Willie Best

Willie Best

Birth : 1913-05-27, Sunflower, Mississippi, USA

Death : 1962-11-27

History

William “Willie” Best (May 27, 1916 - February 27, 1962), sometimes known as “Sleep n' Eat,” was an American television and film actor. Best was one of the first African-American film actors and comedians to become well known. In the 21st century, his work, like that of Stepin Fetchit, is sometimes reviled because he was often called upon to play stereotypically lazy, illiterate, and/or simple-minded characters in films. Of the 124 films he appeared in, he received screen credit in at least 77, an unusual feat for an African-American bit player. Willie Best appeared in more than one hundred films of the 1930s and 1940s. Although several sources state that for years he was billed only as “Sleep n' Eat,” Best received credit under this moniker instead of his real name in only six movies: his first film as a bit player (Harold Lloyd's Feet First) and in Up Pops the Devil (1931), The Monster Walks (1932), Kentucky Kernels and West of the Pecos (both 1934), and Murder on a Honeymoon (1935). Best was first loved as a great clown, then later in the 20th century reviled and pitied, before being forgotten in the history of film. Hal Roach called him one of the greatest talents he had ever met. Comedian Bob Hope similarly acclaimed him as “the best actor I know,” while the two were working together in 1940 on The Ghost Breakers. As a supporting actor, Best, like many black actors of his era, was regularly cast in domestic worker or service-oriented roles (though a few times he played the role echoing his previous occupation as a private chauffeur). He was often seen making a brief comic turn as a hotel, airline or train porter, as well as an elevator operator, custodian, butler, valet, waiter, deliveryman, and at least once as a launch pilot (in the 1939 movie Mr. Moto in Danger Island). Willie Best received screen credit most of the time, which was unusual for “bit players,” most in the 1930s and '40s were not accorded due credit. This also happened to white actors in small roles, but black actors were not credited even when their roles were larger. In more than 80 of his movies, he was given a proper character name (as opposed to simple descriptions such as “room service waiter” or “shoe-shine boy”), beginning with his second film. Best played “Chattanooga Brown” in two Charlie Chan films —The Red Dragon in 1945 and Dangerous Money in 1946. He also played the character of “Hipp” in three of RKO’s six Scattergood Baines films with Guy Kibbee: Scattergood Baines (1941), Scattergood Survives a Murder (1942), and Cinderella Swings It in 1943. (Actor Paul White, who played a young version of Best’s “Hipp” in the first film, went on to play “Hipp” in the next three films. Best returned to the role in the last two.) After a drug arrest ended his film career, he worked in television for a while and became known to early TV audiences as “Charlie the Elevator Operator” on CBS's My Little Margie, from 1953 to 1955. He also played Willie, the house servant, handyman and close friend of the title character of ABC’s The Trouble with Father, for its entire run from 1950 to 1955.

Profile

Willie Best

Movies

TV in Black: The First Fifty Years
Self (archive footage)
Discover how television has reflected the African American experience in this retrospective of the medium's first half-century. Actors, writers and historians discuss the image of black America on television from Amos and Andy to the present day. The interviews accompany clips from groundbreaking shows and performances by entertainment pioneers that create a timeline of the portrayal of African Americans throughout TV history.
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Self (archive footage)
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy
Charlie (archive footage)
Hilarious scenes from his silent and sound films as compiled and produced by Harold Lloyd himself.
Ellis in Freedomland
Male Model
Westinghouse claims its electric appliances "freed women from the drudgery of housework." The first half involves a dream salesman at work; the second half is focused on the "Spring Sales Event," called "Freedomland."
South of Caliente
Willie, Stable Boy
"King of the Cowboys" Roy Rogers stars with his real-life wife, Dale Evans, in this Western about a hardworking farmer who helps a struggling rancher by transporting her prize horse to Mexico. A fortuitous meeting with a fortune-teller (Charlita) -- who specializes in dire predictions -- sets the tone for their adventures. Burlesque comic Pinky Lee co-stars, playing himself.
