Charles Lane

A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.

A group of ivory-tower lexicographers realize they need to hear how real people talk, and end up helping a beautiful singer escape from the Mob. (imdb)

Broadway director Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) is a bigger ham than most actors, but through sheer drive and talent he is able to build a successful career. When one of his discoveries, Lily Garland (Carole Lombard), rises to stardom and heeds the call of Hollywood, Oscar begins a career slide. He hits the skids and seems on his way out, until he chances to meet Lily again, on a train ride aboard the Twentieth Century Limited... (imdb)

A horse trainer who has fallen on hard times looks to his horse, Broadway Bill, to finally win the big race. (imdb)

Charlie's ex-wife disappears and he goes to where she grew up, a rural town in the mid-west, to look for her. But surprisingly, nobody knows about her or any of her many relatives, the Newman's. He meets aliens, but when he contacts the FBI they don't believe him. (imdb)

This parable looks at public reaction when the hair of an American war orphan mysteriously turns green. (imdb)

The true story of a young woman named Sybil, whose childhood was so harrowing to her that she developed at least 16 different personalities. (imdb)

When chanteuse Vicky Lynn is found murdered the police bring in promoter Frankie Christopher for questioning. Frankie had been organizing Vicky's career until she suddenly took a Hollywood offer just before her death, and suspicion increasingly falls on him. Only Vicky's sister Jill seems to have evidence that could point elsewhere, while the detective in charge of the case, Ed Cornell, seems particularly keen on nailing him.

Danny Hawkins has been tortured his entire life because he is the son of a killer who was hanged. In a state of insanity Danny kills Jerry Sykes. When the body is discovered Danny flees from his true love Gilly Johnson and the law but is able to reach salvation by coming to grips with his identity and by turning himself in to the police. (imdb)

A typesetter (Don Knotts) for a small town newspaper persues his dream of becoming a big-time reporter by spending a night in an alleged haunted house. (imdb)

On an ocean voyage, a card shark and her father cheat a naive man out of his money. Things take a twist when the girl falls in love with the man she's just fleeced. (imdb)

Swedish-American farmer's daughter Katrin 'Katie' Holstrom leaves the farm to study nursing in the big, wicked city. Thanks to a chiseling acquaintance, her tuition and expense money disappears the first day, and she's forced to get a job... as a domestic for congressman Glenn Morley... (imdb)

Romeo and Juliet story set amidst horseracing in Kentucky. The family feud of lovers Jack and Sally goes back to the Civil War and is kept alive by her Uncle Peter. (imdb)

A hobo and friends take up residence in a mansion whilst the family is away on Christmas holiday. (imdb)

The aggressive actress Susan, star of many erotic thrillers, feels stalked by her fans and has a fight with her producer. During a one week long pause in the shooting of a movie, she retires into an hotel, unknowing that her producer is lying dead in her trailer. While the police searches her, she meets the married sales representative Paul on a congress and pulls him into an affair. However the stalkings begin again, more frightening than ever. (imdb)

Two peanut and hotdog vendors travel west to try their hand as cowpokes. Usual Abbott and Costello fare with a twist--there are lots of great musical numbers. (movieretriever.com)

Tax-collector Lorenzo Charlton comes to the Larkins' farm to ask why Pop Larkins hasn't paid his back-taxes. Charlton has to stay for a day to try to estimate the income from the farm, but it isn't easy to calculate when the farmer has such a lovely daughter, Mariette. (imdb)

During World War I, two German men friends who emigrated to the US and become millionaires agree on most things, with one major difference: one has taken the US side against Germany regarding the war, while the other stays stubbornly loyal to "the old country". His stubbornness results in tragedy for his old friend and a lesson in the consequences of blind loyalty. (imdb)

Juvenile delinquents living by stealing are sent to a work camp, run privately, which turns out to be run unscrupulously with long hours, bad conditions and low pay. (BFI)

A girl vocalist and her apartment manager get mixed up in a creepy Park Avenue murder and find themselves facing danger at every turn. (TCM.com)

Egyptologist, Dean Lambert (Lloyd), accused of car-theft, skips bail and begins a cross-country trek to join a group in New York headed for Egypt. With the police close on his trail he gets in and out of scrapes along the way. (imdb)

