Mary Carlisle

Bing Crosby was, without a doubt, the most popular and influential multi-media star of the first half of the twentieth century, pulling audiences in with his intimate, laid-back voice and innate charm. Narrated by Stanley Tucci and directed by Robert Trachtenberg, this film explores the life and legend of this iconic performer, revealing a personality far more complex than the image the public had only thought they'd known.

We meet Doctor Lloyd Clayton at the funeral of his twin brother, evil magician Elwyn. Zolarr, Elwyn's hunchbacked servant, acccuses Lloyd of Elwyn's murder, but Lloyd claims it was self-defense. Lloyd's niece Gayle and her fiance Harper soon find that Elwyn's evil influence is still at work.

4.7/10

Richard Arlen and Phil Terry star as Skimmer and Tommy, two lifelong buddies who've invented a lightweight, high-speed torpedo boat (hence the title). Their copacetic business relationship is strained when nightclub singer Grace Holman (Jean Parker), having been jilted by Skimmer, marries Tommy on the rebound.

7.5/10

This homey little comedy is predicated on the notion that bucolic country boy Morgan (Richard Cromwell) is the son of a notorious Roaring-Twenties racketeer. Morgan Senior's former gang, pining for their glory days, appoint "Baby Face" Morgan as their leader and resume their criminal activities. Their strategy is sublime: with the FBI busily beating the bushes for Nazi spies, who's going to pay attention to a bunch of middle-aged Prohibition gangsters? Unaware that he's being used as a figurehead, Morgan gets mixed up in a crooked insurance scheme, but by film's end he's figured out a way to clear himself and the mob, with everyone learning a lesson in the process. Reviewers in 1942 were amused by Baby Face Morgan but deplored its threadbare production values, noting that at one point the klieg lights could be seen reflecting on the bald dome of supporting player Vince Barnett!

5.2/10

A framed cabby rounds up fur thieves and saves his opera-singer girlfriend.

6/10

Judy O'Brien is an aspiring ballerina in a dance troupe. Also in the company is Bubbles, a brash mantrap who leaves the struggling troupe for a career in burlesque. When the company disbands, Bubbles gives Judy a thankless job as her stooge. The two eventually clash when both fall for the same man.

6.7/10
8.3%

Rancher Autry takes a job singing on the radio to aid farmers and ranchers whose lands were destroyed by raging floods. Blaming crooked politicians, he goes to Washington and tries to put through a food control bill and finds he has a lot to learn. In this classic release, Gene introduces his immortal theme song, "Back in the Saddle Again," which has gone on to become a piece of American History.

6.8/10

A Coney Island fun house is a major setting of this 1939 comedy in which bumbling detective Joe E. Brown interrupts his honeymoon to pursue a wanted killer.

6.3/10

Bandleader Tim Hartley's father objects strongly to his son's occupation choice and packs him off to Hawaii to manage the family hotel holdings. This proves to be a wrong move as Hawaiia has more bands than it does pineapples.

6.9/10

A prize-winning stallion breeds off-guard with a mare owned by his rival. The colt is trained to race from birth, eventually running in the Kentucky Derby against another horse owned by its sire.

A rookie cop and his girlfriend's uncle, a police captain, disagree on the methods that should be used to catch criminals.

4.2/10

A tough street kid attempts to rob a post office and is caught. In order to avoid reform school, he takes a job as a messenger with the post office. He finds that he likes it, and when his brother is released from prison, attempts to help his brother go straight. However, the two of them get mixed up with a local gangster, who has plans to start robbing post office branches and using the messenger and his brother to do it.

6.4/10

G-Man Charles Bent Martin is sent out to break up a nationwide racket. A transport company is aiding fugitives making a getaway in exchange for the lion's share of their loot. Through an old friend, whom he once barnstormed in an air circus, Martin joins the gang as a pilot. He becomes interested in Carol Butler, a beautiful girl involved with the gang through the activities of her ne'er-do-well father.

6.3/10

Dr. Bill Remsen pretends to be a policeman, and ends up being assigned to guard Judy Marlowe. Amazingly, he falls in love with her.

5.9/10

Notorious racketeer Joe Albany kills James Flowers when he discovers he is embezzling from the club they own. Joe escapes through a window and hails a taxi, but when he gets nervous at the sound of sirens, he jumps out. Hardware salesman Peter Harris accidentally hits Joe with his car, and unharmed, Joe seizes this opportunity to hide in Peter's car. Peter is so drunk that Joe is able to con him into believing that he is Charles Edwards, a fellow hardware man who was with him at a convention, and in the guise of friendship, accompanies Peter to his suburban home. The next morning, Joe gets antsy and wants to leave, but Peter's family, his wife Mary, young son Robert and daughter Jane all entreat him to stay.

