Frances DeeFilmography

Gypsy Colt

Actors: Donna Corcoran, Ward Bond, Frances Dee, Larry Keating, Lee Van Cleef

Synopsis: Gypsy Colt was based on a story by Eric Knight, better known for his enduring dog saga Lassie Come Home. This time, a beautiful black colt subs for Lassie, undergoing all sorts of perilous adventures out of love for its mistress, little Meg McWade (Donna Corcoran). Living with her mother and Read More

Mister Scoutmaster

Mr. Scoutmaster

Actors: Clifton Webb, Edmund Gwenn, George Winslow, Frances Dee, Veda Ann Borg

Synopsis: Robert Jordan is a television star. Robert Jordan likes things orderly, on time and properly executed. In his world children are to be seen, not heard. So why would Mr. Jordan want to become the master of a rambunctious band of Boy Scouts? Ratings. His staff figures that if learns how to interact Read More

Because of You

Actors: Loretta Young, Jeff Chandler, Alex Nicol, Frances Dee, Alexander Scourby

Synopsis: Fans of Loretta Young were rather taken aback by the early scenes of Because of You, wherein Young is seen as brash, uninhibited bleach-blonde Christine Carroll. On the verge of marrying gangster Mike Monroe (Alex Nicol), Christine is arrested by the cops, and sent to prison on the strength of Read More

Reunion in Reno

Actors: Mark Stevens, Peggy Dow, Frances Dee, Leif Erickson

Synopsis: Columbia and Universal were the leading purveyors of well-crafted "little" pictures in the 1950s. It was Universal who put together Reunion in Reno, which opens with little Maggie (Gigi Perreau) walking into the offices of divorce-attorney Norman (Mark Stevens), demanding a divorce from her Read More

Payment on Demand

Actors: Bette Davis, Barry Sullivan, Jane Cowl, Kent Taylor, Betty Lynn, Frances Dee

Synopsis: Just before filming All About Eve, Bette Davis starred in the marital melodrama Payment on Demand. Davis plays the wife of Barry Sullivan, who one fine morning demands a divorce. Most of the film is in flashback, recounting the events leading up to the marital schism. After Sullivan takes up with Frances Dee 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 Private Affairs of Bel Ami

Actors: George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, David Bond, Ann Dvorak, Frances Dee, John Carradine

Synopsis: Writer/director Albert Lewin, ever on the lookout for esoteric story material that would accommodate his fascination with Egyptian sculpture and feline symbolism, managed to inject both into The Private Affairs of Bel Ami. Though based on a Guy de Maupassant story, Bel Ami seems to have been Read More

Patrick the Great

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, Frances Dee, Donald Cook, Eve Arden

Synopsis: Donald Cook plays a fading actor whose son, Donald O'Connor, has just started his own theatrical career. It transpires that both Cook and O'Connor are up for the same part in a Broadway show, and the son is the winner. This results in jealousy from the father--and confusion from the audience, in Read More

I Walked with a Zombie

Actors: Tom Conway, Frances Dee, James Ellison, Edith Barrett, Christine Gordon, James Bell

Synopsis: RKO producer Val Lewton seemed to thrive upon taking the most lurid film titles and coming up with pocket-edition works of art. Saddled with the studio-dictated title I Walked With a Zombie, Lewton, together with scripters Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray, concocted a West Indies variation on Jane Read More

The Happy Land

Actors: Don Ameche, Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Ann Rutherford, Cara Williams, Richard Crane

Synopsis: An Iowa drugstore owner (Don Ameche) becomes embittered when his son is killed in World War II. The druggist believes that the boy's life was cut short before he had an opportunity to truly appreciate his existence. The grieving father is shown the error of his assumption by the ghost of his Read More

Meet the Stewarts

Actors: William Holden, Frances Dee, Grant Mitchell, Marjorie Gateson, Anne Revere

Synopsis: This lighthearted romantic comedy stars William Holden as working stiff Michael Stewart and Frances Dee as wealthy socialite Candace Goodwin. Falling in love with Michael, Candace agrees to marry him on his terms-namely, that they survive on his salary alone. Inevitably, Candace has trouble Read More

A Man Betrayed

Actors: John Wayne, Frances Dee, Edward Ellis, Ward Bond, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Bucolic lawyer John Wayne takes on big-city corruption in A Man Betrayed. He sets out to prove that an above-suspicion politician (Edward Ellis) is actually a crook. The price of integrity is sweet in this instance, since Wayne happens to be in love with the politician's daughter (Frances Dee). Read More

