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.
Himself (archive footage)
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
Merle
A corrupt sheriff knows the secrets of everyone in town and uses that information to go unchallenged. But after the arrest of an innocent teenager, the new doctor cannot keep quiet and tries to get the community to stand up for what is right.
Police Captain Loomis
Merlin Jones, a precocious and intelligent high-school boy, experiments with hypnosis and creates a mind-reading machine. However, his experiments land him in deep trouble with the law.
Self
A collection of behind the scenes and home movies from the golden age of Hollywood.
Coach Wilson
Beleaguered professor Ned Brainard has already run into a pile of misfortunes with his discovery of the super-elastic substance "Flubber." Now he hopes to have better luck with a gravity-busting derivative he's dubbed "Flubbergas." Ned's experiments, constantly hampered by government obstruction, earn the consternation of his wife, Betsy. But a game-winning modification to a football uniform may help Ned make the case for his fantastic new invention.
Dr. Mills
An orphan trains a racehorse so he can win the money to build a new church.
Lou Rosson
A young newspaper boy who is on a Little League team works hard to persuade an elderly Englishman, with whom he had a previous run-in, to donate land for a baseball diamond.
Self (uncredited)
In New York, a surly, down-on-his-heels playwright meets a country girl who's giving up trying to act and returning home. He goes with her for inspiration when his agent convinces a stage star to take his next effort. When he returns to Broadway, his girl stays behind and starts seeing a local businessman.
Constable Pudge Barnham
Johnny Rutledge is a drifter who comes to and discovers a cabin in the forest where five kids: January, February, March, April, and May are living without parents. Their parents died a while ago, and they want to keep that secret from the townspeople, especially the young school teacher, Prudence Millett, to avoid being sent to a children's home and eventual separation. Johnny moves in with the kids and poses as their uncle to take care of them while romancing Prudence. But in order to keep the children, he has to get married.
Delbart Lane
When not drinking and fighting, three wildcatters in search of a gusher are enthusiastically drilling for black gold. The trouble begins when one of them grows dissatisfied with their lifestyle and quits so he can be with his new wife. Unfortunately for him, soon after he leaves, the other two find their gusher and become filthy rich. The impoverished quitter is envious and begins looking for an obscure law that will force his pals to share.
Henry Elkins
A fake swami and his crooked business partner, hoping to buy the land that's targeted for a new airport, convince the property's owner that he hasn't long to live.
Sheriff Matt Bodine
Also released as Montana Mike, Heaven Only Knows is an offbeat western with fantasy overtones. Hard-bitten gambling boss Brian Donlevy rules his frontier community with brawn and bullets. To his dismay, Donlevy discovers that he has a guardian angel (Robert Cummings), who shows up in the guise of an Eastern tenderfoot. The angel has been sent from Above to save Donlevy's soul, and to that end encourages the one-time villain to squire a minister's daughter (Jorja Curtwright) rather than his usual dance-hall girls. Donlevy is also given tips on winning against his enemies without resorting to gunplay. The gambler finally redeems himself with Heaven by rescuing the angel from a lynch mob (how can you lynch an angel?) Heaven Only Knows deserves an "E" for Effort for bringing a fresh twist to the venerable western genre.
Johnny 'Killer' Dill
Door-to-door salesman Johnny Dill, the exact double of a notorious gangster, finds himself struck between the forces of good and evil.
Doctor James Gateros
Dr. Jim Gateson, a country doctor who has counselled and ministered to his community for 30 years, is being honored with a surprise testimonial dinner. The scenario then flashes back through three decades, commencing with the young GP first hanging up his shingle, serving at the front during WWI, home life being disrupted by telephone calls from those in need, and competition from a new medic in town who doesn't make country calls.
Captain Jack Ross
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.
Jay Spencer
Story of a boy and his horse. Mike is the horse and is owned by Speck and his best friend Jimmy, together they have a paper route, on which they deliver papers to customers via a wagon pulled by Mike. Recently a horse track has been built in the area and attracts horse breeder and racer Colonel Whiteny. He takes out a subscription for delivery and meets Mike and Speck & Jimmy. Clever Jimmy talks both the Colonel and Speck into taking on the Colonel's pure bred race horses at the track with comedic results.
Hubert Theodore Wilkins
A shy bookkeeper accidentally discovers that the company where he works is targeted in a series of late-night robberies.