6/10

A federal agent goes after a hijacking ring that uses beautiful women to help it hijack the rigs of unsuspecting truckers.

5.8/10

An American golf pro falls in love with a woman while visiting France; before long they are married and in the US. Upon their arrival, they are dismayed to discover that the golfer's parents have arranged for him to marry a wealthy socialite so they can use her money to support their business....

6.8/10

Prep football star Jimmy Howal gets a reception far different from what he expected when he enters West Point.

7.3/10

Two football players fight over the same girl.

6.6/10

Parkhouse plays a practical joke on a poker-playing buddy by sending him home with a lady's chemise stuffed in his coat pocket. The gag backfires, whereupon Parkhouse finds himself in hot water with his own wife. Threatened with divorce, Parkhouse is advised by a zany astrologer to frame Mrs. P. in a compromising situation at the Hotel Haywire, enlisting amateur detectives Bert and Genevieve Sterns in his scheme.

6.8/10

In this lively musical, an eccentric philanthropist's will dictates that four people receive $5,000 with the stipulation that the first one who can double the amount-- without dishonesty-- will win a cool million. Hindering the four are the avaricious relatives of the late millionaire. Songs include: "It's On, It's Off," "Double or Nothing," "Listen My Children," "Smarty," "The Moon Got in My Eyes" and "After You."

6.6/10

Previously filmed in 1930 as True to the Navy, Kenyon Nicholson's old stage farce Sailor Beware returned to the screen in 1936 as Lady Be Careful. The plot remains substantially the same, as an amorous sailor named Dynamite (Lew Ayres) bets his pals that he can "thaw" icy beauty-contest winner Billie (Mary Carlisle). What follows is a series of misunderstandings, arguments and reconciliations, all wrapped up in a happy-ever-after conclusion.

6.6/10

When a king suddenly abdicates, his subjects are lead to believe that it is for the love of a foreigner in this romance. In reality, he is stepping down so avaricious businessmen can crown their own man king. The deposed monarch spends his exile on the Riviera, while the woman, filled with guilt because he stepped down for her, lives in Holland. Interestingly enough, Edward VIII the King of England abdicated for the love of American woman Wallis Simpson a few weeks after this British film was released.

An elderly schoolteacher is determined to rid her town of the local gambling den.

5.6/10

Crime novelist Roger Blackwood competes with hotel house detective Andy McCabe in solving a murder by poisoning at a medical convention.

5.9/10

A New York radio talent scout turns up at a barn dance.

6.8/10

Mary, a woman with good intentions, takes pity on Henry, an artist with no home. What begins as a simple offer to come inside from the cold for tea gradually turns into more. Before the unsuspecting woman knows it, Henry has convinced Mary to pay for doctor visits. It spirals out of control when Henry, his family and friends con their way into her home. Eventually, Mary creates a ruse to rid herself of the parasites, but they have a different plan.

7/10

An eccentric millionaire, unable to locate his only granddaughter, decides to divide his estate among a group of people less close to him: his niece and nephew, his attorney, his doctor, and his housekeeper. But complications and murder arise when two different women turn up, claiming to be the granddaughter.

6.2/10

Always-broke racetrack tout shows his true colors when setting up an apartment for his girl friend.

Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match…but can they get themselves out of their current fix? Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, but first the two sharpies must dodge a dogged IRS agent and bilk a bunch of aviation investors out of the backing boodle for a balloon excursion into the stratosphere.

5.9/10

Ruth Raymond works on the switchboard and her boyfriend is John Blake. It has taken 14 years, but a detective named Murray has found her and confirmed.

6.2/10

Joe Palooka is a naive young man whose father Pete was a champion boxer, but his lifestyle caused Joe's mother Mayme to leave him and to take young Joe to the country to raise him.

6.1/10

A conceited college track star, used to being "big man on campus", gets a jolt when he loses an election to see who is the most popular man in the school.

5.7/10

The Great Elmer and Company, two out-of-work magicians, help lovelorn Jerry Bronson adopt Spanky Milford, to distract him. When Bronson makes up and elopes, the pair are stuck with the little boy. But Spanky inherits a Kentucky fortune, so they head south to Banesville, where the Milfords and Wakefields are conducting a bitter feud.

6/10

Lionel Barrymore stars in this 1934 comedy-drama about a man contending with personal and family problems.

6.4/10

To stop his mother from marrying a man he doesn't like, a young millionaire hires an ex-con in helping him fake his own kidnaping.

6.3/10

An able nurse clashes with a new doctor at her hospital.

6.3/10

Jim Fowler is Western University's football hero and is constantly besieged by reporters. Jim's father Ezra comes to visit him and becomes reacquainted with an old Western football chum, Mr. Chandler, who happens to be the father of Jim's girlfriend Joan. Jim keeps his roommate, Andy, busy by sending him to collect money on their laundry concessions business, even though Andy is desperately trying to meet his girlfriend Thelma, who has just come for a visit. When the coach tells Chandler and Fowler that Jim is nervous and erratic, Chandler invites Jim to spend the night before the big game at his home.

