock Holmes
• The Sign of the Cross, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Fredric March and Claudette Colbert
• A Simple Case (Prostoy sloochay) - (U.S.S.R.)
• Smilin' Through, starring Norma Shearer
• Spring Shower (Tavaszi zápor) - (Hungary/France)
• Tarzan the Ape Man, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan
• Taxi!, starring James Cagney and Loretta Young
• They Just Had to Get Married, starring Slim Summerville and ZaSu Pitts
• Three Modern Women, directed by Bu Wancang, starring Ruan Lingyu and Jin Yan – (China)
• Three on a Match, starring Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis
• Tiger Shark, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Trouble in Paradise, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis and Herbert Marshall
• Two Seconds, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Unheimliche Geschichten - (Germany)
• The Undertaker (Funebrák), directed by Karel Lamač - (Czechoslovakia)
• Union Depot, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Blondell
• Vampyr, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer - (Germany/France)
• Virtue, starring Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien
• Washington Merry-Go-Round, starring Lee Tracy
• What Price Hollywood?, directed by George Cukor, starring Constance Bennett
• What Scoundrels Men Are! (Gli uomini, che mascalzoni!), starring Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi
• Wooden Crosses (Les croix de bois), directed by Raymond Bernard - (France)
• Young America, starring Spencer Tracy

Serials

The Shadow of the Eagle poster.

Ordered by release date:

• January 4: Detective Lloyd, 12 chapters (216 min)
• February 1: The Shadow of the Eagle, 12 chapters (218 minutes)
• March 28: The Airmail Mystery, 12 chapters (225 min)
• May 17: The Last of the Mohicans, 12 chapters (231 minutes)
• June 20: Heroes of the West, 12 chapters (225 min)
• August 1: The Hurricane Express, 12 chapters (227 min)
• September 5: The Last Frontier, 12 chapters (213 minutes)
• September 12: Jungle Mystery, 12 chapters (240 min)
• November 1: The Devil Horse, 12 chapters (216 min)
• December 5: The Lost Special, 12 chapters (240 minutes)

Short film series

Lobby card for the 1932 Laurel and Hardy short film Any Old Port!.

Ordered by release date:

• Buster Keaton (1917-1941)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921-1943)
• Our Gang (1922-1944) The series was officially called both Our Gang and Hal Roach's Rascals until 1932, when Our Gang became the sole title of the series.
• Shirley Temple (1932–1946)

Animated short film series

Ordered by release date of the film series. This list only includes shorts released in 1932:

• Aesop's Film Fables (1921–1933)
• Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927–1938)
• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Silly Symphonies (1929-1939)
  • The Bird Store
  • The Bears and the Bees
  • Just Dogs
  • Flowers and Trees
  • King Neptune
  • Bugs in Love
  • Babes in the Woods
  • Santa's Workshop
• Screen Songs (1929–1938)
  • Sweet Jennie Lee (January 9)
  • Show Me the Way to Go Home (January 30)
  • When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along (February 19)
  • Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (March 4)
  • Just One More Chance (April 1)
  • Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning (April 22)
  • Shine On Harvest Moon (May 6)
  • Let Me Call You Sweetheart (May 20)
  • I Ain't Got Nobody (June 17)
  • You Try Somebody Else (July 29)
  • Rudy Vallee Melodies (August 5)
  • Down Among the Sugar Cane (August 26)
  • Just a Gigolo (September 9)
  • School Days (September 30)
  • Romantic Melodies (October 21)
  • When It's Sleepy Time Down South (November 11)
  • Sing a Song (December 2)
  • Time on My Hands (December 23)
• Talkartoons (1929-1932)
  • Minnie the Moocher (featuring Betty Boop)
  • Sink or Swim S.O.S (featuring Betty Boop)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
  • Bosko's Store
  • Bosko and Honey
  • Bosko the Lumberjack
  • Bosko and Bruno
  • Bosko's Party
• Flip the Frog (1930–1933)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Scrappy (1931–1941)
• Tom and Jerry (Van Beuren) (1931–1933)
• Betty Boop (1932-1939)
  • Stopping the Show
  • Betty Boop's Bizzy Bee
  • Betty Boop, M.D.
  • Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle
  • Betty Boop's Ups and Down
  • Betty Boop for President
  • I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You
  • Betty Boop's Museum
• Pooch the Pup (1932-1933)

