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.

Two part biography of Greta Garbo - 1. The Temptress 2. The Clown. Reminiscences of her early life in Stockholm, with excerpts from her films. Narrated by Bibi Andersson.

A look at the past, present and future of Hollywood as seen through the eyes of the movie columnist.

In a changing world where television has become the main source of information, Adam Caulfield, a young sports journalist, witnesses how his uncle, Frank Skeffington, a veteran and honest politician, mayor of a New England town, tries to be reelected while bankers and captains of industry conspire in the shadows to place a weak and manageable candidate in the city hall.

This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience, including special guest appearances by colleagues, friends and family. Edwards revived the show in 1971-72, while Joseph Campanella hosted a version in 1983. Edwards returned for some specials in the late 1980s, before his death in 2005. The show originated as a radio show on NBC Radio airing from 1948 to 1952.

Police sergeants Johnson and McManus take on Los Angeles confidence tricksters. Con man Tony Wells, lining up rich widow Jessica Royce as his latest mark, sets up a false paranormal society with other charlatans to convince the credulous Jessica that her late son is speaking to her through their sham seances. When the plan leads to murder, Johnson and McManus must bring the group down before they kill again.

Insurance detective Steve Hastings is sent by his company to investigate the disappearance of a fellow agent. His first lead is the agent's fetching sister, Victoria, whom he trails to Mexico City. After charming his way into her confidence, Steve helps Vicki unravel the mystery.

A private detective is offered a job protecting a rich business man from suspected blackmail. Before he can accept the case a murder is uncovered.

A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.

A fresh-faced young detective gets set up, framed for murder, and alibied by a smart blonde.

Walter and Vivian live in the country and have a difficult time keeping servants. Walter then hires a private detective who has been fired for arresting the District Attorney. They only way that Walter can get Jerry to work for him is to tell Jerry that his life is in danger; the neighbor is trying to take his wife; and that Nazi spies are everywhere. Jerry needs a cook for his 'cover' so he gets his fiancée Susan to work with him. To keep Jerry working, Walter sends the threatening letters to himself and hires actors to play the spies but when a real group of spies disguised as a troupe of radio actors appears on the scene, events quickly spiral out of control.

Julie Bronson, whose father operates a desert cafe, is attracting the unwanted attention of a half-crazed gangster known as The Ghost who runs a desert night club several miles away.

Racketeer Gillin is paroled from prison and immediately goes to work trying to make an illegal buck from America's war effort. With rationing in effect the black market tire business is booming. Gillen's mob sets up car lots around town where they peddle stolen tires and "new" tires milled in the gangster's factories from cheap faulty materials. People begin to die in crashes as the defective tires fail. Bill Barry leads his fellow defense plant workers on a crusade to uncover the source of the black market rubber and bring the guilty to justice. Although clearly intended to warn the public about black market tire smuggling, Rubber Racketeers holds it own as a saga of mobsters versus an irate public.

A girl reporter is trying to tack down the lady-in-the-title, as a key witness in a graft trial, which involves three murder and that many failed attempts. A prosecuting attorney in the district attorneys office is aiding her in solving the mystery of the missing lady.

A condemned inmate's premature death places officials under suspicion.

A movie-making publicity man screwball comedy about a movie producer who wants to create publicity for his latest project. He decides to have three men pose as spies, disrupting the opening, but things don't go quite as planned...there are actual spies also present!

A reporter and a police detective sort through the clues in a night-club owner's murder.

When old rancher Cordoba's grandson is murdered, the Cisco Kid takes his place to find who's trying to take over the ranch.

When Charlie's old friend from Scotland Yard is murdered when they attend a police convention in New York, Chan picks up the case he was working on.

Mary Whitman has gone to Reno to obtain a divorce. While there she is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow guest at her hotel (which specializes in divorcers). There are many others at the hotel who wanted the victim out of the way. Charlie comes from his home in Honolulu to solve the murder.

A Japanese man claiming to be Mr. Moto, of the International Police, is abducted and murdered soon after disembarking from a ship at Port Said in Egypt. The real Mr. Moto is already in Port Said, investigating a conspiracy against the British and French governments.

In this tearful crime melodrama, a waitress becomes so taken with her dream of living in posh luxury and comfort that she leaves her honest boyfriend the district attorney to take up with a notorious gangster who lavishes her with stolen furs and fabulous diamonds. She has no idea that the crook is only using her as a pawn in his scheme to learn the DA's secrets. When she finally does learn the truth, she gives up her life for truth, justice and love.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1937.

