Wallace Ford
The rise and fall...and rise of Schlitzie, the lovable man-child performer from Tod Browning's cult film "Freaks." He lived to perform, until he was put in an institution and left to die. His persona earned him a place in Punk history when the Ramones recorded "Pinhead," dolls and jewelry were created in his image, and "American Horror Story: Freakshow" paid homage to him. According to sideshow lore, Schlitzie was one of the most beloved performers.
A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man, who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life.
In the rolling, wooded hills of Tennessee in the 1920s, a 14-year-old orphan, Jace, comes to town with his hound dog and tries to teach him to hunt. Bristle Face is unskilled, but he shows remarkable ability in tracking down foxes. Jace stays with a kindly shopkeeper who defends the boy and Bristle Face against the sheriff whom they have angered.
Fourth reworking of the classic Grace Miller White novel, this time updated to the 60s, with young Scottish lassie Tess (Diane Baker) becoming embroiled in a conflict about a toxic chemical plant near her new home in Pennsylvania.
A band of murderous cowboys have imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. When the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend Tom Morgan and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.
The Deputy is an American western series that aired on NBC from September 1959, to July 1961. The series stars Henry Fonda as Chief Marshal Simon Fry of the Arizona Territory and Allen Case as Deputy Clay McCord, a storekeeper who tried to avoid using a gun.
An aging politician tries to get re-elected one last time in the changing world of the 1950s when TV started to play a bigger part in politics. Based loosely on the career of multi-term Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, this film examines the good and evil inherent in politics and all the things that go into an election. Tracy's uphill battle to stay in office is set against the political machinery that preyed on ethnic hatred and old-time money.
Thornton Wilder's tale of a matchmaker who desires the man she's supposed to be pairing with another woman.
The great best seller by the author of 'The High and the Mighty' storms across the motion picture screen!
In Johnny Concho, Frank Sinatra plays a man who goes from the town bully to town coward!
A Pinkerton detective goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of thieves whose boss is a feisty lady saloonkeeper. Complications ensue.
Ervin Plummer-played by the estimable George Macready, who like his good friend Vincent Price was a man of culture and erudition who specialised in bad guy roles-is a grasping avaricious businessman with a hunger for gold.
After arriving in Texas to escape a scandal back east, lawyer Sam Houston just wants to hang out his shingle, keep a low profile, and stay out of any political intrigue. However, when President Jackson personally orders him to lead the fight for Texan independence, he overcomes his reluctance to become involved and leads his compatriots to a string of victories over the Mexican army.
Lizzie Curry is on the verge of becoming a hopeless old maid. Her wit and intelligence and skills as a homemaker can't make up for the fact that she's just plain plain! Even the town sheriff, File, for whom she harbors a secrect yen, won't take a chance --- until the town suffers a drought and into the lives of Lizzie and her brothers and father comes one Bill Starbuck ... profession: Rainmaker!
A group of stagecoach passengers are held hostage by bandits waiting for a shipment of gold they plan to steal.
Director Robert Parrish's 1955 drama, spanning many years, stars Jane Wyman as a spirited western shopkeeper who watches as her small store flourishes and grows into a hugely profitable business empire. The cast also includes Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest and Wallace Ford.
A Marshal must face unpleasant facts about his past when he attempts to run a criminal gang out of town.
In 1899 Alaska, miners have to protect themselves from a phony legal team trying to steal their gold claims.
Will Lockhart becomes entangled in the happenings of Coronado, an isolated western town, after delivering supplies there. He is especially involved with the Waggomans, an influential ranching family, and begins his search for someone selling rifles to the local Apaches, only to find out it is the son of the most powerful man in the area. It is at this point that his troubles begin.
Jerry and Pete are two friends with no money and are looking for a job. They finally find employment working in a circus, but Jerry has different dreams. He wants to become a clown.
A town despot makes a guileless patsy the sheriff, lives to regret it.
The famed outlaw is talked into saddling up for one more bank robbery.
War looms on the horizon when an Army officer's American Indian aide is accused of murdering a tribal elder.
Nancy Cartwright is determined to collect an $1,800 feed bill owed to her father Harry Cartwright by a rodeo association. Instead, she is talked into assuming management of the rodeo by Slim Martin and the other performers when they learn the promoter has run off with the cash receipts.
Deaf boxer Paul Callan captures the interest of gold-digging blonde Sonya Bartow and retired fight manager 'Pop' Richardson. For a time, Sonya has the upper hand with Paul, but ultimately a rival appears in the shape of upper-crust reporter Ann Hollis. With a 3-way fight under way for influence over Paul, he takes matters into his own hands, but learns that getting what he wanted isn't necessarily a happy ending.
