1938 in film

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The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence, the roles are switched between the two actors. MGM announces Bert Lahr has been cast as the "Cowardly Lion" on July 25.
• April 5 — Noel Langley completes the first script for The Wizard of Oz.
• May 7 — Lyricist Edgar Yipsel Harburg and composer, Harold Arlen, begin work on the musical score for The Wizard of Oz.
• October 13 — Filming starts on The Wizard of Oz.
• October 21 — Buddy Ebsen suffers from a near fatal allergic reaction to the aluminum dust used in his "Tinman" make-up on the set of The Wizard of Oz. Ebsen is replaced by Jack Haley.
• December 23 — Margaret Hamilton is severely burned during a mishap on the set of The Wizard of Oz. Hamilton, who was cast in the role of the "Wicked Witch", left the film for six weeks.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Rank	Title	Studio	Actors
1.	You Can't Take It with You	Columbia	Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore and James Stewart
2.	The Adventures of Robin Hood	Warner Bros.	Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
3.	Boys Town	MGM	Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney
4.	Alexander's Ragtime Band	20th Century Fox	Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche
5.	Sweethearts	MGM	Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
6.	Marie Antoinette	MGM	Norma Shearer
7.	Four's a Crowd	Warner Bros.	Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell and Patric Knowles
8.	Little Miss Broadway	20th Century Fox	Shirley Temple
9.	Jezebel	Warner Bros.	Bette Davis and Henry Fonda
10.	Algiers	United Artists	Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: You Can't Take It With You - Columbia
• Best Director: Frank Capra - You Can't Take it With You
• Best Actor: Spencer Tracy - Boys Town
• Best Actress: Bette Davis - Jezebel

Select list of Films released in 1938

U.S.A. unless stated

• Adiós Buenos Aires - (Argentina/Spain/Canada)
• The Adventures of Marco Polo, starring Gary Cooper and Basil Rathbone
• The Adventures of Robin Hood, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Alexander Nevsky, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, starring Nikolai Cherkasov - (U.S.S.R.)
• Alexander's Ragtime Band, starring Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, Alice Faye
• Algiers, starring Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr
• The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, starring Edward G. Robinson
• Angels with Dirty Faces, starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart
• La Femme du Boulanger (The Baker's Wife), directed by Marcel Pagnol, starring Raimu - (France)
• Bank Holiday, starring Margaret Lockwood - (U.K.)
• Block-Heads, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• Blondie
• Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, starring Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert
• Boys Town, starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney
• Bringing up Baby, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn - number 14 on the American Film Institute list of best comedy films
• Carefree
• A Christmas Carol, starring Reginald Owen
• The Citadel, starring Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell; directed by King Vidor - (U.K.)
• Climbing High - (U.K.)
• Cocoanut Grove, starring Fred MacMurray
• Convict 99, starring Will Hay - (U.K.)
• Dangerous to Know
• The Dawn Patrol, starring Errol Flynn
• Diao Chan - (China)
• The Divorce of Lady X, with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon - (U.K.)
• The Drum, with Sabu and Raymond Massey - (U.K.)
• Ferdinand the Bull
• Fools for Scandal
• Four Daughters, starring Claude Rains
• Four Men and a Prayer, directed by John Ford
• Four's a Crowd, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles
• The Gaunt Stranger - (U.K.)
• Having Wonderful Time starring Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
• Holiday, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant
• Hotel du Nord, directed by Marcel Carné - (France)
• La Bête humaine (The Human Beast), directed by Jean Renoir, starring Jean Gabin and Simone Simon - (France)
• If I Were King, starring Ronald Colman
• J'accuse!, directed by Abel Gance - (France)
• Jezebel, starring Bette Davis and Henry Fonda
• Judge Hardy's Children Starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• Just Around the Corner
• Kentucky, starring Loretta Young, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan.
• Kidnapped
• The Lady Vanishes, starring Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood; directed by Alfred Hitchcock - (U.K.)
• Little Miss Broadway
• Love Finds Andy Hardy, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• Mad About Music
• The Mad Miss Manton
• A Man to Remember, starring Anne Shirley and Edward Ellis
• Marie Antoinette, starring Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power
• Merrily We Live, starring Brian Aherne, Constance Bennett, Billie Burke, Patsy Kelly, Billie Burke
• Mollenard, directed by Robert Siodmak - (France)
• Mr. Wong, Detective starring Boris Karloff
• Of Human Hearts starring Walter Huston, James Stewart, Beulah Bondi
• Old Bones of the River starring Will Hay, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt - (U.K.)
• Olympia, a documentary by Leni Riefenstahl - (Germany)
• Out West with the Hardys Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• Paradise for Three
• Port of Shadows (Le quai des brumes), directed by Marcel Carné, starring Jean Gabin and Michel Simon - (France)
• Professor Mamlock - (U.S.S.R.)
• Pygmalion, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller - (U.K.)
• Radio City Revels
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, starring Shirley Temple
• Red River Range, starring John Wayne
• Room Service, starring the Marx Brothers
• Save a Little Sunshine starring Patricia Kirkwood and Tommy Trinder - (U.K.)
• The Shopworn Angel
• Sidewalks of London (U.K.)
• The Sisters, starring Errol Flynn and Bette Davis
• Sixty Glorious Years - (U.K.)
• A Slight Case of Murder
• Suez, an epic film starring Tyrone Power and Loretta Young
• Sweethearts, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
• The Terror of Tiny Town
• Test Pilot, starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy
• There Goes My Heart, Fredric March, Virginia Bruce, Arthur Lake (actor), Patsy Kelly
• They Drive by Night - (U.K.)
• Three Comrades
• Tip-Off Girls
• Valley of the Giants
• Vivacious Lady, starring Ginger Rogers and James Stewart
• Volga-Volga - (U.S.S.R.)
• White Banners
• A Woman's Face (En kvinnas ansikte), starring Ingrid Bergman - (Sweden)
• You Can't Take It with You, directed by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore - Oscars for best picture and director
• The Young in Heart
• La Zandunga, starring Lupe Vélez and Arturo de Córdova - (Mexico)

