This MGM Passing Parade series short recounts how English chemist John Walker invented the wooden friction match during the 1820s.
Social & External
Narrator (voice)
John Walker (uncredited)
Mrs. John Walker (uncredited)
In nineteenth-century Łódź, Poland, three friends want to make a lot of money by building and investing in a textile factory. An exceptional portrait of rapid industrial expansion is shown through the eyes of one Polish town.
Denmark in 1927. The ambitious police officer Otto Himmelstrup leads the newly formed Special Unit, which is tasked with assisting local police in solving particularly difficult crimes. When a body is found in a burnt-out summer house in Esbjerg, Otto and his team begin to unravel an unusual murder mystery, revealing power struggles and corruption among the city’s elite. The closer the unit gets to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes. Soon, Otto finds himself not only battling powerful enemies but also confronting his own dark side in his quest to solve the case.
In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.
In November 1947 forty-one people died in a massive blaze that gutted the huge Ballantynes Department Store complex in the heart of Christchurch’s business district. This is the tragic story of New Zealand’s worst fire disaster.
Eusebio José Fernández López Reboredo Bergamín is a teenager in the 1960s whose dream is to be a movie director, but General Francisco Franco prohibited in 1964 all types of art. A coincidental encounter with another artist, named Antonio Mínguez, will change his life.
For those who heart history and the great city of Chicago, this film will take you through time with a small child and his nervous babysitter. Feel the intensity of the Great Chicago Fire and splendor of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Explore the sights of bustling Maxwell Street in the 1950s and peer down from an I-beam of the Sears Tower in the 1970s. Relive Chicago sports victories and cheer on President Obama during his Grant Park victory speech.
True story of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone, inspired by his mother.
Rudolf Diesel, one of history’s greatest inventors, vanished into thin air on the eve of World War I. His revolutionary invention, the Diesel engine, was highly sought after by global industries and political figures around the world. It had the power to threaten empires and change the fate of nations, turning him and his technology into both a prized asset and a potential threat.
Historical short showing how Eli Whitney (best known for the invention of the cotton gin) played a significant role in the introduction of mass production techniques to the USA in the late 18th century.
This MGM Passing Parade series short tells the story of Julian Poydras, whose encounter with a girl at Mardi Gras had a profound effect on his later life.
Since the invention of the automobile, women have distinguished themselves by their daring: the history of women in motor sport.
This short film focuses on the mysterious and legendary Seri Indians who live in a utopian colony off the west coast of Mexico.
This Passing Parade series short chronicles the political life of Francisco Madero, who tried to bring democracy and land reform to Mexico.
Shows how important luck can be in a person's life.
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short highlights the film preservation efforts of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Several scenes from early newsreels are shown.
Americans are preoccupied with the news, but need an escape from many of the events reported in the news. These escapes in the past have included dime store novels. The most accessible of these escapes is what are known as the funny papers, the set of serialized comic strips that are included within many newspapers. They appeal to all socio-economic classes, and all ages. Some of the earliest known from the late 19th century include the Yellow Kid, Little Nemo, Happy Hooligan, the Katzenjammer Kids, Mutt & Jeff, and Bringing Up Father. Many cartoonists are seen in action. Some originated their characters, while others have taken over following the passing of the originator. The joy of many comic strips are the absurd and the fantastical, which are limited only by the imagination of the cartoonist. Others are grounded in reality, which add to their poignancy within the public mindset.
The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.
The story of the Promethean struggles of Nikola Tesla, as he attempts to transcend entrenched technology—including his own previous work—by pioneering a system of wireless energy that would change the world.
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short takes a look at the typical American barbershop throughout the years.
In 1895, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade constructs and flies India's first unmanned plane, despite having the odds stacked against him.
An army major goes undercover as a college student. His mission is both professional and personal: to protect his general's daughter from a radical militant, and to find his estranged half-brother.
Two young women will stop at nothing for one to gain a $4 million inheritance of two priceless diamonds, while two detectives try to thwart their plans, but find complications abound.
The evolution of adult cinema through the most influential films in history, a journey that begins in the 1970s and ends nowadays. An in-depth analysis of the success of the most prestigious erotic films, their impact on industry and society, and their influence on cinema and contemporary culture.
A strange meteor lands in Japan and unleashes hundreds of insect-like "Legion" creatures bent on colonizing the Earth. When the military fails to control the situation, Gamera shows up to deal with the ever-evolving space adversary. However the battle may result in Gamera losing his bond with both Asagi and humanity.
Once again billed as Montgomery Wood, Giuliano Gemma plays a civil war soldier who returns to his family land to find his family decimated, his property taken over by a family of Mexican bandits and his fiancee about to marry the Mexican gangster behind all this. Bent on revenge, he goes undercover disguised as a Mexican and discovers he has a daughter!
A worn-out, aging shearer who once rained king of the high country, gets on the gear to keep up his numbers. But when the drugs take over he must learn what it really means to be a man, before he loses so much more than his country pride -- MAN.
An ex-CIA operative is thrown back into a dangerous world when a mysterious woman from his past resurfaces. Now exposed and targeted by a relentless killer and a rogue black ops program, he must rely on skills he thought he left behind in a high-stakes game of survival.
During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.
Three years after the death of her beloved child, Elouise, Mara still feels her presence when she sits on the butterfly bedding in front of the jar with her ashes in it. Mara arranges a twelfth birthday party for Elouise, further alienating her from her husband, Richter, and remaining daughter, Hannah. Although Mara eventually vacates Elouise's room at the insistence of her husband, she does find a way to stay close to Elouise. Before long, however, Hannah discovers her mother's secret.
Ko Chun, the God of Gamblers, vows to keep his identity hidden while looking for the gangsters who murdered his pregnant wife.
Young women in Nazi-occupied countries are packed onto a train and shipped off to a prison camp, where the sadistic commandant uses them as rewards for his lesbian guards and perverted and deviate troops.
The next Saturday Night’s Main Event primetime special will air live on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 8/7 C on NBC and simulcast on Peacock. The special will be held at Frost Bank Center – home of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs – in San Antonio, Texas.
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes will go head-to-head with Kevin Owens as Saturday Night's Main Event returns to NBC. Plus World Tag Team Champion Finn Bálor will face "The Ring General" Gunther for the World Heavyweight Title. The Women's World Championship will be on the line when Liv Morgan defends her title against IYO SKY.
Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
Capturing Avatar is a feature length behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Avatar. It uses footage from the film's development, as well as stock footage from as far back as the production of Titanic in 1995. Also included are numerous interviews with cast, artists, and other crew members. The documentary was released as a bonus feature on the extended collector's edition of Avatar.
Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.
Dev Kumar Verma comes from a middle-class family and must find employment to support his dad and mom. Dev, however, has set his mind upon becoming a music sensation like Elvis Presley. He loses his job because of this, and refuses to work until and unless he gets a job to his liking, much to the dismay of his parents and his brother, Shiv Kumar. Dev does get employment at Charlie's Disco, where he meets with Maya and falls in love with her. When Charlie's Disco's competitor, Rana, finds out about Dev, he wants to hire Dev, but Dev decides to continue to work with Charlie's Disco, as a result Dev and Charlie get a beating by Rana's men, and Dev is unable to sing. After recuperating, Dev is devastated to find out that Maya and Shiv Kumar are in love with each other. What impact will this have on Dev and his brother on one hand, and what of his career in music?
Near the end of WW2, prisoners of war are used in experiments to perfect the Arian race.