Shanghai Chest
Willie Best
Charlie attempts to solve a triple murder in which a dead man's finger prints show up at all three murder sites, and all three victims were connected with the conviction and execution of an evidently innocent man.
Half Past Midnight
Andy Jones
A detective encounters a woman in a nightclub. He finds that she is being blackmailed by a dancer who is murdered that very night. Of course, the woman becomes the main suspect. She and the gumshoe team up and begin searching for the real killer.
The Red Stallion
Jackson
Family film about an elderly rancher, her young grandson, and the horse that the child raises from a colt.
Suddenly It's Spring
Porter on Train
A WAC officer returns from the war to find her husband wants a divorce.
Dangerous Money
Chattanooga Brown
A treasury agent on the trail of counterfeit money confides to fellow ocean liner passenger, Charlie Chan, that there have been two attempts on his life.
The Bride Wore Boots
Joe
Rich and beautiful Southern heiress Sally Warren loves horse-racing and running her horse-farm although her husband of seven years hates the four-legged mammals. Spouse Jeff Warren is a successful author, Civil War scholar, and popular lecturer on the ladies club circuit. After Jeff buys aging twelve-year old nag Albert in the mistaken belief that he's a colt and Sally purchases a desk for her husband in the naive belief that it once belonged to Jefferson Davis, it's obvious that they have few interests in common. The squabbling is complicated by Jeff's jealousy of Sally's relationship with Lance Gale, her childhood friend, neighbor, and fellow horse breeder.
The Face of Marble
Shadrach
John Carradine stars as Dr. Charles Randolph, a scientist dedicated to deciphering the secrets of life and death. Aided by assistant David Cochran (Robert Shayne), Charles conducts experiments that have horrifying side effects. Charles's lonely wife, Elaine (Claudia Drake), is frightened by his work, and in order to protect her, housekeeper Maria (Rosa Rey) unleashes a torrent of voodoo that wrecks havoc.
She Wouldn't Say Yes
Porter (uncredited)
Susan Lane is a gifted psychiatrist, grounded in self-control. Before returning by train to her practice in Chicago, she spends time back East with war veterans, building their self-esteem, but frowning on the impulsive, as represented by a favorite comic strip called "The Nixie." She bumps into Michael Kent, an officer and the comic strip's author. He likes her instantly and she dislikes him. He's headed to the Pacific, sees her on the train, gets off in Chicago, and with her father's help, pursues her and hatches a plan to marry her. Meanwhile, she has her own plan to get rid of him with the help of a blond patient. Will the Nixie get into her psyche?
Hold That Blonde!
Willie Shelley
Ogden Spencer Trulow III is a wealthy kleptomaniac who turned to stealing when he was spurned by a girl. His psychoanalyst advises him to find another girl for a cure. He fastens his interest upon Sally Martin, who happens to be engaged upon helping some crooks steal a valuable necklace. Complications include two scantily attired individuals, one of them drunk, clinging to the cornice of a skyscraper and a large band of crooks in quest of the precious jewels.
The Red Dragon
Chattanooga Brown
Chan is faced with suspects in a stolen atomic bomb formula case, that are being killed with bullets that are not fired from a gun.
Pillow to Post
Lucille, Colonial Auto Court Porter
With a war on and most men being drafted, Howard Oil Supply Company has no salesmen left. So daughter Jean hits the road and does not make one sale. She finally gets one tentative sale with the Black Hills Oil Co., but Earl wants dinner with her. With the shortage of housing due to the war, Jean needs a military husband to get a place to stay in Clayfield, which is next to Camp Clay. She gets Lt. Mallory to act as her husband just to register. Then things go wrong as his commanding officer is there and believes them to be married. It gets worse as Don's mother shows up and then Jean's father.
The Monster and the Ape
Flash
A famous scientist invents a humanoid robot (the titular "monster"), so a greedy rival scientist plans to steal it for use in his criminal plans. His henchmen often kidnap a trained gorilla (the titular "ape") from the zoo, to aid in the schemes.
Music for Millions
Red Cap (uncredited)
Six-year-old "Mike" goes to live with her pregnant older sister, Babs, who plays string bass in José Iturbi's orchestra. And the orchestra is rapidly turning completely female, what with the draft. As the orchestra travels around the country, Babs' fellow orchestra members intercept and hide her War Office telegram to protect the baby.
