Aline MacMahon

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.

A penniless heiress, a disillusioned nun, the suicidal playwright they both love, a hapless art forger and the playwright's wife converge on the empty Long Island home of an aging matriarch and squabble among themselves about their relative success or failure.

In the early 1900's Tennessee, a loving family undergoes the shock of the father's sudden, accidental death. The widow and her young son must endure the heartache of life following the tragedy, but slowly rise up from the ashes to face the hope of renewed life.

Jenny Bowman is a successful singer who, while on an engagement at the London Palladium, visits David Donne to see her son Matt again, spending a few glorious days with him while his father is away in Rome in an attempt to attain the family that she never had. When David returns, Matt is torn between his loyalty to his father and his affection for Jenny.

Rich Hawaiian pineapple grower and US Senatorial candidate Richard Howland tries to control everything and everyone around him, including his headstrong sister, Slone.

An aging doctor's resentment of his young assistant could lead to tragedy.

The epic story of a family that's involved in the Oklahoma Land Rush in 1889.

A betrayed queen takes a terrible revenge.

Will Lockhart arrives in Coronado, an isolated town in New Mexico, in search of someone who sells rifles to the Apache tribe, finding himself unwillingly drawn into the convoluted life of a local ranching family whose members seem to have a lot to hide.

Film biography of entertainer Eddie Cantor, with Keefe Brasselle starring as the popular stage, radio and movie comic.

Dardo, a Robin Hood-like figure, and his loyal followers use a Roman ruin in Medieval Lombardy as their headquarters as they conduct an insurgency against their Hessian conquerors.

It's the Hatfields vs. the McCoys in this 1949 film, with Farley Granger and Joan Evans as the hillbilly Romeo and Juliet whose forbidden romance rekindles a long-standing feud between their respective families.

In postwar Germany, a displaced Czech boy, separated from his family during wartime, is befriended by an American GI while the boy's mother desperately searches for him.

A retired prizefighter becomes the unlikely guardian of a young orphan recently arrived in the United States. Director John Waters' 1946 period comedy, set in New York's Bowery, stars Wallace Beery, Dean Stockwell, Aline MacMahon, Edward Arnold, Cameron Mitchell, Dorothy Patrick, Aubrey Mather, Clinton Sundberg, Milton Parsons, Morris Ankrum and Oliver Blake.

Evelyn, an emotionally vulnerable and unstable woman, stays at the home of her doctor Dan Proctor. There she meets and falls in love with his brother, Douglas, who is happily married to Ann. Evelyn then sets forth to break up the happy marriage and win the love of Douglas.

The lives of a small Chinese village are turned Upside down when the Japanese invade it. An heroic young Chinese woman leads her fellow villagers in an uprising against Japanese Invaders.

Short film about nurse service in wartime.

This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.

Archive footage from Potemkin (1925), with English dialogue dubbed in by American actors, is combined with new footage to tie together the brave stand of Odessa Russian guerrilla bands of the 1940's against German forces with the similar situation of 1905 when Odessa citizens aided in the revolt against the Czar as depicted in Eisenstein's classic Potemkin (1925).

A young soldier on a pass in New York City visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of the theater and films appear and host a recreational center for servicemen during the war. The soldier meets a pretty young hostess and they enjoy the many entertainers and a growing romance

In this comedy, the town gossip fills her time running the lives of others. Naturally, she is also a matchmaker.

Bold, eccentric Broadway performer Elizabeth Madden befuddles her handlers by coming home with a baby she picked up on the street. She wants to keep the baby but has to find a husband to make adoption viable. She offers her new obstetrician Dr. McBain help with his research on rabbits in exchange for marriage - and he accepts. The marriage of convenience turns into a marriage of real love until Dr. McBain's ex-wife comes looking for money.

A Brooklyn pier racketeer bullies boat-owners into paying protection money but two fed-up fishermen decide to eliminate the gangster themselves rather than complain to the police.

The life of a young kid, who starts stealing small things to fit in with the "cool crowd".

