1944 in film

Years in film
1870s
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The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.

Events

• July 20 - Since You Went Away is released.
• September 6 - Double Indemnity is released.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)^[1]

Box office numbers were reported at the time as a percentage compared to "normal" business at each theater. For example, Going My Way performed at a massive 264% while To Have and Have Not was a hit at 173%. This is why exact dollar grosses for the period are unreliable at best.

Awards

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Going My Way - Paramount

Best Director: Leo McCarey - Going My Way

Best Actor: Bing Crosby - Going My Way

Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight

Best Supporting Actor: Barry Fitzgerald - Going My Way

Best Supporting Actress: Ethel Barrymore - None but the Lonely Heart

Golden Globe Awards:

Best Picture: Going My Way

Best Director: Leo McCarey, Going My Way

Best Actor: Alexander Knox - Wilson

Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight

Top Ten Money Making Stars

Notable films released in 1944

U.S.A. unless stated

A

• The Adventures of Mark Twain, starring Fredric March
• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, starring Maria Montez and Jon Hall
• And Now Tomorrow, starring Alan Ladd and Loretta Young
• And the Angels Sing, starring Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Lamour
• Army (陸軍, Rikugun), directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, starring Chishū Ryū and Kinuyo Tanaka - (Japan)
• Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by Frank Capra, starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre; filmed in 1941 but not released until 1944

B

• Bathing Beauty, starring Esther Williams and Red Skelton
• Between Two Worlds, starring John Garfield, Eleanor Parker and Sydney Greenstreet
• The Black Pirate (El corsario negro), starring Pedro Armendariz - (Mexico)
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey, starring Lynn Bari
• Buffalo Bill, starring Joel McCrea and Maureen O'Hara
• A Bullet in the Heart (Rossassa Fel Qalb) - (Egypt)

C

• Candlelight in Algeria, starring James Mason - (GB)
• Can't Help Singing, starring Deanna Durbin
• A Canterbury Tale, written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring Eric Portman - (GB)
• The Canterville Ghost, starring Charles Laughton, Robert Young and Margaret O'Brien
• Casanova Brown, starring Gary Cooper
• Champagne Charlie, directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, starring Tommy Trinder and Stanley Holloway - (GB)
• The Children Are Watching Us (I bambini ci guardano), directed by Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• Christmas Holiday, starring Gene Kelly
• The Climax, starring Susanna Foster and Boris Karloff
• Cobra Woman, starring Maria Montez
• The Conspirators, starring Paul Henreid and Hedy Lamarr
• Cover Girl, starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly
• Crime by Night, starring Jane Wyman
• Cry of the Werewolf, starring Nina Foch
• The Curse of the Cat People, starring Simone Simon

D

• Don't Take It to Heart, directed by Jeffrey Dell, starring Richard Greene - (GB)
• Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson
• Dragon Seed, starring Katharine Hepburn
• Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng) - (China)

E-F

• Experiment Perilous, starring Hedy Lamarr and George Brent
• Fanny by Gaslight, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Phyllis Calvert, James Mason, Stewart Granger - (GB)
• The Fighting Seabees, starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward
• The Fighting Sullivans, directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Anne Baxter and Thomas Mitchell
• For Those in Peril, directed by Charles Crichton - (GB)
• Frenchman's Creek, starring Joan Fontaine and Basil Rathbone
• Die Feuerzangenbowle (The Punch Bowl) - (Germany)

G

• Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten
• Going My Way, directed by Leo McCarey, starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald - winner of 7 Oscars
• Greenwich Village, starring Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche
• The Great Sacrifice (Opfergang) - (Germany)

H

• Hail the Conquering Hero, written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Ella Raines
• The Halfway House, directed by Basil Dearden, starring Mervyn Johns and Glynis Johns
• To Have And Have Not, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
• Henry V, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier - (GB)
• Hollywood Canteen, starring Joan Leslie
• Home in Indiana, starring Walter Brennan
• The Hour Before the Dawn, starring Veronica Lake
• House of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr.

