Jack OakieFilmography

Lover Come Back

Actors: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Edie Adams, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Although not as well known as Pillow Talk (1959), this romantic-comedy pairing of stars Rock Hudson and Doris Day earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. Hudson stars as Jerry Webster, a Madison Avenue advertising executive who has achieved success not through hard work or intelligence but Read More

The Rat Race

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

The Wonderful Country

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Gary Merrill, Pedro Armendáriz, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Although a mood of melancholy or worse pervades this excellent western, it remains an honest and hard-hitting look at the realistic adventures of Martin Brady (Robert Mitchum -- who produced). Brady fled to Mexico while still quite young in order to avoid prison in the U.S. -- he had killed his Read More

Around the World in 80 Days

Actors: David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton, Shirley MacLaine, Charles Boyer

Synopsis: Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production Read More

Tomahawk

Actors: Van Heflin, Yvonne De Carlo, Alex Nicol, Preston S. Foster, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Tomahawk takes place during the Great Sioux Uprising of the 1860s. Van Heflin stars as famed frontier scout Jim Bridger, who labors valiantly and vainly to orchestrate peace between Indians and whites. Much of the action takes place at Fort Phil Kearney, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles Read More

Last of the Buccaneers

Actors: Paul Henreid, Jack Oakie, Karin [Katharine] Booth, Mary Anderson, Edgar Barrier

Synopsis: Generous amounts of stock footage from 1950's Fortunes of Captain Blood made its way into the Sam Katzman production Last of the Buccaneers. Paul Henreid plays famed buccaneer Jean Lafitte, who, after being chased out of Louisiana following the Battle of New Orleans, sets up shop on the island of Read More

Thieves' Highway

Actors: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell

Synopsis: Thieves' Highway is set in San Francisco and the surrounding countryside. Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos, an American GI who returns from WWII to find that his father Yanko (Morris Carnovsky), a produce trucker, has lost the use of both legs because of a fight with crooked truck driver Mike Read More

When My Baby Smiles at Me

Actors: Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Jack Oakie, June Havoc, Richard Arlen

Synopsis: Betty Grable and Dan Dailey play a couple of small-time vaudevillians, at least until Dailey gets a big Broadway break. Success swells his head to cataclysmic dimensions; he becomes an alcoholic, loses his stardom and winds up in the drunk ward. Grable divorces Dailey to marry rancher Richard Arlen Read More

Northwest Stampede

Actors: Joan Leslie, James Craig, Jack Oakie, Chill Wills, Victor Kilian

Synopsis: In this romantic western, the real stars are a mustang and a police dog. The human aspect of the story centers on a rodeo rider whose late father bequeathed him a ranch in Calgary, Canada. The rider really tries to settle down to ranching, but finds himself pining for the rodeo. His forewoman Read More

She Wrote the Book

Actors: Joan Davis, Jack Oakie, Mischa Auer, Kirby Grant, John Litel

Synopsis: In this comedy, a puritanical math teacher at a midwestern university is forced by the dean's wife to go to New York to collect the royalties for a naughty romance the latter wrote under a penname. Unfortunately, while there, the professor suffers a blow to the noodle and wakes up believing that Read More

That's the Spirit

Actors: Peggy Ryan, Jack Oakie, June Vincent, Gene Lockhart, Johnny Coy

Synopsis: The producer/screenwriter team of Michael Fessler and Ernest Pagano turned out several offbeat comedies for Universal in the 1940s; curiously, the one with the most fanciful plot, That's the Spirit, is the most conventional of the bunch. On the verge of fatherhood, happy-go-lucky Steve (Jack Read More

Devotion

Crew: Special Effects

Actors: Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Olivia de Havilland, Sydney Greenstreet, Arthur Kennedy, Nancy Coleman

Synopsis: Roundly blasted upon its release because of the extreme liberties it takes with the truth, Devotion is better as cinema than as history. Not that it's great cinema, mind you, mainly because the filmmakers opted to replace historical fact with either tired dramatic clichés or wild improbabilities. Read More

On Stage Everybody

Actors: Peggy Ryan, Jack Oakie, Julie London

Synopsis: Jack Oakie and Peggy Ryan head the cast of the Universal "B plus" musical On Stage Everybody. As indicated by the title, this is a "Let's put on a big show" affair, set this time at a radio station. Veteran vaudevillian Michael Sullivan (Jack Oakie) refuses to admit that his brand of entertainment Read More

