Pat O'BrienFilmography

James Cagney: That Yankee Doodle Dandy

Synopsis: Born in 1899, James Cagney managed to become one of America's greatest and most imitated actors. Some of his best-known films are also ones in which his sister Jeanne played a role: Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Time of Your Life, A Lion Is in the Streets, and Man of a Thousand Faces. He received an Read More

Ragtime

Actors: James Cagney, Brad Dourif, Moses Gunn, Elizabeth McGovern, Kenneth McMillan, Pat O'Brien, Donald O'Connor, James Olson, Mandy Patinkin, Howard E. Rollins, Jr.

Synopsis: E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime was a sprawling fictional account of American manners and mores in the years between 1900 and 1913. Among the mosaic of colorful factual and fictional characters in the novel were escape artist Harry Houdini and radical Emma Goldman. Both characters are all but Read More

Scout's Honor

Synopsis: In this children's movie, a single executive enjoys her life on the fast track, but when she is talked into becoming a den mother to a rambunctious pack of Cub Scouts, her life is temporarily derailed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The End

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Sally Field, Strother Martin, David Steinberg

Synopsis: At the beginning of The End, Wendell Sonny Lawson (Burt Reynolds) is informed by his doctor that he's dying from "the same thing Ali MacGraw had in Love Story." Lawson's first reaction is to cry uncontrollably, much to the discomfort of his fellow elevator passengers. He heads to a nearby church Read More

Billy Jack Goes to Washington

Actors: Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, E.G. Marshall, Terasa Laughlin, Elmer Bernstein, Sam Wanamaker

Synopsis: The fourth film starring Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack, Billy Jack Goes To Washington was a loose remake of Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. The story begins with Billy receiving a pardon for the trumped-up charges that put him behind bars in The Trial Of Billy Jack. To curry favor with Read More

Kiss Me Kill Me

Actors: Bruce Boxleitner, Pat O'Brien, Robert Vaughn, Stella Stevens

Synopsis: Originally titled D.A.'s Investigator, Kiss Me Kill Me stars Stella Stevens as Stella Stafford, "leg woman" for the LA district attorney's office. The case at hand is the murder of a young, highly respected schoolteacher. Stella is certain that she has the killer dead to rights--but this is before Read More

The Sky's the Limit

Actors: Ike Eisenmann, Jeanette Nolan, Lloyd Nolan, Pat O'Brien

Synopsis: The central "character" of the Disney made-for-TV movie The Sky's the Limit is a battered old biplane. The aircraft comes in handy when a spry old farmer (Pat O'Brien) makes an effort to "reach" his truculent grandson (Ike Eisenmann). It so happens that the farmer was a World War I ace, and as Read More

The Adventures of Nick Carter

Actors: Robert Conrad, Shelley Winters, Broderick Crawford, Neville Brand, Pernell Roberts

Synopsis: Created for the "dime novels" in 1886, scientific detective Nick Carter has been transferred to film and radio several times in the past six decades, though most of these projects have tended to update his adventures. 1972's made-for-TV Adventures of Nick Carter restores the "turn of the century" Read More

Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol

Synopsis: In this drama, a freed-POW returns home and is further traumatized by his supposed friends, family and neighbors. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Over-the-Hill Gang

Actors: Walter Brennan, Edgar Buchanan, Andy Devine, Pat O'Brien, Chill Wills

Synopsis: One of the better and more diverting of ABC's first full season of made-for-television movies, The Over-the-Hill Gang was a low-budget Western with a gimmick: Get a bunch of elderly actors, known either for their leading roles in the 1930s, or for playing comic sidekicks (and Walter Brennan was a Read More

Branded: The Greatest Coward on Earth

Synopsis: TV certainly makes strange bedfellows, as witness this Branded episode featuring veteran film star Pat O'Brien and recording entrepeneur Dick Clark as those colorful 19th century showmen P.T. Barnum and J.A. Bailey! Angrily turning down Barnum's offer to showcase him as "the greatest coward on Read More

Town Tamer

Actors: Dana Andrews, Terry Moore, Pat O'Brien, Lon Chaney, Jr., Bruce Cabot

Synopsis: Adapting his own novel, Frank Gruber penned the screenplay for the A.C. Lyles production Town Tamer. Veteran filmmaker Leslie Selander directs an equally veteran cast in this high-action Western. After his wife is murdered, hired gun Tom Rosser (Dana Andrews) rides into town in search of revenge Read More

