Lester DorrFilmography

At Long Last Love

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, Duilio del Prete, Eileen Brennan

Synopsis: Peter Bogdanovich's attempt to direct a homage to the great musicals of the 1930s is now remembered as one of the embarrassments of the 1970s. The film's thin plot, standard for the genre, centers on the romantic entanglements and misunderstandings among six stock characters: the bored playboy (Burt Reynolds Read More

Hotel

Actors: Rod Taylor, Catherine Spaak, Karl Malden, Melvyn Douglas, Merle Oberon

Synopsis: The posh St. Gregory Hotel in New Orleans is the setting for this drama based on a popular novel by Arthur Hailey. Trent (Melvyn Douglas) is the long-time owner who realizes that the hotel is in dire financial straits. Trent calls on faithful manager Peter McDermott (Rod Taylor) to try and bring Read More

Green Acres: I Didn't Raise My Pig to Be a Soldier

Synopsis: The focus in this classic Green Acres episode is on that porcine superstar, Arnold the Pig. The complications begin piling up as Oliver (Eddie Albert) and Lisa (Eva Gabor) agree to take care of Arnold while his owners, the Ziffels, are on their second honeymoon. But the fun really gets underway Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Telltale Tap

Synopsis: Accused by Vera Wynne (Jeanne Bal) of embezzling $200,000 from the So-Cal Investment Company, executive Clyde Darrell (Linden Chiles) hires Paul Drake (William Hopper) to expose the real crook, who is also suspected of leaking secret trading informaton to the firm's rival. Paul is able to identify Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Arrogant Arsonist

Synopsis: Ex-fire chief Carey York (Tom Tully) hires Perry (Raymond Burr) to sue TV repoter Tommy Towne (Frank Aletter) for slander, after Towne claims on the air that York burned down his own warehouse for the insurance money. To avoid ponying up $1.5 million, Towne issues a "retraction"--still insisting Read More

Vice Raid

Actors: Mamie van Doren, Richard Coogan, Brad Dexter, Frank Gerstle, Barry Atwater

Synopsis: A low-budget, tawdry police yarn with the world of prostitution and gangsters thrown in, Vice Raid features Mamie Van Doren as Carol Hudson, a Motor City hooker. The bosses of the prostitution racket have Hudson go to New York City to entrap a police officer and get him thrown off the force. She Read More

Arson for Hire

Actors: Steve Brodie, Lyn Thomas, Frank Scannell, Anthony Carbone, John Merrick

Synopsis: Feeble in the action department, this drama directed by Thor Brooks fizzles before the arsonist gets his due. John (Steve Brodie) is the leader of an arson squad and he does not realize that it is one of his men who is setting the disastrous fires around town. The duplicitous and secretly criminal Read More

Marjorie Morningstar

Actors: Gene Kelly, Natalie Wood, Claire Trevor, Everett Sloane, Martin Milner

Synopsis: Marjorie Morgenstern (Natalie Wood) is an 18-year-old, middle-class, Jewish girl from New York who wants nothing more than to be an actress, despite the hopes and wishes of her parents (Everett Sloane and Claire Trevor) that she graduate from college, marry, and settle down to have a family. At Read More

Hot Rod Gang

Actors: John Ashley, Jody Fair, Gene Vincent, Steve Drexel, Henry McCann

Synopsis: In this youthful drama, a young nephew is forced to live a highly restricted lifestyle by his two spinster aunts who will only bequeath him their fortune if he behaves like a proper gentleman. His aunts would have apoplexy if they new that their "perfect gentleman" had created a hot-rod club Read More

The First Traveling Saleslady

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Barry Nelson, Carol Channing, David Brian, James Arness, Clint Eastwood

Synopsis: Ginger Rogers ended her 23-year association with RKO Radio with the indifferent musical comedy western The First Travelling Saleslady. Ginger and Broadway favorite Carol Channing (whose only starring film this was) play a pair of corset salespersons who head westward in 1897 to hawk their wares. Read More

The Girl Rush

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Fernando Lamas, Eddie Albert, Gloria de Haven, Marion Lorne

Synopsis: In this comedy sequel to Wonderful Town (a popular Broadway musical), Kim, a museum worker from Providence, Rhode Island, inherits half ownership of a Las Vegas hotel when her father dies. She and her Aunt Clara go there to learn more about it. Unfortunately, just before they arrive, the other Read More

Killers From Space

Actors: Peter Graves, James Seay, Gaylord "Steve" Pendleton, Barbara Bestar

Synopsis: The Killers from Space in this low-budget sci-fier are a group of aliens bent on conquering the earth. To this end, they overtake the mind and body of atomic scientist Peter Graves, using the poor man as a combination spy and saboteur. When Graves realizes this, he tries to warn mankind, but no Read More

Superman Flies Again

Actors: George Reeves

Three Ring Circus

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Joanne Dru, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Elsa Lanchester, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: According to some eyewitness reports, the feud between Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis was at its peak during the filming of Three Ring Circus. Other observers have noted that the boys behaved with thorough professionalism throughout the shoot. Whatever the case, the film offers a comparatively Read More

The Adventures of Superman: The Dog Who Knew Superman

Synopsis: Superman (George Reeves) rescues Corky, a sweet, playful dog, from the well into which he's fallen, and returns the dog to his owner, Joyce (Dona Drake). He later discovers that the dog has bonded with him and is seeking him out -- the problem is that Corky recognizes him in his Clark Kent guise Read More

Somebody Loves Me

Actors: Betty Hutton, Ralph Meeker, Robert Keith, Adele Jergens, Billie Bird

Synopsis: Written and directed by Irving Brecher, best known for his weekly TV series Life of Riley and The People's Choice, Somebody Loves Me is the highly fictionalized life story of vaudeville and Broadway star Blossom Seeley (Betty Hutton) and her husband-partner Benny Fields (Ralph Meeker). Read More

The Adventures of Superman: The Mind Machine

Synopsis: A congressional witness against crime boss Lou Cranek (Dan Seymour) suddenly refuses to testify--then abruptly drops dead. The reason? The unfortunate witness has fallen victim to a deadly mind-controlling machine, created for the "good of mankind" by kindly Dr. Stanton (Griff Barnett), but used Read More

The Greatest Show on Earth

Actors: Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth is a lavish tribute to circuses, featuring three intertwining plotlines concerning romance and rivalry beneath the big top. DeMille's film includes spectacular action sequences, including a show-stopping train wreck. The Greatest Show on Earth won Read More

