William Boyd
Birthday: 1895-06-04
Place of Birth: Hendrysburg, Ohio, USA
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia William Lawrence Boyd (June 5, 1895 – September 12, 1972) was an American film actor who is best known for portraying the cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy. Boyd was born in Hendrysburg, Ohio, and reared in Cambridge, Ohio and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was the son of a day laborer, Charles William Boyd, and his wife, the former Lida Wilkens (aka Lyda). Following his father's death, he moved to California and worked as an orange picker, surveyor, tool dresser and auto salesman. In Hollywood, he found work as an extra in Why Change Your Wife? and other films. During World War I, he enlisted in the army but was exempt from military service because of a "weak heart". More prominent film roles followed, including his breakout role as Jack Moreland in Cecil B. DeMille's The Road to Yesterday (1925) which starred also Joseph Schildkraut, Jetta Goudal, and Vera Reynolds. Boyd's performance in the film was praised by critics, while movie-goers were equally impressed by his easy charm, charisma, and intense good-looks. Due to Boyd's growing popularity, DeMille soon cast him as the leading man in the highly acclaimed silent drama film, The Volga Boatman. Boyd's role as Feodor blew critics away, and with Boyd now firmly established as a matinee idol and romantic leading man, he began earning an annual salary of $100,000. He acted in DeMille's extravaganza The King of Kings (in which he played Simon of Cyrene, helping Jesus carry the cross) and DeMille's Skyscraper (1928). He then appeared in D.W. Griffith's Lady of the Pavements (1929). Radio Pictures ended Boyd's contract in 1931 when his picture was mistakenly run in a newspaper story about the arrest of another actor, William "Stage" Boyd, on gambling and liquor charges. Although the newspaper apologized, explaining the mistake in the following day's newspaper, Boyd said, "The damage was already done." William "Stage" Boyd died in 1935, the same year William L. Boyd became Hopalong Cassidy, the role that led to his enduring fame. But at the time in 1931, Boyd was virtually broke and without a job, and for a few years he was credited in films as "Bill Boyd" to prevent being mistaken for the other William Boyd.
Movies
The Movie Orgy
Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloop...
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Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs
This documentary traces the history of the B-Western from it's silent movie origins to its demise in...
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Bobbed Hair
A young woman spurns her too conventional fiancé and flees to an artists' colony....
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The Temple of Venus
Venus, the Goddess of Love (Celeste Lee) sends Cupid to Earth to look for romance....
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Enemies of Children
A street waif of questionable parentage through circumstances is taken into a wealthy home where she...
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Hollywood
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She l...
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After the Show
After the Show was adapted from Rita Weiman's story "The Stage Door." Lila Lee plays Eileen, a starr...
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The Big Gamble
A gambler, hopelessly in debt, agrees to pay off his debt by allowing his creditor to take out a lif...
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The Volga Boatman
During the Russian Revolution Princess Vera, though betrothed to Prince Dimitri, is attracted to the...
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Forty Winks
The Butterworth family attorney Gaspar Le Sage, and a suitor for the hand of Eleanor Butterworth, pe...
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Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 5
Andy Clyde plays football with the Sennett girls; Mary Pickford's miniature golf course is shown....
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Border Patrol
When three Texas Rangers try to investigate kidnapped Mexicans being used as forced labor in the min...
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Fool's Gold
The son of an Army friend is about the join an outlaw gang. Hoppy prevents this and brings the gang ...
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Doomed Caravan
Stephen Westcott and Ed Martin scheme to put Jane Travers' wagon line out of business. They want to ...
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Forty Thieves
When he runs for sheriff, Hoppy is beaten by Jerry Doyle, the gutless wonder voted for by every croo...
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Riders of the Timberline
Hopalong Cassidy and Johnny Nelson ride to the mountains to help a man and his daughter save their l...
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The Devil's Playground
Hoppy finds a wounded girl and later finds Judge Morton who claims the girl is his daughter and he i...
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Hidden Gold
Hoppy and Lucky have been called in to investigate a series of stage holdups. The robbers are taking...
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The Showdown
European bad guy Baron Bendor leads some local townsmen in a plot to obtain horses through theft. Ho...
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Pirates on Horseback
Hoppy, Lucky and California search for a mine owned by Trudy Pendleton after it was taken from her b...
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Dangerous Venture
Sue Morgan gets Hoppy and his friends to join their expedition looking for Indian artifacts. Expedit...
