(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.
Himself (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.
Harry Wheeler
The proprietor of an ice-skating revue promotes a peanut-vendor at the show to a management position based on suggestions he made to improve the act of the show's star, who also happens to be the owner's wife. However, he soon begins to notice that his new manager is paying more attention to his wife than he believes is appropriate...
Sheriff Jim Wales
Dashing Johnny Barrett has a secret identity: Spanish Jack, the masked bandit. Always one step ahead of the law, Barrett effortlessly balances his double life--robbing by night, romancing by day and always with a smile. But when the woman he loves begins to suspect him and the young man he befriends is arrested for being him, it's time for Johnny to rethink his priorities.
James C. Pidgeon
An eccentric wealthy family facing bankruptcy schemes to steal an inheritance, but an alcoholic ex-actor they take in for Christmas charity complicates their plan.
Carl Cermak
On a peaceful, pre-war winter in Czechoslovakia, the genial godfather, Jaroslav Haschek, of Vera Hascheck, presents the young girl with her first pair of ice skates. Soon, she astonished the warm-hearted people of her village with her skill, and she is acclaimed a marvel-on-ice.
Senator Bigbee
Fibber McGee and Molly innocently get mixed up with the federal government.
Henry B. Preston
A young bride who comes from a rich family has a hard time adjusting to life in a boarding house with other soldiers and their wives. Her spoiled ways cause resentment from the other wives and problems with her husband.
Simon Jenkins
Fly-by-night producers dodge bill collectors while trying for one big hit.
Gus Crane
As dancer Ginny Walker performs on stage, a veiled woman in the audience stands up, accuses Ginny of stealing her husband and then fires a gun at her. After Ginny collapses and is taken to her dressing room, the woman, Julia Westcolt, a friend of Ginny's, dashes backstage, discards her veil, and then congratulates her friend on their successful publicity stunt. When Ginny's press agents, Gus Crane and his son Junior, visit their client backstage, she brags about her feat and chides them for not being more creative in promoting her. Horrified at Ginny's brashness, Junior, a conservative Harvard graduate, chastises her and leaves the room.
Barney Briggs
Glamorous Lorry Jones, the toast of a Missouri military canteen, has become "engaged" to almost every serviceman she's signed her pin-up photo for. Now she's leaving home to go into government service (not, as she fantasizes, to join the USO). On a side trip to New York, her vivid imagination leads her to True Love with naval hero Tommy Dooley; but increasingly involved Musical Comedy Complications follow.
Andrew Mason Sr.
A soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.
Tom Waggoner
Wounded while stopping the James gang from robbing the local bank, a cowboy wakes up in the hospital to find that he's been elected town marshal. He soon comes into conflict with the town banker, who controls everything in town and is squeezing the townspeople for every penny he can get out of them.
E.F. Strabel
名匠エルンスト・ルビッチによる、ハリウッド黄金期のチャーミングなロマンティック・コメディ。閻魔大王の前で「女を泣かせてばかりだった」と告白した老紳士の、70年余りの女性遍歴が回想とともに展開される。
Durstin
Small-town soda-jerk Peggy Evans quits her dead-end job and moves to New York where she invents a new identity.
Gregory Warner
Abbot and Costello must find a replacement for a woman's horse they accidentally killed after feeding it some candy. They head for the racetrack, find a look-a-like and take it. They do not realize that the nag is "Tea Biscuit," a champion racehorse.
Himself (segment 'Lights of New York') (archive footage)
This short traces the history of sound in the movies, beginning with French scientist Leon Scott's experiments in 1857. Featured are snippets from early sound pictures.
Steve Adams
A beautiful heiress is an excellent poker player. Her comfortable life changes when her father and his fortune die during market crash of the 1800's.
Howard Huston
Ranger Don Stuart fights a forest fire with timber boss friend Tana 'Butch' Mason, and finds evidence of arson. He suspects Twig Dawson but can't prove it. Butch loves Don but he, poor fool, won't notice her as a woman; instead he meets socialite Celia in town and elopes with her. The action plot (Don's pursuit of the fire starter) parallels Tana's comic efforts to scare tenderfoot Celia back to the city.
Nicely Nicely Johnson
Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish showgirl who despises and uses him.
Luther - Orman's butler
Ten screenwriters collaborated on this series of tales concerning the effect a tailcoat cursed by its tailor has on those who wear it. The video release features a W.C. Fields segment not included in the original theatrical release.
Mr. John Billingsley
A psychiatrist's patient, a nutty heiress, travels west to find gold in her grandfather's abandoned mine. The psychiatrist, unable to talk her out of it, decides to follow her out there.
Bunker
George and Mary Elizabeth Cugat are about to celebrate their second wedding anniversary and dream of having a child. Although they live comfortably on George's earnings as a bank official, Liz's scatterbrained handling of their finances constantly puts them in jeopardy. Liz becomes jealous when George's former girl friend, Myra Ponsonby, comes for a visit with his party-loving friends Bill Stone, Cory Cartwright and Chuck, an artist, after which George spends the entire evening dancing at a nightclub with Myra.
Doctor Dobson
To avoid a costly breach of contract suit, a rich young man marries a nightclub singer.
