Self (archive footage)
Bing Crosby was, without a doubt, the most popular and influential multi-media star of the first half of the twentieth century, pulling audiences in with his intimate, laid-back voice and innate charm. Narrated by Stanley Tucci and directed by Robert Trachtenberg, this film explores the life and legend of this iconic performer, revealing a personality far more complex than the image the public had only thought they'd known.
Gayle Clayton
When a small town doctor buries his twin brother, a practitioner of the black arts, he believes him dead; but subsequent events force him to realize that his brother has, in fact, returned from the dead as a vampire and is seeking revenge on the doctor, who had killed him in self-defense.
Virginia Clark
When crime boss Big Mike Morgan is killed, his lieutenant, "Doc" Rogers, learns that Morgan has a son named Edward living in the country with his mother. Rogers has naïve Edward brought to the city and installs him as the head of Acme Protective Agency. Good-hearted Eddy assumes his company provides insurance, rather than extortion-- But don't be too hard on the guy, he still doesn't know he's Baby Face Morgan, the most feared gangster in the city!
Jane Townsend
Richard Arlen and Phil Terry star as Skimmer and Tommy, two lifelong buddies who've invented a lightweight, high-speed torpedo boat (hence the title). Their copacetic business relationship is strained when nightclub singer Grace Holman (Jean Parker), having been jilted by Skimmer, marries Tommy on the rebound.
Carol Patrick
A framed cabby rounds up fur thieves and saves his opera-singer girlfriend.
Sally
Judy O'Brien is an aspiring ballerina in a dance troupe. Also in the company is Bubbles, a brash mantrap who leaves the struggling troupe for a career in burlesque. When the company disbands, Bubbles gives Judy a thankless job as her stooge. The two eventually clash when both fall for the same man.
Mary Ford
Rancher Autry takes a job singing on the radio to aid farmers and ranchers whose lands were destroyed by raging floods. Blaming crooked politicians, he goes to Washington and tries to put through a food control bill and finds he has a lot to learn. In this classic release, Gene introduces his immortal theme song, "Back in the Saddle Again," which has gone on to become a piece of American History.
Marge Hogan
A tough street kid attempts to rob a post office and is caught. In order to avoid reform school, he takes a job as a messenger with the post office. He finds that he likes it, and when his brother is released from prison, attempts to help his brother go straight. However, the two of them get mixed up with a local gangster, who has plans to start robbing post office branches and using the messenger and his brother to do it.
Betty Lou Gifford
A bumbling detective chases an escaped convict in an amusement park haunted house in Coney Island.
Millie
Bandleader Tim Hartley's father objects strongly to his son's occupation choice and packs him off to Hawaii to manage the family hotel holdings. This proves to be a wrong move as Hawaiia has more bands than it does pineapples.
Crystal
A rookie cop and his girlfriend's uncle, a police captain, disagree on the methods that should be used to catch criminals.
Marian
A prize-winning stallion breeds off-guard with a mare owned by his rival. The colt is trained to race from birth, eventually running in the Kentucky Derby against another horse owned by its sire.
Phyllis Carrington
An American golf pro falls in love with a woman while visiting France; before long they are married and in the US. Upon their arrival, they are dismayed to discover that the golfer's parents have arranged for him to marry a wealthy socialite so they can use her money to support their business....
Carol Butler
G-Man Charles Bent Martin is sent out to break up a nationwide racket. A transport company is aiding fugitives making a getaway in exchange for the lion's share of their loot. Through an old friend, whom he once barnstormed in an air circus, Martin joins the gang as a pilot. He becomes interested in Carol Butler, a beautiful girl involved with the gang through the activities of her ne'er-do-well father.
Toni Denby
Prep football star Jimmy Howal gets a reception far different from what he expected when he enters West Point.
Jane Harris
Notorious racketeer Joe Albany kills James Flowers when he discovers he is embezzling from the club they own. Joe escapes through a window and hails a taxi, but when he gets nervous at the sound of sirens, he jumps out. Hardware salesman Peter Harris accidentally hits Joe with his car, and unharmed, Joe seizes this opportunity to hide in Peter's car. Peter is so drunk that Joe is able to con him into believing that he is Charles Edwards, a fellow hardware man who was with him at a convention, and in the guise of friendship, accompanies Peter to his suburban home. The next morning, Joe gets antsy and wants to leave, but Peter's family, his wife Mary, young son Robert and daughter Jane all entreat him to stay.
Judy Marlowe
Dr. Bill Remsen pretends to be a policeman, and ends up being assigned to guard Judy Marlowe. Amazingly, he falls in love with her.
Marjorie Rogers
A federal agent goes after a hijacking ring that uses beautiful women to help it hijack the rigs of unsuspecting truckers.
Judy Holland
Two football players fight over the same girl.
