Cole Porter's Broadway musical Mexican Hayride was optioned by Universal in the mid-1940s, then remained in "development...
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1948
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The Warner Bros. musical My Wild Irish Rose purports to tell the life story of popular 19th century balladeer Chauncey...
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1947
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In this crime drama, two crooks dupe their friend, a professional gambler, into nipping some important government documents....
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1946
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Filmed (in 16 mm) at Big Bear Lake, CA, and directed by stuntmen Richard Talmadge and Harvey Parry, this minor comedy-drama...
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1946
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Faced with the challenge of writing a screenplay based on the life of fabulously wealthy, fabulously successful composer Cole...
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1946
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This bargain-basement sequel is unusual in that it completely contradicts the conclusions drawn by its predecessor,...
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1946
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Though legendary entertainer Al Jolson was a highly visible presence on the U.S.O. circuit during World War II, he was...
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1946
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Though on its last legs, Universal's "B"-musical unit continued grinding out tune-filled quickies like Swing Out, Sister well...
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1945
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In this comedy, a garbage truck driver stumbles across $5,000. He decides to use the money for a wild night on the town. He...
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1945
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The Man From Oklahoma is set during a 20th century renactment of the 19th century Oklahoma land rush, but if patrons wanted...
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1945
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Danny Kaye plays the first of his cinematic dual roles in Goldwyn's Wonder Man. Kaye appears as timid librarian Edwin Dingle...
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1945
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In this musical romance, an ice skater comes to America to represent her country at a Lake Placid carnival. Unfortunately,...
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1944
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Despite a few Hollywood compromises, The Hairy Ape remains one of the more artistically successful filmizations of Eugene...
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1944
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But for the presence of the Columbia "torch lady" in the opening credits, it would be easy to mistake Judy Canova's Louisiana...
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1944
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This Pine-Thomas actioner stars Robert Lowery as two-fisted forest ranger Don Bradley. Promoted to supervisor, Bradley finds...
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1944
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Within its brisk 78 minutes, Jam Session manages to accommodate the singing, dancing and acting talents of Ann Miller, a...
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Lloyd Marley
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1944
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Unusually elaborate for a PRC film, Minstrel Man is a lively musical drama built around the talents of veteran vaudevillian...
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1944
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It is said that producer Sam Goldwyn had a habit of addressing his new star of the 1940s, Danny Kaye, as "Eddie", confusing...
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1944
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Two Girls and a Sailor is another of those all-star, no-plot wartime musicals turned out by the bushel basket in the 1940s....
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1944
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At 70 minutes, the Roy Rogers musical western Idaho was packaged and promoted as a "special", rather than just another...
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1943
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In this wartime espionage drama, Nazis open up a covert operation in the US. Outwardly it is a high-class dress shop, but...
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1943
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Bob Kane's 1939 Detective Comics superhero The Batman came to the screens in serial form courtesy of Columbia Pictures and...
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1943
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Though it's not made readily apparent by the title, Passport to Suez was the 10th entry in Columbia's "Lone Wolf" series....
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1943
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Beverly Ross (nn Miller) is a would-be radio personality, but the closest she gets to being on the air is running the...
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1943
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In this musical, a San Francisco musician encounters the son of an pal. The young man has a real dilemma and asks the advice...
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1943
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More so than most wartime films, Mission to Moscow must be viewed within the context of its times. Requested by President...
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1943
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1943
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In this musical, a lovely and ambitious young woman masquerades as the daughter of a formerly beloved stage actress to help...
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1943
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1943
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This final "Tarzan" entry from the MGM assembly line is arguably one the least effective of the series, though it certainly...
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1942
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When a young woman inherits $1 million she finds herself the target of a criminals who wants her money too! ~ Rovi...
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1942
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Nurse Chapman begins to fall in love with a gangster and ends up entertaining miners until she manages to pull herself out of...
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1942
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Columbia's belated effort to cash in on the popularity of Abbott & Costello's Buck Privates was the raucous and generally...
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1942
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A nightclub singer becomes actively involved in the education of the son she has never seen. She uses almost everything she...
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1942
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In this musical comedy, a musical comedy star is finally reunited with her estranged son whom she hasn't seen in 20 years....
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1942
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In this drama, a young woman shows two dogs at the championship competition at Madison Square Garden and when the two dogs...
