Oscar Nominated Movies 1939
All Feature Films Nominated at the 1939 Oscar Ceremony.
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- DirectorFrank CapraStarsJean ArthurJames StewartLionel BarrymoreThe son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
- DirectorMichael CurtizWilliam KeighleyStarsErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandBasil RathboneWhen Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsTyrone PowerAlice FayeDon AmecheThis send-up of ragtime song and dance begins in 1915 San Francisco when society boy Roger Grant decides to pursue popular rather than serious music.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsSpencer TracyMickey RooneyHenry HullWhen a death row prisoner tells him he wouldn't have led a life of crime if only he had had one friend as a child, Father Edward Flanagan decides to start a home for young boys.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsRobert DonatRosalind RussellRalph RichardsonAn enthusiastic young doctor happily embarks on his career, but it isn't long before he finds out what being a doctor really entails.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsClaude RainsJohn GarfieldJeffrey LynnA musician is blessed with four musical prodigies, all girls, and cursed when a troubled young composer enters the lives of his Four Daughters.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinDita ParloPierre FresnayDuring WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHenry FondaGeorge BrentIn 1850s Louisiana, a free-spirited Southern belle loses her fiancé due to her stubborn vanity and pride, and vows to win him back.
- DirectorAnthony AsquithLeslie HowardStarsLeslie HowardWendy HillerWilfrid LawsonA phonetics and diction expert makes a bet that he can teach a cockney flower girl to speak proper English and pass as a lady in high society.
- DirectorVictor FlemingStarsClark GableMyrna LoySpencer TracyJim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsCharles BoyerHedy LamarrSigrid GurieA wanted jewel thief ensconced in the Casbah meets a beautiful woman who makes him long for an escape.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJames CagneyPat O'BrienHumphrey BogartA priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsClaude RainsFay BainterJackie CooperA homeless woman named Hannah drifts into the lives of the kindly Ward family, in a small Indiana town in 1919. Hannah makes herself useful as a cook and housekeeper and stays with the Wards... but her real interest is in meeting their neighbor, teenager Peter Trimble. It turns out that Peter is the son she bore out of wedlock and gave up for adoption, and now Hannah has returned to town to see what sort of young man her son has become.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeJulien DuvivierStarsNorma ShearerTyrone PowerJohn BarrymoreThe tragic life of Marie Antoinette, who became queen of France in her late teens.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsRobert TaylorMargaret SullavanFranchot ToneThe close friendship of three German soldiers is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman, who is dying of tuberculosis.
- DirectorDavid ButlerStarsLoretta YoungRichard GreeneWalter BrennanRomeo and Juliet story set amidst horse racing in Kentucky. The family feud of lovers Jack and Sally goes back to the Civil War and is kept alive by her Uncle Peter.
- DirectorFrank LloydStarsRonald ColmanBasil RathboneFrances DeeVagabond poet François Villon rises to high office in 1463 Paris.
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsWalter HustonJames StewartGene ReynoldsEthan Wilkins is a poor and honest man who ministers to the human soul, while his son Jason yearns to be a doctor, helping people in the earthly realm.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsConstance BennettBrian AherneAlan MowbrayDizzy society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome "tramp" who shows up at her doorstep and soon ends up in a chauffeur's uniform. He also catches the eye of her pretty Geraldine.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierVictor FlemingJosef von SternbergStarsLuise RainerFernand GraveyMiliza KorjusIn 1845 Vienna, Johann Strauss II (Fernand Gravey) - 'Jonahi' to his friends - would rather write and perform waltzes than anything else, this at a time when a waltz is not considered proper society music. After he is fired from his clerical bank job because of his preoccupation with composing, he decides to follow his passion and form an orchestra. After some famed opera singers, including Carla Donner (Miliza Korjus), hear his music, they expose Johani's music to the masses, to royalty and to music publisher Julius Hofbauer (Hugh Herbert). As such, Johani becomes the toast of Vienna. With his new found musical fame, Johani's life, which includes his work in the European Revolutions, changes. He becomes torn for his love for his loving and faithful wife Poldi Vogelhuber (Luise Rainer) and his more emotionally passionate but somewhat destructive love for Carla Donner, who herself is involved with Count Anton Hohenfried (Lionel Atwill).
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsMadeleine CarrollHenry FondaLeo CarrilloA simple peasant is forced to take up arms to defend his farm during the Spanish Civil War. Along the way he falls in love with Russian whose father is involved in espionage.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsDeanna DurbinHerbert MarshallGail PatrickA young woman at a girl's school in Switzerland makes up stories about, and writes herself letters, from an imaginary explorer-adventurer father, and is eventually put in a position where she has to produce him. Interesting things happen after she talks a visiting Englishman into helping her out.
- DirectorGeorge Nicholls Jr.StarsMadge EvansPreston FosterNeil HamiltonA fight to keep cavalry horses from being replaced by tanks culminates in a great race between machine and beast.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsFredric MarchFranciska GaalAkim TamiroffSemi-fictional account of pirate Jean Lafitte's involvement in the War of 1812.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsTyrone PowerLoretta YoungAnnabellaFerdinand de Lesseps, disappointed in love, is sent as a junior diplomat to the Isthmus of Suez, and realizes it's just the place for a canal.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsGinger RogersJames StewartJames EllisonA professor marries a nightclub singer, much to the consternation of his family and friends back home.
