(archive footage)
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
Gertie - Switchboard Operator
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.
Olivia
A housewife's sudden rise to fame as a soap spokesperson leads to chaos in her home life.
Aunt Theodora
A teenager whose father is a millionaire radio station owner secretly records a song and plays it on one of his father's stations. It becomes a hit.
Self
Walt Disney and Art Linkletter co-host a live celebration of Disneyland's 1959 expansion that consisted of the debuts of Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail, and the Submarine Voyage, a project so massive that it was called "The Second Opening of Disneyland". Highlights include a mammoth, star-studded parade and the official launching of the Disneyland submarines by U.S. Navy officers. Among the guests are then-Vice-President Richard Nixon and family, Clint Eastwood, and Meredith Willson, who leads the Disneyland band in his own "76 Trombones." Sponsored by Kodak, the commercial spokespersons include Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.
Mrs. Shea
To earn extra money, a prim schoolteacher takes a second job as secretary to the uncouth owner of a boisterous nightclub.
Valerie Humpert
Peter Stirling (with his old friend the talking mule) is recalled to active duty...in the WACs!
Jane Dwyer
Jim Vesser and his team of railroading men try to build a rail line through a mountain pass, while a group of less scrupulous construction workers sabotages the entire operation in the hopes that they can get their tracks laid first and get the money from the railroad.
Valerie Humpert
The truthful soldier Stirling didn't know how to lie about his source of information, the talking army Mule, Francis, so he was treated as a lunatic and led to one after another hilarious situations, where the mule was the only one that appeared in his right mind. In the process of all this, the mule assisted in uncovering a spy, Mareen, who pretended to be lost among the jungles, but was actually...
Chester Lauck and Norris Goff tried to bring their highly successful radio show to TV but it didn’t happen. In this failed pilot Abner is on the phone with Mose and says he’ll meet him and Opie Cates to go fishing. Lum comes into the store with a letter from the IRS. He goes to burn it in the stove and sees Abner’s fishing tackle.
Cousin Cora Cartwright
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
Rosa
A couple celebrate their tenth anniversary by quarreling their way to divorce court.
Elvira Spriggens
The goings on of a few members of a radio show's audience is the premise for this feature film derived from the popular ABC radio show of the 1940's. This film features Tom Breneman, the radio show's host, as well as Bonita Granville, Beulah Bondi, Zasu Pitts, Billie Burke and Hedda Hopper. Musical performances are provided by Nat King Cole and the King Cole Trio, along with Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
Guest star
A short subject, intended as the first of a series, where Gloria Swanson plays "Miss Gloria," advice columnist to the lovelorn.
Cornelia Pigeon
A soldier stationed on an army base and his fiancé, who runs a women's "fat farm" nearby, want to get married but don't have enough money. Three customers of the "fat farm" scheme to get back at their philandering husbands by hiring the soldier and two of his buddies as "escorts" for the weekend. Complications ensue when the husbands show up unexpectedly.
Aggie Pilkington (as ZaSu Pitts)
In this comedy, the town gossip fills her time running the lives of others. Naturally, she is also a matchmaker.
Aunt Emma Bates
A dizzy old spinster gets involved in the boxing racket and gangland murders.
Geraldine
Lum Edwards is annoyed with his partner in Pine Ridge's Jot-'em-Down general store, Abner Peabody, because Abner has swapped their delivery car for a racehorse. Lum is also too timid to propose to Geraldine, so he involves Abner in a "rescue" effort which nearly gets both of them killed. They try again, and this time Geraldine is impressed. Lum writes a proposal note, but Abner, by mistake, delivers it to the Widder Abernathy, who has been ready to remarry for years. This puts Lum in a peck of trouble until the sheriff appears with the Widder's long-gone and hiding husband.
Miss Pepper
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife sail to Hawaii in search of business. The fifth entry (of eight) in the "Mexican Spitfire" comedy series.
Anna, Craig's Maid
Jim is hardly thrilled when his new bride, Ellen, invites an old friend, Randy, over for dinner. Yet Jim turns genuinely dismayed once Randy arrives and turns out to be an insufferable, boorish braggart with bad manners and little self-awareness. That dismay turns to outright annoyance when Jim realizes Randy thinks he has come to stay for the weekend. How much damage to a marriage can one unwanted guest do in the space of one weekend?
