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Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd
CAST:Abbott and Costello portray island castaways who become involved with Captain Kidd, a treasure map, and Captain Bonney, a female pirate.
Studio: Warner Brothers
Runtime: 70 minutes / Colour
CAST:
Robert Leffingwell is the newly appointed Secretary of State who must withstand a rigorous Senate confirmation process. Armed with the knowledge that Leffingwell was once a Communist, Senator Seabright Cooley, leads the fight against this appointment.
Studio: Columbia
Runtime: 139 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Dr. Ravic is an illegal alien practicing medicine in Paris before World War II. He befriends Joan Madou (Ingred Bergman), who falls in love with him. After he is again deported from France, she moves in with Alex. On several occasions, Alex beats Joan and finally shotts her. Ravic tries to save her, but she dies on the operating table as the war begings.
Studio: Enterprise-United Artists
Run time: 130 minutes / B&W
The Barretts of Wimpole Streets
CAST:In this sophisticated soap opera, Elizabeth Barrett, an invalid oppressed by her tyrannical father, writes to Robert Browning, whose poems she greatly admires. He eventually comes to visit her, and, much against her father's wishes, they elope to Italy and become two of England's most beloved poets.
Studio: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Run time: 110 minutes / B&W
CAST:
A film expertly tailored to the talents of the Laughtons, a drunken renegade, Ginger Ted, continually causes problems for a prom missionary, Martha Jones, and her brother, Owen Jones, as they attempt to do their good work in the Dutch East Indies. After some harrowing experiences together, Ginger Ted and Martha discover that they have fallen in love. They marry and return to England to lead respectable lives as owners of an inn.
Studio: Mayflower Pictures
Run time: 90 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Kim Walker is a waitress with dreams of singing on Boradway. She focuses her efforts on star actor, John Sheridan.
Studio: Universal
Run time: 100 minutes / B&W
CAST:
This tightly-knit suspense film features Ray Milland as George Stroud, an editor for CRIMEWAYS magazine. The magazine is run by the punctual Earl Janoth. Stroud meets Pauline York and discovers that she is blackmailing Janoth. Following a drunken evening with Stroud, Pauline is killed by Janoth. Looking for someone else to blame, Janoth has Stroud investigate the murder and gives him false clues to follow. Stroud finishes his story, which reveals that he has not been misled by the clues. Janoth, who is named as the killer, attempts to escape, but he is killed when he falls down an elevator shaft.
Studio: Paramount
Run time: 95 minutes / B&W
CAST:
At this time, the only thing I know about this film is that it is a silent film and that it was Charles' first film.
Studio: Angle Pictures
Run time: 20 minutes / B&W
CAST:
This story is of a World War 1 war-widow, Louise, who devotes her life to children after losing her only child shortly after birth.
Studio: RKO
Run time: 113 minutes / B&W
CAST:
In pursuit of stolen aircraft engines on a Central American island, federal agent Rigby meets chief suspect Hintten and his wife Elizabeth, a sultry cafe singer; and is watched by Bealer, a "pie-shaped man" with sore feet. Rigby knows he's on the right track when Bealer offers him money to leave Carlota. When Rigby and Elizabeth are drawn to each other, the gang realizes there's more than one kind of bribe.
Studio: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Run time: 98 minutes / B&W
CAST:
In fifteenth century England, Sir Simon de Canterville disgraces his family, so they wall him up in a room in the castle and place a curse on his soul. During World War II, a group of American soldiers are staying in the castle, much against the ghost's wishes. At first, the men do not believe in ghosts, but as young Lady Jessica de Canterville explains about Sir Simon to Cuffy Williams, and the men humor her. Cuffy then learns that he is a descendant of a long line of Canterville cowards. When Cuffy saves the castle from a bomb, the Canterville name is finally redeemed and Sir Simon can now rest in peace.
Studio: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Run time: 95 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Captain Kidd betrays the King of England on a mission involving treasure ships belonging to the crown.
Studio: United Artist
Run time: 89 minutes / B&W
CAST:
At this time, the only thing I know about this film is that it is a silent film and that it was a comedy short by H.G. Wells.
