Norman Taurog Filmography

Born:: February 23, 1899 in Chicago, IL
Occupation:: Director
Biography:: Chicago-born Norman Taurog was performing on stage from his early childhood, long before he began work as a child actor in movies. He entered films at age 14 with Thomas Ince's studios, and turned to directing comedy in 1919 with Larry Semon. For the next four decades, right up to the end of the...Read More

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Speedway

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra, Bill Bixby, Gale Gordon, William Schallert

Synopsis: Steve Grayson (Elvis Presley) is a swinging racecar driver whose manager Kenny (Bill Bixby) has bet his money on the horses. Most of the horses didn't win, causing Steve to be visited by IRS agent Susan Jacks (Nancy Sinatra). Gale Gordon plays Hepworth, her stuffy supervisor, and William Shallert Read More

1968
Live a Little, Love A Little

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Michele Carey, Don Porter, Rudy Vallee, Dick Sargent

Synopsis: Singing stars from two very different generations appear in Live A Little, Love A Little. Elvis Presley plays Greg, a photographer who divides his time working for a skin magazine and a conservative newspaper. Rudy Valle plays Penlow, the veteran newspaper publisher. Lansdown (Don Porter) is the Read More

1968
Double Trouble

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Annette Day, John Williams, Yvonne Romain, Chips Rafferty

Synopsis: Elvis Presley plays Guy Lambert, a musician (so far, so good) who is touring Great Britain (something Elvis never managed in real life). Jill Conway (Annette Day), a wealthy heiress, is a big fan of Guy's who has developed a very serious crush on him; her family wants to keep her away from the Read More

1967
Spinout

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Diane McBain, Deborah Walley, Dodie Marshall, Jack Mullaney, Carl Betz

Synopsis: Elvis Presley plays rock singer and racecar driver Mike McCoy in the typical musical romp Spinout, directed by Norman Taurog. His band includes Curly Jack Mullaney, Larry Jimmy Hawkins and the female tomboy drummer Les Deborah Walley. Mike is coveted by a bevy of beauties that include the Read More

1966
Sergeant Deadhead

Crew: Director

Actors: Frankie Avalon, Deborah Walley, Cesar Romero, Fred Clark, Gale Gordon

Synopsis: In this comedy, a hapless Army sergeant's plans to marry are temporarily delayed after he accidentally ends up launched into space with a chimpanzee. Upon his return, he is a changed man and is ultimately sent to prison after he threatens to go public with the mix-up. Meanwhile, suave Sgt. Read More

8/18/65
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine

Crew: Director

Actors: Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Susan Hart, Jack Mullaney

Synopsis: The great Vincent Price obviously had fun with his characterization of Dr. Goldfoot in this campy spy spoof directed by Norman Taurog. With his henchman Igor (Jack Mullaney), the demented doctor builds a machine that mass-produces an army bikini-clad babes. Goldfoot programs his vixens to seduce Read More

1965
Tickle Me

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Julie Adams, Jocelyn Lane, Jack Mullaney, Merry Anders

Synopsis: The original king of rock-n-roll (Elvis Presley) stars in this light comedy musical as a singing buck who finds employment at an all femme ranch & spa. After kissing the girls and making them cry, the stud-clad crooner is sent away, but soon comes back to rescue a pretty maiden from the hands of Read More

1965
Palm Springs Weekend

Crew: Director

Actors: Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Ty Hardin, Stefanie Powers, Robert Conrad

Synopsis: This light romantic comedy filmed on location in Palm Springs finds couples engaging in a kissing frenzy of puppy love. Jim (Troy Donahue) has eyes for Bunny (Stephanie Powers), unaware she is the daughter of the local chief of police (Andrew Duggan). Connie Stevens, Jack Weston, Ty Hardin and Jerry Van Dyke Read More

1963
It Happened at the World's Fair

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Joan O'Brien, Gary Lockwood, Vicky Tiu, H.M. Wynant, Edith Atwater

Synopsis: This Elvis Presley vehicle is close to a lemon, even for his die-hard fans. Elvis is Mike Edwards, a pilot of a small plane who has a faithful sidekick, Danny (Gary Lockewood), and a penchant for singing. The story, such as it is, takes place in-between a total of ten different songs, the most Read More

1963
Girls! Girls! Girls!

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Stella Stevens, Jeremy Slate, Laurel Goodwin, Benson Fong

