George StevensFilmography

George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey

Actors: George Stevens, Jr., George Stevens, Montgomery Clift, Brandon de Wilde, Fred Astaire, James Dean, Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Katharine Hepburn, Rock Hudson, Sam Jaffe, Jean Arthur

Synopsis: The man who assembled the remarkable documentary George Stevens: A Filmaker's Journey had the benefit of knowing the subject intimately: the film was written, produced and directed by George Stevens Jr. Utilizing pristine-quality filmclips and interviews, Stevens Jr. details Stevens Sr.'s rise Read More

The Only Game in Town

Crew: Director

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty, Charles Braswell, Hank Henry

Synopsis: Two star-crossed losers are looking for diversion but find love instead in this romantic drama. Fran Walker (Elizabeth Taylor) is a veteran Las Vegas showgirl who is also the kept woman of Lockwood (Charles Braswell), a San Francisco businessman who is happy to pay her rent and keep her in Read More

The Syndicate

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: This African adventure is set upon the savannas of Kenya and chronicles the exploits of three people searching for uranium. As they go, their greed makes them dangerous and untrustworthy; mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Crew: Associate Producer, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Robert Loggia, Claude Rains, José Ferrer, Charlton Heston

Synopsis: Filmmaker George Stevens chose Monument Valley, Utah for his exterior sequences in The Greatest Story Ever Told, this ($20 million) adaptation of Fulton Oursler's best-selling book. The "Greatest Story" is, of course, the life of Jesus Christ, played herein by Max Von Sydow. The large supporting Read More

The Diary of Anne Frank

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, Richard Beymer, Gusti Huber, Lou Jacobi

Synopsis: This is the autobiographical drama of a young Dutch Jewish girl hiding from the invading Nazis during World War II. Anne and her family share a claustrophobic attic with another family. Tension is often unbearable, as the people hiding know that their discovery by the enemy could lead to almost Read More

Giant

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Mercedes McCambridge, Jane Withers

Synopsis: George Stevens' sprawling adaptation of Edna Ferber's best-selling novel successfully walks a fine line between potboiler and serious drama for its 210-minute running time, making it one of the few epics of its era that continues to hold up as engrossing entertainment across the decades. Giant Read More

Shane

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde, Jack Palance

Synopsis: The simple story of a Wyoming range war is elevated to near-mythical status in producer/director George Stevens' Western classic Shane. Alan Ladd plays the title character, a mysterious drifter who rides into a tiny homesteading community and accepts the hospitality of a farming family. Patriarch Read More

Something to Live For

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, Richard Derr, Douglas Dick

Synopsis: Something to Live For is the last of director George Stevens' "small" films, before he concentrated full-time on such blockbusters as Shane and Giant. Joan Fontaine plays a popular actress who descends into alcoholism. Ray Milland, in an unofficial extension of his Lost Weekend role, plays a Read More

A Place in the Sun

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Keefe Brasselle, Anne Revere, Fred Clark

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1931 under its original title, Theodore Dreiser's bulky but brilliant novel An American Tragedy was remade in 1951 by George Stevens as A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, a handsome and charming but basically aimless young man who goes to work in a Read More

I Remember Mama

Crew: Director, Executive Producer

Actors: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka, Philip Dorn, Cedric Hardwicke

Synopsis: George Stevens's charming film version of Kathryn Forbes' collection of short stories entitled Mama's Bank Account features Irene Dunne as Mama in one of her finest and most ingratiating performances. The film is narrated by Mama's daughter Katrin (Barbara Bel Geddes), recalling the trials and Read More

On Our Merry Way

Crew: Director

Actors: Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, Fred MacMurray, James Stewart, Hugh Herbert, Dorothy Lamour

Synopsis: Also known as A Miracle Can Happen, On Our Merry Way is a multipart comedy linked by inquiring reporter Burgess Meredith. It is Meredith's job to interview several people, asking them what effect children have had on their lives. First he checks with two itinerant musicians (James Stewart and Henry Fonda Read More