Sweet and Lowdown

Actors: Benny Goodman Orchestra, Linda Darnell, Lynn Bari, Jack Oakie, James B. Cardwell

Synopsis: In this musical, a youthful trombonist is thrilled when he is allowed to play with Benny Goodman's Orchestra. Afterward he becomes insufferably egotistical and tries to start his own swing band. It's his girl friend's idea, and unfortunately he fails. He then returns to his old mill job. Read More

It Happened Tomorrow

Actors: Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: On the eve of their 50th anniversary, a couple argue about whether or not to reveal a story from the husband's past that explains how they met and came to be married. We flashback to the mid-1890's and Larry Stevens' (Dick Powell} first day on the job as a reporter for a New York newspaper Read More

The Merry Monahans

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, Jack Oakie, Ann Blyth, Rosemary de Camp

Synopsis: The Merry Monahans is one of the higher-budgeted Universal musicals of the 1940s, even though the storyline is strictly grade-B material. During the first two decades of the 20th century the film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan (Jack Oakie). Because of his love Read More

Bowery to Broadway

Actors: Maria Montez, Jack Oakie, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Ann Blyth

Synopsis: Two Bowery vaudevillians compete to be the first to produce shows on Broadway. They might be friends were they not so convinced that each has stolen ideas from the others. This bouncy musical chronicles their rivalry and the success they find after they finally team up. Unfortunately the success Read More

Hello, Frisco, Hello

Actors: Alice Faye, John Payne, Jack Oakie, Lynn Bari, Laird Cregar

Synopsis: Though a lesser 20th Century-Fox musical, Hello, Frisco, Hello was one of the studio's most successful wartime efforts. John Payne plays Johnny Cornell, a sharp wheeler-dealer operating on the Barbary Coast at the turn of the century. With the help of his songstress girlfriend Trudy Evans (Alice Read More

Wintertime

Actors: Sonja Henie, Jack Oakie, Cornel Wilde, Cesar Romero, Carole Landis, S.Z. Sakall

Synopsis: In her last 20th Century-Fox vehicle, skating star Sonja Henie plays, Nora, a Norwegian expatriate ice champion. Newly arrived in the U.S., Nora and her millionaire uncle Hjallmar (S. Z. Sakall) are sweet-talked into investing in a failing resort hotel, now a hostelry for showbiz folk. Unemployed Read More

Something to Shout About

Actors: Don Ameche, Janet Blair, Jack Oakie, William Gaxton, Cobina Wright, Jr.

Synopsis: This backstage musical offers a peek at vaudeville behind-the-scenes. The story centers on a recently divorced woman who decides to use her generous alimony settlement to stage an old fashioned vaudeville show. Unfortunately her chief backer insists on being the star. Fortunately, at the last Read More

Song of the Islands

Actors: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Jack Oakie, Thomas Mitchell, Hilo Hattie, George Barbier

Synopsis: One of the shortest and sweetest of Betty Grable's Technicolor musicals, Song of the Islands casts the Leggy One as Eileen, the daughter of Hawaii-based Irish planter Dennis O'Brien (Thomas Mitchell). For many years, O'Brien has been carrying on a feud with local cattle baron Harper (George Read More

Iceland

Actors: Sonja Henie, John Payne, Jack Oakie, Felix Bressart, Osa Massen

Synopsis: When the US marines land in Iceland during WW2, camp lothario John Payne wastes no time scoping out the local female population. He makes a casual pass at skating champ Sonja Henie, only to discover that she has taken his attentions as a marriage proposal! Unable to weasel out of his situation Read More

Navy Blues

Actors: Ann Sheridan, Jack Oakie, Martha Raye, Jack Haley, Herbert Anderson, Jackie Gleason

Synopsis: The 1940 peacetime draft spawned a whole slew of military and naval comedies, the most successful of which was Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates. In this vein, Warners' Navy Blues features several studio contractees (including Ann Sheridan and Jack Carson), a few borrowed comedians (Jack Oakie, Jack Haley Read More