Disneyland: I Captured the King of the Leprechauns

Actors: Walt Disney, Pat O'Brien, Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, Sean Connery

Synopsis: In its promotional material for the 1959 theatrical feature Darby O'Gill and the Little People, the Disney studio went into whimsical overdrive, hoping to convince the younger viewers that the leprechauns appearing in the film were not merely normal-sized actors made small via special effects, but Read More

Some Like It Hot

Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Pat O'Brien

Synopsis: The launching pad for Billy Wilder's comedy classic was a rusty old German farce, Fanfares of Love, whose two main characters were male musicians so desperate to get a job that they disguise themselves as women and play with an all-girl band in gangster-dominated 1929 Chicago. In this Read More

Kill Me Tomorrow

Synopsis: In this sad drama, a boozy reporter must cope with a series of personal disasters begin with the death of his wife in a car crash. Next he loses his job. Finally he learns that his son must have a $5,000 eye operation in Switzerland. In desperation he decides to ask his old boss for his job back. Read More

The Last Hurrah

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster, Pat O'Brien, Basil Rathbone, John Carradine

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy stars in John Ford's sentimental adaptation of Edwin O'Connor's novel about the final campaign of a big city mayor, loosely based upon the life of Boston politician James Curley. Tracy is Frank Skeffington, the political boss of an Eastern city dominated by Irish-Americans. Read More

Studio One: The Brotherhood of the Bell

Actors: Cameron Mitchell, Tom Drake, Pat O'Brien, Joanne Dru, John Baragrey

Synopsis: The distinguished CBS dramatic anthology Studio One moved from New York to Hollywood with this adaptation of David Karp's cautionary novel The Brotherhood of the Bell. In an indeterminate future, government agent James Waterson (Cameron Mitchell) must choose between friendship and blind loyalty. Read More

Inside Detroit

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Pat O'Brien, Tina Carver, Margaret Field, Mark Damon

Synopsis: This probing drama offers an inside look into corruption within the United Auto Workers and is loosely adapted from the true tale of the Reuther brothers. The story begins when someone bombs the union headquarters. Blair Vickers (Dennis O'Keefe), the head of the union, is an honest man whose Read More

Ring of Fear

Actors: Jack Stang, Pat O'Brien, Mickey Spillane, Sean McClory, Marian Carr

Synopsis: A real "must see" for devotees of 1950s pop culture, Ring of Fear boasts a script co-written by character actor Paul Fix and a cast which includes the likes of animal trainer Clyde Beatty and pulp-fiction novelist Mickey Spillane. The story takes place in Beatty's travelling circus, where a Read More

Jubilee Trail

Actors: Vera Ralston, Joan Leslie, Forrest Tucker, John Russell, Ray Middleton, Pat O'Brien

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Gwen Bristow, Jubilee Trail is a sprawling, all-star western from the Republic Studio mills. Despite is vaunted budget, the plot is strictly B-picture material. Ambitious California landowner Charles Hale (Ray Middleton) hopes to add to his riches by marrying off his brother Read More

The Crime

Okinawa

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Cameron Mitchell, Richard Denning, Rhys Williams, James Dobson

Synopsis: Running an action-packed 67 minutes, Okinawa is an expert combo of wartime newsreel footage and studio re-enactments. The plot concerns the gun crew of a destroyer, engaged in the torturous allied invasion of Okinawa, which cost more American and Japanese lives than any previous Pacific-Theater Read More

The People Against O'Hara

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, Diana Lynn, John Hodiak, Eduardo Ciannelli

Synopsis: Fish-market worker Johnny O'Hara (James Arness) is named as a suspect when his boss -- with whom he had a dispute the previous day -- is shot to death in an apparent robbery. When he's arrested, his family appeals to their old friend James Curtayne (Spencer Tracy), who was once a renowned criminal Read More

Criminal Lawyer

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Jane Wyatt, Carl Benton Reid, Mary Castle, Robert Shayne

Synopsis: Though made in 1951, Criminal Lawyer has the feel of a 1930s film, right down to the casting of Pat O'Brien in the lead. The star plays attorney James Regan, whose unethical methods have earned him the disdain of the American Bar Association. Eventually, Regan is even disgusted with himself, and Read More

The Fireball

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Pat O'Brien, Beverly Tyler, James Brown, Marilyn Monroe

