List of Three-strip Technicolor films (1935-1955)
Following its incorporation in 1915, Technicolor developed a series of two-color processes as necessary steps toward full-color photography and printing. Two-strip Technicolor feature films like The Gulf Between (1917), The Toll of the Sea (1922), Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924) and The Black Pirate (1926) each showed tremendous promise in photography and color design, but implementation flaws resulted in technical problems and commercial failure. After a series of technical and financial stumbles during the early 1930s, Technicolor rebounded with its new three-color process. The camera required an entirely new design, although it utilized many of the same principles already developed for two-color photography, such as a beam-splitting prism. The camera captured crisp, vibrant colors that were then recombined in printing. The Technicolor three-strip camera captured separate color records onto three strips of film. Light entered the camera through the lens and was divided by the beam-splitting prism into two paths. One strip of film recorded the green record onto black-and-white film, while the other two records were exposed onto two black-and-white film strips in “bipack” (sandwiched together); the front film was blue-sensitive only, while the back film was sensitive to red.
Technicolor took great care in maintaining a high standard of quality control. A cornerstone in this strategy was the Color Advisory Service, directed by Natalie M. Kalmus, who once described her role "'as playing ringmaster to the rainbow'. The color consultants advised the productions on how to develop a color score in accordance with the narrative structure of a film. Set and costume design, props, make-up, lighting including the camera work were all controlled by the Technicolor company. The dominant ideology of Technicolor advised a restrained use of colors with an emphasis on naturalness, strictly subordinate to the story development. Kalmus also suggested the use of conventional color associations, such as red for passion, anger, power etc.
Three-strip Technicolor made its first appearance in a live action film in 1934, when a musical sequence in The Cat and the Fiddle (1934) was filmed in it, but the first fully Technicolor feature film was Becky Sharp (1935), released a year later. Backed by important partnerships with Walt Disney Productions and Selznick International Pictures, color cinematography finally matured from groundbreaking novelty into industry standard. By the mid-1950s, more than half of Hollywood films were being shot in color, and the decade's top ten highest grossing films boasted "Color by Technicolor." But as competition from other color processes increased, Technicolor struggled to maintain its more expensive three-color photographic system.
By 1954, most color films made in the United States were being shot in Eastmancolor or Anscocolor. Eastmancolor single-strip process and other similar ones were coarser-grained and less chromatically saturated, but much cheaper and therefore more appealing to studios, and the new widescreen systems could not be used with Technicolor’s three-strip process. The film industry conversion to Eastmancolor happened quickly, and within a few years, Technicolor retired the last of its three-color cameras. Some of the old cameras were converted to fit the new widescreen formats (early VistaVision movies like To Catch a Thief (1955) and The Searchers (1956) were filmed on modified three-color cameras, though those films all used single strip negatives, not 3-strip ones). The Ladykillers (1955) is considered to be the last motion picture to be photographed on the unmodified three-strip Technicolor camera.
Technicolor took great care in maintaining a high standard of quality control. A cornerstone in this strategy was the Color Advisory Service, directed by Natalie M. Kalmus, who once described her role "'as playing ringmaster to the rainbow'. The color consultants advised the productions on how to develop a color score in accordance with the narrative structure of a film. Set and costume design, props, make-up, lighting including the camera work were all controlled by the Technicolor company. The dominant ideology of Technicolor advised a restrained use of colors with an emphasis on naturalness, strictly subordinate to the story development. Kalmus also suggested the use of conventional color associations, such as red for passion, anger, power etc.
Three-strip Technicolor made its first appearance in a live action film in 1934, when a musical sequence in The Cat and the Fiddle (1934) was filmed in it, but the first fully Technicolor feature film was Becky Sharp (1935), released a year later. Backed by important partnerships with Walt Disney Productions and Selznick International Pictures, color cinematography finally matured from groundbreaking novelty into industry standard. By the mid-1950s, more than half of Hollywood films were being shot in color, and the decade's top ten highest grossing films boasted "Color by Technicolor." But as competition from other color processes increased, Technicolor struggled to maintain its more expensive three-color photographic system.
