Movies: Janet Gaynor

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 Les...

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife....

Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as...

In 1910s Paris, a sewer worker disillusioned with Christianity feels his prayers have been answered when he chances upon a street waif and they fall in love....

A spirited young woman finds herself destitute and on the streets before joining a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter....

A family of confidence tricksters sets their sights on a very rich, very lonely old lady named Miss Fortune....

The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of th...

The children of Iowa farmers find love, with mixed results, at the state fair....

Wealthy Jervis Pendleton acts as benefactor for orphan Judy Abbott, anonymously sponsoring her in her boarding school. But as she grows up, he finds himself falling in love with her, and she with him, though she does not know that the man she has fal...

The circus provides the backdrop for this melodrama that chronicles the lives of four children raised within the big top. Film historian and collector William K. Everson stated that the only surviving print was lost by actress Mary Duncan who had bor...

While vain Lenore Hastings busies herself with her romantic pursuits, Lenore's kid sister Mildred tries to keep the family of her boyfriend Thomas from going broke. Mildred works up a business arrangement, whereby she will sell Thomas' father's 250 p...

Dimwitted Cuthbert Hope is enlisted in the army, and gets himself and his sergeant in constant trouble....

Margie, singer on a showboat, decides to try her luck in New York inspite of being in love with the owners grandson. She is successful, but suddenly she hears that the showboat is in deep financial trouble, and she calls all the boats former stars to...

Hugh Carver is an athletic star and a freshman at Prescott College. He falls in love with Cynthia Day, a popular girl who loves to party, and finds that it's impossible to please her and still keep up with his studies and athletic training. Soon the ...

Universal star Laura LaPlante stars in this lighthearted comedy based on Sophie Kerr's magazine story, Relative Values. Octavia Lowden (LaPlante) has virtually become a drudge in order to support her sponging relatives -- flapper sister Eloise (Lucil...

A teenager pines for (and sings about) his dream girl....

Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression....

This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Ha...

A comic group of Europeans coming to the USA have romantic and immigration troubles....

A dramatic recreation of the Johnstown Flood of 1889....