Himself (Archive Footage)
This documentary traces the life and work of the legendary "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, silent film star, movie pioneer and keen businesswoman. Pickford's life also parallels an even larger story, telling of the birth of the cinema itself.
Self (archive footage)
A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life, and his premature death.
Himself (archive footage)
Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.
Presenter
A reporter sleuths the mystery behind an oft-married Viennese doctor whose wives met mysterious fates.
Presenter
Popeye takes Olive roller skating in a rink. She's never skated before, so he has to teach her, and she's not a quick learner. Before long Olive ends up outside the rink, rolling wildly out of control.
Presenter
King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash poet François Villon extolling why he would be a better king. Annoyed yet intrigued, the King bestows on Villon the title of Grand Constable. Soon Villon begins work and falls for a lovely lady-in-waiting, but then must flee execution when the King turns on him.
Presenter
American multi-millionaire Michael Brandon marries his eighth wife, Nicole, the daughter of a broken French Marquis. But she doesn't want to be only a number in the row of his ex-wives and starts her own strategy to tame him.
Presenter
Drummond's wedding with Phyllis is interrupted when the inspector guarding their gifts is killed. He tries to trace the killers and uncovers the mystery of diamond counterfeiters.
Producer
In 1890, two British expatriates, Robert Herrick and Huish, and German Captain Jakob Thorbecke, are commissioned to sail a Yankee schooner called The Golden State , whose captain and crew have died of smallpox. From Tehua in the South Seas to Australia, they are to deliver a cargo of champagne. Thorbecke decides to head for Peru, however, so he can sell the merchandise and pocket the money. While sailing, Faith Wishart, daughter of the deceased captain, comes out of her hiding place on board and, by briefly holding Thorbecke at gunpoint, demands he make the delivery.
Presenter
Detective Hank Hyer investigates a blackmail case involving a candidate for mayor.
Presenter
Drummond's girlfriend is kidnapped by his enemies and he along with his friend Nielsen, an inspector from Scotland Yard, follow the trail and try to rescue her from the kidnappers.
Presenter
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.
Presenter
Kay Denham is off for a fling in Paris, leaving her suitor Berk behind. There, she meets two new suitors, Gene and George. Gene smooth-talks her into a junket to Switzerland, but George (with no illusions about his friend) appoints himself chaperone. Through a series of slapstick winter sports, Kay remains puzzled about George's disapproval of Gene...but there's a reason.
Producer
At a family reunion, the Cooper clan find that their parents' home is being foreclosed. "Temporarily," Ma moves in with son George's family, Pa with daughter Cora. But the parents are like sand in the gears of their middle-aged children's well regulated households. Can the old folks take matters into their own hands?
Presenter
When a young woman named Barbara Clarke has an affair with adventurer Roger Coverman, it causes a scandal in the Puritanical town of Salem, Massachusetts. After a meddling girl arouses their suspicions, the town's elders accuse Barbara of being a witch. She is tried, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. As the townspeople prepare to burn Barbara at the stake, Roger tries desperately to save the woman he loves.
Presenter
Two sailors Sindbad and Popeye decide to test themselves in order to prove their supremacy. Popeye is then presented with a series of daunting tasks by Sindbad.
Executive Producer
Mavis Arden is a sensational movie star. Her following spans the world and her personal appearance tours prove her popularity. On her way home from one such appearance, Arden's car breaks down. She orders her publicity man to find her a place to stay, suspicious that he planned the break down to keep her away from a man. However, she soon finds herself mooning over an attractive repairman in town and listening to his ideas about inventing equipment for film.
Presenter
China, 1930s, during the ravaging civil war. General Pen entrusts O'Hara, an intrepid American adventurer, with the mission of providing a large sum of money to Mr. Wu with the task of buying weapons in Shanghai to help end General Yang's tyranny that keeps an entire province under his ruthless iron boot.
Producer
Greedy Humpty Dumpty's wall of gold is not enough. He wants all the gold in the sun, too.
Producer
This is the full ten minute film from which the Russ Morgan "Meet The Bandleaders" segment was created on video in the 1980s. It features Russ in his first year, singer Linda Lee, and Lewis Julian, a former NBC page boy. Also featured is 22-year-old Billy Fisher on saxophone and clarinet (in front of the bass drum), who later played with Al Donahue and the CBS Orchestra. He was later the arranger for the Ed Sullivan and Jackie Gleason shows and the Tony Awards.
