Classical Hollywood cinema is a term used in
film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Journalism, journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-m ...
to describe both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking which became characteristic of
American cinema between the 1910s (rapidly after
World War I) and the 1960s.
It eventually became the most powerful and pervasive style of filmmaking worldwide.
Similar or associated terms include classical Hollywood narrative, the Golden Age of Hollywood, Old Hollywood, and classical continuity.
For centuries, the only visual standard of narrative storytelling art was the
theatre. Since the first narrative films in the mid-late 1890s, filmmakers have sought to capture the power of live theatre on the cinema screen. Most of these filmmakers started as directors on the late 19th-century stage, and likewise most film actors had roots in vaudeville (e.g.
The Marx Brothers) or theatrical melodramas. Visually, early narrative films had adapted little from the stage, and their narratives had adapted very little from vaudeville and melodrama. Before the visual style which would become known as "classical continuity", scenes were filmed in full shot and used carefully choreographed staging to portray plot and character relationships. Editing technique was extremely limited, and mostly consisted of close-ups of writing on objects for their legibility.
The maturation of silent films (1913 – late 1920s)

Though lacking the reality inherent to the stage, film (unlike the stage) offers the freedom to manipulate apparent time and space, and thus create the illusion of realism – that is temporal linearity and spatial continuity. By the early 1910s, when the
Lost Generation was coming of age, filmmaking was beginning to fulfill its artistic potential. In Sweden and Denmark, this period would later be known as the "Golden Age" of the film; in America, this artistic change is attributed to filmmakers like
D. W. Griffith
David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the na ...
finally breaking the grip of the
Edison Trust
The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC, also known as the Edison Trust), founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-bran ...
to make films independent of the manufacturing monopoly. Films worldwide began to noticeably adopt visual and narrative elements which would be found in classical Hollywood cinema. 1913 was a particularly fruitful year for the medium, as pioneering directors from several countries produced masterpieces such as ''
The Mothering Heart'' (D. W. Griffith), ''
Ingeborg Holm'' (
Victor Sjöström), and ''L'enfant de Paris'' (
Léonce Perret) that set new standards for the film as a form of storytelling. It was also the year when
Yevgeni Bauer (the first true film artist, according to
Georges Sadoul) started his short, but prolific, career.
In the world generally and America specifically, the influence of Griffith on filmmaking was unmatched. Equally influential were his actors in adapting their performances to the new medium.
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
, the star of ''The Mothering Heart'', is particularly noted for her influence on on-screen performance techniques. Griffith's 1915 epic ''
The Birth of a Nation'' was ground-breaking for film as a means of storytelling – a masterpiece of literary narrative with numerous innovative visual techniques. The film initiated so many advances in American cinema that it was rendered obsolete within a few years. Though 1913 was a global landmark for filmmaking, 1917 was primarily an American one; the era of "classical Hollywood cinema" is distinguished by a narrative and visual style which began to dominate the film medium in America by 1917.
Classical Hollywood cinema in the sound era (late 1920s – 1960s)
The narrative and visual style of classical Hollywood style developed further after the transition to sound-film production. The primary changes in American filmmaking came from the film industry itself, with the height of the
studio system. This mode of production, with its reigning star system promoted by several key studios, had preceded sound by several years. By mid-1920, most of the prominent American directors and actors, who had worked independently since the early 1910s, had to become a part of the new studio system to continue to work.
The beginning of the sound era itself is ambiguously defined. To some, it began with ''
The Jazz Singer'', which was released in 1927, when the
Interbellum Generationers became of age and increased box-office profits for films as sound was introduced to feature films. To others, the era began in 1929, when the silent age had definitively ended. Most Hollywood pictures from the late 1920s to 1960s adhered closely to a genre — Western,
slapstick
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...
comedy, musical, animated cartoon, and
biopic
A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...
(biographical picture) — and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio. For instance,
Cedric Gibbons and
Herbert Stothart always worked on
MGM films;
Alfred Newman
Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970) was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of film music. From his start as a music prodigy, he came to be regarded as a respected figure in the history of film music. He won nine Acad ...
worked at
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
for twenty years;
Cecil B. DeMille's films were almost all made at
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
; and director
Henry King's films were mostly made for Twentieth Century Fox. Similarly, actors were mostly contract players. Film historians and critics note that it took about a decade for films to adapt to sound and return to the level of artistic quality of the silents, which they did in the late 1930s when the
Greatest Generationers became of age.
Many great works of cinema that emerged from this period were of highly regimented filmmaking. One reason this was possible is that, as so many films were made, not every one had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble on a medium-budget feature with a good script and relatively unknown actors. This was the case with ''
Citizen Kane
''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' (1941), directed by
Orson Welles and regarded as one of
the greatest films of all time. Other strong-willed directors, like
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name."
A v ...
,
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
and
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s ...
, battled the studios in order to achieve their artistic visions. The apogee of the studio system may have been the year 1939, which saw the release of such classics as ''
The Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Oz'' most commonly refers to:
*'' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', a 1900 American novel by L. Frank Baum often reprinted as ''The Wizard of Oz''
** Wizard of Oz (character), from the Baum novel serie ...
''; ''
Gone with the Wind''; ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame''; ''
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
''; ''
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' is a 1939 American Political drama, political Comedy drama, comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and featuring Claude Rains and Edward Arnold (actor), Edward Arnold. ...
''; ''
Destry Rides Again''; ''
Young Mr. Lincoln''; ''
Wuthering Heights''; ''
Only Angels Have Wings''; ''
Ninotchka''; ''
Beau Geste''; ''
Babes in Arms''; ''
Gunga Din
"Gunga Din" () is an 1890 poem by Rudyard Kipling set in British India.
The poem is much remembered for its final line: "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din".
Background
The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a Briti ...
''; ''
The Women''; ''
Goodbye, Mr. Chips''; and ''
The Roaring Twenties''.
Style
The visual-narrative style of classical Hollywood cinema, as elaborated by
David Bordwell
David Jay Bordwell (; born July 23, 1947) is an American film theorist and film historian. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1974, he has written more than fifteen volumes on the subject of cinema including ''Narration in th ...
, was heavily influenced by the ideas of the
Renaissance and its resurgence of mankind as the focal point. It is distinguished at three general levels: devices, systems, and the relations of systems.
Devices
The devices most inherent to classical Hollywood cinema are those of
continuity editing. This includes the
180-degree rule
Eighteen or 18 may refer to:
* 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19
* one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018
Film, television and entertainment
* ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the shor ...
, one of the major visual-spatial elements of continuity editing. The 180-degree rule keeps with the "photographed play" style by creating an imaginary 180-degree axis between the viewer and the shot, allowing viewers to clearly orient themselves within the position and direction of action in a scene. According to the
30-degree rule
The 30-degree rule is a basic film editing guideline that states the camera should move at least 30 degrees relative to the subject between successive shots of the same subject. If the camera moves less than 30 degrees, the transition between s ...
, cuts in the angle that the scene is viewed from must be significant enough for the viewer to understand the purpose of a change in perspective. Cuts that do not adhere to the 30-degree rule, known as
jump cuts, are disruptive to the illusion of temporal continuity between shots. The 180-degree and 30-degree rules are elementary guidelines in filmmaking that preceded the official start of the classical era by over a decade, as seen in the pioneering 1902 French film ''
A Trip to the Moon
''A Trip to the Moon'' (french: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel ''From the Earth to the Moon'' and its 1870 s ...
''. Cutting techniques in classical continuity editing serve to help establish or maintain continuity, as in the
cross cut, which establishes the concurrence of action in different locations. Jump cuts are allowed in the form of the
axial cut, which does not change the angle of shooting at all, but has the clear purpose of showing a perspective closer or farther from the subject, and therefore does not interfere with temporal continuity.
Systems
Narrative logic
Classical narration progresses always through psychological motivation, i.e., by the will of a human character and its struggle with obstacles towards a defined goal. This narrative element is commonly composed of a primary narrative (e.g. a romance) intertwined with a secondary narrative or narratives. This narrative is structured with an unmistakable beginning, middle and end, and generally there is a distinct resolution. Utilizing actors, events, causal effects, main points, and secondary points are basic characteristics of this type of narrative. The characters in classical Hollywood cinema have clearly definable traits, are active, and very goal oriented. They are causal agents motivated by psychological rather than social concerns.
The narrative is a chain of cause and effect with causal agents – in classical style, events do not occur randomly.
Cinematic time and space
Time in classical Hollywood is continuous, linear, and uniform, since
non-linearity calls attention to the illusory workings of the medium. The only permissible manipulation of time in this format is the
flashback. It is mostly used to introduce a memory sequence of a character, ''e.g.'', ''
Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
''.
