Maurice Black
Also Known As: Johnny Morris
Biography: Maurice Black (January 14, 1891 – January 18, 1938) was an American character actor known for his portrayal of mobsters. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1928 to 1938, when he died of pneumonia, four days after his 47th birthday. He was married to Edythe Raynore. Description above from the Wikipedia article Maurice Black, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Queens, New York, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: January 13, 1891
Age: 134 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: January 18, 1938
Popularity:
Known For:
Blondie Johnson
Overview: A Depression-downtrodden waif uses her brains instead of her body to rise from tyro con artist to crime boss.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-02-25
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Dark Streets
Overview: Pat and Danny McGlone are identical twin brothers, rivals and competitors in everything they do, and Pat grows up and becomes a policeman while Danny turns to a life of crime. They now find themselves on the opposite sides of the law, and both are in love with a pretty Irish girl from their neighborhood, Kate Dean. Before long one has to prove that blood is thicker than water.
Genres: Adventure Action Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-08-11
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Little Caesar
Overview: A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-01-25
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Leaping Love
Overview: Charley falls for both a mother and her daughter.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-06-22
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Flying Down to Rio
Overview: A dance band leader finds love and success in Brazil.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-12-22
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Framed
Overview: Rose Manning swears revenge for the unjust slaying of her father by Inspector McArthur. Five years later, as a nightclub hostess, she is sought by Chuck Gaines, secretly a bootlegger, but she centers her attentions on young Jimmy Carter, who, she learns, is the son of McArthur.
Genres: Adventure Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-03-16
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Steady Company
Overview: Truck driver Norman Foster has aspirations to become a prize fighter, but romantic interest June Clyde finds the idea deplorable. Henry Armetta and ZaSu Pitts supply the laughs.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-13
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Elmer, the Great
Overview: Elmer does not want to leave Gentryville, because Nellie is the one that he loves. Even when Mr. Wade of the Chicago Cubs comes to get him, it is only because Nellie spurns him that he goes. As always, Elmer is the king of batters and he wins game after game. When Nellie comes to see Elmer in Chicago, she sees him kissing Evelyn and she wants nothing to do with him anymore. So Healy takes him to a gambling club, where Elmer does not know that the chips are money. He finds that he owes the gamblers $5000 and they make him sign a note for it. Sad at losing Nellie, mad at his teammates and in debt to the gamblers, Elmer disappears as the Cubs are in the deciding game for the Series.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-04-29
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Smart Money
Overview: Two brothers' trip to the big city to do a little gambling results in a fateful turn of events.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-06-11
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Stout Hearts and Willing Hands
Overview: Stout Hearts and Willing Hands is a 1931 short comedy film directed by Bryan Foy. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1932 for Best Short Subject (Comedy), but was disqualified.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-06-15
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Laughing Irish Eyes
Overview: An Irish crooner flirts with prize-fighting.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-03-04
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Exclusive Story
Overview: A reporter and his newspaper's attorney try to gather evidence that will put a notorious gangster behind bars.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-01-17
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The Firefly
Overview: Nina Maria Azara is the beautiful and alluring singing spy for Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. Her mission is to seduce French officers, in order for them to reveal Napoleon's intentions toward Spain. She is sent to Bayonne, France to gather military secrets. Prior to this, she meets Don Diego while performing at a club. Unknown to her, Don Diego is actually Captain Andre, who is sent to Spain to spy on her. While in France, Nina discovers Diego's true identity, only after she has fallen in love with him. Nina Maria outwits her potential captors, returns to Spain and goes into hiding. Napoleon's troops invade Spain, resulting in Nina's capture. In a strange twist of fate, Nina and Captain Andre are reunited, but the 2 nations are now at war...
