Sheldon Leonard

Thirty years of film clips, interviews, outtakes, stills and more pay tribute to the lives and work of the comedy legends known as the Bowery Boys.

A loving tribute to a forgotten pioneer of the golden age of television. Starting out as a Runyonesque character actor, Sheldon Leonard went on to produce some of the most beloved and groundbreaking shows of all time, such as The Andy Griffith Show, The Danny Thomas Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Spy. A rare treat, this film is a delightful retrospective of Leonard’s body of work, including priceless clips from his productions— as well as his hilarious appearances on shows such as The Jack Benny Program—and interviews with many of his friends and colleagues, including Mary Tyler Moore, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, Carl Reiner, Ron Howard and Leonard himself.

From Amos 'n' Andy to Nat King Cole, from Roots to The Cosby Show, black people have played many roles on primetime television. Brilliantly weaving clips from classic TV shows with commentary from TV producers, black actors and scholars, Marlon Riggs blends humor, insight, and thoughtful analysis to explore the evolution of black/white relations as reflected by America's favorite addiction.

Tom Bosley hosts a documentary the looks into the story behind how one of cinema's greatest films It's A Wonderful Life was made.

Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.

In 1950, a group of unlikely criminal masterminds commits the robbery of the century. Led by Tony Pino, a petty thief fresh out of prison, and Joe McGinnis, who specializes in planning lucrative capers, the gang robs Brink's main office in Boston of more than $2 million. However, things begin to go awry when the FBI gets involved, the cops start cracking down on the gang and McGinnis refuses to hand over the loot...

A hip American agent and his foxy associate try to recover a hundred pounds of stolen plutonium in Italy before it can be used by terrorists.

A New York gangster and his girlfriend attempt to turn street beggar Apple Annie into a society lady when the peddler learns her daughter is marrying royalty.

In New York, a gambler is challenged to take a Salvation Army missionary to Havana, and unexpectedly they fall for each other. And the bet has a hidden motive ... classic song and dance ensues!

As novice detectives, Bud and Lou come face to face with the Invisible Man.

Herman owes a lot of gambling debts. To pay them off, he promises the mob he'll fix a horse, so that it does not run. He intends to trick his animal-loving cousin Virgil, an apprentice veterinarian, into helping him. Of course, he doesn't tell Virgil what he is really up to. Mistaken identities are assumed, while along the way, Virgil meets a female vet and Herman falls for the owner of the horse.

A Montana lawyer gets distracted after moving to California with his wife and children.

Alcoholic newspaperman Lew Marsh hits bottom, loses his job and is rehabilitated by Charley Dolan. After six years on the wagon he gets his job back and devotes himself to other recovering alcoholics.

A young man takes in a dog that turns out to be wanted by mobsters.

The homespun Nelson family must deal with various comical situations, including an encounter with gangsters.

A prize-fighting banty rooster, so slap-happy that he goes into a punching spree whenever he hears a bell, falls out of a truck and onto the farm where Foghorn Leghorn is in the midst of his usual sparring match with the barnyard dog. Foghorn and the dog use the fighter-rooster's manic punching against each other by ringing a bell once the rooster is within striking distance of their intended victim.

With the end of Prohibition a former bootlegger and his wife attempt to go straight. Remake of the 1938 film "A Slight Case of Murder".

A French jeweler travels to India in search of a fabulous diamond.

George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.

A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.

Cutthroat pirate William Kidd captures Admiral Blayne's treasure ship and hides the bounty in a cave. Three years later, Kidd, posing as a respectable merchant captain, offers his services to the King of England. Seeking a social position, Kidd also negotiates for Blayne's title and lands, provided he can prove Blayne was associated with piracy. Launched upon his royal mission, Kidd is unaware that Blayne's son Adam is among the crew, determined to clear his father's name.

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.

Daredevil sailor Sinbad embarks on a voyage across the Seven Seas to find the lost riches of Alexander the Great. His first stop is the port of Basra, where his ship is seized and scheduled for auction. In his attempt to win it back, he befriends beautiful concubine Shireen. But when her master, the nefarious Emir, calls her back to duty, Sinbad must interrupt his adventure to save the "Jewel of Persia."

Lucky Jordan is a gangster living in New York City and when he's drafted into the army, he tries to escape duty by using an old con woman named Annie to convince the draft board he's needed at home. When that fails, Jordan is sent to boot camp, but he doesn't stay there long. He takes a beautiful USO worker hostage and flees back to New York. There, he learns that a rival gangster is plotting against America.

