All Films

The Great Meeting

1951 • 20 min • Yugoslavia

Once upon a time there lived a journalist. Eager to spark interest in his boss’s newspaper, he published news of a colourful bird, more like a parrot than a chicken, less like an ostrich than a swan. No one could work out the origin of this strange bird and a web of sensational stories soon spun, but it burst the moment it came out that the witty journalist repainted an ordinary duck. From that moment on every lie journalists tell is called a ‘canard’. Our film leads directly to the nest of one such duck, in Bucharest, where the inform-propaganda spin doctor Pavel Judin, instructed by wise managerial orders and Moscow, overblows this featherless bird to the pleasure of ones and the derision of others.

A Day Of Thanksgiving

1951 • 13 min • United States of America

A family reflects on what they are grateful for, even though they cannot afford a turkey for their Thanksgiving dinner.

Marriage Is a Partnership

1951 • 16 min • United States of America

Flashback on the problems, adjustments and transformations occurring in the first year of a couple's married life. Pretty surprising film coming from Coronet about the "honeymoon is over" drama that newlyweds face. The marriage between Dotty and Pete is pretty traditional--Dotty quits her job to be a homemaker once they are married--but some more modernistic ideas come out, such as the idea that the two newlyweds decide together how the money that Pete earns will be spent, and the small mentions of sex. (!!) The "educational collaborator" listed at the beginning, Lemo Rockwood, was a professor at Cornell University, and her marriage course advocated sexual frankness and pre-marital experimentation, so it's easy to see her stamp on this film.

Grizzly Golfer

1951 • 7 min • United States of America

Magoo goes golfing in an unbearable way. When Magoo and Waldo go to play golf, they wind up in the middle of a bear hunt. Magoo mistakes a grizzly bear for Waldo and proceeds to make the bear caddy for him. The bear continually gets clobbered by clubs, balls, you name it. Meanwhile, Waldo is nowhere to be found, and the hunters are closing in. Just as Magoo is playing the last hole, the hunters open fire (seeing the bear), and everyone runs away: Magoo, the bear and Waldo.

The Lost Will of Dr. Rant

1951 • 30 min • United States of America

An anxious old man who is searching for a rare edition of the Talmud finally tracks the tome down at a research library in Boston. But before he can get his hands on it, a hideous apparition intervenes.

Water for the Prairies

1951 • 18 min • Canada

This 1950s' film looks at the measures to preserve water flow from the Rocky Mountains. With the steady falling of the water table, the exploitation of timber stands and the recession of glaciers, water conservation was an urgent concern of the Alberta and federal governments.

Georgie and the Dragon

1951 • 7 min • United States of America

Georgie, a young Scottish lad, befriends a baby dragon and takes it home as a pet and companion.

How Friendly Are You?

1951 • 11 min • United States of America

Ray thinks that being friendly to people shows that you're a "sissy." His older brother Phil decides to teach Roy how to be more friendly, and to show him that it's not in the least "sissy"-like.

Visit to a Shipbuilding Yard

1951 • 15 min • United Kingdom

A party of children take an eye-opening tour of John Brown's Shipyard in Clydebank.

Pistol Harvest

1951 • 60 min • United States of America

Two men are accused of killing their boss. They are saved from the hangman's noose when two other guys are arrested, but Holt feels as though justice is still not being served. On their own, they set about to track down the genuine killer.

La mujer puede y debe votar

1951 • 9 min • Argentina

On the Edge

1951 • 6 min • United States of America

In this fragile yet frightening poetic fantasy set against a dark industrial landscape, a woman sits knitting on the porch of her home when a man appears and takes the knitting from her.

