Edward L. Cahn

Spanky and the gang discover a demonstration of a "human-like" robot named Volto and are inspired to create a robot themselves to do their chores for them. Slicker Walburn convinces them they will need "invisible rays" to bring it to life which he just happens to have to sell to them. As they rush off to get their money, Slicker gets Boxcar Smith to wear the robot's outer body so when he "brings" the robot to life, it will be Boxcar bringing it to life. The gang unsuspectedly gets their robot to mow the lawn at Froggy's house, but with a signal from Slicker, Boxcar runs amok and mows down everything in his path. Froggy gets to explain what happened to his parents who bust up the fraud and get the miscreants to work with the gang to clean up the mess.

Spanky and the gang discover a demonstration of a "human-like" robot named Volto and are inspired to create a robot themselves to do their chores for them. Slicker Walburn convinces them they will need "invisible rays" to bring it to life which he just happens to have to sell to them. As they rush off to get their money, Slicker gets Boxcar Smith to wear the robot's outer body so when he "brings" the robot to life, it will be Boxcar bringing it to life. The gang unsuspectedly gets their robot to mow the lawn at Froggy's house, but with a signal from Slicker, Boxcar runs amok and mows down everything in his path. Froggy gets to explain what happened to his parents who bust up the fraud and get the miscreants to work with the gang to clean up the mess.

The first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.

A prostitute sets out to frame a cop.

Murders, with victims dying from spines broken by brute strength, erupt in the city and the killers, when encountered, walk away unharmed by police bullets which strike them. A police doctor's investigation of the deaths leads to the discovery of an army of dead criminal musclemen restored to life, remotely controlled by a vengeful former crime boss and a former Nazi scientist, from the latter's laboratory hidden in the suburbs.

A doctor testing drugs on convicts gets mixed up in a murder investigation.

A doctor testing drugs on convicts gets mixed up in a murder investigation.

Laura Mansfield catches a glimpse of mob hit man Jackie Wales after he shoots her businessman father. At the police station, Laura identifies Jackie as the murderer, but the policeman in charge of the case, Lt. Brewster, lets him go, citing a lack of corroborating evidence. Outraged, Laura worms her way into the unsuspecting Jackie's heart, trying to snare him and mob-connected club owner Armitage in her trap.

Laura Mansfield catches a glimpse of mob hit man Jackie Wales after he shoots her businessman father. At the police station, Laura identifies Jackie as the murderer, but the policeman in charge of the case, Lt. Brewster, lets him go, citing a lack of corroborating evidence. Outraged, Laura worms her way into the unsuspecting Jackie's heart, trying to snare him and mob-connected club owner Armitage in her trap.

Girl loves hot cars and a rich dragstrip racer. Her parents don't like either one.

A mysterious hypnotist reverts his beautiful assistant back into the form of a prehistoric sea monster that she was in a past life.

A fortune hunter leads a search for diamonds guarded by undead sailors off the coast of Africa.

Deep in the jungles a mad scientist is using the natives' voodoo for his experiments to create an indestructible being to serve his will. When a party of gold seekers stumbles upon his village, the scientist realizes that Marilyn the expedition's evil leader is the perfect subject for his work.

Aliens equipped with venomous claws invade a small town, but the town's teenage population is mobilized to fight the menace.

An honest guy gets trapped into the world of horse racing and his once prosperous life becomes a downward spiral into the underworld.

Corrupt politicians resort to murder and blackmail when a young boy accidentally witnesses them taking payoffs.

While investigating a diamond heist, disgruntled cop Harper falls for Holly, the top suspect's main squeeze. When she convinces him to kill her boyfriend and make off with her and the loot, they start down a treacherous path full of dark surprises.

When the shootings of two juvenile inmates bring public protest, a psychologist is brought in to see if he can do anything to control the problems peacefully.

Chuck Wheeler gets out of the Pen and sets up an elaborate heist of Vegas casino money travelling by armored truck. He enlists the help of shady club owner Joe Darren and his ex-cellmate's wife, Vi. Vi's husband Mike is a trigger happy and jealous hothead and will not grant her a divorce. Mike escapes from prison right before the armored truck job goes into motion and promises trouble as he tries to locate his associates and his wandering wife.

Jonathan Drake, while attending his brother's funeral, is shocked to find the head of the deceased is missing. When his brother's skull shows up later in a locked cabinet, Drake realizes an ancient curse placed upon his grandfather by a tribe of South American Jivaro Indians is still in effect and that he himself is the probable next victim.

