Mack Sennett

This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel and more, with host Bob Hope.

A collection of film clips profiling animal actors.

A compilation featuring comedic stars of the silent era including Will Rogers, Laurel and Hardy, and the Keystone Cops.

Bob's favorite memories and funniest moments on TV The biggest Stars! ... The biggest laughs! On DVD for the first time, this special 90 minute collection proves that laughter is the universal language with a sidesplitting salute to slapstick, satire, sketch comedy and zingers. Featuring Bob's funniest moments on television, this tribute includes a virtual who's who of legendary entertainers like Bing Crosby, Jackie Gleason, Roy Rogers, Ingrid Bergman, Bob Newhart, Lucille Ball, Ann-Margret, Jack Benny, Angie Dickinson, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, Don Rickles, Milton Berle, Redd Foxx, Dorothy Lamour, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Dyan Cannon, Debbie Reynolds, Lassie and more.

A look at the life and work of Charlie Chaplin in his own words featuring an in-depth interview he gave to Life magazine in 1966.

During the American Revolution, a young soldier carrying a crucial message to General Washington is spotted and pursued by a group of enemy soldiers. He takes refuge with a civilian family, but is soon detected. The family and their neighbors must then make plans to see that the important message gets through after all.

A constable and his sergeant are rivals for a girl, and to impress her they both attempt to apprehend an escaped convict. Probably the first Keystone film with comedic cops; Keystone trade ads upon its release heralded as, "An uproarious 'Cop' picture."

Bessie, the new school teacher, arrives at the little western village, and on her way to the school she meets a gang of cowboys who bestow boxes of candy and other little offerings. Not long after the girl is seized with a jumping toothache. Each boy suggests a cure, but without success. Tom, however, now appears and offers a cure. He leaves her a note stating if she will submit to his treatment he will guarantee to cure her toothache. She is in such agony that she is inclined to submit to anything, and so, though not knowing what the cure may be, consents. After great preliminaries Tom administers a resounding kiss upon her cheek..

A short version of James Fenimore Cooper's famous tale about Natty Bumppo, or "Hawkeye," and his exploits during the French and Indian war.

This early Keystone has Pete spying on his neighbor's wife through one of those little knotholes in a fence. The neighbor (Sterling) notices and chases him all over town with sheriff and family close behind. Fatty Arbuckle plays the peeper's wife(!).

A king grows suspicious of his favored woman's affection for an Italian troubadour. After confirming their secret romance, he takes a cruel revenge by sealing the lovers inside a secluded tower chamber with no means of escape.

Bashful Mack has his friend Fred take flowers and presents to his girl Mabel by proxy, but the "friend" takes advantage and lures her to the altar in Mack's place.

Three men compete for the attentions of a pretty girl. One of them, a little tramp, plays dirty.

The Parson and his friend Pete, a worthless inebriate of the village, in a drunken sleep by the roadside. His cure has been tried often, but in vain. The Parson's friend suggests a novel scheme, that of taking him to his home, waking him there and make him believe he is in paradise; then feeding him wine until he is asleep again, placing him back in the same place in the road. The scheme worked to perfection and it looks as if the village saloon will get no more of Pete's money for drink.

The whole world knows him. Burlesque comedy genius, popular actor, author, director, producer, composer, choreographer, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) used his talent to serve an ideal of justice and freedom. But his best scenario was his own destiny, a story written into the political and artistic history of the 20th century.

Harry and Willie are scammed into buying the Thomas Edison studio lot by a man named Gorman. They decide to follow Gorman's trail to Hollywood where, unbeknownst to them, he has taken the identity of a foreign film director. The lads wind up as stunt doubles in film the which Gorman is now shooting, while the conman tries to have the bungling pair done away with before they realize who he really is.

A documentary looking at the life and career of film director Frank Capra. Hosted by Ron Howard.

Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for him as director of her next film. Many silent stars shown making the transition to sound.

To show his girl how brave he is, Pug challenges the champion to a fight. Charlie referees, trying to avoid contact with the two monsters.

With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.

A jealous wife is chasing her unfaithful husband during a parade, after he starts to flirt with a pretty woman.

A young woman (Linda Arvidson) is kidnapped by a band of opportunistic Chinese slavers, led by devious Pong Lee (Harry Solter). A resourceful female police operative (Marion Leonard) is determined to rescue her, and tracks the mastermind of the kidnap plot, Hendricks (George Gebhardt). Though successful in her rescue effort, the rescuer ends up being made a prisoner herself. The slavers plan to make her the victim of a pistol shot to be triggered by the hands of a clock. The heroine is rescued by police seconds before the hands of the clock reach the "fatal hour".

The story of the short film from the beginning of the movies in the 1890s, when all movies were shorts, through the 1950s when short subjects virtually disappeared from theaters.

This film is a compilation, with narration by Steve Allen, of comedies from the old Mack Sennett silent studio. Sennett, himself, appears in a cameo at the end of the film.