Synopsis: Mickey Rooney is The Fireball in this independently produced sports film. The sport in this case is roller-skating, which was enjoying a resurgence of popularity in 1950 thanks to the various "Roller Derby" telecasts. Rooney plays Johnny Cesar, an orphan kid who rises to fame and fortune on the Read More

Johnny One-Eye

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris, Dolores Moran, Gayle Reed

Synopsis: Johnny One-Eye was adapted from one of Damon Runyon's lesser-known stories. Pat O'Brien and Wayne Morris star as Martin Martin and Dane Cory respectively, former partners in crime who have long since split up. When a new district attorney puts the heat on, Cory, anxious to save his own hide Read More

A Dangerous Profession

Actors: George Raft, Ella Raines, Pat O'Brien, Bill Williams

Synopsis: The Dangerous Profession of the title is the bail-bond business. George Raft stars as Kane, a former cop turned professional bail-raiser. When one of his customers, robbery suspect Brackett (Bill Williams), is mysteriously murdered, Kane wants to know why. His reasons are twofold: he has an Read More

The Boy With Green Hair

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Barbara Hale, Dean Stockwell, Richard Lyon

Synopsis: Finding a curiously silent young runaway boy (Dean Stockwell) whose head has been completely shaved, small town police call in a psychologist (Robert Ryan) and discover that he is a war orphan named Peter Frye. Moving in with an understanding retired actor named Gramps (Pat O'Brien), Peter starts Read More

Fighting Father Dunne

Actors: Griff Barnett, Pat O'Brien, Gene Collins, Billy Cummings, Myrna Dell, Ruth Donnelly, Darryl Hickman

Synopsis: "Boys Town" goes to turn-of-the-century St. Louis in this moving drama that chronicles the love of a determined priest struggling to turn around the lives of a street-wise gang of newsboys living at his homeless shelter. The good father has little money and must use his wits and ability to Read More

Riff Raff

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Walter Slezak, Anne Jeffreys, Percy Kilbride, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: No relation to the 1935 Jean Harlow-Spencer Tracy vehicle of the same name, RKO Radio's Riff-Raff is an action-packed vehicle for aging but still virile Pat O'Brien. At large in Panama, American private eye Dan (O'Brien) hopes to get his hands on a valuable map showing priceless oil concessions. Read More

Crack-Up

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert Marshall, Ray Collins, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Art critic and forgery expert George Steele (Pat O'Brien) is apprehended by the police as he desperately tries to break into the Manhattan Museum in the opening scene of Crack-Up, a noir mystery directed by Irving Reis. Steele does not understand his own bizarre actions, but explains that he was Read More

Perilous Holiday

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, Alan Hale, Edgar Buchanan, Audrey Long

Synopsis: Pat O'Brien makes the casual acquaintance of fellow American Ruth Warrick while on vacation in Mexico City. What Warrick doesn't know is that O'Brien is a treasury agent, out to get expatriate counterfeiters Alan Hale and Edgar Buchanan. What O'Brien doesn't know is that Warrick is also out to get Hale Read More

Man Alive

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Adolphe Menjou, Ellen Drew, Rudy Vallee

Synopsis: Man Alive is an inventive and consistently amusing farce dominated by stars Pat O'Brien and Adolphe Menjou. The former plays Speed, a moderately successful garage owner. Wrongly convinced that his wife Connie (Ellen Drew) has fallen in love with his old friend Gordon (Rudy Vallee), Speed goes off Read More

Having Wonderful Crime

Actors: Pat O'Brien, George Murphy, Carole Landis, Lenore Aubert, George Zucco

Synopsis: Having Wonderful Crime spotlights Michael J. Malone, the murder-solving attorney created by author Craig Rice. The film is also ostensibly based on a novel by Rice, though precious little of the original actually made it to the screen. The story begins as Malone (Pat O'Brien) brusquely informs his Read More

Secret Command

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Carole Landis, Chester Morris, Ruth Warrick, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: Secret Command features Pat O'Brien as a onetime foreign correspondent in the wartime employ of the FBI. Under an assumed name, O'Brien goes to work at a shipyard, intending to keep both eyes open for potential saboteurs. To maintain the cover, O'Brien is given a "wife" (Carole Landis) and two Read More

The Iron Major

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, Robert Ryan

Synopsis: The Iron Major is the saga of WW1 hero-cum-football coach Frank Cavanaugh, played with his usual no-nonsense professionalism by Pat O'Brien. Leaving home and hearth behind to serve his country in the Great War, Cavanaugh goes on to lead the Dartmouth, Boston College and Fordham football teams to Read More

