Free Wheeling

Spoiled playboy Henry van Cleve dies and arrives at the entrance to Hell, a final destination he is sure he deserves after living a life of profligacy. The devil, however, isn't so sure Henry meets Hell's standards. Convinced he is where he belongs, Henry recounts his life's deeds, both good and bad, including an act of indiscretion during his 25-year marriage to his wife, Martha, with the hope that "His Excellency" will arrive at the proper judgment.

Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.

In this musical, a songwriter goes to court to claim the rights to his song that was stolen by an unscrupulous music publisher. He brings his girlfriend with him. Also going to court are the Jubilee singers, hillbillies, and some cowboys and Indians who demonstrate that the composer wrote his song by rearranging four folk tunes. He wins his song back and $50,000 in damages. Songs include: "Heading Home," "Roll Along Prairie Moon," "Tender Is the Night," "You're My Thrill," "I'm Bound for Heaven," and "The Army Band."

A poor singer in a bar masquerades as a rich society woman thanks to a rich benefactor.

Peasant children Mytyl and Tyltyl are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the fairy Berylune. On their journey, they're accompanied by the anthropomorphized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, and Bread, among other entities.

A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.

While the Our Gang kids are enjoying the local swimming hole, a rival group ties all their clothes in knots. Our Gang challenges the meanies, and the two sides have a military-style battle using fruits and vegetables for ammunition.

Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.)

Mickey and the gang go game hunting, and come across a live lion. No, seriously, we see eight year old Rooney share a scene with a real lion.

The gang build their own airplane, and Mickey and Hambone go for a high-flying adventure when the plane supposedly starts to work.

An early sound short, where Mickey and the gang put on another show.

Mickey Rooney -- credited as McGuire, as he would be through the run of the series -- inducts a new member into the gang, tries to put little brother Billy Barty to bed for a nap, and wins a basketball game against Stinky Davis' team in this episode of the series.

The gang trades places with a group of orphans about to take a train ride.

Steve Allen hosts this collection of clips of some of the greatest comedy teams in movie and television history, including Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Burns and Allen, The Three Stooges, The East-Side Kids, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis.

The gang finds what they think is a magic lamp.

The kids' adopted grandma decides to sell her store, but can't decide whom to sell it to. The kids try to help her out.

The gang goes to a circus sideshow to visit Dickie, Dorothy, and Spanky's uncle, mistakenly believing he is "The Wild Man from Borneo."

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.

Alvin York a hillbilly sharpshooter transforms himself from ruffian to religious pacifist. He is then called to serve his country and despite deep religious and moral objections to fighting becomes one of the most celebrated American heroes of WWI.

Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.

A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.

A chronicle of the rise and brief career of rock 'n' roll star Buddy Holly, who aspires to play music the way he wants it to sound. Holly and his band, the Crickets, are first invited to record in Nashville, where they encounter creative differences with the producing staff. Later they play a major booking at the Apollo Theater, scheduled there under the mistaken assumption that they're a black band. Holly's career eventually goes solo -- until the tragic day the music dies.

Farmer Frank and his ward hunt brother Jesse's killers, the back-shooting Fords.

War heroes Rip Murdock and Johnny Drake are sent to Washington, D.C, to receive top honors for their service. Johnny, seemingly terrified by the publicity that awaits him, jumps off the train and later turns up dead. Suspecting foul play, Rip begins digging into his pal's past. He encounters cover-ups, threats to his own life and deadly femme fatale Coral Chandler.

In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.

After healing the leg of the murderer John Wilkes Booth — responsible for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln — Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, considered part of the atrocious conspiracy, is sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the sinister Shark Island Prison.

A fictionalized account of famous French writer Émile Zola and his involvement in the Dreyfus Affair. After struggling to establish himself, Zola wins success documenting the unsavory side of Paris and settles into a comfortable upper-class life. However, his complacency is shaken when Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus is imprisoned for espionage. Realizing that Dreyfus is an innocent victim of anti-Semitism, Zola boldly pens an exposé, only to be charged with libel and now he must defend himself in a dramatic courtroom testimony.

