Robert Middlemass

A convict is released, then lured back to prison, because he was pardoned by mistake.

An unfortunate marriage and a bogus Count are the ingredients for this musical.

Baby Dumpling, the six-year-old son of Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead disappears from sight during his first day at school. While Dagwood frantically combs the city in search of the boy, Baby Dumpling spents a nice, safe afternoon with poor little rich girl Melinda Mason, who with her new playmate's help arises from her sickbed to walk across the room for the first time in months.

A convict marries the warder's daughter after his escape and she eventually persuades him to finish his sentence.

Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off for the family's home in West Palm Beach and inadvertently becomes romantically entangled with earnest cowboy Stretch Willoughby. Neither the dalliance nor the cowboy fit with the upper class image projected by her esteemed father, forcing her to choose.

Doctor Hugo Hackenbush, Tony, and Stuffy try and save Judy's farm by winning a big race with her horse. There are a few problems. Hackenbush runs a high priced clinic for the wealthy who don't know he has his degree in Veterinary Medicine.

After the death of shipping magnate William Reardon, his young partner, Steve Walker, becomes executor and manager of his shipyards, in accordance with his will. Reardon's spoiled niece, society girl Pamela Herrick, will inherit her uncle's entire estate on condition that she hold a job at the shipyards for a year on her own merit. Steve is to be the sole judge of her actions and decide whether she will receive her inheritance.

As a woman walks the "last mile" to her execution she remembers back to the incidents that got her framed for murder.

A Stumped insurance company is forced to re-hire the most expensive, most big-headed, but best arson investigator to solve a string of major losses.

The Saint Takes Over, released in 1940 by RKO Pictures, was the fifth motion picture featuring the adventures of Simon Templar, a.k.a. "The Saint" the Robin Hood-inspired crimefighter created by Leslie Charteris. This film focuses on the character of Inspector Henry Farnack. When Farnack is framed by a gang he is investigating, it is up to The Saint to clear his name.

One dark and stormy night, an escaped convict, an embezzler, a runaway daughter, her intended and her father, and a gangster take refuge in a remote inn called "The Black Raven" after the nickname of a second gangster who owns it; and murder ensues.

With the aid of his former law students, a professor-turned-prosecutor battles corruption and organized crime.

Newspaperman (Whalen) looks into the deaths of bond-carriers while romancing a show girl (Rogers).

A wise-cracking private detective's honeymoon is interrupted by a kidnapping case.

In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, doctors scam patients with a fake cure for cancer.

Perry and Della are finally married by his old friend, Judge Mary. They plan to go on a honeymoon, but before it can start, Perry is retained by a woman with a gun and $5000.

A chorus girl and a heavyweight boxer are paired romantically as a publicity stunt.

Gangster tries to censor a crusading radio station by jamming its signal.

A small, independent air delivery service is menaced by a mad scientist with a death ray machine that blows up planes in mid-flight.

The first musical comedy from the Grand National assembly line, Hats Off stars John Payne and Mae Clarke as rival press agents Jimmy Maxwell and Jo Allen. Both have been assigned to stir up publicity for separate expositions at the 1936 Texas Centennial (newsreel footage of which predominates throughout the film's short running time). To throw Jimmy off the track, Jo pretends to be a schoolteacher, but by the time the ruse has been revealed, the two leading characters have fallen in love.

When reporter Dan Miller is once again late to meet his girl friend, Helen Murdock, because he is working on a story, Helen breaks up with him. Later, in an effort to reconcile with her, Dan misses an appointment with the district attorney, and is fired when his editor learns that the district attorney was murdered in Dan's absence. The man suspected of the crime, Mitts Coster, is rumored to be traveling to Europe aboard an ocean liner. While Dan's friend, photographer Snapper McGillicuddy, fetches Helen to the boat, under the pretense that Dan is leaving town to forget her, Dan searches the ship for Mitts, whom he does not recognize. When Helen arrives, Dan feigns illness, and she admits her love for him. When Helen learns of Dan's ruse, however, she angrily hits him with a package that a passenger gave her when she boarded the ship. The package contains a passport for Dorothy Madden, who greatly resembles Helen, and $2,000 dollars.

Inventor Robert Fulton receives support from a tavern owner and a shipyard worker to help realize his dream of a high-powered steamboat.

