1936 in film

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

Events

• January 9 – Actor John Gilbert dies suddenly of a heart attack at his Bel Air home, aged 38.
• February 15 – first Republic serial, Darkest Africa, is released.
• May 29 – Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film, Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.
• September 14 – Film producer Irving Thalberg, often referred by many as the "Boy Wonder of Hollywood" dies from pneumonia at his home in Santa Monica, aged 37.

  Academy Awards

• Best Picture: The Great Ziegfeld – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Best Director: Frank Capra – Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
• Best Actor: Paul Muni – The Story of Louis Pasteur
• Best Actress: Luise Rainer – The Great Ziegfeld
• Best Supporting Actor: Walter Brennan – Come and Get It
• Best Supporting Actress: Gale Sondergaard – Anthony Adverse

  Top Ten Money Making Stars

Top Western stars

1936 film releases

January–March

• January 1936
• *16 January
• **Ceiling Zero
• *17 January
• **Augustus the Strong
• *20 January
• **The Invisible Ray
• *22 January
• **Collegiate
• *24 January
• **Anything Goes
• *30 January
• **Next Time We Love
• February 1936
• *1 February
• **Rose Marie
• *5 February
• **Modern Times
• *6 February
• **The Petrified Forest
• *7 February
• **The Milky Way
• *14 February
• **The Bohemian Girl
• **It Had to Happen
• *15 February
• **The Lawless Nineties
• *19 February
• **Girl Friends
• *20 February
• **Follow the Fleet
• **Things to Come
• *22 February
• **The Story of Louis Pasteur
• *28 February
• **The Prisoner of Shark Island
• **Wife vs. Secretary
• *29 February
• **Mayerling
• **The Walking Dead
• March 1936
• *1 March
• **Sutter's Gold
• *2 March
• **Man of the Frontier
• *6 March
• **Little Lord Fauntleroy
• **Three Godfathers
• *9 March
• **Love Before Breakfast
• *13 March
• **The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
• *18 March
• **These Three
• *20 March
• **Silly Billies
• *22 March
• **The Great Ziegfeld
• *28 March
• **Road Gang
• *30 March
• **Too Many Parents

  April–June

• April 1936
• *4 April
• **Till We Meet Again
• *10 April
• **A Message to Garcia
• **The Moon's Our Home
• **Small Town Girl
• *11 April
• **Desire
• **The Singing Kid
• *16 April
• **Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
• *20 April
• **By the Bluest of Seas
• *24 April
• **Captain January
• *30 April
• **Thirteen Hours by Air
• May 1936
• *6 May
• **It's Love Again
• *8 May
• **The Case Against Mrs. Ames
• *11 May
• **Dracula's Daughter
• *17 May
• **Show Boat
• *19 May
• **Love in Exile
• *20 May
• **Broken Blossoms
• *26 May
• **Hearts in Bondage
• *28 May
• **Osaka Elegy
• *29 May
• **Fury
• June 1936
• *5 June
• **Private Number
• *6 June
• **Bullets or Ballots
• *14 June
• **The Last Outlaw
• *15 June
• **Secret Agent
• *17 June
• **Poppy
• *20 June
• **Hearts Divided
• *26 June
• **San Francisco

  July–September

• July 1936
• *10 July
• **The Devil-Doll
• *16 July
• **Green Pastures
• *22 July
• **Satan Met a Lady
• *24 July
• **Poor Little Rich Girl
• *28 July
• **The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss
• *29 July
• **Anthony Adverse
• August 1936
• *10 August
• **Where There's a Will
• *20 August
• **Romeo and Juliet
• *26 August
• **East Meets West
• *28 August
• **The Gorgeous Hussy
• **Militiaman Bruggler
• **The Texas Rangers
• September 1936
• *1 September
• **Tudor Rose
• *2 September
• **The General Died at Dawn
• *4 September
• **The Last of the Mohicans
• **The Road to Glory
• **Swing Time
• *6 September
• **My Man Godfrey
• *9 September
• **Spy of Napoleon
• *10 September
• **Dusty Ermine
• *11 September
• **The Man Who Changed His Mind
• *15 September
• **The Children of Captain Grant
• *23 September
• **Dodsworth
• *25 September
• **Craig's Wife
• **Ramona
• *26 September
• **Cain and Mabel
• *30 September
• **Yiddle with his Fiddle