Rise and Shine

Actors: Jack Oakie, George Murphy, Linda Darnell, Walter Brennan, Milton Berle

Synopsis: Jack Oakie is near the top of his form as Boley Bolenciecwcz, the best college football player to come down the pike in a generation. But Boley has two problems -- he likes to sleep a lot when he's not training, and he isn't terribly bright, and might just fail his examinations and become Read More

The Great American Broadcast

Actors: Alice Faye, Jack Oakie, John Payne, Cesar Romero, Four Ink Spots

Synopsis: On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of commercial radio, 20th Century-Fox cooked up the pageantlike entertainment The Great American Broadcast. Opening with clips of such airwaves favorites as Dick Powell and Fred Allen (courtesy of earlier Fox films like Thanks a Million), the picture Read More

The Great Dictator

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: "This is the story of the period between two world wars--an interim during which insanity cut loose, liberty took a nose dive, and humanity was kicked around somewhat." With this pithy opening title, Charles Chaplin begins his first all-talking feature film, The Great Dictator. During World War I Read More

Little Men

Actors: Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft, Jimmy Lydon, Ann Gillis

Synopsis: Little Men, Louisa May Alcott's followup to her successful novel Little Women, has never truly adapted well to the screen, though this 1940 version is better than most. Kay Francis stars as the all-grown-up Jo March, now in charge of a private school for young boys. Her most contentious charge is Read More

Tin Pan Alley

Actors: Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Jack Oakie, John Payne, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: To quell the rumors that musical stars Alice Faye and Betty Grable detested each other (actually they were fast friends, if not close buddies), 20th Century-Fox cast both ladies in their 1940 "inventory" musical Tin Pan Alley. Set in the years just prior to and during WW1, the film casts Faye and Read More

Texas Rangers Ride Again

Actors: Ellen Drew, John Howard, Akim Tamiroff, May Robson, Broderick Crawford

Synopsis: Filmed on location at Mesa, AZ, this minor Paramount western featured newcomer Ellen Drew as "Slats" Dangerfield, a young girl returning to her grandmother's ranch in Texas. Old Mrs. Dangerfield (May Robson) is experiencing a rash of cattle rustlings and, fed up with her no-good grandson Carter's Read More

Young People

Actors: Shirley Temple, Jack Oakie, Charlotte Greenwood, Arleen Whelan, George Montgomery

Synopsis: "Over the hill" at the tender age of 12, Shirley Temple closed out her 20th Century-Fox contract with the musical seriocomedy Young People. After years of trodding the boards in vaudeville, Wendy Ballantine (Temple) and her adoptive parents Joe (Jack Oakie) and Kit (Charlotte Greenwood retire) to Read More

Thanks for Everything

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Jack Oakie, Jack Haley, Arleen Whelan, Binnie Barnes

Synopsis: Thanks for Everything is an unjustly forgotten lampoon of media promotional stunts. Jack Haley wins a contest sponsored by an ad agency, which is looking for the perfect "average American." The contest's avaricious promoters (Adolphe Menjou and Jack Oakie) use poor Haley as a merchandising tool by Read More

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

Annabel Takes a Tour

Actors: Lucille Ball, Jack Oakie, Pepito, Ruth Donnelly, Bradley Page, Ralph Forbes

Synopsis: Zany actress Annabel goes on a promotional tour in this lively comedy, the second in the Annabel series. During her tour, she allows her promoter to "leak" a story that she is having a romantic fling with a famous romance novelist. The ploy is successful, until she really does fall in love with Read More

The Affairs of Annabel

Actors: Jack Oakie, Lucille Ball, Ruth Donnelly, Bradley Page, Fritz Feld

Synopsis: Lucille Ball landed her first starring comedy role in the mile-a-minute farce The Affairs of Annabel. Lucy of course plays the title character, a screwball movie actress who indulges in one wacky publicity stunt after another at the behest of her press agent Morgan (Jack Oakie). To promote an Read More

Fight for Your Lady

Actors: John Boles, Jack Oakie, Ida Lupino, Margot Grahame, Gordon Jones

Synopsis: This musical parody follows the exploits of American performers in Hungary. The story begins as a Yankee wrestling trainer becomes friends with a gringo singer who works in the same Budapest nightclub as a female ventriloquist. When the singer is dumped, the trainer offers to help him with his Read More

