Self (archive footage)
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Colonel Bright (uncredited)
A judge flees the pressures of professional and family life for a job as a short-order cook.
Mr. Bowman (uncredited)
Mary Hagen lives in a small town in Ohio and goes to Jordon Junior College. For years, there has been whispers, rumors and gossip about who are her real parents. When Tom Bates returns to town, he takes over the house and practice that Judge Merrivale left him when he died. As Tom has been away a number of years, this leads to more gossip and Mary believes that he is her father. The popular and rich Ken loves Mary, but his family and friends constantly remind him that she is 'not one of us'. Julia, a teacher at school encourages Mary but Mary cannot get a break in anything she does, or is accused of doing. Tom knows the answer to her true identity, and he is silent.
Peter Premium
Dick Tracy investigates the theft of a fortune of fur coats, a possible insurance swindle and several murders, all linked to a huge thug who wears a hook in place of his right hand.
Russell
Film about the early days of the Pony Express and the crooked businessman who opposed it.
Saloon Owner (uncredited)
Wyatt Earp and his brothers Morgan and Virgil ride into Tombstone and leave brother James in charge of their cattle herd. On their return they find their cattle stolen and James dead. Wyatt takes on the job of town marshal, making his brothers deputies, and vows to stay in Tombstone until James' killers are found. He soon runs into the brooding, coughing, hard-drinking Doc Holliday as well as the sullen and vicious Clanton clan. Wyatt discovers the owner of a trinket stolen from James' dead body and the stage is set for the Earps' long-awaited revenge.
James Walsh
A black cat is suspected of being possessed by the spirit of a elderly murdered woman.
Mr. Saul Dana
Ding Dong Williams, a clarinet player who can neither read nor write music is employed at a motion picture studio. The studio plans to use him and his six-piece band but his musical deficiencies are discovered and the plan scrapped. But the secretary of the head of the music department intercedes on his behalf and he is given a chance in the film.
Police Captain Hurley (Uncredited)
Soon after a young woman breaks off her engagement to a doctor, the doctor is found murdered. Suspicion falls on his ex-fiancé and a pilot with a checkered past.
Inspector Crane (as William Davidson)
Ex-thief Lone Wolf and his valet don turbans to solve a museum jewel theft.
Shortly after Pearl Harbor, a squadron of PT-boat crews in the Philippines must battle the Navy brass between skirmishes with the Japanese. The title says it all about the Navy's attitude towards the PT-boats and their crews.
F.T. Johnson
In this musical comedy, an arrogant war journalist is sailing back to the Big Apple after the end of WW II. En route, he has been assigned to watch over a band of teenagers who were trapped in Europe four years ago while entertaining the troops. Their entrapment has done nothing to dim their enthusiasm for performing and while waiting for passage the crews entertain everyone at every opportunity. Songs include: "I'll Buy That Dream" (sung by Anne Jeffreys), "Heaven Is a Place Called Home," "Seven O'Clock in the Morning (Waking up Boogie)," "Somebody Stole My Poor Little Heart" (Herb Magidson, Allie Wrubel), and "The Lord's Prayer" (arranged by Albert Hay Malotte).
Brannigan
Carol (Ruth Terry), the cigarette girl at a swank Palm Springs hotel, dreams of singing in the establishment's nightclub. She gets a chance when her well-to-do uncle, "Colonel" Morgan (Alan Mowbray), and a pal blow into town ... until their visit turns out to be a con job. Carol's voice impresses the bandleader (Robert Livingston), but the hotel manager (Franklin Pangborn), still smarting from Morgan's chicanery, isn't ready to give her a chance.
Chairman
A man waits on death row while his son and friend try to prove that he did not kill a grocer with an ax.
Governor
A war hero returns home following a medical discharge and ends up entangled with a young woman speeding away from her wedding day in her fiance's car. Seeing the soldier, she gives him a ride and explains her predicament. Things get sticky when the cops capture them and accuse the soldier of desertion.
Judge
Ole and Chic are comedians employed in a nightclub, but seeking to be released from their contracts to take a better job. But the prissy nightclub owner, B. J. Wagonhorn, refuses to let them go. In reprisal, they start hurling insults at the nightclub patrons… a ploy that soon has them facing multiple lawsuits… to the delight of three struggling attorneys, Charlie Rodman, Bettty Wilson and Arthur Lane.
Parker
Two bumbling plumbers are hired by a socialite to fix a leak. A case of mistaken identity gets the pair an invitation to a fancy party and an entree into high society. As expected, things don't go too smoothly
Mr. Linklater
Walter and Vivian live in the country and have a difficult time keeping servants. Walter then hires a private detective who has been fired for arresting the District Attorney. They only way that Walter can get Jerry to work for him is to tell Jerry that his life is in danger; the neighbor is trying to take his wife; and that Nazi spies are everywhere. Jerry needs a cook for his 'cover' so he gets his fiancée Susan to work with him. To keep Jerry working, Walter sends the threatening letters to himself and hires actors to play the spies but when a real group of spies disguised as a troupe of radio actors appears on the scene, events quickly spiral out of control.
Gilbert J. Regan (uncredited)
A lawyer tries to clear his wife's lover of murder charges.
Maxwell
Hypochondriac Danny Weems gets drafted and accidentally smuggles his girlfriend aboard his Pacific-bound troopship.
Warden Ed
A prison Chaplain is forced to leave his post for health reasons, but fate provides him with another chance to reform an escaped convict.
Capt. Towne
A sailor and his wife become involved in a murder investigation.
Senator (uncredited)
Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to America as an advocate of Stalinism.
Sheriff George Lane (as William Davidson)
A love-smitten cowpoke acciidentally causes a horse stampede.