In the 7th film of the "Crime Doctor" series based on the radio program, Dr. Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter) is summoned to take attend a diabetic, and gives an injection of insulin taken from a bottle in the patient's pocket. The man dies and Ordway discovers that what he thought was insulin was really poison. Oops! Two other people are murdered before Ordway discovers who replaced the insulin with poison and what the motive was. (imdb)

Dorothy Provine plays Emmy Lou Raven who is in love with Artie Pinsetter, but he won't marry her until he is a great scientist. Distraught, she runs into Dinosaur Springs where the radiation turns her into a giant. A misunderstanding with her father forces Emmy and Artie to get married, but further confusion results when Emmy comes to town for the first time since her transformation and causes a panic. (imdb)

Grainbelt University has one attraction for Dobie Gillis - women, especially Pansy Hammer. Pansy's father, even though and maybe because she says she's in dreamville, does not share her affection for Dobie. An English essay which almost revolutionizes English instruction, and Dobie's role in a chemistry lab explosion convinces Mr. Hammer he is right. (imdb)

A 16-year-old tomboy and high school athlete becomes embroiled with the lives around her boyfriend whose conservative father is running for mayor. (imdb)

Studio publicist (Power) discovers Minnesota skating teacher (Henie) and takes her to Hollywood. She goes back to Minnesota but he follows her. (imdb)

A new infection that simply makes people feel happy is treated as a threat by the authorities while its "victims" work to spread it to others. (imdb)

Karate experts attempt to rescue a girl who was kidnapped by a mother and her two psycho sons. (imdb)

Author writes about his experiences sailing at sea, struggles to get his work published. (imdb)

George Raft, playing himself, recalls his days on Broadway, where he acquired a reputation as a great dancer--and also one as a brawler, a ladies man and an associate of some of the city's most notorious gangsters. (imdb)

Barrymore lampoons himself. A famous actor, given to drink, nearly destroys the show, but his leading lady returns to save it. Meanwhile a young girl tries to reform him. (imdb)

Singing radio cowboy Gene helps out a former employer now in trouble with his failing rodeo. (imdb)

George Raft once again plays the outcast of society who comes through in the end in Intrigue. Dishonorably discharged from the Army Air Corps, Brad Dunham (Raft) disconsolately decides to try his luck with Shanghai's postwar black market. Teaming with the treacherous Tamara Baranoff (June Havoc), Dunham prospers in his newly-found illicit profession, much to the dismay of his best friend, reporter Mark Andrews (Tom Tully). (allrovi.com)

Libby has spent a whole month trying to get into show business with her singing, and has not made it. Therefore she decides to retire and get a job where she can meet the right man and get married. The right man turns out to be Paul Davis when she sees him at the supermarket. The only problem is that Paul ignores her as his ideal woman is TnT (tall and top heavy), which Libby is not. One day, Libby creates a clothes stand which she calls the 'Lady Valet'. (imdb)

Andrew and Clara are school sweethearts whose marriage goes stale after five years. Andrew is a hard worker at the firm, but it seems that all he does is work. When Mr. Battincourt from London must be entertained, Andrew gets stuck entertaining him - and he Battincourt likes to party. Andrew is only doing his job, but Clara thinks differently and tosses him out. Andrew tries to reason with Clara, but Mother is against him. (imdb)

Agatha Knabenshu arrives in a small town in Missouri to sell player pianos to the locals. She's fired after her disastrous sales attempts nearly destroy the town. The stranded saleslady becomes friendly with an equally bumbling inventor and moves in with his family. The two then try to sell his automatic milking machine, but things turn sour when their demonstration causes a stampede. (imdb)

A rich playboy cannot hide his reputation when he falls in love with a married woman.

Gangster Benson is on a train with G-man Evers and newswoman Marvis. First these two have to get the gangster, then they have to get each other. (imdb)

In providing the "synopsis" for Are Husbands Necessary?, one best-selling film source says merely "And what about this film?" There's more to the story than that, of course--but not much. The film was based on Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, a novel by Frank Davis. Ray Milland and Betty Field play a warring married couple who hope to patch up their differences by adopting a baby. When Milland's ex-flame Patricia Morrison shows up unexpectedly, the fur flies.

