Dave O'Brien
Birthday: 1912-05-31
Place of Birth: Big Spring, Texas, USA
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dave O'Brien (born David Poole Fronabarger, May 31, 1912 – November 8, 1969) was an American film actor, director, and writer. O'Brien was best known to movie audiences in the 1940s as the hero of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy short film series Pete Smith Specialties narrated by Pete Smith. O'Brien wrote and directed many of these subjects under the name David Barclay. He also appeared in many low-budget Westerns, often billed as Tex O'Brien. In 1942, O'Brien starred in the movie serial Captain Midnight. Modern audiences perhaps best remember O'Brien as a frantic dope addict in the 1936 low-budget exploitation film Tell Your Children (better known under its reissue title, Reefer Madness). As a writer for The Red Skelton Show, O'Brien shared an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1961 and shared a nomination for the same award in 1963. O'Brien died, aged 57, of a heart attack while competing in a yachting race.
Movies
Welcome Home
A con artist attends a reunion in his hometown and discovers that his former classmates are trying t...
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The Devil Bat
Dr. Paul Carruthers is frustrated because he thinks his employers, Mary Heath and Henry Morton, have...
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Million Dollar Racket
Millionaire Larry Duane is posing as his own chauffeur while touring the West and meets Molly Hennes...
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Spooks Run Wild
A group of delinquents on their way to summer camp get stuck in a haunted house....
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Song of the Buckaroo
An outlaw on the run assumes the identity of a dead man. When in his new identity he finds himself e...
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Tell Your Children
High-school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll relates to an audience of parents that marijuana can have d...
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Those Good Old Days
Life in mid-century America is humorously compared to life at the turn of the century. Subject cover...
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Man's Country
An undercover Texas Ranger runs into trouble when he learns that the murderer he's trailing has a tw...
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Bowery at Midnight
A seemingly charitable soup kitchen operator (who moonlights as a criminology professor) uses his Bo...
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Born to Be Wild
Truck drivers Steve Hackett and Bill Purvis are fired from their jobs with the West Coast Trucking c...
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The Sign of the Cross
A Roman soldier becomes torn between his love for a Christian woman and his loyalty to Emperor Nero....
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Neighbor Pests
Narrator Pete Smith talks about the different kinds of neighbors that can be pests, and how to deal ...
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The Secret of Treasure Island
A variety of people are searching for a long-hidden treasure somewhere on an island. Chapters: 1. ...
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Let's Cogitate
Short film covering a variety of topics that folks may have wondered about....
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Trigger Smith
A cowboy goes after a gang of stagecoach robbers who murdered his brother....
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The Kettles in the Ozarks
Ma and the kids head out to help Pa's brother Sedgewick with the his farm in Mournful Hollow, Arkans...
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Buzzy and the Phantom Pinto
Rancher Timothy Wade is ambushed by a masked man riding a pinto horse. His young son, Buzzy Wade and...
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Flying Wild
A group of young men who work at an aviation factory begin to suspect that a doctor who runs an air ...
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On the Spot
Frankie Kelly is the soda jerk and embryo scientist in Midvales only drugstore. Two murders and an a...
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Forbidden Trails
Two ex-cons plan to kill the range rider marshal who sent them to prison and, when their plan fails,...
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Frontier Scout
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant has a job for Wild Bill Hickok (George Houston) and his sidekick (Al St. John)...
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Riders of the Sage
In an effort to get Jim Martin to sell his ranch, the Halsey brothers have kidnapped his son Tom. Wh...
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Whirlwind Horseman
Ken and Happy, looking for their friend Cherokee, run into an outlaw gang led by Ritter who have bee...
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Wonder Bar
Harry and Inez are a dance team at the Wonder Bar. Inez loves Harry, but he is in love with Liane, t...
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Enemy of the Law
Charley Gray is about to be released from the state penitentiary after serving a long term for the r...
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Gangsters of the Frontier
Tex put the Kern gang away once but they have returned with reinforcements and have take over the to...
