Cecil KellawayFilmography

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, Beah Richards, Roy E. Glenn, Sr., Isabel Sanford, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Old-line liberals Matt and Christina Drayton (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) have raised their daughter Joey (Katharine Houghton) to think for herself and not blindly conform to the conventional. Still, they aren't prepared for the shock when she returns home from a vacation with a new Read More

Fitzwilly

Actors: Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Feldon, Edith Evans, John McGiver, Harry Townes

Synopsis: When an aging philanthropist falls on hard times, her butler starts to rob the rich so that she can keep on giving to the poor in this comedy. Claude Fitzwilliam (Dick Van Dyke), known to his friends as "Fitzwilly," works as a butler for Victoria Woodworth (Edith Evans), who -- ever since the Read More

Spinout

Actors: Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Diane McBain, Deborah Walley, Dodie Marshall, Jack Mullaney, Carl Betz

Synopsis: Elvis Presley plays rock singer and racecar driver Mike McCoy in the typical musical romp Spinout, directed by Norman Taurog. His band includes Curly Jack Mullaney, Larry Jimmy Hawkins and the female tomboy drummer Les Deborah Walley. Mike is coveted by a bevy of beauties that include the Read More

The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Suzanne Pleshette, Karl Malden, Harry Guardino, Bryan Russell, Richard Haydn

Synopsis: This rambunctious Disney comedy was based on the novel By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman. Roddy McDowall plays Griffin, the very proper butler of Bostonian Bryan Russell. When Russell runs off to California during the 1849 gold rush, Griffin dutifully tags along. Master and butler team up Read More

Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Actors: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: An unusually long pre-credits sequence establishes the roots of faded Southern belle Charlotte's (Bette Davis) insanity; she'd been witness to the dismemberment murder of her fiance (Bruce Dern) and the suicide of the murderer, her own father (Victor Buono). Years later, Charlotte remains a Read More

The F.B.I.: The Hijackers

Synopsis: Forced into retirement, disgruntled truck driver Harold K. "Smitty" Smith (Arthur O'Connell) decides to get even with his employers. Assisted by two old friends, Smitty hijacks one of the company's trucks. It was supposed to have been a harmless gesture, but things become dangerous for Smitty when Read More

Bewitched: A Vision of Sugar Plums

Actors: Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway, Alice Pearce

Synopsis: Child actor Billy Mumy and veteran scene-stealer Cecil Kellaway appear in this "very special" episode of Bewitched. During the Yuletide season, Samantha and Darrin try to convince a surly orphan named Michael (Mumy) to believe in Santa Claus -- and in Christmas itself. Need it be added that Read More

Quick, Let's Get Married

Synopsis: Though it was made in 1964, this romantic farce was not released until 1971. It stars an aging Ginger Rogers as a prosperous madam who teams up with the crooked town mayor (Ray Milland) and tries to trick one of her "girls" into revealing the location of a famous hidden treasure. The prostitute Read More

My Favorite Martian: Now You See It, Now You Don't

Synopsis: In his efforts to help museum curator Wilbur Canfield (Cecil Kellaway)--and incidentally, to expand the cultural horizons of his friend Tim (Bill Bixby)--Uncle Martin (Ray Walston) "borrows" a controversial piece of Egyptian art to verify its authencity. Unfortunately, Wilbur loses his job as a Read More

The Twilight Zone: Passage on the Lady Ann

Actors: Gladys Cooper, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Cecil Kellaway, Lee Philips, Joyce Van Patten

Synopsis: Charles Beaumont adapted this hauntingly-poignant 60-minute Twilight Zone episode from his own short story "Song for a Lady." Hoping to save their tattered marriage, Alan and Eileen Ransome (Lee Philips and Joyce Van Patten) book passage on a luxury liner bound for England. Their first indication Read More

The Cardinal

Actors: Tom Tryon, Carol Lynley, Romy Schneider, Dorothy Gish, Maggie McNamara, John Huston, Raf Vallone

Synopsis: Tom Tryon plays the title role in this Otto Preminger version of the Henry Morton Robinson novel. In his matriculation from Monsignor to the College of Cardinals, Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) must undergo several grueling life experiences: standing up to bigots in Georgia, defying Nazis in Read More

Zotz!

Actors: Tom Poston, Julia Meade, Jim Backus, Fred Clark, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: TV actor Tom Poston stars as Prof. Jonathan Jones in this early feature-film appearance, a standard comedy-fantasy oriented to the youngsters. The good professor has come into possession of "zotz," a coin that has three magical properties. It can either cause intense pain if its bearer points an Read More

The Private Lives of Adam and Eve

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Mamie van Doren, Fay Spain, Mel Tormé, Martin Milner

Synopsis: This parody of Genesis caused an uproar before and during its release (the final version was reworked and cut) though its routine or worse cinematic level would not encourage large audiences. The story begins with a busload of men and women with hang-ups in the romance department, all heading for Read More