Ed Keller
The trustees of Midwestern University have forced three teachers out of their jobs for being suspected communists. Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild mannered English Professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in class. Tommy is upset that his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage. Meanwhile, Ellen's old boyfriend, the football player Joe Ferguson, comes to visit for the homecoming weekend. He takes Ellen out dancing after the football rally, causing Tommy to worry that he will lose her to Joe.
Jeb McKane
A hunter happens upon a fugitive and his daughter living in a Georgia swamp. He falls in love with the girl and persuades the fugitive to return to town.
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Blooper out-takes from Torrid Zone, Four Mothers, The Wagons Roll at Night, The Sea Wolf, No Time for Comedy, The Bride Came C.O.D., and Affectionately Yours, among other Warner Brother productions of 1940 and 1941.
George Hastings
Charming Andre Cassil woos physician Jane Alexander and the two impulsively get married. The honeymoon ends very quickly when Jane voices her progressive views on marriage which include the two having separate apartments. Andre then tries to make his wife jealous in order to lure her into his bedroom.
Elmer
With Irene Dunne, Robert Montgomery, Preston Foster, and Eugene Pallette. This sublime film exemplifies La Cava’s gift for creating comedies that contain a profound depth of feeling. Starting with a cruel joke – a couple of callow men make a bet that one of them can seduce the woman sharing their train compartment – the film charts the relationship that develops between Irene Dunne, a small-town girl in the big city, and Robert Montgomery, the brother of the man who has heartlessly seduced and abandoned her. Their love affair is all the more affecting for taking place against a backdrop of heartbreak and alcoholism, all conveyed under the guise of comedy. UNFINISHED BUSINESS is truly one of the most remarkable Hollywood films of the 1940s.
Gregory Martin
A movie-making publicity man screwball comedy about a movie producer who wants to create publicity for his latest project. He decides to have three men pose as spies, disrupting the opening, but things don't go quite as planned...there are actual spies also present!
Lucius K. Winfield
A financially-strapped charter pilot hires himself to an oil tycoon to kidnap his madcap daughter and prevent her from marrying a vapid band leader.
Horace Pike
It's no accident when wealthy Charles falls for Jean. Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune. Matters complicate when Jean starts falling for her mark. When Charles suspects Jean is a gold digger, he dumps her. Jean, fixated on revenge and still pining for the millionaire, devises a plan to get back in Charles' life. With love and payback on her mind, she re-introduces herself to Charles, this time as an aristocrat named Lady Eve Sidwich.
Duke Martin
Jockey (Stephens) struggles against gamblers with the help of stable trainer (Pallette) and horse onwer's daughter (Quigley).
Friar Felipe
舞台はスペイン領時代のカリフォルニア。マドリード留学から帰国してきた前市長の息子ディエゴ(タイロン・パワー)は、街の人々が現市長の圧制に苦しんでいることに憤り、昼間は軟弱男を装いながら、夜はマスク姿の英雄ゾロとなって、庶民のために立ち上がる。ジョンストン・マッカレー原作でダグラス・フェアバンクス主演で大ヒットした『奇傑ゾロ』を、時のハリウッド・キングことタイロン・パワー主演でリメイクした勧善懲悪の娯楽活劇。
Herrington
A child from the New York tenements sings on a radio quiz show and is eventually hired to a big-bucks contract, which allows her and her family to move into a posh apartment, with all the usual problems that accompany sudden wealth.
Maurice Duval
Set in Paris, this romantic comedy revolves around the beautiful estranged wife of a wealthy banker who hides a handsome and fiery Communist fugitive in her apartment.
P.J. Barnett
Mary and Joe Phillips' (Nan Grey and Tom Brown) attempts to improve their financial status are alternately aided and endangered by the antics of their two-year-old, Sandy.
Gov. Allen
An aspiring actress is offered the lead in a major new play, but discovers that her mother, a more seasoned performer, expects the same part. The situation is further complicated when they both become involved with the same man.
Mr. Nelson
Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Tom's only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.
James Clinton
In this reworking of Cinderella, orphaned Connie Harding is sent to live with her rich aunt and uncle after graduating from boarding school. She's hardly received with open arms, especially by her snobby cousin Barbara. When the entire family is invited to a major social ball, Barbara sees to it that Connie is forced to stay home. With the aid of her uncle, who acts as her fairy godfather, Connie makes it to the ball and meets her Prince Charming in Ted Drake, her cousin's boyfriend.
Chick McGann
原作はルイス・R・フォスター(Lewis R. Foster)の『ミネソタから来た紳士』。 主人公スミスは田舎のボーイスカウトのリーダーだったが、死亡した上院議員の代わりに、政界に担ぎ出される。スミスはそこで政治の腐敗と単身対決することになる。
Mike Craig
Woman hopes to be a great singer and is encouraged by her scheming teacher. After she flops her husband, encouraged by an amorous professional singer tries opera and also flops.
Mr. Stevens - Editor
An heiress takes a job as a department store clerk.
Friar Tuck
Robin Hood fights nobly for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian.