• • The Athlete (August 29)^[6][7]
  • The Butcher Boy (September 26)^[6][8]
  • The Crowd Snores (October 24)^[6][9]
  • The Under Dog (November 7)^[6][10]
  • Cats and Dogs (December 5)^[6][11]
• Flowers and Trees (1933)

Births

• January 3 - Dabney Coleman, American character actor
• January 4
  • Carlos Saura, Spanish director
  • Richard Stahl, American comic actor (died 2006)
• January 22 - Piper Laurie, American actress
• February 6 - François Truffaut, French director (died 1984)
• February 13 - Susan Oliver, American actress, (died 1990)
• February 14 - Alexander Kluge, German director
• February 18 - Miloš Forman, Czech-born director (died 2018)
• February 23 - Majel Barrett, American actress (died 2008)
• February 27 - Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress (died 2011)
• March 31 - Nagisa Oshima, Japanese director (died 2013)
• April 1 - Debbie Reynolds, American singer, actress and dancer (died 2016)
• April 4
  • Anthony Perkins, American actor (died 1992)
  • Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet director (died 1986)
• April 10
  • Delphine Seyrig, French actress (died 1990)
  • Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor (died 2015)
• April 27 - Anouk Aimée, French actress
• June 6 - Anne Claire Poirier, Canadian director, producer and screenwriter
• June 18 - David Herriot, Irish actor (died 2000)
• June 22 - Prunella Scales, English actress
• August 2 - Peter O'Toole, Anglo-Irish actor (died 2013)
• September 29 - Mehmood Ali, Indian actor, director and producer (died 2004)
• October 13 - Dušan Makavejev, Serbian director
• October 20 - William Christopher, American actor (died 2016)
• November 10 - Roy Scheider, American actor (died 2008)
• November 13 - Richard Mulligan, American actor (died 2000)
• November 15 - Petula Clark, English singer, actress and film composer
• November 22 - Robert Vaughn, American actor (died 2016)
• December 7 - Ellen Burstyn, American actress
• December 28 - Nichelle Nichols, American actress

Deaths

• February 15 - Minnie Maddern Fiske, American stage star made silent films (born 1865)
• June 30 - Bruno Kastner, German actor (born 1890)
• July 17 - Rasmus Rasmussen, Norwegian actor (born 1862)
• August 1 - James R. Quirk, American editor and publisher of Photoplay magazine (born 1884)
• August 10 - Rin Tin Tin, canine actor (born 1918)
• September 1 - Guy Oliver, American actor (born 1878)
• September 16 - Peg Entwistle, British-born American actress (born 1908)
• November 27 - Evelyn Preer, American actress, singer (born 1896)

Film debuts

• Ingrid Bergman - Landskamp
• Robert Donat - Men of Tomorrow
• Cary Grant - This Is the Night
• George O'Hanlon - The Death Kiss
• Louis Hayward - Self Made Lady
• Paul Henreid - Baroud
• Katharine Hepburn - A Bill of Divorcement
• Alan Ladd - Tom Brown of Culver
• Anna Lee - Ebb Tide
• John Mills - Midshipmaid Gob
• David Niven - There Goes the Bride
• Jean Parker - Divorce in the Family
• Dick Powell - Blessed Event
• Tyrone Power - Tom Brown of Culver
• Gloria Stuart - Street of Women
• Jessica Tandy - The Indiscretions of Eve
• Jacques Tati - Oscar, champion de tennis
• Shirley Temple - Runt Page
• Mae West - Night After Night
• Jane Withers - Handle with Care
• Jane Wyman - The Kid from Spain

References