Jimmy Durante

A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.

A discarded silk top-hat becomes the focus of a struggle between a washed-up stage magician and a group of schoolchildren, after it magically brings a snowman to life. Realizing that newly-living Frosty will melt in spring unless he takes refuge in a colder climate, the magic snowman and Karen, a young girl whom he befriends, stow away on a freight train headed for the North Pole. Little do they know that the magician is following them, and he wants his hat back!

Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.

Some of MGM's musical stars review the studio's history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.

Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.

Vaudeville is a 1997 PBS documentary under its American Masters program. Using film clips and photos, the art and history of vaudeville (1890-1930s) is illustrated.

In the late 1990s, iconic photographer Bruce Weber barely managed to convince legendary actor Robert Mitchum (1917-97) to let himself be filmed simply hanging out with friends, telling anecdotes from his life and recording jazz standards.

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.

The daughter of a circus owner fights to save her father from a takeover spearheaded by the man she loves.

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

An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in indefinitely with a Midwestern family.

Danny has been in the army for 4 years, yet all he thinks about is Brooklyn and how great it is. When he returns after the war, he soon finds that Brooklyn is not so nice after all. He is able to share a place with Nick, the janitor of his old High School, and get a job as a singer in a music store. He also meets Leo, a talented pianist and his teacher Anne, whose dream is to singing Opera. When Jamie arrives from England, Danny tries to show him the Brooklyn experience and help him compose modern swing music. Together, these four also try to help Leo get the Brooklyn Music scholarship.

A young navy lieutenant is brought in as technical adviser on a song-dance-and-swim film being made by screen star Rosalind Reynolds. Having once done a number with her at a Forces show, the young lad somehow believes she should be his girl. Her boyfriend is just one of those disagreeing.

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

Six-year-old "Mike" goes to live with her pregnant older sister, Babs, who plays string bass in José Iturbi's orchestra. And the orchestra is rapidly turning completely female, what with the draft. As the orchestra travels around the country, Babs' fellow orchestra members intercept and hide her War Office telegram to protect the baby.

Mario "Cantinflas" Moreno is a hired hand, Pepe, employed on a ranch. A boozing Hollywood director buys a white stallion that belongs to Pepe's boss. Pepe, determined to get the horse back (as he considers it his family), decides to take off to Hollywood. There he meets film stars including Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra, Zsa Zsa Gabór, Bing Crosby, Maurice Chevalier and Jack Lemmon in drag as Daphne from Some Like It Hot. He is also surprised by things that were new in America at the time, such as automatic swinging doors. When he finally reaches the man who bought the horse, he is led to believe there is no hope of getting it back. However, the last scene shows both him and the stallion back at the ranch with several foals.

After retiring from movies to get an education, a man discovers his ex-staff is trying to have him expelled.

Abigail Chandler has written her stuffy Boston relatives that she's a successful opera singer in New York. In reality, she works at a burlesque house and is billed as High-C Susie. When her sister Martha comes for a visit, Abigail tries to hide the truth from her.

The films, affairs and struggles of the iconic star of The Blue Angel as told by Rosemary Clooney, Roger Corman, Deanna Durbin and many more.

A dairy owner's son takes a job as milkman with a rival company.

While a few Hollywood celebrities such as James Stewart and Clark Gable saw combat during World War II, the majority used their talents to rally the American public through bond sales, morale-boosting USO tours, patriotic war dramas and escapist film fare. Comedian David Steinberg plays host for this star-studded, 90-minute documentary, which looks at the way Tinseltown helped the United States' war effort.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1942.

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.

New York City tenement dwelling neighbors Blondie and Lottie are longtime best friends. When Lottie makes the cast of the Follies and moves up in the world, she arranges for Blondie, as well, to join the cast and gain the advantages. But the friendship goes awry when Lottie's sweetheart, wealthy Larry Belmont, falls for Blondie and she for him.

A collection of film clips profiling animal actors.

Jimmy Durante asks popular song writing team Mack Gordon and Harry Revel to demonstrate some of their songs. There is interplay with impersonator Florence Desmond, Ben Turpin, Rudy Vallee and many others. Sometimes this film is incorrectly labelled as A-2. In the Criteron Pictures rerelease, this has an incorrect copyright date of 1932.

Eddie Kane wanders round the studio back-lot, opening various doors to see which stars pop out.

In Naples, a voice from the skies announces one morning that the final judgment will be at 6 p.m. on that day. What follows is a series of vignettes depicting various people's reactions (or lack thereof) to the announcement.

Shortly before Christmas, a family moves into an apartment where Rupert the squirrel lives in the attic rafters. Just as it seems that the holiday will come and go without so much as a Christmas tree, Rupert acts as the family's guardian angel - not only saving Christmas, but changing their lives forever.

Jimmy Durante is jungle movie star Schnarzan the Conqueror, but the public is tiring of his fake lions. When Baron Munchausen comes to town with real man-eating lions, Durante throws him a big Hollywood star-studded party so that he might use the lions in his next movie. But, his film rival sneaks into the party to buy the lions before Durante.

A guilt-ridden U.S. Marine returns to Cuba to try to find the woman he promised to marry.

Alice returns to Wonderland through the looking glass in this TV musical.

The evils of alcohol before and during prohibition become evident as we see its effects on the rich Chilcote family and the hard working Tarleton family.

A U.S. Navy sailor helps two sisters start up a service canteen. The sailor soon becomes taken with gorgeous sister Jean, unaware that her sibling Patsy is also in love with him.

Stars celebrate Bob Hope's 50 years with NBC.

Too bad for the presidential hopes of banker T.K. Blair; his party feels he has too little flair for savoir faire. But at a medicine show, the party bosses find Blair's double: huckster Doc Varney. Of course, they scheme to make Varney T.K.'s public spokesman; at first, he even fools Blair's girlfriend Felicia, providing a romantic complication. But as election eve approaches, the conspirators face the problem of what to do with Varney...who has difficult decisions of his own to make.