By 1954, most color films made in the United States were being shot in Eastmancolor or Anscocolor. Eastmancolor single-strip process and other similar ones were coarser-grained and less chromatically saturated, but much cheaper and therefore more appealing to studios, and the new widescreen systems could not be used with Technicolor’s three-strip process. The film industry conversion to Eastmancolor happened quickly, and within a few years, Technicolor retired the last of its three-color cameras. Some of the old cameras were converted to fit the new widescreen formats (early VistaVision movies like To Catch a Thief (1955) and The Searchers (1956) were filmed on modified three-color cameras, though those films all used single strip negatives, not 3-strip ones). The Ladykillers (1955) is considered to be the last motion picture to be photographed on the unmodified three-strip Technicolor camera.
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- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsMiriam HopkinsFrances DeeCedric HardwickeAgainst the backdrop of Napoleon's Waterloo campaign, an ambitious woman from a family of entertainers begins a destructive climb up the social ladder.
- DirectorLloyd CorriganStarsCharles CollinsFrank MorganSteffi DunaThe story of a Boston dance teacher who gets shanghaied by buccaneers who might make his next steps be off the plank!
- DirectorRichard BoleslawskiStarsMarlene DietrichCharles BoyerTilly LoschThe star-crossed desert romance of a cloistered woman and a renegade monk.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsLoretta YoungDon AmecheKent TaylorHalf-Indian girl brought up in a wealthy household is loved by the son of the house against his family's wishes and loves another Indian employed by the household.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsSylvia SidneyHenry FondaFred MacMurrayA railroad man from the city befriends a mountain girl in a Kentucky family feud.
- DirectorJames P. HoganStarsOscar HomolkaFrances FarmerRay MillandThree shifty sailors commandeer a smallpox-ridden boat and set out to sea. A typhoon washes them ashore on a faraway Pacific island, which is ruled by a white religious fanatic (Lloyd Nolan) who has set himself up as the local god.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsGeorge BrentBeverly RobertsBarton MacLaneJefferson Russett runs a logging company; his brother, Steve, is the prodigal son. Jeff cuts off his allowance and puts him to work, but on his first day, he is tricked into signing a contract allowing arch-rivals Barton Logging to use Russett railways. Jeff hauls Steve up to the logging camp, but he steals a plane. It runs out of gas in Barton territory, where spitfire Jo is running the camp. Naturally, this shrew must be tamed, so Steve, calling himself Steve Martin, sets out to do just that as he's trapped in the camp for two months until the next boat anyhow.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsCarole LombardFredric MarchCharles WinningerAn eccentric woman learns she is not dying of radium poisoning as earlier assumed, but when she meets a reporter looking for a story, she feigns sickness again for her own profit.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanJack ConwayVictor FlemingStarsJanet GaynorFredric MarchAdolphe MenjouA young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, and achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsWarner BaxterJoan BennettHelen VinsonThe blueblooded Van Kletterings are broke; debutante Wendy, slated to remedy this by marrying rich bore Henry Morgan, instead leaves him at the altar and goes to work as a model for high-fashion clothing designer George Curson, whom she soon falls for. But he's happily married (at least on his side) and going into debt financing a show to please wife Mary's desire for stardom. Vindictive Morgan, jealous of George, hopes to hasten his ruin. Can the House of Curson be saved?
- DirectorHarold D. SchusterGlenn TryonStarsAnnabellaHenry FondaLeslie BanksFirst Technicolor movie shot in the British Isles, features Gypsies, horse racing, singing and romance.
- DirectorMichael CurtizWilliam KeighleyStarsErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandBasil RathboneWhen Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsTommy KellyJackie MoranAnn GillisTom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witnessing a murder.
