Nat PendletonFilmography

Scared to Death

Actors: Bela Lugosi, Douglas Fowley, Joyce Compton, George Zucco, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Completed several years before its 1947 release, Scared to Death is historically important as Bela Lugosi's only color film (outside of his brief unbilled appearance in 1931's Fifty Million Frenchmen, which today exists only in black & white). Other than that, it's a dreary story of how a Read More

Death Valley

Synopsis: The titular valley is the locale for an inordinate amount of double-crosses and betrayals. Young prospector Carroll Nye thinks he's doing a good deed when he rescues heroine Rada Rae, whom he finds wandering aimlessly in the desert. Little does Nye realize that Rae is in cahoots with Read More

Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Donna Reed, Keye Luke

Synopsis: The third of MGM's Dr. Kildare series to dispense with the services of Dr. Kildare (Lew Ayres), Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case stars crusty old Lionel Barrymore in the title role. The first half of the film concerns Gillespie's efforts to expedite the romance of Army sergeant Orisin (Michael Duane) Read More

Swing Fever

Actors: Marilyn Maxwell, William Gargan, Lena Horne, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In most of his movie vehicles, bandleader Kay Kyser played a bandleader named Kay Kyser. In Swing Fever, however, Kyser is cast as aspiring songwriter Lowell Blackford. Though he isn't too successful at peddling his songs, Blackford does have one unique talent: The ability to hypnotize boxer Read More

Jail House Blues

Synopsis: In this musical, a convict finds his life calling after a prison show is staged and he discovers a talent for stage production. He becomes obsessed with it until his sentence ends. Once outside, he begins recruiting new talent for the prison. Later his effort pays off and he is finally Broadway Read More

Calling Dr. Gillespie

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Philip Dorn, Donna Reed, Phil Brown, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: When Lew Ayres' wartime conscientious-objector status caused MGM to drop the actor like a hot potato, Ayres' "Dr. Kildare" series became the sole responsibility of Lionel Barrymore as the crusty Dr. Leonard Gillespie. In the first Kildare-less entry, Calling Dr. Gillespie, the ageing medico has a Read More

The Mad Doctor of Market Street

Actors: Una Merkel, Lionel Atwill, Nat Pendleton, Claire Dodd, Richard Davies

Synopsis: Considering the fact that it was the only Universal horror film directed by cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis, it's a shame that Mad Doctor of Market Street isn't better than it is. Lionel Atwill dominates the proceedings as Dr. Benson, an addlepated medico obsessed with the notion of restoring the Read More

Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Susan Peters, Richard Quine, Keye Luke

Synopsis: On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) realizes that it's time to appoint a new assistant to replace young Dr. Kildare. Gillespie is obliged to choose from three highly qualified candidates: Dr. Randall "Red" Adams (Van Johnson), Dr. Lee Wong How (Keye Luke) Read More

Top Sergeant Mulligan

Actors: Nat Pendleton, Carolyn Hughes, Sterling Holloway, Marjorie Reynolds, Frank Faylen

Synopsis: Top Sergeant Mulligan was Monogram Pictures' attempt to cash in on the popularity of such service comedies as Abbott & Costello's Buck Privates and Laurel & Hardy's Great Guns. Frank Faylen and Charlie Hall (a longtime Laurel & Hardy foil) star as Dolan and Doolittle, a pair of goofy druggists who Read More

Buck Privates

Actors: Lee Bowman, Alan Curtis, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Jane Frazee, The Andrews Sisters

Synopsis: Filmed on a B-picture budget, Buck Privates was Universal's biggest box-office hit of 1941, firmly securing the movie popularity of the studio's hot new team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The story is fairly evenly divided between the antics of Bud and Lou-here cast as sidewalk salesmen Slicker Read More

Dr. Kildare's Strange Case

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Shepperd Strudwick, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: This fourth entry in MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series once again stars Lew Ayres as Kildare, Laraine Day as his sweetheart Mary Lamont, and Lionel Barrymore as crusty Dr. Gillespie. In this outing, surgeon Gregory Lane (Sheppard Strudwick) begins pitching woo at Mary himself, much to Kildare's dismay. Read More

The Ghost Comes Home

Actors: Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, Ann Rutherford, John Shelton, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Frank Morgan and Billie Burke, who'd previously costarred in MGM's Wizard of Oz, head the cast of the minor but entertaining The Ghost Comes Home. Based on a play by George Kaiser, the story revolves around one Vern Adams (Morgan), who through a series of bizarre circumstances is declared legally Read More

