Frankie Darro

A living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy. (imdb)

See Hollywood as it was meant to be seen, on parade, in this rare and classic short about the golden years of Hollywood. (Movieflix.com)

Five members of a teen-age gang, including leader Jimmy Smith, are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the melodramatically callous Thompson... (imdb)

The Phantom Empire, starring Gene Autry the Singing Cowboy, was a 12-chapter 1935 Mascot serial that combined the western, musical, and science fiction genres. The first episode is 30 mins, the rest about 20 minutes. This was Gene Autry's first starring role, playing himself as a singing cowboy. (Wikipedia)

At the bottom of the depression, Tom's parents lose their jobs. Not to burden their parents, the two high school sophomore's decide to hop the freights and look for work. Wherever they go, there are many other kids just like them, so Tom, Ed and now Sally stick together.

Slip invites his cousin Jimmy to stay with his family after he is released from prison. However, Jimmy soon gets mixed up with an auto-theft ring. While trying to help Jimmy get out of the gang, Slip is implicated in a warehouse break-in that was actually committed by Jimmy and the auto theft ring. (imdb)

Marjorie Temple, owner of a bus line and an apparently worthless plot of land, is set upon by rich oil speculators who know her land actually is worth millions. When they try to put her out of business for good, young race driver Burn 'em Up Barnes comes to her rescue - again and again and again. (Jim Beaver)

Seth Parker takes in Robbie Turner and protects him from his cruel father Rube. When the father disappears, Seth intends to raise Robbie as his own son. The vindictive father attacks Mary Lucy, a neighbor's daughter who is also trying to help Robbie. Mary's boyfriend David rescues her and Rube runs off with his son. But not for long. (imdb)

An unusually sensitive evocation of the pain of youth and the senselessness of war. Frail Nemecsek, a lonely boy who yearns to belong, worships Boka, the self-sufficient, charismatic leader of a well-organized gang, decked out in uniforms and sporting their own flag. The perennial outsider sees his chance to win a respected place in Butler's army when their flag is stolen and war breaks out with another gang. (imdb)

The gang teams up with a fighter to break up a fight-fixing racket. (imdb)

While working in a laundromat, the boys find a baby hidden among the linen. They soon find out that the baby, who is the heir to a fortune, has been abandoned by his mother so that her two evil aunts can't cheat her and the baby out of the inheritance. The boys determine to help the woman claim her baby's rightful inheritance from her aunts, who have hired gangsters to find and eliminate the girl, the baby and anyone who helps them. (imdb)

While checking out a new telescope, the boys inadvertently witness a murder committed in a room of a nearby hotel. They tell their friend, a police officer, about the crime, but when he investigates he can find no evidence of any murder having been committed in the room, which belongs to a local gangster. The boys eventually find out who the victim was, and join forces with his daughter to expose the murderers. (imdb)

A tough street kid takes the rap for a burglary committed by the son of his foster family and is sent to a boys reformatory, where the inmates are under the thumb of corrupt guards and a brutal prison doctor. (imdb)

Bob Norton, seeking his brother's killer, tangles with outlaws, wild horses, and a "wild" boy. (imdb)

A short plot summary finds Wild Bill Hickok (Bill Elliott), the U.S. Marshal in Abilene, Kansas, opposing the Phantom Raiders, a gang of renegades raiding the cattle drives over the Chisholm Trail from Texas to Abilene. Hickok organizes the boys of the town into the "Flaming Arrows" to assist him. Finally, in the 15th chapter, "Trail's End", Hickok, the "Flaming Arrows" and army scout Kit Lawson (Kermit Maynard) combine to put an end to the Phantom Raiders. (imdb)

A Rin-Tin-Tin serial presented in 12 episodes. The mysterious Wolf Man is terrorizing settlers in a western town. With the help of Rinty, young Jimmy Carter unmasks the Wolf Man and foils his evil plot. (imdb)

A mysterious master criminal known as The Voice plots with his gang to sabotage the Milesburg Oil Company, but the rightful heir has a secret army of her own to protect her rights. (imdb)

Public Defender Gary Franklin, frustrated by being unable to save criminal Dutch Adams from a death sentence by blaming the slums environment as the cause of Dutch's crimes, enlists the aid of Dutch's sister, Marcia Adams, to get the slum dwellers at appeal for public monies to provide recreational places for the slum kids. (imdb)

A group of street kids battle a terrorist gang led by a Japanese spy. (imdb)

Eddie Kane wanders round the studio back-lot, opening various doors to see which stars pop out. (imdb)

Two friends take jobs as truck drivers, unaware that the trucking company is being targeted by a gang of saboteurs who will stop at nothing, including murder, to stop them.

