Ann Sothern

Some of MGM's musical stars review the studio's history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.

A letter is addressed to three wives from their 'best friend', announcing that she's running away with one of their husbands – but she doesn't specify which one.

Karate experts attempt to rescue a girl who was kidnapped by a mother and her two psycho sons.

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.

Melba Stokes, her mother Sheba and daughter Cheryl embark on a crime spree after their California beauty parlor is repossessed. Their destination is Arkansas, where the three generations of women want to reclaim the family farm.

A psychic's girlfriend finds out that a lump on her back is a growing reincarnation of a 400 year-old demonic Native American spirit.

A young man returns home to his mother's boardinghouse after serving a prison sentence for a gang rape he was forced to participate in. He seeks revenge on his lawyer and the girl who framed him.

An ancient Asian statue with the power to grant health and long life via secret acupuncture points is being pursued by a wealthy criminal, but his plans are put in peril when a slovenly detective is tasked with protecting the relic.

A mother travels to New York to see her daughter who is awaiting trial for murder. The mother is totally convinced of her daughter's innocence and does all she can to help her. As the trial progresses however, the mother begins to have doubts.

A young girl writes to President Abraham Lincoln to advise him to grow a beard.

Drama based on the life of Joyce Duco, with Joanna Pettet as a young nun torn between the reality of her secular job as a daytime juvenile probation officer and the vows she has taken with the church.

A filmed version of Sid and Marty Krofft's 1968 live puppet show, set at a medieval fair. The special was a pilot for a weekly series.

The other party is in disarray. Five men vie for the party nomination for president. No one has a majority as the first ballot closes and the front-runners begin to decide how badly they want the job.

A woman trapped in a home elevator is terrorized by a group of vicious hoodlums.

Sylvia West (Carroll Baker) may not be who she says she is. Her fiancé, the very well-to-do Frederick Summers (Peter Lawford), hires an investigator named Alan Maklin (George Maharis) to do some digging, and what he finds out about her life prior to becoming a writer is quite shocking. Will the newfound knowledge ruin the marriage? Gordon Douglas (Young at Heart) directs this drama, which is based on E.V. Cunningham's book.

A wild beach boy takes a job on a tuna fishing boat.

Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies start dropping and the savvy P.I. is the primary suspect in an attractive woman's death. This NBC TV movie served as a pilot for the later series.

Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.

Angered that her sister Celia has stolen her fiance, Dell Faring kills her and allows Celia's husband David, knocked out in an argument with Celia, to take the blame and end up on death row. Later Dell, finding out that David's young daughter Susan was witness to the crime and is undergoing psychiatric treatment, plans to eliminate her before her memory returns.

Mother and daughter compete over same singing role and, unbeknownst to each other, the same man.

A letter is addressed to three wives from their 'best friend', announcing that she's running away with one of their husbands – but she doesn't specify which one.

Acrobat Eddie Marsh is in the army now. His first act is to become friendly with Kathryn Jones, the colonel's pretty daughter. Their romance hits a few snags, including disapproval from her father. Eddie's also plagued by fear of having an accident during his family's trapeze act in the army variety show, which also features a gallery of MGM stars.

Encomium to Larry Hart (1895-1943), seen through the fictive eyes of his song-writing partner, Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): from their first meeting, through lean years and their breakthrough, to their successes on Broadway, London, and Hollywood. We see the fruits of Hart and Rodgers' collaboration - elaborately staged numbers from their plays, characters' visits to night clubs, and impromptu performances at parties. We also see Larry's scattered approach to life, his failed love with Peggy McNeil, his unhappiness, and Richard's successful wooing of Dorothy Feiner.

Maisie Revere, a showgirl stranded in Los Angeles, decides to join the local police department on the persuasion of Lieutenant Paul Scott who wants to use her as an undercover agent to expose a conman.

When retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.

A Brooklyn showgirl gets mixed up in a divorce between a soldier and his wife.

A judge flees the pressures of professional and family life for a job as a short-order cook.

Sailors and spies mingle in between the acts at Hattie's nightclub in the Canal Zone.

A married couple who have a song-and-dance act in vaudeville are in trouble. Their struggling act is going nowhere, they're almost broke and they have to do something to get them back on top or they'll really be in trouble. They decide to put their young son in the act in hopes of attracting some new attention. The boy turns out to be a major talent, audiences love him and the act is on its way to the top. That's when an organization whose purpose is to stop children from performing on stage shows up, and they're dead set on breaking up the act.

This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.

