Charles BickfordFilmography

Fatal Confinement

Synopsis: Fatal Confinement originated as an hour-long TV pilot film titled Royal Bay. Joan Crawford stars as a reclusive woman living with her daughter in a California coastal town. A business firm, headed by Charles Bickford, wants to buy her property. The sudden intrusion of the outside world Read More

Della

Days of Wine and Roses

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, Jack Klugman, Alan Hewitt

Synopsis: In this addiction melodrama, Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon), a promising adman, meet his future wife Kirsten (Lee Remick) at a party. Once married, the pressures of his business lead Joe to seek solace in liquor. Kirsten joins him in his nocturnal drinking sessions, and before long both are confirmed Read More

The Unforgiven

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Charles Bickford, Lillian Gish

Synopsis: One of Hollywood's most famous and acclaimed directors, John Huston guides this western with an unerring hand -- the cast of notable stars is no drawback either. Setting up the story with a series of suspenseful scenes, Huston has a mysterious stranger on horseback come into a small community in Read More

The Big Country

Actors: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives

Synopsis: In The Big Country Gregory Peck plays a seafaring man who heads west to marry Carroll Baker, the daughter of rancher Charles Bickford. Bickford is currently embroiled in a water-rights feud with covetous Burl Ives, so both he and his daughter are hoping that Peck can take care of himself. But Read More

Playhouse 90: Days of Wine and Roses

Synopsis: The devastating effects of alcoholism provide the basis for this episode of the Playhouse 90 television series. The tale centers on an ambitious young executive and his wife. Heavy drinking seems to be a mandatory part of their hectic social schedule and this takes them on a disastrous ride to the Read More

Playhouse 90: Charley's Aunt

Actors: Art Carney, Jeanette MacDonald, Tom Tryon, Orson Bean, Jackie Coogan

Synopsis: Art Carney plays the title role, so to speak, in this live, 90-minute Playhouse 90 adaptation of Brandon Thomas' classic stage farce Charley's Aunt. The play's basic premise--Oxford undergrad Lord Fancourt Babberly (Carney) must pose as the elderly aunt of his roommate Charley Wyckeham so that Read More

Clipper Ship

Synopsis: A shipboard romance is the basis for this drama that chronicles the love between a beautiful woman and a man slated for execution as the cruise upon a ship headed for South America. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Mister Cory

Actors: Tony Curtis, Martha Hyer, Charles Bickford, Kathryn Grant, William Reynolds

Synopsis: Mister Cory represented the first of several successful collaborations between star Tony Curtis and director Blake Edwards. Adapted from a story by Leo Rosten, the story details the rise of Mr. Cory (Curtis) from summer-resort busboy to high-stakes gambler. Along the way, Cory uses several close Read More

You Can't Run Away From It

Actors: June Allyson, Jack Lemmon, Charles Bickford, Paul Gilbert, Jim Backus

Synopsis: You Can't Run Away From It is a musical remake of Frank Capra's Oscar-winning classic It Happened One Night, complete with same-named characters and word-for-word scene reconstructions. It all begins when spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (June Allyson) is literally kidnapped from the altar by her Read More

Prince of Players

Actors: Richard Burton, Maggie McNamara, John Derek, Raymond Massey, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Screenwriter Philip Dunne doubled as director on the elaborate filmed biography Prince of Players. Richard Burton stars as the eminent American tragedian Edwin Booth, whose life and career is thrown into turmoil after his younger brother John Wilkes Booth (John Derek) assassinates Abraham Lincoln. Read More

Man Behind the Badge

Synopsis: Based on true police stories, these two episodes of the 1954 series are hosted by Charles Bickford and feature real-life police officers. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Deadline Decision

Synopsis: When a news editor reports a kidnapping of a child, the boy's life is threatened. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell

Actors: Gary Cooper, Charles Bickford, Ralph Bellamy, Rod Steiger, Elizabeth Montgomery

Synopsis: In this 1955 Otto Preminger film, Gary Cooper stars as World War I hero Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. The film recounts Mitchell's efforts to prove the viability of a strong air force. The hidebound military higher-ups refuse to finance aviation any further, figuring that the strength of the Read More

