Charles VidorFilmography

The Joker Is Wild

Crew: Director

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Mitzi Gaynor, Jeanne Crain, Eddie Albert, Beverly Garland

Synopsis: Frank Sinatra stars as legendary nightclub comic Joe E. Lewis in this dramatic screen biography. In the 1920s, Lewis was a popular singer in Chicago who could fill any nightclub he chose to play. This doesn't go unnoticed by the mobsters who control many of the city's venues; when they ask Lewis Read More

A Farewell to Arms

Crew: Director

Actors: Rock Hudson, Jennifer Jones, Vittorio De Sica, Alberto Sordi, Kurt Kasznar, Mercedes McCambridge

Synopsis: Farewell to Arms is the second film version of Ernest Hemingway's World War One novel--and also the last film produced by David O. Selznick (Gone with the Wind). Rock Hudson plays an American serving in the Italian Army during the "War to End All Wars". Jennifer Jones is his lover, a Red cross Read More

The Swan

Crew: Director

Actors: Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Louis Jourdan, Agnes Moorehead, Jesse Royce Landis

Synopsis: Frances Howard starred as Princess Alexandria in the 1925 silent version of Ferenc Molnar's play The Swan; Lillian Gish assumed the role in the 1930 talkie version. The third and final adaptation starred Grace Kelly, who had one slight advantage over her predecessors; she would soon become a real Read More

Love Me or Leave Me

Crew: Director

Actors: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith, Tom Tully

Synopsis: One of the gutsiest movie musicals of the 1950s, Love Me or Leave Me is the true story of 1930s torch-singer Ruth Etting, here played by Doris Day. While working in a dime-a-dance joint, Ruth is discovered by Chicago racketeer Martin "The Gimp" Snyder (fascinatingly played with nary a redeeming Read More

Rhapsody

Crew: Director

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Vittorio Gassman, John Ericson, Louis Calhern, Michael Chekhov

Synopsis: Rhapsody is high-gloss soap opera in the grand MGM manner. Elizabeth Taylor stars as Louise Durant, the beautiful but spoiled daughter of millionaire Nicholas Durant (Louis Calhern). Accustomed to getting whatever she wants, Louise sets her sights on violin student Paul Bronte (Vittorio Gassman). Read More

Thunder in the East

Crew: Director

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

Hans Christian Andersen

Crew: Director

Actors: Danny Kaye, Farley Granger, Zizi Jeanmaire, Philip Tonge

Synopsis: Hans Christian Andersen was Sam Goldwyn's final production for RKO Radio release, and also the producer's last Danny Kaye vehicle. The Moss Hart-Myles Connolly screenplay largely disregards the facts concerning Denmark's great storyteller, opting for a fanciful blend of comedy, fantasy, romance Read More

It's a Big Country

Crew: Director

Actors: Ethel Barrymore, Gary Cooper, Van Johnson, Gene Kelly, Janet Leigh

Synopsis: Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston Read More

The Loves of Carmen

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, Ron Randell, Victor Jory, Luther Adler, Arnold Moss

Synopsis: Perhaps it's just as well that Columbia elected to film Prosper Merimee's Carmen without Georges Bizet's music: after all, Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford weren't exactly Leontyne Price and Robert Merrill. The Loves of Carmen is a reasonably faithful rehash of Merimee's story of the tempestuous gypsy Read More

Gilda

Crew: Director

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia, Steven Geray

Synopsis: When wealthy Ballin Mundson (George Macready) rescues down at his heels gambler Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) and invites him to the Buenos Aires casino he owns, both men get more than they wagered on. Farrell convinces Mundson to hire him as casino manager, but is shocked when Mundson introduces Read More

Over 21

Crew: Director

Actors: Irene Dunne, Alexander Knox, Charles Coburn, Jeff Donnell, Loren Tindall

Synopsis: Based on a play by Ruth Gordon, Over 21 represents the felicitous teaming of two middle-aged but attractive film favorites. Alexander Knox plays newspaper editor Max Wharton, who despite his age, patriotically signs up for Officer Candidate School. The humor arises from the fact that Wharton has Read More

A Song to Remember

Crew: Director

Actors: Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, Cornel Wilde, Stephen Bekassy, George Coulouris, Nina Foch

