All Films

Homicide Bureau

1939 • 58 min • United States of America

After being criticized by the Citizens' League for his inability to cope with a crime wave, Police Captain Haines orders his men in the Homicide Bureau to clean up all their cases, but without violating the constitutional rights of any suspect. Detective Jim Logan is ordered to meet the incoming new-head of the Police Department lab and internal affairs, J.G. Bliss, and takes an instant dislike to her over her attitude toward criminal's rights.

Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police

1939 • 55 min • United States of America

Captain Drummond and his girlfriend want to marry but a hidden treasure in the house in which they want to celebrate their marriage is complicating the situation involving a series of deaths and an elusive murderer.

North of Shanghai

1939 • 59 min • United States of America

In this newspaper drama, a female reporter and a newsreel cameraman are both assigned to cover the Sino-Japanese war. They meet on the boat ride over and decide to team up. They are further assisted by a Chinese cameraman. The three of them manage to expose of spy ring operating out of the Shanghai office of the woman's newspaper.

Spare Time

1939 • 15 min • United Kingdom

Documentary short by Humphrey Jennings

From the Ends of the Earth

1939 • 10 min • United States of America

An MGM short showing how materials are shipped by boat 'From the Ends of the Earth' to Hollywood. Featuring footage from the MGM films being made at the time. Such as The Women, Thunder Afloat, Siren of the Tropics, Ninotchka, Northwest Passage, and At the Circus.

Life Begins for Andy Panda

1939 • 7 min • United States of America

Walter Finchell, the tattletale gossip of the jungle, broadcasts from the treetop that Mr. and Mrs. Panda were presented with a baby boy, whom Mrs. Panda names Andy. All the birds and animals go to the Panda's home to welcome the new arrival. As Andy grows, Mr. Panda takes Andy for a walk in the jungle to get him acquainted with Mother Nature and point out some of the perils

King of Chinatown

1939 • 58 min • United States of America

A Chinese-American surgeon faces a moral dilemma after operating on the mob boss in charge of vice and protection rackets in her city's Chinatown.

Across the Plains

1939 • 59 min • United States of America

Two young brothers are separated when their wagon train is attacked and their parents killed. One brother Cherokee is raised by Indians and the other, the Kansas Kid, by the outlaw gang leader Buff. Twenty years later they unknowingly meet again when the Kid goes after wagons being guided by Cherokee.

The First Days

1939 • 23 min • United Kingdom

Londoners prepare for war.

Haha o tataeru uta

1939 • 53 min • Japan

A widow works as an insurance seller to raise her three children

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

1939 • 60 min • United States of America

Nancy helps two aging spinsters fulfill the byzantine provisions of their father's will, but the murder of their chauffeur complicates matters.

Code of the Secret Service

1939 • 58 min • United States of America

Secret Service agents try to solve the theft of treasury banknote plates.

The Arizona Kid

1939 • 54 min • United States of America

Roy is a Confederate officer stationed in Missouri during the Civil War. He must put an end to outlaw gangs working under the pretense of service to the Confederacy.

Sweepstakes Winner

1939 • 59 min • United States of America

A scatterbrained waitress invests her inheritance in a broken-down race horse and a sweepstakes ticket.

Southward Ho!

1939 • 58 min • United States of America

Roy and Gabby return to Gabby's Texas ranch, after fighting with the Confederate military during the American Civil War, to find that a blustery Union Colonel whom they have previously hassled is now their district commander. Unbeknownst to the Colonel, however, is that the soldiers he believes have been sent to assist him are actually Union Army rejects who have come to loot the civilian populace under the guise of reinstituting normalcy to the former Confederate district.

Happily Buried

1939 • 20 min

For some unexplained reason, sales of waffle irons have plummeted. Evelyn Foster, president of the Magic Circle Waffle Iron Company, and Richard Wright, president of the Four Square Waffle Iron Company, decide to merge their companies and get married as well. When Richard insists that the new company make square waffle irons rather than round ones, Evelyn calls off the marriage and the company merger. Richard meets a Hindu yogi, who helps him win Evelyn back.

Old Glory

1939 • 9 min • United States of America

Porky Pig balks at learning the Pledge of Allegiance until Uncle Sam appears to him in a dream and gives him a lesson in American history.

Escape to Paradise

1939 • 60 min • United States of America

An American tourist in South America finds love and unexpected trouble.

Night Work

1939 • 60 min • United States of America

The Fitch family is managing an apartment building when the grandfather of their adopted son Butch decides the family isn't worthy of raising his grandson.

Cargoes

1939 • 9 min • United Kingdom

Shot in mid-1939 as S.S. Ionian (also shown as Her Last Trip), Humphrey Jennings’s GPO short follows the Royal Mail steamer on a last peacetime run through the Mediterranean—Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Haifa—under the gaze of the Mediterranean Fleet (HMS Barham, Malaya, Warspite). After the Ionian was sunk by a German mine on 29 November 1939 en route from Crete to Hull, the film was recut and released as Cargoes.

Straight Shooter

1939 • 54 min • United States of America

Before he was killed, Martin hid a half million dollars worth of bonds on his ranch. Brainard, who killed him, Inspector Carson posing as Sam Brown, and Martin's niece Margaret all want the ranch, and it's being sold at auction.

Smashing the Money Ring

1939 • 57 min • United States of America

T-Man Brass Bancroft goes undercover in a prison which has a secret counterfeit operation set up in the print shop.

Trigger Fingers

1939 • 54 min • United States of America

Marshal and his men disguise themselves as gypsies to catch a gang of cattle thieves.

Three Texas Steers

1939 • 56 min • United States of America

Nancy Evans, lovely circus owner, has a ranch that she's never visited, but for sentimental reasons won't sell to Mike Abbott. Her partners, secretly in league with Abbott, sabotage the circus to force Nancy to sell the ranch; instead, she goes there to live. Will her neighbors, the Three Mesquiteers, be a match for the secret swindlers? And what's so valuable about that run-down ranch anyway?