Jane Sloan Media Librarian jsloan@rci.rutgers.edu June 2006

Research Resources: Subject Research Guides: Media Collections:
Feature Films U.S. Before 1939

This guide is a browsing aid to selected titles in the video/DVD collections at Rutgers Libraries. The most up-to-date, accurate, and complete information regarding the libraries' holdings is available only through IRIS, our online catalog.

42nd Street 1933

A Broadway musical director has troubles during rehearsal, promotes the understudy and has a successful opening night.

1 videocassette (89 min.) :

MEDIA 2-828

Abraham Lincoln 1980

Dramatization of Lincoln's entry into politics, his romance with Ann Rutledge and his years as president of the nation during the Civil War.

1 videocassette (85 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2848

Belle of the nineties 1934

Mae West plays a popular burlesque performer in swinging St. Louis, who travels to New Orleans and thwarts Ace Lamont's attempts to steal her jewels.

1 videocassette (ca. 73 min.) :

JAZZ 388

The Birth of a nation 1985

Griffith's controversial film about two families during the Civil War and Reconstruction era.

1 videocassette (VHS) (127 min.) :

MEDIA MEDIA 2-58 10-159

The bitter tea of General Yen 1993

A tragic tale of a Chinese warlord's unrequited love for an American missionary, set during China's Civil War.

1 videocassette (ca. 78 min.)

MEDIA 2-6754

Blonde Venus 1932

A man being treated for radium poisoning discovers that his wife has been unfaithful when she returns to her stage career and becomes involved with a wealthy playboy.

1 videocassette (89 min.) :

MEDIA. MEDIA 2-283 2-2026

Body and soul 1998

Paul Robeson in his first screen role, plays two parts, an evil preacher and his good brother, who wage a personal war for the body and soul of the heroine.

1 videocassette (100 min.) : 1 videocassette (75 min.) :

MEDIA DANA 2-3557 598

The bride of Frankenstein 1999

Baron Frankenstein is blackmailed by Dr. Praetorious into reviving his monster and building a mate for it.

1 videocassette (75 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6208

Bringing up baby 1938

A fast-paced comedy in which a timid paleontologist must choose between a life with bones or a life with a high society girl and her pet leopard.

1 videocassette (102 min.) :

MEDIA 2-704

Carmen 1915

In 19th century Seville, the lusty, tempestuous Carmen seduces a naive army corporal, Don Jose. Jose abandons his career and comrades for the love of this sultry gypsy. Carmen, however, soon spurns Jose for the love of a toreador, Escamillo. Crazed with jealousy, Jose begs Carmen to return to him, but her taunting declaration of independence results in tragedy.

1 videocassette (76 min.) :

MUSIC 311

Check and double check 1930

Performer Note: Freeman Gosden, Charles J. Correll, Sue Carol, Irene Rich ; Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club OrchestraCab drivers, Amos 'n Andy, help solve a lover's triangle.

1 videocassette (77 min.)

JAZZ 430

Christopher Strong 1933

A famous professional pilot, Lady Cynthia Darrington, and a married, older member of Parliament, Lord Christopher Strong, fall in love. Their affair and careers and how these interrelate are explored.

1 videocassette (77 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1272

Cimarron 1989

Epic western about the Cravat family settling the Oklahoma prairie and the opening of the Western frontier.

1 videocassette (125 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2729

City lights 1931

Combining wonderful comedy in the finest Chaplin tradition and evocative drama, the Little Tramp falls in love with a beautiful, blind flower girl. The final scene, in which the girl discovers the true identity of her benefactor, is a poignant encounter that has been landed as one of the most memorable and moving moments in film comedy.

1 videocassette (87 min.) :

MEDIA DANA 2-1249 892

Coney Island 1917

This light comedy depicts an amusing day at Coney Island and stars Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton.

1 videocassette (20 min.) :

MEDIA D-214

Cops 1922

A comedy of error and circumstance in which Buster Keaton attempts to win his sweetheart's hand in marriage by becoming a successful businessman. His exploits climax in a confrontation with an entire police precinct.