After her family's mansion is burned down by Yankee soldiers for hiding the rebel leader Captain Sam Starr Belle Shirley vows to take revenge. Breaking Starr out of prison, she joins his small guerrilla group for a series of raids on banks and railroads, carpetbaggers and enemy troops. Belle's bravado during the attacks earns her a reputation among the locals as well as the love of Starr himself. The pair get married, but their relationship starts to break down when Sam Starr lets a couple of psychotic rebels into the gang, leaving Belle to wonder if he really cares about the Southern cause.

A black laborer turns preacher after accidentally killing a man.

In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.

A well-established tale of a long-running feud between two mountain clans.

In 19th-century England, German journalist Paul Julius Reuter and his partner, Max Wagner, utilize messenger pigeons to connect telegraph stations across Europe. As time passes and technology outdates his system, Reuter invents a wire system that transmits news stories directly to newspapers. But when a rival creates a faster means, Reuter must transmit high-profile news to stay on top of the industry.

A bored society woman invites scandal and heartache when she falls in love with her low-born chauffeur.

During the American Civil War, Valette Bedford waits patiently for her husband Duncan Bedford, to return home, praying that she will not become a widow.

Truck Turner and his partner Jerry, who make their living as bounty hunters in Los Angeles, are hired to hunt down Gator, a pimp who has skipped bail.

Part of a gold shipment has been stolen and the Sergeant suspects Louis LeBey. When Louis is attracted to newly arrived Nedra Ruskin, Woolie-Woolie becomes jealous and tells the Sergeant where Louis hid the gold. First Louis rescues the Sergeant whose dog team crashes chasing him and then he saves Nedra from an avalanche. When he returns the injured Nedra to the settlement, the Sergeant takes him prisoner.

Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.

The story of the short film from the beginning of the movies in the 1890s, when all movies were shorts, through the 1950s when short subjects virtually disappeared from theaters.

A medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use of a vaccine.

Join all your favorites—Spanky, Buckwheat, Alfalfa, Darla, Butch, Froggy and more—in a jam-packed special covering more than twenty years and 200 episodes of Hal Roach's inimitable brand of childhood magic. This fascinating video offers insight into the Gang's personal lives, as rare footage follows each member's career through the joys and misfortunes that went along with being one of America's most beloved kids. See how the series began in 1922 and changed after the first all-talking release in 1929, why Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney never made the Gang, a fifteenth anniversary reunion, and clips from their only feature.

A foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed. Two types of New York City journalists descend on Cornwall, one interested in facts, the other in getting sensational "news". Mrs. Ferguson is known to have been friendly with a local banker. The Fergusons quarrel the evening he is killed (by "burglars", his wife tells the police later), and she is arrested, spurred on by the "bad" journalists, who also manage to badger the banker's wife into the hospital. Meanwhile, young Bruce Foster runs the Cornwall Courier, and shows the big city reporters how to dig out real news while they attempt to subvert justice for their own ends.

Richard, a millionaire in love with his secretary, Diane, is dispirited when his wife refuses to divorce him. Concerned that Diane will now lose interest, Richard offers her an all-expense-paid cruise to Argentina so that she can think it over. While traveling, however, Diane falls in love with fellow traveler Mike. She resolves to come clean to Richard, but upon return she becomes conflicted when she finds out he was able to get divorced after all.

Miss Madeline Fane is a famous California screen star who has been devoted to her baby son Michael since her husband's death the previous year. One morning she awakens to find Michael has been kidnapped. After a day, she calls in the police, who instantly begin an all-out search.

A circus wild animal trainer searches for the son who was taken away from him by a meddling relative years earlier.

Bill takes Trina into his depression camp cabin. Later, just as he finds showgirl LaRue who will support him, Trina becomes pregnant.

A group of air mail pilots risk their lives to deliver important mail through bad weather conditions.