Jean Hersholt Filmography

Dancing in the Dark

Actors: William Powell, Mark Stevens, Betsy Drake, Adolphe Menjou, Randy Stuart

Synopsis: This musical comedy stars William Powell as Emery Slade, who was once a major film star but lately isn't getting much work. Arrogantly determined to climb back to the top, Slade convinces studio chief Melville Crossman (Adolphe Menjou) to give him the male lead in the film version of a Broadway Read More

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

They Meet Again

Synopsis: This last entry in the Dr. Christian series tells about a country doctor who pieces together a defense to get a bank teller-- who has been wrongly convicted of embezzlement--out of jail. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Melody for Three

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Fay Wray, Walter Woolf King, Schuyler Standish, Patsy Lee Parsons

Synopsis: For some reason or other, Melody for Three seems to be the most frequently revived of RKO Radio's "Dr. Christian." As ever, Jean Hersholt stars as Christian, kindly general practitioner of the town of River's End. In this one, Dr. Christian takes an avuncular interest in young Billy Stanley Read More

The Courageous Dr. Christian

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, Robert Baldwin, Tom Neal, Maude Eburne

Synopsis: The second entry in RKO Radio's "Dr. Christian" series, Courageous Dr. Christian was like the first inspired by the popular radio weekly. In this one, kindly general practioner Dr. Christian (Jean Hersholt) tends to the needs of a group of indigents, living in squalor in the town's shanty Read More

Remedy for Riches

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, Edgar Kennedy, Jed Prouty, Walter Catlett

Synopsis: Remedy for Riches was the fourth in RKO Radio's six-entry "Dr. Christian" series. Jean Hersholt returns as Dr. Christian, the wise and beneficent general practitioner of the town of River's End. The plot is thickened on this occasion by an oil-well scam, perpetrated by city slickers Stewart (Warren Hull Read More

Dr. Christian Meets the Women

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, Edgar Kennedy, Rod La Rocque, Frank Albertson

Synopsis: The third of six feature films based on radio's popular Dr. Christian series, Dr. Christian Meets the Women once more stars Jean Hersholt as the kindly eponymous medico. In this entry, the tiny community of River's End is invaded by Professor Kenneth Parker (Rod La Rocque), a charming charlatan Read More

Mr. Moto in Danger Island

Actors: Peter Lorre, Jean Hersholt, Amanda Duff, Warren Hymer, Richard Lane

Synopsis: Peter Lorre stars as the famous Asian detective Mr. Moto in this remake of Murder in Trinidad, in which Moto is asked to help the United States government crack a smuggling ring bringing in stolen diamonds from Puerto Rico. Moto's deductive powers quickly prove impressive as he matches wits with Read More

Meet Dr. Christian

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, Robert Baldwin, Enid Bennett, Paul Harvey

Synopsis: As a direct result with his excellent showing as warm-hearted Dr. Dafoe in the Dionne Quintuplets films, Jean Hersholt was awarded a not dissimilar radio series about a kindly general practioner named Dr. Christian. Two years after the debut of the Dr. Christian radio series, RKO Radio launched a Read More

Five of a Kind

Synopsis: The financial exploitation of Canada's Dionne Quintuplets rolled ever forward with 20th Century-Fox's Five of a Kind, the third Dionne feature-length vehicle. Under the watchful eye of kindly obstetrican Dr. Dafoe (Jean Hersholt), the lovable quints, now 4 1/2 years old, play with their pets and Read More

I'll Give a Million

Actors: Marjorie Weaver, Peter Lorre, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: In this upbeat drama, a disillusioned millionaire, sick to death of the attempts of greedy friends and relatives to sponge off of him, becomes a bum to search for a decent human being. The tale begins as the wealthy man is about to commit suicide by leaping off of his yacht into the sea. He is Read More

Happy Landing

Actors: Sonja Henie, Don Ameche, Jean Hersholt, Ethel Merman, Cesar Romero

Synopsis: Happy Landing was another Sonja Henie moneyspinner from the 20th Century-Fox film factory. The story gets under way when skirt-chasing bandleader Duke Sargent (Cesar Romero) pitches woo to Trudy Ericksen (Sonja Henie) while on a tour of Norway. To Duke, it's just another harmless flirtation, but Read More

