Leo McCarey
Three years into their loving marriage, with two infant daughters at home in Los Angeles, Nicholas Arden and Ellen Wagstaff Arden are on a plane that goes down in the South Pacific. Although most passengers manage to survive the incident, Ellen presumably perishes when swept off her lifeboat, her body never recovered. Fast forward five years. Nicky, wanting to move on with his life, has Ellen declared legally dead. Part of that moving on includes getting remarried, this time to a young woman named Bianca Steele, who, for their honeymoon, he plans to take to the same Monterrey resort where he and Ellen spent their honeymoon. On that very same day, Ellen is dropped off in Los Angeles by the Navy, who rescued her from the South Pacific island where she was stranded for the past five years. She asks the Navy not to publicize her rescue nor notify Nicky as she wants to do so herself.
A priest (William Holden) arrives at a mission-post in China accompanied by a young native girl who has joined him along the way. His job is to relieve the existing priest (Clifton Webb), who is now too old and weak to continue with the upkeep of the church. However, Communist soldiers arrive at the mission and seize it as a command post. Their leader rapes the native girl and impregnates her, only later to realise that Communism is no good for him. In the end, the foursome flee to the border, but are pursued by Communist forces along the way.
Harry Bannerman, a Connecticut suburbanite, becomes involved in various shenanigans when his wife Grace leads a protest movement against a secret army plan to set up a missile base in their community.
Nickie Ferrante's return to New York to marry a rich heiress is well publicized as are his many antics and affairs. He meets a nightclub singer Terry McKay who is also on her way home to her longtime boyfriend. She sees him as just another playboy and he sees her as stand-offish but over several days they soon find they've fallen in love. Nickie has never really worked in his life so they agree that they will meet again in six months time atop the Empire State building. This will give them time to deal with their current relationships and for Nickie to see if he can actually earn a living. He returns to painting and is reasonably successful. On the agreed date, Nickie is waiting patiently for Terry who is racing to join him. Fate intervenes however, resulting in misunderstanding and heartbreak and only fate can save their relationship.
The ninth episode of the 1955 anthology show, "Screen Directors Playhouse". A priest tries to save a marriage that appears to be headed for the rocks in time for Christmas.
A backwoods lawyer's race for the governor's office is thwarted by mainstream opponents who dig up dirt from his past.
A documentary short film depicting the work of the motion picture director. An anonymous director is shown preparing the various aspects of a film for production, meeting with the writer and producer, approving wardrobe and set design, rehearsing scenes with the actors and camera crew, shooting the scenes, watching dailies, working with the editor and composer, and attending the first preview. Then a number of real directors are shown in archive footage (as well as a predominance of staged 'archive' footage) working with actors and crew.
Comedian Jack Benny has his butler, Rochester, call several of his celebrity friends over to the house. Benny introduces them to a Catholic priest, who speaks to them about doing a film for a group called the Christophers. The Christophers are an organization that wants to use different mediums such radio, TV, and film to inspire young people to change the world for the better by pursuing careers in public service like teaching and government work. The priest gives the celebrities a history lesson about the founding of the U.S. and God's role in it, and he asks for their help.
Father O'Malley, the unconventional priest from 'Going My Way', continues his work for the Catholic Church. This time he is sent to St. Mary's, a run-down parochial school on the verge of condemnation. He and Sister Benedict work together in an attempt to save the school, though their differing methods often lead to good-natured disagreements.
Youthful Father Chuck O'Malley led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining the Roman Catholic clergy. After being appointed to a run-down New York parish, O'Malley's worldly knowledge helps him connect with a gang of boys looking for direction, eventually winning over the aging, conventional Parish priest.
A radio correspondent tries to rescue a burlesque queen from her marriage to a Nazi official.
Seven years after a shipwreck in which she was presumed dead, Ellen Arden arrives home to find that her husband Nick has just remarried. The overjoyed Nick struggles to break the news to his new bride. But he gets a shock when he hears the whole story: Ellen spent those seven years alone on a desert island with another man.
