Betty FurnessFilmography

A Face in the Crowd

Actors: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick

Synopsis: The meteoric popularity of Arthur Godfrey was allegedly the basis of the 1957 drama Face in the Crowd. Andy Griffith makes a spectacular film debut as Lonesome Rhodes, a philosophical country-western singer discovered in a tanktown jail by television talent coordinator Patricia Neal and her Read More

Studio One: The Trial of John Peter Zenger

Synopsis: An American columnist rails for the rights of a free press in this small screen drama presented as part of the "Studio One" series. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

Studio One: The Great Conspiracy

Studio One: Treasure Island

Studio One: None But My Foe

Westinghouse Summer Theater

Studio One: The Target

Studio One: Little Women, Part 1 - Meg's Story

Studio One: The Glass Key

Studio One [TV Series]

North of Shanghai

Actors: James Craig, Betty Furness, Keye Luke, Morgan Conway

Synopsis: In this newspaper drama, a female reporter and a newsreel cameraman are both assigned to cover the Sino-Japanese war. They meet on the boat ride over and decide to team up. They are further assisted by a Chinese cameraman. The three of them manage to expose of spy ring operating out of the Read More

Fair Warning

Actors: J. Edward Bromberg, Betty Furness, John Payne, Victor Kilian, Billy Burrud

Synopsis: Chunky character actor J. Edward Bromberg carries the weight of Fair Warning on his burly shoulders. Bromberg is cast as Matthew Jerico, a sheriff in the Death Valley region of California, at present assigned to solve the murder of a wealthy miner. The killing took place at a swank tourist resort Read More

The Good Old Soak

Actors: Wallace Beery, Una Merkel, Eric Linden, Judith Barrett, Betty Furness

Synopsis: Good Old Soak was based on a story by Don Marquis, creator of the immortal "Archy and Mehitabel." Wallace Beery is well-cast as town drunk Clem Hawley, a blot on the escutcheon of a small Prohibition-era Midwestern town. When a large sum of bank money is stolen, Clem immediately falls under Read More

It Can't Last Forever

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Betty Furness, Robert Armstrong, Raymond Walburn, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: Theatrical agents Russ Matthews (Ralph Bellamy) and Al Tinker (Robert Armstrong) try to make a quick buck by promoting bibuolous vaudeville fortune-teller Dr. Fothergill (Raymond Walburn) as a genuine prophet. Amazingly, Fothergill's predictions come true, and soon his advice is being solicited by Read More

Mama Steps Out

Actors: Guy Kibbee, Alice Brady, Betty Furness, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Even the mighty MGM had to keep the home fires burning with B pictures. The studio's Mama Steps Out is a harmless confection built around the considerable talents of Alice Brady. She plays her standard empty-headed flibbertygibbet, this time vacationing on the Riviera after inheriting a fortune. Read More

They Wanted to Marry

Actors: Betty Furness, Gordon Jones, E.E. Clive, Patsy Lee Parsons, Henry Kolker

Synopsis: The "they" who want to marry in this RKO Radio programmer are news photographer Jim Tyler (Gordon Jones) and cute society deb Sheila Hunter (Betty Furness). The heroine's father (Henry Kolker) disapproves of the union, requiring Gordon to take a "respectable" job in daddy's advertising agency. Our Read More

Mister Cinderella

Actors: Jack Haley, Betty Furness, Arthur Treacher, Raymond Walburn, Robert McWade

Synopsis: Hotel barber Joe Jenkins (Jack Haley), who's obsessed with newspaper stories about high-society celebrities, is dragooned into posing as eccentric millionaire Aloysius Merriweather (Monroe Owsley) at a fancy weekend party. At first thrilled at the prospect of hobnobbing with the 400, Joe is less Read More

The Three Wise Guys

Actors: Robert Young, Betty Furness, Raymond Walburn, Thurston Hall, Bruce Cabot

Synopsis: Based on a Damon Runyon story, Three Wise Guys stars Betty Furness as a Broadway golddigger hired by gangster Bruce Cabot to romance playboy Robert Young, then take the sap for every penny he's got. But when Young marries Furness, he is disinherited. Furness decides she's truly in love with Young Read More

All-American Chump

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Robert Armstrong, Betty Furness, Edmund Gwenn, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: Bucolic Elmer Lamb (Stuart Erwin), who only wants to raise dairy cattle, is a mathematical prodigy; he's even a whiz at playing bridge. Circus pitchman Bill (Robert Armstrong) and circus owner Jeffrey Crane (Edmund Gwenn) want to make money off Elmer, but Jeff's daughter Kitty (Betty Furness) Read More

Swing Time

Actors: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore

Synopsis: The sixth of RKO's Fred Astaire -Ginger Rogers pairings of the 1930s, Swing Time starts off with bandleader Astaire getting cold feet on his wedding day. Astaire's bride-to-be Betty Furness will give him a second chance, providing he proves himself responsible enough to earn $25,000. Astaire Read More

The President's Mystery

Actors: Henry Wilcoxon, Betty Furness, Sidney Blackmer, Evelyn Brent, Barnett Parker

