Connie GilchristFilmography

The F.B.I.: The Mechanized Accomplice

Synopsis: Rebelling against his old-world father Stefan (Will Kuluva), young Gus Kolner (played by future teen idol Bobby Sherman) runs away from home in the company of his "cool" new friend Spencer Lang (Andrew Prine). What Gus doesn't know is that Lang is a hardened criminal, who plans to kidnap the boy Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Scarlet Scandal

Synopsis: Elaine Bayler (Mala Powers), the wife of small-town big shot Richard Bayler (Lloyd Gough), is being blackmailed by an unknown party who threatens to expose Elaine's romance with her protegee, musician Donald Hobart (Will Hutchins), unless she ponies up $10,000. While making the "drop", Elaine is Read More

The F.B.I.: Collision Course

Synopsis: When hitchhiker Frank Schroeder (a pre-Hawaii 5-0 Jack Lord) gallantly saves a young Mexican girl named Teresa (Pilar Seurat) from being sexually assaulted, she gratefully tags along with him on his Eastward journey. What Teresa doesn't know is that Frank is a triple murderer who for several days Read More

Sylvia

Actors: Carroll Baker, George Maharis, Joanne Dru, Peter Lawford, Viveca Lindfors

Synopsis: Carroll Baker, the Sharon Stone of the sixties, plays another classy-looking blonde with a sordid background in Sylvia. Millionaire Peter Lawford is about to marry the glamorous but secretive Sylvia (Baker). Before taking the plunge, he hires private eye George Maharis to do a background check on Read More

Two on a Guillotine

Actors: Connie Stevens, Dean Jones, Cesar Romero, Parley Baer, Virginia Gregg

Synopsis: A scary old haunted house provides the setting of this spooky thriller that centers on a psycho-magician who cut off his wife's head during a performance. Twenty years pass and he finally dies. His daughter is to inherit his estate, but before she can claim it, she must spend seven nights in his Read More

Fluffy

Actors: Tony Randall, Shirley Jones, Edward Andrews, Howard Morris, Ernest Truex

Synopsis: Fluffy the lion is featured in this comedy. He plays the subject of an ambitious experiment done by Daniel Potter (Tony Randall) -- a scientist trying to prove that even a wild animal like a lion can be made into a pet with proper training. Wherever he goes, Potter's ponderous pet incites mayhem Read More

The F.B.I.: Pound of Flesh

Synopsis: When the wife of Chaplain Craig Fletcher (Leslie Nielsen) is killed on an Army base, suspicion immediately falls upon PFC Byron Landy (Bruce Dern), a lifelong troublemaker and malcontent who has already beaten one murder rap. The angry locals demand immediate retribution against Landy, proof or no Read More

The Monkey's Uncle

Actors: Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk, Leon Ames, Arthur O'Connell, Frank Faylen

Synopsis: The sequel to 1963's Misadventures of Merlin Jones finds young Mr. Jones (Tommy Kirk) still in college and still going out with Jennifer (Annette Funicello). In this movie, he must help football players pass their tests and invent a flying machine win a contest for the school. Funicello and the Read More

Tickle Me

Actors: Elvis Presley, Julie Adams, Jocelyn Lane, Jack Mullaney, Merry Anders

Synopsis: The original king of rock-n-roll (Elvis Presley) stars in this light comedy musical as a singing buck who finds employment at an all femme ranch & spa. After kissing the girls and making them cry, the stud-clad crooner is sent away, but soon comes back to rescue a pretty maiden from the hands of Read More

A Tiger Walks

Actors: Brian Keith, Vera Miles, Pamela Franklin, Sabu, Edward Andrews

Synopsis: After a dangerous tiger turns on its trainer and escapes from the circus, a small town in Texas finds itself in an uproar over its capture. As it is hunted by numerous parties, a young girl begins protesting and starts a nationwide movement to plead for the tiger's safety. As the situation gains Read More

A House is Not a Home

Actors: Shelley Winters, Robert Taylor, Cesar Romero, Ralph Taeger, Kaye Ballard

Synopsis: This drama tells the true story of one of Broadway's most successful madams in the 1920s. It is loosely based on the autobiography of Polly Adler. The story begins when young Polly is seduced and raped at her job by the sweatshop foreman. When her uncle, with whom she lived, learns of the act, he Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Frightened Fisherman

Synopsis: Hudson Bradshaw (Bartlett Robinson) is willing to use any means, fair or foul, to claim the rights to a revolutionary new antibiotic developed by ex-employee Randolph James (Lee Farr). When all else fails, Bradshaw persuades James' wife Natalie ({$Marian Collier]) to sell her controlling interest Read More

