Billy GilbertFilmography

Paradise Alley

Synopsis: Stars in the Back Yard is an alternate title for filmmaker Hugo Haas' valedictory feature Paradise Alley. Taking a breather from his usual plot (a dirty old man victimized by a sluttish young wife), Haas casts himself as a washed-up Hollywood director. Hoping to prove that people are basically Read More

Jack and the Beanstalk

Synopsis: This live, full-color musical version of Jack and the Beanstalk was one of NBC's most ambitious productions, costing $300,000 and utilizing 17 sets, all specially constructed at the network's vast Brooklyn studios. Though set in olden times, this version has a decidedly contemporary slant, with Read More

Down Among the Sheltering Palms

Actors: William Lundigan, Jane Greer, Mitzi Gaynor, David Wayne, Gloria de Haven

Synopsis: This colorful musical comedy was obviously inspired by the success of Broadway's South Pacific. Army Captain Bill Willoby (William Lundigan) is ordered to make sure that his men do not fraternize with the girls at a South Sea island base. His mission is forgotten when he himself falls in love with Read More

Make Room for Daddy [TV Series]

Actors: Danny Thomas

Synopsis: Make Room for Daddy was the first modern family sitcom, although, to see it at any time since the 1960s, one would think that it was hopelessly dated. In fact, it was the most important 1950s sitcom after I Love Lucy -- and has a production history closely connected to that show -- and it spawned Read More

Bride of Vengeance

Actors: Paulette Goddard, John Lund, MacDonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Raymond Burr, John Sutton

Synopsis: After Ray Milland turned down the leading role in Bride of Vengeance, Paramount contractee John Lund stepped into the role of Alfonso D'Este, second husband of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. The ruthlessly ambitious Lucrezia is played by Paulette Goddard, who seems ill at ease in the role. MacDonald Carey Read More

The Kissing Bandit

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J. Carrol Naish, Mildred Natwick, Mikhail Rasumny

Synopsis: In this period musical, Ricardo (Frank Sinatra) is the son of a Mexican innkeeper who has come to California to take over a hotel owned by his family after the death of his father. Ricardo makes the startling discovery that his father was best known as a "kissing bandit," a dashing thief who Read More

Fun and Fancy Free

Actors: Edgar Bergen, Dinah Shore, Luana Patten

Synopsis: A blend of live-action and animation, Fun and Fancy Free is comprised of two distinct tales linked by additional footage featuring Jiminy Cricket. Disney had been planning to use each story for separate feature films but the involvement of the United States in WWII disrupted his plans and the Read More

Two Reelers: Comedy Classics 2

Synopsis: This collection of three comedy shorts separately stars Billy Gilbert, Leon Errol and Edgar Kennedy in Chicken Feed (1939), Twin Husbands (1946) and False Roomers (1938). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Anchors Aweigh

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly, José Iturbi, Dean Stockwell

Synopsis: This mammoth musical is at base the story of two sailors on leave in Hollywood. Brash Joseph Brady (Gene Kelly) has promised his shy pal Clarence Doolittle (Frank Sinatra) that he will introduce Clarence to all the glamorous movie starlets whom he allegedly knows so well. Actually, the only Read More

Trouble Chasers

Ever Since Venus

Actors: Ina Ray Hutton, Hugh Herbert, Ann Savage, Billy Gilbert, Glenda Farrell

Synopsis: The exciting world of the cosmetic industry provides the basis of this lively low-budget musical comedy that centers on the attempts of a young inventor to market a new kind of nonstaining lipstick at the American Beauty Association Show. When a make-up magnate learns of the revolutionary Read More

Crazy Knights

Synopsis: Three bumbling, stumbling slapstick "spiritualists" end up nearly scared to death when they must spend the night in a seemingly ghost-filled haunted mansion that also houses a gigantic gorilla. The three goofs include Shemp Howard, who later became the third "Stooge" with his more-famous brother Moe Howard Read More

Three of a Kind

Synopsis: Shemp Howard and Billy Gilbert are a pair of lovable vaudeville clowns who spend most of their free time looking after the young son (Robert "Buzzy" Henry) of their boss (Paul Phillips), a nice guy who is trying desperately to hold together his second marriage. When his wife (Helen Gilbert) walks Read More

Cooking up Trouble

Synopsis: In this crazy comedy, the threesome try to become foster fathers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Spotlight Scandals

Actors: Billy Gilbert, Frank Fay, Bonnie Baker, Billy Lenhart

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, a vaudevillian teams up with a barber and becomes a smash hit. The barber also finds himself falling in love with his talented partner. When he learns that she has a shot at becoming a famous radio singer, he decides to go solo. Eventually, the woman gets herself into a Read More

Stage Door Canteen

Actors: Cheryl Walker, William Terry, Marjorie Riordan, Lon McCallister, Margaret Early

Synopsis: This star-studded musical drama was largely financed by Theatre Guild, with all proceeds going to various wartime fundraising concerns. Most of the story takes place at the Stage Door Canteen, a Manhattan-based home away from home for soldiers, sailors and marines (the real-life Canteen on 44th Read More

Always a Bridesmaid

Actors: The Andrews Sisters, Patric Knowles, Grace McDonald, Billy Gilbert, Charles Butterworth

Synopsis: The Andrews Sisters harmonize their way through yet another 60-minute Universal musical quickie. The plot this time concerns a Lonely Hearts club which is used as a front by con artist Colonel Winchester (Charles Butterworth). Trying to promote a phony formula for synthetic rubber, Winchester gets Read More

Crazy House

Actors: Cass Daley, Basil Rathbone, Patric Knowles, Martha O'Driscoll, Leighton Noble, Thomas Gomez

Synopsis: Olsen and Johnson's followup to their zany, iconoclastic Hellzapoppin' was the more conventional Crazy House. The premise: Having nearly laid waste to Universal while filming Hellzapoppin', O & J are thrown out of the studio when they arrive with plans for a new picture. Only momentarily daunted Read More

Shantytown

Actors: Mary Lee, John Archer, Marjorie Lord, Harry Davenport, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: Though Republic's Shantytown keeps threatening to become a musical, it's essentially a romantic drama built around the thespic talents of new discovery Mary Lee. The star plays Liz Gorey, a hoydenish lass from the wrong part of town who'd rather play sandlot baseball than anything else. In the Read More

