Helen Broderick Filmography

Born:: August 11, 1891 in Philadelphia, PA
Occupation:: Actor
Biography:: Educated by the Philadelphia and Boston school systems, Helen Broderick became a chorus dancer at age 14, despite protests from her parents. After service as a Ziegfeld beauty, Helen toured in vaudeville with her husband, comedian Lester Crawford. Developing a wry, withering comic style, she...Read More

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Because of Him

Actors: Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, Charles Laughton, Helen Broderick, Stanley Ridges

Synopsis: As appealing as ever in 1946, Deanna Durbin was admittedly getting a bit long in tooth for her ingenue-like role in Because of Him. Durbin is cast as Kim Walker, an aspiring actress determined to become the protegee of famed Broadway actor/producer Sheridan (Charles Laughton). The only person not Read More

1946
Love, Honor and Goodbye

Actors: Virginia Bruce, Edward Ashley, Victor McLaglen, Nils Asther, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: The trouble begins when glamorous Broadway actress Roberta Baxter (Virginia Bruce) signs for her latest play. She proceeds to spend far too much time at rehearsals, and far too little time with her attorney husband William (Edward Ashley). Even so, it is Roberta who eventually walks out on Read More

1945
Her Primitive Man

Actors: Louise Allbritton, Robert Paige, Robert Benchley, Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: In this crazy comedy, a casino worker writes a book about headhunters and finds himself the target of the leader of an anthropological society who is determined to prove that the book is phony. The writer tricks the woman into going on a head-hunting expedition to prove his claims. He dresses up Read More

1944
Chip off the Old Block

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, Ann Blyth, Helen Vinson, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: A musical comedy star whose career is just starting to take off returns home from military school. En route, he meets a pretty girl whom he begins to woo. Unfortunately his hometown girl friend is waiting for him at the station and typical romantic mayhem ensues amidst many lively songs and Read More

1944
Three is a Family

Actors: Marjorie Reynolds, Charlie Ruggles, Helen Broderick, Arthur Lake

Synopsis: Based on a play by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, Three Is a Family is a 1940s farce that frequently substitutes noise for humor. Charlie Ruggles plays a hubby whose bungled business schemes force his wife Fay Bainter to enter the workplace. The couple's daughter Marjorie Reynolds shows up with her twin Read More

1944
Stage Door Canteen

Actors: Cheryl Walker, William Terry, Marjorie Riordan, Lon McCallister, Margaret Early

Synopsis: This star-studded musical drama was largely financed by Theatre Guild, with all proceeds going to various wartime fundraising concerns. Most of the story takes place at the Stage Door Canteen, a Manhattan-based home away from home for soldiers, sailors and marines (the real-life Canteen on 44th Read More

1943
Are Husbands Necessary?

Actors: Ray Milland, Betty Field, Patricia Morison, Eugene Pallette, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: In providing the "synopsis" for Are Husbands Necessary?, one best-selling film source says merely "And what about this film?" There's more to the story than that, of course--but not much. The film was based on Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, a novel by Frank Davis. Ray Milland and Betty Field play a warring Read More

1942
Father Takes a Wife

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Swanson, John Howard, Desi Arnaz, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: Silent screen queen Gloria Swanson returned to films after a seven-year absence in RKO Radio's Father Takes a Wife. Adolphe Menjou costars as a middle-aged widowed shipping magnate known as Senior, who falls in love with celebrated actress Leslie Collier (Gloria Swanson) and marries her after a Read More

1941
Nice Girl?

Actors: Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, Walter Brennan, Robert Stack, Robert Benchley

Synopsis: Nice Girl? answers its own question by casting the relentlessy nice Deanna Durbin in the title role. In her first truly adult role, Durbin plays Jane Dana, the blossoming daughter of high school principal Oliver Dana (Robert Benchley). Jane is being ardently courted by longtime boyfriend Don Webb Read More

1941
Virginia

Actors: Madeleine Carroll, Fred MacMurray, Sterling Hayden, Helen Broderick, Carolyn Lee

Synopsis: If Selznick could make a Gone With the Wind, reasoned Paramount Pictures in 1941, anyone can. Paramount's own spin on Scarlet and Rhett was Virginia, starring British actress Madeleine Carroll as Southern belle Charlotte Dunterry. A first a showgirl, Charlotte arrives in Fairville, Virginia to Read More

