Africa Screams 1949 Vastly under rated Abbott and Costello comedy with Hillary Brooke, Max and Buddy Baer, Shemp Howard and Joe Besser. Lion tamers Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty appear as themselves. This was mastered from a rare original 16mm print and is well worth a viewing. |
Bittersweet 1933 Anna Neagle stars in this first filmed version of Noel Coward's tragic operetta. Fernand Graavey is the brilliant violinist she falls in love with, but joy turns to sorrow as his compulsion for gambling is revealed. (redone in color 7 years later) |
Broken Strings 1940 Clarence Muse stars as a concert violinist who's lost the ability to play. He hopes his son will take up where he left off. In a climactic talent show two of his son's violin strings break and he is forced to play swing. Stymie Beard and Tommie Moore also star. |
Charlie's Aunt 1930 This Gaumont British adaptation of Brandon Thomas' story stars Charlie Ruggles and June Collyer. The print quality is a bit washed out, but the film has been unseen for may years, and is worth watching. |
Crazy House (1943) Same plot as the other O & J films - slim to none. Our heroes are turned down by Universal after their zany antics in the earlier title so they try to finance their own movie – helped by producer wannabe Patric Knowles and Percy (Pa Kettle) Kilbride as a man suffering from delusions of being a millionaire! The rest is taken up by typically surreal gags including Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in character as Holmes and Watson! |
Deputy Drummer 1935 Obscure British musical dealing with an impoverished composer who poses as an aristocrat in order to crash a swanky party. This film features two of Ida Lupino's less then well remembered relations: Lupino Lane and Wallace Lupino. |
Frankie and Johnny 1934-36 Completed in 1934 this was to be the first major Republic production. Running about 100 min; starring Helen Morgan, Chester Morris, and Lilyan Tashman; music written and directed by Victor Young; and a story by Jack Kirkland with screenplay by Moss Hart. One problem: the Hayes office. After two years, with 34 min cut and its third billed star dead, Frankie and Johnny was released. Here we present the 1936 release. |
Glorifying the American Girl 1929 Transferred from a rare, complete (though monochrome) original 16mm print. This was one of the earliest (1929) all talking pictures from the Astoria Studios and features guest stars like Eddie Cantor and Helen Morgan. |
Goodbye Love 1935 Charlie Ruggles, Varree Teasdale and Sidney Blackmer star in this bright romantic comedy about alimony. Blackmer goes to jail rather than pay up, his valet, Ruggles joins him, because he can't pay up. Blackmer: "What do you think of alimony?", Ruggles: "Its like paying for a dead horse!" |
Gulliver's Travels (1939) Gulliver washes ashore on Lilliput and attempts to prevent war between that tiny kingdom and its equally-miniscule rival, Blefiscu, as well as smooth the way for the romance between the Princess and Prince of the opposing lands. In this he is alternately aided and hampered by the Lilliputian town crier and general fussbudget, Gabby. A life-threatening situation develops when the bumbling trio of Blefiscu spies, Sneak, Snoop, and Snitch, manage to steal Gulliver's pistol. |
Half Shot At Sunrise 1930 Max Steiner received his first credit as musical director for this Wheeler and Woolsey outing. This is probably the best of the team's films and is most representative of the comedy they were able to create (mastered from an original RKO 16mm print). |
Hellzapoppin (1941) Ole and Chick are making a movie, but the director is not satisfied. So he brings them to a young writer, who tells them an absurd story. They have to support Jeff and Kitty in setting up a musical revue in their garden and want to bring it to Broadway. If Jeff is successful he can marry Kitty. But there is his rich friend Woody, who also loves Kitty, Chick's sister Betty, who's in love with a false Russian count, and detective Quimby. They all make the thing very complicated for Ole and Chick. After some mistakes they think that Kitty isn't the right girl for Jeff and they start sabotaging the show, but the Broadway producer is impressed and signs the contract. This is the theatrical version that opens with a chorus on a collapsible stair case - from there its straight to hell - literally. |