Mr. Wise Guy

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Billy Gilbert, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: In this "East Side Kids" escapade (the eighth in the series), the gang, led by Muggs McGinniss (Leo Gorcey), help a man load a barrel on a truck. Little do they know that the man is a crook; accused of trying to steal the truck, they are immediately and without due process sent to reform school. Read More

Song of the Islands

Actors: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Jack Oakie, Thomas Mitchell, Hilo Hattie, George Barbier

Synopsis: One of the shortest and sweetest of Betty Grable's Technicolor musicals, Song of the Islands casts the Leggy One as Eileen, the daughter of Hawaii-based Irish planter Dennis O'Brien (Thomas Mitchell). For many years, O'Brien has been carrying on a feud with local cattle baron Harper (George Read More

The Arabian Nights

Actors: Jon Hall, Maria Montez, Leif Erickson, Sabu, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: In a harem in a Middle Eastern palace, the guardian leads the women he protects in telling the tale of Halroun-Al-Raschid (Jon Hall), the Caliph of Bagdad, who found himself an enemy close to home in the form of his half-brother Kamar (Leif Erickson), who was ineligible for the throne because of Read More

Valley of the Sun

Actors: Lucille Ball, James Craig, Cedric Hardwicke, Dean Jagger, Peter Whitney

Synopsis: Though officially based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Buddington Kelland, RKO Radio's Valley of the Sun was obviously inspired by the blockbuster comedy western Destry Rides Again (indeed, both films were directed by George Marshall). James Craig stars as Indian scout Jonathan Read More

Sleepytime Gal

Synopsis: Judy Canova plays Bessie Cobb, a kitchen worker at a Miami hotel who happens to have a crackerjack singing voice. The bell captain, Chick Patterson, learns that band leader Danny Marlowe is looking for a new girl singer, and a contest will be held at the hotel to choose one. Chick sees this as a Read More

One Night in Lisbon

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Madeleine Carroll, Patricia Morison, Billie Burke, John Loder

Synopsis: One Night in Lisbon is one of several pre-1942 films which used the screwball-comedy form to comment upon the raging war in Europe. While transporting American warplanes to the beleagured RAF, Texas flyboy Dwight Houston (Fred MacMurray) is caught in a London air raid. Scurrying to a shelter Read More

Reaching for the Sun

Actors: Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Eddie Bracken, Albert Dekker, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: Wessel Smitter's semicomic novel FOB Detroit was the source material for Reaching for the Sun. Joel McCrea plays a North Woods clam digger who orders an outboard motor for his business. Figuring he'll save shipping money by picking the motor up himself, he heads for Detroit. Here he decides to Read More

Weekend in Havana

Actors: Alice Faye, John Payne, Carmen Miranda, Cesar Romero, Cobina Wright, Jr.

Synopsis: In this musical, the cruise that salesgirl Nan Spencer (Alice Faye) worked so hard to pay for is cut tragically short when the ship is damaged. In recompense for the failed cruise, Nan is treated to a tour of Havana, guided by a shipping company officer, Jay Williams (John Payne). Once in Havana Read More

Angels with Broken Wings

Actors: Binnie Barnes, Gilbert Roland, Mary Lee, Billy Gilbert, Jane Frazee

Synopsis: Widowed mother Charlotte Lord (Katherine Alexander) would like to marry wealthy Guy Barton (Sidney Blackmer), but Bartons' avaricious ex-wife Sybil (Binnie Barnes) insists upon contesting their recent Mexican divorce. Charlotte's daughters Jane (Jane Frazee), Leni (Leni Lynn), and Marilyn (Marilyn Hare Read More

New Wine

Actors: Ilona Massey, Alan Curtis, Binnie Barnes, Albert Basserman, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: Also released as The Great Awakening, New Wine purports to recreate an incident in the life of Austrian composer Franz Schubert. Though the real-life Schubert was chubby and homely, he is played on screen by the slim-and-handsome Alan Curtis. Unable to convince the world of his talent, Schubert is Read More

Model Wife

Actors: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Charlie Ruggles, Lee Bowman, Ruth Donnelly

Synopsis: The real-life marriage between Dick Powell and Joan Blondell was already on the rocks when they costarred in Model Wife. The story is "Working Girl Plot No. 6": Blondell's employer frowns upon married women working. She's married to Powell. The marriage must remain secret. The boss has a "thing" Read More

The Villain Still Pursued Her

Actors: Anita Louise, Alan Mowbray, Buster Keaton, Joyce Compton, Richard Cromwell

Synopsis: Like Prohibition, Franklin-Blank Productions' The Villain Still Pursued Her is best regarded as a "noble experiment". Using the hoary old stage melodrama The Drunkard: or, the Fallen Saved as its inspiration, the film is a contemptous send-up of all such Victorian mellers, its "serious" moments Read More

Pardon My Berth Marks

Actors: Buster Keaton

Synopsis: Whether in the newsroom or on board a speeding train, aspiring reporter Buster Keaton creates havoc in this funny short. To get Keaton out of his hair, the city editor (Vernon Dent) assigns him to shadow a wealthy woman (Dorothy Appleby) who is taking the train to Reno to divorce her mobster Read More

Sandy Is a Lady

Actors: Baby Sandy, Butch and Buddy, Eugene Pallette, Nan Grey, Tom Brown

Synopsis: The mystery surrounding the gender of infant film star Baby Sandy was finally solved in her penultimate vehicle, Sandy is a Lady. The plot involves the efforts of Sandy's parents Mary and Joe Phillips (Nan Grey and Tom Brown) to improve their financial status, which are alternately aided and Read More

Safari

Actors: Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Tullio Carminatti, Muriel Angelus, Lynne Overman

Synopsis: This studio-bound jungle yarn is uplifted by the spirited performances of its stars. After the death of her aviator lover, beautiful Linda Stewart (Madeleine Carroll) marries wealthy sportsman Baron de Courland (Tulio Carminati) on the rebound. When the Baron arrives in Africa for a hunting Read More

No, No Nanette

Actors: Anna Neagle, Richard Carlson, Victor Mature, Roland Young, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: No, No, Nanette was the second film version of the popular Otto Harbach-Vincent Youmans Broadway musical. Though slightly updated, the basic plot remains the same, with heroine Nanette (Anna Neagle) entering into a financial arrangement whereby she must answer "No" to every question during a Read More

Sing, Dance, Plenty Hot

Actors: Ruth Terry, Johnny Downs, Barbara Jo Allen, Billy Gilbert, Claire Carleton