Super Sleuth

Actors: Jack Oakie, Ann Sothern, Eduardo Ciannelli, Alan Bruce, Edgar Kennedy

Synopsis: Super Sleuth stars Jack Oakie as an egotistical movie actor who specializes in detective roles. Despite the gentle remonstrations of his girl friend (Ann Sothern), Oakie fancies himself a genuine master sleuth, and in this capacity offers his services to the law in helping to solve a recent series Read More

Hitting a New High

Actors: Lily Pons, Jack Oakie, Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton, John Howard

Synopsis: In this musical, a nightclub singer (Lily Pons) secretly aspires to sing at the Met. To help her, her agent (Jack Oakie) decides to dress her up as "Ooga-Hunga, the Bird Girl" and send her off on a merry chase of an influential opera lover (Eric Blore) who has gone on an African safari. When he Read More

The Toast of New York

Actors: Edward Arnold, Cary Grant, Frances Farmer, Jack Oakie, Donald Meek

Synopsis: Allegedly based on two factual works, Bouck White's The Book of Daniel Drew and Matthew Josephson's The Robber Barons, RKO's The Toast of New York is a largely fanciful account of the career of 1870s financier "Jubilee Jim" Fisk. As played by Edward Arnold in his usual "tycoon" mode, Fisk was a Read More

Champagne Waltz

Actors: Gladys Swarthout, Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Yolanda

Synopsis: Another of Paramount's efforts to transform Metropolitan Opera diva Gladys Swarthout into a popular movie star, Champagne Waltz casts Swarthout as Elsa Strauss, the daughter of a celebrated Viennese composer (Fritz Leiber). American bandleader Buzzy Bellew (Fred MacMurray) and his aggregation Read More

Collegiate

Actors: Joe Penner, Jack Oakie, Ned Sparks, Frances Langford, Betty Grable

Synopsis: In this musical comedy a Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school from his late aunt. He breathes life into the school by giving song and dance lessons. The financially ailing school is funded by an odd, but rich man who becomes the main backer. Songs include: "I Feel Like a Read More

Colleen

Actors: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Jack Oakie, Joan Blondell, Hugh Herbert

Synopsis: The titular colleen is Ruby Keeler, hired to manage a dress shop by wealthy Dick Powell. Keeler is the replacement for slatternly Joan Blondell, who'd been assigned the job by Powell's philandering father (Hugh Herbert). With Powell and Keeler at the helm, it's no time at all before the musical Read More

That Girl from Paris

Actors: Lily Pons, Gene Raymond, Jack Oakie, Herman Bing, Lucille Ball

Synopsis: This light-hearted musical romance follows the exploits of Nikki Martin (Lily Pons), a beautiful French opera star who stows away on an ocean liner in hopes of escaping her jealous fiancee. Once aboard, she joins an American swing band and falls in love with its leader (Gene Raymond), who, after Read More

The Texas Rangers

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Jean Parker, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Ellis

Synopsis: Made with the full cooperation of the real-life Texas Rangers (who never met a publicity gimmick they didn't like), this sprawling historical western stars Fred MacMurray as Jim Hawkins, one of three outlaws working the Lone Star State in the years following the Civil War. Both Hawkins and his Read More

King of Burlesque

Actors: Warner Baxter, Alice Faye, Jack Oakie, Arline Judge, Mona Barrie

Synopsis: Warner Baxter plays the ambitious producer of a burlesque show who rises to the big time on Broadway. Alice Faye is the loyal burleycue singer who helps make Baxter a success. His head turned by sudden fame, Baxter falls under the spell of a society woman (Mona Barrie) who has theatrical Read More

Florida Special

Actors: Jack Oakie, Sally Eilers, Kent Taylor, Frances Drake, John Farrell MacDonald

Synopsis: A Florida-bound train is filled with romance and intrigue in this comedy. Among the passengers is a millionaire bon vivant carrying $1 million in diamonds. He is fully aware that a gang of would-be jewel thieves have followed him and so pretends to be an invalid with an ice bag perpetually stuck Read More

The Call of the Wild

Actors: Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Jack Oakie, Frank Conroy, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: The third screen version of Jack London's classic adventure story was also the first with sound, and it toyed with the original story a bit to add a love interest for leading man Clark Gable. Jack Thornton (Gable) is a would-be prospector who has headed to Alaska hoping to cash in on the gold Read More

