Ellen DrewFilmography

Outlaw's Son

Actors: Dane Clark, Ben Cooper, Lori Nelson, Ellen Drew, Charles Watts

Synopsis: This unusual western drama stars Ben Cooper as Jeff Blaine ,a twelve-year-old boy growing up sans a mother or a father in the small town of Plainsville. Jeff's mom died during his infancy, and his dad Nate (Dane Clark) left not long after and became an outlaw. With both of the parents Read More

Man in the Saddle

Actors: Randolph Scott, Joan Leslie, Ellen Drew, Alexander Knox, Richard Rober

Synopsis: Rancher Randolph Scott rides right into a romantic triangle in this moody western. He is forced to stand by as his mercenary girl friend (Joan Leslie) is lured away by a wealthy neighboring rancher (Alexander Knox). When the neighbor is killed, Scott is accused of the murder, and spends the Read More

Davy Crockett, Indian Scout

Actors: George Montgomery, Ellen Drew, Phillip Reed, Noah Beery, Jr., Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier, didn't become a nationwide craze (and merchandising cash cow) until Disney got hold of him in 1954. In the meantime, however, there was Columbia's Davy Crockett, Indian Scout, which in fact had little to do with the famed frontiersman. George Montgomery Read More

Cargo to Capetown

Actors: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Ellen Drew, Edgar Buchanan, Ted de Corsia

Synopsis: Oscar or no Oscar, Broderick Crawford was obliged to star in whatever property his home studio Columbia threw his way. In Cargo to Capetown, Crawford plays Johnny Phelan, first mate on a rundown oil tanker captained by his pal Steve Conway (John Ireland). Johnny is willing to look the other way 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

The Baron of Arizona

Actors: Vincent Price, Ellen Drew, Beulah Bondi, Vladimir Sokoloff, Reed Hadley

Synopsis: Samuel Fuller wrote and directed this lively drama based on the real-life adventures of James Addison Reavis, one of the most ambitious swindlers of the 19th Century. In 1871, Reavis (played by Vincent Price) began hatching an elaborate scheme to claim the Arizona territory (then three decades Read More

The Great Missouri Raid

Actors: Wendell Corey, MacDonald Carey, Ward Bond, Ellen Drew, Bruce Bennett

Synopsis: The Great Missouri Raid stars Wendell Corey and MacDonald Carey as famed Kansas outlaws Frank and Jesse James. Once more, the James Boys are depicted sympathetically as victims of circumstance forced into a life of crime. Joining Frank and Jesse on their bandit raids are the Younger Brothers Read More

The Crooked Way

Actors: John Payne, Sonny Tufts, Ellen Drew, Rhys Williams, Percy Helton

Synopsis: Postwar films were festooned with amnesiac ex-GIs who found themselves mixed up with crime. In The Crooked Way, John Payne plays memory-deficient veteran Eddie Rice, who runs afoul of mobster Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts) and police inspector Lt. Williams (Rhys Williams). Both the crooks and the Read More

The Man from Colorado

Actors: Glenn Ford, William Holden, Ellen Drew, Ray Collins, Edgar Buchanan

Synopsis: Glenn Ford is top-billed in Man From Colorado, though he's anything but a hero. Ford plays a seriously disturbed Civil War vet who kills because he enjoys killing. William Holden, Ford's army buddy, tries to stem Ford's homicidal tendencies. When Ford is appointed the "hanging" judge of a Colorado Read More

Johnny O'Clock

Actors: Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Lee J. Cobb, Ellen Drew, Nina Foch

Synopsis: Three years after song-and-dance man Dick Powell reshaped his nice-guy image by playing hard-boiled gumshoe Phillip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet, he returned to film noir with this crime-based thriller. Johnny O'Clock (Dick Powell) and his partner Pete Marchettis (Thomas Gomez) operate a Read More

The Swordsman

Actors: Larry Parks, Ellen Drew, George Macready, Edgar Buchanan, Ray Collins

Synopsis: Capitalizing on Larry Parks' "overnight" success in The Jolson Story, Columbia Pictures rushed their hottest new star from one picture to another, whether he was suited to the role or not. In The Swordsman, Parks makes a valiant stab at swashbucklery, playing an 18th-century Scottish aristocrat Read More

