John Carroll

At a media-swamped party to celebrate his seventieth birthday and screen his avant-garde film-in-progress, a legendary but jaded Hollywood director is faced both with voracious fans and unsettling questions about what became of his lead actor.

Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.

A man, thought to be dead, returns to his hometown in Florida. He finds his wife re-married and the town now ruled by corrupt forces.

A boy doesn’t find the life he expects out West when he leaves Chicago to find his uncle. The West has changed–it is no longer “cowboys and Indians.” He finds his uncle living in a shack, and in trying to be accepted and help out, the boy gets himself into all sorts of trouble, causing his uncle to refer to him as “good for nuthin’,” a nickname that sticks. Eventually the two see that they need each other.

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

A man and his partner arrive at a small Western town to kill its most powerful man because the former blames him for his wife's death.

Music manager Janey Edwards poses as a co-ed to get the rights to a song from one of the professors.

The attractive Argentine Don Careless is an adventurer and an excellent swordsman. Don is in love with Maria Moreno, since he had to emerge her jewels and had thereby to kill a shark. Don tries to prevent the forced marriage of Mary with the ruthless revolutionary Colonel Luis Corral. An armed clash between Don and Luis seems inevitable.

Erie Canal, N.Y., 1850: Molly Larkins, cook on Jotham Klore's canal boat, has a love-hate relationship with her boss. She hires handsome new haul-horse driver Dan Harrow and the inevitable triangle develops (complicated by Dan's desire to farm and Molly's to boat) against a background of the canalmen's fight against the encroaching railroad.

To scare the squatters from the cattle country he claims as his own, rancher Ed Sampson orders the Martin farm house burned. Galt Martin is killed, and his eldest son, Joe, is pistol-whipped. Timmy Martin sees the killer, Cass Becker and points him out when he and Joe are in Painted Flats. Cass forces Joe to put on a gun but Ned East, a retired gunfighter, saves the inexperienced Joe by forcing Cass to draw on him, and Ned is the winner.

While raising cash to pay a debt, a Vegas gambler tricks a night club crooner there who looks like him to play him for a bit.The gambler's Latina girlfriend opens the eyes of the prissy crooner.

Violet Barton, a femme-fatale goal-setter, fascinates men and readily returns their affection to obtain the wealth she desires, even to the point of bigamy. She has an affair with gambler Gregg Delaney but marries his best friend, Johnny Hale, when she discovers Hale is the richest man in Texas. This loses her the respect of her sister, Janet, who loves Hale, and Delaney, who loves Violet. Meanwhile, town sheriff Bill Howard is working hard to get Delaney to confess to a murder.

A money-to-burn and girl-chasing Texas oilman, and a sensitive, dignified entomologist find themselves in charge of a brood of wild kids whose parents, both famous explorers, are reported lost while on an African safari.

Upon her release from prison for a murder she didn't commit, a woman finds that her younger sister has been placed in an orphanage. Determined to do whatever it takes to get her out, she eventually becomes the proprietor of a notorious gambling establishment.

A con man heading west to search for gold teams up with a pair of scheming brothers along the way. The trio soon find themselves in the middle of a feud between two rival families and two underhanded land developers.

Jim Gordon commands a unit of the famed Flying Tigers, the American Volunteer Group which fought the Japanese in China before America's entry into World War II. Gordon must send his outnumbered band of fighter pilots out against overwhelming odds while juggling the disparate personalities and problems of his fellow flyers.

When a matador leaves town to focus on his music, his twin sister takes on his identity in the bullfighting ring.

Doc and Wishey run into some Nazi-agents, who want to smuggle bombs into the USA from a Mexican border hotel.

George McAllister, the black sheep of a wealthy family who has squandered his share of the family inheritance, lives in constant jealousy, hatred and resentment of his half-brother Barry, who has been supporting him. George gets his girlfriend, Carlotta Duval, a job as Barry's nurse, with the idea being to marry him, kill him, and inherit his money—and marrying George.

This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel and more, with host Bob Hope.

A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.