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Frontier Fugitives
Ellen Williams' father has a valuable collection of furs and an outlaw gang is after them. Before he...
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The Phantom of 42nd Street
A theatre critic teams up with a cop to investigate the murder of a Broadway actor....
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Consolation Marriage
A sportswriter jilted by his globe-trotting girlfriend marries a woman jilted by her boyfriend....
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Down Texas Way
"The Rough Riders", has U. S. Marshals Buck Roberts (Buck Jones) and Tim McCall (Tim McCoy) coming t...
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The Man Who Walked Alone
A war hero returns home following a medical discharge and ends up entangled with a young woman speed...
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Queen of the Yukon
The owner of an Alaskan gambling boat and her business partner help thwart a crooked businessman who...
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The Black Coin
Government agents try to thwart smugglers, while some sort of plot unfolds, about a hidden treasure ...
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Law and Order
Billy the Kid and his pals Jeff Travis and Fuzzy Jones are arrested and brought to Fort Culver, wher...
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Brothers of the West
Tyler is a range detective whose brother stands accused of robbing a bank and murdering the bank pre...
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Utah Trail
Tex and his sidekicks arrive to help out his friend Jeffers, a railroad owner, only to find that he ...
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Where the Buffalo Roam
Tex returns to Santa Fe to find his Mother murdered. Foster runs the town and all crimes committed b...
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The Singing Cowgirl
Tolen is after the Harkins ranch where his men have found gold. After they kill Harkins, Dorothy and...
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One Man's Journey
Dr. Eli Watt, a widower, comes to a small town, considering himself a failure in his attempt to have...
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42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage
Making-of documentary about the 1933 musical, 42nd Street....
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Gun Packer
Jack has been called in to investigate stage robberies where the stolen gold bullion mysteriously di...
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Out for Fun
A tense businessman seeks to find a relaxing pastime but proves himself inept at golf, duck-hunting,...
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Phantom Rancher
Cowboy puts on a black mask and a black outfit to fight a gang of land-grabbing crooks....
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Drifting Westward
Manuel and Carga are after the hidden map of a gold mine which is somewhere in the hacienda willed t...
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Flaming Lead
Cowhand Ken Clark is stranded in Chicago, and temporarily takes a job as a sharp-shooter entertainer...
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Captain Midnight
Secret Service Major Steel is one of the few men in America aware of the fact that Captain Albright ...
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T.V. of Tomorrow
A variety of fanciful innovations in "future" T.V. sets, including a model with a built-in stove, an...
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Hot Saturday
A pretty but virtuous small-town bank clerk is the victim of a vicious rumor from an unsuccessful su...
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Buried Alive
A prison trustee rescues a despondent executioner from a bar-room brawl, and is blamed for the fight...
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Water Rustlers
Shirley Martin finds that Weylan has diverted the water from the valley and her cattle are dying. Fi...
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Flying High
An inventor and his lanky girlfriend set an altitude record in his winged contraption....
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Woman Wanted
Just after a jury finds Ann Grey guilty of murder, the car carrying her to prison crashes into anoth...
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College Humor
A college professor and the school's star football player are both rivals for the same beautiful coe...
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The Whispering Skull
Rangers Tex Haines and Dave Wyatt track a killer known as the Whispering Skull. In the wake of the S...
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On Your Toes
A Russian dance company agrees to stage the new ballet written by a vaudeville hoofer....
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Roar of the Dragon
A boatload of Westerners is trapped in Manchuria as bandits led by Russian renegade Voronsky ravage ...
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Guns of the Law
The Texas Rangers take on a shyster who is trying to bilk a family of their money after he learns th...
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Code of the Cactus
When Blackton outbids Bill Carson. Bill suspects he will have to rustle cattle to fulfill the contra...
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Outlaws' Paradise
Bill Carson assumes the identity of gang leader Trigger Mallory in order to fool his gang and his gi...
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Wyoming Outlaw
Will Parker has been destroyed by a local politician and now must steal to feed his family. He steal...