The Big Broadcast of 1936

Actors: Jack Oakie, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Lyda Roberti, Wendy Barrie, Bing Crosby

Synopsis: After a false start in 1932, Paramount's Big Broadcast series was jump-started in late 1935 with The Big Broadcast of 1936. The wisp of a storyline involves two-bit radio station owner Spud (Jack Oakie), who doubles as the station's sole announcer while his comic partner Smiley (Henry Wadsworth) Read More

Shoot the Works

Actors: Jack Oakie, Ben Bernie, Dorothy Dell, Arline Judge, Alison Skipworth

Synopsis: The Ben Hecht-Gene Fowler Broadway flop The Great Magoo formed the basis of the 1934 Paramount comedy Shoot the Works. Jack Oakie stars as seedy sideshow barker Nicky, who uses everyone he meets to get ahead. Nicky isn't even above exploiting his singing sweetheart Lily (Dorothy Dell) to suit his Read More

Murder at the Vanities

Actors: Carl Brisson, Victor McLaglen, Jack Oakie, Kitty Carlisle, Dorothy Stickney, Gertrude Michael

Synopsis: The Earl Carroll Vanities, a popular Broadway revue of the 1930s and '40s, is the setting for this murder mystery interspersed with an assortment of variety acts, including Duke Ellington performing "Ebony Rhapsody" and a novelty number called "Marijuana." Victor McLaglen stars as Bill Murdock, a Read More

College Rhythm

Actors: Joe Penner, Lanny Ross, Jack Oakie, Helen Mack, Lyda Roberti

Synopsis: Paramount Pictures' annual college musical of 1934 is a pip, as they used to say. Jack Oakie plays Finnegan, a conceited gridiron hero whose prowess on the football field is exceeded only by his appreciation of the ladies. But his strutting manner and accompanying overbearing ego have alienated Read More

Looking for Trouble

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Constance Cummings, Jack Oakie, Morgan Conway, Arline Judge

Synopsis: Joe Graham (Spencer Tracy), a troubleshooter for the telephone company, suspects that his beloved Ethel (Constance Cummings) is working for a crook. Joe and his partner Casey (Jack Oakie) investigate her boss, Dan Sutter (Morgan Conway), but they're caught by Sutter's goons and left to die in a Read More

From Hell to Heaven

Actors: Carole Lombard, Jack Oakie, Adrienne Ames, David Manners, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: The world of horse racing provides the backdrop for this episodic drama. Much of the story is set at the Luray Springs Hotel where the characters wait for the running of the Capitol Handicap. The main story focuses upon Colly Tannyer, a pretty young handicapper who must wrangle up $10,000 so she Read More

Sitting Pretty

Actors: Jack Oakie, Jack Haley, Ginger Rogers, Thelma Todd, Gregory Ratoff

Synopsis: No relation to the later Clifton Webb vehicle of the same name, Sitting Pretty is a dated but likable film about the songwriting racket. Jack Oakie and Jack Haley play a pair of would-be tunesmiths who team up with aspiring dancer Ginger Rogers. Through the kindness of a tippling director (Lew Cody Read More

College Humor

Actors: Bing Crosby, Jack Oakie, Richard Arlen, Mary Carlisle, Mary Kornman

Synopsis: Directed by Wesley Ruggles, the musical sendup of College Humor centers around the blooming love between a college professor (Bing Crosby) and one of his students (Mary Carlisle). Feeling stilted, the school football star (Richard Arlen) is temporarily unable to concentrate on his game. Read More

Sailor Be Good

Actors: Jack Oakie, Vivienne Osborne, George E. Stone, Lincoln Stedman, Max Hoffman, Jr.