The Mark of the Whistler
Men's Room Attendant (uncredited)
A drifter claims the money in an old bank account. Soon he finds himself the target of two men who turn out to be the sons of the man's old partner, who is now in prison because of a conflict with him over the money in that account.
The Girl Who Dared
Woodrow
A group of people are invited to a party at a creepy mansion where legend has it a ghost appears once a year.
Home in Indiana
Mo' Rum (uncredited)
'Sparke' Thorton, a lad with a penchant for trouble, is sent to live with his Uncle and Aunt Bolt in Indiana after his Aunt Henrietta Bolt dies. Though he's not happy about the arrangement at first, his love of horses and his affection for a young filly that he plans to race make life bearable. He also finds romance with tomboyish 'Char' Bruce who shares his love for horses.
The Adventures of Mark Twain
Butler
A dramatised life of Samuel Langhorn Clemens, or Mark Twain.
The Kansan
Bones
Wounded while stopping the James gang from robbing the local bank, a cowboy wakes up in the hospital to find that he's been elected town marshal. He soon comes into conflict with the town banker, who controls everything in town and is squeezing the townspeople for every penny he can get out of them.
Dixie
Steward (uncredited)
A young songwriter leaves his Kentucky home to try to make it in New Orleans. Eventually he winds up in New York, where he sells his songs to a music publisher, but refuses to sell his most treasured composition: "Dixie." The film is based on the life of Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the classic song "Dixie."
Cabin in the Sky
Second Idea Man
When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where he learns that he will be sent back to Earth for six months to prove that he deserves to be in heaven. He awakens, remembering nothing and struggles to do right by his devout wife, Petunia, while an angel known as the General and the devil's son, Lucifer Jr., fight for his soul.
Cinderella Swings It
Hipp
Scattergood Baines, Coldriver's most popular citizen, neighborly counselor and sly old fox, entices a Broadway producer to Coldriver to see the gay musical extravaganza Baines is staging for the benefit of the U.S.O. He is also promoting the singing career of his latest local protégé, Betty Palmer. There are a few problems but the Sage of Coldriver manages to keep pulling the right strings.
The Powers Girl
Men's Room Attendant (uncredited)
Two small-town sisters who've come to New York City for very different reasons find themselves competing for the affections of a brash magazine photographer. Comedy.
The Hidden Hand
Eustis, the chauffeur
Peter Thorne is a young attorney who works for an eccentric old woman, Lorinda Channing, who uses her insane brother, John Channing, to frighten her other relatives because they are after her money. Further complications arise when another murderer arrives on the scene and plants the blame on John.
Scattergood Survives a Murder
Hipp
Rural sage Scattergood Baines (Guy Kibbee) shows big-city newsman how to solve a mystery.
Busses Roar
Sunshine
A sergeant saves the day when Axis agents plant a bomb on a bus bound for California oil fields.
A-Haunting We Will Go
Waiter
Stan and Ollie get involved with con men, crooks, a genial magician, and two interchangeable coffins with disastrous but funny results.
Maisie Gets Her Man
Sam (Uncredited)
Struggling performers, Sothern and Skelton's lives are thrown off gear when they are caught with a bagful of hard cash robbed by a goon. With Skelton in prison, how will Sothern prove their innocence?
Juke Girl
Jo-Mo
During the depths of the Great Depression a hitch-hiker Steve Talbot and jukebox-joint hostess Lola Mears stumble into Cat-Tail Florida where farmers and pickers struggle under the buyer who rules by monopoly, dirty contracts and violence. Steve helps organize against the buyer, leading to further escalation ending in a lynch mob.
Whispering Ghosts
Euclid White Brown
A detective (Milton Berle) who solves cases on the radio investigates the decade-old murder of a sea captain.
The Body Disappears
Wealthy scion Peter DeHaven, about to marry socialite Christine Lunceford, wakes up after bachelor party revelry to find he's been turned invisible by eccentric college professor Reginald Shotesbury. An unbelievable series of events is revealed by several witnesses testifying in a "mystery trial" to determine the reason for DeHaven's "disappearance".