Synopsis: One of the most successful filmed biographies of the 1940s, A Song to Remember alleges to be the true story of Polish composer Frederick Chopin. Actually, it has about as much relation to truth as a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon, but with such gorgeous creatures as Cornel Wilde and Merle Oberon in the Read More

Together Again

Crew: Director

Actors: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Charles Coburn, Mona Freeman, Elizabeth Patterson, Jerome Courtland

Synopsis: The title Together Again referred to the fact that frequent costarsIrene Dunne and Charles Boyer were once more united on film. Dunne plays the lady mayor of a small Vermont town. Boyer portrays a big-city sculptor, hired to erect a statue in the memory of Irene's husband, the former mayor. Dunne Read More

Cover Girl

Crew: Director

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Lee Bowman, Phil Silvers, Jinx Falkenburg, Otto Kruger, Eve Arden

Synopsis: Thanks to its Jerome Kern/Ira Gershwin/Yip Harburg score and the luminescence of stars Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly, Cover Girl has taken on a legendary status in recent years. In truth, the film has a banal and predictable premise: a chorus girl (Hayworth) is given a chance for stardom by a Read More

The Desperadoes

Crew: Director

Actors: Randolph Scott, Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor, Evelyn Keyes, Edgar Buchanan

Synopsis: In this Western drama, Steve Upton (Randolph Scott) is the sheriff of a Utah community in 1860. Upton's best friend, Cheyenne Rogers (Glenn Ford), was once an outlaw, but under Steve's guidance, he's gone straight and tries to earn an honest living. However, while Cheyenne is in town to pay Upton Read More

The Tuttles of Tahiti

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles Laughton, Jon Hall, Peggy Drake, Victor Francen, Adeline Reynolds

Synopsis: When two young island-dwelling people fall for each other, their rival parents do not embrace the romance with welcomed arms as one family is content with a simple and lazy life and the other is just the opposite. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

New York Town

Crew: Director

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

Ladies in Retirement

Crew: Director

Actors: Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Edith Barrett

Synopsis: In this taut, creepy melodrama, a housemaid works as the companion of an aging, retired British actress. One day the maid (Ida Lupino) is visited by her two looney half sisters. The actress finds the slightly mad sisters intolerable and demands that they leave. Unfortunately, the maid realizes Read More

My Son, My Son

Crew: Director

Actors: Madeleine Carroll, Brian Aherne, Louis Hayward, Laraine Day, Henry Hull

Synopsis: Adapted from the novel by Howard Spring, My Son My Son stars Brian Aherne as a self-made success determined to give his son the lavish upbringing he himself was denied. Not surprisingly, the son (Louis Hayward) grows up spoiled rotten, causing grief and pain to everyone who loves him. The limit Read More

The Lady in Question

Crew: Director

Actors: Glenn Ford, Rita Hayworth, Brian Aherne, Irene Rich, George Coulouris

Synopsis: Columbia's The Lady in Question is a remake of the French Gribouille, a Raimu vehicle from 1939. Brian Aherne plays Andre Morestan, the seeming contently paterfamilias of a bourgeois Parisian family. Summoned for jury duty, Morestan at first believes that accused murderess Natalie Rougin (Rita Hayworth Read More

Romance of the Redwoods

Crew: Director

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

Those High Grey Walls

Crew: Director

Actors: Walter Connolly, Onslow Stevens, Paul Fix, Bernard Nedell, Iris Meredith

Synopsis: In this prison drama, a physician ends up incarcerated after he treats a long-time patient who was a fugitive convict. As soon as he gets there, the doctor tries to get on the medical staff, but the head doctor will not allow it. When a prisoner's visiting wife goes into labor, the doctor is asked Read More

Blind Alley

Crew: Director

Actors: Chester Morris, Ralph Bellamy, Ann Dvorak, Joan Perry, Melville Cooper

Synopsis: Blind Alley, directed by Charles Vidor is a chilling psychological drama in the film-noir tradition reminiscent of the fine melodrama The Desperate Hours. Hal Wilson (Chester Morris) is an escaped killer who hides out in the home of noted psychologist Dr. Shelby (Ralph Bellamy). While Wilson's Read More

