Christian J. Frank

Following their initial pairing in early 1927, Laurel and Hardy ended their first year on top. Their success moving into 1928 galvanized the efforts of everyone at Hal Roach Studios (including famed director Leo McCarey), who proudly upped their game in support of the winning comedy duo. Whether wreaking accidental havoc as a two-man band, doing battle against one another as millionaire and butler, or even becoming grave robbers for a mad scientist, Laurel and Hardy prove in their second year that they have what it takes to not only win over audiences in the twilight of the silent era, but generate enough momentum to make a successful transition to “talkies” in 1929.

Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure.

Hat check man Louis Blore is in love with nightclub star May Daly. May, however, is in love with a poor dancer but wants to marry for money. When Louis wins the Irish Sweepstakes, he asks May to marry him and she accepts even though she doesn't love him. Soon after, Louis has an accident and gets knocked on the head, where he dreams that he's King Louis XV pursuing the infamous Madame Du Barry.

A revolutionary leader romances a French aristocrat in Louisiana.

A mentally unstable man, who has been kept in isolation for years, escapes and causes trouble for his identical twin brother.

Former detective Nick Charles has retired from police work, preferring a life of cocktails, parties, and relaxation with his wealthy wife, Nora. Their holiday is interrupted when the daughter of Nick’s former client asks for help finding her missing father, eccentric inventor Clyde Wynant. When Wynant’s body is discovered, Nick is drawn back into the investigation, with Nora eagerly joining him. As the couple questions Wynant’s family, friends, and business associates, a tangled web of greed, deception, and murder begins to unravel.

A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.

In 19th century Paris, a maniac abducts young women and injects them with ape blood in an attempt to prove ape-human kinship but constantly meets failure as the abducted women die.

An insane surgeon's obsession with an actress leads him to replace her wounded pianist husband's hands with those of a knife-throwing murderer.

Tycoon J.L. Higgins controls his whole family, but one of his sons-in-law, Dan Brooks, and his daughter Alice are fed up with that. Brooks quits his job as manager of J.L.'s paper box factory and devotes his life to his racing horse Broadway Bill, but his bankroll is thin and the luck is against him. He is arrested because of $150 he owes somebody for horse food, but suddenly a planned fraud by somebody else seems to offer him a chance...

Respected Parisian banker Paul Lavond is framed for robbery and murder by crooked associates and sent to prison. Years later, he escapes with a friend, a scientist who was working on a method to reduce humans to a height of mere inches (all for the good of humanity, of course). Lavond, however, is consumed with hatred for those who betrayed him, and takes the scientist's methods back to Paris to exact painful revenge.

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

A charming and very daring thief known as Arsene Lupin is terrorizing the wealthy of Paris. He even goes so far as to threaten the Mona Lisa. But the police, led by the great Guerchard, think they know Arsene Lupin's identity, and they have a secret weapon to catch him.

Two reporters pose as man and wife in order to get the goods on a munitions supplier and the rumours of war in Europe.

In medieval France, poet-rogue Francois Villon, sentenced to hang by King Louis XI for writing derogatory verses about him, is offered a temporary reprieve. His hanging will be postponed for 24 hours, and in that time he must defeat the invading Burgundians and win the love of the beautiful Katherine.

When her brother is killed by sabotage, Irene Eaton (Sally Eilers) joins the secret service and goes undercover to unroot the culprits.

An alcoholic woman is charged and tried for murder and a young defense attorney, unaware that she is his mother, takes the assignment to defend her in court.

A super-efficient secretary at a department store falls for and marries her boss, but finds out that taking care of him at home (and especially his spoiled-brat daughter) is a lot different than taking care of him at work.

The king of a European country, who is a child, meets the cowboy star of a traveling circus.

When Barry Corvall discovers that his new bride is a possible enemy agent, he resigns from the diplomatic service to go undercover to route out an espionage ring planning to destroy American industrial capability.

Jerry Randolph is an inveterate and obnoxious practical joker. Things take a serious turn when it looks as though Jerry's latest prank has resulted in the death of his best friend.

Clay gets a musical troop out af jail and helps raise money so they can put on their show. During the performance Blake and his men rob the box office. The townsmen give chase and Clay goes after Blake.

A woman and a man vying for a woman's affection: the usual love trio? Not quite so since the belle in question is Lorraine de Grissac, a very wealthy and alluring society woman, while one of the two rivals is none other than Arsène Lupin, the notorious jewel thief everybody thought dead, now living under the assumed name of René Farrand. As for the other suitor he is an American, a former F.B.I. sleuth turned private eye by the name of Steve Emerson. Steve not only suspects Farrand of being Lupin but when someone attempts to steal a precious emerald necklace from Lorraine's uncle, Count de Brissac, he is persuaded Lupin is the culprit. Is Emerson right or wrong? Which of the two men will win over Lorraine's heart?

When Peaceful Patton goes to work at the Martini ranch he is mistaken for the notorious outlaw the Hard Hombre. This enables him to force the ranchers to divide up the water rights. But he is in trouble when his mother arrives and exposes the hoax.

A US marshal goes undercover to bust up a bunch of rustlers.

Members of a municipal band, Stanley and Oliver seem to be always following someone else's lead, rather than that of the temperamental conductor.

Dave Saulter, a rambling young cowboy drifts into a small western town the day a big gold shipment is leaving by stagecoach. Two different people plan to rob the stagecoach...Buck O'Hara, the driver who is very trusted, and a stranger, Texas Jack. Dave gets involved and is accused of being one of the robbers.

Dix plays radio announcer Robert Parker, working at a station run by his girlfriend's father. Becoming a bit overexcited on the air, our hero lets slip a few (fortuitously unheard) profanities. Fired from his job, Parker enters into an amusing series of misadventures with veteran bank robber Jim Bailey (Charles Sellon).

