1944

Film Decades: 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • 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
  • Bathing Beauty, starring Esther Williams and Red Skelton
  • Between Two Worlds – starring John Garfield, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet
  • The Black Pirate (El corsario negro), starring Pedro Armendariz – (Mexico)
  • Bride by Mistake – directed by Richard Wallace, starring Alan Marshal, Laraine Day, Marsha Hunt, Allyn Joslyn, & Edgar Buchanan
  • The Bridge of San Luis Rey, starring Lynn Bari
  • Buffalo Bill – starring Joel McCrea & Maureen O’Hara
  • A Bullet in the Heart (Rossassa Fel Qalb) – (Egypt)
  • 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 – directed by Jean Negulesco, starring Paul Henreid, Hedy Lamarr, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre
  • Cover Girl – starring Rita Hayworth & 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
  • Days of Glory, starring Gregory Peck
  • 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, & Edward G. Robinson
  • Dragon Seed – starring Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, & Aline MacMahon
  • Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng) – (China)
  • Enemy of Women, starring Paul Andor
  • The Eve of St. Mark – directed by John M. Stahl, starring Michael O’Shea, Anne Baxter, Harry Morgan, Vincent Price
  • Experiment Perilous, starring Hedy Lamarr and George Brent
  • 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 & 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 & Basil Rathbone
  • Die Feuerzangenbowle (The Punch Bowl) – (Germany)
  • Gaslight – directed by George Cukor, starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, May Whitty, & Angela Lansbury
  • Going My Way – directed by Leo McCarey, starring Bing Crosby & Barry Fitzgerald – winner of 7 Oscars
  • The Great Moment, starring Joel McCrea and Betty Field
  • Greenwich Village, starring Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche
  • The Great Sacrifice (Opfergang) – (Germany)
  • Hail the Conquering Hero – written & directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken & Ella Raines
  • The Halfway House, directed by Basil Dearden, starring Mervyn Johns and Glynis Johns
  • The Heavenly Body, starring William Powell and Hedy Lamarr
  • To Have And Have Not – directed by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall
  • Henry V, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier – (GB)
  • The Hitler Gang, starring Robert Watson
  • Hollywood Canteen – directed by Delmer Daves, starring Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Dane Clark, with cameos by The Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Eddie Cantor, Kitty Carlisle, Jack Carson, Joan Crawford, Faye Emerson, Sydney Greenstreet, Alan Hale Sr., Paul Henreid, Joan Leslie, Peter Lorre, Ida Lupino, Dorothy Malone, Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige, Eleanor Parker, Roy Rogers (with Trigger), S.Z. Sakall, Zachary Scott, Alexis Smith, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman, & Jimmy Dorsey
  • 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’ll Be Seeing You – starring Ginger Rogers & Shirley Temple
  • In Our Time, starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid
  • In Society, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
  • In the Meantime Darling – directed by Otto Preminger
  • It Happened Tomorrow, starring Dick Powell
  • Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Grozniy) – directed by Sergei Eisenstein, starring Nikolai Cherkasov – (U.S.S.R.)
  • Janie – directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Joyce Reynolds
  • Jwar Bhata – (India)
  • The Keys of the Kingdom – directed by John M. Stahl, starring Gregory Peck, Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, & Roddy McDowall
  • Knickerbocker Holiday, starring Nelson Eddy
  • Kismet – directed by William Dieterle, starring Ronald Colman & Marlene Dietrich
  • Lady in the Dark – starring Ginger Rogers & 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
  • 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 Mark of the Whistler – directed by William Castle
  • The Mask of Dimitrios – directed by Jean Negulesco, starring Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Peter Lorre
  • 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 – written & directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken & 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
  • The Nail (El clavo) – (Spain)
  • National Velvet, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney
  • None but the Lonely Heart – starring Cary Grant & Ethel Barrymore
  • None Shall Escape, starring Alexander Knox
  • 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 – directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Michèle Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre
  • The Pearl of Death – a Sherlock Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone & 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
  • 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)
  • The Scarlet Claw – a Sherlock Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce
  • The Seventh Cross, directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Spencer Tracy
  • She’s a Soldier Too – directed by William Castle
  • 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
  • The Spider Woman – a Sherlock Holmes mystery, starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard
  • Storm Over Lisbon, starring Vera Ralston
  • The Story of Dr. Wassell – directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gary Cooper, Laraine Day, Signe Hasso, & Dennis O’Keefe
  • Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, starring Anne Baxter and John Hodiak
  • The Suspect, starring Charles Laughton
  • Tall in the Saddle – starring John Wayne
  • Thirty Seconds over Tokyo – starring Spencer Tracy & Van Johnson
  • This Happy Breed – directed by David Lean, starring John Mills & 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)
  • 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 & John Huston – (US/GB)
  • Two Thousand Women, starring Flora Robson and Phyllis Calvert – (GB)
  • The Uninvited, starring Ray Milland
  • Up in Arms – directed by Elliott Nugent, starring Danny Kaye & Dinah Shore
  • 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 – directed by William Castle, starring Dean Jagger, Kim Hunter, Robert Mitchum
  • The Whistler – directed by William Castle
  • The White Cliffs of Dover, starring Irene Dunne
  • Wilson – directed by Henry King, starring Alexander Knox and Charles Coburn, & Vincent Price
  • Wing and a Prayer – directed by Henry Hathaway, starring Dana Andrews & Don Ameche
  • The Woman in the Window – directed by Fritz Lang, starring Edward G. Robinson & Joan Bennett
  • The Yellow Rose of Texas, starring Roy Rogers and Dale Evans