Leslie Goodwins

Two actors who star in a radio detective show find themselves pitted against a villain calling himself the Cobra, who has an affinity for torture chambers. (imdb)

An irrigation project in the rural bayous of Louisiana unearths Kharis the living mummy (Lon Chaney Jr.), who was buried in quicksand 25 years earlier. (imdb)

An angel returns to Earth to help a Broadway producer put on a show, so a struggling young actress will have a job. (imdb)

In the first entry of an unintended-series that turned into a long-running series for RKO, Carmelita Fuentes is a fiery-Latin singer/dancer in Mexico City who has designs on Dennis Lindsay, an American publicity agent, for unclear reasons, while Lindsay's shiftless uncle, Matthew Lindsay, aids and abets her every step of the way to the marriage altar. (imdb)

Newlyweds Dennis and Carmelita have several obstacles to deal with in their new marriage: Carmelita's fiery Latin temper, a meddling aunt and a conniving ex-fiancee who's determined to break up their marriage. (imdb)

Dennis heads west to work on an important business deal minus the Mexican Spitfire, Carmelita. His hot-tempered spouse decides to surprise him, but ends up as the surprised one when she sees him with another woman. Instead of a second honeymoon, Carmelita begins divorce proceedings. (imdb)

It is the Lindsay's wedding anniversary and they are fighting. To help them settle down with a house and children, Uncle Matt writes Lord Epping for his help in getting the Lindsay's a war orphan. Unfortunately, he does not state which war and Epping gets one from WWI. The orphan is Fifi who is in her twenties and there is trouble for Uncle Matt and Dennis if their wives find out. (imdb)

The Lindsay's are on a ship to Hawaii for their delayed second honeymoon. Unknown to Carmelita, Dennis is using the trip to secure a contract with Mr. Baldwin. The Baldwins are social climbers that will do business with Lindsay if they can meet Lord Epping. Of course, trouble brews when Uncle Matt pretends to be Lord Epping and Fifi pretends to be Mrs. Lindsay. (imdb)

Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost looks more like a Columbia two-reel comedy than an RKO feature film. Star Lupe Velez, her conservative ad-man husband (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) and good old Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) find themselves in a supposedly haunted house. Actually the "ghosts" are enemy spies, who try to scare off the visitors so they can develop their nitroglycerin bombs in peace. (allmovie.com)

Dizzy Carmelita and Uncle Matt inadvertently become involved with thieves smuggling jewels inside a ceramic elephant. (imdb)

Dennis mistakenly believes Carmelita is going to have a baby. Little does he know that the blessed event is her cat's new kittens. (imdb)

Michael Lanyard (Gerald Mohr) is suspected of stealing two fabulous diamonds from a vault in Scotland Yard, where they were being held for safekeeping, but the Yard can't prove he did it. Later, Lanyard is summoned by a member of the nobility to help the latter raise money to pay a blackmailer. Lanyard later finds evidence to reveal the diamonds as having been stolen by a famous stage star. (imdb)

In this effervescent musical comedy, a stuffy college professor secretly works as a burlesque comedian during the summer. He manages to keep his secret until a stripper threatens to blow his cover unless he gives her a starring role in his latest production of The Taming of the Shrew. (allrovi.com)

RKO Radio's ace short-subjects director Leslie Goodwins graduated to features with the economically produced Crime Ring. Allan Lane plays a hotshot newspaperman who takes on a phony spiritualist ring. The crooked soothsayers are in league with a band of stock swindlers, coercing the gullible into parting company with their life savings on the advice of the "dear departed." Teaming with unemployed actress Frances Mercer, Lane poses as a potential sucker to draw out the bad guys. (allrovi.com)

Zany radio comedian Joe Penner delivers one of his best (and most believable) screen performances in the Runyonesque comedy The Day the Bookies Wept. Penner stars as Ernest, the trainer of a broken-down racehorse named Hiccup. It seems that the nag turns into a potential champion whenever he's promised a bucketful of beer. Poor Ernest remains ignorant of this, but Hiccup manages to locate enough brewski on his own to win the inevitable Big Race. (allrovi.com)