Marine Raiders

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey, Frank McHugh, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: In this wartime propaganda film, two Marine officers and their company go on leave when the Army takes over during the Guadalcanal invasion. Their leave is spent in Australia where one of the officers falls in love with a woman. His pal, afraid that there will be no turning back for his buddy Read More

Bombardier

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley, Eddie Albert, Walter Reed

Synopsis: A major moneymaker for RKO Radio, Bombardier stars Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott as trainers at a school for bomber pilots. O'Brien and Scott argue over teaching methods, while their students vie for the affections of Anne Shirley. O'Brien's methods prove sound during a bombing raid over Tokyo. Scott Read More

His Butler's Sister

Actors: Deanna Durbin, Pat O'Brien, Franchot Tone, Akim Tamiroff, Evelyn Ankers

Synopsis: In this frothy musical comedy, Ann Carter (Deanna Durbin) is an aspiring singer from the Midwest who decides to move to New York in hopes of advancing her career. Her half brother, Martin Murphy (Pat O'Brien), is already living in the Big Apple, and has told her that he's doing well as a Read More

The Navy Comes Through

Actors: Pat O'Brien, George Murphy, Jane Wyatt, Jackie Cooper, Carl Esmond, Desi Arnaz

Synopsis: A combat picture was virtually a license to print money in 1942, and RKO Radio's The Navy Comes Through was no exception (net profit: $542,000). Most of the film takes place on the ramshackle old merchant-marine freighter, skippered by Captain McCall (Ray Collins). The captain and his stalwart Read More

Flight Lieutenant

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes, Jonathan Hale, Minor Watson

Synopsis: There are moments in Columbia's Flight Lieutenant that approach "high camp"; indeed, one is hard pressed to remember if any cliché is left unturned. Pat O'Brien plays air pilot Sam O'Doyle, who is professionally disgraced when he survives a crash in which his co-pilot is killed. He tries to get Read More

Two Yanks in Trinidad

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Brian Donlevy, Janet Blair, Roger Clark, Donald MacBride

Synopsis: The Two Yanks in Trinidad are gangsters Tim Reardon (Pat O'Brien) and Vince Barrows (Brian Donlevy), who split up over a disagreement and join the army, Tim to escape Vince's wrath and Vince to get his lunch-hooks on Tim. Both of our heroes run afoul of Army discipline and protocol in general, and Read More

Broadway

Actors: George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Broderick Crawford, Janet Blair, Anne Gwynne, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: In this musical, which manages to look back with nostalgia upon prohibition and the depression (no small accomplishment), George Raft plays George, a hoofer looking back on his glory days. His memories are triggered when The Paradise Club, a nightspot where he used to work, is about to be turned Read More

Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie

Synopsis: In this western, a mining engineer vengefully seeks out the claim jumpers that murdered his brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Doomed Caravan

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Russell Hayden, Andy Clyde, Morris Ankrum

Synopsis: This Hopalong Cassidy western finds Hoppy (William Boyd), Lucky (Russell Hayden) and California (Andy Clyde) trying to save Minna Gombell's wagon-freighting line. Bad guys Morris Ankrum and Trevor Bardette (five points to anyone who can tell these mustachioed miscreants apart) plan to sabotage Read More

Escape to Glory

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Constance Bennett, John Halliday, Melville Cooper, Alan Baxter

Synopsis: The Grand Hotel formula that was so overworked in the 1930s made an encore appearance in 1940's Escape to Glory. The story is given timeliness by placing the characters on a British merchant ship on the very day that World War II is declared. The ship is attacked by a Nazi U-Boat, resulting in a Read More

Knute Rockne, All American

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Gale Page, Ronald Reagan, Donald Crisp, Albert Basserman

Synopsis: Knute Rockne-All American was Pat O'Brien's finest hour: thanks to intensive rehearsals and numerous makeup applications, he so closely resembled the title character that, in the words of Rockne's widow, "I almost expected him to make love with me". The life of the legendary Notre Dame football Read More

Flowing Gold

Actors: John Garfield, Frances Farmer, Pat O'Brien, Raymond Walburn, Cliff Edwards

Synopsis: A tough, bitter fugitive's travels lead him to a grungy rundown oil town. There the transient is taken in by an oil-rigger who gives him a job working a well. They must work double-quick for the well's lease is due to expire. Unfortunately, they become so focused on striking oil quickly, they Read More

