All Films

The Blakes Slept Here

1953 • 32 min • United Kingdom

The story of a family house through four generations

Keep Our Honor Bright

1953 • 60 min

A college student faces embarrassment and expulsion for having cheated on an exam. Her fiance is a member of the university's undergraduate honor board and could quietly make the matter "disappear." The young woman reconsiders, deciding that covering up for her bad behavior would be wrong and build a bad foundation for their marriage.

Oslofilm: I Asbjørnsens fotefar. Vestmarka og Krokskogen

1953 • 11 min • Norway

The forest areas of Vestmarka and Krokskogen lie outside Oslo. In the 19th century, storyteller Peter Christen Asbjørnsen walked in the areas. The story of the area is being told, and the life in the "fairytale forest" of the 1950s, with forestry and outdoor life, is being shown.

On Closer Inspection

1953 • 21 min • United Kingdom

"Without leaving his own garden, a man may know the world" - an abstract study of the wildlife found in every garden.

Ten Pin Terrors

1953 • 6 min • United States of America

Heckle and Jeckle, the talking magpies, have trouble sleeping because they live under a bowling alley...

A Brief Encounter with the Rossellini Family

1953 • 5 min • Sweden

Commissioned by a Swedish newspaper, this news-reel like short on the life of the famous Swedish actress is a kind of ‘at home with Ingrid Bergman’ reportage, depicting her at work and spending time with her children. Kort möte med familjen Rossellini happened to be made during the production of Journey to Italy in Naples and on Capri, thereby providing us with a unique record from the making of this legendary film.

The Alaskan Eskimo

1953 • 27 min • United States of America

Oscar Winning short documentary

Hot Rods

1953 • 7 min • United States of America

The boy mice of the village become hot rod fans and soon it isn't safe to walk the streets. Three cats seize up the situation and challenge the mice to a race, and then set a trap to catch them and make a meal. Truly a nefarious plot that calls for an intervention by Mighty Mouse.

Donne di servizio

1953 • 12 min

It describes the young servants life from their arrival in Rome from the countryside and their free time and love affairs.

Desert Killer

1953 • 10 min • United States of America

Desert Killer is a 1952 short film directed by Larry Lansburgh about a hunter tracking a sheep-killing mountain lion. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-Reel.

The Magic Horse

1953 • 10 min • United Kingdom

Lotte Reiniger returns to the character of Prince Achmed for this “Arabian Nights”–inspired fantasy in which our hero takes off on a flying horse.

They Planted a Stone

1953 • 26 min • United States of America

They Planted a Stone is a 1953 British short documentary film directed by Robin Carruthers and produced by James Carr. The film portrays how dams, barrages and irrigation canals were constructed on the Nile in Sudan, to generate hydroelectricity, irrigate the desert and create such projects as the Gezira Scheme. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Word of Honor

1953 • 15 min

Kazimierz Kutz's student film. While playing soldier a boy is told to stand guard, but his friends finish the game, forget all about him, and go home. He stays there into the night not daring to move from the spot because he'd given his word of honor he wouldn't move until ordered.

Strange Stories

1953 • 45 min • United Kingdom

'Strange Stories' consists of two stories, 'The Strange Mr Bartleby' and 'The Strange Journey'. The stories were sometimes shown individually on television.

Yesterday and Today

1953 • 57 min • United States of America

A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953.

Tom Tom Tomcat

1953 • 7 min • United States of America

Tweety Bird is being taken by his mistress, Granny, on a trip across a prairie in a horse-drawn wagon when they are attacked by a tribe of Indian cats, all of whom are Sylvester or Sylvester variants.

Black Orchid

1953 • 58 min • United Kingdom

Caught in a loveless marriage, Dr. John Winnington (Ronald Howard) can't stop himself from falling for his wife's (Mary Laura Wood) younger sister, Christine (Olga Edwardes). But when he suddenly becomes the prime suspect in his wife's tragic murder, John relies on his friend Eric (John Bentley) to clear his name. This classic murder mystery encourages viewers to evaluate all of the clues and guess the killer's identity.

Cinderella's Love Lesson

1953 • 8 min • United States of America

Strip Queen Lili St. Cyr magically undresses in the Burlesque Novelty Short: Cinderella’s Love Lesson! (SWV)

Marty

1953 • 51 min • United States of America

Marty Pilletti is a 36-year-old butcher who lives with his mother, who is always asking him why he doesn't find a nice girl and get married. The truth is Marty is lonely and would like nothing better, but he has low self-esteem and admits to his mother that he's ugly and no one wants him. He's tired of going to the Saturday night dance with his buddies and then going home more depressed than he was when the evening started. But at one of those dances he meets Clara. They have a great deal in common but Marty will have to overcome peer pressure if he and Clara are to have a relationship.

The Spirit of Christmas

1953 • 27 min • United States of America

This Christmas film, created as a special for television broadcast throughout the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania viewing region, was produced by puppeteer Mabel Beaton and her husband Les for Bell Telephone Company and first aired in 1953. Following a short live-action opening portion, featured are two extended marionette segments, the first dramatizing Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas", the second reverently telling the Nativity story; the two stories are staged in classic, traditional style. From 1953 onward, for several years, The Spirit of Christmas was broadcast in the intended region multiple times per holiday season. It was also available as a 16mm film licensed to schools for showings to students. This film often is misstated to have originally been broadcast in 1950.

Christopher Crumpet

1953 • 6 min • United States of America

Through drawings, an illustrator tells his dog the story of a boy named Christopher Crumpet. Christopher can at will change himself from a little boy into a chicken. He threatens to do so if his father, Marvin, won't buy him a rocket ship.

Molly Grows Up

1953 • 16 min • United States of America

Molly anxiously awaits her first sign of menstruation, which means that she'll be able to date and go dancing. The school nurse explains exactly what menstruation is to her, by using diagrams.

This Is York

1953 • 20 min • United Kingdom

A look at the 1953 transport infrastructure of York.

Gerald McBoing-Boing's Symphony

1953 • 7 min

Gerald McBoing Boing, a little boy who can't talk but can imitate any sound, is working as a one-man sound effects department for a radio station. When a scheduled symphony orchestra does not show up, Gerald replaces them. He is doing fine until he mixes up the score with the sound effects script, and creates an original symphony. He is fired, but the critics hail his work as that of a genius.