1944 in film

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

Events

• March 10 – MGM's A Guy Named Joe, starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne, is released nationally in the United States.
• May 3 – The film Going My Way, directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald, premieres. The highest-grossing picture of the year, it goes on to win a total of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for McCary, Best Actor for Crosby and Best Original Song for "Swinging on a Star".
• 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.
• November 22 – MGM's Meet Me in St. Louis, starring Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien premieres. Hugely popular with both audiences and critics, the film is nominated for four Academy Awards.

  Awards

Top Ten Money Making Stars

1944 film releases

January–March

• January 1944
• *7 January
• **Standing Room Only
• *11 January
• **Career Girl
• *14 January
• **Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
• * 28 January
• **Lifeboat
• **Phantom Lady
• February 1944
• *3 February
• **None Shall Escape
• **The Fighting Sullivans
• *5 February
• **Captain America
• *10 February
• **Lady in the Dark
• *11 February
• **The Bridge of San Luis Rey
• *22 February
• **Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• March 1944
• *2 March
• **The Curse of the Cat People
• *10 March
• **A Guy Named Joe
• *17 March
• **Knickerbocker Holiday
• *22 March
• **Cover Girl
• *23 March
• **The Heavenly Body

  April–June

• April 1944
• *9 April
• **Rosie the Riveter
• *17 April
• **The Lady and the Monster
• *25 April
• **Pin Up Girl
• **And the Angels Sing
• *26 April
• **The Hitler Gang
• May 1944
• *5 May
• **Follow the Boys
• *8 May
• **Time Flies –
• *13 May
• **Cowboy and the Senorita
• *27 May
• **The Tiger Woman
• June 1944
• *1 June
• **Address Unknown
• *8 June
• **Days of Glory

  July–September

• July 1944
• *2 July
• **The Hairy Ape
• *6 July
• **Double Indemnity
• *7 July
• **The Mummy's Ghost
• *8 July
• **Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More
• *12 July
• **The Invisible Man's Revenge
• *14 July
• **Summer Storm
• *20 July
• **Since You Went Away
• *22 July
• **The Adventures of Mark Twain
• *24 July
• **The Seventh Cross
• August 1944
• *12 August
• **Mr. Skeffington
• *17 August
• **Cry of the Werewolf
• **The Soul of a Monster
• *23 August
• **Marriage Is a Private Affair
• *30 August
• **Till We Meet Again
• September 1944
• *2 September
• **Our Hearts Were Young and Gay
• *9 September
• **Crime by Night
• *12 September
• **Strangers in the Night
• *23 September
• **Arsenic and Old Lace

  October–December

• October 1944
• *17 October
• **Fiddlers Three –
• **None but the Lonely Heart
• November 1944
• *1 November
• **Something for the Boys
• *3 November
• **The Woman in the Window
• *10 November
• **Enemy of Women
• *11 November
• **Bluebeard
• *28 November
• **Meet Me in St. Louis
• December 1944
• *1 December
• **House of Frankenstein
• *5 December
• **Blonde Fever
• *6 December
• **Nothing but Trouble
• *18 December
• **Dangerous Passage
• *22 December
• **Winged Victory
• **The Mummy's Curse
• *23 December
• **Lake Placid Serenade
• *24 December
• **I'll Be Seeing You
• *29 December
• **Tomorrow, the World!

  Notable films released in 1944

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, directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, starring Chishū Ryū and Kinuyo Tanaka –
• 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, starring Pedro Armendariz –
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey, starring Lynn Bari
• Buffalo Bill, starring Joel McCrea and Maureen O'Hara
• A Bullet in the Heart –

  C

• Candlelight in Algeria, starring James Mason –
• Can't Help Singing, starring Deanna Durbin
• A Canterbury Tale, written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring Eric Portman –
• 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 –
• The Children Are Watching Us, directed by Vittorio De Sica –
• 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

• Days of Glory, starring Gregory Peck
• Don't Take It to Heart, directed by Jeffrey Dell, starring Richard Greene –
• 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 –

