Hollywood

The lives of a disparate group of contestants intertwine in a grueling and inhumane dance marathon.

An art director in the 1930s falls in love and attempts to make a young woman an actress despite Hollywood who wants nothing to do with her because of her problems with an estranged man and her alcoholic father.

Wild melodrama in Hollywood.

Three girls apply for maid jobs at a resort but are taken for royalty when a telegram about their dog Queenie is intercepted.Film producers vie to put them under contract but selling a script idea finally saves them when the bill comes due.

A surprise engagement party is an additional surprise when the bride-to-be brings home her leading man. This comedy of errors leads to a pie fight on the set.

A farm girl visits her cousin, an out-of-work actress, in Hollywood. Men flock to the fresh-faced newcomer, including the head of a movie studio, whose house they borrow to throw a wild Hollywood party.

A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.

As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.

Two policemen see their personal and professional lives fall apart in the wake of the "Black Dahlia" Elizabeth Short murder investigation.

A detective examines the mysterious death of George Reeves, the star of the television series Adventures of Superman (1952).

A philandering husband at the beach with his wife finds himself driven to distraction by several bathing beauties, who have their eyes on a dimwitted lifeguard.

World-renowned Worldwide Studios (modeled after MGM) has hit hard times and is forced to sell its back lot to Hollywood property developers. The trouble is someone keeps killing off the site surveyors, leaving studio heads in a quandary.

The aspiring actresses get a call offering all three an acting job. The problem is, while celebrating their good fortune, no one asked which studio hired them, so they set off in search of the job.

Marge Clancy leaves her small town and boyfriend Joe behind to strike it big in Hollywood. The only work she can get is stunt doubling. Joe goes after her and causes many messes in the studio.

Semi-true story of the Hollywood murder that occurred at a star-studded gathering aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924.

Three aspiring actresses who take their dreams of being discovered to Hollywood end up rooming together while trying to pay the rent and buy food.

A nostalgic look back to the golden age of Hollywood, featuring film clips of dozens of stars from movies, publicity shoots and home videos.

Charlie is an actor in a film studio. He messes up several scenes and is tossed out. Returning dressed as a lady, he charms the director. Even so, Charlie never makes it into film, winding up at the bottom of a well.

A group of dysfunctional, disappointed actresses congregate in a Hollywood bar circa 1937.

An elderly Charlie Chaplin discusses his autobiography with his editor, recounting his amazing journey from his poverty-stricken childhood to world-wide success after the ingenious invention of the Little Tramp.

Millionaire film producer Gordon Bagley wants to marry Ethel St. John, the leading lady in his latest film. Ethel is in love with Arthur Young, the hero of Bagley's lastest movie. Work on the film starts, and at the preview screening is shown to be disasterous. Ethel then goes away with Arthur, while Gordon runs on a rotating movie set.

Ella Cinders, oppressed and abused by her stepmother and stepsisters, wins a contest for a film role in Hollywood. When the contest turns out to be fraudulent, she determines to stay and achieve Hollywood stardom the hard way.

A small town girl dreams of movie stardom. A switched photo wins her a movie contract. However, when she arrives Hollywood, she is assigned to the props department. Her parents visit and invest some money with a very shifty individual.

A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.

A press agent convinces his boss to sign his girlfriend, June Dale to a studio contract. His relentless publicity stunts to brighten her star drive her into the arms of a wealthy admirer.

A free ticket to a nickelodeon puts stars in Johnny's eyes and launches a journey that leads to the early days of Hollywood. He inspires the theater owner to leap into producing movies, and falls into the arms of a blonde seductress.

In Harold Robbins' fictional account of early Hollywood movie making, pioneer filmmaker Johnny Edge comes to Hollywood in the early 20th century with dreams and helps build the orange-grove community into an entertainment capital.

The immeasurable contribution of DW Griffith and other early filmmakers is delved into by British star actor/director of TV and film, Paul Merton, as he explores the first motion pictures as silent film approached the era of the talkies.

The Roaring Twenties. Talkies. Flappers. Betrayal and greed. Show Biz begins transforming into big business, impacting Peter and Johnny and the family business in ways they never expected.

