Ian Hunter
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
At the end of the 19th century, during the British rule of India, the goddess Kali commits a number of murders, among which the man who was conducting a cargo of serum to a village infected with disease. Worried with the vast number of fatalities that will result from stopping this shipment, Dr. Palmer asks for help from Major Talbot. The Major suspects about the murderer turn onto the doctor, and he must take refuge in the jungle, after faking his own death by a tiger. Help does come in the shapely form of Amrita, a native dancer, who will give him shelter, and will even free him from a gang of robbers. Dr. Palmer still has a number of real and fantastic adventures until he sees an end to his tribulations...
Committed pacifist Tom Jordan's decision to help former President Rivera escape a military coup is a simple act of mercy that takes him and his wife to the edge of despair. It turns them into outlaws and fugitives, hunted by a vicious regime; yet it could also bring them together in a way they have never been before.
After being thrown out of medical school for ethical violations, Dr. Peter Blood returns home to a small Cornish village, where he sets up a research laboratory in a secluded cave. There, he attempts to revive the dead, using kidnapped humans -- who he views as unworthy of life -- for their body parts, specifically, their hearts.
A dashing ex-officer in His Majesty’s army, Captain Adam Corbett (Calhoun) becomes embroiled in intrigue when he agrees to escort Colonel Wilfred Jackson (Ian Hunter) and his daughter Pauline (Patricia Bredin) on a perilous quest for treasure. Possessing one-quarter of a map, they soon rendezvous with three mysterious characters, each with a fragment and a secret agenda. Armed with only a sword and his wits, Corbett battles brigands, soldiers and thieves as he accompanies the expedition to the island of Monte Cristo, where betrayal and fortune await.
Norman Puckle (Norman Wisdom), a well-meaning but clumsy grocer's assistant, can't seem to do anything right. After being rejected by Marlene, the love of his life, he attempts suicide, but can't even do that. He is saved from jumping off a cliff at 'Lover's Leap' by a Royal Navy petty officer. He persuades Puckle to join the Royal Navy, where he'll meet 'lots of girls'. Life in the Navy proves not to be as rosy as it's been described, and Puckle fails at every task during basic training. But despite this, he's regarded by the Admiral in charge of a rocket project to be a 'typical average British sailor', and chosen to be the first man to fly into outer space in an experimental rocket.
The inhabitants of Todday are content to live their lives in peace and quiet, until, that is, the government decides their little corner of the world would be the perfect place for a rocket launch site.
An insurance man (Jack Hawkins) discovers his ex-girlfriend (Arlene Dahl) and her husband's (Dennis Price) art-forgery/arson scam.
A man is haunted throughout his life, by a magical door that opens onto an alternate, Garden-of-Eden like world.
In the opening years of World War II the Royal Navy was fighting a desperate battle to keep the Atlantic convoy routes open and the British Isles supplied. Of great danger were the numerous surface/commerce raiders that had slipped out of German waters just before war was declared. Supplied by axis cargo ships or tankers, they primarily attacked and sank merchant shipping, and they could and did strike anywhere and everywhere. This is the story of one such ship – the 'Admiral Graf Spee' – and how 3 lightly armed Royal Navy cruisers with mere 6 and 8 inch guns boldly took on this powerful 'pocket battleship' armed with 11 inch guns.
The legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most episodes were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers.
Only a British cabdriver's (Richard Attenborough) wife (Cathy O'Donnell) and lawyer (Derek Farr) believe him innocent of killing a little girl.
Wing-commander Tim Mason leads a squadron of Lancaster bombers on almost nightly raids from England. Having flown eighty-seven missions he will shortly be retiring from flying, but the strain is showing. He tries to make sure his men concentrate only on their job and so keeps women away from the base, but then he himself meets naval officer Eve Canyon.
A talented dress designer, who lets nothing get in the way of her success, rises in the fashion world then loses contact with her own humanity. She also forgets that you meet the same people on the way up as on the way down.
Following the death of his only son, a ruthless businessman reflects on his life, his unhappy marriage and his questionable parenting skills.