Synopsis: In this musical, a con man makes a good living by promoting bogus charity shows. He gets the communities all revved up and then skips town with all their money. But then he meets three earnest people wanting to garner financial support for an orphanage. This time the con man's loyal assistant Read More

Queen of the Mob

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Blanche Yurka, J. Carrol Naish, William Henry

Synopsis: Though the title character is loosely based on that of the notorious killer/robber Ma Barker, she has been sanitized and prettified to meet the perceived conservative values of Hollywood movie audiences. Unlike Barker, who was bad to the bone, Ma Webster is simply a matriarch who would do anything Read More

Cross Country Romance

Actors: Gene Raymond, Wendy Barrie, Hedda Hopper, Billy Gilbert, G.P. Huntley

Synopsis: Eleanor Browne's novel Highway to Romance was the source for this moneyspinning RKO Radio comedy. Obviously inspired by It Happened One Night, the story is set in motion by runaway heiress Diane (Wendy Barrie), who hopes to escape from her impending marriage. Stowing away in the trailer owned by Read More

His Girl Friday

Actors: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Helen Mack, Porter Hall, Clarence Kolb, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: The second screen version of the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play The Front Page, His Girl Friday changed hard-driving newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson from a man to a woman, transforming the story into a scintillating battle of the sexes. Rosalind Russell plays Hildy, about to foresake journalism Read More

A Little Bit of Heaven

Actors: Gloria Jean, Robert Stack, Hugh Herbert, C. Aubrey Smith, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: Teenaged soprano Gloria Jean plays the Little-Miss-Fixit heroine in Universal's Little Bit of Heaven. The most precocious member of an impoverished 10th Avenue family, little Midge (Gloria Jean) makes an impulsive appearance on a "man in the street" radio interview show. Catapulted to stardom Read More

Lucky Partners

Actors: Ronald Colman, Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson, Spring Byington, Cecilia Loftus

Synopsis: Lewis Milestone directs the lightweight romantic comedy Lucky Partners, based on a story by Sacha Guitry. David Grant (Ronald Colman) is an artist in New York's Greenwich Village. After he wishes good luck to passing ingenue Jean Newton (Ginger Rogers), she is immediately offered a beautiful Read More

Tin Pan Alley

Actors: Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Jack Oakie, John Payne, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: To quell the rumors that musical stars Alice Faye and Betty Grable detested each other (actually they were fast friends, if not close buddies), 20th Century-Fox cast both ladies in their 1940 "inventory" musical Tin Pan Alley. Set in the years just prior to and during WW1, the film casts Faye and Read More

The Great Dictator

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: "This is the story of the period between two world wars--an interim during which insanity cut loose, liberty took a nose dive, and humanity was kicked around somewhat." With this pithy opening title, Charles Chaplin begins his first all-talking feature film, The Great Dictator. During World War I Read More

A Night at Earl Carroll's

Actors: Ken Murray, Rose Hobart, Blanche Stewart, Elvia Allman

Synopsis: For the purposes of this inconsequential 61-minute musical, Paramount Pictures shelled out a great deal of money to film on location at showman Earl Carroll's Hollywood cabaret, and to highlight several of the performers appearing therein on a nightly basis. Since Carroll claimed to have "The Most Read More

Seven Sinners

Actors: Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Broderick Crawford, Mischa Auer, Albert Dekker

Synopsis: Set in the South Seas, Seven Sinners stars Marlene Dietrich as a cabaret singer whose reputation as a troublemaker has gotten her kicked out of one port of call after another. Once more causing a riot, Dietrich takes refuge on the first ship out, together with her underhanded cohorts Broderick Crawford Read More

Women in War

Actors: Elsie Janis, Wendy Barrie, Patric Knowles, Mae Clarke

Synopsis: Musical comedy favorite Elsie Janis, who gained renown in WW1 as "The Sweetheart of the AEF", returned to the screen after a long absence in Republic's Women in War. The story is the old chestnut about two volunteer Red Cross nurses, Pamela (Wendy Barrie) and Gail (Mae Clarke), both in love with Read More

Chicken Feed

Actors: Billy Gilbert

The Under-Pup

Actors: Gloria Jean, Robert Cummings, Nan Grey, C. Aubrey Smith, Beulah Bondi

Synopsis: The Under-Pup served to introduce Universal's new preteen songstress--and potential Deanna Durbin replacement--Gloria Jean. Producer Joe Pasternak sagaciously based the leading character on Jean herself: A shy, self-effacing 11 year old girl, thrust into a glamorous lifestyle beyond her ken. She Read More

Million Dollar Legs

Actors: Betty Grable, John Hartley, Donald O'Connor, Jackie Coogan, Dorothea Kent

Synopsis: No relation to the 1932 W.C. Fields comedy of the same name, Million Dollar Legs is a college picture starring most of Paramount's younger contract players. The college is in financial trouble, so the students pin their hopes on a race horse--the "million dollar legs" of the title. As it turns Read More

Rio

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Victor McLaglen, Sigrid Gurie, Robert Cummings, Leo Carrillo

Synopsis: Though running a mere 75 minutes, Rio has enough plot for ten movies. Basil Rathbone and Sigrid Gurie, previously teamed in The Adventures of Marco Polo, head the cast as crooked French financier Paul Reynard and his wife Irene. Sentenced to a ten-year term in a French penal colony for bank fraud Read More

Forged Passport

Actors: Paul Kelly, June Lang, Lyle Talbot, Billy Gilbert, Cliff Nazarro

Synopsis: In this actioner, a U.S. border patrol agent stationed in Tijuana loses his job and gets into deep trouble after a friend is shot while the agent was doing an investigation. When the agent discovers that it was he, not his friend, who was targeted for the hit, he decides to get revenge upon the Read More

The Star Maker

Actors: Dorothy Babbs, Bing Crosby, Louise Campbell, Linda Ware, Ned Sparks, Laura Hope Crewes

Synopsis: The Star Maker is the story (with variations) of vaudeville enterpreneur Gus Edwards, here played by Bing Crosby. Determining that he can attain the uppermost showbiz rungs by spotlighting new, untried talents, Edwards rises to fame by hiring preteen boys and girls for his touring acts, the most Read More

Destry Rides Again

Actors: James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Winninger, Mischa Auer, Brian Donlevy

Synopsis: Tom Destry (James Stewart), son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn't believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent (Brian Donlevy). His detractors laugh even louder when Read More