  E-F

• Enemy of Women, starring Paul Andor
• Experiment Perilous, starring Hedy Lamarr and George Brent
• Fanny by Gaslight, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Phyllis Calvert, James Mason, Stewart Granger –
• Fiddlers Three, starring Tommy Trinder
• 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 –
• Frenchman's Creek, starring Joan Fontaine and Basil Rathbone
• Die Feuerzangenbowle –

  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 –

  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
• The Heavenly Body, starring William Powell and Hedy Lamarr
• To Have And Have Not, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
• Henry V, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier –
• The Hitler Gang, starring Robert Watson
• 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, by director Sergei Eisenstein, starring Nikolai Cherkasov –

  J-K

• Janie, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Joyce Reynolds
• Jwar Bhata –
• The Keys of the Kingdom, starring Gregory Peck, Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price and Roddy McDowall
• Knickerbocker Holiday, starring Nelson Eddy
• 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
• Marie-Louise directed by Leopold Lindtberg and an uncredited Franz Schnyder
• 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 –
• , 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, directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor
• Music for Millions, starring Margaret O'Brien

  N

• The Nail –
• 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 –
• 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 –
• Possession –
• 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 –
• Rationing, starring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main
• The Rats of Tobruk, starring Peter Finch and Chips Rafferty –
• The Respectable Ladies of Pardubice, directed by Martin Frič –

  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 Soul of a Monster, starring George Macready
• 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 –
• The Three Caballeros, a Walt Disney animated film starring Donald Duck and Dora Luz
• Time Flies, starring Tommy Handley
• Torment, directed by Alf Sjoberg –
• The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks –
• Tunisian Victory, directed by Frank Capra, Hugh Stewart and John Huston –
• Two Thousand Women, starring Flora Robson and Phyllis Calvert –
• The Uninvited, starring Ray Milland
• Up in Arms, starring Danny Kaye and Dinah Shore

  W-Z

• The Way Ahead, directed by Carol Reed, starring David Niven and Stanley Holloway –
• 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
• The Three Stooges

  Animated short film series

• Mickey Mouse
• Looney Tunes
• Terrytoons
• Merrie Melodies
• Scrappy
• Popeye
• Color Rhapsodies
• Donald Duck
• Goofy
• Andy Panda
• Tom and Jerry
• Bugs Bunny
• Woody Woodpecker
• Swing Symphonies
• The Fox and the Crow
• Red Hot Riding Hood
• Droopy
• Screwball Squirrel
• Sylvester the Cat

  Births

• January 5 – Franco Ferrini, Italian screenwriter
• January 9 – Harun Farocki, German filmmaker
• 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
• February 29 – Dennis Farina, American actor
• March 5 – Peter Weibel, Ukrainian-born Austrian experimental filmmaker
• March 24 - R. Lee Ermey, American film, television and voice actor
• March 26 – Diana Ross, American singer and actress
• April 4- Craig T. Nelson, American actor
• April 6 – Anita Pallenberg, Italian-born actress and model
• April 13 – Charles Burnett, American director
• April 29 – Michael Angelis, English actor
• April 30 – Jill Clayburgh, American actress
• 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
• June 29 – Gary Busey, American actor
• July 2 – Viiu Härm, Estonian actress
• July 8 – Jeffrey Tambor, American actor
• July 30 – Yoon Jeong-hee, South Korean actress
• 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
• October 10 – Lii Tedre, Estonian actress
• November 17 – Danny DeVito, American actor, comedian, producer and director
• November 21 – Harold Ramis, American actor, director and screenwriter
• December 5 – Jeroen Krabbe, Dutch actor and director
• December 17 – Bernard Hill, English actor

  Deaths

• March 14 – Merta Sterling, American actress
• July 14 – Emil Fjellström, Swedish actor
• July 20 – Mildred Harris, American actress
• September 24 – Hugo Thimig, Austrian actor
• December 9 – Laird Cregar, American actor
• December 13 – Lupe Vélez, Mexican actress
• December 15 – Glenn Miller, American musician, actor

  Film Debuts

• Lauren Bacall – To Have and Have Not
• Red Buttons – Winged Victory
• Stan Freberg – Swooner Crooner
• 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