Dudley Digges

Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.

Always the diplomat, Alex Hazen is slow to take sides in Europe of the 1920s and 1930s. Cassie Bowman wants him to be more decisive and leaves him in Rome just as Mussolini is coming to power. There Alex marries Emily, daughter of a newspaper publisher who hires Cassie for his Paris bureau -- just before retiring from active management of his paper. Alex and Emily's son Sam, recently returned from active duty in World War II, learns the whole story one night in Washington when Emily invites Cassie to dinner. Sam has a story to tell, too.

Sir Arthur Blake has inherited title and lands from his brother. He also has his orphaned nephew Benjamin working for him as a bonded servant. While he believes the lad was born out of wedlock and so cannot claim the inheritance, he is taking no chances. Benjamin eventually rebels against his uncle and sets sail to try and make his fortune. This may enable him to return to prove his claim to being the rightful heir to the estate.

The Fight for Life was documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz' first "dramatic" film, utilizing the talents of several top New York stage actors. A tribute to the Chicago Maternity Center and its efforts to provide the best possible care for destitute mothers, the film is based on the book of the same name by Paul de Kruif. Myron McCormick plays the largest role as a dedicated intern, while others in the cast include such theatrical heavywrights as Will Geer, Dudley Digges and Dorothy Adams. The film's many vignettes range from the tragic (a mother dying in childbirth in the opening scene) to the exultant (another mother rescued from the brink of death in a disease-ridden tenement). Filmed in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, Fight for Life is a worthwhile effort, though Lorentz seems more comfortable with the "actuality" scenes than with the dramatized passages.

Man about town and First Class cricketer A.J. Raffles keeps himself solvent with daring robberies. Meeting Gwen from his schooldays and falling in love all over again, he spends the weekend with her parents, Lord and Lady Melrose. A necklace presents an irresistible temptation, but also in attendance is Scotland Yard's finest, finally on the trail.

A London artist struggles to complete one last painting before going blind.

When a crafty reporter uses false pretenses to get a story out of heiress Tony Gateson, she turns the tables on him, telling the press that they are engaged. Suddenly he's front page news, every salesman is at his doorstep, and he loses his job. A series of misadventures ensues with him alternately back on his job and fired and her ex-fiancé showing up.

China, 1930s, during the ravaging civil war. General Pen entrusts O'Hara, an intrepid American adventurer, with the mission of providing a large sum of money to Mr. Wu with the task of buying weapons in Shanghai to help end General Yang's tyranny that keeps an entire province under his ruthless iron boot.

A Missouri farmer's (Lionel Barrymore) son (Eric Linden) loves the daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan) of a neighbor who has killed the farmer's foxhound.

A blackmailer tries to stop a woman from revealing evidence that could save a condemned man.