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Governor C.C. Young Hails Greater Talkie Season (1930)
Character: N/A
Ronald Colman introduces the governor of California, who urges moviegoers to attend the cleaner, wholesome talkie films, rather than those that show the seamy side of life. Doing this will show movie company executives that the public prefers them, and more of them will be produced.
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Terra Melophon Magazin Nr. 1 (1930)
Character: N/A
Film in the style of a magazine. Various topics, e.g. reading from the book "Ich lasse Dich nicht"; explanation of how a telephone conversation between Berlin and New York works; making a martini; sports teacher Siegfried Dietrich on gymnastic exercises; a sketch; a pop song; revue girls. Maria Ney hosts the program.
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A Thief in Paradise (1925)
Character: Maurice Blake
Years of failure and bad luck have made Maurice Blake a beachcomber on an island in the Samoas, earning a precarious living by diving for pearls with Philip Jardine, the disinherited son of a San Francisco millionaire. When Philip is killed by a shark, his half caste common-law wife, Rosa, informs Maurice that Philip had been forgiven by his father, and she persuades him to assume Philip's identity and return to the States - The film is now considered a lost film.
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The Dark Angel (1925)
Character: Captain Alan Trent
Alan Trent (Ronald Colman), his cousin Gerald Shannon (Wyndham Standing) and neighbor Kitty Vane (Vilma Bánky) have grown up together, as close playmates When World War I starts, both Alan and Gerald enlist in the British Army as officiers, and Kitty sees them off to war. Many months later, Alan and Gerald come back to Kitty, on a short furlow. Alan and Kitty reveal their love for each other. Gerald (who's in love with Kitty, too) congratulates his friends. But before Kitty and Alan can arrange to be married the next day, the furlow is cut short and both men head back to the front lines. Weeks later, Gerald will not give Alan leave to marry Kitty. Still arguing, both men volunteer for a reconiscience raid into enemy lines, where a grenade goes off near Alan and appears to kill him. Gerald and Kitty mourn Alan's death. After the war ends, Gerald and Kitty become engaged to be married.
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Her Sister from Paris (1925)
Character: Joseph
Helen has a twin sister, who is a famous actress named "La Perry". Helen and her sister decide to trick Helen's husband to prove his love.
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Anna the Adventuress (1920)
Character: Brendan
Two identical sisters are able to switch places, leading to a series of unfortunate incidents.
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The Art Director (1949)
Character: Self - from 'Late George Apley' (archive footage) (uncredited)
A film's art director is in charge of the set, from conception to construction to furnishing. This short film walks the viewer through art directors' responsibilities and the demands on their talents. They read a script carefully and design a set to capture the time and place, the social strata, and the mood. They must be scholars of the history of architecture, furnishings, and fashion. They choose the colors on a set in anticipation of the lighting and the mood. Their work also sets styles, from Art Deco in the 20's to 30s modernism. Then it's on to the next project. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
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Twenty Dollars a Week (1924)
Character: Chester Reeves
John Reeves, steel magnate, wagers with his son Chester that he can earn twenty dollars a week and live on it. He procures work in the office of William Hart's steel plant. Against her brother's wish, Hart's sister Muriel adopts a little boy. Hart evens up by adopting John Reeves as his father. Reeves foils James Pettison's plot to ruin Hart. Chester also makes good as a workman and wins the affection of Hart's sister. The father reveals his identity and takes Hart as a partner.
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The Toilers (1919)
Character: Bob
British romantic drama film starring Ronald Colman as a young man who leaves behind his family and girl in a Cornish fishing village to seek his fortune in London. Two of five reels survive.
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The Sporting Venus (1925)
Character: Donald MacAllan
Familiar story of spoiled heiress, Blanche Sweet, who dabbles in romance with commoner Ronald Colman. They roam the highlands together hunting since this is Sweet's "sport." They seem to have an idyllic affair going when into the mix comes an impoverished prince (Lew Cody). He determines to steal away the heiress and pay off his creditors. Indeed, this is the plan he shares with them.
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Champagne for Caesar (1950)
Character: Beauregard Bottomley
When jobless genius Beauregard Bottomley interviews with Burnbridge Waters for a position at Waters' soap company, the owner rudely turns Bottomley down. As revenge, Bottomley enters a TV quiz show that Waters' company sponsors, with the goal of winning until he bankrupts the businessman. When Bottomley keeps acing the questions, becoming a media sensation, Waters desperately calls on vixen Flame O'Neal to uncover Bottomley's area of weakness.
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Lady Windermere's Fan (1925)
Character: Lord Darlington
A society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.
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The Unholy Garden (1931)
Character: Barrington Hunt
At a hotel in the middle of the Sahara, an old man and his daughter try to keep the location of a hidden treasure from a collection of thieves and criminals staying at the hotel who are determined to get it. A suave gentleman thief arrives at the hotel one day with his own plan to get the loot, but complications ensue when he begins to fall for the daughter.
