John BarrymoreFilmography

The Hollywood Collection: The Horror of it All

Synopsis: Directed by Philip Martell, music director of such horror films as Snake Woman (1961) and Die, Monster, Die! (1964), this documentary recounts the history of horror movies, with footage and scenes from major horror films such as Nosferatu and The Horror of Dracula. Highlights include footage of Read More

That's Entertainment Part II

Actors: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn

Synopsis: This represents MGM's 1976 sequel to its enormously successful compilation film That's Entertainment (1974). In lieu of the multi-narrator device of the first film, director Gene Kelly chooses to limit the hosting chores to two people: himself, and his friendly rival Fred Astaire. Another Read More

World Premiere

Actors: John Barrymore, Frances Farmer, Eugene Pallette, Virginia Dale, Ricardo Cortez

Synopsis: A producer devises an elaborate gala premiere for his latest anti-Nazi propaganda epic, The Earth in Flames. It is slated to open in Washington, D.C. and he has his press agents working overtime to produce an enormous hoopla of secrecy and publicity stunts. They come up with the plan of Read More

Playmates

Actors: John Barrymore, Lupe Velez, Ginny Simms, May Robson

Synopsis: The much-maligned Playmates callously offers the appalling spectacle of a thoroughly dissolute John Barrymore in his final screen performance, but the film isn't quite as bad as it's supposed to be. Barrymore plays himself, a washed-up ham actor up to his ears in debts. When the IRS demands Read More

The Invisible Woman

Actors: Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore, John Howard, Charlie Ruggles, Oscar Homolka

Synopsis: Dispensing with the melodramatic excesses of Universal's previous "Invisible Man" films, 1941's The Invisible Woman aims strictly for laughs. Virginia Bruce stars as Kitty Carroll, an outspoken department store model fired from her job by tyrannical Mr. Growley (Charles Lane). Intrigued by an ad Read More

The Great Profile

Actors: John Barrymore, Mary Beth Hughes, Gregory Ratoff, John Payne, Anne Baxter

Synopsis: John Barrymore provides an embarrassing spectacle in the semi-autobiographical role of a ham actor. Constantly in debt and always half-loaded, Barrymore accepts a role in an important play, which he nearly ruins by his intemperate antics. Anne Baxter plays a sincere young woman who tries to pull Read More

Midnight

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer, Mary Astor

Synopsis: Paramount's screwball comedy Midnight is the first collaboration between director Mitchell Leisen and screenwriting duo Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. The film merges Brackett and Wilder's early emphasis on repartee and masquerade with ex-costume designer Leisen's flair for high style and Read More

Land of Liberty

Synopsis: Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited Read More

Spawn of the North

Actors: George Raft, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff, John Barrymore

Synopsis: The visual wizardry in this period action picture about Alaskan fishermen won a special honorary Oscar in the years before special effects got its own category. Henry Fonda stars as Jim Kimmerlee, a salmon fisherman in Alaska who has become at odds with a childhood friend, Tyler Dawson (George Read More

Hold That Co-Ed

Actors: John Barrymore, George Murphy, Marjorie Weaver, Joan Davis, Jack Haley

Synopsis: This tuneful campus comedy features aging star John Barrymore as a sly, blustery Southern governor with his eye on the Senate (aka Louisiana's Huey Long). He sees opportunity knocking when he learns how desperate his constituents have become to build their miserable state college football team Read More

Romance in the Dark

Actors: Gladys Swarthout, John Boles, John Barrymore, Claire Dodd, Fritz Feld

Synopsis: Herman Bahr's German play The Yellow Nightingale from 1907 became Paramount's 1938 entry in the then-popular operetta cycle. Gladys Swarthout, formerly of the Met, stars as Ilona Boros, a peasant girl with a magnificent voice who becomes a pawn in the rivalry between opera tenor Tony Kovach (John Read More

Marie Antoinette

Actors: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley, Anita Louise, Joseph Schildkraut