As Hollywood matures in the late 1910s and into the Roaring Twenties, scandals threaten the new studios. A scandal involving Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle brings the problem to a boiling point.

A short film showing the development of Chaplin Studios & the adventures that take place there.

The history of Mack Sennett Studios and the comedic legacy and timeless stars it left behind.

After WW1, an ex-pilot takes up barn-storming and chance-meets a former German ace fighter pilot with whom he co-stars in Hollywood war movies depicting aerial dog-fights.

The evolution of film from penny arcade curiosity to art form, from The Great Train Robbery, through to The Birth of a Nation. Early Technicolor footage, along with other color technologies, are also featured.

This cartoon, featuring a running-gag throughout of a John Barrymore caricature being mobbed by fan for an autograph, is a burlesqued tour of Hollywood. The narrator conducts a tourist tour all around the town of Hollywood Boulvevard, Malibu Beach, Santa Anita Race Track, the Brown Derby, and Grauman's Chinese theatre.

Hollywood is transformed from a peaceful village with dusty streets and lemon groves to the birthplace of the industry in California. Silent film transcends international boundaries to become a worldwide phenomenon.

A Baron trying to sell Mack Sennett on the idea of starring his new prodigy in one of his films. Set around a swimming pool in which Sennett's bathing beauties and at a glitzy Hollywood nightclub.

The story of a producer's troubles in selecting and "making" a new juvenile star. The opening is in Mack Sennett's private office, with Sennett himself interviewing directors, actors, would-be comedians and lions. A director tells him of a child he has seen and is told to sign him up. After much trouble this is done and the kid becomes a star.

Mounting scandals including drug addiction and murder force the studios to appoint Will Hays as a morals czar to oversee production.

A jealous father thinks his son is after Dad's fiancee and kicks the son out. Working in California, he falls for a girl and runs into his new Mamma with another man. Will our farm boy and his sweetie stop injustice from happening again?

From F. Scott Fitzgerald's last work, The Last Tycoon follows Monroe Stahr, Hollywood's Golden Boy as he battles father figure and boss Pat Brady for the soul of their studio. In a world darkened by the Depression and the growing influence of Hitler's Germany, The Last Tycoon illuminates the passions, violence and towering ambition of 1930s Hollywood.

A star-struck fan of a film star botches his chance to meet her with a wardrobe malfunction. But, did Lester give up so easily? He sneaks onto the movie studio to try and make amends--which does not go exactly as planned.

With Pat Brady's back against the wall, he proves his worth as a studio head in pursuing film star Margo Taft. Monroe must manage two demanding bosses as Louis B. Mayer takes a driving role in Brady American. Rose seeks a new outlet in her life. Celia forms a connection with office boy, Max Miner. Monroe's relationship with Kathleen blossoms as they let their guard down.

Hollywood and its stars support the War effort with propaganda and patriotic films and war bond tours.

Irving Thalberg's death sends shockwaves throughout the industry, and causes further insecurity from Brady about his own golden boy. Monroe risks his budding relationship to save a movie and Brady American. Celia's adjustments to Hackett's script are well received. Rose immerses herself in volunteering, and forges a meaningful bond with a young, lonely patient.

Stahr encourages Kathleen to join Lang's secluded rehearsal, leaving him alone on Christmas Eve to contemplate his choices. Brady hopes for a Christmas miracle as he schemes to boost ticket sales for "Angels on the Avenue." Kathleen must pay a sinister price for stardom. Rose helps Kitty prepare for a dangerous surgery. Celia and Max are brought closer by tragedy.

Centers on Hollywood's first wunderkind studio executive in the 1930s, Monroe Stahr, and the power struggle between him, his mentor, and current head of the studio, Pat Brady.

Charlie is trying to get a job in a movie. After causing difficulty on the set, he is told to help the carpenter. When one of the actors doesn't show, Charlie is given a chance to act but instead enters a dice game. When he does finally act, he ruins the scene, wrecks the set, and tears the skirt from the star.

Charlie is an overworked labourer at a film studio who helps a young woman find work even while his coworkers strike against his tyrannical boss.

A behind-the-scenes look at Thomas H. Ince Studios in Culver City, California.

A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 is given to meet the people who make the movies there and see how movies are made.