Also known as California Outpost, Old Los Angeles stars Bill Elliot in one of his expanded-budget Republic "specials." The film is set during the early statehood days of California, with Elliot keeping the peace and warding off plunderers and marauders. As always, Elliot is a "peaceable man"--until he beats the tar out of those who rile him. The problem with Elliot's more expensive Republic vehicles is that action invariably took a back seat to plot, romance, costumes and decor. Within a year of Old Los Angeles, Elliot started a more austere, less prettified and far superior western series.

Married songwriters almost split up while putting on a big show.

While stationed in France during World War II, an American fighter pilot marries a French girl but leaves her behind when he returns to the U.S. The French woman follows him to America only to discover he’s already married to a successful lawyer.

A French-Canadian trapper's adventures jeopardize his romance with an innkeeper.

An ex-convict on his way to make his fortune in a gold mine in Arizona has his trip interrupted when the residents of a small Mexican village believe him to be a sacred religious figure.

When amateur songwriter Jill Wright moves from the Midwest to New York City, she is dismayed to discover that Rick Farrell, the owner of Miracle Publishing Co., has claimed as his own the song she submitted to his company. One of the many films made at Republic with a year attached to the "Hit Parade" title, which came from the "Hit Parade" radio program sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes.

Two singing guides take visitors on a promotional tour of Warner Bros.' studios, with stops at the many musical numbers of films featuring top Warner talent.

In this second Carter mystery, a mysterious rash of cargo ships sinking in Panama leads insurers Llewellyns of London to hire vacationer Nick Carter and his eccentric associate Bartholomew to investigate. Nick recognizes influential nightclub owner Al Taurez as a shady operator, but getting the goods on him depends on slick diversions involving the heavyweight champ of the Pacific Tuna Fleet, a Panamanian bombshell armed with American slang, a young couple in love and a whole raft of crooks and cutthroats.

Best friends Joan and Patricia are teenage autograph seekers who spend most of their day bumping into and having tea with movie stars like Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Based on disinformation from a meddling governess, Joan also devotes some time to working on the no-problem marriage of her parents.

Three seafaring fur traders fall in love with a female stowaway they discover aboard their ship. Many adventures follow.

A group of tourists is given a tour of a movie studio lot. They see the various permanent sets that are used for different types of movies, and they appear to watch the filming of several productions in progress. Musical numbers from several previous Warner Bros. Technicolor shorts are edited into this short to create the illusion.

Two autograph hounds attend an air show at Santa Anita racetrack.

A couple of Confederate soldiers, returning home from the Civil War, find Texas transformed into an armed camp with a quasi-dictator gathering up land and power as fast as he can. The two former Rebels take on this despot each in his own way.

Ad man Stephen Dexter asks his secretary Kendall to marry him as a loophole in order to protect his finances during an important business deal. Once the deal is completed, he asks Kendall for a divorce and is dismayed when she refuses.

A circus performer who falls in love with a rich car dealer's son, against her family's wishes. Features some spirited dance numbers with Ray Bolger.

During World War II, Evie O'Connor, a secretary at Trojan Shirt Company, yearns for a tall, strong man to love her. When she slides an anonymous note into a shirt-pocket meant for a dashing man, oafish Edgar 'Wolf' Larson receives the shirt and disregards the letter. After hearing Evie's words, short and bumbling John McPherson writes back, claiming to be Wolf. But trouble arises when Evie asks to meet him in person.

A beautiful female doctor visits her small hometown on her way back to Chicago. Her overworked uncle, who is the town's doctor, wants her to stay and help him, and he and a macho test pilot who's fallen for her come up with a plan that involves the pilot faking an illness and being treated by her, with her uncle's "help".

Small ranchers battle against a land baron trying to take their spreads.

Maisie gets lost in a jungle in Africa and the jungle of romance. The African jungle has snakes, crocodiles and witch doctors. The romantic jungle has a dedicated doctor with an un-dedicated wife and an embittered doctor who is dedicated to no one.

A traveling performer arrives at a remote South American port town where the head of an air freight service must risk his pilots' lives to earn a major contract.