Presenter
Frances Farmer's second film is a typical B-programmer from the Paramount lot of 1936--up and coming stars (John Howard, Robert Cummings, Grant Withers, Farmer) in a concerning the Coast Guard and smugglers. The chief points of interest are the truly exceptional aerial sequences and Farmer's early performance.
Presenter
The star of "Song of the Toreador" receives threatening messages that he will not survive the preview screening of the film. The studio publicist works with the Director, the Producer and the police, to discover who is behind the threats.
Producer
Moscow Moods is a 1936 American short film directed by Fred Waller. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 9th Academy Awards in 1936 for Best Short Subject (One-Reel).
Presenter
When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.
Producer
A rising nineteen-year-old singer by the name of Billie Holiday made her screen debut in this musical landmark, which features Duke Ellington and his orchestra performing his symphonic jazz piece “A Rhapsody of Negro Life” set to scenes of everyday African American life.
Presenter
A pretty young socialite falls for a charming but shady hustler, who abandons her when he finds that she has been disowned by her wealthy father. Three of the hustler's partners, who have also been left high and dry by heir former associate, come up with a plan to get her to the annual Yale-Harvard football game to reunite with her former sweetheart, an honest but nerdy bookworm.
Presenter
At the Brentwood Asylum for the mentally ill, psychiatrist partners Jane Everest and Alex MacGregor are broken up by the new superintendent, Dr. Charles Monet, who has a low regard for women physicians. Jane and Charles clash on patient treatment, and Jane learns that Charles has a sister, Claire, with a mysterious past.
Producer
Cab Calloway performs at the Cotton Club before he takes his friends down to Harlem for a jitterbug party.
Presenter
The queen of Egypt barges the Nile and flirts with Mark Antony and Julius Caesar.
Presenter
Pudgy the Pup makes a mess of Betty Boop's picnic, is sent home, and runs afoul of the dog catcher.
Producer
Jack Oakie stars as seedy sideshow barker Nicky, who uses everyone he meets to get ahead. Nicky isn't even above exploiting his singing sweetheart Lily (Dorothy Dell) to suit his purposes, but this time it is he who ends up the loser -- at least until he gets wise to himself.
Producer
Gracie Allen assumes the "management" of the shop owned by her papa Horatio Allen, turning it into a radio station and then an aviary---with the usual Gracie Allen logic---while distracted Papa is trying to get younger daughter, beauty contest winner Florence, married before she can head to Hollywood and get into the movies.
Producer
After drawing Betty Boop, Max Fleischer (live-action) leaves the studio; Betty and Koko try amateur dentistry, releasing enough laughing gas to convulse the 'real world.'
Presenter
Producer
An old-fashioned "Burlesk" variety show, mostly animated with a live-action performance of "I'm Playing with Fire" by the Watson Sisters.
Executive Producer
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
Executive Producer
Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men - a good and an evil side. He believes that by separating the two, man can become liberated. He succeeds in his experiments with chemicals to accomplish this and transforms into Hyde to commit horrendous crimes. When he discontinues use of the drug, it is already too late.
Producer
A medicine show singer finds her love.
Producer
Ethel runs a run down saloon in Nicaragua. Word arrives that the soldiers are pulling out, and most of the American miners and all of the women must ship out on a vessel bound for San Francisco, but her boyfriend has been ordered to remain.
Producer
Executive Producer
The company of a musical comedy gets shipwrecked on a tropical island inhabited by a "king" from Brooklyn and his coterie of wild native girls.
Producer
With Byrd at the South Pole (1930) is a documentary film about Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd and his 1st quest to the South Pole beginning at the Little America-Exploration Base. The film's soundtrack consists mostly of music and sound effects, with narration read by Floyd Gibbons. The film won at the 3rd Academy Awards for Best Cinematography.
Presenter
A ruthless, crooked stockbroker is murdered at his luxurious country estate, and detective Philo Vance just happens to be there; he decides to find out who killed him.
Producer
The story takes place in medieval France. Poet-rogue Francois Villon, sentenced to hang by King Louis XI for writing derogatory verses about him, is offered a temporary reprieve. His hanging will be postponed for 24 hours, and in that time he must defeat the invading Burgundians and win the love of the beautiful Katherine.
Executive Producer
Heyst, a hermit on his own tropical island, plays unwilling host to red-headed stowaway Alma. Danger looms...
Self (uncredited)
A young woman, who wants to be in the Follies, is making ends meet by working at a department store's sheet music department, where she sings the latest hits. She is accompanied on piano by her childhood boyfriend, who is in love with her, despite her single-minded interest in her career. When a vaudeville performer asks her to join him as his new partner, she sees it as an opportunity to make her dream come true. Upon arriving in New York City, our heroine finds out that her new partner is only interested in sleeping with her and makes this a condition of making her a star. Soon, however, she is discovered by a representative of Ziegfeld.
