Prelinger Archives

1,873–1,920 of 10,346 films, free to watch, from the world's open archives.

Where these films come from, and who sees what

Every film here plays from the archive that keeps it: the Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons, the NASA Image and Video Library, the Library of Congress and Open Images (the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision). Nothing is copied to this site. Each film's page names its archive, links to its page there, and states its licence or status as the archive does.

Archive films carry no age ratings, so each is placed from the collections it sits in and the subjects the archive gives it, cautiously. Sexual content and nudity are left out altogether.

Little OnesFilms for young children by name: nursery rhymes, lullabies, preschool.
KidsCartoons and animation, children's and family films, and educational films, unless they deal with war, propaganda, crime, horror or drugs, or carry racial caricature.
TweensDocumentaries, science, nature and space, classic comedies, newsreels, commercials and lectures.
TeensEverything else, including anything we cannot tell about; war, crime, horror and westerns go no lower.
AdultSexual themes (such as the old "sex hygiene" films), gore, surgery, slaughter, atrocity footage.
Internet Archive Campus on the March 1942 · Short · 18 min · Subtitles U.S. colleges and universities retool to assist war effort. Internet Archive Reasons Why, The (Part II) 1959 · Short · 17 min · Subtitles Television manufacturing at RCA's New Jersey plant. Includes scenes of design, engineering and quality control. Great scenes of TVs with flickering test… Internet Archive Heart, The 1950 · Short · 10 min · Subtitles Quirky science film on the heart and its diseases. Internet Archive Puppetry: String Marionettes 1947 · Film · Subtitles Accompanies a little boy as he visits a puppeteer's workshop and reveals the craftsman at work constructing one of the marionettes - carving the wooden parts,… Internet Archive Princess and the Pauper, The 1939 · Film · Subtitles "NICKY NOME SAVES DAY BY RESCUE OF THE PAUPER, LADEN WITH TREASURE, ON THE WAY BACK TO THE PRINCESS FROM THE VALLEY OF JEWELS, USING THE MAGIC CARPET, WHICH… Internet Archive Overcoming Fear 1950 · Short · 11 min · Subtitles How Bill overcomes his fear of the water through understanding its sources. Internet Archive This Is Hormel 1964 · Film · Subtitles Tour through the operations of the Hormel Company. Includes all parts of the meatpacking and processing EXCEPT slaughtering. Shows beef, pigs, pork, bacon,… Internet Archive Why Braceros? 1959 · Film · Subtitles This film was produced to justify the bracero program to the general public, especially American citizens in California who were threatened by the influx of… Internet Archive [Panama Canal] 1912 · Film · Subtitles Panama Canal: Ship on the Atlantic Ocean side of the canal / ship coming through the channel / the first (lower) lock seen from the Atlantic side / gates open… Internet Archive Home Movie: 004761 Home movie A family on vacation in Florida, featuring visits to Walt Disney World and Busch Gardens, fishing, snorkeling, and swimming at the beach and the motel pool.… Internet Archive Told By a Tooth 1939 · Cartoon · 10 min · Subtitles An animated tooth lectures children about a balanced dental hygiene program. Internet Archive Man to Man 1947 · Short · 23 min · Subtitles Salesmanship and psychology instruction for gun dealers. Internet Archive Chevrolet Leader News (Vol. 3, No. 1) 1937 · Film · Subtitles CALIFORNIA BATHING BEAUTIES GO FROM SURF TO SNOW. GREAT GIRDERS NOW SPAN GOLDEN GATE. TRAILER AGE BEGINS. LOBSTER LABORATORY: INTIMATE LIFE OF LOBSTER. DOG… Internet Archive Unid. Soundie "Boogie-Woogie Man" (Juvenile Jubilee) 1940 · Film · Subtitles Big band. 00:08:51:26 - 00:11:11:22 B/W Sound 1940s Man in tuxedo & woman in gown perform raucous "Boogie-Woogie Man" jazz song atop piano, singing & dancing… Internet Archive News Magazine of the Screen, The (Vol. 7, Issue 2) 1956 · Film · Subtitles 1:21:00 - KEEPING UP WITH THE CANDIDATES - USA EISENHOWER AND NIXON President Dwight Eisenhower strolls garden at Gettysburg, Penna. home, with wife, Mamie… Internet Archive ROR - Rocket on Rotor 1955 · Film Internet Archive Healing of the Hills: "The Happy, Home-Like Way": A True Story of Sanatorium Life at Stony Wold 1920 · Film · Subtitles Shots to be logged. From http://www.hsl.wikispot.org/Stony_Wold_Sanatorium : In 1901, Elizabeth Newcomb founded Stony Wold Sanatorium on 1800 acres of a… Internet Archive Pathe News Digest (1938, No. 4) 1938 · Film · Subtitles Includes: Floods and winds in the West; 20,000 homeless in California food; dust storms; Austria alarmed!; super plane; sled boat; 1938 regatta; U.S. Navy;… Internet Archive Radiotherapy: High Dosage Treatment 1945 · Film · Subtitles nuclear medicine; radiation therapy; doctor performing an in-office biopsy on a patient under local anesthesia; patient's condition is diagnosed as carcinoma… Internet Archive Fire 1946 · Film · Subtitles USE OF FIRE IN COOKING, HEATING, PRODUCING LIGHT, & DESTROYING RUBBISH. REQUISITES OF ALL FIRES -- FUEL, OXYGEN & KINDLING, TEMPERATURE -- ARE SHOWN & IN… Internet Archive How Honest Are You? 1950 · Short · 13 min · Subtitles For teenagers, honesty can come easy or hard, depending on the stakes. Internet Archive Made In The Usa Film · Subtitles Presented by the Committee on International Economic Policy, in cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, directed