Norma Shearer Trailers
Vito TrailerThou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood TrailerJudy Garland: By Myself Trailer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 – June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s. Her early films cast her as the girl next door, but for most of the Pre-Code film era, beginning with the 1930 film The Divorcee, for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies. Later she appeared in historical and period films.
Unlike many of her MGM contemporaries, Shearer's fame declined steeply after retirement. By the time of her death in 1983, she was largely remembered at best for her "noble" roles in The Women, Marie Antoinette, and Romeo and Juliet. Shearer's legacy began to be re-evaluated in the 1990s with the publication of two biographies and the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and VHS release of her films, many of them unseen since the implementation of the Production Code some sixty years before. Focus shifted to her pre-Code "divorcee" persona, and Shearer was rediscovered as "the exemplar of sophisticated [1930's] woman-hood... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards".
Simultaneously, Shearer's ten-year collaboration with portrait photographer George Hurrell and her lasting contribution to fashion through the designs of Adrian were also recognized.
Shearer is widely celebrated by some as one of cinema's feminist pioneers: "the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen". In March 2008, two of her most famous pre-code films, The Divorcee and A Free Soul, were released on DVD.
Most Popular Norma Shearer Trailers
Total trailers found: 96
16 March 1997
HBO (in association with the American Film Institute) presents this 1997 anthology, narrated by Liev Schreiber, which looks at sports in cinema from the earliest silent films until the nineties.
24 October 1940
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
01 October 1988
This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.
25 February 1983
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
06 May 2003
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, until 1934 when the Hays Code virtually neutered film content.
27 August 1937
Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the movie going public has in going to the theater, are presented.
29 May 1940
This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America.
23 July 1990
Biographical portrait of one of Broadway's most brilliant songwriters. Told through the use of archival material and interviews with the rich and famous that knew him, this portrait concentrates on his career and his public life events.
29 March 1934
Mary is an impetuous romantic who marries British aristocrat Lord Philip Rexford on a whim. Their marriage is successful, though, and they grow closer over the years.
10 November 1924
Two schoolteachers, married for love, are parted by the husband's obsessive desire for wealth and social position.
30 September 1996
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work.
16 April 1924
A fisherman in the Bay of Fundy loses his sweetheart while he is at sea. A lost film.
27 October 1924
Nelly is so intent on her writing career, that she neglects her appearance and her husband, Wayne. Jill Wetherell, who is looking for a rich husband, finds Wayne to be easy prey and Nelly catches them together.
30 December 1932
After Nina Leeds finds out that insanity runs in her husband's family, she has a love child with a handsome doctor and lets her husband believes the child is his.
30 April 1942
A penniless former princess weds an equally cash-strapped baron, so they support themselves by becoming houseguests at the homes of wealthy American socialites.
09 June 1931
A German reporter visits Hollywood and is escorted through the MGM Studio by a German nobleman, who is working there as an extra.
18 August 1924
A young girl is forced to give up college when her father loses all his money. She soon meets and falls for a young man at a party, only to discover that he's married.
03 February 2004
Until 1932's Grand Hotel, never had there existed an all-star ensemble cast on film. Conceived by MGM's production genius Irving Thalberg, the film boasted names like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and John and Lionel Barrymore and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
13 June 1936
A short biography of William Shakespeare that highlights the various jobs he worked at in the theater.
10 January 1972
A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to the sale of its back lot and props.
06 September 1925
Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit and lands on the drum of musician Al Cassidy.
23 February 1925
The story of two baby girls, born near in proximity but worlds apart in society: Molly Helmer, the daughter of a thief, and Florence Banning, the daughter of the judge who sent Molly's father to prison.
22 December 1933
Sylvia is a French teacher at an all-girls school who wants to find love. When she hears Bill Williams on the radio, she decides to go visit and thank him.
27 April 1928
A theatrical troupe from the west end of London loses its leading lady when she goes off to marry a rich young man from the other side of town.
