Frank Brownlee

Modern comedians share their thoughts about Laurel and Hardy. Also includes archival footage of contemporary comedians. Hosted by Dom DeLuise.

A mad scientist named Dr. Satan plots to steal key pieces of technology to enable him to build an army of robots based on his prototype to conquer America. The only one standing in his way is Bob Wayne, who fights Satan as the enigmatic Copperhead. Mysterious Doctor Satan is a 1940 film serial named after its chief villain. Doctor Satan's main opponent is the masked mystery man, "The Copperhead", whose secret identity is Bob Wayne, a man searching for justice and revenge on Satan for the death of his step-father. The serial charts the conflict between the two as Bob Wayne pursues Doctor Satan, while the latter completes his plans for world domination.

Phoebe Titus is a tough, swaggering pioneer woman, but her ways become decidedly more feminine when she falls for California bound Peter Muncie. But Peter won't be distracted from his journey and Phoebe is left alone and plenty busy with villains Jefferson Carteret and Lazarus Ward plotting at every turn to destroy her freighting company. She has not seen the last of Peter, however.

Viennese surgeon Dr. Braun and his daughter Leni come to a small town in North Dakota as refugees from Hitler. When the winds of the Dust Bowl threaten the town, John Phillips leads the townsfolk in moving to greener pastures in Oregon. He falls for Leni, but she is betrothed to the man who helped her and her father escape from the Third Reich. She must decide between the two men.

Boston pharmacist Tom Craig comes to Sacramento, where he runs afoul of local political boss Britt Dawson, who exacts protection payment from the citizenry. Dawson frames Craig with poisoned medicine, but Craig redeems himself during a Gold Rush epidemic.

A reporter goes undercover to break up an outlaw gang.

To get the three needed business men to visit the Stevens mine, Roy stages a ride with the Vacaros and has them as honored guests. Seeing a chance to make a lot of money, gangster Harmon joins the ride and then has his men kidnap the three. Having filmed a fake holdup earlier, he uses the film to convince the Sheriff that Roy and the boys were the Kidnapers.

The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. The two heroes defend the Death Valley borax miners from an outlaw gang headed by Wolf Reade. An extraordinarily strong cast -- for a serial, at least -- supported the stars, headed by Charles Bickford as Reade, Leo Carillo, Lon Chaney, Jr., and silent screen star Monte Blue. Leading lady Jeanne Kelly later changed her name to Jean Brooks and starred in the atmospheric RKO thriller The Seventh Victim (1943). Universal claimed to have spent $1 million on this serial and made sure to get their money's worth by endlessly recycling the action footage in serials and B-westerns for years to come.

Fur theives are looting the traps on the ranch where Roy is foreman and they have murdered one of Roy's friends.

Don "Red" Barry is unjustly accused of being a Missouri Outlaw. The real bad guys are a gang of crooks who've been conning the local merchants and farmers out of their hard-earned dollars. Barry decides to use his bad reputation to his advantage by infiltrating the criminal gang.

A singing entomologist (Roy Rogers) acts meek to help a juggling sheriff (George "Gabby" Hayes) solve ranch raids.

A crooked gambler poses as a descendant of a noble Spanish family has successfully secured court validation of a counterfeit land grant, and proceeds to drive out ranchers already settled on the land with high taxes, road tolls and violent tactics. A pair of horse sellers pitch in to help a customer, his daughter, and the other "tenant" ranchers after being roughed up by toll collectors when they refuse to pay the assessed toll.

Saved from a lynching party by a pair of young women, an itinerant cowpuncher signs on as a stagecoach guard to protect a shipment of gold.

Roy is a government man assigned to a case of cattle rustling in the part of the country where he grew up, unaware that the leader of the gang is a woman, in fact an old flame.

Three men survive a plane crashes on an uncharted Pacific island, south of Tahiti. One falls in love with the the daughter of the tribe's leader, heiress to the throne after the death of her brother, who is as savage as her pet leopard. The others try to devise a plan to rob the tribe's gold.