Tammy, Tell Me True

Actors: Sandra Dee, John Gavin, Charles Drake, Virginia Grey, Julia Meade

Synopsis: In this emotional romance, the young backwoods girl Tammy lives in a houseboat on the river. She is very sad because she hasn't heard from her college-student boyfriend in ages. Determined to be near him, she cruises her boat down to his university and enrolls. To pay expenses she gets a job. Her Read More

Francis of Assisi

Actors: Bradford Dillman, Dolores Hart, Stuart Whitman, Pedro Armendáriz, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: This penultimate film by director Michael Curtiz, perhaps best known for his 1942 Casablanca, is a verbose, routine religious drama on the life of St. Francis of Assisi. After quickly passing over St. Francis' early life as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, the story notes his talents Read More

The Twilight Zone: Elegy

Actors: Cecil Kellaway, Kevin Hagen, Jeff Morrow, Don Dubbins

Synopsis: Adapted for television by Charles Beaumont from his own short story, the Twilight Zone episode "Elegy" was first telecast February 19, 1960. Making an emergency landing on an Earth-like asteroid, three astronauts -- Webber (Kevin Hagen), Meyers (Jeff Morrow), and Kirby (Don Dubbins) -- are Read More

The Shaggy Dog

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Jean Hagen, Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Tim Considine

Synopsis: This is a routine Disney comedy-fantasy about a boy who turns into a large sheep dog at the most inopportune moments. That is assuming there would be opportune moments. Young Wilby Daniels (Tommy Kirk) finds a magic ring that used to belong to the Borgia family. When he pronounces an inscription Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Glittering Goldfish

Synopsis: Tom Wyatt (John Hudson) might have become rich by inventing a cure for a rare fish disease called gilled fever, but for the fact that his boss Jackson Hurley (Murvyn Vye) took credit for the invention. Thus, when Hurley is murdered, Lt. Tragg (Ray Collins) charges Wyatt with the crime. In his Read More

The Proud Rebel

Actors: Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: A gentler but no less resourceful Alan Ladd stars in The Proud Rebel. Ladd is cast as civil war veteran John Chandler, while the star's son David (who grew up to become a powerful Hollywood producer) plays Chandler's emotionally disturbed son David. Since suffering a traumatic shock during the Read More

Johnny Trouble

Actors: Ethel Barrymore, Cecil Kellaway, Carolyn Jones, Jesse White, Rand Harper

Synopsis: In this gentle, non-melodramatic drama, an elderly, wealthy widow will not leave her apartment even after her building is slated to be converted into a dormitory by the university that purchased it. She refuses to leave because she is convinced that her son, who disappeared 27 years before after Read More

Toy Tiger

Actors: Jeff Chandler, Laraine Day, Tim Hovey, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Toy Tiger was a remake of the 1938 Deanna Durbin film Mad About Music. The adolescent girl of the original becomes a preteen boy in the remake, played with an excess of the cutes by Tim Hovey. A student in a private school, Hovey brags to his classmates about the accomplishments of his father. Read More

Studio One: The Tale of St. Emergency

Synopsis: An original story by no less than Jackie Gleason was the basis of this one-hour drama, originally telecast live on the CBS dramatic anthology Studio One. Decked out in white robes and a cute little halo, comedian Red Buttons stars as St. Emergency, a celestial troubleshooter whose aid is summoned Read More

The Prodigal

Actors: Lana Turner, Edmund Purdom, Louis Calhern, Audrey Dalton, Neville Brand, James Mitchell

Synopsis: One critic has noted that The Prodigal was aptly titled, inasmuch as it was all too prodigal with the funds of the then-flagging MGM studios. In its retelling of the 22-verse Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, the film helpfully fills in the story details inconsiderately left out of the Old Read More

Female on the Beach

Actors: Joan Crawford, Jeff Chandler, Jan Sterling, Cecil Kellaway, Judith Evelyn

Synopsis: This movie is ideal for those in the mood for something steamy, overwrought and wonderfully trashy. Billed as a mystery, it centers on hapless Joan Crawford as a wealthy gambler's widow who exchanges the lights and excitement of Vegas for the anticipated serenity of the isolated beach house that Read More

Interrupted Melody

Actors: Glenn Ford, Eleanor Parker, Roger Moore, Cecil Kellaway, Peter Leeds

Synopsis: Interrupted Melody is the inspirational filmed biography of world-renowned Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence. Eleanor Parker plays Ms. Farrell, while her vocal renditions, ranging from selections from Madame Butterfly to MGM's own Over the Rainbow, were dubbed by Eileen Farrell, who would be Read More

Cruisin' Down the River

Actors: Dick Haymes, Audrey Totter, Billy Daniels, Cecil Kellaway, Connie Russell

Synopsis: A Big Apple nightclub singer inherits a riverboat from his late grandfather and learns, via flashback, the interesting story of how his granddaddy acquired the craft. When he won a bet during a fight over possession of the boat, the crafty old gambler not only acquired the riverboat but also the Read More

Paris Model

Actors: Eva Gabor, Tom Conway, Laurette Luez, Aram Katcher

Synopsis: Paris Model is quickie producer Albert Zugsmith's answer to such multistoried films as Tales of Manhattan. Linking the four stories presented herein is a Paris-original gown, "Nude at Midnight." The gown is first purchased by "good bad girl" Gogo Montaine (Eva Gabor), who hopes to impress her date Read More