Two Tickets to Broadway

Actors: Tony Martin, Janet Leigh, Gloria de Haven, Eddie Bracken, Ann Miller

Synopsis: Personally supervised by Howard R. Hughes, the RKO Technicolor musical Two Tickets to Broadway stars Janet Leigh as a small-town girl who hopes to make it big in the Big Apple. Moving into a Manhattan boarding house populated by such showbiz hopefuls as Ann Miller, Tony Martin, Gloria De Haven and Barbara Lawrence Read More

Flying Disc Man from Mars [Serial]

Synopsis: A virtual remake of the earlier The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) and containing an overabundance of stock footage from that serial and G-Men vs. the Black Dragon (1943), this 12 chapter science fiction serial from Republic Pictures featured former RKO contract player Walter Reed as owner of an Read More

Follow the Sun

Actors: Glenn Ford, Anne Baxter, Dennis O'Keefe, June Havoc, Larry Keating

Synopsis: Follow the Sun is the filmed biography of golf champion Ben Hogan. Glenn Ford, no mean duffer himself, stars as Hogan, here depicted as a single-purposed individual to whom golf is everything. Anne Baxter co-stars as Hogan's supportive wife Valerie, who sticks with him through thick and thin. On Read More

Ace in the Hole

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall, Frank Cady

Synopsis: Billy Winder directed and co-wrote this bitterly satiric comedy-drama which turns a jaundiced eye towards both the news media and its consumers. Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) is a talented but short-tempered reporter whose fondness for booze and unwillingness to bow to authority has cost him jobs at Read More

The Strip

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Sally Forrest, William Demarest, James Craig, Kay Brown

Synopsis: Mickey Rooney returned to his "home" studio MGM, after a three-year absence, in the location-filmed melodrama The Strip. Rooney is cast as Stanley Maxton, an aspiring drummer who has the misfortune to fall within the orbit of bookie Sunny Johnson (James Craig). Out of the goodness of his heart Read More

The Great Rupert

Actors: Jimmy Durante, Terry Moore, Tom Drake, Frank Orth, Sara Haden

Synopsis: Jimmy Durante plays the patriarch of a down-on-their-luck family of acrobats, who suddenly finds a great deal of money hidden in his house amid the depths of the Great Depression. The authorities suspect Durante of being a thief, but in fact the culprit is a benevolent little squirrel named Read More

Quicksand

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, Barbara Bates, Peter Lorre, Taylor Holmes

Synopsis: Mickey Rooney, with his kid roles and musicals behind him, went for a major change of image in this harrowing film noir. He gives what many consider to be the best performance of his career as Danny Brady, a well-meaning grease monkey whose life is destroyed in less than a week. Danny finds Read More

Covered Wagon Raid

Actors: Allan Lane, Eddy Waller, Alex Gerry, Lyn Thomas

Synopsis: Covered Wagon Raid stars Allan "Rocky" Lane as a frontier insurance investigator named...Allan "Rocky" Lane. The story concerns a gang of hijackers who've been bushwhacking and murdering wagon train passengers. Someone has been tipping the gang off as to the locations and routes of the wagon Read More

The Blonde Bandit

Actors: Dorothy Patrick, Gerald Mohr, Robert Rockwell, Larry Blake, Charles Cane

Synopsis: Dorothy Patrick is The Blonde Bandit in this Republic time-filler. The script establishes a degree of sympathy for Gloria Dell (Patrick) by depicting her as more sinned against the sinning. Involved in a holdup masterminded by bookie Joe Sapelli (Gerald Mohr), Gloria is given a chance for Read More

Where Danger Lives

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Claude Rains, Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Kemper

Synopsis: Faith Domergue, the latest of Howard Hughes' protegees, made her film debut in 1950's Where Danger Lives. Domergue plays Margo Lannington the wife of Frederick Lannington (Claude Rains), an elderly millionaire possessed of a sadistic streak. Robert Mitchum co-stars as Jeff Cameron, a poor soul who Read More

Night Riders of Montana

Actors: Allan Lane, Chubby Johnson, Roy Barcroft, Claudia Barrett

Synopsis: A state rangers rides out to find rustlers who have stolen from every ranch in the territory except a hot-headed loner, whom all the other ranchers think is the culprit. However, the ranger investigates, and finds that the blacksmith and his accomplice are guilty. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide Read More

Red, Hot and Blue

Actors: Betty Hutton, Victor Mature, William Demarest, June Havoc, Jane Nigh

Synopsis: Taken (as far as possible) from the Cole Porter musical comedy of the same name, Red, Hot and Blue stars Betty Hutton as an ambitious chorus girl. Hutton gets a job with a musical comedy bankrolled by gangsters, and is the wrong girl at the wrong place when one of the show's backers (William Talman Read More

Tell It to the Judge

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Robert Cummings, Gig Young, Marie McDonald, Harry Davenport

Synopsis: Though divorced from attorney Robert Cummings, Rosalind Russell continues hoping that she can arrange a reconciliation. This proves difficult due to Cummings' fascination with curvaceous Marie McDonald. Contriving to arouse Cumming's jealousy, Russell pretends to be married to feckless Gig Young. Read More

Without Honor

Actors: Laraine Day, Dane Clark, Franchot Tone, Agnes Moorehead, Bruce Bennett

Synopsis: Also known as Twilight, Without Honor is a tour de force for leading-lady Laraine Day. During a quarrel with her lover Dennis Williams (Franchot Tone), Mrs. Jane Bandle (Day) attacks him with an ice pick. Believing she has killed Williams, she hurriedly hides the body in her laundry room when her Read More

Roseanna McCoy

Actors: Farley Granger, Joan Evans, Charles Bickford, Raymond Massey, Richard Basehart

Synopsis: The saga of the Hatfield-and-McCoy feud is romanticized in Samuel Goldwyn's Roseanna McCoy. Newcomer Joan Evans stars as the title character, whose elopement with Johnse Hatfield (Farley Granger) serves to further fuel the flames of the deadly mountain feud. The opposing patriarches, Devil Anse Read More

On the Town

Actors: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin

Synopsis: Three sailors on a 24-hour pass -- Gabey (Gene Kelly), Chip (Frank Sinatra), and Ozzie (Jules Munshin) -- decide to soak up the sights and sounds of New York. Each one finds romance within those 24 hours: Gabey with aspiring dancer Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen), Chip with lady cabbie Hildy Esterhazy (Betty Garrett Read More

Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Gail Russell, John Lund, Virginia Bruce, William Demarest, Richard Webb

Synopsis: A man who dreams of seeing the future discovers the horrible burden that it can carry in this film noir suspense story. Suicidal Jean Courtland (Gail Russell) is prevented from killing herself by her fiancée Elliot Carson (John Lund). When they consult psychic John Triton (Edward G. Robinson Read More

Joan of Arc

Actors: Ingrid Bergman, Selena Royle, José Ferrer, Ward Bond, Robert H. Barrat, Francis L. Sullivan, Jimmy Lydon, Rand Brooks, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Director Victor Fleming's final film features Ingrid Bergman as a vivid and luminous Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who led the French in battle against the invading English, becoming a national hero. When she was captured, tortured, and ultimately executed by the English, she Read More

Silver River

Actors: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Thomas Mitchell, Bruce Bennett, Tom D'Andrea

Synopsis: Love leads a man to his most evil deeds and forces him to change his ways in this Western. After being handed a dishonorable discharge during the Civil War, Mike McComb (Errol Flynn) becomes a professional gambler and follows a path of ruthless action to get what he wants. After moving out West Read More

The Big Clock

Actors: Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, George Macready, Elsa Lanchester, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: John Farrow's movie adaptation of Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock, based on a screenplay by Jonathan Latimer (and produced by future James Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum), is a near-perfect match for the book, telling in generally superb visual style a tale set against the backdrop of upscale Read More

The Circle

Actors: David Alexander, Sam Bernard, Peter Brocco, Rudolph Cameron, Robert Cherry

Synopsis: The positive public response to such productions as Crossfire and Gentleman's Agreement led to a mini-cycle of postwar anti-prejudice films. One of these was The Vicious Circle, based on a true incident which had previously been dramatized in G. W. Pabst's The Trial. In the late-19th century, an Read More

The Countess of Monte Cristo

Actors: Sonja Henie, Olga San Juan, Arthur Treacher, Hugh French

Synopsis: This musical tells the tales of two movie extras who abscond to an expensive resort with their costumes and pretend to be aristocrats. Included in the film are ice skating numbers and songs. Songs include: "The Friendly Polka," "Count Your Blessings," and "Who Believes in Santa Claus." ~ Sandra Read More

On an Island with You

Actors: Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse

Synopsis: The title of this MGM musical alone should tip you to the fact that Esther Williams is the star. In this one, she plays a movie star (what an innovation!), Rosalind Reynolds, who is on location in Hawaii to shoot a picture. Peter Lawford plays the film's naval technical advisor, Lt. Lawrence Y. Read More

Blaze of Noon

Actors: Anne Baxter, William Holden, Sonny Tufts, William Bendix, Sterling Hayden

Synopsis: In this aerial melodrama, four brothers working as stunt pilots for a flying circus leave their jobs to become mail pilots. Because their job requires that they constantly travel, they are advised to not settle down with wives and kids. Still, one pilot falls in love and marries. Unfortunately Read More

Robin Hood of Texas

Actors: Stanley Andrews, Gene Autry, Michael Branden, Al Bridge, Paul Bryar

Synopsis: A dude ranch, unemployed cowhands, modern-day bank robbers, and music are the main ingredients in this, Gene Autry's swan song for Republic Pictures, lovingly restored by UCLA and Gene Autry Entertainment in 2001. Swindled out of their savings, Gene and the Cass County Boys mistakenly get mixed up Read More

Pursued

Actors: Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum, Judith Anderson, Dean Jagger, Harry Carey, Jr., Alan Hale

Synopsis: Chased by a posse to a remote cabin, Jeb (Robert Mitchum) is joined by his fearful wife Thorley (Teresa Wright), awaiting the arrival of the men tracking them, as they try to reason out what has gone wrong in their lives. Jeb can't remember anything about his early childhood except for a horrible Read More

Cass Timberlane

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner, Zachary Scott, Tom Drake, Mary Astor

Synopsis: A visibly uneasy Spencer Tracy plays the title role in this lavish MGM screen version of Sinclair Lewis' 1945 magazine serial. A small-town bachelor judge, Cass Timberlane, takes a personal interest in beautiful stenographer Jinny Marshland (Lana Turner), who appears one day as a witness in his Read More

The Shadow Returns

Actors: Kane Richmond, Tom Dugan, Joseph Crehan, Pierre Watkin

Synopsis: The Shadow Returns was the first of three above-average Monogram features based on the popular radio melodrama The Shadow. Kane Richmond stars as wealthy man-about-town Lamont Cranston, who years ago in the Orient had learned the hypnotic power to "cloud men's minds," thereby transforming himself Read More

Bowery Bombshell

Actors: Vince Barnett, Billy Benedict, James Burke, Wee Willie Davis, Lester Dorr

Synopsis: Although Bowery Bombshell was the third entry in Monogram's "Bowery Boys" series, it was released second in several regions. The trouble begins when Sach (Huntz Hall) is photographed leaving a bank at the same time as a group of bank robbers. The police think that Sach was involved with the Read More

Deadline for Murder

Actors: Joan Blair, Larry Blake, Renee Carson, André Charlot, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: In this crime drama, two crooks dupe their friend, a professional gambler, into nipping some important government documents. The crooks then hope to sell the documents to a foreign country. The gambler gets the papers, but then realizes that he has been tricked. He enlists the aid of a detective Read More

Notorious

Actors: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin

Synopsis: Though Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious was produced by David O. Selznick's Vanguard Films, Selznick himself had little to do with the production, which undoubtedly pleased the highly independent Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, who goes to hell in a handbasket after her father, an Read More

The Kid from Brooklyn

Actors: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Steve Cochran, Eve Arden

Synopsis: Danny Kaye's The Kid From Brooklyn is a virtual scene-for-scene remake of Harold Lloyd's The Milky Way (1936), with music and Technicolor added to the proceedings. Kaye is cast as timid milkman Burleigh Sullivan, who through a fluke knocks out prizefighting champion Speed McFarlane (Steve Read More

