Garson Kanin Filmography

Born:: November 24, 1912 in Rochester, NY
Occupation:: Director, Screenwriter, Book Author, Play Author
Biography:: Younger brother of scriptwriter Michael Kanin. Garson Kanin acted in and directed theatrical productions in the 1930s, and in 1938 began directing films. His notable early films include the comedies The Great Man Votes (1938), Bachelor Mother (1939), and Tom, Dick And Harry (1941). During World...Read More

Sort By:
Title
Release Date

The Hollywood Collection: Jack Lemmon - America's Everyman

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Chris Lemmon, Billy Wilder, Garson Kanin, Delbert Mann

Synopsis: Jack Lemmon has mastered both stage and screen in his career with such hits as "The Odd Couple," "The Days of Wine and Roses," "The China Syndrome," "Save the Tiger" (for which he received an Oscar) and "Grumpy Old Men." He and Walter Matthau starred in numerous films together that were nearly Read More

1996
Born Yesterday

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Melanie Griffith, John Goodman, Don Johnson, Edward Herrmann, Max Perlich

Synopsis: This 1993 remake of the 1950 film Born Yesterday (based on the 1946 Garson Kanin stage play) was retooled as a star vehicle for then-marrieds Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. Roughneck self-made millionaire Harry Brock (John Goodman) wants to become a powerful Washington lobbyist. Brock's efforts Read More

1993
The Spencer Tracy Legacy

1986
Moviola: The Silent Lovers

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Kristina Wayborn, Barry Bostwick, Harold Gould

Synopsis: Adapted from a chapter of Garson Kanin's Movieola, The Silent Lovers details the Hollywood romance of silent stars John Gilbert and Greta Garbo. Garbo (Kristina Wayborn) comes to America from her native Sweden as part of a "package deal" with famed director Mauritz Stiller (Brian Keith). As Read More

1980
Hardhat and Legs

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Ruth Gordon

Synopsis: Made for television and initially telecast February 9, 1980, Hardhat and Legs is a new-fashioned romance from the old-fashioned writing team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon. The "hardhat" is pugnacious construction worker Kevin Dobson. The "legs" is Sharon Gless, a high-class NY divorcee who Read More

1980
The Secret Love of Marilyn Monroe

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Lloyd Bridges

Synopsis: Actress and popular culture icon Marilyn Monroe is the subject of yet another made-for-television movie. This film, which aired as part of the on-going Moviola series, chronicles young Marilyn's (Constance Forslund) relationship in both business and her personal life, with agent Johnny Hyde (Lloyd Bridges Read More

1980
The Scarlett O'Hara War

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Tony Curtis, Sharon Gless, Harold Gould, Bill Macy, George Furth

Synopsis: Based on a portion of Garson Kanin's book Moviola, The Scarlet O'Hara War mixes fact with fiction in recreating producer David O. Selznick's search for an actress to star in Gone With the Wind. Tony Curtis plays Selznick, who turns his search into a major publicity ploy to sustain interest in his Read More

1980
Some Kind of a Nut

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Dick Van Dyke, Angie Dickinson, Rosemary Forsyth, Zohra Lampert, Elliott Reid

Synopsis: In this satirical comedy, Fred Amidon (Dick Van Dyke) is a Fifth Avenue bank teller waiting for his divorce to be finalized to end his marriage to Rachel (Angie Dickinson). He and fellow employee Pamela (Rosemary Forsyth) plan to marry once the ink dries on the decree. A Central Park picnic with Read More

1969
Where It's At

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: David Janssen, Robert Drivas, Rosemary Forsyth, Brenda Vaccaro, Warrene Ott

Synopsis: A.C. Smith (David Janssen) is a Las Vegas casino operator whose son visits during his summer vacation from Princeton. His son Andy (Robert Drivas) would rather go to Europe, but daddy dearest wants him to learn the ropes of the gambling business. Pappy approves of and pays for a showgirl to teach Read More

1969
The Right Approach

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Juliet Prowse, Frankie Vaughan, Martha Hyer, Gary Crosby, David McLean