Synopsis: M.G.M.'s opulent costume drama Marie Antoinette marked a return to the screen after a two-year absence for reigning Queen of M.G.M. Norma Shearer. Shearer plays the title role of an Austrian princess who is married off to Louis Auguste (Robert Morley), the Dauphin of France. Marie, by becoming the Read More

The Great Man Votes

Actors: John Barrymore, Peter Holden, Virginia Weidler, Katherine Alexander, Donald MacBride

Synopsis: Ageing, alcohol-benumbed John Barrymore had one last great performance left in him before his death in 1942, and The Great Man Votes was the ideal vehicle for that performance. Barrymore plays a widowed, once-distinguished professor, lately reduced to being a night watchman. He tries to stay off Read More

Bulldog Drummond's Peril

Actors: John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell, Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive

Synopsis: Though John Barrymore is top-billed in Bulldog Drummond's Peril, the aging matinee idol is consigned to the supporting role of Inspector Nielsen. Drummond is portrayed by John Howard; once more, he is on the verge of marrying the ever-patient Phyllis Clavering (Louise Campbell). And yet again, the Read More

Bulldog Drummond Comes Back

Actors: John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell, Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive

Synopsis: In the second of Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" thrillers, Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (John Howard) is finally about to marry longtime fiancée Phyllis Clavering (Louise Campbell) when the girl is kidnapped. The hijackers, Mikhail Valdin (J. Carroll Naish) and his sister, Erena Soldanis (Helen Read More

Bulldog Drummond's Revenge

Actors: John Barrymore, Louise Campbell, John Howard, E.E. Clive, Reginald Denny

Synopsis: In the fourth of Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" action-thrillers, the intrepid adventurer (John Howard) makes the grizzly discovery of a severed hand. Even more startling, attached to the wayward limb is a case filled with hextonite, a new and highly explosive substance desired by the enemy in Read More

True Confession

Actors: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, John Barrymore, Una Merkel, Porter Hall

Synopsis: Carole Lombard stars as Helen Bartlett, a compulsive liar who always tips the audience to an oncoming whopper by sticking her tongue in her cheek. Helen is married to a Kenneth Bartlett, a scrupulously honest lawyer whose integrity has always held him back professionally. Hoping to help Kenneth Read More

Night Club Scandal

Actors: John Barrymore, Lynne Overman, Louise Campbell, Charles Bickford, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: A remake of 1932's Guilty as Hell, Night Club Scandal also borrows a page from 1934's Murder at the Vanities by depicting the "friendly adversary" relationship between a reporter (Lynne Overman) and a cop (Charles Bickford). Top-billed John Barrymore plays a respectable doctor married to a Read More

Maytime

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore, Herman Bing, Tom Brown

Synopsis: The third of MGM's profitable Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy songfests, Maytime opens in the early 20th century, with a young girl arguing with her boyfriend over her wishes to become an opera singer. The girl's neighbor, a lonely old woman whom we gradually recognize as a convincingly "aged" Read More

Romeo and Juliet

Actors: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore, Edna May Oliver, Basil Rathbone

Synopsis: Director George Cukor and producer Irving G. Thalberg's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, a lavish production of Shakespeare's tale about two star-crossed lovers, is extremely well-produced and acted. In fact, it is so well-done, that it is easy to forget that Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer are too Read More

Long Lost Father

Actors: John Barrymore, Helen Chandler, Donald Cook, Alan Mowbray, Claude King

Synopsis: John Barrymore is the Long Lost Father in this lightweight seriocomedy. Barrymore is felicitously cast as Carl Bellairs, who is unexpectedly reunited with Lindsay Lane (Helen Chandler), the daughter he deserted years earlier. Not surprisingly, Lindsay wants nothing to do with her prodigal dad Read More

