Cinematic Era: 1943 Vintage

A German wartime biography of Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the Diesel engine. The movie links the importance of the engine to the war by starting the movie with newsreel clips of German Navy U-boats in action.

Another of a wartime cycle of Hollywood films lauding the praises of America's Soviet allies, Three Russian Girls is a remake of Russia's The Girl From Stalingrad. Set just after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the film stars Anna Sten as Natasha, a Red Cross volunteer who is dispatched to a field hospital located in an old pre-revolution mansion. American test pilot John Hill (Kent Smith), who'd been in Russia on a goodwill mission, is wounded in battle and brought to the hospital. As he slowly recovers from his wounds, Hill falls in love with Natasha. A last-act crisis develops when the hospital personnel are forced to move immediately to Leningrad as the Nazis advance.

Pedro, a small airplane from Chile, engaging in his very first flight to pick up air mail from Mendoza, with near disastrous results.

Unknown to oil company president Ross, his man Quinn is pulling a swindle on the independent drillers. Quinn controls both the Judge and the Marshal. But when the Marshal is accidentally killed, Wild Bill Elliott is brought in as the new Marshal and things begin to change.

This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.

Town banker John Martin calls on Billy and Fuzzy for help in capturing the men that robbed his bank.

John Jones contemplates how fortunate he and his family are in America, where no wartime bombing occurs.

An air raid warden demonstrates safety measures, while a refugee from Occupied Europe reveals why she came to America.

A dancer in a girlie show plots revenge when a judge orders her show closed.

A young dancer trying to make it in London during World War II discovers that people like her singing voice, too. Although she's at first reluctant to sing, she finally does and becomes a star. She hooks up with a young musician who composes classical music and turns his nose up at this vulgar "popular" music, but she believes he can be a success at it and sets out to turn him around.

Lupe Vélez plays a dual role, twin sisters Rita and Elaine. After escaping a torpedoed ship, Rita shows up in Manhattan, where she takes the place of her Broadway-star twin sister Elaine, who's having problems with her marriage and needs to make a getaway. Neither Elaine's husband or Rita's saxophone-player boyfriend are aware of the switch.

Subtitled The Fighting Guerillas, Chetniks tells the story of Serbian guerilla fighter General Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović. Based on the General's own memoirs, the film depicts Mihailovitch (played here by Philip Dorn) as a selfless idealist, leading his resistance troops, known as the Chetniks, on one raid after another against the Germans during WW II.

Roy returns home to fine a range feud between the cattlemen and the sheepmen. When his friend is killed he finds the rifle had a defective pin. He learns the rifle belongs to a ranch hand named Barker and that a third party has caused the feud. When he captures outlaws trying to blow up a dam, he claims Barker was the killer. But Barker has switched rifles and the outlaws now accuse Roy and Roy finds himself in trouble.

"As everyone knows," the narrator begins, "goldfish must have water... and cats hate water." And so it goes.

Ship engineer Jim Taggert is rescued from a torpedoed tramp steamer by Joe Morgan, an American gangster that found New York too hot for him, and has become a fisherman operating from an out-of-the-way island off of the coast of South America. Morgan makes his headquarters at the Halfway House run by the parents of Maria Styx as a bar and dance resort catering to the planters and traders of the island. Taggert finds himself practically a prisoner along with a group of American girls acting as entertainers at the resort. Taggert shadows Morgan in his activities in a remote cove and finds that Morgan is supplying German U-boat commanders with torpedoes, but does not know that Morgan has rigged the torpedoes with clock devices that explode when at sea and sinks the U-boats.

This propaganda film was partly inspired by the story of the first Italian heavyweight champion Primo Carnera who, after winning the title with Al Capone’s help in 1933, was beaten the following year by the Jewish Max Bear and then again by the ‘Brown Bomber’ Detroit Joe Lewis in June 1935, on the eve of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. This match provoked numerous racial skirmishes on the streets of Harlem between the Black community and pro-Fascist Italian-Americans. The film overturns historical facts and here, obviously, it is the white boxer who wins in order to demonstrate the superiority of the “Aryan Italians” over the “sinister Jewish entrepreneurs” and the “savage Afro-American fans in Yankee Stadium”. In the film, these were played by South African prisoners-of-war interred in a work camp, which the German and Italian propaganda ministries had set up near Cinecittà “for cinematic purposes”.

