Dick Powell

Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer, James Lee Bartlow; a star, Georgia Lorrison; and a director, Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.

A fledgling producer finds himself at odds with his workers, financiers and his greedy ex-wife when he tries to produce live musicals for movie-going audiences.

Broadway director Julian Marsh needs just one more hit show so he can retire and recover his health. It looks like he just may pull it off until temperamental star Dorthy Brock breaks her ankle on the eve of the show's premiere and has to be replaced by her understudy Peggy.

When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to bilk a repugnant high society man of his money to keep their show going.

An insurance man wishing for a more exciting life becomes wrapped up in the affairs of an imprisoned embezzler, his model girlfriend, and a violent private investigator.

A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride headed for Washington in 1861.

A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from its origins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, up to the break dance and music videos from the 80s.

A promotional short to hype the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935).

Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.

After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.

Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.

Popular crooner Russ Raymond abandons his career at its peak and joins the Navy using an alias, Tommy Halstead. However, Dorothy Roberts, a reporter, discovers his identity and follows him in the hopes of photographing him and revealing his identity to the world. Aboard the Alabama, Tommy meets up with Smoky and Pomeroy, who help hide him from Dorothy, who hatches numerous schemes in an attempt to photograph Tommy/Russ being a sailor.

The story of one of the great environmental disasters to befall the United States, and the terrible movie that helped bring the catastrophe to light.

A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.

Essentially an advertisement for Murder at the Vanities (1934). Features Chico Marx, W.C. Fields, Duke Ellington and many others.

A reformer's daughter wins the lead role in a scandalous Broadway show.

A potpourri of features involving Hollywood celebrities. The Columbia University football team, winner of the 1934 Rose Bowl game, visits the Warner Bros. Studios and is greeted by several stars; Margaret Lindsay, Guy Kibbee, and Dick Powell work at a gold mine; Joan Blondell, recovered from a recent illness, thanks her fans; songs from the movie Harold Teen (1934) are performed by the songwriters and the film's stars.

The partners of stage-producer J. J. Hobart gamble away the money for his new show. They enlist a gold-digging chorus girl to help get it back by conning an insurance company. But they don’t count on the persistence of insurance man Rosmer Peck and his secretary Norma Perry.

On Christmas Eve, suffering from a case of writer's block, screenwriter Mark Christopher and his gofer Virgil get an unexpected visit from Sergeant Maizel. Knowing Christopher is working on a juvenile delinquent script, the sergeant brings by delinquent Susan thinking she will inspire Christopher while providing a place for her to spend the holidays outside of juvenile hall.

Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.

Uncensored. Laugh along with Hollywood's brightest stars in this hilarious compilation of bloopers from some of the biggest movies in history . You'll see stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan, Marlene Dietrich, Boris Karloff, Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn and more. They're not so perfect after all when these flubbed moments are caught on film!

An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves. His latest attempt is the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest. As a joke, some of his co-workers put together a fake telegram which says that he won the $25,000 grand prize.

Silent home movies, in both black and white and color, featuring footage of Dick Powell and Joan Blondell in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs. Scenes include backyard shots by a swimming pool, dancing near the pool, dogs and puppies, Joan’s son Norman playing outside, Joan and Norman posing in a car, scenic shots from a roadtrip, a backyard party, and Joan and her sister Gloria dancing. From the collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Retired army dog King inherits a fortune from his eccentric millionaire owner. But someone poisons him for his fortune. He gets to go back to earth as a human detective to bring his killer to justice and protect the kind woman who used to look after him.

A collection of film clips profiling animal actors.

When two US cavalrymen transporting a gold shipment get killed, US Army Intelligence investigator John Haven goes undercover to a mining and logging town to find the killers.

Harry and Inez are a dance team at the Wonder Bar. Inez loves Harry, but he is in love with Liane, the wife of a wealthy business man. Al Wonder and the conductor/singer Tommy are in love with Inez. When Inez finds out that Harry wants to leave Paris and is going to the USA with Liane, she kills him.

Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio's dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade. Things get more complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount's top contract players.

Complications in a dressmaking firm when a model has to hide her marriage.

After losing a coveted role in an upcoming film to another actress, screen queen Mona Marshall (Lola Lane) protests by refusing to appear at her current movie's premiere. Her agent discovers struggling actress Virginia Stanton (Rosemary Lane) -- an exact match for Mona -- and sends her to the premiere instead, with young musician Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell). After various mishaps, including a case of mistaken identity, Ronnie and Virginia struggle to find success in Hollywood.

The king of an unnamed European country abdicates and tries to recapture the happiness with the wife he had to give up for the throne.

Promotional short produced by General Electric for release through Warner Bros. to advertise GE's home appliances.

A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.

A short promotional film about Ruby Keeler and her upcoming film "Flirtation Walk." It provides a brief look at her career on Broadway, early films, and personal life away from the studio before showing a trailer for the new film.

A treasury agent becomes obsessed with exposing an international drug ring.

Extra-marital fun and games at a convention of the Honeywell Rubber Company in Atlantic City. President J.B. Honeywell is to choose a new company sales manager. T.R. Kent and George Ellerbe are two salesmen who both want the job. However, they both get into trouble: T.R. is discredited when jealous saleswoman, Arlene Dale, interferes with his attempted seduction of Honeywell's daughter, Claire, and George attempts to seduce Nancy Lorraine. The position of sales manager is bestowed upon a drunken employee as a bribe after he catches J.B. about to visit "Daisy La Rue, Exterminator." Considered a lost film.

When an employee at an illegal gambling den dies suspiciously, her sister, Nancy, looks into the situation and falls for Johnny O'Clock, a suave partner in the underground casino. Selfish and non-committal by nature, Johnny slowly begins to return Nancy's affection and decides to run away with her, but conflict within his business threatens their plans. As Johnny tries to distance himself from the casino, his shady past comes back to haunt him.

Students at New York's Rovina Finishing School for Girls send their photographs to the makers of Claybury's Beauty Soap, in the hope of being chosen as "Miss Complexion of 1934." Martha Howson wins the contest, which includes a trip to Hollywood and a tour of the Warner Brothers lot with Lyle Talbot. When she gets to the studio, all she wants to do is meet Dick Powell, star of the new Warner Brothers film Dames (1934).

Prizewinning boxer Johnny Monterez is mad at the world, feeling persecuted because of his Mexican heritage. Worse yet, his right hand is damaged from years of fighting. Then Johnny falls in love with Pat O'Malley, his manager's pretty daughter, even though his best friend, Rick Gavery, is already besotted with her. Everything is on the line when Johnny, against Rick's wishes, agrees to a match with a fearsome opponent.

Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.

A private stationed in Hawaii gets involved with the general's engaged daughter. In order to avoid a scandal, the pair break up, but meet again years later when he's at West Point producing the annual play that turns out to star her.

Bob Brent, a young Marine from Arkansas, impresses his comrades with his singing ability, and they pitch in to send him to New York to compete in an amateur contest. Success in the contest, however, sets him up for trouble in romance, in his career, and with the Corps.

Amos Burke is an L.A. cop who's inherited millions and usually arrives at crime scenes in a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce. Investigating the death of actress Julie Greer, he finds lots of suspects - but the killer's identity surprises him.

This film is based on the novel, Mrs. Mike, which is based on the real life woman, Kathy O'Fallon Flannigan. A Boston teenager is sent to live with her uncle in frontier Canada because of her fragile health. She eventually falls in love with one of the few young, white males in the region. They marry and depart for the northern wilderness to set up house and home. The rest of the movie is about her struggles and joys of living and travelling in this rugged country.