A once notorious gunfighter takes a respectable job on a ranch. "Nevada" is charged with protecting the ranch owner's pretty daughter, arousing the enmity of ranch foreman Clan Dillon, who is in love with the girl. The villainous foreman leaks a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and the former outlaw is soon on the run again.

At a remote Canadian trading post, Pierre Baptiste, a simple French Canadian, loves Marcette, the storekeeper's daughter. In midwinter, Stannard, a stranger from England, arrives in search of a gold claim and infatuates Marcette. Urged on by Nefferton, a supposed friend who plots to steal his claim, Stannard sets out on the eve of a storm; and Marcette, fearing for his safety, sends Pierre after him.

When not cutting down trees and shouting "TIMMMM-BERRRRR!", Jack Holt has to deal with someone who's sabotaging the camp. The miscreant turns out to be the odious Montagu Love, whom Holt dispenses with in a climactic fisticuffs session. Billie Dove provides the toothsome romantic interest.

In old Mexico a masked rider (Talmadge) and an impoverished girl (Bedford) fall in love, against her father's wishes. When she leaves with him, her father sends his gang in a chase after the two lovers. Drama ensues!

Mazie, a shop-girl of New York City's Little Ireland, goes to the aid of a young man in formal attire involved in a street fight. Though badly beaten, he bears a strong resemblance to Lord Lytton, the hero of a magazine story Mazie is reading in installments. Although he is, in reality, a soda clerk, Mazie permits his attentions, and together they read the "Sloppy Stories" yarn about English nobility.

Rafi arrives in the city in search of Pervaneh who was taken by the Sultan. He is joined by Hassan the confectioner. Rafi is captured by the Sultan, but Hassan leads a surprise attack on the palace and the lovers are united.

A Scottish immigrant on board ship becomes a pawn in a jewel heist aboard the S.S. Cognac, a three-star liner. Blackie Dawson, the uncrowned king of jewel thieves, and his accomplice Pearl Blackstone, have stolen a huge ruby. A detective is searching every cabin, so Blackie forces our young Scot to swallow the gem and, under threat of being shot, to stay mum. The detective is assisted by Flora Danube, a blue-eyed Bulgarian daisy who keeps those eyes open. To escape death, the young Scot disguises himself as a woman, but that draws a lot of attention; when his disguise is discovered, he must climb for his life. Is a European union in the offing?

A cowboy and a wild horse find they have some things in common: both have enemies out to get them and both must save their mates from danger.

An Elderly fruit grower sends a photo of his foreman, not himself, to a waitress he wishes to marry. She falls in love with the foreman.

This Zane Grey adaptation stars square-jawed Jack Holt as a lawman going undercover to ferret out a notorious cattle rustler.

Lady Vivienne is implicated in a murder as a result of refusing the romantic suit of Henry Porthen. Years later, in South Africa, she encounters the man she suspects of the murder.

On shore leave, a young sailor meets and falls in love with a pretty young blonde. He goes home with her to meet her parents, but they don't approve of him at all. Their daughter takes offense at this, and in the ensuing argument she storms out of the house determined to live on her own.

Gangster Jim Boyd serves a 15-year prison term when Hardy, a rival crook, doublecrosses him. On his release from prison, Boyd seeks out Hardy in Chicago, where he runs a cafe and bootleg operation. He makes the acquaintance of Mona Gale, a dancer in Hardy's cafe who is engaged to marry Jack Waring, the orchestra leader. Unaware that Mona is his daughter, Boyd shoots Hardy in a brawl and leaves behind evidence implicating Waring as the murderer. After Hardy's death, Mona joins Boyd's gang to gather evidence proving her fiancé's innocence. The gang members discover that Mona has dealings with the police, and they begin to torture her. Having learned of Mona's relationship to him at the last minute, Boyd arrives at the gang's hideout in time to save her. He confesses to killing Hardy before he dies from a wound inflicted by one of his own gang, thus freeing Waring to marry Mona.

A boat race rivalry erupts into comical danger.

A wanted-fugitive, called "Nevada," is wounded by a pursuing posse of lawmen, and is left to die on the desert by his companion, Bill Hall. He is rescued by a young rancher, Ben Ide, who is in love with Ina Blaine, daughter of a neighboring rancher. While "Nevada" is recovering, he and Ina fall in love but, through his loyalty to Ben, he sends her away. Going home, Ina falls into the clutches of Bill Hall, now heading a gang of rustlers, but the real leader is Les Setter who is posing as an honest rancher, and he has designs on Ina himself.

During an uprising in Algeria in 1869, two Frenchmen--Anatole, the brother of Gabrielle, and Pierre, her sweetheart--join the colors and are later reported dead. Gabrielle is kidnaped and taken to Paris, and the soldiers return.

House detective of the Hotel Omigosh, Cyril Fromage and his hotel switchboard operator sweetheart attempt to thwart a dastardly thief, "The Weasel," who is on the loose in the hotel, assisted by a sultry vamp. Plenty of hilarious gags along the way; including the operator taking a call from an irate lodger, so hot that it makes the switchboard steam. Taking advantage of the situation, she pulls out the offending plug and curls her bangs. The MGM lion even puts in a guest appearance.

The Marriage Circus is a 1925 silent comedy short.

Howard Spurlock, wrongfully accused of theft, believes police are seeking his arrest. On "the ragged edge," he takes refuge in China, where he meets and is nursed back to health by Ruth Endicott, daughter of a missionary. They marry and go to an island in the South Seas where, later, his innocence is proved.

A Cossack pretends to be a musician to save his bride from marriage to another Cossack.