Archive Footage
Sylvia Syms looks through the BBC archives to tell the story of one of Hollywood's greatest ever feuds - the rivalry between legendary actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Interviews from the 1960s and 70s reveal the mutual loathing that came to a head when, against all expectations, they starred together in the classic psychological thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. The programme looks in detail at the making of the film, examines the fallout when Bette and not Joan received an Oscar nomination for her performance, and shows how, despite the hatred, the pair had more in common than audiences appreciated.
Self (archive footage)
Critics Kent Jones, B. Ruby Rich, Joe McElhaney and Miriam Bale discuss the unique qualities of "Johnny Guitar," its lasting appeal and the influence the film had on some prominent directors during the years.
Self (archive footage)
Larry Ceplair, co-author of The Inquisition in Hollywood, and blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein, a former member of the Communist Party, discuss the socio-political environment in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s, as well as unusual production history of "Johnny Guitar."
Self (archive footage)
Critics Kent Jones, B. Ruby Rich, Joe McElhaney and Miriam Bale take a closer look at the feminist overtones in "Johnny Guitar."
Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.
(archive footage)
I had a strong, slightly illicit, urge to commandeer the original train sequence from the 1931 film Possessed and make it move in such a way as to give the girl (Joan Crawford) what she thought she wanted: a position on the inside. To do that, I had to create my own (all encompassing) vehicle. By my count, the original sequence provides three orders of motion: the motion (and stillness) of the passengers on the train, the motion of the train itself, and finally the motion of the girl (Joan) outside of the train.
Self (archive footage)
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special.
Various Roles (archive footage)
A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.
Self (archive footage)
The reclusive Patricia Douglas comes out of hiding to discuss the 1937 MGM scandal, in which the powerful film studio tricked her and over 100 other underage girls into attending a stag party, where she was raped.
Self (archive footage)
Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.
Self
One of America's best loved comedians, Tim Conway (The Carol Burnett Show, Mchale's Navy) is featured here in hilarious TV clips from the 1960s. Conway portrays the popular character, Dag Hereford. A self-professed expert on everything, Dag proves to be the classic bumbler. Whether he's a horse-racing jockey, wine taster, prison warden or one of the country's leading race car drivers, Conway hams it up with stars of the day in rare, stand-up performances not seen in over 30 years.
Self (archive footage)
Making-of documentary about the 1933 musical, 42nd Street.
Self (archive footage)
An overview of the iconic actresses' legendary careers, as well as the rivalry that colored "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"
Self / Flaemmchen (archive footage)
Until 1932's Grand Hotel, never had there existed an all-star ensemble cast on film. Conceived by MGM's production genius Irving Thalberg, the film boasted names like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and John and Lionel Barrymore and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. This short documentary takes a look at the making of the classic film.
Self (archive footage)
A look at actresses who starred in films with thought-provoking subjects made between 1930 and July 1934, before the Hollywood Production Code —the infamous Hays Code— was enforced.
Self (archive footage)
In this documentary on the life of Joan Crawford, we learn why she should be remembered as the great actress she was, and not only as "mommie dearest." caricature she has become. Friends, fellow actors, directors, and others reminisce about their association with her, and numerous film clips show off her talent from her start in silents to bad science fiction/horror movies at the end of her career.
Self (archive footage)
A look back at the classic 1964 film of horror and suspense starring Joan Crawford as an axe-murderer just released from the mental hospital. Includes footage of the filming and interviews with several of those involved, as well as a look at the movies it was influenced by and those that were in turn influenced by it.
Self (archive footage)
A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift those veils, one by one, to find how images, at one time seeming innocent, have revealed, after decades, to have homosexual overtones.
Self (archive footage)
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work. During her fifty-year career, she made over eighty films. But her obsessive perfectionism led to the later caricature of coat-hanger-wielding harridan that even the adoration of fans could not counter. Still, she has endured as one of the most popular icons of the movies, an early role model to a million young women who aspired to her image of stylish magnetic power and unquestioned independence.