1941
No, No Nanette

Actors: Anna Neagle, Richard Carlson, Victor Mature, Roland Young, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: No, No, Nanette was the second film version of the popular Otto Harbach-Vincent Youmans Broadway musical. Though slightly updated, the basic plot remains the same, with heroine Nanette (Anna Neagle) entering into a financial arrangement whereby she must answer "No" to every question during a Read More

1940
The Captain Is a Lady

Actors: Charles Coburn, Beulah Bondi, Virginia Grey, Helen Broderick, Billie Burke

Synopsis: This touching romance is based on a play by Rachel Crothers. An aging sea captain squanders his fortune on a bad business deal. Now he faces having to put his beloved wife in a poor house. He himself also has no place to live. Desperate for cash, he sells interest in a ship he has nothing to do Read More

1940
Honeymoon in Bali

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Madeleine Carroll, Allan Jones, Akim Tamiroff, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: My Love for Yours is the alternate title for Paramount's Honeymoon in Bali. Madeline Carroll pulls a "Rosalind Russell" as a hard-shelled businesswoman with no time for romance. Fred MacMurray is determined to melt down her resistance, hoping to do so during a vacation to Nassau. Carroll almost Read More

1939
Naughty But Nice

Actors: Ann Sheridan, Dick Powell, Gale Page, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: It's Swing Music vs. the Classics in the easy-to-take Warners tunefest Naughty But Nice. Dick Powell dons the obligatory spectacles as a staid music professor Hardwick, who harbors a desire to become a songwriter. With the help of aspiring lyricist Linda McKay (Gale Page), Hardwick pens a little Read More

1939
Stand up and Fight

Actors: Wallace Beery, Robert Taylor, Florence Rice, Helen Broderick, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Directed with customary haste by Woody Van Dyke, Stand Up and Fight is an excellent dual vehicle for veteran Wallace Beery and up-and-coming Robert Taylor. Set in the American west in the mid-19th century, the story concerns the efforts of empire-building Blake Cantrell (Taylor) to construct a Read More

1939
Radio City Revels

Actors: Jack Oakie, Kenny Baker, Victor Moore, Milton Berle

Synopsis: Set in New York City's famed music hall and featuring an all-star cast, this musical chronicles the desperate search of two bungling aspiring songwriters who are looking for the tune that will make them stars. They hear the sweet sound of opportunity's knock when they find a naive country boy who Read More

1938
The Road to Reno

Actors: Randolph Scott, Hope Hampton, Glenda Farrell, Helen Broderick, Alan Marshal

Synopsis: In this lively musical western, a cowboy's wife heads for Reno for a quickie divorce. Meanwhile her husband finds himself in competition with a suave Easterner who has fallen in love with her. The cowboy is dismayed and embarrassed when the city-slicker easily out rides him during a bronc-riding Read More

1938
The Rage of Paris

Actors: Danielle Darrieux, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mischa Auer, Louis Hayward, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: This late-30s gem is an engaging spoof that features the U.S. film debut of the French acting beauty Daniell Darrieux. She appears as a French model who's come to New York to find a job. Things go a little awry in her first interview when she applies for a nude modeling position and gets the Read More

1938
She's Got Everything

Actors: Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Parkyakarkus [Harry Einstein]

Synopsis: In this comedy, a woman is left destitute after her father dies. To make ends meet, she begins working as a secretary to a wealthy fellow. Soon the two fall in love and begin planning their wedding, much to the delight of the woman's creditors. When her fiancé learns that she is deeply in debt, he Read More

1938
Service De Luxe

Actors: Constance Bennett, Vincent Price, Charlie Ruggles, Helen Broderick, Mischa Auer

Synopsis: In this frothy comedy-drama, a businesswoman owns a successful service bureau for the filthy rich. Her service does everything from handling mundane finances to putting on weddings. Her most recent client wants her to prevent his rube of a nephew from coming to New York to visit him. She does her Read More

1938
We're on the Jury

Actors: Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Philip Huston, Louise Latimer, Vinton Haworth

