Bill Goodwin Filmography

The Big Beat

Actors: William Reynolds, Andra Martin, Gogi Grant, Jeffrey Stone

Synopsis: Shipped out on a double bill with Summer Love, Universal's The Big Beat is another of those "rock & roll salads" so popular in the late 1950s. What plot there is concerns the efforts by record executive John Randall (William Reynolds) to sign up several top R&R acts. John also wants to prove his Read More

Going Steady

Actors: Molly Bee, Bill Goodwin, Irene Hervey

Synopsis: Singer Molly Bee once commented ruefully that her films were shown only to captive audiences in jails and reformatories. One suspects that Ms. Bee's Going Steady had a few paying customers, since no Sam Katzman production of the 1950s ever lost money. In this one, Molly plays high schooler Julie Read More

The Opposite Sex

Actors: June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Gray, Jeff Richards, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller, Leslie Nielsen, Harry James, Dick Shawn, Jim Backus

Synopsis: The Opposite Sex is an opulent musical remake of Clare Booth Luce's The Women (1939). June Allyson stars in the old Norma Shearer role, playing the virtuous wife who loses her husband to scheming Joan Collins (as the Joan Crawford character). At first agreeing to a divorce, June decides to win Read More

Bundle of Joy

Actors: Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Adolphe Menjou, Tommy Noonan, Nita Talbot

Synopsis: This musicalized remake of the 1939 comedy Bachelor Mother stars Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher (then Mr. and Mrs.) in the roles originated by Ginger Rogers and David Niven. Reynolds plays a department store salesgirl whose life is turned topsy-turvy when she finds an abandoned baby. Despite her Read More

Lucky Me

Actors: Doris Day, Robert Cummings, Phil Silvers, Eddie Foy, Jr., Nancy Walker

Synopsis: Lucky Me is a mixed-bag musical from Warner Bros., adhering to a tried-and-true formula that was wearing just a bit thin in 1954. Candy (Doris Day), Hap (Phil Silvers), Duke (Eddie Foy Jr.) and Flo (Nancy Walker) are four small-time performers who find themselves stranded in Miami. Forced to take Read More

The Atomic Kid

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Robert Strauss, Elaine Davis, Bill Goodwin, Whit Bissell

Synopsis: The Atomic Kid strives mightily to wring laughs from the otherwise humorless topic of atomic radiation. Mickey Rooney (who also produced the film) and Robert Strauss play a couple of brainless prospectors who stumble upon a A-bomb testing site. Led to believe that the area is rich with uranium, Strauss Read More

The First Time

Actors: Robert Cummings, Barbara Hale, Bill Goodwin, Jeff Donnell, Carl Benton Reid

Synopsis: Former cartoonist and gag man Frank Tashlin made his directorial debut with 1952's The First Time. The story concerns Joe and Betsey Bennet (Robert Cummings, Barbara Hale) a young married couple anxiously awaiting the arrival of their first child. Once the bundle of joy has arrived, Joe and Betsey Read More

Tea for Two

Actors: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, Patrice Wymore, Eve Arden, Billy De Wolfe

Synopsis: Tea for Two is a Technicolor adaptation of the 1924 Broadway musical No No Nanette, previously filmed under its own title in 1929. Doris Day stars as Nanette, a Roaring '20s Jazz Baby with showbiz aspirations. Nanette offers to put up $25,000 if producer Billy DeWolfe will star her in a Broadway Read More

George Burns and Gracie Allen Show: Season 01

Actors: George Burns, Gracie Allen, Bea Benaderet

It's a Great Feeling

Actors: Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Bill Goodwin, Irving Bacon

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's future partner I.A.L. Diamond concocted the storyline for this Dennis Morgan/Jack Carson/Doris Day tunefest. Morgan and Carson, Warner Bros.' answer to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, appear as themselves. Attempting to line up a director for their next picture, the boys find themselves Read More

Jolson Sings Again

Actors: Larry Parks, Barbara Hale, William Demarest, Ludwig Donath, Bill Goodwin

Synopsis: This Technicolor follow-up to Columbia's 1946 blockbuster The Jolson Story again stars Larry Parks as legendary entertainer Al Jolson--and Jolson himself, as Parks' singing voice. The story concentrates on Jolson's tireless activities entertaining the troops during WW II. After VJ day, Jolson Read More