(archive footage)
An unprecedented anthology of never-before-told true stories by and about some of Hollywood's most interesting stars, legends, and wannabes, and takes readers inside Hollywood's inner sanctum to show how casting decisions are made, who makes them, and who has the final word.
(archive footage)
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
Self
A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, who were strongly influenced by the naturalistic acting of Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre.
Blanche Hudson (archive footage) (uncredited)
A non-stop roller coaster ride through the scariest moments of the greatest terror films of all time.
(archive footage)
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
Herself (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.
(in "Humoresque") (archive footage)
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.
Self (archive footage)
A collection of bloopers and outtakes from an enormous selection of Hollywood classic productions spanning from the 1930s through the 1980s.
(archive footage)
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
Self (archive footage)
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
(archive footage)
Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
Dr. Brockton
Anthropologist Dr. Brockton unearths a primitive troglodyte -- an Ice Age "missing link": half-caveman, half-ape -- in a local cave. Through medical experimentation, she manages to communicate with him and domesticate him before he's let loose by an irate land developer and goes on a rampage, terrorizing the local citizenry.
Miss Menlo
This anthology telefilm aired on NBC on November 8, 1969, and tells three strange tales: "The Cemetery," directed by Boris Sagal; "Eyes," directed by Steven Spielberg; and "The Escape Route," directed by Barry Shear. This film also served as a backdoor pilot for the TV series of the same name, which premiered on December 16, 1970.
Narrator
Joan Crawford narrates this documentary about the career of Greta Garbo.
Self
Joan Crawford goes grocery shopping, in this short film for Pepsi-Cola.
Monica Rivers
A lady ringmaster milks the publicity from a string of murders.
Amanda True
International spies Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) travel around the globe in an effort to track down a secret formula that was divided into four parts and left by a dying scientist with his four of five daughters, all of whom live in different countries. His widow, Amanda, is murdered at the beginning by the counter-spies of the organization THRUSH. Evil THRUSH agent Randolph also wants the formula, and is aided by his karate-chopping henchmen.
Joan Crawford (uncredited)
An amoral lowlife accidentally stumbles into an acting career that sets him on a trajectory to Hollywood stardom. But everyone on whom he steps on the way to the top remembers when he is nominated for an Oscar and he runs a dirty campaign in an attempt to win.
Amy Nelson
Teenage friends Kit and Libby make prank phone calls for fun but then find themselves involved in a brutal double murder committed by one of their targets.
(archive footage)
This insightful documentary features some of the major and most beautiful actresses to grace the silver screen. It shows how the movie industry changed its depiction of sex and actresses' portrayal of sex from the silent movie era to the present. Classic scenes are shown from the silent movie 'True Heart Susie,' starring Lillian Gish, to 'Love Me Tonight' (1932), blending sex and sophistication, starring Jeanette MacDonald (pre-Nelson Eddy), and to Elizabeth Taylor in 'A Place in the Sun' (1951), plus much , much more.
(archive footage)
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
Lucy Harbin
After a twenty-year stay at an asylum for a double murder, a mother returns to her estranged daughter where suspicions arise about her behavior.
Self
The writer, director and star of the 1964 horror film Strait-Jacket in a humorous featurette in which they plan "the perfect murder."
Producer
Della Chappell is a very wealthy and incredibly reclusive woman. When a big company wants to develop some land that Della owns, the town sends out Barney Stafford to talk to her. She invites Barney over to negotiate the proposal. Barney soon takes a liking to Della's equally reclusive daughter Jenny Chappell. After spending some time with Jenny, he realizes that Della has a dark secret, one that keeps them from the outside world.
Della Chappell
Della Chappell is a very wealthy and incredibly reclusive woman. When a big company wants to develop some land that Della owns, the town sends out Barney Stafford to talk to her. She invites Barney over to negotiate the proposal. Barney soon takes a liking to Della's equally reclusive daughter Jenny Chappell. After spending some time with Jenny, he realizes that Della has a dark secret, one that keeps them from the outside world.
Lucretia Terry
This movie chronicles the trials of the mentally ill and their care-givers in an over-crowded ward of a hospital.
Blanche Hudson
A former child star torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.