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New Frontier
The Three Mesquiteers convince a group of settlers to exchange their present property for some which...
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Fighting Mad
Ann Fenwick is a witness to a bank robbery in the U.S. and the bandits, led by Trigger and Leon capt...
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The Fighting Renegade
El Puma, a Mexican desert guide, escorts an archaeological expedition headed by Professor Lucius Llo...
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The Arizona Kid
Roy is a Confederate officer stationed in Missouri during the Civil War. He must put an end to outla...
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Mutiny in the Big House
A young man forges a check in order to help his mother, but is caught and sentenced to 14 years in p...
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Billy the Kid Wanted
Billy the Kid and his pal Jeff help their friend Fuzzy Jones escape from jail, and the trio heads fo...
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The Pinto Bandit
A masked desperado wants to disrupt the mail service between two frontier communities....
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Double Trouble
Harry Langdon and Charley Rogers star in this 1941 Monogram comedy, about two bumbling brothers who ...
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Texas Wildcats
Lightning Bill Carson and sidekick Magpie are after Burrows, the man that killed a friend of theirs....
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Danger Ahead
The Royal Mounties are called in when one of the armored cars owned by Maxwell, containing a gold sh...
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Murder on the Yukon
Unknown to Joan Manning, her trading post partner Weathers is operating a counterfeiting ring. When ...
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The Texas Marshal
Local "patriot's league" leader secretly kills off ranchers, buys up their estates, which are underm...
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Yukon Flight
When the plane owned by the "Yukon and Columbia Mail Service" crashes, RCMP Sergeant Renfrew (James ...
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Sky Bandits
Sgt. Renfrew and Constable Kelly go aloft to search for a plane missing with a shipment of gold from...
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Rollin' Westward
A cowboy helps a pretty young woman and her father in their fight against land-grabbers who are tryi...
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Trail of Terror
Texas Ranger O'Brien has an outlaw twin brother. When his sibling is killed, O'Brien assumes his ide...
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Tahiti Nights
During World War Two, an American band leader, Jack (Dave O'Brien) arrives on a Tahitian island , an...
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Bad Men of Thunder Gap
Tex Wyatt is blamed for a murder actually committed by Ransom and Holman, a couple of thieves. Tex m...
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The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
A 12-episode serial in which scholastic sports star Frank Merriwell leaves school to search for his ...
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Things We Can Do Without
A Pete Smith Specialty shorts series entry. Dave demonstrates a variety of household items and furni...
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Carry Harry
After getting into a compromising situation with a woman and her angry boyfriend, Harry uses a fire ...
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That Gang of Mine
A street kid has dreams of becoming a jockey. He gets his chance when he and his gang discover a poo...
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Boys of the City
Street kids get sent to the country, where they get mixed up in murder and a haunted house....
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Search for Beauty
Three con artists dupe two Olympians into serving as editors of a new health and beauty magazine whi...
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East Side Kids
After living all his childhood in the street, a young boy rapidly notices that crime doesn't pay, le...
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Prisoner of Japan
An American astronomer living on a Pacific island attempts to thwart the Japanese during WWII....
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'Neath Brooklyn Bridge
The East Side Kids find a young girl in the apartment of a man who has just been murdered. Believing...
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Ain't It Aggravatin'
This comedic short looks at human foibles that lead to major aggravations....
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Did'ja Know?
This short looks at the following questions: How would you act as an expectant father? How many gree...
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The Rangers Take Over
Jim Steele spots Pete Dawson taking horses over the Mexico-Texas border, but Dawson has an alibi. A ...
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The Gunman From Bodie
The Rough Riders are after a gang of rustlers. Marshal Roberts is posing as a wanted outlaw, McCall ...
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Rough Riding Rhythm
When Jim and Scrubby arrive to see Scrubby's sister, they find her murdered and suspect it was her n...
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The Cowboy from Sundown
The drought-plagued ranchers of Sundown have to market their cattle at a loss in order to meet mortg...
