Movies: Mae West

When a turn-of-century confidence trickster poses as a famous French chanteuse to avoid arrest, she manages to expose the crooked police chief and smooth the path for the reform mayoral candidate....

Part of acclaimed filmmaker Frank Capra's "Wonders of Life" series of science-based films (which won an Emmy Award for Best Editing) teaches kids about the power of gamma rays and radiation....

As the first "blonde bombshell," Mae West reigned supreme and changed the nation's view of women, sex and race — on stage, in films, on radio and television....

A San Francisco singer flees Chinatown on murder charges and poses as a missionary in Alaska....

A collection of vintage erotica from Hollywood movies is intercut with street interviews and newsreel footage....

Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. G...

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

A celebration of Hollywood in the 1930s, featuring a compilation of clips from features and newsreels of the era....

On the day of her wedding to her sixth husband, a glamorous silver screen sex symbol is asked to intervene in a political dispute between nations, which leads to chaos....

Cabaret entertainer Ruby Carter shifts her operations to New Orleans and becomes exceedingly popular with the local men....

Film archivist and former director of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Jenni Olson created this fast-paced and often funny, campy 75-minute film comprised entirely of spliced together movie trailers. Some of the segments have themes su...

Compilation of lighting and costume tests from various films, most notably Sternberg's "The Devil Is a Woman" (1935)....

Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War....

Broadway star Fay Lawrence (West) is a temperamental diva who is reluctantly persuaded by a Broadway producer (Gaxton) to star in his latest production....

While on her way by stagecoach to visit relatives out west, Flower Belle Lee is held up by a masked bandit who also takes the coach's shipment of gold. When he abducts Flower Belle and they arrive in town, Flower Belle is suspected of being in collus...

New York singer and nightclub owner Lady Lou has more men friends than you can imagine. One of them is a vicious criminal who’s escaped and is on the way to see “his” girl, not realising she hasn’t exactly been faithful in his absence. Help is at han...

A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934....

This spectacular showcase of vintage movie trailers offers a crash course in lesbian, gay, bi and transgender (LGBT) movie history and a colorful look at nearly every major mainstream queer-themed film produced between 1953 and 1977! Archivist Jenni ...

Myron Breckinridge flies to Europe to get a sex-change operation and is transformed into the beautiful Myra. She travels to Hollywood, meets up with her rich Uncle Buck and, claiming to be Myron's widow, demands money. Instead, Buck gives Myra a job ...

For the first time one of Hollywood's greatest stars tells his own story, in his own words. From a childhood of poverty to global fame, Cary Grant, the ultimate self-made star, explores his own screen image and what it took to create it....