Warner Brothers 1940-1942
List of Warner Brothers releases shown in Warner Theaters in Los Angeles from 1940 to 1942. For research purposes.
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- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsGeraldine FitzgeraldJeffrey LynnGladys GeorgeA maternity ward, staffed by sympathetic nurses, serves mothers-to-be from all walks of life. These include a happy mother of a large family; a secretly-married teenager who thinks their parents won't approve of either their children's marriage or baby; a woman who is trying for a living child despite a history of stillbirths; a showgirl who doesn't want a child, and who is shocked to find she is having twins; and a convicted murderess whose husband is forced to choose between saving her or the baby.
- DirectorGus MeinsStarsJames GleasonLucile GleasonRussell GleasonWhen Joe Higgins returns home from a hard day's work at the Ellis Advertising Agency, he is furious to find that his wife Lil has not prepared dinner. Lil is instead at the home of her friend, Lucy Davis, working on a contest. Joe gets his dinner when Lil comes home and leaves afterwards for an evening meeting. He is forced to take his son Sidney's jalopy, when Sid and daughter Betty take his car to a dance, and at the meeting, he becomes a hero when he inadvertently gives Dover, an important new client, the idea to promote his dog biscuits with a contest. Joe's boss Ellis is impressed and promises to discuss a promotion with Joe if Joe gives him a ride home. Sid's jalopy is certainly not impressive, however, and Joe gives Ellis the keys to his car when they pass the dance hall where the children are. Unaware of his father's actions, Sid reports the car stolen, and Ellis spends the night in jail. Joe loses the promotion and is not the least sympathetic later that evening when Lil discovers that Lucy stole her slogan and won their contest with it. Lil takes out her anger on Lucy's son Bill, who is Betty's boyfriend, by throwing him out of the house. The next day, Lil apologizes to Lucy and Bill but is again enraged when she finds out that Lucy has bought the local store's supply of the dog biscuit boxes containing the new contest. Lil manages to get other boxes, however, and soon the house is overflowing with dog biscuits, which son Tommy suggests they dispose of by getting a dog. King, a Great Dane, is added to the household, much to Joe's consternation, and the next day, Lil finds what she believes is the winning box. Her joy is short-lived though, when she reads the rules and discovers that employees of the advertising agency and their families are not eligible to win. Lil convinces her father, Grandpa Ed Carson, to help her persuade Joe to resign so that she can collect the prize. Grandpa enlists the aid of his friend Irving, a custodian in the building where Brown, Ellis' chief competitor and Dover's former advertiser, works. Irving impersonates Brown and offers Joe the job of general manager. Joe accepts the job on Friday, but is humiliated on Monday when he meets the real Brown and discovers that he has been set up. Dover foils Lil's scheme by switching back to Brown when he hears that Joe now works there, and Brown calls Joe to offer him the job for real in order to retain Dover. When Joe leaves the house after receiving the call, he is pursued by Lil and Sid, who want to stop him from accepting. They in turn are followed by Grandpa, who heard on the radio that Lucy won the contest. After a mad dash, they all reach Brown's office, and the matter is straightened out to Joe's satisfaction. Lucy promises to use some of the $50,000 prize money to pay for Bill and Betty's honeymoon, and harmony is restored to the Higgins household, which is now devoid of contests.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsGeorge RaftJane BryanWilliam HoldenAn ex-con who wants to go straight has difficulties trying to reintegrate into society while on parole.
- DirectorCharles LamontStarsHugh HerbertFlorence RiceRichard CarlsonA baby is passed from hand to hand after her father abandons her.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsPaul MuniUna O'ConnorJane BryanA husband hires a lonely, pretty young Austrian woman to work as a nanny for his son. His wife becomes instantly jealous and things take turn for the worst. Meanwhile, World War II is in the air, and anti-German sentiment is on the rise.