Synopsis: A Navy boxer falls in love with a popular dance-hall girl in this romantic drama. The man really should be spending all his energy preparing for his upcoming championship bout, but one night he gets completely blotto and wakes up the next day to find that he has married a wealthy socialite. Though Read More

Alice in Wonderland

Actors: Charlotte Henry, Richard Arlen, Roscoe Ates, William Austin, Billy Barty

Synopsis: This star-laden version of Lewis Carroll's novel combines elements of both the title novel and Carroll's sequel, Through the Looking Glass. In England of the 19th century, young Alice finds that the mirror over the library fireplace opens into a strange world. She has odd adventures and changes Read More

The Eagle and the Hawk

Actors: Fredric March, Cary Grant, Jack Oakie, Carole Lombard, Guy Standing

Synopsis: Eagle and the Hawk is a "war is hell" saga slightly reminiscent of All Quiet on the Western Front. Fredric March plays a British World War One flying ace suffering from emotional fatigue. March's happy-go-lucky pilot buddy (Cary Grant) tries to help his friend forget his problems by accompanying Read More

Too Much Harmony

Actors: Bing Crosby, Jack Oakie, Judith Allen, Harry Green

Synopsis: There can never be Too Much Harmony in a Bing Crosby picture, not even in a bucolic backstage musical like this. Crosby plays Eddie Bronson, a big-time singing star stranded in a one-horse town. Refusing to let any grass grow under his feet, Eddie combs through the local talent, discovering Read More

Sky Bride

Actors: Richard Arlen, Jack Oakie, Virginia Bruce, Robert Coogan, Charles Starrett

Synopsis: Richard Arlen more or less revives his aviation-ace role from Wings in the Paramount programmer Sky Bride. Arlen plays Speed Condon, the star attraction of a barnstorming troupe of stunt flyers. When his best friend Eddie (Tom Douglas) is killed during a staged "dogfight," Speed quits the troupe Read More

If I Had a Million

Actors: Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, W.C. Fields, Charlie Ruggles, George Raft, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Based on a story by Robert Andrews, If I Had a Million is a multipart comedy-drama employing Paramount's top directorial and acting talents. Refusing to leave his fortune to his grasping relatives, dying millionaire Richard Bennett selects several people at random from the phone book and bestows Read More

Dancers in the Dark

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Jack Oakie, William Collier, Jr., Eugene Pallette, Lyda Roberti

Synopsis: In this drama, a bandleader thinks that his young friend will be corrupted by his budding relationship with a taxi dancer. To protect the tender youth, the conductor sends him out of town.The bandleader soon finds himself wooing the lovely dancer. Unfortunately, a jealous gangster is also in love Read More

Make Me a Star

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Joan Blondell, ZaSu Pitts, Ben Turpin, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: Joan Blondell, borrowed for the occasion from Warner Bros., earned top-billing in this delightful Hollywood parable, but the real star is of course Stuart Erwin as the irrepressible grocery clerk Merton Gill. Paramount screenwriters Saul Mintz, Walter De Leon and Arthur Kober based their witty Read More

Once in a Lifetime

Actors: Jack Oakie, Aline MacMahon, Russell Hopton, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: Based on the stage comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, Once in a Lifetime is a satire of Hollywood's early-talkie era. A down-and-out vaudeville trio (Jack Oakie, Aline MacMahon, and Russell Hopton) takes advantage of the confusion attending the talkie revolution by heading to Hollywood and Read More

Madison Square Garden

Actors: Jack Oakie, Marian Nixon, Thomas Meighan, William "Hopalong" Boyd, ZaSu Pitts

Synopsis: A goodly portion of this boxing drama was filmed on location at the real-life Madison Square Garden. Jack Oakie stars as Eddie Burke, a wise-guy pugilist whose talent is unevenly matched by his ego. Despite his character flaws, Eddie knows the meaning of loyalty. When his manager Doc Williams (William Collier Sr Read More

Uptown New York

Actors: Jack Oakie, Shirley Grey, Leon Waycoff [Ames], George Cooper, Lee Moran

Synopsis: Roly-poly comedian Jack Oakie in a serious role? Yes, that is exactly what you get with Uptown New York, an otherwise humdrum melodrama from lower echelon company World Wide Pictures. Oakie plays Eddie Doyle, a gumball machine salesman who marries Pat Smith (Shirley Grey) knowing full well that Read More

Million Dollar Legs

Actors: Jack Oakie, W.C. Fields, Andy Clyde, Lyda Roberti, Susan Fleming

Synopsis: "Klopstokia: A Far-Away Country. Chief Exports: Goats and Nuts. Chief Imports: Goats and Nuts. Chief Inhabitants: Goats and Nuts." This introductory title ushers in Million Dollar Legs, one of the zaniest comedies ever to emerge from a major studio. W.C. Fields stars as the president of Read More