Genres: History Music Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-11-05
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Murder on the Campus
Overview: A popular young student finds herself accused of a series of murders that have occurred on the college campus. Her boyfriend, a reporter for the local newspaper, knows she didn't do it, and and sets out to prove her innocence and catch the real killer.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-12-26
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Julius Sizzer
Overview: After the success of "Little Caesar," "Public Enemy" and "Scarface," here is the inevitable parody, in which Liddle Sizzer engages in a vicious Chicago gang war. He's aided by his innocent twin brother, Julius, a greenhorn from the Old Country. Both are played by Benny Rubin.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-09-06
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Broadway Babies
Overview: Dee is a naive chorus girl living in a boarding house full of low-paid actors. Dee and Billy are in love and he helps her to move from chorus girl to star. Things run afoul when jealousy, misunderstandings and sleazy men enter the picture.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-06-30
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Ellis Island
Overview: It opens in 1926 when three bank robbers, Theodore Kedrich, Jan Imarski, and Petra Lonelli, stage a daring daylight bank robbery and get away with a million dollars in cash. They are soon apprehended and sent to prison for ten years but the money is not recovered. Flash forward to 1936 when all three men have been released from prison and are about to be deported back to where they came from via the Deportation department at Ellis Island. They arrive by the ferry boat and already on hand to bid them adieu, and possibly learn where they stashed the missing money, is gang leader Dude and his three henchmen, Nails, Moxie and Bugs, and also Kendrich's niece Betty Parker there to bid old Uncle Ted a fond goodbye. Also on Ellis Island is a crook called Solo, who has an upper hand as he has stolen the credentials of a Treasury Agent named Peter James and has access to the prisoners, and has cut a deal with Kendrichs to get him off of Ellis Island.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-11-04
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Live and Learn
Overview: A jealous husband endeavors to reach his wife who is quarantined in an apartment with her former spouse.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-06-15
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Dancers in the Dark
Overview: A bandleader tries to romance a dancer by sending her boyfriend, a musician, out of town. However, things get complicated when he finds out that a gangster has designs on her too.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-11
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No Limit
Overview: Theater usherette Bunny O'Day (Clara Bow) inadvertently becomes hostess of a private gambling den, and gets involved in a romance with a ne'er-do-well gambler.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-01-15
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Street of Chance
Overview: 'Natural' Davis (William Powell) is a respected gambler who follows a ruthless code of honor with those who cheat against him. His wife, Alma (Kay Francis), wants to divorce him because of his addiction and lifestyle, but they agree on a reconciliation and second honeymoon together and 'Natural' promises to give up gambling. However, his plans change when his brother, 'Babe' (Regis Toomey), arrives in town looking to score big, and 'Natural' has to devise a plan quickly to put him off gambling forever.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-02-08
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Playing Around
Overview: New York girl has a dull boyfriend and seems destined for a dull marriage when she meets a rich playboy who has money to burn and places to go.
Genres: Comedy Drama Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-01-10
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Numbered Men
Overview: Prison drama from 1930. Mary Dane and falsely imprisoned Bud Leonard love each other, but Lou Rinaldo, who framed Bud to get Mary, and escape-minded King Callahan, set events in motion to prove that love and justice will prevail.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-06-07
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Wake Up and Dream
Overview: The story of a small-time vaudeville trio and their rise to the big time.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-10-01
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The King Murder
Overview: A beautiful blonde makes a career out of seducing and then blackmailing wealthy married men. She is found murdered after demanding a $5000 payoff from her latest victim, and the detective investigating the case finds out that she was involved in a lot more than just blackmail.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-09-15
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Twin Husbands
Overview: The wife of a businessman and his secretary attempt to trick her husband's double into impersonating him so they can get their hands on what remains of his wealth.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-11-29
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Show Girl in Hollywood
Overview: Broadway actress leaves New York to become a star in Hollywood, and succeeds despite sleazy directors and her own ego.
Genres: Comedy Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-04-20
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The Carnation Kid
Overview: It's a case of mistaken identity in this comedy that centers around a country bumpkin mistaken for a Chicago hitman.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-03-02
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Show Folks
Overview: Eddie Kehoe is a young vaudeville hoofer who thinks his inability to hit the big time is the fault of stage managers, agents, musicians...everybody but himself. Eddie likes to tell others how good he is, but seldom shows them. Kitty Mayo, an old-time burlesque queen, who is with the McNary Vaudeville Company, advises Eddie to get himself a partner, as his solo abilities can only be stretched so far. He decides to follow her advice and, while in a theatrical supply shop, he sees Rita Carey rehearsing her dancing act that includes a trained duck. Eddie tells Rita he is a good friend of McNary's, and, with him as her partner, her future in show business will be secured. She agrees to join him and Eddie promptly names the act "Eddie Kehoe and Partner". Despite his conceit, Rita likes Eddie, as do others in the troupe, including Cleo a little gold-digger.
Genres: Romance Comedy Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-10-20
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While Paris Sleeps
Overview: To save his daughter Manon from falling into the hands of a vicious gang of pimps, convict Jacques Costard escapes from jail. Jacques' problems are twofold: he must keep Manon from being abducted into a life of prostitution, and he must also hide his true identity from the girl, who has been raised to believe that Jacques died a hero in WWI.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-05-08
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A Shriek in the Night
Overview: Rival newspaper reporters Pat Morgan and Ted Rand find themselves unraveling the mystery behind the death of a millionaire philanthropist who fell from his penthouse balcony. When it is discovered that the plunge was not an accident, the building's residents come under suspicion. Soon, the body count begins to mount as three more murders occur by strangulation.
Genres: Action Mystery Thriller Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-07-22
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Stolen by Gypsies or Beer and Bicycles
Overview: When the fiendish Sinclair Sable arranges the kidnapping of the beautiful Benecia Beamish, only the members of the Beer and Bicycle Club can save her.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-07-13
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Let's Do Things
Overview: Zasu & Thelma go out with two idiots to a nightclub.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-06-06
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Stars Over Broadway
Overview: An aggressive agent turns a hotel porter into an overnight sensation.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-11-23
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Friends of Mr. Sweeney
Overview: Asaph (Charles Ruggles) is a meek, mild-mannered homebody who occasionally shows some backbone to his prudish, overbearing boss, only to be beaten down again. With the encouragement of his secretary Beulah (Ann Dvorak), his old college team-mate Wynn (Eugene Pallette) and some liquor, Asaph regains some of his wild-man soul. Watch out world!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-07-28
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Bride of Frankenstein
Overview: Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive, not killed as previously believed. Dr. Frankenstein wants to get out of the evil experiment business, but when a mad scientist, Dr. Pretorius, kidnaps his wife, Dr. Frankenstein agrees to help him create a new creature.
Genres: Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-04-20
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Adventure's End
Overview: Pacific pearl diver Duke Slade escapes angry natives by joining a whaler whose dying captain persuades him to marry his daughter who is already being wooed by the first mate.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-12-05
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Under Strange Flags
Overview: Not quite a western, not quite a historical drama, Under Strange Flags is a little bit of both, and a lot of former RKO Radio cowboy hero Tom Keene. The star is cast as Tom Kenyon, a roving adventurer in Mexico during the Revolution. Hoping to protect the silver mine owned by heroine Dolores De Vargas (Luana Walters), Tom receives unexpected assistance from none other than rebel leader Pancho Villa (Maurice Black).
Genres: History Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-04-11
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Three Legionnaires
Overview: Set in the post-WWI days in the Siberian tank town of Skzavoskanoff, U. S. Army Sergeant Chuck Connors and Private Jiimy Barton are charged with upholding the principles of American Democracy in the face of the exotic charms of Olga, and a dastardly plot by the phony General Stavinski and his treacherous aide. Finally the impostors are exposed.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-07-10
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Bonnie Scotland
Overview: Stan and Ollie stow away to Scotland expecting to inherit the MacLaurel estate. When things don't quite turn out that way, they unwittingly enlist in the Scottish army and are posted to India.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-08-23
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The Daring Young Man
Overview: The Daring Young Man is hotshot-reporter Don McLane, played by James Dunn. Always on the prowl for a good story, McLane is persistently outscooped by his rival, sob sister Martha Allen (Mae Clarke). After several reels of double-crossing one another, hero and heroine give in to the inevitable and fall in love. But as Martha waits at the altar in her wedding gown, McLane is off on another crusade, this time getting himself arrested to expose corruption within the prison system.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-07-17
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Ship of Wanted Men
Overview: A shipful of fugitives from justice pulls up on a Pacific Island where there are no extradition laws. The island is a magnet for the scum of the earth, as well as a few honest guys who were framed. Into this den of iniquity swims socialite Dorothy Sebastian, who jumped off a yacht after apparently murdering her lecherous host. To remain on the Island, Sebastian is told that she must pay $5,000 to head honcho Fred Kohler -- and if she hasn't got the money, it is implied, there are other methods of collection.
