A convict is released, then lured back to prison, because he was pardoned by mistake.
Thirteen women who were schoolmates ask a swami to cast their horoscopes. The news they receive is not good for any of them.
An upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to a hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson River.
It all begins when Joe Higgins, business manager of a prosperous candy-manufacturing firm, is ordered by his pompous boss Ellis to break up the romance between Ellis' son Bill and Joe's daughter Jean. Refusing, Joe quits his job and sets up his own candy company. It's a money-losing enterprise until Joe's wife Lil loses her diamond ring in a batch of candy and offers a $5000 reward to anyone who can retrieve the ring.
Timid milkman, Burleigh Sullivan, somehow knocks out a boxing champ in a brawl. The fighter's manager decides to build up the milkman's reputation in a series of fixed fights and then have the champ beat him to regain his title.
An ex-gang member tries to resist his old cohorts' criminal influence after he suddenly becomes a Hollywood movie star.
Kurt Anderson is the tyrannical manager of a New York department store in financial straits. He thinks nothing of firing an employee of more than 20 years or of toying with the affections of every woman he meets. One such victim is Madeline, a beautiful young woman in need of a job. Anderson hires her as a salesgirl, but not before the two spend the night together. Madeline is ashamed, especially after she falls for Martin West, a rising young star at the store. Her biggest fear is that Martin finds out the truth about her "career move."
Although the son of a skilled golfer and an outstanding player in his own right, Harvey Miller is too nervous to play in front of a gallery, so he acts as coach and caddy for Joe Anthony, his girlfriend's brother.
Linda, the wife of a publishing executive, suspects that her husband Van’s relationship with his attractive secretary Whitey is more than professional.
Richard, a millionaire in love with his secretary, Diane, is dispirited when his wife refuses to divorce him. Concerned that Diane will now lose interest, Richard offers her an all-expense-paid cruise to Argentina so that she can think it over. While traveling, however, Diane falls in love with fellow traveler Mike. She resolves to come clean to Richard, but upon return she becomes conflicted when she finds out he was able to get divorced after all.
When her fiancé is killed, dancehall queen Cleo Borden inherits his wealth. Included are oil wells overseen by British engineer Carrington, whom Cleo sets out to win by becoming a 'lady'. She horseraces in Buenos Aires, gains social position by loveless marriage to bankrupt Colton, and even performs in an opera. But when she encounters Carrington again, he's become the Earl of Stratton!
Cynthia Warren, independently wealthy through her ability as an illustrator and poster artist, rebels against the premise that every woman is destined for matrimony and motherhood and decides she has as much right as a man to play around.
One woman faces many trials on the road to romance after unwittingly marrying a bigamist, then a carnival barker, and then falling for a young engineer.
A young, newlywed couple learns to make their marriage work—on a budget.
Best friends Joan and Patricia are teenage autograph seekers who spend most of their day bumping into and having tea with movie stars like Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Based on disinformation from a meddling governess, Joan also devotes some time to working on the no-problem marriage of her parents.
A politician's wife plots for her husband to become the next U.S. President.
Dying Joan Ames meets criminal Dan Hardesty on a luxury liner as he is being transported back to America by policeman Steve Burke to face execution. Joan and Dan fall in love, their fates unbeknownst to one another.
The king of an unnamed European country abdicates and tries to recapture the happiness with the wife he had to give up for the throne.
A cocky new West Point cadet from Cambridge is given the cold shoulder by his classmates because of his rule-breaking antics.
Richard Bruce, an American in fog bound London stumbles into the midst of international intrigue, with Rose Thorne, an innocent dupe. Together they try to unravel the mystery, enlisting the aid of a cat burglar named Holmes, who they bump into along the way.
A boozy former veterinarian and a teenage orphan team together with dreams of entering a broken-down horse in the big race.
Jennie Mullins and her fiancé Peter Cary are happily in love but their families are miserable about their relationship. The Carys and Mullinses have been feuding for years over the apparent failure of the Carys' business which was caused by the now-deceased Mr. Mullins. Despite familial pressure to the contrary, Jennie and Peter proceed with their wedding. Just before the wedding, Peter receives advice from his soon-to-be brothers-in-law, Jeff and Bill Mullins. Both men warn him about the drudgery of marriage, ply him with drink, and destroy his fantasy of an ideal, romantic marriage.
Department store owner J. Elliott Dinwiddy has waited fifteen years for the perfect astrological moment to propose to his secretary, Myrtle Tweep. His astrological advisor, Dr. Wakefield, has told him that if he can unite a boy and a girl in true love before midnight, he can propose to Myrtle the following night. Fate then brings unemployed dancer Caroline Wilson into the music department of Dinwiddy's, where she meets handsome songwriter Terry Keith.