Life With Father 1947 Turn of the century New York settings and the great William Powell make this screen adaptation of one of the longest running Broadway plays; a winner |
His Girl Friday 1940 Howard Hawks lightning fast remake of The Front Page. This time Hildy Johnson is a girl reporter, and former wife of Walter Burns. The story was to be remade at least two more times, but this is the true stand out. |
Hoppity Goes to Town (December 9, 1941) Talk about bad timing. This opened 2 days after Pearl Harbor - and did not exactly wow them at the box office. In a vacant corner lot off Broadway (by about a yard) is a place called the Lowlands by the tiny community that lives there. Bugs and insects are neighbors and hang out at the Honey Shop of old Mr. Bumble the bee and his daughter Honey. Hoppity the grasshopper arrives to be with Honey, his sweetie. This bugs the crooked C. Bagley Beetle, so do his bunglers Smack the Mosquito and Swat the Fly. The Beetle wants Honey and the Lowlands for himself. But the Human Ones, with their littering and carelessness, pose a threat of destruction to every Lowland home of bug and beetle alike. Despite the doom-saying of Mr. Creeper, the snail, Hoppity finds hope of a new home behind the house of two Human Ones: Mary, who cares for a beautiful garden; and Dick, a struggling songwriter who puts his own hope on a Broadway hit to save his home |
Little Giant (1933) Fast paced and fun - Prohibition is ending so bootlegger Bugs Ahearn decides to crack California society. He leases a house from down-on-her-luck Ruth and hires her as social secretary. He rescues Polly Cass from a horse fall and goes home to meet her dad who sells him some phony stock certificates. When he learns about this he sends to Chicago for mob help. |
Looking On The Bright Side 1932 Gracie Fields, in her first major hit film, plays a manicurist who falls for a song writing hairdresser. The hairdresser has a crush on some one else. A fine early musical released in the U.S. by RKO. |
Meet The Boy Friend 1937 Robert Paige, Warren Hymer, Pert Kelton and Smiley Burnette star in this Republic outing. Paige is the country's #1 Radio Crooner who's studio has a $300,000 anti-marriage insurance policy on him. |
Merrily We Live (1938) Hal Roach classic about a dizzy society matron named Emily Kilbourne who has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome "tramp" who shows up at her doorstep and soon ends up in a chauffeur's uniform. He also catches the eye of her pretty Geraldine. Director: Norman Z. McLeod Writers: Eddie Moran (screenplay), Jack Jevne (screenplay) Stars:Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne and Alan Mowbray |
Minstrel Man 1944 Rare little title showing a side of American entertainment that will never be seen again. This Classy PRC musical features Benny Fields as a minstrel performer who gives his daughter over to friends to raise after the death of his wife. |
Moon Over Harlem 1939 An all black cast including Bud Harris and Cora Green is featured in this high stepping, lively musical. |
My Favorite
Brunette
1947 Without a doubt Bob Hope's best non-Road picture (though he gets just a touch of help from Crosby even here). Lon Chaney Jr, Peter Lorre, Dorothy Lamour, John Hoyt and Alan Ladd are on hand as well in this stand out comedy mystery. |
No No Nanette 1940 Anne Neagle, Victor Mature, Richard Carlson, Roland Young, Zazu Pitts, Eve Arden, Billy Gilbert and Keye Luke star in the second of three filmed versions of the 1925 Broadway musical. This was RKO's big Christmas release of 1940, and has been unseen for nearly 35 years. |
Nothing Sacred 1937 The ultimate screw-ball comedy. Frederic March and Carole Lombard star along with Walter Connolly, Sig Rumann, Charles Winninger, Hedda Hopper, Hattie McDaniel and Margaret Hamilton. Wellman's direction, Oscar Levant's music and Ben Hecht's script all help make Selznick's production a knock out |
.Private Secretary 1935 Edward Everett Horton and Alistar Sim in a delightful little British comedy from Twickenham studios. |
Royal Bed 1931 Lowell Sherman, Mary Astor, Robert Warwick and J. Carrol Naish appear in this film, which Sherman himself directs. A King of a small island must call all the shots for the first time, as his over bearing wife is away on holiday. This is one of those few comedies that has not become hopelessly dated. |
