Louis J. Gasnier
In 2004, 20th Century Fox, in collaboration with Legend Films, released a colorized version of "Reefer Madness" (Tell Your Children, 1936) on DVD. The cautionary tale features a fictionalized take on the use of marijuana. A trio of drug dealers lead innocent teenagers to become addicted to "reefer" cigarettes by holding wild parties with jazz music.
Robert Gordon (Leon Janney), a sheltered 18-year-old youth reared in a Catholic school, believes he has a vocation for the priesthood. He is taken to live with his father in his palatial Florida home. There he falls in love with his step-sister, Patricia Morrow (Eleanor Hunt), ten years his senior. He runs away and joins the R.A.F. Shot down in battle, he is rescued and taken to a monastery where he renounces the world to study for the priesthood.
The murder of an 8-year-old boy by a young soldier in Tijuana, Mexico, leads to riots on the streets. Based on a true story.
Unknown to Joan Manning, her trading post partner Weathers is operating a counterfeiting ring. When miner Jim Smithers brings his gold dust in, Weathers pays him off in counterfeit money. Jim's drunken brother, Bill, comes to the post and Weathers hears him say that Jim is leaving the area for good. Weathers sends Hawks to kill Jim and retrieve the bogus money. RCMP Sergeant Renfrew and Constable Kelly find Jim's body, and Renfrew hurries for Jim's cabin to search it. He is attacked by Weathers' men who have found the money. Renfrew is suspicious when Bill Smithers body is found, supposedly a suicide, with a note he had burned the money. This leads the Mounties to suspect counterfeiting. Kelly follows Manti, an Indian who works for Weathers, to the gang's hideout and is captured. But Renfrew is trailing Kelly.
A nightclub dancer (Sally Rand) seeks vengeance for the murder of her father.
High-school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll relates to an audience of parents that marijuana can have devastating effects on teens. In his story, a drug supplier entices several restless teens, including sister and brother Mary and Jimmy Lane and Mary's boyfriend, Bill, into frequenting a "reefer" house. Gradually, Bill and Jimmy are drawn into smoking dope, which affects their family lives and leads to a terrible crime.
Marine Lieutenant Steve Landers has perfected a new bomb-release for airplanes which he is testing with the aid of his mechanics,'Singapore' Stebbins and Jack Murray. Dick Weber, one of a group of enemy agents attempting to steal the plans, is a friend of Colonel Dale, whose daughter, Linda, is engaged to Landers. Weber learns that "Singapore" and Jack are to deliver the final blueprints to the Colonel's home. Beckstrom , head of the spy ring, has some of his agents dress as Marines and obtain entry the the hangar. They get the plans but "Singapore" and Jack have overheard a conversation that indicates the spies are heading for a nearby island which is the headquarters of the espionage group.
At the request of the Mexican government, a federal agent and a lady reporter team up to catch a gang that has been smuggling gold from Mexico to the U.S. and then selling it to the U.S. government.
A federal agent learns the gangsters he's been investigating have kidnapped his sister.
During WW1, the destinies of British officers Michael Andrews and John Stevenson seem intertwined on the battle front as much as on a more personal level.
Carlos Acosta (Carlos Gardel), tied to a flirty wife and in love with another girl, watches fate work out a solution that allows him to return to his real love after trips to Paris and New York City.
The life of Roberto (Carlos Gardel) takes place in a suburban bar between singing and letters. There, along with his partner, as scamming unsuspecting lives falls into the table. One night she crosses paths a young piano teacher (Imperio Argentina) hear him sing and gives him the chance to do it professionally. The fame and love give Roberto a chance to redeem himself.
Tired of the dangerous life as gambling boss, Ace Corbin 'retires' from the racket and travels cross-country by train to begin a new life with a new name. On the train, he meets Eleanor and they fall in love. Eleanor is afraid to tell Ace she's a soiled dove and Ace doesn't tell Eleanor of his shady past. Old enemies won't let Ace begin his new life, and old commitments's won't free Eleanor of her sordid ties. Ace's old life and Eleanor's deception collide with the typical results. But love conquers all!