The Golden Fleecing

Actors: Lew Ayres, Rita Johnson, Lloyd Nolan, Virginia Grey, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Dumb but honest insurance agent Henry Twinkle (Lew Ayres) is in love with Mary Blake (Rita Johnson), the secretary of Henry's boss. To impress Mary, Henry sells a huge policy to wealthy Gus Fender (Lloyd Nolan), who turns out to be a notorious gangster on the lam from the law. If he wants to save Read More

Phantom Raiders

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Joseph Schildkraut, Donald Meek, Florence Rice, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: The second entry in MGM's three-film "Nick Carter" series, Phantom Raiders is undeniably the best, and not just by default. In this one, super-sleuth Nick Carter (Walter Pidgeon) arrives in Panama to investigate the destruction of several Allied supply vessels. It's going to be an uphill battle Read More

Dr. Kildare Goes Home

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Gene Lockhart, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Appointed resident assistant at the Byng State Hospital by his mentor Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore), young Doctor James Kildare (Lew Ayres) has every reason to celebrate. His euphoria, however, is short-lived: Kildare is forced to return to his hometown when his general-practitioner Read More

Dr. Kildare's Crisis

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Robert Young, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Dr. Kildare's Crisis is actually one suffered by his fiancee, nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day). Mary's financier brother Douglas Lamont (Robert Young) is subject to unpredictable seizures, and for a while it seems that he is suffering from hereditary epilepsy. This being 1940, Douglas' affliction Read More

Flight Command

Actors: Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey, Walter Pidgeon, Paul Kelly, Shepperd Strudwick

Synopsis: MGM had a tendency to overglamorize the sort of rough-hewn film fare that Warner Bros. offered to its public without adornments. Such was the case of Flight Command. Instead of Warners' streetwise James Cagney, the MGM film stars pretty-boy Robert Taylor as the obligatory hotshot cadet who chafes Read More

Northwest Passage

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan, Ruth Hussey, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis:
Kenneth Roberts' fact-based novel Northwest Passage would seem too raw and explicit a book to be considered for an MGM film adaptation-much less one in Technicolor. Amazingly, MGM retained many of the grim episodes from the Roberts' novel, though - thanks to the Hays Code - most are discussed Read More

Calling Dr. Kildare

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Lew Ayres, Laraine Day, Lana Turner, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: The second of MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series, Calling Dr. Kildare finds the title character (Lew Ayres) transferred to Blair General's downtown outpatient clinic by his crusty superior Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore). It is Gillespie's hope that Kildare will gain valuable experience by working in Read More

Burn 'em up O'Conner

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Cecilia Parker, Nat Pendleton, Harry Carey, Addison Richards

Synopsis: The zippy world of auto-racing provided the basis of this off-beat actioner that centers on an auto magnate who is relentlessly driven to break every speed record with his cars. Unfortunately, his drivers keep dying on the track. This doesn't stop the obsessed manufacturer from continuing his Read More

Another Thin Man

Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Virginia Grey, Otto Kruger

Synopsis: Three years after the second Thin Man entry, MGM brought back the property by popular demand with Another Thin Man. As ever, William Powell and Myrna Loy star as sophisticated sleuths Nick and Nora Charles, with the added filip of 8-month-old Nick Charles Jr. At the invitation of munitions Read More

At the Circus

Actors: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Florence Rice, Kenny Baker

Synopsis: A distinct letdown from their previous MGM films, the Marx Bros.' At the Circus nonetheless contains intermittent moments of high hilarity. When Jeff Wilson (Kenny Baker) is in danger of losing his circus to crooked creditor Carter (James Burke), Jeff's faithful roustabout Antonio (Chico Marx) Read More

6,000 Enemies

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson, Paul Kelly, Nat Pendleton, Harold Huber

Synopsis: District attorney Walter Pidgeon pursues the conviction of criminals so diligently that word has gone out in the state prison to "get" Pidgeon at the first opportunity. The DA has several enemies on the outside as well, one of whom frames him on a bribery charge. Pidgeon is sentenced to the prison Read More

It's a Wonderful World

Actors: Claudette Colbert, James Stewart, Guy Kibbee, Frances Drake, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In this frothy screwball comedy, Guy Johnson (James Stewart) is a private detective who is dedicated to his job but still quite green and a bit of a bumbler. Guy is hired to keep a close watch on Willie Heyward (Ernest Truex), a footloose millionaire with a habit of getting into trouble. One Read More

The Secret of Dr. Kildare

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Lionel Atwill, Helen Gilbert, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In this third installment of MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series, Dr. James Kildare (Lew Ayres) comes to the rescue when his supervisor/mentor Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) nearly collapses from overwork. Gillespie is seeking a permanent cure for pneumonia, and must ask Kildare for assistance when the Read More

On Borrowed Time

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Cedric Hardwicke, Una Merkel, Beulah Bondi, Bobs Watson

