Cinematic Era: Before 1950 Vintage

Elmer takes up wildlife photography but finds his subject, a rabbit, much too rascally.

A chronicle of the life of Bertrand du Guesclin, grand officer of the French army in the 14th century.

Mary Gillespie is restoring the Col. Gillespie Circus to its former splendor after her father's death. With the help of her publicist boyfriend Jim, the sell-out crowds are returning to the big top. Egotistical equestrian star Senor Martinet, however, holds $60,000 of notes signed by the Colonel and due in 24 hours. When a mysterious shadowy figure is seen on the circus lot, and Martinet is murdered in the center ring during his performance, there are suspects aplenty, including Vindecco, Martinet's badly abused hunchback assistant.

A carny builds a gambling empire at the expense of his family's wellbeing.

A crippled puppeteer rescues an abused young boy and turns the boy into a great ballet dancer. Complications ensue when, as a young man, the dancer falls in love with a young woman the puppeteer is also in love with.

Jimmy Higgings is a worker of the plant making weapons for the Tsarist Russia and the German Empire. During World War I, Jimmy speaks at a spontaneous rally against the war. He is arrested. When released, he becomes unemployed. He is happy to hear the news about the revolution; he volunteers into the American expeditionary force thinking that having the weapons he can fight against Germans – the enemies of the Russian revolution. However, finding himself in Russia, Jimmy soon realises that the expeditionary force of American volunteers fights not against the Germans, but against the young Socialist Russia. Without any hesitations, he takes the path of revolutionary struggle, he spreads propaganda among the American soldiers and distributes Bolshevik leaflets. Captured by the American military police, Jimmy Higgings does not betray his friends. He is sentenced to twenty years in a military prison. Jimmy cannot stand it and loses his mind. Lost movie.

From the Universal synopsis: Retired Inspector Blake of Scotland Yard learns that Lord Blanton has acquired the sacred "Love Ring"---a cursed jewel that has brought grief to its previous owners. Prince Darius seeks to obtain the ring, and the mummy of a princess of an ancient country to return them to his homeland.

In 1887 in Munich, a rising artist paints a portrait of a dancer. The success of it during an exhibition leads to him being awarded a major commission in Rome, and he begins to move in high society. By the time he returns home he has almost forgotten about her.

In Russia in the early 1900s, Fedya, a handsome, self-indulgent womanizer, falls in love with and marries Lisa, his friend Victor's fiancée. Fedya quickly tires of domestic life and resumes his profligate ways, drinking and gambling away his family's fortune. Lisa refuses to leave him despite his deplorable ways, so he takes drastic measures to ensure that she will no longer be harmed by his actions and reputation.

In the late 19th century, on board a ship sailing from Jamaica to England, Olivia Harwood, a recent widow, takes on the task of caring for several malaria patients, including Mark Bellis, a mysterious and tormented painter.

Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match. Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, but first the men 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.

A tramp tries to earn money by playing the violin, but he’s soon facing off against the jealous competition.

Japanese propaganda film about the Normanton Incident.

A young woman tells her parents and fiance (in flashback) about the recent sinking of the Titanic and her experiences as a passenger during the disaster. Her intended marriage now faces a new hazard because her fiance is a sailor and her parents have just been reminded of the dangers of the sea. Premiering in the United States just 29 days after the event, it is the earliest dramatization about the tragedy.

In Holland, Pluto acts as a milkman (dog?) leaving canisters of milk on the town's doorsteps. While going about his job, he falls head over heels in love with Dinah the dachshund. In his enthusiasm, he accidentally rings the dike bell causing the town to think the dike is leaking. When the fraud is exposed, Pluto and Dinah are kicked out of the town. Upon leaving, they both notice the dike actually has sprung a leak. While Dinah plugs the leak, Pluto must return to the town and find a way to get the residents to follow him to the dike leak.

Lost silent film

A small town soda jerk discovers a gang of criminals staying at a local hotel. Comedy.

Victor Berthier, a good man but also a very jealous one, killed his wife in a fit of jealousy. After serving a few years in a chain gang, he is released for good behavior. He feels very happy to be able to return to Paris and to meet Lise, his daughter, again. But, to his dismay, he finds that Lise, through the fault of André, her lover and pimp, has unwillingly committed a murder.

A group of travellers, each with a personal problem that they want to hide, arrive at a mysterious Welsh country inn. There is a certain strangeness in the air as they are greeted by the innkeeper and his daughter. Why are all the newspapers a year old? And why doesn't Gwyneth seem to cast a shadow?