The greatest rule of classical continuity regarding space is object permanence: the viewer must believe that the scene exists outside the shot of the cinematic frame to maintain the picture's realism. The treatment of space in classical Hollywood strives to overcome or conceal the two-dimensionality of film ("invisible style") and is strongly centered upon the human body. The majority of shots in a classical film focus on
gesture
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or ot ...
s or
facial expressions (medium-long and
medium shots).
André Bazin once compared classical film to a photographed play in that the events seem to exist objectively and that cameras only give us the best view of the whole play.
This treatment of space consists of four main aspects: centering, balancing, frontality, and depth. Persons or objects of significance are mostly in the center part of the picture
frame and never out of focus. Balancing refers to the visual composition, i. e., characters are evenly distributed throughout the frame. The action is subtly addressed towards the spectator (frontality) and
set, lighting (mostly
three-point lighting, especially
high-key lighting
High-key lighting is a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene. This was originally done partly for technological reasons, since early film and television did not deal we ...
), and costumes are designed to separate foreground from the background (depth).
Relations of systems
The aspects of space and time are subordinated to the narrative element.
Legacy
The
New Hollywood of the mid-1960s to early 80s was influenced by the romanticism of the classical era, as was the
French New Wave
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
.
Major figures from Classic Hollywood cinema
Names in boldface type were recognized on the
American Film Institute's list ranking the top 25 male and 25 female greatest screen legends of American film history. The top stars of their respective genders are
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
and
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
, who starred together in the classic adventure 1951 film ''
The African Queen''.
Sophia Loren
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...
, is the only living star listed in the top 25.
*
Carl Laemmle (1867–1939)
*
Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler (born Leila Marie Koerber, November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934) was a Canadian stage and screen actress, comedian, and early silent film and Depression-era film star. In 1914, she was in the first full-length film comedy. She ...
(1868–1934)
*
Adolph Zukor
Adolph Zukor (; hu, Zukor Adolf; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produ ...
(1873–1976)
*
D. W. Griffith
David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the na ...
(1875–1948)
*
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''A Free Soul'' (1931) ...
(1878–1954)
*
Max Factor (1877–1938)
*
Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959)
*
Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974)
*
Lon Chaney (1883–1930)
*
Douglas Fairbanks (1883–1939)
*
Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957)
*
Henry King (1886–1982)
*
Sessue Hayakawa (1886–1973)
*
Chico Marx
Leonard Joseph "Chico" Marx (; March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was an American comedian, actor and pianist. He was the oldest brother in the Marx Brothers comedy troupe, alongside his brothers Adolph ("Harpo"), Julius ("Groucho"), Milton ...
(1887–1961)
*
Harpo Marx (1888–1964)
*
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
(1889–1977)
*
Victor Fleming
Victor Lonzo Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best ...
(1889–1949)
*
Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was one half of the comedy double act, duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Ha ...
(1890-1965)
*
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
(1890–1977)
*
Oliver Hardy
Oliver Norvell Hardy (born Norvell Hardy; January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy, the double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted from 1926 to 1957. He appeared with his c ...
(1892-1957)
*
Jack L. Warner (1892–1978)
*
Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947)
*
William Powell (1892–1984)
*
Mary Pickford (1892–1979)
*
Harold Lloyd (1893–1971)
*
Mae West (1893–1980)
*
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
(1893–1993)
*
Hattie McDaniel (1893–1952)
*
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...
(1893–1973)
*
Gummo Marx (1893-1977)
*
Norma Talmadge (1894–1957)
*
John Ford (1894–1973)
*
King Vidor (1894–1982)
*
Rudolph Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...
(1895–1926)
*
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
(1895–1966)
*
José Mojica
Fray José de Guadalupe Mojica (14 September 1895 – 20 September 1974) was a Mexican Franciscan friar and former tenor and film actor. He was known in the music and film fields as José Mojica. (Spanish)
Mojica joined the world of the Americ ...
(1895–1974)
*
Ruth Gordon (1896–1985)
*
Marion Davies (1897–1961)
*
Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979)
*
Edith Head (1897–1981)
*
Hal B. Wallis (1898–1986)
*
Irene Dunne (1898–1990)
*
Randolph Scott
George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of ...
(1898–1987)
*
Fred Astaire (1899–1987)
*
Gloria Swanson (1899–1983)
*
Irving Thalberg (1899–1936)
*
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...
(1899–1986)
*
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
(1899–1980)
*
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
(1899–1957)
*
George Cukor (1899–1983)
*
Ramon Novarro (1899–1968)
*
Spencer Tracy (1900–1967)
*
Jean Arthur (1900–1991)
*
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...
(1900–1993)
*
Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies.
During the 1930s, LeRoy was one of the two great practitioners of ...
(1900–1987)
*
Clark Gable (1901–1960)
*
Walt Disney (1901–1966)
*
Gary Cooper (1901–1961)
*
Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992)
*
Zeppo Marx (1901-1979)
*
Darryl F. Zanuck (1902–1979)
*
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca'' (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture.
E ...
(1902–1965)
*
William Wyler (1902–1981)
*
Norma Shearer (1902–1983)
*
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
(1903–1977)
*
Bob Hope (1903–2003)
*
Claudette Colbert (1903–1996)
*
Vincente Minnelli (1903–1986)
*
Joan Crawford (190?–1977)
*
Cary Grant (1904–1986)
*
Dolores del Rio Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to:
* Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores
* Dolores (given name)
Dolores may also refer to:
Film
* ''Dolores'' (2017 film), an American documentary by Peter Bratt
* ' ...
(1904–1983)
*
George Stevens (1904–1975)
*
Greer Garson (1904–1996)
*
Clara Bow (1905–1965)
*
Henry Fonda (1905–1982)
*
Greta Garbo (1905–1990)
*
Myrna Loy (1905–1993)
*
Anna May Wong (1905–1961)
*
Gilbert Roland (1905-1994)
*
Louise Brooks (1906–1985)
*
Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor (born Laura Augusta Gainor; October 6, 1906 – September 14, 1984) was an American film, stage, and television actress.
Gaynor began her career as an extra in shorts and silent films. After signing with Fox Film Corporation (later ...
(1906–1984)
*
Billy Wilder (1906–2002)
*
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
(1906–1987)
*
Fred Zinnemann (1907–1997)
*
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
(1907–2003)
*
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...
(1907–1989)
*
John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
(1907–1979)
*
Rosalind Russell (1907–1976)
*
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic sc ...
(1907–1990)
*
Bette Davis (1908–1989)
*
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 2 ...
(1908–1942)
*
David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River ...
(1908–1991)
*
James Stewart
James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...
(1908–1997)
*
Lupe Vélez (1908–1944)
*
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play ''French Without Tears'', in what ...
(1908–1990)
*
Tito Guízar (1908-1999)
*
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr., (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor, producer and decorated naval officer of World War II. He is best known for starring in such films as ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937), ''Gunga Din'' (1939) a ...
(1909–2000)
*
Errol Flynn (1909–1959)
*
Carmen Miranda (1909–1955)
*
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...
(1909–2003)
*
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993)
*
David Niven (1910–1983)
*
Luise Rainer (1910–2014)
*
Vincent Price (1911–1993)
*
Jean Harlow (1911–1937)
*
Ginger Rogers (1911–1995)
*
José Ferrer (1912-1992)
*
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessibl ...
(1912–1996)
*
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh ( ; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967; born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gon ...
(1913–1967)
*
Loretta Young (1913–2000)
*
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-yea ...
(1913–1994)
*
Tyrone Power (1914–1958)
*
Hedy Lamarr (1914–2000)
*
Orson Welles (1915–1985)
*
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...
(1915–1982)
*
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
(1915–1998)
*
Anthony Quinn (1915–2001)
*
Alice Faye (1915–1998)
*
Betty Grable (1916–1973)
*
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...
(1916–2003)
*
Olivia de Havilland (1916–2020)
*
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Do ...
(1916–2020)
*
Van Johnson (1916–2008)
*
Jane Wyman (1917–2007)
*
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...
(1917–2010)
*
Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrenner; June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975) was an American film actress, best known for her film portrayals of women that were based on true stories.
After working as a fashion model for the Walter Thornton Model A ...
(1917–1975)
*
Robert Mitchum (1917–1997)
*
Joan Fontaine (1917–2013)
*
June Allyson
June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman; October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American stage, film, and television actress, dancer, and singer.
Allyson began her career in 1937 as a dancer in short subject films and on Broadway in 1938. She sign ...