Reckless Moment |
Shock 1946 Vincent Price, Reed Hadley and Lynn Bari star in this psychological murder mystery. Price kills his wife so as to continue his affair with Bari. The only witness is being treated by Price for a mental disorder. |
Sidewalks of New York
1931 A dim-witted slumlord tries to reform a gang of urban boys (and impress an attractive young woman) by transforming their rough neighborhood into a more decent place |
Speak Easily 1932 It is not often we can offer a classic from the vaults of MGM; but here are Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante together for non-stop laughs. Keaton is a mild mannered professor who inherits $750,000. He decides to come out of his shell; there waiting with open palms is Thelma Todd. Durante is handed most of the laughs in the body of the film, while Keaton's best moments are saved for the end. |
Suddenly Its Spring 1947 Light weight comedy with Paulette Goddard and Fred MacMurray as lawyers, married to each other, but about to divorce. The divorce is on again/off again: with Macdonald Carey after Goddard and Arleen Whelan after Fred. |
Swing High Swing Low 1937 A remake itself of Dance of Life, the negative to this film was destroyed when it was remade as When My Baby Smiles At Me. All three films were adaptations of the stage play Burlesque. Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray star with a supporting cast that includes Dorothy Lamour, Franklin Pangborn, Anthony Quinn, Lee Bowman, and Bud Flanagan (later Dennis O'Keefe). No original prints of this film are available, our tape was mastered from a reduction reversal, a bit contrasty and grainy, but a film well worth seeing. |
Terror Of Tiny Town 1938 Released by Columbia, this boasts of being the only all midget western... thank God. A year later Jed Buell's midgets were to go under the rainbow at MGM. |
The Frozen Limits 1939 Five films were made by the Crazy Gang, a group of three English music hall duos, between 1937 and 1959; this was the best of them. When the sextet order fish and chips, it comes wrapped in a 40 year old news paper which hawked the discovery of gold in Alaska. The group leaves the big city and heads north, there they find an old prospector who can't quite find his gold mine. Its a fast paced comedy, and a rare find on video (mastered from an original 16mm print). |
Try And Find It 1943 Adlophe Menjou, Pola Negri, Billie Burke, June Havoc and Martha Scott star in this bright comedy; further highlighted by great annimated sequences. A pair of newlyweds is allowed only a 48 hour honeymoon before the groom must 'ship out'. A non-stop parade of loonies thwarts them at every turn. Classic comedy from the closing days of the screwball genre. (AKA: "Diamonds and Crime" and "Hi Diddle Diddle") |
This is the Army
1943 In WW I dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the War, he becomes a producer. In WW II his son Johnny Jones, who was before his fathers assistant, gets the order to stage a knew all-soldier show, called THIS IS THE ARMY. But in his personal life he has problems, because he refuses to marry his fiancée until the war is over. And yes - this is the one with Kate Smith singing God Bless America (take THAT Woody Guthrie!) |
That Uncertain Feeling
1941 Against her better judgement, happily married Jill Baker is persuaded to see a popular psychoanalyst about her psychosomatic hiccups. Soon, she's disillusioned about husband Larry; and one day in the doctor's waiting room she meets pianist Alexander Sebastian, who's even more confused than she is. Can this marriage be saved? Larry has a plan that is pure Lubitsch |
The General 1927 Keaton's favorite of his many films, and most likely his best. Newly mastered from a Thunderbird 16mm print with a painful music track. |
When's Your Birthday 1937 One of Joe E. Brown's best features, with a cartoon sequence by Leon Schlesinger besides. Brown plays an astrologer who believes he is invincible when the full moon is out. The supporting cast includes Edgar Kennedy, Marian Marsh and Margaret Hamilton. This was mastered from an original monochrome print and is followed by 35 min of great animation (of the type that has come to be known as Blackexploitation) |