An intended film for Bud Abbott and Lou Costello that ened up with Hugh O'Brian (a performer who was often funny, but not on purpose) and Buddy Hackett in the A&C roles, with most of the footage given over to Spike Jones and His City Slickers, with all hands members of a 1910 fire company about to be mechanized. A&C visible in some long shots. (imdb)

A would-be actor is delighted to be hired as a stand-in for a major star until he finds himself framed for murdering a studio mogul. This mystery follows his attempts to prove himself innocent. His girlfriend, a publicist, assists and soon the puzzle is solved. (allrovi.com)

In the pre-Civil War South, a plantation owner dies and leaves all his possessions, including his slaves, to his young son. While the deceased treated his slaves decently, his corrupt executor abuses them unmercifully, beating them without provocation, and he is planning to sell off the father'e estate--including the slaves--at the earliest opportunity so he and his mistress can steal the money and move to France.

A love story with songs.

Fun and Frolic in Showboat Land! Humorous story keeps suspense up to the end.

The film begins with Ben Turpin looking for some food. He's a hobo and is resorting to trying to steal food from a baby. That 'baby' is actually four year-old midget, Billy Barty. After spending some time in the park mooching, the film changes locales--to a beauty salon. (imdb)

A thief steals a $10,000 string of pearls from the star of a show. The thief runs into Ben (literally), and in the ensuing chaos the thief ends up with Bens suitcase. Ben discovers he has the stars suitcase, and the necklace, but the crook returns. Does Ben get the beads back to the beauty? (youtube.com)

"Some folks think married men live longer. They don't -- it only seems longer!" The opening inter-title to "Seein' Things" (1928) sums up the life of Joe Grubb (Ben Turpin), who is married to the shrewish Mrs. Grubb (Georgia O'Dell). An unpleasant wife not being enough, he lives next to some difficult neighbors as well. The neighborhood wives come over for their sewing circle, but when Joe Grubb tries to get out to a lodge meeting, Mrs. Grubb tells him that he's staying at home. (imdb)

A 'Snub' Pollard comedy short. (imdb)

A beautiful young woman is rescued by Ben and gives him her photo. When it is found in his pocket, his henpecking wife and shrewish mother-in-law immediately jump to the wrong conclusion and go on the warpath. (imdb)

Louis Prima, between song numbers, tells how he happened to get a job in a Hollywood cafe playing music while a couple, unrelated to anything else, play a slot machine in the background. This short was reissued in 1944 and again in 1952. Lucille Ball has a bit part. Song numbers include; "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", "Up a Lazy River", "Dinah","Basin Street Blues" and "Johnny Get Your Gun." (imdb)

Mr. Brown is riding home from work one day with his new neighbor, Mr. Johnson. When Brown explains that he has all kinds of problems at home, Johnson wants to help him. So, when they arrive, Johnson gives Brown a demonstration of one of the tricks that he uses to get his family to act as he wishes them too. But when Brown tries out Johnson's ideas on his own, things do not go as planned. (imdb)

A naïve farmer writing songs tries his chances in New York. Unlucky, he is helped by a crooner who lusts after one of his songs. Ignoring the real value of his composition, he sold it for the money he owed to his friends: $200. (imdb)

Two bumbling GIs manage to get themselves invited to a dinner party at a boarding house "for women only". When the cook comes down with scarlet fever, the authorities quarantine the house and the pair find themselves locked up in a house full of attractive women. (imdb)

Ace the Wonder Dog, RKO's Rin Tin Tin-wannabe, plays Picardy Max, a mongrel dog adopted by Dan Preston (James Ellison) when both are thrown in jail for vagrancy. Dan's legal problems are quickly done away with but his pretty boarder, Shirley Haddon (Helen Wood), is increasingly troubled by Dan's obsessive competitiveness with fellow dog owner Robert Mabrey (Robert Kent). (allmovie.com)

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 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)

Wilcoxon, a Scotland Yard inspector, travels to New York to investigate the activities of an international band of jewel thieves. (imdb)

