Frankie Darro
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
A television producer decides to find out the whereabouts of a former movie actress whose career has long since faded, then discovers that his inquiries have set off a string of murders.
A World War II submarine commander finds himself stuck with a decrepit sub, a con-man executive officer, and a group of army nurses.
Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon", a scientific expedition that has been missing for 20 years, only to find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.
Johnny Carpenter plays a taciturn sheriff who disguises himself as a notorious gunslinger. His mission: to stem a series of violent raids on local cattle ranchers.
Frankie, a young jockey with a new style of riding that brings him acclaim, is barred from the track when he starts betting on himself. Since he's been donating his winnings to an old flame and her father to help them raise a colt, the forced retirement is quite a blow.
In a time when "The West" pretty much ends in Texas and only California is slowly being populated by the white men, there's a severe lack of women among the workers on Roy Whitman's farm in the California Valley. So he goes back east to Chicago to recruit 150 women willing to become wives for his employees. From the candidates he selects 138 who seem able to survive a months long journey across "The Great American Desert" and the Rocky Mountains. Written by Tom Zoerner
In the 1830's beaver trapper Flint Mitchell and other white men hunt and trap in the then unnamed territories of Montana and Idaho. Flint marries a Blackfoot woman as a way to gain entrance into her people's rich lands, but finds she means more to him than a ticket to good beaver habitat.
A horse trainer who has fallen on hard times looks to his horse, Broadway Bill, to finally win the big race.
In 1869, the United States begins a railroad mail service to the West Coast which proves highly tempting to train robbers, in particular an organized gang with one of the mail's supposed guardians in their pay. Prizefighter Steve Davis, a former army intelligence man, is hired to track down the gang and save the Territorial Mail Service. Steve goes undercover in territorial prison, leans Morse Code from a fellow prisoner, breaks jail, infiltrates the gang...and finds time to romance dance-hall singer Mary, who proves to have hidden depths...
Not quite as memorable as his previous Riders in the Sky, Gene Autry's Sons of New Mexico is still well up to the star's standard. This time, Gene tries to reform Randy Pryor, a would-be juvenile delinquent, played by Autry-protégé Dick Jones (who later starred in the Autry-produced TV series Range Rider and Buffalo Bill Jr). To this end, Pryor is enrolled at the New Mexico Military Institute, where much of this film was lensed. The kid chafes at the school's regimen and escapes, heading back to his criminal mentor Pat Feeney (Robert Armstrong).
While working in a laundromat, the boys find a baby hidden among the linen. They soon find out that the baby, who is the heir to a fortune, has been abandoned by his mother so that her two evil aunts can't cheat her and the baby out of the inheritance. The boys determine to help the woman claim her baby's rightful inheritance from her aunts, who have hired gangsters to find and eliminate the girl, the baby and anyone who helps them.
Slip and Sach are in the sidewalk star-gazing business when they see a murder committed in a room at the El Royale Hotel.
The boys are working at the local boxing arena where their friend, Jimmy Higgins, is boxing. During a crooked match Jimmy is killed. The boys seek out his older brother, Johnny, a former boxer who gave up the sport rather than go crooked, and help train him to get back in the ring. They try to get him a shot at the title, and when they do the same crooked gangsters that were behind Jimmy's death try to get Johnny to take a dive.
Slip invites his cousin Jimmy to stay with his family after he is released from prison. However, Jimmy soon gets mixed up with an auto-theft ring.
The growth of juvenile crime in a small town starts a movement for the building of a youth center.
Jimmy Easter is a jockey who gets shook up when he is responsible for the death of a fellow rider during a race. He gets back down to business, however, when the daughter of his ex-boss shows her faith in him.
A poor young man is finally able to achieve his dream of running a horse at the track, but when he starts becoming successful, he begins to lose sight of what mattered to him before.
Miss Hinklefink invites the Teen Agers to stay at her new ranch for the summer. Freddie is mistaken for a famed bank-robber and hijinx ensue.