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1941
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Tim Holt is, of course, a true red-blooded cowboy in this overly tuneful RKO Western and only pretends to be the title...
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1941
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In this comedy, funny Langdon and Rogers end up working at a bean factory and getting into deep trouble when they...
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1941
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The first of director Frank Capra's independent productions (in partnership with Robert Riskin), Meet John Doe begins with...
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1941
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In this musical, an idealistic college graduate is bitten by the show business bug after he finds success writing and...
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1941
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Chester Morris makes his second screen appearance as crook-turned-detective Boston Blackie in this superior series entry....
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1941
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On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of commercial radio, 20th Century-Fox cooked up the pageantlike entertainment...
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1941
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1941
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Two Latins From Manhattan was Columbia's 1941 contribution to the "Good Neighbor Policy" towards South America. Joan Davis...
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1941
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Skating star Sonja Henie and the Glenn Miller Orchestra share the spotlight in Sun Valley Serenade. Henie plays a Norwegian...
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1941
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1940
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A retired fireman teams up with an insurance investigator when an old buddy is killed in an arson fire in this surprisingly...
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1940
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Boasting Tony Martin and Rita Hayworth and bandleader Andre Kostelanitz as its leading players, it's surprising that Music in...
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1940
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The Missing Daughters of the title are innocent young girls who've been led astray by seedy dance-hall operator Lucky Rogers...
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1939
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Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal)...
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1939
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In this newspaper drama, a young man's father, a prominent newspaper publisher is violently murdered by famous gangsters....
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1939
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Comedy, romance, and song hit the ice in this musical. Larry Hall (James Stewart) is a professional ice skater whose act with...
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1939
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In this comedy, a young waitress is given $1,000 from her grandfather. She desires to buy a race horse and so trustingly...
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1939
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1939
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1938
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Nancy, a jilted bride-to-be, is played by Janet Gaynor in one of her last starring films. The three loves are novelist...
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1938
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This drama offers a fascinating backstage look at the making of westerns. The story centers around a stunt double working...
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1938
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1938
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In this comedy, a dull statistician changes his life after winning a pile of money after successfully determining the number...
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1938
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American mousetrap salesmen Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy journey to Switzerland, reasoning that where there's cheese, there's...
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1938
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1938
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The Westland Case was the opening volley in Universal's "Crime Club" series. The film was based on Headed for a Hearse, a...
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1937
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Scheduled to marry a man she doesn't love (and for good reason), spoiled heiress Barbara Blanchard (Claire Trevor) runs away...
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1937
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In this musical comedy, a crooked record producer uses his mob connections to force performers to do their stuff. The trouble...
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1937
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1937
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Film collectors take note: Hal Roach's Pick a Star is not a Laurel and Hardy picture, though the popular comic duo does make...
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1937
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Small Town Boy was the 33rd release from the burgeoning "B"-picture factory of Grand National Pictures. Stuart Erwin plays...
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1937
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Operatic tenor James Melton stars as on-the-skids bandleader Tod Weaver, who finds himself in charge of an all-girl...
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1937
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1937
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Battling Hoofer is the reissue title of the 1936 James Cagney vehicle Something to Sing About. Cagney plays Terry Rooney, a...
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1936
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1936
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On New Year's Eve, aspiring actress Julia Wayne (Joan Bennett) and chronic gambler Larry Stevens (Joel McCrea), both flat...
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1936
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When a car crash ends the life of a fabulously wealthy patron of the arts, the decedent's $20,000,000 fortune is inherited by...
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1936
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Love on a Bet is a lightweight programmer from the "Get Rich Quick Wallingford" school of comedy. Gene Raymond stars as...
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1936
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In this drama an older actress plays her last role. The aging thespian is terribly depressed and ready to kill herself when...
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1935
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Based on an obscure stage comedy, the Paramount musical Two for Tonight stars Bing Crosby as would-be composer and playwright...
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1935
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In this countrified musical, a farm boy and his girl head for the big city to find fame on the radio. When he becomes popular...
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1935
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Rudy Vallee made his third feature-film starring appearance in the breezy Warner Bros. musical Sweet Music. Vallee is...
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1935
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In this children's movie, a married vaudevillian team learns that talent scouts are looking for the new Shirley Temple....
