Paul Lukas

Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, until 1934 when the Hays Code virtually neutered film content. No longer portrayed as virgins or vamps, the liberated female of the pre-code films had dimensions. Good girls had lovers and babies and held down jobs, while the bad girls were cast in a sympathetic light. And they did it all without apology.

All-out war between the United States and an Asian country is averted when the two sides agree to settle their differences by each choosing a single soldier as champion and having the two men fight to the death on an isolated island.

Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.

After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.

Mike Windgren works on a boat in Acapulco, but when the bratty daughter of its owner gets him fired, Mike finds new work as a lifeguard and singer at a local hotel. Tensions increase when Mike runs afoul of the rival lifeguard—also the champion diver of Mexico.

In Argentina, one daughter of patriarch Madariaga is married to a Frenchman while the other is married to a German thus leading to a crisis when Nazi Germany occupies France and some Madariaga family members fight on opposite sides.

1920s, the French Riviera: wealthy expatriate Nicole Warren's mental illness strains her marriage to psychiatrist Dick. A young American actress named Rosemary Hoyt arrives and is drawn into their circle, becoming romantically involved with the older, married Dick and disrupting the fragile balance of the group. The thought of Dick possibly being attracted to another sends Nicole on an emotional downward spiral that threatens to consume them all.

Government agent Sol Madrid travels to Mexico with hooker Stacey to bring mobster Villanova and drug kingpin Dietrich to justice.

A ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo.

In French Equatorial Africa, an idealist campaigns to save the African elephant, gaining support from a nightclub hostess and an ex-soldier. His cause attracts a mix of characters, including a U.S. commentator, a government aide opposed to him, and an ivory hunter with conflicting interests.

The son of a French aristocrat is accused of stealing his father's money and of stealing his step-sister's heart.

During the British Raj, the orphan of a British soldier poses as a Hindu and is torn between his loyalty to a Buddhist mystic and aiding the English secret service.

After intrepid working girl Mary Carter becomes the new owner of a reputedly haunted mansion located off the Cuban coast, a stranger phones warning her to stay away from the castle. Undaunted, Mary sets sail for Cuba with a stowaway in her trunk—wise-cracking Larry Lawrence, a radio announcer who helps Mary get to the bottom of the voodoo magic, zombies and ghosts that supposedly curse the spooky estate.

In occupied France, a convicted thief and murderer escapes the guillotine when a bombing raid strikes the prison, but is quickly re-captured by the inspector of the Surete responsible for his original arrest. Fearing the guillotine more than his actual death, the convict inveigles the inspector to help him with a plan to rescue 100 Frenchmen taken by the Gestapo following an act of sabotage: he will confess to being the saboteur and allow himself to be executed by firing squad, the Gestapo's method of execution, thus freeing the 100 men.

An Austrian prince flees his homeland when the Nazis take over and settles in London. After meeting a beautiful Austrian émigré who makes him realize his mistake in leaving, he strikes a deal with the Nazis to return in exchange for some Austrian prisoners, but quickly discovers that the Nazis are not to be trusted.

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.

In post-war Europe, a diverse group of passengers aboard a U.S. Army train to bombed-out Frankfurt becomes involved in a Nazi assassination plot.

In 1903, Doctor Huntington Bailey meets a friendly older lady during a train trip. She tells him that she is going to visit her brother Nick and his lovely young wife Allida. Once in New York, Bailey hears that his train companion suddenly died. Shortly afterward, he meets the strange couple and gets suspicious of Nick's treatment of his wife.

On the eve of World War II, the German Kurt Müller, his American-born wife Sara, and their three children, having lived in Europe for years, visit Sara's wealthy mother near Washington, DC. Kurt secretly works for the anti-Nazi resistance. A visiting Romanian count, becoming aware of this, seeks to blackmail him.

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

After marrying an archaeologist, a Victorian-era woman with a sordid past realizes that she is not ready to settle down with one man.

Propaganda short film depicting the rise of Nazism in Germany and how political propaganda is similarly used in the United States. The film was made to make the case for the desegregation of the United States armed forces.

When a German art dealer living in the US returns to his native country he finds himself attracted to Nazi propaganda.

After a young woman is coerced into prostitution and her brother framed for murder by an organized crime syndicate, retribution in the form of an ape visits the mobsters.

After hearing that a famous actress is dying in a hospital after being hit by a car, a reporter goes to the hospital to interview the actress. She then tells the reporter that her wealthy fiance, who was killed in an accident several years before, was actually murdered. Before long the reporter finds herself in a web of corruption, mental illness and murder.

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel in a fictional European country, young Iris befriends elderly Miss Froy. When the train resumes, Iris suffers a bout of unconsciousness and wakes to find the old woman has disappeared. The other passengers ominously deny Miss Froy ever existed, so Iris begins to investigate with another traveler and, as the pair sleuth, romantic sparks fly.

A retired auto manufacturer and his wife take a long-planned European vacation only to find that they want very different things from life.

FBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-War espionage activities of the German-American Bund.

Three young women in Budapest share living quarters while searching for romance.