Not as a Stranger

Actors: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Ambitious but impecunious medical student Lucas Marsh (Robert Mitchum) marries the older and (in this film, at least) not especially attractive Kristina Hedvigson (Olivia de Havilland) so that she can pay his tuition fees. Kristina loves Lucas, but he loves nothing but his work. Emotionally Read More

A Star is Born

Actors: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, Charles Bickford, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: The 1954 musical remake of A Star is Born could have been titled A Star is Reborn, in that it represented the triumphal return to the screen of Judy Garland after a four-year absence. The remake adheres closely to the plotline of the 1937 original: An alcoholic film star, on his last Read More

The Last Posse

Actors: Broderick Crawford, John Derek, Charles Bickford, Wanda Hendrix, Warner Anderson

Synopsis: After his Oscar win for All the King's Men, Broderick Crawford found himself working out his Columbia contract in a string of rapidly deteriorating films. The Last Posse was a middling western, the sort that the studio sent out as bottom-of-bill attractions for their prestige pictures. The posse Read More

The Raging Tide

Actors: Richard Conte, Shelley Winters, Stephen McNally, Charles Bickford, Alex Nicol

Synopsis: The Raging Tide stars Richard Conte as San Francisco crime boss Bruno Felkin. After killing off a rival, Felkin tries to arrange an alibi with his girlfriend Connie Thatcher (Shelley Winters). Unfortunately, she isn't available, obliging Felkin to hide out on a fishing boat owned by Ilmael Linder (Charles Bickford Read More

Elopement

Actors: Clifton Webb, Anne Francis, Charles Bickford, William Lundigan, Reginald Gardiner

Synopsis: In this romance, an industrial designer is bitterly disappointed when he discovers that upon graduation his daughter decides to elope with her psychology professor rather than pursue a career. The professor's family is also not pleased by the union. Both families, who despise each other, try to Read More

Jim Thorpe - All American

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran, Phyllis Thaxter, Dick Wesson

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster stars as Jim Thorpe, the Native American sports whiz whom many consider the greatest athlete of the 20th century. We first see Thorpe as a child on the reservation, highly resistant to the notion of going to school. He proves to be an excellent student, eventually attending the Read More

Branded

Actors: Alan Ladd, Mona Freeman, Charles Bickford, Robert Keith, Joseph Calleia

Synopsis: Rancher Charles Bickford comes to believe that drifter Alan Ladd is his long-lost son. In truth, Ladd is a crook, in league with Brian Keith to con Bickford out of his fortune. Intending to go through with the scheme, Ladd has second thoughts when Bickford and his "mother" Selena Royle shower him Read More

Guilty of Treason

Actors: Charles Bickford, Paul Kelly, Bonita Granville, Richard Derr, Berry Kroeger

Synopsis: Made in the same atmosphere and paranoia that spawned the infamous Joseph McCarthy, this is an anti-communist propaganda movie looking more at the dark side of communism than at its subject matter--the life and times of Joszef Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary. Mindszenty was imprisoned as an enemy Read More

Riding High

Actors: Bing Crosby, Coleen Gray, Charles Bickford, Frances Gifford, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: Anxious to remain active in the 1950s, director Frank Capra wanted to prove to Paramount Pictures that he could deliver an "A" picture on a modest budget. To that end, Capra bought the rights of his 1934 film Broadway Bill from Columbia, and remade it under the title Riding High. He then hired Read More

Whirlpool

Actors: Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer, Charles Bickford, Eduard Franz, Barbara O'Neil

Synopsis: In this compelling and unusual psychological melodrama Ann Sutton (Gene Tierney), a woman tormented by her secret kleptomania seeks help from a unscrupulous hypnotist David Korvo (Jose Ferrer). Although she is married to a successful psychiatrist (Richard Conte), and has no need to steal the Read More

Roseanna McCoy

Actors: Farley Granger, Joan Evans, Charles Bickford, Raymond Massey, Richard Basehart

Synopsis: The saga of the Hatfield-and-McCoy feud is romanticized in Samuel Goldwyn's Roseanna McCoy. Newcomer Joan Evans stars as the title character, whose elopement with Johnse Hatfield (Farley Granger) serves to further fuel the flames of the deadly mountain feud. The opposing patriarches, Devil Anse Read More