I

• I'll Be Seeing You, starring Ginger Rogers and Shirley Temple
• In Our Time, starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid
• In Society, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• It Happened Tomorrow, starring Dick Powell
• Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Grozniy), by director Sergei Eisenstein, starring Nikolai Cherkasov - (U.S.S.R.)

J-K

• Janie, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Joyce Reynolds
• Jwar Bhata - (India)
• The Keys of the Kingdom, starring Gregory Peck, Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price and Roddy McDowall
• Kismet, starring Ronald Colman and Marlene Dietrich

L

• Lady in the Dark, starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland
• Lady, Let's Dance, ice skating musical starring Belita and comedy ice team Frick and Frack
• Lake Placid Serenade, starring Vera Ralston
• Laura, directed by Otto Preminger, starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price
• Lifeboat, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Henry Hull and Hume Cronyn
• The Lodger, starring Merle Oberon and George Sanders
• Lost in a Harem, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello

M

• Man from Frisco directed by Robert Florey, starring Michael O'Shea and Anne Shirley
• The Mask of Dimitrios, starring Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Zachary Scott
• Meet Me in St. Louis, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Judy Garland
• Meet the People, starring Lucille Ball
• Melody of Murder (Mordets Melodi) - (Denmark)
• Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, a documentary by William Wyler
• Ministry of Fear, starring Ray Milland
• The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton
• Mr. Skeffington, starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains
• Mrs. Parkington, starring Greer Garson
• The Mummy's Curse, starring Lon Chaney Jr.
• The Mummy's Ghost, starring Lon Chaney Jr.
• Murder, My Sweet (aka Farewell My Lovely), directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor
• Music for Millions, starring Margaret O'Brien

N

• The Nail (El clavo) - (Spain)
• National Velvet, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney
• None but the Lonely Heart, starring Cary Grant and Ethel Barrymore
• None Shall Escape, starring Alexander Knox

O-P

• On Approval, starring Clive Brook and Googie Withers - (GB)
• Once Upon a Time, starring Cary Grant, Ted Donaldson, Janet Blair
• Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, starring Gail Russell and Diana Lynn
• Pardon My Rhythm, starring Gloria Jean
• Passage to Marseille, starring Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet
• The Pearl of Death, a Sherlock Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• Phantom Lady, starring Franchot Tone and Ella Raines
• Pin Up Girl, starring Betty Grable
• Port of Freedom (Große Freiheit Nr. 7) - (Germany)
• Possession (Besættelse) - (Denmark)
• The Princess and the Pirate, starring Bob Hope and Virginia Mayo
• The Purple Heart, starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte and Farley Granger

Q-R

• Rainbow (Raduga) - (U.S.S.R.)
• Rationing, starring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main
• The Rats of Tobruk (aka The Fighting Rats of Tobruk), starring Peter Finch and Chips Rafferty - (Australia)
• The Respectable Ladies of Pardubice (Počestné paní pardubické), directed by Martin Frič - (Czechoslovakia)

S

• The Scarlet Claw, a Sherlock Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Seventh Cross, directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Spencer Tracy
• Since You Went Away, starring Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple
• Something for the Boys starring Carmen Miranda, Michael O'Shea and Vivian Blaine
• Song of Russia, starring Robert Taylor
• The Spider Woman, a Sherlock Holmes mystery featuring Gale Sondergaard
• Storm Over Lisbon, starring Vera Ralston
• The Story of Dr. Wassell, starring Gary Cooper
• Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, starring Anne Baxter and John Hodiak
• The Suspect, starring Charles Laughton

T-V

• Tall in the Saddle, starring John Wayne
• Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson
• This Happy Breed, directed by David Lean, starring John Mills and Celia Johnson - (GB)
• The Three Caballeros, a Walt Disney animated film starring Donald Duck and Dora Luz (released in South America in 1944, but was released in 1945 in the U.S.)
• Time Flies
• Torment (Hets), directed by Alf Sjoberg - (Sweden)
• The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks (La Torre de los Siete Jorobados) - (Spain)
• Tunisian Victory, directed by Frank Capra, Hugh Stewart and John Huston - (USA/GB)
• Two Thousand Women, starring Flora Robson and Phyllis Calvert - (GB)
• The Uninvited, starring Ray Milland
• Up in Arms, starring Danny Kaye and Dinah Shore

