1944 in film

Years in film
1870s
1880s
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 and beyond

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

• July 20 - Since You Went Away is released.
• September 6 - Double Indemnity is released.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

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

Films released in 1944

U.S.A. unless stated

• The Adventures of Mark Twain
• And Now Tomorrow, starring Alan Ladd and Loretta Young
• And the Angels Sing, starring Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Lamour
• Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by Frank Capra, starring Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane
• Between Two Worlds
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey
• Buffalo Bill, starring Joel McCrea and Maureen O'Hara
• Can't Help Singing
• A Canterbury Tale, written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring Eric Portman - (U.K.)
• The Canterville Ghost, starring Charles Laughton
• Casanova Brown, starring Gary Cooper
• Champagne Charlie, directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, starring Tommy Trinder and Stanley Holloway - (U.K.)
• The Children Are Watching Us (I bambini ci guardano), directed by Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• Christmas Holiday, starring Gene Kelly
• The Climax, starring Boris Karloff
• The Conspirators, starring Paul Henreid and Hedy Lamarr
• Cover Girl, starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly
• Cry of the Werewolf
• The Curse of the Cat People, starring Simone Simon
• Don't Take It to Heart, directed by Jeffrey Dell and starring Richard Greene (U.K.)
• 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 (China)
• Fanny by Gaslight directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Phyllis Calvert, James Mason and Stewart Granger (U.K.)
• The Fighting Seabees, starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward
• The Fighting Sullivans, directed by Lloyd Bacon
• For Those in Peril, directed by Charles Crichton - (U.K.)
• Frenchman's Creek, starring Joan Fontaine and Basil Rathbone
• Die Feuerzangenbowle (The Punch Bowl) - (Germany)
• Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer
• Going My Way, directed by Leo McCarey, starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald - winner of 7 Oscars
• Hail the Conquering Hero, starring Eddie Bracken and Ella Raines
• To Have And Have Not, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
• Henry V, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier - (U.K.)
• Hollywood Canteen
• Home in Indiana
• The Hour Before the Dawn, starring Veronica Lake
• House of Frankenstein
• I Accuse My Parents, starring Mary Beth Hughes
• I'll Be Seeing You
• 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.)
• The Keys of the Kingdom, starring Gregory Peck, Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, and Roddy McDowall
• Kismet, starring Ronald Colman and Marlene Dietrich
• Lady in the Dark
• Lady, Let's Dance, ice skating musical starring Belita and comedy ice team Frick and Frack
• Laura, directed by Otto Preminger, starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb
• Lifeboat, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Tallulah Bankhead and John Hodiak
• The Lodger, starring Merle Oberon
• Lost in a Harem, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
• Man from Frisco directed by Robert Florey, starring Michael O'Shea and Anne Shirley.
• The Mask of Dimitrios
• Meet Me in St. Louis, starring Judy Garland
• Meet the People
• 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
• The Mummy's Ghost
• Murder, My Sweet (aka Farewell My Lovely), starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor
• National Velvet, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney
• None but the Lonely Heart, starring Cary Grant
• None Shall Escape
• North East Corner
• On Approval, starring Clive Brook and Googie Withers - (U.K.)
• Passage to Marseille
• 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
• The Princess and the Pirate
• The Purple Heart
• Rainbow - (U.S.S.R.)
• The Return of the Vampire
• The Scarlet Claw, a Sherlock Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Seventh Cross
• Since You Went Away, starring Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple
• Song of Russia
• The Spider Woman, a Sherlock Holmes mystery featuring Gale Sondergaard
• The Story of Dr. Wassell, starring Gary Cooper
• Sunday Dinner for a Soldier
• The Suspect, starring Charles Laughton
• Tall in the Saddle
• Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, starring Spencer Tracy
• This Happy Breed, directed by David Lean, starring John Mills and Celia Johnson - (U.K.)
• The Three Caballeros
• Torment (Hets), directed by Alf Sjoberg - (Sweden)
• La Torre de los Siete Jorobados - (Spain)
• The Uninvited, starring Ray Milland
• Voodoo Man, starring Bela Lugosi
• The Way Ahead, directed by Carol Reed - (U.K.)
• The White Cliffs of Dover
• Wilson, biographical film about President Woodrow Wilson, starring Charles Coburn
• The Woman in the Window, starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett
• The Yellow Rose of Texas with 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 23 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
• February 3 - Trisha Noble, Australian singer and actress
• February 13 - Stockard Channing, actress
• February 14 - Alan Parker, English director, producer and screenwriter
• February 22 - Jonathan Demme, director, producer and screenwriter
• February 29 - Dennis Farina, actor
• March 26 - Diana Ross, singer and actress
• April 30 - Jill Clayburgh, actress (died 2010)
• May 5 - John Rhys-Davies, English actor
• May 10 - Jim Abrahams, director, producer and screenwriter
• May 14 - George Lucas, director, producer and screenwriter
• May 25 - Frank Oz, English director and puppeteer
• June 29 - Gary Busey, actor
• July 31 - Geraldine Chaplin, actress
• August 7 - John Glover, actor
• August 9 - Sam Elliott, 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, actor and producer
• November 17 - Danny DeVito, actor, comedian, producer and director
• November 21 - Harold Ramis, actor, director and screenwriter
• December 5 - Jeroen Krabbe, Dutch actor and director
• December 17 - Bernard Hill, English actor

Deaths

• July 20 - Mildred Harris, actress
• December 13 - Lupe Vélez, actress (born 1908)
• December 15 - Glenn Miller, musician, actor (born 1904)

Film Debuts

• Lauren Bacall
• Angela Lansbury
• Gregory Peck
• Jean Simmons