The world's archives

2,209–2,256 of 12,291 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 Southern California Earthquake, The 1933 · Film · Subtitles Scenes of severe earthquake damage and disaster relief, including Red Cross tents and hospital interiors. Footage from Compton, Long Beach, Pacific Electric… Internet Archive Convict's Code (1939) 1939 · Feature On parole after three years in prison, a football player (Robert Kent) encounters the man (Sidney Blackmer) who framed him. Watch on RetroFlix:… Internet Archive [See America First] 1931 · Short · 15 min · Subtitles Actress Kay Gordon visits various Oakland, California businesses. Internet Archive [Home Movies: Lenawee County, Michigan: Highway, Swimming, Baseball, Kite Flying] 1930 · Home movie · Subtitles highway driving POVs (great) seq climbing up Original Irish Hills Tower and looking down, also showing Gray Tower, Kelly Knoll looking thru telescope from… Internet Archive Undersea Kingdom: Chapter 9 - Death in the Air 1936 · Short · 16 min Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, a recent graduate of Annapolis, travels with Professor Norton, his Son Billy, and plucky reporter Diana Compton to the Undersea Kingdom… Internet Archive Lady for a Day (1933) 1933 · Feature Never-wed, poor, rough around the edges Apple Annie has always written to her daughter, Louise, in Spain that she is married and a member of New York's high… Internet Archive Skeleton Frolic (1937) 1937 · Feature Ub Iwerks dusts off the skeletons from his early-Disney days and puts them to work at Columbia… in a graveyard replete with eerie owls and surrealistic bats,… Internet Archive Undersea Kingdom: Chapter 11 - Flaming Death 1936 · Short · 19 min Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, a recent graduate of Annapolis, travels with Professor Norton, his Son Billy, and plucky reporter Diana Compton to the Undersea Kingdom… Internet Archive Dark Journey (1937) 1937 · Feature Madeline Goddard, is a British double agent who meets and falls in love with a German spy Baron Karl Von Marwitz during World War I. This tale of espionage… Internet Archive If I Were King (1938) 1938 · Feature King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash poet… Internet Archive Shiver Me Timbers! (1934) 1934 · Feature Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy stumble across a ghost ship. They climb aboard, and it proceeds to scare them in various ways. Watch on RetroFlix:… Internet Archive Automobile for Cross-Country Travel Devised, 1936/11/09 1936 · Newsreel · Subtitles "European engineers try out an automobile with startling new suspension features which enable the machine to disregard the smooth pavement of the highways and… Internet Archive Manga: Shojoji no tanuki-bayashi Dan Dan'emon (1935) 1935 · Feature Danemon Ban seeks out and fights the shape-changing leader of the tanuki to earn a reward. Watch on RetroFlix.org: https://retroflix.org/manga-shojoji-no-tanuk… Internet Archive Stunning footage of the construction of New York's Empire State Building in color (opened in 1931) 1931 · Feature This film is a compilation of restored, enhanced & colorized film footage involving the construction of the Empire State Building (ESB) in New York nearly a… Internet Archive Tropisch Nederland, Part 1 [Tropical Dutch East Indies] in color! (1939) 1939 · Feature This is part-1 of a 8 part documentary about the Dutch East Indies (currently Indonesia) just before WW-II. This footage has been meticulously restored,… Internet Archive Boulder Dam: The Pictorial Record of Man's Conquest of the Colorado River 1930 · Film · Subtitles Early Hoover Dam - views of Boulder City, Government houses, roads, city and dam Colorado. Internet Archive Made for Each Other (1939) 1939 · Feature A couple struggle to find happiness after a whirlwind courtship. Watch on RetroFlix: https://retroflix.org/made-for-each-other-1939/ Internet Archive What -- No Spinach? (1936) 1936 · Feature Wimpy is working for Bluto in his diner and trying to filch all the food he can eat. Popeye comes in and orders roast duck, but Wimpy grabs the drumsticks,… Internet Archive Wives Under Suspicion (1938) 1938 · Feature A merciless district attorney prosecutes a case that mirrors his own life. Watch on RetroFlix: https://retroflix.org/wives-under-suspicion-1938/ Internet Archive Behind Office Doors (1931) 1931 · Feature Mary Linden is the secretary who is the unheralded power behind successful executive James Duneen. He takes her for granted until rival Wales tries to take… Internet Archive Riders of Destiny (1933) 1933 · Feature James Kincaid controls the local water supply and plans to do away with the other ranchers. Government agent Sandy Saunders arrives undercover to investigate… Internet Archive The Cookie Carnival (1935) 1935 · Feature Cookies, pastries, and other desserts have a parade. Watch on RetroFlix: https://retroflix.org/the-cookie-carnival-1935/ Internet Archive Sally Swing (1938) 1938 · Feature Betty Boop, auditioning bandleaders for a college swing dance, "discovers" a cleaning woman who resembles Betty Grable Watch on RetroFlix:… Internet Archive Fire Over England (1937) 1937 · Feature The film