Leo Donnelly

Based on the Hammett novel, this ultra-rare film—is nominally taken from the author's classic gang-war novel Red Harvest, which proved too brutal and cynical even for pre-Code Hollywood.

In this short film, an elderly cameraman and his camera reminisce about their days shooting silent films and news stories.

"This Nude World" is a groundbreaking 1932 "documentary" celebrating the age-old tradition of playing volleyball in you socks... and nothing else. The film purports to pose probing questions about the morality of nudist colonies o cover its actual aim of getting naked people on screen... primarily in long shots. A highlight of the film is the peeks at the phenomena in Germany, France (including Lido de Paris) and the United States along with wonderful pre-WWII footage of the cities visited A real hoot. It passed the National Board of Review in 1932.

A man, his wife and his overgrown son visit a penny arcade, where he drops a penny in the moviola and he (and we) watch The Perfectly Formed Woman (1910), and another penny to watch The Song of the Wildwood Flutes (1910). The man encounters the disdain of his goody-two-shoes plump wife because of his lascivious ogling.

In this short film, Robert L. Ripley introduces narrator Leo Donnelly who presents various "Believe It or Not" oddities from around the world as gathered by Ripley. Segments include a NYC clothier that caters to very large men and circus elephant grooming. Vitaphone No. 1363.

'Blind Bob' has written a song and the folks at the music publishing company think that Joe Frisco, his old friend from the Bowery is just right for it. So we see Joe at stage doing his peddler routine. He goes over to the publishing company, where he flirts with a girl act, and then tries out some eccentric dancing to the new song, which happens to be 'Get Happy.'

This omnibus of film clips include a Savanna golf course made from Civil War trenches, wooden Indians used ourside cigar stores, an American Indian artist from South Dakota who paints upside down, the smallest residence house, a Bronx River statue with mysterious Civil War origins, the Ocean Grove community in New Jersey that closes on Sundays and a futuristic automated parking garage. Vitaphone No. 1364.

An office with two stuffy guys of the music business, one of them Mac who says to "keep that dame away," when Trixie Brown has come by to sing for them, and he thinks she's awful. But when Trixie barges in on her own, Mac turns on his friendly face and tells her to wait in room number three, where he'll be in to listen to her. He then passes through the tin pan alley offices, quickly side-tracked when he sees Lee Morse with a piano man practicing a number.

Noted team of detective and criminologist solve the murder of a new bride, in her compartment, on the train on which they are travelling.

Leo Donnelly in the role of a Broadway columnist who interviews stars, celebrities and wannabees and not-yetbees of the era, supposedly to set the record straight. Paulette Goddard discusses her engagement/non engagement to Charlie Chaplin; Paul Whiteman tells how he had to lose 100 pounds before he got married, and Harry Thaw and Evelyn Nesbit - the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing - tell him what is happening in their lives in December of 1932. Leo then digs up archive footage featuring Gloria Swanson's four husbands...one at a time.

They show clips of Mayor Robert van Wyck and the Jeffries-Fitzsimmons fight and point out how unimportant they were in the 1930s. They also show a cutdown of a comedy starring Kate Price with an annoying voice over commentary provided by Leo Donnelly.

This short humorously recreates the experience of going to a nickelodeon during the silent film era, using footage of silent films and sarcastic narration.

Robert Ripley presents a well-dressed cocktail party an assortment of drawings and film clips showing the world's youngest parents and the largest bible. Vitaphone No. 1362.

Pressed into service, an inept comedian offers a burlesque on Helen Morgan.

This entry of the series does not feature Robert Ripley, who is away gathering material on his tours. Leo Donnelly narrates various odds and ends like a church service held on a river in boats, one of the largest sculptures in the world, sand art in bottles and a man who pulls cars with his hair. This episode also has a greater amount of "critter" material: chickens learn to be aquatic thanks to a training duck, another hen adopts puppies as her own, the Australian platypus is discussed and a motorized blacksmith and we see a horse with double-hoof. Vitaphone No. 1410.

In Robert L. Ripley's absence, Leo Donnelly acts as the guide to the unusual from around the world. A group of people in the Philippines are moving a house, foundation and all, six miles, by carrying it on their backs. A one-armed boat builder demonstrates the water crafts he has devised for his disability. A junk in China propelled by treadmill propeller. Dwarf trees in Japan, some as old as 700 years. Also in Japan, chickens are shown with tail feathers measuring up to twenty-five feet in length. A sun dial in Manila is the world's largest at 30 feet in height and 65 feet in length. A group of church goers in Luxembourg are dancing as a ritual toward good health. Livestock with unusual physical attributes are shown. Tree limbs are displayed in Tacoma, Washington that form an alphabet. The world's largest collection of the smallest books. And celebrity footprints displayed outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater. Vitaphone No. 1427.