Spring Byington

Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.

Drama critic Larry Mackay, his wife Kate and their four sons move from their crowded Manhattan apartment to an old house in the country. While housewife Kate settles into suburban life, Larry continues to enjoy the theater and party scene of New York.

Wacky complications ensue when a little boy comes into possession of a ray gun that compels anyone caught in its beam to tell the truth. He uses it to prevent his orphanage from being shut down by creditors and to help a cute couple fall in love.

A famous opera singer falls for his sergeant's sister at boot camp.

Alvah, a young GI who happens to own a vineyard, elopes to Las Vegas with Lee, his housekeeper's daughter. But Alvah's chicken pox postpone the wedding night. The rest revolves around more delays to the consummation, caused by Lee's manipulative Mama and the flock of mostly obnoxious relatives with whom she's filled the house.

The short-tempered manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates mends his ways in return for a little divine assistance.

A young crusading reporter in a small town tackles civic corruption.

A retired teacher sells her apartment to a group of gangsters.

A petty crook moves to an Ohio town and courts a factory owner's disabled daughter.

A Native American Civil War hero returns home to fight for his people.

A captain tries to keep home as tight as his ship.

Architect Hal Norton and wife Meg invite his widowed mother Louisa to move in with them, only to discover the sweet elderly lady is romantically involved with what seems to be every old coot in town.

A woman in London unexpectedly inherits a Texas ranching fortune, and takes a transatlantic voyage to collect her fortune, not suspecting two men aboard both plan on winning her hand before she reaches America. One is a gambler interested in her money, and the other, a rich man looking for a wife. The rich man's friend, meanwhile, believes the heiress is actually a gold-digger.

The ambitious son of an accomplished race driver struggles to outrun his father's legacy and achieve his own successes.

Two co-workers in a music shop dislike one another during business hours but unwittingly carry on an anonymous romance through the mail.

Wealthy Polly Fulton marries a progressive scholar whose attitudes toward capitalism and acquired wealth puts their marriage in jeopardy.

A chronic runaway bride is haunted by her conscience, who becomes reality.

Sheltered by her conservative parents, a small-town teenager finally goes out on a date.

After the war, Matt Gordon returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls. Arrived, he reminisces in flashback about his prewar fiancée, alluring Linda, and her disappearance during the Japanese attack. But now Linda resurfaces...with amnesia and married to rich planter Van Leyden. Meanwhile, sinister fence Mauribus schemes to get Matt's pearls.

A World War II pilot (Gene Kelly) comes home to a bride (Marie McDonald) who, spoiled by her father (Charles Winninger), now wants a divorce.

After his mother's death, a young boy tries to help his father stop drinking.

Living with his family in Baltimore, 9-year-old Lewie Penrose claims that he can converse with horses--and also pick the winners of upcoming races. When it appears as though Lewie is telling the truth, he attracts the interest of gambler Rich Roeder who needs a "sure thing" in the upcoming Preakness. Meanwhile, Lewie's older brother John carries on a romance with the lovely Martha.

A U.S. Army sergeant is home on leave to reconnect with his girlfriend he hopes to marry. However, in the years he's been away, she's gotten a huge promotion where they used to work together - and has become engaged to another man.

For Miranda Wells, moving to New York to live in Dragonwyck Manor with her rich cousin, Nicholas, seems like a dream. However, the situation gradually becomes nightmarish. She observes Nicholas' troubled relationship with his tenant farmers, as well as with his daughter, to whom Miranda serves as governess. Her relationship with Nicholas intensifies after his wife dies, but his mental imbalance threatens any hope of happiness.

Evie's co-workers at the uniform shirt factory, and her almost-fiancée's inability to kiss, inspire her to slip a letter into a size sixteen-and-a-half shirt for some anonymous soldier. It's received by "Wolf" Larson, who immediately throws it away, but his sensitive, dreaming--and short--buddy John McPherson snags it, and begins a correspondence with Evie, pretending to be Wolf. But things get complicated when Evie wants to meet her tall, handsome soldier. And even more complicated when Wolf sees Evie and likes what he sees.

