From its distinctive neighborhoods to its architectural homes, Los Angeles has been the backdrop to countless movies. In this dazzling work, Andersen takes viewers on a whirlwind tour through the metropolis' real and cinematic history, investigating the myriad stories and legends that have come to define it, and meticulously, judiciously revealing the real city that lives beneath.

The famed outlaw is talked into saddling up for one more bank robbery.

As a wealthy retired surgeon nears the end of his life, he begins to distribute his wealth to those in need, stating that "all that I have belongs to God." His nephews bring him to court to determine his mental competence in the hopes of stopping him from disposing of all his money.

The Bowery Boys join the Navy to catch some crooks who are posing as sailors.

Following a live orchestra opening, emcee Eddie Garr greets the audience and tells them about his trip to Los Angeles, where out-of-work actors are always 'acting' while in their service-industry jobs. What follows is a cavalcade of wild and wacky performances.

A civilian, ordered to report to his draft board, slips off into a dream about the army life ahead of him. He is assigned to a remote desert post where the soldiers crave female companionship. He forges orders that brings a platoon of WACs who are forbidden to fraternize with the soldiers.

A San Francisco man is paid to bid on a saxophone and escort a woman to a yacht party.

Sid Melton stars as a taxi driver dealing with nutty passengers and a nagging wife. Comedy.

A sailor who is a champion boxer in the Navy is forced to leave the service because his family's business, a tuna fishing operation, is in financial trouble. He becomes a prizefighter and one day signs up for a winner-take-all boxing match, which could make him a lot of money but could also result in the end of his boxing career.

A fingerprint expert figures out who killed the mayor.

A whip-cracking federal marshal goes under cover as a masked bandit to ferret out a gold-bullion thief.

A brother and sister are running a phony gold mine scam in the Klondike, which leads to murder. A Canadian Mountie sets out to bring them to justice.

A straight-line historical account of the Du Pont chemical manufacturing company and its vital role in the growth of the USA.

One of the passengers on a train to Tombstone decides to rob it of the $250,000 it is carrying.

Although the Lincoln County War has come to a conclusion, Billy the Kid turns his back on a gubernatorial pardon and continues his lawless career.

A crooked boxing promoter tries to shake down Joe's manager by setting up a rigged fight in Humphrey Pennyworth's hometown.

The Dalton gang has moved west taking new identities and Marshals Lash and Fuzzy are after them. They receive help from Pinkerton agent Joan Talbot as they try to sort out who the bad guys really are.

A federal agent and his partner track uranium-ore hijackers with radar.

A Government agent is sent to track an outlaw who has stolen gold boulion. The chase leads into a desolate desert region where the agent is forced to utilize his survival skills.

When his tribesmen begin killing off white settlers, Young Eagle is opposed to the carnage. In order to assure a lasting peace, however, the chief must deal with renegade Apache Black Wolf.

Thomas Dekker is a diamond cutter attempting to reclaim his right to a portion of a rubber empire in the early part of the twentieth century. Tom travels to Brazil to uncover the fate of his father and along the way meets Teresa, a local girl who offers to be his guide in the jungle. Eventually, they encounter three armed men who take them to Lobato, a bandit who knew his father. Once convinced that Tom is his friend's son, Lobato tells him a lengthy story which culminates with his meeting Tom's father, who rescued him from drowning. With the help of "flashbacks" from an obscure South American feature, Tom learns what really became of his father.

Famed aviator Bruce Gentry is working with scientist Andrew Benson, setting out to uncover the origin of a deadly secret weapon---an electronically controlled flying disc which can be directed at moving or stationary targets. The disc was master-minded by an enemy agent known only as "The Recorder" because...he speaks entirely via recordings. Aided by rancher Frank Farrell and his sister Juanita "Nita" Hodges, Gentry consistently foils "The Recorders" schemes, which are carried out by "The Recorder's" henchmen, Krendon, Allen and Chandler, including an attack on the Panama Canal.

Thinking he may have caused the death of his commanding officer Captain Daniels in Tunisia, Rocky visits Daniels' widow. She falls for him, he falls for her, she encourages him to go to West Point. While there he faces serious disciplinary review for having forced a plebe into resigning. He may even be court-martialled.

The baby sitter is none other than veteran Hollywood tough guy Tom Neal. A private detective, Neal is hired to keep an eye on the child of married couple George Meeker and Rebel Randall. Actually, Meeker and Randall are jewel thieves, and their "baby" is their stolen loot. Neal eventually catches on when he realizes that this is the quietest child on earth. Running a scant 41 minutes, Case of the Baby Sitter was designed to be shown in tandem with another Screen Guild Productions "briefie," The Hat Box Mystery: the films were shot back to back, with Tom Neal and Pamela Blake starring in both.