Edgar finds some gold in his attic and the guy working on his roof tells him he could go to jail for having it!! This is because President Franklin Roosevelt has actually campaigned Congress to make gold ownership illegal in order to force people off the gold standard as well as to try to get more currency into circulation. (imdb)

"Gals, Incorporated" is a nightclub sponsored by elderly playboy Cornelius Rensington III that features Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, with all the other employees and entertainers being beautiful girls. Molly is president of the corporation and Gwen is head of the executive staff. Jennifer Rensington, Cornelius' sister, threatens to cut off his share of the family income unless he settles down and gets married. The girls persuade the unwilling Molly to pose as Cornelius' wife. (imdb)

This slapstick comedy pokes fun at the business world. (allmovie.com)

Originally released under the more informal cognomen Goin' to Town, this was the fifth RKO B-picture based on the popular radio series Lum 'N' Abner. This time Lum (Chester Lauck) and Abner (Norris Goff), proprietors of the Jot 'Em Down Store in Pine Ridge, Arkansas, talk their neighbors into mortgaging their land so that everyone can dig for oil. When the gushers fail to gush, L&A hightail it to Chicago, where they fall prey to a group of confidence artists. (allmovie.com)

John Bonar grub-stakes Nugget Jack who has a secret gold mine. Bill Johnson is out to get the mine and he has his henchmen try to kill Bonar and Jack. They are saved by a pretty, backwoods girl, 'Rusty,' who quickly falls in love with Bonar. When Jack secretly discovers that "Rusty" is his long-lost daughter, he gives the couple his mine and goes on his lonely way. (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, 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)

A top baseball pitcher "loses" his pitching skills whenever he falls in love. His teammates try to get him to settle down with one woman so they can start winning some games. (imdb)

With the size of her classes dwindling each year, Newton High music teacher Malvina Adams is asked to retire. Trying to prove she's still got it, she composes a school fight song which finds its way into the hands of bandleader Bob Crosby who turns it into an overnight hit. Over the protestations of her stuffy niece Abby, Malvina travels to New York and performs her song with Bob's band and becomes even more popular. (imdb)

Richard Dix is his usual strong, silent self in RKO Radio's Men Against the Sky. Dix plays a washed-up pilot who designs a revolutionary new plane. Realizing that he is persona non grata in the aviation industry due to his irresponsibility and alcoholism, Dix allows his sister Wendy Barrie to take credit for the "wonder" plane. (imdb)

Joe Zany has been bashful around girls since he was a baby, and has violent spells of hiccuping when he is kissed by one. His father, utilities magnate J.B. Zany, calls in the services of escort bureau manager Bob Norman and offers him a fat fee if he can cure Joe. Learning that Joe isn't scared of old ladies, Bob takes him to a lake resort where there are many girls and tells him they are old ladies who have had face lifts. Neither Bob nor Joe know that J.B. (imdb)

Edgar impulsively invites his boss, Mr. Markham, to his home for dinner when his boss compliments him for giving coffee money to a down and out man. At the train station Edgar intervenes, keeping another man from beating a young man named Frankie, and Edgar takes Frankie home with him, even though the stranger warns Edgar that the young man is nothing but trouble.

Leon's wife wants to surprise him by buying the cabin where they had spent their honeymoon. But when she secretly meets with the man who owns the cabin, Leon misunderstands what she is doing, and gets suspicious. When his friend at work convinces Leon that his wife is going to run away with another man, Leon decides to take immediate action. (imdb)

After a fight with his neighbor over their Model Ts, Ben's tuxedo is ruined. Unfortunately, the suit he gets as a replacement doesn't hold up too well. (imdb)

Follows the opening night of a musical spectacular in a (actual) restaurant called the Moulin Rouge. The lead actress is essentially there because she's in love with the director, but he's off seeing the art director on the side. Meanwhile, the lead actress's kid sister is looking for her big break too. When the lead actress finds out about her philandering boyfriend, will this be her chance?

