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The History of American Cinema: 1944

January - September

1/1 -

African Journey becomes the first feature-length foreign film to be screened on American TV. [ADD]

12/1 -

Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, starring William Bendix, Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak and Walter Slezak is released.   As the film takes place entirely on the lifeboat, Hitchcock’s trademark cameo is restricted to before and after photographs in a newspaper weight-loss advertisement. [ADD]

Jan -

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association inaugurate the Golden Globe Awards. [ADD]

6/2 -

Charles Laughton acts as a witness in the marriage of French director Jean Renoir to Dido Freire in Los Angeles. [ADD]

10/2 -

Paramount’s version of the stage hit Lady in the Dark, the rights to which cost the studio a record-breaking $285,000, is released.   Mitchell Liesen directs Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Warner Baxter, Jon Hall, Barry Sullivan and Mischa Auer. [ADD]

2/3 -

The 16th Annual Academy Awards are held in Grauman’s Chinese Theater for the first time.   The event is hosted by Jack Benny and broadcast live by radio across the country and to troops in Europe and the Pacific.   The Best Documentary award is now given for two categories: Feature and Short Subject. [MORE]

14/4 -

Marlene Dietrich begins a tour of US military bases in Italy and North Africa. [ADD]

3/5 -

Leo McCarey’s Going My Way, which he wrote, produced and directed, is released.   Barry Fitzgerald plays the irascible (but loveable) Father Fitzgibbon, who clashes with his young replacement, Father Chuck O’Malley (Bing Crosby) [ADD]

11/5 -

George Cukor’s Gaslight, starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, premieres at the Capitol theater in New York.   MGM attempt to have all prints of the British 1940 version destroyed. [ADD]

8/6 -

Days of Glory, Jacques Tourneur’s patriotic account of a heroic band of guerillas fighting the Nazi invasion of Russia, is released.   Tamara Toumanova receives top billing, possibly as she is the wife of writer and producer Casey Robinson, but it is newcomer Gregory Peck, a 28-year-old former medical student and model, who makes an impact. [ADD]

1/7 -

Leon Schlesinger, producer of Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons, sells his studio to Warner Bros and retires. [ADD]

20/7 -

A prestige cast features in Selznick International’s Since You Went Away.   Claudette Colbert stars as the wife of a soldier coping with an array of problems on the home front.   Directed by John Cromwell, the cast also features Monty Woolley, Jennifer Jones, Robert Walker, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Hattie McDaniel, Agnes Moorehead and Albert Basserman. [ADD] 

1/8 -

Henry King’s Wilson, a biopic of the US president, is released by Fox.   Alexander Knox stars in the title role and is supported by Charles Coburn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell, Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price. [ADD]

9/8 -

Hail the Conquering Hero, Preston Sturges’ dig at mindless flag-waving patriotism is released.   Eddie Bracken plays the timid asthmatic who is turned down by the draft board, but set up as a war hero in his hometown. [ADD]

22/8 -

MGM’s non-musical version of Kismet, directed by William Dieterle, is released.   Ronald Colman and Marlene Dietrich star, with support from James Craig, Edward Arnold and Harry Davenport. [ADD]

6/9 -

Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity is released.   Fred MacMurray stars (in a role originally offered to George Raft) as an insurance salesman seduced by Barbara Stanwyck’s sleazy femme fatale into murdering her husband.   Edward G. Robinson supports as MacMurray's friend and colleague on the trail of the murderer. [ADD]

23/9 -

Following the completion of the play’s stage run, Frank Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace is released – three years after it was filmed.   The film stars Cary Grant, Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre. [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1944