Gregory La Cava
Fantasy comedy about a young window dresser who kisses a statue of Venus, which then comes to life in the form of Ava Gardner. The problems begin, however, when Venus falls in love with him.
A World War II pilot (Gene Kelly) comes home to a bride (Marie McDonald) who, spoiled by her father (Charles Winninger), now wants a divorce.
A psychiatrist's patient, a nutty heiress, travels west to find gold in her grandfather's abandoned mine. The psychiatrist, unable to talk her out of it, decides to follow her out there.
With Irene Dunne, Robert Montgomery, Preston Foster, and Eugene Pallette. This sublime film exemplifies La Cava’s gift for creating comedies that contain a profound depth of feeling. Starting with a cruel joke – a couple of callow men make a bet that one of them can seduce the woman sharing their train compartment – the film charts the relationship that develops between Irene Dunne, a small-town girl in the big city, and Robert Montgomery, the brother of the man who has heartlessly seduced and abandoned her. Their love affair is all the more affecting for taking place against a backdrop of heartbreak and alcoholism, all conveyed under the guise of comedy. UNFINISHED BUSINESS is truly one of the most remarkable Hollywood films of the 1940s.
Ellie Mae lives on Primrose Hill with her good-hearted and fancy free mother, her drunken father, her younger sister and a mean-spirited grandmother. The Hill is not a good part of town, however. When she meets and falls for a hard-working man, they marry and she hides her past from him. When he discovers the truth it jeopardizes their marriage.
A wealthy man hires a poor girl to play his mistress in order to get more attention from his neglectful family.
The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel. Centres particularly on the conflict and growing friendship between Terry Randall, a rich girl confident in her talent and ability to make it to the top on the stage, and Jean Maitland, a world weary and cynical trouper who has taken the hard knocks of the ruthless and over-populated world of the Broadway apprentice.
Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock needs a "forgotten man" to win a scavenger hunt, and no one is more forgotten than Godfrey Park, who resides in a dump by the East River. Irene hires Godfrey as a servant for her riotously unhinged family, to the chagrin of her spoiled sister, Cornelia, who tries her best to get Godfrey fired. As Irene falls for her new butler, Godfrey turns the tables and teaches the frivolous Bullocks a lesson or two.
A super-efficient secretary at a department store falls for and marries her boss, but finds out that taking care of him at home (and especially his spoiled-brat daughter) is a lot different than taking care of him at work.
At the Brentwood Asylum for the mentally ill, psychiatrist partners Jane Everest and Alex MacGregor are broken up by the new superintendent, Dr. Charles Monet, who has a low regard for women physicians. Jane and Charles clash on patient treatment, and Jane learns that Charles has a sister, Claire, with a mysterious past.
The 16th-century sculptor woos the Duchess of Florence despite the duke.
Aspiring young Scottish politician John Shand enters into an unusual agreement with the wealthy Wylie family -- if they fund his education, he must marry their daughter, Maggie. Staying true to his word, John weds Maggie and begins a successful career, thanks largely to his savvy wife. The couple's relationship is placed in jeopardy when John faces temptation in the form of the lovely aristocrat Lady Sybil Tenterden.
A political hack becomes President during the height of the Depression and undergoes a metamorphosis into an incorruptible statesman after a near-fatal accident.
A girl from the wrong side of the tracks is torn between true love and a life of sin.
Unwed mother gives up baby for adoption and hopes to get it back when the adoptive mother dies.
A barker at a down-at-the-heels carnival becomes a powerhouse New York publicity man as he transforms a sideshow dancer into a Broadway sensation.
A young doctor escapes the slums of New York City to make his fortune as a Park Avenue doctor. When a fatal mistake results in tragedy his resolve to continue working is severely tested. Based on a novel by Fannie Hurst.
College co-eds struggle with the moral, societal and human aspects of romance.
A society man's loving, devoted wife, upon learning that he has been unfaithful and is planning to leave her for the other woman, strategically pretends to be having an affair of her own. The woman's friends gladly assist in the deception.
