Film Dictionary

Beautiful film shot by Hiroshi Shimizu in Taiwan. Story of a native girl who dies in a rainstorm. A fine screenplay by Kihan Nagase, Toras...

Arguably Lassie's best film, featuring Elizabeth Taylor in her film debut.

Pure and undiluted Stalinist propaganda, swallowed whole by, to quote from Ernst Lubitsch's "The Merry Widow" (1934), "th...

Heavy-handed wartime propaganda aside, this is an exciting war drama about a US merchant ship surviving U-boats and dive bombers on the way ...

Fine war drama about a bomber crew flying to Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

War orphans, Deanna Durbin and China. Jean Renoir began the film, but he wasn't credited for his work.

Ridiculous horror movie starring Bela Lugosi as a half-man, half-ape creature. There is also a real ape in the picture, but nobody cares any...

The events surrounding the killing of Heydrich in Prague in 1942, completely distorted by screenwriter Bertold Brecht in order to accommodat...

Pretty dreadful Deanna Durbin vehicle.

This landmark experimental film by Maya Deren became a model for others to follow.

Interesting documentary about Nazi geopolitician Karl Haushofer.

Oscar-winning musical curiosity about European classical music influencing contemporary American jazz tunes.

Directed by Len Lye. Documentary film about heroic efforts of British cameramen to film actual battle scenes.

A unique film, neither a documentary nor a work of fiction (but nominated for an Oscar as best documentary feature). Its topic: the hesitati...

A precious rarity - a Nazi propaganda documentary that is actually true. In 1943, Germans discovered mass graves of Polish officers in the...

US Treasury Department commissioned this Disney commercial to encourage Americans to pay their taxes during World War II. "Taxes to b...

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy for MGM. The cruel destructions of World War II are presented in this short film starring James Cagney, Ann Sothern...

Directed by Lloyd French for RKO. Edgar Kennedy promises his wife never to lose his temper with his evil in-laws.

FDR's White House in the early 40's as seen through the eyes of a dog.

A wartime documentary produced by the Signal Corps for the workers in armament factories. It presents the life of US Air Force pilots.

A genuine triumph of Hollywood cinema and one of the most beloved movies of all time. It's the story of anti-Nazi refugees from the occu...

This is Michael Powell's and Emeric Pressburger's masterpiece, a magnificent epic comedy charting almost half a century of British h...

One of Fred Astaire's finest films, a dark comedy about a fighter pilot who falls in love with a magazine photographer (Joan Leslie). Su...

Amazing French film about the realities of life in Nazi-occupied France. Made under the Vichy regime, the film was heavily criticized for al...

The second cinematic adaptation of George Gershwin's immortal 1930 stage hit. Mickey Rooney plays Danny Churchill Jr, a rich playboy sen...

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. A playboy (Don Ameche) tells his life story to the Devil.

Great western about a posse that turns into a lynching mob. Set in Nevada in 1885.

One of Hitchcock's finest psychological thrillers, set in an idyllic community of Santa Rosa, California.

In the early 19th century France, an officer wants to marry a young girl from an impoverished aristocratic family.

War drama set in the Philippines.

Impressive documentary about the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The fifth part of the "Why We Fight" series. An Academy Awar...

An enjoyable musical set on a college campus. Musical numbers: "Wish I May" * "Three Men On A Date" ** "Two O’Clock...

Vincente Minnelli's first film, an all-black musical.

The third part of the "Why We Fight" series. It deals with Nazi invasions of Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France. Not t...

Memorable musical co-starring Carmen Miranda.

A tense spy drama set in a remote town in Western Egypt, captured by German troops on their way to Cairo in the summer of 1942. A British so...

Nostalgic musical set in San Francisco's Barbary Coast. Songs include: "Hello, Frisco, Hello" ** "Ragtime Cowboy Joe...

Set in Haiti, it is less a horror movie, and more a fantasy melodrama about voodoo cults.

An American girl (Bonita Granville) is imprisoned in a Nazi labor camp. Co-directed by Edward Dmytryk and Irving Reis.

Co-directed by Orson Welles and Norman Foster, it's a tense spy melodrama starring Joseph Cotten (who also wrote the screenplay) and Dol...

A horror film set in a little town in New Mexico.

A good romantic comedy starring Cary Grant.

Nice comedy set in wartime Washington DC.

Four cartoon shorts linked by brief live-action sequences shot during Walt Disney's tour of South America. The first two segments are se...

The title character is Count Alucard (get it ?) who travels from Transylvania to the swamps of Louisiana, looking for new victims.

Akira Kurosawa's film debut. Particularly impressive is the final confrontation set on a windy hillside.