22 December 1924
After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown whose act consists of being slapped repeatedly and becomes infatuated with a showgirl colleague whose father intends to marry her off to the baron.
01 September 1939
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
01 January 1944
This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.
19 February 1923
To avoid seeing Marjorie Dare, Jim Allen visits Stewart Leighton at the latter's country home. (Five years earlier Jim's engagement to Marjorie Dare was broken when her mother was killed and his father disappeared.
05 February 1938
This second entry in MGM's "Romance of Film" series documents how celluloid movie film is processed and features behind-the-scenes glimpses of current MGM productions.
31 July 1940
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Fay Bainter, Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Sinclair Lewis, and more, with host Bob Hope.
28 May 1939
An MGM short showing how materials are shipped by boat 'From the Ends of the Earth' to Hollywood. Featuring footage from the MGM films being made at the time.
27 January 1939
A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.
12 November 1920
A love triangle drama, based on a novel by Robert W. Chambers, who is better-known for weird fiction (which is not noticeable in this story.
10 April 1922
Part 5 of The Leather Pushers boxing film series.
17 February 1924
Gerald Stanley (John Gilbert) is an English gentleman who is engaged to Beatrice Joyce (Alma Frances).
25 March 1923
Dora Perkins is a country girl who runs away to New York City. She gets work as a nurse and marries Dr.
26 August 1938
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the rival countries.
09 April 1925
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.
01 November 1940
An American goes to pre-war Germany to find his mother and discovers her in a concentration camp. With the help of an American-born widowed countess he seeks to engineer her escape.
06 November 1926
Dolly Havens, a small-town girl with big-town ambitions that are larger than her talents, hooks up with Johnny Storm, a vaudeville performer, whose talents make the act a success.
03 October 1920
Rev. Robert Martin is an ex-minister who has lost his faith because of his wife's faithlessness, and taken up a life of crime as head of a band of pickpockets masquerading as religious workers who ply their trade in the wake of a traveling carnival company.
01 June 1923
An adventure tale set in the North Woods. The villain, smuggler Jules Payette, would give anything if Jeanne would give in.
01 January 1933
Pioneer filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was intrigued by the idea of a film about the history of the movies as early as 1915.
25 February 2004
As Hollywood biographies go, Judy Garland's story is one of the saddest success stories you'll ever hear.
12 December 1931
Amanda and Elyot are one another's former spouse. Elyot is remarried to Sibyl and Amanda married Victor.
25 January 1924
In Maine, a girl masquerades as a boy during the day after her mother is killed by an unknown assailant.
23 November 1929
An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.
26 November 1923
Elliot Worthington falls in love with Myra, the maid in his sister's household. Myra is dismissed; Elliot finds her, proposes marriage, and returns home with his new bride.
14 February 1926
In 1913, Carl is released from prison, where he served a sentence for stealing. Spurned by his circumstance, Carl rejects God and resumes his fast life of crime.
21 September 1934
Remarkable poet Elizabeth Barrett is slowly recovering from a crippling illness with the help of her siblings, especially her youngest sister, Henrietta, but feels stifled by the domestic tyranny of her wealthy widowed father.
19 January 1925
A sailor and his would-be bride search their train for a clergyman to marry them.
01 April 1922
Jose Fernand seems interested in luring Helen Barnes onto his ship than he is in smuggling. The innocent orphan miss goes, accompanied by her younger sister Alice.
03 September 1920
A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.
06 July 1929
There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Elton and playboy Lord Arthur Dilling are both very interested in the mysterious Fay.
14 October 2011
In the aftermath of Stonewall, a newly politicized Vito Russo found his voice as a gay activist and critic of LGBTQ+ representation in the media.
21 June 1974
Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
30 January 1928
A young prince falls in love with a beautiful barmaid while at university in old Heidelberg.
01 July 1994
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
04 April 1931
Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.
08 June 1929
Broadway showgirl Mary Dugan is charged with murder in the knifing death of her wealthy lover and goes on trial for her life.