Stephen S. Gray
An independent truck driver organizes his fellow truckers to resist the efforts of a crooked trucking company exec to bring all drivers under his control. When the trucker's brother dies in an "accident" arranged by the trucking company's henchmen, he takes matters into his own hands
Donovan (uncredited)
As bare-knuckled boxing enters the modern era, brash extrovert Jim Corbett uses new rules and dazzlingly innovative footwork to rise to the top of the boxing world.
Mr. Aldrich
In this espionage movie, set in Washington during WW II, the daughter of an ex-senator has become a dress model. She is approached by an American counter-espionage agent who offers her a chance to serve her country. The carefree son of a naval official receives a similar offer. He is asked to secure secret Naval plans. Unbeknownst to them, the man they work for is actually a Nazi spy. The two dupes finally figure it out, and the spy kidnaps them. Somehow they escape and break up the spy ring.
Mr. Reindel
Dwight Dawson, who runs an unsuccessful success school, stages a contest to find the biggest failure in the USA, for publicity value when the "dope" takes his course. But winner Tad Page is contented with his idle, lazy life and threatens to convert Dawson's other students to his philosophy. Dawson captalizes on Tad's attraction to Claire Harris to win him over; but will Tad find out Claire is really engaged to Dawson?
Homer Jacell
Members of a well-to-do small community become worried when it is revealed that one of their maids is writing a telling exposé.
Jim Purdy
An unhappy, self-centered woman runs off with her sister's husband, wreaking havoc and ruining the lives of those around her.
McCarthy
Three ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers...
Sen. Knobs
In Hoyt City, a statue of founder Ethan Hoyt is dedicated, and 100 year old Hannah Sempler Hoyt (who lives in the last residence among skyscrapers) is at last persuaded to tell her story to a 'girl biographer'. Flashback: in 1848, teenage Hannah meets and flirts with pioneer Ethan; on a sudden impulse, they elope. We follow their struggle to found a city in the wilderness, hampered by the Gold Rush, star-crossed love, peril, and heartbreak. The star "ages" 80 years.
Cyrus Ballard
A New York radio personality travels to the small town of Fernville to oversee a contest to identify retired safecracker Jimmy Valentine, believed to be living there under an assumed name. The close-knit town of upstanding citizens is understandably upset by this venture, all the moreso when some of its citizens begin to be murdered. The radio personality and the local newspaper's young daughter collaborate on solving the murders while revealing Valentine, who has become one of the suspects.
Alumnus
The trustees of Midwestern University have forced three teachers out of their jobs for being suspected communists. Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild mannered English Professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in class. Tommy is upset that his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage. Meanwhile, Ellen's old boyfriend, the football player Joe Ferguson, comes to visit for the homecoming weekend. He takes Ellen out dancing after the football rally, causing Tommy to worry that he will lose her to Joe.
Crole (as William Davidson)
Berle plays a mystery writer who forever writes himself into corners and is never able to finish a story. While visiting his wife (Mary Beth Hughes) at the office where she works, Berle overhears several men discussing the suicide of a coworker. Struck with a brilliant notion, Berle decides to confess to the murder of the dead man, certain that he'll be able to wriggle out of the situation and thereby have plenty of material for a story.
Committeeman
Elderly schoolteacher Nora Trinell, waiting to meet presidential nominee Dewey Roberts, recalls him as her student back in 1916 and his relation to Dan Hopkins, the man she married and lost.
Gonigle
When a barnstorming stunt pilot decides to join the air corps, his two goofball assistants decide to go with him. Since the two are Abbott & Costello, the air corps doesn't know what it's in for.
Labor Leader
Faith and Hope Banner, sisters, are "convention hostesses" in a hotel. A body is discovered next door as the magician's convention is leaving and the mortician's convention is arriving, and the sisters, with help from manager Wilburforce Puddle, try to hide it. Complicating matters, Hope's boyfriend, Tommy, is a newspaper reporter in the hotel covering some labor negotiations.
Mr. Day
A pretty Chicago teenager (Gale Storm), who's being courted by an older man, is sent by her worried parents to live with her uncle on his Iowa farm.
Captain Moss
A ship company employee, Jay Williams, is sent to Florida where one of the company cruise ships is stuck on a reef off of the coast. He obtains waivers from all of the passengers with the exception of Nan Spencer, a department store salesgirl who wants her vacation NOW, not later. Jay is instructed to take Nan to Havana and set her up in the best hotel and keep her entertained. She visits a night club where the star attraction is Rosita Rivas, and meets Rosita's worthless manager, Monte Blanca, who makes a play for her. Trouble also comes in the form of Jay's fiancée, Terry McCracken, when a romance develops between Nan and Jay.
Jack Murray
When Phil Corey's band arrives at the Idaho ski resort its pianist Ted Scott is smitten with a Norwegian refugee he has sponsored, Karen Benson. When soloist Vivian Dawn quits, Karen stages an ice show as a substitute.
Moose Matson
Two bumbling service station attendants are left as the sole beneficiaries in a gangster's will. Their trip to claim their fortune is sidetracked when they are stranded in a haunted house along with several other strangers.
Gorman
A young woman marries a man who turns out to be a bank robber.
Henry Baxter
Three reckless brothers dodge the draft then sign up and become men.
Capt. Richards (uncredited)
Popular crooner Russ Raymond abandons his career at its peak and joins the Navy using an alias, Tommy Halstead. However, Dorothy Roberts, a reporter, discovers his identity and follows him in the hopes of photographing him and revealing his identity to the world. Aboard the Alabama, Tommy meets up with Smoky and Pomeroy, who help hide him from Dorothy, who hatches numerous schemes in an attempt to photograph Tommy/Russ being a sailor.
Harrison "Harry" Eckles
Eddie Barnes, tired of being a nobody and living with his parents, decides to cash in his mother's legacy and use the money to buy a business. Unfortunately, Eddie's mother has to die before the broker can collect the full value of the policy and the broker's gangster partner doesn't want to wait for nature to take its course.
Nye Dunbar
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!
District Attorney Ralph B. Stanley
Mad scientist turns a man into an electrically-controlled monster to do his bidding.