Synopsis: The screenplay for this mystery is based upon a story suggested to Liberty Magazine by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is the tale of a prominent lawyer who shocks his snooty friends, family and colleagues by abruptly abandoning his successful practice and his wife to find true happiness. He Read More

Here Comes Cookie

Actors: George Burns, Gracie Allen, George Barbier, Betty Furness, Andrew Tombes

Synopsis: The classic comedians Burns and Allen are featured in this fast-paced farce that includes an assortment of corny vaudeville acts. The story centers around Gracie, the daughter of a wealthy business magnate. To prevent a gigolo, who is attempting to seduce his other daughter, from getting his Read More

The Keeper of the Bees

Actors: Neil Hamilton, Betty Furness, Emma Dunn, Edith Fellows, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: In early 1930s, Monogram pictures held a virtual monopoly on the bucolic novels of Gene Stratton Porter. When Monogram absorbed by the new Republic Pictures in 1935, several Porter properties were included in the merger, among them the 1875 best-seller Keeper of the Bees. In one of her largest Read More

McFadden's Flats

Actors: Walter "Judge" Kelly, Andy Clyde, Richard Cromwell, Jane Darwell, Betty Furness

Synopsis: Based on a barnstorming stage play by Gus Hill, McFadden's Flat seemed charmingly anachronistic in the mid-1935s. Walter C. Kelly, the "Virginia Judge" of vaudeville fame, adopts a molasses-thick Irish brogue as Dan McFadden, philosophical small-town bricklayer. McFadden spends most of his time Read More

Shadow of Doubt

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, Virginia Bruce, Constance Collier, Isabel Jewell

Synopsis: In her American film debut, British stage luminary Constance Collier dominates MGM's Shadow of Doubt as wealthy, reclusive Aunt Melissa, a character obviously based on "witch of Wall Street" Hettie Green. Emerging from a 20-year seclusion, Melissa announces her intention to disown her nephew Sim (Ricardo Cortez Read More

Magnificent Obsession

Actors: Irene Dunne, Robert Taylor, Charles Butterworth, Betty Furness, Sara Haden

Synopsis: A man who has ruined a woman's life attempts to make good on his debt to her (and his conscience) in this sudsy drama based on a best-selling novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. Bobby Merrick (Robert Taylor) is an alcoholic ne'er-do-well whose recklessness causes the death of Dr. Hudson, a respected Read More

Calm Yourself

Actors: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Betty Furness, Nat Pendleton, Hardie Albright

Synopsis: Calm Yourself starts off as ace advertising man Pat (Robert Young) is fired from his job when he offends the highly offendable -- and none too likeable -- Mary Elizabeth (Betty Furness). This segues into a phony kidnapping scheme that thrusts Pat and Mary together, furthering their mutual Read More

Dangerous Corner

Actors: Virginia Bruce, Conrad Nagel, Melvyn Douglas, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Ian Keith

Synopsis: Adapted from a typically tricky J. B. Priestley stage play, Dangerous Corner is a cautionary fable about the damage caused by telling the unvarnished truth. A burned-out radio tube is the catalyst for a series of painful and potentially dangerous revelations during a weekend party. The upshot of Read More

Gridiron Flash

Actors: Betty Furness, Grant Mitchell, Edgar Kennedy, Grady Sutton

Synopsis: In this comedy-drama, an enterprising college football coach's desire to win overshadows his common-sense when he cuts a deal with a talented convict. If the youth will play on Bedford College's team and stay out of trouble, the coach will get him paroled. Well, natch, the con agrees to the deal. Read More

Beggars in Ermine

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Henry B. Walthall, Betty Furness, Jameson Thomas, James Bush

Synopsis: The Mongram "special" Beggars in Ermine was based on a novel by Esther Lynd Day. Having lost both legs in an accident, steel-mill owner John Dawson (Lionel Atwill) disconsolately goes among "the people" in hopes of finding a reason for living. Upon befriending blind peddler Marchant (Henry B. Walthall Read More

The Band Plays On

Actors: Robert Young, Stuart Erwin, Betty Furness, Leo Carrillo, Ted Healy

Synopsis: Robert Young had to be the busiest leading man in Hollywood in 1934. He appeared in no fewer than nine pictures, four of them at his home studio of MGM. The Band Plays On features Young as one of four close pals, who have grown up together and are now college football champs known as "The Four Read More

A Wicked Woman

Actors: Mady Christians, Jean Parker, Charles Bickford, Betty Furness, William Henry

Synopsis: Helen Hayes reportedly turned down the opportunity to play the title role in this dreary melodrama about self-sacrificing motherhood; the opportunity, if that's the word, instead went to Viennese import Mady Christians. After killing her abusive husband (Paul Harvey) in self-defense, downtrodden Read More

Let's Fall in Love

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Ann Sothern, Miriam Jordan, Gregory Ratoff, Tala Birell

