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The History of American Cinema: 1938

July - December

1/7 -

The Rage of Paris, starring French actress Danielle Darrieux whom Universal are attempting to build into a star in the States, is released today.   Directed by Henry Koster, it co-stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. [ADD]

20/7 -

The Justice Department begins proceedings against eight studios and 25 of their branches for violation of anti-monopoly laws. [ADD]

15/8 -

The House Committee on Un-American Activities hears from Senator Sullivan that ‘Hollywood is becoming a breeding ground for communist propaganda.” [ADD]

25/8 -

MGM agree to loan Clark Gable to David O. Selznick for the part of Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind in return for the film’s distribution rights and 50% of its profits. [ADD]

23/8 -

Frank Capra’s version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play You Can’t Take it With You premieres in New York.  In addition to stars Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart and Edward Arnold, the large cast also includes Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington, Samuel S. Hinds, Donald Meek, H. B. Warner, Halliwell Hobbes, Dub Taylor, Mary Forbes, Lillian Yarbo and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson. [ADD]

26/8 -

The premiere of Henry Hathaway’s Spawn of the North takes place in New York.   The film stars George Raft, Henry Fonda, and Dorothy Lamour, but it is Akim Tamiroff as Red Skane, the Russian fish pirate, who steals the plaudits. [ADD]

8/9 -

Norman Taurog’s Boy’s Town, starring Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan and Mickey Rooney as Whitey Marsh, a boy who is “born to be hung, ”is released.   Based on a true story, donations to the real Father Flanagan’s charity actually dropped after the release of this film because would-be patrons believed the charity was doing well. [ADD]

28/9 -

Frank Lloyd’s If I Were King, starring Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee is released. [ADD]

Sep

Congressman Martin Dies announces that he will hold hearings in Hollywood to investigate the infiltration of communism into the film industry. [ADD]

14/10 -

Allan Dwan’s Suez premieres at the Roxy Theater in New York.   Tyrone Power and French actress Annabella co-star. [ADD]

30/10 -

Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater radio production of H. G. Welles’ War of the Worlds causes panic across America as listeners tuning in late are fooled into believing it is an authentic news broadcast. [ADD]

19/11 -

Animator Chuck Jones directs his first film, The Night Watchman. [ADD]

24/11 -

Michael Curtiz’s Angels With Dirty Faces is released for Warner Brothers.   The film stars James Cagney as tough guy Rocky Sullivan, Pat O’Brien as his childhood friend who is now a priest, Humphrey Bogart as Rocky’s partner-in-crime, Ann Sheridan as the love interest and the Dead End Kids.   To this day, movie fans still debate whether Rocky turned yellow or not… [ADD]

22/12 -

Sweethearts, MGM’s first three-strip Technicolor film, is released.   A frothy musical based on Victor Herbert’s 1913 operetta, it stars Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald, and is directed by W. S. Van Dyke. [ADD]

24/12 -

Kentucky, a Romeo and Juliet story set against a backdrop of the Kentucky horse races, is released.   Directed by David Butler for 20^th Century-Fox, it stars Loretta Young and Richard Greene as the star-crossed lovers, given strong support by Walter Brennan. [ADD]

– MGM develop the Audioscopiks anaglyphic 3-D film system [ADD]

– A research committee commissioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to assess the threat to the film industry from television suggests that large-screen TVs are installed in cinemas so that studios can control TV companies through contractual terms for supply of programmes. [ADD] 

– A standardisation of film soundtrack presentation is determined by the Research Council of the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.   It becomes known as the Academy Curve. [ADD]

– Sherwood Anderson, Marc Connolly, Fritz Lang, Fredric March, Dudley Nichols and Walter Wanger sponsor the Films for Democracy group – later denounced by the HUAC as a Communist organisation. [ADD]

Top Ten US Box-Office Stars of 1938

1.       Shirley Temple

2.       Clark Gable

3.       Sonja Henie

4.       Mickey Rooney

5.       Spencer Tracy

6.       Robert Taylor

7.       Myrna Loy

8.       Jane Withers

9.       Alice Faye

10.     Tyrone Power

Source: Quigley Poll

Other Key American Films of 1938

Blondie (Frank R. Strayer) [ADD]

The Dawn Patrol (Edmund Goulding) [ADD]

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (Ford Beebe, Robert F. Hill) [ADD]

Men With Wings (William Wellman) [ADD]

The River (Pare Lorentz) [ADD]

The Saint in New York (Ben Holmes) [ADD]

History of Cinema: 1938