Cinematic Era: 1939 Vintage

During the Ethiopian war, thirteen boys embark clandestinely on a merchant ship bound for Africa. Following the shipwreck, they are castaway on a desert island...

Tired of playing their theme song, “Nola,” ad nauseam, Vincent Lopez’s orchestra rebels. They perform a number of other tunes with vocalists including Betty Hutton (in one of her first screen appearances) and virtuoso whistler Fred Lowery.

The jockey and owner of a horse is seduced by a woman while criminals dope the animal, turning it into a crack.

A popular comedy in which the daughter of baker Peeters is set to get married with the son of innkeeper Janssens but then the parents start to argue and are opposed to the marriage but the couple elopes.

Visitors to the George hotel in Crewsworth are haunted by a ghost.

Two young revelers, driven by a Russian driver, are taken to an unknown neighborhood at the gates of a cafecinema where they are going to attend a screening of 1909. They see Douglas Fairbanks, Max Linder, William Hart, Prince Rigadin, Norma Talmadge , Lya de Putti...

The farmer Remy has just invented a new fertilizer and spies are trying to seize his documents, taking him for the famous Remy, inventor of a device of interest to national defence.

Shot in mid-1939 as S.S. Ionian (also shown as Her Last Trip), Humphrey Jennings’s GPO short follows the Royal Mail steamer on a last peacetime run through the Mediterranean—Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Haifa—under the gaze of the Mediterranean Fleet (HMS Barham, Malaya, Warspite). After the Ionian was sunk by a German mine on 29 November 1939 en route from Crete to Hull, the film was recut and released as Cargoes.

Juan Pedro De Tavera‘s classic 30s melodrama.

Commissioned by The Committee On International Economic Policy and The Carnegie Endowment For International Peace to help stem the isolationist tide washing across America at the dawn of World War II, to prepare the citizenry for the eventual process of international economic reconstruction.

Salon Lindblad's accessories fashion show.

Spanish civil war documentary.

The destruction of the city and its architectural heritage during the Allied bombing of the Second World War.

Porky Pig is Kristopher Kolumbus, who sets off to discover the New World carrying Queen Isabella's treasures (including her jewels, a slingshot and a Jr. G-Man badge). Porky is met by some weird-looking Indians, some of whom he takes back to the Old World to introduce to the court of Queen Isabella. A hush falls over the hall as the natives prepare to demonstrate their native dance. True to the Warner Bros. tradition, a wild jitterbug scene ensues with music from the studio orchestra.

Big-budget miracle-laden saint film on Tulsidas (16th C). who rewrote Valmiki's 'Ramayana' in Hindi. To the despair of his teacher Narahari Guru, who hopes that Tulsidas will make the classic text accessible to the people, the poet spends time with his beloved wife Ratnavali. The dramatic pivot of the story comes when Tulsidas discovers his life's vocation amid howling wind and a river in spate. He becomes an ascetic and settles down in Benares where his translation threatens the brahmanical clergy, until then sole proprietors of the wisdom of the Sanskrit text.

Film about Finnish war hero.

A dog saves the life of a vivisectionist's son.

Hard-drinking Mexican gent goes to Havana on holiday.

About Soviet underwater research of the depths of the seas and oceans.

Behind the scenes at Fleischer Studios, Miami, the making of a Popeye cartoon. Also, the School for the Aged in Elgin, Illinois; an electric scroll work saw; the RAF's 'Queen Bee' radio-controlled target plane.

Bouboule is a taxi driver. A Russian princess wishing to acquire French nationality offers to marry her to divorce a few months later. After incredible adventures, Bouboule manages to save the inheritance of his wife, divorces and finds his sweet Lucette.

The making of wrought iron chain at the Netherton Works of N. Hingley & Sons Ltd. Part of BFI collection "Tales From the Shipyard".

When Lajos Molnár loses his job and his love his friends tell him that a recently deceased Argentinian relative left millions to him.

Film captures a Pentecost pilgrimage in Vallepietra: unmarried women, or “zitelle,” dressed in white with a Madonna figure in black, journey to the Santuario della Santissima Trinità over two days of rituals, lamentations, singing, and religious performances. Key to the film is “Il pianto delle zitelle,” where women collectively express sorrow linked to religious and communal identity.