The Misadventures of Merlin Jones

Actors: Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Leon Ames, Stuart Erwin, Alan Hewitt

Synopsis: In this Disney family film, brainy college student Merlin Jones (Tommy Kirk) invents a mind-reading machine, but the consequences of its use prove to be a lot of trouble. With help from his girlfriend (Annette Funicello), he must set to right all that has gone wrong. The movie spawned the sequel Monkey's Uncle Read More

The Twilight Zone: In Praise of Pip

Actors: Jack Klugman, Bill Mumy, Bill Diamond, Connie Gilchrist, S. John Launer

Synopsis: After a brief flirtation with the 60-minute form, Twilight Zone wisely returned to its original half-hour format with the first episode of the series' fifth season, "In Praise of Pip." Upon learning that his beloved son Pip is dying in a field hospital in South Vietnam, two-bit bookie Max Philips (Jack Klugman Read More

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: A Home Away from Home

Actors: Ray Milland, Jackie Searl, Claire Griswold, Peter Brooks, Virginia Gregg

Synopsis: The ninth season of Alfred Hitchcock's popular TV suspense anthology opens with a chilling little character study by Robert Bloch, who seems to have drawn his inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe's The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether. Ray Milland stars as mad doctor Fenwick, an inmate of the Read More

The Fugitive: Where the Action Is

Synopsis: Using the alias "Jerry Shelton", Kimble (David Janssen) goes to work as lifeguard at the Nevada gambling resort run by a tough customer named Danny Polichek (Telly Savalas). While thus employed, Kimble catches the eye of Polichek's spoiled daughter Chris (Joanna Frank), who ever since her mother's Read More

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Long Silence

Actors: Michael Rennie, Phyllis Thaxter, Natalie Trundy, Jim McMullan, Connie Gilchrist

Synopsis: Fortune hunter Ralph Manson (Michael Rennie) persuades wealthy widow Nora Cory (Phyllis Thaxter) to marry him, only to run afoul of Nora's son from a previous marriage. Manson tries to solve this problem by killing the boy, but Nora witnesses the crime -- whereupon she suffers a stroke which Read More

Swingin' Along

Actors: Tommy Noonan, Peter Marshall, Barbara Eden, Connie Gilchrist, Carol Christensen

Synopsis: Bungling courier Freddie Merkel (Tommy Noonan) dreams of creative success but always manages to botch things up at crucial moments. Shortly after destroying his motorcycle, he decides to become a songwriter. This gives con man Duke (Peter Marshall) the perfect opportunity for his latest scam, one Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Door Without a Key

Synopsis: Working the late shift at the neighborhood cop shop, beleaguered Captain Shaw (John Larch) finds himself saddled with a pair of lost souls: an old man (Claude Rains) suffering from amnesia and a little boy (Bill Mumy) abandoned by his parents. Instinctively, Shaw is persuaded that the oldster and Read More

The Interns

Actors: Michael Callan, Cliff Robertson, James MacArthur, Nick Adams, Suzy Parker

Synopsis: Using a technique that involves the kind of ensemble acting seen in later long-running, large-cast television programs, director David Swift has tried to tie together the stories of five young interns in this routine drama. One of the interns is a woman who is at odds with the chief surgeon (Telly Savalas Read More

Say One for Me

Actors: Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, Ray Walston, Les Tremayne

Synopsis: This musical comedy takes an off-beat religious turn as it tells the tale of a show-biz priest (Bing Crosby) who runs a Broadway theater for spiritually kindred show-folk. His problems begins when a vivacious but troubled chorine (Debbie Reynolds) shows up with a sad story about her ailing father Read More

Machine Gun Kelly

Actors: Charles Bronson, Susan Cabot, Morey Amsterdam, Jack Lambert, Wally Campo, Connie Gilchrist

Synopsis: The real-life "Machine Gun" Kelly was a clumsy, two-bit petty thief, goaded into bigger and badder things by a publicity-hungry wife; legend has it that when Kelly was finally captured by the FBI, he had a smile on his face, as if relieved to get away from the gorgonlike Mrs. Kelly. This film Read More

Some Came Running

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy

Synopsis: After the success of From Here to Eternity, pairing Frank Sinatra with another James Jones novel made perfect sense. Set in the aftermath of World War II, the film stars Sinatra as a recently discharged soldier whose promising writing career has derailed. After a drunken card game, Sinatra finds Read More

