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The History of American Cinema: 1941

October - December

3/10 -

Dashiell Hammett’s pulp novel The Maltese Falcon gets its third screen outing in a decade with the release of John Huston’s first film as director.   Humphrey Bogart, in a career-making performance, plays Sam Spade in a role that Huston originally intended George Raft to play.   The cast also features Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr. [ADD]

23/10 -

Walt Disney’s Dumbo is released. [ADD]

28/10 -

John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley, adapted for the screen from Richard Llewellyn’s best seller by Philip Dunne, is released.   20^th Century-Fox built a Welsh mining village on their backlot for the nostalgic movie, which stars Roddy McDowall, Walter Pidgeon and Donald Crisp. [ADD]

14/11 -

Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion is released.   Based on the novel Before the Fact by Francis Iles, it stars Cary Grant as a seemingly attentive husband who may – or may not – be planning to murder his wife (Joan Fontaine). [ADD]

16/11 -

Swamp Water, Jean Renoir’s first American film, is released.   It stars Walter Brennan, Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews. [ADD]

Nov -

Greta Garbo announces her retirement from movies following the commercial failure of her latest MGM film, Two-Faced Woman, in which she plays against type as a vamp determined to win back her husband’s (Melvyn Douglas) affections from his old flame (Constance Bennett).   Garbo’s popularity in the States has waned in recent years.   While still popular in Europe, much of that market is now shut off to Hollywood because of the war. [ADD]

12/12 -

Director Frank Capra announces his intention to join the Cinema Services section of the armed forces. [ADD]

14/12 -

President Roosevelt appoints Lowell Mellett as liaison between the government and the film industry.   He declares: “The American motion picture is one of the most effective mediums in informing and entertaining our citizens. The motion picture must remain free in so far as national security will permit. I want no censorship of the motion picture.” [ADD]

25/12 -

Josef von Sternberg’s The Shanghai Gesture is released.   Gene Tierney, Victor Mature, Walter Huston and Ona Munson star. [ADD]

– Spencer Williams’ The Blood of Jesus, starring the director and Cathryn Caviness, is released.   The film is so successful that Williams is offered a ten-year contract to produce a further eight films. [ADD]

– The Congressional investigation into accusations that 'the motion picture and the radio have been extensively used for propaganda purposes designed to influence the public mind in the direction of participation in the European war' are dropped when the US enter the war following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7^th December. [ADD]

– The Movie Colony, The Movie Makers by Leo Rosten, an early sociological exploration of the cinema industry, is published. [ADD]

– J. Stuart Blackton, animator and co-founder of Vitagraph, dies in Hollywood in a car accident.   Blackton lost his wealth in the stock market crash of 1929. [ADD]

Top Ten US Box-Office Stars of 1941

1.       Mickey Rooney

2.       Clark Gable

3.       Abbott & Costello

4.       Bob Hope

5.       Spencer Tracy

6.       Gene Autry

7.       Gary Cooper

8.       Bette Davis

9.       James Cagney

10.   Judy Garland 

Source: Quigley Poll.

Other Key American Films of 1941

Hellzapoppin (H. C. Potter) [ADD]

They Died With Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1941