Command Decision

Actors: Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Command Decision is a stagebound but consummately acted adaptation of William Wister Haines' Broadway play. Clark Gable, starring in the role essayed on Broadway by Paul Kelly, plays Air Force Brigadier General "Casey" Dennis. With time at a premium, Dennis sends waves of bomber squadrons into Read More

The Babe Ruth Story

Actors: William Bendix, Claire Trevor, Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, William Frawley

Synopsis: The Plan 9 From Outer Space of baseball biopics, The Babe Ruth Story is definitely in the "So Bad It's Good" category. An outrageously miscast William Bendix stars as George Herman "Babe" Ruth, who as depicted herein is a childish, misunderstood oaf who happens to be one of the greatest Read More

Johnny Belinda

Actors: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford, Agnes Moorehead, Stephen McNally, Jan Sterling

Synopsis: After years of dumb-blonde and best-friend roles, Jane Wyman proved her skills as a dramatic actress -- and won an Academy Award in the bargain -- in Johnny Belinda. Adapted from a stage play by Elmer Harris, the story takes place in Nova Scotia, where deaf-mute Belinda (Wyman) leads a lonely Read More

Four Faces West

Actors: Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calleia, William Conrad

Synopsis: When the family land is threatened with foreclosure, honest, hard-working rancher Ross McEwen (Joel McCrea) resorts to bank robbery in order to come up with the necessary cash. Although he leaves the bank an I.O.U., Sheriff Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford) is sent out to catch the criminal as he Read More

The Farmer's Daughter

Actors: Keith Andes, Loretta Young, James Arness, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Art Baker, Charles Bickford, Harry Davenport, Lex Barker

Synopsis: When Loretta Young stepped up to accept her Academy Award for The Farmer's Daughter, the ever-youthful leading lady, who'd been in films since 1928, sighed "At long last!" Young is cast as Katie Holstrum, an independently-minded Swedish girl who leaves her family's Minnesota farm to take a Read More

Brute Force

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster had one of his first starring roles in this hard-hitting prison drama. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is a cruel, corrupt prison guard who has his own less-than-ethical ways of dealing with inmates, enough so that Joe Collins (Lancaster) -- the toughest inmate in the cell block -- has Read More

The Woman on the Beach

Actors: Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford, Nan Leslie, Walter Sande

Synopsis: A WWII Coast Guard veteran, Lt. Scott Burnett (Robert Ryan), is plagued by nightmares of his combat days. One day, he meets a woman, Peggy Butler (Joan Bennett), walking on a beach, picking up pieces of wood. Butler is married to a grumpy, blind painter, Ted Butler (Charles Bickford). Despite his Read More

Duel in the Sun

Actors: Griff Barnett, Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten, Charles Bickford, Sidney Blackmer, Lionel Barrymore, Harry Carey, Lillian Gish

Synopsis: In David O. Selznick's Duel in the Sun, Jennifer Jones stars as Pearl Chavez, whom everyone has tagged as a "bad girl" foredoomed to an unhappy end. She is taken into the home of wealthy, greedy rancher McCanles (Lionel Barrymore) and his kindly wife Laura Belle (Lillian Gish), who'd once been the Read More

Captain Eddie

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Lynn Bari, Charles Bickford, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Nolan

Synopsis: Famed WW1 aviator Eddie Rickenbacker once more entered the public's consciousness during WW2 when, while serving as an Air Force officer, he and several other pilots crashed into the Pacific. While the world anxiously awaited news of his fate, Rickenbacker and a handful of survivors floated for 19 Read More

Fallen Angel

Actors: Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford, Anne Revere

Synopsis: Otto Preminger directed this stylish film noir exercise, intended as a follow-up to his surprise hit Laura. Kicked off a bus traveling cross-country for not being able to come up with the fare, down-and-out press agent Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) ends up in Walton, a small coastal town in Read More

A Wing and a Prayer

Actors: Don Ameche, Dana Andrews, William Eythe, Charles Bickford, Cedric Hardwicke

Synopsis: Former president Ronald Reagan may have genuinely believed that he was referring to a real-life act of selfless wartime bravery whenever repeating his "We'll bring this one down together" anecdote. In fact, he was merely quoting a scene from the above-average World War 2 drama A Wing and a Prayer. Read More