American businessmen and missionaries working in China are captured and held prisoner by a local warlord.

Native son returns from school in Spain to California in 1855 and finds corrupt politicians stealing land from old California families. He becomes a sort of Robin Hood in order to fight them.

J. Ward Thomas of Park Avenue leads a double life as an investment broker and as notorious gambler Spade Martin, despite the protests of his beautiful wife Natalie, a nightclub singer who retired when they married. Spade's younger brother "Chick" wires Spade from Seattle that he has quit gambling for a job in real estate and is about to marry a nice girl named Betty. Relieved to find his kid brother is straight, Spade sends him $10,000 cash as a wedding present. When a woman posing as a pregnant wife comes to Spade for a loan, Spade gives it to her. Later, when Steve Burdick, the woman's supposed husband, brags in a bar that he made a fool of Spade, Spade's hit man, Trigger, kills Burdick. Tired of Spade's gambling, Natalie books a return engagement at Cafe Nocturne, telling him that she is a singer rather than a wife now.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1936.

A ruthless businessman tries to steal his brother's successful shipping company. He hires a gifted mimic to date one of his brother's daughters to get some inside information about the business. The mimic succeeds only too well, with tragic results.

Lawyer Perry Mason is summoned to the Laxter mansion in the dead of night to write granddaughter Wilma out of invalid Peter Laxter's will, to keep her from marrying suspected fortune hunter Doug. Peter dies in a mysterious fire and Laxter's two grandsons, Sam Laxter and Frank Oafley, inherit his estate on the condition old caretaker Schuster and his cat Clinker are kept on. When cat-hating Sam threatens Clinker, Perry steps in and learns Laxter's death was suspicious and the family fortune and diamonds are missing. Schuster's found dead in his basement apartment, Laxter's nurse Louise is murdered with Schuster's crutch, and circumstantial evidence brings Doug to trial for Louise's death. Mason's investigation produces a surprise witness who turns the trial around. Written by Sister Grimm

Postal inspectors track down money stolen from a railroad car.

Winners of the Lucky Stars National Dance Contest - one woman from each state of the United States - are welcomed to Palm Springs. Palm Springs being the desert playground for the movie stars, the women are introduced to the cavalcade of stars vacationing in Palm Springs at the time.

Down-on-his-luck John Ellman is framed for a judge's murder. After he's convicted and sentenced to death, witnesses come forth and prove his innocence. But it was too late for a stay to be granted and Ellman is executed. A doctor uses an experimental procedure to restore him to life, though the full outcome is other than expected.

A bored small-town teacher gets mixed up with an escaped bank robber.

A young doctor is determined to expose the killer when a surgeon is found stabbed to death in a hospital elevator.

After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.

Newspaperman Bill Bradford becomes a special agent for the tax service trying to end the career of racketeer Nick Carston. Julie Gardner is Carston's bookkeeper. Bradford enters Carston's organization and Julie cooperates with him to land Carston in jail. An informer squeals on them. Julie is kidnapped by Carston's henchmen as she is about to testify

Night club owner Dan Moore is trying to collect a debt owed to him by playboy Reggie Van Dorn, but Reggie is a playboy with no money but lots of social connections. In lieu of the cash, Dan gets Reggie to introduce him to the swells of high society. They go to the opera and, after hearing Yvonne Malloy sing, Dan falls in love with her. Reggie introduces them, but the introduction is to Yvonne's double and stand-in, Toots. This leads to many complications for all concerned.

When a Hollywood producer is murdered, the most likely suspect is a man who is smitten with the victim's fiancee.

In a spooky hotel on the coast of France, two bands of crooks are working independently of the other in an attempt to steal the inherited fortune of an American girl, Sue Tally. Along the way the heiress is kidnapped, three murders are committed, a girl appears in two places at once, mysterious persons roam about the old hotel at night and mysteriously disappear, and there is a hidden room without any doors.

A man dodges jewel thieves while carrying a fortune in diamonds on the Orient Express.