Vicki Clark
A philanthropist's will dictates that four people receive $5,000 apiece, with the stipulation that the first one who can double the amount -- without dishonesty-- will win a cool million. Hindering the four are the avaricious relatives of the late millionaire.
Phyllis
Parkhouse plays a practical joke on a poker-playing buddy by sending him home with a lady's chemise stuffed in his coat pocket. The gag backfires, whereupon Parkhouse finds himself in hot water with his own wife. Threatened with divorce, Parkhouse is advised by a zany astrologer to frame Mrs. P. in a compromising situation at the Hotel Haywire, enlisting amateur detectives Bert and Genevieve Sterns in his scheme.
Emily Stewart
When a king suddenly abdicates, his subjects are lead to believe that it is for the love of a foreigner in this romance. In reality, he is stepping down so avaricious businessmen can crown their own man king. The deposed monarch spends his exile on the Riviera, while the woman, filled with guilt because he stepped down for her, lives in Holland. Interestingly enough, Edward VIII the King of England abdicated for the love of American woman Wallis Simpson a few weeks after this British film was released.
Billie 'Stonewall' Jackson
Previously filmed in 1930 as True to the Navy, Kenyon Nicholson's old stage farce Sailor Beware returned to the screen in 1936 as Lady Be Careful. The plot remains substantially the same, as an amorous sailor named Dynamite (Lew Ayres) bets his pals that he can "thaw" icy beauty-contest winner Billie (Mary Carlisle). What follows is a series of misunderstandings, arguments and reconciliations, all wrapped up in a happy-ever-after conclusion.
Phyllis
Mary, a woman with good intentions, takes pity on Henry, an artist with no home. What begins as a simple offer to come inside from the cold for tea gradually turns into more. Before the unsuspecting woman knows it, Henry, his family, and his friends con their way into her home. Eventually, Mary creates a ruse to rid herself of the parasites, but they have a different plan.
Grace Gridley
Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match. Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, but first the men must dodge a dogged IRS agent and bilk a bunch of aviation investors out of the backing boodle for a balloon excursion into the stratosphere.
Nancy Abbott
A New York radio talent scout turns up at a barn dance.
Edie Morton
Always-broke racetrack tout shows his true colors when setting up an apartment for his girl friend.
Doris Waverly
Eccentric tycoon Jasper Whyte hosts a dinner at his mansion and announces that he will divide his money and give each guest a million dollars before the stroke of midnight. When his long-lost granddaughter suddenly arrives, Whyte changes his mind and proclaims that she will receive his entire fortune. A second lady appears at the estate, claiming that she is actually Whyte's granddaughter, Doris Waverly, and the first woman is found murdered in her room! With each guest possessing a motive, the mystery of the killer's identity briskly unfolds through a stirring series of surprises.
Olive Temple
Crime novelist Roger Blackwood competes with hotel house detective Andy McCabe in solving a murder by poisoning at a medical convention.
Gerry Killaine
An elderly schoolteacher is determined to rid her town of the local gambling den.
Gwen
A conceited college track star, used to being "big man on campus", gets a jolt when he loses an election to see who is the most popular man in the school.
Gloria
The Great Elmer and Company, two out-of-work magicians, help lovelorn Jerry Bronson adopt Spanky Milford, to distract him. When Bronson makes up and elopes, the pair are stuck with the little boy. But Spanky inherits a Kentucky fortune, so they head south to Banesville, where the Milfords and Wakefields are conducting a bitter feud.
Francesca Shelton
To stop his mother from marrying a man he doesn't like, a young millionaire hires an ex-con in helping him fake his own kidnaping.
Janice Yates
A small-town druggist is henpecked by his social-climbing wife to sell his pharmacy to a national chain. In addition, she tries to set up her pretty young daughter with the nitwit son of the chain's owner, even though the girl is in love with the handsome son of the town doctor. Finally the druggist decides he's had enough and takes matters into his own hands.
Ruth
Ruth Raymond works on the switchboard and her boyfriend is John Blake. It has taken 14 years, but a detective named Murray has found her and confirmed.
Doris Andros
An able nurse clashes with a new doctor at her hospital.
Peggy Turner
A family man becomes innocently involved in an embezzlement.
Anne Howe
Joe Palooka is a naive young man whose father Pete was a champion boxer, but his lifestyle caused Joe's mother Mayme to leave him and to take young Joe to the country to raise him.
Leone Merrick
A middle-aged houseguest causes romantic turmoil when he falls in love with his host's teenage daughter. Director Harry Beaumont's pre-code comedy stars Lionel Barrymore, Alice Brady, Godfrey Tearle, Mary Carlisle, William Janney, Katharine Alexander and Halliwell Hobbes.