- DirectorHenry KosterStarsDeanna DurbinRobert StackEugene PalletteAn orphaned boarding school graduate secretly attends a prestigious ball, where she falls for the boyfriend of her snobbish cousin.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsPriscilla LaneRosemary LaneLola LaneThree of the four musically inclined daughters of Adam Lemp, the Dean of the Briarwood Music Foundation, are settling into their lives as wives, but not all is well. Thea Lemp has long since married wealthy banker, Ben Crowley. Thea makes a unilateral decision which may disrupt their marriage. Emma Lemp married their neighbor, florist Ernest Talbot, after realizing that she truly did love him and not their border, composer/conductor Felix Deitz, after Ernest's actions at what was supposed to be Felix and Emma's youngest sister Ann Lemp's wedding. Emma receives some sad news which too may place a pall over her and Ernest's marriage. And Ann, after the suicide death of her husband Mickey Borden who she married as his possible salvation, and Felix are once again engaged, he who she always truly loved. But the memory of Mickey, who was an acquaintance of Felix's, may be a major roadblock on the road to happiness for Ann and Felix, especially as Mickey leaves something a little unexpected of himself that may always be that constant reminder. The fourth daughter, Kay Lemp, is herself embarking on a new relationship, with obstetrician turned research scientist Dr. Clinton Forrest Jr., who is determined to find out what is causing the lung problems, often fatal, of the lumbermen working on the other side of town.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsHumphrey BogartRosemary LaneWayne MorrisA hotshot reporter and a young doctor team up to investigate a series of grisly murders and a mysterious sample of synthetic blood.
- DirectorRowland V. LeeStarsBasil RathboneBoris KarloffBarbara O'NeilIn the 15th century Richard Duke of Gloucester, aided by his club-footed executioner Mord, eliminates those ahead of him in succession to the throne, then occupied by his brother King Edward IV of England. As each murder is accomplished he takes particular delight in removing small figurines, each resembling one of the successors, from a throne-room dollhouse, until he alone remains. After the death of Edward he becomes Richard III, King of England, and need only defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain power.
- DirectorTerry O. MorseStarsRonald ReaganMargot StevensonEddie Foy Jr.T-Man Brass Bancroft goes undercover in a prison which has a secret counterfeit operation set up in the print shop.
- DirectorNoel M. SmithStarsJane WymanDick ForanGloria DicksonWhen they are forced to work together, rival detectives fall in love.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsJames CagneyPat O'BrienGeorge BrentAlthough loudmouthed braggart Jerry Plunkett alienates his comrades and officers, Father Duffy, the regimental chaplain, has faith that he'll prove himself in the end.
- DirectorWilliam ClemensNoel M. SmithStarsBilly HalopBobby JordanHuntz HallThe Dead End Kids are sent to military school.
- DirectorTerry O. MorseStarsBoris KarloffMargaret LindsayBruce LesterAlthough the home of cabinet minister Arthur Bennett is a hotbed of spies, moles, and double agents, no one knows the true identity of notorious German spymaster Strendler.
- DirectorRay EnrightStarsPriscilla LaneWayne MorrisJane BryanThree comrades graduate from Viriginia Military Institute. Bing has a chance to return to VMI as a football coach.
- DirectorWilliam ClemensStarsJames StephensonMargot StevensonHenry O'NeillDespite an exclusive contract with the U.S. government, designer Archer Coe's design is being bid on by German, Japanese, and Italian agents - until he's murdered.
- DirectorGeorge AmyStarsMay RobsonHarry DavenportMargot StevensonMinerva Hatton is back in Nevada, where she grubstaked her fortune years ago. Her granddaughter Julie Westcott is visiting while getting a divorce. They are blackmailed by Julie's husband, Philip, who has two gambling checks Julie has given a gambling casino. Minerva, trying to buy them back, comes across Philip's murdered body. Believing Julie guilty, she substitutes her fingerprints and pleads guilty. When she learns that Julie is innocent of the killing, she does an about face, appearing in court as a sweet old lady instead of her usual rugged desert outfits, to play on the jury's sympathy. Freed, she still must find the killer to clear Julie, to whom the evidence points. After a little detectice work, she is convinced of the identity of the killer. She has herself sworn in as a temporary sheriff, jumps into her Model-T Ford and uses her marksmanship to nab the killer.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsJohn GarfieldAnn SheridanPat O'BrienAn arrogant mobster, sentenced to a long prison term in Sing Sing, becomes a changed man when given a chance by the fair and progressive warden.
- DirectorCrane WilburStarsGrant MitchellCharles WaldronJames StephensonThe story of President Monroe's response to attempts by Spain to interfere in South America.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsEdward G. RobinsonRuth GordonOtto KrugerTrue story of the doctor who considered it was not immoral to search for a drug that would cure syphillis.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsPriscilla LaneThomas MitchellDennis MorganPeter Casey has been with the New York City police department for 25 years. He's totally surprised when he's asked to retire on his 25th anniversary with the force. He's even more unprepared for the romance that develops between his favorite daughter, Maureen, and the Scottish cop who takes over his beat.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnMiriam HopkinsRandolph ScottUnion officer Kerry Bradford escapes from Confederate Prison and is sent to Virginia City, Nevada, where he finds out that the former commander of his prison, Vance Irby, is planning to send $5 million in gold to save the Confederacy.
- DirectorTex AveryStarsLou MarcelleBea BenaderetSara BernerA wacky travelogue takes us to the forests of Yosemite, the rocks of Brice Canyon, the frozen wastes of Alaska, the desert wastes of New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River and the giant redwoods of California.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsAnn SheridanHumphrey BogartJeffrey LynnAfter crooked nightclub owner Chips Maguire murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to allow him to stay at his eccentric mother's boarding house.
- DirectorWilliam ClemensStarsJohn PayneGloria DicksonStanley FieldsTwo men and one woman in logging country and their changing love triangle.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingWilliam K. HowardWilliam KeighleyStarsMerle OberonGeorge BrentPat O'BrienDying Joan Ames meets criminal Dan Hardesty on a luxury liner as he is being transported back to America by policeman Steve Burke to face execution. Joan and Dan fall in love, their fates unbeknownst to one another.
- DirectorRay EnrightStarsSidney BlackmerPierre WatkinTheodore von EltzIn a series of short scenes, key periods in Theodore Roosevelt's political life are dramatized beginning in 1895 with his time as New York City police commissioner and later as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Vice President and President.
- DirectorTerry O. MorseStarsDennis MorganJohn PayneGloria DicksonNightclub singer becomes police cadet to impress blond female from police family, ends up with her current dating partner as his cadet trainer.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsJohn GarfieldAnne ShirleyClaude RainsAfter meeting each other as fellow employees at J.B. Martin Co., forthright twenty-two year old Bobby Halevy and twenty-five year old Rims Rosson, who has his head in the clouds in coming up with one useless invention after another, fall in love and get married. The marriage is despite Bobby treating this, her first job, as an experience like everything she does and not as a means to become a "Mrs." like many other women, such as her colleague Gert Mills, seem to do. And on the advice of her older game-playing married sister Florrie Sands, Bobby also resorted to "tricks", so unlike the way she usually acts, to get Rims to marry her instead of he accepting his dream job in the Philippines to pursue one of his more practical invention ideas. Although they love each other, Bobby and Rims hit one hurdle after another as wife and husband, those hurdles largely outside of their control. As such, Bobby has to decide what to do to bring happiness back into her and Rims' lives, those actions which may make her resort to further games. Beyond having Florrie and her husband Willie Sands and her parents' own marriages as examples, each couple who truly loves each other despite their own problems, Bobby will also have the direct advice of both Florrie and her father Henry Halevy, a bookkeeper at Martin who has always had his own special thoughts of what he has wanted for his youngest daughter.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsVirginia BruceDennis MorganWayne MorrisThe story is centered on commercial pilots eager to fly higher and up-in-the-air attendants eager to land a man.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsHugh SothernNana BryantVictor KilianFour key incidents in the public life of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), seventh President of the United States. We watch him win the Battle of New Orleans in 1812 after an alliance with pirate Jean Lafitte. Later, political enemies slander his wife to coax Jackson into a duel with a crack shot: from her sickbed, she demands he promise not to fight. At his inauguration in 1829, plain folk are invited to celebrate. The film ends with a close look at a crisis early in his presidency: the threat by South Carolina (and his own Vice President, John Calhoun), to secede in a dispute over tariffs. This southern President confounds his allies, choosing the union over parochial economics.
- StarsCarey WilsonJanet GaynorEmil JanningsThis 1940 presentation features highlights of past Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Fay Bainter, Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Sinclair Lewis, and more, with host Bob Hope.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsJames CagneyAnn SheridanPat O'BrienPlagued by revolutionaries that harass his plantation in a banana republic, fruit company exec Steve Case rehires former nemesis Nick Butler to restore order and profits.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsEdward G. RobinsonGeorge SandersFrancis LedererFBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-war espionage activities of the German-American Bund.
- DirectorRay EnrightStarsEddie AlbertRosemary LaneWayne MorrisStage struck Lydia Weston leaves her small Texas town for Broadway. Left behind is her steady beau Peter. Lydia sends letters and news clippings back home telling everyone she's now a big star. Peter soon heads to New York to surprise her, but instead he gets the surprise when he learns Lydia has no job and is broke. The pair soon get involved with a couple of phony producers who con Peter into backing their play with Lydia in the lead.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsBette DavisCharles BoyerJeffrey LynnA duchess' irrational behavior toward her children's governess triggers tragic events that will change her family's lives forever.
- DirectorTerry O. MorseStarsRoger PryorLucile FairbanksEddie Foy Jr.Fugitive Lee Leslie is wanted by three groups; the police, the gangsters who fear his testimony in court and the insurance company that carries a $1,000,000 policy on him and is anxious to protect its interests by seeing that Leslie stays alive. The company assigns Dan Miller to find Leslie. A night club singer, Ruby Patterson the beneficiary of his will, tips the gangsters as to his whereabouts. He escapes but the gang kidnaps his sister Janet and his mother. His plan to surrender to the police now depends on being able to rescue them first.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsEdward G. RobinsonHumphrey BogartAnn SothernWhen retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsGeorge BrentVirginia BruceBrenda MarshallAssistant District Attorney Stephen Forbes, an impressive orator with a long list of convictions, resigns when an innocent boy is convicted and the real murderer confesses too late. He opens a cheap law office and his secretary Joan Reed goes with him. Business is bad until he ties up with J.B. Roscoe, the contact man between city hall and the underworld. Forbes moves to a swanky office and adds two people to his staff - his younger brother John, who he helped through law school, and Celia Farraday. Celia helps John win his first case and the two fall in love. John realizes his brother's firm isn't honest and wants to break the underworld contact. He opens Steve's safe for federal authorities hunting evidence against Roscoe. But the latter plants enough circumstantial evidence against John that the latter is convicted of murder and sent to death row.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsOlivia de HavillandJeffrey LynnEddie AlbertAmelia is a gifted violinist who is in danger of quitting the Brissac Academy of Music. Julius arranges to have a scholarship given to her through his employee Tony so Julius can escort Amelia to every musical event in the city. The trouble begins when he cannot meet her one night and Tony goes in his place. Tony believes that Julius and Amelia are a couple, then his son Paul thinks that Tony and Amelia are a couple, as he is sending her the money. The worst part is that Amelia might leave classical music for swing music with classmates Dusty, Joy, and the band.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsRonald ReaganJohn LitelLya LysThe corpse of a hobo with a $50,000 money belt helps Brass and Gabby crack a cell of fifth columnists bent on sabotage.
- DirectorGeorge AmyStarsWayne MorrisJane WymanGilbert RolandGambling boss Greg Morella runs a crooked ship-- all the gaming tables on his floating casino are rigged. Because the ship operates outside of the three-mile state limit, the authorities can't get the evidence they need to convict Morella. Roving reporter Jim Carver thinks he can get the goods on the kingpin. He enlists Morella's secretary Laurie to help him secure evidence of the fixed games as well as proof that Morella murdered his partner Max Gates.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsGeorge RaftHumphrey BogartAnn SheridanWhen one of two truck-driving brothers loses an arm, they both join a transport company where the other is falsely charged as an accessory in the murder of the owner.
- DirectorWilliam K. HowardStarsJeffrey LynnBrenda MarshallJohn LitelThe City Trust and Savings Bank sends Vice President Dave Bennett to a branch office to check on a Charles Patterson. Charlie has greatly increased the amount of money in savings and is very involved with all of his customers. When offered a chance to run a new branch in Santa Monica, Charlie declines and is taken ill. His wife, Barbara, tells Dave that Charlie needs an operation and she will fill in for him at his savings window. Against the advice of Martha and Branch manager Jerry Helm, Dave does hire Barbara to do the job. When Dave works the window when Barbara goes to lunch, he notices that the accounts are short and the amount comes out to $9000. Dave does not know if Barbara or Charlie has taken the money, but Barbara blames Charlie and as Dave is sweet on her, he personally loans her the money. Dave hopes that this will end the problems and that Barbara will divorce Charlie but there is more trouble ahead for Dave Bennett.