This drama is set in Switzerland and chronicles a fight between an innkeeper and her husband, a chronic adulterer. The trouble begins when she wants to adopt a French orphan and he doesn't.
In a home for delinquent girls, the worst offender exchanges reminiscences with the warden.
Bedelia Carrington is living happily, it appears, in Monte Carlo with her husband Charlie Carrington (Ian Hunter.) But a cultivated young artist, Ben Chaney (Barry K. Barnes), begins probing into her past with curious concern. Chaney, who is really a detective, learns that Bedelia's obsession for money has led her, in the past, to husband-poisoning for the insurance money.
In World War II, American Gates Trimble Pomfret is in London during the Blitz to sell the ancestral family house. The current tenant, Leslie Trimble, tries to dissuade him from selling by telling him the 140-year history of the place and the connections between the Trimble and Pomfret families.
This modest bit of comedy and romance in the adolescent vein is about a couple of spirited juveniles, Donald O'Connor and Gloria Jean, who carry on a flirtation parallel with that of their elders, Louise Allbritton and Ian Hunter.
An American playboy is sent to a British boarding school to learn discipline.
Narrator Hopper covers two war benefit affairs, a garden party and a USO fashion show, at Pickfair, "The White House of Hollywood."
Seeking US citizenship, a Viennese refugee arranges a marriage of convenience with a struggling writer.
John Carteret has long been depressed and lonely, because, at his wedding years ago, his bride, Moonyean, was murdered. He accepts into his house Kathleen, the 5 year old orphaned niece of Moonyean, and she quickly grows up to look just like her aunt. Kathleen meets and falls in love with a mysterious stranger from America, Kenneth Wayne. When John hears of this he is furious, and we learn that it was Kenneth's father, Jeremy, who had killed Moonyean years before. John carries his grudge against Jeremy to the new generation, and threatens to ruin his niece's happiness, but he softens in the end.
Dr. Jekyll believes good and evil exist in everyone and creates a potion that allows his evil side, Mr. Hyde, to come to the fore. He faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run amok.
All set to graduate from high school , Andy Hardy flunks his English exam -- in spite of the fact that Aunt Milly is his teacher, and that the Judge has gone to all the trouble of getting him his very own private secretary.
Billy Bonney is a hot-headed gunslinger who narrowly skirts a life of crime by being befriended and hired by a peaceful rancher, Eric Keating. When Keating is killed, Billy seeks revenge on the men who killed him, even if it means opposing his friend, Marshal Jim Sherwood.
Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl's life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on Broadway: Susan, the singer who must leave behind her ageing vaudevillian father; vulnerable Sheila, the working girl pursued both by a millionaire and by her loyal boyfriend from Flatbush; and the mysterious European beauty Sandra, whose concert violinist husband cannot endure the thought of their escaping from poverty by promenading her glamor in skimpy costumes.
Johnny Brett and King Shaw are an unsuccessful dance team in New York. A producer discovers Brett as the new partner for Clare Bennett, but Brett, who thinks he is one of the people they lent money to, gives him the name of his partner.
In order to avoid an arranged marriage with a man she doesn't love, Sarah Millick runs off to Vienna with her music teacher, Carl Linden, whom she does love. They are married. In Vienna, they struggle to make a living by making music. Carl writes an operetta and tries to get it produced. They are helped along by Viennese Baron, but his intentions are not honorable. He kills Carl in a sword fight. A big producer does put on the operetta, with Sari in the lead -- but without her husband, it is a bittersweet victory.
When a teenager's father is accused of murder, the boy and his high-school classmates set out to find the real killer.
Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure.
The crew of the merchant ship Glencairn hope to survive a transatlantic crossing during World War II. Adapted from four Eugene O'Neill one-act plays.
A married singer, pianist/composer team are struggling to hit it big in New York. Finally, they audition before a Broadway producer, but the producer only wants the singer, leaving the husband without a job and feeling a failure.