The Song of Bernadette

Actors: Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb

Synopsis: The Song of Bernadette is a reverent recounting of the life of St. Bernadette of Lourdes. As a teen-aged peasant girl growing up in the tiny French village of Lourdes in the 19th century, Bernadette (Jennifer Jones) experiences a vision of the Virgin Mary in a nearby grotto. At least, she believes Read More

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Actors: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Katina Paxinou, Arturo de Cordova, Vladimir Sokoloff

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a romantic drama set against the turbulent tapestry of the Spanish Civil War. Gary Cooper plays Robert Jordan, an idealistic American fighting with a Spanish guerilla band. He is assigned to blow up a crucial bridge in order to Read More

Mr. Lucky

Actors: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney

Synopsis: One of Cary Grant's most financially successful 1940s vehicles, Mr. Lucky finds Grant atypically cast as a shifty, out-for-number-one gambler. Having dodged the draft by adopting the identity of a dead man, Grant sets his sights on purchasing a fancy gambling ship. To raise the necessary funds, he Read More

Tarzan's New York Adventure

Actors: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield, Virginia Grey, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: This final "Tarzan" entry from the MGM assembly line is arguably one the least effective of the series, though it certainly has its adherents. It all begins when Boy (Johnny Sheffield), adopted son of Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan), is kidnapped from the jungle by Read More

Reap the Wild Wind

Actors: Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's Technicolor historical spectacle Reap the Wild Wind was to have starred Gary Cooper, but Cooper's prior commitment to Goldwyn's Pride of the Yankees compelled DeMille to recast the leading role with John Wayne. The film, set in the mid-19th century, centers around Key West Read More

Riders of Death Valley [Serial]

Actors: Jean Brooks

Synopsis: The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. 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

Girl from God's Country

Actors: Chester Morris, Jane Wyatt, Charles Bickford, Kate Lawson

Synopsis: In this drama, a devoted, caring physician leaves his home and moves to Alaska to escape arrest after he performs euthanasia upon his terminally ill father. In the ever-snowy reaches of northernmost Alaska, the doctor begins administering to the poverty-stricken Inuit. While he has willingly Read More

Queen of the Yukon

Actors: Charles Bickford, Irene Rich, George Cleveland, Guy Usher

Synopsis: This adventure is based on Jack London's tale of a Northwestern woman who owns a riverboat who sends her daughter to boarding school and then discovers that she cannot afford to be reunited with her. In desperation, she sells the boat to a wealthy mine owner. This results in the independent miners Read More

South to Karanga

Actors: Charles Bickford, James Craig, John Sutton, Maurice Moscovich

Synopsis: Charles Bickford and James Craig are the rough-and-ready leads in Universal's South to Karanga. Running guns in South Africa, Bickford and Craig are hired to deliver ammunition to a mining community. The reason: the natives are restless (again!) Our heroes come through in smashing form, making the Read More

Stand up and Fight

Actors: Wallace Beery, Robert Taylor, Florence Rice, Helen Broderick, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Directed with customary haste by Woody Van Dyke, Stand Up and Fight is an excellent dual vehicle for veteran Wallace Beery and up-and-coming Robert Taylor. Set in the American west in the mid-19th century, the story concerns the efforts of empire-building Blake Cantrell (Taylor) to construct a Read More

Thou Shalt Not Kill

Actors: Charles Bickford, Owen Davis, Jr., Paul Guilfoyle, Granville Bates

Synopsis: As indicated by its title, Thou Shalt Not Kill is a strange blend of religiosity and crime melodrama. Charles Bickford plays Reverend Chris, a popular neighborhood clergyman who hopes to clear young Allen Stevens (Owen Davis Jr.) from a murder charge. Complicating matters is the fact that the real Read More

Romance of the Redwoods

Actors: Charles Bickford, Jean Parker, Al Bridge, Gordon Oliver, Ann Shoemaker

Synopsis: Set in a northern California logging community the trouble in this western begins when a lumberjack is killed while sawing down a tree. No one believes it was accidental as everyone is aware that the deceased had just stolen the heart of his partner's girl. Unfortunately, the partner, while Read More