Janie Barlow (archive footage) (uncredited)
Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
Millicent Fox
Amanda Farrow
An exposé of the lives and loves of Madison Avenue working girls and their higher-ups.
Susan Conrad
Pilot episode, directed by Dick Powell.
Producer
Pilot episode, directed by Dick Powell.
Margaret Landi
Eighteen-year-old Esther has been deaf and blind since the accident which killed her mother. Wealthy Margaret Landi, a native of Esther's village in Ireland, is talked into helping to educate and possibly heal Esther. Margaret grows to love Esther as a daughter, but finds Esther's innocence threatened by sleazy promoters and her own sleazy ex-husband. Radiant performance by Heather Sears. Based on a book that nearly had Helen Keller's co-workers suing for libel due to perceived parallels between Carlo Landi and the husband of Annie Sullivan
Millicent Wetherby
A woman falls for a younger man with severe mental problems.
Eva Phillips
A devilish Southern woman, married to a man who despises her, manages to manipulate those around her under the guise of being kind. But, when her sister-in-law is engaged to be married to the woman's former lover and her husband starts up an affair with her cousin, visting from New York, things start to go awry and she sets a plan to destroy it all.
Lynn Markham
Lynn Markham moves into her late husband's beach house the morning after former tenant Eloise Crandall fell from the cliff. To her annoyance, Lynn finds both her real estate agent and Drummond Hall, her beachcomber neighbor, making themselves quite at home. Lynn soon has no doubts of what her scheming neighbors are up to, but she finds Drummond's physical charms hard to resist. And she still doesn't know what really happened to Eloise.
Self
Live television broadcast of the world premiere. Described by various participants as the biggest world premiere in memory, even bigger than the Academy Awards.
Vienna
On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin' Kid and his gang. Another patron of Vienna's establishment is Johnny Guitar, a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man's death, Emma Small, Vienna's rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna's saloon – even without proof of her wrongdoing.
Jenny Stewart
Jenny Stewart is a tough Broadway musical star who doesn't take criticism from anyone. Yet there is one individual, Tye Graham, a blind pianist who may be able to break through her tough exterior.
Self
Actress Joan Crawford appears in this public service announcement asking the theatre audience to give generously to The Jimmy Fund, which supports cancer care and research for children.
Myra Hudson Blaine
Actor Lester Blaine has all but landed the lead in Myra Hudson's new play when Myra vetoes him because, to her, he doesn't look like a romantic leading man. On a train from New York to San Francisco, Blaine sets out to prove Myra wrong...by romancing her. Is he sincere, or does he have a dark ulterior motive?
Elizabeth Austin
A crime gang leader is losing her sight, so while her lover goes into hiding, she checks in to the hospital for extensive surgery to recover her eyesight. There she is treated by a handsome young doctor. As expected not only does the doctor successfully open her eyes, he also opens her heart for him.
Agatha Reed
Agatha has fond memories of her romance with college president Dr. James Merrill, when she was a student and he was her professor, and wants to see if there is still a spark between them.
Harriet Craig
A perfectionist woman's devotion to her home drives away friends and family.
Ethel Whitehead
Fed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.
Joan Crawford (uncredited)
A waitress at the Warner Brothers commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when actors Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan agree to help her.
Lane Bellamy
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Daisy Kenyon
Daisy Kenyon is a Manhattan commercial artist having an affair with an arrogant and overbearing but successful lawyer named Dan O'Mara. O'Mara is married and has children. Daisy meets a single man, a war veteran named Peter Lapham, and after a brief and hesitant courtship decides to marry him, although she is still in love with Dan.
Louise Howell
After being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.
Helen Wright
A classical musician from a working class background is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.
Self
Warner Brothers bloopers of 1946
Mildred Pierce
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Self
Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place.
Frances Myles
Two newlyweds spy on the Nazis for the British Secret Service during their honeymoon in Europe.
Michele de la Becque
Frenchwoman Michele de la Becque, an opponent of the Nazis in German-occupied Paris, hides a downed American flyer, Pat Talbot, and attempts to get him safely out of the country.
