George K. ArthurFilmography

On the Twelfth Day

Crew: Producer

Vanessa, Her Love Story

Actors: Helen Hayes, Robert Montgomery, Otto Kruger, May Robson, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: Adapted from the last of Hugh Walpole's "Herries Chronicles," Vanessa: Her Love Story is set in Victorian England. Vanessa (Helen Hayes) doesn't know it, but there's a strain of inherited insanity in the family of her husband Ellis (Otto Kruger). Disturbed by Ellis' bizarre behavior, poor Vanessa Read More

Rip Tide

Actors: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Herbert Marshall, Mrs. Patrick Campbell

Synopsis: A few unique touches aside -- notably the opening costume-party scene, in which the revellers are dressed as insects -- Rip Tide is a standard-issue Norma Shearer soap opera. Shearer plays Mary, a footloose and fancy-free American heiress who weds British nobleman Lord Rexford (Herbert Marshall). Read More

Stand up and Cheer

Actors: Warner Baxter, Madge Evans, James Dunn, John Boles

Synopsis: Based on an idea by Will Rogers, the story concerns the efforts by the President of the United States to get the public's mind off the Depression. To this end, he appoints Broadway impresario Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter) to the new cabinet position of "Secretary of Amusement." Wasting no Read More

Blind Adventure

Actors: Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, Roland Young, Ralph Bellamy, John Miljan

Synopsis: After saving RKO Radio from receivership with King Kong, producer-director Ernest B.. Schoedsack relaxed a bit with the comparatively sedate crime caper Blind Adventure. King Kong co-star Robert Armstrong plays Richard Bruce, an American in London who stumbles into the lair of a kidnap-blackmail Read More

Looking Forward

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Benita Hume, Elizabeth Allan, Phillips Holmes

Synopsis: A shopkeeper suffers after he is laid off during the Depression in this drama adapted from the English play Service. He had worked at that shop for over 40 years. It was a family tradition to work at that shop. But now, his boss is selling the shop to a lower-priced rival, and the poor man and his Read More

Oliver Twist

Actors: Dickie Moore, Irving Pichel, William "Stage" Boyd, Doris Lloyd, Barbara Kent

Synopsis: Based on Dicken's classic novel, this is the first sound version of the oft-filmed tale of a plucky orphan who struggles to survive on the rough, unforgiving London streets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hollywood Revue of 1929

Synopsis: With the arrival of talkies, every major studio hopped on the musical bandwagon by turning out lavish "revues," spotlighting their top stars performing specialty numbers. MGM's entry in this all-star genre was Hollywood Revue of 1929, which, though a box-office smash and a "Best Picture" Oscar Read More

Detectives

Actors: Marceline Day, Tenen Holtz, Polly Moran

Synopsis: While the silent comedy team of Karl Dane and George K. Arthur made some very entertaining films in the latter half of the 1920s (Rookies, for example, was a winner), this feature didn't quite live up to the duo's potential. That said, having Dane play a big, dumb hotel detective and placing the Read More

China Bound

Actors: Karl Dane, George K. Arthur, Josephine Dunn, Polly Moran, Carl Stockdale

Synopsis: Although both of their starring careers would be cut short by the talkie revolution, MGM house comedians Karl Dane and George K. Arthur were still riding high in 1929 with such silent vehicles as China Bound. In this outing, the towering Dane and the diminutive Arthur find themselves smack in the Read More

All at Sea

Synopsis: MGM's highly popular comedy team of Karl Dane and George K. Arthur starred in this silly but enjoyable silent comedy in which Dane's goofy gob (named "Stupid McDuff," no less) is hypnotized by Arthur's vaudeville magician Rollo the Great. The rangy Danish Dane and the diminutive British Arthur Read More

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

Actors: Norma Shearer, Basil Rathbone, George Barraud, Herbert Bunston, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: This early talkie was based on Frederick Lonsdale's successful Broadway play. Fay Cheyney (Norma Shearer) is a cunning jewel thief who impersonates a wealthy widow as she travels to Monte Carlo, planning on stealing a fortune in pearls from one Mrs. Webley (Maude Turner Gordon); Fay's henchmen Read More