Our Leading Citizen

Actors: Susan Hayward, Joseph Allen, Jr., Charles Bickford, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: A big city lawyer returns to his tiny home town to enter the firm of his late father. His father's partner is happy to have him, but the partner's lovely daughter is even happier.. Every one is happy until the young attorney decides to represent the local villain, a ruthless factory owner who Read More

One Hour to Live

Actors: Charles Bickford, Doris Nolan, John Litel, Samuel S. Hinds, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: One Hour to Live affords John Litel, usually cast as rock-solid businessmen and incorruptable attorneys, the opportunity to play a double-dyed villain. Litel is cast as crooked fight manager Rudy Spain, who orders the murder of a boxer (Jack Carr) who has turned honest. By having his dirty work Read More

Mutiny in the Big House

Actors: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLane, Pat Moriarity, Dennis Moore, William Royle

Synopsis: A frequent visitor to contemporary TV cable services, Monogram's Mutiny in the Big House affords stalwart supporting player Charles Bickford top billing as a prison chaplain, with jailhouse-flick veteran Barton MacLane billed second as a hardened con. The nominal hero, however, is fourth-billed Dennis Moore Read More

Of Mice and Men

Actors: Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr., Betty Field, Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen

Synopsis: This 1939 film version of John Steinbeck's classic novel was a surprising choice for comedy producer Hal Roach; in fact, Roach had no intention of filming the property until forced to do so as a result of a lawsuit brought by director Lewis Milestone. Burgess Meredith stars as itinerant farm Read More

Street of Missing Men

Actors: Charles Bickford, Harry Carey, Tommy Ryan, Mabel Todd, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: Sad-eyed Ann Dvorak plays Jo, the "café hostess" of the title. Poor put-upon Jo doesn't know it, but she's being used by her gangster boyfriend Eddie Morgan (Douglas Fowley), who relies upon her as an alibi to cover up his recent crimes. Likeable sailor Budge (Bruce Bennett) is in love with Jo Read More

Valley of the Giants

Actors: Wayne Morris, Claire Trevor, Frank McHugh, Alan Hale, Donald Crisp, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: This third film version of Peter B. Kyne's Valley of the Giants benefits from the breahtaking Technicolor location photography of Sol Polito. Hero Bill Cardigan (Wayne Morris) is a lifetime resident of California's Tall Timber country. When evil land-despoiler Howard Fallon (Charles Bickford) Read More

The Storm

Actors: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLane, Preston S. Foster, Tom Brown

Synopsis: The Storm is standard hard-guy stuff starring three of Hollywood's hardest: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLaine and Preston S. Foster. The film is set aboard a ship, where hostilities run high between two radio operators who happen to be brothers. During the climactic storm at sea, however, everyone Read More

Gangs of New York

Actors: Charles Bickford, Ann Dvorak, Alan Baxter, Wynne Gibson, Harold Huber

Synopsis: In this crime drama, an undercover cop infiltrates a crime syndicate being run by an incarcerated mob boss who conducts his business via a short-wave radio concealed in his cell. The boss is caught and placed in solitary confinement. The cop, the boss's physical double, takes his place. Soon Read More

Thunder Pass

Synopsis: While heading West in a wagon train, two brothers lose track of each other when their family is attacked and killed. Years later, they are eventually reunited. This western--also known as Thunder Trail--is based on the novel by Zane Grey, Arizona Ames. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Thunder Trail

Actors: Gilbert Roland, Marsha Hunt, Charles Bickford, Monte Blue, James Craig

Synopsis: Thunder Trail is a thoughtful, intelligent adaptation of the Zane Grey yarn. Arizona Ames. The storyline is a Grey favorite, concerning a pair of brothers separated at birth. One of the boys grows up to be an outlaw, while the other remains on the right side of the law. Meeting in adulthood as Read More

The Plainsman

Actors: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, James Ellison, Charles Bickford, Helen Burgess

Synopsis: One is immediately aware that The Plainsman is a Cecil B. DeMille production in the opening scene, wherein President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.), on the verge of signing crucial legislation which will determine the future of the American West, is dragged away from his Cabinet by a scolding Read More