Emily Pepper
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife adopt a war orphan who turns out to be a beautiful woman.
Pandora Polly
A small-town spinster, who's a born romantic, takes on the strict members of the local "Purity League" by spilling a few of their well-kept secrets. Comedy.
Julia Jordan
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.
Emmy Sawyer
The nosy antics of a honeymooner puts an unwed couple in the same room.
Myra Pottle
A publicity stunt staged on a train known as the Broadway Limited gets out of control, as no one wants to be responsible for the baby that was brought in for it.
Pauline Hastings
Perky young Nanette attempts to save the marriage of her uncle and aunt by untangling Uncle Jimmy from several innocent but ensnaring flirtations. Attempting one such unentanglement, Nanette enlists the help of theatrical producer Bill Trainor, who promptly falls in love with her. The same thing happens when artist Tom Gillespie is called on for help. But soon Uncle Jimmy's flirtations become too numerous, and Nanette's romances with Tom and Bill run into trouble. Will Uncle Jimmy's marriage survive, and will Nanette find happiness with Tom, Bill, or somebody else?
Miss Flint
After crooked nightclub owner murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to allow him to stay at his eccentric mother's boarding house.
Cary Bingham
Anita, engaged to solid Don Barnes, is swept off her feet by magician Arturo. Before you can say presto, she's his wife and stage assistant on a lengthy world tour. But Anita is annoyed by Arturo's constant flirtations, and his death-defying stunts give her nightmares. And forget her plan to retire to a farmhouse. Eventually, she has had enough and disappears.
Mme. Moulin
British nurse Edith Cavell is stationed at a hospital in Brussels during World War I. When the son of a former patient escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp, she helps him flee to Holland. Outraged at the number of soldiers detained in the camps, Edith, along with a group of sympathizers, devises a plan to help the prisoners escape. As the group works to free the soldiers, Edith must keep her activities secret from the Germans
Lilly Handy
A bank robber and his boy make a run for it during winter in a bus full of children.
Aunt Penelope Hardwick
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.
Dulcey Lee
Good-natured gambler Marty Black falls into ownership of a booking joint but soon falls on hard times. His one out is a marker for half-ownership in a young thoroughbred, which he quickly calls in. He discovers the other owner to be a young woman from an old horse racing family who wants to protect her colt almost as much as Marty wants to rush him into big races for a fast buck. While they clash, Marty soon comes to understand the human bond with the horses and what it means to be a thoroughbred.
Letitia Rondell
The story of how 52nd Street became New York City's "Nightclub Row" in the 1930s.
Hildegarde Withers
Hildegarde Withers and Inspector Piper try to solve a murder while attending a popular Broadway show.
Winnie Oatfield
A married couple are mistaken for jewel thieves and forced to go to a party. The husband turns on the burglar alarm by mistake and the real thieves are captured.
Gwen Logan
A young playboy inherits a financially-troubled New York City department store. To learn the business, he poses as a store clerk, and quickly falls for a pretty employee in the store's music department. Comedy with songs.
Hildegarde Withers
A priceless Cellini silver cup is stolen from a local museum with both Hildegarde and Oscar on the case.
Mrs. Fay Kinney
A temperamental film star's vacation turns deadly when he uncovers a murder.
Miss Harkins
Womanizer and airline pilot Jack Gordon must fly the world's fastest airliner from New York to California while dealing with dangerous jewel thieves on the run from the law.
Susan Todd
Two people go to Coney Island to find romance and wind up in jail.
Cora Upshaw
A ditzy wife yearns to join "high society" when she and her husband become suddenly wealthy. Comedy.
Belle McGill
An amateur handicapper must help his future son-in-law recoup the money he lost while playing the ponies.
Esmeralda
Esmeralda is a cook in a diner in a small Arkansas town. When a gang of crooks moves into town and plots a bank robbery, Esmeralda unintentionally wrecks their plans, resulting in fame for Esmeralda as the crime-fighting "Tiger Woman," but also further complications.
Maggie Conklin
Betty Ingals walks out on her fiancé in search of adventure. She gets more than she bargained for when she stumbles upon a gang of bootleggers.
