Just Pretending

Little Albert Mills, eight years old, reads in the paper the accounts of the abduction of children and holding them for ransom. He conceives the idea of playing the game on his little sister, Henrietta. He writes a note reading, "I have your children. Put four thousand dollars under the stone on front porch and I will bring them back. They are now hanging by the hair. Blue Beard." He then tells Henrietta to look the other way, and he takes her dolls out of the doll buggy and hides them in the garden. Then he places the note in the rural deli...

The Dream of a Moving Picture Director

The manager calls in the director to give him one in a hurry. The director shows him several scripts, but they do not suit; so the director is compelled to call the scenario writer to have a play written in an hour. The director summons his company and reads the play to them; then tells them to make up, while he gives his plots to the stage manager. Being weary, he falls asleep in a chair in the center of the stage and dreams the following: A young girl, employed in an office, falls in love with the head clerk. The boss is a black mustached ...

The Sea Beast

Based on Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick."

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

A doctor's research into the roots of evil turns him into a hideous depraved fiend.

The Great Man Votes

In 1923, Gregory Vance, a widower with two children, is a former scholar who has turned from book to bottle. He works, slightly, as a night-watchman, and his children, who know him for what he is and what he isn't, are his only admirers. Then, it is discovered that he is the only registered voter in a key precinct and the politicians, from both parties, arrive in droves bearing inducements. What he does about this situation, and the relatives who want to take his children away from him make up the story.

Yesterday and Today

A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953.

The Man from Mexico

A young man gets arrested after a drunken night. Sentenced to 30 days in jail, he tells his wife he has to go to Mexico for a month.

State's Attorney

Corrupt alcoholic attorney Tom Cardigan is one of the best lawyers around, commanding the courtroom like a stage and often winning his cases. Mobster Valentine Powers, who employs Cardigan and put him through school, asks him to represent a woman, June Perry, accused of prostitution. Cardigan agrees. But he never expected to fall for her, which is problematic since he's angling to become governor and will need the right kind of wife.

Svengali

A music maestro uses hypnotism on a young model he meets in Paris to make her both his muse and wife.

Counsellor at Law

A successful lawyer struggles to deal with his wife's unfaithfulness and his own hidden past.

The Beloved Rogue

François Villon, in his lifetime the most renowned poet in France, is also a prankster, an occasional criminal, and an ardent patriot.

True Confession

A writer takes a job as a secretary because her scrupulous husband isn't bringing in the dough as an attorney. When her new employer is murdered, she can't seem to make up her mind as to whether she "dunnit" or not.

The Dictator

On the lam from the New York Police because of a false murder charge, playboy Brooke Travers escapes to a Central American banana republic.

Playmates

Lulu Monahan, the press agent for John Barrymore, is attempting to get a sponsor for a radio program. To that end, she and the agent for bandleader Kay Kyser, plant a story that the great Shakespearean actor, over his heartfelt objections, will teach Kyser how to play Shakespeare, which isn't the same as playing Paducah, which soon becomes evident.

One on Romance

Helen Ross spends her time reading novels. She has made up her mind to marry only a young man whom she can save from something or other, or one who can rescue her in some romantic way.

Hold That Co-ed

An egotistical politician believes he can win votes by turning a small college's hapless football squad into a championship team.

Here Comes the Bride

A young man with little means wants to marry a rich girl, and thinks up a scheme to get rich.

The Incorrigible Dukane

A rich contractor sends his son to supervise the building of a new dam. His clothes are stolen by a tramp and dressed in the tramp's clothes he's mistaken for a laborer.

The Lost Bridegroom

Suffering from aphasia after being conked on the head, a man is coerced into robbing his fiancée's home.

Moby Dick

Herman Melville's mad Capt. Ahab (John Barrymore) spends years hunting the white whale that got his leg.