1934 in film

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Events

• January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn (formerly of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.
• February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade
• April 19 - Fox Studios releases Stand Up and Cheer!, with five-year-old Shirley Temple in a relatively minor role. Shirley steals the film and Fox, which had been near bankruptcy, finds itself owning a goldmine.
• May 18 - Paramount releases Little Miss Marker, with Shirley Temple, on loan from Fox, in the title role.
• June 13 - An amendment to the Production Code establishes the Production Code Administration, and requires all films to obtain a certificate of approval before being released.
• November 12 - The musical Babes in Toyland debuts, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as comic relief.
• December 11 - Fox releases the Sol M. Wurtzel production of Bright Eyes, starring their hot new property, Shirley Temple. Shirley sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop", and wins the first Academy Award ever given to a child, for her endearing portrayal of Shirley Blake.

Top grossing films

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: It Happened One Night - Columbia Pictures
• Best Actor: Clark Gable - It Happened One Night
• Best Actress: Claudette Colbert - It Happened One Night
• Academy Award for Best Director: Frank Capra - It Happened One Night

Films released in 1934

U.S.A. unless stated

• All of Me, starring Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March
• Angèle, directed by Marcel Pagnol, starring Fernandel - (France)
• Anne of Green Gables, starring Anne Shirley
• L'Atalante, directed by Jean Vigo, starring Michel Simon - (France)
• Babes in Toyland, starring Laurel and Hardy
• Baby Take a Bow
• The Barretts of Wimpole Street, starring Norma Shearer, Fredric March and Charles Laughton
• Belle of the Nineties, starring Mae West, Roger Pryor and Johnny Mack Brown
• The Black Cat, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
• Bolero, starring George Raft and Carole Lombard
• Bright Eyes, starring Shirley Temple
• Broadway Bill, directed by Frank Capra, starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy
• Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back, starring Ronald Colman
• The Captain Hates the Sea, starring Victor McLaglen and John Gilbert in his last film role
• The Case of the Howling Dog, starring Warren William as Perry Mason
• The Cat and the Fiddle, starring Ramón Novarro and Jeanette MacDonald
• The Cat's-Paw, starring Harold Lloyd
• Chapayev - winner of National Board of Review "Best Foreign Film" Award in 1935 - (U.S.S.R.)
• Charlie Chan in London, starring Warner Oland
• Charlie Chan's Courage, starring Warner Oland
• The Circus Clown, starring Joe E. Brown
• City Limits
• The Clairvoyant, starring Claude Rains and Fay Wray - (U.K.)
• Cleopatra, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Claudette Colbert and Warren William
• Colonel Blood - (U.K.)
• The Count of Monte Cristo starring Robert Donat
• Crime Without Passion starring Claude Rains
• Dames, choreographed by Busby Berkeley, starring Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler
• Dark Hazard, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Death on the Diamond starring Robert Young
• Death Takes a Holiday, starring Fredric March
• Doctor Monica, starring Kay Francis
• Evergreen, directed by Victor Saville, starring Jessie Matthews - (U.K.)
• Everybody's Woman (La signora di tutti), directed by Max Ophüls - (Italy)
• Fashions of 1934, starring William Powell and Bette Davis
• Fog Over Frisco, starring Bette Davis
• Forsaking All Others, starring Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery
• Gambling Lady, starring Barbara Stanwyck
• The Gay Bride, starring Carole Lombard
• The Gay Divorcee, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
• The Girl from Missouri, starring Jean Harlow
• The Goddess (Shen nu) (China)
• Grand Canary, starring Warner Baxter
• Le Grand Jeu (The Great Game), directed by Jacques Feyder - (France)
• Here Comes the Navy, starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien
• Here is My Heart,starring Bing Crosby and Kitty Carlisle
• The House of Rothschild, starring George Arliss and Loretta Young
• Imitation of Life, starring Claudette Colbert and Warren William
• It Happened One Night, directed by Frank Capra, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert - winner of 5 Academy Awards
• It's a Gift, starring W. C. Fields
• Jimmy the Gent, starring James Cagney and Bette Davis
• Jolly Fellows (Vesyolye rebyata) - the first Russian musical
• Judge Priest, starring Will Rogers
• Kid Millions, starring Eddie Cantor
• The Lady Is Willing, starring Leslie Howard and Cedric Hardwicke - (U.K.)
• The Last Round-Up, starring Randolph Scott
• Leave It to Blanche
• Let's Try Again, starring Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard - (U.K.)
• Lieutenant Kijé - (U.S.S.R.)
• Liliom, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Charles Boyer - (France)
• Limehouse Blues
• Little Man, What Now?, starring Margaret Sullavan and Douglass Montgomery
• The Little Minister, starring Katharine Hepburn and John Beal
• Little Miss Marker, starring Shirley Temple
• Lord Edgware Dies, directed by Henry Edwards and starring Austin Trevor - (U.K.)
• A Lost Lady, starring Barbara Stanwyck
• The Lost Patrol, starring Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff and Wallace Ford
• The Lucky Texan, starring John Wayne
• Madame Du Barry, starring Dolores del Río
• The Man from Utah, starring John Wayne
• Man of Aran (documentary), directed by Robert Flaherty - (U.K.)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Leslie Banks, Edna Best and Peter Lorre - (U.K.)
• The Man with Two Faces, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Managed Money
• Mandalay
• Manhattan Melodrama, starring Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy
• Maniac, starring William Woods and Horace B. Carpenter
• Master and Man (U.K.)
• The Merry Widow (La veuve joyeuse), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald - (France/U.S.)
• Les Misérables, directed by Raymond Bernard, starring Harry Baur and Charles Vanel - (France)
• Murder at Monte Carlo, starring Errol Flynn - (U.K.)
• Now and Forever
• Now I'll Tell
• Of Human Bondage, starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis
• The Old Fashioned Way, starring W. C. Fields
• One More River, directed by James Whale
• One Night of Love, starring Grace Moore
• Operator 13, starring Marion Davies and Gary Cooper
• Our Daily Bread, starring Karen Morley and Tom Keene
• Pardon My Pups
• The Private Life of Don Juan, directed by Alexander Korda, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Merle Oberon - (U.K.)
• The Return of Bulldog Drummond, starring Ralph Richardson and Ann Todd - (U.K.)
• The Richest Girl in the World, starring Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea and Fay Wray
• Two Heads on a Pillow, starring Neil Hamilton, Miriam Jordan, and Henry Armetta
• Riptide, starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery
• The Rise of Catherine the Great, starring Elisabeth Bergner and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - (U.K.)
• Sadie McKee, starring Joan Crawford
• The Scarlet Empress, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich and John Lodge
• The Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon - (U.K.)
• She Loves Me Not, starring Miriam Hopkins and Bing Crosby
• The Silver Streak, starring Charles Starrett
• Six of a Kind, starring Charles Ruggles, Mary Boland and W. C. Fields
• Something Always Happens, starring, Ian Hunter, Nance O'Neil, John Singer, Peter Gawthorne, Muriel George - (U.K.)
• The Song of Ceylon, documentary directed by Basil Wright - (U.K.)
• Song of the Fishermen - (China)
• Spitfire, starring Katharine Hepburn
• The St. Louis Kid, starring James Cagney
• Stand Up and Cheer! starring Warner Baxter and Madge Evans, and featuring five-year-old Shirley Temple.
• The Star Packer, starring John Wayne
• A Story of Floating Weeds (Ukikusa monogatari), directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
• Tarzan and His Mate, starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan
• The Thin Man, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
• The Trail Beyond, starring John Wayne
• Treasure Island, starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper
• Twentieth Century, directed by Howard Hawks, starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard
• Twenty Million Sweethearts, starring Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers
• Unfinished Symphony, directed by Anthony Asquith (U.K./Austria)
• Viva Villa!, starring Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo and Fay Wray
• We're Not Dressing, starring Bing Crosby and Carole Lombard
• We're Rich Again, starring Edna May Oliver and Billie Burke
• White Heat, directed by Lois Weber
• The White Parade, starring Loretta Young
• A Wicked Woman, starring Mady Christians, Jean Parker and Charles Bickford
• Wonder Bar, starring Al Jolson
• You Belong to Me, starring Lee Tracy and Helen Mack
• You're Telling Me!, starring W. C. Fields
• Young and Beautiful
• Zouzou, directed by Marc Allégret, starring Jean Gabin and Josephine Baker - (France)