So Ends Our Night

Actors: Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, Frances Dee, Glenn Ford, Anna Sten

Synopsis: The Nazis are clearly the villains in So Ends Our Night, but since the film was made before America's entry into World War II, Adolph Hitler goes unmentioned (we wouldn't want to lose those foreign markets, would we?) Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel Flotsam, the film zeroes in on three Read More

Coast Guard

Actors: Randolph Scott, Frances Dee, Ralph Bellamy, Walter Connolly, Warren Hymer

Synopsis: In this action film two Coast Guard pilots fall in love with the same woman. She chooses the more macho of the two, but soon tires of his hyper-masculine behavior. She leaves him. He tries to win her back by showing off in a Navy plane, but ends up crashing and losing his pilot's wings. When his 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

Wells Fargo

Actors: Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Lloyd Nolan, Porter Hall

Synopsis: The third of Paramount's "deluxe" westerns of the 1930s (following The Texas Rangers and The Plainsman) was Wells Fargo, filmed on a Cecil B. DeMille scale by producer-director Frank Lloyd. In his first western appearance, Joel McCrea plays Ramsey McCay, troubleshooter for the newly formed Read More

Souls at Sea

Actors: Gary Cooper, George Raft, Frances Dee, Henry Wilcoxon, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Paramount's answer to Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) also involved mutiny and romance on the high seas. Gary Cooper stars as Nuggin Taylor, first mate on a slave ship in 1842. Ironically, Nuggin is an abolitionist. When a mutiny overthrows the ship's skipper and leaves him in charge, he frees his Read More

Half Angel

Actors: Frances Dee, Brian Donlevy, Charles Butterworth, Helen Westley, Henry Stephenson

Synopsis: In this murder comedy, a young woman is no sooner acquitted of poisoning her father when she finds herself suspected of poisoning another. A pushy, over-eager reporter attempts to badger her into a confession, but he changes his tune after he falls in love with her. This results in the loss of his Read More

Becky Sharp

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Billie Burke, Frances Dee, Alan Mowbray, Alison Skipworth

Synopsis: Now famous as the first feature film produced in the three-strip Technicolor process, Becky Sharp is also an enjoyable effort in its own right. Adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair, the film stars Miriam Hopkins as Becky Sharp, a resourceful, totally self-involved young lady who Read More

The Gay Deception

Actors: Francis Lederer, Frances Dee, Benita Hume, Alan Mowbray, Lennox Pawle, Akim Tamiroff

Synopsis: Francis Lederer stars as the prince of a mythical European kingdom. To mingle with the "common folk" while on a visit to New York, he takes a job as a hotel doorman. In this capacity he meets Frances Dee, a small-town secretary who has likewise come to Manhattan to put a little variety in her Read More

Coming Out Party

Actors: Frances Dee, Gene Raymond, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, Harry Green

Synopsis: In this romance, a lovely young debutante falls in love with a jazz violinist. Her mother wants her to marry a wealthy young man, but the strong-willed girl initially demurs until the night of her debut. Her well-meaning social adviser fills the debutante's dance card with partners and this Read More

Of Human Bondage

Actors: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Frances Dee, Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny

Synopsis: The first of three film versions of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage stars Leslie Howard as sensitive, clubfooted artist-cum-med student Philip Carey. Despite his yearnings for the finer things in life, Carey cannot extricate himself from a mutually destructive relationship with sluttish Read More

Keep 'em Rolling

Actors: Walter Huston, Frances Dee, Minna Gombell, Frank Conroy

Synopsis: The touching bond between a cavalry horse and the doughboy whose life he saves provides the basis for this syrupy war drama. After the horse's heroism, he and the soldier are nearly inseparable until an officer intervenes and separates them. This enrages the soldier and he deserts. He is captured Read More

Blood Money

Actors: George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Chick Chandler, Judith Anderson, Blossom Seeley

Synopsis: Roland Brown's Blood Money (1933) has lost none of its ability to entertain and startle over the seven decades since its release. The title refers to the business of affable, ambitious bail bondsman (and politically-connected grifter) Bill Bailey (George Bancroft), who, in the course of his work Read More

One Man's Journey

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, May Robson, Dorothy Jordan, Joel McCrea, Frances Dee

Synopsis: Lionel Barrymore plays one of those selfless general practitioners that seem to exist exclusively in the movies in One Man's Journey. Though his efforts go unappreciated by his patients and even by his own family, the far-from-wealthy Dr. Eli Watt (Barrymore) continues to dedicate his life to Read More

