1943 in film

Years in film
1870s
1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
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
1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029

The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• January 3 - first missing persons telecast (NYC)
• February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films.
• November 23 - British Forces Broadcasting Service begins operation
• December 31 - NYC's Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at Paramount Theater

^[1]

Top-grossing films (U.S.)^[2]

Box office numbers were reported at the time as a percentage compared to 'normal' business at each theater. For example, For Whom the Bell Tolls performed at an extraordinary 254% while Thousands Cheer was a hit at 176%. This is why exact dollar grosses for the period are unreliable at best.

Awards

Top Ten Money Making Stars

1943 film releases

U.S.A.

Notable films released in 1943

U.S.A. unless stated

A

• Above Suspicion, starring Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray
• Action in the North Atlantic, starring Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey
• The Adventures of Tartu, starring Robert Donat and Valerie Hobson - (GB)
• Air Force, directed by Howard Hawks, starring John Garfield
• Angels of the Streets (Les anges du peche), directed by Robert Bresson - (France)

B

• Background to Danger, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring George Raft and Peter Lorre
• Bataan, directed by Tay Garnett, starring Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan
• The Bells Go Down, starring Tommy Trinder and James Mason - (GB)
• Best Foot Forward, starring Lucille Ball, William Gaxton, Virginia Weidler
• Bombardier, starring Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley
• Border Patrol, starring William Boyd, George Reeves, Robert Mitchum

C

• Cabin in the Sky, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Ethel Waters
• Calling Dr. Death, first of the Inner Sanctum Mysteries, starring Lon Chaney, Jr.
• Clancy Street Boys, starring The East Side Kids
• Coney Island, starring Betty Grable
• The Constant Nymph, starring Joan Fontaine
• Le Corbeau (The Raven), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Pierre Fresnay - (France)
• Corvette K-225, starring Randolph Scott
• O Costa do Castelo (The Costa from the Castle) - (Portugal)
• Crash Dive, starring Tyrone Power and Anne Baxter
• Crazy House, starring Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson
• The Crew of the Dora (Besatzung Dora) - (Germany)
• Crime Doctor, starring Warner Baxter
• Cry 'Havoc', starring Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern, Joan Blondell

D

• The Dancing Masters, starring Laurel and Hardy
• Day of Wrath (Vredens Dag), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer - (Denmark)
• The Demi-Paradise, starring Laurence Olivier - (GB)
• Desert Victory, a propaganda documentary - (GB)
• Destination Tokyo, starring Cary Grant and John Garfield
• Destroyer, starring Glenn Ford and Edward G. Robinson
• Doña Bárbara, directed by Fernando de Fuentes - (Mexico)
• DuBarry Was a Lady, starring Lucille Ball and Red Skelton

E-F

• Edge of Darkness, starring Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan
• L'Éternel retour (The Eternal Return), directed by Jean Cocteau, starring Jean Marais - (France)
• Fires Were Started, directed by Humphrey Jennings - (GB)
• Five Graves to Cairo, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter
• Flesh and Fantasy, starring Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Boyer
• Flor Silvestre, starring Dolores del Río - (Mexico)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls, directed by Sam Wood, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman
• Forever and a Day, featuring an all-star cast
• Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and Béla Lugosi
• Der Fuehrer's Face, Donald Duck's Academy Award-winning short

G

• The Gang's All Here, directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda
• The Ghost Ship, starring Richard Dix
• Girl Crazy, starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney
• Guadalcanal Diary, starring Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Preston Foster, William Bendix, Anthony Quinn
• A Guy Named Joe, starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne

H

• Hangmen Also Die!, starring Brian Donlevy and Walter Brennan
• Happy Land, starring Don Ameche and Frances Dee
• The Hard Way, starring Ida Lupino
• Heaven Can Wait, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Gene Tierney and Don Ameche
• Hello, Frisco, Hello, starring Alice Faye
• Hi Diddle Diddle, starring Adolphe Menjou and Pola Negri
• Hit the Ice, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Hitler's Children, directed by Edward Dmytryk
• Holy Matrimony, starring Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields
• Huella de luz (A Sight of Light) - (Spain)
• The Human Comedy, starring Mickey Rooney