Synopsis: One of Elvis Presley's biggest moneymakers, Girls Girls Girls casts ol' swivel-hips as a tuna-boat fisherman working out of Hawaii. Elvis chases after all the wrong girls, while ignoring the girls who genuinely care for him. Here, as Ross Carpenter, Presley has two main love interests: sexy Read More

1962
All Hands on Deck

Crew: Director

Actors: Pat Boone, Buddy Hackett, Dennis O'Keefe, Barbara Eden, Warren Berlinger, Gale Gordon

Synopsis: This is a somewhat serviceable, light comedy by prolific director Norman Taurog (a favored helmer of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis films). Squeaky-clean Pat Boone is a singing lieutenant who has to briefly ship out to the Aleutians and regrettably leave Sally (Barbara Eden), his new love behind. Read More

1961
Blue Hawaii

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Nancy Walters, Roland Winters, Angela Lansbury

Synopsis: One of Elvis Presley's most successful post-Army vehicles, Blue Hawaii casts Elvis as scion to a Hawaiian pineapple fortune. His snooty mother Angela Lansbury wants Presley to take over the management of the family business, but he'd rather make his own way in the world. He lands a job at a Read More

1961
Visit to a Small Planet

Crew: Director

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Joan Blackman, Fred Clark, John Williams

Synopsis: When a space alien's fascination with Earthlings gets the better of him, he breaks one of his planet's laws and speeds off to visit the blue planet. Once there the alien (Jerry Lewis) encounters a nice family who kindly take him in. The father is a news commentator. Ironically, just prior to Read More

1960
G.I. Blues

Crew: Director

Actors: Elvis Presley, Juliet Prowse, Robert Ivers, Leticia Roman, James Douglas

Synopsis: Elvis Presley stars in GI Blues as Tulsa McLean, a soldier stationed in Germany, who pulls strings to stage a big show for his fellow GI's. In the tradition of the musical chestnut The Fleet's In, Tulsa also bets his buddies that he can date "ice princess" entertainer Lili (Juliet Prowse). Song Read More

1960
Don't Give up the Ship

Crew: Director

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Dina Merrill, Diana Spencer, Mickey Shaughnessy, Robert Middleton, Gale Gordon

Synopsis: Don't Give Up the Ship stars Jerry Lewis as a navy officer who is whisked away from his honeymoon by a senate investigating committee. The committee would like to know what happened to the U.S.S. Kornblatt, the battleship Lewis had commandeered during the War; the crew arrived home safely, but the Read More

1959
Onionhead

Crew: Director

Actors: Andy Griffith, Felicia Farr, Walter Matthau, Joe Mantell

Synopsis: In his third starring feature, Onionhead, Andy Griffith plays a character somewhere inbetween the bucolic ingenuousness of Will Stockdale in No Time for Sergeants and the hotheaded truculence of Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd. Griffith is cast as Al Woods, a college student majoring in Read More

1958
The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown

Crew: Director

Actors: Jane Russell, Keenan Wynn, Ralph Meeker, Fred Clark, Una Merkel, Benay Venuta

Synopsis: Coproduced by actress Jane Russell and her husband Robert Waterfield, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown represented Russell's final starring film of the 1950s--and her last movie appearance until 1964. Decked out in an unbecoming blonde wig, Jane is cast as Hollywood starlet Laurel Stevens. On the eve of Read More

1957
Pardners

Crew: Director

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lori Nelson, Jeff Morrow, John Baragrey, Jackie Loughery

Synopsis: This Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis romp is liberally based on the 1936 Bing Crosby film Rhythm on the Range. Set around 1910, the film stars Lewis as the pampered son of female tycoon Agnes Moorehead. Yearning to return to the Wild West where his father was a famed peacekeeper, Lewis purchases a prize Read More

1956
The Birds and the Bees

Crew: Director

Actors: George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, David Niven, Reginald Gardiner, Fred Clark

Synopsis: This comedy is a remake of 1941's The Lady Eve, and tells the story of the vegetarian son of a prominent meat packer who is sailing back from an African safari when he meets and falls in love with a con-artist's lovely daughter. Posing as a military officer, the card-sharp and his boys have come Read More

1956
Bundle of Joy

Crew: Director

Actors: Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Adolphe Menjou, Tommy Noonan, Nita Talbot