Alexander's Ragtime Band

Actors: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley

Synopsis: His Aunt Sophie (Helen Westley) and his teacher Professor Heinrich (Jean Hersholt) are sure that Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) will be a famous classical violinist, but Roger's more interested in popular music. He and his friend, pianist Charlie (Don Ameche), audition at a saloon in San Francisco's Read More

The Seventh Heaven

Actors: Simone Simon, James Stewart, Jean Hersholt, Gregory Ratoff, Gale Sondergaard

Synopsis: This romantic tearjerker was the second film based on the popular 1922 stage play. James Stewart stars as Chico, a lowly Paris sewer worker who has abandoned his faith in God and any hope for a brighter future or romance when his prayers go unanswered. Chico meets Diane (Simone Simon), a Read More

Heidi

Actors: Shirley Temple, Jean Hersholt, Arthur Treacher, Helen Westley, Pauline Moore

Synopsis: Johanna Spyri's perennial children's favorite Heidi was retailored to the talents of Shirley Temple, resulting in one of her best vehicles. Orphaned early in the proceeding, Heidi is left in the care of her bitter, misanthropic grandfather Adolph Kramer (Jean Hersholt). It doesn't take long before Read More

Tough Guy

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Joseph Calleia, Rin Tin Tin, Jr., Harvey Stephens, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: In this drama, a boy's love for his loyal dog, Rin Tin Tin, helps him survive in a hard cruel world. The trouble begins with the boy's dog-hating wealthy father. Not wanting to part with his beloved Rinty, the boy runs away and gets mixed up with gangsters. After several mishaps, the boy and his Read More

Sins of Man

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Don Ameche, Allen Jenkins, J. Edward Bromberg, Ann Shoemaker

Synopsis: A bell ringer's wife dies while giving birth to his second son who turns out to be deaf. His oldest son moves to America where he becomes a successful engineer. Meanwhile, back at home in Austria, the bell ringer gives his remaining son to a monastery and then wanders off to become a bum. Years Read More

Reunion

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Rochelle Hudson, Helen Vinson, George "Slim" Summerville, Robert Kent

Synopsis: This second of 20th Century-Fox's Dionne Quintuplets vehicles brings back Jean Hersholt as kindly Canadian obstetrician Dr. Dafoe. The good doctor faces none of the professional crises that plagued him in the first Dionne picture The Country Doctor. Instead, a testimonial dinner is arranged for Read More

His Brother's Wife

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, Jean Hersholt, Joseph Calleia, John Eldredge

Synopsis: In this polished soap opera from MGM, Robert Taylor plays Chris Claybourne, a dedicated scientist researching a possible cure for spotted fever. However, Chris has a dark side; he has a weakness for gambling and has fallen into debt with a gangster named Fish Eye (Joseph Calleia). While visiting Read More

The Country Doctor

Actors: Jean Hersholt, June Lang, George "Slim" Summerville, Michael Whalen, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: The well-publicized (and overexploited) birth of Canada's Dionne Quintuplets in 1934 formed the basis of The Country Doctor. Jean Hersholt starred as Dr. Allan Dafoe, the real-life medico who delivered the famous quints (who appear in person towards the end of the film). The film recounts Dafoe's Read More

One in a Million

Actors: Sonja Henie, Adolphe Menjou, Jean Hersholt, Ned Sparks, Don Ameche

Synopsis: Norwegian skating sensation Sonja Henie made her Hollywood screen debut in the splashy 20th Century-Fox musical One in a Million. While preparing for the 1936 Winter Olympics, Swiss skater Greta Muller (Henie) is discovered by American theatrical entrepreneur Tad Spencer (Adolphe Menjou). This Read More

Murder in the Fleet

Actors: Robert Taylor, Jean Parker, Ted Healy, Una Merkel, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Having gained considerable audience attention for his appearance in the 1935 "Crime Does Not Pay" 2-reeler Buried Loot, new MGM contractee Robert Taylor was awarded with his first starring feature, the modestly budgeted Murder in the Fleet. Taylor is cast as Lt. Tom Randolph, one of several naval Read More

Mark of the Vampire

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Bela Lugosi, Elizabeth Allan, Lionel Atwill, Jean Hersholt, Carroll Borland