A young couple die in a plane crash in the jungle. Their son is found by Tarzan and Jane who name him Boy and raise him as their own. Five years later a search party comes to find the young heir to millions of dollars. Jane agrees, against Tarzan's will, to lead them to civilization.
In the 15th century Richard Duke of Gloucester, aided by his club-footed executioner Mord, eliminates those ahead of him in succession to the throne, then occupied by his brother King Edward IV of England. As each murder is accomplished he takes particular delight in removing small figurines, each resembling one of the successors, from a throne-room dollhouse, until he alone remains. After the death of Edward he becomes Richard III, King of England, and need only defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain power.
The classic Shirley Temple film in which a little girl goes in search of her father who is reported missing by the military during the Second Boer War.
Ellen is a free spirited young woman in love with Doug. Sadly he must leave America for a two year job in Belgium. Ellen and Doug decide to spend their last weekend together in a tourist cabin at a rural lake. Her family is shocked that a young unmarried woman would engage in such amoral activity. The comic plot develops as Ellen argues her case for women's freedom and independence, trying to win over her mother, grandmother, and other dubious relatives.
Wisecracking showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself trapped in a Wyoming town when her new employer closes the show prematurely. She meets ranch foreman Charles "Slim" Martin when he accuses her of lifting his wallet and ends up being hired as a maid for ranch owners Cliff and Sybil, who are attempting to mend their rocky marriage after Sybil's infidelity with a cowboy.
A romantic drama film about a love triangle between a stage actress, her financial backer, and his friend.
Story of a rising stage star and the trouble she causes by her ambition.
Three daughters of a small down pharmacist undergo trials and tribulations in their problematic marriages between 1904 and 1908.
Following the death of her fiancé, Margot Weston is left pregnant and unmarried. Former doctor Jim Howard helps the desperate Margot. When her son is born, Jim helps her find a home for the baby with Phil Marshall and his wife. Margot insists that neither the Marshalls nor the child can ever know that she is his mother.
Robin Hood fights nobly for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian.
This was one of the annual "blooper" reels screened by the Warners Club, an organization of Warners actors, crew and executives. It was meant to poke fun at the flubs and bloopers that occurred ont the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
Vera Kowalska is put on trial for murdering concert pianist Michael Michailow. In court it is revealed that some years earlier Michael ruined Vera's life.
A young model is set up with her own fashion business by a crooked financier, who sells worthless bonds.
The story of how 52nd Street became New York City's "Nightclub Row" in the 1930s.
Colonel John Wister, on duty with the British army in the desert region of Dubik, returns to England on leave. There he falls in love with Julia Ashton, who cares deeply for him but believes herself incapable of love following the death of her fiancé; some time before. Wister convinces her that he loves her enough to live without her romantic love and that she should marry him. She does so and returns to Dubik with him. There she meets his adjutant, Captain Denny Roark. Roark is a dashing young man who reminds Julia thoroughly of her lost love. Soon she finds she is indeed capable of love, but it is Roark with whom she falls in love, not her husband. As warfare with the local tribes heats up and as Wister gains awareness of the unconsummated romance growing between his wife and best friend, tragedy lurks.
The various members of the middle-class Hilton family have a series of romantic misadventures during one eventful spring day.
A well-bred young English lad living in lower Manhattan tries to gain acceptance from his not-so-well-bred peers at school.
In mid-nineteenth century England the medical establishment does not recognize the value of skilled nurses, cleanliness, nutrition and kindness. Florence Nightingale's heroic measures slowly changes all of this.
Mary stands by Jack after the Depression of 1929 but considers divorce when he again becomes successful by 1935. Bill, who loves Mary, works at keeping them together.
Criminals pose as ghosts to scare a lighthouse keeper on the Welsh coast, in attempt to distract him. Jim Pearce deliberately maroons himself on the rock along with Alice Bright. When the light is later smashed, Jim reveals that his brother’s ship is the wreckers’ latest target, while Alice is a detective sent to investigate.
A blackmailer preys on an actress who is trying to protect her daughter from her past.
A confirmed bachelor takes pity on a young woman and takes her to London.