Chasing Rainbows

Actors: Bessie Love, Jack Benny, George K. Arthur, Polly Moran

Synopsis: Intended as a follow-up to the fabulously successful Broadway Melody, Chasing Rainbows reunites several of the leading players of MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929. The story concerns a troupe of travelling entertainers, all of whom would like to escape their peripatetic existence but none of whom Read More

Wickedness Preferred

Actors: Lew Cody, Aileen Pringle, Mary McAllister, Bert Roach, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: Wickedness Preferred was another of MGM's popular Lew Cody-Aileen Pringle star vehicles. This time around, Cody is cast as novelist Anthony Dare, while Pringle is his efficiency-expert wife Kitty. When their money runs out, the Dares set up housekeeping in Central Park, which is fun for a while Read More

Baby Mine

Actors: Karl Dane, George K. Arthur, Charlotte Greenwood, Louise Lorraine

Synopsis: Filmed in 1917 with Frank Morgan and in 1921 with Fatty Arbuckle, Baby Mine was brought to the screen a third time in 1928. This time, the warhorse Margaret Mayo stage play was refashioned into a vehicle for the MGM comedy team of Karl Dane and George K. Arthur. The plot remains as always: Dane's Read More

Show People

Actors: Marion Davies, William Haines, Dell Henderson, Paul Ralli, Tenen Holtz

Synopsis: This Marion Davies vehicle was loosely inspired by the career of Gloria Swanson. Davies plays would-be starlet Peggy Pepper, who arrives at the gates of MGM Studios with her dad Colonel Pepper (Dell Henderson) in hopes of becoming a great dramatic actress. Instead, she a scores a hit as an ingenue Read More

Brotherly Love

Circus Rookies

Actors: Karl Dane, George K. Arthur, Louise Lorraine, Fred Humes

Synopsis: Circus Rookies was a by-the-numbers vehicle for MGM's Mutt-and-Jeff comedy team of George K. Arthur and Karl Dane. As indicated by the title, our heroes -- this time playing a reporter named Francis Byrd and an animal trainer named Oscar Thrush -- join a travelling circus, where they are put to Read More

Lovers?

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Alice Terry, Edward Martindel, Edward Connelly, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: The venerable stage drama The World and His Wife formed the basis for the MGM production Lovers?. Ramon Novarro and Alice Terry, who previously co-starred in Scaramouche, The Prisoner of Zenda and The Arab, are herein reteamed as Ernesto and Teodora, respectively. Teodora is the new young wife of Read More

Rookies

Actors: Karl Dane, George K. Arthur, Marceline Day, Louise Lorraine

Synopsis: Gangly Karl Dane and diminutive George K. Arthur were teamed up for the first time in MGM's Rookies. Clearly conceived to cash in on the success of Paramount's Wallace Beery-Raymond Hatton service comedy Behind the Front, this Dane-Arthur vehicle finds our mismatched heroes cast as a sergeant and Read More

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer, Jean Hersholt, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Philippe DeLacy

Synopsis: Even without the benefit of sound, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg seems to be inundated by Franz Lehar's unforgettable songs. Director Ernst Lubitsch fashioned a gloriously schmaltzy, delightfully artificial rendition of the 1924 Lehar opera, which in turn was based on the 1902 play In Old Read More

Tillie the Toiler

Actors: Marion Davies, Matt Moore, Harry Crocker, George Fawcett, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: Marion Davies has the lead role of Tillie in this adaptation of Russ Westover's popular 1920s comic strip. Tillie is bored by both her job as a stenographer and her office romance with Mr. Whipple (George K. Arthur). She's far more interested in another man in the office, Mac (Matt Moore). Mac Read More

Spring Fever

Actors: William Haines, George K. Arthur, George Fawcett, Eileen Percy

Synopsis: Another of William Haines' sports-oriented vehicles, Spring Fever casts the star as lowly shipping clerk Jack Kelly. Falling in love with heiress Allie Monte (a young Joan Crawford), Jack bluffs his way into Allie's country club, posing as a champion golfer. By the time he realizes that Allie Read More