Pvt. Herschel Smith
Blondie organizes Housewives of America to perform home-front wartime duties, including guarding the local dam... Blondie for Victory was twelfth in Columbia's series of comedy films based on Chic Young's popular comic strip Blondie. Anxious to do her bit for the war effort, Blondie joins the Housewives of America, a home defense league. Husband Dagwood soon finds that Blondie is neglecting her responsibilities at home in favor of her war work; also disgruntled are Dagwood's chauvinistic boss Mr. Dithers and a newlywed husband whose wife is never home thanks to the defense league.
Congo Jack
A safari sets out to find a meteorite that fell in the African jungle.
Joe Dawson
Author writes about his experiences sailing at sea, struggles to get his work published.
Tommy Keenan
A financially-strapped charter pilot hires himself to an oil tycoon to kidnap his madcap daughter and prevent her from marrying a vapid band leader.
Lawrence Trent
A young man in a small town wins $5000 in a radio contest. He goes to New York City to propose to his girlfriend, but gets mixed up with a crooked attorney and two con men...
Bill Kerry
A young widow lets her baby be the deciding factor as to which eligible bachelor she should marry.
Cotton
A child from the New York tenements sings on a radio quiz show and is eventually hired to a big-bucks contract, which allows her and her family to move into a posh apartment, with all the usual problems that accompany sudden wealth.
Ben Dalton
Young lawyer Tod Jackson arrives in pioneer Kansas to visit his prosperous rancher friends the Daltons, just as the latter are in danger of losing their land to a crooked development company. When Tod tries to help them, a faked murder charge turns the Daltons into outlaws, but more victims than villains in this fictionalized version. Will Tod stay loyal to his friends despite falling in love with Bob Dalton's former fiancée Julie?
Howie Newsome
Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. We see birth, life and death in this small community.
Pete Tinney
Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for him as director of her next film. Many silent stars shown making the transition to sound.
Mackinley Winslow
In this comedy/mystery a milquetoast ad man finds his good ideas constantly copped by ambitious coworkers. His boss doesn't even seem to see him. The ad man's wife pushes her husband into confronting his boss during a party. Unfortunately, the timid fellow finds himself accused of murder after a corpse is found in the trunk of his car. He is quickly incarcerated for the crime. Meanwhile his wife begins investigating in an attempt to prove his innocence.
Jud Mason
The life of a young kid, who starts stealing small things to fit in with the "cool crowd".
Henry Cabot
At the Club Habana, Henry Cabot, a bumbling busboy, is infatuated with the club's dancer, Conchita Montez. As Tiger Martin, the leader of a gang of thieves, gives Conchita a diamond bracelet, he is arrested. After Tiger is deported, Duke Selton, of Tiger's gang, pays a visit to Conchita and tells her he believes that Blackie Bennet, the leader of a rival gang, is responsible for tipping off the police about Tiger's citizenship.
Mike Brophy
Three sisters take their small inheritance and move from Kansas to California in search of rich husbands. To start with Pamela poses as a socialite and Moira and Elizabeth pretend to be her staff.
Himself
A group of stable hands is given a race horse when its owner retires from the business. They raise money to run the horse in the Hollywood Derby at Santa Anita race track. Many Hollywood personalities attend the event.
Oliver Boggs
A dull statistician changes his life after winning a pile of money after successfully determining the number of beans in a barrel. He decides to do something novel with the prize and ends up buying a barrel factory. He encounters trouble when the nearby pickle factory is threatened by a shyster attempting to close it.
Edgar Connell
A clever veterinarian repairs a horse's leg so the animal can run in a big race and save a man's farm.
'Pancho' Brown
Theater manager James Guthrie's (Melvyn Douglas) career depends on famed soprano Elsa Terry (Grace Moore) singing in his Buenos Aires opera house, however, Elsa breaks the contract in favor of a more lucrative deal in Paris. Desperate, James begins showering her with flowers and candy in an attempt to woo her to the Argentinian opera house. When Elsa overhears James confess to his friend Pancho that he'd be willing to resort to kidnapping to get Elsa to Argentina, she mistakenly believes his motives to be solely romantic.
Leo MacTavish
Raoul McLish stops over in Miami Beach where he runs into his ex-wife, Vicky Benton, and her new husband Bob, a belt manufacturer. At first Bob enjoys Raoul's presence - in part because Vicky is his not Raoul's and in part because Raoul is a lot of fun. The fun wears thin for Bob as his seriousness and possessiveness take over. When Bob leaves for a few days to settle a labor dispute at his factory, Vicky and Raoul spend time together, Winchell's column implies untoward behavior, Bob barks at Vicky, and that gets her back up. Can things be sorted out? Help comes from Raoul's upright valet, McTavish, and a principled cigarette girl, Joy, whom Raoul picks up.