Night Club Scandal

Actors: John Barrymore, Lynne Overman, Louise Campbell, Charles Bickford, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: A remake of 1932's Guilty as Hell, Night Club Scandal also borrows a page from 1934's Murder at the Vanities by depicting the "friendly adversary" relationship between a reporter (Lynne Overman) and a cop (Charles Bickford). Top-billed John Barrymore plays a respectable doctor married to a Read More

High, Wide and Handsome

Actors: Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Dorothy Lamour, Elizabeth Patterson, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: High, Wide and Handsome almost defies classification: Perhaps it's best referred to as a historical musical western comedy melodrama. Irene Dunne plays an itinerant circus performer who marries oilman Randolph Scott. The couple heads to Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859, where Scott is among the Read More

Daughter of Shanghai

Actors: Anna May Wong, Philip Ahn, Charles Bickford, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Cecil Cunningham

Synopsis: Anna May Wong, who cornered the 1930s market in Eurasian heroines, stars in Daughter of Shanghai. Wong is on the trail of the criminals who murdered her father. The villains are running an illegal-alien operation, smuggling cheap Chinese and Mexican labor into San Francisco and killing those Read More

Pride of the Marines

Actors: Charles Bickford, Florence Rice, Billy Burrud, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: The Pride of the Marines is tough leatherneck Steve (Charles Bickford), who appoints himself guardian of orphan boy Ulysses (Bill Burrud). He billets the boy at his marine base, where the kid soon becomes the unofficial mascot. Ulysses returns the favor by trying to expedite the romance between Read More

Rose of the Rancho

Actors: Gladys Swarthout, Charles Bickford, Willie Howard, Herb Williams

Synopsis: In her much vaunted screen debut, Metropolitan Opera star Gladys Swarthout takes on David Belasco's 30-year-old operetta about the female leader of a gang of vigilantes battling usurpers plotting to steal valuable land grants. The masked Don Carlos (aka Rosita Castro) uses her operatic voice as a Read More

East of Java

Actors: Charles Bickford, Elisabeth Young, Frank Albertson, Leslie Fenton

Synopsis: A diverse group of ship passengers end up marooned on an isolated South Pacific island. Unfortunately, the contents of the hold, a number of potentially dangerous wild animals, also survived the wreck. Among the survivors is a criminal who proves to be just as big a threat as the lions and tigers. Read More

A Notorious Gentleman

Actors: Charles Bickford, Sidney Blackmer, Helen Vinson, Onslow Stevens, Dudley Digges

Synopsis: Commenting upon the many relatives on the payroll of Carl Laemmle's Universal Pictures, poet Ogden Nash once wrote "Uncle Carl Laemmle/Has a large faemmlee." One member of that faemmle was Edward Laemmle, director of the courtroom melodrama A Notorious Gentleman. Charles Bickford plays the Read More

Under Pressure

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen, Florence Rice, Marjorie Rambeau, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Directed by Raoul Walsh, Under Pressure tells of the competition between the crews employed to excavate a complex network of tunnels ranging from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Shocker (Edmund Lowe) and Jumbo (Victor McLaglen) are two such rivals, and the trouble really begins when they both fall for the Read More

The Farmer Takes a Wife

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Henry Fonda, Charles Bickford, George "Slim" Summerville, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Henry Fonda made his screen debut in this filmization of his Broadway success The Farmer Takes a Wife. The story is set along the Erie Canal in the 1850s. Fonda plays a farmer who takes a river job to make ends meet. He falls in love with Janet Gaynor, daughter of a canal-boat cook, who thinks Read More

Little Miss Marker

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Dorothy Dell, Shirley Temple, Charles Bickford, Lynne Overman

Synopsis: Perhaps the most memorable of all of the movies based on Damon Runyon's story because of the winning presence of Shirley Temple (although it was remade three times), this is the story of a little girl who is left as a marker for a $20.00 bet. Temple's father kills himself and the bookie doesn't 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

This Day and Age

Actors: Charles Bickford, Judith Allen, Richard Cromwell, Eddie Nugent, Ben Alexander