Synopsis: Old Gramps (Lionel Barrymore) is not about to go gentle into that good night when Mr. Brink (Cedric Hardwicke), who sometimes travels under the name of the Grim Reaper, comes calling. Through a ruse, Gramps chases Brink up a tree in his garden, rendering the mysterious stranger helpless. As a Read More

The Chaser

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Ann Morriss, Nat Pendleton, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: A sleazy lawyer gains clients by showing up at terrible accidents. His boss is determined to stop him so he hires a pretty girl to cozy up and coerce the truth out of the ambulance-chaser. Unfortunately, the boss doesn't count on the romance factor and sure enough, love blossoms between the girl Read More

The Crowd Roars

Actors: Robert Taylor, Edward Arnold, Frank Morgan, Maureen O'Sullivan, William Gargan

Synopsis: Not a remake of the 1932 James Cagney vehicle of the same name, The Crowd Roars is set in the sweat-stained world of professional boxing. Handy with his fists, young Tommy McCoy (Robert Taylor) is virtually pushed into the ring by his alcoholic father Brian (Frank Morgan). During his climb to the Read More

Young Dr. Kildare

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Lynne Carver, Nat Pendleton, Jo Ann Sayers

Synopsis: Though not the first Dr. Kildare film ever made, this is the first entry in MGM's long-running series set at Blair General Hospital. With the ink still wet on his diploma, Dr. Kildare is faced with a difficult decision: should he return home to work in his father's quiet country practice, or work Read More

Swing Your Lady

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Louise Fazenda, Penny Singleton, Leon Weaver, Ronald Reagan

Synopsis: This musical comedy is based on a modestly successful Broadway play and stars Humphrey Bogart as wrestling promoter Ed Hatch. Ed is in Kentucky with his dopey, muscle-bound client Joe "The Wrestling Hercules" Skopapoulous (Nat Pendleton). The two are further accompanied by Ed's assistant Shiner (Allen Jenkins Read More

Fast Company

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Florence Rice, Claire Dodd, Shepperd Strudwick, Louis Calhern

Synopsis: Fast Company was another attempt by MGM to match the success of its "Thin Man" films. Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice star as Joel and Garda Sloane, the funloving rare-book dealers created by Harry Kurnitz. Try as they might, the Sloanes can't help getting involved in crime and murder. This time Read More

Arsene Lupin Returns

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Virginia Bruce, Warren William, John Halliday, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: This follow-up to MGM's 1932 John Barrymore vehicle Arsene Lupin stars the ineluctable Melvyn Douglas. Reported to be dead, suave gentleman jewel thief Arsene Lupin (Douglas) resurfaces under the assumed name of Rene Farrand. Intending to follow the straight and narrow path, Lupin/Farrand reverts Read More

Meet the Mayor

Actors: Frank Fay, Ruth Hall, Hale Hamilton, George Meeker, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: Obviously filmed several years before its 1938 release, Meet the Mayor serves as a vehicle for popular Broadway comedian Frank Fay. Unfortunately, Fay's smug, self-satisfied line deliveries had never played well on screen, and didn't here. The star is cast as Spencer Brown, elevator operator in a Read More

The Shopworn Angel

Actors: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Hattie McDaniel, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: The second motion picture version of a Saturday Evening Post story by Dana Burnet, this romantic melodrama was also the second pairing of actors James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. Stewart plays Private Bill Pettigrew, a naïve young Texan in New York for basic training prior to being shipped Read More

Under Cover of Night

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Florence Rice, Nat Pendleton, Henry Daniell, Sara Haden

Synopsis: For a studio specializing in glossy soap operas, costume pictures and musicals, MGM made an inordinate number of "B"-grade crime thrillers in 1937. The first on the docket that year was Under Cover of Night, starring Edmund Lowe as intrepid sleuth Christopher Cross. This time the killer is an Read More

Gangway

Actors: Jessie Matthews, Olive Blakeney, Liane Ordeyne, Patrick Ludlow

Synopsis: In this musical, a plucky London newspaper journalist boards a transatlantic ocean liner in hopes of interviewing a prominent Hollywood starlet. She is followed by a Scotland Yard inspector who is looking for the jewel thief he knows is on board. Unfortunately, the inspector doesn't know the Read More

Song of the City

Actors: Margaret Lindsay, J. Carrol Naish, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In this drama, a milque-toast socialite is drowning in San Francisco Bay. Fortunately, he is saved by a kindly Italian fisherman who takes him in and teaches him how to be manly. During his slow recovery, the wimpy fellow is cared for by the fisherman's lovely daughter who is studying to become an Read More

