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The Ghost of St. Michael's
Scotland The 1940sWill Hay, back in his role as a hapless teacher, is hired by a grim school in remotest Scotland. The school soon starts to be haunted by a legendary ghost, whose spectral bagpipes signal the death of one of the staff. Hay, assisted by Claude Hulbert and Charles Hawtrey, has to unravel the mystery before he becomes the next victim.
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Words for Battle
England The 1940sPoetry by Rudyard Kipling, John Milton, and William Blake, and excerpts from speeches by Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, all read by Laurence Olivier, illuminate documentary footage of England during its defense against the Nazi blitz in World War II. This short film serves as both propaganda and as a rallying cry to the British people.
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The Forgotten Village
The 1940sDocumentary examining the conflicts between the coming of modernization and the traditional culture of a small Mexican village.
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I Thank You
The 1940sClassic comedy starring Arthur Askey. The perils, humiliations and humour of trying to run a second-rate theatrical company are further compounded when financial aid, given by the former famous music-hall star Lady Randall (Lily Morris), is withdrawn. Not to be defeated, the stars decide the show must go on and devise a plan to persuade her to reinvest
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Ice-Capades
The 1940sIT'S DAZZLING! a thousand laughs...and thrills...as Hollywood's Gay Blades take to skates to "sleigh" the Blues! — By Republic Pictures standards, 1941's Ice-Capades certainly qualifies as an "all-star" film. The many subplots center around a performance of the real-life Ice-Capades skating troupe, featuring such luminaries as Belita, Red McCarthy, Megan Taylor, and future Republic film queen Vera Hruba Ralston. James Ellison plays the nominal leading character, a hotshot newsreel cameraman named Bob Clemens. Assigned to film an international skating star in action, Clemens inadvertently wastes miles of celluloid on aspiring skater Marie (Dorothy Lewis) rather than the real star, the unphotogenic Karen Vajda (Rene Riano). But not to worry: With the help of slick showbiz promoter Larry Herman (Phil Silvers), Marie becomes an Ice-Capades headliner in her own right. In addition to Silvers, the comedy relief in Ice-Capades is in the capable hands of Vera Vague (Barbara Jo Allen), Jerry Colonna and Gus Schilling.
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Main Street on the March!
The 1940sThis Best Short Subject Academy Award winning film begins in the spring of 1940, just before the Nazi occupation of the Benelux countries, and ends immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It chronicles how the people of "Main Street America", the country's military forces, and its industrial base were completely transformed when the decision was made to gear up for war. Original footage is interspersed with contemporary newsreels and stock footage.
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Churchill's Island
England The 1940sThe people of Britain resist the German air force and navy with help from North America.
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Kukan: The Battle Cry of China
🇨🇳 China The 1930s The 1940sRey Scott received an Honorary Academy Award for this documentary "For his extraordinary achievement in producing Kukan, the film record of China's struggle, including its photography with a 16mm camera under the most difficult and dangerous conditions."
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Ships with Wings
🇬🇷 Greece The 1940sBefore the war, a Fleet Air Arm pilot is dismissed for causing the death of a colleague. Working for a small Greek airline when the Germans invade Greece, he gets a chance to redeem himself and rejoin his old unit on a British carrier. This is regarded the last of the conventional, rather stiff 1930th style Ealing war films, to be succeeded by much more realism and better storytelling.
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Stukas
🇩🇪 Germany England The 1940sThis Nazi propaganda film details the exploits of a group of German Luftwaffe pilots flying Stukas--fighter-bombers--in the Battle of France in the early days of World War II.
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Riders of the Purple Sage
The 1940sLassiter discovers the judge who cheated his neice of her inheritance leads a gang of bad guys posing as vigilantes. This 1941 Fox production stars a young George Kennedy as Lassiter.
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Mr. Proudfoot Shows a Light
The 1940sHumorously using the arrogant and bumbling Mr. Proudfoot, this film serves a dual purpose of emphasizing the importance of obeying blackout hours, as well as easing the stress of the time period by encouraging laughter.
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L'an 40
🇫🇷 France The 1940s"To care as little as about the year 40" is a French expression meaning "not to give a care". Well, this is 1940 and the Germans have invaded France. But, paradoxically, a well off couple will remember it fondly. Indeed, fleeing the invaders they gradually lose all their material possessions but discover the true meaning of life instead.