Friar Tuck (archive footage) (uncredited)
This was one of the annual "blooper" reels screened by the Warners Club, an organization of Warners actors, crew and executives. It was meant to poke fun at the flubs and bloopers that occurred ont the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
John R. Frost
The daughter of a struggling musician forms a symphony orchestra made up of his unemployed friends and through persistence, charm and a few misunderstandings, is able to get Leopold Stokowski to lead them in a concert that leads to a radio contract.
Casey
Madcap couple George and Marion Kerby are killed in an automobile accident. They return as ghosts to try and liven up the regimented lifestyle of their friend and bank president, Cosmo Topper. When Topper starts to live it up, it strains relations with his stuffy wife.
Raymond Q. Nash
An Arizona gas station owner faces comic adventures after traveling with an eccentric millionaire to New City, where he meets up with a small-time con woman and is repeatedly mistaken for a gangster.
'Babe' Lawton
Three playwrights (Lew Ayres, Eugene Pallette, Benny Baker) develop a plot around a drunk who gets killed in their apartment.
Mr. Wheeler
The title character is a resourceful young man who knows a whole little about a whole lot of things, and who concentrates by playing his saxophone. Clarence ingratiates himself with the wealthy and eccentric Wheeler family, though daughter Cora can't stand the boy.
The Colonel
Chin-Ching gets lost in Shanghai and is befriended by American playboy Tommy Randall. She falls asleep in his car which winds up on a ship headed for America. Susan Parker, also on the ship, marries Randall to give Chin-Ching a family.
Reginald "Doc" Kraft
To boost the ratings of a kiddie show, the host agrees to take guardianship of of a bratty boy who has a lovely older sister.
Busby
A man is cited as the co-respondent in a divorce case, but is cheerfully unashamed when he appears in court.
Alexander Bullock
Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock needs a "forgotten man" to win a scavenger hunt, and no one is more forgotten than Godfrey Park, who resides in a dump by the East River. Irene hires Godfrey as a servant for her riotously unhinged family, to the chagrin of her spoiled sister, Cornelia, who tries her best to get Godfrey fired. As Irene falls for her new butler, Godfrey turns the tables and teaches the frivolous Bullocks a lesson or two.
Mr. Samuel Burke-Meyers
A fake heiress marries a common reporter to thwart the advances of gold-digging playboys.
Mr. Joe Martin
An American businessman's family convinces him to buy a Scottish castle and disassemble it to ship it to America brick by brick, where it will be put it back together. The castle though is not the only part of the deal, with it goes the several-hundred year old ghost who haunts it.
Sheriff Rufe Jeffers
A Louisiana con man enters his steamboat into a winner-take-all race with a rival while trying to find a witness to free his nephew, about to be hanged for murder.
Col. Upton Calhoun Belcher
On an ocean liner crossing a professional gambler comes to the aid of a naive young man victimized by a jewel thief. The young man turns out to be his son he's not seen since infancy.
Uncle Henry
Thanks to a series of comic mishaps, a timid, small-town office clerk finds himself wanted by the police and labeled by the media as "Public Enemy No. 2." Comedy.
Conrad Q. Conley
Paramount Pictures decided in 1935 to create a new romantic team, thus cast singing stars Carl Brisson and Mary Ellis in the frothy operetta All the King's Horses. Brisson does the "Prisoner of Zenda" bit as a movie star who is forced by circumstances to impersonate a look-alike king. Ms. Ellis is the highborn lady who seems to be fooled by the ruse. The plots roll merrily onward while various and sundry musical-comedy character actors (including Edward Everett Horton and Eugene Pallette) fuss and fume in the background. Danish singer Carl Brisson had created a minor sensation by introducing "Cocktails for Two" in Paramount's Murder at the Vanities (34), but the studio's attempts to turn him into a Scandinavian Maurice Chevalier were unsuccessful.
Charles 'Charlie' Roark
An ambitious Mexican-American gets mixed up with his boss's neurotic wife.
Gypsy Chief
A countess marries a Gypsy fiddler instead of a baron's son at harvest time in Tokay wine country, Hungary.
Kleinsilber
One Exciting Adventure is a 1934 American comedy film directed by Ernst L. Frank. It is a remake of the 1933 German film What Women Dream.
Sgt. Ernest Heath
Wonderful idea to give a party with people who dislike each other. Late at night, everyone decides to go into the pool, except Stamm, who is drunk. Montague dives in as does Greeff and Leland, but only Greeff and Leland come out. Montague is no where to be found so Leland suspects foul play and calls the cops. Luckily, Philo is with the D.A. and comes along, but they do not find Montague. When they drain the pool the next day, they find nothing except what looks like dragon prints. Philo has his suspicions and tries to piece the clues together to find out what has happened.
Wynn Rixey
Asaph (Charles Ruggles) is a meek, mild-mannered homebody who occasionally shows some backbone to his prudish, overbearing boss, only to be beaten down again. With the encouragement of his secretary Beulah (Ann Dvorak), his old college team-mate Wynn (Eugene Pallette) and some liquor, Asaph regains some of his wild-man soul. Watch out world!
Two drunks cheat on their wives.
Sourwood
A failed poet ends up becoming a gag writer for a bombastic comedian.