Elliot's affair prompts his wife Doris to love millionaire Bruce. After a messy gathering, a flat tire stops Doris from chasing Bruce's departing ship, which traps Elliot and Myra on board instead, leaving Bruce free to propose to Doris ashore.

Novice policemen Stan and Ollie bungle a burglary investigation.

A gambling ring run out of the Mogul Taxi company is intent on fixing college football games. Football star Harold "Red" Grange is a target for the gamblers, whose thugs try to eliminate Grange from playing. Grange's buddy Buddy is himself vulnerable to blackmail, since he has broken team rules by marrying. The crooks use all their wiles to keep Grange and Buddy from leading their team to victory.

A Rin-Tin-Tin serial presented in 12 episodes. The mysterious Wolf Man is terrorizing settlers in a western town. With the help of Rinty, young Jimmy Carter unmasks the Wolf Man and foils his evil plot.

Intent on avenging his father's murder, Roy Neal and his sidekick Rusty find themselves in the border town of Gladstone where Neal is mistakenly arrested for the robbery of a mail truck. After escaping, Neal joins up with pretty June Bowers whose father has apparently also been murdered. Neal, suspecting two of the town's leading businessmen of being the murderers, tries to flush them out before the sheriff can lock him up again.

A mysterious master criminal known as The Voice plots with his gang to sabotage the Milesburg Oil Company, but the rightful heir has a secret army of her own to protect her rights.

Jed and his dog Lightning contend with the boy's abusive father.

Mississippi, 1830's. Tom Rumsford comes back to Magnolia Landing, his parents'estate. Having been brought up in the North by Quaker relatives, he just hates violence and accordingly refuses a duel. As this is the only way in the South to settle a dispute between gentlemen, Tom's father is so infuriated by his behavior that Tom has no other choice but leave. Away from Magnolia Landing, Tom learns bravery and returns seven years later as "the notorious Colonel Blake", the terror of the Lower Mississippi.

Mishaps befall a new home owner located next door to an insane asylum.

Harvey Manning is placed on trial for the murder of Jack Winfield, his closest friend, whose body was found in the Manning home. During the trial, the prosecuting and the defense attorneys put forward sharply different versions of the character of Manning and his wife, Viola, and of the events leading up to the murder. The jury returns a verdict of guilty, but a young girl then comes forward and confesses that she killed Winfield for having wronged her.

An escaped convict is out to kill the judge who sentenced him. Two inept detectives are hired to guard the judge.

When spiritualist Madame Mysteria is killed in a train wreck, her three associates decide to replace her instead of declaring her dead. One of them, the Fox, calls on Jean Oliver, who he knew from prison. Jean was serving time after being framed by her former employer, Mrs. Ramsey, for a theft just to keep her and her son, Donald Ramsey, from marrying. Jean agrees to the crooks' scheme providing that they help her kidnap the baby that belongs to Donald and the woman that his mother had him marry.

Peter the Great as the dog "King" that rescues his abducted owner.

She dances- The Dance of Death. She Sings- The song of Life. Scintillating, Fascinating, Desirable, Swifty She Weaves the Web of Destruction and then Regeneration. A Drama of Lights and Shadows.

Following a jewelry store robbery, Charley becomes the prime suspect due to his flashy antics and accidental collaborations with the true perpetrators.

After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada.

O'Day, the terror of Red Gulch, wins the entire stake of a gambler named Granger in a poker game but gives it all to Denver Nell, a dancehall girl, when she tells him her sad story. O'Day later discovers that she has returned the money to Granger, and he decides to reform. He goes to another town, where (now known as Good Deed O'Day) he meets an old friend, a wealthy rancher with whose sister, Mary, he is in love. Snowden takes a trip to Denver and returns with Nell, whom he has married.