Twentieth Century

Actors: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Etienne Girardot

Synopsis: Flamboyant, egomaniacal theatrical impresario Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) transforms chorus girl Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard) into leading lady Lily Garland, the toast of Broadway. Once she's ascended to stardom, Mildred/Lily cannot abide Jaffe's obsessive control of her life and career. When Read More

Counsellor-At-Law

Actors: John Barrymore, Bebe Daniels, Doris Kenyon, Onslow Stevens, Isabel Jewell

Synopsis: Adapted from the play by Elmer Rice, Counsellor-at-Law is the story of a successful Jewish lawyer George Simon (John Barrymore) who finds it's lonely at the top. Simon's wife (Doris Kenyon) and children look down upon him because of his humble upbringings, while his mother reprimands him for Read More

Night Flight

Actors: John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Montgomery

Synopsis: This suspense drama was based on a novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Riviere (John Barrymore), who operates an air delivery service, is fanatical in his dedication to service, putting prompt delivery before the safety of his men or his fleet after receiving a contract to help transport the mail. Read More

Reunion in Vienna

Actors: John Barrymore, Diana Wynyard, Frank Morgan, Henry Travers, May Robson

Synopsis: Reunion in Vienna is a trapped-in-amber adaptation of Robert Sherwood's popular stage play. John Barrymore brings virtually the only life to the proceedings as an amorous Austrian archduke, long exiled from his homeland. Returning to Vienna after twelve years, Barrymore tries to take up where he Read More

Topaze

Actors: John Barrymore, Myrna Loy, Albert Conti, Luis Alberni, Reginald Mason

Synopsis: Producer David O. Selznick's adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's satirical play Topaze stars John Barrymore, delivering a peerless comedy performance a full year before Howard Hawks allegedly "discovered" Barrymore's comic potential in Twentieth Century. Barrymore plays a French science teacher who is 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

Rasputin and the Empress

Actors: John Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Ralph Morgan, Diana Wynyard

Synopsis: It's hard to separate fact and fancy from the many accounts of what happened on the set when all three of the fabulous Barrymores -- Ethel, John and Lionel -- appeared together for the only time in Rasputin and the Empress. As for the end result, John offers the subtlest (!) performance as Russian Read More

Grand Hotel

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

Arsene Lupin

Actors: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley, John Miljan, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: John Barrymore plays a burglar and his brother Lionel Barrymore is the detective trying to catch him in this cleverly cast drama. An upscale thief who works under the name of Arsene Lupin is making the rounds of the homes of the wealthy and privileged, and Detective Guerchard (Lionel Barrymore) is Read More

A Bill of Divorcement

Actors: John Barrymore, Billie Burke, Katharine Hepburn, David Manners, Bramwell Fletcher

Synopsis: Katharine Hepburn made her auspicious film debut in the otherwise undistinguished A Bill of Divorcement. Based on a play by Clemence Dane, the film is set on the day that Hepburn's mother, Billie Burke, is to divorce her insane and long-institutionalized husband John Barrymore. But Barrymore Read More

The Mad Genius

Actors: John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Carmel Myers, Charles Butterworth

Synopsis: More of a follow-up than a sequel to 1931's popular Svengali, this drama centers on the attempts of a club-footed and insanely bitter dance instructor to cling to his protege. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Svengali

Actors: John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Bramwell Fletcher, Donald Crisp, Lumsden Hare

Synopsis: The George du Maurier novel Trilby, about a hypnotist who controls a female musician, was originally filmed as Trilby, a 1920s silent. In the 1931 talkie, the emphasis shifts from the music student to the teacher, Svengali. John Barrymore gives a scenery-chewing performance as Svengali, who is Read More

State's Attorney

Actors: John Barrymore, Helen Twelvetrees, Jill Esmond, Mary Duncan

Synopsis: John Barrymore is the "State's Attorney" in the RKO picture of the same name. A brilliant criminal lawyer, Barrymore counts on his underworld connections to climb the ladder of success to the Governor's chair. "Humanized" by his girlfriend Helen Twelvetrees, a former streetwalker, Barrymore Read More

