Lorin Raker

Released to theaters in 1974, this collection of vintage Columbia short subjects included: "Yes, We Have No Bonanza" with The Three Stooges; "Violent Is the Word for Curly" with The Three Stooges; "You Nazty Spy!" with The Three Stooges (replaced by "Men in Black" for the nontheatrical reissue); "Nothing But Pleasure" with Buster Keaton; "Strife of the Party" with Vera Vague; Chapter 1 of the 1943 "Batman" serial with Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft; and "America Sings with Kate Smith."

A daffy door-to-door saleswoman blunders into a murder investigation.

A Los Angeles police captain ties the case of a slain policeman to a bank robbery, all in a day.

Actress Margaret Elliot is well past her prime but refuses to retire from the acting business. Despite entreaties from both her daughter, Gretchen, and one-time professional colleague Jim Johannsen, Margaret remains convinced that she can regain her former glory. As she sets her sights on a coveted Hollywood role, Johannsen tries doggedly to get his unrequited love to see the folly of her ways.

The story of Robin Hood, how he met his Merry Men and Maid Marian, and saved England from Sir Guy de Clairmont and his henchman. Compiled from the few filmed episodes of an unsold TV series.

Biff Jones is a driver/salesman for the Good Humor ice-cream company. He hopes to marry his girl Margie, who works as a secretary for Stuart Nagel, an insurance investigator. Margie won't marry Biff, though, because she is the sole support of her kid brother, Johnny. Biff gets involved with Bonnie, a young woman he tries to rescue from gangsters. But Biff's attempts to help her only get him accused of murder. When the police refuse to believe his story, it's up to Biff and Johnny to prove Biff's innocence and solve the crime.

John Burrows, an ordained minister from a small village in the East, envisions himself with a larger congregation. He is mortified when his wife drunkenly interrupts a sermon, then despondent after her suicide. Burrows travels to Los Angeles for a fresh start, but takes to the bottle himself and ends up arrested for public intoxication. A skid-row con man, Gandy, finds him a bed at a flop house, while a street preacher, Doc Thorssen, and daughter Christine take him to a local mission. Christine is blind. She falls in love with Burrows, enjoying his discussions of the spirit and the soul but knowing little of his past. One day she is struck by a streetcar and knocked unconscious, causing Burrows to once again question his faith. He ultimately accepts the Lord's will and is offered a better place to live and preach. Burrows decides he is better suited to the mission, with Christine by his side.

Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity.

Ellie Mae lives on Primrose Hill with her good-hearted and fancy free mother, her drunken father, her younger sister and a mean-spirited grandmother. The Hill is not a good part of town, however. When she meets and falls for a hard-working man, they marry and she hides her past from him. When he discovers the truth it jeopardizes their marriage.

Abbot and Costello must find a replacement for a woman's horse they accidentally killed after feeding it some candy. They head for the racetrack, find a look-a-like and take it. They do not realize that the nag is "Tea Biscuit," a champion racehorse.

An upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to a hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson River.

Kit Madden is traveling to Hollywood, where her best-selling novel is to be filmed. Aboard the train, she encounters Marines Rusty and Dink, who don't know she is the author of the famous book, and who don't think much of the ideas it proposes. She and Rusty are greatly attracted, but she doesn't know how to deal with his disdain for the book's author.

A gang of criminals, which includes a piano player and an imposing former convict known as 'Gruesome', has found out about a scientist's secret formula for a gas that temporarily paralyzes anyone who breathes it. When Gruesome accidentally inhales some of the gas and passes out, the police think he is dead and take him to the morgue, where he later revives and escapes. This puzzling incident attracts the interest of Dick Tracy, and when the criminals later use the gas to rob a bank, Tracy realizes that he must devote his entire attention to stopping them.

A woman pretends to be her own twin sister to win back her straying husband.

Comedy about a bandleader with hypnotic powers.

Popular crooner Russ Raymond abandons his career at its peak and joins the Navy using an alias, Tommy Halstead. However, Dorothy Roberts, a reporter, discovers his identity and follows him in the hopes of photographing him and revealing his identity to the world. Aboard the Alabama, Tommy meets up with Smoky and Pomeroy, who help hide him from Dorothy, who hatches numerous schemes in an attempt to photograph Tommy/Russ being a sailor.

In this 13th entry to the Dr. Kildare series, the medical staff of Blair General hospital are challenged with further dilemmas, not the least of which includes a prison inmate who Dr. Gillespie believes belongs instead in an insane asylum.

In 1940s Los Angeles, when womanizing composer Keith Vincent is found dead, the inquest concludes it was a suicide but police detective Joe Warne isn't so sure.