Joy of Living

Actors: Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee, Jean Dixon

Synopsis: Given the talent involved, The Joy of Living should have been far better than it is. Irene Dunne plays Maggie, a popular musical-comedy star saddled with a possessive, spendthrift family. Maggie would like to leave the house once in a while and experience "real life," but her parents (Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee Read More

The Girl Downstairs

Actors: Franziska Gaal, Franchot Tone, Walter Connolly, Reginald Gardiner, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: "Discovered" for American films by Cecil B. DeMille, popular Hungarian actress Franceska Gaal made the last of her three Hollywood screen appearances in MGM's The Girl Downstairs. A Cinderella yarn, the film stars Gaal as scullery maid Katerina Linz, who is romanced by callous playboy Paul Wagner Read More

Happy Landing

Actors: Sonja Henie, Don Ameche, Jean Hersholt, Ethel Merman, Cesar Romero

Synopsis: Happy Landing was another Sonja Henie moneyspinner from the 20th Century-Fox film factory. The story gets under way when skirt-chasing bandleader Duke Sargent (Cesar Romero) pitches woo to Trudy Ericksen (Sonja Henie) while on a tour of Norway. To Duke, it's just another harmless flirtation, but Read More

Block-Heads

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: Twenty years after the Armistice, doughboy Stan Laurel continues guarding a trench in France--simply because no one told him the war was over. His rescue coincides with the first wedding anniversary of his old pal Oliver Hardy. Heading to town to pick up a gift for his wife (Minna Gombell), Ollie Read More

Breaking the Ice

Actors: Bobby Breen, Charlie Ruggles, Dolores Costello, Robert H. Barrat, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: Boy soprano Bobby Breen dons a pair of skates in the oddball musical Breaking the Ice. Escaping his super-strict Mennonite relatives, our hero gets a job singing at a Philadelphia ice-skating rink. Here he tries to earn enough money to help his beloved widowed mother (Dolores Costello) wrest Read More

Once over Lightly

Crew: Screenwriter

She's Got Everything

Actors: Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Parkyakarkus [Harry Einstein]

Synopsis: In this comedy, a woman is left destitute after her father dies. To make ends meet, she begins working as a secretary to a wealthy fellow. Soon the two fall in love and begin planning their wedding, much to the delight of the woman's creditors. When her fiancé learns that she is deeply in debt, he Read More

Mr. Doodle Kicks Off

Actors: Joe Penner, June Travis, Richard Lane, Ben Alexander

Synopsis: Another of RKO's movie vehicles for radio comic Joe Penner ("You na-a-a-asty man!"), Mr. Doodle Kicks Off stars Penner as the son of a wealthy and influential businessman. Penner's dad is disappointed at how sonny has turned out (we can't blame him), but is bound and determined to enroll Joe in Read More

My Lucky Star

Actors: Sonja Henie, Richard Greene, Joan Davis, Cesar Romero, Buddy Ebsen

Synopsis: Sonja Henie is the "lucky star" in this enjoyable 20th Century-Fox musical. Henie plays Kristina Nelson a humble department store sales clerk who is spotted while skating by George Cabot Jr. (Cesar Romero_, son of the store's owner. George is so taken by Kristina that he gets her an athletic Read More

Rosalie

Actors: Nelson Eddy, Eleanor Powell, Frank Morgan, Edna May Oliver, Ray Bolger

Synopsis: More burdened with leaden production numbers than plot, Rosalie took Sigmund Romberg and George Gershwin's 1928 Broadway hit, threw out most of the songs, including "How Long Has This Been Going On?," but retained the spindly story of the incognito Princess Rosalie of Romanza (Eleanor Powell), who Read More

Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus

Actors: Tommy Kelly, Ann Gillis, Edgar Kennedy, Benita Hume

Synopsis: Peck's Bad Boy and his gang of mischievous misfits (including Spanky McFarland) make all kinds of trouble around the circus. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Maid's Night Out

Actors: Allan Lane, Joan Fontaine, Hedda Hopper, George Irving, William Brisbane

Synopsis: Joan Fontaine was still two years away from full stardom when she appeared in the B-plus comedy Maid's Night Out. Future cowboy star Allan Lane plays Bill, a millionaire's son who, to win a bet with his father (George Irving), sets out to prove that he can succeed without his family's money. While Read More

Army Girl

Actors: Madge Evans, Preston S. Foster, James Gleason, H.B. Warner, Ruth Donnelly

Synopsis: The trials faced by the US Army when it first attempted to trade horses for tanks provides the basis of this actioner. The tale centers upon the love affair between an Army post commander's daughter and a young tank specialist who is trying to prove that the new technology is better than horses. Read More

Broadway Melody of 1938

Actors: Robert Taylor, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Binnie Barnes, Judy Garland, Buddy Ebsen

Synopsis: This third entry in MGM's "Broadway Melody" series may not have been the biggest or best, but thanks to a masterpiece of casting it is one of the most memorable of the batch. Signed by MGM in 1935, 15-year-old Judy Garland made her first feature-film appearance under the aegis of Leo the Lion Read More

When You're in Love

Actors: Grace Moore, Cary Grant, Aline MacMahon, Henry Stephenson, Thomas Mitchell

Synopsis: In this tuneful, romantic drama, an Australian opera star (Grace Moore) wants to perform in a major U.S. festival but cannot enter the country unless she is married. To this end, she hires a handsome artist (Cary Grant) temporarily marry her. At first it is all strictly business, but in time, the Read More

The Man Who Found Himself

Actors: John Beal, Joan Fontaine, Philip Huston, Jane Walsh, George Irving

Synopsis: A doctor (John Beal) who loses faith in his skills renounces his profession and hides himself in a variety of jobs. He takes a minor job at an airfield, where he meets nurse Joan Fontaine, who works on a "flying hospital". On board the aircraft, Beal finds he is the only person who can perform a Read More

One Hundred Men and a Girl

Actors: Deanna Durbin, Adolphe Menjou, Leopold Stokowski, Mischa Auer, Eugene Pallette, Alice Brady

Synopsis: The girl is teenaged singing sensation Deanna Durbin; the one hundred men are out-of-work musicians. Still in her "little miss fix-it" stage, Durbin connives to help the musicians crack the big time. The person Durbin is most concerned with is her father (Adolphe Menjou) the 100th and most Read More

China Passage

Actors: Constance Worth, Vinton Haworth, Leslie Fenton, Gordon Jones, Alec Craig

Synopsis: A couple of American soldiers of fortune are hired by the wife of a Chinese general to deliver a priceless diamond to a shopkeeper in Shanghai in this low-budget whodunit from the RKO "B"-unit. Just as the gem reaches its destination all hell breaks lose. When the dust settles, the diamond is gone Read More