Studio: Ideal Films
Run time: 23 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Commander Sturm is the maniacal captain of a military submarine who wrongly believes that Lieutenant Samper and the whole crew are gallavanting with Sturm's wife, Pauline.
Studio: Paramount
Run time: 72 minutes / B&W
CAST:
A customs agent proves that the skipper of a Dutch-Chinese tramp steamer is actually the head of a smuggling operation.
Studio: Gaumont
Run time: 89 minutes / B&W
CAST:
In 1937, after only a few short weeks of shooting, a film version of Robert Graves' I, Claudius was shelved. It was produced by Sir Alexander Korda and directed by Josef von Sternberg, with set design by Vincent Korda. For 28 years, the surviving footage had been lying in tins, collecting dust, forgotten. In this extraordinary documentary, these clips are screened for the first time. Additionally, there are revealing interviews with Graves, von Sternberg, Robson, Oberon, Williams and other principals involved in the production. The Epic That Never Was is the inside story of what really happened here: how Graves came to write I, Cladius; how the project came into being; what went on during the shoot; how Laughton came to discover the essence of his character; and why and how the production fell apart. Most memorable of all, though, are the clips, which are lighlited by Laughton's expressive, potentially award-calibre performance.
Studio: BBC
Run time: 74 minutes / B&W
CAST:
During World War II an American travels to Britain to sell an old house near London that belongs to his family. But he mets Susan Trimble who lives in the house and who is strictly against the sale. While they spend the night in an air-raid shelter she tells him the story of the building from it's construction in 1804 until present day.
Studio: RKO
Run time: 105 minutes / B&W
CAST:
A drama about a Yale All-American who becomes a small town Protestant minister. The minister buys an old rooming house in which the mortgage is to be foreclosed by the villian. The minister saves it and turns it into a church.
Studio: United Artists
Run time: 80 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Henry Horatio Hobson is the tyrannical owner of a bootmaker's shop and the father of three daughters. When he refuses to provide a dowry for the two younger girls, he is tricked into doing so by their older sister, Maggie, who further humbles her father by marrying his chief bootmaker and opening a rival shop.
Studio: London Films
Run time: 107 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Quasimodo is a grotesquely misshapen hunchback who rescues a beautiful gypsy girl named Esmeralda after she is falsely accused of murder. The two take refuge in the bell tower of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Studio: RKO
Run time: 114 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Claudius, emperor of Rome, nears the end of his life and commences to write his family's history. The incredible memoir begins before his birth and traces an epic of ruthless ambition, shocking debauchery and murderous intrigue set in one of history's most fascinating eras. Claudius, the stammering and half-lame grandson of the scheming empress Livia, survives amidst corruption and deceit by playing the fool.
Studio: London Films
Run time: UNKNOWN / B&W
CAST:
This is an episodic tale of sudden riches, self-discovery, and comic situations as half-a-dozen recipients of million dollar windfalls go about spending their fortune.
Studio: Paramount
Run time: 85 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Based on H.G. Well's novel, THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, this film is how Dr. Moreau, a madscientist, who tries to transform animals into humans. Edward Parker is stranded on a South Pacific island where Dr. Moreau makes him the subject of a mating experient with the beautiful Lota, a former pather. Edward Parker is utimately rescued by his financee, Ruth Thomas, and Dr. Moreau's agent, Montgomery, leaving Dr. Moreau to be killed by his mutant creatures.
Studio: Paramount
Run time: 74 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Before he dies, Jonathan Reyonds, a millionaire, insists on meeting the fiancee, Gloria Pennington, of his son, Jonathan, Jr., but because she is temporarily absent, Jonathan, Jr., grows anxious and substitues a hatcheck girl, Anne Terry, in her place.
Studio: Universal
Run time: 74 minutes / B&W
CAST:
A young woman, Mary, idscovers that her relatives are involved with a shipwrecking and smuggling operation directed by a local squire, Sir Humphrey Pengalian.
Studio: Mayflower
Run time: 99 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Jean Valjean, a Frenchman of good character and great strength, is convicted of stealing a loaf of bread, an act that sets in motion a lifetime of misery for Valjean, as he is pursued by the uncompromising and brutal lawman Javert.