Dist. Atty. Craig
Longshoreman Johnny Barnes is in love with Kitty Tracy, barmaid at her father's waterfront saloon, and he beats up Cassidy, a crooked politician who has been annoying her. Cassidy is murdered that night and Johnny is jailed for the crime. Kitty, her father Andy Tracy, and waterfront-priest Father Cameron believe Johnny is innocent but all evidence points to his guilt.
Stock Company Manager (uncredited)
An actress hopes to regain her lost son by making it to the top.
Hotel Manager
Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England, and Katy joins her after the boys give a new song to Nora Bayes. All are reunited when the boys, now in the army, show up in England.
Councilman Charles J. Clark
A young widow lets her baby be the deciding factor as to which eligible bachelor she should marry.
Police Chief
Banished from various U.S. protectorates in the Pacific, a saloon entertainer uses her femme-fatale charms to woo politicians, navy personnel, gangsters, riff-raff, judges and a ship's doctor in order to achieve her aims.
Mumford (as William Davidson)
Ad man Stephen Dexter asks his secretary Kendall to marry him as a loophole in order to protect his finances during an important business deal. Once the deal is completed, he asks Kendall for a divorce and is dismayed when she refuses.
John Addison
A woman tormented by the hunting death of her husband forbids her son to have anything to do with horses. But when he falls for the daughter of his father's trainer, he defies his mother by entering the Maryland Hunt.
Agent
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.
Judge Hinsdale
Sailor is going to marry his girlfriend when he returns, but she becomes foster mother to baby whose parents are accidentally killed. The baby is accidentally left on board a visiting battleship.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Set against the backdrop of WWI Europe, a man and woman of different classes are brought together by their love of Lippizan horses.
George Grayson
A priceless necklace goes missing at a plush party. Police close in on the jewel thieves but is one cop getting too close to one of the crooks?
President Cleveland
Alice Faye plays the title role in this 1940 film biography of the early-20th-century stage star.
Judge Bull
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.
Slick
Although young and beautiful, schoolteacher Anne Gladden fears a dull future. She finally decides to take a walk on the wild side, splurging on some fashionable new clothes and setting off to find adventure. Her new confidence inspires her to flirt with complete strangers. When a gangster pays unwanted attention to her, she ditches him and flees in his car, unaware that there's a corpse in the trunk. Determined to recover his stolen vehicle and its incriminating cargo the thug begins a desperate search. The oblivious Anne, comes to the aid of a handsome young man stranded alongside the road. Romance blooms, but after the shocking discovery of a body in the trunk, the duo decide they have to return the car. The bickering lovebirds head back to the city, trailed by both the angry gangster and the cops, who suspect the young couple of murder.
Fitzgerald
An elderly woman turns sheriff to clear her granddaughter of murder charges.
Sheriff of Little Bend (uncredited)
While on her way by stagecoach to visit relatives out west, Flower Belle Lee is held up by a masked bandit who also takes the coach's shipment of gold. When he abducts Flower Belle and they arrive in town, Flower Belle is suspected of being in collusion with the bandit.
Montgomery (uncredited)
A gangster is unable to go straight after returning home from prison.
Inspector Evans
A female private eye joins forces with a police detective to investigate the suspicious murder of a millionaire.
Warden Denby
T-Man Brass Bancroft goes undercover in a prison which has a secret counterfeit operation set up in the print shop.
Store Detective
Bill Burnett, a resident of Bali, visits New York City, meets and falls in love with Gail Allen, the successful manager of a Fifth Avenue shop, who is determined to remain free and independent. Bill proposes, Gail declines and Bill goes home to Bali. But a young girl, Rosie, and Tony the Window Cleaner, who dispels advice on every floor, soon have Gail thinking maybe she was a bit hasty with her no to Bill's proposal. Ere long she discovers that she does love Bill and can't live without him. She goes down to Bali to give him the good news. He learns that he is soon to marry Noel Van Ness. She goes back to New York City.
Work Farm Warden
Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman's daughter leads to a fight between them, leading to the older man's death due to a weak heart. Joe and Mabel go on the run as he thinks no-one would believe a nobody like him.
Foster
Dr. Garfield gets so involved in his research for an antitoxin for severe burns that he completely neglects his wife, Virginian, and their young son, Steve. Virginia divorces him and takes the son with her. Their paths cross again in a life-or-death situation.
Duncan Martin
A champion auto racer who unhappily learns his kid brother wants to enter the same profession rather than finish school.
Bill Mason
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Samuel 'Sam' 'Simsy' Hudson - Music Publisher
Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell) is a stuffed-shirt, classical music professor. His family and small-town music college that he works are of equal mindset. When Don visits his black-sheep aunt in New York in order to find a buyer for his Rhapsody he is exposed to her shocking swing music crowd. His life begins to make dramatic changes after drinking a "lemonade" that turns out to be a Hurricane.
Mr. Gray
An ambitious attorney (Edward Norris) tries to prove a man (John Litel) who killed to protect his wife's (Margaret Lindsay) honor was justified.
Sam
Promises of happier times dawn for the financially distressed Patterson family when father Sweeney and brother-in-law Archibald "Doc" Finney win a $150,000 grand prize in the sweepstake contest. With their windfall, each member of the family decides to pursue a dream.
Stock Broker
Three sisters who believe life is going to be easy, now that their parents are back together, until one sister falls in love with another's fiancé, and the youngest sister plays matchmaker.
Elderly Man in Café (uncredited)
Dagwood inadvertently gets cornered in to resigning. When his wife Blondie tries to ask Dagwoods boss Mr. Dithers for his job back, he ends up hiring her instead. This doesn't sit too well with Dagwood. Blondie's sister comes to visit, and Dagwood is put in a compromising situation with another woman.