by Frank Donovan,… Internet Archive [Amateur film: Parade of Krewe of Rex, New Orleans, February 25, 1941] 1941 · Home movie · 9 min · Subtitles New Orleans festivities as they looked just before World War II. Internet Archive What's It to You? 1955 · Film · Subtitles "The new film was designed to demonstrate dramatically the properties and suggested uses of the new product. A technician swings a baseball bat at a thin… Internet Archive Terrible Truth, The 1951 · Film · Subtitles CASE HISTORY TEENAGE GIRL'S INTRODUCTION TO USE OF NARCOTICS & PERSONAL & SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT RESULT. BEGINNING W/OCCASIONAL MARIJUANA CIGARETTE, SHE… Internet Archive Outsider, The 1951 · Film · Subtitles 00:00:43:00 The Outsider 35814 Susan Jane is fabulous as tormented young teen; other teen actors are pretty wooden. 00:01:34:00 camera zooms in slowly on… Internet Archive [Home Movies: New York City, 1936-1939] 1936 · Home movie · Subtitles Rowing in Central Park (color); Decoration Day parade 1939 (color); night exteriors of Times Square, including neon signs; Easter on Fifth Avenue; ride in… Internet Archive Wonder World of Chemistry: A Film Story of Better Things for Better Living, The 1936 · Film · Subtitles Shots to be logged. Heavy use of opticals. Beautifully shot. Title: "Who changes the old and creates the new, serves Progress! This story of progress is the… Internet Archive Let's Go Bowling 1955 · Film · Subtitles Great shots in 1950s bowling alley. Great shots from one end of alley looking down rows of bowlers. Footage of famous professional bowler Marion Ladewig and… Internet Archive American Revolution, The 1953 · Film · Subtitles Explains strategy, movement of forces and important battles of the revolutionary war. Geographical, social and political factors which brought victory. Internet Archive ["China Girl' Test Slate] 1970 · Short · Subtitles Test slate for color calibration featuring one of the anonymous female models known in the industry as "China Girl." Internet Archive Life Is a Lark at Willow Grove Park 1956 · Film · Subtitles Features bands playing at music stand; plus 20 minute film of amusement park, rides and circus. Internet Archive Around the Corner 1937 · Film · Subtitles Dramatic and clear explanation of how a vehicle can turn a corner keeping the wheels from skidding because the differential is at work. 05:55:39:21… Internet Archive City Within a City, A 1964 · Film · Subtitles Film on the Pan Am Building in New York City. 04:04:20:18 VS men working on skyscraper construction site in New York City. Construction workers in hardhats;… Internet Archive Nothing to Argue About 1953 · Film · Subtitles Promoting the Raytheon television set. Salesman pays sales call on skeptical family and convinces each member in turn. Discussion of tuning, UHF, and picture… Internet Archive Freedom and Power 1952 · Film · Subtitles Depicts the development and importance of electric power from Benjamin Franklin's experiment with a kite to the contributions of Thomas Edison. First… Internet Archive [Home Movies: Levy collection: Caribbean Tour] 1930 · Home movie · Subtitles Title (written on chalkboard): St. Thomas (Ah-May-Ye) 1/25/39St. Pierre Martinique to Fort de France 1/26/39 Internet Archive Forest Fire...Naturally! 1976 · Film · Subtitles Great shots of forest fires and forest servicemen or national park servicemen surveying forest in Sugarloaf Valley, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park in… Internet Archive [Amateur film: Medicus collection: New York World's Fair, 1939-40] (Reel 1) (Part II) 1939 · Home movie · 20 min · Subtitles Detailed documentation of the "World of Tomorrow" in beautiful Kodachrome. Internet Archive Safety at Sea 1928 · Film · Subtitles great model ship tossing on huge waves lighthouses Coast Guard lifesaving and rescues Internet Archive Egg and Us, The 1952 · Film · Subtitles This part-animated, part-live-action film assures us, the American viewer, that we have confidence in the economy and that "the nation's nest egg is growing"… Internet Archive [Chinese Lion Dance: Marysville, California] 1925 · Film · Subtitles MARYSVILLE, CALIFORNIA: Chinese Lion Dance: Views of the crowds and stores in Marysville, parade / fireworks / Chinese Ring game / CU dragon as city… Internet Archive Secretary's Day, The 1947 · Short · 10 min · Subtitles Compares daily activities of a secretary with those of a stenographer. Internet Archive Man: A Film Lesson in "General Science" 1928 · Film · Subtitles Good shots to be logged. animated amoeba animation of respiration and circulation human physiology Internet Archive Communist Blueprint For Conquest 1955 · Film · Subtitles A detailed exploration of the machinations of the Communist Party during the twentieth century, narrated from an anticommunist point of view. Armed Forces… Internet Archive Airport America 1954 · Film · Subtitles Advocates increased airport construction, especially in rural America. Describes the centrality of general aviation to the U.S. economy. Many aerials of… Internet Archive Coral Wonderland Film · Subtitles VS underwater oceanic footage of various kinds of fish and other aquatic creatures swimming in and around the coral reef. Sea slugs, octopi, coral, feathered… Internet Archive Way You Want It, The 1950 · Film · Subtitles Promotional film aimed at car customers. The film focuses on the toughness of Chevrolet cars and the pleasantness and excellent quality of the repair staff at…