1932 in film

Years in film
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2000s
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2010s
2010 • 2011 • 2012 2013 and beyond

Events

• Cary Grant's film career begins
• Katharine Hepburn's film career begins
• Shirley Temple's film career begins
• Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.
• Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released.

Top grossing films

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Grand Hotel - MGM

Note: Prior to 1933 awards were not based on calendar years, which is how there are no 'Best Actor' or 'Best Actress' awards for 1932 films. The 1931-32 awards went to 1931 films.

Notable films released in 1932

U.S.A. unless stated

• 20,000 Years in Sing Sing
• The Age of Consent
• After the Ball, directed by Gregory La Cava, starring Dorothy Wilson, Arline Judge and Richard Cromwell - (U.K.)
• Air Mail
• American Madness, directed by Frank Capra, starring Walter Huston
• As You Desire Me, starring Greta Garbo
• Back Street, starring Irene Dunne and John Boles
• The Bartered Bride (Die verkaufte Braut), directed by Max Ophuls - (Germany)
• The Beast of the City, starring Walter Huston, Jean Harlow and Wallace Ford
• The Big Broadcast, starring Bing Crosby
• Big City Blues, starring Eric Linden and Joan Blondell
• The Big Stampede, starring John Wayne
• A Bill of Divorcement, starring John Barrymore, Billie Burke and Katharine Hepburn in her film debut
• Bird of Paradise, starring Dolores del Río and Joel McCrea
• Das Blaue Licht, starring and directed by Leni Riefenstahl - (Germany)
• Blonde Venus, starring Marlene Dietrich
• Boudu Saved from Drowning (Boudu sauvé des eaux), directed by Jean Renoir, starring Michel Simon - (France)
• Broken Lullaby, starring Lionel Barrymore
• Business and Pleasure
• Cabin in the Cotton, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Richard Barthelmess and Bette Davis
• Call Her Savage, starring Clara Bow
• Cruiser Emden, directed by Louis Ralph (Germany)
• Dance Pretty Lady, directed by Anthony Asquith (U.K.)
• Dancers in the Dark, starring Miriam Hopkins
• The Dark Horse
• The Dentist, a W.C. Fields short subject produced by Mack Sennett
• Destry Rides Again, starring Tom Mix
• Downstairs, starring John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce and Hedda Hopper
• Emma, starring Marie Dressler
• Fanny, directed by Marc Allegret, starring Raimu - (France)
• A Farewell to Arms, starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes
• Flowers and Trees
• Forbidden
• Freaks, directed by Tod Browning
• Goodnight, Vienna - (U.K.)
• Grand Hotel, starring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore
• Horse Feathers, starring the Marx Brothers with Thelma Todd
• Hotel Splendide, directed by Michael Powell - (U.K.)
• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Paul Muni
• I Was Born, But... (Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo), directed by Yasujiro Ozu - (Japan)
• If I Had a Million
• Impatient Maiden
• Island of Lost Souls, an adaptation of H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Charles Laughton
• Ivan - directed by Alexander Dovzhenko (U.S.S.R.)
• Jack's the Boy directed by Walter Forde, starring Jack Hulbert (U.K.)
• Jewel Robbery, starring William Powell and Kay Francis
• Kuhle Wampe oder: Wem gehört die Welt? (To Whom Does the World Belong?) - (Germany)
• The Last Mile
• Law and Order
• Lena Rivers
• The Local Bad Man, starring Hoot Gibson
• The Love Contract, directed by Herbert Selpin and starring Owen Nares and Winifred Shotter (U.K.)
• Love Me Tonight, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald
• The Lucky Number, directed by Anthony Asquith (U.K.)
• The Man Who Played God
• Merrily We Go to Hell, directed by Dorothy Arzner
• Million Dollar Legs
• The Most Dangerous Game, starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, and Leslie Banks
• The Mouthpiece, starring Warren William
• Movie Crazy, a comedy starring Harold Lloyd
• The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff
• Murders in the Rue Morgue, starring Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox and Leon Ames
• Night After Night, starring George Raft and Mae West in her film debut
• The Old Dark House, starring Boris Karloff and Melvyn Douglas
• One Hour with You, starring Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Genevieve Tobin and Charles Ruggles
• One Way Passage, directed by Tay Garnett, starring William Powell and Kay Francis
• Pack Up Your Troubles, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• Payment Deferred
• Rain
• Rasputin, Demon with Women (Rasputin, Dämon der Frauen), starring Conrad Veidt - (Germany)
• Red Dust, starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable
• Red Haired Alibi
• Red-Headed Woman, starring Jean Harlow
• Scarface, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Paul Muni and Ann Dvorak
• Shanghai Express, starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong and Warner Oland
• The Sign of the Cross
• Smilin' Through, starring Norma Shearer
• Tarzan the Ape Man, starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan
• Three on a Match, starring Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis
• Tiger Shark, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Trouble in Paradise, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis and Herbert Marshall
• Two Seconds, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Unheimliche Geschichten remake w/ sound of the 1919 film - (Germany)
• Union Depot, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Joan Blondell
• Vampyr, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer - (Germany, France)
• Virtue, starring Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien
• War Babies
• What Price Hollywood?, directed by George Cukor, starring Constance Bennett
• What Scoundrels Men Are! (Gli uomini, che mascalzoni!), starring Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi
• Wooden Crosses (Les croix de bois), directed by Raymond Bernard - (France)