1 reel, 20 min. :

MEDIA 3-115

The Crowd 1928

Episodes in the life of a city clerk.

1 videocassette (98 min.) :

MEDIA 2-711

Dames 1984

Musical extravaganza surrounding the story of three relatives who stand to inherit a multi-millionaire's money if they turn against his pet hate, the theater.

1 videocassette (VHS) (90 min.) :

DANA 92

Dancing mothers 1926

Comedy-drama in which a "flapper" daughter and "modern" husband are surprised when their mother/wife begins to pursue an independent and socially stylish life style.

1 videocassette (70 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1384

The Dentist (Motion picture) 1932

A comedy short in which Fields struggles with a golf game, several dental patients, and his daughter, who wants to run away with the ice man.

25 min. sd. b&w. 16 mm

MEDIA 3-67

Dinner at eight 1933

Burke plays a Park Avenue snob who assembles a motley group for a dinner party in honor of a visiting English peer. All of the guests have problems of their own which come out over the dinner conversation.

1 videocassette (111 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1316

Dinner at eight 1985

Burke plays a Park Avenue snob who assembles a motley group for a dinner party in honor of a visiting English peer. All of the guests have problems of their own which come out over the dinner conversation.

1 videocassette (VHS) (111 min.) :

DOUGLASS 58

The Divorcée 1991

1 videocassette (95 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2756

Duck soup 1933

A pointed political satire, Duck soup is the Marx Brothers' funniest and most insane film containing many of the Brothers' most famous sequences: the lemonade stand, a masterpiece of slow burn ; the Paul Revere parody ; the "We're Going to War" number, a beautiful spoof of 1930's musicals ; the mirror scene, most famous of all ; and a final battle episode that has been copied by everyone from Woody Allen to Mad Magazine.

1 videocassette (70 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 681 2-46

Duke is tops 1994

Lena Horne, in her film debut, plays a successful singer who very nearly loses her man because his career as a producer is on the skids.

1 videocassette (72 min.) :

DANA 597

The Duke is tops ; Black and tan 1995

"Duke is tops" is the story of a young singer, the "Bronze Nightingale" (Horne) who, along with her lover and producer, Duke, tour with a road show called "Sepia Scandals." Horne is later discovered by a talent agent who wants her to go solo. "Black and tan" is a showcase for Duke Ellington's piano playing genius. Features such hits as "The Duke steps out," "Black beauty," and the "Black and tan fantasy.".

1 videocassette (94 min.) :

JAZZ 312

Easy street 1916-

Charlie, in the role of a reformed derelict, becomes a policeman and cleans up Easy Street, the toughest section of the city.

1 film reel (20 min.) :

MEDIA 3-99

The Emperor Jones 1933

An opportunistic young man deposes the local ruler of a Caribbean island and, after declaring himself emperor, proceeds to exploit and torture his subjects.

1 videocassette (72 min.) :

MEDIA 2-742

Every day's a holiday 1993

Peaches O'Day (Mae West) is a con artist who befriends a cop, Captain Jim McCarey (Edmund Lowe). As usual, Mae causes a commotion as she deftly maneuvers her way through a battle between the good and the corrupt.

1 videocassette (79 min.)

JAZZ 429

Flesh and the Devil 1926

Best friends fall for the same woman and resort to a duel.

1 videocassette (103 min.) :

MEDIA 2-710

Foolish wives 1922

A fake count seduces and then blackmails rich women in Monte Carlo. Eventually, a wealthy American arrives with a pretty wife. Unsuccessful attempts at seduction lead to a suicidal note, duel challenge, and rape.

1 videocassette (107 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1214

Freaks 1990

The side-show freaks have created their own unified community within the carnival. When the beautiful trapeze artist married one of the freaks for his money, and then plots to kill him, the enraged freaks defend their friend and take gruesome revenge on their betrayers, transforming the aerialist into the most hideous side-show attraction of all.

1 videocassette (65 min.) :

MEDIA 2-3593

The Front page 1931

The original film version of the Hecht-MacArthur play about a battling newspaper reporter and his editor in Chicago.