Sales Manager (Uncredited)
Trixie is a female pilot looking to win a big race to advance her career. During one race, however, her plane becomes damaged, and she needs help to repair it. She meets a Navy pilot named "Tex" Price and tries to gain his aid. Tex soon meets another pilot, Gerry, a novice who seeks to win an important upcoming race. Tex, concerned for Gerry's safety, tries to convince her not to race. But Gerry, now a rival of Trixie's, is determined to fly.
Hempel
A reporter gets himself sent to prison to expose a mobster.
Scotty
After a socially conscience reporter adopts a slum orphan after she causes his brother's gang to go to prison.
Ennis
A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.
Dalton
G-Man Charles Bent Martin is sent out to break up a nationwide racket. A transport company is aiding fugitives making a getaway in exchange for the lion's share of their loot. Through an old friend, whom he once barnstormed in an air circus, Martin joins the gang as a pilot. He becomes interested in Carol Butler, a beautiful girl involved with the gang through the activities of her ne'er-do-well father.
Skipper Jackson (uncredited)
An heiress takes a job as a department store clerk.
Ellory Bugs
A wealthy businessman promises to donate a huge endowment to his college alma mater, but there's one condition -- his loser of a son, a student at the school, must become a football hero. Comedy.
Trucking Chairman (uncredited)
A trucker with a pregnant wife fights a New York mobster's protection racket.
Mr. 'W.P.' Alvey
A singing cowboy turns out to be a tenderfoot.
Commandant
A simple peasant is forced to take up arms to defend his farm during the Spanish Civil War. Along the way he falls in love with a Russian girl whose father is involved in espionage.
Hawtrey
Band tries to get an audition for a job at a prestigious nightclub.
Page
A reporter covering a murder trial guesses that the murderer of a ruthless businessman is her ex-fiancé and persuades him to confess and clear the innocent man on trial.
Maj. Gruff (as William Davidson) (uncredited)
An Army private proves his horse is fit for service and wins his colonel's daughter.
Director Kelton
After losing a coveted role in an upcoming film to another actress, screen queen Mona Marshall (Lola Lane) protests by refusing to appear at her current movie's premiere. Her agent discovers struggling actress Virginia Stanton (Rosemary Lane) -- an exact match for Mona -- and sends her to the premiere instead, with young musician Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell). After various mishaps, including a case of mistaken identity, Ronnie and Virginia struggle to find success in Hollywood.
Jonathan
The plot concerns a female press agent who must select a "Mr. Manhattan" and "Miss Brooklyn" for an ad campaign mounted by a soup company. The Mr. Manhattan chosen is a singing soda jerk, who doesn't want to play along until he is given the honor of choosing his own Miss Brooklyn.
Abusive Drunk (uncredited)
A Polynesian sailor is separated from his wife when he's unjustly imprisoned for defending himself against a colonial bully. Members of the community petition the governor for clemency but all pretense of law and order are soon shattered by an incoming tropical storm.
Mr. Richards (as William Davidson)
James Cagney has a rare chance to show his song-and-dance-man roots in this low-budget tale of a New York bandleader struggling with a Hollywood studio boss.
Cyrus Wittles
Complications ensue after a radio producer insults a sponsor.
Al Howard
A silent Western star has trouble adjusting to the coming of sound.
Hoener
Stranded on an island, a blind artist (Warren Hull) falls in love with a native (Movita).
Mr. Hyde
J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.
Henderson
Madge Winton (Marion Davies), a beautiful secretary, makes herself look homely in order to avoid advances by lecherous bosses. When her new employer, writer Freddy Matthews (Robert Montgomery), accidentally sees her without her disguise, she has to pretend to be her roommate Sadie.
Drake
Frantic screwball comedy about a meek personal assistant (Frank McHugh) who is promoted to managing editor of a newspaper features syndicate that is owned by and staffed with cuckoos.
Bartscher
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'.
Mr. Hale
A singing bandleader signs on with an all-girls band.
The Editor
A young man goes up against a crooked town boss.
Bob Crandall
In the underworld of Manhattan, a woman dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters.
Alfred H. Kruger
After losing his bid for district attorney, an aspiring young lawyer agrees to defend a ring of car thieves.
Andy Callahan (as Wm. Davidson)
The partners of stage-producer J. J. Hobart gamble away the money for his new show. They enlist a gold-digging chorus girl to help get it back by conning an insurance company. But they don’t count on the persistence of insurance man Rosmer Peck and his secretary Norma Perry.
Mr. Jackson
A salesman tries to sell a tractor to a customer who hates tractors while falling for the girl.
City Fathers Committee Spokesman (uncredited)
In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress and a lady jewel thief.
Welford Andrews
The Big Noise is retired textile manufacturer Julius Trent (Guy Kibbee). Seeking a new outlet for his entrepreneurial energies, Trent buys a half interest in a thriving dry-cleaning establishment. This gets him mixed up with a gang of protection racketeers, who promise dire consequences if Trent doesn't dance to their tune.
Bayard Thatcher (as William Davidson)
A wealthy family is blackmailed. Murder results. And a nurse at the scene of the crime is determined to figure out who-done-it.
Detective (uncredited)
On her debut as an opera star, Marion Stuart is interrogated and possibly implicated in the death of a male acquaintance. Released, although thoroughly shaken-up, Marion attempts to perform but loses her voice onstage. Humiliated, but driven to sing, she travels to South America under the assumed name of Maria Delasano, and works in an opera company under the tutelage of Feodor Glinka, who wants her to shun men and save herself for her art. Mary resists the persistent attentions of wealthy young Phil Roberts, who follows the company in hopes of marrying her. ...
Barney Hammond
Neurotic Broadway star Al Jackson faces professional ruin when he loses his voice. While recuperating in the country, he falls in love with farm girl Ruth Haines, the pretty aunt of precocious little Sybil Haines.
Attorney General Mardsen
A crusading young reporter planning a series of articles about a corrupt politician is framed for a crime and sentenced to serve five years at a prison farm.