Joseph 'Joe' Flood
Two telephone repairmen have many adventures and romance a pair of blondes.
Willy Bronson
A young woman is involved with a married man, although she does not know that he is married. He kills his jealous wife and implicates her in the murder. However, a playboy character who had been flirting with the woman earlier turns amateur detective and clears her.
Cliff Merriweather
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.
Sgt. Boggs
When a Broadway playboy is found dead, it's up to detective Jim Stevens to pick the murderer out of several likely candidates.
Detective Heath
Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder of a prominent and much-hated collector whose broken Chinese vase provides an important clue.
Jonesy
A pair of sailors are on shore leave - skirt chasing and raising hell. They're targeted and pursued by a gang looking for a sailor with a winning lottery ticket. Mayhem ensues.
Lobo Lonergan
In the 1920s Pat Jackson destroys a Chinese post and is discharged from the Navy. Li Po Chang hires him to run a gunboat up the river. He drops Wildeth off at a mission for safety, but when his boat returns the mission is being attacked by communists.
Janos
Sarajevo June 28, 1914. Dushan, the Serbian mayor of a Hungarian town, has come to see the parade of Archduke Ferdinand. While there he runs into Geza, an old friend in the Hungarian Army and invites him to come to his house and visit him and his new wife.
Mac Dougal - Chief Torpedo Man
On leave in Italy, Lt. Tommy Knowlton falls in love with Jean Standish, who's not only married, but is the daughter of his submarine's commander. Friction between the two officers becomes intolerable once at sea and after Commander Toler is forced to abandon Tommy's best friend topside while the sub dives to escape enemy planes, Tommy is no longer able to contain his anger.
Terwilliger
A satire about the power of publicity. Robert Montgomery plays Jeff Bidwell, a dashing Broadway press agent who has his own private club where he cultivates the rich and powerful. With the help of his selfless ex-wife (Madge Evans), Jeff molds an illiterate, suicidal young woman (Sally Eilers) into a celebrity socialite.
Sheriff Bell
Sheriff Bell inadvertently ends up as owner of a lingerie salon.
Achilles
A barker at a down-at-the-heels carnival becomes a powerhouse New York publicity man as he transforms a sideshow dancer into a Broadway sensation.
Yuba Bill
Salomy Jane, a California mountain girl, is sought after by a number of men in the nearby small town of Redwood City. She is affected when two criminals are pursued by authorities: one for killing a hypocritical mayoral candidate, the other for robbing the stagecoach.
When Russel Gleason is thought to have made a kick by Jim Thorpe, he is reinstated on the college team in time for the big game.
Jerry Minor
It begins with the Mustangs in trouble in their championship series... all the players are banged up and they're being clobbered. But a sports reporter insists that his nephew, Minor, can really play ball and will help the team win.
Hymie Shane
Opportunistic film seeking to capitalize on a scandal in New York mayor Jimmy Walker's office before his name was out of the newspapers. Tracy plays a mayor who has a penchant for the night life, sports, the theater, and an actress, Knapp. When scandal rocks his administration, Tracy has his girl friend marry Dillaway, a writer friend, so that the press will leave him alone.
Deaf Diner
Boy who thought his father a war hero finds he was really a deserter.
Bill Horner
Tallulah Bankhead's first Hollywood movie was this romantic-drama, in which she plays Susan, the unhappy wife of oil rigger Walt (Charles Bickford), who labors in a Central American oil field. The bored Susan falls in love with Walt's good friend Ken (Paul Lukas) but keeps her husband in the dark about her feelings... until he's plunged into darkness for real when he loses his eyesight. Susan finds her attentions then wandering yet another man, Davis (Ralph Forbes), and Ken urges her to return to Walt.
Detective Brubacher
Bodies start mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue. An investigator tries to determine what is going on.
Gus
A bandleader tries to romance a dancer by sending her boyfriend, a musician, out of town. However, things get complicated when he finds out that a gangster has designs on her too.
Sam Salt
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
Benjamin Thomas
A dynamic duo in silk and ermine entertain hick businessmen looking for a good time while in Manhattan.
Duke of Bilgewater
A year after their former exploits, Tom Sawyer's puppy love of Becky Thatcher keeps him home while Huck Finn, chafing under "civilizing" influences like school and shoes, plans to run away. His scapegrace, abusive father intervenes; Tom and black Jim help him escape; and (departing from the novel) all three raft down the Mississippi, where they're joined by two likable rogues and meet pretty orphans Ella and Mary Jane. The latter may change Huck's mind about girls...
Judd / Black Jed
Chester Carr, owner of a dude ranch in the Rockies, caters to guests seeking the thrill of the Wild West. Among his guests are the wealthy Spruce Meadows and his daughter Susan. But the West isn't wild anymore and most of Carr's guests are bored and about to leave. He is in despair when a caravan carrying a broke-down-and-out troupe of actors---Jennifer, Judd, Mrs. Merridew and her daughter, Alice---crashes down the hill and wrecks the hotel sign.
