1943 in film

The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.

§Events

• January 3 - first missing persons telecast (NYC)
• February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films.
• November 23 - British Forces Broadcasting Service begins operation
• December 31 - NYC's Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at Paramount Theater

§Top grossing films (U.S.)

Box office numbers were reported at the time as a percentage compared to 'normal' business at each theater. For example, For Whom the Bell Tolls performed at an extraordinary 254% while Thousands Cheer was a hit at 176%. This is why exact dollar grosses for the period are unreliable at best.

§Awards

§16th Academy Awards

Best Picture: Casablanca - Warner Bros.

Best Director: Michael Curtiz - Casablanca

Best Actor: Paul Lukas - Watch on the Rhine

Best Actress: Jennifer Jones - The Song of Bernadette

Best Supporting Actor: Charles Coburn - The More the Merrier

Best Supporting Actress: Katina Paxinou - For Whom the Bell Tolls

§1st Golden Globe Awards

Best Picture: The Song of Bernadette

Best Director: Henry King â€" The Song of Bernadette

Best Actor: Paul Lukas â€" Watch on the Rhine

Best Actress: Jennifer Jones â€" The Song of Bernadette

§Top Ten Money Making Stars

§Notable films released in 1943

U.S.A. unless stated

ABC

• Above Suspicion, starring Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray
• Action in the North Atlantic, starring Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey
• The Adventures of Tartu, starring Robert Donat and Valerie Hobson - (GB)
• Air Force, directed by Howard Hawks, starring John Garfield
• Angels of the Streets (Les anges du peche), directed by Robert Bresson - (France)
• Background to Danger, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring George Raft and Peter Lorre
• Bataan, directed by Tay Garnett, starring Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan
• The Bells Go Down, starring Tommy Trinder and James Mason - (GB)
• Bombardier, starring Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley
• Border Patrol, starring William Boyd, George Reeves, Robert Mitchum
• Cabin in the Sky, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Ethel Waters
• Calling Dr. Death, first of the Inner Sanctum Mysteries, starring Lon Chaney, Jr.
• Clancy Street Boys, starring The East Side Kids
• Coney Island, starring Betty Grable
• The Constant Nymph, starring Joan Fontaine
• Le Corbeau (The Raven), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Pierre Fresnay - (France)
• Corvette K-225, starring Randolph Scott
• O Costa do Castelo (The Costa from the Castle) - (Portugal)
• Crash Dive, starring Tyrone Power and Anne Baxter
• Crazy House, starring Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson
• The Crew of the Dora (Besatzung Dora) - (Germany)
• Crime Doctor, starring Warner Baxter
• Cry 'Havoc', starring Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern, Joan Blondell

DEF

• The Dancing Masters, starring Laurel and Hardy
• Day of Wrath (Vredens Dag), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer - (Denmark)
• The Demi-Paradise, starring Laurence Olivier - (GB)
• Desert Victory, a propaganda documentary - (GB)
• Destination Tokyo, starring Cary Grant and John Garfield
• Destroyer, starring Glenn Ford and Edward G. Robinson
• Doña Bárbara, directed by Fernando de Fuentes - (Mexico)
• DuBarry Was a Lady, starring Lucille Ball and Red Skelton
• Edge of Darkness, starring Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan
• L'Éternel retour (The Eternal Return), directed by Jean Cocteau, starring Jean Marais - (France)
• Fires Were Started, directed by Humphrey Jennings - (GB)
• Five Graves to Cairo, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter
• Flesh and Fantasy, starring Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Boyer
• Flor Silvestre, starring Dolores del Río - (Mexico)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls, directed by Sam Wood, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman
• Forever and a Day, featuring an all-star cast
• Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and Béla Lugosi
• Der Fuehrer's Face, Donald Duck's Academy Award-winning short