A young dress designer marries an insurance agent. They soon have a daughter, but what the wife doesn't know is that her husband is actually a criminal...
A framework story serves as context for a retelling of the Exodus story and, most importantly, a recycling of footage from the silent version of The Ten Commandments.
Sailor Joe Hart, who is spending his shore leave at a gambling joint, sells his gun to young Laurie Roberts after losing terribly. After Hart again loses his last dime, he leaves the joint and steals a car in order to return to his ship. Later that night, a tough gambler named "The Weasel" convinces Laurie, who also lost badly, that Baldy, the joint's owner, is crooked, and they both return to the joint to break open the safe. During the holdup, The Weasel kills Baldy with Joe's gun and, after being picked up for speeding, Joe is arrested for murder.
Passing herself off as a countess, glamorous Lucy Stavrin hobnobs with the rich and famous along the French Riviera. Aware that Lucy is a phony, jewel-thief Malatroff blackmails Lucy into helping him steal the valuable necklace owned by the young wife of phlegmatic American businessman Sylvester Corbett.
John Nelson, a well-to-do businessman, is escorting a woman he knows as Ethel Barry to the door of her apartment suite when a man steps out of the shadows and angrily demands to know where she has been. The embarrassed Nelson excuses himself and goes to his rooms in the same hotel. The woman rushes into his apartment followed by the man who met her in the hall. The man threatens her with violence and Nelson comes to her defense. In the ensuing fight, the man is knocked out of the window and falls to his death to the pavement many stories down. He is charged with the killing and his only witness that can prove self-defense for him has disappeared, and can not be found.
Marya gets friendly with General Platoff in order to save her husband Victor from being executed.
Paramount Pictures produced this French-language version of Slightly Scarlet (1930) , shot on the same sets and using some of the same actors, for the European market.
Phony spiritualists were given a good going-over in the early talkie melodrama Darkened Rooms. Evelyn Brent stars as Ellen, a fraudulent medium working in cahoots with genuine clairvoyant Emory Jago (Neil Hamilton). The plotline is secondary; the film's main purpose was to emulate the methods of such professional "de-bunkers" as Mrs. Harry Houdini by exposing the various tricks of the spiritualist's trade.
The Dummy is a 1929 American comedy film directed by Robert Milton and written by Harriet Ford, Harvey J. O'Higgins, Herman J. Mankiewicz and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The film stars Fredric March, John Cromwell, Fred Kohler, Mickey Bennett, Vondell Darr, Jack Oakie and ZaSu Pitts. The film was released on March 9, 1929, by Paramount Pictures.
This western comedy is about rancher Finlayson's beautiful daughter, Martha Sleeper, who refuses to marry the bad guy and how Jimmy and dimwitted cowhand Stan bumble their way into a successful defense of her and the ranch.
A light hearted comedy romance involving a fake French woman and lots of 1920's fashions
After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, taking their young son Oliver with her. Barnaby follows her, to ask for custody of the boy, but meets and falls in love with Richmiel's pretty and sensitive cousin Ledda. Complications ensue.
Armand and Marie survive in the streets until a scientist takes them in after a botched robbery.
Margot Le Blanc loses her small fortune at Monte Carlo and makes the acquaintance of Hugh Kildair, an artist, who hires her as a housekeeper. A gang of thieves set a trap for Kildair when they find that he knows a mathematical system guaranteed to win at the gambling table.
John Warriner, facing financial ruin, accepts the proposal of a bootlegger, Benedict, to underwrite the business of illegal wine-selling. His daughter, Angela, takes up with the jazz set and is caught in a raid, at a cafe owned by Benedict. Her former sweetheart, Carl Graham, comes to the rescue and saves her from notoriety, while the family struggles back to its former respectability following Warriner's prison term.
