Frank TashlinFilmography

Who's Minding the Mint?

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jim Hutton, Dorothy Provine, Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: Harry Lucas (Jim Hutton) is a U.S. Mint employee who scrambles to recover $50,000 he accidentally destroyed in this underrated comedy of errors. After he mistakenly throws the money down the garbage disposal, a frantic Harry recruits retired mint employee Pop Gillis (Walter Brennan) to cook up a Read More

Caprice

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Doris Day, Richard Harris, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, Edward Mulhare

Synopsis: Doris Day plays a swinging, mod-attired agent of espionage (yes, that Doris Day) in this caper comedy directed by Frank Tashlin. Patricia Fowler (Day) is an industrial spy who is hired to work undercover at a cosmetics company. While posing as a low-level employee, she is to get the goods on a new Read More

The Glass Bottom Boat

Crew: Director

Actors: Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Arthur Godfrey, John McGiver, Paul Lynde

Synopsis: The Glass Bottom Boat is hardly a high point in the careers of star Doris Day and director Frank Tashlin, though it is a better-than-usual example of that pure-'60s genre, the "spy spoof." Day plays Jennifer Nelson, a PR worker at NASA in Florida. She also doubles as a "mermaid" for her father Read More

The Alphabet Murders

Crew: Director

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg, Robert Morley, Maurice Denham, Guy Rolfe

Synopsis: Released in Great Britain as The ABC Murders, The Alphabet Murders stars a well-disguised Tony Randall as Agatha Christie's brilliant, insufferable Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Unfortunately, director Frank Tashlin chooses to open the film with one of his Pirandelloian gimmicks by introducing Randall Read More

The Disorderly Orderly

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Glenda Farrell, Everett Sloane, Karen Sharpe, Kathleen Freeman

Synopsis: In this comedy classic, Jerry Lewis plays Jerome Littlefield, an orderly in a mental hospital in this slapstick situation comedy that makes full use of Lewis's patented brand of screwball comedy. Dr. Jean Howard (Glenda Farrell) is the exasperated head of the sanitarium who almost becomes a Read More

Who's Minding the Store?

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Jill St. John, Agnes Moorehead, John McGiver, Ray Walston

Synopsis: This frantic comedy finds Raymond (Jerry Lewis) working in a department store. Mr. Tuttle (John McGiver) is the watchful owner, whose outspoken wife Phoebe (Agnes Moorehead) makes no secret about her feelings that Raymond is an incompetent boob. Barbara (Jill St. John) is the pretty elevator Read More

The Man from the Diners' Club

Crew: Director

Actors: Danny Kaye, Cara Williams, Martha Hyer, Telly Savalas, Everett Sloane

Synopsis: Heavy on slapstick and light on the more subtle forms of humor, this standard comedy by Frank Tashlin is still an amusing junket with Danny Kaye at the forefront as Ernie Klenk, a bumbling employee of the Diner's Club credit card company. Ernie has his hands full trying to manage the new computers Read More

It's Only Money

Crew: Director

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Joan O'Brien, Zachary Scott, Jack Weston, Jesse White

Synopsis: Jerry Lewis stars in this broad slapstick comedy as Lester March, a TV repairman who dreams of some day being a private detective like his friend and role model Mr. Flint (Jesse White). One night, Lester sees a report on television about Cecilia Albright (Mae Questel), the elderly owner of a Read More

Bachelor Flat

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Tuesday Weld, Richard Beymer, Terry-Thomas, Celeste Holm, Francesca Bellini

Synopsis: Another in a series of American comedies of manners, this film was written and directed by Frank Tashlin with his usual grace and elegance. Terry-Thomas plays a meek archeology professor named Bruce Patterson who is attracted to bones. His salivating female college students are attracted to him. Read More

Cinderfella

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Ed Wynn, Judith Anderson, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Henry Silva

Synopsis: Both director Frank Tashlin and his comic star Jerry Lewis dilute their comic talents to play for the kiddie crowd in this fractured fairy tale version of the Cinderella story. This simply-told tale lards over the fairy story with un-needed songs and production numbers, but the basic story is Read More