Henry Armstrong
Henry Armstrong was past being a spring chicken, still believes in Santa Claus and the maxim that "honesty is the best policy", but lack of money keeps him from marrying Molly and buying a little home, and his is threatened with the loss of the petty job he has had for four years with old Curtis French, Molly's uncle, because he can not sell enough insurance policies. And, then, he finds a thousand dollar bill. His honesty makes him advertise the find, but no one claims the money. When he is convinced that the owner will not turn up and that the money is his to keep, he becomes a changed, more aggressive and self-confident person. He begins to make sales as fast as he can make the pitch and he insists that he and Molly be married at once. While getting dressed for the ceremony, he places the $1000 bill in one of his father's old suits, and Pa Armstrong, trying to raise money to buy his son a wedding present, sells the suit to a passing junk man.
Andy Tucker
A stage-struck small-towner is tricked in backing a bad straight play, but it turns out to be a unintentional comedy hit. Problems arise, when he is sued for plagiarism.
Stumpy
Expert lineman Red takes Farm-boy Slim under his wing and teaches him the dangerous, migratory trade of putting up transmission lines. They both love their work, and the same girl, who hates their dangerous profession.
Amos Dodd
Bessie and Winston "Slug" Winters are married coaches whose mission is to whip their college football team into shape. Just in time, they discover a hillbilly farmhand and his sister. But the hillbilly farmhand's ability to throw melons enables him to become their star passing ace.
Elmer Lamb
A country bumpkin who's a mathematical genius falls into the hands of gangsters.
Matt Casey
A young reporter tries to prove her mettle by exposing a liquor racketeering gang.
Oscar "Chubby" Rudd
Escaped convicts Jack and Judy stumble upon an airstrip on the Western ranch of arrogant business tycoon Gerald Axton. Taking Axton and his secretary hostage, the convicts inadvertently cause the crash-landing of a small plane ferrying Axton's political adversary, Gov. Sam Pruden, and a nosy reporter. As the long night unfolds, each person's rivalries and weaknesses are prodded by the others.
Timothy Aloysius Higgins
A reporter and his newspaper's attorney try to gather evidence that will put a notorious gangster behind bars.
Texas Clarke
War veteran pilots Dizzy Davis, Texas Clark and Jake Lee are working in an airline. Dizzy is fooling with one of the younger pilot's girl-friend and due to this he changes flights with Texas.
Hank Parr
A managing editor sends a socialite reporter to spy on her boyfriend, mixed up in murder.
Stuffy Wilson
A judge hands four wayward boys to a college football coach who turns them into backfield stars.
Himself (uncredited)
A parade highlights the Screen Actors Guild's Film Stars Frolic, hosted by Walter Winchell as Master of Ceremonies.
Gus Anderson
Sally (Jean Parker) is engaged to be married, loves dancing and kids. But her life is ruined when an accident cripples her and her betrothed magnanimously offers to not back out of the marriage. After rejecting his offer she starts a doll shop and tries to save for an operation. From her doll shop window she watches children and talks to Jimmie (James Dunn) the ice cream man. She wants to know Jimmie better, but is terrified of rejection.
John L. 'Johnnie' Smith
Richard, a millionaire in love with his secretary, Diane, is dispirited when his wife refuses to divorce him. Concerned that Diane will now lose interest, Richard offers her an all-expense-paid cruise to Argentina so that she can think it over. While traveling, however, Diane falls in love with fellow traveler Mike. She resolves to come clean to Richard, but upon return she becomes conflicted when she finds out he was able to get divorced after all.
Bruce Blakely
Bruce Blakely, a meek, mild-mannered certified public accountant, finally gets fed up with his money-grubbing family sponging off of him, and decides to partake of a different side and slice of life. A blonde secretary helps guide him.
William Watts
After being fired from his job at the Marriage License Bureau, a clerk turns to matchmaking.
Jonny Sykes
In this fictionalized biography, young Pancho Villa takes to the hills after killing an overseer in revenge for his father's death.
Joe Palooka
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.
Ernest Pratt Baker, Picture Producer
The film tells the story of Sylvia, a French teacher at an all-girl school, who wants to find love. When she hears Bill Williams on the radio, she decides to go visit and thank him. However, difficult problems lay ahead when Lili gets in the way.
Jerry
In this brutal prison drama a hen-pecked husband is sentenced to prison after getting caught with his hand in the company till. He is sent to a high-rise facility in LA. It seems the fellow was only following the instructions of his domineering, constantly nagging wife who, as soon as he is put away, takes up with a more successful businessman. This causes her new lover's ex-lover to get insanely jealous and kill the conniving wife.