A.W. Hutchinson
Aspiring Producer Michael McCreigh convinces Uncle Carlton to finance a play on the condition that he lives the play's ridiculous plot. If Michael fails, he must work in Carlton's meat packing plant.
Official (uncredited)
Gangster tries to censor a crusading radio station by jamming its signal.
Reed Walsh
Dan Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. Unaware that she is married to Gordon, he asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play. When Gordon refuses to give Joyce a divorce, she runs the car into a tree crippling him for life. Joyce urges Dan return to Gail, opens her play, and begs Gordon for forgiveness.
Chief Haggerty (as William Davidson)
A young couple and their child fall prey to kidnappers when a storm drives them into a seemingly abandoned farmhouse.
Director Bill Sutter
Carol Corliss, a beautiful movie star so insecure about her celebrity that she goes around in disguise, meets a rugged outdoorsman who is unaffected by her star status.
Charlie Young - Carston's Lawyer
Newspaperman Bill Bradford becomes a special agent for the tax service trying to end the career of racketeer Nick Carston. Julie Gardner is Carston's bookkeeper. Bradford enters Carston's organization and Julie cooperates with him to land Carston in jail. An informer squeals on them. Julie is kidnapped by Carston's henchmen as she is about to testify
Collins
Just after a jury finds Ann Grey guilty of murder, the car carrying her to prison crashes into another car. Ann escapes and ends up in lawyer Tony Baxter's car. Tony realizes Ann is innocent, so he vows to help her prove it, risking his neck in the process. Tony and Ann are pursued by the police and by Smiley Gordon, a mob boss who engineered Ann's escape thinking that she can lead him to a $250,000 stash.
E.H. Swaley
An American oil company representative almost sacrifices his marriage for his career.
Tom McGee
An irresponsible Broadway star gets mixed up with gambling and gangsters.
Connolly
A PR man talks a swanky hotel into hiring his girlfriend's brother as chef.
Police Captain Barrie
Evelyn Vail (Florence Rice) is a nurse convicted of poisoning a patient. Out on parole, Evelyn decides to fly to Sing-Sing and confront death row inmate who accused her of the deed in the first place. On board the airliner, Evelyn makes the acquaintance of John Robinson Gordon (Nagel), who is transporting a revolutionary munitions formula to Washington, D.C. Another passenger, Baker (Robert Allen), complains of having been poisoned and leaves the plane during a stopover in Dallas. Back in the air, Gordon's bodyguard, Lieutenant O'Brien (Fred Kelsey), suffers the same fate, but this time the poison proves fatal. The plane returns to Dallas, where Police Captain Barrie (William B. Davidson) accused poor Evelyn of the crime. Happily, Gordon can prove otherwise and the real culprit is unmasked.
Billie Madison
A midwest band leader and his lead singer share a love-hate relationship as they try for success in New York.
Adjutant
Two Marine pilots vie for romance and glory.
Dr. Carter
An ambitious Mexican-American gets mixed up with his boss's neurotic wife.
Charles (as William Davidson)
A writer discovers he's being used as a pawn by greedy businessmen.
Representative McPherson
Before Ruth Vincent, daughter of a state governor, and state attorney general Robert Sheldon can announce their marriage, the governor is accused of bribe-taking. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, they decide to keep their marriage secret. The political intrigue becomes more involved, and no one is quite what they seem. Soon Sheldon and Ruth must decide between saving the governor's career and an innocent person's life.
Man Buying Cigar (uncredited)
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
Joe Hunter
Trucker Eddie Kennedy gets involved with the law when he has an car accident with Ann Reid and knocks the owner of a dairy out. He evades a penalty when he claims, that he had done it as an act of solidarism with the farmers. The farmers start an boycott action against this dairy, so the owner has to bring milk from elsewhere to his dairy, but the farmers closed the road, and Kennedy is arrested once more. He leaves jail at night to meet Ann, but meanwhile the owner has asked some mobsters to deliver the milk. One of the farmers is murdered, Ann Reid is missing and Eddie Kennedy is accused of murder.
Greeff
Wonderful idea to give a party with people who dislike each other. Late at night, everyone decides to go into the pool, except Stamm, who is drunk. Montague dives in as does Greeff and Leland, but only Greeff and Leland come out. Montague is no where to be found so Leland suspects foul play and calls the cops. Luckily, Philo is with the D.A. and comes along, but they do not find Montague. When they drain the pool the next day, they find nothing except what looks like dragon prints. Philo has his suspicions and tries to piece the clues together to find out what has happened.
Nan's Attorney
Nan Reynolds encourages her copywriter husband Bill to open his own agency. Nearly out of business, he finally gets a client. Former girlfriend Patricia Berkeley writes a very successful commercial for the client and neats up their old romance. Wife and girlfriend struggle over Bill.
Stephen Prime
Asaph (Charles Ruggles) is a meek, mild-mannered homebody who occasionally shows some backbone to his prudish, overbearing boss, only to be beaten down again. With the encouragement of his secretary Beulah (Ann Dvorak), his old college team-mate Wynn (Eugene Pallette) and some liquor, Asaph regains some of his wild-man soul. Watch out world!
Editor Joe Hogue
Val takes the assistance of a society reporter and a journalist to investigate the disappearance of her half-sister Arlene, a wealthy socialite who is involved in criminal activities.
City Editor (uncredited)
A railroad tycoon, disillusioned with his marriage, starts seeing a showgirl. Things go agreeably until the woman's manager decides to blackmail the millionaire.
Hartshone (as William Davidson)
A young Navajo defies tribal custom to marry an outcast.
District Attorney (uncredited)
Former bootlegger Dutch Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate knockoff toiletry, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products.
Director Williams
An ex-gangster tries to resist his old cohorts' criminal activities after he accidentally becomes a movie star.
Department Head (Uncredited)
Alison Drake, the tough-minded executive of an automobile factory, succeeds in the man's world of business until she meets an independent design engineer.
