James W. Horne

Experience Stan and Ollie in their funniest scenes: whether they build a house as construction workers or try to impress two young ladies as sailors. Watch as Stan fights a superior opponent in the boxing ring and as Ollie is taking an involuntary bath and see where a steadfast friendship between two men can get you...

With the Gang aching to hit the gridiron, team captain Spanky’s got to play Little Papa and mind the baby, while Pete is framed by Wheezer’s hateful stepbrother, Sherwood, and sent to the pound in Dogs Is Dogs. Sherwood’s dog kills a chicken, so he blames Pete, but Wheezer and his sister Dorothy have the last laugh; then Spanky and the Gang try to impress the daughter of Mr. Jones, the new truant officer, by Sprucin’ Up.

Sergeant MacLane of the Mounties investigates the disruptive activities of a bunch of troublemakers.

7.2/10

Secret Service Major Steel is one of the few men in America aware of the fact that Captain Albright is also Captain Midnight, daring masked aviator dedicated to fighting gangsters and enemies of America.

6.9/10

Serials usually spawned feature film versions, but with this film, it was the other way around. A 1932 Buck Jones Western, White Eagle was made into a serial nine years later, again starring Jones in the title role, a (supposedly) Native American Pony Express Rider defending his people against a gang of evil Whites.

6.5/10

The evil and masked "Gargoyle" is sabotaging all of America's industrial plants. It is up to the Spider to save the country.

6.9/10

The heirs of Anton Benson are searching Bensonhurst for hidden gold; they are joined by a reporter, a gangster...and a masked fiend known as The Iron Claw.

6.5/10

A murderous gang of counterfeiters has kidnapped the government's best engraver and is forcing him to print virtually undetectable phony money. The Secret Service's toughest agent, Jack Holt, and a female reporter go after the gang.

6.7/10

The Shadow battles a villain known as The Black Tiger, who has the power to make himself invisible and is trying to take over the world with his death ray.

7.1/10

Dr. Herbert Lee, an archaeologist seeking to decipher ancient Mara inscriptions, is aided by his son Terry, Terry's pal Pat Ryan, and Normandie Drake. Jungle pirate and warlord Fang (Dick Curtis) plots to kill The Dragon Lady, Queen of the Temple of Mara, and seize the treasures of her ancestors. Both Fang and The Dragon Lady have sworn death for any foreign intruders.

6.1/10

Columbia's 11th serial and the first western serial that James W. Horne solo-directed.

7.5/10

Columbia's 12th serial of 57 total (following 1940's "Deadwood Dick" and ahead of 1941's "White Eagle") is another of director's James Horne's "classics" where he evidently figured that the same reactions that served him well in Laurel and Hardy films would work well in action serials where he has all hands, heroes and villains alike, doing some kind of over-the top "take", no matter the situation. This loose adaptation of an Edgar Wallace story finds Michael Bellamy (Kenne Duncan in his Kenneth Duncan period) inheriting Garr Castle, but his brother, Abel Bellamy (James Craven, as usual making Oil-Can Harry look smooth), has him imprisoned unjustly and moves into the castle himself. When Michael's wife, Elaine Bellamy (Dorothy Fay), fails to return after visiting Abel, her sister Valerie Howett (Iris Meredith), accompanied by their father,

6.4/10

Pulp hero "The Spider" seeks to destroy all criminals. In this serialized adventure, he battles The Octopus, who intends to replace the government of the United States.

7.1/10

Andy mistakenly believes his wife and brother-in-law are conspiring to murder him for insurance.

6.5/10

Stan and Ollie try to deliver the deed to a valuable gold mine to the daughter of a dead prospector. Unfortunately, the daughter's evil guardian is determined to have the gold mine for himself and his saloon-singer wife.

7.6/10
10%

Two vaudevillian comedians try to stage a show in a theatre that has a reputation for being being haunted.

5.3/10

Stan and Ollie travel with a band of 18th-century Gypsies holding a nobleman's daughter.

6.7/10

A thief on the run dumps some hot money in Thelma and Patsy's lap.

6.3/10

Andy, an avowed child-hater, changes his tune when he mistakenly believes his wife is pregnant.

9.8/10

Stan and Ollie stow away to Scotland expecting to inherit the MacLaurel estate. When things don't quite turn out that way, they unwittingly enlist in the Scottish army and are posted to India.

6.9/10

Oliver's in trouble with his wife after missing a payment on their furniture, having given the money to Stanley, who used it instead to pay Mrs. Hardy for his room and board. At Stan's suggestion Ollie then withdraws the couple's savings from the bank to pay for the furniture and inadvertently pays virtually the whole amount at an auction for a grandfather clock which is soon crushed under a passing truck. Mrs Hardy then unintentionally causes serious injuries to Ollie requiring him to be rushed to hospital for a blood transfusion. The doctor conscripts Stan to be the unwilling blood donor. Problems occur with the transfusion and when Stan and Ollie leave the hospital they appear to have morphed into each other.