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I Love You Again
The 1940sIt's one, long, loud l-a-u-g-h! — Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
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Waterloo Bridge
England The 1940s"Gone With the Wind's" Tempestuous "Scarlett O'Hara"! Romantic Robert Taylor! Exciting Together! — On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front. Myra stayed with him past curfew and is thrown out of the corps de ballet. She survives on the streets of London, falling even lower after she hears her true love has been killed in action. But he wasn't killed. Those terrible years were nothing more than a bad dream is Myra's hope after Roy finds her and takes her to his family's country estate.
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Strange Cargo
🇬🇫 French Guiana The 1940sM-G-M's Mighty Thrill-Romance for 1940 ! — Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure.
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Girls Under 21
The 1940sToo old for play-things... and too young for love! — Francis Ryan, living high-and-free-wheeling life as the wife of gangster "Smiley" Ryan, spends some time behind bars as a result of her husband's activities, and, when she gets out, realizes she has been a bad example for her kid-sister, Jennie White, and five of her friends. With the aid of her old boyfriend, she manages to divert them from their juvenile-delinquent path leading to disaster for each.
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Contraband
England The 1930s The 1940sWhen a neutral Danish merchant ship is forced to put into port after trying to evade British wartime contraband control, its captain becomes involved in a beautiful British Naval Intelligent agent's efforts to capture a group of German spies operating from a London cinema.
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The Well-Digger's Daughter
The 1940sA rural maiden's two suitors go off to war, leaving her pregnant.
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Flight Command
Florida The 1940sT-H-R-I-L-L AMERICA! Here come The Flying "HELL CATS"! — A rookie flyer, Ens. Alan Drake, joins the famous Hellcats Squadron right out of flight school in Pensacola. He doesn't make a great first impression when he is forced to ditch his airplane and parachute to safety when he arrives at the base but is unable to land due to heavy fog. On his first day on the job, his poor shooting skills results in the Hellcats losing an air combat competition. His fellow pilots accept him anyways but they think he's crossed the line when they erroneously conclude that while their CO Billy Gray is away, Drake has an affair with his wife Lorna. Drake is now an outcast and is prepared to resign from the Navy but his extreme heroism in saving Billy Gray's life turns things around.
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Convoy
England The 1940sA tale of life on board a Royal Navy cruiser assigned to protect the vital convoys between America and England during WWII.
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London Can Take It!
England The 1940sA tribute to the courage and resiliency of Britons during the darkest days of the London Blitz.
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Let George Do It!
The 1940sShortly after the start of World War II, a ukelele player (George) takes the wrong boat and finds himself in (still uninvaded) Norway. He is mistaken for a fellow British intelligence agent by a woman (Mary), and becomes involved in trying to defeat Nazi agents.
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The Fight for Life
Illinois The 1940sThe Fight for Life was documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz' first "dramatic" film, utilizing the talents of several top New York stage actors. A tribute to the Chicago Maternity Center and its efforts to provide the best possible care for destitute mothers, the film is based on the book of the same name by Paul de Kruif. Myron McCormick plays the largest role as a dedicated intern, while others in the cast include such theatrical heavywrights as Will Geer, Dudley Digges and Dorothy Adams. The film's many vignettes range from the tragic (a mother dying in childbirth in the opening scene) to the exultant (another mother rescued from the brink of death in a disease-ridden tenement). Filmed in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, Fight for Life is a worthwhile effort, though Lorentz seems more comfortable with the "actuality" scenes than with the dramatized passages.
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Sailor's Lady
The 1940s50,000 SAILORS... Can't Go Wrong! — Sailor (Hall) is going to marry his girlfriend (Kelly) when he returns, but she becomes foster mother to baby whose parents are accidentally killed. The baby is accidentally left on board a visiting battleship.
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Law and Disorder
England The 1940sOn the eve of WWII a young defence lawyer, assisted by his wife, invaigles his way into a gang of foreign saboteurs. Comedy thriller, ably executed by a satisfactory cast.
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The Lion Has Wings
The 1940sThis early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.
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Disputed Passage
🇨🇳 China The 1930s The 1940s"Love...marriage...give them up...they're not for we men of science! " — A doctor's medical studies are threatened by his infatuation with a Chinese girl. The girl returns to China, but complications ensue when she runs into him in Nanking during a Japanese bombing raid.
