All Films

Wedding in the Coral Sea

1944 • 11 min • Czechoslovakia

The plot involves the creatures of the sea preparing for the wedding of two fish. When the fish bride is kidnapped by an octopus all the sea creatures must team up to defeat him and rescue the bride.

The Valley of the Tennessee

1944 • 29 min • United States of America

U.S. Goverment film about the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s and 1940s.

Girls! Girls! Girls!

1944 • 16 min • United States of America

Errol is mistakenly involved in the raid of a burlesque show where he had innocently gone in order to hire some talent, including a fan dancer, for his lodge show.

Arizona Whirlwind

1944 • 59 min • United States of America

US marshals Ken, Hoot and Bob stop a gang dressed as Indians from robbing the stage. After getting repairs at the relay station, but before they get to town, another trap is set, but they get away. In town, they search the stage and find nothing. But hidden in the axle grease can are diamonds. Polini wants them cut into smaller diamonds so that he can easily dispose of them. Throughout this Western, the courageous trio faces off against cunning opponents, including the gang's merciless leader (Ian Keith) and an unsuspecting banker (Karl Hackett).

Spook Town

1944 • 57 min • United States of America

Dry Gulch Trading Post owner Kurt Fabian advances money on mortgages to the local settlers to finance an irrigation program. Rangers Tex Wyatt, Jim Steele and Panhandle Perkins transport the money in a strong box which they place in the Wells Fargo safe as Agent Sam Benson assures them that he is the only one who knows the safe combination.

With the Marines at Tarawa

1944 • 18 min • United States of America

Documentary short film depicting the harrowing battle between the U.S. Marines and the Japanese for control of the Pacific island of Tarawa. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with National Archives and Records Administration in 2005.

Marshal of Reno

1944 • 54 min • United States of America

One of two towns will be selected to be the County Seat and Editor Palmer has a gang working to make sure his town is chosen. Investigating the lawlessness, Red Ryder poses as an outlaw to get into the gang hoping to find out who the boss is. But Palmer knows Red and exposes his true identity when he arrives and Red and Gabby then find themselves prisoners of the gang. [Written by Maurice Van Auken]

The Last Horseman

1944 • 54 min • United States of America

Former Hopalong Cassidy sidekick Russell Hayden retains his nickname of Lucky in this average entry in his short-lived starring series for Columbia.

Bordertown Trail

1944 • 56 min • United States of America

The election to determine if Texas will become a state is near and men opposed are running contraband across the border. Sunset and Frog are Border Patrolmen and have an agent that tips them off by carrier pigeon. The Army arrives and the commander is Sunset's brother. When the agent is found out and murdered, his fake replacement then leads the soldiers astray.

Law Men

1944 • 58 min • United States of America

U.S. Marshals "Nevada" Jack McKenzie and "Sandy" Hopkins go undercover to bust a gang of stagecoach robbers in this vintage Western serial. Nevada infiltrates the gang, while Sandy works as a cobbler in town, keeping an ear open for local gossip as they try to flush out the inside man tipping off the crooks.

The People We Civilized

1944 • 18 min

Interesting, almost ethnographic, sequences on peoples of southern and central Angola, show the diversity of their customs and the richness of their cultures. The images often of quality are not devoid of a dominant look that frames them as exotic. The Euro-centric commentary on the exaltation of “lusitanity” is rather paternalistic and even contemptuous: “All these peoples are Portuguese and love Portugal, what a wonderful destiny it is for this country that came to civilize them and lead them on the paths of spirituality after having opened the roads of the world.”

Code of the Prairie

1944 • 56 min • United States of America

Just after the Oklahoma Panhandle was annexed into the united states an ex-lawman turned newspaper man arrives to town to civilize it. He brings along Frog, a photographer and Sunset Carson as muscle. The seedy element in the territory doesn't want law and order and they plot against them and try to stop Sunset Carson being sheriff.

Dark Shadows

1944 • 21 min • United States of America

A police psychiatrist is enlisted to catch a killer.

Flat Hatting

1944 • 5 min

"Flat Hatting", at the time, was the practice of buzzing civilians in military aircraft. Flat Hatters were looked at as heroes in the WWII air corps: Hubley's job was to make them look like fools.

The Whispering Skull

1944 • 58 min • United States of America

Rangers Tex Haines and Dave Wyatt track a killer known as the Whispering Skull. In the wake of the Skull's slaughter, a band of thieves takes advantage of the fear he's brought to town.

His Hotel Sweet

1944 • 17 min

Hugh stops his friend from committing suicide - and is accused of being a home-wrecker.

Mackinac Island

1944 • 10 min • United States of America

This Traveltalk series short begins in Chicago, where the narrator and his crew board a cruise ship. After a 20-hour trip up Lake Michigan, they arrive at Mackinac Island, near the southeast tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. On the island, we see many of the attractions for which it is famous. These include Arch Rock, Old Fort Mackinack, and a hotel owned by Chauncey Depew. No automobiles are allowed on the island. Transportation is limited to bicycles and horse-drawn carriages.

Moonlight and Cactus

1944 • 60 min • United States of America

The swinging Andrews Sisters provide the musical interludes and romance in this western. They play a trio of WW II era ranchers. That they are so good at running it proves terrible surprise for a ranch hand who has just returned home after serving in the Navy.

Dark Mountain

1944 • 57 min • United States of America

A woman doesn't realize that the man she has just married is a gangster. When she is implicated in a murder he committed, she turns to an ex-boyfriend, who is now a park ranger, for help. He hides her out in a cabin up in the mountains, and her husband goes on the hunt for both of them.

Bear Raid Warden

1944 • 7 min • United States of America

Barney takes his air-raid warden post too seriously, telling first an owl (shining eyes) and then a firefly to put their lights out. The firefly isn't at all happy and keeps pestering Barney. Then Barney finds a huge offender: a cabin that's all lit up. Looks familiar...

Know Your Ally: Britain

1944 • 42 min • United States of America

Know Your Ally: Britain was a 45-minute propaganda film made in 1944. It was narrated by Walter Huston and produced by the United States War Department and Signal Corp to solidify Anglo-American solidarity within the ranks as well as counter Nazi propaganda aimed at weakening the Alliance.

Colorful Colorado

1944 • 9 min • United States of America

This Traveltalk series short starts off in Denver, capital of Colorado. Known as a recreational and health center, it is noted for its beautiful parks. The Museum of Natural History has specimens of local animal life. About an hour's drive from Denver on Lookout Mountain is the grave of Col. William Cody, 'Buffalo Bill', known as a scout and a plainsman. In Colorado Springs, there is a monument to the great American humorist Will Rogers who loved the stretches of open country. Much of the mountain area of Colorado is owned by the Federal government as national forest and there are many well stocked trout streams. In Mesa Verde National Park you will find the cave dwellings once used by Native Americans.

Oath of Vengeance

1944 • 57 min • United States of America

Steve Kinney and his henchman, Mort, are trying to stir up trouble between the local ranchers and farmers, behind a wave of rustling and lawlessness. Mort kills Vic, a Kirby cowhand, and lays the blame on Dan Harper, the leader of the farmers faction. Storekeeper Fuzzy Q. Jones, fearful of losing the outstanding charge-accounts he has on his books, drags his reluctant pal, Billy Carson, into the fray, and the two soon prove Kinney and his henchmen to be behind the valley's troubles.

Oh, Baby!

1944 • 18 min

Hugh, who has always made no secret about his disdain for children, changes his mind when he believes that he is about to become a father.