Leslie Pearce

Birdsock Academy

A mockumentary revealing the classic con of a narcissistic founder of a for-profit educational institution. The faceless camera crew reveals the inner workings of Birdsock Academy, whose motto, "Excellentia in Mediocritia," exemplifies the abilities of Malcom T. Birdsock to capitalize on his own terminal incompetence. Birdsock surrounds himself with a small team of educators willing to pass on the baton of mediocrity to graduating students able to successfully blend into mainstreams of middling standards and expectations.

W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films

A Criterion compilation of "six gems that feature the comic genius at his peak: The Golf Specialist, Pool Sharks (silent), The Pharmacist, The Fatal Glass of Beer, The Barber Shop, and, of course, the notorious The Dentist." Pool Sharks is his first film ever, released in 1915; the rest are all five of Fields’ talking shorts, released from 1930 to 1933.

Road to Hollywood

Exploitation film-maker Bud Pollard appears on screen to tell us of Bing Crosby's rise to fame, using scenes from four early Crosby shorts to illustrate his fictional biography.

Can You Hear Me, Mother?

A British comedy film directed by Leslie Pearce

The Stoker

British comedy film directed by Leslie Pearce.

Rural Romeos

Harry Gribbon is a down-and-outer on the road and stops at a farm for a hand-out. The a farmer's wife makes him chop wood to earn the food and he sees and falls in love with her daughter. The hired-hand is also in love with her so conflicts arise.

Roadhouse Queen

Walter Catlett learns his son Ben Alexander has thrown over fiancee Joyce Compton for acrobat Nora Lane. He takes lawyer Arthur Housman to the road house where she is performing to lay down the law.

Don't Play Bridge With Your Wife

A Mack Sennett-produced sound short about couples playing bridge through the ages.

The Dentist

An unconventional dentist deals with patients in slapstick fashion.

False Impressions

Lloyd, Marjorie and Dorothy work in a department store, he in the toy section and the gals sell music sheets. He's got eyes for Marjorie, but she feels she can do better, and takes up an offer to go with a rich playboy to his estate for a weekend party. Suspicious Lloyd follows, disguised as a butler, wearing his old "Ham" mustache.

Courting Trouble

When the story begins, Charlie (Charlie Murray) is fighting with his overbearing mother-in-law. The old battleaxe lives with Charlie and his wife and she orders Charlie about as if she's his wife. Charlie wants to go out to the lodge meeting with his pals...and the mother-in-law insists he stay home. An argument (which is way overdone) results but Charlie is able to get away thanks to a friend who pretends to be a cop.

Ma's Pride and Joy

This Mack Sennett produced short has Donald Novis playing Danny O'Brien, a young singer whose mother takes him to a talent agent office where she demands that the owners listen to him.

The Boudoir Butler

When the story begins, Andy's wife has convinced him to join her in a ruse. It seems that a man is looking for widows to invest in his company...which SHOULD have alerted her that the guy was up to no good. But instead, she convinces her husband to pretend to be the butler and help her entertain the guy.

Listening In

Arthur Stone gets into trouble due to a crossed phone line in this Mack Sennett comedy.

Billboard Girl

Bing and a buddy drive to the college town where Bing's penpal, a billboard model, goes to school. Little does he know he's being pranked by one of her male classmates.

Blue of the Night

Starring Bing Crosby as himself in a short comedy/romance telling a tale of mistaken identity. Two-reeler; directed by Mack Sennett

Poker Widows

Dance instructor Arthur Stone's wife, Gertrude Astor, is a jealous woman. Patsy O'Leary's husband, Wade Boteler, is a jealous man. Boteler goes out to play poker every night, so Miss O'Leary phones Stone for a private dance lesson at her apartment. When there's a knock at the door, Stone goes out the window and enters an apartment, where Boteler is playing poker.

Meet the Wife

Gertrude Lennox, a dominating woman who controls every aspect of her household, is preparing a reception for famous novelist Philip Lord, who is to arrive shortly from England. Gertrude is also laying plans to marry Doris Bellamy, her ward and the sister of her first husband, to Victor Staunton.

The Fall Guy

Johnny Quinlan is so desperate for a job that he takes a gig as a "bag man" for the mob. Meanwhile, his beleaguered wife has to deal with her bizarre, unemployed, wise-cracking brother and various neighbors while keeping house in their Brooklyn tenement.

Radio Kisses

Marjorie Beebe give advice to the lovelorn service over the air, but she almost fails when she tries to get a man of her own.

He Trumped Her Ace

He Trumped Her Ace is a black-and-white comedy short.

Adam's Eve

Johnny gets drunk at his bachelor party. He intends to "sleep it off" in the apartment of his best man, but mistakenly goes to the apartment of two women instead.

The Delightful Rogue

A modern-day pirate vies with a society playboy for the love of a dancer.

The Sleeping Porch

The doctor prescribes fresh air for a man with a bad cold. His wife is determined to comply with the doctor's orders even if it kills him.

A Hint to Brides

When a newly married couple go back to their apartment, they discover a robbery is in progress.

Bulldog Drummond

Bulldog Drummond is a British WWI veteran who longs for some excitement after he returns to the humdrum existence of civilian life. He gets what he's looking for when a girl requests his help in freeing her uncle from a nursing home. She believes the home is just a front and that her uncle is really being held captive while the culprits try to extort his fortune from him.

The Carnation Kid

It's a case of mistaken identity in this comedy that centers around a country bumpkin mistaken for a Chicago hitman.

Good Medicine

Edward Everett Horton plays an impoverished doctor in his fourth of the Educational Pictures two-reel comedy shorts series.