Tallulah Bankhead

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.

One way or another, the Hollywood police have been kept busy with murders on their ground. There are numerous theories about the killings of Thelma Todd, Jack Healy (Three Stooges), Elizabeth Short, alias The Black Dahlia, Bugsy Siegal and Johnny Stompano. The files of William Desmond Taylor, Raymond Navarro and Sal Mineo are also re-opened. Femmes fatales are often deadly for the man's wallet or reputation -- these ladies killed for real. From Calamity Jane, gang boss Ma Baker and New York madame Polly Adler to axe-murderess Winnie Ruth Judd and others, we look at the Black Widow Spider syndrome. Rare archival footage and many hitherto unseen interviews, film, video clip tapes, and photographs are included in this hour-long program.

An unprecedented anthology of never-before-told true stories by and about some of Hollywood's most interesting stars, legends, and wannabes, and takes readers inside Hollywood's inner sanctum to show how casting decisions are made, who makes them, and who has the final word.

This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.

A young woman is terrorized by her former fiance's demented mother who blames her for her son's death. Also known as Die! Die! My Darling!

Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.

A young Hans Christian Andersen goes in search of knowledge in the Garden of Paradise in order to make his studies easier. Each time he falls asleep, he experiences in his dreams the different characters he would later write about in fairy tales including The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and The Emperor's New Clothes.

In New York, a surly, down-on-his-heels playwright meets a country girl who's giving up trying to act and returning home. He goes with her for inspiration when his agent convinces a stage star to take his next effort. When he returns to Broadway, his girl stays behind and starts seeing a local businessman.

A mother finds a unique method of fulfilling her son's desire to own a pet elephant.

During World War II, a small group of survivors is stranded in a lifeboat together after the ship they were traveling on is destroyed by a German U-boat.

A young soldier on a pass in New York City visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of theatre and film appear and host a recreational center for servicemen during the war. The soldier meets a pretty young hostess and they enjoy the many entertainers and a growing romance.

Catherine the Great falls in love with an army officer who is plotting against her.

Naval commander Charles Sturm has made life miserable for his wife Diana due to his insane jealousy over every man she speaks to. His obsessive behavior soon drives her to the arms of a handsome lieutenant. When Charles learns of their affair, he plots revenge.

A promotional film featuring movie stars at play. Richard Arlen plays a magician who turns playing cards into celebrities. Includes Buster Keaton in a Napoleonic admiral suit in his "land yacht", a custom-built bus he occasionally lived in during the period.

A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, his acting ability is non-existent.

Socialite Carol Morgan romps through the Depression and her wealth while breaking up with Bill Wade and getting back together with him.

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.

Elsa Carlyle is impulsive and a gambler. Though loved by her husband Jeff, she's spoiled and selfish, concerned with social standing. Meanwhile, Jeff wants to stop spending while he completes business deals that could make them rich. One night, on a hunch, she bets and loses big at a casino, and then she doubles her problems with more impulsive decisions. Hardy Livingstone, a wealthy Casanova just back from the Orient, makes a play for her. Elsa dallies with Hardy, but soon, his insistence and her dire financial affairs seem destined to lead to adultery. Who's the cheat?

A prostitute living in Panama shoots her pimp and is charged with murder. The lawyer who gets her off fronts her money to start a new life in NY where she becomes a successful business woman and meets wealthy businessman, Harry Davenport. He knows nothing of her past. Then someone from the past shows up. Will she be exposed? Will she follow through on her plan to marry?

Nancy Courtney, a once wealthy socialite, has had to struggle to maintain a facade of prosperity ever since her father's death. Although she loves writer DeWitt Taylor, who is indifferent to amassing a fortune, her mother urges her to marry stockbroker Norman Cravath instead. Nancy acquiesces to her mother's wishes but, despite the fact her new husband does everything he can to please her, she is miserable in her marriage.

A rich man's worship of his first wife ends when he learns their son is a bastard.

A girl undresses while talking on the telephone.

Motion picture actress Doria Dane (Edna Goodrich) gives up her career to play muse to sculptor George Steele (Herbert Evans). With Doria's help, Steele overcomes his Bohemian excesses and stays away from the influence of the jealous but wealthy Mrs. Schuyler (Miriam Folger). He finally achieves success, but he also begins to neglect Doria. When she catches him kissing the dreaded Mrs. Schuyler, Doria decides to leave him. But when she goes to his studio to drop off her farewell note, she discovers another sculptor, Harry North, copying one of Steele's masterpieces. Later she comes over to Steele's studio and, in front of a crowd of people, smashes the statue to bits. Then she takes them over to North's studio and explains that she switched the two statues, and reveals North as a fraud. At the base of the real statue she has left a letter of reconciliation to Steele.

A schoolteacher in the Yukon promises her hand in marriage to a rich prospector, but instead she marries his no-good brother. After her husband disappears and is reported dead, she marries a rich New York stockbroker, but doesn't tell him about her first marriage. Soon she is contacted by someone who threatens to tell her new husband all about her past if she doesn't pay up.

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Although she is engaged to the wealthy Freddy Ruyter, Barbara Wright prefers her father's handsome Irish chauffeur, Dan Murray, and marries him. The newlyweds struggle to survive on Dan's meager income, but Barbara's father, furious with them both, nearly destroys their happiness by securing Dan's dismissal from several jobs. ...