7.5/10

Just as Charlie is running for mayor on a purity platform, an old flame threatens to show his torrid love letters to his wife if he does not withdraw from the campaign.

Leon's ex-wife moves into the apartment next to him.

7.1/10

Henry is lured by old pal Hale into a night on the town despite fears that his wife will discover their hijinks.

James W. Horne short that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Comedy.

5.8/10

A wife tries to hide a surprise birthday present from her husband but the butler causes trouble.

7.1/10

A timid accountant for a California cattle ranch and a lookalike dashing bandit become rivals for the beautiful daughter of a wealthy rancher.

6.7/10

Thelma and Zasu go to a Turkish bath to try to get rid of a cold.

6.6/10

James Gleason picks up abused kid and tries to clean him up.

5.3/10

Mickey and Grady are left behind when a new kid comes to town and all the girls fall for him.

5.6/10

Stan and Ollie check into a seedy hotel and help a young girl escape the clutches of the landlord (Long). They are forced to flee the hotel with no money and Ollie arranges for Stan to fight at a local boxing hall for $50. Stan's opponent turns out to be Musgy who uses a loaded glove. During the fight the glove is swapped and Stan triumphs only to find that Ollie has bet their fee that he would lose.

7.4/10

An expanded, Spanish-language version of the two-reel comedy Thundering Tenors (1931).

Stan and Ollie join the French Foreign Legion after Ollie's sweetheart rejects him. The title Beau Hunks is both a reference to Beau Geste and a pun on the mild ethnic slur Bohunk (a portmanteau of "Bohemian" and "Hungarian.").

7.5/10

Stan and Ollie try to hide their pet dog Laughing Gravy from their exasperated, mean tempered landlord, who has a "No Pets" policy.

7.5/10

Ollie is running for mayor when an old flame (Mae Busch) tries to blackmail him with a old photo.

7.5/10

Ollie is running for mayor and an old flame threatens to blackmail him. Only a Spanish language version was shot simultaneously with the English language version. Laurel and Hardy learned their parts phonetically, so they are actually speaking Spanish. The leading ladies) in the English version were usually replaced with native Spanish-speaking actresses--in this film they are Rina Liguoro, Linda Loredo and Carmen Granada. - En Espanol: Hardy, un exitoso hombre de negocios, recien cassado, se postula para alcalde. Inesperadamente lo visita una ex-novia quien amenaza con chantajearlo. Laurel, su amigo y socio se ofrece a ayudarlo para mantener a la jujer lejos de Hardy. De todas modos ella irrumpe en el hogar de Hardy y es aqui cuando comienzan las complicaciones en esta clasica comedia de Laurel y Hardy. - This is the Spanish language only version.

6.7/10

Stan & Ollie (speaking phonetic French!), having been kicked out by their wives on a wintry night, attempt to smuggle their little dog into an apartment house where dogs are not allowed.

6.5/10

Oliver is making plans to marry his sweetheart Dulcy with Stan as his best man, but the plans are thwarted when Dulcy's father sees a picture of Ollie and forbids the marriage. The couple plan to elope, and run away to a Justice of the Peace. After typical Laurel and Hardy blundering, they manage to sneak the girl away from her father's house.

7.4/10

Locuras de amor is a comedy short from Charley Chase with all speaking Spanish

The Hardys wish to have a quiet evening in their apartment, but are interrupted when the Laurels pay a visit. Stan and Ollie go out for ice cream, and manage to prevent a shrewish woman from committing suicide on the way back home. The woman is ungrateful and makes threats against the them unless they look after her. They spend a chaotic evening trying to keep her hidden from their wives.

7.4/10

Down and out Stan and Ollie beg for food from a friendly old lady who provides them with sandwiches. While eating, they overhear the lady's landlord tell her he's going to throw her out because she can't pay her mortgage. They don't realize that the old lady is really rehearsing for a play. Stan and Ollie decide to help the old lady by selling their car. During the auction a drunk puts a wallet in Stan's pocket. Ollie accuses Stan of robbing the old lady, but when the truth is revealed Stan takes revenge on Ollie.

7.3/10

Charley is invited to a high class party, where he feels ill at ease and has no idea how to act, yet he wants to impress his young lady.

5.8/10

Stan and Ollie are on their way to Atlantic City with their wives, when Ollie gets a phone call from a lodge buddy telling him that a stag party is taking place that night in their honor. Ollie pretends to be sick and sends the wives on ahead, promising that he and Stan will meet them in the morning. The pair dress in their lodge gear, but their wives return having missed their train. With no obvious escape route, Stan and Ollie take to a bed in fear and in response to Stan's plea of "What'll I do?", Ollie replies "Be big!".