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Under Two Flags (1936)
Character: Sgt. Victor
Sergeant Victor comes to the French Foreign Legion after taking the blame for his brother's crime. Cigarette falls in love with him though Major Doyle is in love with her. Doyle sends Victor on dangerous assignments to be rid of him. He falls in love with Lady Venetia Cunningham, a visitor to the garrison
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Condemned! (1929)
Character: Michel
Suave thief Colman is sent to Devil's Island, where he becomes romantically involved with the wife of sadistic warden Digges.
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The White Sister (1923)
Character: Capt. Giovanni Severi
Angela Chiaromonte is the daughter of a wealthy Italian prince who is killed in a fall from his horse. Though Angela stands to inherit half of a large estate, her older half-sister burns the will and thus inherits everything herself, throwing Angela into poverty. Fortunately, Angela is engaged to marry dashing Captain Giovanni Severi - but he soon is captured by Arabs while on an expedition to Africa. Believing him dead, Angela, dedicating her life to his memory, becomes a nun, unaware that her lover has escaped his captors and is returning to Italy. The dramatic climax takes place against a backdrop of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
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Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
Character: Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond
Bulldog Drummond finds himself immersed in another adventure when he stumbles upon a corpse in the mysterious London mansion of Prince Achmed. Enlisting the help of his old friend Algy and the beautiful Lola, Drummond uncovers a scheme to ship illegal cargo into the country. He must rely on his cunning to survive when the prince offers a reward for his capture.
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Her Night of Romance (1924)
Character: Paul Menford
An impoverished British lord (Paul Menford) impersonates a doctor in order to woo an ailing American heiress (Dorothy Adams). The lord is in it for love, but his business associate (Joe Diamond) smells money.
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Romola (1924)
Character: Carlo Bucellini
In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.
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Random Harvest (1942)
Character: Charles Rainier
Wandered away from his asylum, an amnesiac World War I veteran falls in love with a music hall star but his amnesia makes it difficult to last.
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Stella Dallas (1925)
Character: Stephen Dallas
An eccentric lower class woman struggles to gain respect in high society after marrying a wealthy man, and the problem gets worse when their daughter starts growing up.
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His Supreme Moment (1925)
Character: John Douglas
John Douglas, a down-on-his-luck engineer, takes his sweetheart, Sara Deeping, to a play starring Carla King, and he falls in love with the actress.
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Clive of India (1935)
Character: Robert Clive
Fort St. David, Cuddalore, southern India, 1748. While colonial empires battle to seize an enormous territory, rich in spices and precious metals beyond the wildest dreams, and try to gain the favor of the local kings, Robert Clive (1725-1774), a frustrated but talented clerk who works for the East Indian Company and struggles to earn his fortune, makes a bold decision that will change his life forever.
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Arrowsmith (1931)
Character: Dr. Martin Arrowsmith
A medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use of a vaccine.
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The Devil to Pay! (1930)
Character: Willie Hale
Spendthrift Willie Hale again returns penniless to the family home in London. His father is none too pleased, but Willie smooth-talks him into letting him stay. At the same time he turns the charm on Dorothy Hope, whose father is big in linoleum and who, before Willie's arrival, was about to become engaged to a Russian aristocrat.
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The Masquerader (1933)
Character: Sir John Chilcote / John Loder
A drug-addicted member of Parliament needs to take time off and secretly pull his life together, so he gets his lookalike cousin to agree to temporarily assume his identity.
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Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies (2001)
Character: Self (archive footage)
The life and work of Samuel Goldwyn, a Polish-born glove salesman who became one of Hollywood's greatest independent producers, is remembered in this classy documentary created for the PBS American Masters series. Based on A. Scott Berg's acclaimed biography, the film includes new interviews with Goldwyn's surviving family members as well as vintage interviews with such luminaries as Bette Davis, John Huston, Laurence Olivier and others.
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The Rescue (1929)
Character: Tom Lingard
The English adventurer Tom Lingard gets involved with islanders on a South Seas island, and he also gets involved with Lady Edith and Mr. Travers, a sailing English couple. Tom has an unexpected love affair with Edith and while they are having this affair, Lady Edith husband's boat is destroyed and he is killed.
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The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Character: Major Rudolf Rassendyll / The Prisoner of Zenda
An Englishman who resembles the king of a small European nation gets mixed up in palace intrigue when his look-alike is kidnapped.
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Lost Horizon (1937)
Character: Robert " Bob " Conway
British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash land in the Himalayas, and are rescued by the people of the mysterious, Eden-like valley of Shangri-la. Protected by the mountains from the world outside, where the clouds of World War II are gathering, Shangri-la provides a seductive escape for the world-weary Conway.
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Kiki (1926)
Character: Victor Renal
Kiki, a poor young woman who sells newspapers on the street corners of Paris, is able to land a job singing and dancing at a nearby theater. While she is there, she invites herself into the life of the revue's manager, with whom she has fallen in love.