"Lucky" Walden is a power lineman-turned-criminal. He is due to go to the electric chair, which he helps prison electricians wire correctly, when his sentence is commuted for an act of heroism. But he finds the wrong side of the law more attractive, and returns to his nefarious ways. (imdb)

Racketeer Frank Rocci is smitten with Joan Whelan, a dancer at Texas Guinan's famous Broadway night spot. He uses his influence to help her get a starring role in the show, hoping that it will also get Joan to fall in love with him. After scoring a hit, Joan accepts Frank's marriage proposal, more out of gratitude than love. The situation gets even stickier when she falls for a handsome band leader during a trip to Florida. Can she tell Frank she's in love with someone else? (imdb)

Charming Andre Cassil woos physician Jane Alexander and the two impulsively get married. The honeymoon ends very quickly when Jane voices her progressive views on marriage which include the two having separate apartments. Andre then tries to make his wife jealous in order to lure her into his bedroom. (imdb)

Injured scientist Eric Godfrey asks his protege to give him a fatal dose of opiates to end his misery. When he dies the doctor is accused of murder. (imdb)

The mysteriously ill John Braun makes a new will, leaving out his daughter Barbara, over the protests of his wife. The trouble began when the daughter wanted to marry Mr. Braun's doctor, James Rogers. Mrs. Braun asks Inspector Queen to help find the long-missing Barbara. The inspector's son, Ellery, works on the case. He goes to a home frequently visited by Dr. Rogers where the bell is answered by Nikki Porter who Ellery mistakes for Barbara and insists she return to the Braun home. (imdb)

Cesar Romero plays an outwardly tough bookie with the proverbial golden heart. Romero falls in love with Carole Landis, an art shop proprietor who introduces her raffish romeo into the world of fine art. Utilizing his gambling skills, he amasses an impressive collection of valuable paintings, only to discover that there are just as many crooks and phonies in the art world as there are at the race track. (allrovi.com)

The sure-handed starring performance of Warner Baxter and the inventive direction of William Castle help lift The Gentleman From Nowhere out of the ordinary. When Earl Donovan (Baxter) is picked up on a robbery charge, insurance investigator Barton (Luis Van Rooten) can't help but notice that Donovan resembles a criminal who was supposedly killed several years later in a chemical-plant hold-up. Hoping to solve the earlier case, Barton talks Donovan into impersonating the dead criminal. (allrovi.com)

Prominent surgeon Walter Brennan comes to the conclusion that his talents are on loan from God. He retires from his lucrative practice and moves to a small town, there to donate his money to charitable religious causes. Brennan's avaricious family maneuvers to have the old doctor declared legally incompetent and unable to manage his money. Fortuitously, Brennan's faithful granddaughter (Marion Ross) is an attorney, and she takes on her grandfather's court defense. (allrovi.com)

Hans Muller is a Jewish refugee from Germany. Relocating to Israel after World War II, he can not overcome the psychological effects of the war. After attacking a policeman, Hans becomes a fugitive, traveling through Israel with a teenage boy. (imdb)

Joe and Casey trouble-shoot for the phone company. They try to prove that Joes's girl Ethel's boss Dan is a crook but are trapped by criminals and left in a burning building. (imdb)

New York manicurist Mamie Murphy plans to marry a rich man, so she repeatedly turns down the proposals of honest reporter David Haines. When she is announced the winner of $2,500 and a ticket worth $150,000 for champion horse Lady Luck, if the horse wins an upcoming race, Mamie is pursued by wealthy sportsman Jack Conroy and nightclub owner and racketeer Tony Morelli. (imdb)

Two army sergeants, one dumb-tough and one mild-mannered, get into a saloon brawl, crash a high-society party, and end up in a car wreck. (imdb)

Los Angeles newspaper reporter Toby Prentiss is continually in trouble with his editor. He is demoted to running the paper's "Miss Lonelyhearts" advice column because he missed the scoop on a major earthquake whilst out on the town. Determined to be fired from the column he starts to give crazy advice to the readers, but this only makes him even more popular. (imdb)