The Crime Doctor's Man Hunt

Actors: Warner Baxter, Paul E. Burns, Claire Carleton, Ellen Drew, William Frawley

Synopsis: Scripted by Leigh Brackett of The Big Sleep fame and directed by future horrormeister William Castle, Crime Doctor's Manhunt has been singled out by many film buffs as the best of Columbia's "Crime Doctor" series. This time, criminal-turned-sleuth Dr. Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter) befriends Read More

Sing While You Dance

Synopsis: In this musical, a struggling songwriter endeavors to make it big in Tin Pan Alley. She is befriended by the widow of a famous composer. The budding lyricist manages to convince the widow to allow her to make some small changes in her husband's music. She does, and it becomes a tremendous success. Read More

Man Alive

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Adolphe Menjou, Ellen Drew, Rudy Vallee

Synopsis: Man Alive is an inventive and consistently amusing farce dominated by stars Pat O'Brien and Adolphe Menjou. The former plays Speed, a moderately successful garage owner. Wrongly convinced that his wife Connie (Ellen Drew) has fallen in love with his old friend Gordon (Rudy Vallee), Speed goes off Read More

Isle of the Dead

Actors: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer, Alan Napier, Katherine Emery, Jason Robards, Sr., Helene Thimig

Synopsis: Inspired by Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin's famous painting, this seminal horror film marked the first of three collaborations between RKO producer Val Lewton and British genre star Boris Karloff. Set during the 1912 Balkan Wars, Isle of the Death featured Karloff as Greek general Pherides who Read More

The Impostor

Actors: Jean Gabin, Richard Whorf, Ellen Drew, Peter Van Eyck

Synopsis: The Impostor is one of French film favorite Jean Gabin's two wartime Hollywood vehicles. Adapted by Stephen Longstreet and Marc Connelly from a screenplay by director Julien Duvivier, the story concerns a condemned murderer named Clement (Jean Gabin), who is "liberated" when the Nazis bomb the Read More

China Sky

Actors: Randolph Scott, Ruth Warrick, Ellen Drew, Anthony Quinn, Carol Thurston

Synopsis: Pearl S. Buck's novel China Sky is boiled down to a wartime romantic triangle, courtesy of commercial-minded RKO. Randolph Scott and Ruth Warrick play American doctors in a remote Chinese village. The relationship is platonic, but Scott's spiteful wife Ellen Drew suspects hanky-panky. Despite Read More

Dark Mountain

Actors: Robert Lowery, Ellen Drew, Regis Toomey, Eddie Quillan, Elisha Cook, Jr.

Synopsis: This Pine-Thomas actioner stars Robert Lowery as two-fisted forest ranger Don Bradley. Promoted to supervisor, Bradley finds his success hollow when his childhood sweetheart Kay (Ellen Drew) marries big-time gangster Steve Downey (Regis Toomey). In soon develops that Kay has wedded Downey against Read More

Strange Confession

Actors: Richard Whorf, Allyn Joslyn, Ellen Drew, Peter Van Eyck

Synopsis: Strange Confession was the fourth in Universal's "Inner Sanctum" B-picture series, all of which starred Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney plays an idealistic writer who allows himself to be used by a politically ambitious publishing mogul (J. Carroll Naish). Not only does the publisher distort the Read More

That's My Baby

Actors: Richard Arlen, Ellen Drew, Leonid Kinskey, Richard Bailey, Minor Watson

Synopsis: Only at Republic studios would action star Richard Arlen head the cast of a muscial comedy. In That's My Baby, Tim Jones (Arlen) and his girl friend Betty (Ellen Drew) try to pull her dad, the appropriately named R. P. Moody (Minor Watson), out of a deep blue funk. On the verge of suicide, Moody Read More

Night Plane from Chungking

Actors: Robert Preston, Ellen Drew, Steven Geray, Soo Yong

Synopsis: An adequate wartime filler, Night Plane from Chungking features Robert Preston as the captain of the titular aircraft. En route from Chungking to India, the plane crashes, leaving captain and passengers stranded in a jungle surrounded by Japanese troops. It has been learned that one of the Read More