Breakdowns of 1941
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Blooper out-takes from Torrid Zone, Four Mothers, The Wagons Roll at Night, The Sea Wolf, No Time for Comedy, The Bride Came C.O.D., and Affectionately Yours, among other Warner Brother productions of 1940 and 1941.
Nothing But the Truth
Samuel
Gwen Saunders teams up with her uncle's employee, Steve Bennett, in an attempt to double her $10,000 investment in the family firm. If she can reach the $20,000 mark, her uncle T.T. Ralston will match the figure. Steve bets that if he can spend an entire day without telling a lie, Ralston and his business partners must double Gwen's money. Bennett then earns the enmity of everyone involved in his attempt to win the bet.
Minstrel Days
Singer
This Vitaphone musical featurette features a minstrel show, with traditional interlocutor and Mr. Bones, doing many old time songs (mostly Stephen Foster) with Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor in blackface, via stock footage from earlier Warners films, inserted doing some of their trademark songs. This short was reissued November of 1946 and again in September of 1953.
The Smiling Ghost
Clarence
Elinor Bentley Fairchild's previous three grooms-to-be have either died or been maimed. Her aunt hires Lucky Downing to become engaged to her for a month to break the curse. But Lucky becomes a target of what appears to be the ghost of one of the former fiances.
Highway West
Bub Wellington
A young woman marries a man who turns out to be a bank robber.
Kisses for Breakfast
Arnold
A newlywed develops amnesia and can't remember his wife.
The Lady from Cheyenne
George
Fictionalized story of the 1869 adoption of women's suffrage in Wyoming Territory. In the new-founded railroad town of Laraville, Boss Jim Cork hopes to manipulate the sale of town lots to give him control, but Quaker schoolmarm Annie Morgan bags one of the key lots. Cork's lawyer Steve Lewis tries romancing Annie to get the lot back, finding her so overpoweringly liberated she leaves him dizzy. Still, Steve attains his nefarious object...almost...then has cause to deeply regret having aroused the sleeping giant of feminism!
Scattergood Baines
Hipp
Young Scattergood Baines arrives in the small New England town of Coldriver. Through some shrewd business maneuvering, he manages to open up a hardware store. Twenty years later he has become a prosperous and respected member of the community, a member of the local school board and the owner of a railroad that transports timber to the local sawmill. Problems begin to arise, however, when a young schoolteacher he has hired turns out to be not quite what he expected, and the mill owners pressure Scattergood to sell them his railroad, with the idea of raising the transportation fees paid to them by the local loggers.
Road Show
Willie
Rich playboy Drogo Gaines is in imminent danger of marrying a gold digger, and escapes by feigning insanity. The joke's on him when he wakes up in an asylum full of comical lunatics. There he befriends Colonel Carraway, and together they escape, catching a ride with a beautiful blonde who proves to be Penguin Moore, carnival owner.
Flight from Destiny
George
After his doctor informs him he will die in six months, Professor Henry Todhunter decides to spend his last days killing someone who contributes nothing but harm to society. When Henry learns that his friend Betty's husband, Michael, has been painting forgeries of ancient paintings for gallery owner Ketti Moret, he investigates the fraudulent dealer's life. Judging that Ketti is truly evil, Henry prepares to murder her.
High Sierra
Algernon
Given a pardon from jail, Roy Earle gets back into the swing of things as he robs a swanky resort.
Who Killed Aunt Maggie?
Andrew
When a much-despised matriarch is murdered, or apparently murdered, all of her relatives and "friends" fall under suspicion. Sheriff Gregory is the official investigator, but most of the clue gathering is done by amateur sleuths Kirk Pierce and Sally Ambler.
Money and the Woman
George Washington Jones
An embezzler's wife begs his boss for forgiveness, only to fall in love with him.
The Ghost Breakers
Alex
After intrepid working girl Mary Carter becomes the new owner of a reputedly haunted mansion located on Black Island near the Cuban coast, a stranger phones warning her to stay away from the castle. Undaunted, Mary sets sail for Cuba with a stowaway in her trunk—wise-cracking Larry Lawrence, a radio announcer who helps Mary get to the bottom of the voodoo magic, zombies and ghosts that supposedly curse the spooky estate.