(1917–2006)
*
William Holden (1918–1981)
*
Ida Lupino (1918-1995)
*
Rita Hayworth (1918–1987)
*
Jennifer Jones (1919–2009)
*
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
(1920–2014)
*
Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara (; 17 August 1920 – 24 October 2015) was a native Irish and naturalized American actress and singer, who became successful in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural ...
(1920–2015)
*
Gene Tierney (1920–1991)
*
Montgomery Clift (1920–1966)
*
Ricardo Montalbán (1920–2009)
*
Shelley Winters (1920–2006)
*
Yul Brynner (1920–1985)
*
Esther Williams
Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Ol ...
(1921–2013)
*
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Jane Trimmer CBE (30 September 192116 October 2007), known professionally as Deborah Kerr (), was a British actress. She was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
During her international film career, Kerr won a G ...
(1921–2007)
*
Jane Russell (1921–2011)
*
Cyd Charisse (1921–2008)
*
Lana Turner (1921–1995)
*
Dorothy Dandridge (1922–1965)
*
Doris Day
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...
(1922–2019)
*
Judy Garland (1922–1969)
*
Ava Gardner (1922–1990)
*
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist.
As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten C ...
(1923–2008)
*
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
(1924–2004)
*
Stanley Donen (1924–2019)
*
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...
(1924–2014)
*
Katy Jurado (1924-2002)
*
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leadin ...
(1925–2001)
*
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three ...
(1925–2008)
*
Rock Hudson (1925–1985)
*
Tony Curtis (1925–2010)
*
Angela Lansbury (1925–2022)
*
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)
*
Janet Leigh (1927–2004)
*
Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive ...
(1927–2022)
*
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in ...
(1928–2014)
*
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
(1929–1993)
*
Grace Kelly (1929–1982)
*
Jane Powell (1929–2021)
*
James Dean
James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, ''Rebel Without a Cause' ...
(1931–1955)
*
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...
(1932–2011)
*
Debbie Reynolds
Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portra ...
(1932–2016)
*
Anthony Perkins (1932-1992)
*
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif ( ar, عمر الشريف ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub , 10 April 193210 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the ...
(1932-2015)
*
Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967)
*
Sophia Loren
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...
(1934–present)
*
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
*
Diahann Carroll
Diahann Carroll (; born Carol Diann Johnson; July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019) was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. She rose to prominence in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts, including ''Car ...
(1935-2019)
*
Natalie Wood (1938–1981)
Living actors from Classical Hollywood
Those listed in bold were either awarded or nominated for a position on the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
's list ranking the top 25 male and 25 female greatest screen legends of American film history.
See.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars.
*
Elisabeth Waldo - born 1918 (age )
*
Caren Marsh Doll – born 1919 (age )
*
Margia Dean – born 1922 (age )
*
Janis Paige – born 1922 (age )
*
Jacqueline White – born 1922 (age )
*
Glynis Johns – born 1923 (age )
*
Carole Cook - born 1924 (age )
*
Eva Marie Saint – born 1924 (age )
*
June Lockhart – born 1925 (age )
*
Lee Grant – born 1925 (age )
*
Miiko Taka – born 1925 (age )
*
Dick Van Dyke
Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, entertainer and comedian. His award-winning career has spanned seven decades in film, television, and stage.
Van Dyke began his career as an entertainer on radio and telev ...
– born 1925 (age )
*
Marilyn Knowlden – born 1926 (age )
*
Terry Kilburn – born 1926 (age )
*
Lisa Lu- born 1927 (age )
*
Phyllis Coates born 1927 (age )
*
Harry Belafonte – born 1927 (age )
*
Cora Sue Collins
Cora Susan Collins (born April 19, 1927) is an American former child actress who appeared in numerous films during the Golden Years of Hollywood.
Early life and career
Cora Susan Collins was born on April 19, 1927, in Beckley, West Virginia. S ...
– born 1927 (age )
*
Gina Lollobrigida – born 1927 (age )
*
Peggy Dow
Peggy Dow (born Peggy Josephine Varnadow; March 18, 1928) is an American philanthropist and retired actress who had a brief career in Hollywood had Universal Studios starring in films during the Golden Age Era in the early 1950s. She is perhap ...
– born 1928 (age )
*
Nancy Olson
Nancy Ann Olson (born July 14, 1928) is an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Sunset Boulevard'' (1950). She co-starred with William Holden in four films, and later appeared in ...
– born 1928 (age )
*
Ann Blyth
Ann Marie Blyth (born August 16, 1928) is an American retired actress and singer. For her performance as Veda in the 1945 Michael Curtiz film ''Mildred Pierce'', Blyth was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is one of ...
– born 1928 (age )
*
Earl Holliman – born 1928 (age )
*
James Hong
James Hong (; born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. He has worked in numerous productions in American media since the 1950s, portraying a variety of roles. With more than 650 film and television credits as of 20 ...
– born 1929 (age )
*
Don Murray Don Murray may refer to:
* Don Murray (actor) (1929–2024), American actor
* Don Murray (clarinetist) (1904–1929), American jazz musician
* Don Murray (drummer) (1945–1996), American drummer and aminator
* Don Murray (footballer)
Donald Ja ...
– born 1929 (age )
*
Vera Miles – born 1929 (age )
*
Terry Moore – born 1929 (age )
*
Bob Newhart – born 1929 (age )
*
Tippi Hedren – born 1930 (age )
*
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...
– born 1930 (age )
*
Robert Wagner – born 1930 (age )
*
Joanne Woodward – born 1930 (age )
*
Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...
– born 1930 (age )
*
Gena Rowlands – born 1930 (age )
*
Mary Costa – born 1930 (age )
*
Mamie Van Doren – born 1931 (age )
*
James Earl Jones – born 1931 (age )
*
Claire Bloom – born 1931 (age )
*
Carroll Baker – born 1931 (age )
*
Leslie Caron – born 1931 (age )
*
Barbara Eden - born 1931 (age )
*
Mitzi Gaynor – born 1931 (age, )
*
Angie Dickinson – born 1931 (age )
*
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano; December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer. Noted for her work across different areas of the entertainment industry, she has appeared in numerous film, television, and thea ...
– born 1931 (age )
*
William Shatner – born 1931 (age )
*
Piper Laurie – born 1932 (age )
*
Felicia Farr – born 1932 (age )
*
Kim Novak – born 1933 (age )
*
Joan Collins – born 1933 (age )
*
Debra Paget – born 1933 (age )
*
Audrey Dalton – born 1934 (age )
*
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, author, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades over her seven-dec ...
– born 1934 (age )
*
Jean Marsh – born 1934 (age )
*
Sophia Loren
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...
– born 1934 (age )
*
Russ Tamblyn – born 1934 (age )
*
Bobby Vinton - born 1935 (age )
*
Julie Andrews
Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...
– born 1935 (age 87)
*
Warren Beatty – born 1937 (age )
*
Margaret O'Brien – born 1937 (age )
*
George Takei – born 1937 (age )
*
Paul Collins – born 1937 (age )
*
Connie Frances
Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937),
known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Called the “First Lady of Rock & Roll” ...
- born 1937 (age, )
*
Jane Fonda
Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, sev ...
– born 1937 (age )
*
Kathryn Beaumont – born 1938 (age )
*
Dolores Hart – born 1938 (age )
*
Millie Perkins – born 1938 (age )
*
Connie Stevens - born 1938 (age )
*
Stella Stevens – born 1938 (age )
*
George Hamilton – born 1939 (age )
*
Raquel Welch – born 1940 (age )
*
Ann-Margret – born 1941 (age )
*
Fabian Forte – born 1943 (age )
*
Frankie Avalon - born 1940 (age, )
List of selected notable films
The following is a chronological list of notable American films that were made during Hollywood's Golden Age.
Silent era
* ''
The Mothering Heart'' (1913)
* ''
The Birth of a Nation'' (1915)
* ''
Intolerance'' (1916)
* ''
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her aunts, one stern and one kind, in the fictional village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's ...
'' (1917)
* ''
The Immigrant'' (1917)
* ''
The Poor Little Rich Girl'' (1917)
* ''
Wild and Woolly Wild and Woolly may refer to:
* Wild and Woolly (1917 film), an American silent Western comedy film
* Wild and Woolly (1932 film), a short animated film
* Wild and Woolly (1937 film), an American Western film
* Wild and Wooly
''Wild and Wooly ...
'' (1917)
* ''
Broken Blossoms
''Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl'', often referred to simply as ''Broken Blossoms'', is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars ...
