All Films

Charley in New Town

1948 • 8 min • United Kingdom

Meet Charley, your jovial cartoon guide to Britain’s changing towns and cities.

Mining Review 1st Year No. 7

1948 • 10 min • United Kingdom

As well as a story on emergency measures to keep the nation's fuel supplies moving during freezing weather, it includes a feature on Dunfermline miner Tom Syme, an Olympic ice-hockey hopeful in training at his local skating rink before heading for St Moritz.

Highway 13

1948 • 58 min • United States of America

Hank Wilson is a driver for a truck for a big transportation company which is in financial straits. He is in love with Doris Lacy, a waitress at the truck-stop where the company has its truck fleet serviced. Frequent accidents near the place leads the company to hire a private detective to investigate, and when the detective is murdered Hank is arrested as a suspect. The insurance company that covers the fleet has him released and he is sent back to work with instructions to investigate the accidents on his own. The trail leads to the uncle of Doris, and one of the part-owners of the company.

They Caught the Ferry

1948 • 11 min • Denmark

A man and a woman on a motorcycle arrive with a ferry to Assens. They want to catch the next ferry in Nyborg, on the other side of the island, but this ferry will leave in three quarters of an hour and the ferry berth is 70 km away.

Make Mine Freedom

1948 • 9 min • United States of America

This Cold War-era cartoon uses humor to tout the dangers of Communism and the benefits of capitalism.

Samba-Mania

1948 • 18 min • United States of America

Night club owner Russ Vincent hires boogie-woogie dancer Betty Hannon for a spot in a South American revue headed by Lita Baron (as Isabelita.) The latter is wary of Hannon's motives, but Vincent dismisses her feelings as jealousy.

Renegades of Sonora

1948 • 60 min • United States of America

Cowboy Rocky Lane thwarts an attack on a courier delivering a precious Indian tribal belt and becomes embroiled in a conspiracy in the process. When the courier dies, Rocky delivers the belt to the Agent. But he quickly finds himself arrested for murder and learns not only is the belt missing, but the murdered Agent is not the man he gave the belt to.

Lisboa de Hoje e de Amanhã

1948 • 40 min

Recent population growth in the capital leads to an ambitious development plan, involving public and private initiative as documented here, pinpointing over 60 locations (streets, roads, parks, schools) being modernized or built anew. The narrative and soundtrack are grandiloquent, in the propaganda style required by the Producer (the Municipal Council of Lisbon, then directly dependent of the national government), but the images and data are now of historical relevance.

A Pinch in Time

1948 • 16 min • United States of America

A beautiful blonde has just stolen a necklace and is being pursued by the police. She plants the necklace on an unsuspecting Hugh, intending to come back for it after she has eluded the cops.

The Secret Tunnel

1948 • 49 min • United Kingdom

Storyline Roger Henderson, the young son of a wealthy British gentleman, lives in one of those grand British country estates surrounded by huge gardens. When a Rembrandt painting is stolen from the vault in the basement of the mansion, Roger and John Wilson (young son of the butler) discover a secret tunnel leading from the vault to another building on the estate. They then set out on a dangerous mission to bring the smugglers to justice.

The Westward Trail

1948 • 56 min • United States of America

Ann and Tom Howard arrive from the east to take up ranching. But Tom wants to return and forges his sister's name to the deed and sells it to Larson. Eddie knows there is silver ore in the area and that Lawson, who killed the Sheriff, is out to get all the ranches. When Lawson appoints himself the new Sheriff, Eddie organizes the ranchers to fight Lawson and his men.

California's Golden Beginning

1948 • 16 min • United States of America

A description and enactment of the discovery of gold by James Marshall, and the role played by John Sutter. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Trail to Laredo

1948 • 54 min • United States of America

Filmed at the Providencia Ranch (today's Forrest Lawn in Burbank, CA), this typical "Durango Kid" Western featured the Cass County Boys performing "Go West Young Lady" by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin, in addition to series regular Smiley Burnette singing his own "It's My Turn" and "The Yodeler. This time, the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) is chasing down a gang of outlaws shipping stolen gold in crates marked "ring bolts," ably assisted by Smiley, a treasury agent working undercover as a house painter. Virginia Maxey supplies female interest and little Tommy Ivo, in one of his six appearances in the Durango Kid series, also gets in the way of the action.

Cómo se hace una película argentina

1948 • 22 min • Argentina

Institutional short film planned and directed by Arturo S. Mom for the First Argentine Film Festival in Mar del Plata. The film shows the technical process by which an Argentine film is produced and emphasizes the professionalism and power of the national film industry. In this way, the story explains in a pedagogical way what is a script, a frame, a camera, a set sketch and a projected background, among others, and how a scene and the soundtrack of a film are recorded.

The Creation Of Life

1948 • 14 min • United States of America

This silent film from 1948 "The Creation of Life" briefly demonstrates how a fetus forms and graphically shows different types of births. It was made by Sherwood Picture Corp., and may have been sold both to schools and professional organizations for medical education, and to the public for shock value. (Several similar birth films were sold in this era through home catalogs and photography shops.) Summary: By means of diagrams, conceptions and pregnancy are explained. Views of various methods of delivery are shown. Created by: T. Marc Sherwood

Who Killed Doc Robbin?

1948 • 55 min • United States of America

A group of people find themselves trapped in a creepy mansion, complete with secret passageways, a mad doctor and a murderous gorilla.

A Hick, a Slick and a Chick

1948 • 7 min • United States of America

A mouse named Elmo, who's a bit of a yokel, goes to beautiful Daisy Lou to woo her. However, he finds her with the slick Blackie.

Mother's Day

1948 • 22 min • United States of America

Accepting the potentialities of the medium to manipulate both time and space, Broughton brings past and present head-on as he regards with adult feelings his childhood family and friends. Grown-ups romp like children, and by their magnified infantilism playfully underscore such basic traits as sadism, sensuality, arid egocentricity. (Melbourne International Film Festival)

A Yank Comes Back

1948 • 42 min • United Kingdom

In a follow up to 'A Welcome to Britain', Burgess Meredith returns to look at a post-war Britain.

Whirlwind Raiders

1948 • 54 min • United States of America

It's 1873 and the disbanded Texas Rangers have been replaced by the corrupt Texas State Police. Steve Lanning arrives posing as a wanted outlaw to get in with them in his attempt to have them replaced. His inside work helps the Durango Kid break up the State Police raids but he is in trouble when his secret identity as Durango becomes known to them.

First Lesson

1948 • 9 min • Soviet Union

Champion

1948 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Cowboy Cavalier

1948 • 57 min • United States of America

Jimmy Wakely and "Cannonball" Taylor protect shipments along a stage and freight line from villainous bandits.

Seal Island

1948 • 27 min • United States of America

Seal Island is a 1948 American documentary film directed by James Algar. It won an Academy Award in 1949 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel).