A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?
Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life... but also his own.
Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (a show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio.
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
When master monster make-up man Pete Dumond is fired by the new bosses of American International studios, he uses his creations to exact revenge.
During the troubled shooting of several movies, David, the prop man's assistant, meets an aspiring actress who tries to find work in the studio. Things get messy when the stagehands decide to go on strike.
A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to the sale of its back lot and props. By extension this provides a general history of Hollywood's Golden Age and the legendary studio system.
Everyone has a skeleton or two in his or her closet, but what about the director behind some of the most successful thrillers ever to hit the silver screen? Could M. Night Shyamalan be hiding a deep, dark secret that drives his macabre cinematic vision? Now viewers will be able to find out firsthand what fuels The Sixth Sense director's seemingly supernatural creativity as filmmakers interview Shyamalan as well as the cast and crew members who have worked most closely with him over the years. Discover the early events that shaped the mind of a future master of suspense in a documentary that is as fascinating as it is revealing.
Richard Dreyfuss hosts a celebration of the 80 year history of Universal Studios. Founded as IMP by Carl Leammle to oppose Edison's Motion Picture Tust, it soon grew under the leadership of 21 year old production head Irving Thalberg with classic silents from artists like John Ford, Erich Von Stroheim, and Lon Chaney and prospered further in the Sound Era under the leadership of Carl Leammle Jr. with such classics as "All Quiet on The Western Front," "Showboat," and the studio's signature monster franchises, "Frankenstein" and "Dracula."
Aspiring actor Joe McDoakes blows his first part at Warner Bros. and has to settle for being a stand-in.
Harry and Willie are scammed into buying the Thomas Edison studio lot by a man named Gorman. They decide to follow Gorman's trail to Hollywood where, unbeknownst to them, he has taken the identity of a foreign film director. The lads wind up as stunt doubles in film the which Gorman is now shooting, while the conman tries to have the bungling pair done away with before they realize who he really is.
Bohemian Alex Morrison has just finished directing his first feature length movie. In its previews, the movie is considered a critical, artistic and surefire commercial success. As such, Alex seemingly has his choice of what his next project will be. As he makes the rounds both in the Hollywood community and European movie centers for ideas, he fantasizes about movie scenarios of those everyday situations he is in.
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.
The internationally famous Worldwide Studios has hit hard times and is forced to sell its backlot to Hollywood property developers. The trouble is someone keeps killing off the site surveyors. The studio chiefs then learn of the legend of a masked man who lives on the lot and is sworn to protect it from harm
Daffy Duck convinces Porky Pig to quit the cartoon biz and try his luck in the features. Porky's adventures begin when he tries to enter the studio.
Two tour guides take visitors on a promotional tour of Warner Bros.' studios.
In this murder mystery, sexy blonde film star Irma Gladden is found dead in her car after shooting the last scene in her film, "Falling Star" at Eminent Studios. The suspects are numerous due to her free and easy lifestyle and messy romantic affairs. Among them are Grace Sibley the jealous wife of her director, Warren Sibley, her drunken actor husband, Andre Leighton, her screenwriter boyfriend, Rex Forsythe, and her first husband, Robert Worth. Also on hand to help solve the mystery are visiting reporter Bob Adair, Irma's secretary, Valerie Christine, and policemen Captain Sommers and Sergeant Delaney.
At fading indie horror studio, its owner Jefferson, and his nephew Caleb, a young horror movie obsessive and aspiring makeup artist, finally gets his “little break” when Jefferson assigns him to work on a B-list movie about a vampire. There, he encounters another makeup artist, Ginni, with whom he feels he can share his vulnerabilities, as well as an unsupportive rival, Todd.
In this "Romance of Celluloid", MGM showcases performers whose careers are just starting. Excerpts from their recently released films are included. The narrator says that moviegoers will have to decide whether these fledgling actors and actresses have that certain quality that made superstars out of MGM players Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and Lana Turner.