Blondie on a Budget
Newsboy (uncredited)
Dagwood wants to join the trout club and Blondie wants a fur coat. Jealousy reigns when Dag's old girlfriend Joan shows up, but nothing else matters when a drawing at the movie theatre provides money for the coat.
I Take This Woman
Sambo
On return from Europe Dr. Decker foils glamour girl Georgi from jumping overboard. At Decker's suggestion to keep busy, she assists at his clinic in the slums.
Slightly Honorable
Art, Elevator Operator
A lawyer is framed for the murder of a young party girl and tries to clear his name.
Private Detective
Norton's Valet
A female private eye joins forces with a police detective to investigate the suspicious murder of a millionaire.
The Covered Trailer
Baltimore
The Higgins family prepares for a long-awaited cruise to Rio, but while father Joe bids farewell to his co-workers at the bank, mother Lil unwittingly sabotages their plans by telling insurance representative Wells that Joe is only forty-four, not forty-five, and is therefore ineligible to collect the annuity insurance that was to pay for the cruise.
Blondie Brings Up Baby
Hotel Janitor (uncredited)
Baby Dumpling, the six-year-old son of Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead disappears from sight during his first day at school. While Dagwood frantically combs the city in search of the boy, Baby Dumpling spents a nice, safe afternoon with poor little rich girl Melinda Mason, who with her new playmate's help arises from her sickbed to walk across the room for the first time in months.
At the Circus
Redcap (uncredited)
Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10,000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter lets his accomplices steal the money, so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.
Blackmail
Bunny - the Janitor (uncredited)
A fugitive from a chain gang becomes an oil-well firefighter and meets the man who framed him.
Way Down South
Chimney Sweep
In the pre-Civil War South, a plantation owner dies and leaves all his possessions, including his slaves, to his young son. While the deceased treated his slaves decently, his corrupt executor abuses them unmercifully, beating them without provocation, and he is planning to sell off the father'e estate--including the slaves--at the earliest opportunity so he and his mistress can steal the money and move to France. The young boy doesn't want to sell his father's estate or break up an of the slave families, and he has to find someone to help him thwart the crooked executor's plans.
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation
Driver (uncredited)
Mr. Moto is in Egypt to thwart a criminal mastermind determined to steal the priceless crown of the Queen of Sheba. When the precious treasure is transported to America, Mr. Moto must race against time to unmask the cunning thief who will stop at nothing—not even murder—to get what he wants.
Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter
Apollo Johnson
Nancy Drew clears her Uncle Matt of murder charges when she exposes the real murderers. She and Ted find themselves in many dangerous positions such as trying to fly an airplane after the pilot parachuted out and being face-to-face with the murderer.
Mr. Moto in Danger Island
Launch Pilot
In Puerto Rico to investigate a glut of contraband diamonds that are flooding the world's jewel market, Mr. Moto and his sidekick, a wrestler, find themselves involved in murders by thrown daggers, the frame-up of an overstressed Army colonel, and a pirate gang led by an unknown boss who has inside knowledge of the ensuing investigation.
The Saint Strikes Back
Algernon, Simon's Butler (Uncredited)
Suave private detective Simon "The Saint" Templar arrives in San Francisco and meets Val, a woman whose police inspector father killed himself after being accused of corruption and dismissed from the force. Convinced of the man's innocence, Templar takes it upon himself to vindicate the memory of Val's father. To do so he must take on the city's most dangerous criminal gang, while also battling hostile members of the police department.
Blondie
Porter
Blondie and Dagwood are about to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary but this happy occasion is marred when the bumbling Dagwood gets himself involved in a scheme that is promising financial ruin for the Bumstead family.
Spring Madness
Porter on Train
Harvard senior Sam Thatcher (Lew Ayres) and his best friend and roommate, known as "The Lippencott" (Burgess Meredith), plan to go to Russia after graduation, a decision Sam has kept from his girlfriend, Alexandra Benson (Maureen O'Sullivan).