A heartthrob singer, Tony Paige, also known as "America's Boyfriend" decides to wed a Swedish actress. His manager doesn't want this because he is afraid of Tony losing female fans so he takes up a 300 hundred thousand dollar insurance policy if Tony does in fact wed. Tony soon meets a girl name June Delaney on a bus who doesn't swoon over him like other girls. He falls for her but doesn't know her true identity.

A champion auto racer who unhappily learns his kid brother wants to enter the same profession rather than finish school.

It is the fate of a small frontier town, adjoining the no-man's-land where the Russians and Austrians are fighting out one of the final campaigns of World War I, to be occupied one day by the Russians, the next by the Austrians, and the inhabitants soon acquire a complacent view of the changing allegiances. To the town comes Ann Warschaska, intent on avenging the suicide of her sister, who has killed herself after being betrayed by an Austrian officer. She knows no more about his identity than the number of his room at the "Hotel Imperial".

When the leading lady of a motion picture is murdered in the middle of a scene, Inspector Carr and Dr. Crabtree are called in to investigate.

Solly is in love with Jane but Jane's father can't afford a big wedding. So he schemes with Solly's father, his business partner, to stage a big quarrel that will prompt Jane and Solly to elope. Complications arise.

Fred, a young lawyer fresh out of school, climbs quickly to success as the mouthpiece for a gangland mob. His friend Paul, however, reaches equally quick success - in the district attorney's office. Inevitably, they meet on opposite sides of the courtroom.

Johnny Dime has aspiration of becoming a "G-Man" , gums up the work of Rogan, an actual government agent is his pursuit of Public Enemy No. 1. Dimes ambitious goal is to improve his "F" rating to a "G". His sweetheart, Evelyn hopes to not get shot in the process.

Once a jewel thief always a jewel thief? Yes and no. Yes if you consider the fact that Michael Lanyard also known as the Lone Wolf once retired from the "trade" but relapses back into his old habits when he is tempted by the emerald pendant of beautiful socialite Marcia Stewart. The trouble (?) is that he falls for the belle and he soon gets more interested in getting the girl than the jewels that adorn her. What he wants now is to return the pendant but a rival gang interfere and force him to take part in a big-time caper.

When a small-town girl's boyfriend leaves in disgrace, gossips spread false reports of her pregnancy.

Though he was protecting her when he accidentally killed a man, Mabel Kane (Thelma Todd) refuses to testify on behalf of her dance partner Jerry Davis (George Murphy), and he's sent to jail. In a riot, a hostile convict (Jack La Rue) forces Jerry to help him escape, so Jerry takes to the streets himself. Nightclub entertainer Anne Taylor (Nancy Carroll) meets him, and convinces her boss Louis (Arthur Hohl) to hire him as her partner.

An alcoholic woman was charged and tried for murder and a young defense attorney, unaware that she is his mother, takes the assignment to defend her in court.

A press agent for a Broadway actress whose career is going downhill attempts to get her some publicity by having her adopt two orphans, without her knowledge.

Kenny Williams, a lieutenant on the homicide squad, is engaged to Maxine Carroll, the Mayor's secretary. Or isn't he rather married with his job? For each time he has a date with his longtime fiancée, he is prevented from keeping it by his devotion to duty. Maxine, in desperation, decides to take action and bring Kenny to the altar. Who will win, Maxine's curves or the glorious fight against crime?

A showgirl with a dubious reputation flees the cops and transforms herself into a phony evangelist offering "cures" to the sick and disabled.

A singing cowboy (Dick Foran) thwarts a thieving judge and courts a woman (Anne Nagel) in Texas.

The story of a woman, Frankie, and the man who has done her wrong, Johnnie.

A southern aristocrat clashes with a driver transporting stolen slaves to freedom.

A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.

Three Navy Cadets become friends, support each other and struggle to survive the rigorous training.

Steady, dependable Coast Guard Lieutenant Raymond "Ray" Dower and reckless aviator Thomas "Speed" Bradshaw are the closest of friends. Ray saves the life of Captain Tobias Bliss, tramp steamer skipper, in a daring rescue at sea. Speed flies the injured man back to the base hospital, where the two officers later visit him. There Ray meets Nancy Bliss, Bliss' grand-daughter, and falls in love with her. Speed meets her at a dance and urges Ray to propose before some other guy does. Ray is assigned to flood rescue duty, and Speed and Nancy start going out together and discover they are in love.