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Raffles (1930)
Character: A.J. Raffles
A distinguished English gentleman has a secret life--he is the notorious jewel thief the press has dubbed "The Amateur Cracksman". When he meets a woman and falls in love he decides to "retire" from that life, but an old friend comes to him with a predicament that entails him committing one last job.
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The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935)
Character: Paul Gaillard
A Russian prince goes to Monte Carlo just after World War I with money supplied to him by Parisian Russians. He wins but the casino operators want him to honor the tradition of returning to the tables.
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Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Character: Railway Official
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.
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The Late George Apley (1947)
Character: George Apley
George and Catherine Apley of Boston lead a proper life in the proper social circle, as did the Apleys before them. When grown daughter Eleanor falls in love with Howard (from New York!), and son John with Myrtle (from Worcester!), the ordered life of the Apley home on Beacon Street is threatened, as is the hoped-for union of John and Apley-cousin Agnes.
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That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
Character: (archive footage)
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.
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Bulldog Drummond (1929)
Character: Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond
Bulldog Drummond is a British WWI veteran who longs for some excitement after he returns to the humdrum existence of civilian life. He gets what he's looking for when a girl requests his help in freeing her uncle from a nursing home. She believes the home is just a front and that her uncle is really being held captive while the culprits try to extort his fortune from him.
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Hollywood: The Selznick Years (1961)
Character: 'A Tale of Two Cities' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
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Kismet (1944)
Character: Hafiz
Hafiz, a rascally beggar on the periphery of the court of Baghdad, schemes to marry his daughter to royalty and to win the heart of the queen of the castle himself.
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The Talk of the Town (1942)
Character: Michael Lightcap
Hilarity ensues when a falsely accused fugitive from justice hides at the house of his childhood friend, which she has recently rented to a high-principled law teacher.
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The Night of Love (1927)
Character: Montero
Montero, son of a Gypsy leader, is about to take a bride according to primitive ritual, when the Duke de la Garda demands his right as feudal lord--to take the bride to his castle for a night. Rather than accede to the duke's advances, the girl chooses death by her own hand. Montero swears vengeance.....
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If I Were King (1938)
Character: François Villon
King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash poet François Villon extolling why he would be a better king. Annoyed yet intrigued, the King bestows on Villon the title of Grand Constable. Soon Villon begins work and falls for a lovely lady-in-waiting, but then must flee execution when the King turns on him.
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Two Lovers (1928)
Character: Mark van Rycke
Set during the 16th-century Spanish occupation of Flanders, the story concentrates on the fiercely patriotic Mark Van Ryke (Colman). Donning the guise of "Leatherface," a swashbuckling masked avenger, Van Ryke performs his derring-do on behalf of the Prince of Orange (Nigel de Brulier). Naturally, Van Ruke considers beautiful Spanish aristocrat Donna Leonora de Vargas (Vilma Banky) to be a bitter enemy, and the feeling is mutual. To no one's surprise, however, Van Ryke and Donna Leonara eventually fall in love (hence the title). The pulse-pounding climax finds Van Ryke riding hell-for-leather through a rainstorm to warn the Flemish troops about the Spaniards' plans to burn the city of Ghent to the ground. Two Lovers was based on Madame Orczy's novel Leatherface, and adapted for the screen by Alice Duer Miller.
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A Double Life (1947)
Character: Anthony John
A Shakespearian actor starring as Othello opposite his wife finds the character's jealous rage taking over his mind off-stage.
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Lucky Partners (1940)
Character: David Grant
Two strangers split a sweepstake prize to go on a fake honeymoon with predictable results.
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A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
Character: Sydney Carton
The exciting story of Dr. Manette, who escapes the horrors of the infamous Bastille prison in Paris. The action switches between London and Paris on the eve of the revolution where we witness 'the best of times and the worst of times' - love, hope, the uncaring French Aristocrats and the terror of a revolutionary citizen's army intent on exacting revenge.
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Beau Geste (1926)
Character: Michael 'Beau' Geste
Michael "Beau" Geste leaves England in disgrace and joins the infamous French Foreign Legion. He is reunited with his two brothers in North Africa, where they face greater danger from their own sadistic commander than from the rebellious Arabs.
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The Magic Flame (1927)
Character: Tito the Clown / The Count
The Magic Flame (1927) is a feature film directed by Henry King, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and based on the play Konig Harlekin by Rudolph Lothar. George Barnes was nominated at the 1st Academy Awards for Best Cinematography. The film promoted itself as the Romeo and Juliet of the circus upon its release.
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The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926)
Character: Willard Holmes
While building an irrigation system for a Southwestern desert community, an engineer vies with a local cowboy for the affections of a rancher's daughter.
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The Story of Mankind (1957)
Character: The Spirit of Man
The devil and the spirit of mankind argue as to whether or not humanity is ultimately good or evil.
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Cynara (1932)
Character: James Warlock
A London barrister's marriage is under strain after his affair with a shopgirl who is out to have him. The story is told in flashback.
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