Straight, Place and Show
Hannibal
The Ritz Brothers go to the race track. They raise training end entrance money in a wrestling match and help a young man train the horse of his fiancée.
Youth Takes a Fling
George
McCrea plays Joe Meadows, whose only ambition as a Kansas farm boy was a life at sea. He moves to New York to try to get a job as a sailor, finds it more difficult than he thought, and meets Helen Brown, who falls for him and uses her feminine wiles to try to prevent him leaving.
Vivacious Lady
Train Porter
College town life gets turned upside down after a button-down botany professor secretly weds a sizzling night-club singer.
Goodbye Broadway
Jughead
Pat and Molly Malloy, once famed vaudeville and Broadway performers, arrive to play the small town of Hamilton, Conn. with a troupe of dancers, singers, a trained dog and an educated seal. Harry Clark, the clerk at the rundown Swanzey Hotel, insults Pat and the latter uses the $4000, that he and Molly have been saving for years to buy a retirement farm, to buy the hotel so he can fire Harry. Local skinflint, J.A. Higgins wants the hotel as he knows the state has intentions to buy it for a museum, but Pat won't sell.
Merrily We Live
George
Society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome tramp who shows up at her doorstep and ends up in a chauffeur's uniform. He also catches the eye of Geraldine.
Gold Is Where You Find It
Joshua
Colonel Ferris, a wealthy farmer in northern California, is strongly opposed to hydraulic mining, a new method developed during the gold rush of the 1870's, which is flooding the area's prosperous farmlands. Despite Ferris' political stance, Jared Whitney, a mining engineer from the East, becomes friends with the colonel's son Lance and falls in love with his daughter Serena. Family tensions deepen when the colonel's brother Ralph gives up farming to go to San Francisco to work for his wife Rosanna's father, Harrison McCooey, a leader in the mining venture. When Lance follows Ralph, the colonel, focusing his anger on Jared, forbids him to see Serena.
Everybody's Doing It
Jasper - Elevator Operator
Gangsters are attempting to control the solutions (and winning) of the puzzles in a national newspapers picture puzzles contest craze.
Crashing Hollywood
Train Porter (uncredited)
A true-to-life gangster movie stirs up an all out mob assault on Hollywood.
Saturday's Heroes
Sam
College football player is expelled for ticket scalping, and teams up with reporter to expose his school's hypocrisy.
The Lady Fights Back
McTavish
Engineer Owen Merrill travels to the Pacific Northwest where he plans to build a dam. He stays at the Salmon Club, run by attractive Heather McHale. When Heather learns Owen's purpose, she explains that the club has a government lease on the river in order to preserve the area's good salmon fishing. Owen argues that the dam will create jobs, but Heather deplores the loss of beauty....
Super-Sleuth
Warts, Martin's manservant
A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.
Meet the Missus
Bootblack
A small town Ohio barber accompanies his ditzy wife to Atlantic City, where she competes in the Happy Noodle Company's Mrs. America Contest.
You Can't Buy Luck
Airline Porter (uncredited)
When a gambler is accused of murder, the pretty orphanage employee he loves sets out to prove him innocent of the crime.
Breezing Home
Speed
Bookmakers try to fix a horse race.
Racing Lady
Brass
A shrewd millionaire who owns races horses for publicity for his automobile business, claims ownership of a female horse trainer's thoroughbred in order to get the trainer.
We Who Are About to Die
Airport Porter (uncredited)
John Thompson is kidnapped by mobsters after quitting his job. Then he is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death for murders they committed. A suspicious detective thinks he is innocent and works to save his life.
Deep South
1937 short film nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Short Subject, Two Reel.
Night Waitress
Black Pedestrian
Helen Roberts, who's on probation, goes back to work as a waitress at Torre's Fish Palace, a San Francisco waterfront dive. The customers are low characters trying to make time with Helen and ex-rum runners trying to make a dishonest dollar. Some of the latter, including Helen's unwelcome suitor Martin Rhodes, are after a mysterious, valuable hidden "cargo"; when violence erupts, Helen finds herself innocently involved, and is soon on the run from both cops and crooks.