Nob Hill

Actors: George Raft, Joan Bennett, Vivian Blaine, Peggy Ann Garner

Synopsis: The bland performance of star George Raft is the only drawback of this splashy 20th Century-Fox musical. Set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, the film casts Raft as Barbary Coast saloonkeeper Tony Angel, who endears himself to patrons and pedestrians alike by tossing out silver dollars at the Read More

Duffy's Tavern

Actors: Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette Goddard, Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour

Synopsis: Several of Paramount Pictures brightest stars make cameo appearances in this comedy set in "Duffy's Tavern," a favorite watering hole from old time radio shows. The trouble begins when the neighborhood bar is in danger of closing. The trouble begins when the proprietor, Archie, discovers that one Read More

Enemy of Women

Actors: Claudia Drake, Paul Andor, Donald Woods, H.B. Warner, Sigrid Gurie

Synopsis: Though the filmmakers claimed they were writing a biography of Nazi minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, this film is actually highly fictionalized and filled with patriotic propaganda. The story attempts to explain Goebbels' madness, blaming it on a love affair gone awry when he was a young aspiring Read More

Four Jills in a Jeep

Actors: Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, Mitzi Mayfair

Synopsis: Four Jills in a Jeep is the (mostly) true story of a four-girl USO team, entertaining American troops overseas. Kay Francis, Martha Raye, Carole Landis and Mitzi Mayfair play "themselves," recreating their recent whirlwind tour of Europe and North Africa. This wisp of a plot takes a back seat to Read More

Shadow of Suspicion

Actors: Marjorie Weaver, Peter Cookson, Tim Ryan, Pierre Watkin, Anthony Warde

Synopsis: Judging by such films as Shadows of Suspicion, it's too bad that leading man Peter Cookson eventually elected to leave the movies in favor of the Broadway stage. Cookson is cast as Jimmy, an enterprising private detective who hits upon a most unusual method of solving a jewel robbery. With the Read More

The Jade Mask

Actors: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Edwin Luke, Janet Warren, Edith Evanson

Synopsis: An engagingly silly Charlie Chan whodunit from Poverty Row company Monogram, The Jade Mask mixed science fiction with Old House melodramatics and a generous dose of comedy. The venerable Chinese detective (Sidney Toler) is this time assigned by the government to establish the whereabouts of Harper Read More

The Lady in the Dark

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Jon Hall, Warner Baxter, Barry Sullivan

Synopsis: Freely adapted from a successful Broadway musical by Moss Hart, this story stars Ginger Rogers as Liza Elliott, the editor of a popular fashion magazine. Despite her beauty, wealth, and success in business, Liza is unhappy and out of sorts. And while three men are vying for her affections Read More

Destroyer

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Glenn Ford, Marguerite Chapman, Edgar Buchanan, Leo Gorcey

Synopsis: Edward G. Robinson portrays a hard-driving, hard-nosed perfectionist who causes dissension aboard the WWII destroyer he helped build before re-enlisting in the Navy. Coming aboard as a senior crewman and trying to emulate the perfection of his hero John Paul Jones, he drives himself as hard as he Read More

Hitler's Madman

Actors: Patricia Morison, John Carradine, Alan Curtis, Howard Freeman, Ralph Morgan

Synopsis: Hitler's Madman is based on an all-too-real wartime atrocity. John Carradine portrays Heydrich, the vicious SS officer put in charge of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Heydrich is killed by the Czech underground, prompting the Nazis to plan a horrible retaliation. The Gestapo selects the Czech Read More

Batman [Serial]

Actors: Michael Vallon, Lewis Wilson, John Maxwell, Douglas Croft, Karl Hackett, J. Carrol Naish, Ted Oliver, George Cheseboro

Synopsis: Bob Kane's 1939 Detective Comics superhero The Batman came to the screens in serial form courtesy of Columbia Pictures and producer Rudolph C. Flothow. In time-honored serial fashion, Flothow chose Lewis Wilson for the title role, a relative newcomer, but one with an amazing facial resemblance to Read More

The Masked Marvel [Serial]

Synopsis: In this flag-waving adventure, the Masked Marvel helps keep the world safe for capitalism by taking on the evil Japanese agent Sakima who is trying to take over the World-Wide Insurance Company. The film was originally a 12-part serial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Lady in a Jam

Actors: Irene Dunne, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Irene Dunne plays a flibbetygibbet socialite who inherits a farm in Arizona. She can't seem to manage either her money or her private life, thus seeks advice from outside sources. Irene falls in love with fledgling Manhattan psychiatrist Patric Knowles, and marries him in the hope that he'll solve Read More

The Spirit of Stanford

Actors: Frankie Albert, Marguerite Chapman, Matt Willis, Shirley Patterson, Kay Harris

Synopsis: Like Harmon of Michigan and Smith of Minnesota, Columbia's Spirit of Stanford is built around the talents of a real-life college football star, in this instance all-American quarterback Frankie Albert. The story is cut from a familiar cloth, with Albert's arrogance getting him into all sorts of 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

Sabotage Squad

Actors: Bruce Bennett, Kay Harris, Edward Norris, Sidney Blackmer, Don Beddoe

Synopsis: Released in late August of 1942, Sabotage Squad was the last of Columbia's B-budget wartime melodramas of the 1941-42 season. Edward Norris stars as Eddie Miller, a brash Broadway bookie who stumbles upon a nest of Nazi saboteurs. Technically not the hero-Bruce Bennett and Kay Harris are Read More

Meet the Mob

Actors: ZaSu Pitts, Roger Pryor, Warren Hymer, Gwen Kenyon, Douglas Fowley

Synopsis: Monogram's So's Your Aunt Emma owes whatever success it enjoys to its star, the incomparable ZaSu Pitts. The fluttery ZaSu plays a countrified maiden aunt who comes to the big city when her nephew Roger Pryor gets into trouble with the Law. Seems that Pryor is inextricably involved with gangsters Read More

The Mystery of Marie Roget

Actors: Patric Knowles, Maria Montez, Maria Ouspenskaya, John Litel, Edward Norris

Synopsis: The Mystery of Marie Roget is more faithful to its Edgar Allan Poe original than most Universal films of its ilk, even though the Poe story and the film aren't exactly twins. Based on the factual unsolved 1842 murder of one Mary Rogers, the film stars Maria Montez as the unfortunate heroine, a Read More

Gentleman Jim

Actors: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, John Loder

Synopsis: Maybe Errol Flynn was never the war hero that he often played, but he was a capable boxer, and Gentleman Jim makes full use of this skill. Flynn stars as Jim Corbett, the 19th-century American pugilist who introduced "scientific" methods to bare-knuckle boxing. Originally an office clerk, Corbett Read More