'' (1919)
* ''
Pollyanna'' (1920)
* ''
The Last of the Mohicans'' (1920)
* ''
Within Our Gates
''Within Our Gates'' is a 1920 American silent film by the director Oscar Micheaux that portrays the contemporary racial situation in the United States during the early twentieth century, the years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan ...
'' (1920)
* ''
Way Down East'' (1920)
* ''
Orphans of the Storm'' (1921)
* ''
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'' (1921)
* ''
The Kid'' (1921)
* ''
A Woman of Paris
''A Woman of Paris'' is a feature-length American silent film that debuted in 1923. The film, an atypical drama film for its creator, was written, directed, produced and later scored by Charlie Chaplin. It is also known as ''A Woman of Paris: A ...
'' (1921)
* ''
The Covered Wagon'' (1923)
* ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1923)
* ''
Safety Last!'' (1923)
* ''
Greed'' (1924)
* ''
Sherlock Jr.'' (1924)
* ''
The Thief of Bagdad'' (1924)
* ''
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ'' (1925)
* ''
The Big Parade'' (1925)
* ''
The Gold Rush'' (1925)
* ''
Little Annie Rooney'' (1925)
* ''
The Phantom of the Opera'' (1925)
* ''
Flesh and the Devil'' (1926)
* ''
Sparrows'' (1926)
* ''
The Black Pirate'' (1926)
* ''
The Canadian'' (1926)
* ''
The General'' (1926)
* ''
7th Heaven'' (1927)
* ''
It'' (1927)
* ''
The Unknown'' (1927)
* ''
Wings'' (1927)
* ''
The Circus'' (1928)
* ''
The Wind'' (1928)
* ''
City Lights
''City Lights'' is a 1931 American silent romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin's Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and ...
'' (1931)
* ''
Tabu'' (1931)
* ''
Legong: Dance of the Virgins'' (1935)
* ''
Modern Times'' (1936)
Sound era
* ''
A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor'' (1923)
* ''
My Old Kentucky Home'' (1926)
* ''
The Jazz Singer'' (1927)
* ''
Lights of New York'' (1928)
* ''
Interference'' (1928)
* ''
In Old Arizona'' (1928)
* ''
Steamboat Willie'' (1928)
* ''
The Broadway Melody'' (1929)
* ''
On with the Show!'' (1929)
* ''
A Free Soul'' (1930)
* ''
All Quiet on the Western Front
''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (german: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit=Nothing New in the West) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma du ...
'' (1930)
* ''
Anna Christie'' (1930)
* ''
Morocco'' (1930)
* ''
King of Jazz
'' King of Jazz'' is a 1930 American pre-Code color musical film starring Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. The film title refers to Whiteman's popular cultural appellation. At the time the film was made, "jazz", to the general public, meant jazz ...
'' (1930)
* ''
Romance'' (1930)
* ''
The Divorcee'' (1930)
* ''
Bad Girl'' (1931)
* ''
Blonde Crazy'' (1931)
* ''
Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
'' (1931)
* ''
Frankenstein'' (1931)
* ''
Platinum Blonde'' (1931)
* ''
The Public Enemy'' (1931)
* ''
A Farewell to Arms
''A Farewell to Arms'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant () in the am ...
'' (1932)
* ''
Flowers and Trees'' (1932)
* ''
Forbidden'' (1932)
* ''
Freaks'' (1932)
* ''
Grand Hotel'' (1932)
* ''
Red Dust'' (1932)
* ''
Scarface'' (1932)
* ''
Shanghai Express'' (1932)
* ''
The Animal Kingdom'' (1932)
* ''
Trouble in Paradise
Trouble in Paradise is an idiom used to describe problems in supposedly positive situations.
Trouble in Paradise may also refer to:
Books
* ''Trouble in Paradise'' (Parker novel), a 1998 crime novel by Robert B. Parker
* ''Trouble in Paradise' ...
'' (1932)
* ''
She Done Him Wrong
''She Done Him Wrong'' is a 1933 pre-Code American crime/comedy film starring Mae West and Cary Grant. The plot includes melodramatic and musical elements, with a supporting cast featuring Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery Sr., Rochelle Hud ...
'' (1933)
* ''
42nd Street'' (1933)
* ''
Baby Face'' (1933)
* ''
Design for Living'' (1933)
* ''
Dinner at Eight'' (1933)
* ''
Duck Soup
Duck soup may refer to:
* ''Duck Soup'' (1933 film), starring the Marx Brothers
* ''Duck Soup'' (1927 film), featuring Laurel and Hardy
* Oritang, Korean duck soup
* "Duck Soup", an episode of '' Even Stevens''
* "Duck Soup", a song by Baba Broo ...
'' (1933)
* ''
Flying Down to Rio'' (1933)
* ''
Footlight Parade'' (1933)
* ''
The Invisible Man'' (1933)
* ''
King Kong'' (1933)
* ''
Lady for a Day'' (1933)
* ''
Man's Castle'' (1933)
* ''
Snow-White'' (1933)
* ''
Queen Christina'' (1933)
* ''
Broadway Bill
''Broadway Bill'' is a 1934 American comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra and starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy. Screenplay by Robert Riskin and based on the short story "Strictly Confidential" by Mark Hellinger, the film is about a man' ...
'' (1934)
* ''
Imitation of Life
Imitation (from Latin ''imitatio'', "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. I ...
'' (1934)
* ''
It Happened One Night'' (1934)
* ''
Manhattan Melodrama'' (1934)
* ''
No Greater Glory'' (1934)
* ''
Of Human Bondage'' (1934)
* ''
Poor Cinderella'' (1934)
* ''
The Gay Divorcee'' (1934)
* ''
The Old Fashioned Way The Old Fashioned Way may refer to:
* The Old Fashioned Way (film), a 1934 film starring W. C. Fields
* The Old Fashioned Way (song)
"The Old Fashioned Way" is the English version of Charles Aznavour's ''Les plaisirs démodés'' song. The song was ...
'' (1934)
* ''
The Thin Man'' (1934)
* ''
Twentieth Century'' (1934)
* ''
Woman Haters'' (1934)
* ''
Wonder Bar'' (1934)
* ''
Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1935)
* ''
A Night at the Opera'' (1935)
* ''
A Tale of Two Cities'' (1935)
* ''
Anna Karenina'' (1935)
* ''
The Band Concert'' (1935)
* ''
Becky Sharp'' (1935)
* ''
Gold Diggers of 1935'' (1935)
* ''
Sylvia Scarlett
''Sylvia Scarlett'' is a 1935 American romantic comedy film starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, based on '' The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett'', a 1918 novel by Compton MacKenzie. Directed by George Cukor, it was notorious ...
'' (1935)
* ''
Top Hat'' (1935)
* ''
Disorder in the Court'' (1936)
[Fandor](_blank)
/ref>
* '' Camille'' (1936)
* '' Follow the Fleet'' (1936)
* '' Libeled Lady'' (1936)
* '' Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' (1936)
* ''My Man Godfrey
''My Man Godfrey'' is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, who had been briefly married years before appearing together in the film. The screenplay for ''My Man Godfre ...
'' (1936)
* ''Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor
''Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor'' is a 1936 two-reel animated cartoon short subject film in the '' Popeye Color Feature'' series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 27, 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It was pr ...
'' (1936)
* '' San Francisco'' (1936)
* '' Swing Time'' (1936)
* '' Theodora Goes Wild'' (1936)
* '' The Awful Truth'' (1937)
* '' Captains Courageous'' (1937)
* '' Easy Living'' (1937)
* '' Gold Diggers of 1937'' (1937)
* '' Heidi'' (1937)
* '' Lost Horizon'' (1937)
* ''Make Way for Tomorrow
''Make Way for Tomorrow'' is a 1937 American drama film directed by Leo McCarey. The plot concerns an elderly couple (played by Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi) who are forced to separate when they lose their house and none of their five children w ...
'' (1937)
* '' Marked Woman'' (1937)
* '' Nothing Sacred'' (1937)
* '' The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937)
* ''Shall We Dance Shall We Dance may refer to:
Films
* ''Shall We Dance'' (1937 film), a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical
* ''Shall We Dance?'' (1996 film), a Japanese film about ballroom dancing
* ''Shall We Dance?'' (2004 film), an American remake of the ...
'' (1937)
* '' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' (1937)
* '' Stage Door'' (1937)
* '' A Star Is Born'' (1937)
* '' Stella Dallas'' (1937)
* '' True Confession'' (1937)
* '' Varsity Show'' (1937)
* '' Wee Willie Winkie'' (1937)
* '' The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938)
* ''Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
'' (1938)
* '' Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938)
* '' A Yank at Oxford'' (1938)
* '' Bringing Up Baby'' (1938)
* ''Holiday
A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...