Ridin' the Outlaw Trail

1951 • 56 min • United States of America

Charles Starrett plays lawman Steve Forsythe in Ridin' the Outlaw Trail. Somewhere along the line, of course, Steve is obliged to don the mask of The Durango Kid, mysterious righter of wrongs. The "wrongs" in this instance include the theft of $20,000 in gold, and the "kidnapping" of a blacksmith's forge! Jim Bannon, who only a few months earlier had played the heroic Red Ryder, provides the villainy in this fast-paced "Durango Kid" entry

Sky High

1951 • 60 min • United States of America

When he is told that he is to spend three more years as a tailgunner, goofball GI Herbert Pumice thinks that a promotion--which he has little to no chance of getting--will get him out of the job he hates. He asks his girlfriend Sally, who owns the base café, for help. She goes to the base commander, Col. Baker--who she knows has a crush on her--to help out Herbert. Col. Baker schedules a promotion hearing for Herbert that Friday. He naturally fails it miserably, and then learns that Col. Baker is going out on a date with Sally. Meanwhile, the base military intelligence officer discovers that Herbert is a dead-ringer for the head of a spy ring intending to sabotage a new automated plane, and gets Herbert assigned to infiltrate the gang. Complications ensue.

Eigen schoon, rijke kroon

1951 • 19 min

‘A patchwork sewn together by a lunatic, God knows what sort of junk thrown together.’ This is how the irritated Renaat Braem characterised the Belgian landscape as seen from the air in his pamphlet ‘The ugliest country in the world’ (1968). Over the last half century, this sort of complaint about the lack of planning has alternated with resentment at the surfeit of spatial regulation on the part of the authorities. Film-makers have provided pictures to go with these divergent opinions. From Charles Dekeukeleire’s propaganda film disguised as a documentary, through Luc De Heusch’s documentary insert packaged as fiction, to the critical opinion pieces by Jef Cornelis.

Ridin' the Rails

1951 • 10 min • United States of America

Ridin' the Rails is a 1951 short documentary film directed by Jack Eaton. This is a Grantland Rice Sportscope from Paramount about hobbyists building steam locomotives, scaled one inch to the foot, by members of the Southern California branch of the Live Steam Model Locomotives Club. The models are powerful enough for the hobbyists to ride over the expensive-and-expansive tracks they also build to scale. Many of these models are perfect working replicas of of the locomotives used on the United States railway system. This short features Walt Disney, one of the experts on model-train building, working on his scaled-down 'Diamond Slacker", and taking kids to ride on his elaborate miniature system. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-Reel.

The Haunted Cat

1951 • 6 min • United States of America

Following one of their usual violent fights, the cat thinks he has killed Little Roquefort, and buries him, with a lot of sadness, in a flower pot. The mouse is not dead, of course, and he returns to frighten the cat, and does so to the point he thinks the cat has died. He hasn't and when the cat makes a comeback, they are both scared of each other.

Goons from the Moon

1951 • 7 min

The inhabitants of the quiet mouse village are thrown in a panic when it is learned that that a strange planet is approaching. The planet lands and throngs of bat-winged cats attack the mice with strange weapons. But Mighty Mouse arrives and sends the invaders fleeing.

Varieties on Parade

1951 • 55 min • United States of America

Following a live orchestra opening, emcee Eddie Garr greets the audience and tells them about his trip to Los Angeles, where out-of-work actors are always 'acting' while in their service-industry jobs. What follows is a cavalcade of wild and wacky performances.

Human skeleton, muscles, movement and posture - Part II

1951 • 11 min • United Kingdom

Part two of two teaching films about human anatomy which is devoted to the action of the skeletal muscles in producing movement of the bones at the joints of the human skeleton. It uses live action and animated medical illustrations as well as an actual skeleton with commentary. A man, naked to the waist, also demonstrates the relevant physical processes such as respiration.

Death Is a Number

1951 • 60 min

A man relates the story of his friend, racing driver John Bridgnorth, whose death may have been the final act of an ancient family curse.

Hula-La-La

1951 • 16 min • United States of America

The stooges are dance instructors sent by a movie company to a tropical island to teach the natives how to dance so they can appear in a movie. The boys run into trouble with the local witch doctor who wants to add their heads to his collection. The stooges defeat the witch doctor with hand grenades they swipe from a multi-armed idol, and get on with the dancing lessons.

Spotlight at the Fair

1951 • 19 min • United Kingdom

Rides, boxing booths, and a dog-faced monkey keep on moving as the travelling fair hits Mitcham and Stratford-upon-Avon, with a look in at Blackpool.

Wanna Buy a Record?

1951 • 35 min

Promotional film for Capitol Records