Say One for Me

Crew: Director, Producer

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

The Geisha Boy

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Marie McDonald, Sessue Hayakawa, Barton MacLane, Suzanne Pleshette

Synopsis: Jerry Lewis, plays a third-rate USO magician named Gilbert Woolley, working the Far East circuit with his pet rabbit Harry. Nearly fired for accidentally humiliating haughty movie star Marie McDonald, Gilbert's career is salvaged by kindly Japanese aristocrat Sessue Hayakawa; it seems that Gilbert Read More

Rock-A-Bye Baby

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Marilyn Maxwell, Connie Stevens, Salvatore Baccaloni, Reginald Gardiner

Synopsis: In this comedy, an awkward TV repairman finds himself falling for an actress who doesn't even know he exists and instead marries a dashing Mexican bullfighter. Unfortunately, he dies the day after their wedding; fortunately, he managed to impregnate her. Unfortunately, she is soon supposed to be Read More

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jayne Mansfield, Tony Randall, Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, Mickey Hargitay, John Williams

Synopsis: Jayne Mansfield recreated her starmaking stage role in this film adaptation of George Axelrod's Broadway comedy. Mansfield plays a Monroe-like movie queen whom adman Tony Randall hopes to sign for a product endorsement. Through a fluke, the press believes that Randall is having an affair with Read More

General Electric Theater: The Honest Man

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

The Lieutenant Wore Skirts

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Tom Ewell, Sheree North, Rita Moreno, Rick Jason, Les Tremayne

Synopsis: Frank Tashlin directed this comedy about a man whose marriage hits the skids when his wife gets caught in the draft. Gregory Whitcomb (Tom Ewell) served with distinction in the Army during WWII, but he now makes his living as a television writer. Gregory's wife Katy (Sheree North), several years Read More

The Scarlet Hour

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Carol Ohmart, Tom Tryon, James Gregory, Elaine Stritch

Synopsis: The Scarlet Hour was a relatively bold experiment for a mid-1950s Paramount release. The studio expended a great deal of money on the project and enlisted the services of top-flight director Michael Curtiz -- then populated the cast with young unknowns. Carol Ohmart and Tom Tryon (yes, the future Read More

Hollywood or Bust

Crew: Director

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Anita Ekberg, Pat Crowley, "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom

Synopsis: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made their last joint film appearance in the girl-filled musical Hollywood or Bust. The thinnish plot finds inveterate film fan Jerry making a cross-country journey to Tinseltown for the purpose of meeting his favorite screen star, the buxom Anita Ekberg (the film's Read More

The Girl Can't Help It

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien, Henry Jones, Julie London, Ray Anthony, John Emery

Synopsis: The inimitable writer-director Frank Tashlin once more aims his satiric barbs at modern culture (modern 1950s culture, that is) in The Girl Can't Help It. Much of the film is dominated by Edmond O'Brien as mob boss Murdock, who while serving a term in federal prison becomes a singing sensation Read More

Artists and Models

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Malone, Eddie Mayehoff, Eva Gabor

Synopsis: Bearing very little relation to the 1937 Paramount musical of the same name, Artists and Models is a lavish, girl-filled vehicle for the popular team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Martin plays Rick Todd, a comic-book artist who is under fire from his publisher (Eddie Mayehoff), who complains Read More

Susan Slept Here

Crew: Director

Actors: Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis, Alvy Moore, Glenda Farrell

Synopsis: Susan Slept Here is the only feature film in Hollywood history ever to be narrated by an Academy Award. After introducing itself, the Oscar statuette invites us into the apartment home of its owner, screenwriter Mark Christopher Dick Powell. Knowing that Mark is working on a script about juvenile Read More

Marry Me Again

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Cummings, Marie Wilson, Ray Walker, Mary Costa, Jess Barker

Synopsis: This nonsensical farce stars Robert Cummings as an air force reserve pilot, called back to active duty on the eve of his wedding to Marie Wilson. When he returns, he discovers that Wilson has inherited a million dollars, and plans to be the head of their household. Under the circumstances Read More

The First Time

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Cummings, Barbara Hale, Bill Goodwin, Jeff Donnell, Carl Benton Reid