Margaret Johanna 'M.J.' Drew
Margaret Drew runs her trucking company single-mindedly, if not ruthlessly. The only thorn in her side is writer Michael Holmes who is writing a book on some of her tough ways. With no time for men, the effect an attractive stranger has on her at her sister's wedding is unnerving. When it turns out this is the hated writer, she starts seriously to lose her bearings. Surely it can't become Maggie and Mike?
Cinematography
The private Joan Crawford fought as hard to create a normal family life as she did to establish her career. She forged her own path and to that end became a single parent, eventually adopting and raising four children. Like many parents, she picked up a 16mm camera and began filming both the special and the ordinary events of her family’s life. These home movies (ca. 1940–42) present that which one rarely gets to see: a larger-than-life personality at home, unadorned, just being herself—and often in color, at a time when her feature films were black and white. Crawford filmed most of the home movies herself; when she is on camera, it is unclear who is behind it.
Self
The private Joan Crawford fought as hard to create a normal family life as she did to establish her career. She forged her own path and to that end became a single parent, eventually adopting and raising four children. Like many parents, she picked up a 16mm camera and began filming both the special and the ordinary events of her family’s life. These home movies (ca. 1940–42) present that which one rarely gets to see: a larger-than-life personality at home, unadorned, just being herself—and often in color, at a time when her feature films were black and white. Crawford filmed most of the home movies herself; when she is on camera, it is unclear who is behind it.
Director
The private Joan Crawford fought as hard to create a normal family life as she did to establish her career. She forged her own path and to that end became a single parent, eventually adopting and raising four children. Like many parents, she picked up a 16mm camera and began filming both the special and the ordinary events of her family’s life. These home movies (ca. 1940–42) present that which one rarely gets to see: a larger-than-life personality at home, unadorned, just being herself—and often in color, at a time when her feature films were black and white. Crawford filmed most of the home movies herself; when she is on camera, it is unclear who is behind it.
Mary 'Minnie' Howard
Mary, a writer working on a novel about a love triangle, is attracted to her publisher. Her suitor Jimmy is determined to break them up; he introduces Mary to the publisher's wife without telling Mary who she is.
Anna Holm
A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.
Self
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
Susan Trexel
A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.
Self
This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America. A mother and daughter go to town to buy a new dress. In the dress shop window is a designer dress worn by Joan Crawford in a recent movie. We then go to Hollywood and visit Adrian, MGM's chief of costume design, and see how multiple copies of a single clothing pattern are produced. The film ends with short segments of several MGM features.
Julie
Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure.
Crystal Allen
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
Self
An MGM short showing how materials are shipped by boat 'From the Ends of the Earth' to Hollywood. Featuring footage from the MGM films being made at the time. Such as The Women, Thunder Afloat, Siren of the Tropics, Ninotchka, Northwest Passage, and At the Circus.
Joan Crawford
Ice skating is the theme; at the Tropical Ice Garden, in Westwood Hills, are seen a flock of skating stars including Irene Dare and Phyllis Ann Thomoson, as well as Hollywood luminaries such as Franklyn Pangborn, Norma Shearer, Rita Hayworth, Mickey Rooney, Dick Purcell and Ann Sheridan.
Mary McKay
Mary and Larry are are a modestly successful skating team. Shortly after their marriage, Mary gets a picture contract, while Larry is sitting at home, out of work.
Olivia Riley Linden
A nightclub dancer shakes the foundations of a wealthy farming family after she marries into it.
Jessie Cassidy
Jessie, a young working class woman, seeks to improve her life by marrying her boyfriend, only to find out that he is no better than what she left behind.
Anni Pavlovitch
A poor singer in a bar masquerades as a rich society woman thanks to a rich benefactor.
Self
Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the movie going public has in going to the theater, are presented. They include: the production of celluloid aka film stock, the materials used in the production of which include cotton and silver; construction crews who build sets including those to look like cities, towns and villages around the world; a visit with Jack Dawn who demonstrates the process of creating a makeup design; the screen testing process, where many an acting hopeful gets his/her start; the work of the candid camera man, the prying eyes behind the movie camera; a visit with Adrian, who designs the clothes worn by many of the stars on screen; and a visit with Herbert Stothart as he conducts his musical score for Conquest (1937). These behind the scenes looks provide the opportunity to get acquainted with the cavalcade of MGM stars and their productions that will grace the silver screen in the 1937/38 movie season.