Gingham Girl

Actors: Lois Wilson, George K. Arthur, Charles Crockett, Hazel Keener, Myrna Bonillas

Synopsis: Winsome Lois Wilson stars as The Gingham Girl in this cinemadaptation of the popular musical comedy of the same name. Wilson plays Mary Thompson, the sweetheart of small-town wise guy Johnny Cousins (George K. Arthur). Hoping to strike it rich, Johnny heads for the Big City, while the more Read More

Irene

Actors: Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, George K. Arthur, Charlie Murray, Kate Price

Synopsis: Even minus the original musical score, this silent-film adaptation of the Broadway hit Irene is a delight. Colleen Moore stars as Irene O'Dare, an Irish colleen who comes to New York in search of a job. She lands a position at the fancy fashion salon owned by one Mme. Lucy, a male couturier Read More

When the Wife's Away

Actors: George K. Arthur, Dorothy Revier, Ina Rorke, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: To impress his wealthy uncle Hiram (Tom Ricketts), Billy Winthrop (George K. Arthur) and his wife Ethel (Dorothy Revier) overextend their bank account and rent a posh apartment. Knowing full well that he will inherit Uncle's fortune provided he has become a success in life, Billy puts on quite a Read More

Almost a Lady

Actors: Marie Prevost, Harrison Ford, George K. Arthur, Trixie Friganza, John Miljan

Synopsis: Mack Sennett veterans Marie Prevost and Trixie Friganza enliven the proceedings of Almost a Lady. Prevost plays a model who uses the fancy clothes that she's paid to wear to crash into society. She very nearly crashes out when her ruse is exposed, but love, in the form of handsome Harrison Ford Read More

The Waning Sex

Actors: Norma Shearer, Conrad Nagel

Synopsis: According to playwrights Frederic and Fanny Hatton, The Waning Sex was the male -- and this hypothesis was carried over to the film version of the Hattons' stage comedy. Norma Shearer stars as female lawyer Nina Duane, who has quite a time overcoming the chauvinist "good old boy" network in the Read More

The Exquisite Sinner

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Renée Adorée, Paulette Duval, Frank Currier, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: Josef von Sternberg had been the original director of Exquisite Sinner, but MGM was dissatisfied with the picture and refused to release it. When the film finally surfaced in 1926 (a full year after its completion), it had been radically altered by staff director Phil Rosen. Adapted by Alice Duer Miller Read More

Bardelys the Magnificent

Actors: John Gilbert, Eleanor Boardman, Roy D'Arcy, Lionel Belmore, Emily Fitzroy

Synopsis: The Rafael Sabatini swashbuckler Bardelys the Magnificent served as an excellent vehicle for MGM's top male star John Gilbert. Set during the regime of France's King Louis XIII, the story concerns a bold young braggart named Bardelys (Gilbert), whose sexual conquests have become legendary. When Read More

Boy Friend

Actors: Marceline Day, George K. Arthur, Gertrude Astor, Ward Crane

Synopsis: No relation to the much-later musical comedy of the same name, The Boy Friend focuses on the misadventures of dreamy-eyed Marceline Day. Unhappy with her small-town home and middle-class family, our heroine yearns to attend a high-society party. To accommodate the girl, her boyfriend John Harron Read More

Kiki

Actors: Norma Talmadge, Ronald Colman, Gertrude Astor, Marc MacDermott, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: This first film version of Andre Picard's stage success Kiki stars Norma Talmadge in the title role. A saucy Parisian dancer, Kiki begins keeping time with theatrical manager Victor Renal (Ronald Colman). Her rival for Renal's affections is icy "legitimate" actress Paulette (Gertrude Astor), but Read More

Boob

Actors: Gertrude Olmstead, George K. Arthur, Joan Crawford, Charlie Murray, Antonio D'Algy

Synopsis: This early William Wellman directorial effort stars George K. Arthur as the title character, an incredibly naïve farmhand named Peter Good. Spurned by Amy (Gertrude Olmstead), the girl he loves, Peter sets out to prove that he isn't a boob. He joins a posse hunting for a gang of bootleggers, and Read More