Goofy shows us, in his inimitable way, the fundamentals of golf, guided as usual by the somewhat sarcastic narrator.

Harold is a bookkeeper who works in an office but can't keep his mind on his job -- the spring weather is too nice to stay indoors. After escaping from his office he romps in the park instead.

A seemingly charitable soup kitchen operator (who moonlights as a criminology professor) uses his Bowery mission as a front for his criminal gang. Police attempt to close in on the gang as they commit a series of robberies, murders and bizarre experiments on corpses.

A funny comedy about a lost twins and a lot of good people who are involved in a search for twins' parents.

A young teacher is sent to a remote province, separating her from her lover, and sets about the difficult task of building a school there.

Another adaptation of Tange Sazen.

The sixth in The Shadow series of shorts from Universal. In this one the circus trapeze artist falls to her death when someone flips the light switch just as she starts her famed triple somersault. It only takes the circus manager about fifteen minutes to figure out the obvious suspect was the guilty one.

Actor Lee Tracy presides as ringmaster over a show that combines the best elements of cinema with the circus, what he calls a Cinema Circus. Tracy introduces a number of professional circus acts, plus a cavalcade of movie stars who have side shows under the open air big tent. There is as much action in the audience as Tracy identifies a number of movie stars watching the proceedings incognito, having their own fun in the stands, and sometimes interacting with the circus acts.

Depressing and realistic family drama about the struggles of unemployment and poverty in 1930s Lancashire. The 20-year-old Kerr gives an emotionally charged performance as Hardcastle, one of the cotton workers trying to make life better. Interlaced with humour that brings a ray of sunshine to the pervasive bleakness, this remains a powerful social study of life between the wars, and was a rare problem picture to come out of Britain at the time.

An undercover cop finds himself on the wrong side of the law when the mob discovers his true identity.

Tom is a feline fisherman, Jerry is his live bait, and Spike is the bulldog guarding the lake.

A father, anxious for his son's financial well being, develops a special soda pop called Dopokoke which is laced with cocaine. Dopokoke is advertised as relief "for that tired feeling." The drink is a success, but the son becomes addicted to it, much to his father's regret. Loosely based on the allegations that the Coca-Cola company and other soft drink manufacturers laced their soda with dope.

Three crooks pull off a magnificent crime. As they're forced to hide out together they slowly begin to distrust each other.

A train disaster is told in four short stories to give character studies of the people involved, how it will affect them and how they deal with it.

Pepé Le Pew invades a Parisian perfumery, where he sniffs the various scents. The shopkeeper runs in horror and recruits a female cat to run the skunk out of the shop. She tosses the cat inside, and a bottle of dye falls over, accidentally painting a white stripe down the cat's back. Pepé gives chase...

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a man traces his history by the succession of cars his father owned. [This short appears in its entirety during MGM's short feature "The Great Morgan".]

The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.

Pluto and Pluto Junior are enjoying a lazy afternoon snooze when the playful pup tangles with a ball, a balloon, a worm, a bird, and a clothesline. Pluto rescues his son from a precarious situation, gets hung up in the process, but manages to land with a splash.

A famous picture, stolen from an Italian gallery, finds its way to the Corcoran gallery in Washington. When its identity with the stolen painting is discovered, plans are made to restore the canvas to the rightful owners, but in pursuance of a plot of jealousy, it is made to appear that Virginia Lake has copied the painting and has substituted the copy for the original; retaining the latter. The plot is helped by Virginia's absence on an errand of mercy, but in the end her innocence is established and justice is done.

Afraid of marriage, Simone (Mary Ellis) breaks off her long term engagement with her fiancé Paul de Lille (Tullio Carminati). Paul heads to the top of The Eiffel Tower with thoughts of suicide. In another part of Paris and also afraid of marriage, Mignon (Ida Lupino) breaks it off from her young lover (James Blakely). Despairing, Mignon also climbs to the top of the The Eiffel Tower intending to leap to her death. There she meets Paul and the two compare stories. After discussion, Paul dissuades her from leaping and the two conspire to make their respective partners jealous by pretending to have an affair with each other.

Mickey Mouse and several other characters are on a prison chain gang, guarded by Pegleg Pete. They break rocks for a while, then Mickey breaks out a harmonica and everyone starts making music and/or dancing. Soon there's a jail-break, and Mickey's on the run, tracked by bloodhounds (including his future pet, Pluto, in his first appearance). He falls off a cliff and right into a jail cell.

The King tosses Rosita in jail and when Don Diego, who Rosita loves, tries to defend her, he too is thrown in jail. While Don Diego is sentenced to be executed, the King lusts after Rosita and decides to put her up in a luxurious villa. To give her a title, he marries her to a masked nobleman, who turns out to be Don Diego.