Synopsis: Mark of the Vampire is Tod Browning's remake of his own 1927 thriller London After Midnight, which unfortunately no longer exists. The sudden appearance of ghostly vampires in a remote mittel-European community is seemingly tied in with an old, unsolved murder case. Police inspector Neumann (Lionel Atwill Read More

Break of Hearts

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Charles Boyer, John Beal, Jean Hersholt, Sam Hardy

Synopsis: Katharine Hepburn suffers nobly while her philandering conductor husband Charles Boyer dallies with the likes of Helene Millard in this overheated melodrama directed by Philip Moeller of the renowned Theater Guild. Although receiving plenty of warning, prim lady composer Constance Roberti Read More

The Painted Veil

Actors: Greta Garbo, Herbert Marshall, George Brent, Warner Oland, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: A W. Somerset Maugham novel was the source for the fair-to-middling Greta Garbo vehicle The Painted Veil. In a situation comparable to the plotlines of most of her silent films, Garbo is lovelessly married to Herbert Marshall, but carries a flaming torch for George Brent. (Also harking back to Garbo Read More

Men in White

Actors: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Jean Hersholt, Elizabeth Allan, Otto Kruger

Synopsis: In an unusual move, MGM released its film version of Sidney Kingsley's Pulitzer-Prize winning play Men in White while the play was still running on Broadway. Clark Gable is cast as Dr. George Ferguson, a dynamic young intern whose brilliant future seems assured. In addition to planning to study in Read More

The Fountain

Actors: Ann Harding, Brian Aherne, Paul Lukas, Jean Hersholt, Ralph Forbes

Synopsis: In this wartime drama, set during WW I, the adoring wife of a German officer soon finds herself falling for a handsome British soldier while her husband is off to fight the war. Her husband returns. Not only has he inhaled poison gas, he has also lost an arm. His guilt-ridden wife tries to help Read More

Hell's Harbor

The Cat and the Fiddle

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Frank Morgan, Charles Butterworth, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: Based on the stage musical by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach, The Cat and the Fiddle stars Jeanette MacDonald as a music student and Ramon Novarro as a struggling composer. When the leading lady walks out of Victor's (Novarro) upcoming operetta, the star's husband pulls his financial support. The Read More

Christopher Bean

Actors: Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore, Beulah Bondi, Helen Shipman, Helen Mack

Synopsis: Based on the play by Sidney Howard (of Gone with the Wind and Dead End fame), Christopher Bean is a showcase for the magnificent Marie Dressler. She plays Abby, the poor but proud housekeeper of a small-town doctor (Lionel Barrymore), his wife (Beulah Bondi), and their children. Years before the Read More

Dinner at Eight

Actors: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke

Synopsis: Based on the Broadway hit by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, Dinner at Eight is a near-flawless comedy/drama with an all-star cast at the peak of their talents. Social butterfly Mrs. Oliver Jordan (Billie Burke) arranges a dinner party that will benefit the busines of her husband (Lionel Barrymore Read More

The Crime of the Century

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Wynne Gibson, Stuart Erwin, Frances Dee, David Landau

Synopsis: This unique thriller chronicles the exploits of a doctor who will do almost anything to please his young, second wife. She wants more money. He arranges to get it by hypnotizing a bank official and making him extract $100,000 from the vault. The doctor then plans to murder him and then rob him. Read More

Song of the Eagle

Actors: Charles Bickford, Richard Arlen, Jean Hersholt, Mary Brian, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: This drama centers on the fight for certain post-Prohibitionist groups to gain total control over the liquor industry. Much of the tale is focused upon a family endeavoring to keep their little brewery. Their tiny beer- making operation was first jeopardized by the racketeers they refused to join. Read More

Emma

Actors: Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy, John Miljan

Synopsis: Emma is a turn-of-the-century domestic drama completely dominated by star Marie Dressler. She plays the maid of an upper middle class family, keeping her wits about her as her employers suffer crisis after crisis. When the master of the house (Jean Hersholt), a prominent inventor, is widowed, he Read More

