Movies: Humphrey Jennings

The film, made to advertise domestic telephone sets, is based around two very different families. The Petts are conventional, happy and have children; the Potts are unconventional and unhappy, without children....

A Defeated People is a 1946 British documentary short film made by the Crown Film Unit, directed by Humphrey Jennings and narrated by William Hartnell. The film depicts the shattered state of Germany, both physically and as a society, in the immediat...

Documentary short by Humphrey Jennings...

Documentary short by Humphrey Jennings. The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to...

Londoners prepare for war....

Poetry by Rudyard Kipling, John Milton, and William Blake, and excerpts from speeches by Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, all read by Laurence Olivier, illuminate documentary footage of England during its defense against the Nazi blitz in World...

Edward R. Murrow narrates Humphrey Jennings' short documentary about life in England during wartime....

Piano virtuosa Myra Hess performs Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, known as the "Appassionata", on stage in a concert hall. Hess performs only the first movement of the sonata....

This experiment was a “prestige advertisement” for Shell Motor Oil. As conventional animation became dominated by Walt Disney, many European filmmakers turned to puppets as an alternative, and Lye enlisted the help of avant-garde friends such as Hum...

A documentary by Humphrey Jennings about the modernization of coal mines in Cumberland....

Documentary short by Humphrey Jennings. 'Cargoes' follows the S.S. Ionian as she delivers her cargo around the Mediterranean - her final peacetime journey....

Documentary by Humphrey Jennings...

Osbert Lancaster, James Fisher, John Ormston and Ralph Vaughn Williams meditate on the history and culture of England....

Documentary short by Humphrey Jennings about transatlantic telecommunications. This film is structured around British attempts to prevent the V1 missiles from getting through to their targets....

Documentary short by Humphrey Jennings...

The history of wheels, roads and vehicles from cavemen to the coming of steam....

A story of sacrifice, in which organised labour voluntarily relinquishes hard-won workplace rights after being asked "to give up by choice what Hitler takes by force."...