The Moth (1934)
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Two former WWI aces from opposite sides, Bill Ramsey and Otto Shumann, in the best tradition of Eddie Rickenbacker and the Red Baron, barnstorm their way across the Poverty Row skies of middle-America while competing for daredevil honors and the favors of the lovely Eve.
Al Roberts, a New York nightclub pianist, hitch-hikes to Hollywood to meet his girlfriend Sue. The gambler he's riding with, Charles, unexpectedly dies. Afraid the police wouldn't believe the truth, Al takes the man's identity. In a gas station, he gives a lift to Vera, a woman that knew Charles and blackmails Al with tragic consequences.
In Queens, Mike Keegan is celebrating with his wife Ellie, his son Tommy and friends his recent promotion to detective in a precinct in Manhattan. Meanwhile, in a fancy club, the socialite Claire Gregory witnesses the murder of the owner of the place by the powerful mobster Joey Venza. Mike is assigned to protect her in the night shift in her apartment in Manhattan. When Venza threatens Claire, the contact of Mike with Claire gets closer and conflicts him, dividing between the love for his family and the heat passion for Claire and the fascination for her world.
A couple of naïve girls get themselves unwittingly involved in the gambling racket in this Poverty Row production directed by the redoubtable Phil Rosen.
A veteran homicide detective who has witnessed his socialite girlfriend kill her husband sees his inexperienced brother assigned to the case.
Although Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.
Bud Corliss (Wagner) is an ambitious student who is wooing Dorothy Kingship (Woodward) purely for her father's mining fortune. When he discovers that Dorothy is pregnant with his child, he realizes she is quite likely to be disinherited by her wealthy family. He assures Dorothy that he'll take care of her, yet he hesitates when Dorothy insists on marrying. Bud then murders Dorothy and stages it in a way that it appears to be a suicide. He then reaches out to her sister Ellen (Leith) with the hopes of marrying her in order to ingratiate himself with her father. After a couple of months Ellen finds evidence to question the suicide verdict, and then discovers Bud knew Dorothy. Ellen struggles to avenge her sister and save her own life.
A wealthy but neurotic Southern belle finds herself trapped in the hideout of a gang of vicious bootleggers. The gang's leader lusts after her, and is determined not to let anything stand in the way of his having her.
Cosmo Jones, a correspondence-school detective from a small town, comes to the big city to offer his services to the police. He happens by where a gangster is killed by an opposing gang. Socialite Phyllis Blake is running around with gang member Tom and the opposing gang plan on kidnapping her. Cosmo is with Sergeant Flanagan when the attempt is made in front of a night club, where a bystander is seriously wounded in the gun-battle. Police Chief Murphy blames Flanagan for the shooting and demotes him. Cosmo, with the aid of a porter, Eustace and Flanagan's fiancée, Susan, tries to find the killer. Phyllis is finally kidnapped and Cosmo decides the act was committed by one of the two gangs. He has her father place an ad in the newspaper that contact has been made with the kidnappers. Each gang thinks the other is pulling a double cross, and one gang wipes out the other.
Lora Hart manages to land a job in a hospital as a trainee nurse. Upon completion of her training she goes to work as a night nurse for two small children who seem to be very sick, but something much more sinister is going on.
Jesse Stone and Captain Healy are shot during an unauthorized stake-out in Boston. Meanwhile, a cryptic letter sent from Paradise leads the mother of a kidnapped child to Stone. Though her son was declared dead, she hopes he will reopen the case.
Harry and Inez are a dance team at the Wonder Bar. Inez loves Harry, but he is in love with Liane, the wife of a wealthy business man. Al Wonder and the conductor/singer Tommy are in love with Inez. When Inez finds out that Harry wants to leave Paris and is going to the USA with Liane, she kills him.
Based on the novel from award winning, best selling author Mary Higgins Clark. Socialite Molly Lasch is released from prison after serving a six-year sentence for the murder of her husband, Dr. Gary Lasch. Now, with the help of Fran, an investigative reporter, Molly sets out to prove her innocence. Together they uncover a conspiracy of silence at the Lasch Medical Center and a shocking secret that could cost both women their lives.