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Leather Burners
As rustled cattle have mysteriously disappeared, Johnny sends for his friend Hoppy, Hoppy arrives an...
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False Colors
Before he was killed by Mark Foster's men, Bud Lawton willed part ownership in his ranch to Hoppy an...
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Borrowed Trouble
Finishing a trail drive, Hoppy and the boys head to town and immediately get caught up in the confli...
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In Old Colorado
Joe Weller has instigated a conflict over water rights between two ranchers. The idea is to have the...
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Sinister Journey
Lee Garvin has eloped with the daughter of a railroad man who didn't approve of the marriage. Hoppy ...
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Riders of the Deadline
When Ranger Hoppy's falsely accused young ranger friend is killed while supposedly trying to escape ...
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False Paradise
A banker is trying to cheat people out of their silver-rich land. Hoppy learns that the banker is in...
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Undercover Man
A bandit who robs both Americans and Mexicans is causing each side of the border to blame the other....
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Stick to Your Guns
Buck Peters arranges for Hoppy, California, Johnny and other cowboys to go to the aid of friends who...
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Wide Open Town
Belle Langtry runs a town being taken over by cattle rustlers. She is also a front for the outlaws, ...
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The Dead Don't Dream
Hoppy, California and Lucky arrive at a remote inn, where Lucky expects to be married - but finds th...
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Colt Comrades
Hoppy, California and Johnny partner up with brother and sister ranch owners, two of several who are...
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Hoppy Serves a Writ
Posing as a cattle buyer, Hoppy crosses over into Oklahoma where the Jordan brother's and their outl...
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Mystery Man
Hoppy's ranch is threatened by rustlers. Hoppy and the gang oblige as usual....
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Strange Gamble
Hoppy and his pals arrive in a remote town to investigate the counterfeiting of both U.S. and Mexica...
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Unexpected Guest
At the reading of his late cousin's will, California learns the estate will be divied among whoever ...
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Border Vigilantes
A town bedeviled with outlaws sends for Hoppy, Lucky and California after their own vigilante commit...
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Silent Conflict
One of Hoppy's Bar 20 ranch hands is tricked into participating in nefarious activities after being ...
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The Marauders
Hoppy, California and Lucky take refuge from a storm inside a supposedly abandoned church outside a ...
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Three Men from Texas
Hoppy and new sidekick California Carlson head to California to help out Lucky Jenkins....
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Hoppy's Holiday
Hoppy, California, and Lucky travel to Mesa City for a short vacation. California buys new clothes a...
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Texas Masquerade
A young Eastern lawyer, seriously injured in a stage holdup, secures the help of Hoppy, California a...
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Twilight on the Trail
Hoppy, California and Johnny come to the ranch of a friend and his daughter, disguised as dude detec...
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Secret of the Wastelands
Hoppy is leading a scientific expedition and the Chinese who have a hidden settlement nearby are try...
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Lost Canyon
Burton is after Clark's ranch. He gets the banker to refuse to renew Clark's note and then sends his...
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Outlaws of the Desert
Hoppy, Johnny and California go to Arabia to buy some horses. There they get involved with a sheik a...
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Pride of the West
Caldwell and Nixon have their men rob the stage and then critcize the Sheriff for not catching the r...
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Lumberjack
Julie's husband has been murdered and land agents want her to sign away her property rights. Hoppy w...
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Bar 20
Stagecoach robbers take the money Hoppy was going to use to buy cattle so Hoppy, California and Lin ...
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The Eagle's Brood
When the outlaw El Toro saves Hoppy's life, Hoppy agrees to find his missing grandson....
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Bar 20 Justice
Hoppy's friend Dennis owns a rich gold mine. Frazier who owns the adjoining mine and wants the Denni...
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Silver on the Sage
Hoppy goes undercover as a gambler from the East when Bar 20 cattle are stolen by unknown rustlers. ...
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Law of the Pampas
Hoppy and Lucky are headed to South America to deliver a heard of cattle. Bay guy Ralph Merritt gets...
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Renegade Trail
Hoppy goes to town to help Marshal Windy with some rustlers and winds up helping the widow Joyce whe...
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The Frontiersmen
The local school is causing Hoppy problems. First Bar 20 cattle are stolen when Hoppy investigates a...
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In Old Mexico
Escaped criminal "The Fox" hates Hoppy and a Rurales colonel for imprisoning him and lures Cassidy t...
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Range War
Buck Colins heads a group of local ranchers who are trying to prevent the railroad from completing i...