Synopsis: This musicalized remake of the 1939 comedy Bachelor Mother stars Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher (then Mr. and Mrs.) in the roles originated by Ginger Rogers and David Niven. Reynolds plays a department store salesgirl whose life is turned topsy-turvy when she finds an abandoned baby. Despite her Read More

1956
You're Never Too Young

Crew: Director

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Diana Lynn, Nina Foch, Raymond Burr

Synopsis: You're Never Too Young is a slapstick-with-songs remake of the 1944 Ray Milland/Ginger Rogers vehicle The Major and the Minor. Dean Martin plays the Milland part, while Ginger's shoes are filled by...Jerry Lewis? Lewis plays an apprentice barber who inadvertently crosses a homicidal jewel thief (Raymond Burr Read More

1955
Living It Up

Crew: Director

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, Edward Arnold, Fred Clark

Synopsis: The 1954 Martin-and-Lewis romp Living It Up is an amusing remake of the 1937 comedy classic Nothing Sacred. More specifically, it is the film version of the Broadway musical Hazel Flagg, which was based on Nothing Sacred. The heroine of the original undergoes a sex change to become feckless Homer Read More

1954
The Caddy

Crew: Director

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Donna Reed, Barbara Bates, Joseph Calleia

Synopsis: Martin and Lewis tee each other off on a PGA tour in The Caddy. Harvey Miller (Jerry Lewis) is an expert with his golf club, except when he tries to play in front of a crowd -- then he completely loses control. With his mind set on getting into the PGA one way or another, he latches onto Joe Read More

1953
The Stars are Singing

Crew: Director

Actors: Rosemary Clooney, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Lauritz Melchior, Tom Morton

Synopsis: Not only are stars Anna Maria Alberghetti and Rosemary Clooney singing, but also a medium-sized roster of "special guest stars." Alberghetti plays an illegal Polish alien, while Clooney is a dewey-eyed showbiz aspirant who protects the refugee girl. The two ladies pin their hopes on a TV talent Read More

1953
The Stooge

Crew: Director

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Polly Bergen, Marion Marshall, Eddie Mayehoff

Synopsis: Filmed right after 1951's At War with the Army, the Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis vehicle The Stooge was shelved until late 1952 to make way for another military farce, Jumping Jacks. When Stooge finally hit the screens Martin and Lewis fans were surprised by its dramatic content and the subdued Read More

1952
Room for One More

Crew: Director

Actors: Cary Grant, Betsy Drake, George Winslow, Iris Mann, Randy Stuart, Clifford Tatum, Jr., John Ridgely, Lurene Tuttle

Synopsis: Based on the autobiography by George and Anna Rose, Room for One More is a warm-hearted vehicle for husband-and-wife actors Cary Grant and Betsy Drake. Though she already has three children of her own, New Jersey housewife Anna Rose (Drake) adopts several kids born into less fortunate Read More

1952
Jumping Jacks

Crew: Director

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Mona Freeman, Don DeFore, Robert Strauss

Synopsis: Although The Stooge had been filmed right after Martin and Lewis' Sailor Beware, the film was temporarily shelved so that the team could continue their winning streak of military comedies with Jumping Jacks. This time, Dean Martin plays Chick Allen, a paratrooper-in-training whose commanding Read More

1952
Rich, Young and Pretty

Crew: Director

Actors: Jane Powell, Danielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey, Vic Damone, Fernando Lamas

Synopsis: Rich, Young and Pretty succinctly describes Jane Powell, the heroine of this frothy MGM musical. Vacationing in Paris with her father, Jim Stauton Rogers (Wendell Corey) -- a cattle baron-turned-politician, Elizabeth Rogers (Powell) falls in love with handsome Andre Milan (Vic Damone, in his film Read More

1951
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone

Crew: Director

Actors: Marjorie Main, James Whitmore, Dorothy Malone, Phyllis Kirk, Fred Clark

Synopsis: In their never-ending efforts to create a movie series to match the success of "The Thin Man," MGM came up with the fast-paced programmer Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone. Based on characters created by Craig Rice, the film stars James Whitmore as lawyer and part-time sleuth John J. Malone (this Read More

1950
Please Believe Me

Crew: Director

Actors: Deborah Kerr, Robert Walker, Peter Lawford, Mark Stevens, James Whitmore

Synopsis: Producer Val Lewton abandoned the "psychological horror" efforts of his RKO days when he moved to MGM in 1950. Lewton's Please Believe Me is a simple, sometimes simplistic romantic comedy, designed principally as a showcase for Deborah Kerr. The star plays Alison Kirbe, an English girl who Read More