The More the Merrier

Crew: Director, Producer

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

Woman of the Year

Crew: Director

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen, William Bendix

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn costarred for the first time in the delectable romantic comedy Woman of the Year. Tracy plays New York sportswriter Sam Craig, who becomes incensed at comments about the uselessness of sports made by foreign correspondent Tess Harding (Hepburn). Sam and Tess Read More

The Talk of the Town

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman, Edgar Buchanan, Glenda Farrell, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: George Stevens' Talk of the Town is a quick-witted comedy driven by wonderful performances by Cary Grant, Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur. Michael Lightcap (Colman) is a stuffy law professor in line to a Supreme Court appointment, who is spending the summer at the house of schoolteacher Nora Read More

Penny Serenade

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan, Ann Doran

Synopsis: While listening to a recording of "Penny Serenade," Julie Gardiner Adams (Irene Dunne) begins reflecting on her past. She recalls her near-impulsive marriage to newspaper reporter Roger Adams (Cary Grant), which begins on a deliriously happy note but turns out to be fraught with tragedy. While Read More

Vigil in the Night

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Carole Lombard, Brian Aherne, Anne Shirley, Julien Mitchell, Robert Coote

Synopsis: A dedicated nurse in a British hospital takes a nervous rookie under her wing. When the new nurse messes up and causes a patient's death, she protects her and loses her job. She eventually finds work at another bigger and more rundown hospital and there falls in love with a handsome young doctor. Read More

Gunga Din

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine

Synopsis: Though Rudyard Kipling's poem Gunga Din makes a swell recital piece, it cannot be said to have much of a plot. It's simply a crude cockney soldier's tribute to a native Indian water boy who remains at his job even after being mortally wounded. Hardly the sort of material upon which to build 118 Read More

Vivacious Lady

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, James Ellison, Beulah Bondi, Charles Coburn

Synopsis: James Stewart and Ginger Rogers were "an item" when Vivacious Lady was filmed, and their obvious real-life affection for one another pours over onto the screen. Stewart plays Peter Morgan, a young botany professor who while on a visit to New York impulsively marries free-spirited nightclub singer Read More

A Damsel in Distress

Crew: Director

Actors: Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Joan Fontaine, Reginald Gardiner

Synopsis: Fred Astaire's first RKO musical without his longtime partner Ginger Rogers is one of his best from any period -- even though it's obvious that leading lady Joan Fontaine can't dance a step. Written by P. G. Wodehouse, Damsel in Distress casts Astaire as Jerry, an American entertainer appearing in Read More

Quality Street

Crew: Director

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Franchot Tone, Eric Blore, Fay Bainter, Cora Witherspoon

Synopsis: Previously filmed with Marion Davies in 1927, the lightweight James M. Barrie play Quality Street proved an ideal vehicle for Katharine Hepburn ten years later. The setting of the Barrie original was switched from 1805 Scotland to 1815 Regency England, to avoid a preponderance of brogues and to Read More

Swing Time

Crew: Director

Actors: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore

Synopsis: The sixth of RKO's Fred Astaire -Ginger Rogers pairings of the 1930s, Swing Time starts off with bandleader Astaire getting cold feet on his wedding day. Astaire's bride-to-be Betty Furness will give him a second chance, providing he proves himself responsible enough to earn $25,000. Astaire Read More

The Nitwits

Crew: Director

Actors: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Fred Keating, Betty Grable, Evelyn Brent

Synopsis: The Nitwits are Johnny (Bert Wheeler) and Newt (Robert Woolsey), cigar-counter proprietors in the building owned by music publisher Lake (Hale Hamilton). Johnny spends his spare time spooning with his sweetheart, Lake's secretary Mary (Betty Grable), while Newt tinkers with his inventions, the Read More