Auntie Mame

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne, Fred Clark, Roger Smith

Synopsis: Auntie Mame began as a novel by Patrick Dennis (aka Ed Fitzgerald), then was adapted into a long-running Broadway play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. This 1958 film version permits Rosalind Russell to recreate her stage role as Mame Dennis, the flamboyant, devil-may-care aunt of young Read More

Leave It to Beaver: Captain Jack

Actors: Edgar Buchanan, Irving Bacon, Connie Gilchrist, Penny Carpenter

Synopsis: Boy, are Beaver (Jerry Mathers) and Wally (Tony Dow) in for it! Answering a mail-order ad, the boys have purchased a baby alligator without telling mom and dad. Now the gator has gotten sick -- and even worse, it's growing bigger and bigger every day. In their efforts to hide the gator in the Read More

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Actors: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March, Marisa Pavan, Lee J. Cobb

Synopsis: This meticulous and unusually long cinemadaptation of Sloan Wilson's best-selling novel The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit stars Gregory Peck as an ex-army officer, pursuing a living as a TV writer in the postwar years. Hired by a major broadcasting network, Peck is assigned to write speeches for Read More

The Far Country

Actors: James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvet, Walter Brennan, John McIntire

Synopsis: One of the most entertaining of the Western movies to come out of the 1950s, this is a Stewart vehicle in which he must take on the ruthlessness of the frontier. Set in the Yukon, Stewart and his friends are driving cattle to market from Wyoming to Canada, where the boom towns pay top dollar for Read More

The Adventures of Long John Silver [TV Series]

Actors: Robert Newton, Kit Taylor, Connie Gilchrist

Synopsis: Robert Newton stars as Robert Louis Stevenson's legendary pirate. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

It Should Happen to You

Actors: Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, Jack Lemmon, Michael O'Shea, Vaughan Taylor

Synopsis: Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) is an unsuccessful model and actress who believes that a jolt of publicity will do her career a world of good. She gets that publicity by renting a billboard in the middle of Manhattan, emblazoned with her name and photograph. As a result, Gladys is showered with Read More

Houdini

Actors: Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher, Angela Clarke, Stefan Schnabel, Douglas Spencer

Synopsis: This highly fanciful but immensely entertaining biopic stars Tony Curtis as legendary magician/escape-artist Harry Houdini. Janet Leigh, Mrs. Tony Curtis at the time, co-stars as Houdini's wife Bess, while Angela Clarke is seen as Houdini's mother. The film follows Houdini's progress from sideshow Read More

Long John Silver

Actors: Robert Newton, Kit Taylor, Connie Gilchrist, Eric Reiman, Syd Chambers

Synopsis: Robert Newton repeats his Treasure Island role as Long John Silver in this Australian adventure film--and if anything, Newton is even more out of control this time around than he'd been in the earlier picture. Paying only lip service to the Robert Louis Stevenson original, the film is made up of Read More

The Great Diamond Robbery

Actors: Red Skelton, Cara Williams, James Whitmore, Kurt Kasznar, Dorothy Stickney

Synopsis: MGM was never quite sure what to do with their resident funster Red Skelton, and The Great Diamond Robbery betrays this uncertainty. Skelton plays Ambrose C. Park, a diamond cutter who is led to believe that he's the long-lost heir to a fortune. Actually, Ambrose has been duped by shyster lawyer Read More

One Big Affair

Actors: Evelyn Keyes, Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Anderson, Connie Gilchrist, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: Filmed on location in Mexico (one of several Hollywood-financed films of the 1950s to take advantage of the lower production and labor costs south of the border), One Big Affair stars Evelyn Keyes as Jean Harper, a scatter-brained American schoolteacher and Dennis O'Keefe as Jimmy Donovan, a Read More

Flesh and Fury

Actors: Tony Curtis, Jan Sterling, Mona Freeman, Wallace Ford, Connie Gilchrist

Synopsis: In this boxing drama, a deaf-mute prizefighter whose career is on the rise falls in love with a gold digging singer who only loves him for his potential earnings. He is also loved by a wholesome journalist who loves him for himself. It is she that helps him get the operation that restores his Read More

Here Comes the Groom

Actors: Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith, Franchot Tone, James Barton

Synopsis: Here Comes the Groom was the second collaboration between director Frank Capra and star Bing Crosby. Though not as "socially relevant" as previous Capra productions, the film is a thoroughly likeable yarn about a happy-go-lucky newspaperman named Pete (Bing Crosby). In order to legally adopt a Read More