The Stolen Jools

Touchdown

Actors: Richard Arlen, Peggy Shannon, Jack Oakie, Regis Toomey, George Barbier

Synopsis: In this gridiron drama, a college football coach and ex-All American will stop at nothing to have a winning team. The trouble begins as Dastardly Dan Curtis sends an injured player into a big game. The ploy works and the team wins; unfortunately, the player ends up hospitalized. Later he changes Read More

The Gang Buster

Actors: Jack Oakie, Jean Arthur, William "Stage" Boyd, Wynne Gibson, William Morris

Synopsis: In this comedy, a bumbling rube from a small town manages to get involved in a gang war. The trouble really begins when one mob boss orders him to kidnap a young woman. The naive simpleton protests, telling him that he cannot because it is against the law. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

June Moon

Actors: Jack Oakie, Frances Dee, June MacCloy, Ernest Wood, Wynne Gibson

Synopsis: A well-meaning but dimwitted electrical worker-turned-lyricist Frederick Martin Stevens (Jack Oakie) arrives in New York determined to become a successful songwriter. He meets a nice girl , Edna Baker (Frances Dee), and a couple of bad ones, one of whom, Eileen Fletcher (June MacCloy), nearly Read More

Dude Ranch

Actors: Jack Oakie, Stuart Erwin, Eugene Pallette, Mitzi Green, June Collyer

Synopsis: Two of Paramount's best contract comedians made a rare joint appearance in Dude Ranch. Jack Oakie heads the cast as Jennifer (sic!), the head of a travelling troupe of repertory actors. Finding themselves on the premises of a dude ranch, Jennifer and his actors strike up a deal with ranch Read More

Sea Legs

Actors: Jack Oakie, Harry Green, Lillian Roth, Eugene Pallette, Albert Conti

Synopsis: Here we go again. Sailor "Searchlight" Hogan (Jack Oakie) has a yen for every pretty girl who crosses his path. Imagine his delight, then, when Hogan is assigned to the European vessel captained by a man (Albert Conti) with a host of gorgeous daughters. The most gorgeous of the bunch is Adrienne (Lilian Roth Read More

The Social Lion

Actors: Jack Oakie, Mary Brian, Olive Borden, Charles Sellon

Synopsis: In this high-spirited satire of competitive sports, boxer Marco Perkins is creamed during a fight and decides to play polo instead so he can impress an extremely wealthy young woman who merely considers him amusing. The poor social climbing fellow soon learns that she is only toying with his Read More

The Sap from Syracuse

Actors: Jack Oakie, Ginger Rogers, Granville Bates, George Barbier

Synopsis: Based on a short-lived stage comedy, The Sap from Syracuse stars Jack Oakie in the title role. A humble laborer on a luxury liner, Littleton Looney (Oakie) is mistaken for a world-famous engineer by heiress Ellen Saunders (Ginger Rogers, in her third feature-film appearance). Naturally, all the Read More

Hit the Deck

Actors: Jack Oakie, Polly Walker, Roger Gray, Harry Sweet

Synopsis: In this musical, based on a long-running Broadway hit from 1927, a sailor finds himself the object of a cafe owner's affections. Singin', dancin', and mayhem ensues. Songs include: Sometimes I'm Happy," "Hallelujah," "Why, Oh Why," "Keeping Myself For You," "More Than You Know," "Billy Rose," "I Read More

Let's Go Native

Actors: Jack Oakie, Jeanette MacDonald, James Hall, William Austin

Synopsis: Few films outside of Let's Go Native could boast a cast as diverse as Jack Oakie, Jeanette MacDonald and Kay Francis -- all under the direction of Leo McCarey. A variation of the "Admirable Crichton" theme, the story concerns a group of highly incompatible people, all stranded on a tropical Read More

Paramount on Parade

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Richard Arlen, Jean Arthur, Gary Cooper, William Austin, Clara Bow, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft

Synopsis: Considered the best of the all-star "studio" musicals of 1929 and 1930, Paramount on Parade utilized the talents of practically everyone on the Paramount Pictures payroll. Under the supervision of British musical-comedy favorite Elsie Janis, 11 top directors contributed to the project: Dorothy Arzner Read More