  October–December

• October 1936
• *1 October
• **Everything Is Thunder
• *6 October
• **Allá en el Rancho Grande
• *9 October
• **Libeled Lady
• *15 October
• **The Garden of Allah
• **Sisters of the Gion
• *16 October
• **15 Maiden Lane
• **Daniel Boone
• **Dimples
• **Hopalong Cassidy Returns
• *20 October
• **The Charge of the Light Brigade
• *22 October
• **Crime Over London
• *27 October
• **César
• **Rebellion
• *30 October
• **Our Relations
• November 1936
• *1 November
• **Legion of Terror
• *6 November
• **Come and Get It
• **Rembrandt
• **Tarzan Escapes
• **A Woman Rebels
• *12 November
• **Theodora Goes Wild
• *13 November
• **Go West, Young Man
• *16 November
• **Intermezzo
• **Laburnum Grove
• **The Plainsman
• *20 November
• **Love on the Run
• *25 November
• **Lloyd's of London
• **Pennies from Heaven
• *26 November
• **Men Are Not Gods
• *27 November
• **Born to Dance
• December 1936
• *1 December
• **The Bold Caballero
• *2 December
• **Sabotage
• *11 December
• **General Spanky
• **Les bas-fonds
• *12 December
• **Camille
• *20 December
• **Empty Saddles
• *21 December
• **Forget Me Not
• *24 December
• **The Jungle Princess
• *25 December
• **After the Thin Man
• **Stowaway
• *26 December
• **Gold Diggers of 1937
• *31 December
• **Let's Go With Pancho Villa

  Notable films released in 1936

0–9

• 15 Maiden Lane, starring Claire Trevor and Cesar Romero

  A

• Accused, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Dolores del Río
• Achhoot Kanya, starring Ashok Kumar
• The Adventures of Pinocchio
• After the Thin Man, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy
• Allá en el Rancho Grande
• The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss, starring Cary Grant
• Anthony Adverse, starring Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland
• Anything Goes, starring Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman
• Augustus the Strong, directed by Paul Wegener –

  B

• Les bas-fonds,, directed by Jean Renoir, starring Jean Gabin and Louis Jouvet
• Black Eyes directed by Abdolhossein Sepanta
• Blood on Wolf Mountain –
• The Bohemian Girl, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• The Bold Caballero, starring Robert Livingston
• Born to Dance, starring Eleanor Powell and James Stewart
• Broken Blossoms, starring Emlyn Williams and Dolly Haas
• Bullets or Ballots, starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Blondell
• By the Bluest of Seas, directed by Boris Barnet

  C

• Cain and Mabel, starring Marion Davies and Clark Gable
• Camel Through the Eye of a Needle
• Camille, starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor
• Captain January, starring Shirley Temple
• The Case Against Mrs. Ames, starring Madeleine Carroll and George Brent
• Ceiling Zero, directed by Howard Hawks, starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien
• César, directed by Marcel Pagnol
• The Charge of the Light Brigade, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
• Charlie Chan at the Opera, starring Warner Oland and Boris Karloff
• The Children of Captain Grant
• Circus
• Collegiate, starring Frances Langford and Betty Grable
• Come and Get It, starring Edward Arnold and Joel McCrea
• Craig's Wife, starring Rosalind Russell
• The Crime of Monsieur Lange, directed by Jean Renoir
• Crime Over London, directed by Alfred Zeisler

  D

• Daniel Boone, starring George O'Brien
• The Desert Island
• Desire, starring Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper
• Devdas
• The Devil-Doll, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan
• Dimples, starring Shirley Temple
• Dodsworth, directed by William Wyler, starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Mary Astor
• Dracula's Daughter, starring Otto Kruger and Gloria Holden
• Dusty Ermine, directed by Bernard Vorhaus

  E-F

• East Meets West, starring George Arliss
• Empty Saddles, starring Buck Jones and Louise Brooks
• Everything Is Thunder, starring Constance Bennett
• Follow the Fleet, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
• Forget Me Not, directed by Zoltan Korda, starring Beniamino Gigli and Joan Gardner
• The Four Musketeers
• Fury, starring Sylvia Sidney and Spencer Tracy

  G

• The Garden of Allah, starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer
• The General Died at Dawn, starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll
• General Spanky, starring Spanky McFarland
• Girl Friends
• Go West, Young Man, starring Mae West, adapted by her from Lawrence Riley's 1934 stage play Personal Appearance
• Gold Diggers of 1937, directed by Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley
• The Gorgeous Hussy, starring Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor
• The Great Ziegfeld, starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer
• Green Pastures, adapted from the 1923 stage play, starring Rex Ingram and Eddie Anderson