The Man from Blankley's

Actors: John Barrymore, Loretta Young, William Austin, Albert Gran, Emily Fitzroy

Synopsis: The difference between social classes provides the basis for this comedy. The trouble begins when a drunken sot wanders into the fancy home of a woman who is hosting a gala dinner. She had invited 13 guests, and so hired Blankely's, a professional company to send her a sophisticated 14th guest. Read More

Moby Dick

Actors: John Barrymore, Joan Bennett, Lloyd Hughes, May Boley, Noble Johnson, Walter Long

Synopsis: Herman Melville's classic novel gets a major revision in this screen adaptation of his seafaring novel - Hollywood's first talkie adaptation of the work. (A silent version, The Sea Beast, had been produced four years earlier). Captain Ahab Ceely (John Barrymore), a crusty and hard-drinking sailor Read More

Show of Shows

Synopsis: Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 Read More

Eternal Love

Actors: John Barrymore, Camilla Horn, Victor Varconi, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: Eternal Love was the last silent film of star John Barrymore and director Ernst Lubitsch; thereafter, both men would concentrate exclusively on talkies. Based on Der Konig der Bernina, a novel by Jakob Christopher Beer, the story is set in the Swiss Alps in 1812. Both forced into loveless Read More

General Crack

Actors: John Barrymore, Lowell Sherman, Marian Nixon, Armida, Hobart Bosworth

Synopsis: This costume drama is the first all dialog film in which Barrymore appeared. He plays a mercenary who will serve anyone who pays him. He is currently working for the Austrian Emperor. His mission is to abscond with the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. En route, the hero marries a gypsy and leaves Read More

Tempest

Actors: John Barrymore, Camilla Horn, Louis Wolheim, Boris de Fas, Ullrich Haupt, Sr.

Synopsis: One of John Barrymore's best-remembered silent films (mainly because it is one of the few that has remained in constant circulation), The Tempest is set before, during and after the Russian Revolution. Barrymore plays a Czarist military officer who is haughtily rejected by aristocratic Camilla Horn Read More

When a Man Loves

Actors: John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, Warner Oland, Sam de Grasse, Stuart Holmes

Synopsis: The same winning combination responsible for Don Juan-star John Barrymore, director Alan Crosland and screenwriter Bess Meredyth, once more aligned their talents for When a Man Loves. This adaptation of the classic novel and opera Manon Lescaut has been slightly rearranged to make the titular Read More

The Beloved Rogue

Actors: John Barrymore, Conrad Veidt, Marceline Day, Lawson Butt, Henry Victor

Synopsis: Beloved Rogue stars John Barrymore as legendary Parisian poet/vagabond Francois Villon. The film follows the basic chronology of all Villon dramatizations (If I Were King, The Vagabond King etc.): To ensure the loyalty of his subjects, crotchety King Louis XI (Conrad Veidt) appoints the waggish Read More

The Sea Beast

Actors: John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, George O'Hara, Mike Donlin, Sam Baker

Synopsis: This silent screen adaptation of "Moby Dick" features John Barrymore in action as Captain Ahab Cooley, played against one of the most famous denizens of the deep, Herman Melville's great white whale. At the beginning of the story, Ahab and his step brother Dererk (George O'Hara) compete for the Read More

Don Juan

Actors: John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Willard Louis, Estelle Taylor, Warner Oland, Montagu Love

Synopsis: Historically important as the first film to carry a Vitaphone sound track (consisting of music and sound effects, but no dialogue) Don Juan is a first-rate production by any standards, and would have been just as good with or without musical accompaniment. John Barrymore plays the legendary lover Read More

Beau Brummell

Actors: John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Willard Louis, Irene Rich, Alec B. Francis

Synopsis: John Barrymore is virtually the entire show as 18th-century British fashion plate Beau Brummel. Thanks to his sartorial splendor and quick wit, Brummel is a favorite of the Prince of Wales (Willard Louis)--and with several ladies, though his heart belongs to the beautiful, unobtainable Lady Read More

