All Films

The True Story of Lili Marlene

1944 • 30 min

The Eighth Army famously adopted a German song in the Western Desert. The Crown Film Unit traces the journey of Lili Marlene from its composition in post-WW1 Hamburg, via Radio Belgrade and the Afrika Korps, through victory in Tunisia and Sicily, to an imagined post-war East End, full of light, music and bananas for sale.

Puppet Love

1944 • 8 min • United States of America

Bluto builds a Popeye puppet and manipulates it to treat Olive rudely. Then he comes in and takes Olive away. When Popeye discovers the ruse, knocks Bluto out and ties puppet strings to him.

How to Fly the B-26 Airplane

1944 • 47 min • United States of America

Documentary feature film depicting the training of young Lieutenant Jim Anthony as a pilot of the B-26 Marauder bomber. Dick, the captain charged with pilot instruction, leads Jim through every aspect of preparation to fly the bomber, going through a detailed checklist of pre-flight procedures, long before he allows Jim to turn an engine over. Once preparations are completed, Dick shows Jim the process of starting the engines, followed by take-off. In the air, further instruction helps Jim understand the various limits and capabilities of the aircraft. When one engine fails, Dick must simultaneously guide the limping plane back to a safe landing and explain to Jim each step of the procedure.

Lost and Foundling

1944 • 7 min • United States of America

A mouse adopts a hawk.

Guns of the Law

1944 • 53 min • United States of America

The Texas Rangers take on a shyster who is trying to bilk a family of their money after he learns that an oil company thinks their land may contain the black gold.

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

1944 • 11 min • United States of America

In this short, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys perform popular western musical numbers.

Call of the South Seas

1944 • 59 min • United States of America

FBI Agent Kendall Gaige goes undercover on a South Seas island in order to expose the underhanded and exploitative business practices of Steve Landrau. In the course of his investigation Gaige is introduce to the Paris-educated native princess Tahia, who believes that he has arrived to save her people from poverty. A romance, of course, ensues as Gaige attempts to expose Landrau before his cover is blown.

Silver City Kid

1944 • 55 min • United States of America

A landowner tries to drink his neighbor's molybdenum milkshake and winds up having him killed. It's up to Allan Lane to find out what happened and apprehend the culprits.

Suddenly It's Spring

1944 • 10 min • United States of America

In this longer cartoon, Raggedy Ann's little girl mistress is seriously ill and needs sunlight to recover. Raggedy Ann sets off on a mission to the sun and other elements to make Winter end early. works a minor miracle, with the help of the elements.

Jammin' the Blues

1944 • 10 min • United States of America

In this short film, prominent jazz musicians of the 1940s gather for a rare filming of a jam session. This highly stylized chronicle features tenor sax legend Lester Young.

Birdy and the Beast

1944 • 7 min • United States of America

Tweety is set upon by a fat, jowly cat, who winds up with, among other things, a dozen eggs and a gallon of gasoline in his mouth instead of the little bird.

Three Songs of Resistance

1944 • 8 min • United Kingdom

A French-language Free French propaganda short made in wartime London: Germaine Sablon performs three resistance songs—most notably the first filmed performance of “Le Chant des Partisans” (music: Anna Marly; lyrics: Joseph Kessel & Maurice Druon)—for morale and circulation among Free French forces; Cavalcanti’s film was shown to troops in Britain and Canada and conceived for clandestine delivery to partisans.

The Pelican and the Snipe

1944 • 9 min • United States of America

A snipe that lives with a pelican in a lighthouse must continually keep his pelican friend from harm when he flies in his sleep.

Lady in the Death House

1944 • 56 min • United States of America

As a woman walks the "last mile" to her execution she remembers back to the incidents that got her framed for murder.

The Plastics Inventor

1944 • 7 min • United States of America

Donald is listening to a radio program that tells how to build an airplane from plastic, in a process much like baking a cake, cookies, and making toast. He takes it out for a test flight, still guided by the radio, and it works wonderfully. Until the radio interviewer asks if there's any problems: yes, it melts when it gets wet. Of course, Donald instantly flies into a rain cloud, and has to battle his plane as it disintegrates.

Dancing in Manhattan

1944 • 60 min • United States of America

In this comedy, a garbage truck driver stumbles across $5,000. He decides to use the money for a wild night on the town. He and his girlfriend do not know that the money represents the spoils of a blackmailer's scheme.

Breakdowns of 1944

1944 • 6 min • United States of America

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1944.

Sinbad the Sailor

1944 • 21 min • Soviet Union

Sinbad the Sailor is a Soviet animated short by Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg, released in 1944 by Soyuzmultfilm. The film is based on the Arab fairy tales about Sinbad the Sailor and his incredible adventures in foreign countries.

Frontier Outlaws

1944 • 58 min • United States of America

Billy Carson, looking for rustlers, kills Bradley in a gun fight. Arrested, the judge finds him innocent but jails him anyway. When the rustling resumes he is released and posing as a Mexican cattle buyer he hopes to trap the culprits.

The Cold-blooded Penguin

1944 • 7 min • United States of America

Disney Short about Pablo the Penguin and his journey to find a warm place.

The Port of 40 Thieves

1944 • 58 min • United States of America

A widow confesses she murdered her husband and kills two more people before her stepdaughter and an attorney prove her wrong.

Pitchin' Woo at the Zoo

1944 • 7 min • United States of America

Popeye takes Olive to the zoo, where she's spotted by zookeeper Bluto, who tries various stunts to impress her and/or get rid of Popeye.

Fuzzy Settles Down

1944 • 60 min • United States of America

Billy Carson and Fuzzy Jones have just collected a reward and Fuzzy indulges in a dream of getting away from the hectic life he has been leading and wants to settle down. They arrive in Red Rock just as the newspaper is being sold at foreclosure and, despite the attempts by Lafe Barlow to intimidate him from bidding. Fuzzy finds himself the owner of a newspaper. Fuzzy meets Edith Martin, daughter of the former owner, and unthinkingly commits himself to carrying on her father's policy of bringing a telegraph line to Red Rock. For reason of his own, Barlow is against this and has his henchmen wage a campaign of terror against the ranchers and citizens. Before long, Billy who had been lazily indifferent to everything connected to Fuzzy and his newspaper, decides to take a hand on the side of the good guys.

The Eighty Days

1944 • 14 min • United Kingdom

Humphrey Jennings’s Crown Film Unit short on the summer 1944 V-1 “doodlebug” campaign, tracking a salvo from the coast toward London as it runs Britain’s layered defenses—coastal AA guns, RAF fighters, and barrage balloons—capturing both interception and impact in a stark report of terror and resilience.