Ottilie Van Zandt is forced to wed her cousin, despite her love for Richard Wayne, the gardener's son. Richard leaves, vowing to return a wealthy man and eligible suitor for her. He returns to find she has already married and, in turn, marries another girl on impulse. Two generations later, the grandchildren of Ottilie and Richard, who both have inherited their names as well, meet and develop a close friendship that culminates in the romance that their grandparents began but could not consummate years before.
Sedgewick Blynn is determined to marry a rich woman. One night he saves a child from a fire. Bessie Morgan, an heiress charmed by his act of heroism, promises to marry him, but at the last minute her father forbids it. Soon after, Blynn receives a telegram informing him of the death of his mother, and he realizes that he has wasted his life.
Originally written for Pearl White, this silent serial is a great action-packed adventure starring Molly King and Leon Bary. This serial had fifteen chapters, each one two reels in length. The chapters were: 1. The Lady in Number '7' 2. The Masked Stranger 3. An Hour to Live 4. Kidnapped 5. The Life Current 6. The Dead Come Back 7. Into Thin Air 8. The Stranger Disposes 9. When Jail Birds Fly 10. The Hole-in-the-Wall 11. Love's Sacrifice 12. Riddle of the Double Cross 13. The Face of the Stranger 14. The Hidden Brand 15. Mystery of the Double Cross.
The Perils of Pauline is a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring the actress Pearl White playing the title character. Pauline has often been cited as a famous example of a damsel in distress, although some analyses hold that her character was more resourceful and less helpless than the classic damsel stereotype.
Elaine Dodge is the beautiful young daughter of Taylor Dodge, president of the Consolidated Insurance Company. When Mr Dodge is murdered by a mysterious cloaked figure known only as the Clutching Hand, Elaine enlists the aid of Craig Kennedy to unmask the killer
Astigmatic, Max apologizes to lampposts, kisses the wrong lady, and is challenged to a duel.
Max and Mick, two brothers, have prepared for a merry spree and are actually stepping into their cab when it occurs to them they are penniless. Lots are drawn to see who shall beard stern father and make the necessary touch. The choice falls on Max who is far from successful in his mission, and he communicates the bad news to his brother Mick, who after thinking announces that he has an idea.
n a snowy Alpine district Max takes his first lessons in the art of skiing. He leaves the hotel with his skis fixed to his shoes, and his efforts and contortions to get through the door of his room are absurdly ludicrous. Finally he manages to get out and we see him making frantic efforts to maintain his equilibrium on the fairly gentle slope.
Recommended by a friend of the Ambigu Theatre, Max equipped letter is received in the Pathe. Submitted to the Director he then tests before the director of the house. A week later he was summoned to Joinville studios. Must play a husband who comes home late. It is defenestrated by his wife and daughter, receiving on its head bed, mattress wardrobe ... A fight ensues, rolling on the tarmac is copiously watered by a municipal officer.
The film is quite sophisticated for it's time with a relatively large number of scene changes as we follow Max's misadventures. It also features a close-up shot to show his reactions to the effects of the cigar he is smoking.
A laundry man parks his horse-drawn cart to make a delivery. While he is inside, his horse sees a bag of oats and starts to eat them. By the time the man comes back outside, the horse has eaten a whole bag of oats, and has so much energy that he begins to race out of control.
A young man is seen entering his room and from the many expressions on his worn face one could not doubt that he is just returning from one grand night with the boys, and is in no condition to be annoyed or disturbed. After administering to his wants in the form of headache tablets, he goes to lie down for a while and sleep the effects of the previous night off. In a room directly over him are a number of people conducting a rehearsal.
Suffering from unrequited love, Max hangs himself from a tree, and ends up hanging for hours while local townspeople squabble over whose responsibility it is to rescue him.
A young student goes to his father and asks for money. When this isn't enough he goes to his mother who gives him more. Happy, he meets his friends who are at a cafe with two young women. They eat and drink and the waiter comes with the bill and demands the student pay it. A fight ensues and he is brought back to his parents house in a carriage. His parents wake up and rush to their son who can't furnish an explanation.