'Til We Meet Again

Actors: Merle Oberon, George Brent, Pat O'Brien, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Binnie Barnes

Synopsis: 'Til We Meet Again is an inflated remake of 1932's One Way Passage. As in the original, the hero is a convicted murderer en route to the death house by way of a merchant ship; the heroine is suffering from a terminal illness. Once more, hero and heroine fall in love, each keeping the facts of his Read More

Torrid Zone

Actors: James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Andy Devine, Helen Vinson

Synopsis: Torrid Zone star James Cagney once described the film as "The Front Page among the bananas." Indeed, the screenplay diligently follows the Front Page plot device of a tough boss (Pat O'Brien) pulling every underhanded trick in the book to keep his top man (Cagney) from quitting. This time the Read More

Slightly Honorable

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Edward Arnold, Broderick Crawford, Ruth Terry, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: The successful producer-director combination of Walter Wanger and Tay Garnett served up another winner with Slightly Honorable. Adapted from F. G. Presnell's novel Send Another Coffin, the story concerns the efforts made by corrupt politician Cushing (Edward Arnold) to frame honest attorney John Read More

The Fighting 69th

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, George Brent, Jeffrey Lynn, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Officially, America had no intention of entering the Second World War in 1940: Why, then, were there so many "preparedness" pictures like The Fighting 69th? This film, based on the experiences of military priest Father Duffy (Pat O'Brien), is set during World War I. The US 69th division was a Read More

Castle on the Hudson

Actors: John Garfield, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Burgess Meredith, Jerome Cowan, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: In this remake of the classic prison story 20,000 Years in Sing-Sing, John Garfield plays Tommy Gordon, a jewel thief who has been sent up the river for a minimum of 25 years. Tommy isn't especially worried about prison, as he's convinced his well-connected friends will help him get out before Read More

Indianapolis Speedway

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ann Sheridan, John Payne, Gale Page, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: In this drama, a remake of The Crowd Roars, two auto racing brothers become rivals on the racetrack when the older brother tries to keep his younger one from dropping out of school and becoming a driver too. The stubborn younger brother just gets behind the wheel of someone else's car and the race Read More

The Kid from Kokomo

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris, Joan Blondell, May Robson, Jane Wyman

Synopsis: Banking on the popularity of the Warner Bros.' boxing saga Kid Galahad (37), the studio rushed into production with another, similarly titled prizefight picture. In Kid from Kokomo, Wayne Morris once more plays a small-town rube who's good with his fists. The "kid" becomes convinced that a drunken Read More

Off the Record

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Joan Blondell, Bobby Jordan, Alan Baxter

Synopsis: Pat O'Brien is his usual likably obnoxious self in the Warner Bros. newspaper yarn Off the Record. While trying to smash a numbers racket, star reporter Breezy Elliot (O'Brien) takes tough young numbers-runner Mickey Fallon (Bobby Jordan) under his wing. The kid gets a job as a copy boy, earning Read More

The Night of Nights

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Olympe Bradna, Roland Young, Reginald Gardiner, George E. Stone

Synopsis: Directed by Lewis Milestone nine years after taking home the best director Academy Award for All Quiet on the Western Front, this backstage drama stars Pat O'Brien as Dan O'Farrell, a boozy Broadway producer who makes his way back to show-business after a long absence. As a young man, O'Farrell Read More

Boy Meets Girl

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Marie Wilson, Ralph Bellamy, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Once a staple of summer stock and community theatres, Bella and Samuel Spewack's Broadway farce Boy Meets Girl dates rather badly when seen today. The 1938 movie version is also a bit mildewed, though it is saved by the dynamo-like energy of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The stars are cast as Read More

Angels With Dirty Faces

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft

Synopsis: Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connelly (Pat O'Brien) grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood. Rocky becomes a hero to a gang of teenaged boys Read More

Women Are Like That

Actors: Kay Francis, Pat O'Brien, Ralph Forbes, Melville Cooper, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: Though Kay Francis' Warner Bros. vehicle had slipped from "A" attractions to B-plus programmers by 1938, she was still worth watching. A typical Francis vehicle of the time was Women are Like That, in which the star is cast as businesswoman Claire King, the daughter of a powerful advertising Read More