Synopsis: Former cartoonist and gag man Frank Tashlin made his directorial debut with 1952's The First Time. The story concerns Joe and Betsey Bennet (Robert Cummings, Barbara Hale) a young married couple anxiously awaiting the arrival of their first child. Once the bundle of joy has arrived, Joe and Betsey Read More

Son of Paleface

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Roy Rogers, Bill Williams, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: A sequel to Bob Hope's 1948 box-office success The Paleface, 1952's Son of Paleface is a superior product in every way, thanks largely to the spirited, creative direction of Frank Tashlin. Hope is cast as Junior Potter, a Harvard-educated dude who heads West to claim the inheritance left him by Read More

The Lemon Drop Kid

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Bob Hope, Marilyn Maxwell, Lloyd Nolan, Jane Darwell, Andrea King, Fred Clark

Synopsis: Damon Runyon's Broadway fable The Lemon Drop Kid was filmed twice by Paramount Pictures, but only the 1934 version with Lee Tracy paid more than lip service to the original Runyon story. The second version, filmed in 1951, was completely retooled to accommodate the talents of Bob Hope. Known far Read More

The Fuller Brush Girl

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert, Carl Benton Reid, Gale Robbins, Jeff Donnell

Synopsis: Hot on the heels of such Red Skelton slapstick comedies as The Fuller Brush Man and The Yellow Cab Man came The Fuller Brush Girl, starring Lucille Ball in a fascinating dry run for her wacky "Lucy Ricardo" TV character. Unable to hold a job because of her tendency to get into trouble, Sally Read More

The Good Humor Man

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jack Carson, Lola Albright, Jean Wallace, George Reeves, Gerald Perreau-Saissine

Synopsis: In the tradition of Red Skelton's The Fuller Brush Man and The Yellow Cab Man comes The Good Humor Man, with Jack Carson subbing for Skelton this time out. Carson plays Biff Jones, who when not peddling Good Humor ice cream carries on a romance with perky Margie Bellew (Lola Albright). Through a Read More

A Woman of Distinction

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Ray Milland, Rosalind Russell, Edmund Gwenn, Janis Carter, Mary Jane Saunders

Synopsis: A Woman of Distinction serves as a tailor-made vehicle for Rosalind Russell. The star is cast as Susan Middlecott, a highly respected college dean. As can be expected, Susan is too busy for romance -- at least until handsome professor Alec Stevenson (Ray Milland) enters the picture. At first, the Read More

Kill the Umpire

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: William Bendix, Una Merkel, Ray Collins, Gloria Henry, Richard Taylor

Synopsis: William Bendix is perfectly cast as a diehard baseball fan who hates umpires with every fibre of his being. Bendix' devotion to baseball has lost him job after job, so his father-in-law (Ray Collins)--who happens to be an umpire--forces Our Hero to enroll in umpire school. Eventually Bendix learns Read More

Miss Grant Takes Richmond

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Lucille Ball, William Holden, Janis Carter, James Gleason, Gloria Henry

Synopsis: Lucille Ball is Miss Grant, an efficient but naïve secretary hired by William Holden. Ostensibly a legit real estate salesman, Holden is actually the brains of a bookie ring. It takes forever for Ball to tumble to what's going on, but when she does she settles matters in the same fashion as her Read More

Love Happy

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Ilona Massey, Vera-Ellen

Synopsis: The Marx Brothers' final starring feature Love Happy began life as a solo vehicle for Harpo. The financiers wouldn't go for this, insisting that all three Marx boys appear on screen. Thus, Chico was hastily written into the proceedings, while Groucho made what amounted to a guest appearance as Read More

The Paleface

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Robert Armstrong, Iris Adrian, Robert "Bobby" Watson

Synopsis: Bob Hope's Technicolor western spoof The Paleface was one of the comedian's biggest box-office hits. Hope plays Painless Potter, a hopelessly inept dentist who heads west to seek his fortune. Meanwhile, buxom female outlaw Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) is engaged in undercover work on behalf of the Read More

One Touch of Venus

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Walker, Ava Gardner, Dick Haymes, Eve Arden, Olga San Juan

