Film Snail

War

Captains of the Clouds

Captains of the Clouds

February 12, 1942

Inspired by Churchill's Dunkirk speech, brash, undisciplined Canadian bush pilot Brian MacLean and three friends enlist in the RCAF.

Soldiers in White

Soldiers in White

February 7, 1942

A young intern is drafted and placed in the Army Medical Corps as a buck private and is none too happy about it. Injured, he is placed in the hospital where a Major comes by and explains how army doctors make important advances in medical science. The private is inspired and promises to make a good soldier. He is even more inspired when a nurse becomes his superior officer.

The Bugle Sounds

The Bugle Sounds

January 30, 1942

An old-time cavalry sergeant's resistance to change could cost him his post.

A Yank on the Burma Road

A Yank on the Burma Road

January 29, 1942

A celebrated New York cabbie is pressed into service for a perilous journey through World War II China.

Tulips Shall Grow

Tulips Shall Grow

January 26, 1942

In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), a young Dutch couple find their idyllic countryside being overrun by unfeeling, unthinking mechanical men and machines that lay waste to everything in their path. In 1997 this film, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Torpedo Boat

Torpedo Boat

January 24, 1942

Richard Arlen and Phil Terry star as Skimmer and Tommy, two lifelong buddies who've invented a lightweight, high-speed torpedo boat (hence the title). Their copacetic business relationship is strained when nightclub singer Grace Holman (Jean Parker), having been jilted by Skimmer, marries Tommy on the rebound.

North to the Klondike

North to the Klondike

January 23, 1942

Based upon the novel by Jack London, two friends in the Klondike aid settlers being terrorized by outlaws.

Joan of Paris

Joan of Paris

January 20, 1942

An RAF squadron is brought down over occupied France. The flyers get to Paris in spite of the fact that the youngest, Baby, is injured. He must be hidden and his wounds cared for. The Gestapo has already issued orders for their arrest.

The Big Blockade

The Big Blockade

January 19, 1942

Wartime propaganda piece reporting on the success of the economic blockade of Germany in the early years of the war.

Sky of Hope

Sky of Hope

January 14, 1942

What is marriage? Young couple in match-making wanted to know before they decide. They visited married couples of sisters and brothers. Love comedy in 1942.

Bombay Clipper

Bombay Clipper

January 11, 1942

Someone has absconded with $4,000,000 worth of diamonds, and that someone may very well be a passenger on the Bombay Clipper.

Alfa Tau!

Alfa Tau!

January 10, 1942

Venice Film Festival 1942

Bengasi

Bengasi

January 10, 1942

The film is set in 1941 during the Second World War, when the city of Benghazi in Italian-ruled Libya was occupied by British forces. Italian inhabitants of Benghazi work to resist the British and discover their military plans. One man, Captain Enrico Berti, appears to be collaborating with the British but is in fact working undercover for Italian intelligence. The film ends with the city being recaptured by Italian troops and their Nazi German allies.

The Seventh Survivor

The Seventh Survivor

January 5, 1942

During the Second World War, a German spy goes on the run, carrying important news about a U-Boat campaign. The ship he is traveling aboard is hit by a torpedo. The spy winds up on a lifeboat with other survivors, one of whom is a counterintelligence agent who reveals the German spy's true identity.

Raza

Raza

January 30, 1942

The troubled story of the Churruca family, a noble lineage of brave seamen, descendants of Cosme Damián Churruca, the Spanish hero of the Battle of Trafalgar; from the Spanish-American War (1898) to the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). (In 1950, a new cut of the film was released with less ideological depth and ten minutes shorter.)

How to Bridge a Gorge

January 2, 1942

An instructional video that teaches, through stop-motion animation, how to build a bridge over a gorge that can hold heavy military equipment. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004.

USS VD: Ship of Shame

USS VD: Ship of Shame

January 2, 1942

This film was made by the U.S. government during World War II to show its young servicemen the results of "fooling around" with "loose women" overseas. Actual victims of such sexually transmitted diseases as syphilis and gonorrhoea are shown, along with the physical deterioration that accompanies those diseases.

Remember Pearl Harbor

Remember Pearl Harbor

January 2, 1942

A man tries to redeem himself after ducking out on his comrades before the fatal attack.

The Frontshow

January 2, 1942

The Front Show is a series of World War II era German military training films shown to German soldiers before being shipped off to the Eastern Front. They were directed by the veteran propagandist Fritz Hippler, best known for Der Ewige Jude.

Fearless Patriot

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A group of people from Japan who will carry out espionage and sabotage operations have been landed on our border. They got lost in the air and came to the old herdsman, ransacked his house, robbed his belongings, and forced him to show them the way. The old man took the money and told his grandson Sengeee to go to the headquarters of the detachment and immediately report this incident, and he took them with him and led the way for his soldiers. When the enemy left, Sengee was imprisoned in the house, but the old man Shagdar was saved when the boy sneaked out of the house and delivered the news to the detachment headquarters.