The Remarkable Andrew

Actors: William Holden, Ellen Drew, Brian Donlevy, Rod Cameron, Richard Webb

Synopsis: Andrew Jackson is very happy to serve as the secretary of the society that honors his presidential namesake until he is arrested for embezzling from the town coffers. With no one to speak on his behalf, poor innocent Jackson is tossed into jail. There he finds himself haunted by several ghosts Read More

My Favorite Spy

Actors: Ellen Drew, Jane Wyman, Robert Armstrong, Helen Westley

Synopsis: Produced by silent-film comedian Harold Lloyd, My Favorite Spy is a vehicle for bespectacled bandleader Kay Kyser, who resembles Lloyd more than somewhat. Just before embarking on his honeymoon with new bride Terry (Ellen Drew), Kyser is drafted into the Army. Proving to be a monumentally Read More

Ice-Capades Revue

Actors: Ellen Drew, Richard Denning, Jerry Colonna, Barbara Jo Allen, Harold Huber

Synopsis: Republic's ongoing professional association with the celebrated "Ice-Capades" skating show yielded a number of flashy but forgettable musicals, including 1942's Ice-Capades Revue. Though a plot is hardly necessary, the story concerns New England farm gal Ann (Ellen Drew), whose already-mounting 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

The Monster and the Girl

Actors: Ellen Drew, Robert Paige, Paul Lukas, Joseph Calleia, Onslow Stevens

Synopsis: One of the most schizophrenic films ever to come out of the Paramount "B" mill, The Monster and the Girl starts out as a white-slavery melodrama and ends up as a horror picture! Emerging from the fog, heroine Susan Webster (Ellen Drew) tells her woeful tale to the audience. A young innocent from Read More

Reaching for the Sun

Actors: Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Eddie Bracken, Albert Dekker, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: Wessel Smitter's semicomic novel FOB Detroit was the source material for Reaching for the Sun. Joel McCrea plays a North Woods clam digger who orders an outboard motor for his business. Figuring he'll save shipping money by picking the motor up himself, he heads for Detroit. Here he decides to Read More

Caught in the Draft

Actors: Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Lynne Overman, Eddie Bracken, Clarence Kolb

Synopsis: Bob Hope plays a famous movie star who does his best to avoid the pre-war draft, but ends up in uniform all the same. Hope marries Dorothy Lamour, the daughter of Army colonel Clarence Kolb, in hopes that this union will help him sidestep military service. Stuck in boot camp, Hope is a class-A Read More

The Parson of Panamint

Actors: Charlie Ruggles, Ellen Drew, Phillip Terry, Joseph Schildkraut, Porter Hall

Synopsis: First filmed in 1916, Peter B. Kyne's novel Parson of Panamint provided an excellent showcase for Charles Ruggles in this 1941 remake. As he looks over the dusty, deserted remains of the western "boom town" of Panamint, grizzled old prospector Chuckawalla Bill Redfield (Ruggles) recalls the town's 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

Our Wife

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Ruth Hussey, Ellen Drew, Charles Coburn, John Hubbard

Synopsis: Dumped by wife Ellen Drew, musician Melvyn Douglas goes into a creative slump. His gloom is lifted when he falls in love with Ruth Hussey (with a little help from Hussey's foxy papa Charles Coburn). Soaring to hitherto unimaginable heights of fame after marrying Hussey, Douglas suddenly becomes Read More

The Mad Doctor

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Ellen Drew, John Howard, Ralph Morgan

Synopsis: Basil Rathbone is the batty physician of the title, a sophisticated gentleman who woos and weds several of his wealthy women patients. Unfortunately the ladies have a bad habit of dying prematurely, with the above-suspicion doctor diagnosing these deaths as the result of disease. Given the film's Read More

Buck Benny Rides Again

Actors: Jack Benny, Ellen Drew, Andy Devine, Phil Harris

Synopsis: To fully appreciate Buck Benny Rides Again, one must have some familiarity with Jack Benny's radio programs of the 1939-40 season. During this period, Jack's broadcast costars included bandleader Phil Harris, announcer Don Wilson, singer Dennis Day and comedians Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Andy Devine Read More

Women Without Names

Actors: Ellen Drew, Robert Paige, Judith Barrett, John Miljan, Fay Helm

Synopsis: Paramount's "B" pictures of the early 1940s were generally more interesting than their star-studded "A"s, as witness Women without Names. Ellen Drew and Robert Paige star as newlyweds Joyce and Fred MacNeil, whose honeymoon comes to an abrupt and unsatisfying halt when Fred is accused of murder. Read More