Porky Pig is tapped for a giant-killing expedition. When the expedition reaches the giant's castle (which is normal sized, requiring the giant to stoop), everyone but Porky runs at the first sign of trouble, leaving Porky alone to awaken the giant's sleeping baby. Porky then must soothe the baby back to sleep and attempt his escape.

Popeye's fan club sends a telegram asking them to tone down the violence and act civilized. So everyone dresses up and acts formal - for a while, at least.

Swedish amateur film from a trip through Europe a few months before the outbreak of World War II. Denmark, Austria (annexed by Germany a year earlier), Germany, France, and Italy.

A marriage for sale leads to the murder and attempted destruction of the body of a great young man for the sake of his lover.

Rhythm and romanticism rules over realism in this recreation of the origins of the rhumba dance

Boston-based itinerant filmmaker Margaret Cram (Margaret Cram Showalter) traveled to towns in New England making “Movie Queen” films. Local townspeople were cast in the films that document a movie queen on a return visit to her hometown as the whole town shows up to welcome her. (This one features twenty-five year old Vera Sleeper from Bar Harbor as the movie queen).The film then follows her visits to local stores whose owners invite her to admire their merchandise. Cram’s movies all include a scene in which the movie queen is kidnapped (with the local dignitaries playing the roles of kidnappers) and then rescued by a handsome hero.

Two campers meet two young girls in the Landes. Love will bloom, with its heartbreaks.

Gandy Goose goes to Mexico and falls in love with a beautiful senorita. But her father objects and, hoping to get rid of what he thinks is an unsuitable suitor, forces Gandy into fighting a bull.

A Terrytoons cartoon released 27 January 1939.

“Bitter attack on the policies of the National Government - its laxity over social services and its mistakes in foreign policy - and their consequences for the British working class. There are two versions - long [30 mins.] and short [17 mins.].” - BFI.

Singer Jimmy Williams' father Joe is a chemist who recently lost his job to George Elliott. Since then, Joe has been investigating the "Adam and Even" brand of canned goods sold in Harlem.

In this animated promotional short for the German electronics company AEG, the music of a black performer in Africa is spread to other continents through the "play of waves" (Radio).

A young woman protects and falls in love with a fugitive accused of murder.

Thai Film is the second sound film studio in Thailand, founded in 1938 by a group of Thai aristocratic filmmakers. This studio was the only competitor of Srikrung Studio in the early days of Thai talkies. However, they only produced 5 films in 3 years before closing down. Pid Thong Lang Phra (Unsung Hero) is one of their films, though only 11 minutes of it have survived.

Reportage showing the architecture and landscape of the newly built capital of Palestine (in today's Israel). The 1930s were a period of very dynamic development in Tel-Aviv. After the Fascists came to power in Germany, a huge wave of Jewish emigrants headed there, which contributed to the city's thriving development. The film shows one of the world's most modern metropolises less than a year before the outbreak of the Second World War.

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Larry Clinton & His Orchestra and two guest vocalists perform a number of songs.

Documentary short by the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) about the construction and launching of the cruise ship "Wilhelm Gustloff".

The film focuses on a group of 10 yr old students who tell their story.

To win the prize that is offered to the one who endures three laps to a boxer, a mechanic learns to box and becomes champion; in the meantime he gets involved with a woman but eventually returns to his wife.

Made for the Zurich National Exhibition in 1939, Die Börse als Barometer der Wirtschaftslage charts the increase of stock exchanges in the history of economic development.

A Nazi documentary extolling Germany’s Siegfried Line (“West Wall”) just before WWII, compiled from newsreel units under Fritz Hippler to showcase the fortifications’ construction and defensive purpose.

Aimed at promoting active Korean participation in the war for the Imperial Japanese Army, the film sees the people of Joseon mobilized into a string of organized units such as a youth group helping to recruit young volunteers, a group promoting the sale of war bonds, and an exclusive organization that focuses on donating aircrafts and anti-aircraft machine guns.

A group of show girls ignore Andy's romantic overtures - until they discover he's a millionaire.

Through a car accident, a young pilot gets to know a girl who works as a fashion model in the city. She leaves her fiancé in front of him and applies for a job as a stewardess. The inspection shows that she, like her brother, suffers from tuberculosis. The pilot abandons her, but her ex-fiancee comes to visit her at the sanatorium and marries her. However, their happiness is overshadowed by the death of their child from tuberculosis...

1939 Mehboob Khan film

An Italian movie.

Images of Stockholm.