Three men escape from prison, go back to their hometown to try to find out who framed them. (imdb)

U.S. Marshal Johnny Carpenter turns in his badge in order to return to his ranch where cattle thieves have been operating. Reno Frost is the brains behind the rustling gang, and his main target is the ranch owned by Rose Bascom, the girlfriend of the Marshal. When she discovers that her brother, Jim, is a gang member she sends for Carpenter. He shows up impersonating a gunman named Rod Tatum, his exact double, in order to infiltrate the gang.

Wildcat riggers risk their lives in the pursuit of oil. Their jobs get even more dangerous when ruthless oil baron J.C. Anderson sets his sights on their territory. When longtime driller Dan O'Reilly falls to his death from a well tower sabotaged by Anderson's strong-arm thugs, his teenage son 'Fishtail' inherits the property and the troubles that come with it. With the help of his geologist pal, Hank Langford, the boy fights to bring in a gusher before the deed to the well-site expires. (imdb)

An honest boxer refuses to throw a fight for a gambler. They get into a fight and the boxer knocks the gambler out. Thinking he's killed him and believing that the police are after him, the horrified boxer runs off and takes to the road, promising never to box again. However, one day he comes upon a small but scrappy young kid who has the potential to be a champion. The former boxer takes the kid under his wing and trains him. (imdb)

Frankie Reynolds (Frankie Darro' ), youngest member of a family of jockeys, borrows $4.85 (yes, four dollars and eighty-five cents) from his sister Phyllis (Gladys Blake), who is not a jockey, to buy a crippled colt from the stables owned by Clay Harrison (Kane Richmond). He nurses the colt back to health, and in two years has one of the fastest horses in the country. (imdb)

The former Jo March and her husband Professor Bhaer operate the Plumfield School for homeless boys. One of the boys, Nat, invites Dan, a street kid, to come to the school, where the boys are all loved and well cared for. Dan is a young tough, but his heart is good, and when he is accused of theft at the school, Jo continues to believe in him and that the true thief will be found out. (imdb)

Don Mallory is the younger brother of ace newsreel photographer Cliff Mallory, and is continually urging Cliff to let him become a cameraman rather than going to college. Cliff refuses. He is assigned to get some newsreel footage of heiress Betty Kelley, who has never been shot. She arrives at the airport accompanied by a phony Earl, to whom she is reportedly engaged, eludes the cameraman by dressing as the pilot and drives off before Cliff discovers the deception. (imdb)

A railroad worker accepts a colleague's offer to stay in his home, but when his friend is called out one night to stop a runaway train, he makes a play for the man's wife. (imdb)

A delivery boy for a flower shop, who thinks of himself as an amateur detective, finds out that his boss is mixed up with a foreign espionage ring. (imdb)

Bob Carelton hires on at the O'Brien ranch where O'Brien is in trouble due to the lack of water. After Flash Corbin has O'Brien's water supply poisoned, Bob brings in a well driller. But Flash pays him to not find water and while Bob is away, brings in an actress to buy the ranch from the now discouraged O'Brien. (imdb)

A group of thugs tries to steal the cursed title gem from a jeweler who has been hired to cut it into small, saleable pieces. (imdb)

"Headline Crasher" is a Conn Pictures Corporation production that was distributed on a regional basis by Guaranteed Pictures which, for the sources that seem to think otherwise, was a distribution company and not a production company. It was adapted by Harry O. Hoyt from Peter B.Kyne's "Motion To Adjourn" with the screenplay supplied by Sherman L. Lowe. (imdb)

A young reporter's grandfather wins a sweepstakes, but it turns out that his ticket is phony. The reporter finds out that the police are looking for the criminal ring responsible for the phony-sweepstakes racket, so he and his young brother set out to track down the gang responsible and expose them. (imdb)

Buzzy O'Brien is a bellhop in a hotel where a guest is murdered. The police blame Kitty Monahan and Buzzy succeeds in helping her escape and hides her at his home with his mother. Buzzy and his pal Jefferson manage to fumble their way to finding the real killer who was after the stolen bonds carried by the victim. Based on Charles Molyneaux Brown's story "Death Hops the Bells." (imdb)

