William J. O'Brien

Test space rockets exploding at liftoff and increased reporting of UFO sightings culminate in a direct attempt by alien survivors of a dead, extra-galactic civilization to invade Earth from impervious flying saucers, using ray-weapons of mass destruction.

The big national crime syndicate has moved into town, partnering up with local crime boss Nick Scanlon. McQuigg, the only honest police captain on the force, and his loyal patrolman, Johnson, take on the violent Nick.

Frank Johnson, a sole witness to a gangland murder, goes into hiding and is trailed by Police Inspector Ferris, on the theory that Frank is trying to escape from possible retaliation. Frank's wife, Eleanor, suspects he is actually running away from their unsuccessful marriage. Aided by a newspaperman, Danny Leggett, Eleanor sets out to locate her husband. The killer is also looking for him, and keeps close tabs on Eleanor.

Christabel Caine has the face of angel and the heart of a swamp rat. She'll step on anyone to get what she wants, including her own family. A master of manipulation, she covertly breaks off the engagement of her trusting cousin, Donna, to her fabulously wealthy beau, Curtis Carey. Once married to Curtis herself, Christabel continues her affair with novelist Nick Bradley, who knows she's evil, but loves her anyway.

Five O. Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critics' acclaim was "The Cop and the Anthem". Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can't even accost a woman; she turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are "The Clarion Call", "The Last Leaf", "The Ransom of Red Chief", and "The Gift of the Magi".

Following the Civil War, brothers Dan and Neil Hammond return to Texas, where ambitious Dan turns to rustling and then shady land deals to build an empire. Being held for a murder, he's rescued from a lynch mob by Neil, now the Marshal, but they have an inevitable falling-out.

Bart Tare, an ex-Army man who has a lifelong fixation with guns, meets a kindred spirit in sharpshooter Annie Starr and goes to work at a carnival alongside her. After upsetting the carnival owner who lusts after Starr, they both get fired. Soon, at Starr's behest, the couple embarks on a crime spree for cash.

Frenchie Fontaine sells her successful business in New Orleans to come West. Her reason? Find the men who killed her father, Frank Dawson. But she only knows one of the two who did and she's determined to find out the other.

Advertising executive Alan Miller, a recovered alcoholic who now does interventions on behalf of Alcoholics Anonymous, is called to help Broadway actress Jenny Carey whose developing career is threatened by an increasing dependence on alcohol. Alan's growing interest in Jenny strains his marriage to Edna, with whom he has two children.

A husband and wife act are hoping to find success on Broadway.

When most people look at Florence Farley, they see a pretty teenager. But when Milly Farley looks at her daughter she sees something else: a tennis prodigy who could be Milly’s ticket to money and fame.

A young woman who has just become engaged has her life completely shattered when she is raped while on her way home from work.

A gambler faces deportation when he gets mixed up with murder.

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, mill heiress Deborah Chandler Clark is dead, killed in a freak auto accident. But Deborah is alive, if not too well. Having discovered a horrible truth about her new husband, Deborah is now a “woman in hiding,” living in mortal fear that someday her husband will catch up with her again. When a returning GI recognizes Deborah, however, she must decide whether or not she can trust him.

The wedding of Ellen and David is halted by a stranger who insists that the bride is already married to someone else. Though the flabbergasted Ellen denies the charge, the interloper produces enough evidence that his accusation must be investigated. Ellen and David travel to the small coastal town where her first wedding allegedly occurred. There, they meet a number of individuals whose stories make Ellen question her own sanity.

An insurance agent's greedy girlfriend with a taste for mink leads him to a life of crime.

A biographical film of Ben Hogan, from his start as a golf caddy to being considered one of golf's greatest players.

Songwriter Gus Kahn fights to make his name, then has to fight again to survive the Depression.

A blacklisted reporter brings his shady ways to a small-town newspaper after being fired from a big city daily.

Retired army dog King inherits a fortune from his eccentric millionaire owner. But someone poisons him for his fortune. He gets to go back to earth as a human detective to bring his killer to justice and protect the kind woman who used to look after him.

Soon after a veteran returns from war, his cheating wife is found dead. He evades police in an attempt to find the real murderer.

Just before Christmas, department store clerk Steve Mason meets big spending customer Connie Ennis, who's actually a comparison shopper sent by another store. Steve lets her go, which gets him fired. They spend the afternoon together, which doesn't sit well with Connie's steady suitor, Carl, when he finds out, but delights her young son Timmy, who quickly takes to Steve.

A fugitive, dangerous madman reaches an English village where he confronts his former partner who left him for dead in the jungle after their discovery of a diamond mine. When the former partner also claims to have since lost the mine and all its wealth, which he took all for himself, and though the partner is still living in a state of luxury , the madman takes up an offer from a crazed scientist to make him invisible, something the scientist has already done with experimental animals, so that he can take revenge.

Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.

Somewhere in Europe, in a city occupied by the Nazis, a gentle school teacher finds himself torn between collaboration and resistance, cowardice and courage.

On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.

Judy O'Brien is an aspiring ballerina in a dance troupe. Also in the company is Bubbles, a brash mantrap who leaves the struggling troupe for a career in burlesque. When the company disbands, Bubbles gives Judy a thankless job as her stooge. The two eventually clash when both fall for the same man.

A waitress at the Warner Brothers commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when actors Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan agree to help her.