Young Bess

Actors: Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Charles Laughton, Kay Walsh

Synopsis: This costume drama was based on the historical fiction of Margaret Irwin, which embellishes the facts of the early years of England's eventual Queen Elizabeth I. It's told in flashback style, starting with the horrible day when King Henry VIII (Charles Laughton) sends away the future queen, young Read More

Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill

Synopsis: The messed up love relationships between friends is addressed by a visiting Westerner. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

Actors: Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey, Donald Woods

Synopsis: A longtime "dream" project of production designer-turned-director Eugene Lourie, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms sees the titular beast unleashed on the world via nuclear testing. Making its way from the Arctic Circle, the monster-a carnivorous "rhedosaurus"-begins advancing towards New York. It Read More

Thunder in the East

Actors: Alan Ladd, Deborah Kerr, Charles Boyer, Corinne Calvet, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: During the early days of East Indian independence in 1947, a native rebellion threatens a hotel full of Britishers, Europeans and Americans. Gunrunner Alan Ladd could care less about anything other than his own neck. Ladd runs up against the resistance of a pacifist Indian leader (Charles Boyer) Read More

My Wife's Best Friend

Actors: Anne Baxter, MacDonald Carey, Cecil Kellaway, Casey Adams, Catherine McLeod

Synopsis: This 20th Century-Fox programmer stars Anne Baxter and Macdonald Carey as husband and wife, both passengers on an airliner. When the plane develops serious engine trouble, it looks like the end for everyone on board. Certain that he's facing an imminent demise, Carey confesses to Baxter that he's Read More

Just Across the Street

Actors: Ann Sheridan, John Lund, Robert Keith, Cecil Kellaway, Harvey Lembeck

Synopsis: Blue-collar gal Henrietta Smith (Anne Sheridan) is mistaken for a woman of wealth by plumber Fred Newcombe (John Lund). Henrietta goes along with Fred's error when the opportunity presents itself to bring in much-needed revenue for herself and her inebriate father (Cecil Kellaway). The comic Read More

Katie Did It

Actors: Ann Blyth, Mark Stevens, Cecil Kellaway, Jesse White, Harold Vermilyea

Synopsis: Katherine "Katie" Standish (Ann Blyth) has been raised in a restrictive small town by her prudish Aunt Priscilla (Elizabeth Patterson). When Katie heads to New York to help out her improvident Uncle Nathaniel (Cecil Kellaway), she experiences an emotional and romantic awakening. The catalyst for Read More

Half Angel

Actors: Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Cecil Kellaway, Basil Ruysdael, Jim Backus

Synopsis: Even at age 38, Loretta Young could successfully pull off her ingenue duties in the innocuous comedy Half Angel. Young plays Nora, a prim and proper nurse, engaged to the stuffy Tim (John Ridgely). Unbeknownst to both, Nora is a sleepwalker; during her nocturnal forays, the less-inhibited side of Read More

Francis Goes to the Races

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Piper Laurie, Cecil Kellaway, Jesse White, Barry Kelley

Synopsis: In this funny sequel to the popular Francis the Talking Mule the loquacious equine and his plucky pal Peter (Donald O'Connor) get a job working on a horse-breeder's ranch and end up saving it from financial ruin when Francis, who has the inside track with the racehorses, provides Peter with names Read More

The Highwayman

Actors: Charles Coburn, Wanda Hendrix, Phillip Friend, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Jory

Synopsis: The Highwayman is based on the famous narrative poem by Alfred Noyes. The title character, played by Philip Friend, is a bold masked bandit of 18th-century England, who robs from the rich and gives (a little) to the poor. He is loved by Bess (Wanda Hendrix), the lovely daughter of an innkeeper. Read More

Harvey

Actors: James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Charles Drake, Cecil Kellaway, Victoria Horne

Synopsis: This whimsical fantasy about a local drunk's 6' 3 1/2" imaginary rabbit pal was a smash hit (and a Pulitzer Prize winner) on Broadway and was then adapted into this likeable farce that's also an allegory about tolerance. James Stewart stars as Elwood P. Dowd, a wealthy tippler whose sunny Read More

Kim

Actors: Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell, Paul Lukas, Robert Douglas, Thomas Gomez

Synopsis: Errol Flynn is top-billed in Kim, but the title character is played by Dean Stockwell. The son of an Irish sergeant, young Kim wanders through the streets and hills of Colonial India, disguised as a native boy. Kim's adventures include an episode with a horse trader (Errol Flynn) who is actually a Read More

The Reformer and the Redhead

Actors: June Allyson, Dick Powell, David Wayne, Cecil Kellaway, Ray Collins

Synopsis: MGM's The Reformer and the Redhead was the first directorial collaboration of longtime screenwriting partners Norman Panama and Melvin Frank. The reformer is Andrew Rockton Hale (Dick Powell), a mayoral candidate. Hale butts heads with a corrupt political machine, which has recently ordered the Read More