Edna Howard
A kindly, elderly couple who run a New York City boarding house form the steady center around which the lives and loves of their various residents unfold. Borrowed money, a lovelorn chorus girl, and a tragic misunderstanding set in motion the chain of events in East of Fifth Avenue’s tender pageant of life.
Vivian
A campus flirt who has been "pinned" by most of the boys of Sigma Chi fraternity falls for a no-nonsense athlete who doesn't have time for such diversions as women.
Thelma Springer
Jim Fowler is Western University's football hero and is constantly besieged by reporters. Jim's father Ezra comes to visit him and becomes reacquainted with an old Western football chum, Mr. Chandler, who happens to be the father of Jim's girlfriend Joan. Jim keeps his roommate, Andy, busy by sending him to collect money on their laundry concessions business, even though Andy is desperately trying to meet his girlfriend Thelma, who has just come for a visit. When the coach tells Chandler and Fowler that Jim is nervous and erratic, Chandler invites Jim to spend the night before the big game at his home.
Sally Lou Cateret
Lighthearted comedy film following the (mis)adventures of four gold diggers.
Barbara Shirrel
A college professor and the school's star football player are both rivals for the same beautiful coed.
Evelyn
Prophetic tale of a mother in 1940 trying to keep her son out of war.
Constance 'Connie' Kennedy
A woman is accused of murdering a man who molested her young daughter.
Young Party Guest
On the day of his wedding, Sir John Carteret's fiancée, Moonyeen, is killed by a jealous rival named Jeremy, leaving him emotionally devastated. Carteret spends three decades in seclusion, mostly communing with the spirit of Moonyeen, until he learns that her niece, Kathleen, has become an orphan. He adopts and raises the child as his own but is alarmed when, as a young woman, she falls in love with the son of Moonyeen's murderer.
Jackie Harper
Husband and father Will Rogers tells his spoiled wife and children that they have to economize.
Daisy
Daisy is visiting her sailor boyfriend Glenn aboard a submarine when it leaves port. Fearful of what may happen if an officer discovers a woman on board, she is hidden in a big chest.
In this short, Mary Carlisle is in love with Harry and they have a fight and she storms off. At the same time, Mary's father (Edgar Kennedy) has recently remarried and he's sick of his wife talking about how great Harry Barris is! And, on top of that, when Edgar meets Harry it ends very badly for Edgar!
Elizabeth Osgood
A corrupt night court judge tears an innocent young family apart in his efforts to elude a special prosecutor.
Mrs. Hoffman - Young Honeymooner (uncredited)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through worry, scandal, and heartache.
Young Honeymooner Mrs. Hoffman (uncredited)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through worry, scandal, and heartache.
Alicia
Scheduled for demolition, Hotel Continental has seen 50 years of romance, intrigue, and tragedy. The last night attracts many nostalgic patrons, including a gangster planning to grab the loot that he hid there many years ago.
Cassandra Phelps
Donald Ingals and his wife Eunice are conventional and loving parents who are shocked when their son Bradley comes home from college with ideas that they consider to be outrageous. His parents would like him to get involved with Mary Burke, a prim and proper young lady. More complications ensue because Bradley's sister Lois is attracted to the flapper lifestyle, but she isn't sure whether she can handle its emotional demands.
Blonde Autograph Seeker (uncredited)
An aspiring classical singer is romanced by both a famous opera star and his younger understudy.
Impy (uncredited)
At Satan & Co., Inc., the devil is upset because too many people are going up to Heaven rather than down to Hades. He gives his assistant, Mr. Burns, the task of getting more people to his domain. In front of a nightclub, Mr. Burns invites a crowd of people to come inside to The Devil's Cabaret to be entertained. After they enjoy songs and dancing, the people go willingly to Hades.
Blonde Party Guest (uncredited)
A bored society woman invites scandal and heartache when she falls in love with her low-born chauffeur.
Little Bo Peep (uncredited)
Angela and Bob Brooks are an upper class couple. Bob is an unfaithful husband. Angela has a plan to win back his affections.
Secretary (uncredited)
A successful songwriter, dazzled by high society, falls for a society girl who is just playing around.
Party Girl (uncredited)
A wild-partying flapper marries a cowboy and tries to adjust to life on a western ranch.
Party Guest
A comedy romance in which breezy Haines, as a young lady killer, tries to capture the heart of Hyams who has turned him down for Bushman. Haines plots dozens of extreme measures to win her over, and finally goes so far as to drag her from the altar, bound and gagged.
Minor Role (uncredited)
A young crown prince, wishing to be just an ordinary boy, runs away with his friend. The king dies, and when the prince does not appear, the people begin to rise in revolution. When the crown prince finally hears the death knell for the late king he immediately attempts to return to the palace, however is abducted by revolutionaries and held captive. Will he be rescued in time to restore order?