The First Degree

Blinky, the bespectacled son of Col. "Raw Meat" Islip, is scorned by his fellow cavalrymen stationed on the Mexican border because his previous military experience was as a Boy Scout.

Edward Campbell, known as Checkers, is a racetrack tout. Determined to reform himself, he foreswears gambling, but must take it up once more in order to save someone he loves from disaster.

A bumbling detective chases an escaped convict in an amusement park haunted house in Coney Island.

Bud Watkins loses his ranch and savings to gambling house proprietor "Gentlemen Jim" Slade. The Cocopah Kid, a notorious bandit, lures away Betsy Burke, Bud's sweetheart and the daughter of the local sheriff.

Albert Stuyvesant Spottiswood and his cousin Harriet Winthrop Spottiswood arrive separately at their long abandoned and very much run down family manor, each unaware that the other is going to be there, and since both have become penniless, they are forced to move into the dilapidated house. When Albert receives a letter from old acquaintances Lord and Lady Fetherstone advising the Spottiswoods of their impending visit to the manor, the cousins are at wit's end as to how to exercise non-existent skills required to make the old house acceptable for guest reception.

A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.

Pop Clark is about to lose his baseball team, unless they can win the pennant so he can pay off debts. He hires ace player Larry Kelly to ensure the victory. As well as rival teams, mobsters are trying to prevent the wins, and as the pennant race nears the end, Pop's star players begin to be killed, on and off the field. Can Larry romance Pop's daughter, win enough games, and still have time to stop a murderer before he strikes more than three times?

Two bumblers, failures as businessmen and air raid wardens, stumble across a nest of Nazi saboteurs bent on blowing up the local magnesium plant.

Lee Tracy once again plays a Winchellesque newspaper reporter in Universal's I'll Tell the World. More interested in his sex life than his career, news hawk Brown nonetheless agrees to cover the activities of a European archduke on behalf of his wire service.

Three United States soldiers are lost in the Rhineland on Armistice Day and accepted as conquering overlords by a village... except for Lady Bountiful.

Ranchers Bess Lynne and her invalid brother, Harold, seek the services of a competent foreman. Duke, of the "Bar Nothin'" ranch, rides into town and takes the job. Crooked cattle buyer Bill Harliss, aided by Bess's unscrupulous suitor, Stinson, tries to coerce the Lynnes to sell their herd at a low price. Duke learns of their scheme and forces him to buy the cattle at its full market value. As retribution, Stinson robs Duke and leaves him in the desert to die, but the foreman catches a stray horse and returns to the ranch. Stinson convinces Bess and Harold to return East with him, claiming that Duke has stolen their money and escaped into Mexico. As the train leaves the station, Duke chases and subdues Stinson, winning Bess for himself.

Bob plays football badly so his father Coach Dudley, his girlfriend Dorothy and his school reject him. He joins a rival college team and aims to defeat his dad's team.

A ship carrying a touring circus troupe sinks at sea, and Lorraine, a young girl, is washed up on a deserted island. Her only companion is a gorilla from the circus, Bimi, who raises her as its own. Several years later Lorraine's wealthy grandfather, who has hired a psychic to help find her, is led by the psychic to Lorraine's island, and she and Bimi are taken back to "civiliation" in San Francisco, but things don't work out exactly as planned.

The Kettles leave their ultra-modern home and return to the country looking for uranium. Ma and Tom's mother-in-law, Mrs. Parker, fight over whether their grandchild will be raised "hygiencially."

A traitor is lurking somewhere aboard the USS Carolina, and Lt. Tom Randolph is determined to find the offender. First a revolutionary new piece of technology -- an electric firing device -- is sabotaged. Then one of the cruiser's crew is murdered. In order to catch the killer, the captain locks down the ship. With foreign dignitaries, corporate goons and even Tom's girlfriend, Betty, trapped on the vessel, there is no shortage of suspects.

An unimpressive but well-intentioned man is given the chance to marry a popular actress, of whom he has been a hopeless fan. But what he doesn't realize is that he is being used to make the actress' old flame jealous.