John Thompson is kidnapped by mobsters after quitting his job. Then he is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death for murders they committed. A suspicious detective thinks he is innocent and works to save his life.

The story, based on a novel by Johnston (Zorro) McCulley, concerns a group of aristocratic vigilantes, who go about trying to restore their prominence in Mexico by killing anyone who stands in their way.

A proud, pro-capital punishment district attorney with a 90% execution rate, finds himself wrongly convicted of murdering his estranged wife and sentenced to die. The woman he loves and his investigator rival for her affections rally to find the real killer, while he is confronted by the misery of life on death row.

The California-Yucatan Railroad, being built for the good of Mexico, is under siege by a gang of terrorists hoping to force its sale; no one can prove their connection to profiteer Marsden. Manuel Vega, aged co-owner, calls in the aid of his nephew James, great-grandson of the original Zorro. Alas, James seems more adept at golf than derring-do; but after he arrives, Zorro rides again! Can one black-clad man on horseback defeat a gang supplied with airplanes and machine guns?

When the body of Violet Feverel is discovered on the Central Park bridle path, Inspector Oscar Piper presumes her death was accidental, until his friend, amateur detective Hildegarde Withers, locates Violet’s horse and discovers it is streaked with blood.

Famous private detective Tip O'Neil is summoned by telegram to the estate of old friend Paul Harding, but finds the telegram was sent by Paul's attractive secretary, Amy Hutchins. Paul admits his dog was shot by extortionists to show they mean business, and shows Tip some threatening notes they sent. That night, Paul's ward, Corinne, is kidnapped by two gangsters and her driver is found dead the next morning. The kidnappers contact Tip demanding $200,000, which is delivered according to instructions. Awaiting the return of Corrine, Tip learns her fiancé, Gene Leland, is an ex-convict, and he also investigates why a thug, Maratti, was found prowling around the grounds, and why Paul's brother-in-law, Jim Glenray, was seen leaving the estate late the night before. And when the chauffeur is murdered with Amy's gun as he was about to confess some complicity, Tip has to piece together various clues to pinpoint the culprits.

A spoiled New York playboy learns the values of life when he's sent by his father to work in a rural mining community in Canada.

Elmer, rich society loafer, falls for Mary, but she'll have nothing to do with him until (mistakenly thinking that he's hiring a new chauffeur) he accidentally volunteers for the army. Luckily, Mary's signed up to entertain the troops. Unluckily, Elmer's sergeant likes Mary, too. And worst of all, they're all about to ship out for France.

The son and daughter of feuding ranchers defy their fathers in the name of love.

Aircraft are being shot down by a large black plane with a big "X" painted on the wing. The chief suspects are invited for the weekend to an old dark mansion.

In this crime drama, a gangster uses an innocent newsboy to manipulate the jury just prior to his manslaughter trial. The 10-year-old newsboy idolizes the gangster. Eventually the lad's admiration comes to deeply affect the gangster who begins to soften up. Meanwhile his moll plans to rob him. The newsboy intervenes and stops her.

New Moon is the name of the ship crossing the Caspian Sea. A young Lt. Petroff meets the Princess Tanya and they have a ship board romance. Upon arriving at the port of Krasnov, Petroff learns that Tanya is engaged to the old Governor Brusiloff. Petroff, disillusioned, crashes the ball to talk with Tanya. Found by Brusiloff, they invent a story about her lost bracelet. To reward him, and remove him, Brusiloff sends Petroff to the remote, and deadly, Fort Darvaz. Soon, the big battle against overwhelming odds will begin.

Two starstruck visitors to Hollywood sneak into the famous nightclub and end up in a Conga contest and get more than they expected.

In this musical short, a waitress at the Warner Bros. commissary gets her big break.

A countess fleeing her husband mistakes a count for her hairdresser at a Monte Carlo casino.

At the conclusion of World War I, a French girl is romanced by an American doughboy even though she is promised to a French soldier who was sent to the front.

A follower of Napoleon escapes the firing squad, flees to a woman's bedroom and winds up butler.