Cinematic Era: 1944 Vintage

A Soundie with Apus and Estrellita.

It's the dead of winter and Crow is alone in the frigid tundra. He happens upon Fox's cabin, but finds his host less than hospitable.

Radio announcer Billy Gilbert is hired by a friend to get smitten with his wife.

This documentary from the World in Action series tells the story of the great Allied invasion of Northwest Europe in 1944. The film reviews the preparation, strategy and campaign planning that went into this massive task.

On June 6, 1944, supported by an immense naval armada, Allied troops, including the First Canadian Army, led by General Harry Crerar, launch an amphibious invasion of Normandy, France. Facing a fierce resistance by Nazi forces, the Allied armies establish a beachhead on the Normandy coast. Seeking redemption after their earlier rout at the Dieppe raid in 1942, the Canadians are able to gain control of Juno Beach. Before regrouping for an advance into France, Allied troops are replenished by transport of war materiél and reinforcements. The Canadian contingent is tasked with an attack on Caen, France, held by the German 7th Army.

Propaganda film about Belgian pilots in the RAF during World War II and the creation of the entirely Belgian 350 Squadron in 1941.

During the Second World War, the Canadian Army presents a Hollywood-style short musical film encouraging women to enlist.

Four travelers attempt to escape a small town in Manchuria, but their bus breaks down on a dirt road. Unwilling to be left homeless, they return and rent rooms at a hotel. Meanwhile, a young man named Zhicheng, a local buffoon in love with the innkeeper's daughter, encounters the spirit of his ancestor. The spirit predicts a great future for Zhicheng and the attainment of happiness, but to achieve this, he will have to defeat villainous bandits.

A musical short.

A cruel uncle usurps his niece's inheritance, but a kind doctor and his wife help her reclaim it. Their lives intertwine with betrayal, a scheming dancer, and ultimate vindication, proving that providence always intervenes.

Short documentary film about Spanish castles, with a fiction part performed by two uncredited actors.

One of a series of French-Canadian folk songs, this film was illustrated by Norman McLaren for the Chants populaires series. White gouache drawings on black cards were photographed with overlapping ‘zooms’ to suggest the forward movement of a canoe along rivers and lakes. This film appears in Chants populaires no. 5 and in Chants populaires no. 6.

Humphrey Jennings’s Crown Film Unit short on the summer 1944 V-1 “doodlebug” campaign, tracking a salvo from the coast toward London as it runs Britain’s layered defenses—coastal AA guns, RAF fighters, and barrage balloons—capturing both interception and impact in a stark report of terror and resilience.

'Wounded in Action' is a 22-minute 1944 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series. The film documents the work carried out by medical services in saving the lives of those who are wounded in action during the Second World War. The French version title of Wounded in 'Action is Blessé au combat'.

A tour of Salt Lake City, Utah.

A Soundie featuring Meade (Lux) Lewis and Dudley Dickerson [with Avanelle Harris, Leonald Bluett].

Combat Bulletin was a new reel type series keeping folks up-to-date with the combat of World War II.

Street musician Markus goes from town to town earning money on accordion for a fee. He becomes popular with the boys in the street and also with Vivian who becomes his girlfriend. One day one of the boys is so unlucky pushing the accordion into a rivere. This causes Markus to lose his livelihood, and with a sick mother his existence is put to the test. It takes 10 boys to do something about. They raise money by putting on a show in the theater and bringing two celebrities to the play.

Viktor Kubal’s Disney-esque debut about Slovakia’s “salvation” through electrification.

A Soundie with Louis Jordan and his Orchestra.

Jordan, a famous criminal lawyer, will only represent clients, of whose innocence he is convinced (must be financially not-too-well-off). One day, his future son-in-law, the jeweler Fabian, is arrested on suspicion of murder on the day before his wedding. He is said to have murdered his ex-wife, the dancer Ria Norady. The conductor Gillmore found her dead in her dressing room shortly after a visit from Fabian. Gisela Jordan asks her father to defend him. After speaking to Fabian, the lawyer is convinced he's innocent. But since there is no proof of this, he decides to go and try and find the real murderer himself.

Shops, clubs, theatres, traffic in the Piccadilly Circus, Pall Mall and Regent Street areas.

Land for Pioneers is a documentary about economic development in the Canadian North from a 1944 nationalist perspective.

A romantic skirmish between an intrusive operetta tenor from the Berlin Theater and a revue diva in Barcelona, who later encounters him, initially unrecognized, as a ballet dancer and, after they marry, plays the role of a housewife to cure him of his arrogance and flightiness. He himself is no stranger to deception, but their joint stage finale is not far off.