- DirectorTim WhelanStarsMerle OberonLaurence OlivierBinnie BarnesDivorce lawyer Everard Logan thinks the woman who spent the night in his hotel room is the erring wife of his new client.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsSabuRaymond MasseyRoger LiveseyDuring the British Raj, Captain Carruthers works under cover to track smuggled shipments of arms on the restless Northwest Frontier of India. He fears a full-scale rebellion is brewing. To forestall this, the British governor signs a treaty with the friendly, peace-loving ruler of Tokot, a key kingdom in the region, which is described as four days' march northward from Peshawar. Meanwhile, the king's son, Prince Azim, befriends Carruthers and a British drummer boy, Bill Holder, who teaches him how to play the instrument.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsGeorge BrentOlivia de HavillandClaude RainsHydraulic Mining versus Sacramento Valley Farming.
- DirectorGeorge MarshallH.C. PotterStarsAdolphe MenjouAndrea LeedsThe Ritz BrothersMovie producer chooses a simple girl to be "Miss Humanity" and to critically evalute his movies from the point of view of the ordinary person. Hit song: "Love Walked In.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsDick ForanGloria DicksonGale PageCpl. Jim of the R.C.M.P. is taking his daughter Julie to school in Edmonton on the Arctic Queen. Six men hold up the boat when they stop for wood and gun down Jim in front of his daughter. The new inspector sends Alan after them, but has him split his unit. This leaves Alan short and they are ambushed and forced to bring back his wounded comrade. At Fort Endurance, Alan is confined to quarters for not arresting Dave when some of the stolen furs are found in his shed. Elizabeth lies about Dave being part of the gang to have Alan thrown out of the Mounties. When the other Mounties go out on a long chase, the only chance Alan and Bill have in finding the bandits is to take the forestry plane and search the lakes and rivers.
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsDorothy LamourRay MillandLynne OvermanWhile searching the South Pacific for a missing aviator, Bob Mitchell and Jimmy Wallace are caught in a typhoon and crack up on an island, escaping unharmed with the aid of beautiful jungle girl Tura, the only inhabitant of the island and believed a goddess by the natives of the adjoining islands. The three are about to leave the island on a makeshift raft when a gang of savage tribesman land, headed by Kuasa, a half-mad potentate who informs them that all whites are his mortal enemies because an Englishwoman once spurned his love and he got his revenge by stealing her daughter--Tura. He had set her up as a goddess but now she must pay for befriending the hated white men by being sacrificed to the crocodiles in an underground temple. An earthquake rocks the island and destroys Kuasa and his band. Bob, Jimmy, and Tura find a party of rescuers waiting on the beach, headed by aviation company president J.C. Martin and his daughter Eleanor, Bob's fiancée. Bob must choose between Tura and Eleanor.
- DirectorDavid ButlerStarsLoretta YoungRichard GreeneWalter BrennanRomeo and Juliet story set amidst horse racing in Kentucky. The family feud of lovers Jack and Sally goes back to the Civil War and is kept alive by her Uncle Peter.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsFred MacMurrayRay MillandLouise CampbellPlot #1 is the love triangle between two guys and one girl as they grow into adults and affiliate themselves in the new aircraft industry. Plot #2 is aircraft evolution from the days of Wilbur and Orville Wright to just prior to WWII.
- DirectorHerbert WilcoxStarsAnna NeagleAnton WalbrookC. Aubrey SmithPicking up where Victoria the Great (1937) left off, this sequel to the 1937 film has Anna Neagle return to the role of Queen Victoria in another colorful account of the revered British monarch's reign. This film offers a stellar chronicle of Victoria's relationship with Prince Albert (Anton Walbrook) as well as the political and military upheavals that characterized her time as Queen.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeRobert Z. LeonardStarsJeanette MacDonaldNelson EddyFrank MorganThe team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsWayne MorrisClaire TrevorFrank McHughA lumberman (Wayne Morris) and a gambling-house lady (Claire Trevor) thwart Easterners eyeing the California Redwoods.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandAnn SheridanA Texas cattle agent witnesses first hand, the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City and takes the job of sheriff to clean the town up.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsClaudette ColbertHenry FondaEdna May OliverNewlyweds Gil and Lana Martin try to establish a farm in the Mohawk Valley but are menaced by Indians and Tories as the Revolutionary War begins.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsJohn ClementsRalph RichardsonC. Aubrey SmithA British Army officer resigns, burning his last-day summons to war in the Sudan. Accusing him of cowardice, his girlfriend and three friends give him white feathers. To gain redemption, he shadows his friends to save their lives.