Serials

• The Airmail Mystery
• Detective Lloyd
• The Devil Horse
• Heroes of the West
• The Hurricane Express, starring John Wayne
• The Jungle Mystery
• The Last Frontier
• The Last of the Mohicans
• The Lost Special
• The Shadow of the Eagle, starring John Wayne

Short film series

• Buster Keaton (1917–1941)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921-1943)
• Shirley Temple (1932–1946)

Animated short film series

• Flowers and Trees (1933)
• Aesop's Film Fables (1921–1933)
• Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927–1938)
• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Silly Symphonies
  • The Bird Store
  • The Bears and the Bees
  • Just Dogs
  • Flowers and Trees
  • King Neptune
  • Bugs in Love
  • Babes in the Woods
  • Santa's Workshop
• Screen Songs (1929–1938)
• Talkartoons (1929-1932)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Flip the Frog (1930–1933)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Scrappy (1931–1941)
• Tom and Jerry (Van Beuren) (1931–1933)
• Betty Boop (1932-1939)
• Pooch the Pup (1932-1933)

Births

• January 3 - Dabney Coleman, actor
• January 4 - Carlos Saura, director
• February 6 - François Truffaut, French film director (died 1984)
• February 13 - Susan Oliver, actress, pilot
• February 18 – Miloš Forman, director
• February 23 - Majel Barrett, United States actress (died 2008)
• February 27 - Elizabeth Taylor, actress (died 2011)
• April 4 - Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian movie director (died 1986)
  • April 4- Anthony Perkins, United States actor (died 1932)
• April 10 - Delphine Seyrig, French actress (died 1990)
• June 18 - David Herriot, Irish actor (died 2000)
• August 2 - Peter O'Toole, actor
• September 29 - Mehmood, Indian actor, director, producer (died 2004)
• October 20 - William Christopher, United States actor
• November 10- Roy Scheider, United States actor (died 2008)
• November 15 - Petula Clark, British actress/film composer
• December 7 - Ellen Burstyn, American actress

Deaths

• February 15 - Minnie Maddern Fiske, American stage star made silent films
• June 30 - Bruno Kastner, German actor
• August 1 - Rin Tin Tin, canine actor
• September 1 - Peg Entwistle, British-born American actress
  • Guy Oliver, actor
• November 2 - Evelyn Preer, American actress, singer

Film debuts

• Robert Donat
• Cary Grant
• Katharine Hepburn
• Alan Ladd
• John Mills
• David Niven
• Dick Powell
• Kate Smith
• Shirley Temple
• Mae West