Duke Fergus falls for Ann 'Flaxen' Tarry in the Barbary Coast in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. He loses money to crooked gambler Boss Tito Morell, goes home, learns to gamble, and returns. After he makes a fortune, he opens his own place with Flaxen as the entertainer; but the 1906 quake destroys his place.

Egbert Sousé becomes an unexpected hero when a bank robber falls over a bench he's occupying. Now considered brave, Egbert is given a job as a bank guard. Soon, he is approached by charlatan J. Frothingham Waterbury about buying shares in a mining company. Egbert persuades teller Og Oggilby to lend him bank money, to be returned when the scheme pays off. Unfortunately, bank inspector Snoopington then makes a surprise appearance.

A football halfback has a heart condition, a nagging wife and a team secretary who loves him.

A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.

When college student Bill Perry grows inappropriately fond of psychology professor Wilma Tuttle and tries to rape her, her self-defense inadvertently kills him. Wilma then moves Bill's corpse to a nearby beach and makes his death look like the result of a cliff diving accident. But her guilt over the incident builds, and Lt. Ted Dorgan begins to suspect that Wilma knows more than she's letting on.

Bat Masterson's old friend Billy Burns convinces him to become marshal of Liberal, Kansas and help the residents fight drought and a destructive range war.

Emery Slade was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood in 1932, but by 1949 his career has hit the skids. Fortunately, he is able to convince studio head Melville Crossman to cast him in the adaptation of a hit Broadway show. Crossman has one condition: Slade must travel to New York and convince the female star of the stage production to join the film. Slade goes, but, when he eyes the winsome Julie Clarke, he hatches a different scheme.

When Ivy, an Edwardian belle, begins to like Miles, a wealthy gentleman, she is unsure of what to do with her husband, Jervis, or her lover, Dr. Roger. She then hatches a plan to get rid of them both.

Two window washers are mistaken for crooks by gangsters who are missing money.

A young promoter is accused of the murder of Vicky Lynn, a young actress he "discovered" as a waitress while out with ex-actor Robin Ray and gossip columnist Larry Evans.

A young Navy sailor has one night to find out why a woman was killed and he ended up with a bag of money after a drinking blackout.

While on vacation, the Falcon is arrested for kidnapping after striking up a friendship with a girl whose nurse has been recently murdered.

George Raft plays a sailor who sets out to solve his father's mysterious death.

After some gun play with a posse, the James Gang head for Quinto in a section of land which is not a part of America. Anyone there is beyond the law so the town is populated with outlaws. Next to arrive is Sheriff Rowley, following his brother whom the Gang have brought in injured. Rowley has no authority and gets on well enough with the James boys but is soon involved in other local goings-on, including a move to vote for annexation with Oklahoma which would allow the law well and truly in.

Janie is a telephone operator who is caught up in the lines of love of three men: car salesman Tom, Chicago millionaire Dick and auto mechanic Harry. But Janie just can't seem to make up her mind between them. While fantasizing about her futures with each of the men, Janie spends her time desperately trying to juggle between them until she can make a decision.

An Iowa drugstore owner becomes embittered when his son is killed in World War II. The druggist believes that the boy's life was cut short before he had an opportunity to truly appreciate his existence.

A violent escaped con and his gang kidnap the police detective and DA who put him behind bars.

Gildersleeve has jury duty.

Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson are Broadway stars who return to Universal Studios to make another movie. The mere mention of Olsen and Johnson's names evacuates the studio and terrorizes the management and personnel. Undaunted, the comedians hire an assistant director and unknown talent, and set out to make their own movie.

A cop-turned-bail bondsman gets involved in a murder investigation involving a former flame.

A modest country doctor in the antebellum South has to contend with his daughter's upcoming marriage and an affectionate medicine show elephant.

A showgirl with a dubious reputation flees the cops and transforms herself into a phony evangelist offering "cures" to the sick and disabled.

Officer James O'Malley, a true believer in law and order, treats even the smallest offenses with the utmost seriousness. But O'Malley brings bad publicity to the force when his pigheaded ethics become the subject of a scathing news story, and he's subsequently relegated to traffic cop. While on the beat, he tickets impoverished family man John Phillips, unaware that his stubbornness will set off a series of devastating events for Phillips.

Cora, an heiress who gives it all up for the excitement of looking for a job and living on her own, meets up with unemployed and flat broke Dick. The two of them embark on a wild night of gambling and winning, where everything they touch turns to gold. Pretty soon they're in love and, to the horror of Cora's father, married.

A political hack becomes President during the height of the Depression and undergoes a metamorphosis into an incorruptible statesman after a near-fatal accident.

Assistant District Attorney Jeffery Powell has just sent an innocent man to prison for the murder of a gambler. Powell is in love with, Marion Courtney, but he's unaware that Marion is the sister of the innocent man he sent to prison. Marion gets herself committed to a women's prison to get proof from inmate, Evelyn 'Duchess' Thane, that her brother is innocent. Powell learns of Marion's plight and believes she's in love with the man he sent to prison.

During WW1, the girls become spies when they spend the evening with two German officers.

A faded star is suspected of killing a studio executive.

A young singer, Marge Dexter, becomes involved in trouble when she works in a nightclub in which two of the band-members are in reality undercover-police officers who believe that the club is the headquarters of a dangerous gang of crooks.

A meat inspector sets out to rid his town of payoff deals affecting the quality of meat being sold to the public.

Mr. Bowser believes that he'll be able to clean the house better than his wife can.

A Chinese doctor vows revenge against the allied troops who killed his wife and child during the Boxer Rebellion.