Famous Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies

Highlights from the great musicals of the 1940s. Stars featured include Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Danny Kaye, Jimmy Durante and Frank Sinatra.

Incompetent door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen become enlisted without their knowledge.

An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people. The hotel's owner doesn't like the entertainers and wants the girl returned to the orphanage.

On leave in Italy, Lt. Tommy Knowlton falls in love with Jean Standish, who's not only married, but is the daughter of his submarine's commander. Friction between the two officers becomes intolerable once at sea and after Commander Toler is forced to abandon Tommy's best friend topside while the sub dives to escape enemy planes, Tommy is no longer able to contain his anger.

Manicurists Sally, Irene and Mary hope to be Broadway entertainers. When Mary inherits an old ferry boat, they turn it into a successful supper club.

A short featuring many stars

Brazilian documentary film directed by Salvyano Cavalcanti de Paiva that showcases the evolution of Brazilian artists in the American film industry between the late 1920s and 1950s. Using archive footage, it highlights the contributions of figures like Carmen Miranda.

"Chick" Thompson is a puppet-master in a traveling carnival whose wife dies in childbirth and leaves him with an infant son he names "Poochy." His father-in-law and the baby's grandfather sues him for custody of the baby and Chick takes his son and hides out for a couple of years. He joins his former assistants, Daisy and "Fingers", in a circus act only to find that the persistent grandfather is still on his trail.

Reporter Miss Lee is looking for a story and approaches George White as he's assembling the latest edition of his famous revue. As it turns out, she has lots of backstage gossip to choose from

An ex-GI falls for a bathing beauty.

Unfinished pre-Code era film consisting of three sections with past performers from the stage and the vaudeville circuit, then-present-day performers and up-and-coming performers. Musical excerpts were later used in Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Nertsery Rhymes (1933), and Roast-Beef and Movies (1934). "The Lock Step" was later used in That's Entertainment! III (1994)

The story of Jimmy Walker who became mayor of New York in the '20s.

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 charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school.

In this holiday short, Jackie Cooper wants to throw a Christmas party for his friends on his football team but doesn't know how to go about it. His fellow stars at MGM help him out.

Documentary featuring more than one dozen musical outtakes from classic 20th Century-Fox films.

Wallingford is a con-man whose specialty is taking money from suckers. His partners are Schnozzle, a pickpocket and car thief; and Blackie, who has played the game for years.

When Prohibition ends, a barber tries to get in the liquor business only to come up against mobsters.

The first Timex Show from Frank Sinatra with friends Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and others.

A philosophy professor accompanies his school's rowing team on a worldwide tour.

A TV movie with intertwining music numbers and sketches.

This Bob Hope Special called “Highlights of a Quarter Century” begins his 26th year with NBC in 1975 (he began with NBC radio in 1937) celebrating 25 years of Bob Hope Specials and the many celebrities that appeared on them The clips begin with his very first special, for Frigidaire, on April 9, 1950 and putting his way through the years to 1975

A failed poet ends up becoming a gag writer for a bombastic comedian.

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.

Paris plumber Elmer Tuttle is enlisted by socialite Patricia Alden to help make her lover Tony Lagorce jealous. With the help of his friend Julius J. McCracken and through the high society contacts he has made through Patricia, Elmer hopes to find financing for his latest invention, a pistol with a range-finding light. Comic complications ensue when Elmer's effort to interest a military leader is misconstrued as an assassination attempt.

The beloved, Emmy-winning comic actor Don Knotts, best-known for his roles as the bumbling deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show and the lecherous landlord Mr. Furley on Three's Company, presents a series of side-splitting stand-up routines and skits in rare performances from the 1960s-1970s. A master at playing nervous and neurotic characters, Knotts is also able to milk major laughs with his portrayals of romantically-challenged underdogs possessing oversized egos. In this special comedy collection, he is joined by singer-actress Joey Heatherton, actress Jane Powell, former Dallas Cowboys player Lance Rentzel, comic Jack Burns, Knott's Love God movie co-star Maureen Arthur and the legendary Jimmy Durante.

Joe Palooka is a naive young man whose father Pete was a champion boxer, but his lifestyle caused Joe's mother Mayme to leave him and to take young Joe to the country to raise him.

In this through-the-years saga about a show business family, the fame of husband and wife vaudeville headliners of the 1880s is eclipsed by their son.

His Arizona hometown of Torpedo invites Gene back to be the honorary sheriff of the Frontier Days Celebration.

Believing real life is an operetta, the citizens of the European country Lucco break into song at every blink of an eye. Since everybody's singing, nobody works, there's no money to pay taxes, and the country faces bankruptcy, leading the ruling princess to declare all music illegal. Enter opera singer Richard Tauber and American journalist Jimmy Durante to save the day and lead the citizens to march on the palace in protest--and in song.

A professor gets mixed up with chorus girls in a Broadway musical.

A three-minute short made in conjunction with the National Recovery Administration that urges employers to hire the unemployed.

Based on the Hammett novel, this ultra-rare film—is nominally taken from the author's classic gang-war novel Red Harvest, which proved too brutal and cynical even for pre-Code Hollywood.

Paris plumber Elmer Tuttle is enlisted by socialite Patricia Alden to help make her lover Tony Lagorce jealous. With the help of his friend Julius J. McCracken and through the high society contacts he has made through Patricia, Elmer hopes to find financing for his latest invention, a pistol with a range-finding light. Comic complications ensue when Elmer’s effort to interest a military leader is misconstrued as an assassination attempt. (A French-language remake of the earlier film The Passionate Plumber.)