Life Begins in College

Actors: The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], Joan Davis, Tony Martin, Gloria Stuart, Fred Stone

Synopsis: The Ritz Brothers play three goofballs working their way through college by putting in time at a tailor shop. The college football team's star player is Nat Pendleton, a wealthy Native American who has donated a large amount of money to the school. As long as Pendleton is able to play, the Read More

The Luckiest Girl in the World

Actors: Jane Wyatt, Louis Hayward, Nat Pendleton, Eugene Pallette, Catherine Doucet

Synopsis: In this comedy, an sheltered heiress bets her father that she can make it in New York city on only $150 per week. She does this to prove to her father that she will be able to live a scaled down existence with her fiancé, who is not wealthy. Her father agrees to the bet, and she goes to the Big Read More

The Garden Murder Case

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Virginia Bruce, Gene Lockhart, Benita Hume, Grant Mitchell, Nat Pendleton, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: Edmund Lowe made his only screen appearance as S. S. Van Dine's dilettante sleuth Philo Vance in The Garden Murder Case. The story wastes no time getting started, with Floyd Garden (Douglas Walton) being killed in the first reel from a fall in a steeplechase. It looks like an accident -- but then Read More

Trapped by Television

Actors: Mary Astor, Lyle Talbot, Nat Pendleton, Joyce Compton, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: Back in 1936 it was assumed that, once perfected, television would be a two-way device, enabling viewers to transmit as well as receive. In Trapped by Television, such a device is developed by inventor Fred Dennis (Lyle Talbot), who needs financial backing to complete his experiments. He is Read More

Sworn Enemy

Actors: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Joseph Calleia, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Directed by Edwin L. Marin, Sworn Enemy stars Robert Young as "Hank" Sherman, a law student who earns extra cash by working as a chauffeur. His job becomes significantly harder, however, when he finds himself entangled in the effort to catch the mobster who murdered his boss and harmed his Read More

Sing Me a Love Song

Actors: James Melton, ZaSu Pitts, Patricia Ellis, Ann Sheridan, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: For a change of pace, Warner Bros. contract tenor James Melton sings no opera in Sing Me A Love Song -- nor does he sing anything particularly memorable, either. Melton stars as Jerry Haines, a young man-about-town who takes an entry-level job in his dad's department store. Jerry wants no special Read More

Two in a Crowd

Actors: Joan Bennett, Joel McCrea, Elisha Cook, Jr., Alison Skipworth, Reginald Denny

Synopsis: On New Year's Eve, aspiring actress Julia Wayne (Joan Bennett) and chronic gambler Larry Stevens (Joel McCrea), both flat broke, each find one-half of a $1000 banknote. They decide to invest their windfall in a race horse and jockey, in hopes of financing a theatrical career for Julia and a new Read More

The Great Ziegfeld

Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice

Synopsis: In MGM's three-hour-plus The Great Ziegfeld, William Powell stars as the titular theatrical impresario, whose show business empire begins when he stage-manages a tour for legendary strongman Sandow (Nat Pendleton). With nary a penny in the bank, he charms European stage star Anna Held (Luise Rainer Read More

Times Square Lady

Actors: Robert Taylor, Virginia Bruce, Helen Twelvetrees, Isabel Jewell, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In this drama, a prominent Broadway producer's daughter inherits a fortune when her father dies. Included in the estate is a nightclub managed by an unscrupulous louse who teams up with the sneaky executor to steal her inheritance. Fortunately, after meeting his pretty young victim, the manager 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

It's in the Air

Actors: Jack Benny, Ted Healy, Una Merkel, Nat Pendleton, Mary Carlisle

Synopsis: Jack Benny is cast against type as a small-time con man in this lightweight MGM programmer. Whenever he manages to outsmart himself, Calvin (Benny) returns to his ever-patient wife Alice (Una Merkel) to bail him out. In dutch with the law again -- this time he's managed to offend the IRS! Read More

Here Comes the Band

Actors: Ted Lewis, Virginia Bruce, Ted Healy, Nat Pendleton, Harry Stockwell

Synopsis: In this musical, a songwriter goes to court to claim the rights to his song that was stolen by an unscrupulous music publisher. He brings his girlfriend with him. Also going to court are the Jubilee singers, hillbillies, and some cowboys and Indians who demonstrate that the composer wrote his song Read More

Reckless

Actors: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Franchot Tone, May Robson, Rosalind Russell, Ted Healy, Mickey Rooney

Synopsis: Reckless is a delightfully breezy screwball comedy from the same director (Victor Fleming) and star (Jean Harlow) responsible for the celebratedBombshell (itself a film à clef loosely based on Clara Bow) -- with the added appeal of William Powell. One can readily see the chemistry between the two Read More