Ellory Bugs has offered a huge donation to his old alma mater, Taylor Tech, which is to be paid only if his son, Jimmie "Doodle" Bugs, becomes a football hero. But "Doodle" tips the scales at 143 pounds and is more interested in the band than the football team. Janice Martin, daughter of the college president, is the great thing in "Doodle's" life, but she despises him and has eyes only for Mickey Wells, the school football star. (imdb)

Errol's wife goes back to work, despite his objections. (imdb)

The ex-fiancée of a young rich man becomes the companion of a jewel thief, forming a vaudeville act with face "cure", but after she discovers, that she can really cure people, she decides to quit. (imdb)

The trial of Albert Pomeroy on the charge of murdering Edward Webster,arouses interest because Webster's widow, Muriel insists Pomeroy is innocent. Meanwhile, back to radio station NYEB, owned by the Evening Bulletin, Steve Lonegan waits for a flash from Smiley Dugan so he can broadcast the verdict---But Dugan leaves and asks reporter Maggie Dugan to tip him off it something happens...and something happens when the jury comes in unexpectedly,and this jury comes in with a "Not Guilty" verdict. (imdb)

Henry Morton just wants to go fishing. Little things thwart him: Maxine the maid makes noise, Sonny, a lad in the household, makes a mess, and Henry's wife wants the car for shopping. A newly arrived friend, Bert, suggests that Henry fake his own death, don a disguise and appear as Bert's English valet, and skulk about. They'll mourn and the truth can later be revealed. Sonny hears the entire plan and alerts Henry's wife and the rest of the household. (imdb)

Poodles Hanneford comedy produced and distributed by the Weiss Brothers.

Seven men and women are stranded on an uncharted island following a torrential storm. (imdb)

A party is thrown at a haunted mansion, people start to die, and a man who spent a night in the "blue room" disappears. (imdb)

A little known Weiss Brothers comedy short directed by Leslie Goodwins and starring 'Snub' Pollard where he and his fat pal are on shore leave.

Snub Pollard and Marvin Loback find comic situations as bums, night cops and seance attendees in this silent short.

Tom and Harry are sailors on a yacht, and go ashore for a few beers and whatever else may come up. What comes up is a brawl between them and the barflies in the waterfront saloon they go to. They are aided by an elderly lady and her knitting needles.

Band leader Phil Harris, through a misunderstanding, finds himself with a job as a professional escort, and a date to take a rich young society girl to a night club. She picks the club where the Harris band is playing. Phil is kept busy trying to keep the band from telling the girl who he really is, and to keep the girl distracted enough so she won't notice he is leading the band. (imdb)

Amos faces a few difficulties as he tries to drive his cross-eyed wife and their two rambunctious children to California. (imdb)

After many years as a vagabond, Ronald comes home to his family who are about to be evicted from their home. He saves their home and, while chasing a runaway pancake, saves a kidnapped girl as well. (imdb)

A businessman boasts he'll give his daughter a large amount of cash for her wedding, and then frantically tries to raise the money. (imdb)

In this pre-Pearl Harbor recruiting poster, colonel's estranged son Bill Burke, football hero Donald Morse, and hillbilly Jeff Hollis enlist in the paratroopers. Their training at Fort Benning, Georgia is followed in semi-documentary style, with time out for personal dramas and the romantic rivalry of Bill and Don over the sergeant's daughter. (imdb)

A Texas oil millionaire, after failing to secure oil lands in Argentina, seeks out a famous race horse in Buenos Aires and order his representative to buy the nag at any price. Ellison has a love affair with Maureen O'Hara, the beautiful daughter of the prize horse's owner. (imdb)

In a misguided effort to get a raise and promotion from his boss, Edgar Kennedy's wife and her father talk him into leasing a swank house and putting on the ritz. A valet comes with the house and he spends a lot of time trying to soften Kennedy;s rough edges, but when he becomes to insistent about giving his master a bath, the always-irritable Kennedy throws the valet in the hot tub, clothes and all.

A bayou girl and her kin have run-ins with some rich folks.

When his wife dances with the dancing instructor, Errol gets jealous and decides to take dancing lessons himself.

Edgar Kennedy's wife decides he should do the housework for the day, the same day the piano tuner Franklin Pangborn comes by.