Mrs. Judson
In this comedy of an Englishman stranded in a sea of barbaric Americans, Marmaduke Ruggles, a gentleman's gentleman and butler to an Earl is lost in a poker game to an uncouth American cattle baron. Ruggles's life is turned upside down as he's taken to the USA, is gradually assimilated into American life, accidently becomes a local celebrity, and falls in love along the way.
Mirabelle
Mary wants to marry a gangster because that is where the money is. Unfortunately, the life expectancy and finances of a gangster are unstable.
Miss Hazy
The Wiggs family plan to celebrate Thanksgiving in their rundown shack with leftover stew, without Mr. Wiggs who wandered off long ago an has never been heard from. Do-gooder Miss Lucy brings them a real feast. Her boyfriend Bob arranges to take Wiggs' sick boy to a hospital. Their other boy makes some money peddling kindling and takes the family to a show. Mrs. Wiggs is called to the hopsital just in time to see her boy die. Her neighbor Miss Mazy wants to marry Mr. Stubbins who insists on tasting her cooking. Mrs. Wiggs sneaks her dishes past Stubbins who agrees to marriage. Mr. Wiggs appears suddenly, in tatters, with just the amount of money (twenty dollars) needed to save the family from foreclosure. Miss Lucy and Bob get married.
Matilda Hemingway
A reformer's daughter wins the lead role in a scandalous Broadway show.
Tillie Whim
Early '30s comedy-mystery involving magicians, fake psychics and murder.
Araminta Tootle
ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville meet when both are sold deeds to an abandoned ranch in the California desert. Their lonely lives become much more crowded when a drifter discovers gold on the property—though all he’s found is Slim’s missing filling. (adapted from MoMA capsule)
Annie Snodgrass
While breaking into a bank safe, a gangster overhears a bank employee singing and decides to put her in a Broadway revue
Herself
Students at New York's Rovina Finishing School for Girls send their photographs to the makers of Claybury's Beauty Soap, in the hope of being chosen as "Miss Complexion of 1934." Martha Howson wins the contest, which includes a trip to Hollywood and a tour of the Warner Brothers lot with Lyle Talbot. When she gets to the studio, all she wants to do is meet Dick Powell, star of the new Warner Brothers film Dames (1934).
Alice Mudge
This romantic comedy takes place on an ocean liner. One of the few unattached passengers is heiress Joan Foster. Joan finds herself in the arms of the ship's second officer. Little does she know that he has been hired by her father to keep other men away from her.
Esthey Roberts
Mazie, a poor orphan girl, is mistreated by cruel farmer Slag and his wife for whom she works. Mazie, who is growing into a woman, does not like they way Slag has been looking at her lately.
Tillie Prescott
A stranded actress turned manicurist affects the lives of people in a small American town.
Maddie Skitch
After losing their Missouri home during the Great Depression, the Skitch family pulls up stakes and heads west to California to begin life anew. Comedy, released in 1933.
Zasu
A charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school.
Sybby 'Sib'
Tough Aggie gives a street guy polish and a rich kid gumption.
Mary Horner
A camp butcher on an Albany night boat dreams of the South Seas.
Elmerada de Leon
Radio singer Glory Eden is publicized as the ideal of American womanhood in order to sell the sponsor's product Ippsie-Wippsie Washcloths. In reality, Glory would like to at least sample booze, jazz, gambling, and men. When the strain of representing "purity" brings her to rebellion, the sponsor and his nutty henchmen pick her a public-relations "sweetheart" from fan mail, who turns out to be a hayseed.
Thelma wins a screen test with a Hollywood studio, but trouble ensues on the train trip out there.
Millie
Peggy and her friend Millie are strolling down Broadway while Jimmy and Mac are trolling Broadway, and the four get together...
Bonny
A "mama's boy" falls for a spinster who takes care of children at a department store nursery.
Zasu
Comedy short with ZaSuPitts and Thelma Todd. After accidentally getting a policeman friend fired, the girls must come up with some way to get him re-hired or be stuck with him as an unwanted roommate.
