All Films

The Dark, Dark Hours

1954 • 30 min

A hood forces a doctor and his wife to remove a bullet from the hood's partner.

Delayed Action

1954 • 58 min • United Kingdom

Robert Ayres plays a moody author with a suicide complex. Ayres' melancholia plays right into the hands of a gang of thieves. For a lofty fee, they convince the author to confess to their crimes and then kill himself. Yes, you're way ahead of us: Ayres has a change of heart and decides that he loves life. Delayed Action was produced by Robert Baker and Monty Berman, the men behind the popular 1960s TV adventure series The Saint.

A Life to Save

1954 • 27 min • United States of America

When elderly Mary Wilkens falls ill, her husband grows suspicious of Dr. Jacksburg’s questionable treatments. With the help of a trusted physician and the American Medical Association, the truth emerges: Jacksburg is a fraudulent doctor with a revoked license. Mary’s testimony ultimately shuts down his clinic and exposes his dangerous practices.

The Reconnaissance Drill

1954 • 33 min • Netherlands

Documentary on the first stage in oil exploration: the first drill.

Tune in Tomorrow

1954 • 14 min

A carnival setting illustrates the superiority of the radio medium for American business, with an eye on a future of economic prosperity.

Oslofilm: Kirker i Oslo

1954 • 9 min • Norway

Short documentary about the churches of Oslo, Norway

The Dream of Xiaomei

1954 • 36 min • China

During the Lantern Festival, mother took her daughter Xiaomei to a temple fair. Mother bought a beautiful doll for Xiaomei, and asked the master in the toy store to repair the little wooden figure that Xiaomei had damaged. Not long after Xiaomei returned home to play, she burned the legs of the little wooden man, stained the dolls, and threw them in the corner in disgust. Xiaomei falls asleep and dreams of the toys.

Thumbelina

1954 • 10 min • United Kingdom

Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina told the tale of a tiny girl grown from seed to be a companion to an old woman, Reiniger has her Thumbelina born spontaneously and magically from a flower, beholden to none but herself.

The Research Director

1954 • 18 min • Canada

A description of the work of a research director of a United Steel Workers Union in Canada. The painstaking research and analyses of economic information, and the arrangement of arguments that lie beneath the negotiations of labour unions for better wages and working conditions are shown.

The Adventures of a Blue Fly

1954 • 28 min

This film was produced as an extension of a research film on the metamorphosis of the fly. It successively shows the hatching of the eggs, the nutrition and growth of the larvae, swarming and underground penetration, the formation of the pupa, metamorphosis and organization of the adult insect.

How Now Boing Boing

1954 • 7 min • United States of America

Gerald's parents, frustrated at his inability to talk, call in various experts (including the world's greatest voice professor) to teach their boy to speak in words instead of sound effects. They all fail until, by chance, Gerald tries to phone home.

The Dangers in a Fisherman's Life

1954 • 5 min • Norway

Reconstruction of the first Norwegian film from 1908 which is lost.

The Sleeping Beauty

1954 • 10 min • United Kingdom

Good Friends

1954 • 20 min • China

The little duck's mother is going to go to grandma's house, but she is worried about the babysitting, so she entrusts the little duckling to the mother hen to take care of.

Tambourine Dance

1954 • 3 min

Betty Page dances with maracas and a tambourine.

The Unconquered

1954 • 55 min • United States of America

Narrated by actress Katharine Cornell and filmed in black and white, it spends the first 24 minutes introducing viewers, through newsreels, interviews, and old photographs, to the story of the deaf and blind disabled-rights pioneer. News footage shows her international appearances and visits with heads of state, including President Eisenhower allowing her to feel his face. The second half takes a day-in-the-(exceptional)-life approach to Keller's existence circa 1955. Made just 13 years before her death, Keller's famed tutor-translator-friend Anne Sullivan had already died, leaving her live-in replacement, Polly Thomson, to share the film's focus. From the time Keller takes her morning walk along the 1,000-foot handrail around her yard through her workday to her nightly reading of her Braille Bible, her serene acceptance of her life will amaze and inspire. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2006.

Émile Zola

1954 • 43 min

Through the portrait of Emile Zola, the story of his literary and political journey, and in particular the Dreyfus affair, this documentary evokes the streets and society of late nineteenth-century Paris. Photographs and archival documents show how much the writer's work and existence fit into the life of his time.

Cinderella

1954 • 11 min • United Kingdom

Cinderella lived with her stepmother and her two stepsisters. They were very mean to Cinderella, making her work all day cleaning, sewing, and cooking. She tried her best to make them happy. Cinderella's stepmother, was cold, cruel, and jealous of Cinderella's charm and beauty.

Champagne Safari

1954 • 60 min • United States of America

Travelogue/documentary follows newly married Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan on their honeymoon trip through exotic locales.

K

1954 • 28 min • United Kingdom

Short film adaptation of Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis'.

Fatal Journey

1954 • 30 min

A Scotland Yard detective investigates the connection between a man who suffers from amnesia, a blackmailer and murder.

Out of This World

1954 • 20 min • United States of America

An angel and a devil try to persuade a borderline wholesale bakery salesman to their side.

Bimbo's Auto

1954 • 7 min • Australia

A wallaby junks his car because it’s not working, and the car is sad.

Bow Bells

1954 • 15 min

A montage of scenes from East End life set to a soundtrack of music hall songs with appropriate lyrics.