When American newspaperman and adventurer Henry M. Stanley comes back from the western Indian wars, his editor James Gordon Bennett sends him to Africa to find Dr. David Livingstone, the missing Scottish missionary. Stanley finds Livingstone ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume.") blissfully doling out medicine and religion to the happy natives. His story is at first disbelieved.

After the death of a United States Senator, idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. Soon, the naive and earnest new senator has to battle political corruption.

A lawyer is framed for the murder of a young party girl and tries to clear his name.

A fugitive from a chain gang becomes an oil-well firefighter and meets the man who framed him.

When Barry Corvall discovers that his new bride is a possible enemy agent, he resigns from the diplomatic service to go undercover to route out an espionage ring planning to destroy American industrial capability.

Roy is a Confederate officer stationed in Missouri during the Civil War. He must put an end to outlaw gangs working under the pretense of service to the Confederacy.

A woman and a man vying for a woman's affection: the usual love trio? Not quite so since the belle in question is Lorraine de Grissac, a very wealthy and alluring society woman, while one of the two rivals is none other than Arsène Lupin, the notorious jewel thief everybody thought dead, now living under the assumed name of René Farrand. As for the other suitor he is an American, a former F.B.I. sleuth turned private eye by the name of Steve Emerson. Steve not only suspects Farrand of being Lupin but when someone attempts to steal a precious emerald necklace from Lorraine's uncle, Count de Brissac, he is persuaded Lupin is the culprit. Is Emerson right or wrong? Which of the two men will win over Lorraine's heart?

Young lovers Jack and Sally are from families that compete to send horses to the 1938 Kentucky Derby, but during the Civil War, her family sided with the South while his sided with the North--and her Uncle Peter will have nothing to do with Jack's family.

A police detective (Edward Arnold) uses fluorescent powder to catch a pickpocket (Selena Royle) and her gang.

A mother experiences the torment of discovering that her own son is a killer.

The city's District Attorney is murdered, and a newspaper reporter investigates. He starts finding out that everything wasn't quite as cut and dried as it appeared to be.

Wisecracking showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself trapped in a Wyoming town when her new employer closes the show prematurely. She meets ranch foreman Charles "Slim" Martin when he accuses her of lifting his wallet and ends up being hired as a maid for ranch owners Cliff and Sybil, who are attempting to mend their rocky marriage after Sybil's infidelity with a cowboy.

Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a 1940 biographical film which tells the story of the life of Abraham Lincoln from his departure from Kentucky until his election as President of the United States.

In this Alaskan adventure, a surgeon becomes a pilot after he messes up an operation. Unfortunately, he crashes during a storm and finds himself cared for by a lovely woman. He gets a chance to reclaim his self-esteem when her son suddenly needs the same operation the surgeon botched.

Arrested for speeding by highway patrolman Bill Rolph (Robert Paige), J.W. Brady (Robert Middlemass), the president of an oil refinery, offers him the assignment to find the culprits who have wrecked his gas stations, hi-jacked his trucks and attempted to blow up his plant.

Searching for ratings at any cost, an unscrupulous radio-network owner forces his program manager to air a serial based on a past murder, tormenting a woman involved.

Orphaned shoeshine boy Spanky is working on a Mississippi riverboat during the Civil War. There he befriends young runaway slave Buckwheat. After wronging a vicious gambler, Spanky and Buckwheat are forced to jump ship. Finding solace at a nearby house, the two are picked by Marshall Valiant for an important mission. This inspires Spanky to organize the local kids to form a small army of their own.

A businessman boasts he'll give his daughter a large amount of cash for her wedding, and then frantically tries to raise the money. This 1940 comedy stars Leon Errol, Marjorie Gateson, Dennis O'Keefe, Adele Pearce and Walter Catlett.

As sixteen year old Ann Winters begins a relationship with an older actor to further her career, lookalike fan Penelope Ryan is recruited by a group of former child stars to perform in a USO show.