The story of three gold-digging ladies searching for millionaires. A loose remake of Gold Diggers of 1933.
A fisherman with money problems hires out his boat to transport criminals.
A New Mexico cattle man and his strong-willed daughter clash over the man's choice for a new bride. Things get worse when the elder man has his daughter's lover hanged. With the help of an old flame, a gambler, the daughter puts into motion a plan to drive her father from his estate.
The story of Elwood P. Dowd who makes friends with a spirit taking the form of a human-sized rabbit named Harvey that only he sees (and a few privileged others on occasion also.) After his sister tries to commit him to a mental institution, a comedy of errors ensues. Elwood and Harvey become the catalysts for a family mending its wounds and for romance blossoming in unexpected places.
Stoker Thompson is a 35-year-old has-been boxer. His once-promising fighting career has come crashing to the end. Tiny, Stoker's manager, is sure he will continue to lose fights, so he takes money for a "dive" from a mobster, but is so sure that Thompson will lose that he doesn't tell the boxer about the set-up. At the beginning of the last round of the vicious boxing match he learns of the fix.
A man listens to his wife and fakes his own death so that she can get her hands on his insurance policy.
Eddie, (Dane Clark) a small-time hoodlum is forced to care for Marie (Geraldine Brooks) he accidentally hits with his car during a crime. He is broke and hits up his very displeased mob boss for cash. To make matters worse, Eddie and Marie begin to fall for each other.
James Craig is torn between his criminal career as the masked bandit named the "El Paso Kid," and the life of a law-abiding citizen with his long-suffering wife Zoe. He repeatedly tells Zoe, "just one more time," but he is unable to stop which angers her greatly. However, he does have brief moments of heroics such as when he helps the Widow Weeks save her farm.
A man is bent on taking revenge on those responsible for his fiancée's death.
The daughter of famous outlaw Belle Starr arrives at the town where her mother was murdered to find her killer.
Paratroopers Captain 'Rip' Murdock and Sergeant Johnny Drake are mysteriously ordered to travel to Washington, DC. When Drake learns that he is to be awarded the Medal of Honor, he disappears before newspaper photographers can take his picture. Murdock follows the clues and tracks him down, where he learns Drake is dead. Further investigations reveal unexpected twists. Rip learns that Johnny had been accused of murder and sets out to find out whatever he can. He falls in love with Coral whose husband Johnny is supposed to have killed.
Rip Smith's opinion-poll business is a failure...until he discovers that the small town of Grandview is statistically identical to the entire country. He and his assistants go there to run polls cheaply and easily, in total secrecy (it would be fatal to let the townsfolk get self-conscious). And of course, civic crusader Mary Peterman must be kept from changing things too much. But romantic involvement with Mary complicates life for Rip; then suddenly everything changes.
A wife decides to take revenge when she learns her husband has been unfaithful.
A homesick American soldier stationed in England during World War II makes an unauthorized trip to see his wife and returns to England with only two people knowing he was home for a few hours. When she learns that she is pregnant, she does not disclose that her husband had paid her a visit as to not get him into trouble. The townspeople are unanimous in their condemnation of her. But, after his discharge, he enlists the aid of a nightclub singer, the only other person who knew he came home.
A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine (Vincent), and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin (Duryea) team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife. Their investigation leads them to confrontations with a determined policeman (Crawford) and a shifty nightclub owner (Lorre), whom Catherine and Martin suspect may be the real killer.
When Dr. Anthony Edwardes arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwardes is actually an impostor. The man confesses that the real Dr. Edwardes is dead and fears he may have killed him, but cannot recall anything. Dr. Peterson, however is convinced his impostor is innocent of the man's murder, and joins him on a quest to unravel his amnesia through psychoanalysis.
Nick Condon, an American journalist in 1945 Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domination. Reaction from the understandably upset Japanese provides the action, but this is overshadowed by the propaganda of the time.
Portrait of legendary fighter John L. Sullivan, aka "The Boston Strong Boy", and his meteoric rise to become the first gloved World Heavyweight Champion. But the famed boxer is no match for the two women with holds on him, love struck actress Kathy Harkness and the real love of his life, beautiful but unyielding Anne Livingstone.
