Thundering Thompson (1929, B&W, Silent): Greedy cattlemen, led by Bill Edwards, attempt to get sheepherder Marie Valerian arrested on trespassing charges. Deputy "Thundering" Thompson is dispatched with a warrant for the girl's arrest but quickly determines that Edwards' claim is false. Thompson defies the ranchers and gets a sound thrashing for his trouble, but the lawman has a few more cards to play before folding his hand. A simple, straightforward, stripped-down indie western made at the...
Joe Palooka, champion prizefighter, steps out of the comic strips and onto the TV screen in this rarely seen 1954 series. Debuting in newspapers in 1930, millions thrilled to the adventures of the kind-hearted boxer, his girlfriend (later wife) Ann, and manager Knobby. The strip soon inspired a popular CBS radio show and a 1934 film, Palooka, starring Stu Erwin, Lupe Velez, and Jimmy Durante. Monogram Pictures then began a series of 11 low-budget features starring professional golfer Joe...
Jeff Thompson, "the best cop in Miami Beach", is hired by the Hotel Owners Association to privately investigate criminal activity on their property. Posing as a playboy, the only one who knows Jeff's secret is his chauffeur, Rocky, a former boxer. A lost gem of Sixties television, Miami Undercover briefly ran in syndication in 1961. Its star, Lee Bowman, had specialized in playing dashing sophisticates while under contract to Columbia in the 1940s. He often romanced the loveliest leading...
In 1949, audiences delighted to Buster Keaton's cameo in the Judy Garland musical In the Good Old Summertime, reigniting interest in "The Great Stone Face of Comedy." It wasn't long before the burgeoning new medium of television came calling. On December 22, 1949, The Buster Keaton Show began airing live on KTTV in California, sponsored by the Studebaker Dealers of Los Angeles County. Every week, Keaton revived the deadpan pantomimes that made him one of the greatest comedians of the silent...
Jim Backus, Thurston Howell III on Gilligan's Island and the voice of Mr. Magoo, stars in this rarely-seen sitcom! The beloved actor plays Mike O'Toole, editor and owner of the Headline Press Service, whose circulation numbers would go up if he could get his employees to actually do anything. Backus was coming off a successful three-year run as Joan Davis's husband on the popular NBC series I Married Joan (1952-1955) in addition to playing James Dean's father in the classic Rebel Without a...
Ripped from the day's headlines, the adventures of three globetrotting reporters spring to life in this ultra-rare TV series, which aired for one season on ABC. In a unique conceit, the show has three rotating stars, meaning that the program is essentially three different series using the same title, united by the common thread of the "Trans-Globe Wire Service" (a fictionalized version of the Associated Press.) Taking their turns as newshounds are World War II movie hero Dane Clark...
The Shadow of the Cloak 'The Last Performance' (1952): TV's first spy series, The Shadow of the Cloak aired live on the DuMont Television Network from June 1951 to March 1952. It focuses on the exploits of the I.S.I., a counter-intelligence agency "who search out and expose the cloak and dagger operations of agents undermining the peace and security of the world." In 'The Last Performance', a carnival knife-thrower is blackmailed by a communist agent into committing murder. It is written by a...
THE VISITOR 'LOVE LETTERS FROM A STRANGER' (1952): "The quietly moving feet of the Visitor...the strange one who appears beyond the gates...have you ever wondered what goes on behind the gates?" So opened every episode of The Visitor, a weekly anthology of psychological dramas produced by Marion Parsonnet, best recognized as the screenwriter of the Rita Hayworth classic Gilda (1946). In 'Love Letters From a Stranger", a young woman consults a psychic about notes she has been receiving from an...
The long-running anthology series Cavalcade of America began on radio, sponsored by the DuPont Company. After WWI, the manufacturer was looking to change its public image as war profiteers. Cavalcade of America specialized in presenting compelling stories of American perseverance and ingenuity, with an emphasis on nonviolence and progressive values. Because of its liberal slant, the program attracted acclaimed authors including Arthur Miller and Norman Rosten. Each episode started with...
Telephone Time evolved from The Passing Parade, a long-running radio show hosted by writer and raconteur John Nesbitt. A former announcer, Nesbitt narrated tales supposedly inspired by a trunk left to him by his father that contained press clippings of odd news stories from around the world. At least that's what he said -- Usually, Nesbitt wrote the stories in a rush an hour before airtime. Regardless, it was popular enough to last 12 years on radio, and inspire a series of theatrical short...
Veteran actor/director Robert Montgomery hosted the weekly drama series, Robert Montgomery Presents, during the heyday of anthology shows in the 1950s. Scores of Hollywood's brightest stars graced the show's seven-year run, as did Robert's own daughter, Elizabeth, who appeared in 27 episodes! A decade later, Elizabeth Montgomery starred in her own hit TV series, Bewitched.OUR HEARTS WERE YOUNG AND GAY: A couple of Southern belles longing for excitement take an ocean cruise to Europe. While...
