A world-famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he is horrified to learn they once belonged to a murderer.
Henry Wilton is an elderly millionaire saddled with his selfish young second wife Emmy 'Sweetie' Wilton and a pair of spoiled grown children, Peggy and Eddie. To test his family's mettle, Henry pretends to have gone broke. Just as he suspected they would, his children rally to their father's side and change their ways: Peggy forsakes the fortune hunter George Struthers for the nice young man she's really in love with, the polo coach Larry Rivers, while Eddie applies for a demanding job and performs admirably. Only Sweetie seems to desert Henry.
After hours, individuals on various magazine covers in a drugstore come to life and sing, speak, or perform. Caricature celebrity depictions include George Arliss, Eddie Cantor, Sonja Henie, Benito Mussolini, Ignacy Paderewski, Edward G. Robinson, Will Rogers, and Ed Wynn. A robbery sequence features bad guys breaking into the cash register and Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on the case. King Kong also makes an appearance. A Merrie Melody cartoon.
A young lady named Hilda who works as a servant for the wealthy Clarksons, sheep farmers, and dreams of being a great singer. An upcoming visit by Sir Julian, a famous composer arriving from London, drives jealous Mrs. Clarkson (an interfering biddy who fancies she can sing - but can't) to send away Hilda, so he doesn't hear Hilda has a good voice. Meanwhile, an infamous outlaw named Stingaree has just arrived in town and kidnaps Sir Julian, then poses as him at the Clarksons, where he meets Hilda a few hours before she is to leave.
Young Austrian Archduke Paul "Gustl" Gustave is in an arranged engagement but his uncle, the emperor, decides to let Gustl carry on a fling with ballet dancer Lisl Gluck.
An insane surgeon's obsession with an actress leads him to replace her wounded pianist husband's hands with the hands of a knife murderer--hands which still have the urge to throw knives.
Aging composer Franz Liszt lives in an abbey. On his birthday, a priest brings him a box that was just delivered; there is no return address. In the box he finds a single flower. The flower brings back memories of his lost love of long ago, who inspired him to compose his unforgettable melodies.
A famous concert pianist unhappily married to a woman who suffers from mental illness falls in love with a waitress.
A physician on death row for a mercy killing is allowed to experiment on a serum using a criminals' blood, but secretly tests it on himself. He gets a pardon, but finds out he's become a Jekyll-&-Hyde.
Pianists Charlie Kunz and Mark Hambourg tickle the ivories for our entertainment in this jolly musical short.
College student, cattle baron, confused love story.
Former concert pianist, victim of Nazi torture, pursues a confused, melancholic existence on the island of Guadalupe.
Prof. Joseph Elsner guides his protégé Frydryk Chopin through his formative years to early adulthood in Poland. The professor takes him to Paris, where he eventually comes under the wing and influence of novelist George Sand and rises to prominence in the music world, to the exclusion of his old friends and patriotic feelings towards Poland.
A concert pianist with amnesia fights to regain her memory.
When Bugs Bunny attempts to perform Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody, he is troubled by a mouse.
A classical musician from a working class background is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.
Locals in an Italian village believe evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist where murder has taken place. The alleged killer: the pianist's severed hand.
A young Irishwoman comes to the United States to live and work with her mother as a cleaning lady at Carnegie Hall. She becomes attached to the place as the people she meets there gradually shape her life. The film also includes a variety of performances from some of the foremost musical artists of the times: conductors Bruno Walter & Leopold Stokowski, solists Arthur Rubinstein & Jascha Haifetz, singers Lily Pons & Jan Peerce and bandleader Vaughn Monroe among many others.
Somerset Maugham introduces four of his tales in this anthology film: "The Facts of Life," "The Alien Corn," "The Kite," and "The Colonel's Lady."
Joan Grey is a young pianist that falls for the good manners and nice clothes of a gang of mobsters. She is warned by Mark Hampton, an investigator, that she is associating with gangsters and she is heading for trouble. She refuses to believe him and becomes innocently involved in some robberies and killings.