Dwight Wilson
After the death of a gangster, those familiar with his million dollar stash start mysteriously dying. Police detectives with the help of a clairvoyant try to determine who, living or dead, is responsible.
Simon Bates
A divorcée leaves New York to visit her grandfather's farm and recover in the Midwest, where she unexpectedly falls in love with a married farmer.
Al Simpson
Ruby falls in love with small-time con man Eddie. During a botched blackmail scheme, Eddie accidentally kills the man they were setting up. Eddie takes off and Ruby is sent to a reformatory for two years.
Tommy Nash
Foreign investors converge on a luxury hotel in China to bid on a new kind of radioscope. But, this is a hotel where Burns and Allen are the in-house medical staff, a measles risk sends the whole building into quarantine, and a madcap millionaire crashes dinner in his autogyro. Hotel and radioscope become a stage for an all-star cast of comedians and musicians, from vaudeville to the new generation.
Tonto
Western comedy.
Peter Potter Kendall II
He Learned About Women is a 1932 American Pre-Code comedy film directed by Lloyd Corrigan and written by Lloyd Corrigan, Ray Harris and Harlan Thompson. The film stars Stuart Erwin, Susan Fleming, Alison Skipworth, Gordon Westcott, Grant Mitchell and Sidney Toler. The film was released on November 4, 1932, by Paramount Pictures
Dan McKee
A doctor who is also a “mentalist” confesses to a murder. The only problem is that the murder he’s confessed to hasn’t happened yet – although dead bodies are now starting to turn up all over the place. A reporter sets out to solve the “mystery”.
Lucky
Joe and Lucky travel around New England painting barns in exchange for an advertisement on one side. The meet Madge, who is cruelly treated by a her father who plans to marry her off to someone she despises.
Leslie McWhinney
The top brass at a radio station believe their popular new star singer is paying more attention to his love life than to his career.
Man Talking to Connors (uncredited)
College football player is asked to dope a star teammate by his crooked gambler brother. He refuses, but they player is doped anyway and collapses and dies. A detective has the whole game re-enacted to find important clues.
Merton Gill
A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, his acting ability is non-existent.
Self
A short featuring many stars
Boney
A scheming socialite meets her match in the out-of-touch wildlife explorer she ventures to ensnare.
Stan Kenney
Fredric March essays a dual role in this story of a ne'er-do-well who impersonates his brother when the latter dies.
Hauser
The daughter of a senator from South Dakota visits Manhattan for the first time, eager to see the sights of the big city. While there, she finds herself caught up in an affair with a married man, whose wife soon commits suicide. Complications ensue.
Pat Kelly
Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her sister June, more streetwise, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.
Elmer Graham
A nightclub singer, taking pity on a blind soldier, pretends that she is the woman he once loved before he was wounded.
Stranger
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.
Chester Carr
Chester Carr, owner of a dude ranch in the Rockies, caters to guests seeking the thrill of the Wild West. Among his guests are the wealthy Spruce Meadows and his daughter Susan. But the West isn't wild anymore and most of Carr's guests are bored and about to leave. He is in despair when a caravan carrying a broke-down-and-out troupe of actors---Jennifer, Judd, Mrs. Merridew and her daughter, Alice---crashes down the hill and wrecks the hotel sign.
Reporter
Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.)
Ole Olson
Theater usherette Bunny O'Day (Clara Bow) inadvertently becomes hostess of a private gambling den, and gets involved in a romance with a ne'er-do-well gambler.
Ambrose
Set in London, American Larry Brooks, former millionaire and now broke, pursues lovely Elinor Farrington who, encouraged by her Aunt to marry wealth, falls for him not knowing that he is poor. Trying to regain his status in the racing world since the loss of his champion racehorse and the efforts of a gangster left him penniless, he and his trainer live from hand to mouth as he tries desperately to woo the girl, despite her aunt's suspicions. But Elinor soon finds herself falling for him until he admits to all that he is not what he appears to be.
Oscar
Rubber-legged comedian Leon Errol made his talkie starring bow in Paramount's Only Saps Work. Based on a play by Owen Davis Sr., the film casts Errol as James Wilson, a kleptomaniac who starts with picking pockets and ends up robbing a bank. Wilson's friend Lawrence Payne (Richard Arlen) inadvertently aids our hero during one of his heists, ending up in deep doo-doo with the law. Before Wilson is able to extricate Payne from his dilemma for the sake of heroine Barbara Tanner (Mary Brian), he pauses long enough to pose as a private eye -- and even gives bellboy Oscar (Stu Erwin) tips on how to spot a crook! If only all of Leon Errol's feature films had been as consistently hilarious as Only Saps Work.