Calm Yourself

Actors: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Betty Furness, Nat Pendleton, Hardie Albright

Synopsis: Calm Yourself starts off as ace advertising man Pat (Robert Young) is fired from his job when he offends the highly offendable -- and none too likeable -- Mary Elizabeth (Betty Furness). This segues into a phony kidnapping scheme that thrusts Pat and Mary together, furthering their mutual Read More

Baby Face Harrington

Actors: Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel, Harvey Stephens, Eugene Pallette, Ruth Selwyn

Synopsis: Directed by Raoul Walsh, Baby Face Harrington features actor Charles Butterworth as Willie, a meek clerk who unintentionally gets involved with the mob when he misplaces two thousand dollars from the life insurance policy he was forced to cash after losing his job. While searching for the missing Read More

Fugitive Lovers

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Madge Evans, Ted Healy, Nat Pendleton, C. Henry Gordon

Synopsis: Though it's also a "bus" picture, MGM's Fugitive Lovers is as different from Columbia's It Happened One Night as oil and water. Escaping from her gangster boyfriend Legs (Nat Pendleton), chorus girl Letty (Madge Evans) boards a Greyhound bus bound for California. Likewise a passenger -- albeit a Read More

The Girl from Missouri

Actors: Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Franchot Tone, Patsy Kelly

Synopsis: Originally titled Eadie was a Lady, this Jean Harlow vehicle was slated for release under the title Born to be Kissed, but the new Production Code vetoed this "suggestive" cognomen. After a brief and uncomfortable period as One Hundred Percent Pure, the film was finally shipped to theaters as The Read More

The Cat's Paw

Actors: Harold Lloyd, Una Merkel, George Barbier, Nat Pendleton, Grace Bradley

Synopsis: Harold Lloyd plays Ezekial Cobb, a missionary's son who has spent his entire life in China. Cobb is sent to his father's home church in California, where it is hoped he will find a wife. A true babe in the woods, Cobb is befriended by politician Jake Mayo (George Barbier). Mayo is a cog in a Read More

The Thin Man

Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell

Synopsis: Filmed on what MGM considered a B-picture budget and schedule (14 days, which at Universal or Columbia would have been considered extravagant), The Thin Man proved to be "sleeper," spawning a popular film, radio, and television series. Contrary to popular belief, the title does not refer to star William Powell Read More

Straight is the Way

Actors: Franchot Tone, May Robson, Karen Morley, Gladys George, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Based on John Golden's stage play Four Walls, MGM's Straight is the Way offers the monumentally miscast Franchot Tone as tough ex-convict Benny Horowitz, who announces his plans to go straight. This warms the heart of Benny's Jewish mama (May Robson), but his ex-moll Shirley (Gladys George) is Read More

Manhattan Melodrama

Actors: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Leo Carrillo, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Notorious as the movie that gangster John Dillinger attended on the night he was killed, Manhattan Melodrama has weathered the years as one of MGM's finest examples of pure storytelling. The pageant-like story begins in 1904, when the excursion steamer "General Slocum" blows up and burns in the Read More

Sing and Like It

Actors: ZaSu Pitts, Pert Kelton, Edward Everett Horton, Nat Pendleton, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: Annie Snodgrass (ZaSu Pitts) has a voice that could shatter glass, but try telling that to moonstruck gangster boss Fenny (Nat Pendleton). So entranced is Fenny by Annie's rendition of a sentimental "Mother" song that he tries to force the public to accept her as a big star. He even pulls a gun on Read More

Death on the Diamond

Actors: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Ted Healy, C. Henry Gordon

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Cortland Fitzsimmons, the storyline of this "gimmick" mystery follows the St. Louis Cardinals during a championship season. The arrival of hotshot pitcher Larry Kelly (Robert Young) coincides with an apparent plot to sabotage the Cards' chances of making it to the World Series. Read More

The Defense Rests

Actors: Jack Holt, Jean Arthur, Nat Pendleton, Arthur Hohl, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: A sleazy lawyer is the focus of this courtroom drama. His favorite technique is to teach his female clients how to use their bodies provocatively in court to sway the jury. Without a doubt, his methods are successful. Unfortunately, his female assistant is offended by the tactics and threatens to Read More

The Gay Bride

Actors: Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, ZaSu Pitts, Leo Carrillo, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Carole Lombard's only MGM film, The Gay Bride has been cited by some as a precursor to 1988's Married to the Mob -- only without the laughs. Adapted by the usually reliable Samuel and Bella Spewack from Charles Francis Coe's magazine story Repeal, the film charts the misadventures of gold-digging Read More

