Sitting on the Moon

A look back at 25 years of Columbia's series of newsreels chronicling the film industry and the lives of Hollywood stars. Clips from earlier films in the series are featured, along with a montage of film greats who have passed away in the intervening years.

Gene takes care of three tough kids sent west from Chicago after their father died and left them a cattle ranch. They help him catch a bunch of rustlers.

The Royal Mounties are called in when one of the armored cars owned by Maxwell, containing a gold shipment, disappears with driver George Hill suspected of trying to get away with the gold. Actually, Maxwell and two henchmen had poured acid on the brake lines, causing the car to crash. Genevieve, daughter of the Mountie chief, suspects Maxwell and Thomas Hatch, president of the bank shipping the gold, but she quickly becomes more trouble than help to Sergeant Renfrew in charge of the investigation. Renfrew and Constable Kelly drive the next shipment but Maxwell plans to make them crash the same way as Hill did. Renfrew steers the vehicle into a hillside and this gives him an idea of what happened to the other car.

Chip of the Flying U was Johnny Mack Brown's first western entry for 1940. Brown essays the title role of Chip Bennett, foreman of the Flying U ranch. Before the second reel has tumbled over the spools, Chip finds himself falsely accused of robbery and murder. The actual miscreants are in the employ of a band of foreign gunrunners, who speak in heavily Teutonic accents. Rest assured that Chip makes short work of these bush-league Storm Troopers before the sun sets in the West. Musical interludes are provided by a group calling themselves the Texas Rangers, even though they actually hailed from Kansas City.

Knowing that is contains valuable helium gas, a gang of bad guys first tries to purchase the ranch which Gene straw-bosses. When that fails, they lay a hidden pipeline to snag the gas.

Suburban Paradise Park becomes a heaven for social-minded Mrs. Alice Summers (Mary Boland), when she accidentally causes the apprehension of two bank robbers after walking into the bank during the robbery and one of the robbers, in taking money from her purse, left his fingerprints on the purse. She is made an honorary police captain and, with her society sisters sets about "keeping lawlessness" out of the town. From that point on, life becomes miserable for her hen-pecked husband Calvin (Ernest Truex).

Ben Blue has "the largest vein in the country," but not the kind that the gold prospectors in Alaska think he's got!

Harry Gribbon and Shemp Howard enter the world of fine art in Paris.

Viewers are provided a visit to Ken Maynard's private circus; Bette Davis poses for her portrait; Frank McHugh plays with his children; a visit to the West Side Tennis Club affords glimpses of many stars.

A sailor bets his friends he can get a date with any woman they choose. They pick out a librarian with glasses and a bookish appearance. When he pursues her, he discovers that she is quite beautiful and that he has competition -- but his rival has more sinister intentions than anyone imagines.

Pola Negri, Bebe Daniels, Mitzi Green, Polly Moran, Mack Sennett and Marjorie Beebe are seen relaxing at Palm Springs, a California winter resort; Barbara Stanwyck and Ricardo Cortez play golf; other celebrities are shown in Malibu Beach.

This short shows the entrances of the various Hollywood studios, then specifically visits Warner Bros. / First National Studios. We start at the casting office, then see Busby Berkeley and choreographer Bobby Connolly working with chorus girls on production numbers. Then come some candid shots of several contract stars. Finally we see comedian Hugh Herbert filming a scene for an upcoming release, then the various behind the scenes steps that transition the raw film in the camera into the finished product.

After being run out of town after town for trying to sell worthless stock, two con artists breeze into the small town of Chesterville, where they find themselves accused of kidnapping a young boy to whom they offered a ride. When that misunderstanding is cleared up, the two conmen hatch a plot to unload all their worthless paper on the gullible citizens of Chesterville.

Ellery Queen solves a mystery involving a valuable stamp.

A tour of Hollywood, featuring such star frequented spots as the Vendome, the Lakeside Golf Club, the West Side Tennis Club, the Santa Anita Racetrack, the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove, the Biltmore Bowl, and the American Legion Stadium.

During the Great Depression, vaudeville has fallen on hard times. The Palace Theater may have to close its doors, unless the proprietor, William Jenkins, does something different, so he allows his 12-year-old son to put on a kiddie show that packs the house.