Aunt Sylvia
Its 1850 and California is under ruthless military rule. Kirby Tornell's rancho has been taken over by soldiers and when two of Kirby's men are captured, he goes there to free them. He meets the General's daughter there and attracted to her, repeatedly returns to see her. Eventually he is captured and now his men must try and rescue him.
Miss Pitts
Instead of delivering some fancy dresses to a customer, the girls wear them to a party.
Zasu
The girls moonlight as taxi dancers in order to earn some extra money.
Molly Hull
Molly Hull, a maid, and Sam Sutton, a butler, are bequeathed a million dollars, and they encounter many problems and difficulties as they try to become the newest members of the idle rich.
Beula
Both the maid and the youngest daughter are after the same man who wants nothing to do with either of them.
Miss Zasu Pitts - Woman of the Jury
Juror Zasu accidentally swallows a piece of evidence which just happens to be a time bomb.
Florrie
Eddie Burke ( Jack Oakie) is a wise-guy pugilist whose talent is unevenly matched by his ego. Despite his character flaws, Eddie knows the meaning of loyalty. When his manager Doc Williams (William Collier Sr.) is offered the opportunity to stage a match at Madison Square Garden, but only if he gets rid of his stable of fighters, Eddie fabricates an alibi and stages a walkout on Doc.
Zasu
Zasu and Thelma are working their way through college by selling magazine subscriptions. Finding little success going door-to-door, the pair decide to use their charms to sell to men at their places of work.
Miss Leyton
Story of a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.
Nora Rafferty
A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occultists.
Zasu
When Thelma is stopped by a cop for speeding, she tries to get out of it by telling him that she and Zasu are on their way to the hospital.
Gertie
New York City tenement dwelling neighbors Blondie and Lottie are longtime best friends. When Lottie makes the cast of the Follies and moves up in the world, she arranges for Blondie, as well, to join the cast and gain the advantages. But the friendship goes awry when Lottie's sweetheart, wealthy Larry Belmont, falls for Blondie and she for him.
Zasu
The girls and their pet monkey create havoc on board a train carrying a traveling Broadway troupe.
Mrs. Dole
A woman's love for and devotion to a married man results in her being relegated to the "back streets" of his life.
Gabby Woman
A boatload of Westerners is trapped in Manchuria as bandits led by Russian renegade Voronsky ravage the area. Seeking refuge in a fortified inn, the group is led by the boat's Captain Carson, who becomes involved with a woman who "belongs" to Voronsky. Carson must contend with the bandits outside and the conflicting personalities of those trapped inside the inn, as well as dealing with spies among the inn's personnel.
Mrs. Scudder
A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, his acting ability is non-existent.
Morning Gazette Telephone Operator
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.
Zasu
Thelma and Zazu are on a leisurely excursion in a borrowed car. Thelma lets Zazu drive. When she brakes to avoid a bull pulled along by three rustics, her foot gets stuck and the car crashes through a barn. The barn's owner won't let them leave without paying damages. The gals hoof it, walking in a large circle to arrive back at the farmer's house after dark. While outside his door, they hear a radio broadcast to beware a lion escaped from a wintering circus. Can Thelma and Zasu reclaim the car while avoiding the angry farmer, his prize bull, and the renegade lion?
Mrs. Truesdale
A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Europe years later after she has remarried.
Sybil Smith
Bodies start mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue. An investigator tries to determine what is going on.
Gladys Fairweather
Vivienne Ware is defended by her ex-beau when she's accused of killing her faithless fiance.
Pitts
Zasu inadvertently turns Thelma's vaudeville act into a shambles.
Temperance Worker
The story about a man framed for a crime he didn't commit, who returns to wreak havoc following his release from prison.
Aunt Dot
A waitress falls for a wealthy young man but has to fight his mother to find happiness.
Miss Pitts
Thelma and Zasu go to a Turkish bath to try to get rid of a cold.
Dot
Truck driver Norman Foster has aspirations to become a prize fighter, but romantic interest June Clyde finds the idea deplorable. Henry Armetta and ZaSu Pitts supply the laughs.
Zasu Pitts
In their first comedy two-reeler of 1932, vivacious Thelma Todd and fluttery ZaSu Pitts learn that the royal seal of a foreign country has been stolen and promptly set out to catch it -- a sea lion.