Veteran actor/director Robert Montgomery hosted the weekly drama series, Robert Montgomery Presents , during the heyday of anthology programs in the 1950s. Scores of Hollywood's brightest stars graced the show, filmed live at Studio 8H of NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan. During its seven-year run, Robert Montgomery Presents received two Emmy nominations, winning the 1953 award for Best Dramatic Program. HARVEST: A modest farming family prepare for their last Thanksgiving feast...
A courageous Cheyenne warrior protects his tribe from hostile invaders in this long-lost Western series! Brave Eagle made history as the first TV program to feature an American Indian as the lead character. In addition, stories focused on the plight of Native Americans, a rarity on television at the time. Though star Keith Larsen was in fact of Norwegian descent, both the actors playing his girlfriend Morning Star (Kim Winona) and adopted son Keena (Anthony Numkena, using the stage name Keena...
A pair of aging gunfighters, Sean 'Irish' Dillon and Miguel Sanchez, plan to retire after one last holdup. But the robbery goes horribly wrong. An innocent man is killed, and Miguel is severely injured. With nowhere left to run, the two bandits are forced to seek refuge in a convent. By a bizarre stroke of fate, Miguel had left his infant daughter at the same monastery years before. But the wounded gunman's reunion with his now grown child is interrupted when a search party arrives outside the...
A true tale that took 50 years to tell, The Lost Weekend: A Love Story follows John Lennon and Yoko Ono's personal assistant, May Pang as she recounts her 18-month relationship with John a relationship orchestrated by Yoko herself. During this extraordinary period, May helped John reunite with his son Julian and participated firsthand in his most productive period post-Beatles in which he released albums like "Mind Games", "Walls and Bridges", and collaborated with powerhouses like David Bowie...
In this triple-header of Western shorts, some of the most popular B-Western stars ever to ride the Hollywood range bring frontier justice to the lawless West.The Masked Ranger (1948, B&W): In this edited version of a 1945 feature called Three In The Saddle, Tex Ritter and Dave O'Brien star as courageous Texas Rangers posing as drifters, who step in to help local ranchers when outlaws attempt a king-sized land-grab. Starring Tex Ritter, Dave O'Brien; Directed by Harry L. Fraser.Riding Gents...
DESERT MESA (1935): Jim Kirk, a wandering cowboy, arrives in the town of Cottonwood, Arizona, looking for the man who killed his father. He learns it may have been Ed Calder, a suspicious loner who moved into town a few weeks earlier. While tracking Calder, Jim rescues pretty Sally Kent, the owner of the "Crazy K" ranch, from "El Garto", a masked bandit. Taking a job as a cowpuncher, Jim begins to suspect that Calder and El Garto are one and the same. When El Garto raids the ranch again, Jim...
Johnny Dennis pays the price of fame in this tough tale of a troubled young actor in Tinseltown. Preoccupied with fast cars, fast women and his own death, Johnny is unable to cope with the ever-increasing pressures of his own success. Infatuated with one of his fans, Johnny is tempted by his alluring manager, who seems to want more than just a business relationship.After a jealous rival goads him into a vicious fistfight, Johnny, confused and bleeding, races through the back-streets of a dark...
Armand Assante (American Gangster) plays Dr. Kevin Khoury, a psychiatrist and best-selling author. While he is in Spain on a book tour, Mira (Dina Meyer, Starship Troopers) appears, threatening to blackmail Kevin over the misdiagnosis of her sister, Jane (Lacey Chabert, TV's "Party of Five"), who started a fatal fire and was placed in a mental institution in Barcelona. Kevin re-opens the case, diagnosing Jane with multiple personality disorder. But as he delves into those personalities,...
Here they come, bigger, better, faster, closer and louder, than ever before, its tons of train fun for everyone in Lots and Lots of Trains Volume 3 -- Roaring Down the Rails!! It's a 90 minute DVD featuring our best collection of thundering steam and diesel action ever, guaranteed! In this volume you'll get lots more -- more unusual trains from around the world -- more live steam and diesel action of Americas most popular trains, and more close-up shots and sounds of thundering trains roaring...
If your child or grandchild loves trucks, get ready for more of the most exciting truck action you'll ever see in Lots and Lots of Trucks Volume 2 -- Mighty Tough Trucks! Spectacular camera footage combined with award-winning music by James Coffey and lots of real-life sounds make the thrilling action of these mighty machines a favorite among young and old alike! You'll go closer than any other video program to witness the awesome action of the world's biggest and most powerful trucks as they...