Studio: 20th Century-Fox
Run time: 108 minutes / B&W
CAST:
A World War I veteran brings two Belgian war orphans back to Australia, but leaves behind the woman he was to marry. Years later, the woman comes to Australia and revitalizes both the romance and the man's languishing hotel business.
Studio: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Run time: 102 minutes / B&W
CAST:
In Paris, a down and out medical student Johann Radek is paid by Bill Kirby to murder his wealthy aunt. A knife grinder is suspected, but Radek keeps taunting the police until they realize that he is the killer. The police and Maigret are led on chases through the streets and over the rooftops of Paris and finally up the girders of the Eiffel Tower.
**NOTE: this movie was originally filmed in Ansco color, an Technicolor that were popular in the 1950s. It tends to fade rapidly and is almost impossible to restore.
Studio: RKO
Run time: 96 minutes / colour
CAST:
Based on a true incident that took place in 1787 aboard the H.M.S. Bounty, the film tells the story of the brutal Captain Bligh, whose cruel mistreatment of his crew casuses Fletcher Christian to lead the men in revolt.
Studio: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Run time: 135 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Ben Harper has committed murder for $10,000. He hides the money and makes daughter Pearl and son John promise not to tell anyone where it is hidden, not even their mother Willa. In prison and awaiting hanging, Ben meets his cellmate, the Preacher, who tries unsuccessfully to get Ben to reveal where he stashed the money. When Preacher is released from prison he heads for the Harper home, intent on finding the money. Preacher charms Willa and wins her hand in marriage, only to kill her when she learns what he is really like. With only Pearl and John separating him from a small fortune, the Preacher unleashes the full force of his true, evil self.
Studio: United Artists
Run time: 93 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Five O' Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critic's acclaim was "The Cop and the Anthem". Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can't even accost a woman; she (Marilyn Monroe) turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are "The Clarion Call"; "The Last Leaf";"The Ransom of Red Chief"; "The Gift of the Magi".
Studio: Miracle Productions
Run time: 116 minutes / B&W
CAST:
A group of innocents who take shelter from a storm in a spooky, old house inhabited by various strange characters and served by a mysterious buter named Norgan.
Studio: Universal
Runtime: 70 minutes / B&W
CAST:
NOTES: Charles Laughton had a small role as a minister which, for some reason, wound up on the cutting room floor. David O. Selznick, upon hearing this, offered to buy the film in order to release the Laughton scene as a short, scrapping the rest of the picture. His offer was refused.
Studio: Miracle Productions
Runtime: 107 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Based on a novel by Robert Hichens, Anthony Keane,a barrister, defends Madelena Paradine, a beautiful woman, accused of murdering her husband to marry a lover; infatuated with his client, Anthony's emotional involvement deters him from recognizing her guilt.
Studio: Vanguard Films
Runtime: 131 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Charles Laughton reprises his London stage role as William Marble, a suburban murderer hanged for a murder he did not commit while guilty of a murder never discovered. The film ends on an ironic note with Laughton being hanged for a murder which was in reality a suicide.
Studio: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Runtime: 80 minutes / B&W
CAST:
The title of this almost totally silent film refers to the area around Piccadilly Circus, the center of London nightlife. It was shot with no sound whatsoever, then a dialog sequence was added in the hope that it might merit some attention from audiences.
Studio: BIP
Runtime: 92 minutes / B&W
The Private Life of Henry VIII
CAST:Charles' famous portrayal of King Henry VIII dominates this story of the King and five of his six wives. Beginning with the execution of Anne Boleyn, the film depicts Henry's marriages to Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.
Studio: London Films
Runtime: 97 minutes / B&W
CAST:
In an episodic narrative focusing on the events of the peerless seventeenth century Dutch painter, Rembrandt's later years, most significantly his relationship with his second wife, Hendrickje and his refusal to compromise after popular acceptance of his work ceases.
Studio: London Films
Runtime: 83 minutes / B&W
CAST:
After the Earl of Burnstead loses his manservant, Marmaduke Ruggles, in a poker game to an American Westerner named Egbert Flound, who has been visiting Paris with his wife, Effie, the Flouds take the bewildered Ruggles to Red Gap, where he strikes out on his own and falls in love with Prunella.