Serials

• Burn 'Em Up Barnes (released June 16) (12-chapter Mascot Pictures action), starring Frankie Darro and (as Barnes) Jack Mulhall
• Mystery Mountain (released December 3) (12-chapter Mascot Pictures western), starring Ken Maynard
• The Lost Jungle
• The Law of the Wild, starring Rin Tin Tin
• Pirate Treasure
• The Red Rider (released July 16) (15-chapter Universal Pictures western), starring Buck Jones
• Tailspin Tommy (released October 29) (12-chapter Universal Pictures action), starring Maurice Murphy
• The Vanishing Shadow
• Young Eagles

Comedy film series

• Harold Lloyd (1913–1938)
• Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)
• Lupino Lane (1915–1939)
• Buster Keaton (1917–1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921–1945)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)
• Harry Langdon (1924–1936)
• Wheeler and Woolsey (1929–1937)
• The Marx Brothers ' (1929–1946)
• The Three Stooges (1933–1962)

Animated short film series

• Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927–1938)
• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Silly Symphonies
  • The China Shop
  • The Grasshopper and the Ants
  • Funny Little Bunnies
  • The Wise Little Hen
  • The Flying Mouse
  • Peculiar Penguins
  • The Goddess of Spring
• Screen Songs (1929–1938)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Scrappy (1931–1941)
• Betty Boop (1932–1939)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• Willie Whopper (1933-1934)
• ComiColor Cartoons (1933–1936)
• Cubby Bear (1933-1934)
• The Little King (1933-1934)
• Happy Harmonies (1934-1938)
• Cartune Classics (1934-1935)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934-1949)
• Amos 'n' Andy (1934)

Births

• January 22 - Bill Bixby, American actor (died 1993)
• February 11 - Tina Louise, American actress
• March 26 - Alan Arkin, American actor
• March 31 - Shirley Jones, American singer and actress
• April 24 - Shirley MacLaine, American actress
• May 24 - Kiril Gospodinov, Bulgarian actor
• July 1 - Jean Marsh, English actress of Upstairs, Downstairs fame
• July 1 - Jamie Farr, United States actor
• July 5 - Nikolay Binev, Bulgarian actor
• September 20 - Sophia Loren, Italian actress
• September 28 - Brigitte Bardot, French actress
• November 5 - Kira Muratova, Russian director
• November 11 - Nadine Trintignant
• December 9 - Judi Dench, English actress
• December 28 - Maggie Smith, English actress

Deaths

• January 30 - Dorothy Dell, 19, actress (road accident)
• March 21 - Lilyan Tashman, 34, actress (cancer)
• July 6 - Harry A. Pollard, 55, actor & director
• July 28 - Marie Dressler, (born 1868) Academy Award winning actress (cancer)

Debuts

• Gene Autry
• Alice Faye
• Bob Hope
• Margaret Lockwood
• Rosalind Russell
• Robert Taylor