GH

• The Gang's All Here, directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda
• The Ghost Ship, starring Richard Dix
• Girl Crazy, starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney
• Guadalcanal Diary, starring Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Preston Foster, William Bendix, Anthony Quinn
• A Guy Named Joe, starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne
• Hangmen Also Die!, starring Brian Donlevy and Walter Brennan
• Happy Land, starring Don Ameche and Frances Dee
• The Hard Way, starring Ida Lupino
• Heaven Can Wait, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Gene Tierney and Don Ameche
• Hello, Frisco, Hello, starring Alice Faye
• Hi Diddle Diddle, starring Adolphe Menjou and Pola Negri
• Hit the Ice, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Hitler's Children, directed by Edward Dmytryk
• Holy Matrimony, starring Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields
• Huella de luz (A Sight of Light) - (Spain)
• The Human Comedy, starring Mickey Rooney

IJK

• I Walked with a Zombie, starring Frances Dee
• Immensee (aka Immensee: A German Folksong) - (Germany)
• It Ain't Hay, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• It Comes Up Love, starring Gloria Jean and Donald O'Connor
• Jane Eyre, directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine
• Journey into Fear, starring Joseph Cotton, Dolores Del Rio and Orson Welles
• The Kansan, starring Richard Dix and Jane Wyatt
• Kismet, starring Ashok Kumar - (India)

LM

• Lassie Come Home, starring Roddy McDowall and Donald Crisp
• The Leopard Man, directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Dennis O'Keefe
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook - (GB)
• The Mad Ghoul, starring George Zucco
• Madame Curie, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon
• The Man in Grey, the first of the Gainsborough melodramas starring Margaret Lockwood and James Mason - (GB)
• María Candelaria, starring Dolores del Río and Pedro Armendáriz - (Mexico)
• Millions Like Us, directed by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder - (GB)
• Mission to Moscow, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Walter Huston
• Mister Big, starring Donald O'Connor and Gloria Jean
• The More the Merrier, directed by George Stevens, starring Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea
• Mr. Lucky, starring Cary Grant
• Münchhausen - (Germany)
• My Learned Friend, starring Will Hay - (GB)

NOP

• Nasreddin in Bukhara - (U.S.S.R.)
• No Time for Love, starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray
• The North Star, starring Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews
• Northern Pursuit, starring Errol Flynn
• Old Acquaintance, starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins
• Ossessione (Obsession), directed by Luchino Visconti - (Italy)
• The Outlaw, controversial western directed by Howard Hughes, starring Jane Russell
• The Ox-Bow Incident, directed by William Wellman, starring Henry Fonda, Harry Morgan, Dana Andrews
• Phantom of the Opera, starring Claude Rains
• Prelude to War, directed by Frank Capra
• Princess O'Rourke, starring Olivia de Havilland and Robert Cummings

QRS

• Riding High, starring Dorothy Lamour and Dick Powell
• Sahara, starring Humphrey Bogart
• Saludos Amigos, a Walt Disney animated film starring Donald Duck and Goofy
• Sanshiro Sugata, directed by Akira Kurosawa - (Japan)
• The Seventh Victim, starring Tom Conway
• Shadow of a Doubt, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten
• Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• Sherlock Holmes in Washington, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Shipbuilders, directed by John Baxter - (GB)
• The Silver Fleet, starring Ralph Richardson and Googie Withers - (GB)
• The Sky's the Limit, starring Fred Astaire and Joan Leslie
• So Proudly We Hail!, starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake
• Son of Dracula, starring Lon Chaney Jr.
• The Song of Bernadette, starring Jennifer Jones
• Squadron Leader X, starring Eric Portman and Ann Dvorak - (GB)
• Star Spangled Rhythm, featuring an all-star cast
• Stormy Weather, starring Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway
• A Stranger in Town, starring Frank Morgan

TUV

• Tender Comrade, starring Ginger Rogers and Robert Ryan
• Thank Your Lucky Stars, starring Eddie Cantor
• Theatre Royal, starring Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen - (GB)
• They Came to Blow Up America, starring George Sanders
• This is the Army, directed by Michael Curtiz
• This Land Is Mine, directed by Jean Renoir, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara
• Thousands Cheer, starring Gene Kelly, Kathryn Grayson, Mary Astor
• Titanic - (Germany)
• Top Man, starring Donald O'Connor
• Ukraine in Flames (Bitva za nashu Sovetskuyu Ukrainu) - (U.S.S.R.)
• Victory Through Air Power, a propaganda film by Disney
• Le Voyageur de la Toussaint - (France)