Self (uncredited)
A tour of Hollywood, featuring such star frequented spots as the Vendome, the Lakeside Golf Club, the West Side Tennis Club, the Santa Anita Racetrack, the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove, the Biltmore Bowl, and the American Legion Stadium.
Mrs. Fay Cheyney
A chic jewel thief in England falls in love with one of her marks.
Sally Parker
A runaway bride and an undercover reporter get caught up in political intrigue as they lead a merry chase across Europe and uncover a spy plot.
Margaret "Peggy" O'Neal Eaton
It's the early nineteenth century Washington. Young adult Margaret O'Neal, Peggy to most that know her, is the daughter of Major William O'Neal, who is the innkeeper of the establishment where most out-of-town politicians and military men stay when they're in Washington. Peggy is pretty and politically aware. She is courted by several of those politicians and military men who all want to marry her, except for the one with who she is truly in love.
Kay Bentley
A society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist.
Marcia Townsend Warren
A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.
Mary Clay
A socialite only realises that her friend is in love with her when she falls for the wrong man.
Diane Lovering
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.
Sadie McKee
A maid has romances with a two-timer, a boozing millionaire and the master of the house.
Janie Barlow
Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get a job in a real Broadway musical being directed by Patch. Tod thinks he can get what he wants from Janie, Patch thinks Janie is using her charms rather than talent to get to the top, and Janie thinks Patch is the greatest. Steve, the stage manager, has the Three Stooges helping him manage all the show girls. Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy make appearances as famous Broadway personalities.
Ivy Stevens (Archive Footage) (Uncredited)
Gunner and Bucker are friends who work as riveters. Whenever Bucker gets the urge to marry, which is often, Gunner will hit on his girl to see if she is true or not. So far, Gunner hasn't failed. But one night, while Gunner is in jail, Bucker meets Mary, a tough dame with a line. He falls for her, and she falls for his money. But Mary is already a gal pal of Gunner, and no two know about the third one. The trouble starts when the triangle is revealed too late.
Diana 'Ann' Boyce-Smith
Two lovers are living together and are not married; they had made a promise as children to get married when they grew up, but they "didn't wait."
Sadie Thompson
Due to a possible cholera epidemic onboard, passengers on a ship are forced to disembark at Pago Pago, a small village on a Pacific island where it incessantly rains. Among the stranded passengers are Sadie Thompson, a prostitute, and Alfred Davidson, a fanatic missionary who will try to redeem her.
Flämmchen
限定された空間で起きる事件を巧みに連関させると言ったいわゆる“グランド・ホテル形式”の原点。過去の想い出を引きずるバレリーナ、彼女の真珠の首飾りを狙う、カイゲルン男爵を自称する泥棒。事業が危機にある入り婿社長のプライジング、彼の速記者フレム、余命あと僅かなクリングラインの五人による、一日半の人間模様を描く。当時のMGMスターを豪華に配役。悠然と構えながらも、グールディングの演出は映画的処理の手際が鮮やかで大変魅きつけられる。
Letty Lynton
Socialite Letty Lynton is returning to New York, abandoning one-time lover Emile Renaul in South America, when she strikes up a shipboard romance with Jerry Darrow. Renault is waiting for her in New York and will not leave her alone, so she poisons him. When detectives take her to the D.A.s office, Jerry cooks up an alibi.
Marian Martin aka 'Mrs. Moreland'
Marian is a factory worker determined to leave the assembly line behind and move up in the world.
Valentine 'Val' Winters
A Harvard football star disobeys his upper class parents and runs off with his true love.
Self
A German reporter visits Hollywood and is escorted through the MGM Studio by a German nobleman, who is working there as an extra. They meet and speak to several actors, primarily Buster Keaton, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford and Heinrich George. Then they meet Adolphe Menjou, who rehearses a long scene in German. A final scene shows stars arriving at a film premiere, including Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer and Wallace Beery.
