The following is an overview of events in 1981 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths.
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.
The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, radio, and from 2008–2019, video game writing, including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. In 2004, the awards show was broadcast on television for the first time.
Marc Lawrence was an American character actor who specialized in underworld types. He has also been credited as F. A. Foss, Marc Laurence and Marc C. Lawrence.
The Glascock Poetry Prize is awarded to the winner of the annual Kathryn Irene Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest at Mount Holyoke College. The "invitation-only competition is sponsored by the English department at Mount Holyoke and counts many well-known poets, including Sylvia Plath and James Merrill, among its past winners" and is thought to be the "oldest intercollegiate poetry competition."
Mona Barrie was an English-born actress, active on stage in Australia before establishing a career in the US, and in Hollywood films.
Charles Lamont was a prolific filmmaker, directing over 200 titles and producing and writing many others. He directed several Abbott and Costello comedies and many Ma and Pa Kettle films.
Daniel James Dailey Jr. was an American dancer and actor. He is best remembered for a series of popular musicals he made at 20th Century Fox such as Mother Wore Tights (1947).
The Cat's-Paw (1934) is a comedy film starring Harold Lloyd and directed by Sam Taylor. It was Lloyd's seventh and final collaboration with Taylor and the fourth of his seven starring roles in sound.
Sky Raiders is a 12-episode 1941 Universal film serial. The serial was directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor. Sky Raiders stars Donald Woods, Billy Halop, Robert Armstrong and Eduardo Ciannelli. Sky Raiders has little in common with Universal’s other early-1940s espionage outings like Sea Raiders or Junior G-Men, although the serial is often lumped in together as if it is part of a series.
Skylark is a 1941 American comedy film starring Claudette Colbert, Ray Milland and Brian Aherne and directed by Mark Sandrich. Film historian James H. Farmer described Skylark as "light-hearted fluff" with the story of a woman on her fifth wedding anniversary, realizing that she is fed up with always coming in second to her husband's advertising business. Just at that moment, she meets a handsome attorney, and their innocent flirtation begins to turn into something more serious.
Kathryn Elizabeth Doty, also known by her stage name Kathryn Adams or as Kathryn Adams Doty, was an American actress.
Elisabeth Risdon was an English film actress. She appeared in more than 140 films between 1913 and 1952. A beauty in her youth, she usually played in society parts. In later years in films she switched to playing character parts.
Edgar Warren Hymer was an American theatre and film actor.
Donald Woods was a Canadian-American film and television actor whose career in Hollywood spanned six decades.
Horace McMahon was an American actor. He was one of Hollywood's favorite heavies.
Robert Agnew was an American movie actor who worked mostly in the silent film era, making 65 films in both the silent and sound eras. He was born in Dayton, Kentucky.
Love, Honor, and Oh Baby! is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film, starring Slim Summerville, ZaSu Pitts, and George Barbier. The 1940 Universal Pictures film with the same title is not a remake. Adapted from the stage play, "Oh, Promise Me". Pitts plays a secretary that plots with her ambulance chasing lawyer, Slim, to compromise her employer for a breach of promise suit. Besides recovering handsomely at the trail, her boyfriend is provided with a case. A capable group of stars rounds out the rest of the cast that includes Donald Meek, Lucille Gleason and Varree Teasdale. The movie did not do well nor was it well reviewed by The New York Times which called it unfunny.
Bachelor Daddy is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Harold Young and written by Robert Lees and Frederic I. Rinaldo. The film stars Baby Sandy, Edward Everett Horton, Donald Woods, Raymond Walburn, Evelyn Ankers, Kathryn Adams Doty, Franklin Pangborn and Jed Prouty. The film was released on June 4, 1941, by Universal Pictures.