Stub Wallack
Following a killing and robbery in a big city back east, gang leader Kedge Darvas and some of his henchies take a train to a small western town in Idaho, with intentions of hiding out there until things cool down back in Chi or NYC, or wherever they lammed from.They are welcomed with open arms by the citizens under the impression they are there as capital investors with money to spend. Before long, Darvas figures the town is ripe for the taking and sends word for reinforcements, and each arriving train unloads a few suits and snappy-brim hats.Then they get rough, kill Sheriff Posey Meed and rile up the citizens, led by cowhand Brad Farley, who had Darvas spotted for a wrong number just by the way he made moves on Sue Vancey.
Reporter
Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.)
Cyrus Martin
To prove his thesis that any product--even one that doesn't exist--can be merchandized if it is advertised properly, a young man gets together with his father's savvy secretary to market a non-existent laundry soap. Complications ensue when his "product" turns out to be more successful than even he imagined--and now he has to deliver.
Seth Higgins
Clint Belmet (Gary Cooper) is a bit of a firebrand and is sentenced to at least 30 days in jail, but his partners, Bill Jackson (Ernest Torrence) and Jim Bridger (Tully Marshall) talk a sympathetic Frenchwoman named Felice (Lili Damita) into telling the bumbling, drunken marshal that Clint had married her the previous night. Clint is released so he can accompany Felice on the wagon train heading west to California.
Hyacinth Nitouche
Searchlight Doyle, lightweight boxing champion of the United States Navy, is shanghaied into the fleet of Sainte Cassette, an island republic, as a replacement for a wealthy slacker who must serve his country to receive a $2 million inheritance, a scheme concocted by attorney Gabriel Grabowski. All his shipmates, except Hyacinth Nitouche, assume that he is indeed the wastrel he purports to be. Doyle falls in love with Adrienne, the most beautiful of the captain's daughters, and wins her affections by treating his comrades in her teashop. Admiral O'Brien, grandfather of the man Doyle is impersonating, comes to visit, and mistaking him for a civilian, Doyle throws him overboard and to everybody's surprise is complimented on his vigilance. But his real identity is exposed by some American sailors, and he is suspected of killing young O'Brien; he is cleared of suspicion, however, and is reinstated by the admiral, thereby gaining Adrienne's love.
Pierre Bourdin
Yvonne, daughter of Philibert, a Paris cafe owner, is in love with dreamy, blundering Albert, a waiter, though he pays little attention to her. Philibert plans to marry his daughter to a wealthy Parisian, but upon learning that Albert is to come into a large inheritance, he conspires to place him under a longterm contract, confident that he willingly will pay a forfeit to break it.
Doc Brady
The Santa Fe Trail (1930)
J.C. Effingham
Lora Moore, the club champion, loses a golf match to a woman from another golf club. Then Jerry Downs, a handsome golf pro, and his goofy friend, Jack Martin, show up. Lora takes him on as her golf teacher to work on her putt. She falls for him, but so do several other women. Meanwhile Angie Howard, Lora's friend, chases after Jack. A lot of silliness ensues.
Square Deal McCarthy
The Sea God is an early sound melodrama about two men vying for Fay Wray and wealth in the South Pacific.
Deputy Sheriff 'Careful' Cuthbert
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.
Bunco Davis
Cowhand Jim Cleve is wrongly accused of murder and rescued by Jack Kells, leader of a band of Idaho outlaws known as the Border Legion. But when the Legion takes Joan Randall prisoner and leaves Cleve to guard her, he realizes that he cannot remain part of an outlaw band and decides to rescue Joan.
Sergeant Heath
This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, credits 11 directors
Sgt. Edward Heath
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.
Traffic Cop
A loud-mouthed lout alienates everyone except his patient wife.
Sylvester Corbett
Passing herself off as a countess, glamorous Lucy Stavrin hobnobs with the rich and famous along the French Riviera. Aware that Lucy is a phony, jewel-thief Malatroff blackmails Lucy into helping him steal the valuable necklace owned by the young wife of phlegmatic American businessman Sylvester Corbett.
Minister of War
The queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.
Klaus
In this comedy, a Yiddish fellow cannot keep from kibitzing into other people's lives. Trouble ensues when he is mistakenly given a huge fortune in stocks that he can spend any way he pleases. At the same time, his daughter has fallen in love with an impoverished, but good hearted boy. When the kibitzer suggests he bet all his money on a dog of a racehorse, the lad does it. Against all odds, the horse wins, and suddenly the young man is quite wealthy.
Joe Carrington
Fay Wray plays a beautiful showgirl who falls for a rich Park Avenue guy played by Phillips Holmes. William Powell is a producer in love with Miss Wray, but he won't use his influences to take any advantages.... as usual, he's a perfect gentleman.
Pointed Heels was supposed to have been a vehicle for "boop-boop-a-doop" girl Helen Kane, but by the time the film was released, Kane's role was reduced to a supporting part.
'Honey' Wiggin
A good-natured cowboy who is romancing the new schoolmarm has a crisis of conscience when he discovers his best friend is engaged in cattle rustling.
Sergeant Ernest Heath
Philo Vance investigates when a murderer preys upon members of a wealthy family on New York's Upper East Side.
