Writing
Duke Fergus falls for Ann 'Flaxen' Tarry in the Barbary Coast in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. He loses money to crooked gambler Boss Tito Morell, goes home, learns to gamble, and returns. After he makes a fortune, he opens his own place with Flaxen as the entertainer; but the 1906 quake destroys his place.
Easter, a soldier of fortune and gunrunner, leaves his family behind escaping from the authorities and an American detective named Mason. His globe hopping escape leads him finally to South America, where he is hired to organize a band of revolutionaries, unaware that they plan to eliminate him when his job is done.
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break is a 1941 film about a man who wants to sell a film story to Esoteric Studios. On the way he gets insulted by little boys, beaten up for ogling a woman, and abused by a waitress. W. C. Fields' last starring role in a feature-length film.
After America enters World War I, young William "Bill" Jones tries to avoid military service by telling the draft board that he is the sole supporter of his family and is employed by businessman Roger Winthrop, his sister Helen's boss.
In 1890 Minnesota Christine Powell is the scheming head of the Powell dynasty, the richest mining empire of the era. But the Powell mine deposits are diminishing. The Mesabi range represents a whole new productive area but the rights to mine there are held by a young geological engineer, Kyle Ramlo. The latter reaches an impasse when he needs money to continue his experimentation with open-pit mining and goes to Miss Powell for financing. She displays great interest in both his inventive mining method and in him personally but secretly plots to destroy him and take over his Masabi rights. The gullible Ramlo falls into clutches while the girl he really loves, Cathy Norlund, tries desperately to open his eyes to Christine's scheme.
A plane crash-lands on a jungle island inhabited by a scientist and his nubile young daughters. Complications ensue.
Young radio personality Judy Joyner becomes mayor of the moribund town, Sleepy Lagoon, after running on an all women ticket and promptly sets out to turn the town around.
A priest relates the tale of his friend, a WWI veteran, to the Post-War Planning Committee. Unable to get a job upon his return from the war, he puts off his marriage and works for a bootlegger. He is forced to take a rap for his boss, goes to prison, and forms a gang.