Aliens, contacting scientist Adam Penner, inform him that they have been on the moon for twenty thousand years, undetected due to their invisibility, and have now decided to annihilate humanity unless all the nations of earth surrender immediately. Sequestered in an impregnable laboratory trying to find the aliens' weakness, Penner, his daughter, a no-nonsense army major and a squeamish scientist are attacked from outside by the aliens, who have occupied the bodies of the recently deceased.

A stone-encrusted body is unearthed at Pompeii, and people left alone with it keep dying of crushed skulls...

A condemned criminal's acquaintances gather at a remote lodge on the eve of his execution to search for hidden money.

A young gangster in 1920's New York quickly rises through the ranks of the mob, then sets up his own murder-for-hire organization. When he starts kidnapping other mobsters for ransom, the New York gangs band together for revenge.

In the late 1800s, a man is sentenced to life at hard labor for killing his wife and her lover.

An inmate is persuaded to take part in a breakout by cellmates anxious to cash in on loot they believe she has hidden.

A Treasury agent gains the trust of a mob gunman while working under cover to smash a crime syndicate.

Love-starved gun molls (Carole Mathews, Beverly Michaels) escape from a prison farm where matrons make their lives miserable.

A policeman in need of money is persuaded to take a $1000 bribe to stay away the night a packing house is to be robbed.

A legendary lawman and his cohorts set out to restore order to the dangerous streets of Tombstone, Ariz.

A surgeon and an ambulance driver fight racketeers who take over their hospital.

The police use a gangster's son to get to him.

Plan for Destruction is a 1943 American short propaganda film directed by Edward Cahn. It looks at the Geopolitik ideas of the ex-World War I professor, General Karl Haushofer, who is portrayed as the head of a huge organization for gathering information of strategic value and the mastermind behind Adolf Hitler's wars and plans to enslave the world. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

A TV star meets with opposition from adults who object to the opening of a rock 'n' roll palace for teens.

Second World War drama, set in the Philippines about a group of men recruited for the dangerous mission of destroying an American base to keep strategic papers out of enemy hands when Japanese forces invade. The men spend their last hours drowning their sorrows in a bar, but time is running out. American International Pictures originally distributed this film as a double feature with "Jet Attack".

An ex-con finds unexpected romance with the widow of his former accomplice as he tries to collect his hidden loot.

A police detective uses fluorescent powder to catch a pickpocket and her gang.

A Soviet nurse helps a U.S. pilot, his buddies and a scientist escape from North Korea. American International Pictures originally distributed this film as a double feature with "Suicide Battalion".

A mob assassin holds innocent hostages at an airport in upstate New York.

Temple Houston (Sam Houston's son) who is the DA with a sense of Justice. He is located in Fort Smith, Ark and works with Judge Parker in 1872. His area includes the Oklahoma Territory which was the Indian territory at that time. Chief Buffalo Horn who is falsely accused of murder.

A man runs over a young couple on a deserted road, then leaves the scene and tries to cover up the incident.

In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, a young woman, wanting a life of luxury, takes the "easy" way, and winds up in jail.

Starts with "Anderson Family" court trial where wife testifies on the murder of her husband, while the police investigation finds some interesting twists to the crime. Part of the Crime Does Not Pay series

In this MGM "Crime Does Not Pay" series short, a radio and television engineer falls into a life of crime by dismantling alarms for robberies.

A young couple's accident could make them rich, if they can evade a Nazi spy ring.

A gunman receives a request for help from his brother, but arrives too late to save him from the lawless rancher who wanted him dead.

A policeman is accused of manslaughtering a 14-year-old boy but is acquitted of all charges. Still, he feels a lot of guilt and begins to doubt if he really is innocent after all.

Assassins take a flight controller's family hostage to force him into revealing the aircraft carrying their quarry.

An attorney (Tom Conway) learns he was duped into being his gangster murder client's (Steve Brodie) alibi.

An undercover U.S. agent searches for an Arab ruler's son kidnapped by communists in Hong Kong.

A Yank comes to Havana in search of an old friend who disappeared during the Cuban Revolution, and discovers a group of Batista sympathizers plotting to overturn Castro.

The Boy Who Caught a Crook is a 1961 childrens film about a young boy who tracks down a gangster.

The race car designer Kit Woods is in love with Kay Lord. Kay's father is against her relationship with Kit. Kit also has to do with the competition from his rival Garry Ames.

Case Britton, gunslinger and wanted man, comes to town to meet his bride-to-be, stop a stagecoach robbery, and get even with the man who killed his brother.