Down to the Sea in Ships

Actors: Dean Stockwell, Richard Widmark, Lionel Barrymore, Gene Lockhart, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: This full-blooded saga of the 19th century whaling industry stars Lionel Barrymore as tough old salt Captain Bering Joy and Dean Stockwell as his grandson Jed. Anxious to embark upon a life on the sea, Jed aligns himself with Joy's first mate, Dan Lunceford (Richard Widmark). The captain Read More

Portrait of Jennie

Actors: Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Ethel Barrymore, David Wayne, Lillian Gish, Florence Bates, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: In Portrait of Jennie, Joseph Cotten plays an artist, Eben Adams, who is unable to bring any true feeling to his work. While painting in Central Park one morning, Eben makes the acquaintance of a schoolgirl named Jennie (Jennifer Jones), who prattles on about things that happened years ago. Read More

Joan of Arc

Actors: Ingrid Bergman, José Ferrer, Selena Royle, Ward Bond, Robert H. Barrat, Jimmy Lydon, Francis L. Sullivan, Cecil Kellaway, Rand Brooks

Synopsis: Director Victor Fleming's final film features Ingrid Bergman as a vivid and luminous Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who led the French in battle against the invading English, becoming a national hero. When she was captured, tortured, and ultimately executed by the English, she Read More

The Decision of Christopher Blake

Actors: Alexis Smith, Robert Douglas, Cecil Kellaway, Ted Donaldson, John Hoyt

Synopsis: In this drama, a poor young boy must choose between his divorcing parents. With the help of a kind judge, he tries to get his parents back together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Luck of the Irish

Actors: Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter, Cecil Kellaway, Lee J. Cobb, James Todd

Synopsis: A semi-fantasy with sociological overtones, The Luck of the Irish stars Tyrone Power as an American journalist named Stephen Fitzgerald visiting the home of his ancestors in Ireland. Power encounters a jolly old man (Cecil Kellaway) who claims to be a leprechaun -- and proves it to the Read More

Always Together

Actors: Robert Hutton, Joyce Reynolds, Cecil Kellaway, Ernest Truex, Don McGuire

Synopsis: In this frothy, star-studded Warner Brothers outing, tightwad tycoon Jonathan Turner, believing himself at death's door, gives star-struck movie buff Jane Barker a million bucks. Problems begin when Jane's hubby, an aspiring writer, finds out about her new fortune. Marital turmoil ensues causing Read More

Unconquered

Actors: Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Howard Da Silva, Boris Karloff, Katherine de Mille, Ward Bond

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's first postwar production, the $5 million Technicolor historical spectacular Unconquered lacks only the kitchen sink. The story begins in England in the 1760s, as Abigail Martha Hale (Paulette Goddard), unjustly accused of a crime against the Crown, is sentenced by the Lord Chief Read More

Variety Girl

Actors: Eric Alden, Mary Hatcher, William Bendix, Olga San Juan, MacDonald Carey, DeForest Kelley, William Demarest, Joan Caulfield, Stanley Clements, Frank Faylen

Synopsis: This story of two young hopefuls who come to Hollywood is merely a thin device to feature almost every star working for Paramount Studios in 1947. Mary Hatcher plays Catherine Brown, a woman of humble origins who arrives in Hollywood, where she meets another wanna-be movie star, Amber La Vonne Read More

The Cockeyed Miracle

Actors: Frank Morgan, Keenan Wynn, Cecil Kellaway, Audrey Totter, Richard Quine

Synopsis: Frank Morgan plays a turn-of-the-century shipbuilder who dies of a sudden heart attack. Morgan is summoned to Heaven by the ghost of the father (Keenan Wynn), who'd been killed in a barroom brawl at an early age and thus is now younger than his own son! After a few amusing efforts at testing his Read More

Monsieur Beaucaire

Actors: Bob Hope, Joan Caulfield, Patric Knowles, Marjorie Reynolds, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Monsieur Beaucaire, Booth Tarkington's novel about an 18th-century French barber who poses as a swashbuckling aristocrat, was the surprising source for this Grade-A Bob Hope comedy. While in the original novel the tonsorial hero pretended to be someone he wasn't by choice, in this 1946 film Hope Read More

Easy to Wed

Actors: Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: This Technicolor musical remake of the 1936 comedy classic Libeled Lady isn't quite up to the standards of the original, but on its own terms is quite entertaining. Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn expertly assume the roles originally played by William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow Read More

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Actors: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn, Audrey Totter

Synopsis: James M. Cain's novel received its first authorized screen treatment in this MGM production. Drifter Frank Chambers (John Garfield) takes a job at a roadhouse run by slovenly but likeable Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway). Nick's sexy young wife Cora (Lana Turner) takes an immediate liking to Frank, but Read More

Kitty

Actors: Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Patric Knowles, Reginald Owen, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Kitty is the "Pygmalion" legend, 18th century style. London aristocrat Ray Milland takes it upon himself to make a lady of a guttersnipe (Paulette Goddard, complete with a cockney accent not to be believed). Milland and fellow conspirator Constance Collier aren't bothering with the girl out of the Read More