Producer
Noah seems to have major problems with his animals when they all get restless and leave the ship to go to Coney Island and Luna Park to get away from him.
Producer
A short musical documentary.
Presenter
During the Florida land boom, the Marx Brothers run a hotel, auction off some land and thwart a jewel robbery.
Executive Producer
Directed by Richard Wallace.
Executive Producer
Shortly after the United States enters World War I in 1917, a Broadway actress agrees to let a naive soldier court her in order to impress his friends, but a real romance soon begins.
Executive Producer
A young impoverished aristocrat falls in love with an inn-keeper's daughter, but has to marry money.
Presenter
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
Producer
The Talbots, formerly one of the Eastern Shore's first families, have gone to seed: Pap is a drunk, soddenly decaying in his ruined ancestral home, and three of his sons (William, Carol, and Ezra) are lazy, shiftless young men. Mulligan, Pap's second son who supports the entire family by oyster fishing, falls in love with wealthy Anna Lee, but when he first kisses her, she calls him "white trash."
Producer
Finding his sweetheart, Christine, in the arms of a German officer, Price joins the French Air Legion. Christine is later revealed to be the spy whom Price has been ordered to drop behind enemy lines. They are reconciled, are captured by the Germans, and are rescued by his unit.
Producer
A woman must choose between a life on the farm and a life of luxury.
Producer
A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.
Producer
A young American girl in Paris falls in love with a handsome nobleman, but he is about to wed in an arranged marriage. She hatches a plan to overcome that obstacle and get her man.
Producer
Wally and Ray are cousins intent upon getting the fortune of their Scots grandad, an aviation nut. They become mixed-up with the U. S. flying corps and are wafted over the enemy lines in a runaway balloon. Through misunderstanding they are honored as heroes of the enemy forces, and sent back to the U.S. lines to spy. Here they are captured and almost shot, but everything ends happily. Only 20 minutes of this 6 reel comedy are extant.
Presenter
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.
Producer
A once notorious gunfighter takes a respectable job on a ranch. "Nevada" is charged with protecting the ranch owner's pretty daughter, arousing the enmity of ranch foreman Clan Dillon, who is in love with the girl. The villainous foreman leaks a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and the former outlaw is soon on the run again.
Presenter
Presenter
Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.
Producer
A young flapper tricks her childhood sweetheart into marrying her. He really loves another woman, but didn't marry her for fear the marriage would end in divorce, like his parents'. Complications ensue.
Presenter
Dave Saulter, a rambling young cowboy drifts into a small western town the day a big gold shipment is leaving by stagecoach. Two different people plan to rob the stagecoach...Buck O'Hara, the driver who is very trusted, and a stranger, Texas Jack. Dave gets involved and is accused of being one of the robbers.
Presenter
Bebe Daniels was at the peak of her silent stardom when she appeared in this comedy, which was really more slapstick than farce. Ginette (Daniels) is a waitress at Pierre's café. She is in love with Lucien (Douglas Gilmore) and hates getting attention from anyone else. Whenever another man tries to kiss her, she angrily starts throwing glassware. The restaurant's patrons find this amusing, and Leon Lambert (Henry Kolker) makes a bet that he will be able to kiss her. (Janiss Garza)
Producer
Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby. He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.
Presenter
Rafi arrives in the city in search of Pervaneh who was taken by the Sultan. He is joined by Hassan the confectioner. Rafi is captured by the Sultan, but Hassan leads a surprise attack on the palace and the lovers are united.
Presenter
Geoffrey is desperately in love with Mavis, who lives at his boardinghouse and is also pursuing a writing career. Unable to marry her because of his poverty, in his anger he curses God for abandoning him. Soon Geoffrey meets Prince Lucio de Rimanez, a wealthy, urbane gentleman who informs Geoffrey that he has inherited a fortune, but that he must place himself in the Prince's hands in order to enjoy the fruits of his inheritance. What Geoffrey doesn't know is that Prince Lucio is actually Satan.
Producer
An officer in the British Guards takes to drink when a friend and fellow officer convinces the woman they both love that he has another woman.
