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The History of American Cinema: 1936

January - June

11/1 -

The funeral of former screen heartthrob John Gilbert takes place in Los Angeles.   The actor died from a heart attack after succumbing to alcoholism when the advent of sound destroyed his career. [ADD]

5/2 -

Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s first film for five years, premieres at the Rivoli Theater in New York.   Originally intended as a sound film, it is mostly silent.  [ADD]

19/2 -

Henry Hathaway’s The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is released.   The film stars Henry Fonda, Sylvia Sidney and Fred MacMurray, and is the first to be filmed in three-strip Technicolor on location. [ADD]

5/3 -

Labour disputes result in many filmmakers boycotting this years’ 8th Annual Academy Awards.   Writer Dudley Nichols becomes the first person to refuse an Award. [ADD]

7/3 -

Douglas Fairbanks marries his former mistress, Sylvia Hawkes, the ex-Lady Ashley. [ADD]

11/4 -

Desire, starring Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper, is released.   Producer and supervisor Ernst Lubitsch directed some of the film’s scenes while director Frank Borzage honoured his prior commitments to Warners.   John Gilbert, who was dating Dietrich at the time and whose comeback this film was intended to be, suffered a heart attack after filming a few Technicolor screen tests and died before filming commenced. [ADD]

16/4 -

Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town goes on general release after its premiere on 12^th April.  The film, which cost over $800,000 to make, stars Gary Cooper as Longfellow Deeds, a country bumpkin who wants to distribute his $20 million inheritance amongst the poor and needy, while Jean Arthur plays the cynical reporter who tries to exploit him. [ADD]

29/5 -

Fritz Lang’s first American film, Fury, is released.   It stars Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney in a powerful story of an innocent man wrongly accused of kidnapping.   Adapted from a four-page synopsis  by Norman Krasna, the film is based on the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart in 1933. [ADD]

26/6 -

MGM’s San Francisco is released.   Directed by W. S. Van Dyke (allegedly with some uncredited assistance from D. W. Griffith), the film stars Clark Gable, Jeannette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy in a recreation of the famous earthquake that hit the west coast city in 1906. [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1936