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The History of American Cinema: 1931 |
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30/1 - |
Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights is released. The silent film stars Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill and Harry Myers, and is a huge success. [ADD] | |||
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31/1 - |
Edward G. Robinson shoots to stardom in the role of Rico, loosely based on mobster Salvatore ‘Sam’ Cardinella, in Mervyn Leroy’s Little Caesar. The film premieres at The Strand Theater in New York, and heralds the dawn of a wave of gangster films from Warner Brothers. [ADD] | |||
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12/2 - |
Universal’s Dracula, starring Hungarian stage actor Bela Lugosi is released and becomes an immediate hit. The film is directed by Tod Browning. [ADD] | |||
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5/3 - |
Carl Laemmle, founder and president of Universal, celebrates 25 years in the film industry. [ADD] | |||
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11/3 - |
German director F. W. Murnau is killed in a car accident on the Santa Barbara highway shortly after finishing filming Tabu: A Story of the South Seas in Bora-Bora. [ADD] | |||
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23/4 - |
Warner’s new star James Cagney creates a stir as Tom Powers in William Wellman’s The Public Enemy. The former song-and-dance man was originally cast to play second lead to Edward Woods, but after viewing the rushes Wellman decided to switch their roles. Cagney, who mashes a grapefruit into co-star Mae Clarke’s face, becomes a huge star while Woods faded into obscurity. [ADD] | |||
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8/5 - |
Walt Disney’s Pluto is referred to by name for the first time in The Moose Hunt. He also speaks for the one and only time in his career when he says “kiss me.” [ADD] | |||
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16/5 - |
Oscar Micheaux’s The Exile, starring Eunice Brooks and Stanley Morrell, is the first all-black American talkie to be released. [ADD] | |||
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20/5 - |
Silent star Mary Pickford buys all her films, feeling that technological advances have made actors in old movies look ridiculous. [ADD] | |||
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9/6 - |
Two years after being voted America’s most popular female star, Clara Bow finds herself out of work as she is released from her contract with Paramount. The former ‘It’ girl’s popularity plummeted due to the unsuitability of her Bronx accent to sound films and a series of scandals in her private life. [ADD] | |||
| The History of Cinema: 1931 | ||||
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| USA July - December | ||||