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Three on the Trail
An evil gang is involved in both cattle rustling and the robbing of stagecoaches. Hoppy must stop th...
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Santa Fe Marshal
U.S. Marshal Hopalong Cassidy is called when a town becomes overun with bad guys. Disguised as a mem...
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Sunset Trail
Disguising himself as a milquetoast Easterner who writes Western novels, Hoppy enrolls in a dude ran...
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Hopalong Rides Again
On a cattle drive Hoppy, camp cook Windy, companion Lucky, and young Artie Peters encounter an eccen...
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Partners of the Plains
Lorna Drake has inherited a ranch. Hoppy teaches her a bit about ranching and handles Scar Lewis, th...
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North of the Rio Grande
Hoppy's brother has been murdered and he is on the trail of the murderers. To get them he makes hims...
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Hopalong Cassidy Returns
A crusading newspaper editor recruits his old friend Hoppy to take the job of Marshall in a town rif...
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Hop-a-long Cassidy
An evil ranch foreman tries to provoke a range war by playing two cattlemen against each other while...
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Cassidy of Bar 20
Hopalong Cassidy, boss of the Bar 20 ranch in Texas, rides down the Camino Real in the New Mexico ca...
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Borderland
Hoppy goes undercover as an outlaw (which permits him, for once, to drink and be mean to children) t...
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Bar 20 Rides Again
Cattle rustler Nevada dreams of living like an emperor in the West. Hoppy and the Bar 20 boys aim to...
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Rustlers' Valley
Hoppy clears Lucky on a charge of bank robbery and foils the plot of a crooked lawyer to rustle a he...
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Texas Trail
The U.S. Army needs more horses for the Spanish-American War. Hoppy must turn his Bar 20 cowhands in...
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Call of the Prairie
Hoppy returns to find Johnny in trouble. Buck Peters has been shot by Porter who made it look like J...
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Heart of the West
Problems come in the form of one of Hopalong Cassidy's neighbors, but the matter is settled when Hop...
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Heart of Arizona
Belle Starr has returned from time in prison only to face a hail of bullets, along with rescue by Ho...
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Trail Dust
Hoppy, Johnny and Windy are fighting a malicious gang trying to stop a cattle drive from reaching a ...
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Hills of Old Wyoming
An evil deputy is using Indian half-breeds to rustle cattle. This causes trouble between the cattlem...
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New Lives for Old
Olympe is a cabaret dancer who offers her services to France when her country goes to war. She becom...
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A Wise Fool
Jean, a wealthy young Canadian back from a trip to Europe, meets and falls for Carmen, a pretty youn...
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Manslaughter
Society-girl thrillseeker Lydia's fun comes to an end when she accidentally causes the death of moto...
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Emergency Call
A surgeon and an ambulance driver fight racketeers who take over their hospital....
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The Midshipman
Produced under the supervision of the U.S. Navy. James Randall, an upperclassman at the Naval Academ...
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The Yankee Clipper
A race between a British clipper ship and an American ship of a new design will determine the right ...
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High Voltage
A busload of passengers gets stranded in a snowstorm and take refuge in an abandoned church, where t...
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The Cop
Pete Smith, a lift bridge operator in a harbor, feels lonely in his cabin, his only visitor being a ...
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The Road to Yesterday
Malena's apparent frigidity toward her husband Kenneth is a result of injustice done in an earlier i...
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Brewster's Millions
Monte Brewster learns that he has inherited $10 million from his late grandfather, but then learns t...
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Carnival Boat
Buck is a hard working lumberjack, but likes to have fun. Buck's father is the foreman and wants Buc...
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Port of Lost Dreams
A gangster's girlfriend on the run from the police, who suspect her of helping her boyfriend commit ...
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Suicide Fleet
Three US sailors aboard a decoy ship fight German U-boats in World War I and try to win Sally who wo...
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The Flying Fool
A man protective of his brother checks out the girl his brother is in love with, in order to see if ...
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Go-Get-'Em, Haines
Reporter Steve Haines, on the trail of a business tycoon, follows his subject onto an ocean liner an...
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The Six Best Cellars
Henry Carpenter and his wife Millicent are the envy of their exclusive suburban set because of their...
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Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
A Western-genre narrative, loosely woven from old clips from B-Western features....
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Cheaters
A criminal gang is after a rich man's money. A female member of the gang gets the bright idea of get...
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Going Hollywood: The '30s
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were...
