1943 in film

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

Events

• January 23 – The film Casablanca is released nationally in the United States and becomes one of the top-grossing pictures of 1943. It goes on to win the Best Picture and Best Director awards at the 16th Academy Awards.
• February 20 – American film studio executives agree to allow the United States Office of War Information to censor films.
• June 1 – Veteran English actor Leslie Howard, best known to many for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, dies at the age of 50 in the crash of BOAC Flight 777 off the coast of Galicia, Spain.
• November 23 – British Forces Broadcasting Service begins operation
• December 31 – New York City's Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at Paramount Theater

  Awards

Top Ten Money Making Stars

1943 film releases

January–March

• January 1943
• *6 January
• **Hitler's Children
• *12 January
• **Shadow of a Doubt
• *23 January
• **Casablanca
• February 1943
• *3 February
• **Air Force
• *5 February
• **The Outlaw
• *11 February
• **No Place for a Lady
• *12 February
• **Journey into Fear
• *19 February
• **Saludos Amigos
• *20 February
• **The Hard Way
• March 1943
• *1 March
• **Squadron Leader X
• *2 March
• **The Human Comedy
• *3 March
• **Münchhausen
• *5 March
• **Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
• *10 March
• **It Ain't Hay
• *11 March
• **Hello, Frisco, Hello
• *15 March
• **The Silver Fleet
• *22 March
• **Huella de luz
• *25 March
• **Sanshiro Sugata
• *26 March
• **Forever and a Day
• *27 March
• **Hangmen Also Die!

  April–June

• April 1943
• *2 April
• **Border Patrol
• *9 April
• **Cabin in the Sky
• **It Comes Up Love
• *12 April
• **Fires Were Started
• *15 April
• **We Dive at Dawn
• *22 April
• **Crash Dive
• *23 April
• **Clancy Street Boys
• *24 April
• **Edge of Darkness
• *30 April
• **I Walked with a Zombie
• **Sherlock Holmes in Washington
• May 1943
• *4 May
• **Five Graves to Cairo
• *7 May
• **They Came to Blow Up America
• **This Land Is Mine
• *8 May
• **The Leopard Man
• *13 May
• **The More the Merrier
• *14 May
• **Bombardier
• *16 May
• **Ossessione
• *17 May
• **The Bells Go Down
• *21 May
• **Action in the North Atlantic
• **Cowboy in Manhattan
• **The Ox-Bow Incident
• *22 May
• **Mission to Moscow
• *27 May
• **Prelude to War
• *28 May
• **Mr. Lucky
• June 1943
• *2 June
• **Hit the Ice
• *3 June
• **Bataan
• *10 June
• **The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• *11 June
• **Coney Island
• *22 June
• **Crime Doctor
• **So Proudly We Hail!
• *23 June
• **Angels of the Streets
• **The Constant Nymph

  July–September

• July 1943
• *3 July
• **Background to Danger
• *14 July
• **For Whom the Bell Tolls
• *17 July
• **Victory Through Air Power
• *21 July
• **Stormy Weather
• *26 July
• **Theatre Royal
• August 1943
• *1 August
• **Behind the Rising Sun
• *2 August
• **Hi Diddle Diddle
• **Nasreddin in Bukhara
• *11 August
• **Heaven Can Wait
• *12 August
• **Phantom of the Opera
• *14 August
• **This is the Army
• *19 August
• **Destroyer
• **DuBarry Was a Lady
• *21 August
• **The Seventh Victim
• *23 August
• **The Man in Grey
• *27 August
• **Holy Matrimony
• **Watch on the Rhine
• *30 August
• **We've Never Been Licked
• September 1943
• *2 September
• **The Sky's the Limit
• *10 September
• **The Kansan
• *13 September
• **Thousands Cheer
• *16 September
• **Doña Bárbara
• *17 September
• **Revenge of the Zombies
• **Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
• **Top Man
• *24 September
• **The Adventures of Tartu
• *25 September
• **Thank Your Lucky Stars
• *28 September
• **Le Corbeau
• *29 September
• **Corvette K-225