1 videocassette (102 min.) :

DANA 50

The General 1927

A comedy based on a U.S. Civil War incident in which the General, a Confederate railroad supply engine, is hijacked by Union spies.

1 videocassette (76 min.) :

MEDIA 2-322

The General 1927

A comedy based on a U.S. Civil War incident in which the General, a Confederate railroad supply engine, is hijacked by Union spies.

1 videocassette (80 min.) : 1 videocassette (76 min.) :

MEDIA MEDIA 2-172 2-322

Gold diggers of 1933 1933

Musical comedy which pictures a group of chorus girls in search of millionaire husbands. A series of cine-ballets, enhanced by the artistic use of the camera, augment the story line.

1 videocassette (98 min.) :

MEDIA 2-97

Gold diggers of 1935 1935

Dick Powell stars as a young medical student working his way through school as a hotel clerk. The shenanigans begin when a wealthy society matron asks Dick to be a summer escort for her beautiful daughter.

1 videocassette (96 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 1357 2-827

The Gold rush 1925

Charlie Chaplin stars as a Klondike prospector who faces the arctic wilderness in the Alaskan Gold Rush of 1890. Starvation, bears, a crazed partner, and unrequited love fail to dismy the "Little Tramp".

1 videocassette (82 min.) :

MEDIA 2-146

Gone with the wind 1988

A winner of ten Academy Awards, based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel. A monumental historical film set in Civil War times, covering the lives of Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, Melanie Hamilton, Ashley Wilkes and so on. A classic and a legend of an unprecedented film.

2 videocassettes (VHS) (231 min.) :

DANA. DANA. DANA. DANA. MEDIA. MEDIA 63 cassette 1 63 cassette 1 63 cassette 2 63 cassette 2 2-500 cassette 1 2-501 cassette 2

Grand Hotel 1932

Portrays patrons of Berlin's Grand Hotel--Garbo is a world-weary ballerina, John Barrymore is a Baron who must resort to cat burglary for cash and Lionel Barrymore is a dying man who wants to spend his last days in style.

1 videocassette (112 min.) :

MEDIA 2-925

The Great Ziegfeld 1989

A biography of the theatrical impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.

2 videocassettes (177 min.) :

MEDIA. MEDIA 2-2753 2-2754

Greed 1924

Set in California in 1908, it chronicles the moral decline of three people brought on by the dehumanizing influence of money.

1 videocassette (133 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1229

The green pastures 1993

An all-Black cast presents Marc Connelly's religious allegory, based on the premise of a Southern Black preacher telling Bible stories to his Sunday school class in terms of the world they are familiar with.

1 videocassette (90 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6201

Hallelujah 1993

An all-Black cast film which depicts the life of a rural southern Black family written according to racist stereotypes prevalent at the time. Themes show illiterate Black plantation life, singing, dancing and gambling, religious beliefs and procedures, including a special baptism sequence, jealousy, greed, pride, and the relationships between men and women in a "sinful environment," including pre-marital sex, illegitimate children, etc.

1 videocassette (90 min.) :

JAZZ. MEDIA 391 2-5938

Harlem rides the range 1994

A sagebrush singer's two-gun law is all that stands between the claim-jumpimg villains and the heroine and her father's uranium mine.

1 videocassette (58 min.) :

DANA 593

Hell's hinges 1916

A weak preacher and his saintly sister go West to Hell's Hinges to establish a parish for him far from the temptations of the Eastern city. The minister, however, succumbs to temptation, while his sister converts the worst of the gunslingers.

1 videocassette (65 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1299

Holiday 1987

A high-spirited social climber (Grant) becomes engaged to a wealthy socialite, but finds her sister (Hepburn) more to his liking in this sparkling romantic comedy directed by George Cukor.

1 videocassette (VHS) (94 min.) :

DOUGLASS 60

Imitation of life 1934

Bea, an entrepreneurial single mother, and her housemaid Delilah build a fortune together-- but success doesn't save them from sorrow in the passing years. Delilah's daughter rejects her mother and her race, while Bea must choose between the man she loves and the daughter who loves him too.