Paul Michel
Yvonne, daughter of Philibert, a Paris cafe owner, is in love with dreamy, blundering Albert, a waiter, though he pays little attention to her. Philibert plans to marry his daughter to a wealthy Parisian, but upon learning that Albert is to come into a large inheritance, he conspires to place him under a longterm contract, confident that he willingly will pay a forfeit to break it.
Clicker Watson
A young waitress falls for the son of a railroad tycoon, and finds herself hobnobbing with the rich when he invites her to spend some time with he and his family in Palm Springs.
Eustace Macy
Dangerous Nan McGrew is the sharp-shooting expert of a traveling medicine show that is stranded in the Canadian northwest at the snowbound hunting lodge of wealthy Mrs. Benson. Nan is invited to put on a show for the benefit of Mrs. Benson's Christmas-Eve guests. While performing her boop-a-doop songs, Eustace Macy, the saxophone-tooting nephew of Mrs. Benson falls in love with Nan. And, then, the villain, the bank-robbing Doc Foster, makes his entrance. Can Dawes of the Royal Mounted be seen slushing in pursuit behind the gangster? Could Be.
Marine (The Montmartre Girl)
This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, credits 11 directors
Pudge Higgins
Lieut. Robert Banks, an American aviator on leave in Paris, meets Mary Gordon, a young American who lives abroad, but their romance is cut short by his return to the front. In an air battle, Robert brings down and captures the Grey Eagle, Baden, and takes him to American Intelligence in Paris. Mary, ostensibly a spy for the Germans, drugs Robert, who awakens to find that his uniform has been stolen by Baden. Later, in an exciting air conflict, Baden is wounded but shoots down Robert's plane. The German rescues him, however, and takes him to an Allied hospital, assuring him of Mary's love; his faith in her is restored when he learns that she is actually a spy for U. S. Intelligence.
Jenkins
Made during the early days of sound cinema, this tense submarine adventure is an intriguing example of a hybrid silent-talkie. A disgraced English sub commander changes his name to Burke and joins the American Navy. When the U.S. submarine on which he is serving as a torpedo launcher begins to sink, Burke must make the ultimate sacrifice to save as many crew men as possible..
Fred
A romance runs into difficulties because the girl has seen a great deal of the turbulence in her sister's household, and has no illusions about married bliss.
Reporter (uncredited)
A stenographer who works for a lawyer falls in love with and marries a wealthy young man. His family has the marraige annulled, after which she gives birth to a child. Her former boss helps her out to ensure the child's welfare, which starts gossip that she is a "kept woman."
Axel Bronstrup
Chorus girl Barbara Pell (Nancy Carroll) inherits a school for boys, and uses her position to sabotage the football career of the boy who jilted her.
Buckley
Two Marines are sent to South Sea island where they fight over a local island girl.
Jig
Margie, singer on a showboat, decides to try her luck in New York inspite of being in love with the owners grandson. She is successful, but suddenly she hears that the showboat is in deep financial trouble, and she calls all the boats former stars to join in a big show to rescue it.
Radio Broadcast Technician (uncredited)
Joe Collins (Eddie Quillan) arrives at Hanford College to begin his second year with $200 to pay his tuition, is enticed into a craps game, and loses all in this nostalgic slice of college, replete with songs, romance, prom dances and the inevitable big football game.
Rotarian
A young bareback rider in a circus is in love with a trapeze artist, but he has two problems: he drinks too much and he's fallen under the spell of a "vamp" who's nothing but trouble for him.
Cy Williams
Newspaper staffer Alice Woods persuades the editor to allow her to chase a story, that of prizefight contender Martin, who is about to fight for the championship. However, he does not know that his manager is preparing to double-cross him.
Landlady's Son
Taking place over 24 hours, "New Year's Eve" is the story of Marjorie Ware, broke and unemployed, who despairs as her ailing younger brother languishes at home. She runs into rich gambler Larry Harmon and rejects his overtures. She later finds a wallet with 10 $100 bills belonging to Edward Warren.
Marion's Boyfriend
Two girls are invited by one of the girls boy-friend's tight boss for dinner. On the way they stop for a cheap ice-cream. But swinging doors, ventilators, cops and a brat make it nearly impossible to get the ice cream even close to the car where the rest are waiting.
