1931 in film

Events

Top grossing films

# "Frankenstein", starring Boris Karloff
# "Ingagi", starring Sir Hubert Winstead
# "Palmy Days"
# "Trader Horn"
# "City Lights"
# "Daddy Long Legs
# "The Man Who Came Back"
# "Mata Hari"
# "The Champ"
# "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
# "Arrowsmith (film)
# "A Connecticut Yankee"
# "Merely Mary Ann"
# "Cimarron" starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne
# "Bad Girl"
# "Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)"
# "Inspiration"
# "Kiki"
# "Dracula", starring Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye
# "The Sin of Madelon Claudet", starring Helen Hayes and Lewis Stone
# "The Public Enemy" starring James Cagney

Academy Awards

*Best Picture: "Cimarron" - MGM
*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - "A Free Soul"
*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - "The Champ"
*Best Actor: Fredric March - "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
*Best Actress: Marie Dressler - "Min and Bill"
*Best Actress: Helen Hayes - "The Sin of Madelon Claudet"Note: Prior to 1933, awards were not based on calendar years. And there were two awards given in 1932 for 'Best Actor'. That's how there are 3 'Best Actor', 2 'Best Actress' awards for 1931 films.

Films released in 1931

*"À nous la liberté"
*"Berlin Alexanderplatz" film of the novel by Alfred Döblin
*"The Champ", starring Wallace Beery
*"Cimarron", starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne
*"City Lights", starring Charlie Chaplin
*"Daughter of the Dragon"
*"Dracula", starring Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye
*"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", starring Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins
*"Emil und die Detektive", starring Rolf Wenkhaus, Käthe Haack and Fritz Rasp
*"Frankenstein", starring Boris Karloff and Colin Clive
*"A Free Soul", starring Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable
*"Honor Among Lovers"
*"Indiscreet", starring Gloria Swanson
*"Ingagi"
*"I Take This Woman", starring Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard
*"Little Caesar", starring Edward G. Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
*"Mädchen in Uniform"
*"M", starring Peter Lorre
*"Mata Hari", starring Greta Garbo and Lionel Barrymore
*"The Millionaire", starring George Arliss
*"Monkey Business", starring Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo Marx
*"Night Nurse" starring Barbara Stanwyck
*"No Limit" starring Clara Bow and Norman Foster
*"Pardon Us", starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
*"Platinum Blonde", starring Loretta Young, Robert Williams and Jean Harlow
*"Possessed", starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable
*"The Public Enemy", starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell
*"The Sin of Madelon Claudet", starring Helen Hayes
*"Smart Money", starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney
*"The Smiling Lieutenant", starring Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert
*"The Stolen Jools", starring Gary Cooper, Laurel and Hardy, and Norma Shearer
*"Tabu", directed by F.W. Murnau
*"This Modern Age", starring Joan Crawford
*"Waterloo Bridge", directed by James Whale

erials

*"Battling with Buffalo Bill"
*"Danger Island"
*"Finger Prints"
*"The Galloping Ghost", starring Harold Grange
*"Heroes of the Flames"
*"King of the Wild"
*"The Lightning Warrior", starring Rin Tin Tin
*"The Mystery Trooper"
*"The Phantom of the West"
*"The Sign of the Wolf"
*"The Spell of the Circus"
*"The Vanishing Legion"

hort film series

*"Buster Keaton" (1917-1941)
*"Our Gang" (1922-1944)
*"Laurel and Hardy" (1921-1943)

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" (1929-1939)
*"Screen Songs" (1929-1938)
*"Talkartoons" (1929-1932)
*"Looney Tunes" (1930-1969)
*"Flip the Frog" (1930-1933)
*"Terrytoons" (1930-1964)
*"Toby the Pup" (1930-1931)
*"Merrie Melodies" (1931-1969)
*"Scrappy" (1931-1941)
*"Tom and Jerry (Van Beuren)" (1931-1933)

Births

*January 5 - Robert Duvall, actor and director
*January 14 - Caterina Valente, singer, actress
*January 17 - James Earl Jones, actor
*January 19 - Tippi Hedren, actress
*February 6 - Mamie Van Doren
*February 8 - James Dean, actor
*March 22 - William Shatner, actor
*July 1 - Leslie Caron, French actress
*September 17 - Anne Bancroft, actress (d. 2005)
*Sylvia Lopez, European actress († 1959)

Film Debuts

* Bruce Cabot
* Otto Preminger director, producer

Deaths

* November 27 - Lya De Putti, Hungarian actress (b. 1899)