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The Shanghai Drama
Shanghai 🇭🇰 Hong Kong The 1930s The 1940sA Russian emigrant sings in a Shanghai nightclub under the assumed name of Kay Murphy. All she dreams of is a peaceful life with her daughter Vera. But this is only a pipe dream as she has been forced by her former lover Ivan to work for a secret criminal organization, "The Black Dragon". Vera, who studies in a Hong Kong boarding-school, knows nothing about her mother's past. When Ivan, who is also Vera's father, resurfaces and blackmails Kay, the young woman is determined to fight back...
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The Eight Hundred Heroes
Shanghai The 1930s The 1940s800 Chinese soldiers guard the important warehouse district against the invading Japanese Army. Re-imagination of a famous (bordering on legendary) episode from the battle of Shanghai: 800 soldiers of the 88th regiment against what feels like the whole of Japan’s Imperial Army - think Thermopylae, Chinese version. A splendid, visually amazing gem which, in its own way, is also a last stand: of silent cinema, Shanghai style. (iffr)
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Things to Come
England The 1970s The 1960s The 1940s The 2030sThe future is here! — The story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.
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Cosmic Journey
The Moon The 1940sSoviet cinematographers created a progressively realistic image of a journey to the moon in these early days of special effects. Scientist Pavel Sedikh grows impatient with the restrictions of the conservative Soviet space institute in Moscow. Sedikh builds his own spacecraft, and accompanied by a female astronaut and a boy, he embarks on a the first human trip to the moon.
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Blood on Wolf Mountain
🇨🇳 China The 1930s The 1940sBlood on Wolf Mountain tells the story of a village that is beset by a pack of wolves. Made just prior to the commencement of full-scale war with the Japanese, the film itself is often considered an allegory of conflict between China and Japan.
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Children of Troubled Times
🇨🇳 China The 1930s The 1940sThe young poet Xin Baihe flees Shanghai with his friend, Liang. Liang soon joins the resistance against the Japanese invaders, but Xin chooses to pursue a relationship with a glamorous and westernized widow in Qingdao. After hearing that Liang has been killed, Xin has a change of heart and rushes to join the war effort.
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The Big Road
🇨🇳 China The 1930s The 1940sSix young men from the city take jobs building roads for the Chinese Army
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High Treason
England The 1940s The 1990s1930s Vision of 1940 — The year is 1940 and tension is growing between the empires of United Europe and the Atlantic States. A bloody border incident puts both sides on high alert.
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The Long Home
Tennessee Kentucky The 1940sRural Tennessee in the 1940's: a young man unwittingly goes to work building a honky-tonk for the charismatically diabolical bootlegger who murdered his father ten years earlier and runs into conflict when he falls for the young woman the bootlegger is grooming to be a prostitute. NOTE: 2020-08-31 According to Wikipedia, The Long Home was tentatively expected to be released in 2017, and in November of that year, the sales rights to the movie were acquired by Great Point Media. However, it has yet to be released in any format as of 2020.
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King of the Sands
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia The 1920s The 1930s The 1940sA daring, compelling and controversial take on the life of prince Abdulaziz Al Saud (Ibn Saud), founder of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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The Brutalist
The 1940s The 1950sThe film chronicles 30 years in the life of one artist's enduring monolithic vision. The story opens in 1947, as a Hungarian-born Jewish architect emigrates to the United States. Initially forced to toil in poverty, he soon wins a contract that will change the course of his life.
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Hands Up!
🇨🇳 China The 1930s The 1940sHands Up! is a 2003 Chinese historical comedy film directed and written by Feng Xiaoning, and produced by Han Sanping. The film stars Pan Changjiang, Guo Da, and Liu Wei. It based on the Second Sino-Japanese War.
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KOMMANDO 1944
California 🇩🇪 Germany The 1940sJuly 1944, An Asian American soldier Corporal Soo is thrown into a Nazi work camp on a farm in Germany as his family back home in America are forced into an American Japanese concentration camp in Manzanar California. The allied soldiers think Soo is a Japanese soldier and segregate him. Soo must fight to let go of the past in order to be set free.
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Reagan
District of Columbia California Illinois The 1980s The 1950s The 1940sA drama based on the life of Ronald Reagan, from his childhood to his time in the oval office.
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Où sont nos amoureuses
The 1930s The 1940s -
Blonde
The 1960s The 1950s The 1940s -
Under a Jarvis Moon
Pacific Ocean The 1940s The 1930sUnder a Jarvis Moon is a 2010 documentary film about the young men, mostly of Hawaiian origin, sent in the 1930s and 1940s to colonize the Line Island of Jarvis and the Phoenix Islands of Howland and Baker.
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