Lieut. Robert Banks, an American aviator on leave in Paris, meets Mary Gordon, a young American who lives abroad, but their romance is cut short by his return to the front. In an air battle, Robert brings down and captures the Grey Eagle, Baden, and takes him to American Intelligence in Paris. Mary, ostensibly a spy for the Germans, drugs Robert, who awakens to find that his uniform has been stolen by Baden. Later, in an exciting air conflict, Baden is wounded but shoots down Robert's plane. The German rescues him, however, and takes him to an Allied hospital, assuring him of Mary's love; his faith in her is restored when he learns that she is actually a spy for U. S. Intelligence.

A mobster's daughter leads her boyfriend from the circus into bootlegging.

A blackmailer preys on an actress who is trying to protect her daughter from her past.

Beautiful manicurist Hallie Hobart sets her sights on handsome David Stone, the son of wealthy wheat farmer Ezra Stone. Professing to hate men, Hallie is only interested in luring David in for a lucrative business deal. David easily falls in love, but older brother Mark brands Hallie a gold-digger. To get even with the straight-laced Stone family, Hallie accepts David's marriage proposal.

After socialite Lynn Llewellyn receives an anonymous threat, he is poisoned at his uncle's casino, and although he recovers, his wife is murdered by the same killer.

Conceited radio announcer irritates everyone else at the station.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1936.

When a famous doctor kills his adulterous wife, he is defended by his best friend, an attorney who suspects that his own wife is having an affair.

A crotchety, old ex-attorney solves the violent theft of a priceless diamond from his nephew.

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

A ruthless, crooked stockbroker is murdered at his luxurious country estate, and detective Philo Vance just happens to be there; he decides to find out who killed him.

An Irish convict sentenced to hard labor in Australia escapes into the outback, and organizes a band of fellow escapees to fight a corrupt landlord.

Story of an unhappy wife of oil rigger who labors in a Central American oil field. The bored Susan falls in love with Walt's good friend Ken but keeps her husband in the dark about her feelings... until he's plunged into darkness for real when he loses his eyesight. Susan finds her attentions then wandering yet another man, Davis, and Ken urges her to return to Walt.

A hopelessly silly young flibbertigibbet from Mississippi is faced with the choice of her poor, boorish New Jersey boyfriend or a dashing Opera star, a man of experience.

In 17th century France, young d'Artagnan wants to join the King's Musketeers, but instead befriends three legendary musketeers — Athos, Porthos, and Aramis — and together, they become embroiled in the political intrigue surrounding King Louis XIII and his adversaries, particularly the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.

Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.

After accidentally killing her no-good husband, Judy makes her true love promise not to tell her small son about his imprisoned mother. She is released ten years later...

A Broadway actress with a problematic past falls hard for the author of her new play.

A book publisher finds his business floundering, which prompts his socially ambitious wife to desert him for a society millionaire, leaving him with their young son. The publisher's fortunes improve dramatically, however, when a best-selling romance novelist decides to publish her new book with his firm. In the meantime, his ex-wife has married the millionaire, and she and her new mother-in-law come up with a plan to sue her ex-husband for custody of the boy.

The daughter of a murdered financier works as a jewelry salesperson while she tracks her father's colleagues who plotted against him.

Josef is valet for Count von Rommer and well-trained in his master's philandering ways. Mistaken for the Count by Marie, a maid he thinks is an aristocrat, Josef shows her a merry time at the Count's Monte Carlo villa. Meanwhile, the Count escapes a situation with Countess von Rischenheim when her count husband makes an unscheduled appearance, by posing as the butler.

A woman becomes estranged from her daughter when the girl learns that she is illegitimate.

When a novelist is murdered, suspicion falls on all the women he had affairs with--and then wrote about in his books.

A lawyer, left by his wife, gets drunk and marries a chorus girl, or so he learns the morning after.

Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has a bicycle riding act. Gardoni shows his appreciation by stealing the clown's act and his girlfriend, whom he marries.

After notorious jewel thief Flambeau meets Evelyn Fischer during a raid on a casino, he falls deeply in love with her. Later Flambeau sends notes to both Leopold Fischer, who unknown to him is Evelyn's uncle, and Father Brown, in which he vows he will steal from them the ten diamonds that comprise the "Flying Star." Flambeau intends to give these diamonds to Evelyn. Father Brown, whose gold cross contains some of the Flying Star diamonds, is determined to meet Flambeau before he is arrested, to reform and redeem his soul.

While waiting out World War I in a German POW camp, Captain Fred Allison discovers that his oldest and dearest friend Digby has also been captured and put into the same camp with him. Fred longs for news of his wife, Monica, but Digby speaks little of her. Digby knows a secret about Monica, a secret he must keep from his friend, and it wears at his conscience so much that he attempts a reckless escape.

Rachel becomes the leading actress in the Comédie Française through the patronage of three influential men: Baron Hartman, the wealthiest man in France; Count Vareski, a relative of Napoleon; and Dr. Durande. All three men are in love with her, but she throws them over when she falls in love with Raoul Duval. A lost film.

A ruthless stockbroker sells short in the copper business and ruins the life of his friends by ruining their finances. A lost film, only a nine second fragment survives.

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