A Really Important Person

This MGM John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short takes a look at the origins of North American slang.

Tough Aggie gives a street guy polish and a rich kid gumption.

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

An FBI agent goes undercover to investigate the sabotage of American cargo ships.

Highlights a new system that will enable doctors to operate over long distances.

Wounded criminal Lucky Wilson takes refuge in a small Connecticut farm. He falls in love with the farmer's daughter who at first is unaware of his criminal record. Lucky is fully prepared to shoot his way out when the cops come calling, but he is softened by the daughter's affections.

Three specific and separate stories of life's passing parade are presented.

A political hack becomes President during the height of the Depression and undergoes a metamorphosis into an incorruptible statesman after a near-fatal accident.

At the conclusion of World War I, a French girl is romanced by an American doughboy even though she is promised to a French soldier who was sent to the front.

The "unseen guardians" of the title are the Postal Inspection Service, which investigates mail order racketeering; the Underwriters' Laboratories, which are shown testing electrical equipment, fire extinguishers, and large floor safes; and those who run orphanages, who assure that the children in their care are placed in proper adoptive homes.

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short explores the origins of various customs such as shaking hands, kissing, and why ships are christened.

Hot jewels from London make their way to New York, where they are stolen by racketeer Ed Dexter, who hides them with the help of his vivacious girlfriend, Vivian Palmer. Federal agent Ross McBride goes undercover to infiltrate the gang and, suspecting Vivian can lead him to the jewels, comes to her aid when she is chased by a rival gang. The two flee to the Midwest with both gangs in pursuit, but Vivian is not as gullible as Ross thinks.

China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.

Private Detective Philo Vance gets involved with a succession of murders and a mystery concerning the disappearance of an emerald that has been smuggled into the United States.

The true story of George Tweed, an American sailor who became the only serviceman on the island of Guam to avoid capture by the Japanese during the early years of World War II.

Min, the owner of a dockside hotel, is forced to make difficult decisions about the future of Nancy, the young woman she took in as an infant.