The Half-Breed

Actors: Robert Young, Janis Carter, Jack Buetel, Barton MacLane, Reed Hadley

Synopsis: One of only five films directed by Academy Award-nominated editor Stuart Gilmore, this 1951 Western stars Robert Young as Dan Craig, a gambler who may be the only man who can stop a war between a tribe of Native Americans and a group of white settlers. Shortly after the U.S. Civil War, Frank Read More

Chain of Circumstance

Actors: Richard Grayson, Margaret Field, Marta Mitrovich, Harold J. Kennedy, Helen Wallace

Synopsis: Richard Grayson and Margaret Field (the mother of actress Sally Field) play a young married couple beset with woe. They lose their baby, have extreme difficulty adopting another, and end up accused of stealing. They are saved from prison at the finale, but no such reprieve is given the couple's Read More

Thunder on the Hill

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Ann Blyth, Robert Douglas, Anne Crawford, Phillip Friend

Synopsis: Charlotte Hastings' West End stage hit Bonaventure was adroitly translated to the American screen as Thunder on the Hill. The bulk of the action takes place at convent, presided over by Sister Mary (Claudette Colbert). Circumstances -- namely, a dangerous rainstorm and raging flood -- dictate that Read More

A Ticket to Tomahawk

Actors: Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter, Rory Calhoun, Walter Brennan, Charles Kemper

Synopsis: A Ticket to Tomahawk has sometimes been described as a musical western satire, but in fact is more "straight" western than anything else--not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. Dan Dailey plays a travelling medicine show entrepreneur who comes to the aid of fast-shootin' Anne Read More

Louisa

Actors: Spring Byington, Ronald Reagan, Charles Coburn, Edmund Gwenn, Ruth Hussey

Synopsis: Never mind the top-billed Ronald W. Reagan; the real stars of Louisa are sprightly seniors Charles Coburn, Spring Byington and Edmund Gwenn. Spring plays Reagan's widowed mother, who is outwardly satisfied with her lot but inwardly lonely. Enter Coburn and Gwenn, who vie for Spring's attentions. Read More

The Killer That Stalked New York

Actors: Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, William Bishop, Dorothy Malone, Lola Albright

Synopsis: A married team of diamond smugglers enter New York to fence their purloined gems unaware that the wife is carrying the highly contagious, deadly smallpox virus. The crooks ensconce themselves in a hotel without realizing that the wife's every move is being monitored by a Treasury agent. The Read More

Buccaneer's Girl

Actors: Yvonne De Carlo, Phillip Friend, Robert Douglas, Elsa Lanchester, Andrea King

Synopsis: The Buccaneer's Girl of the title, played by Yvonne de Carlo, is Deborah McCoy, an entertainer who's been around a bit. While visiting New Orleans, Deborah falls in love with aristocratic Frederick Baptiste (Philip Friend), who turns out to be a pirate. Baptiste is basically a decent fellow: his Read More

Undercover Girl

Actors: Alexis Smith, Scott Brady, Richard Egan, Gladys George, Edmon Ryan, Royal Dano

Synopsis: Undercover Girl was leading-lady Alexis Smith's least-favorite film, though she is professional enough to give it her all. Per the title, the film casts Smith as rookie policewoman Christine Miller, who volunteers to go undercover to avenge her father's death. Posing as a drug dealer, Christine Read More

Tripoli

Actors: Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Howard Da Silva, Phillip Reed, Grant Withers

Synopsis: The fabled 19th-century clashes between U.S. Marines and the pirates of Tripoli have provided story material for dozens of films. Tripoli stars John Payne as two-fisted marine lieutenant O'Bannon, though top billing is bestowed upon Maureen O'Hara as Countess D'Arneau, who has come to Tripoli Read More

Stars in My Crown

Actors: Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: Stars in My Crown is an episodic movie about a rural Southern community in the 19th century. Though the film features a number of characters, it focuses on a preacher who moves into the city and helps solve the town's problems. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Peggy

Actors: Diana Lynn, Charles Coburn, Charlotte Greenwood, Barbara Lawrence, Charles Drake

Synopsis: Peggy Brookfield (Diana Lynn) is one of many aspirants for the position of Queen of the annual Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calfornia. Also competing is Peggy's sister Susan (Barbara Lawrence). Both girls make the trek from Ohio to Pasadena in the company of their father (Charles Coburn), a Read More

Little Women

Actors: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien, Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh

Synopsis: Of the many film versions of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, this 1949 MGM adaptation is by far the prettiest. Set in New England during the Civil War, the film relates the various adventures of the March sisters: Jo (June Allyson), Beth (Margaret O'Brien), Amy (Elizabeth Taylor) and Meg (Janet Leigh Read More

Act of Violence

Actors: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Phyllis Thaxter, Mary Astor, Berry Kroeger

Synopsis: An unusually disturbing noir from a director better known for more mainstream fare like High Noon and From Here to Eternity, Act of Violence focuses on a WWII veteran haunted by his past. A film that was close to the director's heart, he said that it represented "the first time that I felt Read More

The Story of Molly X

Actors: June Havoc, John Russell, Dorothy Hart, Connie Gilchrist, Cathy Lewis

Synopsis: Crane Wilbur, whose film career stretched all the way back to The Perils of Pauline, brings the benefit of his accumulated directorial expertise to The Story of Molly X. The title character, played with verve by June Havoc, is a hard-bitten gun moll who takes over management of a criminal gang Read More

A Letter to Three Wives

Actors: Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas

Synopsis: Three wives, played by Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell, are about to embark on a boat trip when each receives a letter, written by a mutual friend named Addie, informing her that Addie is about to run off with one of their husbands. In flashback, each wife wonders if it is her marriage Read More

Tenth Avenue Angel

Actors: Margaret O'Brien, George Murphy, Angela Lansbury, Phyllis Thaxter, Warner Anderson

Synopsis: Filmed in 1946, Tenth Avenue Angel is yet another treacly vehicle for little Margaret O'Brien. The juvenile star is cast as Flavia Mills, an 8-year-old tenement dweller who insinuates herself into the lives of several down-and-outers, among them ex-convict Steve Abbott (George Murphy). Flavia's Read More

Luxury Liner

Actors: George Brent, Jane Powell, Lauritz Melchior, Frances Gifford, Marina Koshetz

Synopsis: MGM whipped up another musical salad with Luxury Liner, featuring a glittering lineup of contractees including Jane Powell, Lauritz Melchior and Xavier Cugat. George Brent plays the skipper of a "love boat"-type cruise ship, while Ms. Powell plays his daughter. She entertains the passengers at Read More

The Big City

Actors: Margaret O'Brien, Robert Preston, Danny Thomas, George Murphy, Karin [Katharine] Booth

Synopsis: MGM's all-purpose title The Big City was deployed once more for this treacly 1948 drama. To prevent orphaned Midge (Margaret O'Brien) from being sent to an institution, Protestant minister Andrews (Robert Preston), Jewish cantor Feldman (Danny Thomas) and Catholic cop Patrick O'Donnell (George Murphy Read More

Chicken Every Sunday

Actors: Dan Dailey, Celeste Holm, Colleen Townsend, Alan Young, Natalie Wood

Synopsis: George Seaton's 1948 comedy Chicken Every Sunday was based on the play by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein as well as the original memoirs of Rosemary Taylor. Set during the turn of the century on the American frontier, Emily Heffernan (eleste Holm) is the practical wife of foolish would-be Read More

The Hucksters

Actors: Edward Arnold, Clark Gable, Lillian Bronson, Deborah Kerr, Sydney Greenstreet, Ralph Bunker, Kathryn Card, Adolphe Menjou, Jimmy Conlin, Ava Gardner

Synopsis: When he was first offered the film version of the best-selling Frederick Wakeman novel The Hucksters, Clark Gable turned it down, characterizing the book as "filthy and not entertainment." He finally agreed to star in the film after screenwriter Luther Davis' extensive laundering job. Gable plays Read More

Song of the Thin Man

Actors: Leon Ames, Warner Anderson, William Bishop, Bruce Cowling, Bess Flowers

Synopsis: In the sixth and final Thin Man whodunit, Nick (William Powell) and Nora Charles (Myrna Loy) look into the mysterious killing of bandleader Tommy Drake (Phillip Reed). The police quickly hone in on the owner of a gambling ship, Phil Brant (Bruce Cowling), who was about to lose Drake's band to a Read More

Good News

Actors: June Allyson, Morris Ankrum, Tom Dugan, Connie Gilchrist, Jane Green

Synopsis: This second film version of the DeSylva/Brown/Henderson Broadway musical Good News may not be the best of the Arthur Freed-produced MGM musicals, but it's certainly one of the peppiest. The film is set at Tait college during the Roaring 20s. The wisp of a plot involves Tait football-star Peter Lawford Read More

Bad Bascomb

Actors: Wallace Beery, Margaret O'Brien, Marjorie Main, J. Carrol Naish, Frances Rafferty