'' (1938)
* '' Jezebel'' (1938)
* '' The Lady Vanishes'' (1938)
* '' Pygmalion'' (1938)
* '' You Can't Take It with You'' (1938)
* '' 5th Avenue Girl'' (1939)
* '' Babes in Arms'' (1939)
* '' Beau Geste'' (1939)
* '' Dark Victory'' (1939)
* '' Destry Rides Again'' (1939)
* '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939)
* '' Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1939)
* ''Gulliver's Travels
''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
'' (1939)
* ''Gunga Din
"Gunga Din" () is an 1890 poem by Rudyard Kipling set in British India.
The poem is much remembered for its final line: "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din".
Background
The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a Briti ...
'' (1939)
* '' Love Affair'' (1939)
* ''Midnight
Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours. ...
'' (1939)
* ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' is a 1939 American Political drama, political Comedy drama, comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and featuring Claude Rains and Edward Arnold (actor), Edward Arnold. ...
'' (1939)
* '' Ninotchka'' (1939)
* '' Only Angels Have Wings'' (1939)
* ''Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
'' (1939)
* '' The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1939)
* '' The Little Princess'' (1939)
* '' The Oklahoma Kid'' (1939)
* '' The Roaring Twenties'' (1939)
* '' The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle'' (1939)
* ''The Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Oz'' most commonly refers to:
*'' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', a 1900 American novel by L. Frank Baum often reprinted as ''The Wizard of Oz''
** Wizard of Oz (character), from the Baum novel serie ...
'' (1939)
* '' The Women'' (1939)
* '' Wuthering Heights'' (1939)
* '' Young Mr. Lincoln'' (1939)
* '' All This, and Heaven Too'' (1940)
* '' Broadway Melody of 1940'' (1940)
* '' Fantasia'' (1940)
* ''Foreign Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...
'' (1940)
* '' The Grapes of Wrath'' (1940)
* '' The Great Dictator'' (1940)
* '' His Girl Friday'' (1940)
* '' Kitty Foyle'' (1940)
* ''The Letter The Letter may refer to:
Literature
* "The Letter" (poem), a poem by Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
* "The Letter", a short story in W. Somerset Maugham's 1926 collection ''The Casuarina Tree''
* "The Letter", 38th sura of the Qur'an
* ''The Letters ...
'' (1940)
* '' The Long Voyage Home'' (1940)
* '' The Mortal Storm'' (1940)
* '' My Favorite Wife'' (1940)
* '' The Philadelphia Story'' (1940)
* '' Pinocchio'' (1940)
* ''Pride and Prejudice
''Pride and Prejudice'' is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreci ...
'' (1940)
* ''Primrose Path
Primrose Path or The Primrose Path may refer to:
*Original quote from Hamlet I, iii, by William Shakespeare
* ''The Primrose Path'' (Stoker novel), an 1875 novel by Bram Stoker
*''The Primrose Path'', a 1915 play by Bayard Veiller
*''The Primrose P ...
'' (1940)
* ''Rebecca
Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...
'' (1940)
* '' The Shop Around the Corner'' (1940)
* '' The Thief of Bagdad'' (1940)
* '' Waterloo Bridge'' (1940)
* '' 49th Parallel'' (1941)
* '' Ball of Fire'' (1941)
* '' Blossoms in the Dust'' (1941)
* ''Citizen Kane
''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' (1941)
* '' Dumbo'' (1941)
* ''Here Comes Mr. Jordan
''Here Comes Mr. Jordan'' is a 1941 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Alexander Hall, in which a boxer, mistakenly taken to Heaven before his time, is given a second chance back on Earth. It stars Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains ...
'' (1941)
* '' High Sierra'' (1941)
* '' Hold Back the Dawn'' (1941)
* '' How Green Was My Valley'' (1941)
* '' The Little Foxes'' (1941)
* '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941)
* '' Meet John Doe'' (1941)
* '' Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' (1941)
* '' Mr. and Mrs. Smith'' (1941)
* '' One Foot in Heaven'' (1941)
* '' Penny Serenade'' (1941)
* ''Sergeant York
Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887 – September 2, 1964), also known as Sergeant York, was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine ...
'' (1941)
* '' Sullivan's Travels'' (1941)
* '' Suspicion'' (1941)
* ''The Bride Came C.O.D.
''The Bride Came C.O.D.'' is a 1941 American screwball romantic comedy starring James Cagney as an airplane pilot and Bette Davis as a runaway heiress, and directed by William Keighley. Although the film was publicized as the first screen pairi ...
'' (1941)
* '' The Lady Eve'' (1941)
* '' You'll Never Get Rich'' (1942)
* '' Tulips Shall Grow'' (1942)
* '' All Through the Night'' (1942)
* '' Bambi'' (1942)
* ''Casablanca
Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
'' (1942)
* '' Holiday Inn'' (1942)
* '' Kings Row'' (1942)
* ''The Magnificent Ambersons
''The Magnificent Ambersons'' is a 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington, the second in his ''Growth'' trilogy after ''The Turmoil'' (1915) and before ''The Midlander'' (1923, retitled ''National Avenue'' in 1927). It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction ...
'' (1942)
* '' Now, Voyager'' (1942)
* '' The Man Who Came to Dinner'' (1942)
* '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942)
* '' The Palm Beach Story'' (1942)
* '' The Pied Piper'' (1942)
* '' The Pride of the Yankees'' (1942)
* '' Random Harvest'' (1942)
* '' Saboteur'' (1942)
* '' The Talk of the Town'' (1942)
* '' Tortilla Flat'' (1942)
* '' Wake Island'' (1942)
* '' Woman of the Year'' (1942)
* '' Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (1942)
* '' You Were Never Lovelier'' (1942)
* '' For Whom the Bell Tolls'' (1943)
* ''Heaven Can Wait Heaven Can Wait may refer to:
* ''Heaven Can Wait'' (1943 film), a comedy based on the stage play ''Birthday'' by Leslie Bush-Fekete
* ''Heaven Can Wait'' (1978 film), an American football comedy starring Warren Beatty; a remake of the 1941 film ...
'' (1943)
* '' The Human Comedy'' (1943)
* '' Journey into Fear'' (1943)
* '' Madame Curie'' (1943)
* '' The More the Merrier'' (1943)
* '' The Ox-Bow Incident'' (1943)
* ''Shadow of a Doubt
''Shadow of a Doubt'' is a 1943 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Ac ...
'' (1943)
* '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943)
* '' Stormy Weather'' (1943)
* '' Watch on the Rhine'' (1943)
* '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1944)
* '' Cover Girl'' (1944)
* ''Double Indemnity
''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American crime film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The screenplay was based on James M. Cain's 1943 novel of the same ...
'' (1944)
* '' Gaslight'' (1944)
* '' Going My Way'' (1944)
* '' Henry V'' (1944)
* ''Laura
Laura may refer to:
People
* Laura (given name)
* Laura, the British code name for the World War I Belgian spy Marthe Cnockaert
Places Australia
* Laura, Queensland, a town on the Cape York Peninsula
* Laura, South Australia
* Laura Bay, a bay on ...
'' (1944)
* '' Lifeboat'' (1944)
* '' The Lodger'' (1944)
* '' Meet Me in St. Louis'' (1944)
* '' The Miracle of Morgan's Creek'' (1944)
* '' National Velvet'' (1944)
* '' The Barber of Seville'' (1944)
* '' Since You Went Away'' (1944)
* '' To Have and Have Not'' (1944)
* '' The Uninvited'' (1944)
* ''Wilson
Wilson may refer to:
People
* Wilson (name)
** List of people with given name Wilson
** List of people with surname Wilson
* Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender
* Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
'' (1944)
* '' Anchors Aweigh'' (1945)
* '' The Bells of St. Mary's'' (1945)
* '' Hangover Square'' (1945)
* ''The Lost Weekend
''The Lost Weekend'' is a 1945 American drama film noir directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. It was based on Charles R. Jackson's The Lost Weekend (novel), 1944 novel about an Alcoholism, alcoholic writer. The film ...
'' (1945)
* ''Mildred Pierce
''Mildred Pierce'' is a psychological drama by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1941.
A story of “social inequity and opportunity in America" set during the Great Depression, ''Mildred Pierce'' follows the trajectory of a lower- ...