When You're in Love is a 1937 musical film starring Grace Moore, Cary Grant, and Thomas Mitchell. Moore sings "Minnie the Moocher" in one scene. She also sings the wonderful Ernesto Lecuono classic "Siboney" (though her Spanish is not perfection) drooled over by Cary Grant

At the turn of the century, a young man graduates high school and realizes the joys and sorrows of growing up, with some loving help and guidance from his wise father. A tender, coming-of-age story, with a wonderful look at a long-gone, but fondly remembered, small town America.

Mary, a woman with good intentions, takes pity on Henry, an artist with no home. What begins as a simple offer to come inside from the cold for tea gradually turns into more. Before the unsuspecting woman knows it, Henry, his family, and his friends con their way into her home. Eventually, Mary creates a ruse to rid herself of the parasites, but they have a different plan.

A society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist.

Sam Preston is a small-town newspaper publisher who suffers from wanderlust. Leaving his family, he thinks well-provided for, he packs a suitcase and hits the road. Ten years later he comes back to find the newspaper shuttered and his family gone.

A murder happens when greedy relatives gather to await the demise of their wealthy and very ill family patriarch.

Middle aged George F. Babbitt is a leading citizen in the town of Zenith, the fastest growing community in America according to its town sign. George is a large part of that growth as a property developer and realtor. He is lovingly married to his wife Myra, the two who have two children, Ted and Verona who are approaching adulthood. George has always had a fearless attitude, much like that of a naive child, which has led to his business success. He encounters some personal stresses when he faces what he believes is a potential home-wrecking issue, and when his oldest friend Paul and his wife Zilla deal with domestic problems. These stresses make George want to provide even more to his own family, leading to George agreeing to participate in a less than scrupulous but lucrative business dealing. George's bravura gets him into a potential scandal. This situation makes him question his general behavior, especially toward his family.

After cantankerous and miserly Herbert Kalness insults his daughter's fiance and prospective in-laws at a dinner party, Mrs. Kalness devises a scheme to teach her husband a lesson in good manners.

A spinster dressmaker falls for a ne'er-do-well.

An heiress abandons an out-of-work husband, two sons and a lovesick daughter.

A lady gas station attendant gets mixed up with escaped murderers.

Generational saga tracing the events in the lives of the midwest pioneering Nordholm family, as seen through the eyes of businessman Orin Nordholm Jr., who ages from a youth to an elderly grandfather.

Tom Holmes is someone guided by honesty and moral rectitude, a heroic veteran of the World War I marked by the unbearable suffering caused by his battle wounds, a traumatized but courageous man who will experience, in the years to come, the pain of misfortune but also the happiness of success and hope and love for other human beings.

Champion boxer Jimmy Dolan has cultivated a wholesome image for himself, but he's a boozer and womanizer behind the scenes. Intoxicated at a party, he punches a reporter who threatens to expose his hypocrisy, and accidentally kills him. Dolan panics and skips town, winding up on a farm that serves as a home for disabled children run by kindhearted Peggy. As the cynical Dolan falls for Peggy, he begins to change his ways.

Things get tough for Carol and her showgirl pals, Trixie and Polly, when the Great Depression kicks in and all the Broadway shows close down. Wealthy songwriter Brad saves the day by funding a new Depression-themed musical for the girls to star in, but when his stuffy high-society brother finds out and threatens to disown Brad, Carol and her gold-digging friends scheme to keep the show going, hooking a couple of millionaires along the way.

A farmer strikes it rich out West, then leaves his wife for a young beauty.

A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific crossing, each without knowing the other's secret.

Story of a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.

A day in the maternity ward from the lens of accepted morals and medical attitudes of 1932. The ward includes women from all walks of life and situations.

In this comedy, a hard-working husband loses his job and his wife becomes the bread winner.

A poor New York plumber's wife and children hope to move "uptown" from their lower East Side neighborhood after he sells his new invention.

A prosecutor quits his job and becomes a defense attorney when he finds out that a man he got convicted and executed was actually innocent.

An unscrupulous newspaper editor searches for headlines at any cost.