Even in the jungles of Burma, U.S. Army Privates Jerry Miles (Wally Brown), and Mike Strager (Alan Carney, are still spending most of their time on KP (Kitchen Police) duty. But they are captured by the Japanese and taken to a prison camp and discover that their long-suffering Sergeant Burke has also been captured.

A pair of rail-riding bums exit their boxcar in the town of Excema, where they get work as waiters and have trouble with clams, bottles of beer, and pies.

Wacky Frenchman Alphonse (Snub Pollard) competes in an American boxing match.

Claire (Patricia Morison), owner of an ice-show, faces bankruptcy because Belita (Belita), star of the show, is about to leave and marry her sweetheart Tom (Henry Wadsworth). Danny (Kenny Baker), singer with the show, and Claire are in love but Claire refuses to wed until she can get the show back on its feet. Katrina (Irene Dare), 10-year-old orphaned refugee from Holland, comes to the show looking for her uncle, now in the service.

Edgar is offered $150 by a nurseryman for a tree on his property, and he plans to remove it with the tractor he won at the county fair. But his neighbor demands some of the tree money as some leafs are hanging over his property. Edgar, on the tractor, ruins a warehouse, smashes a fire hydrant, wrecks a streetcar and tears up the concrete road pavement. Edgar is hauled to court and has to pay the damages. At home, when he yanks the tree out of the ground, it crashes down upon his car.

Correspondence-school law graduate Tom Brewster travels west to seek his fortune. Unfortunately, his "cowboy" abilities leave a lot to be desired and earn him the nickname "Sugarfoot", which is one step lower than a "Tenderfoot".

Matt Lindsay (Leon Errol) is the captain/owner of a showboat that is on the rocks literally and figuratively. His efforts to raise money to save his boat and troupers get him involved with a Kentucky Colonel (not named Sanders), a tough-as-a-boot hotel manager and a feuding family.

A Hollywood talent agency tries to avoid finacial ruin by getting its best clients on the air.

Jack Carroll and his wife have a phony argument to teach their friends a lesson, but when he makes a crack that her mother is a "fat porpoise," they fight for real and she leaves him. To make matters worse, Jack runs into two men just before they don masks and rob a bank. Now he is the only one who can identify them. In spite of all this, he takes a vacation in Reno; he is convinced he can use a metal detector to find buried treasure and realize his dream of starting a rabbit farm.

Leon Errol invites Lord Epping for dinner, then impersonates him when he expects his Lordship is otherwise engaged.

Knowing that her husband, Edgar, would disapprove of her starring in a play, Florence acts very suspicious about where she is going when a rehearsal comes up. Edgar follows her to the home of co-star Al St. Claire and spies while they enact a scene in which Florence discovers that her lover is married to Lois (Lucille Ball).

Lingerie tycoon F. Farrington Fowler is in a spot as he has ran out of gas-ration coupons. He enlists his butler, Pomeroy, to drum up riders so that he can get extra coupons from the ration board. Pomeroy gets a bunch of showgirls and parks them in Fowler's mansion, this being easy since Mrs. Fowler is away visiting her mother. Leon brings home a young promoter. The showgirls, headed by Pat, run riot on the premises and Fowler passes them off as new domestics when Mrs. Fowler returns.

Leon forgets his wedding anniversary and is in the doghouse checking the date on his wedding certificate and learns that it wasn't signed, so concludes he and Dorothy aren't married. Dorothy doesn't see that as a large problem, so she and Leon decide they will take new spouses. But they find out that they are securely knotted, and decide it is all for the best that way.

About a somewhat grumpy and uptight banker, Cosmo Topper, and the ghosts which only he could see or hear, George and Marion Kerby. The Kerbys would often try to get Cosmo to loosen up and enjoy life, but more often they would complicate it.

Slaves in the field are making ready to celebrate a wedding that evening of two of their number.

A PR man saves a struggling radio station from ruin.

Physical comedy drives this vehicle for then-famous clown Poodles Hanneford, part of a legendary British circus family. Already pushing forty but impeccably nimble, he plays suitor to beauteous, heavily daddy-guarded Betty (Betty Walsh) and the duo try their hardest to elope. This is an essentially plotless series of gags but they're good ones, well above the producing Weiss Brothers' average at the time.