- DirectorVictor FlemingGeorge CukorSam WoodStarsClark GableVivien LeighThomas MitchellA sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
- DirectorIrving CummingsBuster KeatonMalcolm St. ClairStarsAlice FayeDon AmecheJ. Edward BrombergStarting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for him as director of her next film. Many silent stars shown making the transition to sound.
- DirectorHenry KingIrving CummingsStarsTyrone PowerHenry FondaNancy KellyAfter railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank turn to banditry for revenge.
- DirectorWalter LangWilliam A. SeiterStarsShirley TempleRichard GreeneAnita LouiseA little girl is left by her father in an exclusive seminary for girls, when her father fights in the Second Boer War. Later, when he is presumed dead she is forced to become a servant.
- DirectorVictor SchertzingerStarsKenny BakerJohn BarclayMartyn GreenThe son of the Mikado of Japan, a wandering minstrel, falls for a girl who is engaged to her guardian.
- DirectorThornton FreelandWilliam K. HowardStarsMerle OberonRex HarrisonUrsula JeansYoung Jane Benson (Merle Oberon) just about manages to make ends meet running the large family house in Yorkshire. In love with local doctor Freddie Jarvis (Sir Rex Harrison), she suggests they marry, but almost at once finds she has inherited eighteen million pounds. He makes it clear he wants nothing to do with the money and what it can buy, and Jane sets off alone on a spree pursued by two ardent suitors. Freddie finds he has gained notoriety for turning down such a catch and his plans for earnest research are soon compromised.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsBette DavisErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandA depiction of the love/hate relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex.
- DirectorSidney LanfieldStarsDon AmecheAndrea LeedsAl JolsonMore fictional than factual biography of Stephen Foster. Songwriter from Pittsburgh falls in love with the South, marries a Southern gal (Leeds), then is accused of sympathizing when the Civil War breaks out.
- DirectorVictor FlemingKing VidorStarsJudy GarlandFrank MorganRay BolgerYoung Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeStarsJeanette MacDonaldNelson EddyGeorge SandersA woman runs away with her music teacher in order to escape an arranged marriage, but they struggle to make ends meet.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsShirley TempleSpring ByingtonNigel BruceMytyl and her brother Tyltyl, a woodchopper's children, are led by the Fairy Berylune on a magical trip through the past, present, and future to locate the Blue Bird of Happiness.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsHenry FondaDorothy LamourLinda DarnellCountry boy joins a circus in the 1840s and falls in love with Albany the star equestrian rider. Later he falls in love with Caroline another runaway who becomes the Circus' new bareback rider.
- DirectorErnest B. SchoedsackStarsAlbert DekkerThomas ColeyJanice LoganA mad scientist working in the South American jungle miniaturizes his colleagues when he feels his megalomania is threatened.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsDon AmecheBetty GrableCarmen MirandaAn American girl on vacation in Argentina falls for a wealthy racehorse owner.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsWalter BrennanFay BainterBrenda JoyceA woman tormented by the hunting death of her husband forbids her son to have anything to do with horses. But when he falls for the daughter of his father's trainer, he defies his mother by entering the Maryland Hunt.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsGary CooperMadeleine CarrollPaulette GoddardIn 1885, a Texas Ranger travels to Canada to arrest a trapper who's wanted for murder and who's stirring up the Natives in a rebellion against the Canadian government.
- DirectorKing VidorJack ConwayW.S. Van DykeStarsSpencer TracyRobert YoungWalter BrennanLangdon Towne and Hunk Marriner join Major Rogers' Rangers as they wipe out an Indian village. They set out for Fort Wentworth, but when they arrive they find no soldiers and none of the supplies they expected.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsHenry FondaGene TierneyJackie CooperFrank James continues to avoid arrest in order to take revenge on the Ford brothers for their murder of his brother Jesse.