Famous private detective Tip O'Neil is summoned by telegram to the estate of old friend Paul Harding, but finds the telegram was sent by Paul's attractive secretary, Amy Hutchins. Paul admits his dog was shot by extortionists to show they mean business, and shows Tip some threatening notes they sent. That night, Paul's ward, Corinne, is kidnapped by two gangsters and her driver is found dead the next morning. The kidnappers contact Tip demanding $200,000, which is delivered according to instructions. Awaiting the return of Corrine, Tip learns her fiancé, Gene Leland, is an ex-convict, and he also investigates why a thug, Maratti, was found prowling around the grounds, and why Paul's brother-in-law, Jim Glenray, was seen leaving the estate late the night before. And when the chauffeur is murdered with Amy's gun as he was about to confess some complicity, Tip has to piece together various clues to pinpoint the culprits.

After his divorced wife dies, Jim Burke takes their son who she had been raising and he hasn't seen in many years. Jim Burke is a tough, hard-nosed construction boss on engineering projects, and he is looking forward to molding Little Jim into his own image. Jim Burke is more than a little bit dismayed and a whole lot disgusted when Little Jim arrives and it doesn't take Big Jim long to figure out that Little Jim...ain't nothing but a sissy. Little Jim is fond of practicing on his violin and reading and studying. What's a poor father to do?

A Chicago con man pays an actor to pose as a slain South American dictator.

A documentary/drama about the training of bombardiers during WWII. Major Chick Davis proves to the U.S. Army the superiority of high altitude precision bombing, and establishes a school for bombardiers. Training is followed in semi-documentary style, with personal dramas in subplots. The climax is a spectacular, if somewhat jingoistic, battle sequence.

When a rival newspaper publisher complains to his captain about possible collusion between himself and reporter Torchy Blane on scooping her rivals in crime news reporting, Det. Lt. Steve McBride determines to thwart her efforts to get inside information - and she determines to go on getting it, by whatever means necessary.

A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason takes the case, continuing his friendly-enemy relationship with crime reporter Ann Rogers. One gang member is caught; eventually, others follow. But Mason hasn't a clue to Slade, principally because he's unaware she's a woman.

The wealthy Van Dyke family are constantly in the media for outrageous behavior, much to the frustration of the patriarch, Dan Van Dyke. His self-centered wife has a fondness for foreign imports, including "pet projects" like dancers and such and his spoiled children Tony and Carol have constant run-ins with the law. When Dan himself ends up in the clink for five years for tax evasion, he becomes bunk-mates with ex-bootlegger Joe "Spots" Ricardi. Ricardi lectures him on being such a push-over for an out-of-control family, so a dying Dan makes Ricardi his estate trustee once he is released from prison. Ricardi is then thrust into high society and must do everything he once nagged Dan to do.

Maisie becomes attached to a dirt-poor farmer and his family as they try to make ends meet joining hundreds of others digging for gold in a previously panned-out ghost town.

An auto engineer and a professor's daughter pose as married servants in a mobster's mansion.

Stranded in Africa, Chuck and his pal Fearless have comic versions of jungle adventures, featuring two attractive con-women.

In this Crime Does Not Pay series entry, John Jones is an up and coming businessman who drinks too much but denies he has a problem. One day he mixes drinking and driving, and the tragic consequences hit very close to home.

A no-nonsense engineer is hired to oversee construction of the Whitney Tunnel, a project that has been plagued by a series of mysterious--and often fatal--accidents.

When the murdered body discovered by beautiful, vivacious socialite Melsa Manton disappears, police and press label her a prankster until she proves them wrong.

1935 comedy in which an immigrant (Jean Arthur), a reporter (George Murphy) and a gangster (Douglass Dumbrille) cross paths.

Richard Arlen and Phil Terry star as Skimmer and Tommy, two lifelong buddies who've invented a lightweight, high-speed torpedo boat (hence the title). Their copacetic business relationship is strained when nightclub singer Grace Holman (Jean Parker), having been jilted by Skimmer, marries Tommy on the rebound.

In a 16th-century European town, the ruling family has been given a prophecy that, should there ever be twin boys born, the younger will murder the older; so is dismayed when twins are born to the popular baron. The older grows to be a selfish, slovenly man, who inherits the castle at his father's death and becomes ruler over the formerly happy villagers. He enjoys his power until he learns his younger brother is returning from abroad and, afraid of the prophecy, he determines to murder his sibling, hide his body in the "black room" - an old torture chamber sealed away behind the fireplace - and then impersonate him, right down to his withered arm. In this way he hopes to not only avoid the prophecy, but also escape consequences of his other criminal deeds and obtain marriage to a local girl of the nobility...