A Marine Sergeant wounded in overseas combat service, requires an operation, and Navy psychiatrist Captain R. S. Handler, recommends to Marine Captain Russ Morgan and Colonel Winters that "Sarge" be given a few weeks rest before hospitalization. Through Dean McKinley of San Juan Junior College, Sarge enters the school on a temporary basis. The teenagers are rehearsing a school show and Freddie is worried because they have no band. Freddie, Dodie Rogers and Betty Rogers find Sarge asleep in the park, and the girls put him up at their house when they learn he can't find a room. Betty has a row with boyfriend Roy , and in order to make him jealous gets Freddie to invite her to the school dance after telling Freddie that his girlfriend Dodie is going with Sarge. Many misunderstandings follow but all is well when Sarge gets his marine captain to bring his band over to the school for the school's BIG SHOW.
A high school student is mistaken for a famous radio singer who goes missing. Complications ensue.
The first in Monogram’s “Teen-agers” series, this low-budget musical predates the youth culture films of Roger Corman and American International Pictures by nearly a decade. During the Whitney High School student government election, a rich man’s son tries to pay his way into office with promises of new athletic uniforms. His desperate competitors (reallife swing dancers Dean Collins and Jewel McGowen) decide to stage a series of song and dance spectacles to try to garner votes. The film faithfully documents many popular dances of mid-40s hipster culture including the jitterbug and lindy hop. (University of Chicago Doc Films)
The students at Whitney High School are down in the dumps since their football team faces almost certain defeat and hasn't won a game in 28 years. The school paper may have to suspend publication because the circulation is so low and the principal intends to replace student performers at the school bazaar with professionals. But with the class roster on this Monogram campus made up of Freddie Stewart, June Preisser, Anne Rooney et al, it's only a matter of about 45 more minutes before the team wins, the paper gets a large circulation boost and all hands are on stage performing with the Freddie Slack and Jan Savitt orchestras.
A young husband becomes a game-show participant in the hopes of winning the cash to pay his pregnant wife's doctor.
The Dead End Kids join the war effort in this feature-length version of the Universal serial Junior G-Men of the Air. The fiendish Black Dragon Society, led by the sinister Baron (perennial B-movie villain Lionel Atwill) plots to pave the way for an Axis invasion of the U.S.A. by destroying America's defenses. When their plans are discovered by the Dead End Kids, the gang is too suspicious of "the coppers" to ask for help. The FBI send in their Junior G-Men to stop the spies, but when one of the Dead Enders is kidnapped, the two groups must work together to smash the Black Dragons once and for all!
A group of street kids battle a terrorist gang led by a Japanese spy.
Rawley University is about to receive a star athlete who could give it the first championship rowing team it's ever had. Unfortunately, he gets drafted into the army before he's able to join the team. Two of the team's members get the bright idea of passing off a burly truck driver as the "athlete". Complications ensue.
Two friends take jobs as truck drivers, unaware that the trucking company is being targeted by a gang of saboteurs who will stop at nothing, including murder, to stop them.
An elevator operator and a janitor team up to solve two murders that may be connected to an illegal gambling operation. Monogram.
Frankie Kelly is the soda jerk and embryo scientist in Midvales only drugstore. Two murders and an attempted killing suddenly swing Midvale into national prominence. Frankie and his pal, Jefferson, become involved when a wounded gangster starts to tell them where $300,000 in stolen loot is hidden, but he is murdered before he can give them all of the information. The search is on.
Frankie Kelly, pageboy at the beauty salon ran by Madam Celeste, and his helper Jefferson find the routine broken when the body of one of the operators, Florence, is found in the dumbwaiter. She had been shot just before she was to give Detective Dan Haggerty information about a blackmail gang. Since Mary Baker, Frankie's girl friend saw her last, she is suspected, and Frankie determines to clear her using his own sleuthing methods. He has hardy begun when Pierre, another member of the staff, and Florence's fiancée is found dead.
Lonely toymaker Geppetto has his wishes answered when the Blue Fairy arrives to bring his wooden puppet Pinocchio to life. Before becoming a real boy, however, Pinocchio must prove he's worthy as he sets off on an adventure with his whistling sidekick and conscience, Jiminy Cricket.