Detective Lieutenant Dirk
Philandering actor Richard Hardell is murdered at a movie studio. His jealous wife Blanche, his director Rupert Borka, and a girl he mistreated, Helen MacDonald, all have substantial reasons for having wanted him dead.
Madison
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.
Sgt. Ernest Heath
A beautiful showgirl, name "the Canary" is a scheming nightclub singer. Blackmailing is her game and with that she ends up dead. But who killed "the Canary". All the suspects knew and were used by her and everyone had a motive to see her dead. The only witness to the crime has also been 'rubbed out'. Only one man, the keen, fascinating, debonair detective Philo Vance, would be able to figure out who is the killer. Written by Tony Fontana
Henri Bérgere
Frank Tuttle silent romantic comedy about a Frenchman who seduces women all over Paris, but he meets his match in a proper American tourist. He does everything he can to seduce her, but he will only find romance when he does so on her terms!
Volange
He hid from life in the ruins -he came out of the ruins to death! A man condemned to live in the shadow of a great love-never to realize it until he makes the supreme sacrifice.
Gene
Eddie is conned into fronting a speakeasy for a local gangster who intends to frame him for the murder of a cop.
The Swell Head is a 1928 silent comedy short
Aching Youth is a silent comedy short
Insurance agent (uncredited)
Fight manager takes out an insurance policy on his puny pugilist and then proceeds to try to arrange for an accident so that he can collect.
Rodney Casley
Based on a true story, two-timing boozing wife Roxie Hart kills her lover in cold blood after he leaves her, and finagles her way out being indicted. The basis for Kander/Ebb's 1975 Broadway musical of the same name and its Oscar-winning 2002 film adaptation.
Dinner Host (uncredited)
Laurel and Hardy are convicts making an escape from prison.
Charley's Brother-in-Law
For his birthday, Charley gets a cigarette lighter, but it won't light. He works on it with ill-suited tools amidst his family all giving advice. Finally, he unwisely fuels it with gasoline, which gets it lit, but soon, so is his house.
Hardy look-alike
After a night of carousing, a rich oil tycoon awakes to find that he was married the night before. He calls in his lawyer to straighten things out.
Charley's Boss
Slapstick film about two married couples.
Motorcycle Cop
Defying her father's wishes, a young woman runs off to a sale at store. She's pursued by a policeman, but wins him over with the help of a friendly millionaire. In the mean time, her father tries to retrieve a compromising letter.
Rent Collector
Papa Gimplewart, father to three children is unimpressed by the young lawyer who wants to marry his daughter.
Barney Mulholland
Detective, Intelligence Bureau
Mabel plays an out-and-out crook, a "Girl Bandit," no less. And she quickly hooks up with a male partner in crime, in this case a Gentleman Crook played by perpetually grinning Creighton Hale. Mabel seems a little livelier in this film than in some of her other late works. In the very first scene we find her hitch-hiking, and she's forced to make a mad dash for cover when Hale's car nearly hits her. Soon they team up and crash a swanky party in a mansion to steal a jewel from the host's safe.
Wellington - Charley's Brother
Many Scrappy Returns
Deputy
Seeing cattle dying of thirst, a stranger shoots a hole in Hoades water pipeline. Hoades is hoarding water trying to drive the ranchers away. Hounded by the law for stealing a pie, the stranger sees a chance to redeem himself by forcing Hoades to sell his pipeline and leave the area.
Party Guest (uncredited)
On her way to the theater, Vera, star of a Russian vaudeville troupe, is rescued from a falling girder by Eugene Foster, a wealthy broker who persists in his efforts to win the girl. Foster engages the troupe to perform at his home, and Vera, stunned by a fall, awakens to find Foster pleading his love, while Norodin, her partner who loves her, sees them embrace. Norodin, who performs an underwater stunt, asks Vera not to be present for his act and causes her to believe him dead; heartbroken, Vera tells Foster of her mistake; and enraged, he attempts to seize her. The magician appears, pins Foster to the wall with knives, and advises him to leave before the last blade is thrown.
E. Wesson Woodbury
A sexy young manicurist living with her older backwoodsman husband in a small Canadian town finds herself attracted to a young, rich and famous divorce lawyer who comes to town on vacation.
Bill Dancing
Railroad foreman Murray Sinclair is dismissed by George McCloud, division superintendent, for ransacking wrecks. Sinclair along with his henchmen, retire to his ranch and forays against the railroad. "Whispering Smith," engaged by the railroad to restore order, is hesitant in dealing with Sinclair when he falls in love with Marion, Sinclair's wife, who is separated from her husband and operates a small shop in Medicine Bend. Dicksie, McCloud's sweetheart, overhears Sinclair threaten McCloud, and she rides through a storm to warn him; Smith, with the aid of Bill Dancing, tracks down Sinclair and his men, and Bill kills the villain. Dicksie and McCloud marry and take Marion under their protection.
Side Money
Sasha Larianoff lives on Rocking Moon Island where she runs a blue fox farm with the help of Gary Tynan. Nash, a trader, has a mortgage on the farm, and Sasha is hoping to pay it off with the season's receipts. But then Sasha's fox pelts disappear, as does Gary. Nash, who is in love with Sasha himself, suggests that Gary is not the fine, upstanding man he appeared to be. This, of course, is untrue -- Gary has been trapped and tied up.
