Allan Dwan

A 1980 documentary series exploring the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture.

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

In old Spanish California, dashing cattleman Juan Obregon returns to the rancho of his friend Gaspar Melo, to find he's fathered a son on Rosa, one of Gaspar's identical twin daughters. Overjoyed, he plans to formalize his "unofficial" marriage. But trouble brews; Melo's land is of unclear title and the new Don Domingo hopes to grab it for his own profit. Violence results. Without even knowing who survived, Juan (accompanied by Rosa's tomboy sister Tonya) rides for revenge, through spectacular pastoral and wilderness scenery.

Heidi is orphaned and her uncaring maternal Aunt Dete takes her to the mountains to live with her reclusive, grumpy paternal grandfather, Adolph Kramer. Heidi brings her grandfather back into mountain society through her sweet ways and sheer love. When Dete later returns and steals Heidi away to become the companion of a rich man's wheelchair-bound daughter, the grandfather is heartsick to discover his little girl missing and immediately sets out to get her back.

Amid big-budget medieval pageantry, King Richard goes on the Crusades leaving his brother Prince John as regent, who promptly emerges as a cruel, grasping, treacherous tyrant. Apprised of England's peril by message from his lady-love Marian, the dashing Earl of Huntingdon endangers his life and honor by returning to oppose John, but finds himself and his friends outlawed, with Marian apparently dead. Enter Robin Hood, acrobatic champion of the oppressed, laboring to set things right through swashbuckling feats and cliffhanging perils!

An orphan helps a doctor fight an epidemic in a small western town, in one of Allan Dwan’s closely observed studies in Americana.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

Sierra Nevada Jones must fight a villainous rancher to regain the land that is rightfully hers.

Wendy Ballantine's parents decide to retire from show biz so she can have a normal life. They are unwelcome in the small town until a storm lets the family show their stuff.

Crusoe, defying his parents, goes to sea, gets shipwrecked, becomes the sole survivor on a deserted island, and builds a new life by salvaging supplies from the wreck, including a dog and cat, creating a fortified home, and learning to survive through hard work and faith, all while battling fear and isolation before eventually encountering 'Friday' and dealing with the intrusion of civilization.

On an ocean liner crossing a professional gambler comes to the aid of a naive young man victimized by a jewel thief. The young man turns out to be his son he's not seen since infancy.

Haunted by personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker is hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker's rigid form of discipline.

Philip and Cynthia Grey are a pair of recently-wed Bostonians, and Cynthia is properly back-bay no-action quiet and dowdy, and Philip resigns himself to the quietness (no action) regularity of their home. But then along comes a blonde, Peggy Nash, who adds some action and outside-regularity to Philip's life. Cynthia is somewhat upset at this turn of events, and decides to go to Paris - the Wickedest City in the World - and get a quiet divorce. Cynthia soon finds out that Paris is a really gay city, especially after Henri de Briac, shows up and offers to be her guide to the delights of Paris (primarily him). Cynthia quickly sheds some of her dowdy ways and dowdy clothes, and is having herself what was once quaintly described as a gay old time. Philip then shows up in Paris, deciding he wants Cynthia back as his wife, and Peggy shows up right behind him and, soon, it is up to Henri to make the pairing-arrangements for the foursome.

A crusading sportswriter exposes racketeers involved in paying off fighters to throw their matches.

A murderous thief on the run with stolen loot forces a poor rancher to guide him across the desert into Mexico. Accompanying them is the rancher's wife, who happens to be the killer's former girlfriend.

Zaza is an actress and the favorite at an open-air theater in a small French town. When diplomat Bernard Dufresne comes to the village, he stays away for fear he will fall for her. But during one performance, while Zaza is singing on a swing, her rival cuts the rope and she falls. Zaza is badly injured and she makes Dufresne's acquaintance. A romance quickly springs up and he installs her in a villa. Their happiness is marred, however, when his wife appears.

Naomi is a young aspiring artist known to her Bohemian friends as "The Nut." Naomi's alleged nuttiness does not in any way impede the efforts by wealthy Frederick Harmon to make the unworldly heroine his bride. When their first baby is born, Naomi becomes so obsessed with motherhood that she completely ignores poor Harmon, who, to offset his loneliness, begins squiring the vampish Helen Carew. Helen manages to convince Harmon that Naomi has been unfaithful, leading inevitably to divorce-court litigation.

A lost film. As described in a film magazine Exhibitors Herald on March 16, 1918: "a forest ranger known only as Headin' South (Fairbanks) goes forth in search of Spanish Joe (Campeau), a Mexican responsible for most of the treachery and outlawry along the U.S.-Mexican boarder. Headin' South gains quite a reputation as he goes along and finally believes himself worthy of joining Joe's band. in a whirlwind finish in which Joe is captured, Headin' South meets one of Joe's near victims (MacDonald) and falls in love with her."

Rebecca's Uncle Harry leaves her with Aunt Miranda who forbids her to associate with show people. But neighbor Anthony Kent is a talent scout who secretly set it up for her to broadcast.

Dan Ballard, a respected citizen in the western town of Silver Lode, has his wedding interrupted by four men led by Ned McCarty, an old acquaintance who, as a US Marshal, arrests Ballard for the murder of his brother and the theft of $20,000. Ballard seeks to stall McCarty while tracking down evidence that will prove his innocence.