A widow's grown children try to break up her romance with a college professor.

Vera Meiners' life was sweet but unfortunately for her, it was not to last. Her husband, Jan, left her after she met a former lover in a harmless friendly meeting. Forced to resume her disrupted medical career, she worked in a Swiss clinic but, without the knowledge of the chief surgeon, Vera ordered a risky operation to be performed and was thereafter fired. Penniless, she then works in Spanish nightclubs in order to provide for herself and her child. After many years, she runs into her friend Frank again in one of these nightclubs...

The owner (William Bendix) of a cab company tries to foil a racketeer.

An Italian comedy from 1943.

Three Allied soldiers in an airplane flying to Egypt crash-land in Iraq. They are taken in by a local sheik, but soon begin to suspect that he may not be quite as friendly as he appears to be.

A few days before the planned wedding of the chief inheritor von Halleborg, he experiences a terrible blow: his beloved bride Julia has a riding accident and dies of her injuries. Von Halleborg becomes a broken man and chooses not to waste another moment thinking of love -- his heart belongs to Julia ... forever. In doing so, von Halleborg runs the risk of losing his entire estate, for the conditions of inheritance make all to clear that if he does not marry by his 45th birthday, the estate is to be turned over to someone else. Von Halleborg had already made peace with this fact until he discovers that the future lord of the manor will be his nephew Oskar, a selfish and ruthless scoundrel, concerned only with money.

Millionaire Sam Winston is an unhappy man. His wife Constance lives a gay life, devoting all her time to parties; his daughter Gloria is in one scandal after another, changing husbands as often as her moods, and son Jerry spends his time getting drunk and chasing women. Sam hires gangster Johnny April to bump him off but Johnny, liking the old man, defers the killing and sets about making the family appreciate Sam.

A person who had usurped the identity of a famous writer of detective stories was killed in the train. Why and by whom?

When Abner is mistakenly diagnosed as having only two weeks to live, his partner gets the idea that they can make a ton of money by having Abner perform all kinds of dangerous stunts.

Pvt. Snafu suffers the consequences of not keeping his equipment and weapons properly maintained.

Rodney Playfair is persuaded, by a promise to meet his gambling debts, to impersonate a manservant named Chapman at his fiancée's house...

A young wife learns that freedom must sometimes be paid for in lives, when her husband's ship is struck during battle.

Ademaï is very happy to spend a vacation month in Corsica, invited by his family; when he arrives, much to his surprise, all the male relatives have just been shot.

When his wife threatens him with divorce, a reporter courts her again.

Two cowboys try to protect railroad workers from rampaging Indians.

The composer Hans Helmer can really count his happy blessings: he is married to a wonderful woman, who also happens to be a celebrated operetta star. But Hans is suffering from the success of his wife and is constantly in her shadow. He also doesn't want to profit from her reputation when he tries to get his play, "Husband of the Famous Singer" published. Hans wants to be recognized for his own achievements. So he decides to submit his latest composition under the name of his best friend, the painter Willi Kenter. The director is thrilled with the work, but there are some unforseen complications. Hans' wife Maria hears about the operetta and is likewise very impressed; but also sees through her husband's little deception. She tells him that she is determined to play a part in the performance of the work. That's something Hans wants to prevent at any price.

Alice, an unhappy young woman in the household, is the mother of a little boy, Pierre. She falls in love with a young doctor and plans to run away with him and his son. Finally, not considering the right to deprive Pierre of his father, she gives up. Twenty years pass, Pierre has grown up, he suspects his little brother, Jean, of just being his half-brother. His suspicions gnaw at him, his mother confesses to him her past fault. Faced with this confession, Pierre will abandon the one who sacrificed her life for him.

People on a train want what's in a Nazi spy bag, unaware it's a time bomb.

The old shell game gets a new face as Donald stays off-base past "Taps" and has to try to sneak back in with out alerting Pete.

