Cinematic Era: 1939 Vintage

Short documentary.

A musical-dramatic production starring Fernando Poe.

An advertisement for Huilor brand Cooking oil.

Daniele Orsenigo, a young Venetian fighting for the unification of Italy, has an important message to deliver to the Carboneria of Parma.

On the patriotism of Ukrainian collective farmers. Tractor driver Andrei Stozhar decides to go to the Far East instead of his brother Maxim killed on the border.

Discover Brazil, its wildlife, its riches (rubber, Brazil nuts) and its major cities along the Amazon River (Manaos, Santarem, Belem).

The story of Hua Mulan, who disguised herself as a man to take her father’s place in the army, was invoked during China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937–1945) to inspire and mobilize women’s participation in the war effort, symbolizing courage, sacrifice, and patriotism.

Castle Films 1939 holiday offering wrapped up to make a Merry Christmas merrier. A visual kaleidoscope of the toys from all over the world from the cuddly to the curious and beyond...with an emphasis on mechanical dolls, monkeys, bears, rabbits popping up out of cabbages and choo-choo trains. And there is a rich sampling of animated displays that once graced department store windows - of story-book tales and operettas... and animated stop-motion toy soldiers, The musical track is drawn mostly from Van Beuren Studio's "Pastrytown Wedding."

This celebratory 1939 film, sponsored by a local gas company and introduced by LH Keay, architect and director of housing in Liverpool, is an enthusiastic overview of the slum-clearance programme that had been undertaken in Liverpool.

Avant-garde home movie, creators unkown, attributed to John C. Hecker.

Spare Time is a 1939 British film directed by Humphrey Jennings for the GPO Film Unit, and made for the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is 15 minutes long and documents the leisure activities of workers in the coal, steel, and cotton industries in Sheffield, Bolton, Manchester and Pontypridd. Commentary is provided by Laurie Lee.

The first in a series called "Music Hall Vanities". Pinky Tomlin sings one of his own songs and Betty Atkinson, Hollywood's first choice for majorette or jitter-bugging roles, extends her range to acrobatic dancing. The Fanchonettes dancers also stay busy.

The romance between a fisherman and a refrigerator employee.

Amongst the sights in this TravelTalk visit to Washington State, we see Snoquality Falls, Mount Shuksan, Mount Baker volcano and Mount Rainier National Park.

A cautionary tale about wealth not bringing happiness. The blind Mohan (Kumar) lives in a village with his ward Radha (Madhuri). He wins a fortune with a sweepstake ticket sold to him by the tramp Ramesh (Charlie), who claims his due and begins to take over Mohan’s life, making him move to the city and getting him married to Chinta, a prostitute. When Mohan’s eyesight is restored, he finds that his wife is having an affair with Ramesh. Mohan takes revenge and eventually lands up in his old village, a poor man, but with Radha still unchanged, waiting for him.

The annual compendium of highlights from last season's major intercollegiate gridiron classics.

Film about Ghost-Cat.

The film gives a strong view of the everyday life of Icelanders when the film is shot, but that year was a record year for the export of herring products and herring fishing and herring salting therefore cover a large part of the film.

1939 short documentary by Belgian filmmaker on pianter Hans Memling.

1939 Telugu drama film

An assistant in a jewel shop is given charge of a famous necklace to take to a customer. The house is shut up, and he has to guard it for the weekend.

Fitna receives a limited education and lives with her father in a popular neighborhood in Alexandria. Her friend Naima, a girl who lives a frivolous life, tempts her to go out with her. As she works as a singer in a bar, Fitna gets arrested, and the warden sympathizes with Fitna, finds her an honest job, and falls in love with her.

Ms. Mode plays

Live action and animated toys are used to illustrate the importance of cleanliness and eating good food.

A look at the role of the steam train in the Highlands of Scotland.

Powerful and sometimes disturbing account of Britain's defences against enemy attack - made six months before WWII.

The story is about a 3,000 year old vampire that hides in a subterranean country, and how it works with thousands of demons to terrorize the world.

The Marajó ceramic pieces in the National Museum's collection, their patterns and characteristics.

Mean farmer Ola Berg reigns at Högbogården and endures a loveless relationship with his wife Karin.

Film about Ghost-Cat.

An industrial documentary that shows the whole process of clothes and shoe making, from cutting animal skin to final selling of the finite products in the factory shop.

The unfinished film "Krylos" is a historical story about the 12th century, inspired by the excavations of a temple in Galicia. Rehearsals of the film took place in the summer of 1939 in the metropolitan garden of the Cathedral of St. Yura in Lviv.

An overview of Djurgården in Stockholm and what it looked like in the 1930s.

Carmen Concha’s only feature film for Parlatone.

Hungarian musical comedy.

The second film in the Fantasmagoria series.

Throughout the 1930s, Margaret Cram directed the same film again and again. An itinerant filmmaker based in Boston, she made her living by traveling to cities across New England and producing her Movie Queen scenarios with the people who lived there. In each iteration, the eponymous character is a Hollywood star returning to her hometown and visiting nearby businesses, the drama emerging when the Movie Queen becomes the target of a comic kidnapping plot and is ultimately rescued by a local hero. Once shot, the material was quickly processed and assembled so that it could be shown to all involved, granting participants a chance to see themselves and their neighbors in the pictures—ersatz screen idols, if only for one night. This program of three such reels affords a rare glimpse into a little-known genre of amateur filmmaking, which achieves a curious poignancy through the repetition of its design.

An animated short made for the Swiss National Exhibition 1939 in Zurich.

Slobbish magician Ali Kazam tries to win the princess' hand in marriage by producing a large quantity of jewels, but is challenged by a youth (our Hero) who only has a yo-yo, a sling shot, a few marbles, and a small pocket knife. Our hero is helped by Nicky Nome.

Gandy reads a book about detectives and decides he should become one. He wears a Sherlock Holmes-style cap and uses a magnifying glass, but he encounters movie monsters like Frankenstein and Dracula out in the woods.

A spoof of those "No, No, A Thousand Times No!" melodramas.

Musical cartoon about a feud in the mountains.

The title is a take-off parody of Billy Rose's Aquacade, and uses an ordinary bathtub, as aqua-mice perform aquatic ballet dances and water sports. The soap bubbles float downstairs to where the dog and cat are sleeping, who blame each other for the disturbance, and have a fight about it. When they learn the mice are the bubble producers, they go after them with a vacuum cleaner.

Busy Little Bears is a 1939 American short family film directed by John A. Haeseler. The film follows three bear cubs are observed exploring the forests of the Sierra Nevadas, encountering other wildlife, and invading the kitchen of a local ranch house. It won an Oscar at the 12th Academy Awards in 1940 for Best Short Subject (One-Reel). Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2013.

Documentary short by Humphrey Jennings

Istvan Bors was adapted from the popular Hungarian stage play by Sandor Hunyady, with a few songs added to the mixture. The title character, played by Antal Pager, is an impoverished farmhand whose lot in life is radically altered when he inherits a fortune. Istvan Bors' benefactor was a fabulously wealthy business executive who happened to be our hero's real father. Baron Tulgody (Bela Mihalyffy), the decedent's nephew, is understandably put out when Istvan is declared the sole heir, but he fulfills the conditions of the will and permits the scruffy farmhand to move into the family's ancestral estate. Gradually, Istvan ingratiates himself with the rest of the household, even winning over the Baron after a last-act plot convolution. The whimsically inconclusive ending of the original play was altered a bit, but the results were so satisfying that no one had any cause for complaint.