A wealthy businessman's irresponsible son and a down-on-her-luck model enter into a marriage of convenience, and end up falling in love.

A sheriff goes in pursuit of an escaped convict who is bent on paying back the people responsible for his imprisonment.

The Clown and the Kid is a 1961 film. When Moko the Clown (Don Keefer) passes away, his newly orphaned son Shawn (Michael McGreevey) takes up with mysterious wanderer Peter (John Lupton), and the two strangers become close friends and partners until a closely guarded secret rips them apart.

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, we learn the story of Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, the man who discovered hypnotism.

Dr. Frank Harlow is in the process of trying to save a man badly beaten by two gangsters whom he identifies to the police. When the victim dies the charge becomes murder and Harlow hightails it to the far woods where he finds a job as clerk Roger Condon in a sporting-goods store. Harlow's plan is to lay low until the gangsters forget about him. But complications arise from two different sectors. First, Harlow falls in love with the local beauty Laurie Maitland and second, the murderers find out where he is hiding.

Curse turns a handsome prince into a Beast at night. A princess tries to help him, while his enemies plot to take his throne.

The professional gambler Case Silverthorn wants to quit and retire to a small ranch in Marlpine he bought recently. On the way there he saves the Sheriff's life, who got into an ambush. However another man is dead, Will Donovan, from whom he bought the ranch! Neither the Sheriff nor Donovan's children know about the sale. So Case has to switch back to his former profession, while he tries to clarify the situation. He comes across a group of cattle thieves.

A young man searches for his brother's killer with the help of a gunfighter, a native woman and a traveling medicine man.

A troublemaker returns to town only to find his old tearaway pals have joined a supervised motorcycle club. Friction erupts between him and the new leader about this goody-goody setup, and about the charms of gang moll Terry.

Not having heard that war has erupted between the U.S. and Mexico, a wagon train heads west, only to find itself threatened by the Mexicans who have teamed up with hostile Indians.

Billy Wade is an ex-gunslinger who is approached by his outlaw brother Matt, not long out of prison, to help him with a big-time robbery. Matt forces Billy's participation with an offer he cannot refuse, unaware that Billy is actually working on the side of the law.

Three teenagers with troubled families are unable to adjust at home and in high-school. Tempted with an easy, carefree life they soon pass from misdemeanors into serious crime - and will suffer for it. Sometimes, repentance comes too late.

A power-company troubleshooter has his brother get him out of prison by running high voltage to the bars of his cell.

After exhaustive training, a police dog joins an arson investigation.

A psychiatrist tries to help a patient who loses consciousness after he kills someone. When the doctor provides the patient with a letter that explains his problem, he inadvertently implicates himself in the crimes.

A reporter learns that his girlfriend's father, an old sea captain, is being paid by the mob to transport gangsters out of the country.

WWII Burma...Six paratroopers undertake an extremely dangerous mission against the Japanese. It will ultimately cost them their lives, except for one "lucky" survivor.

Action Western directed by Edward L. Cahn . After courageously protecting a pretty dance hall girl (Joan Staley) from peril, former cavalry soldier Wayne (James Brown) refuses to join his brother Brad's (Gregg Palmer) unlawful cattle rustling gang, which leads to heated disagreements, bitter betrayals and life-threatening danger.

A middle-aged magician is in love with his beautiful young assistant. She, on the other hand, is in love with the magician's young protege, who turns out to be a bum and a thief.

A naive young dancer in a Broadway show innocently gets involved in backstage bootlegging and murder.

Young couple Joe and Mary Thompson love each other and their children despite the struggles that they have that are typical of most young couples early on in their married life, such as the basics of trying to make ends meet. But after Joe leaves Mary and their inner city life, she finds an unpostmarked envelope under their apartment door with her name written in Joe's handwriting. It contains a letter explaining why he left. It has primarily to do with his feeling that another part of his life was being left behind for his married life, that other life which consists of a want to travel, especially sail the south seas. The actual impetus to leave was inadvertently fostered by Mary through the birthday present she bought for him. So what actually did happen to Joe and will he ever return to his loving wife?

An abandoned old show boat is moored in a lazy creek. The Our Gang put the old vessel back to use when they stage a show featuring "Darla's Dancin' Dandies" and a "meller dramer" entitled "Out in the Snow You Go." All is not smooth sailing however, as Butch seeks revenge for having been excluded from the cast.