French playboy Michel Marnet and American Terry McKay fall in love during the transatlantic passage of a ship. They arrange to reunite six months later, if neither has changed their mind.
Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off for the family's home in West Palm Beach and inadvertently becomes romantically entangled with earnest cowboy Stretch Willoughby. Neither the dalliance nor the cowboy fit with the upper class image projected by her esteemed father, forcing her to choose.
Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.
At a family reunion, the Cooper clan find that their parents' home is being foreclosed. "Temporarily," Ma moves in with son George's family, Pa with daughter Cora. But the parents are like sand in the gears of their middle-aged children's well regulated households. Can the old folks take matters into their own hands?
Timid milkman, Burleigh Sullivan, somehow knocks out a boxing champ in a brawl. The fighter's manager decides to build up the milkman's reputation in a series of fixed fights and then have the champ beat him to regain his title.
In this comedy of an Englishman stranded in a sea of barbaric Americans, Marmaduke Ruggles, a gentleman's gentleman and butler to an Earl is lost in a poker game to an uncouth American cattle baron. Ruggles's life is turned upside down as he's taken to the USA, is gradually assimilated into American life, accidently becomes a local celebrity, and falls in love along the way.
Mae West, full of bosom and double entendre, wrote this lightweight saga of multiple loves which appears in a lavish (for 1934) production featuring songs backed by Duke Ellington.
The Whinneys share expenses for their trip to Hollywood with George and Gracie and their great Dane. A clerk in Whinney's bank has put fifty thousand dollars in a suitcase, hoping to rob Whinney on the road, but instead Whinney takes another road and is himself arrested in Nevada.
Eddie and his Mexican friend Ricardo are expelled from college after Ricardo put Eddie in the girl's dormitory when he was drunk. Per chance Eddie gets mixed up in a bank robbery and is forced to drive the robbers to safety. To get rid of him they force him to leave the USA for Mexico, but a cop is following him. Eddie meets Ricardo there, Ricardo helps him avoid being arrested by the cop when he introduces Eddie as the great Spanish bullfighter Don Sebastian II. The problem is, the cop is still curious and has tickets for the bullfight. Eddie's situation becomes more critical, when he tries to help Ricardo to win the girl he loves, but she's engaged to a "real" Mexican, who is, unknown to her father, involved in illegal business. While trying to avoid all this trouble, Eddie himself falls in love with his friend's girl friend's sister Rosalie, who also want to see the great Don Sebastian II to kill the bull in the arena.
A young woman jeopardizes the relationship with the man she loves when a no-account from her past shows up.
Locuras de amor is a comedy short from Charley Chase with all speaking Spanish
Stan lies to his wife about going to a nightclub with Ollie but Mrs. Laurel overhears the plot and outsmarts them both.
Dress designer Joan Wood, who's heavily in debt, has created costumes for a Broadway show that is exported to Argentina. With the money she wants to pay her debts, but there was a mistake: she is receiving the money in Buenos Aires, not in New York. Her friend Wally Wendell, whose grandfather does not approve of his relationship with her, wants him to marry a girl he hasn't seen for some years named Constance Cook, whose grandfather is the owner of a ship traveling to Buenos Aires and Constance
The story concentrates of neglectful husband Jim Murdock (Edmund Lowe) and his frustrated wife Betty (Leila Hyams). For lack of anything else to do, Betty takes up golf, soon achieving professional status. Meanwhile, Jim's doctor advises him to start playing golf as an outlet for his frustrations. Sure enough, Jim and Betty are reteamed on the links, and all is well -- for everyone except Betty's erstwhile beau Tommy Milligan (Tom Clifford)
The son of a wealthy politician falls in with a notorious gangster planning to rob a night club.
With all speaking French, Chase joins a golf club to win its president's daughter. The game descends into chaos when the other players conspire against him and he ends driving across the course.