Synopsis: Bad Bascomb is an expensive MGM western, tailor-made for the blubbery talents of Wallace Beery. Beery plays the badman of the title, whose heart is softened by a sweet little child (Margaret O'Brien at her most cloying). Just about to make a clean getaway, Beery realizes that the child is in Read More

Young Widow

Actors: Jane Russell, Louis Hayward, Faith Domergue, Marie Wilson, Kent Taylor

Synopsis: With The Outlaw still being withheld from general release, Young Widow represented the first time that most filmgoers ever saw Jane Russell on the screen. Unfortunately, she was hardly at her best in this lachrymose tale of a woman named Joan Kenwood, who can't get over her husband's death in WW Read More

Faithful in My Fashion

Actors: Donna Reed, Tom Drake, Edward Everett Horton, Spring Byington, Sig Rumann

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a soldier is granted a two-week furlough and returns home to discover that his girlfriend is engaged to someone else. At first, on the advice of her friends, the girl tries to hide her betrothal from the soldier, but it is not long before she recalls why she loved him in Read More

The Valley of Decision

Actors: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore, Preston S. Foster

Synopsis: Based on Marcia Davenport's novel and set in 1870, Valley of Decision details the romance between a housemaid named Mary Rafferty (Greer Garson) and her employer's son, Paul Scott (Gregory Peck). Paul's father, William (Donald Crisp), owns a Pittsburgh steel mill where Mary's father, Pat (Lionel Barrymore Read More

Junior Miss

Actors: Peggy Ann Garner, Allyn Joslyn, Michael Dunne, Mona Freeman, Faye Marlowe, Barbara Whiting, John Alexander

Synopsis: Adapted from the high school drama-class perennial by Jerome Chodhorov and Joseph Fields, Junior Miss stars Peggy Ann Garner as a troublesome teenager. Garner means well, but can't help meddling in the affairs of her father (Allyn Joslyn) and other unsuspecting grownups. Most of the story revolves Read More

The Thin Man Goes Home

Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson, Gloria de Haven, Anne Revere, Harry Davenport

Synopsis: This fifth entry in MGM's off-and-on "Thin Man" series maintains the high production and story values of the first four. Per the title, retired private detective Nick Charles (William Powell) pays a visit to his home town of Sycamore Springs, with wife Nora (Myrna Loy) in tow. Poor Nick is Read More

Rationing

Actors: Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Donald Meek, Dorothy Morris, Howard Freeman

Synopsis: MGM intended Rationing to be an object lesson as well as a comedy, to teach the moviegoers the importance of rationing products during World War II. Wallace Beery plays a small town butcher who comes under fire from the local citizens for attempting to honor the ration system. Beery finds himself Read More

Music for Millions

Actors: Margaret O'Brien, Jimmy Durante, June Allyson, Marsha Hunt

Synopsis: Musical producer Joe Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM in the early 1940s, taking his pet director Henry Koster (the two men had teamed to make a star of Deanna Durbin) with him. The Pasternak/Koster collaboration Music for Millions features child star Margaret O'Brien as a Durbin-like Miss Read More

Nothing But Trouble

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mary Boland, Philip Merivale, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: The second of Laurel & Hardy's two MGM starring films, Nothing But Trouble casts Stan and Ollie as, respectively, an unemployed butler and chef. Despite their inherent ineptitude, there's a wartime servant shortage, so the boys are hired by flighty dowager Mrs. Hawkley (Mary Boland), who hopes to Read More

See Here, Private Hargrove

Actors: Robert Walker, Donna Reed, Keenan Wynn, Robert Benchley, Ray Collins

Synopsis: Newspaper reporter Marion Hargrove's best-selling novel was adapted to the screen by MGM as a vehicle for Robert Walker. The story is basically a series of humorous anecdotes about Hargrove's tenure at boot camp in the early days of World War II. Keenan Wynn is terrific as Hargrove's topkick, and Robert Benchley Read More

Cry Havoc

Actors: Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern, Joan Blondell, Fay Bainter, Marsha Hunt

Synopsis: Allen R. Kerward's flagwaving stage play Proof thro' the Night was vastly improved in its screen adaptation, which was retitled Cry Havoc. Margaret Sullavan (making her first screen appearance in two years), Joan Blondell and Ann Southern are among the appropriately deglamorized actresses playing Read More

Presenting Lily Mars

Actors: Judy Garland, Van Heflin, Fay Bainter, Marta Eggerth, Richard Carlson, Spring Byington