A young, newly-appointed rookie state trooper, John Shields, is celebrating with his sister Jane, his younger brother Freddie and Tom Marlin, Jane's fiancé and also a trooper, when they hear over the radio that two bandits have just killed a lawyer and his watchman. John and Tom set out in their patrol cars in hopes of capturing the killers, followed by Freddie who hopes some day to qualify as a trooper. (imdb)

Rawley University is about to receive a star athlete who could give it the first championship rowing team it's ever had. Unfortunately, he gets drafted into the army before he's able to join the team. Two of the team's members get the bright idea of passing off a burly truck driver as the "athlete". Complications ensue. (imdb)

Filled with stock footage from beginning to end of construction scenes on Hoover/Boulder Dam in Nevada, the story centers on the construction of the fictitious Sweetwater Dam being built in California. Evans Construction Company, run by Arthur Hooyt, has all its money tied up in the work and must finish the dam on time in order to collect. (imdb)

In this odd-ball comedy, a self-sacrificing but eccentric mother attempts to guide her equally eccentric family. She has two sons and a daughter. One son is a communist and the other is a struggling prizefighter. Her daughter is trying to snag a married booking agent to help her break into radio. In addition to watching over her children, the mother must also help her husband find a full-time job. (allmovie.com)

A young man, Danny, decides to get a job in order to support his mother. He's hired to work in a garage, but soon finds himself being implicated in a stolen-car racket. (imdb)

Briscoe leases land from Latimer. When oil is found Latimer tries to stop Briscoe from renewing the lease. Tom arrives and fights off Latimer and his men to renew the lease. But Latimer is not done. Now he shoots Briscoe, kidnaps Buddy, and blames Tom who is arrested and put in jail. (imdb)

In 'The Circus Kid', Darro gives an excellent performance as Buddy, an orphan who runs away from a a harsh orphanage to join Cadwallader's Circus. (imdb)

Re-edited feature version of serial The Phantom Empire (1935). Singer Gene Autry discovers a race of advanced humans living beneath the earth. (imdb)

A radio singer and heart-throbber of the teen-age girls disappears. Freddie Trimble, a high-school student who is the exact double of the swooner-crooner, and his friends, motivated by bad intentions, point him out as the missing man. This cause a messy problem or tow, but it gets really messy when the singer's wife and baby show up. (imdb)

The students at Anytown, USA high school (Monogram version) are down in the dumps as; their football team faces almost certain defeat; the school paper may have to suspend publication because the circulation is so low; and the principal intends to replace student performers at the school bazaar with professionals. (imdb)

A railroad engineer adopts a French orphan while he's fighting in the army in World War I, and takes him back to the US when the war ends. Later the boy needs an eye operation that the engineer can't afford, so he takes the rap for a murder he didn't commit in order to get his son the operation. (imdb)

A none-too-popular (nor good) radio singer, Rita Wilson is murdered while singing on the air in a radio studio. Radio page boy, Frankie Ryan, and his janitor pal, Jeff, solve the mystery for the none-too-sharp police. (imdb)

The King of Illyris (Lewis Stone) marries a neighboring princess (Alice Terry), who finds out he has a mistress, Sephora (Helena D'Algy). Revolted, she turns to Prince Alexei (John Bowers) for friendship. Turmoil increases as a revolution demands the abdication of the King and the Queen opposes this decision.

Joe is a reporter who is looking for his big break and he gets it when he takes over George Gorman's sports column. Marty is a hood who would fix any sporting event he could and Joe keeps the pressure of the paper on him. His wife Maxine, however, wants only the finer things in life and when Joe is on the road, she becomes Marty's Gal. That and the money that she owes Marty ends Joe's career as a New York Register columnist and starts his new career as a drunk. (imdb)

Frankie Kelly is the soda jerk and embryo scientist in Midvales only drugstore. Two murders and an attempted killing suddenly swing Midvale into national prominence. Frankie and his pal, Jefferson, become involved when a wounded gangster starts to tell them where $300,000 in stolen loot is hidden, but he is murdered before he can give them all of the information. The search is on. (imdb)

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. (imdb)

An elevator operator and a janitor team up to solve two murders that may be connected to an illegal gambling operation. (imdb)

Duke Carlton, an actor stranded in a small western town, gets a job as a cowboy on Tim O'Brien's ranch as a reward for beating up "Flash" Corbin, a real estate agent who has been trying to swindle the rancher. A romance develops between the actor and Patsy O'Brien, the rancher's daughter, but it is interrupted by the appearance of his former stage partner, Vera Van Swank, who claims him as her husband.