Ivy 'Bunny' Stevens
Ivy Stevens is a cafe entertainer in love with a shifty salesman who deserts her. In attempting to commit suicide, she is saved by Carl, a Salvation Army officer. Encouraged by Carl, Ivy joins the Salvation Army. When her old flame re-enters her life, Ivy finds she is still attracted and begins another affair with him.
Joan Crawford
Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.)
Bonnie Jordan
When misfortune hits hard on the Jordan family of Chicago's upper class, Bonnie Jordan, a dazzling and witty girl, finds a job as an aspiring reporter; however, his naive younger brother Rodney takes a twisted path and gets involved with the wrong people.
Mary Turner
Mary Turner gets a three years prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit. Once released, she plots to get back at the man responsible for her conviction.
Geraldine 'Gerry' March
Three department store girls--Connie, Franky, and Gerry--share an apartment on West 91st Street in New York City. Each earns little more than 20 dollars per week. Gerry is the sensible one, but the others throw themselves at amoral rich men in an attempt to hook one and better themselves. They end up being hurt and disappointed despite Gerry's attempts to warn them.
Joan
A wild-partying flapper marries a cowboy and tries to adjust to life on a western ranch.
Alice "Bingo" Dowling
In her first Talkie, Joan Crawford plays Bingo, a jungle-raised oil heiress, who turns Manhattan upside down in her hunt for Andy McAllister, the man of her dreams. Unfortunately for Bingo, Andy is penniless and refuses to agree to the match until he can provide for the wild, rich girl. Andy's prideful position is more than encouraged by Bingo's Uncle Ben, who seeks to scuttle their love match.
Self
An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.
Billie Brown
Young vivacious Billie uses her charms on influential businessman Glenn Abbott in hopes of getting her secret fiancée Gil a diplomatic appointment. Meanwhile Gil's affections meander to beautiful ingenue Kentucky, Billie's best friend.
Susie
Millionaire's son Duke wants to be a champion boxer but takes time out to enroll in college when he sees co-ed Susie. The students wonder about his having a chauffeur and house full of servants. Susie likes him but, to get rid of her, his manager tells her Duke already has a New York chorus girl. As the students listen to a radio broadcast of his victorious fight from San Francisco, she learns that the student Duke is the boxer Duke and that there is no chorus girl.
Adrienne Lecouvreur
A duke has deposed Prince Mauritz's father, so Mauritz spends his time in affairs with a countess, the duke's wife and a gypsy girl Adrienne. Years later she is a famous actress in a play resembling the sad story of their earlier relationship. He falls in love with her again. The jealous duchess and the duke arrange to have him shot by firing squad but revolutionaries save him and make him King.
Self (1929)
Hollywood actresses including Jeanette Loff and Raquel Torres modeling Spring fashions in color.
Diana 'Di' Medford
A flapper sets her hat for a man with a hard-drinking wife.
Frieda
After completing his prison sentence for killing a rival gang leader in self-defence, Benny Horowitz decides to go straight.
Priscilla Crowninshield
While Joel and his older ship's captain brother Mark are at sea, the latter is abandoned in Singapore by devious ship's mate Finch who, upon their return, convinces the townspeople that Joel abandoned his brother. Joel, determined to not only find Mark but to see justice done, returns the ship to Singapore.
Rose-Marie
Sergeant Malone of the Mounties and effeminate Etienne Doray are both in love with Rose-Marie, but she doesn't light up until soldier of fortune Jim Kenyon drifts into the post. Soon Jim is accused of murder but he escapes.
Betty Dallas
Jim Lockhart is out to capture the robbing and murdering "Solitaire Kid".
Betty Channing
Arrogant and wise-cracking Brice Wayne enrolls at the United States Military Academy at West Point and adjusts to life as a plebe. He tries out for the plebe football team, where he excels and shows up the varsity team. However, his ego is unrivaled, especially in competition with upperclassman Bob Sperry. At the same time, Brice meets a local girl named Betty Channing who cheers for him at football practices.
Allie Monte
Kelly's employer, Waters, is such a keen golfer that he asks Kelly to help him improve his game at an exclusive country club.