The Life of Riley

Actors: William Bendix, James Gleason, Rosemary de Camp, Bill Goodwin, Beulah Bondi

Synopsis: This comedy is based on the enduring radio series and chronicles the attempts of an airplane riveter to find a better paying, less physically taxing job. Chester A. Riley gets his chance when his employer's son falls in love with Riley's daughter. Wanting to make her father happy, the daughter Read More

So This Is New York

Actors: Henry Morgan, Rudy Vallee, Bill Goodwin, Leo Gorcey, Virginia Grey

Synopsis: Radio humorist Henry Morgan made his film debut in So This is New York. Based on The Big Town, a collection of stories by Ring Lardner, the film traces country bumpkin Morgan's progress as he uses an inheritance to take a trip with his wife (Virginia Grey) and sister-in-law (Dona Drake) to the New Read More

Mickey

Actors: Lois Butler, Bill Goodwin, Irene Hervey, John Sutton, Rose Hobart

Synopsis: Not a remake of the 1917 Mabel Normand vehicle of the same name, Mickey was based on Clementine, a novel by Peggy Goodin. The tomboyish title character is played by redheaded Lois Butler, whom Eagle-Lion Studios was trying to build into a major name. During her awkward transition to womanhood Read More

Hit Parade of 1947

Actors: Eddie Albert, Chester Clute, Joan Edwards, Frank Fenton, William Frawley

Synopsis: In this musical, the fourth entry in a five-film series, three singers come together to form a nightclub act. Their songwriter falls for the female. They become a hit and are soon signed to appear in Hollywood musicals, but when the female becomes a star, the group disbands. Songs include Read More

Heaven Only Knows

Actors: Robert Cummings, Brian Donlevy, Marjorie Reynolds, Jorja Curtright, Bill Goodwin

Synopsis: Also released as Montana Mike, Heaven Only Knows is an offbeat western with fantasy overtones. Hard-bitten gambling boss Brian Donlevy rules his frontier community with brawn and bullets. To his dismay, Donlevy discovers that he has a guardian angel (Robert Cummings), who shows up in the guise of Read More

House of Horrors

Synopsis: This marked the first starring role for Rondo Hatton, previously seen in a few Sherlock Holmes films as the spine-snapping killer "The Oxton Creeper." Hatton, a giant of a man whose face was deformed by acromegaly, was luridly promoted by the studios as a "human monster" who required no makeup. Read More

To Each His Own

Actors: Olivia de Havilland, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver, John Lund, Phillip Terry

Synopsis: Olivia De Havilland won the first of her two Academy Awards for To Each His Own. During World War I, De Havilland falls in love with a young soldier (John Lund). He is killed in battle before they can marry, leaving De Havilland to raise their child alone. She gives the baby up for adoption, then Read More

The Jolson Story

Actors: Larry Parks, Evelyn Keyes, William Demarest, Bill Goodwin, Ludwig Donath

Synopsis: Though legendary entertainer Al Jolson was a highly visible presence on the U.S.O. circuit during World War II, he was generally regarded as a relic of an earlier time until his movie comeback in 1945's Rhapsody in Blue. Showing up 30 minutes into this biopic of George Gershwin, Jolson literally Read More

Earl Carroll Sketchbook

Actors: Constance Moore, William Marshall, Bill Goodwin, Johnny Coy, Vera Vague

Synopsis: Though Republic had decided to forego plans for an annual film edition of Earl Carroll's Vanities, their reciprocal deal with the Broadway impresario was still very much in effect in 1946: Hence the creation of the musical extravaganza Earl Carroll Sketchbook. The highly forgettable plot involves Read More

River Gang

Actors: Gloria Jean, John Qualen, Bill Goodwin, Keefe Brasselle, Sheldon Leonard

Synopsis: River Gang was another of Universal's attempts to tap the dramatic potential of their young singing star Gloria Jean. The actress plays Wendy, the niece of pawnbroker Uncle Bill (John Qualen). Outwardly a loveable teller of tall tales, Uncle Bill is actually the head of a robbery gang. When murder Read More

The Stork Club

Actors: Betty Hutton, Barry Fitzgerald, Don DeFore, Andy Russell, Iris Adrian, Robert Benchley