Simon Linke
Silent melodrama.
Melberne Townsman
Desperate for money, a rancher decides to trap and sell wild horses, using barbed wire. The local Navajo tribe tries to persuade him not to do it.
Stub (as Gene Pallette)
Jack Holt, Billie Dove, and Noah Beery Sr., who starred together in Wanderers of the Wasteland, appear together again. Madeline Hammond, the sister of ranchman Al Hammond, arrives from the East. Gene Stewart, a rough and rowdy cowboy, convinces Madeline to marry him while he is on a drunken spree. Madeline sets out to reform him, and he sets out to rid their little section of the West of a band of outlaws.
Richard Peeling
Impoverished "bum" gets a close shave from a menacing barber, then gets tangled up with a banana king, escaped convicts and marathon runners.
Percy
Diana Moreland, suspecting that her husband is cheating on her with Marilyn Foster, catches the two of them having a rendezvous at a roadhouse. Instead of screaming at them, she invites Marilyn back to her home. However, Diana has prepared a test to see just who it is that her husband really loves.
Pierre
Gerald Stanley (John Gilbert) is an English gentleman who is engaged to Beatrice Joyce (Alma Frances). But Stanley's personality changes whenever he drinks, and his brother (who also loves Beatrice) uses this to his advantage.
Israelite Slave (uncredited)
The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.
Peter Dane
On a steamboat heading North, where his brother has struck gold, Mike Dane falls in love with Estelle MacDonald. When he arrives at the Canadian trading post, Dane learns that his brother has been murdered and his partner sentenced to death as the killer.
Pablo
Cowboy Tod Musgrave and his pal Del Hawkins steal a ride on a train after being kicked out of a saloon. The conductor throws them off when he discovers they have no tickets, and the two men swear revenge.
Simm Bruce
Feuding ranchers and sheepherders.
Tommy Ainsworth
When the ability of Dick Leighton (William Farnum), Sheriff of Randolph, Oregon, to enforce law and order is tested by the leader of the political opposition, he stands his ground and overpowers the unruly element.
Aramis
The young Gascon D'Artagnan arrives in Paris, his heart set on joining the king's Musketeers. He is taken under the wings of three of the most respected and feared Musketeers, Porthos, Aramis, and Athos. Together they fight to save France and the honor of a lady from the machinations of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.
Bob Reynolds
Bob Reynolds, a construction engineer, is constructing a dam. Finding himself in financial trouble, he is persuaded by John Brand to use a cheaper--but far inferior--cement to replace the cement he's been using. Brand, who is determined to ruin Reynolds, then talks him into buying worthless stock. Finding himself in desperate straits, Reynolds forges a check using Brand's name. Unfortunately the finished dam breaks and many people are killed. Under suspicion by the authorities, Reynolds desperate searches for a way out of his worsening situation.
Guy Mourdant
Inventor Harry Harper (Harry Houdini) travels to the South Seas, where there is buried treasure belonging to a girl, Beverly West (Lila Lee). Naturally, others are after the loot, and Beverly's father (Fred Turner) is being held captive by cannibals until she returns to them with a pearl that belongs to one of their idols. The climax consists of Harper saving Beverly from a safe which has been lowered into the sea.
'Red' Jocelyn
The saga of Alias Jimmy Valentine began with the O. Henry story "A Retrieved Reformation". This surprise-ending tale was adapted into a stage play by Paul Armstrong, which subsequently was adapted to film several times
Sidney Dundas
Free and easy Garrett Cope loves Katherine Gresham, but his rival, Henry Miller, who is really Heinrich Mueller, a World War I German spy, gets rid of Garrett by having him arrested for the murder of Pembroke Van Tuyl. While Garrett is in prison, Katherine marries Mueller, but Sidney Dundas, knowing that the German actually committed the crime, finally confesses, and Garrett is freed. Meanwhile, Mueller takes Katherine to a remote island called No Man's Land, which he uses as a base for blowing up Allied ships.
Jim Hawley
After young Ruth Bowman's mother dies, the child is raised by Agatha Pixley, and in time, the girl falls in love with Agatha's son, Eric. While Eric is at sea with Captain Scudder on a boat owned by Jim and Hiram Hawley, a jealous villager spreads the tale that Ruth is illegitimate, and the townspeople inevitably snub her. Jim Hiram sets his boat on fire after its arrival in port so that he can collect insurance money, and Ruth, believing that Eric is on board, tries to rescue him. When Ruth and Eric escape safely, Captain Scudder reveals that he, Ruth's long-lost father, was legally married to her mother, which re-establishes Ruth's good name and enables her to marry Eric. - From IMDB
A female ape takes to mothering the orphaned boy (Tarzan) and raises him over the course of many years until a rescue mission is finally launched and the search party combs the jungle for the long-time missing Lord Greystoke. But then, one of the search members, Jane Porter, gets separated from the group and comes face to face with fearsome wild animals. Tarzan saves her from harm just in the knick of time and love begins to blossom.
Lieutenant Conroy
During the Civil War, Jeanne Beaufort becomes a secret service agent for the South....