Love Letters

Actors: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Gladys Cooper, Cecil Kellaway, Anita Louise

Synopsis: Ayn Rand wrote this adaptation of Chris Massie's book Pity Mr. Simplicity, about a soldier who falls in love with a former comrade's wife -- an amnesiac who may have murdered her husband. The story begins in Italy when two soldiers, Allen Quinton (Joseph Cotten) and Roger Morland (Robert Sully) Read More

Practically Yours

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Gil Lamb, Cecil Kellaway, Robert Benchley

Synopsis: The popular screen team of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray stars in this wartime farce. MacMurray is an army pilot who develops engine trouble during a vital mission. Thinking he's about to die, MacMurray radios back his undying affection for his dog "Piggy." But the radio reception is fuzzy Read More

Frenchman's Creek

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Cordova, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Daphne du Maurier's novel formed the basis for this romantic adventure saga. Lady Dona St. Columb (Joan Fontaine), an English noblewoman, is unhappily married to the weak-willed Harry St. Columb (Ralph Forbes), while Harry's sinister best friend Lord Rockingham (Basil Rathbone) makes no secret of Read More

Mrs. Parkington

Actors: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway, Peter Lawford

Synopsis: The usual modus operandi for Hollywood "through the years" sagas was to gradually age its young actors in the course of the film. In Mrs. Parkington, 35-year-old Greer Garson appears in old-lady makeup for virtually the entire 124-minute running time, even though this filmization of Louis Bromfield Read More

And Now Tomorrow

Actors: Loretta Young, Alan Ladd, Susan Hayward, Barry Sullivan, Beulah Bondi

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a doctor returns to his home town to set out his shingle. He was born on the poor side of town and so has had a life-long anger towards the town's wealthiest family. When the daughter of this family comes in for treatment, he finds himself faced with a dilemma. A bout with Read More

Forever and a Day

Actors: Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, Gladys Cooper, Ida Lupino, C. Aubrey Smith, Robert Cummings, Claude Rains, Anna Neagle, Roland Young

Synopsis: The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen narrator. The true star of the film is a stately old Read More

The Crystal Ball

Actors: Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Virginia Field, William Bendix, Gladys George

Synopsis: Overloaded with unreleased films in 1942 and 1943, Paramount Pictures cleaned house by diverting several pictures to United Artists. One such effort was The Crystal Ball, wherein beauty contest loser Toni Gerard (Paulette Goddard) takes a job as a sideshow fortune teller. Subbing for the ailing Read More

Freedom Comes High

Actors: James Craig, Barbara Britton, Cecil Kellaway, Donald Cook

The Good Fellows

Actors: Cecil Kellaway, Mabel Paige, Helen Walker, James Brown, Diana Hale

Synopsis: For reasons unknown, Paramount Pictures decided to dust off the 1926 George S. Kaufman-Herman Mankiewicz stage comedy The Good Fellows for its 1942-43 release schedule. Cecil Kellaway plays Jim Hilton, a small-town family man who neglects his wife and kids, preferring the company of his lodge Read More

It Ain't Hay

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Grace McDonald, Cecil Kellaway, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: In one of their most genial comedies -- based on a Damon Runyon story -- Bud Abbott and Lou Costello have to help one friend (Cecil Kellaway) replace his beloved carriage horse, and another friend (Leightno Noble) put together a US Army camp show. Through a misunderstanding, they take what they Read More

My Heart Belongs to Daddy

Actors: Richard Carlson, Martha O'Driscoll, Cecil Kellaway, Frances Gifford, Florence Bates

Synopsis: A most uncharacteristic assignment for director Robert Siodmak, My Heart Belongs to Daddy was scripted by F. Hugh Herbert, of The Moon is Blue fame (or notoriety). Martha O'Driscoll stars as a widowed, pregnant exotic dancer, forced by circumstance to stopover at the household of widowed scientist Read More

A Night in New Orleans

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Patricia Morison, Albert Dekker, Charles Butterworth, Dooley Wilson

Synopsis: A solid Jonathan Latimer screenplay is one of the "plusses" of the medium-budget mystery A Night in New Orleans. Preston S. Foster plays police lieutenant Steve Abbott, at present engrossed in a baffling murder case. As he pieces the clues together, Abbott comes to the sobering conclusion that his Read More

Star Spangled Rhythm

Actors: Victor Moore, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Anne Revere, Walter Abel

Synopsis: Star-Spangled Rhythm is a typical wartime all-star musical-comedy melange, this time from Paramount Pictures. The slender plot involves the efforts by humble studio doorman Pop Webster (Victor Moore) to pass himself off as a big-shot Paramount executive for the benefit of his sailor son Jimmy (Eddie Bracken Read More

Take a Letter, Darling

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray, Constance Moore, MacDonald Carey, Robert Benchley

Synopsis: Take a Letter, Darling is from the "boss lady" school of 1940s comedies. Fred MacMurray is Darling (that's his last name), an unsuccessful artist who advertises for a position as male secretary. He is hired by female advertising executive Rosalind Russell, who is all business--during business Read More

Are Husbands Necessary?