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Student Tour
A philosophy professor accompanies his school's rowing team on a worldwide tour....
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Sitting Pretty
Jack Oakie and Jack Haley are songwriters are enroute from New York to Hollywood to make their fame ...
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Tomorrow's Children
Young Alice Mason wishes to start a family, but because her own has been deemed "defective" by the s...
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College Coach
Ruthless Coach Gore creates turmoil at a college by hiring players and alienating students. Along th...
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Son of the Navy
A runaway boy pretends to be the son of a Navy man, only to turn both their lives upside down....
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Isle Of Destiny
A pretty socialite / pilot runs into gun smugglers when she lands her plane on a Pacific island....
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I Love My Husband, But!
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a wife endures the trials of being married to a husband with tra...
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Movie Pests
This Pete Smith Specialty short takes a humorous look at the inconsiderate pests whose annoying habi...
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Sure Cures
This comedic Pete Smith Specialty short examines the folly of using "home remedies" for various ills...
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The Fall Guy
In this final entry in the Pete Smith Specialty series, Smith pays tribute to actor and stuntman Dav...
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Hold That Woman!
A skip tracer--someone who collects late payments from people who've purchased appliances, etc., or ...
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Equestrian Quiz: What's Your I.Q.? No. 11
A series of questions testing one's knowledge of fun facts about horses and equestrian in general ar...
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Murder at the Vanities
Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's Vaniti...
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We're Rich Again
A polo-playing grandmother and her broke brood get back in the money with a Wall Street bet....
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Doubting Thomas
A husband makes fun of his wife's theatrical aspirations when she agrees to appear in a local produc...
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Is My Face Red?
William Poster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyo...
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Pick-up
The scheme of a pair of married con artists goes awry when their victim dies, and they are both caug...
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The Girl on the Front Page
The heiress to a powerful newspaper owner gets a job at the paper under an assumed name and helps br...
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The Deadly Game
A pre-World War II saber-rattler that finds a munitions inventor kidnapped, a federal agent killed a...
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Border Buckaroos
Rangers Tex Wyatt, Jim Steele, and Panhandle Perkins are en route to Boulder City to investigate the...
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Boss of Rawhide
Texas Rangers Tex Wyatt, Jim Steele and Panhandle Perkins are sent to the district of Rawhide to inv...
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The Spider Returns
The evil and masked "Gargoyle" is sabotaging all of America's industrial plants. It is up to the Spi...
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Billy the Kid's Smoking Guns
Knowing the Army is arriving to establish a post. Doc Hagan and his gang and the crooked Sheriff are...
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Studio Visit
This humorous Pete Smith Specialty short looks around various studios on a film lot....
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Sheriff of Sage Valley
Billy and his pals, on the run from the law again, travel to Sage Valley where Billy is made Sheriff...
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Billy the Kid in Santa Fe
Falsely accused of murder, Billy is able to escape thanks to his pals. Once in Santa Fe, he meets on...
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Gun Code
This low-budget western stars Tim McCoy as federal agent Tim Hammond, who follows a gang of big-city...
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Fighting Valley
Someone has been stealing ore from a valuable smelting mine. One of the independent mine-owners vict...
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The Return of the Rangers
The Texas Rangers round up rustlers by masquerading as the same. Trouble ensues when while in disgui...
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West of Texas
Rangers Tex Wyatt and Jim Steele arrive in Gabe's Crossing, NM, to capture Bent Yeager, a rancher ac...
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Brand of the Devil
Jolley is the leader of the Devil's Brand gang of rustlers. When Molly Dawson sends for the Texas Ra...
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Dead or Alive
The Rangers are after Yackey and his gang. Posing as an outlaw, Dave arrives as Panhandle's prisoner...
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Outlaw Roundup
Ranger Tex Wyatt introduces himself as the notorious bandit Spade Norton. Crooked saloon owner Red H...
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Marked for Murder
In this western, the Texas Rangers must stop a range war between sheepherders and cattle ranchers fr...