The Secret Code [Serial]

Synopsis: Tough-guy actor (on-screen and off) Paul Kelly starred in this typical war-time serial about a police officer going undercover in order to smash a spy ring. The ring is led by fifth columnist Thyssen (Robert O. Davis), who has knowledge that the Americans are developing a secret formula for Read More

You'll Never Get Rich

Actors: Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley, John Hubbard, Osa Massen

Synopsis: You'll Never Get Rich was the first of two films made by Fred Astaire at Columbia, and also the first in which he was paired with his favorite female dancing partner--not Ginger Rogers or Cyd Charisse, but Rita Hayworth. Fred and Rita play a team of Broadway dancers whose partnership is abruptly Read More

Three Girls About Town

Actors: Joan Blondell, Binnie Barnes, Janet Blair, John Howard, Robert Benchley

Synopsis: Faith, Hope and Charity motivate the wacky storyline of Columbia's Three Girls About Town--or to be more exact, gorgeous sisters Faith, Hope and Charity Banner, played respectively by Binnie Barnes, Joan Blondell and Janet Blair. Faith and Hope are gainfully employed as New York hotel hostesses Read More

Whistling in the Dark

Actors: Red Skelton, Conrad Veidt, Ann Rutherford, Virginia Grey, Rags Ragland

Synopsis: Though based on a stage play by Laurence Gross and Edward Childs Carpenter (previously filmed as an Ernest Truex vehicle in 1933), MGM's Whistling in the Dark was clearly inspired by the success of Paramount's Bob Hope comedy-mystery The Ghost Breakers. In his first film starring role, Red Skelton Read More

Panama Menace

Actors: Roger Pryor, Virginia Vale, Lionel Royce, Lucien Prival, Duncan Renaldo

Synopsis: Panama Menace is the reissue title of PRC's South of Panama. Secret agent Roger Pryor is dispatched below the border to protect an important scientific formula. Believe it or don't, this mixture has the ability to render things invisible. Enemy agents, Lionel Royce and Lucien Prival want to get Read More

Sunset Murder Case

Actors: Sally Rand, Reed Hadley, Dennis Moore, Paul Sutton

Synopsis: Celebrity fan-dancer Sally Rand, the undraped sensation of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, was the star of the 1938 Grand National production The Sunset Murder Case. Borrowing a page from the Bob Steele westerns, La Rand is cast as a nightclub dancer who hopes to avenge her father's murderer. She Read More

Unfinished Business

Actors: Irene Dunne, Robert Montgomery, Preston S. Foster, Eugene Pallette, Dick Foran

Synopsis: The Hollywood "establishment" had been waiting a long time for maverick director Gregory La Cava to fall from grace, and when his Unfinished Business failed to live up to its expectations, La Cava's enemies swooped down like vultures. Seen today, the film is hardly one of the director's best Read More

I Wanted Wings

Actors: Ray Milland, William Holden, Wayne Morris, Brian Donlevy, Constance Moore

Synopsis: Three disparate young men struggle to become Army Air Corps pilots in this rousing drama that earned an Oscar for its excellent aerial special effects. The film is also noted for making Veronica Lake, who previously appeared in films under the name Constance Keane, a star. For added realism, the Read More

You Belong to Me

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Edgar Buchanan, Roger Clark, Ruth Donnelly

Synopsis: A daffy romantic comedy released in Great Britain under the title Good Morning Doctor, this film reunites the two stars of The Lady Eve. Henry Fonda plays Peter Kirk, a wealthy but bored playboy who has a skiing accident while admiring a beautiful woman. The woman turns out to be a doctor, Helen Read More

The Reluctant Dragon

Actors: Robert Benchley, Frances Gifford, Buddy Pepper, Nana Bryant, Claud Allister, Barnett Parker

Synopsis: The very first Disney feature to include live-action footage, this behind-the-scenes documentary about the studio's animation process includes the cartoon short of the title, which in later years was often exhibited separately from this film. Robert Benchley stars as himself, a visitor to the Read More

Unholy Partners

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Edward Arnold, Laraine Day, Marsha Hunt, William Orr

Synopsis: If Edward G. Robinson thought he'd get away from tough-guy roles by moving from Warners to MGM, he was sorely mistaken. Robinson plays the editor of a 1920s tabloid newspaper, compelled to accept financial aid from a gangster (Edward Arnold). Defying his "unholy partner," Robinson adopts an Read More

Two Latins from Manhattan

Actors: Joan Davis, Jinx Falkenburg, Joan Woodbury, Fortunio Bonanova, Don Beddoe

Synopsis: Two Latins From Manhattan was Columbia's 1941 contribution to the "Good Neighbor Policy" towards South America. Joan Davis heads the cast as pushy nightclub press agent Joan Daley, while Jinx Falkenberg and Joan Woodbury are costarred as Joan's roommates, aspiring showgirls Jinx Terry and Lois Read More

Sailor's Lady

Actors: Nancy Kelly, Jon Hall, Joan Davis, Dana Andrews, Mary Nash

Synopsis: The sailor in this entertaining 20th Century-Fox programmer is Danny Malone (Jon Hall), while the lady is Sally Gilroy (Claire Trevor). Danny's impending marriage to Sally is put on the back burner when she is put in charge of an orphaned baby (Bruce Hampton, playing a girl!) During naval Read More

Danger Ahead

Actors: James Newill, Dorothea Kent, Guy Usher, Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Maude Allen

Synopsis: Renfrew of the Royal Mounted rides again in the Criterion/Monogram "northern" Danger Ahead. There's not a whole lot of plot to speak of, as Renfrew (James Newill) gets involved with a crooked banker (John Dilson) and his raffish henchman (Dick Rich). One of the film's plusses is the presence of Read More

Mexican Spitfire Out West

Actors: Lupe Velez, Donald Woods, Elizabeth Risdon, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: In this third of RKO's "Mexican Spitfire" series, star Lupe Velez doesn't get any further west than Reno, Nevada. Lupe feels that her straightlaced husband (Donald Woods) is neglecting her, and thus seeks a divorce. Reliable old Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) shows up to straighten things out, which Read More

The Return of Frank James

Actors: Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney, Jackie Cooper, John Carradine, Henry Hull