A carnival girl pretends to be Swedish in order to win a movie role.
A trio of American crooks board a ship bound for Europe, intending to get rid of $100,000 in stolen dough. With detective John Wade breathing down their necks, the crooks stash the loot in the trunk belonging to vacationing schoolmarm Mary Smith.
Left only with their yacht after going broke in the Great Depression, a high-society family sets sail for the South Seas. Screwball comedy, with songs.
Constance Shaw, a Broadway dance star, and Joseph Rivington Reynolds, a keen fan of hers, marry after she breaks up with her fiancé. Connie thinks Joseph owns a gold mine, but he actually works as a presser at a hotel valet shop. When everyone learns what he really is, Joseph is banned from the theater. When he sneaks in again, he learns of a plot to set off a bomb in the adjoining munitions warehouse.
A woman who is a member of a gang of con artists impersonates the mother of a wealthy blind man.
Flying Tiger Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days of leave. He quickly falls for photographer Joan Manion, pursuing her in the guise of a carefree drifter.
Ellen Neal, a young and inexperienced maid, becomes romantically involved with her employers son which causes various complications. The head butler also has an infatuation for the young girl but his intentions are not that good.
A woman attempts to shelter a young girl from the publicity surrounding her socialite parents' divorce.
Circumstances force a womanizing playboy on leave from the Merchant Marine to ask two shipmates to help him by dating two surplus girlfriends.
Sassy manicurist Eve Fallon is recruited as an even more brassy reporter and she helps police detective boyfriend Danny Barr break a jewel theft ring and solve the murder of a baby.
A father leaves his native Ireland and travels to America to visit the son he hasn't heard from in many years.
A career woman marries her boyfriend's rich uncle when the boyfriend marries her sister.
American Civil War, 1862. After the disaster of the Second Battle of Bull Run, Major Allen, chief of the Secret Service of the Union, asks actress Gail Loveless to become one of his operators and infiltrate enemy territory.
An usher at a radio station studio pretends to be an executive at the station in order to help a pretty girl become a singer.
Irish immigrant meets returning war correspondent on a liner bound for New York. When she resists the amours of another passenger, charges result in her being detained at Ellis Island.
The Jones family females decide to teach Father a lesson. He's neglecting the family business to run for mayor, so they decide to neglect their household chores.
Society heiress Joan Bradford rebels against her mother's choice of a future husband by masquerading as a working class girl and dating a window washer.
A wealthy young man writes a play under a different name to prove to his overbearing mother that he can succeed on his own.
An early Technicolor musical that concentrates on the fashions of the late 1930s, this film was reissued under the title All This and Glamour Too. The top models of the era, including several who are advertising household products, are in the cast. The plot centers around a chic boutique, whose owner, George Curson (Warner Baxter), tries hard to please his customers while keeping peace with his unhappy wife. A wealthy young woman, Wendy Van Klettering (Joan Bennett), decides to take a job as a model at the fashion house, just to amuse herself, but her presence annoys Curson, who must put together the best possible show to compete with rival fashion houses at the Seven Arts Ball. The film includes several hit songs, including the Oscar-nominated "That Old Feeling" by Sammy Fain and Lew Brown.
Managing Editor Brad Bradshaw refuses to run a story linking the disappearance of Frank Canfield with embezzlement of the bank. He considers Frank a straight shooter and he goes easy on the story. Every other paper goes with the story that Frank took the money and Brad is demoted, by the publisher, to the Heartthrob column - writing advice to the lovelorn. After feeling sorry for himself for two months, he takes the column seriously and makes it the talk of the town. But Brad still wants his old job back so he will have to find Canfield and the missing money.
In Victorian-era USA, a horse-jockey becomes a scapegoat in the nefarious schemes of a group of small-time criminals.
To stop his mother from marrying a man he doesn't like, a young millionaire hires an ex-con in helping him fake his own kidnaping.
A well-cloistered and protected-against-reality group of college students get their diplomas in the heart of the Great Depression, and quickly learn that the piece of paper the diploma is written on is worth about eighteen-dollars-a-week in the job-market...for the lucky ones. Some of them fare even worse.
Harvard senior Sam Thatcher and his best friend and roommate, known as "The Lippencott", plan to go to Russia after graduation, a decision Sam has kept from his girlfriend, Alexandra Benson.
Western comedy about a cowhand falling in love with the pretty guest at a local dude ranch.
When Sue Bixby becomes his new boss, stagecoach robber Talbot reforms and goes after her rustled cattle.
This expose of the U.S. parole system, as seen through the eyes of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, takes dead aim on lawyers who manipulate the justice system in order to get undeserving convicts parole from prisons. The point is made when FBI agents are assigned to track down "Big Boy" Bradmore, who after getting an undeserved parole, via the efforts of a shyster lawyer, promptly murders an FBI agent.
