1944 in film

Years in film
1870s
1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029

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

• May 13 - Dale Evans appears in her first film with future husband, Roy Rogers - Cowboy and the Senorita.
• 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

1944 film releases

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
• 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

• 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
• The Great Moment, starring Joel McCrea and Betty Field
• 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 5 – Franco Ferrini, Italian screenwriter
• January 9 – Harun Farocki, German filmmaker (died 2014)
• January 20 - Margaret Avery, American actress
• 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 (died 2017)
• 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 4- Craig T. Nelson, American Actor
• April 6 - Anita Pallenberg, Italian-born actress and model (died 2017)
• 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 19 - Peter Mayhew, English actor
• May 25 - Frank Oz, English director and puppeteer
• May 28 - Sondra Locke, American actress
• 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
• Red Buttons - Winged Victory
• Gloria Grahame - Blonde Fever
• Judy Holiday - Greenwich Village
• Shashi Kapoor - Meena
• Angela Lansbury - Gaslight
• Janis Paige - Bathing Beauty
• Gregory Peck - Days of Glory
• Jane Powell - Song of the Open Road
• Zachary Scott - The Mask of Dimitrios
• Jean Simmons - Give Us the Moon

References