1 videocassette (111 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 1464 2-3642

Intermezzo 1992

A young pianist has an affair with a renowned violinist, who leaves his family so they can be together. Sublimely happy for a while, they become haunted by their past actions and the fact that their joy has been built on the misery of others.

1 videocassette (70 min.) :

MEDIA 2-3449

It 1991

Story of a romance between a clerk and the owner of the store where she is employed.

1 videodisc (72 min.) :

MEDIA 7-131

It happened one night 1934

Colbert plays a runaway heiress and Gable an unemployed journalist who helps her in the cross country flight via bus and by hitchhiking.

1 videocassette (105 min.) ;

MEDIA 2-151

The Jazz singer 1991

A melodramatic story of a Jewish cantor's son (Al Jolson) who aspires to be a jazz singer despite his father's objection and religious tradition. In motion picture history, this marks the first feature film to utilize synchronous sound. Jolson's songs include "Toot, toot, tootsie", "Blue skies", and "Mammy".

1 videocassette (89 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2845

Judge Priest 1990

Based on a collection of short stories by Irvin S. Cobb, originally entitled Old Judge Priest, this is the story of a Southern judge, Judge Priest, portrayed by Will Rogers, who exhibited in his courtroom a great deal of tolerance and wisdom, two attributes that had almost vanished in the dark days after the Civil War.

1 videocassette (81 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2847

King of jazz 1995

Production numbers include: Rhapsody in blue (Complete jazz symphony) -- Song of the dawn -- Ragamuffin Romeo -- Happy feet -- Bench in the park -- Melting potA lavish jazz Revue with music by George Gershwin, played out against breathtaking backgrounds in addition to comedy sketches, blackouts and individual song, dance and novelty specialties.

1 videocassette (93 min.) :

JAZZ 366

The King of kings 1992

A reverent dramatization of the great events of the New Testament.

1 videodisc (112 min.) :

MEDIA 7-69

Little Caesar 1997

Cesare, alias Rico Bandello and his cohort Joe Massara, head for the big city looking for power and quick riches. A determined man, he ruthlessly pushes his way to the top of the mob.

1 videocassette (ca. 79 min.)

DANA 1937

The Lost world 1925

The lost world [with accompanying photos and trailer] -- Prehistoric poultry : the dinornis or great roasting whiffenpoof -- R.F.D., 10,000 B.C. : a mannikin comedy -- The dinosaur and the missing link : a prehistoric tragedy -- Monsters of the past : Pathé reviewA British expedition to the Amazon in search of a marooned explorer encounters living dinosaurs. One is brought back to London, where it escapes and wrecks havoc on the city. This videocassette release of the film also features descriptions and still photos of missing scenes, photos of the film's producers, an original trailer, and several shorts about prehistoric times which used the same animation techniques.

1 videocassette (90 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2567

Lying lips 1993

The story of a night club singer who is unjustly convicted and sent to prison for the murder of her aunt and the two men who set out to prove her innocence.

1 videocassette (60 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2742

The mask of Fu Manchu 1992

The evil Chinese doctor patiently awaits to discover Gengis Khan's tomb. When British scientists discover the tomb, Fu captures and tortures them one by one. But an unsuspected traitor has other plans for the doctor.

1 videocassette (ca. 67 min.)

MEDIA 2-6753

Night after night 1932

1 videocassette (73 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2356

A night at the opera 2000

Groucho's outrageous business schemes bring Milan's finest opera stars to New York, with some unexpected stowaways on board--Harpo and Chico. The three of them create a near-riot on the ship, a scandal in New York, and an evening of insanity in the concert hall that the opera world will never forget.

1 videocassette (92 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6192

Ninotchka 1939

A comedy in which a dour Soviet official (Garbo) comes to Paris on business involving the sale of some czarist jewels. Business soon turns to pleasure, however, as she discovers the special magic of Paris and finds herself succumbing to the charms of a suave Frenchman (Douglas). Inevitably, Ninotchka must choose between love and duty.