A hillbilly deacon, who is actually a cardsharp in disguise, becomes involved in a small-town fight game. (imdb)

Jane's dad (Tombes) is an oil field worker who comes into a fortune and is then pushed into society by his wife. (imdb)

Robert Young had to be the busiest leading man in Hollywood in 1934. He appeared in no fewer than nine pictures, four of them at his home studio of MGM. The Band Plays On features Young as one of four close pals, who have grown up together and are now college football champs known as "The Four Bombers". So inseparable are these chums that, when one is injured in a car accident, the remaining three quit the team. (imdb)

With the gang business washed up, Rickey Deane, suave first lieutenant to racketeer Chink Moran, and Louie Lanzer, a has-been fighter with itchy fingers, decide to take a peaceful vacation in the country. They are followed by three hard-boiled characters, Fingers, Ziggy and Crusher. Ricky, thinking they are to be rubbed out for deserting Chink, who has been drafted into the Army, stops his car and confronts them. But they merely want to ask Ricky to be their new boss. (imdb)

A racketeer uses a waitress to get information from the district attorney whom she comes to love. (imdb)

A fast-talking Pitchman,Jim Keene, working the con-games on the streets, works himself up into an executive position of a large department store, with the aide of his shill, Mae. But the owner, Elmer Woods, of the department store has a blonde-beauty daughter, Peggy, who goes to work on him. (imdb)

Barry Brandon, a criminal lawyer, visits the night club of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with Betty Walker, a spoiled society girl. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group is guilty, just to get even with Larkin for a rebuke. On the same night in court, Madge Carter is on trial for disorderly conduct, and Brandon volunteers to defend her, and proves the case against her if a frame-up. (imdb)

In this melodrama, a wealthy man finds that his good life is threatened by his deeply buried, dark past. It seems that years before, the man escaped from prison. Now he is being blackmailed by a former cellmate. Bad things happen, and the man finds himself framed for murder. Fortunately he proves his innocence. Unfortunately his status as a fugitive is exposed and he must return to the joint to finish his sentence. (allmovie.com)

In this comedy, Uncle Rodney, the host of a kiddie show, finds himself assuming guardianship of a bratty lad at the behest of his radio station, which thinks it would boost ratings. The host is also to become trustee of the boy's estate. When the host meets the boys lovely big sister, he is elated. His mood crashes when he discovers that both urchins are broke. He dutifully supports them and keeps the mansion going. Uncle Rodney's good deeds soon land him a sponsor and a new love. (allmovie.com)

Ralph Bellamy makes the third of four appearances as "master detective" Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime. The principal villain is crooked stockbroker John Mathews (Douglass Dumbrille), whose Wall Street manipulations render Ray Jarden (H. B. Warner) penniless. Mathews' chicanery seems particularly coldblooded, inasmuch as his daughter Marian (Linda Hayes) is engaged to Jarden's son Walter (John Beal). (allmovie.com)

Like the first entry in Columbia's "Ellery Queen" series, Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery depicts its amateur-criminologist hero as an oafish ignoramus. This time around, Chinese ventriloquist Gordon Cobb (Noel Madison), is murdered by a gang of jewel thieves. Baffled by the contradictory clues, Inspector Queen (Charles Grapewin) asks his son Ellery (Ralph Bellamy) to help out. (allmovie.com)

A sequel to the zany backstage comedy Curtain Call, RKO Radio's Footlight Fever once again stars Alan Mowbray and Donald MacBride as fly-by-night theatrical producers Avery and Crandall. This time, our heroes try to weasel money out of a potential backer, spinsterish millionaire Hattie (Elisabeth Risdon). Part of the scheme requires Avery and Crandall to pose as the seafaring buddies of Hattie's long-lost fiance, leading to the usual complications when said fiance finally shows up. (allmovie.com)

The songwriter Ollie Watts goes to court to claim the rights to his song that was stolen by the unscrupulous music publisher Ted Lowry. Ollie brings his girlfriend and singer Margaret Wallace with him. Eventually, Ollie wins his song back and $ 50,000 in damages. (imdb)