An airplane carrying a pair of police officers escorting gangsters to prison crash-lands in the African jungle. They are rescued from an attack by savage natives by a white woman who appears out of nowhere, and it turns out she is a lost heiress who herself crash-landed in the jungle years before.

Robin Hoodish gangster in 1929 Chicago is an object of affection, kind to New York hood and bad to a bad crook.

Danny, a poor northern Californian Mexican-American, inherits two houses from his grandfather and is quickly taken advantage of by his vagabond friends.

George Taylor returns from WWII with amnesia. Back home in Los Angeles, while trying to track down his old identity, he stumbles onto a three year old murder case and a hunt for a missing $2 million.

After Flash Fulton and Weejie McCoy take pictures of a bank robbery, they're lured to the mountain resort hideout of the robbers, where they meet an old friend and his band.

Catherine Sykes disappears after a midnight drive with Professor Andrew Gentling . When she's presumed murdered, his friend Martha convinces him that he's a prime suspect and should investigate before he's arrested.

Conceited singer Garry Mitchell refuses to renew his radio contract, so agent Doug Blake decides to find a new personality to replace him. In New York, he finds Martha Gibson, a single mother with a great voice. He arranges for her to move to Hollywood, but then has a problem trying to sell her to the show's sponsor. Doug tries every trick he can think of to make Martha a star, and as the two work more closely, he falls in love with her. Complicating matters further, Martha meets and becomes attracted to Garry.

In this crime drama, a young woman leaves her unhappy life at home to become a sophisticated night club singer. Her first job is nearly fatal when she entangles herself with the mobsters who own the joint and learns too much about their operation. Her boss decides to kill her and make it look like suicide. An intrepid reporter disbelieves the report and exposes the truth to the public.

A mystery grows after a bank robbery car leads investigators to a carnival sideshow.

Slip, Sach, Bobby, Whitey and Chuck unsuccessfully try to sell a dilapidated car to a street cleaner for a fabulous amount, so they can get enough money to save Louie's Malt Shop. Sidewalk photographer Cathy Smith snaps a pictures of three bank robbers as they are fleeing a robbery but when the Bowery Boys and Cathy realize that Sach is also in the photograph, they break into the photo lab to destroy the negative, which might make the police think Sach was involved in the robbery.

Suave amateur detective Tom Lawrence--aka Michael Arlen's literary hero The Falcon--arrives in Hollywood for some rest and relaxation, only to find himself involved in the murder of a movie actor. There's no shortage of suspects: the costume designer to whom he was married, a tyrannical director, a beautiful young French starlet, a Shakespeare-quoting producer, even a New York gangster. Helping The Falcon solve the crime is a cute, wise-cracking cab driver and a pair of bumbling cops.

A fatally shot female gangleader recounts her sordid life of crime to a police officer just before she dies.

Johnny Hart is on the run from the law after killing one of the men who shot his partner. He passes through a town and stops at a saloon owned by singer Lorena Dumont. The two seem a good, albeit tempestuous match, although Johnny has no plans to marry -- Lorena has other ideas and a shotgun wedding ensues.

Farmer Tommy and his girl Jane come in from the country for a night at the Hollywood Trocadero. There, they meet Chuck, Hollywood's Number One press agent, and his Girl Friday, Daisie. Hearing of the hardships imposed down on the farm by the war-related labor shortage, Chuck offers the help of his clients, movie star Gilda Parker, heavyweight boxer Canvas, and Eddie Le Baron and his whole orchestra, to help harvest the crops.

A crime reporter writes book to expose names and methods of the criminal leaders. He is held on a charge after refusing to explain how he got his information, but is released and helps to expose the syndicate.

Based on the novel Low Company. One of the most peculiar film noirs of the 1940s stars Barry Sullivan as a small-time hood who suffers a mental breakdown as his big plans begin to crumble. Beautiful Belita is his singer girlfriend who only fuels his paranoia.

A young woman's husband has been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. In order to be near him to try to help him get his sentence overturned, she moves into a boardinghouse near the prison whose residents are the wives of inmates.