Synopsis: This Technicolor sequel to 1939's Jesse James does without the services of the earlier film's star Tyrone Power, who after all was shot dead by that "dirty little coward" Bob Ford (John Carradine). Repeating his portrayal of western outlaw Frank James, Henry Fonda is promoted to top billing here. Read More

Two Girls on Broadway

Actors: Lana Turner, Joan Blondell, George Murphy, Kent Taylor, Richard Lane

Synopsis: Two Girls on Broadway is an updated reworking of MGM's Oscar-winning 1929 musical Broadway Melody. Joan Blondell and Lana Turner play a vaudeville "sister" act, slightly more talented than the similar duo in Broadway Melody. The twosome have sworn never to break up, but that was before hoofer George Murphy 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

Homicide Bureau

Actors: Bruce Cabot, Rita Hayworth, Marc Lawrence, Richard Fiske, Moroni Olsen

Synopsis: On the verge of superstardom, Rita Hayworth played in scores of minor dramas like Homicide Bureau, an entertaining little crime story released a scant three months before her big breakthrough, Howard Hawk's Only Angels Have Wings. She plays J.G. Bliss, a girl scientist assigned to help the city's Read More

Duel Personalities

Actors: George "Spanky" McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, Eugene "Porky" Lee, Darla Hood

Synopsis: Upset that his youthful sweetheart Darla Hood has once again thrown him over in favor of neighborhood bully Tommy "Butch" Bond, Our Gang member Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer tries to forget his troubles by watching a sidewalk performance by famed hypnotist Professor William Delmore (John Davidson). Read More

Society Lawyer

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Virginia Bruce, Leo Carrillo, Eduardo Ciannelli, Lee Bowman

Synopsis: This remake of Penthouse (33) stars Walter Pidgeon as a smooth attorney with a few embarrassing friends. One of these is a gangster (Leo Carrillo) whom Pidgeon has successfully defended. When Pidgeon must go after his "pal" for murder, he is forced to go into hiding. He is also compelled to set up Read More

Stronger Than Desire

Synopsis: Stronger Than Desire is a streamlined remake of 1934's Evelyn Prentice. Instead of the earlier film's William Powell and Myrna Loy, we are offered Walter Pidgeon and Virginia Bruce in the roles of a dynamic attorney and his wife. Little has changed storywise from Evelyn Prentice: Bruce kills (or Read More

Ride 'em Cowgirl

Actors: Dorothy Page, Milton Frome, Frank Ellis, Harrington Reynolds

Synopsis: In what must have seemed like a good idea at the time, Grand National pictures attempted to build a series of westerns around a singing cowgirl, played by Dorothy Page. In Ride 'Em Cowgirl, Page acquits herself nicely as Helen Rickson, who tries to combat the villains all by her lonesome. Though Read More

The Spy Ring

Actors: William Hall, Jane Wyman, Esther Ralston, Leon Ames, Ben Alexander

Synopsis: Spy Ring (aka International Spy) was designed as a trial balloon for new Universal contractee William Hall. He is cast as Captain Todd Hayden, star player of an army-camp polo team. What Hayden doesn't know is that some of his polo cronies are enemy spies, anxious to steal the plans for a Read More

The Main Event

Actors: Robert Paige, Arthur Loft, John Gallaudet, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: Choreographer Danny Dare was the directorial guiding hand behind the Columbia B The Main Event. Robert Paige stars as a dilettante detective investigating the kidnapping of boxer Gene Morgan. The abduction was carried off all too easily, and its proximity to the obligatory Big Fight is all too Read More

Three Loves Has Nancy

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Robert Montgomery, Franchot Tone, Guy Kibbee, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: Nancy, a jilted bride-to-be, is played by Janet Gaynor in one of her last starring films. The three loves are novelist Robert Montgomery, publisher Franchot Tone, and gormless nebbish Grady Sutton (Sonny TUFTS??). In New York to find her runaway groom Sutton, Janet runs across Montgomery and Tone. Read More

Penitentiary

Actors: Walter Connolly, John Howard, Jean Parker, Robert H. Barrat, Marc Lawrence

Synopsis: Penitentiary was the first of two remakes of Howard Hawks' 1931 prison flick The Criminal Code (the second remake was 1950's Convicted). Sent to prison on a manslaughter charge, young William Jordan (John Howard) is befriended by the man who sent him up, Judge Mathews (Walter Connolly). The judge Read More

Test Pilot

Actors: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Test Pilot is one of those irresistible MGM potboilers of the 1930s that coast along on sheer star power. Clark Gable plays a courageous test pilot, who compromises his achievements with his frequent bouts of drinking. Gable's mechanic, Spencer Tracy, does what he can to keep his boss out of Read More

Swiss Miss

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Della Lind, Walter Woolf King, Eric Blore

Synopsis: American mousetrap salesmen Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy journey to Switzerland, reasoning that where there's cheese, there's mice. When they innocently try to pay their dinner bill with phony money, Stan and Ollie are put to work in the kitchen of the Alpen Hotel. Their enforced stay coincides Read More

In Early Arizona

Actors: Dorothy Gulliver, Harry Woods, Jack Ingram, Franklin Farnum

Synopsis: In Early Arizona was western star Bill Elliot's first effort for Columbia Pictures. Not yet "Wild Bill" Elliot (as he would later be billed), the actor is cast as Whit Gordon, who rides into Tombstone Arizona to help keep the peace. Elliot is appointed sheriff, making him the particular target of Read More

You Can't Take It with You

Actors: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington

Synopsis: Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. This is the story of the zany Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore Read More

Juvenile Court

Actors: Paul Kelly, Rita Hayworth, Frankie Darro, Hally Chester, Don Latorre

Synopsis: Rising star Rita Hayworth puts in a little box-office duty in the Columbia "B" Juvenile Court. The star of the proceedings is Paul Kelly as crusading public defender Gary Franklin, who hopes to establish a Police Athletic League to give street kids a new chance in life. His toughest charge is Read More

Sweethearts

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Florence Rice

Synopsis: Contrary to popular belief, the Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald Technicolor confection Sweethearts is not based on the 1913 Victor Herbert operetta of the same name (though most of Herbert's songs remain intact), but a Dorothy Parker-Alan Campbell brainstorm about a popular Broadway singing duo Read More

I Am the Law

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Barbara O'Neil, Wendy Barrie, Otto Kruger

