Film Dictionary

The granddaddy of all prison pictures, and still the most extreme one, with army tanks putting down a prison riot.

Ozu's gangster film about a small-time hood who wants to go straight for a good girl. Screenplay by Tadao Ikeda, based on a story by Hir...

An all-star musical revue. Highlights include: George Bancroft attending the same party twice, Maurice Chevalier quarreling with Evelyn Bren...

Schoolmates are trying to pass the exams by cheating. One of Ozu's early "student comedies".

Fine comedy-drama about a young wife of stuffy millionaire.

Buster Keaton's first, and best, "talkie". A bit uneven, but a fascinating peek behind the curtains of the MGM studio at the d...

Marie Dressler won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Actress for her superlative performance as a tough saloon owner who tries to prote...

One of the first Italian sound films.

Patriotic drama about a Polish freedom fighter deported to Siberia. Set in 1905. Directed by Henryk Szaro ("Mocny czlowiek").

Fine western set on the Oregon Trail circa 1840. John Wayne's first starring role.

Pre-Code drama about prostitutes seducing businessmen.

Old-fashioned, dated and uneven melodrama about a gold digger marrying a rich kid for his dough, but ending falling with love with him anywa...

Polish silent film about a sculptor.

Only brief fragments of this film have survived.

Entertaining, if unexceptional film starring Ronald Coleman as a suave jewel thief.

Dorothy Arzner directed this dated melodrama about an opera singer looking for her lost son.

Simplistic, but visually impressive, Japanese social drama about a poor waif persecuted by one-dimensional villains.

Only a brief 4 min fragment suvives from this silent film by Kenji Mizoguchi.

Remember that comic scene in "Monkey Business" (1931) when all Marx Brothers are pretending to be Maurice Chevalier by lip-syncing...

A classic of the Czech avant-garde.

Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov directed this short experimental film in France.

Two hobos (Stan and Ollie) find themselves trapped in a strange house. Ollie to Stan: "Call me a cab". Stan to Ollie: "You...

A policeman (Edgar Kennedy) asks two hobos (Stan and Ollie) to rob a police chief's house, so that he can promptly arrest them and impre...

Directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Paramount. Lillian Roth sings about love and then...

Stan and Ollie are trying to install a radio antenna.

Stan and Ollie have to take care of their bratty kids.

Stan and Ollie are street musicians shivering from the cold. Bizarre gags.

Stan and Ollie think they are drunk.

Basically a remake of "Angora Love" (1929), with a goat replaced by a dog.

A young countess (Jeanette MacDonald) runs away from her own wedding and tries to win a fortune in Monte Carlo. Songs: "Day Of Days...

Directed by Robert McGowan and produced by Hal Roach. The "Our Gang" kids go on a picnic.

Directed by M.Brice and produced by RKO. W.C.Fields is a guest in a Florida hotel, stealing piggybanks from little girls, flirting with youn...

Ginger Rogers plays a secretary in love with her boss. Plenty of songs. Directed by Mort Blumenstock, Produced by Paramount.

Stan and Ollie want to claim an inheritance, but they are suspected of murder instead. A rather trite parody of the murder-mystery film.

Not nearly as good as "Wings" (1927) and "The Dawn Patrol" (1938), but still an interesting World War I warplanes drama....

Brilliant and scandalous film by Luis Bunuel. It opens with a documentary about scorpions and its dramatic structure bears a certain resembl...

There are three types of Marx Brothers' fans - those who most admire their first two movies, filmed in Paramount's Astoria studios o...

The best of many all-talking, all-singing and all-dancing musical extravaganzas, made by the major Hollywood studios at the dawn of t...

A college professor (Emil Jennings) falls in love with a vain, manipulative and worthless cabaret performer (Marlene Dietrich in a star-maki...

It's an uneven film - the first half is weak, but the movie redeems itself with a brilliant building climb sequence near the end.

Enjoyably ridiculous science-fiction/musical with amazing set designs (clearly inspired by "Metropolis"). It also has trite dialog...

Marlene Dietrich followed her triumph in "The Blue Angel" with this exotic melodrama about a cabaret singer who falls in love with...

An artist finds a statue which transforms itself into a muse and allows him to discover his own subconsciousness. Jean Cocteau's film de...

Rene Clair's love poem to Paris, its rooftops and its people.

Musical numbers (choreographed by Busby Berkeley) are excellent, but Eddie Cantor's schtick is more annoying here than in his late...

Garbo plays a prostitute in her first talkie.

Norma Shearer won an Oscar for her performance in this curious film about marital infidelities and divorce. Daringly ahead of its time in 19...

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey play American soldiers in Paris in 1918.

Very boring documentary about a remote region of the Caucasus. Later, director Mikhail Kalatozov would move on to better and more exciting f...

One of several Arnold Fanck's "mountain films" starring Leni Riefenstahl.

Mexican bandit PegLeg Pete kidnapps Minnie after an exciting gunfight with Mickey. Excellent short, with good music and interesting visua...

An early Walt Disney's Silly Symphony with dancing flowers, trees, reindeers, squirreels, bears and other forest plants and animals. V...

The very first Looney Tune, produced by Leon Schlesinger in May of 1930. The cartoon stars Bosko and his girlfriend Honey, a playful pair...

Not much of a plot, but plenty of singing, dancing and swinging from trees in this pleasant Silly Symphony set in the African jungle. Best b...

Mickey Mouse, Horace Horsecollar and the rest of the gang are brave firefighters, rescuing Minnie from a burning building. Surprising and in...

Wild and inventive cartoon set in a busy restaurant. Betty Boop makes her film debut playing a singer. Her ears are unusually long and she...

Typical film by Oskar Fischinger.

An abstract animated film by Oskar Fischinger, with jazz music.