Struggling performers, Sothern and Skelton's lives are thrown off gear when they are caught with a bagful of hard cash robbed by a goon. With Skelton in prison, how will Sothern prove their innocence?

Young undefeated boxer Terry Dolan, who's been lying to his invalid mother about his career, confides to Maisie that he hates and is terrified by boxing and wants out. Not wanting to let down his best friend and manager Skeets Maguire, who has hopes of him becoming the next champion, he is reluctant to bring up the subject with him. Maisie convinces Terry to tell Skeets, whose unexpected reaction induces him to step into the ring again.

When his wife threatens him with divorce, a reporter courts her again.

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.

This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.

Married songwriters almost split up while putting on a big show.

Showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself once again out of work. She meets a wealthy playboy who hires her to be his family's new maid. Maisie soon finds herself trying to mend the family's many problems.

An MGM short promoting the studio's impact on fashion through film through their chief of costume design, Adrian; in rural America, a mother and daughter are shopping and observe a designer dress worn by Joan Crawford in a recent movie.

A socialite masquerades as a notorious femme fatale to win back her straying husband during a costume party aboard a doomed dirigible.

A New York City lawyer finds himself falling in love with the daughter of a screwball South Carolina family.

Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.

Jerry and Connie are engaged to be married, but they're also rival newspaper reporters, and when they're both assigned to cover the same murder case, the temptation to out-scoop the other threatens their relationship.

Standard tale of husband and wife living a party lifestyle. He works in a gambling hall and she occasionally models and sings. Because they want to start a family wife feels the need to change their situation. Situation is changed and husband gets a new job and then a promotion but is tricked into a bad business deal and wants to go back to his old life.

A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.

A musical comedy about a Brooklyn boy who inherits a fortune from his archaeologist father, but has to go to Egypt to claim it.

While visiting Hollywood a starstruck movie fan (Eddie Cantor) fantasizes about himself cast in an Arabian adventure. Director David Butler's comedy--with many songs--also features Tony Martin, Roland Young, Gypsy Rose Lee (billed as Rose Hovick), John Carradine, June Lang, Virginia Field, Charles Lane, The Peters Sisters and many big-name guest stars playing themselves.

A girl in search of a rich husband mistakes a millionaire for a male model.

An impersonates look-alike, causing confusion wife girlfriend.

A college football star falls for his mousy French tutor.

The day after Carol returns from a European trip, she wakes up to find her dead father's creditors hauling everything away. Her aunt wants her to marry a millionaire, but Carol insists on getting a job.

A man on the lam in the Canadian wilds encounters a young woman in a remote lodge who is also on the run.

Ann Sothern essays the title role in My American Wife. The story opens in Smelter City, Arizona, where the richest man in town is grizzled old Indian fighter Lafe Cantillon (Fred Stone). Lafe's social-climbing sister-in-law (Billie Burke) insists that her daughter Mary wed a titled European, Count Ferdinand (Francis Lederer). Much to Lafe's delight, Mary isn't assimilated into Continental high society; instead, she instructs Count Ferdinand in the virtues of good, old-fashioned American democracy. And, of, course, the Count and Lafe become great chums when the "furriner" proves that he can ride a bucking bronco with the best of 'em.

Gangster tries to censor a crusading radio station by jamming its signal.

After committing a murder, Kay assumes a new identity and boards a ship. But, Kay is unaware that Sam, a skirt chasing detective, is following her and must outwit him to escape imprisonment.

Western sheriff Bob Wells is preparing to marry Sally Morgan; she loves part-Indian Wanenis, whose race is an obstacle. Sally flees the wedding with hypochondriac Henry Williams, who thinks he's just giving her a ride; but she left a note saying they've eloped! Chasing them are jilted Bob, Henry's nurse Mary (who's been trying to seduce him) and others.

Wisecracking showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself trapped in a Wyoming town when her new employer closes the show prematurely. She meets ranch foreman Charles "Slim" Martin when he accuses her of lifting his wallet and ends up being hired as a maid for ranch owners Cliff and Sybil, who are attempting to mend their rocky marriage after Sybil's infidelity with a cowboy.

Unfinished pre-Code era film consisting of three sections with past performers from the stage and the vaudeville circuit, then-present-day performers and up-and-coming performers. Musical excerpts were later used in Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Nertsery Rhymes (1933), and Roast-Beef and Movies (1934). "The Lock Step" was later used in That's Entertainment! III (1994)

A carnival girl pretends to be Swedish in order to win a movie role.

Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!