Texas Rangers Ride Again

Actors: Ellen Drew, John Howard, Akim Tamiroff, May Robson, Broderick Crawford

Synopsis: Filmed on location at Mesa, AZ, this minor Paramount western featured newcomer Ellen Drew as "Slats" Dangerfield, a young girl returning to her grandmother's ranch in Texas. Old Mrs. Dangerfield (May Robson) is experiencing a rash of cattle rustlings and, fed up with her no-good grandson Carter's Read More

Christmas in July

Actors: Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn, Alexander Carr, William Demarest

Synopsis: This modest Preston Sturges comedy stars Dick Powell as an office clerk dreaming of better things and Ellen Drew as his more pragmatic girlfriend. Powell convinces himself that his fortune will be made if he can win a slogan contest sponsored by a coffee company. Powell's contribution: "If you Read More

Geronimo

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Ellen Drew, Andy Devine, Gene Lockhart, William Henry

Synopsis: The late cinema historian William K. Everson once wrote an article titled "Movies Out of Thin Air", referring to films that were comprised almost exclusively of stock footage from earlier productions. A prime example of this sort of patchwork entertainment is the 1939 Paramount production Read More

The Gracie Allen Murder Case

Actors: Gracie Allen, Warren William, Ellen Drew, Kent Taylor, Jed Prouty

Synopsis: A longtime fan of comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen, "Philo Vance" creator S. S. Van Dyne wrote a tailor-made screenplay for the team, which emerged on-screen as The Gracie Allen Murder Case. The Paramount studio executives decided to dispense with the services of George Burns, leaving Read More

The Lady's from Kentucky

Actors: George Raft, Ellen Drew, Hugh Herbert, ZaSu Pitts, Louise Beavers

Synopsis: The "Lady" of the title is horse-farm owner Penelope Hollis (Ellen Drew), but during the first half of this film, bookie Marty Black (George Raft) only has eyes for Penelope's prize two-year-old. After losing his gambling joint, Marty finds himself with half ownership of the horse as his sole Read More

French Without Tears

Actors: Ellen Drew, Janine Darcey, David Tree, Roland Culver

Synopsis: This Anglo-American coproduction was based on the popular West End stage comedy by Terrence Rattigan. It all begins when Diana (Ellen Drew), the sister of a British boy studying in France, arrives in town to flirt with all of her brothers' schoolmates. Alan (Ray Milland), one of the students Read More

Cocoanut Grove

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Yacht Club Boys, Ben Blue, Rufe Davis

Synopsis: The legendary Cocoanut Grove nightclub is the setting for this all-star Paramount musical. Fred MacMurray heads the cast as Johnny Prentice, a small-time bandleader who heads to the Grove for an all-important audition. He is accompanied by his foster son Half-Pint (Billy Lee), a talented drummer Read More

You and Me

Actors: Sylvia Sidney, George Raft, Robert Cummings, Barton MacLane, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: This film is one of acclaimed director Fritz Lang's less noted achievements, a mixture of romance, comedy, drama, and satire. It includes three songs by the famed Kurt Weill, including "The Right Guy for Me." George Raft plays Joe Dennis, an ex-convict working in a department store. The store's Read More

The Buccaneer

Actors: Fredric March, Franziska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff, Margot Grahame, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer stars Fredric March, complete with curly hair, pencil moustache and florid "Sacre Bleu!" French accent, as 18th century pirate Jean Lafitte. Operating out of a "buccaneer's haven" of the coast of New Orleans, Lafitte plunders all passing ships for their wealth, but Read More

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, David Niven, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: The great Ernst Lubitsch directed this farce (written by Charles M. Brackett and Billy Wilder) about a free-wheeling millionaire, Michael Brandon (Gary Cooper), who enjoys getting married but has a hard time staying married: he's had seven wives and is looking for number eight. He thinks he may Read More

Dangerous to Know

Synopsis: In this drama, a gangster finds the woman of his dreams, but before he can have her he must frame her fiance. Meanwhile the Asian lover he dumped plots her revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Sing You Sinners