  H-K

• Hearts Divided, starring Marion Davies and Dick Powell
• Hearts in Bondage, starring David Manners and Mae Clarke
• Hopalong Cassidy Returns, starring William Boyd
• I'll Give a Million, starring Vittorio De Sica
• Intermezzo, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gösta Ekman
• The Invisible Ray, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
• It Had to Happen, starring George Raft and Rosalind Russell
• It's Love Again, starring Jessie Matthews and Robert Young
• The Jungle Princess, starring Dorothy Lamour and Ray Milland
• Der Kaiser von Kalifornien –

  L

• Laburnum Grove, starring Edmund Gwenn and Cedric Hardwicke
• The Last of the Mohicans, starring Randolph Scott
• The Last Outlaw, starring Harry Carey
• The Lawless Nineties, starring John Wayne
• Legion of Terror, starring Bruce Cabot
• Let's Go With Pancho Villa
• Libeled Lady, starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy
• Limelight, starring Anna Neagle
• Little Lord Fauntleroy, starring Freddie Bartholomew, Dolores Costello Barrymore, C. Aubrey Smith
• Lloyd's of London, starring Freddie Bartholomew, Madeleine Carroll, Tyrone Power
• Love Before Breakfast, starring Carole Lombard and Preston Foster
• Love in Exile, starring Helen Vinson and Clive Brook
• Love on the Run. starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable

  M

• Man of the Frontier, starring Gene Autry
• The Man Who Changed His Mind, starring Boris Karloff
• The Man Who Could Work Miracles, starring Roland Young and Ralph Richardson
• Mayerling, directed by Anatole Litvak starring Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux
• Men Are Not Gods, starring Miriam Hopkins, Gertrude Lawrence, Rex Harrison
• A Message to Garcia, directed by George Marshall, starring Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles and Wallace Beery
• Militiaman Bruggler –
• The Milky Way, starring Harold Lloyd
• Modern Times, written, directed by and starring Charles Chaplin, with Paulette Goddard
• The Mongolian Boy, directed by Ilya Trauberg is released as the first Mongolian film
• The Moon's Our Home, starring Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, directed by Frank Capra, starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur
• My Man Godfrey, directed by Gregory La Cava, starring William Powell and Carole Lombard

  N-P

• Next Time We Love, starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Ray Milland
• Night Mail, documentary
• The Only Son, directed by Yasujirō Ozu
• Osaka Elegy, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
• Our Relations, starring Laurel and Hardy
• Palm Springs, starring Frances Langford and David Niven
• Paradise Road
• Pennies from Heaven, starring Bing Crosby and Madge Evans
• The Petrified Forest, starring Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis
• Poppy, starring W.C. Fields
• The Plainsman, starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur
• Poor Little Rich Girl, starring Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Jack Haley
• The Prisoner of Shark Island, directed by John Ford, starring Warner Baxter and Gloria Stuart
• Private Number, starring Loretta Young and Robert Taylor

  R

• Red River Valley, starring Gene Autry
• Redes, directed by Fred Zinnemann –
• Ramona, starring Don Ameche and Loretta Young
• Rebellion, starring Tom Keene and Rita Hayworth
• Reefer Madness,, a cult exploitation film
• Rembrandt, directed by Alexander Korda, starring Charles Laughton –
• Road Gang, starring Donald Woods
• The Road to Glory, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Lionel Barrymore and Fredric March
• Romeo and Juliet, starring Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone
• Rose Marie, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy

  S

• Sabotage, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Sylvia Sidney and Oskar Homolka –
• San Francisco, starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy
• Satan Met a Lady, starring Warren William and Bette Davis
• Secret Agent, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring John Gielgud and Madeleine Carroll
• Show Boat, starring Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan
• The Singing Kid, starring Al Jolson
• Silly Billies starring Wheeler & Woolsey
• Sisters of the Gion, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
• Small Town Girl, directed by William Wellman, starring Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, James Stewart
• Sportszerelem
• Spy of Napoleon, directed by Maurice Elvey, starring Richard Barthelmess and Dolly Haas
• The Story of Louis Pasteur, starring Paul Muni
• Stowaway, starring Shirley Temple, Robert Young, Alice Faye
• Sutter's Gold, starring Edward Arnold
• , starring Tod Slaughter
• Swing Time'', starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