Servant of the People: The Story of the Constitution of the United States is a 1937 short directed by Edward Cahn.

The "Our Gang" kids enter the Kidmobile Race Classic and must rescue their dog from the pound.

After witnessing a gangland murder, a young Greek immigrant flees for his life and hides out in a small town, but he soon realizes he's not as safe there as he thought.

On Mickey's birthday, Miss Pipps, the school teacher, serves cake and ice cream during school hours. Sour old Mr. Pratt, head of the school board, stumbles on the festivities and has Miss Pipps fired. The Our Gang conspire to save her job by inviting all the parents to a special meeting. There the gang stage a melodrama, with Mr. Pratt portrayed as Simon Legree. The parents react by demoting Mr. Pratt to janitor. They appoint kindly Mr. Swanson, the current janitor, to head the school board. And of course they reinstate Miss Pipps as school teacher. Sometime later, in an act of forgiveness, Miss Pipps and the gang hold a birthday party for Pratt who is then humbled by the experience.

Our Gang member Alfalfa comes face to face with his wealthy lookalike Cornelius.

The gang prevails upon old-time minstrel impresario Walter Wills to help them stage a fund-raising musical show.

After Buckwheat tells the gang he's seen a big monkey, Spanky, Froggy and Mickey decide to teach him once and for all not to lie. What the gang doesn't know is that the monkey is real, and hilarity will ensue.

Inspired by his soldier brother, Spanky decides to organize a military unit among his friends, collecting odds and ends for the war effort.

The gang offers to help their pal Waldo attract customers to his lemonade stand. Redecorating their clubhouse as a lavish nightclub, the kids stage an elaborate floor show, with Darla Hood as the star vocalist.

It is a premiere night at the Fox Carthay Circle theater, and the Our Gang show up to observe the festivities. But after the Gang causes a disruption, the police send them scurrying home. Not to worry--the Our Gang stage their own premiere night in the clubhouse barn.

The romantic, dangerous and fast-paced world of professional midget auto racing provides the backdrop for this dramatic tale of a young driver who decides to follow in his late father's footsteps and win the big race.

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short, narrator John Nesbitt tells the story of Scandinavian immigrant Annie Swenson, who worked as cook and housekeeper in his family's home while he was growing up.

The illiterate daughter of a drunken, nasty sea captain falls in love with a tugboat pilot. Her father disapproves of the relationship, and is determined to do everything he can to break it up.

In this detective drama, a gumshoe must find a priceless hunk of jade. His several leads evaporate when the police succeed in killing all of the suspects.

The coming of the railroad to the West triggers an Indian war.

The Gas House Kids, the very poor man's Bowery Boys, head for Hollywood.

Spanky and the Our Gang kids go to battle over pranks with a rival gang.

This Passing Parade entry looks at several historical "truths" that just aren't so: Steve Brodie never jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge; Mrs. O'Leary's cow did not start the great Chicago fire; Nero didn't fiddle while Rome burned; and Lady Godiva never rode naked through the streets of Coventry.

This MGM Passing Parade series short tells the story of Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross.

This Best Short Subject Academy Award winning film begins in the spring of 1940, just before the Nazi occupation of the Benelux countries, and ends immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It chronicles how the people of "Main Street America", the country's military forces, and its industrial base were completely transformed when the decision was made to gear up for war. Original footage is interspersed with contemporary newsreels and stock footage.

The story of the U.S. Army Chaplain Service as dramatized in the stories of three chaplains, Father Michael O'Keefe, Arnold Miller, and Tom Manning.

A young man searches for his brother's killer with the help of a gunfighter, a native woman and a traveling medicine man.

Narrator John Nesbitt laments the disappearance of the rural one-room schoolhouse in America. He reminisces about his own days as a student in such a school and how his teacher, Miss Turlock, influenced so many students. Many of them reunite at the school on Miss Turlock's last day, when the school was closed in 1940.

A young orphan rejects his foster parents and instead turns to a German shepherd whose master was recently murdered. Stumbling on some evidence, the boy is rescued from the killer by his dog.

Since Froggy was born on Leap Year Day, he's upset that he only gets a birthday party once every four years. So, the gang decide to have a surprise party for him.

To impress Darla, Alfalfa drinks a concoction of Butch's "dynamite" brew.

When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.

While playing baseball near the home of wealthy hypochondriac, Mr. Morton, the gang inadvertently breaks one of his windows. This mishap coincides with a plan hatched by Morton's wife to get her husband's mind off his imaginary illnesses by adopting some children.