Bill and Oscar are musicians but they can't make enough to pay their room-and-board, and they are both in love with the landlady's daughter. However, she is in love with Horace, a wrestler, and Bill gets a world's championship match with him in hopes of securing the needed-boardinghouse bill, and the hand of the daughter of the house.

A womanizing city man meets Tillie in the country. When he sees that her father has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope with him.

A womanizing city man meets Tillie in the country. When he sees that her father has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope with him.

Billy Bevan and Andy Clyde play hobos who hop onto a train where they are hired. Their misadventures lead to chaos, blending mistaken identity with classic physical comedy.

Walter MacIntosh and Abe Salisbury are filmmakers in the process of viewing their swashbuckling romance epic, 'The Loves of LaVorees', starring silent screen idol, Romaine Salisbury, hotly contested within Hollywood and part of an expensive silent film production, only for Bovine Productions to switch to sound production and reveal to them for the first time, Romaine's real all-talking, all-singing voice.

Little orphan Harry is separated from his childhood sweetheart. Years later, he finds she's a bearded lady in a circus.

A constable and his sergeant are rivals for a girl, and to impress her they both attempt to apprehend an escaped convict. Probably the first Keystone film with comedic cops; Keystone trade ads upon its release heralded as, "An uproarious 'Cop' picture."

A constable and his sergeant are rivals for a girl, and to impress her they both attempt to apprehend an escaped convict. Probably the first Keystone film with comedic cops; Keystone trade ads upon its release heralded as, "An uproarious 'Cop' picture."

A series of strange, inexplicable, and increasingly frightening events takes place in Mosby Manor.

A series of strange, inexplicable, and increasingly frightening events takes place in Mosby Manor.

Wine is a 1913 movie starring Roscoe Arbuckle and Ford Sterling.

Ben Turpin's rival marries his college sweetheart played by Phyllis Haver.

A swindler scams a newspaper reporter-photographer and then, not realizing where the man is employed, applies for a job at his newspaper.

In 1915-16, San Diego's Balboa Park was the scene of an exposition to mark completion of the Panama Canal. This film takes us through the exposition: from the Cabrillo bridge and a panoramic view of the site, to the facades of the California Building, Horticultural Building, Panama Canal Exhibit, and the reproduction of the locks at Gatuna. We see tourists on the isthmus and a crowd outside the Panama Film Company's exhibit of how movies are made. We watch the feeding of fish at the laguna, and we end at the Plaza de Panama where toddlers are surrounded by pigeons. Fatty Arbuckle makes a brief appearance outside the Panama Film exhibit. Titles give us each structure's cost.

Hello, Mabel (also known as On a Busy Wire) is a 1914 American short silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett.

Charlie plays an actor who bungles several scenes and is kicked out. He returns convincingly dressed as a lady and charms the director, but Charlie never makes it into the film.

All the qualified men line up to be chosen, as an heiress advertises that she will marry the man with the most interesting mustache, that marriage which comes with a mansion. John Syrup Soother wins the marriage to who he believes is the heiress, Olive Palmer, a tank of a woman who has lost her beauty with age. But he learns that he his betrothed is not the heiress, Diana Palmer, but her mother. Howson Lotts, a shyster and one of Diana's other suitors, sells John a beach-front house for his new life, that house which is not all that it seems on the surface. In the meantime, others still will do anything to be Diana's betrothed, that choice in which John now has a different but still vested interest.

While somewhat happily married, Walter Moore's eyes do stray from time to time, especially when Tessie McNab is within his eye-sight range. But while trying to just be helpful to a damsel-in-distress, Walter's jealous wife suspects there may be some hanky-panky involved.

This early Keystone has Pete spying on his neighbor's wife through one of those little knotholes in a fence. The neighbor (Sterling) notices and chases him all over town with sheriff and family close behind. Fatty Arbuckle plays the peeper's wife(!).

This early Keystone has Pete spying on his neighbor's wife through one of those little knotholes in a fence. The neighbor (Sterling) notices and chases him all over town with sheriff and family close behind. Fatty Arbuckle plays the peeper's wife(!).

Andy fixes his rocket invention to a locomotive in order to win a race with a bus.

Andy fixes his rocket invention to a locomotive in order to win a race with a bus.

Harry and his friend have planned to go out for an afternoon of fun. But first, Harry must figure out how to slip away from his domineering wife with some money to spend...

Ambrose (Mack Swain) is a clumsy, aspiring cook who finds himself in over his head when he is hired to work in a busy household or restaurant. Most of the humor stems from Ambrose’s spectacular incompetence in the kitchen. He misinterprets simple instructions, leads a series of messy kitchen disasters, and accidentally destroys various household items while attempting to prepare a meal. The situation typically escalates into a frantic "Keystone-style" chase or a massive physical confrontation involving food, dishes, and outraged employers or customers.