Stable hands Stan and Ollie are tending a thoroughbred named "Blue Boy." But when they overhear two men talking about a $5000 reward for the return of the stolen "Blue Boy," they miss the part about it being the painting, not the horse. They take the horse to the owner's house to claim the reward. The owner instructs them to put "Blue Boy" on the piano and Ollie explains, "these millionaires are peculiar."
Two families embark on a pleasant Sunday picnic but manage to run into a variety of issues with their temperamental automobile. Each incident requires repeated exits and reboardings by Laurel, Hardy, their wives and grouchy, gout-ridden Uncle Edgar.
Stanley and Oliver are adopted by a runaway goat, whose noise and aroma in turn get the goat of their suspicious landlord.
Stan and Ollie wreak havoc at an upper class hotel in their jobs as footman (Hardy) and doorman (Laurel). They partially undress blonde bombshell Jean Harlow (in a brief appearance) and repeatedly escort a stuffy nobleman into an empty elevator shaft.
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.
Charley intervenes in a fight between Eddie and Thelma inside her small car. Cop Kennedy misinterprets things, and Charley hides in the theatre Thelma is rehearsing in. Charley replaces Eddie as Thelma's partner in an artistic dance act, and makes a fiasco of it.
A heat wave sends the residents of a New York City tenement to their fire escapes for whatever breeze is stirring. The tenants are a cross section of melting-pot culture: Irish, Jewish, German, and Italian dialetcs create a rich aural mix on the sound track. As small talk is exchanged among the residents of different floors, an off-camera hurdy-gurdy supplies an often ironic counter-point to the action
Sailors Stan and Ollie offer to buy sodas for two women they meet in a park, even though they are short on cash. Luckily Stan wins the jackpot on a slot machine and the boys have enough money to rent a boat to cruise on a lake. They soon tangle with other boaters and everyone ends up in the water.
Notable for being Laurel and Hardy's first sound film (hence the title, drawn from the popular cliché "Unaccustomed as we are to public speaking ..."). The soundtrack was lost for fifty years until it was traced on disc in the late 1970s. This is the first film in which Hardy says to Laurel, "Why don't you do something to help me!" which immediately became a catch-phrase, repeated in numerous subsequent films. Also heard for the first time is Stan's distinctive, high-pitched whimper of distress. The plot of "Unaccustomed As We Are" was expanded into a full-length feature, Block-Heads, in 1938.
Joe Collins (Eddie Quillan) arrives at Hanford College to begin his second year with $200 to pay his tuition, is enticed into a craps game, and loses all in this nostalgic slice of college, replete with songs, romance, prom dances and the inevitable big football game.
Two girls are invited by one of the girls boy-friend's tight boss for dinner. On the way they stop for a cheap ice-cream. But swinging doors, ventilators, cops and a brat make it nearly impossible to get the ice cream even close to the car where the rest are waiting.
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.
Charley falls in love with Mary, but his attack of hay fever alienates her father.
Mrs. Hardy throws Ollie and Stan out of the house. They try to impress two young ladies at a golf course and end up fighting with other golfers. This was the first Hal Roach film to bill Laurel and Hardy as a team.
Loony scientist (Carle) hires Laurel and Hardy to raid the cemetery to keep him supplied with dead bodies for his experiments.
Schultz raises prize chickens and roosters that are always getting into neighbor Max Davidson's garden and eating the seeds, leading to constant feuding between the two men. When their children announce their engagement the two men decide to bury the hatchet and Davidson suggests a dinner at his house. He gives his young son, Ignatz, two dollars to buy a chicken but the boy pockets the money and kills Schultz' first place rooster instead. Once seated at the table all but Schultz discover what they are eating and desperately try to hide the bad news from Schultz who is sure to kill Davidson if he knows the truth.
Anita and Marion take a temporary job as waitresses in Max's diner, next to a train station. When the train stops off, pandemonium erupts when the passengers fill the diner and all want meals immediately. This film only survived in parts.