General Broadcasting Representative
A charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school.
Ernest Brown
The bold Tira works as dancing beauty and lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent need of money, she agrees to a risky new number: she'll put her head into the lion's mouth! With this attraction, the circus makes it to New York and Tira can pursue her dearest occupation— flirting with rich men and accepting expensive presents.
Jarrett
When she can't support her illegitimate child, an abandoned young woman puts her up for adoption and pursues a career as a torch singer. Years later, she then searches for the child she gave up.
Himself
Bobby Jones is playing golf with his buddies, oblivious to the fact that they are being watched by a drunken juggler.
Det. Lt. Samson
A murder is committed aboard a cruise ship just before it sinks in a storm. The survivors, including the killer, land on a mysterious jungle island.
George Carr
A playboy asks his friend to borrow his yacht to entertain his girlfriend.
Detective (Uncredited)
The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.
Mr. Parker
The setting is a farm. Kate Smith and Sally Blane play sisters; assorted relatives live with the sisters, but everyone at home, and in the whole town, depends on Kate to hold everything together. The power company wants to build a dam which will require flooding many of the farms; Kate is holding out; if Kate sells, everyone else will sell; if Kate refuses, the rest of the town will refuse as well. Randolph Scott meets Kate's beautiful sister, Sally Blane, at a dance. Randolph Scott, as it turns out, is an agent for the power company. Kate thinks he's just using Sally; Sally believes that he truly likes her. Randolph comes to the farm and appears to woo Kate. Kate remains unconvinced about selling out, but falls for Randolph.
Jim Lawrence
An ex-convict working for a wealthy oil baron uncovers trouble while his brother becomes involved with the boss's daughter.
Police Lieutenant (uncredited)
Two destitute New Yorkers meet cute in Central Park and then separate and independently get tangled up with some gangsters only to be reunited again in the end.
Chief
Ruth Payne, innocent to begin with, is trying to extradite herself from the clutches of a gang-mob who obtained her release from prison on a falsified confession because they thought she knew something they didn't want known.
Kendricks (uncredited)
Two Dartmouth football players fall in love with the same girl following college graduation.
Sgt. Arnold
After suffering a traumatic injury, a policeman resigns from the force and, after he's saved from a suicide attempt, goes to work at a café frequented by gangsters.
District Attorney
A woman is accused of murdering a man who molested her young daughter.
Captain (uncredited)
When legendary hunter Bob Rainsford is shipwrecked on the perilous reefs surrounding a mysterious island, he finds himself the guest of the reclusive and eccentric Count Zaroff. While he is very gracious at first, Zaroff eventually forces Rainsford and two other shipwreck survivors, brother and sister Eve and Martin Towbridge, to participate in a sadistic game of cat and mouse in which they are the prey and he is the hunter.
Police Captain Brown (Uncredited)
Thirteen years after a dinner party in which the thirteenth guest failed to arrive, the remaining guests are being murdered one by one, and their bodies being placed at the same dinner table in the appropriate seats they occupied thirteen years prior.
O'Sullivan
Poster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyone as long as he gets the credit. He gets most of his information from showgirl pal his gal, Peggy. Eventually Bill's reckless tattling gets him in deep trouble with friends and enemies, putting his career and life in jeopardy.
Citizens Committee Member (uncredited)
In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio "Tony" Camonte, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.
Captain
Wilkie and Mitchell, trying to desert their draft into the army, stow away on a ship which takes them into the war zone. While AWOL, the rivals for Mary's affections accidently destroy an ammunition dump.
Lelewer
When World War I comes to an end, three pilots find themselves on hard times. They wind up in Hollywood, where they work as stunt fliers for a sadistic director.
John Utterson
A man framed for murder escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence.
Jerry - Andy's Pal
Andy Clyde trying to wear the pants in the family.
M.H. Thomas
Cub reporter Dusty investigates the murder of the District Attorney and stumbles into a plot involving a kidnapping and a crooked election.
Jim Blake
The Secret Call is adapted from The Woman, a play by William C. DeMille (brother of Cecil B.) Peggy Shannon plays Wanda Kelly, the daughter of a disgraced politician. Reduced to working as a switchboard operator, Wanda is privy to the many secrets and indiscretions of the clients of a big-city hotel. She also finds romance in the form of handsome Tom Blake (Richard Arlen). The huge cast of characters comes in handy for the film's multitude of subplots, none of which ever get their wires crossed. Peggy Shannon acquits herself nicely in her first major role, but by the end of the decade her career was in decline.
Magistrate Tom Morrison
A diplomat is blackmailed by crooked vice cops into helping them frame prostitutes.
A driver on a non-stop race from New York to San Francisco gets detoured to Hollywood, where he winds up working as a publicity man for a movie studio and assigned to revive the career of a beautiful but fading star.
Himself - Golfer
Bobby Jones teaches a group of truant businessman how to improve their chip shots.
The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Bill Dennett
An ordinary man is confronted by gangsters who have reason to believe a treasure is buried somewhere on his property.
Wilkie
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.
Frank Dukette aka Duke of Winchester (as William Davidson)
Two fast-talking insurance salesmen meet Mary, who is running away from her wealthy mother, and they agree to help her run a hotel that she owns. When they find out that the hotel is run down and nearly abandoned, they launch a phony PR campaign that presents the hotel as a resort favored by the rich. Their advertising succeeds too well, and many complications soon arise.
Kerry Stokes
Disenchanted opera star Carlotta Manson falls for ruffian cat burglar Barney McGann and gives up her career to marry him. But Barney grows disenchanted himself at being known as the husband of a diva and itches to get back to his life of crime and manliness.
Staff Major
When World War I breaks out, brothers Roy and Monte Rutledge, each attending Oxford university, enlist with the Royal Flying Corps.
Tom Hilliard
A salmon fisherman has to choose between a bad girl and a society doll.