Actors: Ray Milland, Betty Field, Patricia Morison, Eugene Pallette, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: In providing the "synopsis" for Are Husbands Necessary?, one best-selling film source says merely "And what about this film?" There's more to the story than that, of course--but not much. The film was based on Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, a novel by Frank Davis. Ray Milland and Betty Field play a warring Read More

I Married a Witch

Actors: Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: As she burns at the stake, a 17th century witch, Jennifer (Veronica Lake), places a curse on her accuser (Fredric March), so that from this day forward, all of his descendants (each played by him) will be unhappy in marriage. After several hilarious through-the-years examples (the Civil War-era Fredric March Read More

The Lady Has Plans

Actors: Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Roland Young, Albert Dekker, Maggie Hayes

Synopsis: Long underappreciated by film buffs, The Lady Has Plans is a screwball comedy disguised as an espionage melodrama. The title character is not star Paulette Goddard, as one might assume, but Nazi agent Rita Lenox (Margaret Hayes), who sneaks into Lisbon with a secret message written on her bare Read More

A Very Young Lady

Actors: Jane Withers, Nancy Kelly, John Sutton, Janet Beecher, Richard Clayton

Synopsis: Though it isn't obvious from the outset, A Very Young Lady is a remake of 20th Century-Fox' Girl's Dormitory; both films were based on a Hungarian play by Ladislas Fodor. Stepping into the old Simone Simon role is Jane Withers as hoydenish Kitty Russell, who is packed off to finishing school in Read More

Birth of the Blues

Actors: Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, Brian Donlevy, Carolyn Lee, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson

Synopsis: Rather shaky as history, Birth of the Blues delivers the goods in terms of entertainment, thanks to the unbeatable star combination of Bing Crosby and Mary Martin. Set in New Orleans in the 'teens, the film stars Crosby as clarinetist Jeff Lambert, who breaks away from a traditionalist orchestra Read More

Bahama Passage

Actors: Madeleine Carroll, Sterling Hayden, Flora Robson, Leo G. Carroll, Mary Anderson

Synopsis: Bahama Passage is a leisurely bit of Technicolor exotica starring Madeleine Carroll and her future husband Sterling Hayden. Based on Nolson Hayes' novel Dildo Cay, the story takes place on a remote Bahaman island where the principal commodity-in fact, the only--is salt. The owner of the island is Read More

Small Town Deb

Actors: Jane Withers, Jane Darwell, Bruce Edwards, Cobina Wright, Jr., Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Jane Withers, 20th Century-Fox's second-feature Shirley Temple, plays the favorite daughter of a wealthy man (Cecil Kellaway). Real-life debutante Cobina Wright Jr. plays Jane's snobbish sister, who is pushed into society by her mother (Katherine Alexander). The hostility between the down-to-earth Read More

Appointment for Love

Actors: Charles Boyer, Margaret Sullavan, Rita Johnson, Eugene Pallette, Ruth Terry

Synopsis: What's a modern guy to do when his wife's ideas about marriage are a bit too modern for his taste? Andre Casall (Charles Boyer) is a successful, free-thinking playwright who becomes infatuated with a progressive female doctor, Jane Alexander (Margaret Sullavan). They marry impulsively, and Andre Read More

New York Town

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, Robert Preston, Akim Tamiroff, Lynne Overman

Synopsis: Fred MacMurray is a breezy New York street photographer; Mary Martin is a small town girl hoping to make her fortune in the Big Apple. Fred and Mary meet, bicker, fall in love, fall out of love, fall in love again, and so it goes. The main story is occasionally leavened by subplots involving such Read More

West Point Widow

Actors: Anne Shirley, Richard Carlson, Richard Denning, Frances Gifford, Maude Eburne

Synopsis: In this romance, a hospital nurse marries a West Point football hero. She soon gets pregnant, but this doesn't stop her from annulling the marriage so as not to interfere with her husband's military career. Though she keeps it a secret, her plan is to marry him again after he graduates from the Read More

The Night of January 16th

Actors: Robert Preston, Ellen Drew, Nils Asther, Donald Douglas, Maggie Hayes

Synopsis: Ayn Rand's Broadway stage hit The Night of January 16th was distinguished by a clever gimmick, wherein members of the audience sat in the jury box while a fictional murder trial was conducted: the outcome of the play was thus totally in the hands of the spectators, and accordingly Rand penned two Read More

Burma Convoy

Actors: Charles Bickford, Evelyn Ankers, Frank Albertson, Cecil Kellaway, Willie Fung

Synopsis: This action film is set in Asia during World War II and follows the exploits of a truck driver who must investigate the mysterious death of his younger brother. The trucker had been driving in convoys along the dangerous Burma Road between Rangoon and Chungking for a long time when he decided it Read More

The Letter

Actors: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort, Gale Sondergaard, Sen Yung

Synopsis: William Wyler's dark and poisonous melodrama, based on the W. Somerset Maugham novel, features Bette Davis in one of her nastiest roles. The story begins in the shimmering moonlight on a tropical Malayan rubber plantation. Shots ring out and a wounded man, Geoffrey Hammond (David Newell) staggers Read More