A Marine Sergeant wounded in overseas combat service, requires an operation, and Navy psychiatrist Captain R. S. Handler, recommends to Marine Captain Russ Morgan and Colonel Winters that "Sarge" be given a few weeks rest before hospitalization. Through Dean McKinley of San Juan Junior College, Sarge enters the school on a temporary basis. (imdb)

A rich man's son is running for student body president in the local high school, and the boy's father tells the school principal that if his son wins the election, he'll make a sizable donation to the school that will pay for the football team's much-needed uniforms. (imdb)

A young girl, Molly Marble, is enmeshed in a train robbery by her crooked step-father. She meets a stranger, Jeff Morton, and suspects he knows where the loot is hidden. For the sake of her relatives, she must try to 'vamp' this information from him but, instead, she falls in love with him.

When heavyweight contender Battling Jack Riley uses the Bar X Ranch for his training quarters, foreman Tom Buckely becomes concerned over Riley's attentions to Frances Morris, the owner's daughter, whom Tom loves. Gerald, Frances' twin brother, confesses to a theft of money from the bank in which he works, and to retrieve the money Tom agrees to fight Riley for three rounds, to the disgust of Frances.

Winners of the Lucky Stars National Dance Contest - one woman from each 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. The stars are doing a multitude of recreational activities.

A wealthy woman is taken in by three slum kids when she falls out of her carriage and hurts herself when her horse spooks.

Horse-breeder Howard Chamberlain has many superstitious quirks but his primary one is that he believes orphans are bad luck and a jinx to be around. This is bad news when 'Gimpy", an orphan, shows up at Chamberlain's horse-ranch in search of a place to stay. But Howard's soft-hearted wife, Madeline, allows the young boy to stay on and work in the barn with the horses. And "Gimpy" breaks Chamberlain's "orphan-jinx" in a big way.

An escaped convict redeems himself by becoming an auto racing champion.

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

Frank Courtney is the heir to great wealth, but his guardian Norman Bryan secretly plots to do the boy in and steal the inheritance. Only Frank's friend, radio operator Bob Whitlock, and Frank's wolf-dog stand between him and disaster.

Mary, on the day of her wedding to Jimmie, finds she has not lost her affection for another sweetheart, Joe. A confrontation arises when Jimmie discovers that Joe has come along on their honeymoon. (imdb)

Miss Hinklefink (Belle Mitchell) inherits a western ranch and, in order to spend the summer with Professor Owen Townley (Milton Kibbee), she invites students Freddie Trimball (Freddie Stewart), Dodie Rogers (June Preisser, Betty Rogers (Noel Neill), Lee Watson (Warren Mills) and Roy Donne (Frankie Darro ( to spend their vacation on the ranch if Townley will help chaperon the kids. Real estate agent Tom Sneed (Hugh Prosser) tries to persuade her to send the kids home when desperadoes rob the bank.

The growth of juvenile crime in a small town starts a movement for the building of a youth center. The project leaders discuss with the town mayor Phineas Wharton Sr. about buying an old warehouse from the city, and rebuilding it as the Center. The mayor, however, has his own plans to buy it himself for another project which he would profit from.

A racing horse gives birth to two colts, one of which has a split hoof and is about to be destroyed. A young stable boy saves the horse and raises it to be a champion racer. One day the boy enters his horse in a big race and finds out that the favored horse in the race is his colt's now-grown brother.

After being apart for years three women, friends at school, meet and bring each other up to date on their lives... (imdb)

Dennis Terhune ( Tom Tyler ), ranch foreman for John Morgan, an eastern capitalist, discovers that there is oil on Morgan's ranch shortly after Morgan has deeded the ranch to Daley, western manager for the Morgan properties. Dennis rides after Daley and retrieves the deed, saving Morgan's ranch and securing for himself the love of the financier's daughter, Eunice ( Jean Arthur ).

A newspaper columnist uses wildlife critters to report city gossip. He becomes a celebrity until he alludes to a murder that takes place the same day. All mayhem breaks out after that.

Skipper Murphy is serving as trainer and inspiration for his brother Red Murphy training for a world championship title bout. Trouble comes for the Murphys when Red runs up against a gambling syndicate and is put on the spot to throw the fight.