Michael Curtiz

A pre-Code musical comedy directed by Michael Curtiz, originally released as Bright Lights and later retitled Adventures in Africa. Dorothy Mackaill plays Louanne, a Broadway star retiring to marry a wealthy aristocrat, whose past as a carnival performer and hula dancer in sleazy African dives threatens her new social standing. Frank Fay co-stars as her loyal stage partner Wally, and Noah Beery plays a diamond smuggler seeking revenge. The film was originally photographed entirely in Technicolor, but only a black- and-white print survives. It features the screen debut of John Carradine in a small, uncredited role.

Musical · Comedy

A straitlaced 1880s New York stockbroker runs his household with the same rigid discipline he applies to business, while his warm-hearted wife quietly gets her way. William Powell and Irene Dunne star in this Technicolor adaptation of the long-running play. A young Elizabeth Taylor appears as the houseguest. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Family

A modern love story and the biblical tale of Noah and the Flood run in parallel, building to a spectacular deluge that swept extras to their injuries and helped end silent-era recklessness. Dolores Costello and George O'Brien star in Michael Curtiz's part-sound Warners epic. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Epic

West Point classmates J.E.B. Stuart and George Custer are posted to Kansas Territory, where they clash with the abolitionist John Brown and his violent crusade against slavery. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ronald Reagan star in this highly fictionalized Warner Bros. western. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Western · History

William Powell's fourth and final outing as S.S. Van Dine's dilettante detective Philo Vance. A Long Island dog-show society gathering ends in a locked-room murder when the universally disliked Archer Coe is found dead — apparently by suicide, except for the bullet in his head and the corpse of his dog found in a closet. Vance unpicks a tangle of rivalries, inheritances, and championship terriers. Directed at speed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros., it's widely considered the best of the Philo Vance pictures and one of the cleverest whodunits of the pre-Code era. The film is in the public domain.

Mystery · Crime

A wartime Technicolor musical comedy directed by Michael Curtiz, adapted from Irving Berlin's 1942 Broadway stage show. George Murphy plays Jerry Jones, a dancer wounded in World War I who becomes a producer and, 25 years later, mounts an all-soldier revue packed with Berlin songs. Ronald Reagan co-stars as his son Johnny, a corporal in the WWII-era production. The large ensemble cast includes Kate Smith singing "God Bless America," boxing champion Joe Louis, and Irving Berlin himself performing "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." All proceeds went to the Army Emergency Relief Fund. The film is not listed in the Catalog of Copyright Entries and is in the public domain.

Musical · Comedy