On the Avenue

Actors: Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye, The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], George Barbier

Synopsis: Director Roy Del Ruth and singing star Dick Powell were raided from the Warner Bros. stables for this frothy musical comedy that features a wonderful collection of Irving Berlin songs, including "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and "Slumming on Park Avenue." Powell stars as Broadway impresario Read More

Maytime

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore, Herman Bing, Tom Brown

Synopsis: The third of MGM's profitable Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy songfests, Maytime opens in the early 20th century, with a young girl arguing with her boyfriend over her wishes to become an opera singer. The girl's neighbor, a lonely old woman whom we gradually recognize as a convincingly "aged" Read More

We're on the Jury

Actors: Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Philip Huston, Louise Latimer, Vinton Haworth

Synopsis: In this comedy drama (a remake of 1932's Ladies of the Jury), an apparently bubble-headed but mule-stubborn jurist is convinced of the defendant's innocence and refuses to change her verdict. Unlike the others, she listens to her own common sense and looks carefully at the facts and decides that Read More

Captains Courageous

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Grapewin

Synopsis: A boy learns life-changing lessons about the importance of friendship and the dignity of labor in this adventure saga based on a story by Rudyard Kipling. Young Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew) is the working definition of a spoiled brat; the only child of a wealthy widowed businessman, Harvey Read More

The Toast of New York

Actors: Edward Arnold, Cary Grant, Frances Farmer, Jack Oakie, Donald Meek

Synopsis: Allegedly based on two factual works, Bouck White's The Book of Daniel Drew and Matthew Josephson's The Robber Barons, RKO's The Toast of New York is a largely fanciful account of the career of 1870s financier "Jubilee Jim" Fisk. As played by Edward Arnold in his usual "tycoon" mode, Fisk was a Read More

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Jean Muir, Van Heflin, Virginia Weidler, Margaret Irving

Synopsis: Outcasts of Poker Flat is an adaptation of Bret Harte's western story of the same name, with elements of Harte's The Luck of Roaring Camp thrown in for good measure. Set during the California gold rush, the story traces the destinies of several divergent individuals. Preston S. Foster is gambler Read More

The Firefly

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones, Warren William, Billy Gilbert, Henry Daniell

Synopsis: In this adaptation of the operetta by Rudolf Friml, secret agent Nina Maria Azara (Jeannette MacDonald) is working undercover for the King of Spain as a singer known as the "Mosca del Fuego" or "Firefly." Her mission is to uncover Napoleon's plot to invade Spain before it is too late. This film Read More

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Synopsis: It was called "Disney's Folly." Who on earth would want to sit still for 90 minutes to watch an animated cartoon? And why pick a well-worn Grimm's Fairy Tale that every schoolkid knows? But Walt Disney seemed to thrive on projects which a lesser man might have written off as "stupid" or Read More

Sea Devils

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Preston S. Foster, Ida Lupino, Donald Woods

Synopsis: In this actioner, a tough Coast Guard officer endeavors to marry his lovely daughter to a handsome sailor. The trouble is, she is already in love with another rambunctious and contentious Coast Guardian. To stop the romance, the officer transfers the young man to his command and hopes that he will Read More

Fight for Your Lady

Actors: John Boles, Jack Oakie, Ida Lupino, Margot Grahame, Gordon Jones

Synopsis: This musical parody follows the exploits of American performers in Hungary. The story begins as a Yankee wrestling trainer becomes friends with a gringo singer who works in the same Budapest nightclub as a female ventriloquist. When the singer is dumped, the trainer offers to help him with his Read More

The Life of the Party

Actors: Joe Penner, Gene Raymond, Parkyakarkus [Harry Einstein], Harriet Hilliard, Victor Moore

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, an irresponsible young heir is betrothed to the singing daughter of a wealthy matron. Unfortunately, the willful young is not even slightly interested in her "fiance," preferring the attentions of another instead. Unfortunately, the other man has a big problem. Though he Read More

Espionage

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Madge Evans, Paul Lukas, Ketti Gallian

Synopsis: The notorious Orient Express provides the setting for this romance involving two rival reporters in pursuit of a munitions baron. The two rivals eventually fall in love, but not before they are implicated and subsequently cleared of a plot to kill the arms maker. The munitions man also falls in Read More

Live, Love and Learn

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Robert Benchley, Helen Vinson, Mickey Rooney

Synopsis: Starving artist Robert Montgomery could care less if his paintings sell, so long as he's happy. Montgomery falls in love with Rosalind Russell, an heiress who's gone "slumming" in Greenwich Village. Russell becomes Montgomery's patroness as well as his wife, urging him to make his paintings more Read More

Music for Madame

Actors: Nino Martini, Joan Fontaine, Alan Mowbray, Billy Gilbert, Alan Hale

Synopsis: The "suspense" in the RKO Radio musical comedy Music for Madame lies in whether or not golden-voiced Operatic tenor Nino Martini will be permitted to sing. En route to Hollywood, Tonio (Martini) is hoodwinked into serenading a wedding party while a gang of jewel thieves clean out the place. The Read More

Sutter's Gold

Actors: Edward Arnold, Lee Tracy, Binnie Barnes, Katherine Alexander, Addison Richards

Synopsis: Universal plunged into the clutches of its creditors with its expensive fiasco Sutter's Gold. Edward Arnold plays Swiss immigrant Johann Sutter, who seeks his fortune in the California of the 1830s. Against all odds, Sutter builds up a huge land empire, only to watch its explode when gold is Read More

Parole

Actors: Henry Hunter, Alan Dinehart, Noah Beery, Jr., Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: A lesser but still effective entry in the mid-1930s "prison" cycle, Parole catalogues the many problems facing prisoners who've served their debt to society. The story concentrates on Russ Whalen (Henry Hunter), one of several parolees trying to find work on the outside. The "ex-con" onus forces Read More

The Devil Doll

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Robert Greig, Lucy Beaumont

Synopsis: Falsely convicted Lionel Barrymore escapes from Devil's Island with fellow prisoner H.B. Walthall. A brilliant scientist, Walthall reveals to Barrymore that he has developed a process to shrink human beings. Upon Walthall's death, Barrymore makes his way back to the old scientist's lab, intending Read More