Documentary of the planning and delivery of the last great bomber attack on the city of Tokyo by the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II.

After bringing his beautiful new wife Paula home to America from a remote island on which she was raised, Professor Norman Reed begins to feel the clash between his world of rational science and hers of bizarre dancing and freaky voodoo rituals. Norman's stuck-up friends also sense Paula's strangeness, and soon their meddling gossip and suspicious scheming push the poor woman to use her magic to defend herself and her husband – and maybe even to kill! Or is it just the power of suggestion...?

Set in Qingdao, China, a Japanese company locates an office there and begins work and cooperation with a local Chinese company for business. Many Japanese engineers also move to China, with their families, for the company in order to construct a canal. There are young Chinese resisting the Japanese in this area.

In a wild west community populated entirely by residents with dwarfism, the Larson and Preston familes have been in a generations-long feud, recently strained by the actions of cattle rustler and overall devious criminal Bat Haines. Buck Larson, the hero of our tale, takes on Haines, and tries to win the heart of Nancy Preston while resolving the tensions between his and her families.

Three and a half years after Japan was bombed, the tax authorities organized the T-Men. Nango is in love with a girl called Mibu, and the two are against the T-Men organization. Mibu whats to kill all of the T-Men one-by-one.

An elderly gentleman arrives for an extended stay with his grown son in Chicago.

After getting her start in her parents' vaudeville act, Marilyn Miller is taken under the wing of dance sensation Jack Donahue. He senses the girl's enormous talent, and before long she's performing on Broadway. There, she is extremely successful and finds love with songwriter Frank Carter. Yet obstacles remain for the rising star, especially when he proposes marriage just before he's set to be deployed in World War I.

In order to keep his lover, Maria Draga, in luxury, Captain Alex Pastitsch contracts huge debts which threaten his military career. To save Alex's career, his superior officer, Colonel Strádimirovitsch has an idea of how to fix it.

A successful shoe manufacturer named John Reeves goes on vacation and meets the grown children of his recently deceased and much-respected competitor; they're on the verge of losing the family legacy through their careless behavior. Reeves takes it upon himself to save his rival's company by teaching the heirs a lesson in business.

Aircraft workers during during World War II become involved in a love triangle.

Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she's a special investigator for a streetcar company he's repeatedly victimized.

During World War I, an Austrian officer is trapped behind the Russian lines. He tries to sneak through to his own lines, but is forced to take refuge in a small hotel, where he is hidden by the establishment's chambermaid. The two fall in love, but a Russian general makes the hotel his headquarters and sets his sights on the maid. In addition, the Austrian must find out the identity of a spy who is feeding the Russians military information that could lead to the destruction of the Austrian army.

Chinese detective Charlie Chan solves a murder linked to the occult.

Georges Vinot nicknamed Bouboule, a colorful but naive Parisian, falls prey to a gang of diamond thieves. Not only do they manipulate him into smuggling stolen precious stones into Senegal but they have bought life insurance on his head, which means they are prepared to do anything to liquidate him. But Bouboule succeeds in thwarting all their traps and eventually decides to settle down in a Senegalese village, of which he becomes... king!

A young man falls into the clutches of a nightclub singer who corrupts him.

A businessman boasts he'll give his daughter a large amount of cash for her wedding, and then frantically tries to raise the money. This 1940 comedy stars Leon Errol, Marjorie Gateson, Dennis O'Keefe, Adele Pearce and Walter Catlett.

The aunt of Alfred Puc, a meek tax-collector in Paris, dies while riding in a moving van. The driver, not wishing to be bothered by a police interrogation, hides her corpse in a cupboard before notifying Alfred. But the van is stolen. Alfred, being the heir of a rich lady, begins a frantic search to locate the missing van and the cupboard because one can't claim an inheritance if there is no 'corpus delecti.' In his search, he gets caught up in an underworld web and finds the body of a murdered gangster in his room. He finally locates the cupboard but promptly loses it again. But, wait, it isn't "finis' time, yet.

Young William Burroughs comes from wealth but not nobility, so despite his income he is not welcomed when he pursues Lady Elizabeth Galton, and indeed he is not only beaten by her cousin but thrown out by his own father for the disgrace he has caused. He travels to the United States where he becomes a champion prizefighter. Upon his return to England, he finds circumstances quite changed for Lady Galton and he sets out to change her circumstances further.

Graduate Okajima finds his old-fashioned beard makes life difficult in a comedy exploring the tension between tradition and modernity.