All Films

Spike Milligan on Treasure Island WC2

1961 • 23 min • United Kingdom

Treasure Island WC2 is Tin Pan Alley where pop songs are launched on their brief but glorious careers.

The Travolators

1961 • 9 min • United Kingdom

Approximately 40,000 people use the Waterloo & City Underground line every day. For years they had walked to and from the platforms at the Bank by a steep passage known as the 'Drain'. But know, they can ride up and down on the first moving pavements in Europe - the Travolators. This film shows the construction of the Travolators which was achieved without disrupting normal traffic.

Terminus

1961 • 35 min • United Kingdom

This fly on the wall-style documentary from 1961 won an Oscar for best documentary, and shows the changing patterns of human emotions during 24 hours in the life of Waterloo Station.

The Unsung Hero

1961 • 7 min • United States of America

A CinemaScope Terrytoon released in May 1961

On the Day of the Dead

1961 • 13 min • Chile

A counterpoint between what happens in a Parisian cemetery and in the Latin quarter of the same city.

Balls Bluff

1961 • 24 min • United States of America

During a Civil War battle, a soldier is transported through time, landing in New York City's Central Park in the year 1961. He then explores Manhattan and goes to Yankee Stadium in an attempt to locate other Civil War soldiers.

Courtship

1961 • 12 min

Ebrahim Golestan's contribution to an anthology film about the rites of betrothal in four separate countries.

Drums West

1961 • 3 min • United States of America

This newly rediscovered short was created in Jim's home studio in Bethesda, MD around 1961. It is one of several experimental shorts inspired by the music of jazz great Chico Hamilton. At the end, in footage probably shot by Jerry Juhl, Jim demonstrates his working method.

Opening Speech

1961 • 7 min • Canada

Norman McLaren attempts to give the opening speech for the first Montreal International Film Festival, but his microphone won't cooperate.

The Substitute

1961 • 10 min • Yugoslavia

With magic inflatable objects that spring to life to fill his every need, a flippant beachgoer wants for nothing. Well... almost nothing.

Black Earth

1961 • 19 min • France

Pseudo-ethnological documents about two villages which, without roads and electricity, "stopped existing".

Educational Fairy Tale

1961 • 11 min • Yugoslavia

Grandma, disturbed by her grandchildren, decides to tell them about the adventures of Comrade Snow White.

The Last Rhino

1961 • 56 min • United Kingdom

Wildlife adventure in an African game reserve.

Sufferin' Cats

1961 • 6 min • United States of America

Woody Woodpecker has been a source of aggravating annoyance to a certain householder, due to Woody's pecking the antenna of a TV set, ...

Portrait of François Truffaut

1961 • 25 min • Belgium

The French director is interviewed in this documentary showing the newly celebrated filmmaker discussing his influences and beginnings along with "Les Mistons" and "The 400 Blows".

Dangerous Afternoon

1961 • 59 min

The manager of a halfway house for female ex-cons takes action when a blackmailer threatens to expose her secret.

A Tribute to Dylan Thomas

1961 • 30 min • United Kingdom

An atmospheric tribute to the genius of Welsh poet and dramatist Dylan Thomas, using many of the windswept locations where Thomas himself grew up and found his inspiration. The film is hosted/presented by Richard Burton, Thomas's friend, who narrates the story and appears from time to time amidst the Welsh landscape. Burton had already appeared in Douglas Cleverdon's acclaimed BBC radio dramatization of Thomas's 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood in the 1950s and, in the early Seventies, would appear in director Andrew Sinclair's film version as First Voice. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation and National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales in 2000.

Time Is Just a Place

1961 • 4 min

A spaceship travels back in time to the age of dinosaurs.

The Professor and the Prophets

1961 • 28 min • United States of America

The future is something that concerns everyone. What is in store for us? On the basis of prophecies that have come true, the credibility of the Bible is examined with regard to predictions that are yet to come.

The Encyclopaedist

1961 • 30 min

A young salesman from Trinidad tries to sell a complete set of encyclopedia to Sally Louth, a housewife living on the Chelsea-Fulham border in London.

The Home Owner

1961 • 22 min • United States of America

A 25 minute sales film featuring Buster Keaton as a prospective home owner in Maryvale, a suburb of Phoenix. A Realtor takes Buster on a tour of some model tract homes and extols their virtues while Buster is constantly pursuing a sexy-looking blonde. After buying a home, Buster proceeds to wreak havoc in the community. He falls into another resident's pool with a shopping cart full of purchases from S. S. Kresge's, knocks over an unassuming waiter with a bowling ball at the local lanes and tries his hand at being a waiter a ritzy restaurant. The construction of the new hospital and golf course are then discussed, and the films ends with a panoramic view of the model tract homes.

Project XX: The Real West

1961 • 52 min • United States of America

Silver-screen legend Gary Cooper narrates this insightful documentary, which aims to subvert the idealized notions of the Western frontier posited by Hollywood and unveil what life was really like in the rough-and-tumble Old West. Originally aired as an installment of the NBC News series "Project Twenty," the program uses vintage photographs, archival accounts and historical reenactments to paint a vivid portrait of the Wild West of the 19th century. Note: This film was also distributed separately on 16mm for schools and libraries, qualifying it as a standalone documentary.

Clue of the Silver Key

1961 • 59 min • United Kingdom

The police investigate the murder of a wealthy old man.

The Brink

1961 • 40 min

Upon reviewing her poem, The Brink, the painter Paul Beattie asked if weiss could turn it into a film script, a request which she willingly obliged. By 1961, weiss had finished her creation and filming of THE BRINK, incorporating "found objects" into her style and philosophy towards the film