I

• I Walked with a Zombie, starring Frances Dee
• Immensee (aka Immensee: A German Folksong) - (Germany)
• It Ain't Hay, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• It Comes Up Love, starring Gloria Jean and Donald O'Connor

J-K

• Jack London, starring Michael O'Shea and Susan Hayward
• Jane Eyre, directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine
• Journey into Fear, starring Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, Orson Welles
• The Kansan, starring Richard Dix and Jane Wyatt
• Kismet, starring Ashok Kumar - (India)

L-M

• Lassie Come Home, starring Roddy McDowall and Donald Crisp
• The Leopard Man, directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Dennis O'Keefe
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook - (GB)
• The Mad Ghoul, starring George Zucco
• Madame Curie, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon
• The Man in Grey, the first of the Gainsborough melodramas starring Margaret Lockwood and James Mason - (GB)
• María Candelaria, starring Dolores del Río and Pedro Armendáriz - (Mexico)
• Millions Like Us, directed by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder - (GB)
• Mission to Moscow, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Walter Huston
• Mister Big, starring Donald O'Connor and Gloria Jean
• The More the Merrier, directed by George Stevens, starring Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea
• Mr. Lucky, starring Cary Grant
• Münchhausen - (Germany)
• My Learned Friend, starring Will Hay - (GB)

N

• Nasreddin in Bukhara - (U.S.S.R.)
• No Place for a Lady, starring William Gargan and Phyllis Brooks
• No Time for Love, starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray
• The North Star, starring Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews
• Northern Pursuit, starring Errol Flynn

O

• Old Acquaintance, starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins
• Ossessione (Obsession), directed by Luchino Visconti - (Italy)
• The Outlaw, controversial western directed by Howard Hughes, starring Jane Russell
• The Ox-Bow Incident, directed by William Wellman, starring Henry Fonda, Harry Morgan, Dana Andrews

P

• Phantom of the Opera, starring Claude Rains
• Prelude to War, directed by Frank Capra
• Princess O'Rourke, starring Olivia de Havilland and Robert Cummings

Q-S

• The Return of the Vampire, starring Béla Lugosi
• Riding High, starring Dorothy Lamour and Dick Powell
• Sahara, starring Humphrey Bogart
• Saludos Amigos, a Walt Disney animated film starring Donald Duck and Goofy
• Sanshiro Sugata, directed by Akira Kurosawa - (Japan)
• The Seventh Victim, starring Tom Conway
• Shadow of a Doubt, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten
• Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• Sherlock Holmes in Washington, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Shipbuilders, directed by John Baxter - (GB)
• The Silver Fleet, starring Ralph Richardson and Googie Withers - (GB)
• The Sky's the Limit, starring Fred Astaire and Joan Leslie
• So Proudly We Hail!, starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake
• Son of Dracula, starring Lon Chaney Jr.
• The Song of Bernadette, starring Jennifer Jones
• Squadron Leader X, starring Eric Portman and Ann Dvorak - (GB)
• Star Spangled Rhythm, featuring an all-star cast
• Stormy Weather, starring Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers
• A Stranger in Town, starring Frank Morgan

T-V

• Tender Comrade, starring Ginger Rogers and Robert Ryan
• Thank Your Lucky Stars, starring Eddie Cantor
• Theatre Royal, starring Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen - (GB)
• They Came to Blow Up America, starring George Sanders
• This is the Army, directed by Michael Curtiz
• This Land Is Mine, directed by Jean Renoir, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara
• Thousands Cheer, starring Gene Kelly, Kathryn Grayson, Mary Astor
• Titanic - (Germany)
• Top Man, starring Donald O'Connor
• Ukraine in Flames (Bitva za nashu Sovetskuyu Ukrainu) - (U.S.S.R.)
• Victory Through Air Power, a propaganda film by Disney
• Le Voyageur de la Toussaint - (France)

W-Z

• War of the Wildcats (a.k.a. In Old Oklahoma), starring John Wayne
• Watch on the Rhine, starring Paul Lukas and Bette Davis
• We Dive at Dawn, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring John Mills - (GB)
• We've Never Been Licked, starring Richard Quine and Noah Beery, Jr.
• Whistling in Brooklyn, starring Red Skelton
• The Woman of the Town, starring Claire Trevor and Albert Dekker
• Yellow Canary, starring Anna Neagle and Richard Greene - (GB)

