Behind-the-scenes footage showing Alice Guy directing an early sound film.
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.
Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.
The owners of a movie studio are having problems with a temperamental director, and they promise an actor on one of his pictures that he can have the job if he can find a way to make the director leave the picture.
Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.
Pompeyo and Rodolfo work in a newspaper, but they dream of becoming film actors, so they go to a casting for an American film that will be shot in Madrid for a few days; but things will not turn out as they expect…
The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. It was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release and includes a brief history of Paramount, interviews with various actors, and clips from upcoming projects (some of which never came to fruition). The title comes from a biography of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, The House That Shadows Built (1928), by William Henry Irwin.
The story follows a movie crew who is filming a musical in a small and idyllic alpine village. After their temperamental leading lady drops out of the film, they decide to replace her with the village's young post office clerk Gretl, who returns to Berlin with them. There she has to struggle with the movie's all-male crew, who all try to woo and win her.
A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, his acting ability is non-existent.
Adventurous filmmaker Carl Denham sets out to produce a motion picture unlike anything the world has seen before. Alongside his leading lady Ann Darrow and his first mate Jack Driscoll, they arrive on an island and discover a legendary creature said to be neither beast nor man. Denham captures the monster to be displayed on Broadway as King Kong, the eighth wonder of the world.
Promoter "Smoothie" King helps a pair of phonies con their way into a movie company. As Wanda heads toward stardom, she turns more and more from King toward the matinée idol. King must decide between his plans and her happiness.
In this short film, an elderly cameraman and his camera reminisce about their days shooting silent films and news stories.
This short shows the entrances of the various Hollywood studios, then specifically visits Warner Bros. / First National Studios. We start at the casting office, then see Busby Berkeley and choreographer Bobby Connolly working with chorus girls on production numbers. Then come some candid shots of several contract stars. Finally we see comedian Hugh Herbert filming a scene for an upcoming release, then the various behind the scenes steps that transition the raw film in the camera into the finished product.
W.C.Fields enters the Warmer Bros. Studio. Beans tries to drive in, but the guard throws him and his car against a tree. Charlie Chaplin drives in, followed by Oliver Hardy on foot - but we see that it's really Beans in disguise. Oliver Owl is directing a picture; Beans sneaks onto the stage. He's watching from a catwalk when someone knocks him off, into the middle of the scene. Beans is thrown off the set, right into the set of a Frankenstein movie. He accidentally brings the robotic monster to life, and it crashes into the original studio, eating the camera. Beans tries to stop the monster, but is sent flying. He lands against a wind machine. which chops up the monster.
The star of "Song of the Toreador" receives threatening messages that he will not survive the preview screening of the film. The studio publicist works with the Director, the Producer and the police, to discover who is behind the threats.
Hyman Goldberger, the president of film studio Super-Colossal Pictures, is in trouble--his major backer is threatening to stop financing his pictures. He finds a group of six wealthy individuals who may want to become investors in the studio if his disgruntled backer pulls out. Unfortunately, his bumbling runner Albert picks that day to invite six of his street musician friends to be in the film that is currently shooting at the studio, and Hyman mistakes them for the potential investors. Complications ensue.
Esther Blodgett is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at a Hollywood party, she catches the eye of her idol Norman Maine, is sent for a screen test, and before long attains stardom as newly minted Vicki Lester. She and Norman marry, though his career soon dwindles to nothing due to his chronic alcoholism.
Wonder Pictures has been striking out at the box office lately, causing the seedy PR man to involve main star Annabel in ever outrageous stunts for publicity.
Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.
The story of the adventures and entanglements of the son of a famous film producer who is forced to study law.