Presenter
Doris Poole, whose parents were theatrical people, was orphaned as a child, and four members of the troupe adopted and raised her. When grown, she has become the leading lady in a San Francisco stock-company. She meets and falls in love with Ted, the millionaire son of a rich widow, but she thinks he is only a tax-cab driver. His mother objects to the romance and looks into Doris' past. She learns that her father had murdered, in a fit of jealousy, her mother, and tells Doris what she has found out. The four actors who had raised her had never told her how she happened to become an orphan. They persuade Ted's mother to send him on a voyage to the Orient in order to get him away from Doris. But they neglected to tell the mother they had also booked passage for Doris on the same ship.
Presenter
A wanted-fugitive, called "Nevada," is wounded by a pursuing posse of lawmen, and is left to die on the desert by his companion, Bill Hall. He is rescued by a young rancher, Ben Ide, who is in love with Ina Blaine, daughter of a neighboring rancher. While "Nevada" is recovering, he and Ina fall in love but, through his loyalty to Ben, he sends her away. Going home, Ina falls into the clutches of Bill Hall, now heading a gang of rustlers, but the real leader is Les Setter who is posing as an honest rancher, and he has designs on Ina himself.
Presenter
Producer
Playboy Teddy Ward wants to marry Jeannie King, an artist, but his father wants him to marry Loris Lane, but tells Teddy he can marry whom he pleases if he will make the Mountain Inn a profitable operation. Teddy agrees, and with the support of his friends arranges an ice-boat race with a $10,000 prize to the winner. A problem arises when his father refuses to pay such an amount. Teddy thinks one of his friends will win the race and refuse the prize, but champion racer "Duke" Slade shows up and Teddy knows he will take the money. Some movie stars show up and, while using their own names, are definitely not playing "Self" in this fictional film.
Executive Producer
Robert J. Flaherty's South Seas follow-up to Nanook of the North is a Gauguin idyll moved by "pride of beauty... pride of strength."
Presenter
'Big Boy' Morgan and his friend, invalid Charlie Grey, must overcome the efforts of the villainous Holdbrook to foreclose on the Los Rosas ranch and make off with the beautiful Nora Shea.
Executive Producer
A manicurist in the beauty shop of a large metropolitan hotel, is engaged to Antonio Luca an electrician. However she a meets James Morgan a wealthy guest who wants to go out with her, but she declines so he sends her ten dollars for theater tickets.
Presenter
A silent documentary which follows a branch of the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia as they and their herds make their epic seasonal journey to better pastures.
Presenter
An American soldier falls in love with a French maiden but their romance is thwarted when the Yanks return home. Years later she comes to America to put on a fashion show and find her long lost lover.
Presenter
Jeff Farnell, forced by circumstances to take a job on a New York scandal sheet while he awaits the settlement of his claim against a steel company. Job Hardcastle, the hardened city editor of the paper, sends Jeff to get a story on "Mops" Collins, a society divorcée who has been reduced to dancing in a cabaret. Jeff takes pity on Mops, who is dying of consumption, and takes her into his apartment, telling Hardcastle that he could not find her. Afraid of losing his job, Jeff hunts for a big story, finding it when he discovers that Clive Ross-Fayne, a friend he thought lost in the war, has been arraigned on charges of narcotics peddling. (Pamela Short)
Producer
Wanting his son to get away from his many girlfriends and buckle down to work, the New York industrialist father of a playboy sends him to an obscure village in Spain to find samples of a rare mineral. When the son gets to Spain, he runs afoul of the local police chief - who has a secret that he tries to keep the young man from discovering.
Presenter
A young woman marries a man several years her senior to provide a comfortable home for her invalid father and then feels the call of youth and falls desperately in love with a young man.
Presenter
Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.
Executive Producer
Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.
Presenter
A wealthy New Yorker falls in love with a burglar's sister.
Executive Producer
John Marble, a construction engineer is stricken by paralysis and begins to envision the growth of love between his wife Marion and his best friend, Bob Alten. Bent on suicide, however, the shock of seeing his wife and child endangered on a broken bridge shakes him to recover from his illness and discover that his suspicions were all imaginary.
Producer
Follows three generations of the Mayne family through the year 1921-22. The 81-year-old patriarch reminisces about his rough beginnings in post-Civil War railroading, son Rufus rides rough waters as a wealthy financier, and his wife and three daughters muddle through their New York high society life.
Presenter
Zaza is an actress and the favorite at an open-air theater in a small French town. When diplomat Bernard Dufresne comes to the village, he stays away for fear he will fall for her. But during one performance, while Zaza is singing on a swing, her rival cuts the rope and she falls. Zaza is badly injured and she makes Dufresne's acquaintance. A romance quickly springs up and he installs her in a villa. Their happiness is marred, however, when his wife appears.