A film noir that gradually becomes a horror movie.

Virgin Mary's apparition in Lourdes.

Countless cameo appearances by famous movie stars and stage legends, greatly enhances this wartime musical set in New York's club for en...

Flimsy, almost non-existing plot only serves to support an incredible variety of superb musical numbers in this all-black musical extravagan...

There's almost no plot, but this troop show, starring Ronald Reagan and George Murphy, features an amazing variety of musical numbers. T...

A Nazi German propaganda film, made during World War II, denouncing British capitalist greed for the sinking of the "Titanic" in 1...

A musical film starring Kathryn Grayson and Gene Kelly.

A unique film for Walt Disney, an animated documentary about the history of aviation and an exposé of the strategic bombing theory of Major ...

Submarine warfare is presented in this interesting British war movie.

The fourth segment of the "Why We Fight" series is also one of the weakest. Its very narrow topic (bombing raids on England in th...

Oscar winning documentary about the British fighting Rommel's Africa Corp.

There are some obscure political innuendos about links between Nazism and old European traditions, but otherwise, it's a rather simplist...

The life of the famous scientist couple.

Humphrey Jenning's documentary feature about London firemen during the war.

Lillian Hellman was well known for condemning ordinary Germans for their passive acceptance of the Nazi regime. But she was equally guilty ...

Porky and Daffy cannot pay their hotel bill and they try to sneak out, but the suspicious manager follows their every move. Months later,...

This Walt Disney's masterpiece was a brilliantly cynical and sarcastic comment on the naivety of democratic institutions and their lac...

Bugs Bunny challenges the turtle to another race. He hopes to win using a streamlined, "air-flow", metal turtle shell. But a rab...

This is not a naive and sentimental fairy-tale, but a smart, clever and very self-reflexive satiric farce with a lusty old Grandma chasing...

Oscar-nominated Puppetoon by George Pal, adapted from a story by Doctor Seuss.

Cats eat birds, but Rudolph isn't just a gourmand, but also a hypocrite. After devouring a little bird, he helps his mistress look for...

A political cartoon about Nazi indoctrination.

Lt Jerry Mouse sets a "cat raid" shelter in the cave and poor Tom suffers a series of humiliating defeats. An Oscar-winning film...

Excellent parody of "Fantasia" (1940), starring Bugs Bunny as the prey, Porky Pig as the hunter and Elmer Fudd as Leopold Stokowsk...

Mr Meek has to bring a duck home for dinner. Daffy is at his zaniest in this wacky cartoon classic.

The magnificently stylized backgrounds of this film greatly enhance the amusing story of Pussy, a spoiled little cat and his adventures with...

Two hungry vultures catch a rabbit, but they are so busy arguing over who will eat him, they let him escape. Later, they try to devour each...

Excellent cartoon about two castaways looking for food and finding Bugs Bunny. Its bold designs predate UPA by half a decade.

Superb Oscar-nominated cartoon about human psychology in the context of World War II and the Nazi threat.

"Loose lips sink ships" in this excellent Private Snafu cartoon.

Daffy is fighting against a Nazi goat.

A quarantine for "rumor-itis" is imposed on a army base after Private Snafu spreads some ridiculous rumors.

A vagabond flea finds a new home (and dinner) on Elmer Fudd's dog. Quite amusing and inventive.

A native boy named Inki is hunting a big lion, but a mysterious minah bird always crosses his path.

A nice semi-musical cartoon about mischievious Figaro and his attempts to snatch a little goldfish. A few pleasant songs greatly enliven th...

More a film noir than a Superman cartoon, but impressive nonetheless.

A smart cat convinces a stupid mouse to spread misinformation. But the mice quickly wise up and begin to mobilize against the threat. There ...

A Superman cartoon set in a huge cave.

Oscar-nominated Merrie Melodie about a fish bait.

Woody Woodpecker at the circus. Nominated for an Oscar.

Bugs Bunny chases a mischievious gremlin, who tries to sabotage airplanes. Aerial acrobatics galore. Directed by Bob Clampett.

The whole cartoon is based on a single running gag: no matter where he tries to hide, an escaped prisoner always bumps into Droopy.

One of "Censored Eleven" cartoons, with some reused animation from "Porky In Wackyland" (1938).

Donald has a flat tire on a bumpy mountain road and his futile repairs result in countless inventive gags.

Energetic cartoon with Daffy Duck desperately trying to convince talent agent Porky Pig to give his client (an opera-singing, little black d...

The third "Mighty Mouse" cartoon (back when he was still known as "Super Mouse") and a very good one, too.

Amusing cartoon about a cat, a dog, a canary and a grandma.