All Films

Dick Turpin: Highwayman

1956 • 26 min • United Kingdom

A Hammer Films short recounting the adventures of Dick Turpin.

The Lottery Ticket

1956 • 19 min • Soviet Union

Based on the story of the same name by A.P. Chekhov.

Sea Ballerinas

1956 • 13 min • France

Two kinds of starfish, the brittle and the feather. The brittle star moves its arms alone, without the aid of suckers. Underneath is a single opening. Stalks move food close to the mouth and move waste away. We see vents, used in reproduction and breathing. We watch the hatched young expelled into the water. The camera shows us brittle stars' intricate patters. We observe feather stars in clusters, like ferns. One turns over slowly; arms have branches with stalks for breathing and gathering microscopic food. Reproductive organs are inside branches. We see eggs develop at 1,400 nature's speed. Larvae emerge, 0.1 mm long. They grow. A feather star takes a walk.

The Little Ship

1956 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Five Guineas a Week

1956 • 33 min • United Kingdom

Britain's first musical shot in colour and widescreen (a process called Cosmoscope) is a cabaret-style featurette centred on a group of young people in Chelsea lodgings, watched over by a fatherly caretaker. Eight specially written songs are performed by stage stars of the day – most notably Georgia Brown, who later created the role of Nancy in Oliver!

A Day of One's Own

1956 • 20 min • United Kingdom

A random selection of housewives around the UK take a day off from their traditional domestic chores.

The Death of a Pig

1956 • 10 min • Italy

Small semi-documentary exercise on the traditional slaughter of the pig in the countryside shot with the usual Paillard-Bolex in the courtyard of the family farmhouse of Baccanelli.

The Goofy Sports Story

1956 • 48 min

Walt introduces the narrator, Spyrus Olympopolus, to demonstrate how the ancient sports practiced in foreign countries have evolved into the games of today. Spyros illustrates this using Goofy.

A Magic Saving Stick

1956 • 21 min • Soviet Union

The True Story of the Civil War

1956 • 29 min • United States of America

Documentary short about the American Civil War. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

The Fire Is Burning In the Raw-Hide Tent

1956 • 21 min • Soviet Union

Based on the fairytales of the North Russia.

Il racconto della Stura

1956 • 9 min • Italy

Narcotics: A Challenge to Youth

1956 • 23 min

An educational film sponsored and distributed by the Los Angeles-based Narcotic Educational Foundation of America and directed by Gilbert Lasky with financial assistance of the Woman’s Relief Corps targets teachers as well as junior and senior high school students in the war on drugs. Narcotics are classified and effects of opiates, stimulants, and barbiturates are summarized and dramatized

On Vacation with Mickey Mouse and Friends

1956 • 60 min • United States of America

Walt Disney, who is on vacation, gives Jiminy Cricket a phone call to take over hosting duties for one TV episode while he is away. Jiminy decides to gather the other Disney stars together to help him out. Unfortunately, they, too, are on vacation, but how they are spending their respective vacations helps put the show together for him.

The Killers

1956 • 19 min • Soviet Union

The Killers is a 1956 student film by the Soviet and Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky and his fellow students Marika Beiku and Aleksandr Gordon. The film is based on the short story "The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway, written in 1927. It was Tarkovsky's first film, produced when he was a student at the State Institute of Cinematography.

The Star of Bethlehem

1956 • 19 min • United Kingdom

The Three Wise Men from the East follow the star to Bethlehem, but hostile spirits try to stop them on their journey.

A Tribute to Joel Chandler Harris

1956 • 48 min

Walt looks at the history of Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Uncle Remus stories.

The Studio of Dr. Faust

1956 • 10 min • Sweden

Surrealistic images of Faust-Mephisto in his fantastic laboratory.

Rolling Mill

1956 • 8 min • Poland

In February 1956, after several months of construction, the largest rolling mill in Poland, the rolling mill of the Lenin Smelter, started to operate. The viewers could see the final preparations and the launch of the machine.

A to Z

1956 • 6 min • Canada

A cross-hatched fantasy about nocturnal furniture love.

Bang the Drum Slowly

1956 • 57 min • United States of America

A pitcher of a major-league baseball team finds out that his teammate and pal is desperately trying to hide that he is dying of a terminal disease so the owner won't find out and fire him.

The Little Jackal and the Little Camel

1956 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Little Jackal asks Little Camel to transport him across the river. He promises to treat him with sugarcane and then deceives him. Little Camel wishes to teach the sly fellow a good lesson, but at the last minute he rescues the Jackal from the Crocodile. Later he refuses to be friends with Little Jackal anyway.

La mia valle

1956 • 9 min • Italy

During Spartakiad Days

1956 • 47 min • Soviet Union

A documentary about the first Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. The song “Moscow Nights” was written by the composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy to the lyrics by Mikhail Matusovsky especially for the event and later gained fame all across the country. In the movie it is performed by Vladimir Troshin, a Moscow Art Theatre actor.