is a historical drama set during the reign of Elizabeth I (Flora Robson), focusing on the English defeat of the Spanish Armada, whence the title. In… Internet Archive 1938 Der Mann Von Dem Man Spricht ( Heinz Rühmann, Hans Moser, Theo Lingen, Gusti Huber, Heinz Salfner) E. W Emo 1938 · Feature Film aus dem deutschen dritten Reich von 1938. Der Mann von dem man spricht. U.a mit Hans Moser,Theo Lingen und Heinz Rühmann Internet Archive Berlin in the Year of the Olympic Games in 1936 in color (A.I. enhanced and colorized) 1936 · Feature A short film with interesting views of old Berlin in 1936. It was filmed when the city was bustling with activities surrounding the Olympic Games. There is… Internet Archive [Home Movies: Unidentified] 1932 · Home movie · Subtitles Add description when log sheet for 10540 is found. Pan New York City / Manhattan skyline tiles with letters rotate, form title: "Broadway at Night" VS… Internet Archive Girl Of The Rio 1931 · Feature "Girl of the Rio" is a 1932 American Pre-Code RKO musical film starred Dolores del Río and Leo Carrillo. Directed by Herbert Brenon, the screenplay was… Internet Archive Boulder Dam: The Pictorial Record of Man's Conquest of the Colorado River 1930 · Film · Subtitles Early Hoover Dam - views of Boulder City, Government houses, roads, city and dam Colorado. Internet Archive Tropisch Nederland, Deel 3 [Tropical Dutch East Indies] in color! (1939) 1939 · Feature This is part-3 of a 8 part documentary about the Dutch East Indies (currently Indonesia) just before WW-II. This footage has been meticulously restored,… Internet Archive The Moonstone (1934) 1934 · Feature A valuable gem from India is stolen in an old dark mansion and it is up to Scotland Yard inspector Charles Irwin to find out who did it among all the suspects… Internet Archive The Return of Chandu - Chapter 1 1934 · Short Bela Lugosi is "Chandu" an American raised in the east and possessed of White Magical powers. Chandu must protect an Egyptian princess from being sacrificed… Internet Archive Loco Lindo (1936) 1936 · Feature Loco lindo es una película argentina en blanco y negro dirigida por Arturo S. Mom sobre guion de Conrado Nalé Roxlo y José B. Cairola que se estrenó el 13 de… Internet Archive The Exile (1931) 1931 · Feature I've been researching newly public domain films from 1929 and earlier, along with other pictures of the era that I find interesting, so I'm uploading the best… Internet Archive Ace Drummond Chapter 1 1936 · Short 13 part serial based on the comic strip character Ace Drummond created by WWI flying Ace Eddie Rickenbacker. Internet Archive Take a trip by boat around New York (Manhattan) in 1935 in color! [AI enhanced & colorized] 1935 · Feature This film is of particular interest from a historians perspective as it shows wonderful shots of what New York city was like in the early 1930's. We take a… Internet Archive 1936 Alles Für Veronika ( Hans Moser, Theo Lingen, Grethe Weiser, Hilde Hildebrand, Ilse Fürstenberg) 1936 · Feature Film aus dem deutschen dritten Reich von 1936. Alles für Veronika. U.a mit Hans Moser,Grethe Weiser und Theo Lingen Internet Archive Indiscreet (1931) 1931 · Feature A young woman jeopardizes the relationship with the man she loves when a no-account from her past shows up. Watch on RetroFlix:… Internet Archive Rain (1932) 1932 · Feature Due to a possible cholera epidemic onboard, passengers on a ship are forced to disembark at Pago Pago, a small village on a Pacific island where it… Internet Archive African Pygmy Thrills 1930 · Educational · 10 min Castle Films, whose series ‘The Adventure Parade’ resulted in a number of commercially exotic films on ethnic traditions and cultures, actually utilized… Internet Archive Betty Boop for President (1932) 1932 · Feature Betty's campaign tries to appeal to everyone. Real candidates are parodied, but campaign promises are a bit bizarre. Watch on RetroFlix:… Internet Archive Blow Me Down! (1933) 1933 · Feature Popeye sails into Mexico, where Olive is a dancer and Bluto is a bandit. Watch on RetroFlix: https://retroflix.org/blow-me-down-1933/ Internet Archive The Divorce of Lady X (1938) 1938 · Feature The morning after a London barrister lets a mystery woman stay in his suite, a friend files for divorce. Watch on RetroFlix:… Internet Archive Undersea Kingdom: Chapter 3 - Arena of Death 1936 · Short · 18 min Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, a recent graduate of Annapolis, travels with Professor Norton, his Son Billy, and plucky reporter Diana Compton to the Undersea Kingdom… Internet Archive A Date to Skate (1938) 1938 · Feature Popeye takes Olive roller skating in a rink. She's never skated before, so he has to teach her, and she's not a quick learner. Before long Olive ends up… Internet Archive Rhapsody of the Rails 1933 · Film · Subtitles Railroad Travel Skeletal Entry Internet Archive Croon Crazy 1933 · Cartoon · 5 min Cubby the Bear hosts a radio show. When the guests don't show up, Cubby has to impersonate them all! Internet Archive Japanese Lanterns (1935) 1935 · Feature 5th Cartoon in the Van Beuren Rainbow Parade Series. Retitled "Chinese Lanterns" during World War II. Watch on RetroFlix:…