Prohibited from seeing her actor sweetheart Herman Brandt by her tyrannical parents, sweet young Vienesse lass Mariette defies authority by regularly visiting Brandt's downstairs apartment. The lovers' signal is a song called "The Firebird," which Brandt sings whenever he wants Mariette to visit him. When the actor is murdered, poor Mariette and her parents are prime suspects. But the truth is a bit more complicated than that, involving as it does a haughty aristocrat, a powerful diplomat and a most unusual "candid camera" device.

A bitter woman who thinks she'll never love again marries, only to fall for a brash young man.

Actress Jessica Wells, sister of actor Damon Wells, is on top of her form except when her husband Vance is around. When Vance takes her to the apartment of a theatrical producer she comes home incoherent and Vance is found dead in the vanished producer's hotel suite

A prominent New York attorney defends his estranged wife's lover, who's been charged with the murder of a model in Greenwich Village.

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.

A potpourri of features involving Hollywood celebrities. The Columbia University football team, winner of the 1934 Rose Bowl game, visits the Warner Bros. Studios and is greeted by several stars; Margaret Lindsay, Guy Kibbee, and Dick Powell work at a gold mine; Joan Blondell, recovered from a recent illness, thanks her fans; songs from the movie Harold Teen (1934) are performed by the songwriters and the film's stars.

Abandoned by her lover, a woman becomes the main "hostess" in a decadent nightclub, but tries to put her past behind her on a steamer to Mandalay.

Former bootlegger Dutch Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate knockoff toiletry, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products.

A beautiful chorine marries a handsome rich socialite, but her idyllic life ends when she visits a dying old beau and is charged when he commits suicide.

Big Executive

When she can't support her illegitimate child, an abandoned young woman puts her up for adoption and pursues a career as a torch singer. Years later, she searches for the child she gave up.

A young woman is on trial for murder. In flashback, we learn of her struggles to overcome poverty as a teenager -- a mistaken arrest and prison term for shoplifting and lack of employment lead to involvement with gangsters. In a brothel, she meets a young lawyer, scion of a wealthy and prestigious family, who falls for her and helps her turn around her life. But her past catches up with her, and she must face the music rather than cause him scandal.

Showgirl Tony Landers, supported by her friend Flip Daly, fights for the custody of her son during a divorce hearing.

Gifted German wrestler Polokai falls in love with ex-con Laura, who persuades him to emigrate to America and gets him involved with crooked promoters.

Five men have to prove their innocence when a blackmailer is murdered.

Thirteen women who were schoolmates ask a swami to cast their horoscopes. The news they receive is not good for any of them.

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.

A young doctor escapes the slums of New York City to make his fortune as a Park Avenue doctor. When a fatal mistake results in tragedy his resolve to continue working is severely tested. Based on a novel by Fannie Hurst.

When the boyfriend of a rich, bored socialite dies from a weak heart, she finds herself attracted to the doctor who treated him, a hard-working idealist decidedly different from the usual spoiled society rich kids she is used to.

A gambler falls for a fake countess.

In order to be able to buy a gas station, a young couple run a speakeasy. Complications arise when the husband loses their money to bookies.

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.

When British mining engineer Robert Maury is sent to India on an extended business trip, his wife Elsie finds romance with a Spanish playboy.

A young woman goes to New York and finds success in advertising thanks to her legs while her boyfriend spends the summer in Europe with his band.

Pola Negri, Bebe Daniels, Mitzi Green, Polly Moran, Mack Sennett and Marjorie Beebe are seen relaxing at Palm Springs, a California winter resort; Barbara Stanwyck and Ricardo Cortez play golf; other celebrities are shown in Malibu Beach.

A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.

In this drama, an impoverished young woman meets a millionaire who marries her on the spot and then begins pampering her with jewels and furs. When not attending to her every need, the business magnate works his mines so he can buy her some more. While he is gone, a gigolo makes advances upon her.

Mary Linden is the secretary who is the unheralded power behind successful executive James Duneen. He takes her for granted until rival Wales tries to take her away from him.

Ann, a young woman with outrageously advanced ideas, has been living in sin with Dick, her lover, because of her conviction that marriage would destroy their love; but social pressure ends up paying off, so Ann and Dick get married.

A taxi dancer with a jealous husband finds herself falling for a wealthy client.

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

A wild-partying flapper marries a cowboy and tries to adjust to life on a western ranch.

Explorers to the South Pole in an airship Zeppelin crash in the frozen Antarctic and must struggle for survival in the land of eternal snow and ice.

A man is blamed for a murder that was actually committed by his wife.