A wise-cracking private detective's honeymoon is interrupted by a kidnapping case.

The Army nurses on Bataan need help badly, but when it arrives, it sure isn't what they expected. A motley crew, including a Southern belle, a waitress, and a stripper, show up. Many conflicts arise among these women who are thrown together in what is a desperate and ultimately hopeless situation.

Ex-confederate officer Clay Fletcher jumps at the chance to reunite with his once lady-friend, Susan Jeffers, when his father, Judge Fletcher, sends him on an errand to El Paso, Texas to get the signature of Susan's father, Judge Jeffers, on a legal document. Once there he finds the judge has become a drunk and a laughing stock, doing the bidding of local magnate Bert Donner and his running dog, Sheriff La Farge. Just as Clay starts straightening out the town's problems, events occur which force him to abandon the legal system and instead adopt the murderous tactics of a vigilante.

A poor young man is finally able to achieve his dream of running a horse at the track, but when he starts becoming successful, he begins to lose sight of what mattered to him before.

Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a 1940 biographical film which tells the story of the life of Abraham Lincoln from his departure from Kentucky until his election as President of the United States.

A small-town blowhard runs for water commissioner while fighting to win custody of his niece and nephew.

Career woman Jean. almost a partner in Mark's advertising firm, has been falling in love with Mark, who of course is unaware of it. But unknown to Jean, Mark has become engaged to singer Val. When Jean finds out she tries to save face by saying that she is also engaged, and then uses a little social blackmail to get psychiatrist Bill Perry to pretend to be her fiancé for an evening out with Mark and Val.

Singer/Dancer Peggy Ryan neither sings nor dances in this comedy in which she plays a secretary, whose life has no romance because she devotes all of her time to her attractive older sister. But she does keep a diary that contains some fact and many fictional entries. One such is read by the wife of her boss who promptly sues for a divorce. Virginia Grey stars in a musical produced by Hall and sings (possibly dubbed) "Makin' a Million" and "Keep Your Chin Up." No spoiler to add that Ryan gets a boyfriend and Hall and Allbritton are reunited before this one runs it course.

A PR man saves a struggling radio station from ruin.

Cole Armin comes to Albuquerque to work for his uncle, John Armin, a despotic and hard-hearted czar who operates an ore-hauling freight line, and whose goal is to eliminate a competing line run by Ted Wallace and his sister Celia. Cole tires of his uncle's heavy-handed tactics and switches over to the Wallace side. Lety Tyler, an agent hired by the uncle, also switches over by warning Cole and Ted of a trap set for them by the uncle and his henchman.

Kelly Jordan and Andy Melton are former AAF fliers operating a cargo service over the South American mountain ranges in order to get enough money to return to Texas and buy a commercial line.

Reporter Homer Smith accidently draws Marcia Warren into his mission to stop Nazis from bombing Allied Conwoys with robot-planes.

Fictionalized story of the 1869 adoption of women's suffrage in Wyoming Territory. In the new-founded railroad town of Laraville, Boss Jim Cork hopes to manipulate the sale of town lots to give him control, but Quaker schoolmarm Annie Morgan bags one of the key lots. Cork's lawyer Steve Lewis tries romancing Annie to get the lot back, finding her so overpoweringly liberated she leaves him dizzy. Still, Steve attains his nefarious object...almost...then has cause to deeply regret having aroused the sleeping giant of feminism!

In this musical comedy, a motley band of musicians have only their extreme poverty in common. They end up writing a hit and getting a recording contract. The trouble is, the composer's works are never played without another band member doctoring them up to make them swingier. Fortunately, the composer isn't too averse to the changes as he has just won the heart of the beauty who sings his revamped songs.

Magazine owners sell a revealing photo, then play detective when the deal leads to murder.

This Columbia short (production number 3431) has Harry Langdon and Elsie Ames billed above the title, but it is all Elsie Ames with Langdon and Monty Collins (if his name is Monte, how come---except for typos--- he is always billed as Monty?) only around to get a bowling ball bounced off the top of their collective heads, plus a couple of unfunny sight gags. Langdon, while top-billed, also played second-fiddle to the pratfalls of Elsie Ames in "Carry Harry" and even soon found himself billed second to Una Merkel---yes, that Una Merkel--- in Columbia's 1944-short "To Heir Is Human." Lizzy and her friend Aggie are toiling in Kelley's Laundry in order to get enough money to marry their boy friends Harry and Bill, and soon find themselves as a two-woman company bowling team attempting to keep Mr. Kelley from losing a $1000 bet. Things happen. Some of them funny.