Genres: Drama Adventure Crime
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1933-09-08
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Lonely Wives
Overview: A highly respectable lawyer becomes a sexual animal after working hours; His live-in mother-in-law tries to keep him in line. When an actor-impersonator comes to see him, the two switch lives.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-02-15
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Scarface
Overview: In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-04-09
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I Cover the Waterfront
Overview: An investigative reporter romances a suspected smuggler's daughter.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-05-19
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The Runaway Bride
Overview: Mary Gray elopes to Atlantic City, NJ, but begins having second thoughts about the marriage. Then she becomes inexplicably locked in her hotel room, and a series of cops, robbers and kidnappers passes through. Desperate, Mary trusts the shifty chambermaid Clara who whisks her away to the mansion of wealthy George Blaine. There, Mary must pretend to be a lowly cook, but that seems better than sticking with the guy she was engaged to.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-05-04
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The Californian
Overview: 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.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-07-18
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The Sea God
Overview: The Sea God is an early sound melodrama about two men vying for Fay Wray and wealth in the South Pacific.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-09-13
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The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble
Overview: Kelly's daughter falls for a revenue agent, and his divorced wife is after alimony.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-04-15
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Marked Money
Overview: Marked Money stars Junior Coghlan as the orphaned son of a seafaring man. His late father has left instructions that The Boy is to be delivered to the home of Captain Fairchild (Bert Woodruff) the father's old sailing master, along with $25,000 in cash to finance the boy's education. The villains aren't interested at all in The Boy, but they do dearly covet the 25 grand he carries with him in a box. (From the Rotten Tomatoes page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marked_money/)
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-11-11
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Captain Swagger
Overview: Hugh Drummond goes broke living too high and turns to crime in order to pay his bills.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-10-13
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West of the Pecos
Overview: Richard Dix stars as Pecos Smith, a strong, silent Westerner suspected of cattle rustling.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-12-27
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Silly Billies
Overview: The boys are a dentist and his assistant traveling to the Old West to open a new practice. Once in town, they buy a business--only to wake up the next day and see that the entire population of this bustling town had left for the California gold fields early that morning! Then, they discover an evil plot to sell out these settlers to some hostile Indians, so they spring to the rescue.
Genres: Western Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-03-20
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Down to Their Last Yacht
Overview: Left only with their yacht after going broke in the Great Depression, a high-society family sets sail for the South Seas. Screwball comedy, with songs.
Genres: Romance Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-08-31
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The Face on the Barroom Floor
Overview: Bill Bronson is a likable young bank clerk, whose congenital thirst for liquor is kept under control until he joins his wife Mary at getting blotto at a company party. From there it is a downward spiral.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-10-14
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The Canary Comes Across
Overview: A prisoner with a good singing voice escapes, only to grow jealous when an opera singer who looks like him is delivered back to the prison and receives attention, especially from Ann, the warden's daughter who leads the prison glee club.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-01-26
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Tiger Shark
Overview: A Portuguese tuna fisherman catches his bride with his first mate.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-09-24
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Walking Down Broadway
Overview: Five closely knit showgirls sign a pact to reunite one year after the closing of their Broadway production, but the lives of all five take many different turns, often for the worse.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-03-11
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The Front Page
Overview: Hildy Johnson is an investigative reporter looking for a bigger paycheck. When an accused murderer escapes from custody, Hildy sees an opportunity for the story of a lifetime. But when he finds the criminal, he learns that the man may not be guilty. With the help of his editor, Hildy attempts to hide the convict, uncover the conspiracy and write the scoop of his career.
Genres: Comedy Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-04-04
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Night Flight
Overview: Story of South American mail pilots, and the dangers they face flying at night.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-10-06
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The Game That Kills
Overview: Ferguson is a rough-and-tumble hockey player who discovers that his chosen profession is nothing more than a racket, a plaything for game-fixing racketeers. When his brother is killed in a highly suspicious accident, Ferguson and team trainer Holland join forces to bring the killers to justice.
Genres: Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-09-21
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Half a Sinner
Overview: A con man poses as a hillbilly preacher.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-06-01
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Renegades
Overview: Four one-for-all and all-for-one privates in the French Foreign Legion are all in jail for disorderly conduct, but they break out and rejoin their regiment and fight off a band of marauding Arabs, and are soon in Casablanca getting decorated by the French Minister of War. Deucalion spots Eleanor, a spy who had done him dirt and after tangling with the local gendarmes, they take her and head back for Morocco where they are charged with desertion, and have to go out and defeat some more marauding natives, and dodge the machine-gun fire directed at them by the highly-displeased Eleanor, and one thing just follows another.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-10-26
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Abraham Lincoln
Overview: A biopic dramatizing Abraham Lincoln's life through a series of vignettes depicting its defining chapters: his romance with Ann Rutledge; his early years as a country lawyer; his marriage to Mary Todd; his debates with Stephen A. Douglas; the election of 1860; his presidency during the Civil War; and his assassination in Ford’s Theater in 1865.
Genres: History Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-11-08
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The Keyhole
Overview: A private eye specializing in divorce cases falls for the woman he's been hired to frame.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-03-25
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Sixteen Fathoms Deep
Overview: A sponge diver hopes to make enough money to buy his own boat and marry his girlfriend. A rival diver, however, has other plans for him.
Genres: Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-01-01
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Brothers
Overview: Bob Naughton and Eddie Connolly are identical-twin brothers that were separated in infancy. Bob is raised by a rich lawyer, has all the advantages, but is a drunk with no moral character. Eddie is a pianist in a speak-easy but a man of high character. Bob commits a murder and Eddie is blamed and faces life in prison.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-10-19
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Women Go on Forever
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-08-15
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