1933 in film

List of years in film       (table)
… 1923 .  1924 .  1925 .  1926  . 1927  . 1928  . 1929 … 1930 1931 1932 -1933- 1934 1935 1936 … 1937 .  1938 .  1939 .  1940  . 1941  . 1942  . 1943 …     In television: 1930 1931 1932 -1933- 1934 1935 1936             In radio: 1930 1931 1932 -1933- 1934 1935 1936
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Events

• March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.
• June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.
• British Film Institute founded.
• GPO Film Unit established in the United Kingdom under John Grierson, taking over responsibility for documentary film making from the Empire Marketing Board.
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) once again expresses interest in the Wizard of Oz books for a series of animated cartoons, but they once again failed to make a deal with the estate of creator L. Frank Baum
• Ecstasy, a Czechoslovak film, shocks audiences when actress Hedy Lamarr is seen naked in the film.
• The Private Life of Henry VIII becomes the first British film to win an American Academy Award.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Rank	Title	Studio	Actors
1.	I'm No Angel	Paramount	Mae West
2.	Dinner at Eight	MGM	Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore and Billie Burke
3.	42nd Street	Warner Bros.	Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell
4.	She Done Him Wrong	Paramount	Mae West
5.	Little Women	RKO	Katharine Hepburn
6.	State Fair	Fox Film	Janet Gaynor
7.	Hold Your Man	MGM	Jean Harlow and Clark Gable
8.	Design for Living	Paramount	Fredric March, Gary Cooper and Miriam Hopkins
9.	King Kong	RKO	Fay Wray and Bruce Cabot
10.	Queen Christina	MGM	Greta Garbo

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Cavalcade - Fox
• Best Actor: Charles Laughton - The Private Life of Henry VIII
• Best Actress: Katharine Hepburn - Morning Glory

Select list of Films released in 1933

U.S.A. unless stated

• 42nd Street, Directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Ginger Rogers
• Adventures of Don Quixote, directed by G.W. Pabst, starring Feodor Chaliapin - (France/U.K.)
• Alice in Wonderland, starring Charlotte Henry and virtually every Paramount star at the time
• Baby Face, starring Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent
• A Bedtime Story, starring Maurice Chevalier
• Bitter Sweet, starring Anna Neagle - (U.K.)
• The Bitter Tea of General Yen, starring Barbara Stanwyck
• Blood Money, starring George Bancroft
• Bombshell, starring Jean Harlow
• The Bowery, starring Wallace Beery and George Raft
• Bureau of Missing Persons
• By Candlelight, directed by James Whale
• Cash starring Robert Donat - (U.K.)
• Cavalcade, starring Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O'Connor and Herbert Mundin
• Counsellor at Law, starring John Barrymore and Bebe Daniels
• Damaged Lives
• Dancing Lady, starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable
• Daybreak - (China)
• Deluge
• The Deserter - (U.S.S.R.)
• Design for Living, starring Fredric March, Gary Cooper and Miriam Hopkins
• The Devil's Brother, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• Dinner at Eight, directed by George Cukor and featuring an all-star cast
• Dora's Dunking Doughnuts
• Dragnet Girl, starring Kinuyo Tanaka, directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
• Duck Soup, directed by Leo McCarey, starring the Marx Brothers
• The Eagle and the Hawk
• Ecstasy, starring Hedy Lamarr - (Czechoslovakia)
• The Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson
• Employees' Entrance, starring Warren William and Loretta Young
• Fast Workers, starring John Gilbert and Mae Clarke
• Flying Down to Rio, starring Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond. Also starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their first of 10 films together
• Footlight Parade, starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler
• Gabriel Over the White House, directed by Gregory La Cava, starring Walter Huston. Produced by William Randolph Hearst
• The Ghoul, starring Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke and Ernest Thesiger - (U.K.)
• Going Hollywood, starring Marion Davies and Bing Crosby
• Gold Diggers of 1933, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers and Warren William
• The Good Companions, directed by Victor Saville, starring Jessie Matthews, Edmund Gwenn and John Gielgud - (U.K.)
• Goodbye Again, starring Joan Blondell and Warren William
• Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, starring Al Jolson
• Hard to Handle, starring James Cagney
• Heroes for Sale, starring Loretta Young and Richard Barthelmess
• Hold Your Man, starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable
• The House on 56th Street
• I'm No Angel, starring Mae West and Cary Grant. West also wrote the story and screenplay.
• In the Wake of the Bounty, starring Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian - (Australia)
• International House
• The Invisible Man, starring Claude Rains in the title role with Gloria Stuart
• Island of Lost Souls, an adaptation of H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Charles Laughton
• It's Great to Be Alive, directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Raul Roulien and Gloria Stuart
• Każdemu wolno kochać, by Mieczysław Krawicz - (Poland)
• King Kong, starring Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong
• Ladies They Talk About, starring Barbara Stanwyck
• Lady for a Day, starring Warren William and May Robson
• Lady Killer, starring James Cagney
• Liebelei, directed by Max Ophuls - (Germany)
• Little Women, starring Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett
• Lot in Sodom, starring Friedrich Haak
• Loyalties, starring Basil Rathbone - (U.K.)
• Man's Castle, starring Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young
• The Mayor of Hell, starring James Cagney
• Midnight Club, starring George Raft
• Midnight Mary, starring Loretta Young
• The Midnight Patrol, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• The Monkey's Paw
• Morning Glory, starring Katharine Hepburn
• Mystery of the Wax Museum, starring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray
• Okraina - (U.S.S.R.)
• One Sunday Afternoon, starring Gary Cooper
• Only Yesterday
• Our Betters, starring Constance Bennett, Gilbert Roland, and Anita Louise
• Parachute Jumper, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Bette Davis, and Frank McHugh
• Passing Fancy (Dekigokoro), directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
• Peg o' My Heart, starring Marion Davies
• Penthouse, starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy
• Perfect Understanding, starring Gloria Swanson and Lawrence Olivier - (U.K.)
• Picture Snatcher, starring James Cagney
• Pilgrimage
• The Power and the Glory, starring Spencer Tracy
• The Private Life of Henry VIII, directed by Alexander Korda, starring Charles Laughton - (U.K.)
• The Prizefighter and the Lady, starring Max Baer, Myrna Loy, Primo Carnera and Jack Dempsey
• Professional Sweetheart, starring Ginger Rogers
• Queen Christina, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert
• Roman Scandals
• Secret of the Blue Room, starring Paul Lukas, Gloria Stuart and Lionel Atwill
• Secrets, starring Mary Pickford in her last film
• She Done Him Wrong, starring Mae West and Cary Grant in his first notable film role
• She Had to Say Yes, starring Loretta Young and Lyle Talbot, directed by Busby Berkeley and George Amy
• The Son of Kong, starring Robert Armstrong and Helen Mack
• Sons of the Desert, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• State Fair, starring Janet Gaynor, Will Rogers and Lew Ayres
• The Story of Temple Drake, starring Miriam Hopkins and Jack La Rue
• The Stranger's Return, starring Miriam Hopkins and Lionel Barrymore
• A Study in Scarlet, starring Reginald Owen
• Supernatural, starring Carole Lombard, Alan Dinehart, Vivienne Osborne and Randolph Scott
• The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Otto Wernicke - (Germany)
• This Day and Age, Cecil B. Demille's now cult-favorite, starring Richard Cromwell and featuring then-teenager: Baby Peggy Montgomery.
• This Week of Grace' directed by Maurice Elvey, starring Gracie Fields - (U.K.)
• Three Little Pigs
• Tillie and Gus, starring Alison Skipworth and W.C. Fields
• Tonight Is Ours, starring Fredric March and Claudette Colbert
• Topaze, starring John Barrymore and Myrna Loy
• Torch Singer, starring Claudette Colbert
• Tugboat Annie, starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery
• Turkey Time, directed by and starring Tom Walls (U.K.)
• Turn Back the Clock, starring Lee Tracy and Mae Clarke
• The Vampire Bat, starring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray
• Viktor und Viktoria - (Germany)
• When Ladies Meet, starring Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy
• We're in the Money , animation by Stephan Eichenberg
• Wild Boys of the Road, starring Frankie Darro and Edwin Phillips
• The Working Man, starring George Arliss and Bette Davis
• You Made Me Love You starring Stanley Lupino and Thelma Todd - (U.K.)
• Zero for Conduct (Zéro de conduite), directed by Jean Vigo - (France)