Synopsis: This is a routine drama about Leo Mack (Frankie Vaughn) a good-for-nothing, aspiring actor who goes to Hollywood and then ruins one life after another. Based on a stage play by the late Garson Kanin and adapted by his brother, scripters Michael Kanin and his wife Fay Kanin, the story is one long Read More

1961
The Rat Race

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds, Jack Oakie, Kay Medford, Don Rickles

Synopsis: A somewhat uneven but still entertaining comedy-drama, The Rat Race, by director Robert Mulligan, co-stars Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds as Peter Hammond, Jr. and Peggy Brown, two performers who meet in New York and are thrown together by their mutual poverty. Peter arrives on a bus from the Read More

1960
High Time

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Bing Crosby, Fabian, Tuesday Weld, Nicole Maurey, Richard Beymer, Patrick Adiarte

Synopsis: Bing Crosby plays a widowed millionaire who decides that it's "high time" he got himself a college education. Enrolling as a freshman, Crosby is forced to endure the anachronistic initiation stunts dreamed up by his fraternity buddies, and at one point is required to dress up as Scarlett O'Hara Read More

1960
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Six People, No Music

Crew: Screen Story

Synopsis: Prosperous Poughkeepsie undertaker Arthur Motherwell (John McGiver) is looking forward to handling the funeral for Stanton C. Barryvale (Howard Smith), the richest man in town. Barryvale's family members have insisted upon a huge and ostentatious funeral -- and, of course, the cost is no object. Read More

1959
Hallmark Hall of Fame: Born Yesterday

Crew: Director, Teleplay By

Synopsis: Paul Douglas repeats his Broadway stage role as corrupt, bombastic scrap-metal tycoon Harry Brock in this Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday. Taking over from Judy Holliday in the role of Harry's dimwitted mistress Billie Dawn is Mary Martin, while Arthur Hill is Read More

1956
It Should Happen to You

Crew: Screenwriter

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

1954
Pat and Mike

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray, Jim Backus, William Ching, Sammy White

Synopsis: Pat (Katharine Hepburn), a college phys-ed instructor, enters into professional competition as a golf and tennis player. Mike (Spencer Tracy), a likeable but unscrupulous sports promoter, first attempts to bribe Pat to lose, but later becomes her manager. Pat performs brilliantly until her Read More

1952
The Marrying Kind

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Judy Holliday, Aldo Ray, Madge Kennedy, Sheila Bond, John Alexander, Mickey Shaughnessy, Griff Barnett

Synopsis: A master blend of comedy, domestic drama and sudden tragedy, The Marrying Kind remains one of the best collaborations between star Judy Holliday, screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, and director George Cukor. The film begins at the end, with married couple Florence and Chet Keefer (Judy Holliday Read More

1952
Born Yesterday

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday, William Holden, Howard St. John, Frank Otto

Synopsis: Garson Kanin's Broadway hit was transferred to the screen with only a few passing nods to the stricter censorship required by films. Judy Holliday won an Oscar for her portrayal of Billie Dawn, a strident, dim-bulbed ex-chorus girl who is the mistress of millionaire junk tycoon Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford Read More

1950
Adam's Rib

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, David Wayne

Synopsis: Written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, Adam's Rib is a peerless comedy predicated on the double standard. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play Adam and Amanda Bonner, a husband-and-wife attorney team, both drawn to a case of attempted murder. The defendant (Judy Holliday) had tearfully Read More

1949
A Double Life

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Whit Bissell, Ronald Colman, Signe Hasso, Betsy Blair, David Bond, Edmond O'Brien, Shelley Winters, Harlan Briggs, Georgia Caine, Ray Collins

Synopsis: Ronald Colman won an Academy Award for his portrayal of an off-the-beam actor in A Double Life. A beloved stage star, Anthony John (Colman), has problems with his private life due to his unpredictable outbursts of temper. This trait has already cost him his wife, Brita (Signe Hasso), and threatens Read More

1947
From This Day Forward

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Mark Stevens, Rosemary de Camp, Bobby Driscoll, Wally Brown, Henry Morgan