Studio: Paramount
Runtime: 90 minutes / B&W
St. Martin's Lane [aka: Sidewalks of London]
CAST:Charles is an amateurish street performer who takes Libby away from a life of petty theft and is instrumental in making her a star, only to be thrust back into the streets.
Studio: Mayflower Pictures
Runtime: 84 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Salome is persuaded by her evil mother to do the dance of the seven veils for King Herod and thus brings about the beheading of John the Baptist.
Studio: Columbia
Runtime: 102 minutes / B&W
CAST:
An account of the burning of Rome by Nero and the religious freedom sought by the Empire's Christians. Marcus Superbus, the prefect of Rom, rejects the paganism of Nero's mob in order to remain with Mercia, even though they are to be fed to the lions.
Studio: Paramount
Runtime: 124 minutes / B&W
CAST:
The slave Spartacus leads his fellow gladiators in a revolt against their cruel Roman masters and slaves from all over the empire soon join his army. Though the Roman general Crassus puts a cruel end to the rebellion and Spartacus is crucified, the new ideal of freedom for all people lives on.
Studio: Universal-International
Runtime: 196 minutes / B&W
CAST:
A young Harvard graduate, Lieutenant Masterman and his Lieutenant Commander are assigned to an old four-stack destroyer and join the convoy to the war.
Studio: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Runtime: 109 minutes / B&W
CAST:
A horror story about a crazed French nobleman, Alan de Maltroit, who is so insanely jealous of the marriage of his brother, Edmond, to a woman who jilted him that he locks his brother in a dungeon for twenty years. He then forces his brother's daughter, Blanche, to marry an apparent wastrel, Denis.
Studio: Univerlsal-International
Runtime: 81 minutes / Colour
CAST:
It is Victorian London at the turn of the century. Philip is an amiable shopkeeper married to Ivan, a mean-spirited woman who constantly is complaining about something. After meeting Mary, a stenographer, Philip falls in love and decides to kill his shrewish wife. He beats Ivan to death with a cane, then manages to convince the authorities that she died after severely injuring herself in a staircase fall. With Ivan out of the way, Philip is free to marry the beautiful young stenographer. Huxley, a police detective, finds Philip's story a bit shady, as does Mr. Simmons, Philip's neighbor. Mr. Simmons decides to blackmail Philip, but soon the meddling neighbor comes to an untimely end of his own. Huxley pushes on with his investigation and Philip eventually succumbs to the pressure, confessing to both murders.
Studio: Universal
Runtime: 85 minutes / B&W
CAST:
An actor, Paul Orman, is accidentally told that his new, custom made tail coat has been cursed and it will bring misfortune to all who wear it. As the 4 succeeding wearers of the coat discover, misfortune can often lead to truth. **NOTES: Some scenes featuring W.C. Fields were filmed but cut from the movie before release. The US video version restores this unseen footage.
Studio: 20th Centry-Fox
Runtime: 118 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Amy is a waitress in San Francisco whose life is going nowhere quickly. She begins a correspondence with an Italian vineyard owner, and, after he sends her a picture of himself, accepts his proposal of marriage. The picture, however, is not of her fiance, Tony, but of his handsome hired man, Joe. Amy is shocked and upset when she learns that she is engaged to marry Tony, a fat, boisterous, unattractive fellow. On the eve of their wedding, Tony falls and breaks both legs. The wedding delayed while he recovers, Amy nurses him, but her resentment of him grows daily. She becomes involved in an affair with Joe, who seduces her, then tells her he won't marry her because he doesn't "owe no man nothing--or no woman." Amy is pregnant by Joe, and shortly afterward he and Amy argue and he leaves her for good. Tony, who has always loved her, forgives her transgression and she realizes that she loves him too. She goes away to have the child, but clearly she will return to Tony.
Studio: RKO
Runtime: 96 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Albert Lory is given the chance to be a hero, a champion of freedom, when opportunity knocks at his door.
Studio: RKO
Runtime: 103 minutes / B&W
CAST:
This adventure story is about a family, the Tuttles, in Tahiti. The father, Jonas, bets the family's possessions on a cockfight and loses.