Night Court

Actors: Phillips Holmes, Walter Huston, Anita Page, Mary Carlisle

Synopsis: Night Court is one of those pictures that "hooks" the viewer with one audacious plot twist after another. Walter Huston is eminently hissable as Judge Moffett, a corrupt jurist who has managed to buy off practically everyone in town, all the while maintaining a facade of respectability. When Read More

Unashamed

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Robert Young, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan

Synopsis: Directed by Harry Beaumont, the courtroom drama Unashamed stars Robert Young as Dick Ogden, who will do anything to protect his sister Jean (Helen Twelvetrees). Unfortunately, Jean is in love with the sleazy Harry Swift (Monroe Owsley), who is only interested in her fortune. After Harry (Owsley) Read More

Hearts of Humanity

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Jackie Searl, John Farrell MacDonald, Claudia Dell, Charles Delaney

Synopsis: The descriptive phrase "melting pot" is elucidated in the sentimental drama Hearts of Humanity. Jean Hersholt stars as a golden-hearted Jewish pawnbroker whose daughter Caludia Dell falls in love with Irish-Catholic policeman Charles Delaney. When another Irish cop is killed by a burglar, Hersholt Read More

Grand Hotel

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore

Synopsis: Based on Vicki Baum's novel and produced by Irving Thalberg, this film is about the lavish Grand Hotel in Berlin, a place where "nothing ever happens." That statement proves to be false, however, as the story follows an intertwining cast of characters over the course of one tumultuous day. Greta Garbo Read More

Flesh

Actors: Wallace Beery, Karen Morley, Ricardo Cortez, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan

Synopsis: Flesh was one of the few big-studio films to deal with the subject of professional wrestling--at least until Hulk Hogan came along in the 1980s. Wallace Beery stars as a thickheaded waiter in a German beer garden who uses his muscles to clear out rowdy patrons. Beery channels his strength into a Read More

New Morals for Old

Actors: Robert Young, Margaret Perry, Myrna Loy

Synopsis: New Morals for Old was the teasing title for a somewhat sedate film about the ongoing rejection of middle-class values by the youth of America. Robert Young, Myrna Loy, Donald Cook and Margaret Perry are among the freethinking young folk whose attitudes clash with those of their elders (including Lewis Stone Read More

Skyscraper Souls

Actors: Warren William, Maureen O'Sullivan, Gregory Ratoff, Anita Page, Veree Teasdale, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: Produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Production for MGM, this well made Grand Hotel clone was based on a 1931 novel by Faith Baldwin. Warren William stars as David Dwight, a building and bank magnate who not only attempts to double-cross his backers but is two-timing both his wife Read More

The Mask of Fu Manchu

Actors: Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy

Synopsis: Boris Karloff stars as the villainous Dr. Fu Manchu in this wild and wooly -- and wildly racist -- adventure yarn, based on Sax Rohmer's fiction about the personification of the "yellow peril." Sir Nayland Smith (Lewis Stone) of the British Secret Service recruits Sir Lionel Barton (Lawrence Read More

The Beast of the City

Actors: Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford, Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: A reluctantly appointed police chief in a crime-riddled city takes his job seriously and works hard to clean the streets of gangsters and to shape up his own corrupt department in this brutal, gritty film noir. Jean Harlow plays a luminescent but ill-fated gun moll. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

Are You Listening?

Actors: William Haines, Madge Evans, Anita Page, Karen Morley, Neil Hamilton

Synopsis: "Are you listening?" was the catchphrase of early-1930s radio personality Tony Wons. Though Wons does not appear in the 1932 MGM programmer Are You Listening?, the film is concerned with the burgeoning broadcast industry. William Haines plays a wise-cracking radio writer who is tricked into Read More

The Sin of Madelon Claudet

Actors: Helen Hayes, Neil Hamilton, Robert Young, Cliff Edwards

Synopsis: In the space of 74 minutes, Helen Hayes goes from naïve French country lass to elderly harridan in Sin of Madelon Claudet. Is it any wonder that she won an Academy Award? (She truly deserved this Oscar; the jury is still out concerning her cutesy supporting turn in 1969's Airport, which also Read More

A Soldier's Plaything

Actors: Lotti Loder, Harry Langdon, Ben Lyon

Synopsis: In this WW I comedy, several young men decide to join the army. Each one has his own reason for joining up. Songs include: "Forever," "Qui, Qui," "Honey Boy," "Ja, Ja, Ja," "Side by Side." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Phantom of Paris

