Cinematic Era: 1951 Vintage

A Terrytoons cartoon released 22 July 1951.

A Juvenile Court judge is at a loss to understand why so many of America's youths are marijuana addicts, so he decides to investigate on his own. He visits Phyllis, a high school senior and former heroin junkie, who tells him about the horrible effects heroin has had on her. She managed to overcome her addiction to marijuana and heroin, but in the process ruined her hair. This leads the judge to the logical conclusion that the drug problem in the U.S. was introduced by Soviet Communists in an effort to undermine morale and that the way to stop the drug epidemic was to "use common sense".

In the fictional town of Spoggenpoelville, Mr. Spog and Mr. Poel rule supreme. Though not particularly bright, they run and own everything. To boot, they are the town’s mayor and deputy mayor. But one day two men from Johannesburg throw a spanner in the works. Mr. Brand and Mr. Borelli want to buy a piece of Spoggenpoelville, complete with mineral rights. Spog and Poel say no. To retaliate, the two speculators decide to run for mayor and deputy mayor. Suddenly Spog and Poel must learn how to become politicians, charm the ladies and outwit the villains, all the while trying to evade a clown-like figure who wants to sell them a goldmine.

Mamie is back with the girls to visit for the holidays.

Film about the death of the worker Édouard Mazé, killed in Brest by the mobile guards, during the demonstrations and strikes of 1951.

This two-partfilm was made in connection with the visit of Soviet collective farmers to agricultural cooperative in Mělnické Vtelno. They come to share with local people the experiences they have gained in cultivating crops and raising livestock. Among others, the visitors include Praskovya Andreyevna Malininova, who demonstrates a three-stage udder massage for increasing milk yields in cows.

Madame Guérin, who has been suffering from cancer, benefits from a period of remission and she tries to regain health at any price. That is why she decides to consult a healer. But when her friend, also affected by cancer, is saved by an operation, she hesitates between traditional and parallel medicine.

Country girl arriving in a big town falls in love with her boss, without knowing who he was.

Mutual Savings Bank and the many wonders it has if you bank with them.

Construction of a university of technology and a tech village in Otaniemi, Espoo.

A German Film Award Silver Bowl winning short documentary.

The first puppet animation film in the GDR shows the fairy tale about the quarrels of an unequal pair of animals, which is well-known in both German and Sorbian.

A film by Jean Rouch.

Musical short with Neil Chotem.

Farms are 'islands' of rat life, providing abundant food and harborage (shelter). But rats cost the farmer money and spread disease. This U.S. government training film demonstrates practical methods of rat control around farm buildings, animal feeding sites, and the homestead. The key is to cut off access to all food sources and places to hide. Methods for securing grain storage areas such as corn cribs include raising the floor off the ground, placing chew-proof metal flashing on wood edges, and adding rat-proof covers or lids.

A newly married school teacher becomes unemployed, but makes it big as singer.

Clarifies the role of persuasive argument. Explains the components of a good argument, and contrasts the serious use of good argument against that of irrelevant, unsound argument.

How to say no to unwanted smoking, drinking and petting, and still keep your friends.

Two young boys learn why and under what conditions an object will float in water. For elementary and junior high school grades.

The Reverend Rodger Perkins, a Presbyterian missionary to Brazil, portrays himself in this true story of a young missionary flyer who travels between remote villages in an impassioned campaign to use “wings to speed the Word of God.” Narrated by Alexander Scourby.

“In the middle of the twentieth century, Blunden Harbour was a small village on the coast of Vancouver Island in British Colombia inhabited by a handful of impoverished Kwakiutl Indians who gained their meagre livelihood from fishing and gathering...It is a beginner's attempt to impart the rhythm and atmostphere of a place and a people.” - Robert Gardner

Longhorns is cine-dance with a surrealist tang. There are no human figures in this early short from Hilary Harris, only a pair of Texas longhorns turning endless spirals in the tall reeds of a New York inlet. The strangeness of this scene abstracts the horns’ mesmerizing rotation, the better for Harris to explore the choreographic possibilities of cutting and framing (Cyril Jackson’s propulsive drum score provides the beat). Harris was a lifelong sculptor in addition to being a pioneering experimental filmmaker, and in Longhorns we see him reveling in the interplay between the two mediums. Though somewhat shaggier than his later motion studies (such as 9 Variations on a Dance Theme), Longhorns remains a tactile treat. The majestic images of clouds, in particular, evince his special ability to transform the mundane into something revelatory. —Max Goldberg, fandor.com

Pialat's first film was the short Isabelle aux Dombes, shot in 1951 when the director was 26 years old. The film is an entirely silent montage of documentary footage, ragged experimental techniques — mainly some negative-image inserts — and symbolic psychodrama that's surprisingly not too different from the work that Stan Brakhage would begin making just a year or two later. Images of death proliferate throughout the film, and what started as a loose documentary soon becomes an eerie psuedo-horror piece that's obsessed with death and decay.