Laddie

Crew: Director

Actors: John Beal, Gloria Stuart, Virginia Weidler, Charlotte Henry, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: Director George Stevens' fourth feature-film effort was a 1935 adaptation of the oft-filmed Gene Stratton Porter yarn Laddie. Set in rural Indiana, the story revolves around the romance between a local farm boy (John Beal) and English-born girl (Gloria Stuart). The lovers are separated during most Read More

Alice Adams

Crew: Director

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone, Evelyn Venable, Frank Albertson

Synopsis: Katharine Hepburn stars as Booth Tarkington's would-be society belle Alice Adams. The product of a family of modest means, Alice nonetheless dreams of being accepted by the "better people." Luck of luck, she meets well-to-do young Fred MacMurray at a social gathering; he is charmed by her pathetic Read More

Annie Oakley

Crew: Director

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Preston S. Foster, Melvyn Douglas, Moroni Olsen, Pert Kelton

Synopsis: This highly fictionalized biopic of legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley stars Barbara Stanwyck as "Little Sure Shot" Annie. Coming down from the hills of Ohio, Annie rises to fame with Buffalo Bill's (Moroni Olsen) Wild West Show. Her success as a performer is counterpointed by her stormy romance Read More

Hollywood Party

Crew: Director

Actors: Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez, Charles Butterworth, Polly Moran

Synopsis: Hollywood Party was planned as a lavish, star-studded MGM musical titled Hollywood Revue of 1933. Under the less-than-sterling guidance of "kicked upstairs" MGM producer Harry Rapf, production dragged on interminably, using up the talents of five directors (none of whom were credited) and Read More

Bachelor Bait

Crew: Director

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Rochelle Hudson, Pert Kelton, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: After several years' faithful service in RKO Radio's short-subject department, director George Stevens was rewarded with his first feature-length assignment, the innocuous comedy Bachelor Bait. Stu Erwin plays Wilbur Fess, the busy owner of a matrimonial agency called Romance, Inc. So dedicated is Read More

Kentucky Kernels

Crew: Director

Actors: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Mary Carlisle, George "Spanky" McFarland, Noah Beery, Sr.

Synopsis: Though not the best of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey's starring vehicles, Kentucky Kernels turned out to be the team's biggest financial success. Wheeler and Woolsey star as unemployed vaudevillians Willie and Elmer, who through a series of convoluted circumstances become the guardians of Read More

Rock-a-Bye Cowboy

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: James Gleason, Vince Barnett, Raymond Hatton, Marie Prevost

Synopsis: To look at his later dramatic work, one would never guess that award-winning director George Stevens got his start working on two-reel comedies. But that's exactly where he cut his teeth, first as cinematographer, then director for Hal Roach and then as director of two-reelers for Universal and Read More

The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble

Crew: Director

Actors: George Sidney

Synopsis: This comedy is last entry in the five-movie series "The Cohens and Kellys." In this episode, Sidney and Murray are competing tugboat captains. They fight over the ownership of the waterways. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Mama Loves Papa

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This entry was part of MGM's short-lived "The Boy Friends" series, which was developed by director George Stevens. In this one, two elderly people, both widowed, want to get married, but the kids do their best to stop them. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide Read More

High Gear

Crew: Director

Actors: Mickey Daniels

Another Fine Mess

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: The 1930 Laurel & Hardy 3-reeler Another Fine Mess is a remake of the team's 1927 effort Duck Soup--which, in turn, was based on "Home from the Honeymoon", a vaudeville sketch written in 1908 by Stan Laurel's father. Escaping from an angry cop, Stan and Ollie take refuge in a posh East Side Read More

Hog Wild

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: Oliver Hardy wants to go see his friend Stan Laurel; his wife (Fay Holderness) tells him, in no uncertain terms, that he must put up the radio antenna first. When Stan comes by and gives Ollie his helping hand, the inevitable mayhem ensues. He begins by setting Ollie's pants on fire with the Read More

Brats

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play both the fathers and their unruly children in this two-reel comedy. The really funny thing about this film is that as the kids, Laurel and Hardy don't behave much differently as they generally do as adults. The relationship is basically the same between the two Read More