Monsieur Bannack
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.
Saunders
An Irish policeman handles gangsters, a mystery woman and a wise-guy reporter.
Jackson
Nora Mason becomes entangled in a family mix-up of murder and scandal that threatens to ruin her career and entire future; Unless the mother she does not know can find a way to save her.
Dist. Atty. Stone
William Foster is a slick attorney who stays within the law, but specializes in representing crooks and shady characters. He's adept at keeping them out of jail, winning acquittals, and having decisions reversed, thus springing criminals out of prison. He is romantically involved with dancer Irene Manners, who is two-timing him, although she wants to marry him. She kills a man driving while out with her other man, Jack Defoe, who takes the blame. Unfortunately, a ring Foster had just given Irene is found at the crime scene. Foster ends up defending Jack, but when the ring is found, he thinks he is protecting Irene, so pleads guilty to jury tampering.
Major
A story about a man from Wyoming who enlists in the Army and is sent to the front during World War I. There he saves the life of an American society girl working in the Ambulance Corps. Afterwards at a rest camp, they meet again, fall in love, and are secretly married.
Frank Hyland
A loud-mouthed lout alienates everyone except his patient wife.
District Attorney (as William Davidson)
On trial for the murder of Carl Hummel, Eddie Williams tells his story, which begins just before the World War
George W. Mason
The wife and secretary of a mine operator attempt to conceal their romantic affair.
Watts
In Woman Trap, Hal Skelly is hard-bitten police sergeant Dan Malone, whose mission in life is to rid his community of gangsters. The revelation that Dan's own brother Ray (Chester Morris) is the secret head of all local criminal activities does not weaken Dan's resolve in the least. The barely relevant title is a reference to "heroine" Kitty Evans (Evelyn Brent), the wife of a minor gang functionary. Screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz, presumably on a dare, makes a brief appearance as a crime reporter.
Assistant District Attorney (as William Davidson)
Irked by the success of a brassy nightclub owner. her rivals set out to drive her out of business, and frame her for a murder in the bargain.
Blythe
It's a case of mistaken identity in this comedy that centers around a country bumpkin mistaken for a Chicago hitman.
The head of a quartet of jewel thieves tries to make a getaway with the one female in the gang.
Elton (as William Davidson)
Freddie, a rich young idler, meets Julia Harrington, a wealthy social service worker who runs a haven for reformed criminals. By telling her he is a hardened criminal, he is allowed to stay at the mission.
Henri Dufour
Le Marquis de Marignan is a French aristocrat and seducer who flirts with every Parisian girl he meets. If dallying with youngster fräuleins isn't enough to keep him busy, the Marquis also has to cope with an unexpected visit from his fiancée and her father.
Roy Ladd
To cure their flirtatious husbands of consorting with flappers, three wives -Susan Martin, Ethel Drake, and Kitty Ladd- arrange with three college boys -Henry Winton, Oscar, and Joe Valley- to flirt with them at a house party. Joe Valley, who poses as a hot-blooded Spaniard, is vamped by Ginsberg in female attire, and Oscar, a bashful Swede, uses caveman methods when aroused. During a rehearsal of the party, the three husbands arrive, followed by their flapper friends, leading to comic complications that are resolved
Kurt Morley
The robberies on Jasper Carrol's stages have been so frequent that the stage line plans to hold a stagecoach race with the winner getting the new contract. Tom foils Cal Barker's attempt to kill him and gets a confession from him that Kurt Morley is behind the robberies. But first Tom must win the race for Carrol although Morley's stages have him greatly outnumbered.
Victor Dufresne
Oscar has been sent to the plains to make a man of himself, is soon visited by his sister Sybil Estabrook, who travels west along with her maid in tow. Oscar, who has been losing at cards to Victor Dufresne, is forced by him to rob a stagecoach in order to pay off his gambling debts.
Col. Donovan
A black-and-white melodrama where France, South Africa and England featured prominently in the narrative about Julie Gmelyn, a bright-eyed, single-minded Red Cross nurse and Peter Graham a clergyman who gives up his chaplaincy and goes to war.
Randolph Sherman
Rich club-man Kirk Rainsford, attends a charity bazaar at the home of Marjorie Vail, the society girl he hopes to marry. A fire breaks out among the booths and everyone is pulled to safety except little Peggy, Marjorie's kid sister. Marjorie pleads with Kirk to save the child, but he lacks the courage, and Randolph Sherman, Kirk's rival for Marjorie's affections, plays the hero part. For Kirk's public display of cowardice, he is disowned by his father and rejected by Marjorie, who soon marries Sherman. Kirk drifts to the South Seas, eventually landing in Manila, where he becomes a derelict. When Lillie, a fellow drifter, is roughly handled in a bar, Kirk goes to her assistance; she expresses appreciation for his bravery and soon effects his regeneration through her faith in him. Kirk and Lillie journey to the interior, and they obtain work on a plantation recently purchased by Randolph Sherman. During a native uprising, Sherman is killed, and Kirk saves Marjorie from certain death.
Dr. Delamater
An extravagant girl reforms when her father goes bust.
The owners of a movie studio are having problems with a temperamental director, and they promise an actor on one of his pictures that he can have the job if he can find a way to make the director leave the picture.
Robert Clifford
A tricky woman criminal, in league with an international crook, falls in love with the honest detective tracking them.
Congressman Blake
Margaret Kennard takes her baby daughter Agnes and leaves her husband Eustace for James Carroll. Upon discovering that James is a thief, she leaves him, joins the Salvation Army, and places Agnes in a convent. Twenty years pass. Agnes marries young Congressman Blake. James is now a lobbyist trying to prevent Blake from passing an anti-profiteering bill. Attempting to help her husband, Agnes sets out to prove that James is a scoundrel.
