Tristram Coffin

ZaSu Pitts gets a rare leading role as Emma Bates, a fluttery small-town spinster who comes to the big city to see a prizefight and is promptly mistaken for a notorious gun moll. The mix-up pulls her into the boxing racket, a kidnapping, and a couple of gangland murders, and Emma turns out to be considerably sharper than the mobsters around her. Jean Yarbrough directs for Monogram, with Roger Pryor as a fast-talking reporter and Warren Hymer doing his patented dumb-mug routine. A lightweight but likeable entry in the era's run of little-old-lady comedies. The film entered the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Crime

George Reeves stars as Superman in this special eighteen-minute short produced for the U.S. Department of the Treasury to promote school savings stamp programs to children. When a blackout strikes Metropolis, Superman visits a classroom and teaches the students — including a boy named Blinky — about buying U.S. Savings Stamps. The film was donated to the Treasury and never aired commercially, making it the only Adventures of Superman production in the public domain. It features the series' regular cast including Noel Neill, Jack Larson, and John Hamilton.

Fantasy · Science Fiction

Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Lorenz, a mad scientist who sends poisoned orchids to brides so they collapse at the altar, then steals their bodies to extract the fluids that keep his aging wife young. A journalist investigating the string of deaths tracks Lorenz to his country home, where she finds a household of coffins, secret passages, and a hunchbacked servant. The Corpse Vanishes is a brisk Monogram B-picture from the stretch of Lugosi's career when he was working the Poverty Row circuit. It is campy and cheap, but Lugosi plays it with complete conviction. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Mystery