Synopsis: The Stork Club, the famed New York nightspot immortalized by columnist Walter Winchell (in return for special favors from its owners), is the setting for this typically brash Betty Hutton musical. Hutton plays a young hat check girl who rescues an elderly tramp (Barry Fitzgerald) from drowning. Read More

Incendiary Blonde

Actors: Betty Hutton, Arturo de Cordova, Albert Dekker, Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald

Synopsis: Incendiary Blonde is a highly entertaining if historically suspect biopic of "Queen of the Nightclubs" Texas Guinan. As played (or overplayed) by Betty Hutton, Guinan is a hoydenish Texas gal whose showbiz career gets under way when she joins a Wild West show in 1909. A favorite with male patrons Read More

Spellbound

Actors: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Jean Acker, Rhonda Fleming, Leo G. Carroll, Donald Curtis, Norman Lloyd, Regis Toomey

Synopsis: As Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychothriller opens, the staff of a posh mental asylum eagerly awaits the arrival of the new director. When the man in question shows up, it turns out to be handsome psychiatrist John Ballantine (Gregory Peck). But something's wrong, here: Ballantine seems much too Read More

Bathing Beauty

Actors: Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone, Bill Goodwin, Ethel Smith

Synopsis: If you've never seen a '40s singing, swimming musical this may be the one to catch. Featuring a mammoth cast, including such notables as Xavier Cugat, Basil Rathbone, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams, this is a swimming spectacular. The plot's quite thin: Skelton plays a lovesick songwriter who Read More

So Proudly We Hail!

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake, George Reeves, Barbara Britton

Synopsis: Paramount's So Proudly We Hail, like MGM's Cry Havoc, is a tribute to the Red Cross nurses trapped behind enemy lines in the early days of the Pacific war. Claudette Colbert is the self-sacrificing head nurse, struggling to minister to the wounded and to keep her staff (including Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake Read More

Riding High

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, Victor Moore, Gil Lamb, Cass Daley

Synopsis: No relation to the 1950 Frank Capra film of the same name, the 1943 Technicolor musical Riding High is a by-the-numbers vehicle for Dorothy Lamour and Dick Powell. Lamour stars as Ann Castle, a former burlesque queen who heads westward to claim her father's silver mine. Powell plays mining Read More

No Time for Love

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ilka Chase, Richard Haydn, Paul McGrath

Synopsis: Mitchell Leisen utilizes his stylistic pizzazz to enliven this romantic comedy that proves the old adage "opposites attract" -- but only after three or four reels. Claudette Colbert is Katherine Grant, an upper-crust fashion photographer who has a gang of admirers snapping at her heels. When her Read More

Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour

Actors: Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, John Litel, Olive Blakeney, Diana Lynn

Synopsis: Adenoidal teenager Henry Aldrich (James Lydon) "gets glamour" when he wins first prize in a movie-magazine contest. Before he quite knows what's happening, Henry is whisked to Hollywood for a date with glamorous "sarong girl" Hilary Dane (Frances Gifford). All of this coincides with a local Read More

Blondie Goes to College

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Janet Blair

Synopsis: One of the most fondly remembered of the "Blondie" series entries, Blondie Goes to College is predicated on the notion that Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) must receive a college diploma or lose his job with the Dithers Construction Company. Not wishing to be separated from her husband, Blondie (Penny Singleton Read More

Wake Island

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, MacDonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Barbara Britton

Synopsis: The winner of four Oscar nominations, Wake Island was one of the first major Hollywood films to deal with America's forced participation in World War II. The first two reels takes place in the weeks prior to Pearl Harbor, as Wake Island military commander Brian Donlevy carries on a friendly Read More

Blondie in Society

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Jonathan Hale

Synopsis: Blondie in Society is another delightful excursion into comic insanity for Blondie (Penny Singleton), Dagwood (Arthur Lake) and Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms). The trouble begins when Dagwood brings home a huge Great Dane as a favor to an old friend. It turns out that the gigantic hound is a Read More

Let's Make Music

Actors: Jean Rogers, Bob Crosby & Orchestra, Elizabeth Risdon, Joseph Buloff, Joyce Compton

Synopsis: Though he lacked the casual charisma of his brother Bing, bandleader Bob Crosby starred in a series of reasonably successful films of his own. In Let's Make Music, Crosby and his "Bobcats" turn a dreadful football-victory song penned by elderly schoolmistress Malvina Adams (Elisabeth Risdon) into Read More