Sherlock Holmes

Actors: John Barrymore, Roland Young, Carol Dempster, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Louis Wolheim

Synopsis: John Barrymore's impressive performance in this picture is a testament to the strength of his talent, because it had a lot to overcome -- according to director Albert Parker, the famed thespian was on a bender for much of the shoot. This version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories (adapted from Read More

Lotus Eater

Actors: John Barrymore, Colleen Moore, Anna Q. Nilsson, Ida Waterman, Frank Currier

Synopsis: Director Marshall Neilan proved to be a little ahead of his time when he made this satirical comedy-drama, based on the book by Albert Payson Terhune -- trade paper Variety opined that "the general public will be vaguely dissatisfied by the barbed humor pricking their bubble of romance" Read More

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Actors: John Barrymore, Martha Mansfield

Synopsis: In 1920, filmgoers were treated to no fewer than two different film versions of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this one, John Barrymore plays the humanitarian Dr. Henry Jekyll, who becomes obsessed with the notion of separating the good and evil impulses within every man. To Read More

On the Quiet

Synopsis: This farce was originally a stage play by Augustus Thomas, and starred William Collier, Sr.. On film, another notable stage actor, John Barrymore, played the lead role of Robert Ridgway. At the time, Barrymore was primarily known for the heavy dramas in which he starred on Broadway, so his Read More

Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman

Synopsis: Author E.W. Hornung's charismatic rogue was tailor-made for John Barrymore. As Raffles, he wins the heart of Mrs. Vidal (Christine Mayo) and loses his own to the beautiful Gwendolyn (Evenlyn Brent), all while making off with the Melrose jewels, much to the frustration of another thief, Crawshay (Mike Donlin Read More

Nearly a King

Synopsis: In spite of his acclaim as a stage actor, during his early motion picture career, John Barrymore generally played lightweight comedic roles. In this film -- another one of those mythical kingdom tales -- he plays a swashbuckler. It begins with an out-of-work actor (Barrymore) glumly contemplating Read More

The Red Widow

Synopsis: Better known in 1916 for light comedy rather than heavy drama, John Barrymore effortlessly breezed through the four reels of Famous Players' The Red Widow. Even Barrymore's character name -- Cicero Hannibal Butts -- was conceived to induce loud laughter. While embarking on his honeymoon, Butts Read More

The Lost Bridegroom

Synopsis: Bertie (John Barrymore) is a bashful young man, and his sweetheart is just barely able to squeeze a marriage proposal out of him. His friends give him the usual bachelor bash, and on his way home, he's bashed on the head by some thugs. The result is that he loses his memory and winds up in the Read More

The Dictator

Synopsis: The Dictator, based on the novel and play by colorful journalist Richard Harding Davis, was brought to the screen in 1915 with the equally colorful John Barrymore in the starring role. On the lam from the New York Police because of a false murder charge, playboy Brooke Travers (Barrymore) escapes Read More

The Incorrigible Dukane

Synopsis: The otherwise pedestrian The Incorrigible Dukane benefited immeasurably from the leading performance by John Barrymore. The son of constuction-firm executive James A. Dukane Sr. (William P. Carleton), James Jr. (Barrymore) does not exactly share his father's work ethic. Even so, he is aware that Read More

Are You a Mason?

Synopsis: Adapted by Leo Ditrichstein from an earlier German farce, Are You a Mason? served as one of John Barrymore's most popular stage vehicles. The film version likewise starred Barrymore, who breezed through the assignment with the youthful panache that would leave him all too soon. The hero, a young Read More

Man from Mexico

Synopsis: This lighthearted Famous Players five-reeler was tailor-made for the talents of young John Barrymore. The "Great Profile" plays an ambitious stockbroker who goes out on a toot during his wife's absence. His celebrating gets out of hand, earning him a 30-day jail sentence. Briefly released on his Read More