Anna, Holderlin's Maid
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.
Polly Perkins
A wealthy bachelor hires a pretty young nanny to look after his adopted daughter. Sparks quickly fly between the two, much to the dismay of the man's calculating, money-hungry fiancée.
Zasu
Two young women, Zasu and Thelma, complain that all of their dates take them to Coney Island. The next day a car goes by and they are splashed with mud. The driver stops and offers to buy them some new clothes. They accept the offer and later agree to go on a date.
Bella
A wealthy, cheating husband is found murdered in his penthouse apartment. The police soon arrest a suspect, but the victim's downstairs neighbor believes the man is innocent and sets out to prove who really committed the murder.
Zasu
During WW1, the girls become spies when they spend the evening with two German officers.
Liesl
An acclaimed actor and his equally acclaimed actress wife, who have been married for less than a year, are already showing signs of strain in their marriage. The actor believes his wife is capable of infidelity and sets out to prove this is so. Disguising himself as the kind of man he believes she fancies (a Russian military officer), the actor woos his wife while she believes her husband to be out of town.
Zasu
After running their car off the road, a society matron insists that the girls spend the evening at her mansion.
Mrs. Bassett
Best pals Penrod and Sam are leaders of a super-secret neighborhood society, the In-Or-In Boys Club. Troubles arise when a pompous prig tries to join the club and when the boys lose their clubhouse in a land sale. But there’s also plenty of time to play pranks, put on a carnival, experience the pangs of first love, and romp with Duke, the world’s best dog.
Nora Dugan
A gambler, hopelessly in debt, agrees to pay off his debt by allowing his creditor to take out a life insurance policy on him and collecting once the one-year suicide clause has elapsed.
ZaSu
Zasu falls for a wrestler, drags Thelma to his next fight.
Miss Dibbs
Dorothy Mackaill stars in this old-fashioned melodrama set in the Basque country of Spain. She is Emily Stanley, betrothed to foppish Englishman Sir Harry Congers (Lawrence Grant), but in love with Basque peasant Esteban Cristera (Warner Baxter). Deciding on a final fling before wedlock, Emily goes to Esteban's village in the mountains, but is wounded in a car accident. Recuperating, she learns about the hardships endured by Basque women from Esteban's grandmother (Nance O'Neil) and former girlfriend,Stancia (Mary Doran), and decides to return to Sir Harry in Biarritz.
Katie
It is 1915 in Vienna and the Great War has caused many casualties. Elsa, a beautiful prostitute, wants to help the war effort, but is rejected as a nurse, but a government official thinks that she will make an excellent spy.
Zasu Pitts
Zasu & Thelma go out with two idiots to a nightclub.
Jennie
Bart is a clerk for a publishing company; he has written a novel. His wife Peggy and he have five children. Bart's former girlfriend Mildred is manager of the company's Paris office. She manages to get the novel published and talks Bart into marrying her after he divorces Peggy. Initially successful, Bart must turn to writing trash to keep Mildred in money. When he sees how well his four sons and daughter Margaret have grown without his help, he asks Peggy to let them all come live with him and Mildred. Peggy agrees, but the arrival of his beloved children puts Mildred's future in jeopardy. Written by Ed Stephan
Fritzi Mobley
Four battle-weary American soldiers under fire reflect on the women they left behind.
Minnie
Marianne falls in love with con man Valentine who uses their relation to get her father's endorsement on a money-raising scheme. He runs off with the money and Marianne, later dumping her. Her sister Laura loves Dr. Lindley although she knows he loves Marianne. Marianne returns and marries a wealthy young man, and Lindley turns his love toward Laura.
Mrs. Hattie Haddock
The Haddocks are going on a European vacation and from their reception at the station, where the whole town goes to see them off, it is clear who wears the pants in the family - it's their daughter Mildred. Her parents often proclaim she is a genius - but she is just smarter than them, which wouldn't be too hard! On the train, Finn meets shyster Harry who sizes Finn up as a sucker and quickly wires his partner Bessie, aka "The Princess" to make Finn's acquaintance and take him for everything he has.
Mrs. Harney
A bored society woman invites scandal and heartache when she falls in love with her low-born chauffeur.
