1942 in film

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The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.

Events

• January 16 - Actress Carole Lombard is killed in a plane crash west of Las Vegas while returning home to Los Angeles from a War Bond tour.
• June 4 - Mrs. Miniver, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, opens at Radio City Music Hall in New York, in what will become a record-breaking 10-week run.
• August 8 - Walt Disney's animated film Bambi opens in United Kingdom.
• November 11 - Road to Morocco, starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour, premieres.
• November 26 - The film Casablanca premieres at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Rank	Title	Studio	Leading Star
1.	Mrs. Miniver	MGM	Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon
2.	Desperate Journey	Warner Bros.	Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan
3.	Random Harvest	MGM	Ronald Colman and Greer Garson
4.	Yankee Doodle Dandy	Warner Bros.	James Cagney
5.	Gentleman Jim	Warner Bros.	Errol Flynn
6.	Springtime in the Rockies	20th Century Fox	Betty Grable
7.	Somewhere I'll Find You	MGM	Clark Gable and Lana Turner
8.	This Gun for Hire	Paramount	Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd
9.	Reap the Wild Wind	Paramount	John Wayne and Paulette Goddard
10.	Footlight Serenade	20th Century Fox	Betty Grable and Victor Mature
11.	Road to Morocco	Paramount	Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope
12.	The Pride of the Yankees	RKO	Gary Cooper
13.	I Married a Witch	Paramount/United Artists	Veronica Lake and Fredric March
14.	Song of the Islands	20th Century Fox	Betty Grable and Victor Mature
15.	Casablanca	Warner Bros.	Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman
16.	The Glass Key	Paramount	Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake
17.	Johnny Eager	MGM	Robert Taylor and Lana Turner
18.	Tortilla Flat	MGM	Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield
19.	Woman of the Year	MGM	Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn
20.	The Spoilers	Universal	Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Mrs. Miniver - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Best Director: William Wyler - Mrs. Miniver
• Best Actor: James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy
• Best Actress: Greer Garson - Mrs. Miniver
• Best Supporting Actor: Van Heflin - Johnny Eager
• Best Supporting Actress: Teresa Wright - Mrs. Miniver
• Special Academy Award: In Which We Serve

Films released in 1942

U.S.A unless stated

• Across the Pacific
• A-Haunting We Will Go, starring Laurel and Hardy
• Ala-Arriba! - (Portugal)
• Alias Boston Blackie, Starring Chester Morris, Adele Mara, and Richard Lane
• Alibi, starring Margaret Lockwood and James Mason - (U.K.)
• Andy Hardy's Double Life, starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• Arabian Nights
• Asking for Trouble, starring Max Miller - (U.K.)
• El Baisano Jalil - (Mexico)
• Bambi
• The Battle of Midway, documentary directed by John Ford
• The Big Shot, starring Humphrey Bogart
• The Big Street, starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball
• The Black Sheep of Whitehall, starring Will Hay and John Mills - (U.K.)
• The Black Swan
• Bullet Scars
• Captains of the Clouds
• Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz (Oscar winner), starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Claude Rains
• Cat People, starring Simone Simon and Tom Conway
• Commandos Strike at Dawn
• The Corpse Vanishes, starring Bela Lugosi
• The Courtship of Andy Hardy,starring Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden
• Derailed (Afsporet) - (Denmark)
• The Devil's Envoys (Les Visiteurs du Soir), directed by Marcel Carné, starring Arletty - (France)
• The First of the Few, directed by Leslie Howard, starring Howard and David Niven - (U.K.)
• The Fleet's In, starring Dorothy Lamour and William Holden
• Flying Tigers
• The Foreman Went to France - (U.K.)
• For Me and My Gal, starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly
• Four Steps in the Clouds (Quattro passi fra le nuvole) - (Italy)
• Un Garibaldino al Convento, directed by Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• The Gaucho War (La guerra gaucha) - (Argentina)
• Gentleman Jim, a biopic of boxer James J. Corbett, starring Errol Flynn
• George Washington Slept Here, starring Jack Benny
• The Ghost of Frankenstein starring Lon Chaney Jr.
• The Glass Key, starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake
• The Goose Steps Out, starring Will Hay - (U.K.)
• The Great King - (Germany)
• The Great Man's Lady, directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Barbara Stanwyck
• The Great Impersonation (1942), directed by John Rawlins
• Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire
• I Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake and Fredric March
• In Old California, starring John Wayne
• In This Our Life, starring Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland
• In Which We Serve, directed by David Lean and Noel Coward, starring Coward and John Mills - (U.K.)
• Invisible Agent
• Johnny Eager, starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner
• Jungle Book
• Kid Glove Killer, the directorial debut of Fred Zinnemann
• Kings Row, starring Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, Claude Rains
• Larceny, Inc.
• Listen to Britain, propaganda film directed by Humphrey Jennings - (U.K.)
• The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe
• The Mad Monster, starring George Zucco, Glen Strange and Anne Nagel
• The Magnificent Ambersons, directed by Orson Welles, starring Joseph Cotten and Dolores Costello
• The Major and the Minor, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland
• The Male Animal, starring Henry Fonda and Olivia De Havilland
• The Man Who Came to Dinner, starring Bette Davis, Monty Woolley, Jimmy Durante
• Miss Annie Rooney
• Moontide
• Mrs. Miniver, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon
• The Mummy's Tomb
• The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (L'Assassin habite au 21), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Pierre Fresnay - (France)
• My Favorite Blonde
• My Gal Sal, starring Rita Hayworth
• My Sister Eileen, starring Rosalind Russell
• The Next of Kin, starring Mervyn Johns - (U.K.)
• Now, Voyager, starring Bette Davis and Paul Henreid
• One of Our Aircraft is Missing, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger - (U.K.)
• The Palm Beach Story, directed by Preston Sturges, starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea
• Pardon My Sarong, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• The Pied Piper
• Pittsburgh, starring John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich, Shemp Howard
• Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, Babe Ruth
• Random Harvest, starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson
• Reap the Wild Wind
• Reunion in France, starring Joan Crawford
• Ride 'Em Cowboy
• Rings on Her Fingers, starring Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney
• Rio Rita, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Road to Morocco, starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope
• The Rock of the Souls (El Peñón de las Ánimas) - (Mexico)
• Roxie Hart, starring Ginger Rogers
• Saboteur, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Priscilla Lane and Robert Cummings
• Saludos Amigos
• Somewhere I'll Find You, starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner
• Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake
• Song of the Islands, a Darryl F. Zanuck production
• Sons of the Pioneers, starring Roy Rogers and George 'Gabby' Hayes
• The Spoilers, starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne
• Sweater Girl, starring Eddie Bracken, June Preisser, and Betty Jane Rhodes
• Springtime in the Rockies, starring Betty Grable
• Tales of Manhattan, all-star cast
• The Talk of the Town, starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman
• Tarzan's New York Adventure
• Tennessee Johnson
• There's One Born Every Minute
• This Above All
• This Gun for Hire, starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd
• This Was Paris - (U.K.)
• Thunder Rock, starring Michael Redgrave and James Mason - (U.K.)
• To Be or Not to Be, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, the last film starring Carole Lombard
• Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die
• Tortilla Flat, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield
• Trinity House
• Uncensored, directed by Anthony Asquith (U.K.)
• The Undying Monster
• Wake Island
• Went the Day Well?, directed by Cavalcanti, starring Leslie Banks and Mervyn Johns - (U.K.)
• Who Done It?, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Woman of the Year, starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn
• Yankee Doodle Dandy, starring James Cagney
• The Young Mr. Pitt, directed by Carol Reed, starring Robert Donat - biopic of William Pitt the Younger - (U.K.)
• You Were Never Lovelier, starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth

Serials

• Captain Midnight, starring Dave O'Brien, directed by James W. Horne
• Don Winslow of the Navy
• Gang Busters
• Junior G-Men of the Air, starring the Dead End Kids
• King of the Mounties, starring Allan Lane, directed by William Witney
• Overland Mail
• Perils of Nyoka, starring Kay Aldridge & Clayton Moore, directed by William Witney
• Perils of the Royal Mounted, directed by James W. Horne
• The Secret Code, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
• Spy Smasher, starring Kane Richmond, directed by William Witney
• The Valley of Vanishing Men, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet

Short film series

• Laurel and Hardy (1921–1943)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)
• The Three Stooges (1934–1959)

Animated short film series

• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Scrappy (1931–1941)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934–1949)
• Donald Duck (1937–1956)
• Pluto (1937–1951)
• Walter Lantz Cartune (also known as New Universal Cartoons or Cartune Comedies) (1938-1942)
• Goofy (1939–1955)
• Andy Panda (1939–1949)
• Tom and Jerry (1940–1958)
• Woody Woodpecker (1941–1949)
• Swing Symphonies (1941–1945)
• The Fox and the Crow (1941–1950)

Births

• January 3 - John Thaw, English actor (died 2002)
• January 8 - Yvette Mimieux, actress
• January 19 - Michael Crawford, English actor and singer
• March 25 - Richard O'Brien, English actor and writer
• March 27 - Michael York, English actor
• March 28 - Mike Newell, English director and producer
• April 3 - Marsha Mason, actress
• April 6 - Barry Levinson, director, producer and screenwriter
• April 23 - Sandra Dee, actress (died 2005)
• April 24 - Barbra Streisand, actress, singer, director and producer
• June 18 - Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun Times
  • Paul McCartney, English musician and composer (The Beatles)
• July 1 - Geneviève Bujold, French-Canadian actress
• July 9 - Richard Roundtree, actor
• July 13 - Harrison Ford, actor and producer
• July 24 - Chris Sarandon, actor
• September 29 - Madeline Kahn, actress (died 1999)
• October 4 - Christopher Stone, actor (died 1995)
• October 6 - Britt Ekland, Swedish actress
• October 22 - Annette Funicello, actress and singer
• October 26 - Bob Hoskins, English actor and director
• October 31 - David Ogden Stiers, actor
• November 17 - Martin Scorsese, director, producer, screenwriter and actor
• December 4 - Gemma Jones, English actress

Deaths

• January 16 - Carole Lombard, actress (born 1908)
• January 31 - Rolf Wenkhaus, actor
• May 29 - John Barrymore, actor (born 1882)
• August 18 - Rafaela Ottiano, actress
• October 20 - May Robson, stage & film actress (born 1858)
• November 5 - George M. Cohan, actor, songwriter, entertainer
• November 9 - Edna May Oliver, stage & film actress (born 1883)
• November 12 - Laura Hope Crews, stage & screen actress
• December 12 - Helen Westley, stage & screen actress

Film Debuts

• Richard Attenborough
• Anne Jeffreys
• Gene Kelly
• Norman Lloyd
• Harry Morgan
• Simone Signoret
• Elizabeth Taylor