Secret Command features Pat O'Brien as a onetime foreign correspondent in the wartime employ of the FBI. Under an assumed name, O'BRIEN goes to work at a shipyard, intending to keep both eyes open for potential saboteurs. To maintain the cover, O'BRIEN is given a "wife" (Carole Landis) and two children. When O'BRIEN's brother Chester Morris shows up, he can't comprehend the charade and nearly spills the beans to the Nazi spies O'BRIEN hopes to trap. Based on the short story The Saboteurs by John and Ward Hawkins, Secret Command offers a graying but still feisty Pat O'Brien doing what he does best.
Two Americans stranded in Mexico with an elephant try to sell their animal to a traveling carnival. Low-budget comedy with songs and a misleading title.
French soldiers (Jean-Pierre Aumont, Gene Kelly) surrender to lying Nazis and are herded into a barbaric prison camp.
A bored teen living in Santa Rosa, California, Charlotte "Charlie" Newton, is frustrated because nothing seems to be happening in her life and that of her family. Then, she receives wonderful news: her uncle (for whom she was named), Charlie Oakley, is arriving for a visit. But Uncle Charlie may not be the man he seems to be.
Broadway gambler 'Gloves' Donahue wants to find who killed the baker of his favorite cheesecake. He sees nightclub singer Leda Hamilton leaving the bakery. When her boss Marty's partner Joe is murdered, Leda and her accompanist Pepi disappear. It turns out that beneath all the mystery is a gang of Nazi operatives planning to blow up a battleship in New York harbor.
A high priest of Karnak travels to America with the living mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) to kill all those who had desecrated the tomb of the Egyptian princess Ananka thirty years earlier.
Rural sage Scattergood Baines (Guy Kibbee) shows big-city newsman how to solve a mystery.
A gang of crooks wrestles with the temptation to rob the bank that they now manage.
The relatives of a rich old woman unsuccessfully try to have her declared insane, so they can divide up her money. To show them that there are no hard feelings, she invites them to her estate for the weekend so she can decide to whom she actually will leave her money when she dies. Soon, however, family members begin disappearing.
Bucolic lawyer John Wayne takes on big-city corruption in A Man Betrayed. He sets out to prove that an above-suspicion politician (Edward Ellis) is actually a crook. The price of integrity is sweet in this instance, since Wayne happens to be in love with the politician's daughter (Frances Dee).
Members of a traveling jazz band try to keep their talented leader from dying after he breaks from the band and begins drinking and taking drugs.
While on their honeymoon, a reporter and his new bride stumble upon a ring of fifth columnists.
In despair after breaking up with his girlfriend, a man hires a thug he has never seen to kill him. However, he changes his mind when he falls in love with another woman--but he can't stop the man trying to kill him because he doesn't know who he is.
A couple of young, out-of-work archaeologists in Egypt discover evidence of the burial place of the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka. After receiving funding from an eccentric magician and his beautiful daughter, they set out into the desert only to be terrorized by a sinister high priest and the living mummy Kharis who are the guardians of Ananka’s tomb.
A Hollywood studio goofs and signs the wrong girl--a hillbilly from the Ozarks--to a movie contract. Comedy.
Dead End Kids epic. The boys want desperately to fly, and get mixed up with crooked crop dusters, whose planes are flying deathtraps.
A pretty socialite / pilot runs into gun smugglers when she lands her plane on a Pacific island.
Eddie sells his song to a Broadway producer and also lands a job dancing in the musical. He sends for his dance partner-fiancée Molly who brings her younger sister Pat. Upon seeing Molly and Pat dance, the producer picks Pat for the show and gives Molly a job selling cigarettes. A wealthy friend of the Producer named Chad, also has is eye on Pat. Pat is teamed with Eddie in the specialty number as Kerns and Mahoney. Pat and Eddie soon realize that they are in love and must tell Molly. Pat balks at hurting Molly and goes out with Chad who already has five ex-wives.
The life of a young kid, who starts stealing small things to fit in with the "cool crowd".
Carla de Hulvea is a rumba dancer who makes news by posing as a South-American heiress. She is doing fine with her hoax until she meets American Peter Jackson, a high-pressure promoter who is looking for movie-producing money. He does some big-time bluffing on his own in order to get Carla to invest in a film he is making with his partner, Roy Harley. Through Carla, Roy meets actress Diana West, who is given a role in the movie, and Roy falls in love with her.
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.
American racketeer Jimmie Dean travels to England, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian whom he has been falsely accused of murdering. Jimmie is then forced to join the British army in the dead man's place. He falls in love with the Canadian's childhood playmate, Sally Briggs, and becomes a hero after saving an isolated English colony in China.