1 videocassette (108 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1566

One A. M 1916-

Charlie, in evening dress and top hat, comes home drunk to a house full of nightmarish objects that seem to attack him; but he never loses his dignity.

1 film reel (20 min.) :

MEDIA 3-97

Only angels have wings 1939

Howard Hawks' film about mail pilots in a South American country. The film focuses on Hawks' somewhat Hemingwayesque concepts of professionalism and masculinity.

1 videocassette (121 min.) :

MEDIA 2-670

Our daily bread 198?

Depression movie about a collective farm and its development as a rural community of the unemployed. The unemployed portrayed include a jobless city couple, a Swedish farmer and his family, and other victims of the industrial-financial collapse.

1 videocassette (VHS) (73 min.) :

MEDIA 2-234

Pawnshop 1916-

Charlie, as a pawnshop assistant, becomes involved with a number of unusual customers, a rival assistant, and the pawnbroker's daughter.

1 film reel (25 min.) :

MEDIA 3-98

Pennies from heaven 2003

A drifter befriends an orphaned girl and her grandfather in Middletown, New Jersey. Features music and lyrics by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston including "Pennis from heaven", "So do I", "Skeleton in the closet", and "Let's call a heart a heart".

1 videodisc (81 min.)

JAZZ 14

Public enemy 1931

The rise and fall of a prohibition era gangster.

1 videocassette (83 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1204

Public enemy 2000

The story of a hoodlum and his climb from petty criminal to big time gangster.

1 videocassette (84 min.)

DANA 1925

Reefer madness 1994?

A sincere but campy exploration of the evils of marijuana. High school kids get hooked on marijuana, which leads to wild behavior, accidents and finally to death and murder. Antiquated film that has become somewhat of a cult classic.

1 videocassette (69 min.) :

MEDIA 2-3592

The rink 1916-

The rink (1916, 20 min.) -- Easy street (1917, 20 min.) -- Pawnshop (1916, 25 min.) -- One A.M. (1916, 20 min.)The rink: Charlie, an inventive though hazardous waiter, spends his lunch hour at a roller-skating rink. Havoc ensues at the roller rink and Charlie escapes by hooking his cane onto a passing car. Easy street: Charlie, in the role of a reformed derelict, becomes a policeman and cleans up Easy Street, the toughest section of the city. Pawnshop: Charlie, as a pwenshop assistant, becomes involved with a number of unusual customers. One A.M.: Charlie comes home drunk to a housse full of nightmarish objects that seem to attack him.

1 videocassette (ca. 85 min.) :

MEDIA D-402

The roaring twenties 2000

A World War I veteran (Cagney) returns to New York, innocently becomes involved in bootlegging, builds up an empire and dies in a gang war.

1 videocassette (106 min.)

DANA 1923

Room service 1938

Groucho is a broke producer stalling to avoid eviction from his hotel room ... by hook or crook!

1 videocassette :

MEDIA 2-669

Sadie Thompson 1928

Stranded passengers on Pago Pago during an epidemic including Sadie Thompson, a prostitute and a reformer whose lust for her masquerades has a desire to save her soul. Unable to accept his sin, Alfred Davidson cuts his throat and Sadie goes to Sydney with an admiring marine.

1 videocassette (97 min.) :

MEDIA 2-831

She done him wrong 1933

Mae West plays Lady Lou, tough but with a heart of gold. Dallying with ex-lovers, ex-cons and ex-cited beaus, she cloaks suitors in amorous compliance.

1 videocassette (65 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2340

The Sheik 1921

Valentino stars as Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan in the role that made him a silent film legend. Ahmed abducts the beautiful Lady Diana Mayo (Ayres) and brings her to his camp, but Diana refuses to succumb to his charms.

1 videocassette (79 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1969

Show boat 1990

"Edna Ferber's classic tale of life and love among a theatrical troupe on a Mississippi riverboat...."--Container.

1 videocassette (115 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5936

Stagecoach 1939

Nine disparate travelers are thrust together in a perilous journey, a ride on a stagecoach destined for Apache territory.

1 videodisc (97 min.)

