1930-1939

1930

• Von Sternberg's Blue Angel, with Marlene Dietrich
  
  1931
  
• Warner Brothers gives James Cagney lead in The Public Enemy, directed by William Wellman.
  
• Chaplin releases City Lights, bucking industry trends by keeping his film silent.
  
• D.W. Griffith makes his last film, The Struggle, it bombs and ruins his career because he put his own money into the film.
  
• Universal releases two immensely succesful horror films; Dracula, directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi; and Frankenstein, directed by James Whale and starring Colin Clive and Boris Karloff.
  
  1932
  
• Technicolor company finally perfects its system. Disney immediately switches all his products to this except the Mickey Mouse movies.
  
• Hawks, Hughes, and Hecht collaborate on Scarface
  
• Radio City Music Hall, the ultimate movie palace, opens in NYC
  
  1933
  
• King Kong with Fay Wray is released.
  
• Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers share first screen dance in Flying Down to Rio.
  
• Busby Berkeley's 42nd Street establishes the style for the musicals of the 30's
  
  1934
  
• It Happened One Night, directed by Frank Capra, stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Sweeps top five Oscar Awards.
  
• The production censorship codes are tightened; bedroom scenes are banned.
  
• Shirley Temple shoots to stardom after making five films in one year.
  
• Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will celebrates the Nazi mystique
  
  1935
  
• 20th Century Fox is formed when Zurick leaves United Artists to take over ailing Fox.
  
  1936
  
• Chaplin's Modern Times
  
• Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
  
  1937
  
• Disney releases its first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The industry expects it to flop but the public flocks to it. The movie prompts the industry to realize that Technicolor may be a permanent attraction.
  
• Renoir's Grand Illusion
  
  1939
  
• The greatest year in cinematic history. The quintessential Western, Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, stars John Wayne & Claire Trevor.
  
• Hound of the Bakervilles becomes the first in a series of Sherlock Holmes movies, stars Basil Rathbone
  
• The Wizard of Oz is released, starring Judy Garland, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, and Ray Bolger. It becomes the first film to use both black and white and Technicolor.
  
• The Hunchback of Norte Dame is reprised starring Charles Laughton.
  
• Gone With the Wind stars Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland. Hattie
  McDaniel is the first Black actor to win an oscar. The director Victor Fleming also oversaw Oz.
  
• Other films released, Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums along the Mohawk, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
  
  

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