A fired cameraman by way of a girl's mistaken identity wins back his job through pioneering work in television.
Escaped convicts Jack and Judy stumble upon an airstrip on the Western ranch of arrogant business tycoon Gerald Axton. Taking Axton and his secretary hostage, the convicts inadvertently cause the crash-landing of a small plane ferrying Axton's political adversary, Gov. Sam Pruden, and a nosy reporter. As the long night unfolds, each person's rivalries and weaknesses are prodded by the others.
Director Benjamin Stoloff's 1936 mystery, set in Boston, stars Walter Abel as an amnesiac and Margot Grahame as an unemployed stage actress who work together to solve the murder of a playwright.
Bill Crane, race-car driver has an accident while racing and finds himself unable to return to the fast-paced racetrack. Looking for another occupation he meets a girl, Sally Sullivan, who runs a roadside lunch-wagon and she helps him get a job as a truck driver. They fall in love and get married. He gets a contract to haul a load of dynamite and, when coming down a steep mountain, he finds his truck's brakes have been sabotaged, just as were the brakes on his race-car.
Gypo Nolan is a former Irish Republican Army man who drowns his sorrows in the bottle. He's desperate to escape his bleak Dublin life and start over in America with his girlfriend. So when British authorities advertise a reward for information about his best friend, current IRA member Frankie, Gypo cooperates. Now Gypo can buy two tickets on a boat bound for the States, but can he escape the overwhelming guilt he feels for betraying his buddy?
A young woman who owns a coffee shop falls for a handsome young customer, unaware that he is a gangster.
The surgeon who did the job was dead. Only the nurse knew what this gangster looked like in his new face. He learned about women from her!
The wealthy Van Dyke family are constantly in the media for outrageous behavior, much to the frustration of the patriarch, Dan Van Dyke. His self-centered wife has a fondness for foreign imports, including "pet projects" like dancers and such and his spoiled children Tony and Carol have constant run-ins with the law. When Dan himself ends up in the clink for five years for tax evasion, he becomes bunk-mates with ex-bootlegger Joe "Spots" Ricardi. Ricardi lectures him on being such a push-over for an out-of-control family, so a dying Dan makes Ricardi his estate trustee once he is released from prison. Ricardi is then thrust into high society and must do everything he once nagged Dan to do.
Life gets complicated for a taxi driver when it's discovered that he's the spitting image of the murdered heir to a fortune.
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.
Ordinary man-in-the-street Arthur Ferguson Jones leads a very straightforward life. He's never late for work and nothing interesting ever happens to him. One day everything changes: he oversleeps and is fired as an example, he's then mistaken for evil criminal killer Mannion and is arrested. The resemblance is so striking that the police give him a special pass to avoid a similar mistake. The real Mannion sees the opportunity to steal the pass and move around freely and chaos results.
Bob and Helen decide to move to California and make a fresh start. Bob wants to buy a nut farm, but Helen dreams of being in the movies. While Bob is looking for a farm to buy, Helen is taken in by a group of scam artists who promise to make her a star. Helen's brother Willie tries to prevent her and Bob from losing all their money to the scam artists.
A misogynistic reporter finds himself taking up the cause of a young women he believes is falsely accused of killing her husband.
At Joe's Roadside, a popular but rundown New York roadhouse where the wealthy and not-so-wealthy hang out, a wealthy Manhattan girl and a struggling Brooklyn boy meet and fall in love. She marries him against the wishes of her family, believing that love can solve everything, but she soon wonders if she made the right choice when she finds herself living in a manner, and with the kinds of people, she hadn't counted on.
A parade highlights the Screen Actors Guild's Film Stars Frolic, hosted by Walter Winchell as Master of Ceremonies.
Bela Lugosi stars as Mr. Wong, a "harmless" Chinatown shopkeeper by day and relentless blood-thirsty pursuer of the Twelve Coins of Confucius by night. With possession of the coins, Mr. Wong will be supreme ruler of the Chinese province of Keelat, and his evil destiny will be fulfilled. A killing spree follows in dark and dangerous Chinatown as Wong gets control of 11 of the 12 coins. Reporter Jason Barton Wallace Ford and his girl Peg are hot on his trail, but soon find themselves in serious trouble when they stumble onto Wong's headquarters.