Synopsis: A Booth Tarkington novel was the source for the so-so Judy Garland musical Presenting Lily Mars. Garland plays the title character, a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. She heads to Broadway hoping for stardom, but after a series of disappointments the best she can manage is an understudy Read More

The Human Comedy

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, Fay Bainter, James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Ray Collins, Van Johnson

Synopsis: Author William Saroyan's corn-shucking brand of sentimentality works wonders in this 1943 filmization of his novel. Narrator Ray Collins is dead before the film begins; thus he is able to provide an all-seeing overview of the tiny community of Ithaca, California. The principal character, played by Mickey Rooney Read More

The Heavenly Body

Actors: William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, James Craig, Fay Bainter, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: In this light romantic comedy, William B. Whitley (William Powell) is an astronomer who is very excited about his latest discovery, a comet that has been named after him. However, Whitley has been so busy tracking the course of his comet as its path leads straight into the moon that he's been Read More

Swing Shift Maisie

Actors: Jim Davis, Ann Sothern, James Craig, Jean Rogers, Connie Gilchrist, John Qualen

Synopsis: In her seventh outing as irrepressible vaudeville entertainer Maisie Revere, Ann Sothern aided the war effort by working the swing shift in an airplane factory. Taking in a seemingly suicidal co-worker, Iris (Jean Rogers), Maisie can only watch as the girl steals her beau, handsome pilot James Read More

Thousands Cheer

Actors: Kathryn Grayson, Mickey Rooney, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, John Boles, José Iturbi, Ann Sothern

Synopsis: Storywise, Thousands Cheer is thin stuff indeed. Insouciant PFC Eddy Marsh (Gene Kelly) wants to put on a Big Show for his fellow serviceman. Along the way, Eddy falls in love with Kathryn Jones (Kathryn Grayson), the daughter of Colonel William Jones (John Boles). End of story. The principal Read More

Grand Central Murder

Actors: Van Heflin, Patricia Dane, Cecilia Parker, Virginia Grey, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Grand Central Murder was intended as a followup to the MGM "sleeper" Kid Glove Killer, with the earlier film's star, Van Heflin, appearing in a similar role. When bitchy actress Mida King (Patricia Dane) is bumped off in a private train car at Grand Central Station, police inspector Gunther (Sam Read More

Tortilla Flat

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Frank Morgan, Akim Tamiroff

Synopsis: Like the John Steinbeck novel on which it is based, Tortilla Flat is not so much a movie as a series of warm-hearted anecdotes, all linked to a small California fishing village populated by poor but happy immigrants. The focus is upon Pilon (Spencer Tracy), a good-natured, charismatic freeloader Read More

Woman of the Year

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen, William Bendix

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn costarred for the first time in the delectable romantic comedy Woman of the Year. Tracy plays New York sportswriter Sam Craig, who becomes incensed at comments about the uselessness of sports made by foreign correspondent Tess Harding (Hepburn). Sam and Tess Read More

We Were Dancing

Actors: Norma Shearer, Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick, Lee Bowman, Marjorie Main

Synopsis: Strange but true: Norma Shearer turned down the title role in Mrs. Miniver to star instead in the insignificant trifle We Were Dancing. Loosely based on two Noel Coward playlets originally presented as part of the omnibus production Tonight at 8:30, the story concerns the romance between socialite Read More

Apache Trail

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Donna Reed, William Lundigan, Ann Ayars, Connie Gilchrist

Synopsis:
When MGM made a program western, it generally looked more expensive than an entire years' sagebrusher output at Monogram or PRC. MGM's Apache Trail stars Lloyd Nolan and William Lundigan as two brothers; Nolan is a bellicose highwayman, Lundigan a genial chap assigned guard duties. The main Read More

Born to Sing

Actors: Virginia Weidler, Ray McDonald, Leo Gorcey, Rags Ragland, Douglas McPhail

Synopsis: This happy musical chronicles the exploits of a suicidal composer who is desolate after someone swiped his newest musical comedy. He is saved by three young people who join up with the writer's daughter and put on the production. With the help of a pugnacious cab driver, they manage to draw their Read More

Sunday Punch

Actors: William Lundigan, Jean Rogers, Dan Dailey, Guy Kibbee, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: Another graduate of MGM's short-subject department, director David Miller proved he had what it took to helm a feature film for the studio in Sunday Punch. The harmless but diverting story concerns the rivalry, in and out of the ring, between prizefighters Ken Burke (William Lundigan) and Olaf Read More

The War Against Mrs. Hadley

Actors: Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, Richard Ney, Jean Rogers, Sara Allgood