'' (1945)
* '' Spellbound'' (1945)
* '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1946)
* '' John Henry and the Inky-Poo'' (1946)
* '' The Best Years of Our Lives'' (1946)
* '' The Big Sleep'' (1946)
* '' Cluny Brown'' (1946)
* '' Duel in the Sun'' (1946)
* '' Gilda'' (1946)
* ''Great Expectations
''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...
'' (1946)
* '' Humoresque'' (1946)
* '' It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946)
* '' The Killers'' (1946)
* '' The Locket'' (1946)
* ''Notorious
Notorious means well known for a negative trait, characteristic, or action. It may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Notorious'' (1946 film), a thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock
* ''Notorious'' (1992 film), a TV film re ...
'' (1946)
* '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1946)
* ''The Razor's Edge
''The Razor's Edge'' is a 1944 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It tells the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. The story beg ...
'' (1946)
* '' The Yearling'' (1946)
* '' The Bishop's Wife'' (1947)
* '' The Cat Concerto'' (1947)
* '' Crossfire'' (1947)
* '' Dead Reckoning'' (1947)
* '' Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947)
* '' The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' (1947)
* '' The Lady from Shanghai'' (1947)
* '' Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947)
* '' Monsieur Verdoux'' (1947)
* '' The Paradine Case'' (1947)
* ''Tubby the Tuba
Tubby is a nickname and surname and may refer to:
People Nickname
* Tubby Clayton (1885–1972), Anglican clergyman, founder of the Christian movement Toc H
* Michael Lindsay Coulton Crawford (1917–2017), Second World War Royal Navy officer an ...
'' (1947)
* '' Easter Parade'' (1948)
* '' Fort Apache'' (1948)
* '' Johnny Belinda'' (1948)
* '' Key Largo'' (1948)
* '' Moonrise'' (1948)
* '' Red River'' (1948)
* '' Unfaithfully Yours'' (1948)
* '' Rope'' (1948)
* '' The Snake Pit'' (1948)
* ''State of the Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...
'' (1948)
* ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' (originally titled ''Der Schatz der Sierra Madre'') is a 1927 adventure novel by German author B. Traven, whose identity remains unknown. In the book, two destitute American men in Mexico of the 1920s join a ...
'' (1948)
* '' Adam's Rib'' (1949)
* '' All the King's Men'' (1949)
* ''Battleground
A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...
'' (1949)
* '' The Heiress'' (1949)
* '' Intruder in the Dust'' (1949)
* '' A Letter to Three Wives'' (1949)
* '' She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'' (1949)
* '' The Third Man'' (1949)
* '' Twelve O'Clock High'' (1949)
* '' All About Eve'' (1950)
* '' Annie Get Your Gun'' (1950)
* '' Born Yesterday'' (1950)
* ''Caged
In music, a barre chord (also spelled bar chord) is a type of chord on a guitar or other stringed instrument played by using one finger to press down multiple strings across a single fret of the fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strin ...
'' (1950)
* '' Cinderella'' (1950)
* '' Father of the Bride'' (1950)
* '' In a Lonely Place'' (1950)
* '' King Solomon's Mines'' (1950)
* ''Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
'' (1950)
* '' Summer Stock'' (1950)
* '' The Furies'' (1950)
* '' Sunset Boulevard'' (1950)
* '' Treasure Island'' (1950)
* '' Ace in the Hole'' (1951)
* '' The African Queen'' (1951)
* ''Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (1951)
* '' An American in Paris'' (1951)
* '' The Day the Earth Stood Still'' (1951)
* '' Decision Before Dawn'' (1951)
* '' A Place in the Sun'' (1951)
* ''Quo Vadis
''Quō vādis?'' (, ) is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you marching?". It is also commonly translated as "Where are you going?" or, poetically, "Whither goest thou?"
The phrase originates from the Christian tradition regarding Saint Pet ...
'' (1951)
* '' Rooty Toot Toot'' (1951)
* '' Royal Wedding'' (1951)
* '' Strangers on a Train'' (1951)
* '' A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951)
* '' The Bad and the Beautiful'' (1952)
* '' The Greatest Show on Earth'' (1952)
* ''High Noon
''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense of ...
'' (1952)
* ''Ivanhoe
''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...
'' (1952)
* ''Limelight
Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)James R. Smith (2004). ''San Francisco's Lost Landmarks'', Quill Driver Books. is a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when ...
'' (1952)
* '' The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima'' (1952)
* '' Monkey Business'' (1952)
* '' Moulin Rouge'' (1952)
* '' The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1952)
* '' The Quiet Man'' (1952)
* ''Singin' in the Rain
''Singin' in the Rain'' is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell and Cyd Charis ...
'' (1952)
* '' The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men'' (1952)
* '' Calamity Jane'' (1953)
* '' The Band Wagon'' (1953)
* '' The Big Heat'' (1953)
* '' Duck Amuck'' (1953)
* '' From Here to Eternity'' (1953)
* '' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' (1953)
* ''How to Marry a Millionaire
''How to Marry a Millionaire'' is a 1953 American screwball comedy film directed by Jean Negulesco and written and produced by Nunnally Johnson. The screenplay was based on the plays ''The Greeks Had a Word for It'' (1930) by Zoe Akins and ''Loc ...
'' (1953)
* ''Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
'' (1953)
* '' Mogambo'' (1953)
* '' Peter Pan'' (1953)
* '' The Robe'' (1953)
* '' Roman Holiday'' (1953)
* '' Shane'' (1953)
* ''The Sword and the Rose
''The Sword and the Rose'' is a family/adventure film produced by Perce Pearce and Walt Disney and directed by Ken Annakin. The film features the story of Mary Tudor, a younger sister of Henry VIII of England.
Based on the 1898 novel '' Whe ...
'' (1953)
* '' The War of the Worlds'' (1953)
* ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-J ...
'' (1954)
* '' A Star Is Born'' (1954)
* '' The Caine Mutiny'' (1954)
* '' The Country Girl'' (1954)
* '' Dial M for Murder'' (1954)
* ''On the Waterfront
''On the Waterfront'' is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. ...
'' (1954)
* '' Rear Window'' (1954)
* '' Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue'' (1954)
* '' Sabrina'' (1954)
* '' Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'' (1954)
* '' Three Coins in the Fountain'' (1954)
* ''Vera Cruz Veracruz is a state in Mexico. Veracruz or Vera Cruz (literally "True Cross") may also refer to:
People
* María González Veracruz (born 1979), Spanish politician
* Philip Vera Cruz (1904–1994), Filipino American labor leader
* Tomé Vera Cruz ...
'' (1954)
* '' When Magoo Flew'' (1954)
* '' Blackboard Jungle'' (1955)
* '' Kiss Me Deadly'' (1955)
* '' Lady and the Tramp'' (1955)
* '' Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing'' (1955)
* '' Love Me or Leave Me'' (1955)
* '' The Man with the Golden Arm'' (1955)
* '' Marty'' (1955)
* '' Mister Roberts'' (1955)
* ''Picnic
A picnic is a meal taken outdoors ( ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding ...
'' (1955)
* '' East of Eden'' (1955)
* '' Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955)
* ''Richard III
Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...
'' (1955)
* '' The Rose Tattoo'' (1955)
* '' The Seven Year Itch'' (1955)
* '' Around the World in 80 Days'' (1956)
* '' Autumn Leaves'' (1956)
* '' Forbidden Planet'' (1956)
* ''Bigger Than Life
''Bigger Than Life'' is a 1956 American drama film directed by Nicholas Ray and starring James Mason, Barbara Rush, and Walter Matthau. Its plot follows an ailing school teacher and family man whose life spins out of control when he misuses c ...
'' (1956)The Beginner's Guide: Hollywood Melodramas, Film Inquiry
/ref>
* '' Friendly Persuasion'' (1956)
* '' Giant'' (1956)
* '' Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' (1956)
* '' The King and I'' (1956)
* '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1956)
* '' The Searchers'' (1956)
* '' The Swan'' (1956)
* '' The Ten Commandments'' (1956)
* '' War and Peace'' (1956)
* '' 12 Angry Men'' (1957)
* '' The Bridge on the River Kwai'' (1957)
* '' Paths of Glory'' (1957)
* '' Sweet Smell of Success'' (1957)
* '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957)
* '' Peyton Place'' (1957)
* '' Sayonara'' (1957)
* '' What's Opera, Doc?'' (1957)
* ''Witness for the Prosecution
In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...
'' (1957)
* '' Auntie Mame'' (1958)
* '' The Big Country'' (1958)
* '' The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
* ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams. An adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", the play was written by him between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his p ...