Following a successful experimental operation to reverse age, a wealthy businessman stages his own death and assumes the identity of his nephew. His spurious pursuit of a very young woman eventually catches up with him, as does his age.

Billy, a jockey, and Jim, an assistant manager of a New Orleans racetrack, are close friends. They become bitter enemies because of Marie, an unprincipled young woman who marries Jim after betraying her first fiancé, Billy, on their wedding day. Marie's extravagance causes Jim to steal money from the office safe and to bet on Billy. Billy wins, but Jim is arrested and sent to jail when Marie neglects to replace the stolen money. Jim serves his term and is reunited with Billy after Marie and her lover are turned out of the house.

Soap-opera about a social-climbing Jewish man and his old-world parents who are heartbroken by his rejection of them. Young Morris Goldfish follows his immigrant father into business. His ruthless business practices cause him to become a big success, and he moves the family to Park Avenue. They go, but were happier back on the East Side. Morris is ashamed of this parents and his humble origins, but learns in the end that there is more to life than money.

Excess Baggage is a lost 1928 American silent comedy film directed by James Cruze and distributed by MGM. The film was based on the play of the same name by John McGowan. The film starred William Haines, Josephine Dunn and Kathleen Clifford.

Expressing post-war cultural internationalism, this silent film follows the mysterious Orchid and the man who loves her.

Setting the standard for his later light-hearted biopics The Private Life of Henry VIII and Rembrandt, producer-director Alexander Korda steadfastly refuses to take any of The Private Life of Helen of Troy seriously. Maria Corda, wife of the director, plays the title character as a fetchingly underdressed coquette, oblivious to all the political turmoil she's causing when she allows the handsome Paris (Ricardo Cortez) to kidnap her. Meanwhile, poor King Menelaus (Lewis Stone), Helen's husband, stands by in stoic silence, just as he's done on previous occasions when his wife succumbed to the charms of various sexy suitors (one of whom is played by future cowboy star "Wild Bill" Elliot). Finally galvanized into action, Menelaus reclaims his bride, who seems none the worse for wear for her experiences.

There is hunger in Siberia during the Russian Civil War. One day while dim-witted peasant Sergei is searching corpses for food, he meets a young woman looking for the town of Novokursk. She asks Sergei to help her get there, and to tell anyone they might meet that he is her husband.

A product of the Bowery, Trent Regan grows up to become a powerful gangster. Regan's girlfriend Angie Miller, hearing that her childhood sweetheart (and Regan's lifelong pal) Mike Cassidy is about to marry Marjorie Church, pays a visit to Mike to offer congratulations. Convinced that Angie is fooling around behind his back, Regan accidentally kills her.

Eagle of the Sea is based on Charles Tenney Jackson's swashbuckling novel Captain Sazarac.

Geoffrey is desperately in love with Mavis, who lives at his boardinghouse and is also pursuing a writing career. Unable to marry her because of his poverty, in his anger he curses God for abandoning him. Soon Geoffrey meets Prince Lucio de Rimanez, a wealthy, urbane gentleman who informs Geoffrey that he has inherited a fortune, but that he must place himself in the Prince's hands in order to enjoy the fruits of his inheritance. What Geoffrey doesn't know is that Prince Lucio is actually Satan.

Zabette de Chauvalons leaves a convent in Brussels to join her father on the island of Martinique, escorted by Père Bénédict. In St. Pierre she finds that her father has died; his widow, who rules the island's French society, believes Zabette to be the child of a beautiful quadroon with whom Zabette's father left for France; when Zabette is sent to the mulatto quarter, Stéphane Séquineau is present and takes an interest in her. Destitute, Zabette is forced to auction off her Paris fashions, and though Quembo, a cunning quadroon, is the highest bidder, Stéphane outbids him at the last minute and professes his love, which she accepts, believing herself to be une fille de couleur; however, his older brother, Maurice, insinuating that a mixed marriage would ruin him, persuades her to desist.

A young girl and her father are kicked out of their house by a cruel noblewoman, and the girl's heart is broken when her sweetheart, the noblewoman's son, won't go to Paris with them. After becoming an opera star in Paris, the girl returns to her homeland and finds her romance with the nobleman rekindled.