Stan & Ollie attempt to fool their wives by sneaking out to a poker game, but instead get involved with two flirty ladies, one of whom is the girlfriend of a jealous boxer.
The pretty daughter of a bank clerk meets a handsome college student who attempts to romance her. Due to the comical nature of the two kids meeting, the father suspects the student to be of ill repute and he and his wife conspire to scare him away by acting crazy.
Stan and Ollie are hired to build a house in just one day. When they are done, a bird lands on the house and it collapses. Naturally, the owner wants his money back.
Inexperienced waiters (Laurel & Hardy) are hired for a swank dinner party.
Stanley and Oliver, two sailors on shore leave, rent a car and go on a drive with their dates, but soon get involved in a huge traffic jam with dozens of ill-tempered motorists. A minor collision sets off an escalating series of retaliations. This film is recognized as one of Laurel and Hardy's greatest.
Pompous J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Hardy), greets his nephew from Scotland (Laurel,) who arrives in kilts. He is immediately taken to a tailor for a pair of proper pants.
Fight manager (Hardy) takes out an insurance policy on his puny pugilist (Laurel) and then proceeds to try to arrange for an accident so that he can collect. The film is most noted for the final sequence - a wonderfully-choreographed custard pie fight - that utilized an entire day's output of the Los Angeles Pie Company.
Max and his son Asher are invited to a party, where Max meets a rich widow, but Asher keeps annoying all of the guests, so Max refuses to speak to him. 10 days later he has married the widow, but hasn't told her about Asher. Asher doesn't like the situation either, and enters the home disguised as the new maid, that leeds to a growing suspicion of his step mother, who has her own little secret.
After a night of carousing, a rich oil tycoon awakes to find that he was married the night before. He calls in his lawyer (Laurel) to straighten things out.
Mabel plays an out-and-out crook, a "Girl Bandit," no less. And she quickly hooks up with a male partner in crime, in this case a Gentleman Crook played by perpetually grinning Creighton Hale. Mabel seems a little livelier in this film than in some of her other late works. In the very first scene we find her hitch-hiking, and she's forced to make a mad dash for cover when Hale's car nearly hits her. Soon they team up and crash a swanky party in a mansion to steal a jewel from the host's safe.
A man delivering a pair of trousers loses his own pants, setting off a chaotic sequence of events.
A short comedy by Leo McCarey about a jewish father who is worried about his daughter.
Papa Gimplewart (Max Davidson) chaperones his daughter and her "steady" during a beach adventure.
A woman's two sons pretend to be insane in order to de-rail their mother's plans to remarry.
Agnes Ayres was apparently a star of feature film who is top billed in this one-off Hal Roach short. She does well as the woman at the centre of the story, but it's pretty plain that it's actually the comic mind and performing talents of Stan Laurel, who plays her butler, that make this two-reel short shine.
A daughter's rich father wants to marry her off to a rich but older man. The daughter has other ideas however and sets out to find a nice young man she can fall in love with.
Charlie is the great divorce attorney, in demand by all women wishing to shed their husbands. While explaining to one woman how to obtain a divorce by getting photos in a compromising situation...
A man finds out that his wife wishes he would act more like his twin brother, so he decides to impersonate his twin in an attempt to determine his wife's fidelity.
This offbeat comedy from future Hollywood screwball director McCarey is about a princess who must find a husband in 24 hours or forfeit her throne. She quickly marries a condemned man--but the man is pardoned.
A widow has married rich, but didn't tell her husband about her son. And he's coming for a surprise visit. To hide his identity he is introduced as the husband's new valet, but still the husband has some doubts about a few strange scenes. And during the night, when the son tries to visit his mother, the husband always starts interfering, but the new maid also behaves strangely, trying to sneak into the husband's room...
A young man puts on the play "Romeo and Juliet" as a fundraiser, but has to keep a close eye on his dad, who's had several drinks too many, and a pesky cab driver who's determined to collect his fare.