Sun-Up

Actors: Lucille La Verne, Pauline Starke, Conrad Nagel, Sam de Grasse, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: Just as Reginald Denny could only play an all-American boy until talkies revealed his British accent, Conrad Nagel could only have played a hillbilly with his glorious voice silenced. He's the star of this silent drama, based on the play by Lula Vollmer. Lucille LaVerne, who played Ma Cagle on Read More

Her Sister from Paris

Synopsis: Constance Talmadge was at the peak of her career when she made this comedy; she was also near the end of her career. The star would only make a handful of films after this one before retiring in lieu of switching over to talkies. Helen Weyringer (Talmadge), a nice but slightly dowdy housewife, has Read More

Pretty Ladies

Actors: ZaSu Pitts, Tom Moore, Ann Pennington, Lilyan Tashman, Bernard Randall

Synopsis: This comedy-drama about the Follies was written by veteran newspaper reporter and "sob sister" Adela Rogers St. John. Maggie (ZaSu Pitts) is the Follies comedienne, and she envies all the other girls in the show -- the pretty ladies with their sweethearts. She knows she's only there for the Read More

Lights of Old Broadway

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Frank Currier, George K. Arthur, Marion Davies

Synopsis: Because Little Old New York was so successful, MGM and newspaper/sometime film magnate William Randolph Hearst decided to put Marion Davies into another picturesque tale of New York in the 1800s -- this time a few decades later, circa 1870. The idea actually worked. The film, based on the Laurence Read More

The Salvation Hunters

Actors: George K. Arthur, Georgia Hale, Bruce Guerin, Otto Matiesen, Nellie Bly Baker

Synopsis: This low-budget production -- Josef von Sternberg's first directoral effort -- earned praises from Charles Chaplin and was released by United Artists. (Chaplin also used the female lead, Georgia Hale, in The Gold Rush.) The Salvation Hunters was a highly unusual film for its era. Its moody Read More

Lady of the Night

Actors: Norma Shearer, Malcolm McGregor, George K. Arthur, Fred Esmelton, Dale Fuller

Synopsis: Norma Shearer was very much an up-and-coming young actress when she played a dual role in this MGM drama. Molly, a girl of the streets (Shearer), is getting out of reform school at the same time that Florence (also Shearer) is graduating from a finishing school. While at a dance hall, Molly has a Read More

Flames of Desire

Actors: Wyndham Standing, Diana Miller, Richard Thorpe, Frank Leigh, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: Distinguished British stage veteran Wyndham Standing starred in this silent melodrama from Fox, ostensibly based on a 1866 play by Ouida. Standing played Daniel Strathmore, a wealthy industrialist fighting over a woman with old friend Ferand Vavasour (Frank Leigh). The latter is accidentally Read More

Paddy, the Next Best Thing

Synopsis: This lightweight comedy-drama is based on the stage play by Gertrude Page. Because her father (Sir Simeon Stuart) really wanted a boy, Paddy Adair (Mae Marsh in a blonde wig) becomes a hoydenish tomboy. Jack O'Hara (George K. Arthur) is in love with Paddy's sister Eileen (Lillian Douglas), but Read More

Hollywood

Actors: Luke Cosgrave, George K. Arthur, Ruby Lafayette, Eleanor Lawson

Synopsis: The premise is clichéd -- it's the usual tale of a pretty girl from the sticks trying to break into movies -- but this satire gives it a number of unexpected turns. In addition, just about every star in Hollywood -- not just those at Paramount, the releasing studio -- has a cameo at one point or Read More

Madness of Youth

Synopsis: John Gilbert felt his talents were being wasted at Fox, and he was very vocal about his feelings towards the studio. But this film, made about a year before he moved over to MGM, gave him a rare opportunity to play an interesting character. Jaca Javalie (Gilbert) is a thief and a swindler who robs Read More

Flames of Passion

Synopsis: With her Hollywood career in the doldrums, actress Mae Marsh briefly set up shop in England, where she appeared in several intriguing productions. In Flames of Passion, Mae plays a married woman who falls in love with her chauffeur. When her lover accidentally kills her child, Mae refuses to Read More

Kipps