When spoiled young heiress Maggie Richards tries to charge some gasoline at an auto camp run by Bill Davis, he makes her work out her bill by making beds. Resolving to get even, she pretends to have forgiven him, and sends him to her father to get financing for a plan Bill has. What happens next was not part of her original revenge plan.

Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell) is a stuffed-shirt, classical music professor. His family and small-town music college that he works are of equal mindset. When Don visits his black-sheep aunt in New York in order to find a buyer for his Rhapsody he is exposed to her shocking swing music crowd. His life begins to make dramatic changes after drinking a "lemonade" that turns out to be a Hurricane.

A sports store clerk poses as a famous jockey as an advertising stunt, but gets more than he bargained for.

Society heiress Joan Bradford rebels against her mother's choice of a future husband by masquerading as a working class girl and dating a window washer.

Romance strikes when a vacationing millionairess and her daughter and son spend their vacation at a posh New England resort.

After serving five years of a life sentence, Rocky Mulloy hopes to clear his friend who's still in prison for the same crime.

A small-town politician falls for an idealistic zookeeper.

A singing cowboy turns out to be a tenderfoot.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.

No relation to the 1950 Frank Capra film of the same name, the 1943 Technicolor musical Riding High is a by-the-numbers vehicle for Dorothy Lamour and Dick Powell. Lamour stars as Ann Castle, a former burlesque queen who heads westward to claim her father's silver mine. Powell plays mining engineer Steve Baird, who like Ann has a vested interest in the worked-out mine. With the help of genial counterfeiter Mortimer J. Slocum (Victor Moore), Steve and Ann are able to peddle mining stock, thus saving her from bankruptcy. The stockholders are in a lynching mood when it appears that they've been flim-flammed, but a last minute "miracle" saves the day. Featured in the cast are Paramount stalwarts Cass Daley and Gil Lamb, the former doing her quasi-Martha Raye act and the latter swallowing his harmonica for the millionth time. Production values are excellent and the songs are exuberantly performed; it's only in its hackneyed plot that Riding High slows to a clip-clop.

Winfield College students rebel against a stodgy professor who won't permit "swing" music be played in their varsity show. They appeal to a big Broadway alumnus and have him direct their show. What they don't know is that this "star's" last three shows were flops.

These home movies shot by Dick Powell feature his wife Joan Blondell in a series of poses and dances as she tries on various dresses.

Short documentary about the Great Depression's impact on film, specifically Berkeley musicals.

Unscrupulous agent Rush Blake makes singing waiter Buddy Clayton a big radio star while Peggy Cornell, who has lost her own radio show, helps Buddy.

Comedy about newlyweds wondering if their marriage was a mistake.

A writer for a radio program needs some fresh ideas to juice up his show. For inspiration, he rents a room with a typical American family and begins to secretly write about their true life antics. The show becomes a big hit, but he begins to feel guilty about his charade when he falls in love with the family's pretty older daughter.

Making-of documentary about the 1933 musical, 42nd Street.

This 1958 Christmas spectacular was produced by the USO for the entertainment of troops stationed overseas. Over 50 top names from stage, screen and television appear in this truly all-star concert film - a magical evening of music, comedy and fun. Feeaturing Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Dinah Shore, Shirley MacLaine, Jimmy Durante, Jimmy Stewart, Danny Thomas, Anna Maria Alberghetti, June Allyson, Ray Bolger, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, Marge & Gower Champion, Cyd Charisse, Van Cliburn, Leo Durocher, Rhonda Fleming, Benny Goodman, Eydie Gormé, Betty Hutton, Frankie Lane, Tony Martin, David Niven, Kim Novak, Gregory Peck, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Jane Powell, Martha Raye, Jimmie Rogers, Jane Russell, Dick Shawn, Jo Stafford, Gale Storm and Miyoshi Umeki.

A country girl goes to the city and gets a job in a posh hotel, and winds up becoming an instant celebrity thanks to an ambitious photographer.