1950
The Toast of New Orleans

Crew: Director

Actors: Kathryn Grayson, Mario Lanza, David Niven, J. Carrol Naish, James Mitchell

Synopsis: So far as their fans were concerned, Mario Lanza and Kathryn Grayson could have stood up against a blank wall and sung uninterruptedly for 96 minutes in Toast of New Orleans. MGM, however, adhered to the policy that all movies must have plots. This one finds Lanza playing Pepe Abellard Duvalle, a Read More

1950
That Midnight Kiss

Crew: Director

Actors: Kathryn Grayson, Mario Lanza, José Iturbi, Ethel Barrymore, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: That Midnight Kiss served to introduce the film-going public to MGM's newest singing sensation, Mario Lanza. Just as he did with Deanna Durbin at Universal, producer Joe Pasternak removes the "stuffy" onus attached to classical music by presenting Lanza as a down-to-earth truck driver named Johnny Read More

1949
The Big City

Crew: Director

Actors: Margaret O'Brien, Robert Preston, Danny Thomas, George Murphy, Karin [Katharine] Booth

Synopsis: MGM's all-purpose title The Big City was deployed once more for this treacly 1948 drama. To prevent orphaned Midge (Margaret O'Brien) from being sent to an institution, Protestant minister Andrews (Robert Preston), Jewish cantor Feldman (Danny Thomas) and Catholic cop Patrick O'Donnell (George Murphy Read More

1948
The Bride Goes Wild

Crew: Director

Actors: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Hume Cronyn, Una Merkel

Synopsis: In this funny tale of deception and romantic fireworks, a rather prissy New England school marm finally gets a chance to achieve her dream and become a commercial artist when she is hired to illustrate the beloved "Uncle Bump's" latest children's book. She adores Bump's earlier works and is Read More

1948
Words and Music

Crew: Director

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Perry Como, Judy Garland, June Allyson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The life stories of Broadway tunesmiths Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are prettified for the screen in MGM's Words and Music. Billed fourth, the colorless Tom Drake plays Rodgers, but never mind that: the film belongs to Mickey Rooney, as the dynamic, self-destructive Lorenz Hart. Read More

1948
The Beginning or the End

Crew: Director

Actors: Warner Anderson, Brian Donlevy, Art Baker, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Trevor Bardette, James Bush, Audrey Totter, Joseph Calleia, Hume Cronyn

Synopsis: Filmed not long after the actual events, The Beginning or the End is a sober, intelligent account of the development and deployment of the Atom Bomb. Step by step, the film details the progress of The Manhattan Project, from its inception in the early stages of the war through the dawn of the Read More

1947
The Hoodlum Saint

Crew: Director

Actors: William Powell, Esther Williams, Angela Lansbury, James Gleason, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: William Powell plays a cynical con man who graduates from penny-ante operations to a big-time charity racket. The scam involves collecting money on behalf of St. Dismas, bringing Powell in close contact with several men of the cloth. As the racket rolls on, Powell is touched by the sincerity of Read More

1946
Ziegfeld Follies

Crew: Director

Actors: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue Read More

1946
Presenting Lily Mars

Crew: Director

Actors: Judy Garland, Van Heflin, Fay Bainter, Marta Eggerth, Spring Byington, Richard Carlson

Synopsis: A Booth Tarkington novel was the source for the so-so Judy Garland musical Presenting Lily Mars. Garland plays the title character, a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. She heads to Broadway hoping for stardom, but after a series of disappointments the best she can manage is an understudy Read More

1943
Girl Crazy

Crew: Director

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, June Allyson, Nancy Walker, Gil Stratton, Robert E. Strickland, Rags Ragland

Synopsis: This second film version of the George and Ira Gershwin's Broadway hit Girl Crazy stars reigning MGM musical prince and princess Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The 1932 version of Girl Crazy de-emphasized the main plot, building up the comic subplot involving a timorous temporary sheriff and a Read More

1943
Are Husbands Necessary?

Crew: Director

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

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

1942
A Yank at Eton

Crew: Director

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Edmund Gwenn, Ian Hunter, Freddie Bartholomew, Marta Linden