Three of a Kind

Actors: Chick Chandler, Evelyn Knapp, Richard Carle, Bradley Page

Synopsis: Three of a Kind was also released as Mistaken Identity, which pretty much says it all. Chick Chandler, Berton Churchill and Richard Carle star respectively as confidence tricksters Jerry Bassett, Con Cornelius and F. Thorndyke Penfield. Each of the crooks thinks that the other two are wealthy Read More

Mistaken Identity

Synopsis: Three confidence men set up in a luxury hotel, but wind up as their own victims when several swindles backfire. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

One Rainy Afternoon

Actors: Francis Lederer, Ida Lupino, Hugh Herbert, Roland Young, Erik Rhodes

Synopsis: A remake of the French comedy Monsieur Sans-Gene, One Rainy Afternoon gets under way when film-actor Phillippe Martin (Francis Lederer) heads to a darkened Parisian movie theater for a romantic rendezvous with his married sweetheart Yvonne (Countess Live de Margaret). But our hero sits in the Read More

The Big Game

Actors: Philip Huston, James Gleason, June Travis, Bruce Cabot, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Future best-selling novelist Irwin Shaw made his screenwriting bow with the modest RKO Radio sports drama The Big Game. The story revolves around the efforts by a group of crooked gamblers to fix the outcomes of college football games. When star quarterback Clark (Philip Huston) refuses to be Read More

Night Waitress

Actors: Margot Grahame, Gordon Jones, Vinton Haworth, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: A woman framed for a bond theft gets out of prison and takes a job at a waterfront cafe, where she witnesses a murder. She is in love with the man the victim was going to meet and is reluctant to talk. He tells her that he was going to haul a load of gold bullion for the victim, and soon they are Read More

Kelly the Second

Actors: Patsy Kelly, Pert Kelton, Charley Chase, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: Produced by Hal Roach, Kelly the Second is one of the few feature films to capture the comic spirit of Roach's wonderful two-reelers. Patsy Kelly stars as Molly Kelly, who as the result of an unexpected street brawl becomes the trainer of truck-driver-turned-prizefighter Cecil Callahan (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams Read More

Love on a Bet

Actors: Gene Raymond, Wendy Barrie, Helen Broderick, William Collier, Sr., Walter Johnson

Synopsis: Love on a Bet is a lightweight programmer from the "Get Rich Quick Wallingford" school of comedy. Gene Raymond stars as Michael, a fresh young sprout who needs $15,000 to produce a Broadway play. His rich uncle Carlton (William Collier Jr.) agrees to pony up the money, but only on the condition Read More

Dangerous Waters

Actors: Jack Holt, Robert Armstrong, Grace Bradley, Diana Gibson, Charlie Murray

Synopsis: In this melodrama the captain of a decrepit boat must get it to port but finds that racketeers are trying to prevent him from making it by sneaking their thugs on board. The henchman are told to sink the barge and the collect upon a substantial insurance policy. They blow a large hole in the hold. Read More

Grand Jury

Actors: Fred Stone, Louise Latimer, Owen Davis, Jr., Moroni Olsen, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: The Commodore (Fred Stone), an average man in an average small town, is incensed that killers and thieves are able to use legal loopholes to escape punishment. He mounts a civic crusade to bring a local gang of racketeers to justice and is aided in this endeavor by idealistic young reporter Steve Read More

Early to Bed

Actors: Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, George Barbier, Gail Patrick, Robert McWade

Synopsis: In one of the best Charlie Ruggles-Mary Boland vehicles of the 1930s, Ruggles plays a mild mannered husband prone to sleepwalking. His nocturnal prowlings cause no end of embarrassment for his wife (Mary Boland), especially since Ruggles is a more aggressive personality when asleep. Eventually Read More

Love on the Run

Actors: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Reginald Owen, Mona Barrie

Synopsis: Having turned down the opportunity to produce Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), MGM's Louis B. Mayer had second thoughts when the Capra film swept the 1935 Oscars ceremony. Mayer hastily commissioned an It Happened One Night wannabe titled Love on the Run, tailored for the talents of Joan Crawford Read More

The Bride Walks Out

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Raymond, Robert Young, Ned Sparks, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: Newlywed Carolyn Martin (Barbara Stanwyck) has been raised to expect the finer things in life, but these are things that can't be provided by her working-stiff husband Michael (Gene Raymond). Hoping to supplement the family coffers, Carolyn offers to take a job, but the chauvinistic Michael won't Read More

Pardon My Scotch

Actors: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard

Synopsis: Prohibition has recently ended, and alcoholic beverages are very much in demand in this Three Stooges short. A druggist is furious because his liquor supplier can't come through with the goods. While he is arguing over the phone, the Stooges show up -- they're carpenters who are supposed to Read More

Here Comes the Band

Actors: Ted Lewis, Virginia Bruce, Ted Healy, Nat Pendleton, Harry Stockwell

Synopsis: In this musical, a songwriter goes to court to claim the rights to his song that was stolen by an unscrupulous music publisher. He brings his girlfriend with him. Also going to court are the Jubilee singers, hillbillies, and some cowboys and Indians who demonstrate that the composer wrote his song Read More

Escapade

Actors: William Powell, Luise Rainer, Virginia Bruce, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Set in the Washington of World War I, Escapade stars William Powell as a newspaper editor eager to sign up for an overseas assignment. Instead, he's ordered to stay in Washington to decode enemy messages. This assignment has been arranged by the dizzy niece (Rosalind Russell) of the Undersecretary Read More

I Dream Too Much

Actors: Lily Pons, Henry Fonda, Eric Blore, Osgood Perkins, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: If Columbia could make an acceptable movie star out of opera-diva Grace Moore, then RKO Radio could do the same with Lily Pons. At least that was producer Pandro S. Berman's reasoning when he cast Pons in the 1935 musical romance I Dream too Much. The actress plays Annette, a rural French musical Read More

Mad Love

Actors: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive, Ted Healy, Sara Haden

Synopsis: In his first American film, Peter Lorre portrays egg-bald Dr. Gogol. A brilliant and highly respected surgeon, Gogol would give up everything he has in life for the love of Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake), star of the Parisian Horror Theatre. But Yvonne is deeply in love with her husband, concert Read More

A Night at the Opera

Actors: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Walter Woolf King, Edward Keane, Sig Rumann, Allan Jones

Synopsis: Although some purists hold out for Duck Soup (1933), many Marx Brothers fans consider A Night at the Opera the team's best film. Immediately after the credits roll, we are introduced to Groucho Marx as penny-ante promoter Otis B. Driftwood. After a sumptuous dinner with a beautiful blonde at a Read More