She's No Lady

Crew: Director

Actors: Ann Dvorak, John Trent, Harry Beresford, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Aileen Pringle

Synopsis: Not only is "she" no lady, but heroine Jerry (Ann Dvorak) doesn't even have a ladylike name. Jerry is an insurance investigator who moonlights as a jewel thief, making life difficult for professional diamond-swiper Carter (John Trent). It turns out that at least one of these two reprobates is Read More

The Great Gambini

Crew: Director

Actors: Akim Tamiroff, John Trent, Marian Marsh, Genevieve Tobin, Reginald Denny

Synopsis: Akim Tamiroff plays the Great Gambini, a famous magician mixed up in a murder case. In addition to his card tricks and onstage illusions, Gambini is something of a mystic, and has predicted the death of the murder victim. Suspects breed like rabbits, but the actual culprit turns out to be the only Read More

A Doctor's Diary

Crew: Director

Actors: George Bancroft, Helen Burgess, John Trent, Ruth Coleman

Synopsis: A Doctor's Diary is told through the eyes of Dr. Dan Norris (John Trent), resident physician in a private hospital. In his search for a cure for spinal meningitis, Norris recklessly runs roughshod over the feelings of his colleagues. The doctor's older, wiser supervisor, Dr. Clem Driscoll (George Bancroft Read More

Muss 'em Up

Crew: Director

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Margaret Callahan, Alan Mowbray, Ralph Morgan

Synopsis: When New York police commissioner Lewis J. Valentine instructed his men that the best way to handle criminals was to "muss 'em up," he probably had no idea that he was supplying the title for this RKO Radio crime drama. It all begins when millionaire Paul Harding's (Alan Mowbray) dog is murdered. Read More

His Family Tree

Crew: Director

Actors: James Barton, Margaret Callahan, Addison Randall, William Harrigan, Maureen Delaney

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, a worried Irish father, leaves his Erin pub and heads for middle America to find out why his son has suddenly stopped writing him. He finds his son married to a snobbish uppercrust wife and embroiled in a heated mayoral election. At his wife's suggestion, the young man has Read More

Strangers All

Crew: Director

Actors: May Robson, Preston S. Foster, Florine McKinney, William Bakewell, James Bush

Synopsis: This drama chronicles the emotionally distant relationship between a mother and her four grown children. Though they live in the same house they could not be more different. One of her sons is a conscientious provider who keeps them afloat. A different brother believes himself the greatest Read More

The Arizonian

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Dix, Margot Grahame, Preston S. Foster, Louis Calhern, James Bush

Synopsis: The Arizonian came at a time when Richard Dix's popularity was slipping, providing a welcome shot in the arm for the star and plenty of coin at the box office. Dix plays Clay Tallant, a territorial marshal assigned to Silver City, Arizona. Tallant's chief antagonist is crooked town boss Jake Read More

Double Door

Crew: Director

Actors: Mary Morris, Evelyn Venable, Kent Taylor, Guy Standing, Anne Revere

Synopsis: Inspired by the eccentric, reclusive Wendel Family of New York's Fifth Avenue, Elizabeth MacFadden's stage melodrama Double Door was adapted for the screen in 1934. Set in 1910 Manhattan, the film stars Mary Morris and Anne Revere, repeating their stage roles as domineering, calculating Victoria Read More

Sensation Hunters

Crew: Director

Actors: Arline Judge, Preston S. Foster, Marion Burns, Juanita Hansen, Creighton Hale

Synopsis: In this drama, a tough and bitter woman working in a beauty salon in Panama takes a young, naive woman under her wing. Later when her mentor becomes deadly ill, the young woman decides to sell herself so she can scrape up the money to save her friend. Fortunately, her first client turns out to be Read More

The Mask of Fu Manchu

Crew: Director

Actors: Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy

Synopsis: Boris Karloff stars as the villainous Dr. Fu Manchu in this wild and wooly -- and wildly racist -- adventure yarn, based on Sax Rohmer's fiction about the personification of the "yellow peril." Sir Nayland Smith (Lewis Stone) of the British Secret Service recruits Sir Lionel Barton (Lawrence Read More

Bridge

Crew: Director