A stripper (June Havoc) discovers a professor (Joe E. Brown) spends summer teaching Shakespeare and winter as a burlesque comic.
Butch Saunders has been transferred to Missing Persons because he was too brutal in other police work...
The Weavers are share-croppers who confront their landlord with their tale of woe only to find he is in money trouble too. He also has a wastrel son and a socialite wife who wants a divorce. He begs the Weavers to trade places with him and fix things up.
In this lightweight comedy, two news reporters who are engaged to be married endure romantic difficulties in their competitive pursuit of a "big scoop".
In this comedy, a crime novelist spins a yarn to impress the apple of his eye. He tells her that he has been involved in a murder.
Deciding to quit his singing act and become a tourist guide, Pete Fleming escorts wealthy Mrs. Floto and her three nieces to Hawaii for a vacation. Behind his back, Pete's three bandmates stowaway and tag along.
Rhythm of the Islands is set in the South Seas, presumably far away from the shooting war. The nonsensical plotline finds hero Tommy (Allan Jones) posing as a native chief. Joan Holton (Jane Frazee), daughter of a millionaire (Ernest Truex), falls in love with Tommy, unaware that he's a charlatan.
While in Hawaii, Velez begins the film as a risque nightclub act and due to her involvement with a group of sailors becomes a beauty queen.
Tim Hanley, an American agent, posing as a lawyer with the United States Embassy in London, and Reggie Oliver, a Scotland Yard detective, posing as a music critic are both keeping their eye on Carla Nillson, a famous singer, whom they suspect of espionage. They all meet in London, then in Lisbon, and eventually in New York City, where Carla sings on the radio.
Magazine editor Margot Merrick pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from male colleagues. Unfortunately, things don't go to plan when Jeff Thompson, a potential suitor, uncovers the deception and decides to show up at Margot's family home posing as her husband!
Angry, because he is making too many headlines with his gang-busting activities, the police chief transfers Lt. Lewis Nagel to the sleepy suburban town of Fairview, where he is followed by reporter Steve Withers because he knows Nagel will find a story.
A businessman boasts he'll give his daughter a large amount of cash for her wedding, and then frantically tries to raise the money. This 1940 comedy stars Leon Errol, Marjorie Gateson, Dennis O'Keefe, Adele Pearce and Walter Catlett.
The army's effort to capture Apache chief Geronimo, who is leading a band of warriors on a rampage of raiding and murder, is hampered by a feud between two officers--who are father and son.
A bachelor millionaire on a cruise is protected by a friend from the avid attentions of a crowd of husband (and fortune) seeking girls.
Michael Morda, a young sculptor living in San Francisco, is madly in love with Elinor Hunter, and they plan to be married. When Elinor becomes jealous of Julie Stressman, an old friend of Michael's and one of his models, Michael reluctantly asks Julie not to visit him at his studio. They agree to meet only at the construction site where he is working on a sculpture for which Julie is modeling. When Elinor also shows up at the site, Julie leaves so as to avoid a confrontation, but she is killed by some falling materials. Julie's dying request is that Michael adopt her daughter Mitzi, whose father died years earlier. In order to prevent Mitzi from being taken to an orphanage, Michael lies and says he is her father. Elinor hears this, and without asking questions, leaves him and marries another man the same night.
Shiftless playboy Tom Collier lives to jump from party to party — until he meets photographer Christie Sage. Through Christie, Tom takes over the ownership of The Bantam, a liberal magazine that opposes everything his family represents. As Tom and Christie's relationship deepens, love blooms and he proposes to her. Realizing that she could never fit in with Tom's social circle, Christie says no, a decision she later regrets. But Tom isn't left alone for long — scheming gold-digger Cecelia Henry wastes no time in catching Tom on the rebound and forcing him into a disastrous marriage.
The Grand Hotel formula that was so overworked in the 1930s made an encore appearance in 1940's Escape to Glory. The story is given timeliness by placing the characters on a British merchant ship on the very day that World War II is declared. The ship is attacked by a Nazi U-Boat, resulting in a variety of reactions from the diverse passengers--one of whom (Erwin Kalser) is a German doctor. Constance Bennett is glamorous, Pat O'Brien is boozy, John Halliday is pensive, and everybody else (except for the German medico) is plain fearful.