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's This Day and Age was perhaps the most Draconian entry in Hollywood's early-1930s "vigilante" film cycle. Richard Cromwell heads a group of civic-minded teenagers in a small midwestern town. When a lovable old tailor (Harry Green) is murdered by a notorious gangster (Charles Bickford Read More

No Other Woman

Actors: Irene Dunne, Charles Bickford, Gwili Andre, Eric Linden, Buster Miles, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: The melodramatic No Other Woman is a remake of the 1925 silent film Just a Woman which was based on the play of the same name by Eugene Walter. Early in her career, Irene Dunn stars as ambitious housewife Anna Stanley, who pressures her steelworker husband, Jim (Charles Bickford), into a business Read More

Song of the Eagle

Actors: Charles Bickford, Richard Arlen, Jean Hersholt, Mary Brian, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: This drama centers on the fight for certain post-Prohibitionist groups to gain total control over the liquor industry. Much of the tale is focused upon a family endeavoring to keep their little brewery. Their tiny beer- making operation was first jeopardized by the racketeers they refused to join. Read More

White Woman

Actors: Charles Laughton, Carole Lombard, Charles Bickford, Kent Taylor, Percy Kilbride

Synopsis: In this campy "adult-oriented" drama from the early 1930s, the ruthless manager of a Malaysian rubber plantation marries a singer facing deportation. He offers her a miserable existence of abuse and loneliness. She finds a bright spot with a handsome plantation worker. Unfortunately, her jealous Read More

Red Wagon

Actors: Charles Bickford, Raquel Torres, Greta Nissen, Don Alvarado, Anthony Bushell

Synopsis: Hollywood's Charles Bickford and Mexican leading lady Raquel Torres top the cast of the British circus melodrama Red Wagon. Bickford plays Joe, an expert trick rider, while Torres is his fiery gypsy dancer Sheba. Though in love with tiger trainer Zara (Greta Nissen), Joe breaks up with her over a Read More

Thunder Below

Actors: Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Bickford, Paul Lukas, Eugene Pallette, Ralph Forbes

Synopsis: Tallulah Bankhead's first Hollywood movie was this romantic-drama weepie, in which she plays Susan, the unhappy wife of oil rigger Walt (Charles Bickford), who labors in a Central American oil field. The bored Susan falls in love with Walt's good friend Ken (Paul Lukas) but keeps her husband in Read More

Panama Flo

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Robert Armstrong, Charles Bickford, Marjorie Peterson, Maude Eburne

Synopsis: Eternal movie trollop Helen Twelvetrees is more sinned against than necessary in Panama Flo. Stranded in Panama, honky-tonk entertainer Flo (Twelvetrees) picks up some quick change by divesting roughneck mining engineer Charles Bickford of his pocketbook. Rather than turn her over to the cops, Bickford Read More

The Devil and the Deep

Actors: Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Cary Grant, Julie Compton

Synopsis: A mentally unstable naval officer goes mad with jealousy when his wife's recent lover shows up as a lieutenant on the submarine he commands. It is the smell of cheap perfume that arouses the husband's suspicions, and he plans to confront the lieutenant in the sub. The wife follows him there Read More

The Last Man

Actors: Charles Bickford, Constance Cummings, Alec B. Francis, Alan Roscoe, Robert Ellis

Synopsis: In this mystery, a detective is called in to investigate the fate of a derelict ship that was found floating off the coast of Port Said. But for a madman and a woman, the ship is empty. The investigator soon reveals a plot involving the destruction of the vessel and insurance money. When the crew Read More

Vanity Street

Actors: Charles Bickford, Helen Chandler, Mayo Methot, George Meeker, Arthur Hoyt

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a starving orphan deliberately breaks a store window in hopes that she'll be tossed in jail and get a hot meal. The arresting officer does feed her, but then he gets her a job dancing in the Follies. Eventually the girl falls madly in love with the policeman. Unfortunately, he Read More

Scandal for Sale

Actors: Charles Bickford, Rose Hobart, Pat O'Brien, Claudia Dell, John Farrell MacDonald

Synopsis: In this newspaper drama, a dedicated small-town reporter works hard and becomes the editor of a major New York paper. Unfortunately the man's ambition has blinded him to the needs of his wife and son. When the son dies, the bereaved, and lonely woman decides to leave him. Later the editor Read More

