All Films

Magic Flute

1937 • 11 min • Soviet Union

Zamboanga

1937 • 58 min • Philippines

In the shores of Sulu lives the sea-faring tribe that is ruled by Datu Tanbuong. His granddaughter, Minda is betrothed to be married to Danao, who is a handsome young pearl fisher who presents a handful of impressive pearls to the datu. However, a visitor to Danao and Minda's wedding celebration is Hadji Razul, a chief of another tribe who has feelings for Minda.

Meet The Girl Who Became A Man

1937 • 2 min • United Kingdom, Australia

Peter Alexander, interviewed in Sydney, born and brought up as Mavis Higgins in New Zealand, speaks of his sex change from female to male. He discusses the aspects of his personality when younger which influenced his decision, his view of women in society and his plans for the future. Although Peter talks about shaving it is not clear if any medical intervention had assisted his sex change. The predominant voice in this clip is that of Alexander, dressed in jacket and tie, talking cheerily about his interest in sport, his awareness that his "male side and personality" were always dominant, his desire to marry and continue with his musical career. The story was sensationalised in the tabloid newspaper of the day "The Truth".

A Test for Love

1937 • 28 min • United Kingdom

In this dramatized warning to young women of the risks of venereal disease, Betty, a shop girl, pays a severe price for just one 'slip'.

Sword of the Samurai

1937 • 31 min • Japan

A short documentary detailing the forging of a katana.

Victória Régia

1937 • 8 min • Brazil

A short documentary about the Victoria Regia.

Шумное плавание

1937 • 13 min • Soviet Union

Magic on Broadway

1937 • 8 min • United States of America

Part of Paramount/Fleischer Novelty-Cartoon shorts which featured animation in part of it and live-action in th other half. The cartoon half of this entry has a slot-machine player cheating the machines in a penny-arcade by tying a string to the coin and pulling it out again. The machines get rather animated about being cheated and the petty-gambler receives some rough treatment. The second half is about four minutes of music from Jay Freeman and his band, featuring Johnny Russell as the vocalist.

Early One Morning

1937 • 10 min • Sweden

A Swedish short film taking us inside Värmdö church for the Christmas holiday.

The Front and the Back of the Stage

1937 • 37 min • China

When the top diva of an opera troupe storms off after not getting money upfront from their manager, a common street performer comes in to replace her.

Trapped

1937 • 56 min • United States of America

Ted Haley rides to his brother's ranch and finds him dying from a knife wound. The brother names Sol Rothert as his killer. Leaving the house, Ted doesn't notice a mysterious man watching him, but he sees a rider gallop up to the house and enter, and Ted rushes to investigate.

Highway Mania

1937 • 17 min

Made in 1937, HIGHWAY MANIA is an early driver safety film narrated by Lowell Thomas. It features stunning images of auto accidents, including some that are doubtless stunts from Hollywood films.

Hittin' the Trail

1937 • 58 min • United States of America

When he swaps horses with the Tombstone Kid — a wrongly accused man on the run from the law — singing cowboy Tex Randall gets arrested by the local sheriff in a case of mistaken identity.

Ajmer

1937 • 9 min • United Kingdom

Film of local events in Ajmer province including the fair at Pushkar.

Whispers in the Dark

1937 • 8 min • United States of America

Gus Arnheim and his band play the title song, sung by June Robbins (with Bouncing Ball). Animated sequence:...

Spring Festival

1937 • 7 min • United States of America

News for the Navy

1937 • 10 min

Norman McLaren's documentary-style account of how a letter from home reaches a sailor on duty in foreign waters.

Parabola

1937 • 9 min • United States of America

Parabola is a celebration of film’s ability to create new ways of seeing the forms around us. Creating juxtapositions between light/shadow, stasis/motion, and form/music, this black-and-white short invites us to see the parabolic curve, or “nature’s poetry,” as both invigorating and beguiling.

George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute

1937 • 12 min

Color footage of inventor George Washington Carver at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Dr. Carver is filmed at his apartment, office, laboratory, and garden.

Sweet Sioux

1937 • 8 min • United States of America

Gags in a Native American village lead up to the tribe's attack on a covered wagon to the tune of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down," the first use of the song in a Warner Bros. cartoon.

Colorful Bombay

1937 • 8 min

This travelogue begins with an appreciation of Bombay as a port city. Beyond the port and Taj Mahal Hotel is a teeming city, dominated by caste. The narrator casts a baleful eye on the treatment of hardworking Untouchables, especially the women. We watch a building's construction, see the byplay among castes at a market, and visit a fishing village where caste has less influence. The women clean and dry fish caught by men. Here Hinduism finds harmony in the relationships of couples. There are pressures for all to marry, and girls as young as ten are wives. We watch a funeral procession of a young bride. Then, we end at Bombay's race track, a grand melting pot for rich and poor.

Please Keep Me in Your Dreams

1937 • 8 min • United States of America

After a parody newsreel, the title song is sung by Barbara Blake and played by Henry King and his orchestra with a Bouncing Ball.

Santa Fe Rides

1937 • 58 min • United States of America

The Transcontinental Broadcasting Company sends a sound truck and equipment to a ranch to obtain an audition from "Santa Fe" Evans and his musical cowboys (Oscar Gahan, Lloyd Perryman, Robert "Curley" Hoag, Rudy Sooter and Sherry Tansey.) Carver, arch enemy of Evans and a rival for the love of Carol Sheldon, fails in an attempt to spoil the audition. Carver frames Mr. Sheldon and Carol's brother Buddy on a charge, by Al Jensen, of receiving cattle stolen from him by Evans. Carver blames Evans for all of the Sheldon's troubles and, what with one thing or another, it looks like Evans and his cowhands will miss the big broadcast.

Killers of the Sea

1937 • 49 min • United States of America

Captain Wallace Casewell Jr., chief of police of Panama City, Florida, is the star of Killers of the Sea. Appointing himself protector of all Gulf of Mexico gamefish, Capt. Casewell makes it his mission to round up illegal fishing boats and to stave off such natural predators as sharks, whales and octopi. This may well be the only American film in which a school of dolphins are depicted as "the enemy." Beyond its rather ludicrous continuity, the film offers several spectacular underwater scenes, as Casewell battles invading sea life with knife and harpoon. This 49-minute documentary was narrated by Lowell Thomas.