Synopsis: In this comedy drama (a remake of 1932's Ladies of the Jury), an apparently bubble-headed but mule-stubborn jurist is convinced of the defendant's innocence and refuses to change her verdict. Unlike the others, she listens to her own common sense and looks carefully at the facts and decides that Read More

1937
Meet the Missus

Actors: Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Anne Shirley, Alan Bruce, Edward H. Robins

Synopsis: Meet the Missus poked fun at the contest crazes of the 1930s. Helen Broderick stars as a woman who spends every spare moment entering contests, much to the discomfort of her browbeaten hubby Victor Moore, who is left with all the housework. She finally makes the finals in the "Happy Noodles Read More

1937
The Life of the Party

Actors: Joe Penner, Gene Raymond, Parkyakarkus [Harry Einstein], Harriet Hilliard, Victor Moore

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, an irresponsible young heir is betrothed to the singing daughter of a wealthy matron. Unfortunately, the willful young is not even slightly interested in her "fiance," preferring the attentions of another instead. Unfortunately, the other man has a big problem. Though he Read More

1937
Smartest Girl in Town

Actors: Ann Sothern, Gene Raymond, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes

Synopsis: Ann Sothern is a magazine model looking for a rich husband. Wealthy Gene Raymond attends a photo shoot; Sothern mistakes him for a male model and resists his advances. Eventually she falls for Raymond and decides to cease her search for quick wealth. The story resolves itself in a fast-moving Read More

1936
Swing Time

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

1936
The Bride Walks Out

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Raymond, Robert Young, Ned Sparks, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: Newlywed Carolyn Martin (Barbara Stanwyck) has been raised to expect the finer things in life, but these are things that can't be provided by her working-stiff husband Michael (Gene Raymond). Hoping to supplement the family coffers, Carolyn offers to take a job, but the chauvinistic Michael won't Read More

1936
Murder on a Bridle Path

Actors: James Gleason, Helen Broderick, Louise Latimer, Owen Davis, Jr., John Arledge

Synopsis: When Edna May Oliver decided to leave RKO Radio's "Hildegarde Withers" series, the studio came up with an unorthodox replacement in the form of the dry-witted Helen Broderick. Murder on a Bridle Path turned out to be Broderick's only appearance in the series, after which she was succeeded by ZaSu Pitts Read More

1936
Love on a Bet

Actors: Gene Raymond, Wendy Barrie, Helen Broderick, William Collier, Sr., Walter Johnson

Synopsis: Love on a Bet is a lightweight programmer from the "Get Rich Quick Wallingford" school of comedy. Gene Raymond stars as Michael, a fresh young sprout who needs $15,000 to produce a Broadway play. His rich uncle Carlton (William Collier Jr.) agrees to pony up the money, but only on the condition Read More

1936
To Beat the Band

Actors: Hugh Herbert, Helen Broderick, Roger Pryor, Fred Keating, Eric Blore

Synopsis: Hugh Herbert plays a middle-aged bumbler who is about to inherit a multimillion dollar estate. But there's a catch: Herbert must be married to a widow--any widow--within three days. Roger Pryor plays a suicidal young man who offers to marry young Phyllis Brooks, then kill himself and make Brooks a Read More

1935
Top Hat

Actors: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: One of the best of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, Top Hat centers on a typical mistaken-identity plot, with wealthy Dale Tremont (Rogers), on holiday in London and Venice, assuming that American entertainer Jerry Travers (Astaire) is the husband of her friend Madge (Helen Broderick) Read More

1935
Fifty Million Frenchmen

Actors: William Gaxton, John Halliday, Helen Broderick, Claudia Dell

Synopsis: Cole Porter's Broadway musical 50 Million Frenchmen was brought to the screen in 1931 with one minor alteration -- all of the music was removed! Set in Paris, the story concerns the exploits of wealthy Jack Forbes (William Gaxton), who bets his friend Michael Cummings (John Halliday) that he can Read More

1931
The Mystery Club

Actors: Matt Moore, Charles Puffy, Edith Roberts, Mildred Harris, Alfred Allen

Synopsis: The publicity packet for The Mystery Club boasted an "all-star cast" -- which, by 1926 standards, it was. Nat Carr, Henry Herbert and Jed Prouty play the three members of the Mystery Club who enter into a wager predicated on the notion that each of the men will be able to commit a crime and escape Read More

1926