Fast Company

Actors: Evelyn Brent, Jack Oakie, Sam Hardy, Gwen Lee

Synopsis: This comedy chronicles the rise of a country rube who becomes a baseball legend for the New York Yankees. Not only does he help the team win the World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he also beats a group of gangsters all by himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Dummy

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, Fredric March, John Cromwell, Fred Kohler, Mickey Bennett

Synopsis: The early Paramount talkie The Dummy represented a collaboration of sorts between screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who adapted the play on which the film was based, and Mankiewicz' brother Joseph, who wrote the subtitles for the film's silent version. The title character is office-boy Barney Read More

The Man I Love

Actors: Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, Olga Baclanova, Leslie Fenton, Pat O'Malley

Synopsis: Bearing no relation to the popular torch song of the same name, The Man I Love is a prizefight picture, courtesy of Paramount production exec David O. Selznick. Richard Arlen stars as Dum-Dum Brooks, a tank-town boxer who journeys to New York in hopes of cracking the Big Time. Along for the ride Read More

Chinatown Nights

Actors: Wallace Beery, Florence Vidor, Warner Oland, Jack McHugh, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Despite the creative input of producer David O. Selznick and director William A. Wellman, Chinatown Nights was just so much chop suey. In her first (and last) talking-picture appearance, silent screen queen Florence Vidor plays Joan Fry, a San Francisco socialite who ruins her reputation when she Read More

Sweetie

Actors: Nancy Carroll, Helen Kane, Stanley Smith, Jack Oakie, William Austin

Synopsis: In this college-campus musical, a Broadway star finds herself the proud owner of a North Carolina college. The star's boy friend attends the school where he is a big football hero. The trouble begins when the star begins trying to convince the young man to forget about school and elope with her Read More

Close Harmony

Actors: Nancy Carroll, Harry Green, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: This tuneful tale revolves around a shy warehouse clerk who, at the encouragement of his girlfriend finally musters up his courage and decides to break into show business with his little band. The bandleader must work hard to inspire his musicians. He does. Musical numbers abound. Songs include Read More

Hard to Get

Actors: Dorothy Mackaill, James Finlayson, Louise Fazenda, Jack Oakie, Edmund Burns

Synopsis: Edna Ferber's short story "Classified" was the source for the Dorothy Mackaill vehicle Hard to Get. Mackaill is cast as Bobby Martin, a dress-shop model with intellectual aspirations. Wealthy Dexter Courtland (Edmund Burns) rescues Bobby from a masher, whereupon romance blooms. Likewise smitten Read More

Street Girl

Actors: John Harron, Ned Sparks, Jack Oakie, Guy Buccola, Betty Compson, Ivan Lebedeff

Synopsis: The first official release from RKO Productions (previous films from this company had been produced by RKO antecedent FBO Pictures), Street Girl afforded Betty Compson to exhibit her considerable skills as a violinist. Compson is cast as Frederika "Freddy" Joyzelle, manager and principal Read More

The Wild Party

Actors: Clara Bow, Fredric March, Shirley O'Hara, Joyce Compton, Virginia Thomas

Synopsis: In this film, the irresponsible Stella Ames (Clara Bow) spends her college career attending parties rather than studying. However, when she ends up in the difficult class of the handsome, but stern, Professor Gil Gilmore (Fredrick March), she develops a crush on him which creates a series of Read More

Road House

Actors: Maria Alba, Lionel Barrymore, Julia Swayne Gordon, Tempe Piggott

Finders Keepers

Actors: Laura La Plante, John Harron, Edmund Breese, Arthur Rankin, Bill Gorman

Synopsis: Finders Keepers is based on a lighthearted story by mystery specialist Mary Roberts Rinehardt. Laura LaPlante stars as Barbara, the flighty daughter of army colonel Archibald (Edmund Breese). Upon falling in love with Carter (John Harron), one of the men under her father's command, Barbara decides Read More

The Fleet's In

Actors: Clara Bow, James Hall, Jack Oakie, Eddie Dunn

Someone to Love

Actors: Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Mary Brian, William Austin, Jack Oakie, James Kirkwood

Synopsis: Paramount's popular screen team of Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Mary Brian were once again cinematically united in 1928's Someone to Love. Rogers plays William Shelby, a struggling young sheet-music salesman, while Brian is Joan Kendricks, his wealthy sweetie. Thanks to a series of bizarre Read More