This economy-minded Columbia backstage musical opens with overly fussy director-choreographer Eddie Dolan (wartime star-substitute Fred Brady) in exigent mode, much in the Cole manner. Closing the movie are two archetypal Cole numbers: a perfect capture of his nightclub rhumba routine (using costumes that also appear in Tonight and Every Night) and a backyard tomboy-romp that morphs into a waltz, one of Cole’s oft-repeated themes. -Museum of Modern Art

WWI flyer Eddie Rickenbaker remembers his life which brought him from a car salesman, race driver and pilot in WWI, to an important person in the early years of civil airline service, after his plane crashed in the South Pacific in late 1942.

A soldier falls in love with a newly-married woman after her husband abandons her for a business meeting on their honeymoon.

A homely maid and a scarred ex-GI meet at the cottage where she works and where he was to spend his honeymoon prior to his accident. The two develop a bond and agree to marry, more out of loneliness than love. The romantic spirit of the cottage, however, overtakes them. They soon begin to look beautiful to each other, but no one else.

A gambler and his buddy find a wise-guy jockey for their long-shot horse.

Mary Marshall, serving a six year term for accidental manslaughter, is given a Christmas furlough from prison to visit her closest relatives, her uncle and his family in a small Midwestern town. On the train she meets Zach Morgan, a troubled army sergeant on leave for the holidays from a military hospital. Although his physical wounds have healed, he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and is subject to panic attacks. The pair are attracted to one another and in the warm atmosphere of the Christmas season friendship blossoms into romance, but Mary is reluctant to tell him of her past and that she must shortly return to prison to serve the remainder of her sentence.

Short film about nurse service in wartime.

The beautiful wife of a tweedy astronomer becomes convinced that her astrologer's prediction of a new dream man in her life will come true.

Spoiled playboy Henry van Cleve dies and arrives at the entrance to Hell, a final destination he is sure he deserves after living a life of profligacy. The devil, however, isn't so sure Henry meets Hell's standards. Convinced he is where he belongs, Henry recounts his life's deeds, both good and bad, including an act of indiscretion during his 25-year marriage to his wife, Martha, with the hope that "His Excellency" will arrive at the proper judgment.

Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant.

Wealthy American society matron, Stella Hadley refuses to sacrifice her material comforts to aid the war effort until she realizes that her selfishness is cheating the boys overseas who are fighting for her freedom.

Members of a well-to-do small community become worried when it is revealed that one of their maids is writing a telling exposé.

Susan Miller works behind the girdle counter in a department store and dreams about the beautiful clothes and glamour she can never hope to have. Enter May Worthington and Warren, a pair of con artists who pose as the mother and uncle of a pretty girl in order to separate millionaires from their money. They convince Susan she has an opportunity to fulfill all her dreams, and the trio heads for Palm Beach. Susan meets John Wheeler who says he is shopping for a sailboat. Believing that he is a millionaire, Warren and May sell him a boat that doesn't belong to them, and make off with his $15,000 life savings. Looking for greener pastures, they work themselves into the family of wealthy Tod Fenwick, who falls for Sue, posing as "Linda Worthington". But John shows up as a guest of Fenwick and he tells "Linda", not knowing she was part of the scam, that he has a detective after the fake captain that sold him the boat...

A café in Chicago, 1942. On a rainy night, veteran reporter Homer Howard tells an increasing audience the story of Roxie Hart and the crime she was judged for in 1927.

The perineal District Attorney and conservative southern patriarch cherishes the old ways and does his best to adjust to change.

Mary, a writer working on a novel about a love triangle, is attracted to her publisher. Her suitor Jimmy is determined to break them up; he introduces Mary to the publisher's wife without telling Mary who she is.

Ralph Bellamy makes the third of four appearances as "master detective" Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime. The principal villain is crooked stockbroker John Mathews, whose Wall Street manipulations render Ray Jarden penniless. Mathews' chicanery seems particularly coldblooded, inasmuch as his daughter Marian is engaged to Jarden's son Walter. When the latter disappears, Mathews asks Ellery Queen to locate the young man.