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The Affairs of Anatol
Socialite Anatol Spencer, finding his relationship with his wife lackluster, goes in search of excit...
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Officer O'Brien
Bill O'Brien is promoted to lieutenant in the police department for his arrest of Mike Patello, gang...
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The Painted Desert
Western pardners Jeff and Cash find a baby boy in an otherwise deserted emigrants' camp, and clash o...
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Beyond Victory
Four battle-weary American soldiers under fire reflect on the women they left behind....
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Nice People
Teddy Gloucester, one of the group of jazz age "nice people," is caught in a farmhouse during a stor...
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Land of Liberty
This film tells the history of the United States from pre-Revolution through 1939....
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Dress Parade
An amateur boxing champion stops at West Point to see a dress parade and falls for the commandant's ...
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The Night Flyer
Jimmy Bradley, a fireman on the old locomotive No. 99, loves Kate Murphy, daughter of the proprietre...
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Skyscraper
Blondy and Swede are gruff best friends who build skyscrapers. Blondy gets sweet on a girl he saves ...
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Two Arabian Knights
During World War I, two American soldiers fight to escape the Germans while squabbling over a beauti...
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The King of Kings
The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, w...
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Moran of the Lady Letty
Wealthy young man Ramon Laredo is abducted and put into service aboard a ship commanded by a none-to...
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Racing Luck
Racehorse-owner Dan Morgan is ruled off the track and out of racing when his horse is doped by a riv...
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Feet of Clay
Kerry Harlan (La Rocque) is unable to work because he was injured in a battle with a shark, so his y...
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The Young Rajah
A young man raised in the American South discovers he is an Indian prince whose throne was taken by ...
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Saturday Night
Though betrothed to fellow socialite Richard, Iris weds her chauffeur Tom leaving Richard to marry t...
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Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
A retrospective on the career of Robert Mitchum through interviews with friends and co-workers, scen...
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Lady of the Pavements
Karl, a German diplomat in Paris, discovers that his fiancee, Diane, has been cheating on him. He te...
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Forbidden Fruit
Mary Maddock works as a seamstress to bring home money while her husband Steve, unemployed, has no r...
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Television: The First Fifty Years
Trace the history of television and its impact on American culture with clips, newsreels, and exclus...
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His First Command
A playboy is in love with a woman and enters the army thinking it will improve his chances with her....
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Burning Gold
Jim Thornton is an independent wildcat driller in Califonia who hits a gusher and overnight riches, ...
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On the High Seas
Three castaways all from differing levels of society reach and board a deserted schooner in mid-ocea...
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Her Man o' War
During World War I, an American soldier is captured and taken prisoner by the Germans. However, inst...
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Old Wives for New
Charles Murdock neglects his fat and lazy wife for another woman; When his other love interest becom...
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The Greatest Show on Earth
To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though t...
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Michael O'Halloran
Orphan newsboy Michael O'Halloran "adopts" Peaches, a little crippled girl, when her grandmother's d...
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Something to Think About
Wealthy cripple Markley finances the education of blacksmith's daughter Ruth. When she returns to th...
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Flaming Gold
Two friends working a jungle oil field clash when one marries a lady of the evening....
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Power
Tale of a pair of dam workers who, despite their strong friendship, duke it out on a regular basis. ...
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Changing Husbands
A bored rich housewife wants to go on the stage, but her husband won't let her. When she meets a des...
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The Leatherneck
A film about male bonding. At the end of WW I, two Americans befriend a simple minded German and win...
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Eve's Leaves
After forming his own studio in 1925, Cecil B. DeMille produced this exuberant blend of orientalist ...
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Little Smokey
The story of Smokey the Bear, from cub in the woods to the Washington Zoo and the Forestry Service c...
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A City Sparrow
A drama starring Ethel Clayton. Milly West (Clayton) is a dancer who has her heart bent on stardom....
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Moonlight and Honeysuckle
When an Arizona ranchman (Willard Louis) is elected senator, he heads for Washington with his daught...
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The Last Frontier
Impoverished by the Civil War and eager to replenish his fortune in the West, Colonel Halliday, his ...
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Jim the Conqueror
After fleeting glimpses of the girl in Italy and New York, Jim is called home to take up the feud wi...
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Exit the Vamp
Marion Shipley is happily devoted to her husband, John, until Mrs. Willy Strong, a society "vampire,...
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The Jucklins
Pampered debutante Betty Baylock buys a wishing rug from a peddler and wishes for a dark-haired, blu...
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