Synopsis: In this WW II propaganda piece a wealthy American society matron refuses to sacrifice her material comforts to aid the war effort until she realizes that her selfishness is cheating the boys overseas who are fighting for her freedom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

This Time for Keeps

Actors: Ann Rutherford, Robert Sterling, Guy Kibbee, Irene Rich, Virginia Weidler

Synopsis: This Time for Keeps is a followup to 1940's Keeping Company, with Ann Rutherford repeating her role from the earlier film. Rutherford is cast as newlywed Katherine White, at present undergoing a rocky "period of adjustment" with her husband Lee (Robert Sterling, replacing the original film's John Read More

A Woman's Face

Actors: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Conrad Veidt, Osa Massen, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: A remake of the Swedish film of the same name (see entry 55092), MGM's A Woman's Face was reshaped into one of Joan Crawford's best vehicles. Told in flashback from the vantage point of a murder trial, the story concerns a female criminal whose face is disfigured by a hideous scar. The Read More

Down in San Diego

Actors: Ray McDonald, Bonita Granville, Dan Dailey, Leo Gorcey, Charles Smith

Synopsis: Down in San Diego was previewed as Young Americans, which is why prints still exist bearing both titles. The film is essentially a gussied-up MGM version of an "East Side Kids" pictures, even unto casting Leo Gorcey in a major role. A gang of teenagers with too much time on their hands decide to Read More

Two-Faced Woman

Actors: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Constance Bennett, Ruth Gordon, Robert Sterling, Roland Young

Synopsis: Attempting to Americanize Greta Garbo to appeal to American audiences (since most of the foreign markets for Hollywood product had been cut off due to World War II), M.G.M.'s Two-Faced Woman succeeded in making Garbo angry enough to announce her retirement from the screen. Two-Faced Woman was Read More

The Wild Man of Borneo

Actors: Frank Morgan, Mary Howard, Marjorie Main, Billie Burke, Donald Meek

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, a medicine show con-man pretends to be a wealthy man to impress his long-lost daughter who is slated to inherit a vast fortune. Unfortunately, she turns out to be someone else's daughter. Later he finds his own and discovers that she has less money than he does. They decide Read More

Married Bachelor

Actors: Robert Young, Ruth Hussey, Felix Bressart, Lee Bowman, Sheldon Leonard

Synopsis: Married Bachelor is a cute little MGM situation comedy, designed for the bottom half of the studio's double bills. Robert Young plays an married author who has penned several books on how to stay single. Naturally, he has to pose as a bachelor for publicity purposes...but wife Ruth Hussey is Read More

Johnny Eager

Actors: Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Van Heflin, Robert Sterling

Synopsis: Robert Taylor toughened up his image considerably with this gangster movie, which was unusual both in its plot and origins, having come from MGM, which was generally not known for its crime movies. Taylor plays a parolee who is pretending to follow the straight-and-narrow as a hardworking cabbie Read More

Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Red Skelton, Alma Kruger

Synopsis: When MGM decided to move up-and-coming star Laraine Day out of the "Dr. Kildare" series, the studio did so in a startlingly dramatic fashion. In Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day, Dr. Jim Kildare (Lew Ayres) and nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) are finally able to exchange their marital vows. Alas, the Read More

Barnacle Bill

Actors: Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Leo Carrillo, Virginia Weidler, Donald Meek

Synopsis: MGM tried to recapture the magic of the Wallace Beery/Marie Dressler films of the 1930s with Barnacle Bill. Beery is teamed with Marjorie Main, a Dressler "type" who had a roughneck style all her own. In the film, grumbly old fisherman Beery spends most of his screen time avoiding Main, who Read More

H.M. Pulham, Esq.

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Robert Young, Ruth Hussey, Charles Coburn, Van Heflin

Synopsis: MGM was doing so well in 1941 that it could afford the occasional "prestige" film with little box-office appeal. Based on the novel by J.P. Marquand, H.M. Pulham, Esq., stars Robert Young as a successful but stuffy Boston businessman. The glimmer of sadness in Young's eyes indicates that his Read More

Hullabaloo

Actors: Frank Morgan, Virginia Grey, Dan Dailey, Billie Burke, Nydia Westman

Synopsis: It is perhaps unnecessary to point out that the MGM programmer Hullabaloo bears no relation to the 1960s rock-and-roll series of the same name. Frank Morgan plays Frank Merriweather, an old-time actor who tries to revive his fading career on radio (just as John Barrymore was then doing in real Read More