Overview of the events of 1944 in film
Overview of the events of 1944 in film
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 .
Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top ten 1944 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:
Highest-grossing films of 1944
Rank
Title
Distributor
Domestic rentals
1
Going My Way
Paramount
$6,500,000[1]
2
Meet Me in St. Louis
MGM
$5,016,000[2]
3
Since You Went Away
United Artists
$4,950,000[3]
4
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
MGM
$4,297,000[2]
5
The Story of Dr. Wassell
Paramount
$4,209,968
6
The White Cliffs of Dover
MGM
$4,045,000[2]
7
A Guy Named Joe
$3,970,000[2]
8
Hollywood Canteen
Warner Bros.
$3,831,000[5]
9
To Have and Have Not
$3,652,000[5]
10
Bathing Beauty
MGM
$3,284,000[2]
Notable films released in 1944
United States 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
At Land , directed by Maya Deren
B
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
Cowboy and the Senorita , starring Roy Rogers and Dale Evans
Crime by Night , starring Jane Wyman
Cry of the Werewolf , starring Nina Foch
The Curse of the Cat People , starring Simone Simon
D
E
F
Fanny by Gaslight , directed by Anthony Asquith , starring Phyllis Calvert , James Mason , Stewart Granger – (GB )
Fiddlers Three , starring Tommy Trinder (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
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
The Heavenly Body , starring William Powell and Hedy Lamarr
Henry V , directed by and starring Laurence Olivier – (GB )
The Hitler Gang , starring Robert Watson
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
J
K
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
Marie-Louise directed by Leopold Lindtberg and an uncredited Franz Schnyder
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
O
P
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 directed by Roy William Neill, starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes, and Nigel Bruce as Watson; co-starring Rondo Hatton and Evelyn Ankers
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
R
S
The Scarlet Claw , a Sherlock Holmes mystery directed by Roy William Neill, starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes, and Nigel Bruce as Watson
The Seventh Cross , directed by Fred Zinnemann , starring Spencer Tracy
Sherlock Holmes and The Spider Woman , a Sherlock Holmes mystery directed by Roy William Neill, starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson; co-starring Gale Sondergaard
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 Soul of a Monster , starring George Macready
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
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 , starring Tommy Handley (GB )
To Have And Have Not , directed by Howard Hawks , starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
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 – (US /GB )
Two Thousand Women , starring Flora Robson and Phyllis Calvert – (GB )
U
W
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
Y