Serials

• Dick Tracy Returns, starring Ralph Byrd
• The Fighting Devil Dogs, starring Lee Powell and Herman Brix
• Flaming Frontiers
• Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, starring Buster Crabbe
• The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
• Hawk of the Wilderness, starring Herman Brix
• The Lone Ranger
• The Secret of Treasure Island
• The Spider's Web
• Red Barry

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)
• The Marx Brothers (1929–1937)
• 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 Moth and the Flame
  • Wynken, Blynken and Nod
  • Farmyard Symphony
  • Merbabies
  • Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
• 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)
• Happy Harmonies (1934-1938)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934–1949)
• Donald Duck (1937–1956)
• Walter Lantz Cartunes (also known as New Universal Cartoons or Cartune Comedies) (1938-1942)
• The Captain and the Kids (1938-1939)

Births

• January 1 - Frank Langella, American actor
• January 12 - Lewis Fiander, Australian actor
• January 14 - Jack Jones, American singer, actor
• February 12 - Oliver Reed, English actor (died 1999)
• February 23 - Diane Varsi, American actress (died 1992)
• February 24 - James Farentino, American actor (died 2012)
• March 4 - Paula Prentiss, American actress
• March 25 - Hoyt Axton, American country music singer-songwriter, actor (died 1999)
• May 22 - Richard Benjamin, American actor, director
• July 6 - Luana Patten, American actress (died 1996)
• July 9 - Brian Dennehy, American actor
• July 18 - Paul Verhoeven, Dutch director
• July 20 - Diana Rigg, English actress
  • Natalie Wood, American actress (died 1981)
• August 8 - Connie Stevens, American actress, singer
• September 2 - Clarence Felder, American actor
• September 28 - Ben E King, American soul singer
• October 22 - Christopher Lloyd, American actor
• November 13 - Jean Seberg, American actress (died 1979)
• December 12 - Connie Francis, American singer, actress
• December 16 - Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
• December 29 - Jon Voight, American actor

Deaths

• August 4 - Pearl White, American silent film star
• August 6 - Warner Oland, Swedish-born actor
• September 19 - Pauline Frederick, stage & film actress.
• December 28 - Florence Lawrence, Hollywood's first "star"

Debuts

• John Garfield
• William Holden
• Vincent Price