Brother Orchid

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Donald Crisp, Ralph Bellamy

Synopsis: Edward G. Robinson plays orchid-loving gangster Little John Sarto, who aspires to "real class." During a power struggle with usurping mobster Jack Buck (Humphrey Bogart), Sarto is taken for a one-way ride, but he escapes his would-be assassins and hides out in a monastery overseen by Brother Read More

The Invisible Man Returns

Actors: Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, John Sutton, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: A semi-sequel to the 1933 Universal horror masterwork The Invisible Man, The Invisible Man Returns stars Vincent Price in the title role. Condemned for a murder he did not commit, Price begs doctor John Sutton to inject him with the invisibility serum invented by Claude Rains in the first film. Sutton Read More

The House of the Seven Gables

Actors: George Sanders, Margaret Lindsay, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, Dick Foran

Synopsis: This fine adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale about a cursed family opens with a title card that reveals how the Pyncheon family stole, cheated, lied, and murdered their way to wealth. But within the hearts of the family's bloodline lay fear of the curse of Matthew Maule, a man they Read More

The Mummy's Hand

Actors: Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, George Zucco, Cecil Kellaway, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Egyptian mystic Andoheb (George Zucco) is ordered by his High Priest (Eduardo Ciannelli) to stand guard over the sacred mummy of Kharis (Tom Tyler), who thousands of years earlier was entombed alive for falling in love with Egyptian Princess Ananka. Kharis can be revived or neutralized at will Read More

Adventure in Diamonds

Actors: George Brent, Isa Miranda, John Loder, Nigel Bruce, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: British army pilot Stephen (George Brent) falls in love with jewel-thief Felice (Isa Miranda), tricking her out of some stolen diamonds. Stephen and South African Police Commissioner Lansfield (Nigel Bruce) set a trap for her partner Barclay (John Loder), but Felice falls for it instead. She's Read More

Phantom Raiders

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Joseph Schildkraut, Donald Meek, Florence Rice, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: The second entry in MGM's three-film "Nick Carter" series, Phantom Raiders is undeniably the best, and not just by default. In this one, super-sleuth Nick Carter (Walter Pidgeon) arrives in Panama to investigate the destruction of several Allied supply vessels. It's going to be an uphill battle Read More

Mexican Spitfire Out West

Actors: Lupe Velez, Donald Woods, Elizabeth Risdon, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: In this third of RKO's "Mexican Spitfire" series, star Lupe Velez doesn't get any further west than Reno, Nevada. Lupe feels that her straightlaced husband (Donald Woods) is neglecting her, and thus seeks a divorce. Reliable old Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) shows up to straighten things out, which Read More

The Lady with Red Hair

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Claude Rains, Richard Ainley, Laura Hope Crewes, Helen Westley

Synopsis: The notoriously temperamental Miriam Hopkins is ideally cast as equally contentious theatrical prima donna Mrs. Leslie Carter in The Lady With Red Hair. As rapidly paced as any Warner Bros. gangster picture, the film charts Caroline Carter's rise to fame on Broadway through the auspices of Read More

South of Suez

Actors: George Brent, Brenda Marshall, George Tobias, James Stephenson, Lee Patrick

Synopsis: South of Suez is where diamond-mine foreman John Gamble (George Brent) plies his trade. When his boss is murdered, Gamble is held for murder, forcing him to take it on the lam. With the reluctant aid of heroine Katherine Sheffield (Brenda Marshall), Gamble endeavors to prove his innocence. He is Read More

Diamond Frontier

Actors: Victor McLaglen, John Loder, Anne Nagel, Philip Dorn, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Characterized by some critics as a "South African western", Diamond Frontier stars Victor McLaglen as ruthless diamond hunter Regan. The villain's reign of terror as he searches for the precious gems is checked by Charles Clayton (John Loder), freshly escaped from a brutal penal colony. A wild Read More

We Are Not Alone

Actors: Paul Muni, Jane Bryan, Flora Robson, Raymond Severn, Una O'Connor

Synopsis: A violin-playing British doctor's life changes forever after he takes in a distraught Austrian ballerina who tries to kill herself after breaking her wrist. He hires the sad girl as a nanny for his bright son, whom he wants to keep away from his neurotic, overbearing wife. The trouble starts when Read More

Mr. Chedworth Steps Out

Actors: James Raglan, Rita Pauncefort, Peter Finch

Synopsis: Cherubic Cecil Kellaway heads the cast of the Australian Mr. Chedworth Steps Out. The title character is a milquetoast clerk who decides to kick over the traces and have a good time when chances across an abandoned bag of money. Unbeknownst to Mr. Chedworth, the cash is counterfeit, and before Read More

Gunga Din

Actors: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine

Synopsis: Though Rudyard Kipling's poem Gunga Din makes a swell recital piece, it cannot be said to have much of a plot. It's simply a crude cockney soldier's tribute to a native Indian water boy who remains at his job even after being mortally wounded. Hardly the sort of material upon which to build 118 Read More