Mimiche feuds with his nameless unshaven nemesis.

A ruthless spice merchant in pursuit of ultimate wealth must choose between his fortune and the only woman who knows the true measure of his heart.

Demonstrates the making of jam and jelly by the shortboil (pectin) and long-boil methods. Includes sequences on the use of fresh, frozen, canned and dried fruits and on bottled and canned juices.

A domestic and unknown video footage belonging to the Beiras family that visits the spaces of work and life of the galician poet Rosalia de Castro

A study of child behavior at two and three years, showing what to expect and how parents can deal constructively with the problems they present. The film shows a group of active children in playground, nursery school and home, first at age two, and then at three. Destructiveness, tantrums, rivalry with younger children, and unreasonable fears are discussed.

Short film documenting children's street games and songs in 1950s Edinburgh.

Singapore film production directed by S. Ramanathan.

A film about the construction of the hydroelectric power plant in the village of Tresonche, on the Radika River. The film was shot with the participation of students from the Nikola Tesla Electrical School in Skopje, 1950.

Defence education film intended for children and young people. It is devoted to teaching the theory of defence in schools. It primarily demonstrates its educational component with an instructive commentary and explanation of the history of Czechoslovakia.

Finnish shipbuilding at the Valko shipyard to pay war reparations to the Soviet Union

A short documentary showing the political approach and practices used to address Oslo’s housing problem in the years after the war. ***** Oslofilm was a series of public information films about life in and around Oslo, produced between 1940 and 1980. Funded by the state, the films offer valuable insight into postwar Norwegian society. A wide range of Norwegian filmmakers contributed to the productions, resulting in a rich variety of styles and expressions. Several of the films also possess notable cinematic qualities, standing out as more than just informational material. The Oslofilms represent a unique and important chapter in Norwegian film history.

Scots from overseas arriving at Prestwick airport on a BOAC aeroplane. The visitors are escorted from the airport by pipes and drums.

A film by Philip Leff.

The film tells the story of the struggle to liberate Maraş from French occupation. Maraş is occupied by the French. The occupying forces issue a proclamation demanding that the people obey the French. The people refuse to obey the enemy and begin to organize among themselves. Two enemy soldiers attack a girl named Zeynep. Ali, who is at the head of the organization, rescues Zeynep. After this incident, the people begin to clash with the occupying soldiers. Realizing that the people have risen up, the French prepare to attack key points in the city. However, Ali and his friends, who are aware of these preparations, will devise a plan to liberate Maraş.

The granddaughter of the watchman of a theater that is going to be demolished has the dream of being a successful female singer like her mother and the son of the theater owner makes it possible.

This short compilation film not only celebrates Czechoslovakia’s most beautiful holiday resorts, but also emphasises the greater availability of local recreational sojourns in the new socialist order. It portrays touring as an ideal way of spending a holiday in the home country.

A documentary about Slussen, the name of a traffic centre in Stockholm.

When the dog and the cat still farmed together (however, we talked about it here, how skillfully they washed the floor and how they both dried themselves in the sun afterwards) and they still had their house and ran their business in it, there was one Easter Sunday, and so they said they would go on a trip together.

An absorbing example of genre filmmaking in the People’s Republic of China, Husband and Wife could at first glance be mistaken for any other romantic melodrama chronicling the rise and decline of a married couple’s love; here, though, that love takes place in (and is entirely defined by) a realm of political upheaval and Maoist ideology. A Shanghai intellectual marries an illiterate peasant woman–turned–collectivist hero, with outcomes both universal (differences emerge) and specific (revolutionary self-critiques). At first a popular hit, the film (and Zheng himself) was soon critically attacked for counterrevolutionary, pro-bourgeois thought. Zheng even penned a confessional autocritique, but the damage to his career was done. (BAMPFA)

Agitprop short made in West Germany. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

An orchestra director had a son as a result of an affair in his youth and hides the fact from his wife. But the young man succeeds as a musician and the truth soon comes to light.

Poetic short film by Peter Pewas, inspired by a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.