Serials

• Clancy of the Mounted
• Fighting with Kit Carson
• Gordon of Ghost City
• The Mystery Squadron
• The Perils of Pauline, starring Evalyn Knapp
• The Phantom of the Air
• The Return of Chandu
• Tarzan the Fearless, starring Buster Crabbe
• The Three Musketeers, starring Jack Mulhall and John Wayne
• The Whispering Shadow, starring Bela Lugosi
• The Wolf Dog, starring Rin Tin Tin

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

• Aesop's Film Fables (1921-1933)
• Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927–1938)
• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Silly Symphonies
  • Birds in the Spring
  • Father Noah's Ark
  • Three Little Pigs
  • Old King Cole
  • Lullaby Land
  • The Pied Piper
  • The Night Before Christmas
• Screen Songs (1929–1938)
• 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)
• Popeye (1933-1957)
• Pooch the Pup (1932-1933)
• Willie Whopper (1933-1934)
• ComiColor Cartoons (1933-1936)
• Cubby Bear (1933-1934)
• The Little King (1933-1934)

Births

• January 18 - John Boorman, English director
• January 23 - Chita Rivera, actress, dancer and singer
• February 13 - Kim Novak, actress
• February 18 - Mary Ure, Scottish actress (died 1975)
• March 14 - Michael Caine, English actor
• March 22 - May Britt, Swedish actress
• April 5 - Frank Gorshin, actor and comedian (died 2005)
• April 19 - Jayne Mansfield, actress (died 1967)
• May 23 - Joan Collins, English actress
• June 11 - Gene Wilder, actor
• June 20 - Danny Aiello, actor
• July 8 - Marty Feldman, English comedian and actor (died 1982)
• August - Dom DeLuise, actor and comedian (died 2009)
• August 2 - Tom Bell, English actor (died 2006)
• August 16 - Julie Newmar, actress, dancer and singer
• August 18 - Roman Polanski, Polish director
• August 25 - Tom Skerritt, actor
• November 3 - Jeremy Brett, English actor (died 1995)
• November 28 - Hope Lange, actress (died 2003)
• December 15 - Tim Conway, actor and comedian

Deaths

• January 3 - Jack Pickford, actor/director
• January 25 - Lewis J. Selznick, producer
• February 15 - Pat Sullivan, director/producer of animated films, alleged co-creator of Felix the Cat
• February 26 - Spottiswoode Aitken, actor
• February 23 - David Horsley, pioneer film executive
• March 8 - Albert Roscoe, silent screen star
• August 18 - James Williamson, film developer and film director
• August 28 - Helen Dunbar, actress
• October 5 - Renée Adorée, actress

Film debuts

• Morris Ankrum
• Dame Peggy Ashcroft
• Fred Astaire
• Lucille Ball
• Frances Drake
• Errol Flynn
• Margaret Hamilton
• Phil Harris
• Dorothy Lamour
• Cesar Romero
• Margaret Sullavan
• King Kong