A sharecropper's son grows up to be the governor of Louisiana in this rags-to-riches bio-pic that tells the story of Jimmie Davis who was determined to get a good education and make something of himself. Not only did he become known as the singing governor, Davis was also a professor in a women's college, and a streetwise police commissioner. (allmovie.com)

In 1928, Big Ed Hanley, boss of a gang of Chicago racketeers, has money and power, but he is bored. Watching some kids play in the park, he sees Ruth Manning and is interested at once. He tells her he has a couple of kids and gives her the job of taking care of them. He moves Mamie in as a housekeeper, but the best he can scrape up as a son is Harry, a pint-sized monster. (imdb)

In 1900, the Martindale family is in dire straits, due to eccentric Hugo's spendthrift ways. His daughter Evelyn Martindale is proposed to by rich Peter Varney, but she loves the poor Julio. But younger sister Kathy plots to save the day, not realizing that father Hugo has plans of his own underway. (imdb)

The fortunes of a Broadway costume company rise and fall depending on who is running it, and whether its clients' shows succeed or not. (imdb)

Future Universal contractees Robert Paige and Grace MacDonald (in her film debut) star in the Paramount mini-musical Dancing on a Dime. The story concerns an entertainment troupe financed by the government's Work Projects Administration. When the WPA drops its funding, the young performers despair until they come across an abandoned roll of money. Unaware that the cash is counterfeit, the kids use this windfall to finance their upcoming show, but the Feds catch up with them on opening night. (allmovie.com)

Newspaper editor (Foster) will do almost anything to increase circulation. He campaigns to free a condemned man while accusing a wealthy ex-criminal of a string of murders. (imdb)

In Renaissance Florence, Tito, a no-good young man pretending to be a scholar, wins the admiration of a blind man who has long looked for someone to finish his scholarly work. He has a beautiful daughter named Romola. Tito flirts with a peasant girl in the streets, and for fun goes through a mock marriage with her -- but she takes it seriously. Romola doesn't really love him, but marries him because her father wishes it. (imdb)

An invocation of the silent film era but set in the then-contemporary 1970s, A PLACE IN TIME follows a New York artist who, after witnessing a crime, resolves to redeem his earlier inaction. Writer/director Charles Lane revisited similar themes in his remarkable feature-length SIDEWALK STORIES (completed a little more than a decade later). (Fandor)

A newspaper woman believes she has a scoop when she finds a black woman who is the mother of a white child.

A young girl from the "sticks" comes to the city to live with her wealthy relatives. At first she is the objection of derision and made fun of because of her unsophisticated nature, but it turns out that there's a bit more to her than most of her snooty relatives and their condescending friends think. (imdb)

A young man unknowingly falls for the boss' daughter.

Linda Norton is instructed by her employer attorney to take young Bridget Potter, whose wealthy parents are engaged in a divorce suit, to an isolated country resort, to shelter the girl from newspaper reporters and publicity. To the same resort comes Red Reddy, a novelist with plans also of furthering a former brief acquaintance with Linda; Charles Baker, Linda's fiancée; a snooping private detective; and Space O'Shea, who hopes to get a story on Bridget and her divorce-seeking parents.

District Attorney Stephen Pettijohn returns to his alma mater to lecture on circumstantial evidence, and uses a recent case,the murder of banker James Gardner, to make his point: Constance Gardner had wed James to spite Ted Farnsworth. The pair drove to Gardner's country lodge to urge him to give Constance a divorce. He refuses and that night he is found dead with a bullet in his head. Pettijohn finds that all evidence points to Harry Beach, and the latter is convicted and sentenced to die.

Vaudeville hoofer's wife Twelvetrees lies about her marital status to get hubby Ford a break with Jory, an honest radio executive . Conscience gets the better of her, and she confesses but Jory gives him an audition anyway. Ford becomes a star, but sabotages his career with drink and a dalliance with hard as nails socialite Dodd, who toys with him for fun. Oddly, Twelvetrees chooses to take a repentant Ford back.

A gabby socialite busybody and a bumbling real estate developer are seated as jurors in a murder trial.

A fast-talking, street-wise con-man forsakes the tank-towns of Pennsylvania for the greener pastures in Manhattan, and gains fame-and-fortune as New York City's number one merchandise promoter. A model and a society girl provide some complications along the way.