Ada, the Maid
A wife's psychiatrist tells her that she is being dominated by her husband. Her solution is to divorce him.
Cushie
Untrained, volunteer Nurses from America treat Allied soldiers behind and on the lines in France. They face the horrors of war, fight off the attentions of soldiers and face their own loneliness.
Annie
Dowdy Sylvia accepts her boss' marriage proposal, even though he only asked her to avoid marriage to another woman. As a wealthy wife, Sylvia changes from ugly duckling to uninhibited swan and even contemplates having an affair with a man she meets during a trip to Paris.
Louise
Sgt. Conniston and his alcoholic guide O'Toole are on the trail of an escaped murderer named Keith. When they catch up with him in the farthest reaches of Northern Canada, Keith turns out to be a dead ringer for Conniston. On the way back, the sled overturns, Keith grabs the gun and leaves them to die in the snow. After second thoughts he comes back and brings them to safety at an RCMP emergency cabin. Conniston dies of a frozen lung.
Hilda
Sundered lovers meet again amid tragic irony at a mining camp in northern Norway.
Bertha
A countess fleeing her husband mistakes a count for her hairdresser at a Monte Carlo casino.
Bella
A gangster's wife, fearful that he is about to be murdered by his rivals, tips off the police to his whereabouts in order to save his life. Her husband, however, believes her reason was that she wanted him out of the way so she could have his best friend.
Monica
On the day before his second wedding, a man finds out that his bride-to-be has had a baby.
Ethel
Beautiful manicurist Hallie Hobart sets her sights on handsome David Stone, the son of wealthy wheat farmer Ezra Stone. Professing to hate men, Hallie is only interested in luring David in for a lucrative business deal. David easily falls in love, but older brother Mark brands Hallie a gold-digger. To get even with the straight-laced Stone family, Hallie accepts David's marriage proposal.
Mayme
A once-wealthy sister and brother rent out their Southern mansion and stay on as cook and butler.
Pauline Hastings
A bible publisher is falling in love with a chorus girl and finds himself backing a Broadway show.
Caecilia
The marriage between Nikki and the crippled Cecilia takes place.
Clara Bertrand
A romance runs into difficulties because the girl has seen a great deal of the turbulence in her sister's household, and has no illusions about married bliss.
Telephone Girl
On her first anniversary, Ann Reagan finds that her sister-in-law is involved with a shady character that she used to be intimate with, and determines to intervene.
Harriet
Irène Bordoni is cast as Vivienne Rolland, a Parisian chorus girl in love with Massachusetts boy Andrew Sabbot (Jason Robards Sr.) Andrew's snobbish mother Cora (Louise Closser Hale) tries to break up the romance. Jack Buchanan likewise makes his talking-picture debut as Guy Pennell, the leading man in Vivienne's revue. No film elements of Paris are known to exist, although the complete soundtrack survives on Vitaphone disks. The sound tape reels for this film survives at UCLA Film and Television Archive.
The Elk
A couple of roving vagabonds hitch a freight to the railroad town of Linda, and between bouts with the fright-yard bulls and other drifters, find romance in the persons of two waitresses at the camp restaurant. American-slang rules the dialogue to the point non-USA viewers need a slang-glossary to follow the dialogue.
Timmins
A English aristocrat causes a scandal when she divorces her husband and runs off with a young American.
Lena
A fiesty, sexy and manipulative gypsy disrupts the lives of a conservative farm family.
Rose Gleason
The title character is office-boy Barney. Pretending to be a deaf-mute, Barney tries to trump his detective boss Walter Babbing by tracking down the person who kidnapped Peggy Meredith, the daughter of wealthy Agnes and Trumbull Meredith.
Mother Spengler
A married restaurant owner is persuaded to become a bootlegger by a beautiful young girl. When he starts making money at it, she steals it, then runs off with another man. His wife finds out what happened. Complications ensue.
Cecelia Schweisser
A young impoverished aristocrat falls in love with an inn-keeper's daughter, but has to marry money.
Hulda
Pvt. Smith, an American soldier stationed in a German town during the occupation of Germany after World War I, falls in love with the daughter of the town's leading citizen. The problem is that his sworn enemy, Sgt. Butts, also has designs on the girl. Butts comes up with a plan to get rid of his competition and get the girl for himself, but things don't go quite the way he planned.