- DirectorLudwig BergerMichael PowellTim WhelanStarsConrad VeidtSabuJune DuprezAfter being tricked and cast out of Bagdad by the evil Jaffar, King Ahmad joins forces with a thief named Abu to reclaim his throne, the city, and the Princess he loves.
- DirectorLouis KingStarsDorothy LamourRobert PrestonLynne OvermanHaving been marooned on an isolated island as a child, Dea grows to adulthood without human contact, her only companion being the chimp "Koko." Years later, on a South Sea island, Skipper Joe, a former bookie who has traded chasing dark horses for the pursuit of black pearls, meets Johnny Potter, a former Navy man who has lived in a drunken stupor since being kicked out of the service. The skipper tries to convince Johnny to sign on as his navigator, but Johnny refuses to return to the sea. However, after a bar room brawl with the savage Kehi, Johnny is knocked unconscious and is shanghaied by Skipper aboard his rusty old submarine. The men are chased from the harbor by Kehi, who is furious because Mekaike, one of the skipper's men, has stolen his black pearl earrings. After running out of oil because Mekaike has forgotten to refuel the tank, they reach the island inhabited by Dea, where Johnny collapses on the beach in a drunken stupor. The skipper leaves his friend on the beach, where Dea and Koko find him and take him to their tree house to recover. When the skipper returns to the beach, he thinks that Johnny has been washed out to sea. As the skipper and his men build a boat to leave the island, Dea begs Johnny to stay, but fearing that he is doomed to die an early death from alcohol, he refuses. Finding his way back to the beach, Johnny arrives just as Mekaike leads a mutiny against the skipper. After tying Johnny and the skipper to a tree, the men steal the submarine, only to drown when they dive with the hatch open. Stranded, Johnny and the skipper continue building their boat until Kehi tracks them down and sets fire to the island. As the flames consume the foliage, a typhoon roars in from the sea and floods the island, leaving a lifeboat behind in its wake. Dea, Johnny, the skipper and Koko then board the little craft and sail off to civilization.
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsRay MillandPatricia MorisonAkim TamiroffDr. Bill Crawford, on a hunting trip to Canada, is attacked by a bear and his guide, Joe Easter, saves his life and takes the badly-mauled Crawford to his cabin home, where he lives with his beautiful young wife, Alverna. Leaning Bill there to recover, Joe goes on a prolonged hunting trip and Bill and Alverna fall in love. The local doctor, Billar, dies during an operation which Bill completes and then decides to remain in Lost Lake and continue his practice there...close to Alverna. The lovers decide that, in fairness to Joe, Bill must return to his former city. But an epidemic of streptococcus breaks out in the Lost Lake village. Bill, untrained in the ways of the primeval woods, sets out in a raging blizzard, in search of the messenger who had been sent to the nearest town for a special serum needed to break the epidemic. Fearing for his life, Alverna follows him and they find the messenger dead in his automobile, with the serum by his side. Exhausted they stagger into a deserted cabin and drowse into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, Joe, back from his hunting trip, is persuaded by the village gossips that his wife has run off with Bill. He starts after them, in his dog-sled, with murder in his heart.
- DirectorAlfred SantellStarsDorothy LamourJon HallLynne OvermanA young South Seas native boy is sent to the U.S. for his education, but he returns to his island after his father dies to try to stop a revolution.
- DirectorEdward H. GriffithStarsMadeleine CarrollSterling HaydenFlora RobsonA girl, Carol Delbridge (Madeleine Carroll), whom the audience is quickly informed has been around, and her father arrive to take over the business management of an island in the Bahamas owned by Adrian Ainsworth (Sterling Hayden), descendant of many ancestors who have handled it over the years to the satisfaction of its two hundred and fifty native residents. He is married to a woman who stays away from the island because she is lonely when she's there. Adrian doesn't want Carol or her father there, and they don't want to be either. Romance can't be lurking far behind the beautiful sunset.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsRandolph ScottGene TierneyDana AndrewsAt the end of the Civil War, an embittered Southern belle joins forces with a Confederate guerrilla leader to raid Union towns.
