1944 in film

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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.)

Rank	Title	Studio	Actors
1.	Going My Way	Paramount	Bing Crosby
2.	Wilson	20th Century Fox	Charles Coburn, Alexander Knox
3.	Since You Went Away	United Artists	Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple
4.	Lady in the Dark	Paramount	Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland
5.	Meet Me in St. Louis	MGM	Judy Garland
6.	Mrs. Parkington	MGM	Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon
7.	Here Come the Waves	Paramount	Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton
8.	The Story of Dr. Wassell	Paramount	Gary Cooper and Laraine Day
9.	Winged Victory	20th Century Fox	Lon McCallister and Jeanne Crain
10.	Hollywood Canteen	Warner Bros.	Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Dane Clark
11.	The Princess and the Pirate	RKO	Bob Hope, Virginia Mayo
12.	National Velvet	MGM	Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp
13.	Gaslight	MGM	Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer
14.	Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo	MGM	Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Spencer Tracy
15.	Arsenic and Old Lace	Warner Bros.	Cary Grant, Raymond Massey
16.	Mr. Skeffington	Warner Bros.	Bette Davis, Claude Rains
17.	The White Cliffs of Dover	MGM	Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal
18.	Dragon Seed	MGM	Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead
19.	Cover Girl	Columbia	Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly
20.	Frenchman's Creek	Paramount	Joan Fontaine and Arturo de Cordova
21.	Can't Help Singing	Universal	Deanna Durbin and Robert Paige
22.	To Have and Have Not	Warner Bros.	Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall

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

Rank	Actor/Actress
1.	Bing Crosby
2.	Gary Cooper
3.	Bob Hope
4.	Betty Grable
5.	Spencer Tracy
6.	Greer Garson
7.	Humphrey Bogart
8. (tie)	Bud Abbott Lou Costello
9.	Cary Grant
10.	Bette Davis

Notable films released in 1944

U.S.A. unless stated

ABC

• 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
• 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 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)
• 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 Boris Karloff
• Cobra Woman, starring Maria Montez
• The Conspirators, starring Paul Henreid and Hedy Lamarr
• Cover Girl, starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly
• Crime by Night, starring Jane Wyman
• Cry of the Werewolf, starring Nina Foch
• The Curse of the Cat People, starring Simone Simon

DEF

• 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)
• 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)

GH

• 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 Sacrifice (Opfergang) - (Germany)
• 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.

IJK

• 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.)
• 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

LM

• 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
• 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
• 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

NOP

• 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
• On Approval, starring Clive Brook and Googie Withers - (GB)
• 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

QRS

• 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 Return of the Vampire, starring Béla Lugosi
• 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
• Song of Russia, starring Robert Taylor
• The Spider Woman, a Sherlock Holmes mystery featuring Gale Sondergaard
• The Story of Dr. Wassell, starring Gary Cooper
• Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, starring Anne Baxter and John Hodiak
• The Suspect, starring Charles Laughton

TUV

• 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.)
• To Have And Have Not, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
• Torment (Hets), directed by Alf Sjoberg - (Sweden)
• La Torre de los Siete Jorobados (Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks) - (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

WXYZ

• 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 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 (born 1901)
• 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