Prizefighter Jimmy Nolan, facing an opportunity to get a championship fight, is knocked out when he sustains what is apparently a permanent injury to his arm. From there, Nolan's path leads downhill. He is drawn into a romance with a nightclub entertainer, then is framed on a theft charge by a jealous suitor. After his prison term, Nolan makes a spectacular comeback in a fight which proves his courage and integrity, while disproving the fallacy about the old sports adage that "they never come back."
Orville "Gabby" Denton is an alcoholic drifter with a chronic gambling problem. Despite his flaws he is beloved by his family. Gabby's brother-in-law Beef gets Gabby work as a mechanic at the Metropolitan Garage. The shop is a front to a stolen car ring. His brother-in-law Beef, who is otherwise honest, is aware of this. One day, Gabby is sent to pick up Silver, Jenkins's girl friend, whose car has broken down. Both Gabby and Silver start a relationship, after which Silver leaves Jenkins.
A wily D.A.(Brady) gets a 10 year conviction of a young 20 year old (Robert Graham)who he knows killed a man in self defense. Years later Brady becomes warden of the prison holding Graham. When Brady realizes that 6 years of working in the prison jute mill has pushed Graham to the breaking point, he gives him a chance- a new job as his valet. Graham responds well and earns the respect of both the warden and his beautiful daughter. Graham's mettle is put to the test when he stumbles onto a prison murder committed by his cell-mate. He must choose between the criminal code of silence and the warden's strong persuasion to reveal the killer.
A district attorney and a reporter try to find the killer of a D.A. who uncovered a massive stock fraud.
Ensemble film revolving around characters living in Forest Gate, London. Over the course of a few days, six inter-linking stories explore issues of drug use, prostitution and urban poverty.
Big Louis Costillo, last of the old-style gang leaders is slain, and his former bodyguard Tony Camonte is taken into custody. Since Costillo's body has never been found, the police have to release him, though they strongly suspect Johnny Lovo paid Tony to remove Big Louis. Tony begins taking over the rackets in town with violent enforcement, and he becomes a threat to Johnny and the other bosses unless they work for Tony. Meanwhile, Tony's sister wants to be more independent, but finds it difficult to escape from her brother's overprotective grasp. The dissatisfaction of the other bosses and the relentless pursuit of the police push Tony towards a major confrontation.
Hard-hitting news editor Jim Branch falls for high-society type Sharon Norwood but can't get to first base as he continually makes use of her knowledge of the rich and famous to try to solve the murder of one of her socialite acquaintences. Written by Doug Sederberg
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.
Racketeer Steve Recka (Akim Tamiroff), art patron and political power-maker, rules his town and Madame Lan Ying (Anna May Wong), his beautiful Oriental friend and hostess (read:mistress), with an iron hand. He meets Margaret Van Kase (Gail Patrick), a socialite not impressed by his power nor his wealth, having no money herself, and Steve makes frantic efforts to win her and turns away from the loyal Lin Yang.
During a raid on a speakeasy, a cop finds himself attracted to a pretty female employee. Instead of arresting her and taking her to jail, he not only helps her escape but takes her out to dinner. Eventually they marry, but it's not long before the new bride starts to yearn for the excitement of her life back at the speakeasy. Against her husband's wishes, she goes back there and is noticed by the joint's owner, who offers her a job. She decides to take the job, leave her husband and go back to her old life, but things don't turn out quite the way she expected.
Helped by socialite Janice Kendon and barkeeper Scott O'Brien, Arizona deputy sheriff Les Martin works to solve three brutal murders in and around the Grand Canyon. His efforts leads to the killer fleeing with Janice as a hostage and a chase by car and helicopter lead to a climax on a miner's bucket on cables a mile above the canyon floor.
In the late 1800s, a man is sentenced to life at hard labor for killing his wife and her lover.
Loretta Young plays dual roles in this 1930 crime drama about a young thief planning to steal jewels from a wealthy socialite.
An alcoholic lawyer who successfully defended a notorious gambler on a murder charge objects when his free-spirited daughter becomes romantically involved with him.
A shipful of fugitives from justice pulls up on a Pacific Island where there are no extradition laws. The island is a magnet for the scum of the earth, as well as a few honest guys who were framed. Into this den of iniquity swims socialite Dorothy Sebastian, who jumped off a yacht after apparently murdering her lecherous host. To remain on the Island, Sebastian is told that she must pay $5,000 to head honcho Fred Kohler -- and if she hasn't got the money, it is implied, there are other methods of collection.