The Silver Cord

Actors: Irene Dunne, Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Eric Linden, Laura Hope Crewes

Synopsis: Sidney Howard's once-controversial play about the smothering aspects of Mother Love, The Silver Cord was filmed in 1933 with Laura Hope Crews recreating her stage role. Ms. Crews plays the outwardly selfless mother of Joel McCrea and Eric Linden; Irene Dunne and Frances Dee play the younger women Read More

Headline Shooter

Actors: William Gargan, Frances Dee, Ralph Bellamy, Jack LaRue, Gregory Ratoff

Synopsis: Headline Shooter is a brisk comedy/melodrama about a newsreel photographer (William Gargan). He prefers to risk his neck to get "swell" pictures, while his reporter girl friend (Frances Dee), though no less fearless, would prefer that he give up his dangerous profession. Ralph Bellamy (as always!) Read More

Finishing School

Actors: Frances Dee, Billie Burke, Ginger Rogers, Bruce Cabot, John Halliday

Synopsis: The scandalous doings behind the high-toned exterior of a private school for rich young women provides the framework for this interesting but turgid drama. Much of the story centers on an unhappy socialite and her smart-alecky, world-wise roomy who has no morals at all when it comes to getting Read More

Little Women

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas, Frances Dee, Jean Parker, Edna May Oliver

Synopsis: George Cukor directed this classic adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's sentimental novel with a shimmering lavishness that is a prime example of the classic Hollywood style at its best. The story concerns the lives of four New England sisters -- Jo (Katharine Hepburn), Amy (Joan Bennett), Meg Read More

The Crime of the Century

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Wynne Gibson, Stuart Erwin, Frances Dee, David Landau

Synopsis: This unique thriller chronicles the exploits of a doctor who will do almost anything to please his young, second wife. She wants more money. He arranges to get it by hypnotizing a bank official and making him extract $100,000 from the vault. The doctor then plans to murder him and then rob him. Read More

King of the Jungle

Actors: Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Frances Dee, Douglas Dumbrille, Robert A'Dair, Florence Britton

Synopsis: In this campy adventure, a man raised in the mysterious African jungles by a pride of lions is captured by circus people and taken to New York along with his feline pals. Just before the boat is to dock, the lion-boy jumps ship and swims to shore. Dressed only in a loin cloth, he begins stalking Read More

If I Had a Million

Actors: Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, W.C. Fields, Charlie Ruggles, George Raft, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Based on a story by Robert Andrews, If I Had a Million is a multipart comedy-drama employing Paramount's top directorial and acting talents. Refusing to leave his fortune to his grasping relatives, dying millionaire Richard Bennett selects several people at random from the phone book and bestows Read More

This Reckless Age

Actors: Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Bennett, Peggy Shannon, Charlie Ruggles, Frances Dee

Synopsis: An early comedy about the generation gap, this 1932 movie was written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who went on to write and direct films such as Guys and Dolls and Cleopatra. Director Frank Tuttle co-wrote the script, based on a successful play called The Goose Hangs High by Lewis Beach. Donald Ingals Read More

Love is a Racket

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ann Dvorak, Frances Dee, Lee Tracy, Lyle Talbot

Synopsis: James Cagney was originally pegged to play brash Broadway columnist Jimmy Russell in this pleasant if somewhat lightweight newspaper yarn, but when director William Wellman called "action," Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had replaced him. In love with pretty actress Mary Wodehouse (Frances Dee), Jimmy can Read More

The Strange Case of Clara Deane

Case of Clara Deane

Actors: Wynne Gibson, Pat O'Brien, Frances Dee, Dudley Digges, George Barbier

Synopsis: Based on a play by Arthur M. Brilant, The Case of Clara Deane stars Wynne Gibson, repeating her original Broadway role. Accused of a crime she didn't commit, young mother Clara Deane is forcibly separated from her baby daughter then coerced into surrendering all claims to the child. Fifteen years Read More

The Night of June 13

Actors: Clive Brook, Lila Lee, Charlie Ruggles, Gene Raymond, Frances Dee

Synopsis: A multi-character drama set in a suburban neighborhood, The Night of June 13th takes place in four households. One of these is inhabited by unhappy husband Clive Brook, who is accused of murdering his wife. Actually, she has committed suicide, but those neighbors who could provide Brook with an Read More

Nice Women

Actors: Frances Dee, Alan Mowbray, Lucille Gleason, Russell Gleason

Synopsis: A 1930 stage play by William A. Grew was the source for the 1932 Universal film Nice Women. Sidney Fox stars as Bess Girard, one of the contrariest heroines in movie history. At first the long-suffering naif daughter of a mercenary social-climber (Lucille Webster Gleason), Bess is smart enough to Read More

