This Month

July 19 / 10 Movies

In celebration of the Summer Olympics, TCM presents 24 hours of films about the Olympic Games from various years of cinema history. All 10 titles are TCM premieres.

The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912 (2017), a newly restored documentary by Adrian Wood, is a record of the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. It is considered the earliest comprehensive moving-image record of the modern Games that survives today. The images were created at the time by the production company Svensk-Amerikanska Filmkompaniet.

The White Stadium (1928) documents the second Winter Olympics, held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 1928. Directors Arnold Fanck and Othmar Gurtner were considered very influential on later filmmakers with their blending of the actual events and views of the picturesque locations where the Games took place.

The Marathon Runner (Der Läufer von Marathon) (1933) is a German dramatic film set before and during the 1932 Olympic games in Los Angeles. Ewald Andre Dupont directs a cast headed by Brigitte Helm and Hans Brausewetter.

XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport (1948) is a documentary about the 1948 Summer Olympics held in London, England. Castleton Knight directs, and actor Ted Husing narrates.

White Vertigo (1956) is a documentary covering the 1956 Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Georgio Ferroni directs, and ski champion Toni Sailer is featured.

Tokyo Olympiad (1965) is a documentary about the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo. Writer/director Kon Ichikawa follows athletes and events from the opening to closing ceremonies. The film won the Flaherty Documentary Award at the 1966 BAFTA Awards.

Visions of Eight (1973) is a documentary in which eight international filmmakers offer short films showing different perspectives of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. The directors are Milos Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Yurly Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger and Mai Zetterling.

Games of the XXI Olympiad (1977) is a documentary about the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, with director credit shared by four filmmakers: Jean Beaudin, Marcel Carriere, Georges Dufaux and Jean-Claude Labrecque. Rather than the glamour and glory, the film concentrates on the human side of the participants in the Games.

16 Days of Glory (1986), a documentary that has been called “the definitive photographic record of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics,” is directed by Bud Greenspan. Among the athletes profiled are Michael Gross, Greg Louganis and Mary Lou Retton.

First (2012) is a documentary from the United Kingdom subtitled “The Official Film of the London 2012 Olympic Games.” Writer-director Caroline Rowland focuses on 12 athletes from around the world who are participating for the first time in Olympic competition. The film won an award as Best Foreign Documentary at the Moondance Film Festival in Boulder, CO.