Jean Boucheron the cat burglar is the darling of the Montmartre whores--and catches the eye of slumming socialite Zelia de Chaumont, who decides to "reform" him. A complication is his lovely young ward Odile... murder and a grand courtoom scene ensue.
Wealthy socialite Letty Lynton is returning to New York, abandoning one-tine lover Emile Renaul in South America...
Heiress learns to fly from aeronautical engineer. Things get complicated as their affair progresses.
Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror and unthinkable chaos when fate draws him to a sleepy West Virginia town whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.
In Buenos Aires of the 1840s, a young Jesuit and a wealthy socialite fall in love and begin a torrid affair. They escape from the city, and, in disguise, set up house in a village, assuming they are safe and beyond the cares of anyone. However, both the church and Camila's family are enraged, vowing to hunt down the lovers for a capital crime. Based on a true story.
In the mid-1960s, wealthy debutant Edie Sedgwick meets artist Andy Warhol. She joins Warhol's famous Factory and becomes his muse. Although she seems to have it all, Edie cannot have the love she craves from Andy, and she has an affair with a charismatic musician, who pushes her to seek independence from the artist and the milieu.
Wilbur Crane is a meek, mild-mannered bookkeeper who no longer finds his wife, Martha, attractive and sets out for a little fling among the fast crowd while looking for love in all the wrong places. Dorothy, a gold-digger first class, and her business-manager friend, Danny, oblige him. Through camera angles,"art" photos, some semi-nudity, special camera-effects (by Ray Mercer), and strange interludes in Wilbur's mind, and off-screen voices, long-time poverty-row b-western director Bernard B. Ray embarks on the exploitation trail.
San Francisco physician Archie Bollen is divorcing, sorting out new relationships with his ex, her new man, his sons, and friends who knew him as part of a couple. At a charity event, Petulia Danner, a young and lovely socialite, throws herself at him, telling him they should find a hotel room and soon announcing she intends to marry him. She's quixotic, vulnerable, and not easy to dissuade. She's also married and faces demons of her own. Bollen returns to his apartment one afternoon and finds her unconscious, savagely beaten, most certainly by her husband. How Archie and Petulia respond to the husband's abuse are the film's conclusion.
A middle-aged houseguest causes romantic turmoil when he falls in love with his host's teenage daughter. Director Harry Beaumont's pre-code comedy stars Lionel Barrymore, Alice Brady, Godfrey Tearle, Mary Carlisle, William Janney, Katharine Alexander and Halliwell Hobbes.
Based on the Hammett novel, this ultra-rare filmâis nominally taken from the author's classic gang-war novel Red Harvest, which proved too brutal and cynical even for pre-Code Hollywood.
Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer James Lee Bartlow, a star Georgia Lorrison and a director Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone - including the writer, star and director - on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.
An early pre-code '30s tale of juvenile delinquency, about a high-school student neglecting his studies, partying hard, falling in with the wrong crowd and finally finding himself on trial for murder committed during a robbery.
Melodrama about a woman who marries a bigamist, then a drunk, and falls in love with another man, all while working at a carnival.
Based on the 1932 play of the same name by Phillip Dunning and George Abbott. Lilly Turner is a very precode character in a very precode film. She starts out with all the best intentions and does nothing wrong, only to find herself in a highly unfortunate situation that society of the time couldn't approve of: an unmarried mother to be. She then gets out of it through the kindness of another, becoming half of an open marriage, very progressive for the times. Lilly Turner would have needed to be completely rewritten to have been made during the code years.
A young woman uses her body and her sexuality to help her climb the social ladder, but soon begins to wonder if her new status will ever bring her happiness.
Tjokkie, his mother and sister Tiemie live together on poverty row. Tjokkie has a gift of psychic ability and is prone to terrifying trance states which allow him to see the future.His mother's husband, a lay-about called Giel Swart (Yellow Black?) is sponging off his mother's war pension. He sees her children Tjokkie and Tiemie as his own because he has seen them "grow up before his eyes".The aggressive biker Jakes, a man who has built a dangerous reputation around the suburbs is Tiemie's new boyfriend. This Friday night he's visiting their house and drinking heavily with the constantly brow-beaten Giel.Tiemie announces that she's pregnant and not sure if Jakes is the father. Giel in complete financial devastation has laid the last of his money on a 'lucky horse'"
A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his birthday as he runs to seek an actress' autograph. Beside herself with grief, she returns to Barcelona to tell the boy's father about the death of the son he never knew he had.