Lazy River

Actors: Jean Parker, Robert Young, Ted Healy, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Based on Lea David Freeman's play Ruby, Lazy River takes place somewhere in the Mississippi River Valley. Jean Parker plays Sarah, a young Bayou girl who tries to guide three ex-convicts to moral redemption. Two of Sarah's charges, Gabby (Ted Healy) and Tiny (Nat Pendleton), seem to be beyond Read More

Penthouse

Actors: Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Charles Butterworth, Mae Clarke, Phillips Holmes

Synopsis: Society-lawyer Warner Baxter loses his prestige in the legal community when he successfully defends gangster boss Nat Pendleton. Later on, the soft-hearted Pendleton gets the opportunity to "do right" by saving Baxter's life. This redemptive move comes at the end of a complicated plot involving Baxter Read More

Deception

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Leo Carrillo, Dickie Moore, Thelma Todd, Barbara Weeks

Lady for a Day

Actors: Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: May Robson plays Apple Annie, a slatternly Broadway apple peddler. Annie has a curious setup whereby she is able to finagle other street merchants and beggars to pony up part of their weekly earnings to her--yet she never seems to spend any of the money on herself. This is because Annie has a Read More

The Chief

Actors: Ed Wynn, Dorothy Mackaill, Charles "Chic" Sale, William "Stage" Boyd, Effie Ellsler

Synopsis: Somebody at MGM had the bright idea in 1933 to build a series of feature films around the talents of popular radio comedians. This bright idea fizzled after a handful of misbegotten epics starring the likes of Jack Pearl, aka Baron Munchausen, and Ed Wynn. The Wynn film was titled The Chief, a Read More

Goldie Gets Along

Actors: Lili Damita, Charles Morton, Sam Hardy, Nat Pendleton, Lita Chevret

Synopsis: Goldie dreams of being a movie star. One day she decides to leave her New Jersey home and her boy friend to head for Hollywood. She eventually arrives, but not before having a close call with a crooked beauty contest promoter. Once in Tinseltown, the is surprised to discover that her old boyfriend Read More

I'm No Angel

Actors: Mae West, Cary Grant, Edward Arnold, Ralf Harolde, Russell Hopton

Synopsis: Mae West's second starring vehicle, I'm No Angel casts the divine Miss West as the star performer in a seedy circus. Though she lives with Ralf Harolde, West allows herself plenty of time for other men. When Harolde runs afoul of the law, West secures extra money by becoming a lion tamer. While Read More

Parachute Jumper

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Leo Carrillo, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: Grounded daredevil pilot Douglas Fairbanks Jr. secures a job protecting shady Leo Carrillo from his many enemies. Carrillo takes a liking to the young man and promotes him to a flying job--smuggling narcotics into the United States. Fairbanks eventually redeems himself with the help of good girl Bette Davis Read More

College Coach

Actors: Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak, Pat O'Brien, Arthur Byron, Lyle Talbot

Synopsis: Those who only know Pat O'Brien from his later, slightly more avuncular roles may be surprised to see him pumping out almost as much energy as his friend (and sometime co-star) James Cagney, in the lead and title role of College Coach. As James Gore, the head football coach for Calvert College, he Read More

Whistling in the Dark

Actors: Ernest Truex, Una Merkel, Edward Arnold, John Miljan

Synopsis: In this crime-comedy, an aspiring pulp writer elopes with a young woman and ends up in a boot-legger's lair. There he decides to impress his bride and the crooks with a story about the perfect murder. The crime boss likes the idea and uses it to plot the demise of his arch rival. When the would-be Read More

The White Sister

Actors: Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Louise Closser Hale, May Robson

Synopsis: Based on the 1909 novel by F. Marion Crawford, The White Sister stars Helen Hayes as an aristocratic Italian girl who spurns the potential husband chosen by her father in favor of a handsome army lieutenant (Clark Gable). When her lover is reported killed in World War I, Hayes renounces the world Read More

Baby Face

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Arthur Hohl, John Wayne

Synopsis: Baby Face is a good example of the kind of spitfire lead female characters that appeared in the cinema of pre-code Hollywood. Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck) works as a barmaid in her father's factory-town saloon where she learns to deal with the unwanted advances of male customers. When her father Read More

The Sign of the Cross

Actors: Fredric March, Claudette Colbert, Elissa Landi, Charles Laughton, Ian Keith

Synopsis: Director Cecil B. DeMille returned to Paramount Pictures for this typically epic production, which became his first box office hit after the close of the silent era. Fredric March stars as Roman Prefect Marcus Superbus, a noble military leader of the year 64 A.D. Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) Read More