  T

• Tarzan Escapes, starring Johnny Weissmuller
• The Texas Rangers, directed by King Vidor, starring Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie
• Theodora Goes Wild, starring Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas
• These Three, starring Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea
• Things to Come, directed by William Cameron Menzies, starring Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke
• Thirteen Hours by Air, starring Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett
• Three Godfathers, starring Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Walter Brennan
• Till We Meet Again, starring Herbert Marshall and Gertrude Michael
• Too Many Parents, debut film for Frances Farmer
• The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, starring Sylvia Sidney, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda
• Tudor Rose, starring Cedric Hardwicke, Nova Pilbeam, John Mills

  W-Y

• The Walking Dead, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Boris Karloff
• Where There's a Will, starring Will Hay –
• Whom the Gods Love, directed by Basil Dean, starring Stephen Haggard, Victoria Hopper –
• Wife vs. Secretary, starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy
• Windbag the Sailor, starring Will Hay
• A Woman Rebels, starring Katharine Hepburn and Herbert Marshall
• Yiddle with his Fiddle, starring Molly Picon

  Serials

• Ace Drummond, starring John King
• The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
• The Black Coin
• The Clutching Hand
• Custer's Last Stand
• Darkest Africa, starring Clyde Beatty
• Flash Gordon, starring Buster Crabbe
• The Phantom Rider
• Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island, starring Ray Mala
• Shadow of Chinatown
• Undersea Kingdom, starring Ray Corrigan
• The Vigilantes Are Coming

  Comedy film series

• Harold Lloyd
• Charlie Chaplin
• Lupino Lane
• Buster Keaton
• Laurel and Hardy
• Our Gang
• Harry Langdon
• Wheeler & Woolsey
• The Marx Brothers
• The Three Stooges

  Animated short film series

• Felix the Cat
• Krazy Kat
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
• Mickey Mouse
• Silly Symphonies
• * Elmer Elephant
• * Three Little Wolves
• * Toby Tortoise Returns
• * Three Blind Mousketeers
• * The Country Cousin
• * Mother Pluto
• * More Kittens
• Screen Songs
• Looney Tunes
• Terrytoons
• Merrie Melodies
• Scrappy
• Betty Boop
• Popeye
• ComiColor Cartoons
• Happy Harmonies
• Color Rhapsodies
• Rainbow Parades
• Meany, Miny, and Moe

  Births

• January 22 – Nyree Dawn Porter, English actress
• January 27 – Troy Donahue, American actor
• January 28 – Alan Alda, American actor
• February 11 – Burt Reynolds, American actor
• February 14 – Andrew Prine, American actor
• March 1 – Georgina Spelvin, born Shelley Graham, American pornographic film actress
• March 5 – Dean Stockwell, American actor
• March 19 – Ursula Andress, Swiss actress
• May 1 – Danièle Huillet, French director
• May 9
• *Albert Finney, English actor
• *Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician
• May 17 – Dennis Hopper, American actor and performance artist
• June 4 – Bruce Dern, American actor
• July 5 – Shirley Knight, American actress
• August 13 – Vyjayanthimala, Indian actress, politician, dancer and singer
• August 18 – Robert Redford, American actor and director
• August 25 – Hugh Hudson, English director
• October 9 – Brian Blessed, English actor
• October 16 – Irina Demick, French actress
• October 24 – David Nelson, American actor, director and producer
• November 9 – Teddy Infuhr, American child actor
• November 27 – Joel Barcellos, Brazilian actor
• December 8 – David Carradine, American actor and martial artist
• December 10 – Howard Smith, American journalist, director and producer
• December 22 – hector elizondo, American actor
• December 23
• *Frederic Forrest, American actor
• *James Stacy, American actor
• December 25 – Ismail Merchant, Indian film producer
• December 29 – Mary Tyler Moore, American actress

  Deaths

• January 9 – John Gilbert, American actor
• January 24 – Harry T. Morey, American actor
• February 20 – Max Schreck, German actor
• February 28 – Justus Hagman, Swedish actor
• April 6 – Väinö Lehmus, Finnish actor
• June 17 – Henry B. Walthall, American actor
• July 11 - James Murray, American actor
• September 14 – Irving Thalberg, American film producer
• October 17 – Suzanne Bianchetti, French actress

  Debuts

• Lloyd Bridges – Freshman Love
• Judy Garland – Pigskin Parade
• Gloria DeHaven – Modern Times
• Van Heflin – A Woman Rebels
• Tony Martin – Follow the Fleet
• Anthony Quinn – The Milky Way
• Margaret Rutherford – Dusty Ermine