'' (1958)
* '' The Defiant Ones'' (1958)
* '' Gigi'' (1958)
* '' The Long, Hot Summer'' (1958)
* '' No Time for Sergeants'' (1958)
* '' Separate Tables'' (1958)
* '' Touch of Evil'' (1958)
* '' Vertigo'' (1958)
* ''A Hole in the Head
''A Hole in the Head'' (1959) is a DeLuxe Color comedy film, shown in CinemaScope, directed by Frank Capra, featuring Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Parker, Keenan Wynn, Carolyn Jones, Thelma Ritter, Dub Taylor, Ruby Dandridge, ...
'' (1959)
* ''Anatomy of a Murder
''Anatomy of a Murder'' is a 1959 American courtroom drama and crime film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes was based on the 1958 novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. ...
'' (1959)
* ''Ben-Hur Ben-Hur or Ben Hur may refer to:
Fiction
*'' Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ'', an 1880 novel by American general and author Lew Wallace
** ''Ben-Hur'' (play), a play that debuted on Broadway in 1899
** ''Ben Hur'' (1907 film), a one-reel silent ...
'' (1959)
* '' Darby O'Gill and the Little People'' (1959)
* ''The Diary of Anne Frank
''The Diary of a Young Girl'', also known as ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Neth ...
'' (1959)
* ''Imitation of Life (1959 film), Imitation of Life'' (1959)
* ''North by Northwest'' (1959)
* ''Pillow Talk (film), Pillow Talk'' (1959)
* ''The Nun's Story (film), The Nun's Story'' (1959)
* ''Sleeping Beauty (1959 film), Sleeping Beauty'' (1959)
* ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959)
* ''Suddenly, Last Summer (film), Suddenly, Last Summer'' (1959)
* ''The Last Angry Man'' (1959)
* ''The Time Machine (1960 film), The Time Machine'' (1960)
* ''The Alamo (1960 film), The Alamo'' (1960)
* ''The Apartment'' (1960)
* ''Elmer Gantry (film), Elmer Gantry'' (1960)
* ''Hell to Eternity'' (1960)
* ''Home from the Hill (film), Home from the Hill'' (1960)
* ''The Magnificent Seven'' (1960)
* ''Psycho (1960 film), Psycho'' (1960)
* ''Spartacus (film), Spartacus'' (1960)
* ''The Sundowners (1960 film), The Sundowners'' (1960)
* ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (film), Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961)
* ''The Children's Hour (film), The Children's Hour'' (1961)
* ''Fanny (1961 film), Fanny'' (1961)
* ''The Guns of Navarone (film), The Guns of Navarone'' (1961)
* ''The Hustler'' (1961)
* ''Judgment at Nuremberg'' (1961)
* ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1961)
* ''Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961)
* ''Splendor in the Grass'' (1961)
* ''West Side Story (1961 film), West Side Story'' (1961)
* ''King of Kings (1961 film), King of Kings'' (1961)
* ''The Misfits (1961 film), The Misfits'' (1961)
* ''Dr. No (film), Dr. No'' (1962)
* ''Gay Purr-ee'' (1962)
* ''Hell Is for Heroes (film), Hell Is for Heroes'' (1962)
* ''How the West Was Won (film), How the West Was Won'' (1962)
* ''Lawrence of Arabia (film), Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962)
* ''The Longest Day (film), The Longest Day'' (1962)
* ''The Music Man (1962 film), The Music Man'' (1962)
* ''Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film), Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1962)
* ''Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation'' (1962)
* ''To Kill a Mockingbird (film), To Kill a Mockingbird'' (1962)
* ''What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'' (1962)
* ''Gypsy (1962 film), Gypsy'' (1962)
* ''America America'' (1963)
* ''The Birds (film), The Birds'' (1963)
* ''Charade (1963 film), Charade'' (1963)
* ''Cleopatra (1963 film), Cleopatra'' (1963)
* ''The Great Escape (film), The Great Escape'' (1963)
* ''From Russia with Love (film), From Russia with Love'' (1963)
* ''Love with the Proper Stranger'' (1963)
* ''Jason and the Argonauts (1963 film), Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963)
* ''Lilies of the Field (1963 film), Lilies of the Field'' (1963)
* ''The Sword in the Stone (1963 film), The Sword in the Stone'' (1963)
* ''Bye Bye Birdie (1963 film), Bye Bye Birdie'' (1963)
* ''Irma la Douce'' (1963)
* ''Move Over, Darling'' (1963)
* ''Hud (1963 film), Hud'' (1963)
* ''McLintock!'' (1963)
* ''A Hard Day's Night (film), A Hard Day's Night'' (1964)
* ''Becket (1964 film), Becket'' (1964)
* ''Dr. Strangelove'' (1964)
* ''Goldfinger (film), Goldfinger'' (1964)
* ''Sex and the Single Girl (film), Sex and the Single Girl'' (1964)
* ''Mary Poppins (film), Mary Poppins'' (1964)
* ''My Fair Lady (film), My Fair Lady'' (1964)
* ''Zorba the Greek (film), Zorba the Greek'' (1964)
* ''Send Me No Flowers'' (1964)
* ''Viva Las Vegas'' (1964)
* ''The Night of the Iguana (film), The Night of the Iguana'' (1964)
Selected international films made during the Golden Age
* ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920, Germany)
* ''Nosferatu'' (1922, Germany)
* ''Häxan'' (1922, Sweden/Denmark)
* ''Die Nibelungen'' (1924, Germany)
* ''Battleship Potemkin'' (1925, U.S.S.R.)
* ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' (1926, Germany)
* ''Metropolis (1927 film), Metropolis'' (1927, Germany)
* ''Napoléon (1927 film), Napoléon'' (1927, France)
* ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (1928, France)
* ''Un Chien Andalou'' (1929, France/Spain)
* ''Pandora's Box (1929 film), Pandora's Box'' (1929, Germany)
* ''L'Age d'Or'' (1930, France)
* ''Limite'' (1931, Brazil)
* ''M (1931 film), M'' (1931, Germany)
* ''Vampyr'' (1932, Germany/France)
* ''Les Misérables (1934 film), Les Misérables'' (1934, France)
* ''Two Monks'' (1934, Mexico)
* ''L'Atalante'' (1934, France)
* ''The 39 Steps (1935 film), The 39 Steps'' (1935, U.K.)
* ''Let's Go with Pancho Villa'' (1936, Mexico)
* ''La Grande Illusion, Grand Illusion'' (1937, France)
* ''Terang Boelan'' (1937, Indonesia)
* ''The Rules of the Game'' (1939, France)
* ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939, Japan)
* ''Forty Thousand Horsemen'' (1940, Australia)
* ''You're Missing the Point'' (1940, Mexico)
* ''María Candelaria'' (1943, Mexico)
* ''Day of Wrath'' (1943, Denmark)
* ''Ivan the Terrible (1944 film), Ivan the Terrible'' (1944–1958, U.S.S.R.)
* ''Rome, Open City'' (1945, Italy)
* ''Brief Encounter'' (1945, U.K.)
* ''Children of Paradise'' (1945, France)
* ''Paisan'' (1946, Italy)
* ''A Matter of Life and Death (film), A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946, U.K.)
* ''Enamorada (film), Enamorada'' (1946, Mexico)
* ''Shoeshine (film), Shoeshine'' (1946, Italy)
* ''The Overlanders (film), The Overlanders'' (1946, Australia/U.K.)
* ''Beauty and the Beast (1946 film), Beauty and the Beast'' (1946, France)
* ''Neecha Nagar'' (1946, India)
* ''The Pearl (film), The Pearl'' (1947, Mexico)
* ''Quai des Orfèvres'' (1947, France)
* ''Black Narcissus'' (1947, U.K.)
* ''Bicycle Thieves'' (1948, Italy)
* ''Hamlet (1948 film), Hamlet'' (1948, U.K.)
* ''Drunken Angel'' (1948, Japan)
* ''The Red Shoes (1948 film), The Red Shoes'' (1948, U.K.)
* ''Spring in a Small Town'' (1948, China)
* ''Late Spring'' (1949, Japan)
* ''Begone Dull Care'' (1949, Canada)
* ''Stray Dog (film), Stray Dog'' (1949, Japan)
* ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949, U.K.)