Executive Producer
Zaza is an actress and the favorite at an open-air theater in a small French town. When diplomat Bernard Dufresne comes to the village, he stays away for fear he will fall for her. But during one performance, while Zaza is singing on a swing, her rival cuts the rope and she falls. Zaza is badly injured and she makes Dufresne's acquaintance. A romance quickly springs up and he installs her in a villa. Their happiness is marred, however, when his wife appears.
Presenter
Love complicates the hunt for gold in 1890's Alaska.
Executive Producer
Teddy Gloucester, one of the group of jazz age "nice people," is caught in a farmhouse during a storm with her intoxicated companion, Scotty. A stranger (Billy Wade) also seeking shelter saves her from Scotty's unwelcome attentions but not from the scandal which results from her father's discovery of her and Scotty--alone--the next morning. Hurt by the snubbing she receives from her friends, Teddy settles down and agrees to become an old-fashioned wife to Billy.
Producer
When a lawsuit deprives a rich woman, Mary Fenton, of her wealth, she decides to impersonate another woman, Mary Cosgrove. The situation becomes sticky when Cosgroge turns up and demands Fenton be arrested.
Producer
Lois Wilson (as Lulu) is the spinsterish member of the Deacon family: "The family beast of burden, whose timid soul has failed to break the bonds of family servitude." Her brother-in-law is patriarchal Theodore Roberts (as Dwight Deacon); running the house with an iron fist, he is both a dentist and a Justice of the Peace. As the latter, he accidentally marries Ms. Wilson to his visiting brother Clarence Burton (as Ninian Deacon) while they are out for dinner. Schoolteacher Milton Sills (as Neil Cornish) is also interested in Wilson...
Presenter
Architect Peter Ibbetson is hired by the Duke of Towers to design a building for him. Ibbetson discovers that the Duchess of Towers, Mary, is his now-grown childhood sweetheart. Their love revives, but Peter is sentenced to life in prison for an accidental killing. Mary comes to him in dreams and they are able to live out their romance in a dream world.
Presenter
Grizel is the daughter of the Painted Lady, who believes that her lover will one day return. Grizel is ostracized by the other children of the town. Tommy and his sister come to the town. Tommy is friendly, but Elspeth keeps her distance. When the Painted Lady dies, Dr. Gemmell makes Grizel his housekeeper. Time passes and after the doctor dies, Grizel, who is now twenty-one years old, loves Tommy, who is an author in London. Tommy visits the town but cannot decide whether he loves Grizel. Grizel knows that Tommy does not love her, and after he returns to London her unhappiness leads to insanity. Tommy returns and marries Grizel, although he believes that she will hate him when she gets better. After two years under Tommy's care, she regains her sanity. After Tommy lets her know that he cared for her out of his love for her; not for pity, Grizel is happy.
Producer
A doctor's research into the roots of evil turns him into a hideous depraved fiend.
Producer
The Misleading Widow is a 1919 silent film comedy starring Billie Burke as Betty Taradine. It was based on the 1917 stage play Billeted by F. Tennyson Jesse and H.M. Harwood. The film was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. It appears to be a lost film.
Executive Producer
Amarilly comes from a large family in a working-class neighborhood. She is happy with her family and her boyfriend Terry, a bartender in a cafe. But one day she meets Gordon, a sculptor who comes from a rich family, and she begins to be drawn into the world of the upper class.
Presenter
An Englishwoman misbehaves in Canada, driving a traveling companion to suicide and bearing a secret child whom she whisks away. When she returns to England to receive an inheritance, her bad deeds catch up to her. The film is presumed lost.
Producer
Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother cares only about her social position. But one day a servant's irresponsibility creates a crisis that causes everyone to rethink what is important to them.
Producer
A rich contractor sends his son to supervise the building of a new dam. His clothes are stolen by a tramp and dressed in the tramp's clothes he's mistaken for a laborer.
Producer
A young girl, squatting on a wealthy man's land fights for her fellow squatters' right to stay.
Producer
Leah Kleschna has been a thief all her life. However, an encounter with a man she intends to rob makes her question her life's course. The film is lost.
Producer
A lost film. A wealthy young man's marriage to a mountain girl he meets while hunting is disastrous until she abandons him and later reappears incognito as a tutored and sophisticated woman.
Producer
A French sailor, imprisoned for years on false charges of conpiring against the king, escapes and exacts revenge on his accusers.
Producer
King Rudolf of Ruritania is saved from a coup attempt by the help of his lookalike cousin, who falls in love with the king's fiancee.