A Fool's Advice

Play Girl

Actors: Loretta Young, Winnie Lightner, Norman Foster, Guy Kibbee, James Ellison

Synopsis: A very young Loretta Young stars in this domestic drama in which a naïve department store clerk falls for an inveterate gambler. The clerk, Buster Green, falls in love with handsome Wallie Dennis (Norman Foster) at a dance and marries him after a whirlwind romance. But their wedded bliss is ruined Read More

Hell Fire Austin

Actors: Ivy Merton, Ken Maynard, Nat Pendleton, Alan Roscoe, Jack Perrin

Synopsis: Filmed on location at Lone Pine, CA, this above average Ken Maynard oater features the veteran cowboy star in the title role, a former cavalry officer sent up the river with an accomplice, Bouncer (Nat Pendleton), convicted for failing to pay a restaurant bill. When Judy Brooks (Ivy Merton) Read More

Horse Feathers

Actors: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Zeppo Marx, Thelma Todd

Synopsis: If ever there was an archetypal Marx Brothers comedy, it was the team's 1932 offering Horse Feathers. Groucho Marx is cast as Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the newest president of Huxley College. As he delivers his introductory speech before the assembled student body ("As I look out among your Read More

Taxi!

Actors: James Cagney, Loretta Young, George E. Stone, Guy Kibbee, Leila Bennett, Dorothy Burgess

Synopsis: A huge box office success and a key film in James Cagney's rise to stardom, this drama stars Cagney as Matt Nolan, a gritty New York City cab driver who is being squeezed by a monopolistic taxi trust which uses force to run him and other independent cabbies away from the most profitable locations. Read More

You Said a Mouthful

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Ginger Rogers, Preston S. Foster, Sheila Terry, Farina

Synopsis: The butt of many a practical joke at the office where he works as a clerk, Joe Holt (Joe E. Brown) is nonetheless determined to prove himself a brilliant inventor. His latest creation is an unsinkable swim suit, which works quite well in theory. In practice, however, it is another matter; Joe Read More

The Night Club Lady

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Mayo Methot

Synopsis: A night club owner under heavy police protection is murdered anyway, and a clever police commissioner figures out that it was her mother, who used a scorpion as the murder weapon. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide 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

By Whose Hand?

Actors: Ben Lyon, Barbara Weeks, William V. Mong, Ethel Kenyon, Ken Thomson

Synopsis: In this crime drama an escaped killer hunts the man who squealed upon him. He stalks the man onto a train bound for San Francisco. The stoolie is killed. As a result another passenger, who witnessed the killing becomes determined to catch the cold-blooded killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide 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

Exposure

Attorney for the Defense

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Evelyn Brent, Constance Cummings, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: In this drama, an ambitious lawyer doesn't think twice about convicting an innocent man on circumstantial evidence to further his own career, at least not at first. But as time passes he feels increasingly guilty and many year's later tries to quietly make amends when the son of the man he falsely 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

Blonde Crazy

Actors: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Louis Calhern, Noel Francis, Guy Kibbee

Synopsis: Blonde Crazy describes the perpetual mental state of James Cagney. A conniving bellhop, Cagney increases his bank account by using his blonde girlfriend Joan Blondell as a come-on to various "sugar daddies" whom he suckers out of their hard-earned cash. When the pair try their con game in New Read More

Manhattan Parade

Actors: Winnie Lightner, Charles Butterworth, Walter Miller, Joe Smith, Charles Dale

Synopsis: "There is never a suggestion of subtlety in this tale" was the New York Times' acidic but accurate assessment of the Technicolor comedy Manhattan Parade. Winnie Lightner plays Doris, the wife and business partner of Herbert (Charles Butterworth), owner of a theatrical costume store. When Herbert Read More

Star Witness

Actors: Walter Huston, Charles "Chic" Sale, Frances Starr, Grant Mitchell, Sally Blane

Synopsis: Star Witness starts out as a homey family comedy and develops into a rather gutsy thriller. Chic Sale plays a cantankerous Civil War veteran who, while visiting his family, witnesses a gangland shooting. The rest of the family also gets a good look at the gang boss (Ralph Ince) and everyone agrees Read More

Fair Warning

Actors: Louise Huntington, Mitchell Harris, George Brent, Nat Pendleton, John Sheehan

Synopsis: This George O'Brien western is based on a novel by Max Brand, previously filmed as the 1920 Tom Mix vehicle The Untamed. Cast as devil-may-car Whistlin' Dan Barry, our hero rides into a passel of trouble in a wide-open town. Warned to leave the premises or else, Whistlin' Dan refuses to do so Read More

The Spirit of Notre Dame

Actors: Lew Ayres, William Bakewell, Andy Devine, Harry Barris, Sally Blane

Synopsis: This drama is set at Notre Dame and follows the exploits of a great football coach (patterned after Knute Rockne) who is conflicting with a promising but arrogant freshman running back. The story centers on the coach's struggle to help Bucky O'Brien understand that his glory hog ways will not help Read More