6.9/10

This Spanish language film was produced simultaneously with the filming of the two English language Laurel and Hardy shorts Be Big! and Laughing Gravy. The two shorts were edited together into one continuous film. Laurel and Hardy read their lines from cue cards on which Spanish was written phonetically. At the time of early talkies, dubbing was not yet perfected.

6.4/10

Garde la bombe is the French speaking version of a Charley Chase comedy short.

Jackie throws his schoolbook out the window in disgust, but then climbs outside to retrieve it. Finding himself locked out, he tries various means of getting back inside without his parents finding out. When his parents mistake his noises for a burglar, a local policeman is called, but he seems incompetent to catch either the phony burglar or the real one who has shown up in the meantime

7.1/10

An estranged couple visit their old apartment, which is now occupied by Charley and his wife. Charley's wife, however, misunderstands the purpose of their visit.

6.7/10

Charley suffers a hysterical reaction whenever a woman touches him; a psychiatrist attempts to help him overcome his panicked reflex.

6.1/10

This here is the four-reel Spanish version of Charley Chase's Looser Than Loose.

Alternate-language version of Girl Shock (1930)

The king is a juvenile dolt who tries the patience of the shrewish queen. While she's in the throne room awaiting him, he's outside playing with guns, drilling his soldiers, and dallying with the wife of a new minister. The queen catches him kissing her, her husband figures out that something fishy is going on, and the king tries his best to proceed with his plans for a night out. The queen contrives to keep him cuffed in the bedroom: king, queen, minister, and coquette end up in a game of musical beds. Will his royal highness get his night out?

5.2/10

The comic and musical adventures of Charley Chase as he fights in the great war.

6.5/10

Charley Chase is obsessed with a woman, however his attempt to meet her father is complicated by an asylum escapee.

7.5/10

Chercheuses d'or is a American comedy short with all speaking French

Charley and Thelma are millionaires, each trying to elude suitors who are trying to marry them for their money. Charlie gets word that a rich uncle has died, leaving him millions. Attorneys advise him to repair to a resort and avoid gold diggers. Once there, word spreads among the single women, and several try to ensnare him. At first he's gullible, then he cottons on, so when Thelma, a wealthy young woman, mistakes him for a fortune hunter, he dismisses her as well. A manager's error puts Charlie and Thelma in the same suite, and both think the other is prospecting. A dressing gown, radio, bare feet, pistol, keyhole, fountain pen, bedcovers, and a suspicious hotel detective join the mix-up. But wait, was the inheritance a mistake?

6.5/10

Charley is about to get engaged to Thelma when his boss foists some clients upon him to entertain.

6.8/10

Charlie hires three "party girls" to help him land a business deal.

6.2/10

El príncipe del dólar is an American comedy short with all speaking Spanish

Stan and Ollie play door-to-door Christmas tree salesmen in California. They end up getting into an escalating feud with grumpy would-be customer James Finlayson, with his home and their car being destroyed in the melee.

7.7/10

Off to Buffalo is a comedy short

Anita and Marion realize that an abandoned baby they sneaked into an orphanage was kidnapped from a millionaire. For the reward, they proceed to break into the institution at night, dressed as men to beat curfew, to get the kid out again. This film survives only in very fragmentary form.

6.6/10

Thin Twins is a comedy short.

Brilliant in his studies and dismissive of athletics, Ronald finishes high school at the top of his class. But in college his uptight attitude doesn't win him any points with his sports-loving classmates, and pretty coed Mary ignores him in favor of brutish jock Jeff. Hoping to impress Mary, Ronald makes a buffoon of himself at every sport imaginable.

7.1/10
8.9%

The film stars actor Rod La Rocque as 'Jerry Cleggert', a good-natured descendant of an infamous clan of pirates who resides aboard the rickety ship Jasper B. Cleggert is informed that in order to inherit a large inheritance, he must marry by his twenty-fifth birthday - otherwise he would relinquish all claims to his impending fortune. Jerry soon meets his ideal would-be bride Agatha Fairhaven (Mildred Harris) and the two immediately fall in love. Complications arise when Jerry's cousin, the dastardly lawyer Reginald Maltravers (Snitz Edwards) claims Agatha as his own. The courting couple suffer a series of mishaps on the way to altar; they are waylaid en route by a trio of bandits, escape from a runaway taxi cab, and outrun a mob of unscrupulous state authorities.

7.5/10

The great Lionel Barrymore doing something as unique as a comedy short for Hal Roach!

5.2/10

The head of a big movie studio is pulling his hair out because the company is bankrupt unless they can find a writer for a smash comedy. An aspiring writer is awaiting outside the office and the producer agrees to see him. He listens while the writer tells his story and acts the numerous parts. The story is rotten, but the producer lets him escape while vowing vengeance on any other author who would read his story aloud.