Charley needs $10,000 right away. Mrs. Schwartzkopple has inherited $2 million from her late husband and wants to marry a younger man. Mr. Blaylock, her attorney, sees a way to solve both their problems, and keep control of her $2 million.
Two rich capitalists want to marry their children, but they don't like the idea at all. She tries to run away, and meets him at the station. They fall in love, unbeknownst to their real identities, and decide each on their own that they have to wreck their parents plan.
Jimmy Jump and his family go to the movies for their regular Saturday evening recreation. Jimmy likes the picture, but his small daughter is bored and keeps him busy taking her for drinks of water. Mrs. Jimmy can't find a seat that suits her and by the time she has tried half in the theatre, and the little girl has emptied the water cooler, the show is over and the Jumps go home.
Charley has in-laws that look down on him because he's not rich. So, to try to keep up, he rushes out to buy a car--but no matter, they still think he's a drip--as does his wife. Later, when he's given a simple job to do by his boss, he screws it up--and loses face once again with his family.
Charley's battle-axe mother-in-law breaks up his marriage and tries to separate him from his son. Charlie abducts the boy for a father-son outing to the beach. The mother-in-law pursues and comedy ensues.
Jimmy Jump is asked by the Swedish Government to translate for educational purposes "Little Red Riding Hood", but he can't afford to buy the book, so he tries reading it at the book shop, something the owner doesn't like. But with a little help by the owner's wife it is not impossible, even when the book is bought by somebody else, put in a car and the car is stolen...
The two-reel silent film comedy The Caretaker's Daughter was distributed by Pathe in 1925. Produced by the prolific Hal Roach, the film stars the great Charley Chase in a case of multiple incarnations!
Charley Chase plays the type of character he does best, which is a weak nerd who is constantly letting people push him around. This happens at his work when a co-worker sneaks off with the boss's daughter who just happens to be the crush for Charley. After accidentally getting loaded on bootleg whiskey, Charley gets some courage and goes out to get his woman.
Jimmy Jump (Charley Chase) and his wife find a baby left at their door. They happily take the baby in but find themselves at a loss when they want to sleep but the baby cries all night.
Jamison has a very jealous wife. Mrs. Jamison has a very gossipy friend. When the friend spots Jamison on the street talking to an attractive young woman, she reports back to Mrs. Jamison that her husband is obviously having an affair. Mrs. Jamison storms out, and a few minutes later a guest arrives for a visit -- a Professor Brown. Jamison doesn't realize the professor is a woman, and Mrs. Jamison, who has returned, doesn't realize the woman is Professor Brown. She presumes she has caught her husband with his mistress. A dancing butler, a game-playing dog, and a very accommodating burglar complicate the situation.
Often hysterical spoof of Tod Browning's THE UNHOLY THREE (and several others of his crime movies) has Charley Chase playing the mastermind of a dimwitted trio of thieves who plan on stealing a priceless jewel.
Charley Chase is a hapless inventor with a better mouse trap in this silent comedy from 1925.
A few moments before Charley is going to marry, a friend, gives him an anonymous note, stating that the bride has a wooden leg.
Mr. Jump has come into some money and informs his wife that they can now hire a maid and won't have to do anymore housework. Circumstances cause Mrs. Jump to suspect that Mr. Jump is cavorting with the new maid.
Charley is plagued with failure and with his brother-in-law, who's allergic to labor. When he decides to take the family on a camping trip, his wife learns about a contest sponsored by a pen company, with the first prize being an ocean trip. To win the prize Charley has to sell those pens - surprisingly he wins, but the ship turns out to be a wreck on it's last trip to the scrapyard. To make things worse they accidentally leave their young daughter on the dock and the ship sails without her. What else can go wrong on this trip?
Despite his faithfulness, Melvin is always under suspicion by wife Mame. Complications erupt when a woman from a party across the hall passes out in Melvin's bedroom just before Mame returns.