An inept inventor and his stoic wife believe an oil well investment has paid off and that they've become wealthy overnight.
A playboy is in love with a woman and enters the army thinking it will improve his chances with her.
A rich but hypochondriac heiress inherits a sanitarium. What she doesn't know is that it is a front for bootleggers, and a hideout for criminals on the run from the law.
Steve Porter, a young American bachelor and fully intending to remain as such, inherits a fortune but must get married in order to claim it.
Cowardly Elmer Finch is browbeaten by his wife, daughter, fat son and the family dog. After hypnosis he is domineering. He enters a contract with a fifteen-thousand dollar payoff, so his courage can last beyond the hypnosis.
Bob Howard, a WWI wounded soldier in a army hospital, meets and falls in love with Princess Elena. When the Armistice is signed, he is quickly shipped back home to America. Returning to Europe, he is mistaken as a Crown Prince traveling to be married to a Princess from another country. The Princess-bride, intended for another man, is his Elena.
College football star Billy Dexter is prone to getting into public fights. His father demands he reform and sends him to mend his ways with a devout old woman who deals in hymnals. She turns out to be devoutly drunk and a saloon brawler, leading to Billy's imprisonment. He tells his fiancée he's doing missionary work on a pacific island. He escapes and persuades her to marry him, all the while dodging the police who pursue him.
Gregory La Cava directs this comedy of errors, starring W.C. Fields as a hen-pecked, inebriated inventor who triumphantly creates unbreakable windshield glass while struggling to gain the respect of his social-climbing daughter and nagging wife.
Bill Dana, a New York City playboy, can't resist the flaming flappers and red-hot mamas along the Great White Way, so he decides to head out west to his uncle's ranch in Wind River, Texas. But the gold-diggers and their relatives follow him.
The new teacher is brutally terrorized by the pupils and becomes the laughingstock of town. Then dramatic events occur which give him a chance for redemption.
A childless couple hire 4 orphans to scare off a visiting uncle who don't like kids.
Prohibition has just gone into effect, and Judge Rummy's wife eagerly throws away all of the Judge's liquor. She also plans to have a temperance lecturer use him as an example of the evils of drink. While waiting for the lecturer, Judge Rummy notices that Silk Hat Harry's Soda Fountain is remarkably popular, so he stops in to see what it's all about. He finds out that Harry has developed a substitute for alcoholic drinks, and that Harry's substitute can have quite an effect on those who drink it. (IMDb)
"Smash-Up in China" is a very early animated film. The story consists of the Hooligan telling the little hooligans about his supposed adventures in China. He saves the life of the Prime Minister, meets the Emperor and nearly gets himself blown up!
After the Captain finds the black cat under his hat on the floor after the hat moved, he hits the cat with a brush at the exact time Mama's flour in her pie hits her and makes her white!
Based on the comic strip Happy Hooligan, this cartoon was packaged with the Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial and shown before the main features in theaters.
The setting has Krazy doing the serving and the cooking at a diner, flipping pan-cakes as Ignatz enters to ask for "goose giblets 'n gravy." This leads Krazy to show off some of his characteristic fascination with "woids;" while proceeding to fix the meal of his "dolink," he points out how many names that begin with the letter - oh yes you guessed it - "G."
Laura tells her companions at Miss Syntax's seminary that Jim, her sweetheart, is to visit her that afternoon. Shortly afterward, Jim climbs the fence surrounding the school playground, and after greeting the them girls, shows a copy of the "Grouch Chaser." The girls get a great laugh out of "Silas Bunkum's Boarders Picnic" in which Silas, his wife and their three guests spend a lively day in the country.
Donald and Eleanor are in love, so that Jim realizes it is up to him to pick a peach for himself. There is only one room left at their country boarding house and Jim wants to make sure that no one but the proper peach rents it. In order to keep the proprietress busy while he interviews the applicants for the room, Jim gives her the animated picture book to look at.