The American Beauty Association is about to hold its annual trade show in New York City and songwriter "Tiny" Lewis (Billy Gilbert) has just sold a song to Ina Ray Hutton ('Ina Ray Hutton'), the leader of an all-girl band headlining the show. Lewis shares an apartment with Bradley Miller ('Ross Hunter') and Michele (Fritz Feld), an artist, and Miller has just invented a non-staining lipstick called "Rosebud." Preparing to get a booth at the show, Miller is told by J. Webster Hackett (Alan Mowbray), a very devious "Cosmetics King,", intent on selling a big lipstick order to buyer Edgar Pomeroy (Thurston Hall), that it will cost him a $1000 to join the association and get a booth, which is about $999 more than Miller and his roomies have between them. But Miller's beauty-parlor girl friend, Janet Wilson ('Ann Savage'), meets factory-owner P. G. Grimble (Hugh Herbert), and money is soon no issue.
A paint store owner turns his attention to civic affairs while his business falls apart.
Judge Hardy takes his family to New York City, where Andy quickly falls in love with a socialite. He finds the high society life too expensive, and eventually decides that he liked it better back home.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
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 cantankerous and miserly Herbert Kalness insults his daughter's fiance and prospective in-laws at a dinner party, Mrs. Kalness devises a scheme to teach her husband a lesson in good manners.
A farmer strikes it rich out West, then leaves his wife for a young beauty.
A Broadway choreographer gets drafted and coincidentally ends up in the same army base as the boyfriend of his object of affection.
The murders are committed in swift succession on board a liner crossing the Atlantic in a dense fog, and many of the passengers come under suspicion before the actual killer is bought to justice with the aid of a very substantial "ghost."
In this romance, a lovely young debutante falls in love with a jazz violinist. Her mother wants her to marry a wealthy young man, but the strong-willed girl initially demurs until the night of her debut. Her social adviser fills the debutante’s dance card with partners, which inflames the violinist.
In this low-budget musical, two sets of politically ambitious parents attempt to pair up their youngsters who unfortunately despise each other and only pretend to like each other to please their parents. On the nights they are to go out, they sneak out with their respective true loves. It all works well until the unwilling couple find themselves falling in love for real. songs include: "I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now", and "Got Romance".
Jessica leaves her upper class home to assume an anonymous working class identity. She meets a blue collar guy, Chet and falls in love with the poor but ambitious man. Chet observes a series of suspicious, clandestine meetings with her rich father and his chauffeur which makes him think she is stringing along a "Sugar Daddy" on the side. Financial trickery and sequences of misunderstandings and coincidences culminate with a wedding that turns out much differently than planned.
Susan Miller works behind the girdle counter in a department store and dreams about the beautiful clothes and glamour she can never hope to have. Enter May Worthington and Warren, a pair of con artists who pose as the mother and uncle of a pretty girl in order to separate millionaires from their money. They convince Susan she has an opportunity to fulfill all her dreams, and the trio heads for Palm Beach. Susan meets John Wheeler who says he is shopping for a sailboat. Believing that he is a millionaire, Warren and May sell him a boat that doesn't belong to them, and make off with his $15,000 life savings. Looking for greener pastures, they work themselves into the family of wealthy Tod Fenwick, who falls for Sue, posing as "Linda Worthington". But John shows up as a guest of Fenwick and he tells "Linda", not knowing she was part of the scam, that he has a detective after the fake captain that sold him the boat...
A gossip columnist's rise to fame. Based closely on the real life of Walter Winchell.
When a couple become parents for the first time, they discover grandmothers can be almost as demanding as a newborn.
An architect has an affair with a woman who inspires him. Her brother is in love with the architect's daughter. The complicated entanglement leads to misunderstanding and dissolution, but ultimately love.
Based on the novel by Hervey Allen, this expansive drama follows the many adventures of the eponymous hero, Anthony Adverse. Abandoned at a convent by his heartless nobleman father, Don Luis, Anthony is later mentored by his kind grandfather, John Bonnyfeather, and falls for the beautiful Angela Giuseppe. When circumstances separate Anthony and Angela and he embarks on a long journey, he must find his way back to her, no matter what the cost.
Generational saga tracing the events in the lives of the midwest pioneering Nordholm family, as seen through the eyes of businessman Orin Nordholm Jr., who ages from a youth to an elderly grandfather.
Roger Wadsworth is a salesman for a company that supplies jukeboxes with classical music recordings, as Mrs. Horton, chief stockholder of the company hates swing music. Because of that, and the fact that Mrs. Horton is the mother of his fiancée, Genevieve Horton, Roger can only sit by and watch the competitors, who sell swing-and-jive music records get most of the business. Some of the other salesmen play a joke on Roger by getting Charlie Barnet and his orchestra to make a recording which they slip into Roger's packet marked as classical. They also get showgirl Jinx Corey to tell the newspapers that she and Roger are married. Malcolm Hammond goes to Genevieve to plead Roger's case, and tricks her into making a recording as "Jukebox Jenny." This leads to further complications.