Serials

• Adventures of the Flying Cadets
• The Adventures of Smilin' Jack
• Batman, starring Lewis Wilson
• Daredevils of the West, starring Allan Lane, directed by John English
• Don Winslow of the Coast Guard
• G-Men vs the Black Dragon, starring Rod Cameron, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
• The Masked Marvel, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
• The Phantom, starring Tom Tyler
• Secret Service in Darkest Africa, starring Rod Cameron, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet

Comedy film series

• Buster Keaton (1917–1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921-1945)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)
• The Marx Brothers (1929–1946)
• The Three Stooges (1934–1959)

Animated short film series

• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Scrappy (1931–1941)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934–1949)
• Donald Duck (1934–1956)
• Daffy Duck (1937 – 1966)
• Goofy (1939–1955)
• Andy Panda (1939–1949)
• Tom and Jerry (1940–1958)
• Woody Woodpecker (1941–1949)
• Swing Symphonies (1941–1945)
• The Fox and the Crow (1941–1950)
• Red Hot Riding Hood (1943–1949)
• Chip 'n Dale (1943–1956)
• Droopy (1943–1958)

Births

• January 13 - Richard Moll, actor
• January 24 - Sharon Tate, actress and model (died 1969)
• January 25 - Tobe Hooper, director and screenwriter (died 2017)
• January 28 - John Beck, actor
• February 3 - Blythe Danner, actress
• February 9 - Joe Pesci, actor
• February 20 - Mike Leigh, English director
• February 25 - George Harrison, English musician and songwriter (died 2001)
• March 8 - Lynn Redgrave, English actress (died 2010)
• March 15 - David Cronenberg, Canadian director and screenwriter
• March 31 - Christopher Walken, actor
• April 20 - Edie Sedgwick, actress, socialite, model and heiress (died 1971)
• June 7 - Michael Pennington, English actor, director and writer
• June 13 - Malcolm McDowell, English actor
• June 23 - Patrick Bokanowski, French director
• July 3 - Kurtwood Smith, actor
• July 21 - Edward Herrmann, actor (died 2014)
• August 15 - Barbara Bouchet, German-American actress
• August 17 - Robert De Niro, actor
• August 27 - Tuesday Weld, actress
• September 21 - Jerry Bruckheimer, producer
• September 28 - J. T. Walsh, actor (died 1998)
• October 4 - John Bindon, English actor and bodyguard
• October 8 - Chevy Chase, actor and comedian
• October 22 - Catherine Deneuve, French actress
• November 5 - Sam Shepard, American actor (died 2017)
• November 12 - Wallace Shawn, American actor
• November 28 - Randy Newman, American singer, film composer
• December 13 - Arturo Ripstein, Mexican director
• December 21 - Jack Nance, actor (died 1996)
• December 23 - Harry Shearer, actor
• December 31 - Ben Kingsley, English actor

Deaths

• February 14 - Dora Gerson, 43, German actress, Caravan of Death, On the Brink of Paradise
• February 19 - Lynne Overman, 58, American actress, Little Miss Marker, Union Pacific, Dixie
• April 3 - Conrad Veidt, 50, German actor, Casablanca, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Thief of Baghdad, The Spy in Black
• June 1 - Leslie Howard, 50, Academy Award-nominated British actor, Gone with the Wind, Pygmalion, The Petrified Forest, Of Human Bondage
• June 30 - Carlo Wieth, 57, Danish actor
• July 16 - Arthur Byron, 71, American actor, 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, Gabriel Over the White House

Film Debuts

• June Allyson - Best Foot Forward
• Hume Cronyn - Shadow of a Doubt
• Rhonda Fleming - In Old Oklahoma
• Kim Hunter - The Seventh Victim
• Richard Jaeckel - Guadalcanal Diary
• Dorothy McGuire - Claudia
• Robert Mitchum - The Human Comedy
• Dorothy Malone - Gildersleeve on Broadway
• Ella Raines - Corvette K-225
• Jane Russell - The Outlaw
• Cliff Robertson - We've Never Been Licked
• Lawrence Tierney - Gildersleeve on Broadway
• Shelley Winters - There's Something About a Soldier
• Natalie Wood - The Moon Is Down

References

Further reading

• Historical Events for Year 1943 (Part 5)