Along Came Youth

Actors: Frances Dee, Stuart Erwin, William Austin, Evelyn Hall

Synopsis: Before he settled down to a long career as a jovial character actor, Lloyd Corrigan functioned as screenwriter and director on a number of Hollywood programmers. Corrigan co-directed Paramount's Along Came Youth with Norman Z. McLeod. The frothy story involves heiress Frances Dee, who balks at the Read More

Working Girls

Synopsis: Working Girls is a slight, dated, but still entertaining comedy, typical of its era. Louise Adams (Frances Dee) and her friend (Claire Dodd) travel to the city in order to get jobs and hopefully find husbands. There they face the usual complications, but the women persevere and all ends well. The Read More

June Moon

Actors: Jack Oakie, Frances Dee, June MacCloy, Ernest Wood, Wynne Gibson

Synopsis: A well-meaning but dimwitted electrical worker-turned-lyricist Frederick Martin Stevens (Jack Oakie) arrives in New York determined to become a successful songwriter. He meets a nice girl , Edna Baker (Frances Dee), and a couple of bad ones, one of whom, Eileen Fletcher (June MacCloy), nearly Read More

An American Tragedy

Actors: Phillips Holmes, Sylvia Sidney, Frances Dee, Irving Pichel, Frederick Burton, Emmett Corrigan

Synopsis: Though his parents are street evangelists, Clyde Griffiths (Phillips Holmes) grows up in squalor, but not without ambitions. He first works as a bellhop in Kansas City, but when he's the passenger in a car that kills a little girl, Clyde fears he'll be arrested and flees town. His wealthy uncle Read More

Rich Man's Folly

Actors: George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Robert Ames, Julie Compton, David Durand

Synopsis: Charles Dickens' novel Dombey and Son is set in 1931 America in this interesting drama that centers on an egotistical, over-ambitious owner of a shipbuilding company. So focused is he on succeeding that he forgets his family and their needs. He begins looking for a successor to his wealth and Read More

Caught

Actors: Tom Kennedy, Martin Burton, Richard Arlen, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: In the wake of such cinematic Calamity Janes as Jean Arthur and Doris Day, it comes as a shock to find a film in which the famed frontierswoman is played by someone who actually looks the part. Matronly, granite-visaged Louise Dresser stars as Calamity in Caught, an early-talkie psychological Read More

True to the Navy

Actors: Clara Bow, Fredric March, Harry Green, Rex Bell, Eddie Fetherstone

Synopsis: Clara Bow's flat Brooklynese voice seems perfectly suited for the rowdy goings-on in True to the Navy. The "It" girl plays Ruby Nolan, owner of a drug store frequented by she-sick sailors. Each of the gobs assumes that he's the only man in Ruby's life, and when several of her boyfriends converge Read More

Follow Thru

Actors: Nancy Carroll, Zelma O'Neal, Jack Haley, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: This musical, based on a Broadway show, was filmed in two-color technicolor. Set upon a golf course, it chronicles the attempts of a handsome golfer to teach a young woman how to play the game. This causes her gossipy rival to start a string of vicious rumors about the two. It seems that her rival Read More

Monte Carlo

Actors: Jack Buchanan, Jeanette MacDonald, ZaSu Pitts, Claud Allister, Tyler Brooke

Synopsis: After the master of sophisticated romantic comedy, Ernst Lubitsch, directed Jeanette MacDonald in the smash hit The Love Parade, they were reunited a year later for this similarly frothy romp. Countess Vera Von Conti (MacDonald) is engaged to marry the dull Prince Otto Von Seibenheim (Claud Allister Read More

Playboy of Paris

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Frances Dee, O.P. Heggie, Stuart Erwin, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: In this sparkling musical comedy, a bungling waiter (Maurice Chevalier) loses his job at a tony restaurant. His employment prospects look grim until the opportunistic restaurateur learns that his ex-employee is slated to receive a vast inheritance. Hastily, he hires the youth back and then tries Read More

Words and Music

Actors: John Wayne, Lois Moran, Tom Patricola, David Percy, Helen Twelvetrees, Frank Albertson

Synopsis: In this college campus musical comedy from director James Tinling, the first film in which John Wayne received billing (though it's as Duke Morrison), Lois Moran stars as Mary, a pretty young singer who is sought after by two competing composers. Wayne plays Phil, one of the two rival songwriters Read More