Burnet Hershey
Birth : 1896-12-13, Iasi, Romania
Death : 1971-12-13
Screenplay
A rookie cop and his girlfriend's uncle, a police captain, disagree on the methods that should be used to catch criminals.
Story
The government has set up a special agency to stamp out what it considers the number one public menace: the jitterbug. They aren't after the many followers, but the primary perpetrator of the jitterbug, who they've coined "Public Jitterbug No. 1". Hal Sturges is one of several agents working on the case who goes undercover as a dancer in Broadway haunts to find and capture Public Jitterbug No. 1. In his investigation, Hal runs across the beautiful Betty, a seemingly innocent bystander. Hal and Betty fall for each other. However Betty is unaware that Hal is a federal agent, and Hal is unaware that Betty is Public Jitterbug No. 1. Will their roles as agent and public menace number one take priority over their roles of man and woman?
Writer
In this musical-comedy short, an out-of-work theatre troupe assumes management of the debt-ridden Grand Majestic Hotel.
Writer
In this short film, Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen preside over the courtroom for a day, dispensing their own comic brand of justice.
Writer
This early comedy short has Bob Hope and John Berkes putting on sailor uniforms to find dates, getting mistaken for real sailors and being dragged back to a Navy ship by the shore patrol. Though not much plot, the short does give each star a chance to shine doing comedy bits both together and separately.
Story
Henry and Johnnie need to clean the apartment before the wives get home.
Writer
An aspiring photographer and his bumbling assistant go to great lengths to take a picture of a beautiful actress whose wealthy husband does not want her photographed.
Story
Gus Doakes joins the National Guard; hilarity ensues.
Story
The Dean and Board of Flunk Well College are arguing with its football coach, Bergen, about the team's star player, Charlie McCarthy, who is the only reason the team is a winning one, but who isn't doing well academically and could be pulled from the team if his grades and behavior don't improve. In other words, Charlie is a dummy in more ways than one. Beyond other problems Coach Bergen has with Charlie concerning the coach's girlfriend Joan, Coach Bergen has to get Charlie prepared to pass an exam administered by the Dean. Instead of cheating like he usually does, Charlie has his own way of dealing with the exam.
Story
Henry and Elmer stay out all night, then fear returning home because of their formidable mother-in-law.
Writer
A race car driver, injured during an accident, opens up a repair shop only to become the target of crooked government agents.
Screenplay
In this all-black short musical comedy, a woman has a husband so lazy she can stick a pin in him without him waking up... but announcing lunch gets him up pretty fast. She's also saddled with a bevy of his lazy relatives. Four more come by and sing as a quartet. After the wife learns they had been traveling men, she advises them to keep traveling and kicks them out...
Writer
This documentary film is a pacifistic polemic that presents the argument that the world's largest munitions works, principally those in Europe, work in conjunction with one another, even when their countries are wartime enemies. These munitions works, in the interest of making money, manipulate wartime conditions to prolong wars.
Writer
Based on a true story, this film tells of an expedition into the Amazon jungle to find an archaeologist who had vanished three years previously. They run into a tribe of warlike headhunters, who are determined to add the expedition members' heads to their collection (in the real story, the archaeologist was found to have been murdered by a tribe of Brazilian headhunters).
Screenplay
A resort owner tries to marry his daughter to a millionaire, but his scheme doesn't turn out exactly as planned.
Writer
An animator is in the process of creating a series of three drawings of prominent historical figures. As the animator goes about his drawings, a narrator tells some stories about the historical figure in question. The drawings come to life as the narrator tells some anecdotes about the historical figure. As each drawing nears its completion and as the story about that figure nears its end, it becomes more and more apparent who the historical figure in question is.
Writer
A Warner Bros Vitaphone short that promoted "Girls...Songs....Laughs." No full print exists but the Library of Congress has acquired one musical sequence.
Writer
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy's plane runs out of gas and lands in the African jungle. After a short comedy routine between the two, some natives come by and insist that they stay for dinner. The question then becomes what (or who) will the dinner be.
Adaptation
In this musical short, General Bierbeau sends his weakling son, Pierre, to French Morocco to fight Arab insurgents, the Riffs, in the hopes that this will toughen him up. Pierre soon becomes the Riffs' leader and assumes a secret identity: The Red Shadow.
Story
Anita Ragusa, the daughter of a costume company owner, delivers a dress for a costume ball at the last minute. The snobbish customer doesn't like the design at first, but agrees to let Anita model it for her to decide whether to keep it. Charlie, a drunk partygoer, sees Anita in the dress and invites her to attend the festivities. She reluctantly agrees and sings for the other guests.
Story
Joe Penner as a incompetent crown prince in the middle of a revolution.
Dialogue
A couple of murderous crooks try to smuggle the famous Stanhope diamonds into New York but they're double-crossed and killed before reaching New York.
Adaptation
When the skeleton of a young man is dug up in an alley, a mysterious Chinese merchant and his eccentric upstairs tenants come under suspicion. The team of Inspector Carr and Dr. Crabtree use the skull of the victim to solve the murder.
Adaptation
When the leading lady of a motion picture is murdered in the middle of a scene, Inspector Carr and Dr. Crabtree are called in to investigate.
Writer
A cellist is murdered during a symphony concert. Shortly afterwards, the manager of the hall is found dead, an apparent suicide. But is it?
Writer
During a rainstorm at a remote manor house, Richard Crayell plays host to several guests. At nine o'clock sharp, he excuses himself from the card table to take his medicine, promising to return soon. When he doesn't, Claire goes in search of him, and finds his door locked from the inside.
Story
A crooked lawyer trying to cheat a young girl out of her inheritance tries to convince a sea captain to help him. Re-released in 1939 as "Phantom Submarine U-67."
Adaptation
When the apparent murder of two stockbrokers are discovered in their Wall Street office. Police Inspector Crane summons forensic expert Dr. Crabtree to the crime scene. A beautiful woman found in the closet, a frightened African-American elevator operator, and a suspicious business associate are among the witnesses questioned.
Writer
This short takes a comic look at serious moments from past serials. In part I - "Gin" - of "The Curse of a Drinking Heart", a woman is drowning her sorrows in a bar. Upon leaving, she is attacked. Will anyone come to her rescue? In "Gun-and-a-Half Dugan", the hero and heroine are trapped in a house by marauding gunman above Cactus Gulch. Can our two heroes escape capture? In "The Man Without a Country-Club", a villain is holding a young couple out fishing at gunpoint. Mother Nature may be on our young couple's side. In "The Clutching Foot", villains are trying to get the secret formula from our hero. They manage to tie him up. But as our hero is played by Harry Houdini, how long will it be until his magic can get him out of this predicament? In "The Perils of Pauline Lipschitz", an adventurer in Africa is mesmerized by the dancing blond white woman native to the area. And in "The Yellow Tickee", two Chinese villains are chasing our hero atop a big city's skyscrapers.
Story
A womanizing night club singer who has his pick of many beautiful showgirls tries to climb socially and break into society but soon discovers the social and class differences are insurmountable.
Writer
Old Lace is a 1931 Musical short.
Writer
An ambitious campaign manager makes friends, influences people and welcomes his long-lost mother to Ellis Island.
Writer
A convict is released, then lured back to prison, because he was pardoned by mistake.
Writer
A husband becomes infuriated when his wife and household staff abandon him as a result of their fixation with murder trials.
Writer
Guy and Ellen are desperate to find a way to get food and medicine for their sick child. Job are very hard to come by during the Great Depression and many are driven to desperate measures.