- DirectorDavid MillerFrank BorzageStarsRobert TaylorBrian DonlevyIan HunterIn 1880 New Mexico, during a feud between cattle growers, former childhood friends Billy the Kid and Jim Sherwood end-up working for opposite sides.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsTyrone PowerLinda DarnellRita HayworthIlliterate peasant Juan Gallardo rises meteorically to fame and fortune in the bullfight arena only to sow the seeds of his own fall.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsGreer GarsonWalter PidgeonFelix BressartAfter losing her young son, Edna Gladney opposes the unfair laws discriminating against children whose parents are unknown, and opens an orphanage for those children.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnFred MacMurrayRalph BellamyA military surgeon teams with a ranking Navy flyer to develop a high-altitude suit which will protect pilots from blacking out when they go into a steep dive.
- DirectorLeRoy PrinzStarsAnn AyarsJorge NegreteArmidaCholita, after a long absence in Mexico City, is returning home to take up her duties as head of the rancho and, as everyone expects, to marry her childhood sweetheart José. Expectations are somewhat dashed as she shows up with Fernando to whom she is engaged. This makes José and Cholita's uncle more than a little bit put out as Fernando is not only not a Mexican, he is also a city slicker afraid of the country.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsBob HopeVera ZorinaVictor MooreA bumbling senator investigating graft in Louisiana is the target of a scheme involving a Viennese beauty.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsDon AmecheBetty GrableRobert CummingsSisters Kay and Barbara arrive in Miami from Texas looking for rich husbands.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsJohn WayneBetty FieldHarry CareyA mysterious but pleasant stranger arrives in the Missouri hills and befriends a young backwoods girl, which doesn't sit well with her moonshiner fiancé who has vowed to find and kill his own father.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsJeanette MacDonaldBrian AherneGene RaymondJohn Carteret has long been depressed and lonely, because at his wedding years ago, his bride Moonyean was murdered. He accepts into his house Kathleen, Moonyean's 5-year-old orphaned niece, and she quickly grows up to look just like her aunt. Kathleen meets and falls in love with a mysterious stranger from America, Kenneth Wayne. When John hears of this he is furious--it was Kenneth's father Jeremy who killed Moonyean. John carries his grudge against Jeremy to the new generation and threatens to ruin his niece's happiness, but he softens in the end.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsAlice FayeDon AmecheCarmen MirandaAn entertainer in Rio impersonates a wealthy aristocrat. When the aristocrat's wife asks him to carry the impersonation further, complications ensue.
- DirectorEdward H. GriffithStarsMadeleine CarrollFred MacMurraySterling HaydenA New York chorus girl (Madeleine Carroll) comes home to claim her family plantation and must choose between two men (Fred MacMurray, Sterling Hayden), one rich, one not.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsAlice FayeCarmen MirandaJohn PayneNan Spencer is on a boat bound for Havana which runs aground. The man sent to rescue her is engaged and she doesn't understand his disinterest. Monte Blanca is interested, to the annoyance of his girlfriend.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRobert YoungRandolph ScottDean JaggerWhen Edward Creighton leads the construction of the Western Union to unite East with West, he hires a Western reformed outlaw and a tenderfoot Eastern surveyor.
- DirectorJohn RawlinsStarsJon HallMaria MontezSabuThe caliph of Baghdad must go into hiding with a group of traveling performers when his brother usurps the throne. Both brothers desire a beautiful dancing girl, who is torn between power and true love.
- DirectorAlfred SantellStarsDorothy LamourRichard DenningJack HaleyA circus lion tamer, his girlfriend, a publicist and a professor travel to the Malayan jungle to find proof to the claim that a beautiful woman raised there might be the rightful heiress to an American family's fortune.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsTyrone PowerMaureen O'HaraLaird CregarAn ex-pirate contends with rowdy buccaneers and a love/hate relationship with an aristocratic woman who's tougher than she seems.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJames CagneyDennis MorganBrenda MarshallInspired by Churchill's Dunkirk speech, brash, undisciplined bush pilot Brian MacLean and three friends enlist in the RCAF but are deemed too old to be fliers.