The Ruling Voice

Actors: Walter Huston, Loretta Young, Doris Kenyon, David Manners, John Halliday

Synopsis: Originally titled Upper Underworld, The Ruling Voice stars Walter Huston as a powerful underworld chieftain who covers his crooked activities in a cloak of respectability. Cold-blooded in all business matters, Huston cares only for the welfare of his beloved daughter Loretta Young, whom he has Read More

The Seas Beneath

Actors: George O'Brien, Marion Lessing, Mona Maris, Walter "Judge" Kelly, Walter McGrail

Synopsis: The first of director John Ford's three films for 1931 was the now-forgotten The Seas Beneath. Essentially a reworking of Ford's 1930 effort Men Without Women, the story concentrates on the WWI submarine crew captained by rough-and-tumble Bob Kingsley (George O'Brien). While trying to coerce a Read More

The Secret Witness

Actors: Una Merkel, William Collier, Jr., ZaSu Pitts, Purnell Pratt, Clyde Cook

Synopsis: Rita La Roy has good reasons to hate her philandering husband, Hooper Atchley, in this low-budget but sumptuous-looking art deco mystery directed by comedy specialist Thornton Freeland. The cool and calculated Miss La Roy isn't the only person with a grudge against the nasty Atchley, however; in Read More

Mr. Lemon of Orange

Actors: El Brendel, Ruth Warren, Joan Castle

Synopsis: Mr. Lemon of Orange was advertised as comedian El Brendel's first starring feature, even though he'd previously dominated the proceedings in the lavish musical fantasy Just Imagine. This time, Brendel plays a dual role: in addition to his Dutch-dialect characterization as a dimwitted immigrant Read More

The Big Pond

Actors: Andree Corday, Claudette Colbert, George Barbier, Maurice Chevalier, Maude Allen, Marion Ballou

Synopsis: Le Grande Mare is the French-language version of Paramount's The Big Pond (1930), with Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert in their original roles as Pierre Mirande and Barbara Billings. Pierre is a Venetian tour guide, who falls in love with wealthy American tourist Barbara. Her male Read More

The Sea Wolf

Actors: Milton Sills, Jane Keith, Raymond Hackett, Mitchell Harris, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Despite his precarious health, silent film idol Milton Sills insisted upon tackling one of the most challenging roles of his career in the 1930 talkie The Sea Wolf. Based on the novel by Jack London, the film stars Sills as the psychotic Wolf Larsen, captain of the bad ship Ghost. In the original Read More

Liliom

Actors: Charles Farrell, Rose Hobart, H.B. Warner, Estelle Taylor, Lee Tracy

Synopsis: This first film version of Ferenc Molnar's poignant fantasy Liliom was supposed to have reunited the director Frank Borzage and stars Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor of Fox's 1927 box-office smash Seventh Heaven. But Gaynor was enmeshed in one of her periodic contract disputes with the studio, so Read More

The Laughing Lady

Actors: Clive Brook, Dan Healy, Nat Pendleton, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: In this drama, a prominent society woman causes a scandal when she begins a torrid affair with the dashing lifeguard who saved her from drowning at a recent beach party. Her angry husband retains an attorney and files for divorce. More trouble ensues when his lawyer begins falling for his client's Read More

Last of the Duanes

Actors: George O'Brien, Myrna Loy, Walter McGrail, James Bradbury, Jr.

Synopsis: In this western based on a novel by Zane Grey, Buck Duane (George O'Brien) is a cowboy who is forced to kill a man in an act of self-defense; the same man also took the life of Buck's father. However, the law isn't so sure Buck's motivations were pure, and Buck is forced to leave town one step Read More

Let's Get Married

Actors: Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Nat Pendleton, Douglas MacPherson, "Gunboat" Smith

Synopsis: This characteristically free-wheeling Greg LaCava production was based on The Man From Mexico, a play by Harry A. Douchet. Richard Dix stars as razzmatazz college football hero Billie Dexter, who lives to party -- until he meets demure Mary Corbin (Lois Wilson). Certain that Mary is just another Read More

Hoosier Schoolmaster

Actors: Henry Hull, Jane Thomas, Frank Dane, Mary Foy

Synopsis: The year is 1853 and Ralph Hartsook (Henry Hull) arrives in the Indiana town of Flat Creek to teach school. He boards with the Means family and becomes fast friends with Bud Means (Nat Pendleton). He also falls in love with Hannah Thompson (Jane Thomas), an orphan who is "bound out" (basically Read More