Jane
Jerry always wins in his rivalry with Red over women, gunrunning, and diamond smuggling. While running booze into the U.S. during Prohibition, Jerry seizes Jane's seaside home. When she tries to turn him in, he kidnaps her and her fiance John. Jane, now in love with Jerry, must watch as Jerry and Red shoot it out on board Jerry's boat.
Nanon Zanzi
A criminal on the run hides in a circus and seeks to possess the daughter of the ringmaster at any cost.
Monica Dale
Two men in love with the same girl are trapped with her in a forest fire.
Joselyn Poe
A southern girl tries her luck as a dancer in New York City.
René Contrecoeur
During the French and Indian War the Indians under Pontiac kidnap Rene. Colonel O'Hara hopes to rescue and wed her.
Ballroom Dancer (uncredited)
When Prince Danilo falls in love with American dancer Sally O'Hara, his uncle, King Nikita I of Monteblanco, forbids him to marry her because Sally is a commoner. Thinking she has been jilted by her prince, Sally marries wealthy Baron Sadoja. When the elderly man dies suddenly, Sally must be wooed all over again by Danilo.
The Girl
The power of love in the violent underground world of the Apaches in Paris in the early 20th century.
Jane
To impress the girl he loves, a naive country boy tries to capture a group of local bootleggers.
Betty Burton
A poor cobbler's son enters a $25,000 cross-country hiking contest sponsored by the footwear company that has nearly bankrupted his father. He also has fallen in love with the girl on the company's billboards, the competition's daughter, and her sweet inspiration keeps him tramping along.
Irene O'Dare
The three are showgirls, each with a different approach to life and love.
Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
Party Guest (uncredited)
Thyra arrives in Chekia to wed its old and ugly king. The Duke falls in love with her. A revolution erupts and the king is assassinated. Chief revolutionary Gigberto also falls in love with Thyra. The revolutionaries plan to drown Thyra and Gigberto in a boat, but the Duke takes Gigberto's place. And the loving couple are rescued.
Mary Riley
Timothy and Max are partners in the junk business. They take poor young Mary in as a boarder. Mary gets a job in Nathan's office and falls in love with him, but his mother feels she is beneath Nathan. Nathan faces disaster unless he can corner a particular stock, with which Timothy and Max's room happens to be entirely papered.
Extra - Driver of Police Car (uncredited)
Produced under the supervision of the U.S. Navy. James Randall, an upperclassman at the Naval Academy, falls in love with Patricia Lawrence, the sister of a plebe. She is engaged to Basil Courtney, a wealthy reprobate who arranges with Rita to discredit James.
Young Lady Catherine
A comedic deja vu story of runaway young love.
Bobby
Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit and lands on the drum of musician Al Cassidy. One thing leads to another, they fall in love and get married. Al becomes a famous songwriter and Maggie stays home and has children. One day Al is hired to write a big number for Selma Larson, one of the Follies' most beautiful stars, and falls for her.
Mannequin (uncredited)
Katherine Emerson, an Iowa girl hungry for the good things in life, leaves her small hometown and sets out for New York. En route, she is involved in a train wreck in which another woman is killed. Katherine finds the woman's purse and, among its contents, discovers an invitation for the woman to spend 6 months in an unoccupied luxury apartment in Manhattan. Katherine seizes this opportunity and sets up housekeeping in the elegant suite, living well and dressing in the newest fashions.
Party Guest (uncredited)
The snooty Fernanda decides to leave Spain to visit her uncle in San Francisco in order to escape the attentions of the dandy, amorous Don Diego, but he follows her. She is rescued from a wild taxi ride by a passerby who owns a huge plumbing company. Believing him to be a common plumber, she snubs him, but he pursues her and a romantic rivalry is born.
Self
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.
Molly
The story of two baby girls, born near in proximity, but worlds apart in life: Molly Helmer, the daughter of a thief, and Florence Banning, the daughter of the judge who would send Molly's father to prison. The girls' lives come together as young women at eighteen as Florence leaves the security of the exclusive Girls Select School, and Molly, now orphaned, begins her life free from reform school.
