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.

Pals Pat Rogers and Slag Bailey try to collect a debt from Slag's recently deceased boxing promoter but wind up collecting his child, instead, and raising him as their own son.

During a stick-up, a woman is excited by the criminal and joins him on his crime spree.

While filming a western on location, the stand-in/stunt double for an egotistical cowboy movie star proves his heroics when a "fake" bank robbery turns out to be the real thing.

Joan (Helen Twelvetrees) is a Canadian, adopted by Ma Dawson (Nellie Ferguson), a struggling horse breeder and trainer. Joan thinks "legs don't make a race horse, it's blood", and so she buys an unwanted thoroughbred colt called Stormalong. Helped by Ma's son Tommy Dawson (Frank Leighton), Joan restores the horse to health and fitness, and soon enough the horse is winning race after race, becoming a favourite for the Melbourne Cup.

As California gubernatorial candidate Burton is about to cast his vote a truck crashes into the polling booth, critically injuring him and his opponent. A flashback traces his career from unemployed veteran to dockworker to lawyer. A side thread traces his tortured relationship with his wife.

Ellery Queen's vacation is interrupted when murder strikes next door to his oceanside cabin.

Esmeralda is a cook in a diner in a small Arkansas town. When a gang of crooks moves into town and plots a bank robbery, Esmeralda unintentionally wrecks their plans, resulting in fame for Esmeralda as the crime-fighting "Tiger Woman," but also further complications.

A young Iowa woman inherits her late estranged father's New York business, but the dead man's crooked associates think they can outwit the naive heir and seize control.

A secretary catches the eye of her amorous boss while her regular boyfriend keeps trying to propose marriage to her.

Before his daughter can formally claim her rightful title, her father dies. Now her blue-blooded American suitor finds that his father refuses to allow the two to marry as she is not a high-born lady.

A two-bit gambler somehow claws his way to the top. His love for riches is only matched by his love for his wife, but he is sometimes confused by which he loves most.

A British aristocrat falls in love with an Austrian woman before they are separated with the outbreak of World War I.

Short film in which Frankie Darro as a Telegram delivery boy visits various Hollywood locations to make deliveries. He visits the Los Angeles Pier and a Gala Hollywood Premiere.

A prizefighter is convicted of a murder that was actually committed by his sister.

A devoted wife helps her husband achieve success as a radio comic, but stardom comes at a price.

A lovely fashion model's dreams of marital bliss are shattered when her fiance jilts her. To make matters worse, her father kills the cad and she gets accused of the crime.

Parisian playboy plays father to an abandoned baby who interferes with his womanising.

A wisecracking narrator mocks footage featuring Frankenstein's monster and Count Dracula.

A debutante's (Helen Twelvetrees) brother (Robert Young) stands trial for killing her no-good lover.

William Poster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyone as long as he gets the credit. He gets most of his information from his showgirl gal-pal, Peggy. Eventually Bill's reckless tattling gets him in deep trouble with friends and enemies, putting his career and life in jeopardy.

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.

A newlywed discovers her husband is a cheating phony.

An engineer makes a thieving entertainer work off her debts as a housekeeper at his jungle mining camp.

A psychotic and sadistic mob boss is infatuated with the young wife of his newlywed attorney, and he plots to get him out of the way so he can have her to himself.

It is 1915 in Vienna and the Great War has caused many casualties. Elsa, a beautiful prostitute, wants to help the war effort, but is rejected as a nurse, but a government official thinks that she will make an excellent spy.

After a tumultuous first marriage, Millie Blake learns to love her newfound independence and drags her feet on the possibility of remarriage. The years pass, and now Millie's daughter garners the attentions of men - men who once devoted their time to her mother.

Western pardners Jeff and Cash find a baby boy in an otherwise deserted emigrants' camp, and clash over which is to be "father." They are still bitterly feuding years later when they own adjacent ranches. Bill, the foundling whom Cash has raised to young manhood, wants to end the feud and extends an olive branch toward Jeff, who now has a lovely daughter. But during a mining venture, the bitterness escalates. Is Bill to be set against his own adoptive father?

Disappearances and strange goings-on in a spooky old mansion.

A prostitute sees a friendly sailor as a way out of Havana's grimy underworld.

To avoid hostilities, Maryan, the ward of Doc May, a medicine show owner, induces Pop Garner, a circus owner, to join forces with her guardian. Doc May and Daphne, his wife, work as clowns; and Garry, a singing soldier of fortune, sings along with Maryan's act. Ruth, Maryan's partner, quits to get married; and Joe, who is jealous of Garry, replaces her with Trixie, his former assistant. When Garry announces his engagement to Maryan, Trixie persuades him to join a strip poker game in a drunken state and "compromises" him in the presence of his fiancée. Grief-stricken, Maryan falls during her act, and Garry, robbed of circus funds, is arrested. In spite of her injuries, Maryan, learning of Trixie's treachery, performs the act with her and forces a confession by threatening to drop her; Garry is released and is welcomed back to the show.

No one suffered more magnificently in the early-talkie era than the inimitable Helen Twelvetrees. In Grand Parade, the actress is cast as Molly, the sweetheart of minstrel-show performer Jack Kelly. Rising to the top of his profession, Kelly plummets to the bottom thanks to his fondness for intoxicating beverages. Molly nurses and coddles Kelly back to health, giving nary a thought for her own comfort or happiness.

Phil and Pete compete for Mary's love and also in a contest for best song written by a college student.

Better known for her work in talkie "weepers," Helen Twelvetrees made a few preliminary appearances in such late silent films as Fox's Blue Skies. The audience was expected to believe that the twentysomething Twelvetrees and Frank Albertson are teenagers living together platonically in an orphan asylum. A wealthy old man comes calling to adopt Albertson -- who, feeling sorry for Twelvetrees, trades places with the girl. Thus it is that the heroine is carted off to a luxurious mansion, while Albertson remains behind. One year later, the old man discovers Albertson's deception, whereupon he invites the boy to live with him as well. By this time, Twelvetrees and Albertson are of marriageable age, thus the film ends with a wedding in the offing.

Miriam Holt hopes to solve the disappearance of a million dollars in bonds allegedly stolen by her late uncle. A team of crooks is following her, though, in hopes she'll uncover the missing money and they can grab it from her. She checks into a hotel where Franklyn Green works as a desk clerk. Franklyn is learning to be a detective through a correspondence course, and he thinks he's just the guy to help Miriam solve her mystery. The fact that she's a very attractive lady doesn't hurt, either.