1940s Documentary Movies

Conquer by the Clock was a short dramatic propaganda film produced by the RKO Pathé in 1942 to encourage wartime industrial production. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1943.

The Town was a short propaganda film produced by the Office of War Information in 1945. It presents an idealized vision of American life, shown in microcosm by Madison, Indiana. It was created primarily for exhibition abroad, to provide international audiences a more well-rounded view of America, and was therefore produced in more than 20 translations. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

This short film focuses on a day in the life of a Hollywood talent scout assigned to cast animals.

A tribute to the poet Christian Winther (1796-1876). Nature poetry, national romance and the poet's life story.

Military training film exposing the means used by Nazi agents to extract military information from talkative soldiers.

Atomic Power! is an American short documentary film produced by The March of Time and released to theaters August 9, 1946, one year after the end of World War II. It is a recreation of the making of the atomic bomb leading up to the Trinity test. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

The film is set to the music of Franz Schubert and is very strange. Much of it consists of disembodies arms and legs all moving about to the music. There are also folks in body suits moving rhythmically to the tune. Occasionally, there are shots of a guy in full color with multiple exposures.

This documentary follows a group of adventurers into the Amazon jungle as they attempt to catch animals to be shipped to zoos in the USA.

A Nazi propaganda film made to promote anti-Semitism among the German people. Newly-shot footage of Jewish neighborhoods in recently-conquered Poland is combined with preexisting film clips and stills to defame the religion and advance Hitler's slurs that its adherents were plotting to undermine European civilization.

Sitting at his desk, Guitry gives us a lecture on French history from Joan of Arc to the Occupation, with some focus on a number of its great writers and musicians.

Documentary about the social and economic policy of the country in the first years of the Justicialista government. Considered a lost film.

Dramatised documentary on Mussel fishing and oyster breeding: A man is washed ashore and then hospitalised, the police interview him about the pearls he is carrying. His response offers an account of his life in the North Wales coastal town of Conwy - mussel fishing, lobstering, an oyster breeding research centre and his experiences pearl fishing in the south seas and trawling off Iceland.

In this short, members of the California Water Bugs club demonstrate new ways to get thrills when water skiing.

Rey 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." Producer David O. Selznick thought so much of it, that he distributed KUKAN in 35mm, even after the film had already had an extensive run in 16mm.

The Japanese attack on Midway in June 1942, filmed as it happened. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, in 2006.

Short documentary about superstition in southern Italy.

A featureless land fit only for war, as the narrator, J. L. Hodson stated in the early scenes: "If war was to be fought then let it begin here". In endless miles of rock-strewn scrub desert, where civilians hardly existed. Desert Victory tells the story of the Allied campaign to drive Germany and Italy from North Africa is analysed, with the major portion of the film examining the battles at El Alamein, including some re-enactment. Won "Best Documentary Feature" at the 16th Academy Awards in 1944.

After Pearl Harbor Lt. James Stewart narrated this film to rouse American support for the war.

Documentary/training film depicting the duties of a pilot in the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War as he flies reconnaissance missions over enemy-held islands.

Commissioned to prepare Allied troops for the liberation of Europe, the film uses a blend of staged narratives and historical footage to promote solidarity and dispel the myth that France was a nation of willing collaborators.

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Documentary about the bodybuilding competition held in the south of France, in Cannes. Composed of 2 parts filmed on August 15, 1948 (11 minutes - selection of the French champion) and August 16 (9 minutes - selection of the most handsome man in the world). These short reports were broadcast in French cinemas from August 23, 1948 and present the athletes' journey, the joys of physical culture in the gym and on the beach, starlets in bikinis and a moment of wrestling between athletes.

Old Original Footage of the 1945 Toronto Maple Leaf's Team.

This Pete Smith Specialty short focuses on the young men who have signed up for the U.S. Army. The film uses the analogy of the speed, accuracy, and teamwork of sports and how these qualities are translated into the weapons training of American soldiers. We watch target practice by Army personnel with shoulder weapons, mortars, and various artillery pieces.

Short documentary film about Spanish castles, with a fiction part performed by two uncredited actors.

A 1940 Columbia Picture feature film, "I Married Adventure" stars Osa Johnson and closely follows her 1940 best-selling book of the same name. Osa portrays herself in studio-produced scenes which bridge the transition between actual documentary footage segments as the film recounts the Johnson's nine world expeditions to Africa, Borneo, and the South Seas. Jim Bannon, a Hollywod stuntman who lent his voice to many western's including Red Ryder, Don Clark, and Albert Duffy narrate this adventure classic that compiles the very best images from the Johnsons' original feature films.

Two young women, frustrated by war rationing, have a dream illustrating the likely results on prices in America should the measure were prematurely lifted. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.

The biography of Dutch artist Van Gogh, illustrated only with images of his paintings and drawings, or details of those, and according dramatic musical score.

The unusual talents of Johnny Price, a minor league baseball pitcher and trick artist, are showcased in this Pete Smith Specialty. Among other talents, Mr. Price can throw two (and, in certain situations three) baseballs simultaneously to different people. The catchers can be side by side, with one high and one low, or standing on the pitcher's mound and second base while Price throws the ball from the catcher's position. He can even perform these feats while suspended upside-down.

This 1948 film by Antonioni documents the lives of street cleaners in Rome. N.U. is short for Nettezza urbana, the Italian municipal cleaning service.

In this Pete Smith Speciality, the audience is asked a series of multiple-choice questions on various subjects.

A narrator recounts the state of Great Britain near the end of WWII via a visual diary for the titular baby boy born in September 1944.

Strange Victory" is about racial bias in post World War II America. Following "Native Land" in Leo Hurwitz' filmography, it uses some of the same techniques: dramatized scenes interspersed with scenes of compilation news reel footage, and scenes of evocative imagery.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1942.

Semi-documentary, focusing on the training young boys receive before they are sent down the mines on their first job.

Nazi propaganda film about the Czech "Theresienstadt ghetto" in Terezín. The film was supposed to show the world that Jews didn't suffer in concentration camps. Upon completion, most Jews shown in the film (including director Kurt Gerron) were brought to Auschwitz, where they were killed.

This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

A surprising film about the large number of inadequately addressed letters that the postal service receives every day. The film is an invitation to the audience to address letters correctly.

Film about the efforts of Norway and Norwegians outside Norway in the years 1940-45. Crown Prince Olav's introduction. The invasion of Norway. The merchant fleet on all seas. The Norwegian brigade is set up in Scottland. The first Norwegian aircraft squadron in action, and much more.

This Traveltalk series short visits Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.