The wealthiest man in the world, John P. Merrick, is a private person who likes to stay anonymous. One of his many assets is Neeley's Department Store. There is labor unrest at the store, and the employees' anger is directed at him, who they hang in effigy outside the store despite not knowing what he looks like. Merrick, not happy at what he sees going on, decides to mete out the rabble-rousers. So he goes undercover as a sales clerk in the shoe department.

As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement.

Arkansas Judge is a 1941 American film starring Roy Rogers as a young lawyer defending a farmer accused of slander.

Two strangers split a sweepstake prize to go on a fake honeymoon with predictable results.

Amelia is a gifted violinist who is in danger of quitting the Brissac Academy of Music. Julius arranges to have a scholarship given to her through his employee Tony so that Julius can escort Amelia to every musical event in the city. The trouble begins when he cannot meet her one night and Tony goes in his place. Tony believes that Julius and Amelia are a couple and then son Paul thinks that Tony and Amelia are a couple as he is sending her the money. The worst part is that Amelia might leave classical music for swing music with classmates Dusty, Joy and the band.

The Jones family (without father) head for California to open a bungalow court. To increase business they advertise for families with children and pets. A neighbor threatens to sue.

Father sells his drugstore and the Jones family heads for New York to enjoy sophisticated city life. They lose all their money before deciding to go back home.

Handsome Laddie Stanton courts neighbor Pamela Pryor, meeting opposition from her stern military father, recently immigrated from England.

An ungrateful girl and her little brother are transported in their dreams by a fairy to a wonderland, tasked with finding the mythical blue bird of happiness, meeting friends and foes along the way.

A pregnant prison inmate shares her problems with the patients in a maternity ward.

The Jones family females decide to teach Father a lesson. He's neglecting the family business to run for mayor, so they decide to neglect their household chores.

In Hollywood the Jones family runs into crooks who convince them they have inherited a gold mine at the Grand Canyon.

Addie Fippany, her father Jean Paul Batiste Fippany, her mother Josephine and her sister Cecile roam the country-side in a mule-drawn wagon, trading trinkets to farmers for chickens which they sell in the cities. Addie and her father love the care-free life, but Mrs. Fippany and Cecile want to settle down in New York City. As soon as the "chicken wagon family" reaches New York, Addie gets into mischief and a policeman, Matt Hibbard, helps her and falls in love with Cecile. He helps the family settle into a deserted firehouse which is up for public sale.

This film tells the history of the United States from pre-Revolution through 1939.

Father goes to an American Legion convention in Hollywood and the family goes along, visiting a studio a causing havoc on the set.

Alexander Graham Bell falls in love with deaf girl Mabel Hubbard while teaching the deaf and trying to invent means for telegraphing the human voice. She urges him to put off thoughts of marriage until his experiments are complete. He invents the telephone, marries and becomes rich and famous, though his happiness is threatened when a rival company sets out to ruin him.

The Jones family encounters new theories of childrearing when an author arrives in town to lecture on the topic.

Excitement runs high when a family's farm is chosen as the site for a big cornhusking contest.

Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don't turn out the way Alice had hoped.

The Jones family patriarch, also mayor (Prouty), is swindled into thinking the town swamp is a rich mineral deposit.

The Jones Family heads to Gay Paree in celebration of the 25th wedding anniversary of Pa and Ma Jones. It doesn't take long for the Joneses to be victimized by clever Parisian con artists.

In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.

This late entry in the popular "The Jones Family" series of '30s comedies has the family contending with a troublesome (and possibly crooked) uncle while trying to cut household expenses.

Penrod Schofield's mischievous dog, Duke, is falsely accused of biting Penrod's spoiled friend, Rodney.

French pirate Jean Lafitte rescues a girl and joins the War of 1812.

The Jones family drugstore is robbed and it looks like the culprit is a boy the family has taken a liking to.

An infatuated debutante renews a Shakespearean actor's running feud with his leading lady.