The Maid
In this comedy, a wealthy matron is terribly upset when she learns that her socialite son is planning to marry a blue collar girl.
Germaine
While stationed in Switzerland, soldiers Louis and Rodney fall in love with local damsel Colette, much to the dismay of Colette's self-appointed boyfriend General Lavoris.
Camille
Casey is a slovenly junk man in a turn of the twentieth century hick town who has a remarkable ability to play baseball. An unscrupulous New York scout signs him up, so Casey and his equally dishonest manager go to the big leagues. Eventually, the scout and manager conspire to get him drunk and bet against him for a crucial game with the pennant at stake.
Hope Durant
Three girls from a small town win a trip to Monte Carlo. The trip was sponsored by their local newspaper, which sends along its ace reporter Bancroft as their "chaperone".
Agnes Wheaton
A domineering mother sets out to break up the romance and possible marriage of her daughter, Cecily Stoughton, with Ted Pyncheon by several contrived devices and bringing in other candidates more to her liking.
Evelyn
Sunny sings in the streets to obtain funds for a country outing. A theatre owner hears her and takes her up. During a fishing trip Sunny is about to accept the theatre owner's proposal of marriage when his estranged wife turns up...
Nancy
Struggling young doctor in a rural community, Dr. Lawrence Tibbits, cures Norma, a circus elephant, when she is injured in a fire. The circus moves on, but Norma, who has become quite attached to the young doctor, keeps coming back, trampling everything in her way.
Hilda (as Zazu Pitts)
On the night before his wedding, a young man plays poker with friends. When the game is raided by the police, he escapes into a Turkish bath on ladies night, ending up disguised in drag and with difficult explanations to make.
Annie Pogani
Adapted from the Fannie Hurst story of the same name, Mannequin is the story of Joan Herrick, kidnapped in infancy from her wealthy parents and raised by a slatternly slum woman. The film is still extant.
Ruth Fanning
Steve Tuttle, the titular lazybones, takes on the responsibility of raising a fatherless girl, causing a scandal in his small town. Many years later, having returned from World War I, he discovers that he loves the grown-up girl.
Mandy Coulter
Sam Martin grows up in the Kentucky hills with a preacher as his closest friend and father figure. The young man goes away and gets an education, and when he returns home, he wants to build a school so that others can learn, too.
Maggie Keenan
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.
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.
Polly Jordan
Alone and unprotected in an isolated wilderness cabin, Ruth Jordan is discovered by three drunken brutes who begin to barter for her. In desperation, she appeals to Stephen Ghent, the least degraded of the desperadoes, promising herself to him if he saves her from the others. Ghent buys off Shorty with a chain of gold nuggets and knocks Dutch senseless. Ghent then sends Dutch off with Shorty and takes Ruth to the next town, where he forces her to marry him. During the 3-day ride across the desert to Ghent's gold mine, the idealistic Ruth learns that he is a man of rough passions.
Trina
A lottery win of $5,000 forever changes the lives of a miner turned dentist and his wife.
Celia Stebbins
Robert Andrews hosts a large party and there stages his own murder, to keep bank examiner Alfred Austin from examining the records of his bank.
Delia
A bored rich housewife wants to go on the stage, but her husband won't let her. When she meets a despairing actress who looks exactly like her, she suggests they swap places for a little while, giving the actress a break while the rich husband is out of town. But the rich husband comes back early, causing havoc for the actress, plus the rich housewife is finding herself attracted to the actress's boyfriend.
Amelia Pugsley
A newly married husband and wife make an agreement that should either of them want to terminate their relationship then a bowl with goldfish would be presented to the other signalling the end of their marriage.
'Brainy' Jones
The tale of Bonnie Day, a rambunctious young lady who is rankled when she is expelled from college for serving tea in her room. She goes on to open up a tearoom in a fancy hotel, saving all the profits to pay the legal fees for her father who has been unjustly jailed. Mr. Day's rival has embroiled him in a crooked stock deal and made him appear to be the guilty party. Meanwhile, Bonnie is in the midst of a romantic dilemma; her Aunt Pearl wants her to wed Napoleon Dobbings, but Bonnie much prefers helpful young lawyer Art Binger.