A delivery boy for a flower shop, who thinks of himself as an amateur detective, finds out that his boss is mixed up with a foreign espionage ring.
A none-too-popular (nor good) radio singer, Rita Wilson is murdered while singing on the air in a radio studio. Radio page boy, Frankie Ryan, and his janitor pal, Jeff, solve the mystery for the none-too-sharp police.
Re-edited feature version of serial The Phantom Empire (1935). Singer Gene Autry discovers a race of advanced humans living beneath the earth.
A tough street kid takes the rap for a burglary committed by the son of his foster family and is sent to a boys reformatory, where the inmates are under the thumb of corrupt guards and a brutal prison doctor.
Public Defender Gary Franklin, frustrated by being unable to save criminal Dutch Adams from a death sentence by blaming the slums environment as the cause of Dutch's crimes, enlists the aid of Dutch's sister, Marcia Adams, to get the slum dwellers at appeal for public monies to provide recreational places for the slum kids.
A young man, Danny, decides to get a job in order to support his mother. He's hired to work in a garage, but soon finds himself being implicated in a stolen-car racket.
A group of "Phantom Raiders" interfere with a cattle drive from Texas to Abilene; fortunately, U.S. Marshal Wild Bill Hickok is appointed to ensure the success of the mission.
A group of thugs tries to steal the cursed title gem from a jeweler who has been hired to cut it into small, saleable pieces.
The popular B-flick team of Frankie Darro and Kane Richmond star in the slick quickie Headline Crasher. Little Frankie and Big Kane play a pair of roving journalists who investigate a politician (Richard Tucker) up for re-election. When it seems as though the politico is being set up for a fall by yellow journalists, Darro and Richmond try to get to the truth of the matter. The original story for Headline Crasher is credited to Peter B. Kyne, creator of the "Broncho Billy" western stories.
Despite his older brother's objections, a young man vows to become a newsreel cameraman.
A young reporter's grandfather wins a sweepstakes, but it turns out that his ticket is phony. The reporter finds out that the police are looking for the criminal ring responsible for the phony-sweepstakes racket, so he and his young brother set out to track down the gang responsible and expose them.
Cricket West is a hopeful actress with a plan and a pair of vocal chords that bring down the house. Along with her eccentric aunt, she plays host to the local jockeys, whose leader is the cocky but highly skilled Timmie Donovan. A young English gentleman comes to town convincing Donovan to ride his horse in a high stakes race.
A young, newly-appointed rookie state trooper, John Shields, is celebrating with his sister Jane, his younger brother Freddie and Tom Marlin, Jane's fiancé and also a trooper, when they hear over the radio that two bandits have just killed a lawyer and his watchman. John and Tom set out in their patrol cars in hopes of capturing the killers, followed by Freddie who hopes some day to qualify as a trooper. Freddie encounters the two two bandits, Spike Doland and Butch and manages to get away with the bag of gold they had stolen. While chasing Freddie they are recognized by John who they kill when he tries to arrest them. Freddie then takes matters into his own hands in seeking to capture the killers of his brother.
Nature reporter Orville Shanks retreats to the woods for material for his "Our Wild Friends" column and to volunteer for his favorite cause, the Boy Scouts. When Orville's editor, Crane, orders him to spice up his column, Orville's wife Melba writes a gossip column using animals as metaphors for people. Crane loves Melba's article and gives Orville a raise, and the column becomes a hit.
Winners of the Lucky Stars National Dance Contest - one woman from each state of the United States - are welcomed to Palm Springs. Palm Springs being the desert playground for the movie stars, the women are introduced to the cavalcade of stars vacationing in Palm Springs at the time.
An honest boxer refuses to throw a fight for a gambler. They get into a fight and the boxer knocks the gambler out. Thinking he's killed him and believing that the police are after him, the horrified boxer runs off and takes to the road, promising never to box again. However, one day he comes upon a small but scrappy young kid who has the potential to be a champion. The former boxer takes the kid under his wing and trains him, but the kid's ensuing success starts to go to his head. Pretty soon he finds himself mixed up with gamblers, too.