Boston Blackie is a former prison inmate campaigning to outlaw Warden Benton's infamous "Water Cross" torture. Benton, however, is successful in his attempt to have Blackie arrested and returned to the prison, but his evil schemes are ultimately thwarted by Mary Carter, Blackie's girlfriend, who manages to alert the governor. Considered a lost film.

Charley needs $10,000 right away. Mrs. Schwartzkopple has inherited $2 million from her late husband and wants to marry a younger man. Mr. Blaylock, her attorney, sees a way to solve both their problems, and keep control of her $2 million.

Young reporter Jay Walker is given the job of investigating Ducket Nelson, an infamous bandit. While driving in the country Walker is held up by Nelson--who is disguised as an elderly Gypsy woman--and when his colleagues at the newspaper find out and ridicule him, his publisher tells him not to come back until he himself captures Nelson. Determined to avenge his embarrassment, he sets out to find and bring in the bandit.

A con artist and a midget dressed as her infant son, are unmasked aboard a ship by a steward.

Upon discovering that his sister has been driven to suicide by the betrayal of Enrico Colonna, young mountaineer Dabney Morgan swears to avenge her death.

This silent action comedy features Tom Mix donning a suit of armor to battle an unscrupulous ranch foreman in a style that would appear familiar to King Arthur and his knights.

When Mamie Lee's father, Sam Corwin, is sentenced to jail for forgery, the sheriff, Ed Cass, offers to cover the debt in return for Mamie Lee's hand in marriage. The distraught daughter agrees, and Cass robs the saloon to obtain the money, placing the blame on Jim Kane, his rival for Mamie's affections. Jim is sent to jail an embittered man.

Jimmy Nevins--once wealthy and now engaged to Doris Standish--is reduced to poverty and jilted by her when he is befriended by Mary Butler, the leader of a gang of crooks.

Martin co-owns a farm and its lighthouse on the rocky coast. Banker Josiah induces him to speculate in oil where he loses everything but the banker is willing to forget Martin’s debt in exchange for the latter’s daughter in marriage.

Nita Moore, a circus performer, is mistreated by the ringmaster and runs away to join an old couple who are persuaded that Nita is their longlost daughter. Phillip Lessoway, the couple's lawyer, falls in love with Nita, but after a quarrel he discovers and reveals to the adoptive parents that Nita is an imposter.

On the night of his engagement to Sybil Eliot, Tommy Carteret discovers that his father has been involved in an inappropriate situation with a neighbor's household. To protect his family's name, Tommy takes the blame for his father's actions and leaves town with his friend, Hartwell. The plot follows his journey and the consequences of his sacrifice.

A mining camp girl attempts to reform a young derelict addicted to drink. Colleen Moore broke her neck in a fall from a moving handcar during the making of this rousing sagebrush melodrama. The pert Moore, an idol of her generation, quickly regained her mobility but was reportedly forced to sleep in a leather neck support for nearly ten years.

Hearts are trumps when Lady Winifred secretly marries gamekeeper Michael Wain.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

French Canadian Jacques Fontaine shoots a man in a tavern brawl and then flees, a fugitive from the North West Mounted Police. Fifteen years later, he wanders into St. Croix, Alberta, where he meets Lupine, a repulsive half-breed trapper, and his enchanting daughter Wild Sumac.

Mary, the three-year-old daughter of John Denby, a railroad president, is kidnapped, and all trace of her is lost. Fourteen years elapse. There has been a terrible wreck on Denby's road and Graham, the engineer, is made the scapegoat. In spite of the fact that he merely obeyed orders, he is sent of to prison. Mary is returned to Denby, the kidnapper explaining that he stole her when his own little daughter was killed, but that now he feels he must return her to her parents.

A candidate for governor, eager Gerald Harper persuades his equally ambitious wife Carol to enlist the aid of her friend Diana Casper, whose influence with political boss Jarvis Flint could help him win the election. Carol agrees to speak to Diana on condition that Gerald temporarily assume her work in the city's tenements.