Mexican Spitfire

Actors: Leon Errol, Donald Woods, Linda Hayes, Elizabeth Risdon

Synopsis: The excellent response to RKO Radio's The Girl from Mexico prompted the studio to fashion an entire series based on the misadventures of fiery Latin American entertainer Carmelita (Lupe Velez). The series proper began with 1939's Mexican Spitfire, in which the recent marriage between Carmelita and Read More

Intermezzo

Actors: Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Edna Best, John Halliday, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Gregory Ratoff directed David O. Selznick's richly produced American remake of the Swedish film directed by Gustav Molander and starring Ingrid Bergman, who re-creates her role here. The story -- based on the original screenplay by Molander and Gosta Stevens -- concerns a love affair played out Read More

Wuthering Heights

Actors: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson, Geraldine Fitzgerald

Synopsis: William Wyler's Wuthering Heights is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the classic Emily Brontë novel. A traveler named Lockwood (Miles Mander) is caught in the snow and stays at the estate of Wuthering Heights, where the housekeeper, Ellen Dean (Flora Robson), sits down to tell him the Read More

The Sun Never Sets

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Basil Rathbone, Barbara O'Neil, Lionel Atwill, Virginia Field

Synopsis: In this patriotic British adventure, two courageous brothers try to keep war from erupting in Africa and stop a megalomaniacal arms baron from ruling the world. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

This Marriage Business

Actors: Victor Moore, Vicki Lester, Cecil Kellaway, Jack Carson

Synopsis: In this comedy, a marriage-license clerk is proud of the fact that during his 20-year career not one of the couples he has licensed have gotten divorced. A reporter learns of his record and writes an article resulting in the small town office being flooded with engaged couples. The reporter then Read More

Double Danger

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Whitney Bourne, Samuel S. Hinds, Donald Meek, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: It's Double Danger for detective-story writer Robert Crane (Preston Foster) whenever he pursues his "secret life" as a suave jewel thief. Eluding police commissioner David Theron (Samuel S. Hinds) at every turn, Crane intends to snatch the famed Konjer diamonds from under the nose of jeweler Read More

Everybody's Doing It

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Sally Eilers, Cecil Kellaway, Lorraine Krueger, William Brisbane

Synopsis: In this comedy, designed to exploit the then current national craze for picture puzzles, an alcoholic advertising exec becomes addicted to inventing puzzles. Trouble ensues when he goes off on a major drunk and forgets to leave the answers to a national breakfast cereal contest. His colleague is Read More

Tarnished Angel

Actors: Sally Eilers, Lee Bowman, Ann Miller, Alma Kruger, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: This RKO Radio "expose" film is loosely based on the career of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who'd previously gotten the a clef treatment in Capra's The Miracle Woman (1931). Sally Eilers stars as ex-nightclub singer Connie Vinson, an enthusiastic but hypocritical Bible-thumper who turns her Read More

The Maid's Night Out

Actors: Allan Lane, Joan Fontaine, Hedda Hopper, George Irving, William Brisbane

Synopsis: Joan Fontaine was still two years away from full stardom when she appeared in the B-plus comedy Maid's Night Out. Future cowboy star Allan Lane plays Bill, a millionaire's son who, to win a bet with his father (George Irving), sets out to prove that he can succeed without his family's money. While Read More

Blond Cheat

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy a millionaire must somehow dissuade his daughter from marrying a money-grubbing social-climber. In desperation he offers to back the show of a beautiful starlet--provided she break his daughter's heart. Things don't go exactly as planned, but a lot of fun is had along the Read More

Night Spot

Actors: Parkyakarkus [Harry Einstein], Gordon Jones, Joan Woodbury, Lee Patrick

Synopsis: Better known today as the father of actors Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks, comedian Harry Einstein achieved radio fame in the 1930s as a tongue-tied Greek named Parkyakarkus. In Night Spot, Einstein/Parkyakarkus is given top billing as a gourmet gangster named Gasshouse, but the plotline is Read More

Annabel Takes a Tour

Actors: Lucille Ball, Jack Oakie, Pepito, Ruth Donnelly, Bradley Page, Ralph Forbes

Synopsis: Zany actress Annabel goes on a promotional tour in this lively comedy, the second in the Annabel series. During her tour, she allows her promoter to "leak" a story that she is having a romantic fling with a famous romance novelist. The ploy is successful, until she really does fall in love with Read More

Law of the Underworld

Actors: Chester Morris, Anne Shirley, Eduardo Ciannelli, Walter Abel, Richard Bond

Synopsis: When two lovers are framed for a jewelry store robbery in which the clerk was killed, the only person capable of saving them from the death penalty is the gangster who actually committed the crime. A remake of the 1930 thriller The Pay Off, Law of the Underworld tells the tale of Shirley and Bond Read More

It Isn't Done

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Cecil Kellaway, Frank Harvey Jr., John Longden, Harvey Adams

Synopsis: In this Australian comedy, a rancher discovers that his ancestors were royalty. He takes his family to Britain to meet his blue-blooded relatives only to discovers that they are all incorrigible snobs. The British lord they visit makes no effort to hide his contempt for the Aussie rancher, and Read More