Synopsis: A genial lampoon of the Greta Garbo craze, Let's Fall in Love stars Ann Sothern as Jean, a Brooklyn-born aspiring actress. It so happens that Ken (Edmund Lowe), an ambitious movie director, is searching for a Swedish actress to replace his temperamental star Forsell (Tala Birrell). In desperation Read More

The Life of Vergie Winters

Actors: Ann Harding, John Boles, Betty Furness, Helen Vinson, Frank Albertson

Synopsis: In this tear-jerking adaptation of Louis Bromfield's novel A Good Woman, the title character stands tall in the face of small town gossip in order to stay with her already married lover who makes promises to her he does not intend to keep. Matters get complicated when Vergie gets pregnant. At the Read More

Scarlet River

Actors: Billy Butts, Betty Furness, Tom Keene

Synopsis: In Scarlet River, Tom Keene plays "himself," a cowboy movie star, on location in the Wide Open Spaces for his latest epic. The locals chortle and guffaw at these picture people posing as genuine Westerners, but Keene proves his worth by rescuing Dorothy Wilson from villainous ranch foreman Read More

Aggie Appleby

Actors: Charles Farrell, Wynne Gibson, William Gargan, ZaSu Pitts, Betty Furness

Synopsis: When her tough boyfriend Red Branahan (William Gargan) is sent to jail, Aggie Appleby (Wynne Gibson) meets mild-mannered Adoniram Schlump (Charles Farrell), and decides to turn him into a real man. She teaches him how to talk tough, changes his name to Red Branahan, and gets him a construction job Read More

Cross Fire

Actors: Tom Keene, Betty Furness, Edgar Kennedy, Edward Phillips, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee

Synopsis: Gangsters and cowboys don't mix as a recently returned World War I veteran soon discovers in this drama. The trouble is set in the hometown of Tom Allen, the returned G.I. He returns to find that one of his friend's has been murdered and that another friend has been framed for it. The real killer Read More

Flying Down to Rio

Actors: Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, Raul Roulien, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire

Synopsis: The top-billed stars in the extravagant RKO musical Flying Down to Rio are Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond. Forget all that: this is the movie that first teamed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. We're supposed to care about the romantic triangle between aviator/bandleader Raymond, Brazilian heiress Read More

Lucky Devils

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, William Gargan, Bruce Cabot, William Bakewell, Creighton Chaney, Dorothy Wilson

Synopsis: Though the story isn't much, this actioner does offer a neat behind-the-scenes look at the travails of Hollywood stuntmen as it chronicles the romance between a stunt man and an extra. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Emergency Call

Actors: Wynne Gibson, William Gargan, Betty Furness, Reginald Mason

Synopsis: In this drama, a young surgeon and his driver must combat the racketeers who have taken over the hospital where he works. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Headline Shooter

Actors: William Gargan, Frances Dee, Ralph Bellamy, Jack LaRue, Gregory Ratoff

Synopsis: Headline Shooter is a brisk comedy/melodrama about a newsreel photographer (William Gargan). He prefers to risk his neck to get "swell" pictures, while his reporter girl friend (Frances Dee), though no less fearless, would prefer that he give up his dangerous profession. Ralph Bellamy (as always!) Read More

The Great Jasper

Actors: Richard Dix, Edna May Oliver, Walter Walker

Synopsis: In this romantic drama, set at the turn of the century, a womanizing Irish motorman ignores his marital vows, but only to a point. Though he has many affairs, he will not leave his wife. As the years pass, he holds many jobs, and many different women before he retires in Atlantic City where he Read More

Chance at Heaven

Actors: Joel McCrea, Ginger Rogers, Marian Nixon, Andy Devine, Virginia Hammond

Synopsis: A spoiled rich girl marries a gas station owner in this dated romance starring Joel McCrea, Ginger Rogers, and Marion Nixon. It is love at first sight when debutante Glory Franklyn (Nixon) spots handsome grease monkey Blacky Gorman (McCrea), who promptly dumps faithful girlfriend Marje Harris Read More

Professional Sweetheart

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, ZaSu Pitts, Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: An earthy, fun-loving radio pitchwoman finds it difficult to live up to her squeaky-clean public persona as the "Purity Girl of the Air." This comedy chronicles the frantic efforts of her bosses to keep her on the straight and narrow when she goes out on the town. It's not easy because she is a Read More

Midshipman Jack

Actors: Bruce Cabot, Betty Furness, Frank Albertson, Arthur Lake, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: In this romance, an enrollee at the US Naval Academy finds it difficulty adjusting to the unending rules and regulations. Then he falls in lover with the commandant's daughter and almost loses his chance for a commission. Fortunately, he turns it all around, does well, and becomes an instructor Read More

Renegades of the West

Synopsis: A vengeful cowpoke rides out for revenge against the cattle rustlers who killed his pa in this western. Along the way, he finds and adopts a cuddly little baby. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Thirteen Women

Actors: Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond, Florence Eldridge

Synopsis: In this suspenseful drama, an embittered woman exacts revenge upon the 12 women who wronged her in college. The trouble began when the woman, who was of Japanese and Indian heritage, was ejected from a college sorority because she wasn't white. Still angry, the woman hires an astrologer to create Read More