Two of the great romantic legends of the silent screen are profiled. Rudolph Valentino's on-screen persona is remarkably different from his real personal life, and Gloria Swanson recalls her meteoric rise and fall with remarkable candor.

Murder during film shoot sparks search for a killer.

A group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood try to make it big - no matter the cost.

Autocratic directors like the martinet Cecil B. DeMille and the idiosyncratic Eric Von Stroheim are highlighted in this episode.

In 1923, facing bankruptcy, film pioneer Georges Méliès burned all the original negatives of his early masterpieces. Almost a century later, dozens of his negatives were discovered in the Library of Congress. How did he do his final trick?

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

The art of silent comedy is highlighted with a focus on the work of the four great clowns of the era: Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Langdon.

Based on the Neil Brand's critically acclaimed radio play of the same name, the drama follows Stan Laurel's last visit to his dying friend and comedy partner Oliver 'Babe' Hardy and Stan's subsequent coming to terms with the ghosts of his past.

The development of the uniquely American film genre, the Western, is shown from its inception with archival footage and interviews with surviving artists.

A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line.

Orson Welles produces his greatest film, Citizen Kane (1941), despite the opposition of the film's de facto subject, William Randolph Hearst.

A Hollywood actress who worries that the movie world is eroding her grip on reality is drawn into a love affair with an ordinary - and married - guy.

A biography about the love affair between 1930s Hollywood superstars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.

Buck and lawyer Leo accidentally get into movie production in the early days (1910).

In 1926 the tragic and untimely death of a silent screen actor caused female moviegoers to riot in the streets and in some cases to commit suicide.

With the arrival of talking pictures, a silent film comedian (a Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle-type) throws a lavish party to try and save his failing career. His plan is to release one last, great silent masterpiece.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel is brought to life in this story of a movie producer slowly working himself to death.

During the 1930s, Lewis Tate aspires to be the next great American Western writer. When he travels to California, he's recruited by Bert Kessler, a Hollywood unit manager, to star in a series of low-rent Westerns.

A neurotic baker travels to Hollywood to attend a talent search for an actor to rival the great Valentino. Although not an actor, through blind luck he succeeds, to a certain degree.

The professional and personal lives of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are examined.

A biographical film about the life of actor Humphrey Bogart.

The abusive and traumatic adoptive upbringing of Christina Crawford at the hands of her mother, screen queen Joan Crawford, is depicted.

A public relations man for a movie studio uses an early form of television to help solve a murder.

Film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Louis B. Mayer, a true Hollywood visionary. From a humble beginning as an emigrant, Mayer's rise to become a cinema mogul is presented here by historians, MGM stars and his grandchild.

The story of Frances Farmer's meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood and the tragic turn her life took when she was blacklisted.

Thelma came to Hollywood from Joplin to be a star, but now she and her pal Patsy are ready to pack up and go home. Then, through Patsy's deviousness, Thelma gets a call to come to the studio immediately to audition for a costume drama. Several mishaps later, Thelma leaves for the shoot, annoyed at her clumsy pal. Deaf to criticism and dismissal, Patsy follows, arriving in time to make a shambles of her best friend's one chance at success. Will anything go right, or is it right back to Joplin?

Ben falls in love with movie star Dora Darling. After finding crooks' money, he is put to work as the assistant property man. After many funny situations Ben is blown up by the crooks, but manages to escape alive; the crooks are arrested.

Shortly after the turn of the 20th Century, a small group of entrepreneurs began making motion pictures, and went west to a small suburb of Los Angeles. They became movie moguls, tasting success beyond their wildest American Dreams.

Animated figure Talkie gets a visit from his friend Mutie in search for a job. Talkie takes him to the Western Electric sound lab, where a technician explains the process of putting sound on film and reproducing it in the theatre.

In the early 1920s, Louis B. Mayer brought a young Irving Thalberg to Hollywood to trouble-shoot some problems at the film studio. Soon, this Boy Wonder proved to be a visionary of gigantic stature who left an indelible mark on Hollywood.

As a newspaper writer in Chicago, young Ben Hecht saw it all and learned how to captivate an audience with his writing. By the 1920s, he took that talent to Hollywood as a screenwriter, where he crafted some of the classic Hollywood films.