  October–December

• October 1943
• *7 October
• **Lassie Come Home
• *8 October
• **Best Foot Forward
• **Crazy House
• *13 October
• **L'Éternel retour
• *19 October
• **Yellow Canary
• *23 October
• **Princess O'Rourke
• *29 October
• **Flesh and Fantasy
• November 1943
• *4 November
• **The North Star
• *5 November
• **Guadalcanal Diary
• **Millions Like Us
• **Son of Dracula
• *10 November
• **No Time for Love
• **Titanic
• *11 November
• **The Return of the Vampire
• **Sahara
• *12 November
• **The Mad Ghoul
• *13 November
• **Day of Wrath
• **Northern Pursuit
• *19 November
• **The Dancing Masters
• *23 November
• **Cry 'Havoc'
• *26 November
• **Girl Crazy
• *27 November
• **Old Acquaintance
• December 1943
• *3 December
• **Happy Land
• *6 December
• **War of the Wildcats
• *14 December
• **The Shipbuilders
• *15 December
• **Madame Curie
• *17 December
• **Calling Dr. Death
• **Immensee
• *20 December
• **The Demi-Paradise
• *21 December
• **The Song of Bernadette
• *24 December
• **The Gang's All Here
• **The Ghost Ship
• **Jack London
• *29 December
• **Tender Comrade
• *31 December
• **Destination Tokyo
• **The Woman of the Town

  Notable films released in 1943

A

• 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 –
• Air Force, directed by Howard Hawks, starring John Garfield
• Angels of the Streets, directed by Robert Bresson –

  B

• Background to Danger, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring George Raft and Peter Lorre
• Bataan, directed by Tay Garnett, starring Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan
• Behind the Rising Sun, starring Tom Neal, produced by Howard Hughes
• The Bells Go Down, starring Tommy Trinder and James Mason –
• Best Foot Forward, starring Lucille Ball, William Gaxton, Virginia Weidler
• Bombardier, starring Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley
• Border Patrol, starring William Boyd, George Reeves, Robert Mitchum

  C

• 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, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Pierre Fresnay –
• Corvette K-225, starring Randolph Scott
• O Costa do Castelo –
• Cowboy in Manhattan
• Crash Dive, starring Tyrone Power and Anne Baxter
• Crazy House, starring Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson
• The Crew of the Dora –
• Crime Doctor, starring Warner Baxter
• Cry 'Havoc', starring Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern, Joan Blondell

  D

• The Dancing Masters, starring Laurel and Hardy
• Day of Wrath, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer –
• The Demi-Paradise, starring Laurence Olivier –
• Desert Victory, a propaganda documentary –
• Destination Tokyo, starring Cary Grant and John Garfield
• Destroyer, starring Glenn Ford and Edward G. Robinson
• Doña Bárbara, directed by Fernando de Fuentes –
• DuBarry Was a Lady, starring Lucille Ball and Red Skelton

  E-F

• Edge of Darkness, starring Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan
• L'Éternel retour, directed by Jean Cocteau, starring Jean Marais –
• Fires Were Started, directed by Humphrey Jennings –
• 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 –
• Forces Occultes, directed by Jean Marny, starring Maurice Rémy, Marcel Vibert, Auguste Bovério, Giséle Parry –
• 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

  G

• 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

  H

• Hangmen Also Die!, starring Brian Donlevy and Walter Brennan
• Happy Land, starring Don Ameche and Frances Dee
• The Hard Way, starring Ida Lupino
• Harlem, directed by Carmine Gallone, starring Massimo Girotti and Amedeo Nazzari
• 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 –
• The Human Comedy, starring Mickey Rooney

  I

• I Walked with a Zombie, starring Frances Dee
• Immensee –
• It Ain't Hay, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• It Comes Up Love, starring Gloria Jean and Donald O'Connor

  J-K

• Jack London, starring Michael O'Shea and Susan Hayward
• Jane Eyre, directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine
• Journey into Fear, starring Joseph Cotten, Dolores del Río, Orson Welles
• The Kansan, starring Richard Dix and Jane Wyatt
• Kismet, starring Ashok Kumar –

  L-M

• 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 –
• 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 –
• María Candelaria, starring Dolores del Río and Pedro Armendáriz –
• Millions Like Us, directed by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder –
• 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 –
• My Learned Friend, starring Will Hay –

  N

• Nasreddin in Bukhara –
• No Place for a Lady, starring William Gargan and Phyllis Brooks
• No Time for Love, starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray
• The North Star, starring Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews
• Northern Pursuit, starring Errol Flynn

  O

• Old Acquaintance, starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins
• Ossessione, directed by Luchino Visconti –
• 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

  P

• Phantom of the Opera, starring Claude Rains
• Prelude to War, directed by Frank Capra
• Princess O'Rourke, starring Olivia de Havilland and Robert Cummings