Synopsis: I Am the Law is arguably the best of the late-1930s films inspired by the racket-busting career of New York district attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Edward G. Robinson switches to the right side of the law as the Dewey counterpart, here named John Lindsay (!) A feisty, no-nonsense law professor, Lindsay Read More

Comet over Broadway

Actors: Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, John Litel, Donald Crisp, Minna Gombell

Synopsis: Despite the presence of Busby Berkeley in the director's chair, Comet Over Broadway contains nary a single musical number. Instead, the film concentrates on the lachrymose private life of stage star Eve Appleton (Kay Francis). While appearing in amateur theatricals, Eve indirectly causes the death Read More

Hollywood Roundup

Actors: Buck Jones, Helen Twelvetrees, Grant Withers, Shemp Howard, Dick Jones

Synopsis: This drama offers a fascinating backstage look at the making of westerns. The story centers around a stunt double working for an egotistical, emotionally fragile cowboy star. When the stunt man sets his romantic sights on the leading lady, the leading man gets huffy and unsuccessfully attempts to Read More

Criminals of the Air

Actors: Rosalind Keith, Charles Quigley, Rita Hayworth, John Gallaudet, Marc Lawrence

Synopsis: Columbia's Criminals of the Air is another entry in the "alien-smuggling" movie cycle -- and as such includes the obligatory scene in which the airborne smugglers escape detection by pulling a lever and disposing of their human cargo. Hoping to collar the crooks, detective Mark Owens (Charles Quigley Read More

Hollywood Cowboy

Actors: George O'Brien, Cecilia Parker, Maude Eburne, Joe Caits, Frank Milan

Synopsis: Movie cowboy Jeffrey Carson (George O'Brien) tries hard to live up to his image in this "backstage western." On location in Wyoming for a picture, Carson -- travelling incognito -- finds himself in the middle of a real-life range war, stirred up by eastern racketeers. When the advice of his 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

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

S.O.S. Coast Guard [Serial]

Actors: Ralph Byrd, Bela Lugosi, Maxine Doyle, Herbert Rawlinson, Richard Alexander

Synopsis: In his third of four action serials, horror star Bela Lugosi played Boroff, an internationally notorious fiend who's attempting to pawn off his deadly invention, a disintegrating gas, to the highest bidder. Before the gas can be manufactured, however, Boroff must go in search of certain hard to Read More

Way Out West

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynne, James Finlayson, Rosina Lawrence, Stanley Fields

Synopsis: Prospectors Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy head to the western town of Brushwood Gulch, two men on a top-secret mission. The boys have been entrusted by their recently deceased partner Cy Roberts with a deed to a valuable gold mine, to be delivered in person to Roberts' daughter Mary (Rosina Lawrence Read More

Cash and Carry

Synopsis: In her third Three Stooges short, pretty Harley Wood (aka Harlene Wood) played a young girl living with her crippled kid brother (Sonny Bupp) in a junkyard shack. The two unfortunates are saved by the Stooges, who have come into possession of what they believe to be a treasure map. The treasure Read More

Phantom Patrol

Actors: Kermit Maynard, Joan Barclay, Harry Worth, Paul Fix, George Cleveland

Synopsis: An existing production still for the Kermit Maynard "northern" Phantom Patrol pretty much sums up the outcome of the plot. Smartly dressed in a Mountie uniform, Maynard holds unconscious heroine Joan Barclay in his arms. Meanwhile, villain Julian Rivero, arms to his sides and a scowl of defeat on Read More

The Lucky Corner

Actors: George "Spanky" McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Scotty Beckett, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, Harold Switzer

Synopsis: Lovable old Gus (Gus Leonard) is forced to move his tiny lemonade stand when sidewalk-diner owner William Wagner and his bratty son Leonard Kibrick complain that Gus represents "unfair competition." As Gus relocates near a barber shop at the invitation of friendly boot black Joe Mathey, the Our Read More

Ride 'em Cowboy

Actors: Buck Jones, George Cooper, William E. Lawrence, Luana Walters, Joseph W. Girard

Synopsis: Buck Jones was producing as well as starring in his own western series by the time Ride 'Em Cowboy hit the screen. A heady combination of old and new, this one casts Jones as champeen auto racer Jess Burns, who reverts to his horse when called upon to rout the villains. The story comes to a Read More

Shadow of Chinatown [Serial]

Synopsis: Notorious Hollywood tightwad Sam Katzman's first serial, Shadow of Chinatown stars Bela Lugosi as Victor Poten, a Eurasian with a destructive hatred of both whites and Asians hired by Sonya Rokoff (Luana Walters) to ruin the tourist trade in San Francisco's Chinatown. But, as Sonya discovers and Read More

Great Guy

Actors: James Cagney, Mae Clarke, James Burke, Robert Gleckler, Henry Kolker

Synopsis: After retiring from a boxing career, Johnny Cave (James Cagney) accepts an appointment to serve as head of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. However, when he discovers that his organization is full of corruption and lies, he sets out to uncover the scam, much to the dismay of his girlfriend Read More

Snowed Under

Actors: George Brent, Genevieve Tobin, Glenda Farrell, Patricia Ellis, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: In this comedy, a blocked writer decides he needs a little peace and quiet to spark his creativity so that he can write the final act of his play. Unfortunately, he no sooner settles down in his remote cabin when his first wife comes to call. She is followed by his second wife. A real ruckus Read More

The Pinch Singer

Actors: George "Spanky" McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, Eugene "Porky" Lee, Darla Hood

Synopsis: Hoping to win a 50-dollar prize, the Our Gang kids enter a radio talent contest. Despite the scene-stealing efforts of Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, leader George "Spanky" McFarland selects four-year-old vocalist Darla Hood to represent the gang with her stirring rendition of "I'm in the Mood for Love." Read More

Spendthrift

Actors: Henry Fonda, Pat Paterson, Mary Brian, June Brewster, George Barbier

Synopsis: Spendthrift gives the modern viewer a pretty good idea how Hollywood planned to "mold" the image of new star Henry Fonda. The Lanky One is cast as a profligate, polo-playing playboy, married to a beautiful but superficial heiress (Mary Brian). They divorce, and the wife gets all the money. But the Read More

Love Before Breakfast

Actors: Carole Lombard, Preston S. Foster, Janet Beecher, Cesar Romero, Betty Lawford