Synopsis: In this romantic drama, Bill and Susan Cummings (Mark Stevens and Joan Fontaine), a couple from the Bronx, look back at the early days of their marriage. When they meet in 1938, Bill is working as a machinist, and Susan is a clerk in a bookstore. They fall in love and decide to wed, but it's not Read More

1946
The True Glory

Crew: Director

Synopsis: British filmmaker Carol Reed and American playwright Garson Kanin team up to direct the war documentary The True Glory. The movie was assembled from actual footage of the WWII allied invasion of Europe, captured by thousands of different camera operators. Starting with D-Day, the documentary Read More

1945
The More the Merrier

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Ann Doran, Ann Savage, Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, Richard Gaines, Bruce Bennett

Synopsis: To fully appreciate The More the Merrier, it is important to know that, during WW2, there was an acute housing shortage in Washington DC. This is why elderly Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) is obliged to share a tiny DC apartment with pretty Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) and handsome Joe Carter Read More

1943
Tom, Dick and Harry

Crew: Director

Actors: Ginger Rogers, George Murphy, Alan Marshal, Burgess Meredith, Phil Silvers, Joe Cunningham

Synopsis: Working girl Ginger Rogers (who dresses like movie star Ginger Rogers, despite her meager salary!) cannot decide which of her three suitors will march her down the aisle. Will it be fast-talking automobile salesman George Murphy, wealthy Alan Marshall, or free-spirited, eternally unemployed Burgess Meredith? Read More

1941
They Knew What They Wanted

Crew: Director

Actors: Carole Lombard, Charles Laughton, William Gargan, Harry Carey, Frank Fay

Synopsis: Like its predecessors, this third cinema version of Sidney Hoiward's Pulitzer Prize-winning play They Knew What They Wanted suffers from Hollywood censorship. Still, this story of the grim consequence of a misbegotten mail-order marriage has much to offer. Carole Lombard is superb as the waitress Read More

1940
My Favorite Wife

Crew: Director

Actors: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick, Ann Shoemaker

Synopsis: Leo McCarey was supposed to both produce and direct My Favorite Wife, but an illness forced him to relinquish the director's chair to Garson Kanin, who did a splendid job. This hilarious retread of the old "Enoch Arden" legend stars Irene Dunne as Ellen, who returns home to her husband Nick (Cary Read More

1940
Bachelor Mother

Crew: Director

Actors: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn, Frank Albertson, E.E. Clive

Synopsis: Ginger Rogers slipped off her dancing shoes to play one of her best comic roles as Polly Parish, a salesgirl at a large department store. Single and with no steady beau, Polly leads a quiet life until she discovers a baby left at her doorstep. While puzzled by this development, Polly feels for the Read More

1939
A Man to Remember

Crew: Director

Actors: Anne Shirley, Edward Ellis, Lee Bowman, William Henry, John Wray, Granville Bates

Synopsis: A remake of 1933's One Man's Journey, A Man to Remember was the auspicious film directorial debut of Garson Kanin. Told in flashback from the vantage point of a funeral, the film details the life of small-town general practioner Doctor Abbott (Edward Ellis). Arriving in the town of Westport during Read More

1938
Next Time I Marry

Crew: Director

Actors: Lucille Ball, James Ellison, Lee Bowman, Granville Bates, Mantan Moreland

Synopsis: The Next Time I Marry stars actress Lucille Ball as an heiress who can only receive her 20 million dollar inheritance by marrying an American citizen. In love with a handsome foreigner, the young heiress marries the first man she comes across--a ditch-digger (James Ellison) whom she intends to Read More

1938
The Great Man Votes

Crew: Director

Actors: John Barrymore, Peter Holden, Virginia Weidler, Katherine Alexander, Donald MacBride

Synopsis: Ageing, alcohol-benumbed John Barrymore had one last great performance left in him before his death in 1942, and The Great Man Votes was the ideal vehicle for that performance. Barrymore plays a widowed, once-distinguished professor, lately reduced to being a night watchman. He tries to stay off Read More

1938