- DirectorGeorge MarshallStarsFred MacMurrayPaulette GoddardSusan HaywardRanger Don Stuart, pursuing a forest arsonist, finds time to romance a socialite.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsSabuJoseph CalleiaJohn QualenA boy raised by wild animals tries to adapt to human village life.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsRita HayworthVictor MatureJohn SuttonAt the end of the 19th century, the young Indiana boy Paul Dresser left his hometown for a long adventure that would eventually place him at the pinnacle of American music as a songwriter.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsRay MillandJohn WaynePaulette GoddardFlorida ship salvager Loxi falls for Jack, captain of a ship wrecked on the Key West shore. However, their romance is complicated by the arrival of another suitor.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsBetty GrableVictor MatureJack OakieWith his sidekick Rusty, Jeff Harper sails to paradisiacal tropical isle Ahmi-Oni to bargain on behalf of his cattle baron father for land owned by transplanted Irishman Dennis O'Brien. But Jeff falls in love with O'Brien's daughter, Eileen, and even his father can't break them up after he arrives and himself falls under the spell of island splendor.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsBetty GrableCarmen MirandaJohn PayneBroadway partners Vicky Lane and Dan Christy have a tiff over Christy's womanizing. Jealous Vicky takes up with her old flame and former dance partner, Victor Price, and Dan's career takes a nosedive. In hopes of rekindling their romance and getting Vicky back on the boards with him, Dan follows her to a ritzy resort in the Canadian Rockies, where she and Victor are about to open their new act. But things get complicated when Dan wakes after a bender to find that he's hired an outlandish Latin secretary, Rosita Murphy, which makes Vicky think he's just up to his old tricks again.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsGene TierneyPreston FosterJohn SuttonA veteran American flyer trains new recruits, including the acrophobic son of his dead war buddy. Complications arise when the younger man falls in love with his mentor's girl.
- DirectorH. Bruce HumberstoneStarsJohn PayneMaureen O'HaraRandolph ScottLife at the Marine Training Base in San Diego on the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
- DirectorEdward BuzzellStarsLucille BallWilliam GaxtonVirginia WeidlerLucille Ball accepts a cadet's invitation to a military academy's senior prom in order to boost her career.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsBetty GrableGeorge MontgomeryCesar RomeroSet at the turn of the century, smooth talking con man Eddie Johnson weasels his way into a job at friend and rival Joe Rocco's Coney Island night spot. Eddie meets the club's star attraction (and Joe's love interest), Kate Farley, a brash singer with a penchant for flashy clothes. Eddie and Kate argue as he tries to soften her image. Eventually, Kate becomes the toast of Coney Island and the two fall in love. Joe then tries to sabotage their marriage plans.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsTyrone PowerAnne BaxterDana AndrewsA submarine lieutenant and his commander fall in love with the same girl.
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsDennis MorganIrene ManningBruce CabotPaul Hudson, leads a group of desert bandits against some Nazis, who want to use them as cheap labor for their railroad.
- DirectorCharles VidorStarsRandolph ScottClaire TrevorGlenn FordA wanted outlaw arrives in town to rob a bank that has already been held up! His past and his friendship with the sheriff land them both in trouble.
- DirectorA. Edward SutherlandStarsBing CrosbyDorothy LamourBilly De WolfeA young songwriter leaves his Kentucky home to try to make it in New Orleans. Eventually he winds up in New York, where he sells his songs to a music publisher, but refuses to sell his most treasured composition: "Dixie." The film is based on the life of Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the classic song "Dixie."
- DirectorRoy Del RuthStarsRed SkeltonLucille BallGene KellyA nightclub's coatroom attendant who's in love with the club's singer accidentally sips a drugged drink that makes him dream he's French King Louis XV, courting the infamous Madame Du Barry.
