Ballard MacDonald Filmography

Occupation:: Composer (Music Score), Songwriter, Screenwriter

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Waiting for the Moon

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Linda Hunt, Linda Bassett, Andrew McCarthy, Bernadette Lafont, Bruce McGill

Synopsis: Well into the 1930s, there was an expatriate community of Americans who lived in Paris or the French countryside, and who eventually became influential artists and writers. These included the painter Edward Hopper, the writer Ernest Hemingway, and the musician Virgil Thomson. Writer and poet Read More

3/6/87
Rhapsody in Blue

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn, Oscar Levant, Julie Bishop

Synopsis: There's slightly more fancy than fact in this lavish film biography of legendary American composer George Gershwin, but oh! That music! Director Irving Rapper had wanted Tyrone Power to play Gershwin, but Power was still serving in the Marines, so Rapper had to settle for Robert Alda--who isn't Read More

1945
Rose of Washington Square

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Al Jolson, William Frawley, Joyce Compton

Synopsis: This barely-disguised portrait of singer Fanny Brice led to Brice's lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for defamation of character, a case which was settled out of court. Alice Faye plays Rose Sargent, a New York singer of the 1920s who falls for handsome, cocky wheeler-dealer Bart Clinton (Tyrone Power Read More

1939
It's a Great Life

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Vivian Duncan, Lawrence Gray, Jed Prouty, Benny Rubin

Synopsis: The vaudeville and Broadway "sister act" of Vivien and Rosetta Duncan, best known for their characterizations of Eva and Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin, star in the creaky backstage musical melodrama It's a Great Life. The ladies are cast as travelling entertainers Babe and Casey Hogan, who work their Read More

1930
Blaze O' Glory

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Eddie Dowling, Betty Compson, Frankie Darro

Synopsis: Though it eventually collapsed under the weight of mounting debts, the small firm of Sono Art-World Wide managed to turn out several worthwhile films in the first two years of the talkies. The company's first 1930 release was Blaze o' Glory, adapted from a story by Thomas Boyd. Broadway star Eddie Read More

1930
New York Nights

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland, John Wray, Lilyan Tashman, Mary Doran

Synopsis: Terrified at the prospect of making her talking-picture debut, silent-screen queen Norma Talmadge spent several months taking diction lessons before shooting commenced on New York Nights. The results were negligible: though she managed to keep her thick Brooklyn accent in check, Talmadge was Read More

1929
Wings

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston, Gary Cooper

Synopsis: Wings, the first feature film to win an Academy Award, tends to disappoint a little when seen today. Too much time is afforded the wheezy old plotline about two World War I aviators (Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen) in love with the same woman (Jobyna Ralston), while the comedy relief of El Brendel is Read More

1927
Battling Butler

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Buster Keaton, Sally O'Neil, Snitz Edwards, Francis McDonald, Mary O'Brien

Synopsis: Battling Butler has to be the strangest of Buster Keaton's silent features. Based on the musical comedy of the same name, the film casts Keaton as wimpy millionaire Alfred Butler, who goes on a vacation in the mountains in the company of his faithful valet (Snitz Edwards). While communing with Read More

9/19/26