The Jones family is in an uproar when Dad's campaign for mayor appears sabotaged by an anonymous newspaper article.

A small town drugstore owner (Jed Prouty) hopes to strike it rich by investing his savings in an oil well. Comedy.

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.

After the First World War a group of German soldiers try to readjust to civilian life. A sequel to 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.

Judge Hardy faces problems at work and at home. Powerful men in town are upset with his decisions and want to see him impeached; his daughters, Joan and Marion, have romantic problems; and his son, Andy discovers Polly Benedict. As usual, Judge Hardy is concerned with everyone in the family and lends wisdom and calmness to all.

A boy (Billy Mauch) and his gang catch bank robbers using their clubhouse as a hide-out.

A brilliant young surgeon takes the blame for a colleague when a botched surgery causes a patient's death and buries himself at a wilderness research facility.

The title character is a resourceful young man who knows a whole little about a whole lot of things, and who concentrates by playing his saxophone. Clarence ingratiates himself with the wealthy and eccentric Wheeler family, though daughter Cora can't stand the boy.

The Jones family's uncle George enters his trotting horse in the fair grounds race. The family helps raise the entrance fee and care for the horse.

The small-town prudes of Lynnfield are up in arms over 'The Sinner,' a sexy best-seller. They little suspect that author 'Caroline Adams' is really Theodora Lynn, scion of the town's leading family. Michael Grant, devil-may-care book jacket illustrator, penetrates Theodora's incognito and sets out to 'free her' from Lynnfield against her will. But Michael has a secret too, and gets a taste of his own medicine.

In 1853, as the British and Russian empires compete to gain and maintain their place in the dreadful Great Game of political intrigues and alliances whose greatest prize is the domination of India and the border territories, Major Geoffrey Vickers must endure several betrayals and misfortunes before he can achieve his revenge at the Balaclava Heights, on October 25, 1854, the most glorious day of the Crimean War.

The heiress to a powerful newspaper owner gets a job at the paper under an assumed name and helps break up a blackmail racket.

A retired auto manufacturer and his wife take a long-planned European vacation only to find that they want very different things from life.

A Broadway show is forced to bow to the whims of a talentless, whacky, but rich, Broadway actress with a contract.

The Jones family goes to a convention traveling in a trailer. The oldest daughter gets involved with a convict, the oldest son has a love affair, and the youngest son gets into photography.

A gambler in need of cash plots a romance between his daughter and a wealthy Englishman. The daughter, however, has plans of her own.

Jones family romp with father trying to convince son to follow him as a druggist, rather than becoming a pilot, until the son's piloting skills come in handy.

First of the Jones family movies with kids who ignore father and get consolation from mother through a series of family episodes.

A Missouri farmer's (Lionel Barrymore) son (Eric Linden) loves the daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan) of a neighbor who has killed the farmer's foxhound.

At the turn of the century, a young man graduates high school and realizes the joys and sorrows of growing up, with some loving help and guidance from his wise father. A tender, coming-of-age story, with a wonderful look at a long-gone, but fondly remembered, small town America.

The second of the three film versions of the E. Phillips Oppenheim espionage thriller set largely in an old dark house where a tremulous wife wonders if her husband is really his double, a dastardly German spy.

Melodrama about the professional and romantic problems of an aspiring singer.

Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on avenging his captors.

A family living on a farm in Maine takes in a young woman to stay with them, not knowing that the woman is not quite what she seems and has a secret in her past that she hasn't told them about.

An unlikely courtroom romance blooms between a flower-shop owner and her unscrupulous landlord's married attorney.

A man who loves an aspiring opera singer is prepared to sacrifice everything to help her with her career, even though he knows she doesn't love him.

A strange animal attack turns a botanist into a bloodthirsty monster.

Little Women is a coming-of-age drama tracing the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. During the American Civil War, the girls father is away serving as a minister to the troops. The family, headed by their beloved Marmee, must struggle to make ends meet, with the help of their kind and wealthy neighbor, Mr. Laurence, and his high spirited grandson Laurie.