Clyde Holt
Bob Fulton is the superintendent of a mine in the West. He wins the enmity of dancehall owner Jack King when he saves one of the girls, Rose De Braisy, from his unwanted advances. Fulton also wins Rose's love, which he does not return. The mine's owner sends his troublesome son, Roland Holt, out West to work at the mine. Before Holt leaves the East he secretly marries Beth Hoover. Upon Holt's arrival, Fulton tries to befriend him, but Holt prefers the company of bad-guy King.
Mr. Murray
Guido and his wife Antoinetta wind up with the estate of Leo Marcellini, a wealthy oil and wine merchant who has died intestate. They move into the mansion but are at a loss when it comes to dealing with servants and other trappings of the rich.
Raoul Vaux
Pierre Duval is a night watchman at a museum of art who dotes on his art student son, Jacques. One evening at the museum, Pierre finds a highly valuable painting missing, and since Jacques had just left, he believes his son stole it.
Prosper Latour (French Story)
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Rodgers
Gretchen Van Houck is just arriving in the USA, on a ship from Holland. She joins her father, who has already spent several years in America, where he owns an engraving business. In the tenement community where the Van Houcks live, there are residents of many nationalities. Gretchen soon becomes close friends with Pietro, a popular resident, and she also takes an interest in the widow Garrity and her children. Another resident, Rogers, is more mysterious. One day Rogers tells Mr. Van Houck that he could help him get a job printing money for the government. Van Houck eagerly agrees to try, but when he finds out what Rogers is really doing, he is placed in a painful dilemma.
Harry Tracey
After her father's death, little Briar Rose is taken in by the men at a lumber camp. The girl shows a definite preference for one of the lumberjacks, "Hell-to-Pay" Austin, so he becomes her new "father." Just as much as Hell-to-Pay takes care of Briar, she watches over him, and it is largely through her influence that he gives up hard drinking and needless fighting. Then, when Briar is old enough, she goes away to school and quickly falls in with the wrong crowd. Hell-to-Pay comes after her and takes her away from Doris Valentine, an adventuress who had been teaching Briar the tricks of the trade. When they are reunited, Hell-to-Pay and Briar realize that they are in love, so they decide to change their relationship from guardian and ward to husband and wife.
Jimmy Briggs
A man and his wife both have criminal pasts, but have quit crime and are now respectable citizens. One day a member of their old gang shows up and threatens to expose them if they don't help him pull a heist.
Arthur Vincent
A woman is stuck with an unfaithful husband until he is killed robbing a bank.
Alfred Evergreen
The theft of a sacred diamond band from a Hindoo shrine starts the action.
Patsy
Hazel, a cashier in a restaurant, is engaged to Patsy, a bus driver. Patsy earns some extra money by going in on preliminary bouts at the Athletic Club pugilistic exhibitions, and gains a local reputation as a boxer. When a big fighter is suddenly taken ill on the eve of a public contest, Patsy substitutes, wins the match, and suddenly finds himself in line for a bout with the champion of the world. On receipt of an offer for a long tour, he gets a swelled head and repudiates Hazel, who is forced to go back to work in the restaurant. She plans to get even with Patsy.
Union Soldier
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
Old Man Hathaway was a trapper and lived with his only daughter in the mountains. Pretty Claudine often went forth to visit the traps with him and one day, when no bound, they saw a youth kiss a maiden affectionately. Seeing a chance for an object lesson, the old trapper sagely shook his head, saying, "My child, such kisses are poison. Guard against them."
Big Ben from the Bar N Ranch called often on Margaret. As the two were inseparable, it soon became known that they would soon marry. This news greatly displeased Bill Higgins, who promptly set about to make trouble. He wrote an anonymous note and attached it to Ben's saddle, saying " She don't love you. She was with Bill Higgins all day yesterday. A Friend." When Ben found it he frowned and tucked it idly into his pocket. This happened regularly thereafter. If Ben had been a trifle older he might have smiled derisively, but he didn't. Youth and jealousy are old acquaintances and so Ben made his visits shorter and shorter. One day, lonesomeness overcame him and he sent the notes in a bundle to Margy. She read them and promptly burst into tears.
Estabon
Robert and John Gregory were left orphans. Robert, a wealthy soul, found his health failing and the doctor advised him to seek the lower levels. John, drunk most of the time, agreed to accompany him. The senor, Estabon, lived with his pretty wife and sister in the little cabin in the valley. Alone in the woods he found Robert and John, Robert prone upon the ground from exhaustion and John, quite drunk, beside him. The Spaniard took them home and in the days that followed Robert's health returned, and he grew to love the Spanish girl.
Jim Halliday
Ben Hart, the youthful mining expert, arrived at Red Rock and promptly sought out pretty Mabel Whitaker and her mother, who had inherited a map purporting to lead to a gold deposit. Ben made an appointment to look at the deposit and did so - quite unaware that Jim Halliday, with two bad pals, kept close watch of his every movement.
Jim had been away a long time. Pretty Marjie dressed herself in her very best when she heard that the boys had gone to the station to bring home the college chap. Jim arrived, climbed into a ranch outfit and felt at home once more. The boys decided to give him a party.