General Spanky
Henry
Orphaned shoeshine boy Spanky is working on a Mississippi riverboat during the Civil War. There he befriends young runaway slave Buckwheat. After wronging a vicious gambler, Spanky and Buckwheat are forced to jump ship. Finding solace at a nearby house, the two are picked by Marshall Valiant for an important mission. This inspires Spanky to organize the local kids to form a small army of their own.
Thank You, Jeeves!
Drowsy
Jeeves tries to keep his young master out of trouble.
Mummy's Boys
Catfish
Wheeler & Woolsey comedy about two moronic ditch diggers, recruited for an archaeology expedition, getting mixed up with jewel thieves and an ancient Egyptian "curse."
Down the Stretch
Noah
A jockey tries to overcome the reputation of his father, who once threw a race.
The Bride Walks Out
Smokie
Carolyn Martin is a fashion model who hastily marries her boyfriend, engineer Michael Martin. But part of the marriage arrangement requires that Carolyn quit her $50-per-week modeling job to be a full-time housewife; the couple will instead live on Michael’s $35-per-week job.
Murder on a Bridle Path
'High-Pockets'
When the body of Violet Feverel is discovered on the Central Park bridle path, Inspector Oscar Piper is about to declare her death accidental from a thrown horse, until his friend and amateur detective Hildegarde Withers locates the horse and discovers blood on the horse.
Two in Revolt
Eph
A dog and a horse become unlikely allies when they attempt to thwart a crooked gambler from rigging a race.
Silly Billies
Excitement
The boys are a dentist and his assistant traveling to the Old West to open a new practice. Once in town, they buy a business--only to wake up the next day and see that the entire population of this bustling town had left for the California gold fields early that morning! Then, they discover an evil plot to sell out these settlers to some hostile Indians, so they spring to the rescue.
Muss 'em Up
Janitor at Spivali's Bar (uncredited)
Famous private detective Tip O'Neil is summoned by telegram to the estate of old friend Paul Harding, but finds the telegram was sent by Paul's attractive secretary, Amy Hutchins. Paul admits his dog was shot by extortionists to show they mean business, and shows Tip some threatening notes they sent. That night, Paul's ward, Corinne, is kidnapped by two gangsters and her driver is found dead the next morning. The kidnappers contact Tip demanding $200,000, which is delivered according to instructions. Awaiting the return of Corrine, Tip learns her fiancé, Gene Leland, is an ex-convict, and he also investigates why a thug, Maratti, was found prowling around the grounds, and why Paul's brother-in-law, Jim Glenray, was seen leaving the estate late the night before. And when the chauffeur is murdered with Amy's gun as he was about to confess some complicity, Tip has to piece together various clues to pinpoint the culprits.
The Littlest Rebel
James Henry
Virgie Cary's father, a rebel officer, sneaks back to his rundown plantation to see his dying wife and is arrested. A Yankee officer takes pity and sets up an escape. Everyone is captured and the officers are to be executed. Virgie and Uncle Billy beg President Lincoln to intercede.
To Beat the Band
Elevator Operator
An eccentric heir must marry a widow in order to collect the millions left to him in his aunt's will, so a suicidal neighbor agrees to marry the man's young fiancée before offing himself.
Hot Tip
Apollo
An amateur handicapper must help his future son-in-law recoup the money he lost while playing the ponies.
Jalna
Sam
A young poet, accompanied by his new bride, returns home to his large family at their Canadian farm.
The Arizonian
Pompey
Clay Tallant comes to Silver City, Arizona in the 1880s and encounters wide-spread lawlessness and disorder, unscrupulous politicians, outlaws galore and brow-beaten citizens. He accepts the position of town marshal and, with his brother and a reformed outlaw , Tex Randolph, who comes over to his side, sets out to bring law-and-order where none exists. He also wins the hand of the singer appearing at the Opera House.
The Nitwits
Sleepy
A would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher.