Synopsis: MGM's A Yank at Eton follows the same basic formula as the 1938 Robert Taylor starrer A Yank at Oxford, with a wartime angle thrown in. This time it's Mickey Rooney as the cocky young American who is shipped off to England to complete his education. Upon his arrival in the hallowed halls of Eton Read More

1942
Men of Boys Town

Crew: Director

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Lee J. Cobb, Larry Nunn, Bobs Watson, Darryl Hickman

Synopsis: In this sequel to the 1938 boxoffice hit Boys Town, Spencer Tracy repeats his Oscar-winning role of Father Flanagan, with Mickey Rooney likewise reprising his characterization of reformed hoodlum Whitey Marsh. Still operating on the theory that "No boy is bad, if given a chance", Father Flanagan Read More

1941
Design for Scandal

Crew: Director

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Bowman, Jean Rogers, Mary Beth Hughes, Edward Arnold

Synopsis: Rosalind Russell stars as a no-nonsense judge who dabbles in sculpting in her spare time. Walter Pidgeon costars as a reporter assigned to discredit Rosalind after she rules against his boss (Edward Arnold) in a divorce case. Pidgeon plans to frame the judge in a compromising situation, then Read More

1941
Young Tom Edison

Crew: Director

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter, George Bancroft, Virginia Weidler, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: This film follows the teenage years of brilliant inventor Thomas Alva Edison (Mickey Rooney) as the young man troubles his family and his school teachers with his great quest for knowledge. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

1940
Little Nellie Kelly

Crew: Director

Actors: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Charles Winninger, Douglas McPhail, Arthur Shields

Synopsis: Judy Garland performs her only on-screen death scene early in the proceedings of Little Nellie Kelly. But despair not! Garland soon reappears as the daughter of the character she was playing in the film's first reels. Now a girl of 20, Garland has fallen in love with Douglas McPhail, much to the Read More

1940
Broadway Melody of 1940

Crew: Director

Actors: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter

Synopsis: MGM's third follow-up to its landmark Broadway Melody is short on story, but that's okay, since the plot is merely a clothesline upon which to hang sleek and opulent musical production numbers by Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell -- particularly a breathless and eye-popping gloriously Read More

1940
Lucky Night

Crew: Director

Actors: Myrna Loy, Robert Taylor, Henry O'Neill, Douglas Fowley

Synopsis: An heiress gets a crash course in the simple life when she marries a penniless man in this comedy. Calvin Jordan (Henry O'Neill) is the prosperous owner of a successful steel mill, and the apple of his eye is his daughter Cora (Myrna Loy). Cora stands to inherit Calvin's firm, and he's taken it Read More

1939
Boys Town

Crew: Director

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Addison Richards, Gene Reynolds

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy won his second Oscar for his portrayal of Father Edward J. Flanagan--then promptly turned the statuette over to the real Father Flanagan out of gratitude. The priest's philosophy that no boy will grow up bad if given a chance in life culminates in his formation of Boys Town in Omaha Read More

1938
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Crew: Director

Actors: Tommy Kelly, Jackie Moran, Ann Gillis, May Robson, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: The 1938 version of Adventures of Tom Sawyer appears to be producer David O. Selznick's dry run for Gone with the Wind, what with its similarities in period, costumes, color scheme and production design (both films shared the services of the great Hollywood art director William Cameron Menzies). Read More

1938
Mad About Music

Crew: Director

Actors: Deanna Durbin, Herbert Marshall, Arthur Treacher, Gail Patrick, William Frawley

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, a girl with a lively imagination gets in hot water when she tries to make her tall tales real. Gloria Harkinson (Deanna Durbin) is the teenage daughter of Gwen Taylor (Gail Patrick), a well-known Hollywood actress who has shipped Gloria off to a boarding school in Read More

1938
The Girl Downstairs

Crew: Director

Actors: Franziska Gaal, Franchot Tone, Walter Connolly, Reginald Gardiner, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: "Discovered" for American films by Cecil B. DeMille, popular Hungarian actress Franceska Gaal made the last of her three Hollywood screen appearances in MGM's The Girl Downstairs. A Cinderella yarn, the film stars Gaal as scullery maid Katerina Linz, who is romanced by callous playboy Paul Wagner Read More

1938
Fifty Roads to Town

Crew: Director

Actors: Don Ameche, Ann Sothern, George "Slim" Summerville, Jane Darwell, John Qualen

Synopsis: </