A major newspaper publisher dies in suspicious circumstances during a parlour game at a dinner party. The publishers secretary is the obvious suspect, but the inspector isn't so sure ...
A film adaptation by Max Reinhardt of his popular stage productions of Shakespeare's comedy. Four young people escape Athens to a forest where the king and queen of the fairies are quarreling, while meanwhile a troupe of amateur actors rehearses a play. When the fairy Puck uses a magic flower to make people fall in love, the whole thing becomes a little bit confused...
When his fiancée Valentine dumps him, prominent lawyer Geoffrey Sherwood goes on a bender and winds up married to a stranger, Miriam Brady. They decide to give their marriage a chance. Their landlady, a one-time Floradora girl, offers to help Miriam become refined. Successful again, Geoffrey is approached ("if only we were free") by Valentine. Miriam tells Valentine off in no uncertain terms. Geoffrey moves into his club where Valentine's husband tells him he is a fool to leave Miriam
A promotional short to hype the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935).
When a meek secretary goes to work for her new boss, she becomes a sophisticated lady.
A brash American movie producer arrives at an army base in England wanting to shoot a movie and use the soldiers as extras. The base commander doesn't want any part of it, but the producer and his secretary cook up a scheme to trick the officer into letting him use the base and its men. Their plan succeeds, but things don't turn out quite the way they were expecting.
An actor is murdered live on air whilst a play is being broadcast. Everyone in the play and broadcasting house fall under suspicion.
Unemployed car salesman Peter is encouraged by his girlfriend Cynthia to approach the head of a petrol company with his plan for making petrol stations more attractive to customers. When the man rejects the idea Peter joins a rival company and becomes a great success.
According to the terms of a will two strangers must marry. Leila (Jessie Matthews) is a widow, and Fergus (Ian Hunter) is a Canadian bachelor. Both are bequeathed a fortune, but there is a condition to the receipt of it. The two much marry within a year. To aid matters, Leila disguises herself as Fergus' maid, and the two begin to fall in love. However when Fergus discovers the truth, he is less than pleased by the deception.
A young woman turns to Sherlock Holmes for protection when she's menaced by an escaped killer seeking missing treasure. However, when the woman is kidnapped, Holmes and Watson must penetrate the city's criminal underworld to find her.
Jane Bell has lived on an old barge moored in the Thames with her feckless father and sister ever since their mother died, but she would prefer her life to be more like the movies
William Kell, the keeper of a lighthouse on a lonely stretch of coastline, marries cabaret dancer Eileen. His young wife, however, goes on to have an affair with Henry Cass, the handsome assistant later taken on by her husband; when she then begins to flirt with a stranger who is rescued from the wreck of a motor-launch, a chain of shocking events is set in motion...
A woman believes her boyfriend died in the First World War, but he is now looking for her
Benny and Flo are a husband and wife dance team, Sloane and Darrel, traveling around the country as part of a revue. The revue gets picked up and taken to New York City, to be on Broadway. However, it quickly folds, and the two are forced to look for other employment. They eventually find work in a nightclub, becoming famous.But while performing at the nightclub, Flo becomes entranced by a young, sophisticated millionaire playboy, Winston.
Larita Filton is named as correspondent in a scandalous divorce case. She escapes to France to rebuild her life where she meets John Whittaker. They are later married, but John's well-to-do family finds out Larita's secret.
A rich man's worship of his first wife ends when he learns their son is a bastard.
Roddy, first son of the rich Berwick family, is expelled from school when he takes the blame for his friend Tim's charge. His family sends him away and all of his friends leave him alone. Roddy decides to go to Paris where he spends what little money he has and starts working as a dancer. He soon becomes a victim of alcoholism. Roddy manages to move to England's colonies but some sailors send him back to his rich family hoping for a reward.
Two typists, one attractive, the other efficient, fall in love with the son of one of the firm's partners. The young man makes overtures to the attractive girl but finally finds a match in the plainer one, while the other girl realises the worth of the prim and correct head clerk.
An Earl's disowned son becomes a chauffeur, loves a landlady, and is jailed for theft.