Millions in the Air

Actors: John Howard, Willie Howard, Robert Cummings, Inez Courtney

Synopsis: The title doesn't refer to mosquitoes but to the amount of money that could be earned in the radio business of the 1930s. Samuel S. Hinds plays a Major Bowes-type entrepreneur who sponsors a weekly radio amateur contest. Hinds' daughter Wendy Barrie has show-biz aspirations, but dad won't hear of Read More

Men in Black

Actors: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Dell Henderson, Jeanie Roberts

Synopsis: Although it was nominated for an Academy Award, the third Three Stooges comedy two-reeler for Columbia has not dated well. A spoof of MGM's Clark Gable vehicle Men in White, Men in Black was a rather shapeless romp in which Moe, Larry, and Curly played dumbbell interns at the Lost Arms Hospital. Read More

Cockeyed Cavaliers

Actors: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Thelma Todd, Dorothy Lee, Noah Beery, Sr.

Synopsis: Considered by many to be the best of the many Bert Wheeler-Robert Woolsey vehicles of the 1930s, Cockeyed Cavaliers is set in Merrie Olde England, where the comic-opera ambience is immediately established when a Walter Winchellesque town crier (Franklin Pangborn) sings the local gossip. Bert and Bob Read More

Evelyn Prentice

Actors: Myrna Loy, William Powell, Rosalind Russell, Una Merkel, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: Filmed between the original Thin Man and the first of its sequels, Evelyn Prentice re-teamed William Powell and Myrna Loy as another husband-and-wife team knee deep in a murder mystery. In this one, Powell is John Prentice, a prominent lawyer with an eye for women other than his own wife. His Read More

Tripping Through the Tropics

Actors: Billy Gilbert, Sam M. Lewis, Frank Albertson, Lois January, Gertie Green

Synopsis: This two-reeler from Columbia's recently formed shorts department features a very funny Billy Gilbert, who all but steals the show away from the overdone romantic story line of two young people who avidly dislike each other but somehow manage to wind up together by the fade out. Gilbert plays the Read More

The Merry Widow

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel, George Barbier

Synopsis: Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1934 musical comedy The Merry Widow, based on the 1905 operetta by Franz Lehar. In 1885, King Achmed (George Barbier) strives to protect the financial interests of his small, poor kingdom of Marshovia in Central Europe. When the kingdom's wealthiest widow, Sonia (Jeanette MacDonald Read More

Maids a la Mode

Synopsis: The two-reel comedy team of Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts play store clerks, who instead of delivering a couple of dresses to a customer wear them to a swanky society party. Todd, blonde and vivacious, and Pitts, dowdy and nervous, came close to emulating the success of Laurel and Hardy, though it Read More

Sons of the Desert

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Mae Busch, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Lodge members Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy take a solemn oath to attend the 80th-annual Sons of the Desert Convention (read: annual binge) in Chicago. That is, Ollie takes the oath, but Stanley balks. When asked why, Stanley answers that he's afraid his wife won't let him go. Ollie is appalled Read More

Forgotten Babies

Actors: George "Spanky" McFarland, Dickie Moore, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, John Collum

Synopsis: A partial remake of the 1924 Our Gang: Cradle Robbers, "Forgotten Babies" finds the Gang members trying to escape their babysitting chores. They manage to coerce little Spanky McFarland to mind their baby brothers and sisters while the rest of the Gang goes swimming. Unfortunately, the infants Read More

This Day and Age

Actors: Charles Bickford, Judith Allen, Richard Cromwell, Eddie Nugent, Ben Alexander

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's This Day and Age was perhaps the most Draconian entry in Hollywood's early-1930s "vigilante" film cycle. Richard Cromwell heads a group of civic-minded teenagers in a small midwestern town. When a lovable old tailor (Harry Green) is murdered by a notorious gangster (Charles Bickford Read More

What Price Taxi

Towed in a Hole

Synopsis: This is one of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's most popular two-reelers; it's particularly rich in gags, well-structured, and is a hilarious illustration of the chemistry that brought the duo its fame. It begins with Stan and Ollie as fish salesmen, and doing very well at it too. Then Stanley comes Read More

Strictly Unreliable

Synopsis: The first of three Thelma Todd-ZaSu Pitts two-reel comedies directed by former gag man George Marshall, Strictly Unreliable featured the dowdy Pitts as a stage-struck spinster who stumbles onto the wicked stage during the blonde Todd's vaudeville turn. As always, the girls benefited from a strong Read More

Their First Mistake

Synopsis: In spite of a sudden end which makes this Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy two-reeler seem incomplete, there are quite a few wonderfully funny moments. Arabella Hardy (Mae Busch) is more than fed up with her husband Ollie, who has been spending all his free time with his pal Stanley. Their domestic Read More

Skyscraper Souls

Actors: Warren William, Maureen O'Sullivan, Gregory Ratoff, Anita Page, Veree Teasdale, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: Produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Production for MGM, this well made Grand Hotel clone was based on a 1931 novel by Faith Baldwin. Warren William stars as David Dwight, a building and bank magnate who not only attempts to double-cross his backers but is two-timing both his wife Read More

Free Eats

Actors: Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Kendall McComas, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Dorothy de Borba, George "Spanky" McFarland

Synopsis: To further her husband's political career, wealthy Mrs. Clark (Lillian Elliot) throws a lavish party in her home for the poor children of the community. Among the invitees are the Our Gang kids, including Matthew "Stymie" Beard, who of late has been getting into trouble because of his tall tales. Read More

Young Ironsides

The Music Box

Actors: Charlie Hall, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy

Synopsis: This most famous of Laurel and Hardy shorts won an Oscar for "Best Comedy Short Subject." Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play characters who run a transfer company. They are hired to deliver a player piano to an address which turns out to be up a very long flight of steps The whole film involves the Read More

The Chimp

Synopsis: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have been working for a circus as two halves of an ersatz horse. When the circus closes, in lieu of pay, each employee gets a portion of the show. Stan gets the flea circus and Ollie gets Ethel the chimp. They try to check into a boarding house, but the proprietor (Billy Gilbert Read More

Spanky

Actors: George "Spanky" McFarland, Kendall McComas, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Dorothy de Borba

Synopsis: Earning instant stardom via his appearance in the 1932 "Our Gang" comedy "Free Eats," 3-year-old George "Spanky" McFarland was rewarded with his own two-reel vehicle, appropriately titled "Spanky." One suspects, however, that the film, a remake of the 1926 "Our Gang" entry "Uncle Tom's Uncle," was Read More