- DirectorSam WoodStarsGary CooperIngrid BergmanAkim TamiroffDuring the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge.
- DirectorBusby BerkeleyStarsAlice FayeCarmen MirandaPhil BakerA soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsMary MartinDick PowellBetty HuttonA gold-digger hopes to land a rich husband in Trinidad, but gets mixed up with a beach boy and voodoo.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsGene TierneyDon AmecheCharles CoburnAn old roué arrives in Hades to review his life with Satan, who will rule on his eligibility to enter the Underworld.
- DirectorH. Bruce HumberstoneStarsAlice FayeJohn PayneJack OakieIn turn-of-the-century San Francisco, an ambitious vaudevillian takes his quartet from a honky tonk to the big time, while spurning the love of his troupe's star singer for a selfish heiress.
- DirectorFred M. WilcoxStarsRoddy McDowallDonald CrispMay WhittyAfter her destitute family is forced to sell her, a collie named Lassie escapes from her new owner and begins the long trek from Scotland to her Yorkshire home.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsRoger LiveseyDeborah KerrAnton WalbrookFrom the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.
- DirectorHarold D. SchusterStarsRoddy McDowallPreston FosterRita JohnsonKen McLaughlin struggles to please his family in any way. He comes back from boarding school boasting poor grades and facing going through the fifth grade again, much to his fathers dismay. Ken's mother, Nell, manages to persuade his father Rob to let him choose a colt from the herd for himself. He instead chooses a sorrel chestnut filly, who becomes injured soon after. Can Ken nurse the filly back to full health?
- DirectorArthur LubinStarsNelson EddySusanna FosterClaude RainsAn acid-scarred composer rises from the Paris sewers to boost his favorite opera understudy's career.
- DirectorGeorge MarshallStarsDorothy LamourDick PowellVictor MooreIn order to help her father get his silver mine running, a burlesque queen returns home to Arizona and gets a job as an enterainer at a dude ranch and runs into a romantic mining engineer and a counterfeiter.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsBetty GrableRobert YoungAdolphe MenjouMusic-hall star Madeleine Marlowe leaves London engaged to the Duke of Trippingham only to find back home that Police Gazette hack Samuel A. McGee has exposed her as former burlesque queen Rosie O'Grady. To get her own back she announces that Sam is in fact her real suitor. He in turn has a song about Rosie published and something of an Irish brawl develops via his paper and her stage show.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsGeorge MurphyJoan LeslieGeorge TobiasA soldier wounded in the War (WWI) becomes a producer and stages a show for the forces.
- DirectorGeorge SidneyStarsKathryn GraysonGene KellyMary AstorAcrobat Eddie Marsh is in the army now. His first act is to become friendly with Kathryn Jones, the colonel's pretty daughter. Their romance hits a few snags, including disapproval from her father. Eddie's also plagued by fear of having an accident during his family's trapeze act in the army variety show, which also features a gallery of MGM stars.
- DirectorArthur LubinStarsMaria MontezJon HallSabuA shark hunter falls in love with the beautiful ruler of a tropical island.
- DirectorDavid ButlerSidney LanfieldStarsBob HopeVirginia MayoWalter BrennanA cowardly actor and a runaway princess are voyaging on a ship that is captured by a notorious pirate who recently buried his treasure on a secretly mapped island.
- DirectorRalph MurphyStarsDorothy LamourEddie BrackenGil LambThe hilarious adventures of three torpedoed American sailors on an isolated Pacific island during WW2.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsCarmen MirandaMichael O'SheaVivian BlaineThe oddly-assorted Hart cousins--revue singer Blossom, con man Harry and machinist Chiquita (who gets radio through her teeth!)--inherit Southern plantation Magnolia Manor, which alas proves to be a "termite trap" and tax liability. Fortunately, Sgt. Rocky Fulton from a nearby army camp appears with a plan to convert the place into a hotel for Army wives but to pay bills until then, they decide to put on a show. Of course, romantic and military complications intervene.