7/10

A kindly, elderly couple who run a New York City boarding house form the steady center around which the lives and loves of their various residents unfold. Borrowed money, a lovelorn chorus girl, and a tragic misunderstanding set in motion the chain of events in East of Fifth Avenue’s tender pageant of life.

7.2/10

A campus flirt who has been "pinned" by most of the boys of Sigma Chi fraternity falls for a no-nonsense athlete who doesn't have time for such diversions as women.

6.6/10

Prophetic tale of a mother in 1940 trying to keep her son out of war.

6.1/10

A middle-aged houseguest causes romantic turmoil when he falls in love with his host's teenage daughter. Director Harry Beaumont's pre-code comedy stars Lionel Barrymore, Alice Brady, Godfrey Tearle, Mary Carlisle, William Janney, Katharine Alexander and Halliwell Hobbes.

5.9/10

A college professor and the school's star football player are both rivals for the same beautiful coed.

5.9/10

Lighthearted comedy film following the (mis)adventures of four gold diggers.

6.8/10

Scheduled for demolition, Hotel Continental has seen 50 years of romance, intrigue, and tragedy. The last night attracts many nostalgic patrons, including a gangster planning to grab the loot that he hid there many years ago.

5.7/10

A woman is accused of murdering a man who molested her young daughter.

5.6/10

Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through worry, scandal, and heartache.

7.4/10
8.6%

John has lead a solitary life for thirty years since the death of Moonyeen Clare. But now Owens, a close friend, insists that he care for his niece, Kathleen, orphaned when her parents were lost at sea. Kathleen is five, but the years pass and now she is a young woman who is the image of Moonyeen. Willy wants Kathleen for his wife, but Sparks fly when she meets Kenneth Wayne one dark and stormy night. John is horrified for it was Wayne's father who shot Moonyeen dead on her wedding day and John has never found him or forgiven the family. When Ken goes off to war, John forbids any marriage and Ken agrees, while Kathleen does not. When Ken returns four years later when the war is over, he is crippled. He conceals his condition and makes plans to leave for America.

6.9/10

Donald Ingals and his wife Eunice are conventional and loving parents who are shocked when their son Bradley comes home from college with ideas that they consider to be outrageous. His parents would like him to get involved with Mary Burke, a prim and proper young lady. More complications ensue because Bradley's sister Lois is attracted to the flapper lifestyle, but she isn't sure whether she can handle its emotional demands.

7.2/10

In this short, Mary Carlisle is in love with Harry and they have a fight and she storms off. At the same time, Mary's father (Edgar Kennedy) has recently remarried and he's sick of his wife talking about how great Harry Barris is! And, on top of that, when Edgar meets Harry it ends very badly for Edgar!

6/10

Husband and father Will Rogers tells his spoiled wife and children that they have to economize.

6.3/10

A corrupt night court judge tears an innocent young family apart in his efforts to elude a special prosecutor.

7/10

Daisy is visiting her sailor boyfriend Glenn aboard a submarine when it leaves port. Fearful of what may happen if an officer discovers a woman on board, she is hidden in a big chest.

An aspiring classical singer is romanced by both a famous opera star and his younger understudy.

5.7/10

Angela and Bob Brooks are an upper class couple. Bob is an unfaithful husband. Angela has a plan to win back his affections.

6.5/10
4%

A comedy romance in which breezy Haines, as a young lady killer, tries to capture the heart of Hyams who has turned him down for Bushman. Haines plots dozens of extreme measures to win her over, and finally goes so far as to drag her from the altar, bound and gagged.

5.3/10

A wild-partying flapper marries a cowboy and tries to adjust to life on a western ranch.

4.7/10

A successful songwriter, dazzled by high society, falls for a society girl who is just playing around.

5.7/10

At Satan & Co., Inc., the devil is upset because too many people are going up to Heaven rather than down to Hades. He gives his assistant, Mr. Burns, the task of getting more people to his domain. In front of a nightclub, Mr. Burns invites a crowd of people to come inside to The Devil's Cabaret to be entertained. After they enjoy songs and dancing, the people go willingly to Hades.

6.3/10

A bored society woman invites scandal and heartache when she falls in love with her low-born chauffeur.

6.1/10

A young crown prince, wishing to be just an ordinary boy, runs away with his friend. The king dies, and when the prince does not appear, the people begin to rise in revolution. When the crown prince finally hears the death knell for the late king he immediately attempts to return to the palace, however is abducted by revolutionaries and held captive. Will he be rescued in time to restore order?

7.2/10