A bombing mission over Germany by the American Eighth Air Force, from the initial planning for the mission through final completion, with all of its intricacies from beginning to end.

Highlights of the Allied advance from Normandy to Antwerp during World War II.

A girl who grew up in a boarding school where she suffered from a lack of love is set as its director once she graduates as a lawyer.

A starving horse tries to convince Puzzlewitz the window-washer to give him a lunch break. The horse washes windows, too!

Soundie short featuring pianist Harry Gibson performing "Harry the Hipster"

During World War II, Nazi spies tried to infiltrate everywhere, and the Mexican Military Academy was no exception.

Martin and Märta live in a seemingly happy marriage, but Märta feels neglected. One evening she meets Martine's colleague, the Frenchman Barthou, famous for his success with the Stockholm ladies. He starts to flirt with Märta.

London bachelor Reggie Bryant receives a most unusual gift from his uncle - an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus with a 3,000 year old princess inside. More amazing still, when Reggie lifts the lid, he finds not a dried-up old mummy, but a very gorgeous and nubile young blonde who identifies herself as Princess Raviola. Forgetting all about his fiance, Reggie and the Princess set off on a wild drinking and dancing escapade through the nightclubs of London. Wishing to return the favor, Princess Raviola whisks Reggie 3,000 years back in time to ancient Egypt, where she intends to show him how they partied in Pharaoh's Palace!

Mice, seeking shelter from a storm, enter Dr. Jekyll's house. His cat chases them, ultimately crashing into the lab, where he mixes up some of the potion. He transforms, then rounds up the mice. Mighty Mouse comes to the rescue; in the fight, the lab catches fire. The mice escape, but the house rockets into the sky.

Trawlers at work; the crew on board and landing a catch. The fishing crew are seen with their families on shore shopping and enjoying themselves in the pub. Life aboard a West Coast trawler under arduous and dangerous wartime conditions.

A home movie shot on 35mm nitrate stock.

Combat Bulletin was a new reel type series keeping folks up-to-date with the combat of World War II.

Documentary on the young builders who'll rebuild Britain after the war.

Rhyming warning to check tyre pressure. Moral of the tale 'Tyre conservation'.

The plummy-voiced narrator of this late Columbia black and white cartoon interviews Professor Igor Puzzlewitz and quizzes him on his newest Rube-Goldbergesque invention to swat flies. Chaos ensues.

A 17th century woman, imprisoned for fighting in a bar, recounts her past to a priest. She tells of her father teaching her how to fence, of being sent to a convent by her aunt when her father died, of escaping by dressing as a man, and of her life as a man following the escape.

Account of the development of air transport during wartime and a review of issues to be solved in regulating international civil aviation.

A Dave Fleischer produced animated short.

Jasper receives a musical instrument in the mail and plays a few tunes with the scarecrow.

1944 German film.

Propaganda film about the repercussions of spreading rumors and not keeping your mouth shut. The story inside the frame is about a decent bank officer who is wrongly accused of stealing orphan's money.

An unfinished animated short by Norman McLaren.

The trial of the Nazi invaders in Kharkov.

The director transferred three pieces of the great composer to the screen, each with a different stylistic setting: the romantic nocturne was illustrated with images of nature; the exuberant Mazurka F minor, with a folk dance performed by Russian Ballet artists. The most interesting conception of the Revolutionary Etude had elements of abstract interplay of shapes and lights interspersed with takes of explosions, shouting faces distorted with a grimace, planes, and flames burning down symbolic icons of Polishness. Color Studies of Chopin was a propaganda film to lift the spirits and hearts of Poles in exile and at the same time to win over other nations’ sympathy for the Polish cause. To this end Cękalski roped in Olin Downes, a popular radio presenter and music critic, who overdubbed the beginning with a preface.

Part of the Speaking of Animals short film series.

Plot based (loosely)on World-War II orphaned-children from Europe who had been adopted by American citizens and given home in the United States; Crow receives two "war orphan" eggs, which the Fox, a collector of rare eggs, is after, and finally gets them after outwitting the crow, a rare turn of events in this cartoon series. But the eggs hatch two huge ostrich-like birds who think the Fox is their father. The Fox has no intentions of being a father to two birds larger than he.

Blue-Grass Gentlemen is a 1944 English language short film, starring Ed Thorgersen. It was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Short Subject, One-Reel.

When the man her father wants to impose on her as a husband is coming home, a young woman changes her personality with her maid. The film is set in two periods, the contemporary to the realization and the times of Louis XV.