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Bill Donovan
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1935
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Obviously filmed on a tight budget, RKO Radio's Hooray for Love nevertheless has as much sheer entertainment value as any...
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1935
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1935
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The Human Side was adapted by Frank Craven and Ernest Pascal from a play by Christine Ames. Long married and the parents of...
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1934
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Based on Al Jolson's 1931 Broadway hit, Wonder Bar transposes the "Grand Hotel" formula to a lavish nightclub in Paris'...
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1934
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Loretta Young, who became known almost exclusively for playing sweet, wholesome roles, is kind of a shocker in this romantic...
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1934
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Born on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, Lady Lee (Barbara Stanwyck) rises to prominence as a professional gambler....
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1934
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As the title song says, you go to those shows to see those beautiful dames--and there's dames aplenty in this 1934...
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1934
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Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling...
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1934
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Though the names have been changed to protect the guilty, this romantic crime drama offers a relatively factual account of...
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1934
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A story by Earl Derr Biggers, of Charlie Chan fame, was the springboard for the Monogram melodrama Take the Stand. An...
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1934
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A satire on radio crooners, Twenty Million Sweethearts stars Dick Powell as a singing waiter--fake handlebar mustache and...
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1934
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Surprisingly original for an independent production, Two Heads on a Pillow is a fascinated precursor to the more celebrated...
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1934
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A man's addiction to betting on the horses severely disrupts his love life in this comedy. He, a plumber, and his fiancee, a...
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1933
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A whole slew of former silent-film favorites shows up in Mayfair's Secret Sinners. Dilettante songwriter Jack Mulhall falls...
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1933
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1933
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Columbia's The Thrill Hunter is more of straight action film than a western, though leading man Buck Jones still wears his...
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1933
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In this grim drama, a conniving young man is brought up on charges of reckless driving. To "prove" his innocence and good...
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1933
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This imitation-Lubitsch romantic comedy stars William Powell as an elegant jewel thief plying his trade in Vienna. Powell's...
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1932
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James Cagney was originally pegged to play brash Broadway columnist Jimmy Russell in this pleasant if somewhat lightweight...
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1932
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1932
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A newspaper journalist must choose between the two women he loves in this drama. On one hand, he is in love with a...
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1932
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1932
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Western Limited is another of the "Grand Hotel on wheels" films so popular in the early 1930s. Stealing a valuable diamond at...
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1932
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Upon her release from prison, Joyce Greeley (Edwina Booth) is promptly and mysteriously murdered. Fledgling crime reporter...
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1932
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1932
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1931
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William Wellman's landmark gangster movie traces the rise and fall of prohibition-era mobster Tom Powers. We are first shown...
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1931
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1931
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1931
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1931
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The Cohens and Kellys in Africa is the fourth in the seemingly endless movie series based on characters created in the 1925...
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1930
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The rise and fall of a popular entertainer provides the basis of this musical drama. Harry Raymond (played by nightclub...
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1930
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Framed represented the return of Evelyn Brent to her old home studio of FBO, which by 1930 had been rechristened RKO Radio....
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1930
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In this early talkie, a vicious crime lord (played by Lew Ayres in a rare villainous role) decides that he has had enough and...
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1930
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In this crime melodrama, a bootlegger orders the death of his rival. Meanwhile the bootlegger's wife dallies with his best...
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1930
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In this backstage musical, an aspiring actor comes to Hollywood to get his big break. Trouble ensues when he is mistaken for...
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1930
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This landmark MGM backstage musical of the early sound era about broken dreams on the Great White Way features a bevy of...
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1929
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In this 1929 comedy, two white minstrel comedians, Moran and Mack, in black-face, re-create their most beloved routines in...
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1929
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Carlee Thorpe (Buddy Rogers) and Claire Jernigan (Nancy Carol) enjoy considerable success with their vaudeville magic act....
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1929
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The first official release from RKO Productions (previous films from this company had been produced by RKO antecedent FBO...
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1929
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In this comedy, a Yiddish fellow cannot keep from kibitzing into other people's lives. Trouble ensues when he is mistakenly...
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1929
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An early independently produced "part-talkie," this Tin Pan Alley melodrama starred future director Arthur Lubin as Benjamin...
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1929
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