A ship company employee, Jay Williams, is sent to Florida where one of the company cruise ships is stuck on a reef off of the coast. He obtains waivers from all of the passengers with the exception of Nan Spencer, a department store salesgirl who wants her vacation now, not later. Jay is instructed to take Nan to Havana, set her up in the best hotel, and keep her entertained. She visits a nightclub where the star attraction is Rosita Rivas and meets Rosita's worthless manager, Monte Blanca, who makes a play for her. Trouble also comes in the form of Jay's fiancée, Terry McCracken, when a romance develops between Nan and Jay.

In this Cornell Woolrich thriller, a man's memory is recovered after being injured by falling construction material. Discovering a year-long lapse, he returns to his old life and discovers a lot of mysterious happenings.

A French-Canadian trapper's adventures jeopardize his romance with an innkeeper.

Two bumbling press agents must search for a zombie to fulfill a commitment to their ex-gangster boss's new nightclub or face the consequences.

Joe is scheduled for the big fight as usual. This one has more fight sequences than plot.

A nightclub singer can't choose between a charismatic small-time gangster and an honest newspaperman.

An orphan girl lives with apparently kind uncle who turns out to be a murderer.

Magazine writer Ann Mason infiltrates the United Defenders, a public service organization which is actually a front for racketeers. But a case of amnesia threatens to blow her cover.

Little Larry Havens, whose father died in WWII, runs away from home to keep from being separated from "Shep," his father's dog. In Arizona, he is befriended by a kindly Mexican, Manuel Ortiz, who he is able to repay in time, with the aid of Sheriff "Cap" Weatherby, when Ortiz is suspected of crimes committed by local gangsters. "Shep" is instrumental in saving Ortiz from a lynching, and Larry, "Shep" and Ortiz all find a home with a couple they have befriended.

A man's marriage suffers when he pretends to be a bachelor while promoting "his" best-selling book about married life (actually written by an eccentric professor) in order to pay off a debt to a gangster.

A jeweled Madonna, property of rancher Joe Salinas, attracts two crooks to his ranch, Monica Dell, a smooth operator, and ruthless Nick Julian. Joe believe that the statue has a miraculous power to ward off evil, and Monica, after a narrow escape from injury while trying to steal the statue, is converted to Joe's faith and refuses to go through with the robbery. Nick has no such intentions.

A man wins $50,000 in a card game with gamblers, but is soon found dead and the money missing. Slip and Sach find the money near where the body was discovered, and soon find themselves the target of both the police and the gamblers.

Roy visits his home town while on a personal appearance tour. While there he enters a pony express race. To keep him from winning, bad guys try to sabatoge Roy's entry. They fail, or course. Songs include the title song and "Smile for me, Senorita."

The professional gambler Ross Hadley is the owner of a posh gaming establishment in the heart of New York...

A gangster and his mob buy a small-town in this warm comedy. They, tired of trying to make it as big city hoods, buy the town to use as a hideout. The leader of the gang begins to have a change of heart after he begins falling for a local girl.

In the small town of Brookford, everybody can trace their ancestors back to the Revolutionary War, except Sam and Susie Parker. One day, however, they find a letter written by George Washington that mentions the bravery of a Revolutionary War hero named Parker.

A group of children put on a show in order to prove that a down and out musician was the real composer of a Broadway show's songs.

A newspaper columnist and host of his own national network radio program, interviewing more film personalities on his show than any other commentator, is searching for a story for a Sunday column carried by newspaper from coast to coast. Hanging out in Hollywood's famed Trocadero restaurant and night-spot, he gets his story when "Troc" owner and band-leader Eddie LeBaron, relates to him the sage of the famed screenland nitery. And hears plenty of music furnished by four of the top name-bands in the land, including that of Bob Chester, who formed his own swing band in 1935 after being top saxophonist with the bands of Ben Pollack and Ben Bernie. Singer Ida James and the Chester band led off with "Shoo Shoo Baby" in their screen debut.

Nick and Nora Charles are back - and this time, they have a baby, a wealthy new client, and another murder to solve! Retired detective Nick is enjoying family life with Nora and their young son, Nick Jr., when eccentric industrialist Colonel MacFay asks for protection after receiving threatening messages. When MacFay is found dead at his isolated estate, Nick and Nora spring into action, questioning a houseful of suspicious guests and uncovering greed, blackmail, family secrets, and a dangerous inheritance plot. With their trademark wit and sophistication, the glamorous couple balances parenthood, parties, and peril as they race to expose the killer.