Pagan Lady

Actors: Evelyn Brent, Conrad Nagel, Charles Bickford, Roland Young, William Farnum

Synopsis: Based on a play by William DuBois, Pagan Lady top-bills Evelyn Brent as the title character, a "woman of the world" named Dut Hunter. In the tradition of Somerset Maugham's Rain, Dut is everybody's sexual plaything on a remote tropical island. When young, comparatively innocent Ernest Todd (Conrad Nagel Read More

Men in Her Life

Actors: Lois Moran, Charles Bickford, Victor Varconi, Luis Alberni

Synopsis: In this drama, a woman with dubious past finds herself blackmailed when she makes plans to marry a senator's son. She finds salvation with a bootlegger who offers to take care of the excursionist. Unfortunately, he chooses to kill the fellow, gets caught, and is put on trial. Now the woman must Read More

East of Borneo

Actors: Rose Hobart, Charles Bickford, Georges Renavent, Lupita Tovar, Noble Johnson

Synopsis: One of the most frequently telecast films of the 1950s and 1960s, East of Borneo stars Rose Hobart as Linda, the wife of African missionary Dr. Clark (Charles Bickford). Feeling stifled by her unfamiliar surroundings, Linda is further isolated from civilization when her husband runs off into the Read More

River's End

Actors: Charles Bickford, Evelyn Knapp, David Torrence, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: The second of three versions of James Oliver Curwood's pulp fiction drama of a mountie and his separated-at-birth prey stars Charles Bickford as both Sgt. Conniston and accused murderer John Keith. The latter is persuaded to prove his innocence by impersonating his captor, who has conveniently Read More

The Squaw Man

Actors: Paul Cavanagh, Lupe Velez, Eleanor Boardman, Roland Young

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's third remake of his debut film, this was the first sound version of Edwin Milton Royle's stage western melodrama. The story centers on a British captain who heads into the American West after taking the blame for his embezzling, blue-blooded cousin to protect the reputation of Read More

Dynamite

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Julia Faye, Muriel McCormac

Synopsis: Filmed in 1929 and released early in 1930, Dynamite was Cecil B. DeMille's first all-talking feature. As one observer has noted, this 128-minute opus has enough plots for seven pictures. The basic storyline here involves spoiled heiress Cynthia Crothers (Kay Johnson) who will lose her fortune if Read More

Anna Christie

Actors: Greta Garbo, George F. Marion, Marie Dressler, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Accompanied by one of the most successful advertising campaigns in Hollywood history, Greta Garbo made her "talking picture" debut in this carefully chosen vehicle, the second screen version of Eugene O'Neill's 1922 play about the Minnesota-raised Swedish girl who desperately attempts to keep her Read More

Hell's Heroes

Actors: Charles Bickford, Fred Kohler, Fritzi Ridgeway, Maria Alba, Raymond Hatton

Synopsis: William Wyler was still primarily a western specialist when he was assigned to direct Hell's Heroes. Based on Peter B. Kyne's Three Godfathers (which was filmed officially and unofficially several times), the story deals with three frontier bandits (Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, and Fred Kohler Sr Read More

Passion Flower

Actors: Kay Francis, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Winter Hall

Synopsis: In this drama, a two wealthy cousins find themselves involved in an unfortunate love triangle. The trouble begins when the one cousin, whose wealth came from marriage convinces the other, an heiress, to marry the family chauffeur. Years pass, and the first cousin ends up falling for the chauffeur Read More

The Sea Bat

Actors: Charles Bickford, Raquel Torres, Nils Asther, George F. Marion, John Miljan

Synopsis: "Sea Bat" is another name for the poisonous sting rays that trouble swimmers in warmer ocean climes. The story is set upon a tropical island and centers on the sister of a reef diver who was attacked under water by another diver and left to be eaten by an enormous sea bat (in reality the rays eat Read More

South Sea Rose

Actors: Lenore Ulric, Charles Bickford, Kenneth MacKenna, John Farrell MacDonald, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, a very early talkie, set in the splendiferous South Seas, a French lassie charms a sea captain who takes her for his wife and sets sail for his conservative New England home. There the staid locals are shocked by the captain's free-spirited bride. More trouble ensues when the Read More