Wildcat riggers risk their lives in the pursuit of oil. Their jobs get even more dangerous when ruthless oil baron J.C. Anderson sets his sights on their territory. When longtime driller Dan O'Reilly falls to his death from a well tower sabotaged by Anderson's strong-arm thugs, his teenage son 'Fishtail' inherits the property and the troubles that come with it. With the help of his geologist pal, Hank Langford, the boy fights to bring in a gusher before the deed to the well-site expires.
When a friend of Charlie's is found kicked to death by his own race horse on board a Honolulu-bound liner, the detective discovers foul play and uncovers an international gambling ring.
Frankie Reynolds (Frankie Darro' ), youngest member of a family of jockeys, borrows $4.85 (yes, four dollars and eighty-five cents) from his sister Phyllis (Gladys Blake), who is not a jockey, to buy a crippled colt from the stables owned by Clay Harrison (Kane Richmond). He nurses the colt back to health, and in two years has one of the fastest horses in the country.
Three men escape from prison, go back to their hometown to try to find out who framed them.
An eccentric, wealthy spinster, 'Queenie' Baxter is erroneously presumed to be kidnapped. She subsequently pretends to indeed be kidnapped, , in order to allow a reward of $50,000 to benefit an impecunious family headed by Tony Orsatti and his three sons, Blackie, Doc and Flash.
An honest sports columnist's greedy wife persuades him to go easy on a cheat, famous for crooked sports deals.
When the ancient continent of Mu sank beneath the ocean, some of its inhabitant survived in caverns beneath the sea. Cowboy singer Gene Autry stumbles upon the civilization, now buried beneath his own Radio Ranch. The Muranians have developed technology and weaponry such as television and ray guns. Their rich supply of radium draws unscrupulous speculators from the surface. The peaceful civilization of the Muranians is corrupted by the greed from above, and it becomes Autry's task to prevent all-out war, ideally without disrupting his regular radio show.
A villainous banker and his hired saboteurs attempt to thwart construction of Sweetwater Dam.
Marjorie Temple, owner of a bus line and an apparently worthless plot of land, is set upon by rich oil speculators who know her land actually is worth millions. When they try to put her out of business for good, young race driver Burn 'em Up Barnes comes to her rescue - again and again and again.
The former Jo March and her husband Professor Bhaer operate the Plumfield School for homeless boys. One of the boys, Nat, invites Dan, a street kid, to come to the school, where the boys are all loved and well cared for. Dan is a young tough, but his heart is good, and when he is accused of theft at the school, Jo continues to believe in him and that the true thief will be found out.
Bob Hamilton gets into trouble when crooks cause the defeat of his father's horse in the Derby, and it is reported he is in with the crooks. The old man disowns him and his sweetheart, Patricia , breaks their engagement. So Bob and "Skipper", the also-suspected trainer, head for the western tracks, taking with them the horse Hamilton Senior forced them to buy, determined to make good and prove they are on the level.
Tycoon J.L. Higgins controls his whole family, but one of his sons- in-law, Dan Brooks and his daughter Alice are fed up with that. Brooks quits his job as manager of J.L.'s paper box factory and devotes his life to his racing horse Broadway Bill, but his bank- roll is thin and the luck is against him, he is arrested because of $150 he owes somebody for horse food, but suddenly a planed fraud by somebody else seems to offer him a chance...
An heiress abandons an out-of-work husband, two sons and a lovesick daughter.
Short film in which Frankie Darro as a Telegram delivery boy visits various Hollywood locations to make deliveries. He visits the Los Angeles Pier and a Gala Hollywood Premiere.
Members of a teenage gang are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the callous Thompson. Soon Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner, arrives and takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. Thompson needs a quick way to discredit him.
Waterfront couple raise their son to be a sea captain. He grows up to be rather snotty and rebels against drunken Beery. Valiant Dressler keeps things moving even as hubby ruins their tugboat business.
The story of a boy, a dog, and a man. The boy discovers he is heir to a shipping line, and travels to Los Angeles, accompanied by inventor/radio operator Bob Whitlock and Irene Blaine. Their journey is aided by Pal, a wolf dog.