Against the backdrop of New York City of the early 1850s, a young woman -- naively seeking to win the love she reads about in the romance novels she devours -- finds one prospect in an earnest denizen of the Bowery, and another in an elegant young aristocrat. Focusing on the bygone era's fashions, the novelty of the bicycle-built-for-two, and an inventor's quest for the horseless carriage, the film gently stirs the audiences' nostalgia for simpler times.

The Pony Express is a silent 1925 Western film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by James Cruze and starred his wife Betty Compson along with Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Beery, and George Bancroft.

Naturalized American Raoul Melnotte travels from Chicago to his native France in search of his childhood sweetheart, Marie Dufrayne.

In England, Don Pedro de Barrego meets Dolores Annesley, and he decides he must have her. Dolores, however, refuses to have anything to do with him. Later, when she visits Spain, she discovers he is a famous bullfighter.

The Swan (1925) is a silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on Melville Baker's 1923 Broadway play adaptation, The Swan, of Ferenc Molnar's play A Hattyu Vigjatek Harom Felvonasbarn. This film was directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki, a recent Russian immigrant working for Famous Players-Lasky. Buchowetzki had directed pictures in Russia, Sweden, and Germany. The story of this film was remade in 1930 as One Romantic Night, an early talkie for Lillian Gish, and in Technicolor as a 1956 vehicle for Grace Kelly.

While his daughter, Consuelo, is visiting the United States, Emanuel García, the Mayor of Alcorta in the Argentine, arranges for her marriage to Juan Martin, in return for Martin's financial assistance. On her return, Consuelo, who is in love with Philip Sears, an American engineer working in Argentina, refuses Juan but gives no reason. Juan is furious with outraged pride and soon kills Rafael Cornejo, the son of a senator, when he flirts with Consuelo.

This Woman is a 1924 American drama film directed by Phil Rosen, written by Louis D. Lighton and Hope Loring, and starring Irene Rich, Ricardo Cortez, Louise Fazenda, Frank Elliott, Creighton Hale, and Marc McDermott. Based on the 1924 novel This Woman by Howard Rockey, it was released by Warner Bros. on November 2, 1924.

Kerry Harlan (La Rocque) is unable to work because he was injured in a battle with a shark, so his youthful wife Amy (Reynolds) becomes a fashion model. While she is away from home, Bertha, the wife of his surgeon, is trying to force her attentions on Kerry and is accidentally killed in an attempt to evade her husband. After the scandal Amy is courted by Tony Channing, but she returns to her husband and finds him near death from gas fumes. Because they both attempted to make suicide, their spirits are rejected by "the other side," and learning the truth from Bertha's spirit they fight their way back to life. This film is presumed lost.

William C. DeMille, Cecil B. DeMille's talented director brother, teamed with his favorite collaborator, scenarist Clara Beranger, for the 7-reel silent The Bedroom Window. Essentially a by-the-book mystery tale, the film is lifted from the ordinary by the expertise of DeMille and the charm of leading lady May McAvoy. She plays the daughter of a murder victim, while Ricardo Cortez co-stars as the Accused. Cortez is saved from the chair by his aunt Ethel Wales, a mystery writer. The real culprit is...well, keep your eye on the least likely, most cooperative member of the cast.

Hector Colbert sues his wife Marjorie for a divorce after Peters, an admirer of Marjorie, deliberately compromises her. Colbert's lawyer, Daniel Farr, believing that Marjorie's behavior was wrong, gets the divorce, but he ruins the reputation of a fun-loving woman who was simply bored with her husband. Later, she and Farr meet; she plots a revenge against the lawyer but confesses her fabrication when she realizes that she loves him.

While honeymooning in Paris Elsie is rescued from attentions of a man.Her hero is Don Arturo who takes her to Countess Longueval after her husband must go for work to Argentine.When her husband returns he is shocked how have Elsie change.Elsie goes to a party in Arturos hunting lodge,where he forces himself on her.Arturo is shot by a Stranger and Elsie confesses all to her forgiving husband.Juan Serafin is found shot.

Returning from World War I, Glenn Kilbourne travels to Arizona to regain his health. He meets a local girl, Flo Hutler, who helps him recover. His fiancee, Carley Burch, follows him to Arizona but soon decides she'd rather go back to New York. When Flo is badly hurt in an accident, Glenn decides to repay her for her help in bringing him back to health by proposing marriage.

Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...

Two Army buddies, Dennis O'Shane and Johnny Day, decide to take their furlough in Paris but instead end up in Spain.