Below Zero

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Charlie Hall

Synopsis: Business is not good for street musicians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Perhaps it's because they're playing in front of a deaf and dumb institute. Or maybe it's because the weather is reaching near-blizzard proportions and their song of choice is "In the Good Old Summertime". In response to the Read More

The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: While on an outing to go fishing, Oliver Hardy is trying to get some sleep. He's disturbed by a newspaper that blows in, advertising the reading of the will of an Ebeneezer Laurel. Convinced that his partner, Stan Laurel, must be the heir, the pair head for the Laurel mansion. Upon arrival they Read More

Blotto

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: In this especially amusing Laurel and Hardy short, the boys are planning a night on the town. Standing in their way is Mrs. Laurel (Anita Garvin). Ollie telephones Stan with a scheme: Stan will send himself a bogus telegram, calling him away on "business." Unfortunately for the duo, Mrs. Laurel Read More

Night Owls

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel

Synopsis: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are supported by a couple of Hal Roach's best stock players in this comic two-reeler. The film opens at the police station, where the chief (Anders Randolph), fed up at the high number of burglaries and no arrests, threatens Officer Kennedy (Edgar Kennedy): Any more Read More

They Go Boom

Crew: Cinematographer

That's My Wife

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: Mrs. Magnolia Hardy (Vivien Oakland) is fed up with her husband Oliver Hardy and his permanent houseguest Stan Laurel. Even though Ollie points out that Uncle Bernal will cut them out of his will if she leaves, she walks out anyway. Naturally, Uncle Bernal chooses just this time to pay his nephew Read More

The Hoosegow

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel

Men O' War

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: In this early Laurel and Hardy sound short, Stan and Ollie are a pair of sailors on leave. They meet two girls at a park (Anne Cornwall and Gloria Greer). They have also found a pair of bloomers, which they assume belongs to one of the young ladies. Delicately, they try to discern if either of the Read More

Unaccustomed as We Are

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: Although the title of Laurel and Hardy's very first sound film is a joke on the phrase, "Unaccustomed as we are to public speaking," it already shows a firm grasp of the comic potential for sound. The boys, and the writers and directors of their films, realized that more than dialogue was Read More

Wrong Again

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: This entertaining film is one of Laurel and Hardy's most bizarre. Stan and Ollie work as stable-hands for a racehorse named "Blue Boy." They overhear two men talking about "the famous Blue Boy," which has been stolen. There is a $5000 reward for its return, but the boys don't know that the men are Read More

Double Whoopee

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Charlie Hall

Synopsis: A hotel is gearing up to welcome its prestigious new guest, a European Prince (Captain John Peters). But before he appears, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy walk in. After much confusion, it is discovered that the two are not the Prince and his Prime Minister, but are the hotel's new doorman and Read More

Big Business

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, James Finlayson

Synopsis: Stan (Stan Laurel) and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) are selling Christmas trees door-to-door. Stan unintentionally insults their first customer (a single woman) when he asks, "If you had a husband, would he buy a tree?" The second house has a sign up that says "No Peddlers." Ollie rings the bell anyway Read More

Angora Love

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: A goat escapes from a pet shop, and the owner reports the missing goat to the police. Laurel & Hardy have spent their last dime on donuts, and Laurel feeds his donuts to the goat. The goat follows them everywhere, and they can't get away from it. They sneak the goat into their bedroom, under the Read More

Their Purple Moment

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: In her family, Mrs. Pincher (Fay Holderness) keeps a firm hold on the purse strings, but Mr. Pincher (Stan Laurel) has managed to squirrel away three dollars in the pocket of a portrait hanging in the hallway. Mrs. Pincher discovers the hiding place, takes the money, and substitutes her trading Read More

Two Tars

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Charlie Hall

Synopsis: This is arguably Laurel and Hardy's best two-reel silent (the other contender for first place is Big Business). The boys play sailors on furlough. They have rented a Model T Ford for the day and meet a pair of pretty girls (Thelma Hill and Ruby Blaine). After an altercation with a gum machine and Read More