At the height of the Great Depression, Tommy's mother has been out of work for months when Eddie's father loses his job. Eager not to burden their parents, the two high school Sophomores decide to hop the freight trains and look for work.
Jim Gladden, a construction site foreman, is partially responsible for the accidental death of one of his workers, Fred Smith, and makes good on Fred's deathbed request to go to Scotch Valley and take care of his surviving wife and children. When Jim arrives in the small town, he is told that there are two Fred Smith families in Scotch Valley, the rich Smiths and the poor Smiths. Jim assumes that the Smiths he is looking for are the poor ones, and is directed to a house where four children live in poverty.
Mary, Vivian and Ruth are former schoolmates who do some catching up after a chance meeting. Of the three women, Vivian, who married successful lawyer Robert, seems to have the most glamorous life. Vivian really isn't satisfied though, and soon deserts Robert and her son for Mike, a mobster. Before long, Vivian is hooked on drugs, and Mike needs cash.
Bob Norton, seeking his brother's killer, tangles with outlaws, wild horses, and a "wild" boy.
Out of jail for a crime she did not commit, Madelon turns to prostitution and thievery to send her illegitimate son to medical school.
A crippled puppeteer rescues an abused young boy and turns the boy into a great ballet dancer. Complications ensue when, as a young man, the dancer falls in love with a young woman the puppeteer is also in love with.
Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
A mysterious master criminal known as The Voice plots with his gang to sabotage the Milesburg Oil Company, but the rightful heir has a secret army of her own to protect her rights.
A rural Maine farmer fights for custody of the boy who he's raised as his own.
Duke Carlton, an actor stranded in a small western town, gets a job as a cowboy on Tim O'Brien's ranch as a reward for beating up "Flash" Corbin, a real estate agent who has been trying to swindle the rancher. A romance develops between the actor and Patsy O'Brien, the rancher's daughter, but it is interrupted by the appearance of his former stage partner, Vera Van Swank, who claims him as her husband. He clears himself of the bigamy charge, foils a plot to cheat the rancher out of a $90,000 land property, and wins the daughter's hand.
In 'The Circus Kid', Darro gives an excellent performance as Buddy, an orphan who runs away from a a harsh orphanage to join Cadwallader's Circus.
Briscoe leases land from Latimer. When oil is found Latimer tries to stop Briscoe from renewing the lease. Tom arrives and fights off Latimer and his men to renew the lease. But Latimer is not done. Now he shoots Briscoe, kidnaps Buddy, and blames Tom who is arrested and put in jail.
A copy exists at the Archives Du Film Du CNC. A restoration project was started in 2015.
Mary is marrying Jimmie, from whom she has kept a secret; Mary remains in love with another man. Problems ensue, jeopardizing the tranquility of their relationship.
Steve Carris, a medical student, is expelled from college, disowned by his father and joins a circus.
As lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home following completion of their military training, Leo sees stunning Felicitas at the railway station and, mesmerized by her beauty, is smitten. A scandal follows, for which Leo is sent away. Returning home three years later, he discovers that much has changed.
The King of Illyris marries a neighboring princess, who finds out he has a mistress, Sephora. Revolted, she turns to Prince Alexei for friendship. Turmoil increases as a revolution demands the abdication of the King and the Queen opposes this decision.
Cowboy Phil Stone gets a job as foreman on a ranch owned by pretty young Isabel Hastings. He discovers that ruthless rancher Jeff Kopp has a claim on Isabel's ranch, and that if she dies unmarried before she turns 21, Kopp will get her ranch. When Isabel turns down a marriage proposal by Kopp's son Rudy, Kopp decides to kill her and get the ranch for himself, and hires a notorious killer, "Cyclops", to do the deed.
A railroad worker accepts a colleague's offer to stay in his home, but when his friend is called out one night to stop a runaway train, he makes a play for the man's wife.
A railroad engineer adopts a French orphan while he's fighting in the army in World War I, and takes him back to the US when the war ends. Later the boy needs an eye operation that the engineer can't afford, so he takes the rap for a murder he didn't commit in order to get his son the operation.