Hit and Rum
Shoe Shine Man (uncredited)
Lew Kelly is a walking cuckoo-clock who thinks he is a judge. Leon and Eddie are two drunks who think they are drivers. They crash together, and Lew gets trapped in the middle. Leon and Eddie finally come to terms and leave Lew amidst the wreckage. The next day, Leon answers a court summons, only to find that Lew is the presiding judge, after sneaking in and taking over the job as the regular judge is absent.
Raised and Called
Chandler induces Kennedy to ask the boss for a raise, and to pretend he is married, because the chief has a soft spot for his married employees. So Tom gets a $10 raise, and then the boss invites himself out to his house for dinner and to meet the missus, whereupon it becomes necessary for the boys to produce a wife in a hurry, and a dizzy blonde cutie from next door is elected.
Murder on a Honeymoon
Willie (as Sleep 'n' Eat)
A schoolteacher and amateur sleuth suspects foul play when a fellow passenger on a seaplane gets sick and dies. The third and final film with Edna May Oliver and James Gleason as the astute schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and the New York Police Inspector Oscar Piper busy solving crimes.
Horse Heir
Chick is trying to sell his cheap horse to a lady with a grating and annoying voice...sort of like Betty Boop. Jeanie is married to Tom and apparently she got the money from him. However, the pair accidentally take the wrong horse...instead of a broken down nag, it's a top racehorse. When they find out, they do their best to hide it by painting the horse. Hilarity ensues...or should have ensued.
West of the Pecos
Jonah (as Sleep 'n' Eat)
Richard Dix stars as Pecos Smith, a strong, silent Westerner suspected of cattle rustling.
Little Miss Marker
Dizzy Memphis (uncredited)
Big Steve Halloway, gambler and proprietor of New York's Horseshoe Cabaret, where his girl, Bangles Carson sings, is in desperate need of money. He arranges for his fellow bookies, especially Sorrowful Jones, to each pay him $1,000 for his racehorse, Dream Prince, to lose. With all bets being placed at the window, Sorrowful encounters a gambler, having lost $500, wanting to place his bet but is unable to come up with $20. Instead, he places his daughter, Marthy Jane (Shirley Temple), as security, or in bookie's terms, a "marker". Having lost his bet, he commits suicide, leaving "little Miss Marker" under the care of Sorrowful Jones. As Steve hides out in Chicago to avoid investigation for his crooked bets, he entrusts Sorrowful to watch over Bangles during his absence, at which time the "gold digger" helps "tight-wod" with his trouble. When Big Steve learns Bangles is involved with Sorrowful, he returns to New York to do something about it.
The Monster Walks
Exodus (as Sleep n' Eat)
Ruth Earlton has come home to her ancestral mansion to claim her inheritance. Accompanied by her boyfriend, she discovers that her father died suddenly under suspicious circumstances. Now it's her turn, as her deranged and relentless uncle targets her for death with the help of his wife and son, plus a very unhappy ape.
The Guilty Generation
Club Merlin Doorman (uncredited)
The children of feuding gangsters fall in love and fight to escape their parents' notoriety.
Up Pops the Devil
Laundryman
The marriage of an advertising man is jeopardized when he gets a chance to sell a novel he's been working on and quits his job to concentrate on writing. In order to support the family, the wife is forced to take a job as a dancer in a Broadway show. As the marriage begins to fall apart, complications ensue when she discovers that she's pregnant.
Virtuous Husband
Luftus
When a rich young man marries, he lets the books and letters left him by his dead mother guide his life.
Feet First
Janitor
Ambitious shoe salesman, Harold, unknowingly meets the boss' daughter and tells her he is a leather tycoon. The rest of the film he spends hiding his true circumstances, in the store and later on a ship. Trying to deliver a letter, he later finds himself dangling high above the street on a building's scaffolding.
Deep South
Short subject from Pathe based on the writings of Grantland Rice, primarily remembered for his elegant approach to sportswriting. This was one of the last of the Van Beuren Corporation's "Song Sketches," along with another "The Voice of the Sea."
Ladies of Leisure
George (uncredited)
Kay Arnold is a gold digger who wanders from party to party with the intention of catching a rich suitor. Jerry Strong is a young man from a wealthy family who strives to succeed as an artist. What begins as a relationship of mutual convenience soon turns into something else.