Socialite Carol Morgan romps through the depression and her wealth while breaking up with Bill Wade and getting back together with him.
A little girl, Mui, went to a house as a new servant. The mother still mourns the death of her daughter, who would have been Mui's age. In her mind she treated Mui as her daughter. 10 years later Mui (now a young woman) was sent to another family, a young pianist and his wife. The musician falls in love with the peasant, he taught her literacy and they eventually married. A movie about a girl's life.
Rod Drew hunts for a missing girl and finds himself in a fight over a goldmine as well.
In this elaborately mounted seafaring adventure, Rolfe (Richard Widmark) is a Viking leader with the cunning and devious mind of a pirate. Rolfe tells others sailors of "The Mother of Voices," a mammoth bell made of gold and as tall as three men, but he adds enough incorrect details to throw them off the proper trail. However, Aly Mansuh (Sidney Poitier), the leader of a group of ambitious Moors, sees through Rolfe's story, and soon the two are in a breakneck race to be the first to capture the precious bell. The Long Ships also features Russ Tamblyn and Oscar Homolka.
"Happy" MacDonald and his unfaithful wife own a Prohibition era night club. On this eventful night, he is threatened by bootleggers, and the club's star dancer falls in love with a young socialite who drinks to forget a personal tragedy, among other incidents.
A grandmother has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.
High Heels is a murder mystery comedy centering on flamboyant actress Becky del Paramo and her daughter Rebecca, a television anchorwoman. After being estranged for 15 years, Becky re-enters Rebecca's life when she comes to perform a concert. Rebecca, she finds, is now married to one of Becky's ex-lovers, Manuel. The mother and daughter begin making up for lost time, when suddenly, a murder occurs...
Gabrielle Van Der Mal gave up everything to become a nun. But her faith and her vows are forever being tested: first in the missionary Congo hospital where she assists the brilliant and handsome Dr. Fortunati and then at the mother house in France when World War II has broken out and the nuns are forbidden by the order to take sides.
Sexy Texas gal storms her way through life, brawling and boozing until her luck runs out, forcing her to learn the errors of her ways.
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.
Jasmine French used to be on the top of the heap as a New York socialite, but now is returning to her estranged sister in San Francisco utterly ruined. As Jasmine struggles with her haunting memories of a privileged past bearing dark realities she ignored, she tries to recover in her present. Unfortunately, it all proves a losing battle as Jasmine's narcissistic hangups and their consequences begin to overwhelm her. In doing so, her old pretensions and new deceits begin to foul up everyone's lives, especially her own.
Katharine Hepburn's second film..based on a novel by Gilbert Frankau. CHRISTOPHER STRONG is about the unlikely romance between a stuffy British politician, and an adventurous girl young enough to be his daughter. Both parties are dragged to a High Society 'Treasure Hunt' as examples of "something impossible to find"...ie.a faithful husband, and a young girl who has never had a love affair. How the romance comes to be, and how everything blows up in their faces, make for an interesting pre-code show. The dialog may be dated, but the acting is "spot on". The young Katharine Hepburn is radiant, and the 32 year old Colin Clive does a spendid job of playing Sir Christopher...conveying a 25 year age difference with little more than body language and a mustache.
Abandoned in a park, the two-year-old girl Asia is found by Patty, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park in San Basilio on the outskirts of Rome. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandma in an adjacent container, Patti gives the girl a new home for an uncertain period of time. However, Walter is concerned that they may be accused of kidnapping the girl, and he plans to report Asia's presence to the police. . Patty receives a letter from the mother in which she announces that she will collect the girl two days later. They have a farewell party, but the mother does not show up.
Alison Drake, the tough-minded executive of an automobile factory, succeeds in the man's world of business until she meets an independent design engineer.
On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.
Kitty Foyle, a hard-working white-collar girl from a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania low, middle-class family, meets and falls in love with young socialite Wyn Strafford but his family is against her.
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