Mickey
Sydney Fairchild, the daughter of a woman who was once loved by three bachelors, surprises the men with a visit. Findley, Trumbull, and Gaunt honor their former sweetheart's last request by becoming Sydney's guardians.
Zasu Pitts (uncredited)
Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood studio and applies for a job as an actress. Mary is given a job as a waitress in the commissary, and gets to meet 40 actors, actresses and directors, none of whom tip big enough to enable Mary to earn enough money to pay for an operation. Will Mary become an actress and make some big money?
Herself - Celebrity Actress in Commissary
A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.
Apple Annie
Drama of two girls who married into different layers of society.
Jennie Dunn
Singer Anna Woodstock loses her voice, but a visit to a hypnotist, Dr. Joseph Kasimir, brings it back. What Anna doesn't realize is that her illness was purely psychosomatic and Kasimir is a swindler.
Mary Cosgrove
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.
Patsy
Patsy is the awkward sister of the lovely Grace. She is also in love with Grace's boyfriend. Mother shows favoritism towards Grace, and father is too accommodating to stand up for Patsy, although he knows she is picked on. When they are all at supper, Grace runs away on a motorboat with a millionaire playboy. During a deep talk with Grace's boyfriend, Patsy reveals that she is in love with somebody who doesn't know she exists.
Jennie Jones, The Jazz Kid
Social drama about a friendship that is pressurized by class differences.
Nancy Scroggs
Ezra Scroggs is a shiftless gambler who has let his hotel, the Lakeview, fall on hard times. Finally his daughter Nancy gets fed up seeing all the business go to his rival, Si Whittaker at the Majestic, and she decides to do something about it.
Emily
Bright young novelist Mabel Vere is engaged to Gerald Wantage, a prig who angrily objects when she advertises for a husband in order to elicit ideas for her new book. Mabel's roommate, Maud Bray, a physical culture expert, frightens away the less desirable suitors, while the writer responds to the more interesting letters, and soon becomes embroiled in a number of adventures.
Her strict upbringing is driving Genevra French (Dorothy Phillips) crazy, so when she gets her hand on a book called "How to Attract the Opposite Sex," she takes its advice to heart. She uses her newly found wiles on Lawrence Tabor (William Stowell) and gets him to marry her. Only after the wedding does she tell him she married him just to get away from her family, and that she intends to do exactly as she pleases.
Mary
A wealthy society playboy falls in love with the daughter of a poor fisherman. After Valentino shot to fame, A Society Sensation was cut down to a meek 24 minutes so the lead would be in every scene. Title cards tried to make up for the lost scenes.
Oscar's Sweetheart
A lost Film. Mary Pickford plays a socialite who, having lost her fortune, takes a job as a Swedish cook. She falls in love with a chauffeur who, lo and behold, is a slumming millionaire.
A Kansas Belle (uncredited)
A young man grows restless living in a small Kansas town, dreaming of the adventures of the Three Musketeers. So in hopes of becoming a modern D'Artagnan, he mounts his steed (a Model T Ford) and sets out across the West in search of excitement and adventure.
Becky
Little Sara Crewe is placed in a boarding school by her father when he goes off to war, but he does not understand that the headmistress is a cruel, spiteful woman who makes life miserable for Sara.
Party Guest (uncredited)
A judge who had taken part in the gold rush of 1849 hires an acting troupe to recreate the experience in this rather fanciful silent Western. The make-believe turns serious when a real gold mine is discovered nearby and a local girl is kidnapped by a nasty gambler.
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Behind in the mortgage on Sunnybrook Farm and barely managing to feed seven hungry mouths, mother sends young Rebecca off to Riverboro to be raised by her wealthy Aunt Miranda. The little girl is treated like a prisoner by her strict Aunt, yet she gamely does her best to get an education. When spoiled girls at school mock the spirited Rebecca as "missy poor-house," she soon makes them come to eat their words. Despite many difficulties, Rebecca manages to help the less fortunate and spread joy in Riverboro, dreaming that her reward will come when she is "all growed up." This version is notable for having been adapted by famed female screenwriter Frances Marion.