An Indiana boy comes into an inheritance and moves to New York City, living it up with his girlfriend until he gets in over his head and someone gets killed.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1935.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1947.

Musical about dingaling millionaire businessman Cedric Ames and his various employees

A gold-digger hopes to land a rich husband in Trinidad, but gets mixed up with a beach boy and voodoo.

This short film showcases six production numbers from various Warner Bros. musicals.

A show troupe is engaged by Judge Culliman, who is running for Governor, to enhance his political campaign. When the inebriated Judge has to be replaced in doing his campaign speech by the troupe crooner, Eric Land, his political backers decide that they want him to run for Governor in the Judge's place. Romance, music, political corruption and the election results follow.

A taxi driver travels to Venice and poses as a gondolier to land a radio singing job.

Marilyn Monroe is one of the most famous and adored icons of the 20th century. Like no other Hollywood star, she won the hearts of millions around the world. It's been said that: "Monroe played the best game with the worst hand." Her journey to stardom stemmed from a childhood of poverty, neglect, and loneliness. 'Fascination' tells the remarkable story of Marilyn's life. From birth to her premature death she endured criticism, insecurities, drug dependence, numerous miscarriages, and three broken marriages. Despite all her demons, her unprecedented beauty, talent and quick wit amazed all that came before her.

An army sergeant blames himself for causing a rookie's death during training.

In this short film, two starstruck movie fans hire a tour guide and see a plethora of Hollywood stars.

A New York gossip columnist feuds with a singer and enjoys the power of the press.

Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother, visiting the United States, falls madly in love with a young woman he meets in Baltimore.

A Broadway show is forced to bow to the whims of a talentless, whacky, but rich, Broadway actress with a contract.

Viewers are provided a visit to Ken Maynard's private circus; Bette Davis poses for her portrait; Frank McHugh plays with his children; a visit to the West Side Tennis Club affords glimpses of many stars.

A new Broadway show starring Gary Blake shamelessly lampoons the rich Carraway family. To get her own back, daughter Mimi sets out to ensnare Blake, but the courtship is soon for real, to the annoyance of his co-star, hoofing chanteuese Mona Merrick.

An admiral's son with no interest in carrying on the family tradition is a successful crooner. He finally joins the Navy to prove he can, but with no real love in it.

A hobo searches the countryside for the daughter he lost when his wife left him...

A Songwriter falls asleep while writing a song about the NRA. He dreams that Washington, Lincoln and FDR appear in his room asking him why he wants to write such a song and they're reassuring him that FDR is the right way. When he starts singing his new song, he finds himself alone, but he knows that the FDR will lead the USA back on the road to prosperity.

A idealistic shipyard worker interests a beautiful Hollywood star in staging a musical tribute to the war industry, but they disagree on some important issues.

A post World War 2, US Army agent is assigned to join the Foreign Legion in search of high ranking Nazi war criminal who may have also enlisted.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1937.

Ruthless Coach Gore creates turmoil at a college by hiring players and alienating students. Along the way, the coach loses his wife Claire Gore to a grandstanding player. Inside look at college football of the 1930s replete with fake grades, non-student players, and the importance of football to a college's reputation.

Silent home movies, in both black and white and color, of Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and a young child, presumably Blondell's son Norman, in and around a backyard swimming pool. From the collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Silent home movies, in both black and white and color, of Dick Powell and Joan Blondell from around the time of their wedding. Footage features Joan modeling several different outfits and the two of them at the wedding of another couple. Includes clips from the Hearst Metrotone News segment Snapshots from here and there, with Powell and Blondell cutting the wedding cake, and the two of them on a boat with New York City in the background. Actress Helen Kane, musician/composer Roger Wolfe Kahn, and his wife, Edith May Nelson appear briefly in the footage. From the collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

John Baylor is summoned to the home of a friend of his fathers. The man is dying and wishes to leave everything to one of his two daughters. John wants to find out why one daughter is excluded.