Aided by musicians at the Grand Ole Opry, a small-town mayor in the Ozarks takes on a group of crooked politicians.

Bob Allen, a struggling songwriter poses as a millionaire cowboy to win Broadway star Babs Lee.

Andy makes elaborate plans to attend a prizefight, and they all backfire.

A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage.

Corrupt politicians resort to murder and blackmail when a young boy accidentally witnesses them taking payoffs.

A race-car driver whose career is on the skids because of his drinking falls for a rich society girl. That motivates him to clean up his act and resume his career, but it may be too late for that.

On the night express train from Los Angeles to San Francisco everyone’s a suspect when a jewelry magnate is found stabbed to death and an escaped killer is feared on board. It’s up to newspaper reporter Jimmy Hawley (Ben Lyon) to unravel the secrets of the motley group of passengers and find the killer before he strikes again in this tense and atmospheric whodunit.

Extra-marital fun and games at a convention of the Honeywell Rubber Company in Atlantic City. President J.B. Honeywell is to choose a new company sales manager. T.R. Kent and George Ellerbe are two salesmen who both want the job. However, they both get into trouble: T.R. is discredited when jealous saleswoman, Arlene Dale, interferes with his attempted seduction of Honeywell's daughter, Claire, and George attempts to seduce Nancy Lorraine. The position of sales manager is bestowed upon a drunken employee as a bribe after he catches J.B. about to visit "Daisy La Rue, Exterminator." Considered a lost film.

A man who wants to join the circus against the wishes of his ex-circus clown father.

A theatrical troupe headed by a flashy showman finds itself in the tiny--and bankrupt--kingdom of Belgardia. The showman falls in love with the daughter of the dotty king, who has promised her to another.

Cynthia Warren, independently wealthy through her ability as an illustrator and poster artist, rebels against the premise that every woman is destined for matrimony and motherhood and decides she has as much right as a man to play around.

Troubles begin for the Sterlings when they buy an expensive car and friends start pressing them for rides.

A young man from a small town hits New York City, bound and determined to become a radio star. Amazingly, he achieves his ambition, but in the process alienates everyone around him with his arrogance and egomania.

A truck driver races a train to the West Coast in an attempt to determine which method of transportation is faster.

Med student Myron Brooks graduates and starts his internship at a hospital. He asks his sweetheart Ruth Robbins to marry him, but she refuses to until he's established his practice. Meanwhile, she goes to work as a secretary for attorney Albert Hartman, and he is so impressed with her abilities that he sets her up a place to hone her skills.

A devoted wife helps her husband achieve success as a radio comic, but stardom comes at a price.

Edgar thinks he is in love with another woman while his wife (Florence) and her family are out of town, leading to jealousy when Florence returns and pretends she is in love with another man.

A wife whose husband is away asks her decorator to impersonate her husband, to help her deal with a pest. Soon there is quite a web of confusion that also involves the decorator's girlfriend and the wife's suddenly returned husband.

While crossing on the train ferry to New Orleans, roving reporter Addison Francis Murphy borrows money from singing hillbilly "Carolina," then loses it all in a crap game. Outside on deck, Murphy sees two men shaking hands, and after he looks away, hears a splash of water and discovers both men have disappeared...

Lawyers Blackstone and Bodgett's first case is a divorce proceeding between a wealthy husband and his wife. The wife, her lawyer and a friend are shooting for a large alimony settlement and split it three ways. Blackstone and Blodgett (up to their usual bag of Clark & McCullough tricks) wind up as heroes in the newspaper headlines.

When Junior's parents have their friends visit, they expect him to entertain their daughter. Expecting the worst, Junior pays his kid sister to be a pest to keep them apart. But when the visitor is a beauty, he regrets his decision. "Frolics of Youth" short starring Junior Coghlan.

A publisher bets an author that he won't be able to write a romantic adventure novel while on a walking trip from New York to San Francisco.

Saxophone player Clyde meets a woman named Flowers, and teaches her to dance. He later discovers that gangster boss "Blackjack" is also in love with her. "Blackjack" is also battling gang boss Mike Luego in a violent turf war.

Young Irish lad Tommy O'Day lives in a poor section of New York's Lower East Side, and is blessed with a beautiful singing voice. After an argument with his father, who accuses him of stealing the family's life savings, Tommy leaves home and gets a job singing in a cabaret. He is successful and soon lands the lead in a Broadway revue. On opening night, just as he is about to go on stage, he receives word that his mother, who he has not seen since he left home, is dying and wants to see him.