Thundering Landlords is a 1925 short

A young couple want to marry, but the girl's father doesn't like her beau. To separate them, the father arranges to send the girl on a sea voyage along with a female companion. But the beau, dressed as a woman, manages to fool the father into hiring him as the companion, and they all board the ship together.

When baby-care-book author Glenn Tryon has an abandoned baby dumped on him during a train trip, he discovers he should have read a book on the subject as well as having written one.

5.3/10

Jimmy Mason lifts himself up from poverty to unlimited riches. The audience knows that he couldn't have done it without the help and support of his wife Marion. When Jimmy starts cheating on her, she divorces him, receiving an enormous settlement. Reduced to penury by various spendthrift mistresses, Jimmy is rescued once more by Marion, who once more guides him to success-and remarries him, this time on her terms.

A young fellow yearning for excitement gets more than he bargained for.

5.9/10

The Sunshine Trail film

World War I veteran Jack Dunbar who, like a lot of veterans then and now, is finding it hard to land a job. When he fixes the broken down auto of the newly rich Nicholas Small, he finally runs into some luck. The blustery Small explains that the way to get ahead is to blow your own horn, and then he takes Dunbar to an estate, where he is introduced as a millionaire.

Margaret Jarnette discovers that her husband Victor has been cheating on her and confronts him. Outraged, Victor has his lawyer rewrite his will so that in the event of his death, his brother Richard will get custody of his daughter Muriel, and his wife won't. When Victor dies shortly afterward, Richard suspects that Margaret had murdered him and takes custody of Muriel. However, he soon begins to suspect that things may not be quite as cut-and-dried as he thought they were.

In the 1850s, a young prince in India promises his dying father he will lead a revolt against the English colonial masters of India. However, since he is half-European himself, he can't bring himself to do it and flees to America, to live in obscurity. He finds, however, that he can't outrun his obligations

Bob Gilmore, a young clubman, is called by telephone to his home, where his parents are giving him a birthday party. He overhears one of the men guests make a slurring remark about his mother's appearance, and proceeds to punish him then and there, throwing the entire gathering into an uproar. Later in the evening he assumes guilt for a check which had been in reality forged by his foster father, in order to save the mother's feelings, but obtains a written confession from the guilty man for future use if necessary. Learning that he had been adopted from a foundling asylum in infancy, Bob decides to go to New York to see if he cannot learn his real name, which he understands begins with "Mor."

Jack Hoxie and Marin Sais star in this 'American Girl' short. A courageous young woman must clear her boyfriend after he is framed for a hold-up.

Impending trouble with the sheep herders, who are encroaching on his range, causes Ace Brent, owner of vast California interests, to warn his daughter Barbara to postpone her visit to the ranch. But Barbara is made of sterner stuff, and, following a heated discussion with her admirer, John Wallace, over woman's equality with man in the business world, she declares she will disregard the warning telegram and be at her father's side should trouble come.

"Sidewinder Steve" returns to civilization to find that his ore specimens show he has discovered a turquoise mine. He wires his friend, Ace Brent, the capitalist, who has a half-interest in his discoveries, to furnish him with money to make the trip back across the desert to officially stake his claim. But "Lonney" Smith, telegraph operator at the town and secret spy for The Syndicate, Brent's rivals, informs his employers of the new "strike," and they dispatch their agent Meyers to thwart Brent. The latter, recovering from injuries received in a previous encounter with sheep herders, consents to allow Barbara to handle the affair. Her admirer, John Wallace, follows her to the desert town, fearing for her safety. The action then develops into a thrilling three-cornered race across the desert between Barbara and John, Lonney and Meyers, and a gang of local adventurers headed by "Dry Wash" Sexton, proprietor of the "saloon and hotel."

Fifth episode of the Girl Detective series 2-reels where a 'society girl' has a position as a special investigator in the police.

Fourth episode in the Girl Detective 2-reel series.

A series of 2-reel thrillers in which a society girl has a position as a special investigator for the police and works on various cases where her unique talents can help to solve crimes. Each episode is complete in itself.

5.8/10

Wealthy Irving Randolph is falsely denounced as a deliberate murderer by his greedy younger brother when Randolph, during a rifle shooting contest, accidentally kills a man with whom he has had an altercation. Fleeing to Australia, Randolph becomes known as the bandit Stingaree and is aided in his Robin Hood like adventures by his friend Howie and his sweetheart Ethel.

How a man, imprisoned for another's crime, finds justice at last.

Captain Lanning and Lieutenant Osborne are stationed at an army post in the Philippines. Lanning conceives a deadly hatred toward Osborne when the latter wins Gladys, General Fields' daughter.