* ''Stromboli (film), Stromboli'' (1950, Italy)
* ''Rashomon'' (1950, Japan)
* ''Orpheus (film), Orpheus'' (1950, France)
* ''Los Olvidados'' (1950, Mexico)
* ''Genghis Khan (1950 film), Genghis Khan'' (1950, Philippines)
* ''Víctimas del Pecado'' (1951, Mexico)
* ''Miracle in Milan'' (1951, Italy)
* ''Umberto D.'' (1952, Italy)
* ''Neighbours (1952 film), Neighbours'' (1952, Canada)
* ''Mexican Bus Ride'' (1952, Mexico)
* ''Ikiru'' (1952, Japan)
* ''Él (film), Él'' (1953, Mexico)
* ''Ugetsu'' (1953, Japan)
* ''The Wages of Fear'' (1953, France)
* ''Tokyo Story'' (1953, Japan)
* ''Sansho the Bailiff'' (1954, Japan)
* ''Robinson Crusoe (1954 film), Robinson Crusoe'' (1954, Mexico)
* ''Godzilla (1954 film), Godzilla'' (1954, Japan)
* ''Seven Samurai'' (1954, Japan)
* ''The Crucified Lovers'' (1954, Japan)
* ''Journey to Italy'' (1954, Italy)
* ''La Strada'' (1954, Italy)
* ''The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz'' (1955, Mexico)
* ''Ordet'' (1955, Denmark)
* ''A Generation'' (1955, Poland)
* ''Journey to the Beginning of Time'' (1955, Czechoslovakia)
* ''Les Diaboliques (film), Les Diaboliques'' (1955, France)
* ''The Apu Trilogy'' (1955–1959, India)
* ''Bob le flambeur'' (1956, France)
* ''A Man Escaped'' (1956, France)
* ''The Burmese Harp (1956 film), The Burmese Harp'' (1956, Japan)
* ''Floating Clouds'' (1955, Japan)
* ''Kanał'' (1956, Poland)
* ''Hang Tuah (film), Hang Tuah'' (1956, Malaysia/Singapore)
* ''Pyaasa'' (1957, India)
* ''The Seventh Seal'' (1957, Sweden)
* ''Wild Strawberries (film), Wild Strawberries'' (1957, Sweden)
* ''The Cranes Are Flying'' (1957, U.S.S.R.)
* ''A King in New York'' (1957, U.K.)
* ''Mother India'' (1957, India)
* ''The Snow Queen (1957 film), The Snow Queen'' (1957, U.S.S.R.)
* ''Nights of Cabiria'' (1957, Italy)
* ''Cairo Station'' (1958, Egypt)
* ''Thunder Among the Leaves'' (1958, Argentina)
* ''Mon Oncle'' (1958, France)
* ''Jalsaghar'' (1958, India)
* ''Ashes and Diamonds (film), Ashes and Diamonds'' (1958, Poland)
* ''Madhumati'' (1958, India)
* ''Invention for Destruction'' (1958, Czechoslovakia)
* ''The Day Shall Dawn'' (1959, Pakistan)
* ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959, France)
* ''The 400 Blows'' (1959, France)
* ''Black Orpheus'' (1959, Brazil/France)
* ''Room at the Top (1959 film), Room at the Top'' (1959, U.K.)
* ''Fires on the Plain (1959 film), Fires on the Plain'' (1959, Japan)
* ''Nazarín'' (1959, Mexico)
* ''Kaagaz Ke Phool'' (1959, India)
* ''Look Back in Anger (1959 film), Look Back in Anger'' (1959, U.K.)
* ''The Soldiers of Pancho Villa'' (1959, Mexico)
* ''Ballad of a Soldier'' (1959, U.S.S.R.)
* ''Pickpocket (film), Pickpocket'' (1959, France)
* ''The Human Condition (film series), The Human Condition'' (1959–1961, Japan)
* ''Breathless (1960 film), Breathless'' (1960, France)
* ''Two Women'' (1960, Italy)
* ''The Housemaid (1960 film), The Housemaid'' (1960, South Korea)
* ''Sons and Lovers (film), Sons and Lovers'' (1960, U.K.)
* ''The Sundowners (1960 film), The Sundowners'' (1960, Australia/U.K.)
* ''La Dolce Vita'' (1960, Italy)
* ''Obaltan'' (1960, South Korea)
* ''L'Avventura'' (1960, Italy)
* ''Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960 film), Meghe Dhaka Tara'' (1960, India)
* ''Mughal-e-Azam'' (1960, India)
* ''La Notte'' (1961, Italy)
* ''Viridiana'' (1961, Mexico/Spain)
* ''Surogat'' (1961, Yugoslavia)
* ''Yojimbo (film), Yojimbo'' (1961, Japan)
* ''Very Nice, Very Nice'' (1961, Canada)
* ''A Taste of Honey (film), A Taste of Honey'' (1961, U.K.)
* ''Gunga Jumna'' (1961, India)
* ''The Exterminating Angel'' (1962, Mexico)
* ''L'Eclisse'' (1962, Italy)
* ''Ivan's Childhood'' (1962, U.S.S.R.)
* ''Jules and Jim'' (1962, France)
* ''An Autumn Afternoon'' (1962, Japan)
* ''Cléo from 5 to 7'' (1962, France)
* ''Sanjuro'' (1962, Japan)
* ''O Pagador de Promessas'' (1962, Brazil)
* ''8½'' (1963, Italy/France)
* ''Tom Jones (1963 film), Tom Jones'' (1963, U.K.)
* ''This Sporting Life'' (1963, U.K.)
* ''Billy Liar (film), Billy Liar'' (1963, U.K.)
* ''Mahanagar'' (1963, India)
* ''Gamperaliya (film), Gamperaliya'' (1963, Sri Lanka)
* ''Black God, White Devil'' (1964, Brazil)
* ''Gertrud (film), Gertrud'' (1964, Denmark)
* ''Red Desert (film), Red Desert'' (1964, Italy)
* ''Charulata'' (1964, India)
* ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964, Italy/West Germany/Spain)
* ''I Am Cuba'' (1964, Cuba/U.S.S.R.)
* ''The Umbrellas of Cherbourg'' (1964, France/West Germany)
* ''Dry Summer'' (1964, Turkey)
* ''Simon of the Desert'' (1965, Mexico)
* ''Pierrot le Fou'' (1965, France)
* ''For a Few Dollars More'' (1965, Italy/West Germany/Spain)
* ''Loves of a Blonde'' (1965, Czechoslovakia)
* ''Subarnarekha (film), Subarnarekha'' (1965, India)
* ''La muerte de un burócrata'' (1966, Cuba)
* ''Persona (1966 film), Persona'' (1966, Sweden)
* ''Black Girl (1966 film), Black Girl'' (1966, Senegal/France)
* ''The Battle of Algiers'' (1966, Algeria/Italy)
* ''Blow-Up'' (1966, U.K./Italy)
* ''A Man for All Seasons (1966 film), A Man for All Seasons'' (1966, U.K.)
* ''A Man and a Woman'' (1966, France)
* ''Andrei Rublev (film), Andrei Rublev'' (1966, U.S.S.R.)
* ''Au Hasard Balthazar'' (1966, France)
* ''Closely Watched Trains'' (1966, Czechoslovakia)
* ''War and Peace (film series), War and Peace'' (1966–1967, U.S.S.R.)
* ''Three Days and a Child'' (1967, Israel)
* ''Le Samouraï'' (1967, France/Italy)
* ''Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon'' (1967, U.K.)
* ''Playtime'' (1967, France/Italy)
* ''Mouchette'' (1967, France)
* ''Belle de Jour (film), Belle de Jour'' (1967, France)
* ''Entranced Earth'' (1967, Brazil)
* ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968, Italy)
* ''Romeo and Juliet (1968 film), Romeo and Juliet'' (1968, U.K./Italy)
* ''Mandabi'' (1968, Senegal/France)
* ''Oliver! (film), Oliver!'' (1968, U.K.)
* ''Memories of Underdevelopment'' (1968, Cuba)
* ''Kes (film), Kes'' (1969, U.K.)
* ''Army of Shadows'' (1969, France)
* ''The Damned (1969 film), The Damned'' (1969, U.K.)
* ''Fellini Satyricon'' (1969, Italy)
* ''Z (1969 film), Z'' (1969, Algeria/France)
See also
* New Hollywood – overlapping/succeeding age from 1965 to 1983
* Golden Age of Television – overlapping age from 1947 to 1957
* Golden age of American animation – overlapping age from 1928 to 1969
* Poverty Row – B movies during this era
* Maximalist film, Maximalist and minimalist film, minimalist cinema
* Modernist film
References
Further reading
*
*
* Fawell, John. (2008) ''The Hidden Art of Hollywood''. Westport Conn.: Praeger Press.
*
*
*
External links
* David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
"Happy Birthday, classical cinema!"
December 28, 2007. Analysis of classical continuity in narrative film from 1917 to this day.
{{Portal bar, Film, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s
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