The Battle of the Century

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: Laurel is Canvasback Clump, an underfed and thoroughly clueless prize-fighter, and Hardy his rather overly optimistic manager. In confronting his ape-like opponent, Thunder-clap Callahan (Noah Young), Canvasback is quickly out for the count and the boys are left with the five-dollar loser's end of Read More

Sugar Daddies

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: Although they had appeared together in several films before this two-reeler was made, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were still a ways off from adopting the comic personas that made them famous. Here, the boys form a trio with James Finlayson, who lent them great support in later films. The picture Read More

Lightning

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Jobyna Ralston, Margaret Livingston, Robert W. Frazer, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Pat Harmon

Synopsis: Jobyna Ralston and Margaret Livingston play actresses touring with a "Topsy & Eva" act. In Chicago, they meet and flirt with a couple of cowboys, Lee (Robert Frazer) and Cuth Stewart (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams). By their third meeting, the brothers are ready propose, but the girls leave Read More

Valley of Hell

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Francis McDonald, Edna Murphy, Anita Garvin, William Steele

Synopsis: Along with The Desert's Toll, filmed simultaneously at The Big Horn ranch in Montana, this silent Western was producer Hal Roach's lone attempt to create his own Western star. Kenneth McDonald, handsome and athletic, starred as Creighton Steele, an Eastern college graduate who inherits a Western Read More

The Devil Horse

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Rex the Wonder Horse, Yakima Canutt, Gladys McConnell

Synopsis: Everyone who ever worked with Rex, King of Wild Horses has testified that the magnificent-looking animal was one of the meanest and most contentious "stars" in the movies. Nonetheless, producer Hal Roach knew a valuable commodity when he saw one, thus he cast Rex in such tailor-made vehicles as The Devil Horse Read More

The Desert's Toll

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: Beloved for launching comedy stars such as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and the Our Gang kids, producer Hal Roach added a handful of westerns to his repertoire in the late 1920s. Roach had a distribution deal with MGM, and his oaters, although nowhere as popular (or well made) as the comedies Read More

Slipping Wives

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: A love-starved wife (Priscilla Dean) hires a dim-witted delivery man (Stan Laurel) to make love to her and revive the waning interest of her eccentric artist husband (Herbert Rawlinson). As might be expected, the makeshift gigolo manages to foul things up, disastrously confusing the identities of Read More

Black Cyclone

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Rex the Wonder Horse, Lady, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Kathleen Collins

Synopsis: Silent screen cowboy Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and lovely Kathleen Collins (Mrs. Williams in real life) take a back seat to an unusual equine love triangle in this off-beat action thriller. Rex the Wonder Horse is really the film's leading "man," with the mare Lady as the "damsel in distress" and a Read More

Java Head

Actors: Leatrice Joy, Jacqueline Logan, Albert Roscoe, Arthur Stuart Hull

Synopsis: Louisiana-born Leatrice Joy plays Chinese princess Taou Yuen in Java Head. To save himself from being executed in a gruesome manner, American Jeremy Ammidon (Frederick Strong) marries Taou Yuen. Once he arrives in his New England home, Ammidon tries but fails to suppress his love for hometown Read More

Whispers

The New York Idea

Synopsis: Former ingenue Alice Brady took her first step towards the dizzy society matrons she'd play in the talkie era in the 1920 silent The New York Idea. The film concerns the rock-solid marriage of upper-crust couple Alice and Lowell Sherman. Despite the most alluring of temptations, the couple insists Read More

Let's Elope

My Lady's Slipper

Synopsis: A story by Cyrus Townsend Brady was the foundation for the lavish Vitagraph star vehicle My Lady's Slipper. The popular Anita Stewart and Earle Williams were cast respectively as the Countess Gabrielle de Villars and American lieutenant Francis Burnham. The story is set in the late 18th century Read More