Big Town Ideas

Sure-Fire Flint, an energetic chap just returned from wartime military service, meets June De Lanni, the girl of his dreams, while working as a cabdriver and busboy. Her father gives Flint a job in his factory, but Dipley Poole, who hoped to marry June, becomes jealous of Flint's success and attempts to rob the company safe. June is trapped in the safe, but after a series of adventures, Flint arrives in time to rescue her.

"A comedy drama of New York life of a restaurant proprietor and it's a scream from start to finish." - Sheffield Observer, 03/28/1929

Robert Lovell falls in love with his father’s secretary Dorothy Arden and marries her in secret despite his father and his business partner Daniel Casselis’s attempts to arrange a match for him with Daniel’s daughter, also named Dorothy. When circumstances lead to the three young people ending up stranded on a lonely island in the Pacific, complications ensue, especially when Bob suffers a blow which temporarily wipes out his memory and he cannot remember which Dorothy is his wife! All ends happily, however.

Helene Palmer and her husband Orrin have grown apart, and she becomes infatuated with bachelor Edward Wadsworth. With the outbreak of World War I, Orrin and Edward enlist, while Helene works as a Red Cross nurse in a small French town. Edward is wounded on a dangerous scouting mission near the town and Orrin carries him to safety. The enemy invades during the night, and Orrin rescues Helene as she is about to be overpowered by a German officer. The dying Edward, morally strengthened by his experience as a soldier, encourages the couple to reunite. Soon after, peace is declared.

Clarissa spins the tale for her children of how when she was a young girl, she was the belle of the small town of Cherry Pit Siding. Winning the title of “the most popular young lady” at the annual fireman’s ball she is awarded the prize of a beautiful calf. Loved by artist Josh Jiggers she poses for a painting to be known as "Clarissa's Charming Calf." Unfortunately for the lovers New York variety manager Omar Commerstein espies the portrait and yearns to make Clarissa a roof-garden attraction. When she spurns him, he takes desperate measures to ensnare her but thanks to the efforts of Josh and the firemen the villainous manager and his confederates are soon thwarted. Reunited Clarissa and Josh marry.

Sisters Phyllis and Alithea are kept in the countryside until they reach the age of eighteen when their guardian, the Squire, takes them to London. Planning to marry them off to rich older men for mercenary reason he is thwarted when the girls both fall in love with more suitable men. When the Squire works to split the couples, the girls resort to subterfuge to gain their happiness.

William Bradberry, an absent-minded Egyptologist, turns from a henpecked husband to a dominating one who, unknown to his daughter Betty and wife, writes theatre musical comedy on the side. And saves his daughter from the unsavory millionaire, Victor Smith she almost marries before she marries the decent man Tommy Dawson. A lost film.

A reporter and a detective team up to solve the murder of a nightclub singer who had been involved in a divorce scandal.

A tale of English political intrigue. A certain member of Parliament, whose voice and vote would have passed an objectionable measure, is prevented from reaching the house in time by the opposition's subterfuge of a girl calling for assistance just as he passed her house. The young lady being an actress merely re-enacts a scene from the amateur theatricals she appeared in. The plan works holding him until it is too late to take part in the debate or vote upon the question and the bill did not pass.

Skelley buys a seat in the orchestra and determines to get his money's worth. No use. Mrs. Van Snoozeheim refused to remove her big hat. But it came off. Skelley did it. That started something with Mrs. Van Snoozeheim's escort. Over the stage they fought, and into the Rathbone Café, and into Higgin's saloon. He took them over to his arena. There were two rounds to the finish.

Rich young Joan Hope is ashamed of how her father made his money--as a chewing gum magnate. While taking a train trip, she meets the Countess of Crex, a member of the Russian nobility--who is, in reality, a jewel thief.

Daphne and Thelma want their husbands to take them somewhere nice for dinner. But husbands Johnny and Vernon leery of the expense try a variety of slapstick ways to get them to eat at Hotcake Harry's instead.

Quota quickie comic short from Britain that is now lost.

Podkova

Billy takes his friend Tom out for a drive in his new car. Tom asks Billy to wait while he makes a purchase. Along comes the beautiful Marian who assumes he is a public chauffeur and hires him. Billy goes along with the misunderstanding and tells Marian that she may always have his car at cut rates if she phones him at the garage. This leads to comic adventures and eventual love for the couple.

Cobbler’s daughter May has beautiful, long blond hair. Her fiancée Billy, her father's youthful apprentice, loves both May and her hair. But Billy has a weakness for long hair and is ensnared by Madge, who wears an elaborate wig. Billy wants May to fix her hair as prettily as Madge does, but when Madge’s hairdresser demands payment for the wigs she refuses because the hairdresser has turned her hair green. The case lands in court with Billy summoned to serve on the jury. When Madge pulls off her wig Billy runs back to May ready and willing to eat his humble pie.

Anxious to be a detective Billy buys a “how to” book and thinks he’s stumbled on a case when he finds the diary belonging to Dora Burns. Seeing an entry about buying a revolver and a hatchet for killing Edward, Billy shadows Dora to her home. She discovers him and forcibly convinces him that he should skidoo. Billy runs to get the police, but when they arrive, finding blood spots on her apron Dora takes the police to the kitchen and shows them a bleeding rooster. Billy's career as a detective ends at once.

Billy Quirk starts out in the morning for his office. Billy has important papers in his valise (grip) and important matters on his mind. The trouble starts when Billy takes a streetcar and, in his hurry, he grabs not his but a similar valise which happens to belong to a woman with a bad temper. When Billy discovers that his valise, instead of containing valuable papers, contains lingerie and false hair, he panics. Billy tries to get his back before his wife misinterprets the situation, but she finds it just as the rightful owner enters the scene and the two clash, Billy runs for dear life complicating things still more.

Old Betsey Older lives in a boarding house in which money-loving Bud Doolittle and wise Tom Dear are also unfortunate boarders. Poor Betsey loses her heart to both of these gentlemen. Betsey tries hard to win the love of these gentlemen, but the harder she tries the less progress she makes. In fact, she gets so tangled up that before long she thinks she "sees things." Bud and Tom try to stake her to each other, for they are both victims of flirting Marian. Tom finally gets Bud to propose to Betsey, misleading him with a phantom legacy. Bud learns the truth of the heiress' real financial position and then leaves her at the altar.

After graduating from a convent school, Betty travels to New York to visit her relatives, the Hastings. She quickly catches the eye of Jim Denning, a wealthy neighbor who proposes to her, but Betty decides to experience city life before settling down and finds work as a salesclerk. When the floorwalker becomes too familiar, Betty quits and her showgirl friend Maizie Follette helps her get a job as a cabaret dancer, but Betty finds that’s a tough racket too and decides city life on the loose isn’t for her.