- DirectorRichard WallaceLewis MilestoneGilbert PrattStarsJanet GaynorDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Roland YoungThrown out of the Riviera, a family of grifters meets a lonely, vulnerable rich old woman and insinuate themselves into her life while they sponge off her.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsTommy KellyJackie MoranAnn GillisTom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witnessing a murder.
- DirectorMark SandrichStarsFred AstaireGinger RogersRalph BellamyA psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else.
- DirectorGeorge MarshallH.C. PotterStarsAdolphe MenjouAndrea LeedsThe Ritz BrothersMovie producer chooses a simple girl to be "Miss Humanity" and to critically evalute his movies from the point of view of the ordinary person. Hit song: "Love Walked In.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsKatharine HepburnCary GrantDoris NolanA young man in love with a girl from a rich family finds his unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée's eccentric sister and long-suffering brother.
- DirectorH.C. PotterStuart HeislerWilliam WylerStarsGary CooperMerle OberonPatsy KellyA lonely socialite masquerades as a maid and meets an unpretentious, plain-spoken cowboy who is unaware of her true identity.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeRobert Z. LeonardStarsJeanette MacDonaldNelson EddyFrank MorganThe team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.
- DirectorEdward LudwigStarsDeanna DurbinMelvyn DouglasJackie CooperA teenage girl clashes with her newspaper publisher father's star reporter while he stays in their country guest house, but soon finds herself falling in love with him.
- DirectorMitchell LeisenJames P. HoganStarsW.C. FieldsMartha RayeDorothy LamourThe Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsJoan CrawfordSpencer TracyAlan CurtisAffluent Hennessey falls for Jessie who is married to good-for-nothing Eddie. To provide a better life for Jessie Hennessey wants to marry her, and Eddie even approves of the plan, hoping to profit from it financially.
- DirectorJoseph KaneStarsRoy RogersSmiley BurnetteCarol HughesRoy is elected to Congress to bring the misery of the "dustbowl" of the 1930s to the attention of Washington politicians.
- DirectorRay EnrightStarsDick PowellAnita LouiseAllen JenkinsA sports store clerk poses as a famous jockey as an advertising stunt, but gets more than he bargained for.
- DirectorErle C. KentonStarsLanny RossGloria StuartJoan MarshAnn Adams and William Hayward get married and she has a secretary's job in a law office, while finishing her schooling, and she soon makes junior partner and is just a brilliant lawyer. Meanwhile, hubby has a mechanized draftsman job and and acts like a mechanical person...except when he sings. He gets fed up with Ann turning their home into a bar-associate club where all the lawyers argue cases out of court, and he drops out and drops in at a nightclub and gets a job as a singer, and makes more money than when he was draftsman in an architect's office....and begins to imply that Ann should now be content with being a housewife, and Ann is having none of that. Later, she and her lawyer friends drop in at the club where William is singing, and she sees William getting vamped by one of the girl entertainers, gets sore and walks out..after insulting William. And..so they part and William gets an apartment and then a girl is found dead in his apartment, having accidentally strangled herself while drunk. But the law isn't buying that, either, and William goes on trial for his life...and Ann is his defense attorney. Ann's defense is that it was all her fault for being so career-minded and not providing William with the home-life he deserves...and the jury buys her 1938 sell-out. They re-unite and Ann becomes Blondie Bumstead.
- DirectorJohn G. BlystoneStarsStan LaurelOliver HardyPatricia EllisStan, who has remained faithfully at his World War I post for twenty years, finally comes home where his best friend, Ollie, takes him in, thus allowing him to discover the many conveniences of the modern world.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineStarsBobby BreenCharles RugglesDolores CostelloTommy Martin lives with mother Martha in a conservative religious community but dreams of a singing career. He leaves to join a traveling show where he befriends skating sensation Irene and performs lively tunes to make a living.
- DirectorLew LandersStarsVictor McLaglenChester MorrisWendy BarrieThe S. S. Arcturus sails from Shanghai to San Francisco, and Dr. Jim Craig takes the post of ship's physician in order to be near Ann Grayson, the ship's nurse. Chief Engineer 'Crusher" McKay also has his eyes on Ann, and this brings an immediate conflict between the two men. When an epidemic breaks out below decks, Craig tells McKay the engine-and-fire rooms must be put under quarantine, but all of Craig's efforts to keep the disease from spreading are opposed by McKay.
- DirectorJohn BrahmStarsAnne ShirleyNan GreyRalph BellamyA student monitor at a girls' school faces the scorn of her fellow pupils when she reports one of the popular girls for staying out late.
- DirectorSidney SalkowStarsPatric KnowlesRichard CromwellRochelle HudsonIn British India a local rajah, a British ally, is dying and his subordinates plan to drive out the British once he's gone. A newly married British officer is dispatched to ensure that doesn't happen.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsFredric MarchVirginia BrucePatsy KellyA young heiress runs away from her overprotective grandfather. Penniless on the streets of New York, she manages to find employment, but a reporter knows her true identity.
- DirectorTheodore ReedStarsBob BurnsDorothy LamourRay MillandA Hollywood screenwriter looking for inspiration for his next film goes to Mexico, where he runs into a beautiful Mexican girl who sets her sights on him.
- DirectorWilliam CottrellDavid HandWilfred JacksonStarsAdriana CaselottiHarry StockwellLucille La VerneExiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsGeorge RaftHenry FondaDorothy LamourFriends since childhood, two men are on opposite sides in a salmon fishing conflict.