Jimmie Jump is returning from Europe to the USA. His parents and an old girl-friend, Sally - whom he hasn't seen for years, are expecting him at the dock. But, due to some unfortunate coincidences they are mistaken about the identity of each other, but meet unbeknownst to that fact. Jimmie decides that he has to find that girl. Finally, after having annoyed a policeman, and a great fraction of the female population, he finds her working as a temperance worker. To get her attention, he dresses up in rags to meet her. But his way of introduction causes more confusion.
In this two-reeler, Jimmy Jump wants to please both of his parents, but they disagree about everything. His father wants him to act more manly, although Jimmy gets his sensitivity from his mother. He wants to wed his girlfriend, and so accepts a job at his father's iron foundry, but does not excel there. Next, Jimmy goes to a tough dance-hall to impress his girl. A highlight is his parody of an Isadora Duncan dance.
Jimmy Jump has a "plain" girlfriend, and becomes intrigued by a "fancy" girl he spots in a park. Eventually he realizes he is better off with his no-frills girl.
A doting father who plays Santa Claus for Christmas annoys a trolley full of people when he lugs a giant Christmas tree home.
The main premise for the comedy is the Jimmy discovers he can convince people he is a tough figure to be reckoned with merely by giving them a business card identifying him as the bouncer of the "Bucket of Blood Cafe."
This funny Hal Roach comedy has Jimmy Jump (Charley Chase) waking up late for his wedding so in the mad rush he ends up leaving his house only dressed in his pajamas. As he makes his way to the church he finds one disaster after another.
Jimmy always fantasied about racing. But now he has to pay the mortgage before noon or else he won't own his shop any longer.
A movie cameraman is on the lookout for new material but a rival plans to copy everything he films.
Jimmy Jump's boss asks him to meet his small niece and her dog and entertain them between trains. Jimmy buys a balloon or two and looks over the station for a little girl. He takes one by mistake, narrowly escapes being arrested as a kidnapper and finally meets the niece, who is an over-dressed, ultra-modern young woman. The time between trains is spent in trying to hide the dog from the policeman, and when Jimmy puts his charge on the train, he feels that he has done a week's work in a day.
Charley is called upon to go out with his boss on a date with the boss' mistress, to act as a beard.
A man starts working in a department store and has to deal with a female kleptomaniac.
When Charley's wife buys a bulldog for his birthday present and has a special key made for the room in which she keeps it, trouble begins. He finds the key, and his suspicions are aroused. He storms about and makes trouble for all concerned until he learns that a dog, not a man, is behind the closed door.
Jimmy Jump brings his bride to a new bungalow home, selected and furnished by him. All the neighbors come to call that first evening. The man next door is a builder who considers the construction of Jimmy's bungalow far below par. To emphasize his point he pulls down pillars, pokes holes in the floor and uproots the plumbing. When the guests depart the new house is a wreck.
The situation is typically embarrassing and unlikely-but-possible for Charley, but it is at the same time such a simple idea -- Charley shows off by taking a pretty girl back home, wreaks havoc trying to get her in, then discovers that she's married.
Jimmy Jump's young wife goes in strongly for amateur theatricals. After one of her performances a theater manager signs her up. He opens a publicity campaign by having her appear in public in spectacular costumes, with a monkey for a pet. The monkey gets away and Jimmy is elected to capture it. When peace once more descends upon them, the young wife decides to give up her career and devote her time to Jimmy.
Charley, frustrated by his office job, quarrels with his wife, after which they decide to switch jobs. She goes to the office and Charley does the housework. Having never done something like this in his life before, he starts a chaos, something his mother-in-law was expecting...
Amos Kerran and his wife live a traditional, old-fashioned life on a Connecticut farm, while their son and daughter, Arthur and Maybelle, are successes in New York society. The children want to invite their parents to the city at Christmastime but are ashamed of their unrefined appearance.