Actors: Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, Ellen Drew, Donald O'Connor, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: Chronic gambler Joe Beebe (Bing Crosby) is a source of great consternation for his loving mother (Elizabeth Patterson), who wishes that Joe would follow the example of his responsible, strait-laced brother David (Fred MacMurray). Meanwhile, the youngest member of the Beebe clan, 13-year-old Mike Read More

If I Were King

Actors: Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone, Frances Dee, Ellen Drew, C.V. France

Synopsis: If I Were King is a delightful costume adventure tale set in 14th century France, during the reign of Louis XI, and inspired by the legend of the rebel poet François Villon, whose exploits were filmed earlier as The Beloved Rogue (1927) with John Barrymore, and later transformed into the musical Read More

Night of Mystery

Actors: Grant Richards, Roscoe Karns, Helen Burgess, Ruth Coleman, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: A remake of 1929's The Greene Murder Case, Paramount's Night of Mystery was the first "Philo Vance" thriller not to use the words "Murder Case" in the title. The story is set in the Greene Mansion in midtown New York, where a passel of greedy relatives attend the wealthy and reclusive Mrs. Tobias Read More

Internes Can't Take Money

Actors: Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Lloyd Nolan, Stanley Ridges, Gaylord "Steve" Pendleton

Synopsis: Pulp fiction writer Max Brand's 1936 creation Dr. Kildare made his screen debut in the amiable person of Joel McCrea in this well-received Paramount production. Aided by Janet (Barbara Stanwyck, young Dr. Kildare saves the life of gangster boss Hanlon (Lloyd Nolan), who awards the intern $1,000 Read More

Mountain Music

Actors: Bob Burns, Martha Raye, John Howard, Terry Walker, George "Gabby" Hayes

Synopsis: In this backwoods musical, two feudin' families provide the basis of the action. The tale begins as the head of one family asks his son to marry the daughter of the other to bring peace. Unfortunately the son knows that it is his brother that really loves the girl and so takes off. The travelin' Read More

Murder Goes to College

Actors: Roscoe Karns, Marsha Hunt, Astrid Allwyn, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: A sort of follow-up to the studio's earlier College Scandal, Paramount's Murder Goes to College once again combines homicide with higher learning. When the titular murder occurs, detective Hank Hyer (Lynne Overman) shows up to investigate, with vacationing reporter Sim Perkins (Roscoe Karns) Read More

Hotel Haywire

Actors: Leo Carrillo, Mary Carlisle, Lynne Overman, George Barbier, Spring Byington

Synopsis: The inimitable Preston Sturges originally scripted Hotel Haywire with George Burns and Gracie Allen in mind, but by the time the film went before the cameras, the Burns and Allen roles had been recast with Benny Baker and Colette Lyons -- and significantly abbreviated in the process. A dentist Read More

This Way Please

Actors: Betty Grable, Ned Sparks, Marian Jordan

Synopsis: This Way Please marked Betty Grable's first appearance under her new Paramount contract. The fact that Grable plays the new bride of Charles "Buddy" Rogers takes on special significance when one realizes that Betty was two months away from her first marriage, to former child star Jackie Coogan. Read More

Make Way for Tomorrow

Actors: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell, Ray Mayer

Synopsis: While not a box-office success, this drama, directed by Leo McCarey, developed a potent reputation among film critics and movie buffs for its sensitive and perceptive treatment of the problems of the elderly. When McCarey won the Oscar for Best Director the same year for The Awful Truth, he Read More

College Holiday

Actors: Jack Benny, Gracie Allen, Mary Boland, Martha Raye

Synopsis: The quaint genetic theories of the 1930s are satirized in College Holiday. Dotty matron Mary Boland runs a ramshackle summer resort, opening her doors to college students of both sexes--but only those collegiates with extra-special physical and mental skills. She hopes to encourage these select Read More

Rose Bowl

Actors: Eleanore Whitney, Tom Brown, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, William Frawley, Ben Baker

Synopsis: Actual footage of the 1936 Rose Bowl game is cleverly (if not seamlessly) integrated into the action of this sports-oriented comedy. Longtime chums Paddy O'Reilly (Tom Brown) and Dutch Schultz (Benny Baker) may be heroes of the high-school gridiron, but they're persona non grata with the girls Read More