Actors: John Gilbert, Leila Hyams, Jean Hersholt, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a magician finds himself accused of murdering his lover's father. He flees and the lover marries her other boyfriend--the real killer. When her husband dies, the magician gets plastic surgery until he resembles the killer and assumes his former position as husband to the girl. Read More

Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise

Actors: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan, Alan Hale

Synopsis: It was once theorized by critic Andrew Sarris that this 1931 Greta Garbo vehicle was subtitled "Her Fall & Rise" rather than the expected "Rise & Fall," because Hollywood--and by extension, the public--could not tolerate a failure. Whatever the case, modern audiences will latch onto Susan Lennox Read More

Transatlantic

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Lois Moran, John Halliday, Greta Nissen, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: Adhering to a formula that would later be popularized further in Grand Hotel, Transatlantic is one of the best of the "multi-story" films of the early 1930s. As a luxurious ocean liner makes its way across the Atlantic Ocean, the audience is made privy to the travails of several of its passengers. Edmund Lowe Read More

Private Lives

Actors: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Reginald Denny, Una Merkel, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: Amanda (Norma Shearer) and Elyot (Robert Montgomery) -- a witty, sophisticated married couple -- divorce and marry other mates. Amanda chooses stuffy Victor (Reginald Denny), while Elyot's selection is the tiresome Sibyl (Una Merkel). Coincidentally, both newlywed couples honeymoon at the same Read More

Daybreak

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Helen Chandler, Jean Hersholt, C. Aubrey Smith, William Bakewell

Synopsis: A man who unthinkingly sullied the honor of a virtuous girl now must deal with his own ethical downfall in this drama. Willi Kasder (Ramon Novarro) is a lieutenant in the Austrian Army who one night picks up an innocent young woman named Laura Taub (Helen Chandler). Willi shares several drinks Read More

Viennese Nights

Actors: Alexander Gray, Vivienne Segal, Jean Hersholt, Walter Pidgeon, Louise Fazenda

Synopsis: This early musical was filmed in color and centers upon the love affair between a young composer and the woman he wants to marry. Unfortunately the two quarrel and split up, causing her to marry a wealthy man. He also marries, but the union is unhappy because his new wife doesn't understand his Read More

The Third Alarm

Actors: Anita Louise, James Hall, Paul Hurst, Jean Hersholt, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: In this drama, the children of a recently deceased firefighter are sent to an orphanage. Two other firefighters offered to take the brother and his older sister in, but the authorities demurred and the children are whisked away. Time passes and one day the orphanage catches fire. The fireman rush Read More

The Case of Sergeant Grischa

Actors: Chester Morris, Betty Compson, Alec B. Francis, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: This war drama, set in WW I Germany, is based on a novel by Arnold Zwieg. The story follows the harrowing trials of an escaped Russian POW trying to return to his home country. Along the way the Germans recapture him. Because he wears the dog tag of a late Russian spy, the innocent protagonist is Read More

The Cat Creeps

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Raymond Hackett, Neil Hamilton, Lilyan Tashman, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: The Cat Creeps is the first of three talkie versions of John Willard's durable stage melodrama The Cat and the Canary (filmed under its original title in 1927). Twenty years after the death of misanthropic millionaire Cyrus West, the old man's heirs are summoned to the spooky ancestral mansion for Read More

Mamba

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Eleanor Boardman, Ralph Forbes, Josef Swickard, Claude Fleming

Synopsis: One of the most ambitious productions ever to emerge from parsimonious Tiffany Studios, Mamba is also one of the few 1930s horror films to be lensed in Technicolor. The story takes place in East Africa, where bestial August Bolte (Jean Hersholt), also known as Mamba, holds the local Zulu Read More

The Climax

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Kathryn Crawford, LeRoy Mason, John Reinhardt, Henry Armetta

Synopsis: The Climax is based on the 1909 play of the same name by Edward Locke. Kathryn Crawford plays Adela Donitelli, an aspiring singer who is coached to stardom by Italian voice teacher Golfanti (Jean Hersholt), who'd performed the same miracle for Adela's opera-diva mother. A