Hon. Cyril Ralston
Theda Bara plays the social-climbing Olga Dolan, who becomes the Duchess of Rutledge by means of deception and sheer ruthlessness. Sadly, Bara, who had more or less single-handedly begun the "vamp" craze with the prototype of the genre, A Fool There Was, went out with little more than a whisper. She left films after the ironically titled The Lure of Ambition, and was lured back only twice, in: The Unchastened Woman (1925), a poverty row concoction which had few takers, and Madame Mystery (1926)
John Henry Jackson
The head of the Kimberly household rules it with an iron fist. Unfortunately the head of the Kimberly household isn't Grant (J.H. Gilmore), the father and wealthy Wall Street magnate -- it's his spoiled, headstrong daughter Catherine (Virginia Pearson). She is so willful that she has earned the name "Impossible Catherine," and her whole focus in life is to prove women's superiority over the masculine gender.
Brand
In this film, her next-to-last picture for Fox, it was Theda Bara's turn to tackle a double role. Bara's characters are twin sisters La Belle Russe, the wicked one, and Fleurette, the nice one. They're Parisian dancers, and Fleurette marries Philip Sackton (Warburton Gamble). However, Sackton is a member of Britain's snooty aristocracy, and his family disinherits him.
Rev. Winthrop Stark
Theda Bara plays Princess Zara, who lives on a South Sea Island. A handsome young missionary (William B. Davidson) arrives and there is a romance, which is hindered by various complications including a typhoon.
Undetermined Role
Larry O'Malley
Pretty Polly Marsden is ardently pursued by three different Romeos, but she coyly refuses to choose between them. When they insist that she give them her answer, she arranges an impromptu automobile race: whichever one of the three can overtake her speeding roadster will be the man whom she will marry.
Malcolm Grant
Overcome with guilt after having an affair with her best friends husband, Clorinda hopes to escape her past by moving to Europe, where she meets Malcolm, a decent man who falls in love with her.
John Conrad
Miriam Monroe and John Conrad are two young scientific workers who, independently of each other, have discovered a chemical called exonite. Miriam discovered it while searching for a cure for cancer, while Conrad used it as a basis for a powerful explosive.
Nicholas Van Kleet
Faro Black, the chief of the Gypsies, finds out that his son Faro and his girlfriend Egypt have gotten married. Infuriated, he tells that their marriage isn't valid, since Egypt is actually the daughter of wealthy Gordon Lindsay, who is on his way to the gypsy camp to claim her. The two promise to remain faithful to each other, but as time passes and she never hears from Faro, her love turns to bitterness.
Dr. Brundage
The Stranger
William Baldwin, ruined in business by his partner, John Blaisdell, implores Blaisdell's aid, and receives in answer a five-dollar bill across the face of which is written, "Spend this for a gun and use it on yourself."
Joyce's mother keeps her younger daughter in the background so that Polly, the elder daughter, can monopolize all the eligible young men, especially Tom. Although Tom is Polly's choice, she decides to pique his interest by flirting with Harry. Joyce, who likes Tom herself, decides to defeat her sister's plan by having Tom pretend that he likes her. Soon, the pretense turns to love and Tom proposes to Joyce. To test his sincerity, Joyce jumps into shark-infested waters and almost loses her life. Tom visits her constantly in the hospital and finds that his operation on her heart was quite successful.
Lynn Hardi
Foreign powers keep getting their hands on U.S. military secrets, so the head of the American diplomatic corps calls in his nephew Dick Stansbury to help. Stansbury knows that Doctor Montell is at the bottom of this, so he poses as an inventor of an innovative aerial gun. This sparks the doctor's interest, and when they both attend a weekend party at the Ryerson estate, Montell tries to get Stansbury to sell the gun to his country.
Joseph Bailey (as William Davidson)
Upon striking oil on his farm, Silas T. Pettingill (Charles Eldridge) moves to Park Avenue at the behest of his social-climbing wife Maria (Kate Blancke) and daughter Helen (Emmy Wehlen). But like Jiggs in the comic strip, Pettingill never loses his common touch, and one evening he goes out on a toot with his new chauffeur Hubert Stanwood (Paul Gordon).
Henry Morgan (as William Davidson)
Wealthy clubman Richard Dorian is a lighthearted soul who can't seem to take anything seriously, including his wife. Even when they decide to divorce, he meets the lawyers with a smile. When one of the attorneys suggests a charge of brutality, Mrs. Dorian points out that it is ludicrous. Dorian offers to have a party on his yacht, during which he will try very hard to be brutal to her to give her grounds for the divorce. Among the partygoers are Mrs. Dorian's guardian and Morgan, a smuggler who is buying the yacht. The guardian, who has squandered Mrs. Dorian's money on the stock market, kills himself. Dorian thinks that his wife killed him, gallantly takes the blame himself, and dives overboard. He becomes a tramp and is shanghaied by Morgan's men to become a stoker on his former yacht. Dorian's steward, Puck, is still onboard, and he tells Dorian that the guardian committed suicide.
Capt. Mills
Captain Mills is jealous of Jim Clifford, his fellow officer at the British War Department, so he steals an important document in an attempt to make Clifford look bad. Clifford has to undergo quite a bit to get the papers back, and his adventures take him to several fancy weekend parties, including one on a yacht, which wrecks. He discovers that Mills gave the document to Grace Weston, who doesn't realize what she's got.
John Hartfield
A 1916 silent film
Jack Rader
Wall street broker Barry Dale is systematically ruined financially by his alleged best friend Richard Marvin . This Marvin does so that he can win Dale's wife Virginia away from the discredited broker. Dispirited and disillusioned, Dale heads to the West for a fresh start in life. Unfortunately, he soon develops the reputation as a coward, but he manages to dispel this by becoming a notorious outlaw, reasoning that highway robbery is not all that different from Wall Street chicanery.
Robert Brent
Robert Brent and Dick Morgan, the former wealthy, the latter poor, are chums at one of the big colleges until they both fall in love with Viola Scott, a college girl.