This short tells the story of Norwegian explorer and diplomat Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). After a life of adventure, he was instrumental in resettling tens of thousands of refugees and displaced persons resulting from World War I. He continued this work in 1922 after the war between Greece and Turkey. The film ends by reminding moviegoers to think of the plight of contemporary refugees caused by the fighting in Europe.

A look at whether Napoleon Bonaparte indeed died on the island of St. Helena in 1821.

The Our Gang kids worry that Darla's new stepmother will be an evil stepmother like of fairy tale fame.

This patriotic short film promotes America's war effort at home. The story looks at a fictional small town's main street, seeing where additional workforce, for increased production of materials needed by the military, might come from.

The Our Gang kids are running their own newspaper and are determined to get the big scoop by learning the identity of the leader of a gang of bullies.

While playing baseball, Mickey runs into the street to catch a fly ball and is struck by a car. When the gang visit him in the hospital they are appalled to find the ward populated by many other children injured in automobile accidents. The Our Gang kids resolve to do something about the problem, and thus the "1-2-3-Go Safety Society" is born.

This short uses a musical suite to show Americans what they are fighting for in World War II. As an orchestra in military dress plays different "chapters" of the work, relevant excerpts from MGM films show the history of America. The chapters are: 1) Birth of Freedom; 2) The Land Divided; 3) Coming of Age: 4) Land of the Free. At the end, a chorus sings a patriotic exhortation. (Written by David Glagovsky)

This short uses a musical suite to show Americans what they are fighting for in World War II. As an orchestra in military dress plays different "chapters" of the work, relevant excerpts from MGM films show the history of America. The chapters are: 1) Birth of Freedom; 2) The Land Divided; 3) Coming of Age: 4) Land of the Free. At the end, a chorus sings a patriotic exhortation. (Written by David Glagovsky)

Lea Lyon, the daughter of a rabbi, lives happily with her father in their Gulicinu village, but there are rumblings of war. Soon, the village is overrun with the Imperial troops of the Russian Czar, with Constantine in Imperial command. He is attracted by the beauty of Lea and commands her to come to his quarters. She refuses and he is outraged. He orders the townspeople barred behind their doors and the village burned. Though she loves her honor above everything else, she can not bear to see the villagers suffer, and makes the lonely walk through the village to the Inn.

This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short tells the story of how a Mauser pistol used on the battlefield by Germans during WWII makes its way into the hands of an American gangster.

The 1939 dramatic short "Angel of Mercy," about Red Cross founder Clara Barton, is reedited to relate the story to America's involvement in World War II. Edited from Angel of Mercy (1939)

The Boys Scouts give a demonstration of their camping skills, but Our Gang are excluded from participating because they are not yet old enough. Undeterred, the kids head off on their own unsupervised camping adventure, with comically disastrous results.

Alfalfa imagines himself being the star football player on a college team. After a big pep rally he ends up letting the team down when his poor grades cause him to be suspended from play.

The "Our Gang" kids encourage a shy man to take a widow and her son to a picnic.

The gang is going fishing and wants to get an early start, but they end up causing all sorts of problems for the passengers of a city bus.

Spanky and Alfalfa both try to impress the new girl at school, much to Darla's dismay.

The gang puts on a show to raise money for the Red Cross.

Mickey's parents are constantly quarreling because his mother serves hash every Monday night. The kids decide to put on a radio skit to try to get them to stop fighting.

Alfalfa and the gang decide to turn to a life of crime, but Spanky tries to trick them with a fake burglary.

Mickey's mom is about to give birth, but he gets worried when he reads that every fourth child born is Chinese. Spanky and the gang then visit a Chinese friend and learn that kids are kids, no matter where they are from.

Froggy hatches a plan to get Mickey, Buckwheat, and himself sent home from school early so they can go fishing. When the plan backfires, the boys decide to play hooky the next day. At the fishing hole, there are plenty of lunkers just waiting for the bait, but the boys have some comic trouble. After Buckwheat finds a new way to catch fish, an old man gives them a life lesson. Will they keep fishing or change their ways?

This short film looks at the life of Michel Ney, who fought at Napoleon's side and was made a Marshall of France.

This Passing Parade series short chronicles the political life of Francisco Madero, who tried to bring democracy and land reform to Mexico.

This Passing Parade series short examines the origins of three popular Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

Shows how the game of football developed, and how its rules came to be.

Joe Hanson, who believes himself to be tolerant of other races and religions, gradually comes to realize that he is prejudiced against many of them.