A dedicated young doctor places his patients above everyone else in his life. Unfortunately, his social register fianceé can't accept the fact that he considers an appointment in the operating room more important that attending a cocktail party. He soon drifts into an affair with a pretty nurse who shares his passion for healing.
A World War I British Army patrol is crossing the Mesopotamian desert when their commanding officer, the only one who knows their destination, is killed by the bullet of unseen bandits. The patrol's sergeant keeps them heading north on the assumption that they will hit their brigade. They stop for the night at an oasis and awaken the next morning to find their horses stolen, their sentry dead, the oasis surrounded and survival difficult.
A temperamental movie star storms off the set of her latest picture in order to carry on a fling with an ambitious, publicity-hungry prizefighter.
Elizabeth Rimplegar inhabits a household populated by virtual lunatics. Her mother, Nellie, mishandled the family fortune, and, alas, the stock market crash has depleted their worth. Elizabeth's goofy brothers cannot easily adjust to the life of the average worker. Meanwhile, the family doctor has his eye on Elizabeth, but he will have to compete with her suitor, an ill-informed writer.
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.
The heirs to a family fortune are required to attend a seance at the spooky old family mansion. However, throughout the night members of the family are being killed off one by one.
Flirtatious mix-ups abound when a celebrated novelist tangles with an old flame and her suspicious husband. Will the author's savvy secretary, who's secretly in love with him, save his neck?
A circus on the verge of bankruptcy decides to save itself by staging a animal act with lions and tigers for the first time.
Kurt Anderson is the tyrannical manager of a New York department store in financial straits. He thinks nothing of firing an employee of more than 20 years or of toying with the affections of every woman he meets. One such victim is Madeline, a beautiful young woman in need of a job. Anderson hires her as a salesgirl, but not before the two spend the night together. Madeline is ashamed, especially after she falls for Martin West, a rising young star at the store. Her biggest fear is that Martin finds out the truth about her "career move."
Two destitute New Yorkers meet cute in Central Park and then separate and independently get tangled up with some gangsters only to be reunited again in the end.
The evils of alcohol before and during prohibition become evident as we see its effects on the rich Chilcote family and the hard working Tarleton family.
Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick is after gangster Sam Belmonte. He uses his corrupt brother Ed to watch over Daisy who was associated with Belmonte.
A circus worker wins a sweepstakes prize of $150,000 and must travel to England to present his ticket and collect his winnings. He books passage on a transatlantic liner, but on board is a shady hypnotist who hears about the man's good fortune. He manages to get a chance to hypnotize the winner and then takes his ticket, after which he disappears. When the man wakes up and realizes his ticket has been stolen, he sets out to find the phony "professor" and reclaim his ticket.
Skyscraper Souls is a Pre-Code 1932 drama film starring Warren William and Maureen O'Sullivan. The film was directed by Edgar Selwyn and is based upon the novel Skycraper by Faith Baldwin. The film depicts the aspirations and lives of several people in the Seacoast National Bank Building. Among them is David Dwight, the womanizing bank owner who keeps his estranged wife happy by paying her bills. His secretary Sarah wants him to get a divorce so they can marry.
WBLA is on the air, presenting the live music, the sudsy dramas and the sell-sell-sell of commercial interludes that keep consumers buying and sponsors smiling. But one sponsor, a producer of plumbing supplies, isn’t happy. So WBLA scriptwriter Bill Grimes is bounced from his job, setting in motion this movie’s turn from comedic to darkly tragic. William Haines, two years removed from being Tinseltown’s top male star, plays Grimes in a melodrama noted for its glimpses of live radio production and for a Depression-era ethos that includes peroxide cuties eager to land a job, a sugar daddy or both.
The story begins in 1923 where after an accident, a newspaper reporter needs to raise $5,000 to pay for an operation, otherwise his young sister will be crippled for life. The desperate reporter is finally able to get the cash from a shady acquaintance, Riggs. Eight years later in New York, circumstances conspire to place the reporter as the number one suspect in the murder of a showgirl. With no witness or alibi, the reporter devises a plan to smoke out the real culprit. A meeting is arranged under the cover of night and to the surprise of both men, the murderer is Riggs. Out of gratitude for past generosity to his sister, the reporter agrees not to expose Riggs, however unwittingly leads the police to him! Riggs is found guilty, and a dramatic scene in the courthouse ensues.
Heir to a Balkan throne, Prince Nicholai falls in love with an American vocalist who is touring with an operetta company in Europe. When he makes known his intention to renounce his heritage and marry Mary Lou, his mother has him locked up and orders Mary Lou back to the United States.