WXYZ

• War of the Wildcats (a.k.a. In Old Oklahoma), starring John Wayne
• Watch on the Rhine, starring Paul Lukas and Bette Davis
• We Dive at Dawn, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring John Mills - (GB)
• We've Never Been Licked, starring Richard Quine and Noah Beery, Jr.
• Whistling in Brooklyn, starring Red Skelton
• Yellow Canary, starring Anna Neagle and Richard Greene - (GB)

§Serials

• Adventures of the Flying Cadets
• The Adventures of Smilin' Jack
• Batman, starring Lewis Wilson
• Daredevils of the West, starring Allan Lane, directed by John English
• Don Winslow of the Coast Guard
• G-Men vs the Black Dragon, starring Rod Cameron, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
• The Masked Marvel, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
• The Phantom, starring Tom Tyler
• Secret Service in Darkest Africa, starring Rod Cameron, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet

§Comedy film series

• Buster Keaton (1917â€"1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921-1945)
• Our Gang (1922â€"1944)
• The Marx Brothers (1929â€"1946)
• The Three Stooges (1934â€"1959)

§Animated short film series

• Mickey Mouse (1928â€"1953)
• Looney Tunes (1930â€"1969)
• Terrytoons (1930â€"1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931â€"1969)
• Scrappy (1931â€"1941)
• Popeye (1933â€"1957)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934â€"1949)
• Donald Duck (1934â€"1956)
• Daffy Duck (1937 â€" 1966)
• Goofy (1939â€"1955)
• Andy Panda (1939â€"1949)
• Tom and Jerry (1940â€"1958)
• Woody Woodpecker (1941â€"1949)
• Swing Symphonies (1941â€"1945)
• The Fox and the Crow (1941â€"1950)
• Red Hot Riding Hood (1943â€"1949)
• Chip 'n Dale (1943â€"1956)
• Droopy (1943â€"1958)

§Births

• January 13 - Richard Moll, actor
• January 24 - Sharon Tate, actress and model (died 1969)
• January 25 - Tobe Hooper, director and screenwriter
• January 28 - John Beck, actor
• February 3 - Blythe Danner, actress
• February 9 - Joe Pesci, actor
• February 20 - Mike Leigh, English director
• February 25 - George Harrison, English musician and songwriter (died 2001)
• March 8 - Lynn Redgrave, English actress (died 2010)
• March 15 - David Cronenberg, Canadian director and screenwriter
• March 31 - Christopher Walken, actor
• April 20 - Edie Sedgwick, actress, socialite, model and heiress (died 1971)
• June 13 - Malcolm McDowell, English actor
• July 3 - Kurtwood Smith, actor
• July 21 - Edward Herrmann, actor
• August 15 - Barbara Bouchet, German-American actress
• August 17 - Robert De Niro, actor
• August 27 - Tuesday Weld, actress
• September 21 - Jerry Bruckheimer, producer
• September 28 - J. T. Walsh, actor (died 1998)
• October 4 - John Bindon, English actor and bodyguard
• October 8 - Chevy Chase, actor and comedian
• October 22 - Catherine Deneuve, French actress
• December 13 - Arturo Ripstein, Mexican director
• December 21 - Jack Nance, actor (died 1996)
• December 31 - Ben Kingsley, English actor

§Deaths

• February 14 - Dora Gerson, German actress (born 1899)
• April 3 - Conrad Veidt, German actor (born 1893)
• June 1 - Leslie Howard, Academy Award-nominated British actor (born 1893)
• June 30 - Carlo Wieth, Danish actor (born 1885)

§Film Debuts

• Robert Mitchum - The Human Comedy
• Shelley Winters - There's Something About a Soldier (film)|There's Something About a Soldier
• Natalie Wood - The Moon is Down

§References

§Further reading

• Historical Events for Year 1943 (Part 5)