Susan Hart, assistant to private detective Russ Ashton, is given a camera concealed in a hat box and assigned to take a picture of a woman. A gun is accidentally hidden in the box and the woman is killed. Susan is charged with murder, but Russ and his less-than-useful associate, Harvard, get on the case and prove that the fatal shot was fired by the killer from across the street.

An orphan boy on his way to live with his uncle picks up a stray dog, and the two become fast friends. However, the uncle doesn't want the dog, and when chickens are found dead, the uncle accuses the dog of killing them. The boy decides that it's time he and the dog hit the road so they run away, and meet up with an elderly man who also ran away from a home where he believed he wasn't wanted either.

A facially disfigured and mentally unhinged man wreaks his revenge on those he blames for his condition.

Soon after a young woman breaks off her engagement to a doctor, the doctor is found murdered. Suspicion falls on his ex-fiancé and a pilot with a checkered past.

The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.

A number of different characters unfolding love, hate, and death problems during an evening in a fashionable Latin nightclub.

A U.S. pilot undergoes plastic surgery and drops into Japan to get a captive scientist's (Marc Cramer) atomic secrets.

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.

Sgt. Rusty Curtis of the U.S. Cavalry is unhappy about the Army's plan to replace horses with tanks so, after a medical discharge, he tries to buy his old military mount Sireson. Unfortunately, the father of wealthy socialite Sally Crandall outbids him with plans to train Sireson for a steeplechase race. Sally and Rusty develop a rivalry because she has a favorite horse of her own, but when her horse is hurt she and Rusty declare a truce and begin a romantic relationship.

The Unwritten Code is an offbeat, better-than-average Columbia wartime "B" picture. Though Ann Savage and Tom Neal are top-billed, the central character is supporting-actor Roland Varno. He plays a Nazi spy who sneaks into the U.S., hoping to release hundreds of German prisoners. He fails, but not until plenty of bullets have been spent. The most interesting aspect of The Unwritten Code is the casting of Savage and Neal as the "good" characters: in 1945, these two cult favorites would play the decidedly unsavory protagonists of the film noir classic Detour.

Medical researchers Jerry Evans and Walt Hedges are assigned by a pharmaceutical company to work at a secret laboratory on a remote South Pacific Island in order to produce penicillium, the mold from which the magic drug penicillin is derived.

A gangster is drafted into the Army and, soon realizing how wrong his life of crime has been, agrees to help the FBI break up a black market ring by pretending to have been kicked out of service and to have resumed his old life of crime.

A young man in Alaska finds himself accused of murder, and must fight to clear his name.

Five officer candidates fight to prove their mettle during training.

A Japanese publisher urges his American-educated son to side with the Axis.

A 4F military school teacher's lie about being accepted for active duty causes problems on the home front.

Fay Weston (Jinx Falkenburg), a radio singer of no consequence, pretends to be the daughter of a recently deceased Broadway stage star in order to hoodwink Broadway play producer in starring her in a planned-show that is a tribute to her supposed mother.

Documentary-style drama on training of aerial rear gunners in World War II. Private PeeWee Williams, a Kansas farm boy, transforms his home-grown shooting skills into those necessary to an aerial gunner in the tail turret of an American bomber.

The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.

Two-fisted newsreel photographer Johnny Williams is stationed in Burma and China in the early stage of WW II. Captured by the Japanese, he escapes from a concentration camp with the aid of beautiful, enigmatic 'China Girl' Miss Young. The two arduously make their way back to friendly lines so that Johnny can deliver the vital military information he's managed to glean from his captors.

A seemingly charitable soup kitchen operator (who moonlights as a criminology professor) uses his Bowery mission as a front for his criminal gang. Police attempt to close in on the gang as they commit a series of robberies, murders and bizarre experiments on corpses.

Jim Gordon commands a unit of the famed Flying Tigers, the American Volunteer Group which fought the Japanese in China before America's entry into World War II. Gordon must send his outnumbered band of fighter pilots out against overwhelming odds while juggling the disparate personalities and problems of his fellow flyers.

The story of the life and career of the baseball hall of famer, Lou Gehrig.