County Hospital

Synopsis: Stan Laurel arrives at the hospital to visit his friend Oliver Hardy. It takes him more time to locate Ollie's room than it does for him to destroy it completely. That happens when the doctor (Billy Gilbert at his most fulsome) enters to see how his patient is doing. Ollie, his broken leg Read More

Million Dollar Legs

Actors: Jack Oakie, W.C. Fields, Andy Clyde, Lyda Roberti, Susan Fleming

Synopsis: "Klopstokia: A Far-Away Country. Chief Exports: Goats and Nuts. Chief Imports: Goats and Nuts. Chief Inhabitants: Goats and Nuts." This introductory title ushers in Million Dollar Legs, one of the zaniest comedies ever to emerge from a major studio. W.C. Fields stars as the president of Read More

Pack up Your Troubles

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Donald Dillaway, Jacquie Lyn, Mary Carr

Synopsis: Drafted into the army during World War I, those muddled misfits Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy make a shambles of Training Camp before being shipped to France. When their best pal Eddie (Donald Dillaway) is killed in battle, Stan and Ollie vow to locate the grandparents of Eddie's orphaned little Read More

Sneak Easily

Synopsis: In this classic two-reel comedy produced by Hal Roach, the zany team of Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts are serving on a jury when fluttery Pitts accidentally swallows Exhibit A, a time bomb. Sneak Easily was the first of the Todd-Pitts comedies to be directed by Gus Meins, a fine comedy craftsman who Read More

Seal Skins

Synopsis: 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. Not one of the girls' better comedies, Seal Skins was directed jointly by Gilbert Pratt and Morey Read More

On the Loose

Synopsis: In this classic two-reel comedy from the Hal Roach Studio, blonde Thelma Todd and plain-Jane ZaSu Pitts are depressed because their cheapskate boyfriends (Billy Gilbert and Charlie Hall) refuse to take them anywhere other than the amusement park at Coney Island. Things brighten considerably when Read More

Red Noses

Synopsis: In this typically silly Thelma Todd-ZaSu Pitts comedy two-reeler, the girls go to a Turkish bath in order to rid themselves of a nasty cold. If nothing else, Red Noses proved a showcase for the Amazonian Blanche Payson, a popular Hal Roach Studios comedienne built like a female linebacker. Payson Read More

The Nickel Nurser

Chinatown After Dark

Actors: Rex Lease, Barbara Kent, Edmund Breese, Carmel Myers, Frank Mayo

Synopsis: Chinatown After Dark is where you'll find Madame Ying Su (Carmel Myers), a "dragon lady" type who'll stop at nothing to get her hands on a rare dagger belonging to the Royal House of Lee Fong. Unbeknownst to the authorities, the dagger contains a priceless jewel, the owner of which will be able to Read More

Shiver My Timbers

Actors: Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Dorothy de Borba, Sherwood Bailey, George Ernest

Synopsis: The Our Gang kids spend so much time listening to the tall tales spun by a salty sea captain (Billy Gilbert) that they haven't any time to attend school. Their teacher Miss Crabtree (June Marlowe) angrily trails the kids to the docks, then gives the captain a piece of their mind. Apologizing, the Read More

Dogs is Dogs

Actors: Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Dorothy de Borba, Sherwood Bailey, Dickie Jackson

Synopsis: Another expert blend of genuine sentiment, moving pathos and belly laughs, the "Our Gang" comedy "Dogs is Dogs" was orginally released on November 21, 1931. This time, Gang members Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins and Dorothy DeBorba are cast as brother and sister, left in charge of their hateful Read More

One Good Turn

Synopsis: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are victims of the depression in this tworeeler. They do have an old car, a tent and some clothes, though, so things could be worse. With Stan's help, things do get worse -- their tent goes up in flames and their laundry shrinks down to minuscule size. They are forced Read More

Catch as Catch Can

Synopsis: The second of 16 Thelma Todd-ZaSu Pitts comedy shorts for producer Hal Roach, this two-reeler proved one of the team's very best. Homesick in the big city, ZaSu falls in love with a prizefighter (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) from her home town of Joplin, MO. He feels certain that he can win his final Read More

The Pajama Party

Synopsis: In their third two-reel comedy for Hal Roach, the zany team of beautiful Thelma Todd and plain-Jane ZaSu Pitts find themselves hired as maids in a swank mansion after its owner (Elizabeth Forrester) accidentally runs them off the road. This is the comedy short where Todd, pretending to be a woman Read More

First Aid

Actors: Wheeler Oakman, Grant Withers, Marjorie Beebe, Donald Keith, William Desmond

Synopsis: A cast of silent-film veterans distinguishes the pedestrian crime drama First Aid. Grant Withers stars as a doctor who is forced to operate on a wounded gangster. As if this wasn't enough of a headache, the gangster's rivals converge upon the doc's office, hoping to find out where the patient has Read More

Noisy Neighbors

Actors: Alberta Vaughn, Theodore Roberts, Eddie Quillan

Synopsis: Only three minutes of the 74-minute Noisy Neighbors contains any dialogue; the rest of the film has hardly any noise at all. Written for the screen by F. Hugh Herbert (of Kiss and Tell and The Moon is Blue fame), the story focuses on a family of second-string vaudevillians, played by genuine Read More

Smith's Pony

Dynamite Allen

Synopsis: George Walsh starred in this action-melodrama from Fox about a blind girl, Betty Reed, who is the sole "witness" to the murder of a mine owner and whose mistaken testimony convicts Sid Allen (Brigham Royce), her own benefactor. Years later, the adult Betty (Edna Murphy) returns to the mining town Read More

Tango Tangles

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, Edgar Kennedy, Chester Conklin

Synopsis: Tango Tangles is an impromptu Keystone comedy which exploited the current "tango craze." A tango contest and exhibition prompted Mack Sennett to send a crew out to a local dance hall where some of the film was shot. Charlie Chaplin appears in a tuxedo, sans the famous Tramp makeup and costume, as Read More

Those Love Pangs

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Chester Conklin, Gene Marsh, Cecile Arnold, Vivian Edwards

Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin's 28th Keystone comedy pits him against Chester Conklin as rival for the attentions of their landlady Gene Marsh and for Chester's girlfriend Cecile Arnold. After the midday meal, each of the rivals tries to chat up the landlady, only to be prevented by the other. They decide to go Read More