Private Donald Duck is on a long, long training march, growing steadily more exhausted. Finally, they reach their camp location, and despite Donald's desire for dinner, he follows orders to pitch his tent first. He finally gives up on the tent as night falls. But as he tries to get to sleep, the loud shoring of the other soldiers forces him to bury his head. Finally, he gets to sleep, just as reveille sounds and the march continues.

Women in Bondage is a 1943 World War II film about conditions for women under Hitler's regime. The plot involves two women imprisoned for speaking out against the government. It was directed by Steve Sekely and starred Gail Patrick and Nancy Kelly.

The Great Patriotic War. The Soviet submarine T-9, passing through the minefields of the North Sea, penetrates the enemy port. Sailors drown enemy transport ships, but soon find out that they are late - enemy troops and weapons are already unloaded and sent to the front. Captain Kostrov finds himself in a situation where a combat mission is almost impossible, but he must fulfill it - for him it is a matter of honor or dishonor.

Blackie is arrested when retrieving stolen gems from a safety deposit box for a friend.

British film written and directed by Humphrey Jennings, filmed in documentary style showing the lives of firefighters through the Blitz in World War II.

This serious Pete Smith Specialty series entry encourages industry to hire people with disabilities to help with the war effort. As a boy, Ben Helwig was blinded in an accident while playing baseball. He eventually acquired a guide dog and now works in a defense plant.

A banker struggles to keep his bank solvent and his town from going bankrupt after the bank is robbed and all its money taken. The Three Mesquiteers ride into town and set out to help.

Actors are seen in their new roles as military men during WWII: Robert Stack displaying his remarkable skill as an artillery training officer; Tyrone Power as a Marine drill instructor; Rudy Vallee leading a military band; and Glenn Ford in the everyday grind of a Marine private.

El and his new bride go on their honeymoon; no matter where they go, they keep running into her former husbands.

A spider attempts to lure a ladybug into his web. When she manages to escape and hide in a tulip, a storm comes that batters the spider, while the ladybug remains safe.

A couple of crooks have repeatedly sold the Circle C Ranch to unsuspecting buyers, whom they summarily rob and kill before signing the papers. Enter Fuzzy Jones, whose cousin Luke was one of the unlucky would-be ranchers, and Rocky Cameron who goes undercover as a fellow outlaw to catch the murderers.

A young woman moves to Berlin to work as a press photographer.

A naive teenager faces a distressing reality that will force her to mature and face her emotions.

Frantic farce involving a neglected wife, a stolen diamond and four identical briefcases.

The film is partly a parody of The Goodwill Court, a popular radio problem hosted by advice-dispenser "Mr. Anthony". The host of a "What's your problem?" radio hour tries to smooth the romantic path of singer Rich Cleveland (Haymes) and his socialite wife Penelope (Lynn Merrick). The fly in the ointment is Dena Marshall (Janis Carter), who has set her sights on the handsome Rich.

The niece of a wealthy manufacturing aunt has secretly married. Her husband has lost his way during the night in his pajamas at a spa and ended up on the balcony of an attractive singer.

Bugs Bunny encounters the legendary giant.

Plan for Destruction is a 1943 American short propaganda film directed by Edward Cahn. It looks at the Geopolitik ideas of the ex-World War I professor, General Karl Haushofer, who is portrayed as the head of a huge organization for gathering information of strategic value and the mastermind behind Adolf Hitler's wars and plans to enslave the world. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

A color visit to Camp Hale, Colorado's US Army training center.

Billy the Kid is framed for murder.

If J.M. Barrie had had a hand in Tarkovsky's IVAN'S CHILDHOOD, it might like something like this bizarre boys' adventure confection. Surprised by the advancing German Army while gathering wheat outside their village, a spunky band of Russian adolescents employs a combination of wits and heroic self-sacrifice to defeat a Nazi battalion, blow up a tank, and save the people of Stalingrad from imminent destruction. A rarely-seen entry in Hollywoood's brief wartime spate of pro-Soviet propaganda films, THE BOY FROM STALINGRAD stars Serbian-American child actor Bobby Samarzich, who went on to found one of Southern California's greatest tamburitza bands.