Kingston Hollister admires Bernice Cleveland from afar. He asks Officer Callahan, the policeman on the beat, about her and mistakenly believes she is a lady's maid. So the wealthy Hollister disguises himself as the cop so he can meet her.

In an attempt to brand himself as a serious actor, the smiling swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks starred in THE HALF-BREED (1916), a Western melodrama written by Anita Loos and directed with flair by Allan Dwan. Fairbanks stars as Lo Dorman, who has been ostracized from society because of this mixed ethnicity - his Native American mother was abandoned by his white father. When Lo catches the eye of the rich white debutante Nellie (Jewel Carmen), he becomes a target for the racist Sheriff Dunn (Sam De Grasse), who wants to break them up and take Nelli for his own. This love triangle becomes a quadrangle with the arrival of Teresa (Alma Rubens), who is on the run from the law. Through fire and fury Lo must decide who and what he truly loves.

A depressed man grows to love life just as his fortune teller's predictions become dire.

In the northwestern wilderness of Alaska, an innocent young girl falls into the clutches of a band of evil men of the gold fields.

Police headquarters has been plagued by a series of robberies, culminating in the theft of a priceless necklace smuggled from Europe. The detectives are on the track of a gang led by master thief Ramon Mordant and his accomplice known as "the Face" because of his twisted and hideous countenance.

In this adaptation of Zane Grey's novel, adventurer Dick Gale (E.K. Lincoln) is traveling through the Southwest. He helps rescue Mercedes Castanada (Margery Wilson) from the clutches of notorious outlaw Rojas (Walter Long). Mercedes' fiancé, Captain George Thorne (Edward Coxen), entrusts her to Gale's care when he returns to duty.

At a French Canadian logging camp, stranger Louis Graintaire canoes through impassable rapids to the delight of Little Jean, a crippled boy who hopes that Louis will thrash his tormentor, camp bully Baptiste Navet. That evening Louis arouses Navet's enmity by dancing with Annette Bosseut, the daughter of the camp superintendent. Navet challenges Louis to a fight, but when the day comes, Louis and the boy cannot be found.

In dire financial straits, businessman John Baird considers liquidating the bonds that are held in trust for his little daughter Margery. Failing to comprehend her husband's desperation, Virginia Baird refuses his request and, upon overhearing his lawyer advising him to utilize the bonds without consulting her, she decides to place them in the hands of George Drake, an old friend. Drake hijacks the securities, however, and their disappearance leads to the break up of the Baird's marriage, resulting in Virginia leaving the house. Attempting to console her father, Margery sets out on her pony to bring her mother home. But she is held up on the road by Captain Kidd Jr., who adopts her as his first mate, and the two children take up residence on a grass hut on a nearby island.

A girl, suffering from amnesia, shows up in a logging-camp in the northwest. There are those who know more about who she is than she does, including why she is there, and the helpless girl is soon at the mercy of the lawlessness in this far-flung frontier. Will some gentleman come to her aid?

A poor Russian girl's beauty leads her unscrupulous uncle to bring her to the United States. There he is going to sell her into a marriage with a rich old man she has never met. But her lover, an returning immigrant visiting Russia from the U.S., sails on the same ship. When they arrive he learns, to his surprise, that the American police, unlike those of his native country, are not oppressors of the poor, but friends that will aid in securing the release of his beloved Marfa.

Harry Larrabee, a young playwright, lives in the same studio apartment house with Carolyn Vaughn, a painter of miniatures, with whom he falls in love. "The Wolf," a famous criminal, supposed to be dead, returns and communicates with his wife, a friend of Carolyn's. He forces his wife and her brother to aid him in a plot to rob Carolyn of her valuable jewels. Harry, by one of his famous "inspirations," discovers that a crime is being committed, rescues Carolyn and bears her away in a taxicab. He is himself suspected of the crime, but, undisturbed by the web of circumstance by which he is entangled, his wonderful inspirations give him the key to the conspiracy which led up to the crime. In an unusual and powerful finale the guilty parties fight among themselves and justice triumphs in an exciting climax.