W-Z

• The Way Ahead (Immortal Battalion), directed by Carol Reed, starring David Niven and Stanley Holloway - (GB)
• Weird Woman, starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and Anne Gwynne
• When Strangers Marry, starring Dean Jagger, Kim Hunter, Robert Mitchum
• The White Cliffs of Dover, starring Irene Dunne
• Wilson, a biopic of President Woodrow Wilson, starring Alexander Knox and Charles Coburn
• Wing and a Prayer, directed by Henry Hathaway, starring Dana Andrews and Don Ameche
• The Woman in the Window, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett
• The Yellow Rose of Texas, starring Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

Serials

• Black Arrow
• Captain America, starring Dick Purcell
• The Desert Hawk, starring Gilbert Roland and Charles Middleton
• The Great Alaskan Mystery
• Haunted Harbor, starring Kane Richmond
• Mystery of the River Boat
• Raiders of Ghost City
• The Tiger Woman, starring Linda Stirling
• Zorro's Black Whip, starring Linda Stirling

Short film series

• Our Gang (1922-1944)
• The Three Stooges (1934–1959)

Animated short film series

• Mickey Mouse (1928–1953)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Scrappy (1931–1941)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• Color Rhapsodies (1934–1949)
• Donald Duck (1934–1956)
• Goofy (1939–1955)
• Andy Panda (1939–1949)
• Tom and Jerry (1940–1958)
• Bugs Bunny (1940–1962)
• Woody Woodpecker (1941–1949)
• Swing Symphonies (1941–1945)
• The Fox and the Crow (1941–1950)
• Red Hot Riding Hood (1943–1949)
• Droopy (1943–1958)
• Screwball Squirrel (1944-1946)
• Sylvester the Cat (1944-1966)

Births

• January 9 – Harun Farocki, German filmmaker (died 2014)
• January 23 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
• February 3 - Trisha Noble, Australian singer and actress
• February 13 - Stockard Channing, American actress
• February 14 - Alan Parker, English director, producer and screenwriter
• February 22 - Jonathan Demme, American director, producer and screenwriter
• February 29 - Dennis Farina, American actor (died 2013)
• March 5 - Peter Weibel, Ukrainian-born Austrian experimental filmmaker
• March 26 - Diana Ross, American singer and actress
• April 13 - Charles Burnett, American director
• April 30 - Jill Clayburgh, American actress (died 2010)
• May 4 - Russi Taylor, American voice actress
• May 5 - John Rhys-Davies, English actor
• May 10 - Jim Abrahams, American director, producer and screenwriter
• May 14 - George Lucas, American director, producer and screenwriter
• May 25 - Frank Oz, English director and puppeteer
• June 23 - Ingrīda Andriņa, Latvian actress (died 2015)
• June 29 - Gary Busey, American actor
• July 8- Jeffrey Tambor, American actor
• July 31 - Geraldine Chaplin, American actress
• August 7 - John Glover, American actor
• August 9 - Sam Elliott, American actor
• August 11 - Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor
• August 21 - Peter Weir, Australian director, producer and screenwriter
• September 13 - Jacqueline Bisset, English actress
• September 25 - Michael Douglas, American actor and producer
• November 17 - Danny DeVito, American actor, comedian, producer and director
• November 21 - Harold Ramis, American actor, director and screenwriter (died 2014)
• December 5 - Jeroen Krabbe, Dutch actor and director
• December 17 - Bernard Hill, English actor

Deaths

• July 14 - Emil Fjellström, Swedish actor (born 1884)
• July 20 - Mildred Harris, American actress (born 1901)
• December 9 - Laird Cregar, American actor (born 1913)
• December 13 - Lupe Vélez, Mexican actress (born 1908)
• December 15 - Glenn Miller, American musician, actor (born 1904)

Film Debuts

• Lauren Bacall - To Have and Have Not
• Shashi Kapoor - Meena
• Angela Lansbury - Gaslight
• Gregory Peck - Days of Glory
• Jean Simmons - Give Us the Moon

References

1. ↑ Box Office Digest, March 1945, p. 18.