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Spook Town
Dry Gulch Trading Post owner Kurt Fabian advances money on mortgages to the local settlers to financ...
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Three in the Saddle
Peggy Barlou is a young rancher who refuses to sell her spread to greedy stage-line proprietor John ...
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Starlight Over Texas
Tex has been sent to investigate the theft of government provisions along the border. Kildare is the...
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The Desperados Are in Town
In this western, a young man tries to walk the straight and narrow, but he is impeded by his past. T...
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Murder by Invitation
The relatives of a rich old woman unsuccessfully try to have her declared insane, so they can divide...
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Lightnin' Crandall
Cowboy with a reputation as the fastest gun in Texas heads to Arizona to leave his past behind, but ...
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The Dawn Patrol
World War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but he soon is promote...
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I Love My Wife BUT!
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a husband endures the trials of being married to a wife with irr...
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A Wife's Life
In this comedic Pete Smith Specialty short, average housewife Mrs. George T. Hardnose's day is recal...
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I Love My Mother-In-Law But...
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a series of vignettes illustrate some ways that mothers-in-law i...
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Cash Stashers
This Pete Smith Specialty short shows, humorously, the disastrous results when people save their mon...
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Just What I Needed
Harry Horseknuckle tries to figure out what to do with some strange and unwanted gifts....
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The Man Around the House
A humorous look at some typical housework troubles that may arise. A Pete Smith Specialty short....
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Rasputin and the Empress
The story of corrupt, power-hungry, manipulative Grigori Rasputin's influence on members of the Russ...
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Wrong Way Butch
This Pete Smith Specialty short was produced in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor. Using...
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You Can't Win
In this comedic Pete Smith Specialty short film, a homeowner experiences a series of mishaps while t...
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Do Someone a Favor!
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a friendly do-gooder's good deeds backfire....
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That's Entertainment, Part II
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time includi...
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Just Suppose
An off-camera narrator takes us through various scenarios of "just suppose". First we watch what wou...
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Reducing
Pete Smith does his usual mocking observations while the overweight Maxine Gates goes through the tr...
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Have You Ever Wondered?
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, answers are sought regarding some things people may have wondere...
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Victory Quiz
A short film where viewers are given 10 or 15 seconds to answer questions about the United States an...
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Calling All Pa's
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a new father experiences the trials and tribulations of fatherho...
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Safety Sleuth
Demonstrates how accidents happen when proper safety devices are neglected....
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King of the Stallions
Both Indians and cowboys are after a beautiful stallion, the leader of a pack of wild horses....
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Treasures from Trash
This short film presents an unusual Beverly Hills store called the Patio Shop, where trash is turned...
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The Big Parade of Comedy
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history....
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70,000 Witnesses
College football player is asked to dope a star teammate by his crooked gambler brother. He refuses,...
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Seventh Column
This humorous short film shows how carelessness and accidents can harm the war effort, and steps on ...
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Kiss Me Kate
A pair of divorced actors are brought together to participate in a musical version of The Taming of ...
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Wanted - A Master
A dog living in a junkyard learns that all stray dogs will be exterminated by 3 o'clock that afterno...
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No More Ladies
A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous....
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Sportsman's Memories
Filmmaker Pete Smith is very protective of the trophies and other mementos associated with his films...
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The Yanks Are Coming
A popular band joins the army with the idea of putting on shows for troops overseas. During rehearsa...
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She Married Her Boss
A super-efficient secretary at a department store falls for and marries her boss, but finds out that...
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Madam Satan
A socialite masquerades as a notorious femme fatale to win back her straying husband during a costum...
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What About Daddy?
The trials and tribulations of a husband as his pregnant wife gets closer to the delivery date....
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Devil and the Deep
Naval commander Charles Sturm has made life miserable for his wife Diana due to his insane jealousy ...
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Music in the Air
A songwriter's young daughter (June Lang) begins to dream of stardom when she's offered the lead rol...
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The World Changes
Generational saga tracing the events in the lives of the midwest pioneering Nordholm family, as seen...
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