Synopsis: Love Before Breakfast was the scintillating title Universal chose over Spinster Dinner, the Faith Baldwin novel upon which this airy comedy is based. Carole Lombard is a Park Avenue beauty squired by Preston S. Foster and Cesar Romero. Since neither gentleman is a prize catch, Lombard is fey and Read More

Sprucin' Up

Actors: George "Spanky" McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Scotty Beckett, Marianne Edwards, Jerry Tucker

Synopsis: Hoping to get on the good side of the new truant officer (Dick Elliot), the Our Gang kids go out of their way to impress the man's cute little daughter Marianne (Marianne Edwards), even unto making such sacrifices as taking baths, combing hair, shining shoes, and washing behind the ears. Both George "Spanky" McFarland Read More

She Gets Her Man

Actors: ZaSu Pitts, Hugh O'Connell, Helen Twelvetrees, Lucien Littlefield, Ward Bond

Synopsis: In this comedy, a waitress at a local lunch counter inadvertently foils a bank robbery and finds herself turned into a national heroine by an eager-beaver reporter. Unfortunately, her sudden notoriety causes gangsters to abduct her. The plucky waitress not only manages to talk them into returning Read More

Front Page Woman

Actors: Bette Davis, George Brent, Roscoe Karns, June Martel, Dorothy Dare, Walter Walker, Joseph Crehan, Winifred Shaw

Synopsis: Front Page Woman was one of those bread-and-butter vehicles that forced Bette Davis to go on strike against Warner Bros., demanding more worthwhile scripts. On its own terms, the film is a briskly entertaining newspaper yarn about two warring reporters (Davis and George Brent). In their efforts to Read More

Red Salute

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Young, Hardie Albright, Ruth Donnelly, Cliff Edwards

Synopsis: Anti-Communist politics and screwball romance make strange bedfellows in this comic tale that plays like a cross between the previous year's It Happened One Night (1934) and a less-sober version of a later generation's The Way We Were (1973). Barbara Stanwyck stars as Drue Van Allen, a college Read More

Show Them No Mercy!

Actors: Rochelle Hudson, Cesar Romero, Bruce Cabot, Edward Norris, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: Taking refuge from a rainstorm in a deserted farmhouse, young married couple Joe and Loretta Martin (Edward Norris and Rochelle Hudson) soon discover to their horror that the house is being used as a hideout for a gang of kidnappers. Gang leader Tobey (Cesar Romero), a comparatively reasonable Read More

Upper World

Actors: Warren William, Mary Astor, Ginger Rogers, Andy Devine, Dickie Moore

Synopsis: Written by the prolific Ben Hecht, Upper World is a clash-of-class melodrama set in New York City. Railroad tycoon Alexander Stream (Warren William) is neglected by his social-climbing wife Mary Astor. Quite unintentionally, through a chance encounter, he strikes up a reasonably chaste friendship Read More

Smarty

Actors: Joan Blondell, Warren William, Edward Everett Horton, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: A battling married couple come to blows and afterwards the battered wife seeks legal council. This drama chronicles the events that take place afterwards. Her lawyer immediately suggests she divorce her pugnacious husband. During the proceedings she and the attorney fall in love and afterward Read More

Fog over Frisco

Actors: Bette Davis, Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay, Lyle Talbot, Hugh Herbert

Synopsis: Cited by film historian William K. Everson as one of the fastest-moving crime melodramas of the 1930s (if not the fastest) Fog Over Frisco still manages to leave viewers breathless. Top-billed Bette Davis plays giddy heiress Arlene Bradford, whose perverse fascination with gangsters gets her mixed Read More

Dames

Actors: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, ZaSu Pitts, Guy Kibbee

Synopsis: As the title song says, you go to those shows to see those beautiful dames--and there's dames aplenty in this 1934 Busby Berkeley extravaganza. The wisp of a plot is motivated by one Ezra Ounce (Hugh Herbert), a silly millionaire who spearheads a national anti-fun movement. Ounce's distant cousin Dick Powell Read More

Jimmy the Gent

Actors: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Alice White, Allen Jenkins, Alan Dinehart, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: James Cagney runs a shady missing-heir tracing service, occasionally providing phony heirs in order to collect his fee. He suffers a tinge of jealousy when he takes a gander at the offices of a legitimate tracing firm, where his former girlfriend (Bette Davis) has taken a job. Jimmy soon learns Read More

Washee Ironee

Actors: Wally Albright, George "Spanky" McFarland, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Scotty Beckett, Tommy Bond

Synopsis: On the day that he is scheduled to perform a violin solo at a swank bridge luncheon held by his social-climbing mother, rich kid Wally Albright opts instead to play football with the Our Gang kids. With Wally's help, the kids win the game, but his expensive clothes are covered with mud. Unofficial Read More

The Little Giant

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Helen Vinson, Ken Thomson, Shirley Grey

Synopsis: The end of prohibition spells the end of business as usual for Chicago gangster Bugs Ahearn (Edward G. Robinson in this delightful spoof of mob melodramas from Warner Bros. Paying off their latest moll, Edith (Shirley Grey, Bugs and chief lieutenant Al Daniels (Russell Hopton) grab their Read More

The Bowery

Actors: Wallace Beery, George Raft, Jackie Cooper, Fay Wray, Pert Kelton

Synopsis: In this rough-and-tumble action comedy, Chuck Connors (Wallace Beery) and Steve Brodie (George Raft) are friendly rivals on New York's Bowery in the 1890s. Connors owns a fancy tavern and looks after a streetwise kid named Swipes McGurk (Jackie Cooper), while Brodie is a daredevil willing to do Read More

If I Had a Million

Actors: Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, W.C. Fields, Charlie Ruggles, George Raft, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Based on a story by Robert Andrews, If I Had a Million is a multipart comedy-drama employing Paramount's top directorial and acting talents. Refusing to leave his fortune to his grasping relatives, dying millionaire Richard Bennett selects several people at random from the phone book and bestows Read More

Riders of the Purple Sage

Actors: George O'Brien, Marguerite Churchill, Noah Beery, Sr., Yvonne Pelletier, James Todd

Synopsis: The first talkie version of Zane Grey's classic yarn Riders of the Purple Sage proved a suitable vehicle for Fox Studios' resident cowboy star George O'Brien. Within an astonishingly brief running time, the film manages to pack together all the plot ingredients in the Grey original, save one Read More