DANA 100

A Star is born 1993

A young actress meets and marries Hollywood's leading man and through him begins her rise to stardom. Unfortunately, the waxing of her career marks the waning of his, with eventual tragic consequences.

1 videocassette (112 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2849

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle 1939

The story of the famous dance team, Vernon and Irene Castle, and their meteoric rise to stardom.

1 videocassette (93 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1493

Sunrise a song of two humans 1926-

The story of a young farmer who comes near murdering his wife, only to love her more in the end.

1 videocassette (ca. 110 min.) :

MEDIA 2-588

Sylvia Scarlett 1935

Comedy in which a young woman dressed as a boy, and her father flee from France to England where they meet a vagabond petty thief with whom they form a traveling musical show.

1 videocassette (94 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1221

Teddy at the throttle ; Speeding along 1917

"Teddy at the throttle" is a 1916 Sennett-Keystone comedy. The heroine is chained to a railroad track by the villan and is rescued by her hero Teddy, a dog. "Speeding along" is a silent film about a man driving his car, speeding along, all over a farm, when stopped by two men who tell him a secret. It results in the two men chasing the man and his woman friend, and each encountering mishaps along the way.

1 videocassette (62 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1407

Ten nights in a bar-room 1996

Story of a well-respected man who avoids the local saloon until by chance he succumbs to drink and his life falls apart.

1 videocassette (72 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6199

They shall have music 1939

A young juvenile delinquent in trouble at home and with the law becomes involved in a music school which teaches youngsters of poor parents. The school's backer wants to make a profit from the school and threatens to close it if they don't keep up with the rent and payments on the instruments. At the last moment Jascha Heifetz is talked into giving his support to the school.

1 videocassette (102 min.) :

MUSIC 359

Tillie's punctured romance 1914

A comedy in which a city-slicker woos a country maiden hoping to win her hand and the fortune she's inherited.

1 videocassette (38 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1227

The time machine 1987

An inventor who has developed a "time machine" travels to the distant future, and finds a joyless society after centuries of endless wars.

1 videocassette (VHS) (103 min.) :

DANA 74

Top hat 1935

Rogers and Astaire are caught up in a mistaken-identity plot, in which Rogers assumes that Astaire is already married and is alternately charmed and disgusted by Astaire's advances.

1 videocassette (97 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5937

Topper 1937

George and Marion Kirby, victims of an auto accident, return as playful ghosts to torment a milquetoast character, Cosmo Topper.

1 videocassette (97 min.) :

MEDIA 2-668

Twentieth century 1934

John Barrymore stars as Oscar Jaffe, a maniacal Broadway director who discovers Lily Garland (Lombard) behind a department store counter and transforms her into a smashing success.

1 videocassette (91 min.) :

MEDIA 2-747

Two gun man from Harlem 1938

A singing cowboy wrongfully framed for murder ends up in Harlem. He assumes the identity of a look-alike murdered gangster and joins a gang to catch the men who framed him.

1 videocassette (60 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6198

Underworld 199

A young Black man who recently graduated from a Southern college is presuaded to come to Chicago with a gambler. He travels in Black underworld circles, falls for a vamp and is framed for murder before finding a better life.

1 videocassette (83 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6195

Winterset 1983

On the New York waterfront, a drifter is determined to find the men responsible for the crime his father paid for with his life.

1 videocassette (77 min.) :

MEDIA 2-3052

The Wizard of Oz 1985

Tossed "over the rainbow" by a Kansas twister, Dorothy finds herself in a very different land. She learns that the only person who can help her get home is the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. So, with three delightful friends and her little dog Toto, Dorothy sets off for the mysterious Emerald City pursued by the Wicked Witch of the West.

1 videocassette (101 min.) :

MEDIA. DANA 2-493 102

Young Mr. Lincoln 1988

Ten formative years in the life of one of the United States' greatest statesmen are brought vividly and memorably to the screen with Fonda as the young backwoods lawyer who puts integrity and a wonderful sense of humor to work for his fellow man.

1 videocassette (100 min.) :

MEDIA 2-650