Synopsis: The spirit of love is back, and she's working in retail in this bubbly romantic musical comedy. Eddie Hatch (Robert Walker) is a window dresser at a large department store; he's become especially fond of one of his mannequins who looks like the sort of girl he'd like to meet, and one night he Read More

Variety Girl

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Mary Hatcher, Eric Alden, William Bendix, Olga San Juan, DeForest Kelley, MacDonald Carey, Joan Caulfield, William Demarest, Frank Faylen, Stanley Clements

Synopsis: This story of two young hopefuls who come to Hollywood is merely a thin device to feature almost every star working for Paramount Studios in 1947. Mary Hatcher plays Catherine Brown, a woman of humble origins who arrives in Hollywood, where she meets another wanna-be movie star, Amber La Vonne Read More

Hare Remover

Crew: Director

A Night in Casablanca

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Lisette Verea, Charles Drake

Synopsis: After a five-year absence, the Marx Brothers returned to the screen in the independently-produced effort A Night in Casablanca. Originally conceived as a parody of Casablanca (with character names like "Humphrey Bogus" and "Lowen Behold"), the film emerged as a spoof of wartime melodramas in Read More

The Fuller Brush Man

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Red Skelton, Janet Blair, Don McGuire, Hillary Brooke, Adele Jergens

Synopsis: MGM knew it had a valuable property in Red Skelton, but the studio never really knew how to handle his unique talents -- until he was loaned out to Columbia for the hilarious, money-spinning slapstick comedy The Fuller Brush Man. The star plays Red Jones, a born screw-up who can't seem to hold Read More

Nasty Quacks

Crew: Director

The Unruly Hare

Crew: Director

A Tale of Two Mice

Crew: Director

Behind the Meat Ball

Crew: Director

Booby Hatched

Crew: Director

Plane Daffy

Crew: Director

I Got Plenty of Mutton

Crew: Director

Brother Brat

Crew: Director

Swooner Crooner

Crew: Director

The Stupid Cupid

Crew: Director

Porky Pig's Feat

Crew: Director

Puss N' Booty

Crew: Director

Scrap Happy Daffy

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this wartime morale-booster, an enraged Adolf Hitler literally chews up a rug when he hears about Daffy Duck's mountainous collection of scrap metal (vital to the American war effort, in case you need reminding). In an instant, Der Fuhrer unleashes his most powerful weapon--a hungry billy Read More

Now That Summer is Gone

Crew: Director

The Major Lied Till Dawn

Crew: Director

Cracked Ice

Crew: Director

Have You Got Any Castles?

Crew: Director

Little Pancho Vanilla

Crew: Director

Wholly Smoke

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Taunted by a bully, little Porky Pig tries to prove he's all grown up by smoking a big black cigar. This leads to a harrowing nightmare sequence, in which giant-sized cigars, cigarettes and pipes all come to life--as caricatured celebrities--to perform a surrealistic rendition of "Mysterious Read More

You're an Education

Crew: Director

Porky the Fireman

Crew: Director

Porky's Spring Planting

Crew: Director

Porky at the Crocadero

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Correspondence-school musical prodigy Porky Pig applies for the job of orchestra leader at Hollywood's famed Crocadero nightclub. Instead, he winds up washing dishes, only to be summarily fired by his walrus boss. But when the regular musicians fail to show up in time, Porky is given the chance of Read More

Porky's Building

Crew: Director

The Case of the Stuttering Pig

Crew: Director

The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos

Crew: Director

Speaking of the Weather

Crew: Director

Porky's Railroad

Crew: Director

Porky's Road Race

Crew: Director

Porky's Romance

Crew: Director

Porky's Double Trouble

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This is a takeoff of the 1935 John Ford movie The Whole Town's Talking, which starred Edward G. Robinson in the dual role of a meek clerk and a lookalike gangster boss. Upon discovering that bank teller Porky Pig is his exact double, an escaped convict known as The Killer decides to take the Pig's Read More

Porky's Poultry Plant

Crew: Director

Little Beau Porky

Crew: Director

Porky in the Northwoods

Crew: Director

Hook and Ladder Hokum

Crew: Director