  Q-S

• The Return of the Vampire, starring Béla Lugosi
• Revenge of the Zombies, starring John Carradine
• 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 –
• 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 –
• The Silver Fleet, starring Ralph Richardson and Googie Withers –
• 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 –
• Stormy Weather, starring Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers
• A Stranger in Town, starring Frank Morgan

  T-V

• Tender Comrade, starring Ginger Rogers and Robert Ryan
• Thank Your Lucky Stars, starring Eddie Cantor
• Theatre Royal, starring Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen –
• 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 –
• Top Man, starring Donald O'Connor
• Ukraine in Flames –
• Victory Through Air Power, a propaganda film by Disney
• Le Voyageur de la Toussaint'' –

  W-Z

• War of the Wildcats, starring John Wayne
• Watch on the Rhine, starring Paul Lukas and Bette Davis
• We Dive at Dawn, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring John Mills –
• We've Never Been Licked, starring Richard Quine and Noah Beery, Jr.
• Whistling in Brooklyn, starring Red Skelton
• The Woman of the Town, starring Claire Trevor and Albert Dekker
• Yellow Canary, starring Anna Neagle and Richard Greene –

  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
• Laurel and Hardy
• Our Gang
• The Marx Brothers
• The Three Stooges

  Animated short film series

• Mickey Mouse
• Looney Tunes
• Terrytoons
• Merrie Melodies
• Scrappy
• Popeye
• Color Rhapsodies
• Donald Duck
• Daffy Duck
• Goofy
• Andy Panda
• Tom and Jerry
• Woody Woodpecker
• Swing Symphonies
• The Fox and the Crow
• Red Hot Riding Hood
• Chip 'n Dale
• Droopy

  Births

• January 13 – Richard Moll, actor
• January 24 – Sharon Tate, actress and model
• 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
• March 8 – Lynn Redgrave, English actress
• March 15 – David Cronenberg, Canadian director and screenwriter
• March 29 – Eric Idle, English actor, comedian, author and musician
• March 31 – Christopher Walken, actor
• April 20 – Edie Sedgwick, actress, socialite, model and heiress
• June 7 – Michael Pennington, English actor, director and writer
• June 13 – Malcolm McDowell, English actor
• June 23 – Patrick Bokanowski, French director
• 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 24 – Randall Duk Kim, Korean American stage, film and television actor
• September 28 – J. T. Walsh, actor
• October 4 – John Bindon, English actor and bodyguard
• October 8 – Chevy Chase, actor and comedian
• October 15 – Penny Marshall, American television actress, film director and producer
• October 22 – Catherine Deneuve, French actress
• November 5 – Sam Shepard, American actor
• November 12 – Wallace Shawn, American actor
• November 28 – Randy Newman, American singer, film composer
• December 13 – Arturo Ripstein, Mexican director
• December 21 – Jack Nance, actor
• December 23 – Harry Shearer, actor
• December 31 – Ben Kingsley, English actor

  Deaths

• February 14 – Dora Gerson, 43, German actress, Caravan of Death, On the Brink of Paradise
• February 19 – Lynne Overman, 58, American actress, Little Miss Marker, Union Pacific, Dixie
• February 20 – Donald Haines, 23, American child actor, Skippy, A Tale of Two Cities
• April 3 – Conrad Veidt, 50, German actor, Casablanca, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Thief of Baghdad, The Spy in Black
• June 1 – Leslie Howard, 50, Academy Award-nominated British actor, Gone with the Wind, Pygmalion, The Petrified Forest, Of Human Bondage
• June 30 – Carlo Wieth, 57, Danish actor
• July 16 – Arthur Byron, 71, American actor, 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, Gabriel Over the White House

  Film Debuts

• June Allyson – Best Foot Forward
• Jeanne Crain – The Gang's All Here
• Hume Cronyn – Shadow of a Doubt
• Rhonda Fleming – In Old Oklahoma
• Kim Hunter – The Seventh Victim
• Richard Jaeckel – Guadalcanal Diary
• Dorothy McGuire – Claudia
• Robert Mitchum – The Human Comedy
• Dorothy Malone – Gildersleeve on Broadway
• Ella Raines – Corvette K-225
• Jane Russell – The Outlaw
• Cliff Robertson – We've Never Been Licked
• Lawrence Tierney – Gildersleeve on Broadway
• Shelley Winters – There's Something About a Soldier
• Natalie Wood – The Moon Is Down