This historical drama tells the story of the first class to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In the early 19th Century, Congress appropriated the money to build the school, but opponents who believed it to be an illegitimate expansion of the powers of the federal government decided to sabotage the school. They put the hard-as-nails Major Sam Carter in charge of the academy, and he ruthlessly put the recruits through grueling training -- until only ten prospective soldiers remained. They include Dawson, a patriotic farm boy and Howard Shelton, a selfish playboy who has come to West Point only because of its prestige. The two vie for Carolyn Bainbridge, while they, along with the other eight, try convince Carter that the school is worth keeping.

A honeymoon couple in New York for one night of wedded bliss before he's to join the army, become involved with gangsters after they find a cadaver under their bed.

A young boxer finds his life turned upside down when he meets with sudden success in the ring.

Frank Faylen and Charlie Hall (a longtime Laurel & Hardy foil) star as Dolan and Doolittle, a pair of goofy druggists who join the army to escape the wrath of bill collector Mulligan

Dr. John Meredith has been driven from civilization by the criminal activities of his twin brother Bradley Meredith. With his infant daughter, he settles in the African jungle, where his ability to cure the native ills has resulted in his virtual control of the Masamba tribes, who possess vast diamond mines coveted by a gang of crooks.

Fresh out of reform school, a bunch of delinquent girls fall in with a gang of crooks and are put to work as "hostesses" in a number of mob-controlled bars and cafes. The girls are expected to string along male customers so that the latter will squander their money on watered-down drinks and fixed poker games. When one gullible New Yorker is clipped to the tune of $18,000 worth of diamonds, the Law closes in.

A football hero joins the Army Air Corps.

A rookie flyer, Ens. Alan Drake, joins the famous Hellcats Squadron right out of flight school in Pensacola. He doesn't make a great first impression when he is forced to ditch his airplane and parachute to safety when he arrives at the base but is unable to land due to heavy fog. On his first day on the job, his poor shooting skills results in the Hellcats losing an air combat competition. His fellow pilots accept him anyways but they think he's crossed the line when they erroneously conclude that while their CO Billy Gray is away, Drake has an affair with his wife Lorna. Drake is now an outcast and is prepared to resign from the Navy but his extreme heroism in saving Billy Gray's life turns things around.

After a trip to Hollywood, two young ladies attempt to hitchhike home but end up at a star-filled rodeo.

This final Carter film is a lot of fun, with Nick (unwillingly, at first) taking on a ring of Fifth Columnists (since this was filmed before the US entered the war, we're not told the villains are Nazis, but it's pretty clear anyway). Of course, the helpful and persistent Bartholomew is at his side--much to Nick's irritation. To further complicate things--and to make them still funnier--Joyce Compton is along for the ride too, as a delightfully brainless "detective" named Christine Cross.

A doctor fights an epidemic that breaks out in the poor section of town and tries to get the rest of the town to help out.

This entry in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series deals with illegal gambling and bookmaking.

Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.

Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.

A down on his luck young man stumbles into a gang of robbers who all get landed in prison. Will he be reformed, or is he ensnared into a life of crime?

An attorney handling a murder case in unaware his own wife played a crucial role in the killing.

A temporary laborer who helps bring down a mob-sponsored employment racket

A tough prosecutor who has sent dozens of criminals to prison finds himself framed on a bribery charge and winds up in prison himself.

This short film portrays the story of Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), an American Naval officer who developed the first maps that charted the oceans' winds and currents.

A wrongly convicted woman studies law and seeks her revenge.

The MGM crime reporter introduces Norman Kennedy, District Attorney of a large city, he who talks about the general want for money, and the extraordinary lengths some will go to to get it. The loan sharking business has that want for money on both sides. He tells the story of one such loan shark, Stephen Hanley, who tried to pass his company off as a legitimate loan business, but who charged exorbitant rates, and used extortion and fraud to get out of his customers even more than what they may have owed on paper.

The Sloanes tie murder to the theft of a Shakespeare manuscript.

Wanting a break from his overzealous fans, a famous movie star hires a Hawaiian plantation owner to switch places with him for a few weeks.

Young Women go through Nursing School together, each with their own motivation for being there. They learn more than how to be a Nurse.

An auto mechanic suspects sabotage in a recent series of fatal racecar accidents.

This short film tells the true story of the heroic sacrifice of Father Damien, the Belgian priest who suffered a living death in order to bring hope and God's comfort to the lepers confined on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.

Judge Hardy goes to his friend's Arizona ranch to help her in a legal dispute, and he takes his family with him.

Shortly after WWII, students at Valparaiso University in Indiana come together to raise funds and construct a new building on campus, so the school can offer a four-year engineering degree.