Notable Debuts

Rita Hayworth in Cruz Diablo, a Mexican film directed by Fernando de Fuentes. The New York Times said, “One of the best films that ever crossed the Rio Grande.”

In her early movies Rita Hayworth was credited as Rita Cansino.

📸 Rita Cansino, 1935.

James Stewart in Art Trouble, a comedy short. Uncredited, James Stewart played ‘Jack Burton’. In 1935 he played ‘Shorty’ in The Murder Man, and in 1936 he landed his first significant role as Christopher Tyler in Next Time We Love.

Alice Faye as Kitty Donnelly / Mona Vale in George White’s Scandals, a musical. Rudy Vallée, Jimmy Durante and Dixie Dunbar co-starred. Fox released the film on March 16, 1934, but it was not a box office success. 

Alice Faye enjoyed a varied and successful career. However, she effectively walked out of movies in 1945 when some of her scenes were cut in Fallen Angel so that producer Darryl F. Zanuck could promote his new protégé, Linda Darnell. 

Highest Grossing Movies

#3 It Happened One Night 

Starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, It Happened One Night was one of the last movies produced before the Motion Picture Production Code clampdown on subjects and scenes deemed ‘morally unacceptable’.

Casting the female lead proved difficult. Miriam Hopkins, Myrna Loy, Margaret Sullavan, Constance Bennett, Carole Lombard, Bette Davis and Loretta Young all rejected the role, or were unavailable. Claudette Colbert only agreed to the role on condition that her salary be doubled to $50,000 and her scenes be completed within four weeks.

In the famous hitchhiking scene, initially Claudette Colbert refused to pull up her skirt and flash her leg. However, when a chorus girl arrived on the set as a body double, Colbert told the director, “Get her out of here. I’ll do it. That’s not my leg!”

#2 Forsaking All Others 

In this comedy of errors, starring Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, three long-standing friends are involved in a love triangle that lasts many years.

Forsaking All Others is the sixth of eight cinematic collaborations between Crawford and Gable.

#1 Cleopatra 

Cleopatra starred Claudette Colbert in the title role. In a memorable year for Claudette Colbert, she also starred in the third highest grossing movie, It Happened One Night. Due to Claudette’s fear of snakes, Cleopatra’s death scene was suitably traumatic.