Studio: RKO
Runtime: 91 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Commander Reger is commander of a German merchant raider during WW II who employs a bewildering array of tricks--repainting the ship, flying neutral flags, erecting false smokestacks, and even having crewmen dress as women passengers--to lure Allied ships near enough to be blown out of the water with his boat's concealed guns. Despite this deviousness, Heflin is a compassionate man who picks up survivors, to the dismay of fanatical Nazi lieutenant Krueger, who thinks the enemy should be left to drown. Meanwhile, British Admiral Russell is assigned to discover the cause of the mysterious sinkings, and although Admiral Russell and Commander Reger never meet, the film concerns the battle of wits between them. Admiral Russell finally gets his big break when Knoche, an American agent in Paris who bears a striking resemblance to a certain German naval officer, boldly walks into the German headquarters in broad daylight and walks out again with pictures of a coded sea chart in his miniature camera. From then on the fate of Heflin's ship is sealed. The British dispatch a number of ships to the area where they know the ship to be working and destroy it, although Commander Reger survives. Based on the true story of the German raider Atlantis.
Studio: Paramount-DeLaurentiis
Runtime: 92 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Commander Reger is commander of a German merchant raider during WW II who employs a bewildering array of tricks--repainting the ship, flying neutral flags, erecting false smokestacks, and even having crewmen dress as women passengers--to lure Allied ships near enough to be blown out of the water with his boat's concealed guns. Despite this deviousness, Heflin is a compassionate man who picks up survivors, to the dismay of fanatical Nazi lieutenant Krueger, who thinks the enemy should be left to drown. Meanwhile, British Admiral Russell is assigned to discover the cause of the mysterious sinkings, and although Admiral Russell and Commander Reger never meet, the film concerns the battle of wits between them. Admiral Russell finally gets his big break when Knoche, an American agent in Paris who bears a striking resemblance to a certain German naval officer, boldly walks into the German headquarters in broad daylight and walks out again with pictures of a coded sea chart in his miniature camera. From then on the fate of Heflin's ship is sealed. The British dispatch a number of ships to the area where they know the ship to be working and destroy it, although Commander Reger survives. Based on the true story of the German raider Atlantis.
Studio: Paramount
Runtime: 68 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Horace Prin is a cruel head of a Malaysian rubber plantation. He marries Judity Denning, a singer about to be deported. Her life with Horace provides little happiness until David von Eitz, a plantation worker, comes along to relieve her loneliness. Horace becomes jealous and sends David off to headhunter country. The plantation owner considers David a coward and is surprised when the man returns unharmed. Later there's a native revolt and Ballister, an escaped convict working for Horace, helps Judity and David to safety. Knowing they're bound to die soon, Horace and Ballister play poker. Horace draws a great hand but becomes furious when Ballister is speared to death before they show their cards.
Studio: Paramount
Runtime: 68 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Billy Wilder's film of Agatha Christie's famous story centers on the murder trial of Leonard Vole, a seemingly innocent man whose wife, Christine, destroys his alibi, then has her own testimony refuted by a Cockney prostitue. Vole's counsel, Sir Wilfrid Robarts, wins his client's case, only to discover that the prostitue was really Christine in disguise, plotting to free the husband she loves, but knows is guilty.
Studio: United Artists
Runtime: 114 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Leila McDonald a woman trapped in an arctic cabin with a band of outlaws. While she is suffering from weather-induced illness, the gang members draw lots to see who will possess her. Things look dismal for her until gang leader, Capt. Job, takes pity on her, undergoes a change of heart, and helps her escape, only to be killed himself in the attempt. **NOTE: Six years later the film showed up as a 35-minute short under the title WANTED MEN and was shown on a bill with MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN. Both Gish and Laughton ignored the American "premiere" of WANTED MEN, but Osterman, a secondary character in the film, did not. He had acquired a name on Broadway as a comedian and didn't want this ghost from his past coming back to haunt him. Upon learning that the film was going to be shown, he raised money to buy it, so he could make sure it wouldn't resurface. Alas, on his way to the theater on the night before WANTED MEN opened, Osterman was mugged and the show went on.
Studio: British and Dominion Productions
Runtime: 57 minutes / B&W
CAST:
Charles' reprises his role as King Henry VII in this stroy of Ann Boleyn's daughter, Bess, grows up to be Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Studio: Metro Golden Mayer
Runtime: 111 minutes / B&W
Film Table