The Holvak family house the escaped convict named Craw that the son befriends. Reverend Holvak's faith is tested and young Ramey faces a choice between a friendship and his family. (imdb)

An eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren are embroiled in the plights of some forest gnomes who are searching for the rest of their tribe. While helping them, the millionaire is suspected of being crazy because he's seeing gnomes! He's committed, and the niece and nephew and the gnomes have to find him and free him. (imdb)

Professor Henry Barnes decides he's lived long enough and contemplates suicide. His attitude is changed by Peggy Taylor, a chipper young mother-to-be who charms him into renting out his attic as an apartment for her and her husband Jason, a former GI struggling to finish college. (imdb)

Leo Gogarty marries Margaud Morgan after a whirlwind romance just before shipping out to war. When he returns he is surprised to discover not only that his bride is not what she led him to believe, but also that she expects a quick divorce. Both Mr. & Mrs Gogarty must find their place with or without each other in a society still adjusting to peace. (imdb)

A force beyond physical form seeks to regain corporeality after being dismembered. Six people are taken over by a supernatural drive to collect fresh blood for purposes unknown to them. Lives are lost and ruined as this madness consumes and destroys.

A power-broker ward-heeler, Bill Grimes, wields more power than the elected politicians and has no problem in getting matters-of-the-city handled in which ever way is best for his needs. But when he tries to fix his adored kid brother's place on the school football team, he meets his match in school-teacher Anne Barry. Jimmy, the brother, is not a scholar and the teacher rules he can't play until he gets his school grades up...and that's final.

George Peppard plays a hard-driven industrialist more than a little reminiscent of Howard Hughes. (imdb)

Just before a newly-elected district attorney takes office, the town's crooked political boss has his henchies kidnap him with intentions of replacing him with an ex-convict who is his exact double. While the D.A.'s double/replacement is studying his mannerisms where he is being held captive, the D.A. knocks out the double, takes his clothes and manages to fool the gang boss into thinking he is the ex-con. (imdb)

Ellie Mae lives on Primrose Hill with her good-hearted and fancy free mother, her drunken father, her younger sister and a mean-spirited grandmother. The Hill is not a good part of town, however. When she meets and falls for a hard-working man, they marry and she hides her past from him. When he discovers the truth it jeopardizes their marriage. (imdb)

Widow Abby Abbott is having serious money problems and has to dip into the family trust in order to pay for her daughter Susan's college tuition. The catch: Abby must also become a co-ed or she can't touch the money. After passing her entrance exams, Abby goes to college and becomes very popular, especially with a handsome English professor whom Susan has a crush on. (TCM.com)

A runaway heiress and her sister's husband join forces to race the latter's fast horse, Broadway Bill. (imdb)

Russ Ward, after 30 years of producing Broadway plays, is ready to quit. His secretary, Ellie Brown, on being given notice, tells him she loves him. Russ proceeds to turn this into a hit play starring Ellie and romance her in a May-December affair.

A shifty boxing promoter places an amateur in fixed fights, then hands his contract over to an suspicious female investigative reporter as a raffle prize. He later regrets his actions, however, when the boxer becomes an honest champion.

A con man comes to a Midwestern town with a scam using a boy's marching band program, but things don't go according to plan. (imdb)

A young businessman goes to a magic expert to learn hardness and skill with his cynical and greedy collaborators. He becomes a very good tap dancer, but will he be able to get free of his old boss? (imdb)

A melodramatic slice-of-life set in the time of the great Depression.

To redeem himself after a hoax, reporter Wallace Cook proposes a series of stories on doomed Hazel Flagg. Hazel discovers she really doesn't have radium poisoning, but still accepts the big fling in New York that Cook offers her. At first, she has a great time, but complications arise when she and Wally fall in love, and an Austrian specialist discovers that Hazel is faking. (imdb)

The beloved, pampered housecat of a retired opera star in 1910 Paris finds herself stranded in the countryside with her three children, the victims of a plot by their owner's butler to cheat them out of a huge inheritance. They must find their way back to their home and owner, with the help of an independent-minded tomcat and other animal accomplices, while evading the butler and foiling his plan. (imdb)