Justice

Synopsis: The plans of outlaw miners are foiled when Hopalong Cassidy assists a young woman to reopen her gold mine. (AKA Bar 20 Justice) ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Bar 20 Justice

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, George "Gabby" Hayes, Russell Hayden, Paul Sutton, Gwen Gaze

Synopsis: Bar 20 Justice is the 16th entry in the durable "Hopalong Cassidy" western series. As ever, William Boyd stars as Hoppy, this time teamed with Windy Halliday (Gabby Hayes) and Lucky Jenkins (Russell Hayden). On this occasion, our heroes take on a bunch of crooks who've taken over a mining concern. Read More

Garden of the Moon

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, John Payne, Johnnie Davis, Melville Cooper

Synopsis: The Garden of the Moon is a fancy New York nightclub owned by Pat O'Brien. Margaret Lindsay (replacing a recalcitrant Bette Davis) is the girl who comes between O'Brien and his bandleader, John Payne. The duplicitous O'Brien spends most of his screen time figuring out various underhanded means to Read More

The Cowboy from Brooklyn

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Priscilla Lane, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan

Synopsis: Dick Powell stars as a Brooklynite who becomes a cowboy in spite of himself. Drifting into a small western town, Powell takes the only job available as a ranch hand. He likes to sing in his spare time, which attracts the attention of talent scout Pat O'Brien. Before you can say Gene Autry, Powell Read More

Panamint's Bad Man

Actors: Smith Ballew, Evelyn Daw, Noah Beery, Sr., Stanley Fields, Harry Woods

Synopsis: With Panamint's Bad Man, the brief film starring career of singing cowboy Smith Ballew came to an end. The star plays Kimball, a good guy who poses as a bad guy to gain the confidence of outlaw chieftan Gorman (Noah Beery Sr.) Kimball assumes the identity of Black Jack (Stanley Fields), a Texas Read More

Hawaiian Buckaroo

Actors: Smith Ballew, Evelyn Knapp, Benny Burt, Harry Woods, Pat O'Brien

Synopsis: Filmed on location, Hawaiian Buckaroo is certainly the most novel of the Smith Ballew westerns. Pineapple plantation worker Jeff Howard (Ballew) and his pal Mike (Benny Burt) go to work on a cattle ranch run by haughty Paula Harrington (Evelyn Knapp). It doesn't take long for our heroes to figure Read More

The Great O'Malley

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Sybil Jason, Humphrey Bogart, Frieda Inescort, Ann Sheridan

Synopsis: In this drama, Pat O'Brien plays James O'Malley, a tough, by-the-book policeman who is so unbending on any minor infraction of the law that he even gives his own mother a ticket for jaywalking. When newspaper reporter Pinky Holden (Hobart Cavanaugh) writes an article making fun of O'Malley's Read More

Submarine D-1

Actors: Pat O'Brien, George Brent, Wayne Morris, Frank McHugh, Doris Weston

Synopsis: With the considerable input of ex-Navy officer Frank Wead (who wrote the script) and technical adviser Cmdr. G. W. D. Dashielle, Submarine D-1 is far more realistic than the usual run of maritime melodramas. Pat O'Brien and Wayne Morris star as Butch Rogers and Sock McGillis, old submarine hands Read More

Back in Circulation

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Joan Blondell, Margaret Lindsay, John Litel, Ben Welden

Synopsis: In this newsroom drama, a tabloid's ace reporter's investigations lead to a chorine's conviction for murdering her husband. The trouble begins when the reporter digs a little deeper and realizes that the showgirl is really innocent. Now, despite the objections of her editor, the reporter must Read More

Slim

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Henry Fonda, Margaret Lindsay, Stuart Erwin, John Farrell MacDonald

Synopsis: Making his debut with Warner Brothers, Henry Fonda plays an apprentice high-voltage lineman working with the no-nonsense, but very experienced Pat O'Brien. Stringing up the high-tension electrical wires on tall metal towers is dangerous work, but from the moment he sees the linemen at work, farm Read More

San Quentin

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Barton MacLane, Joe Sawyer

Synopsis: One of a slew of prison reform picture that flourished during the Great Depression, this melodrama was banned in Finland. Pat O'Brien stars as Steve Jameson, a former Army officer who is hired at the infamous California prison of the title and quickly brings military order to the facility Read More

China Clipper

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Beverly Roberts, Ross Alexander, Humphrey Bogart, Marie Wilson

Synopsis: Based on the true story of Pan American Airlines, China Clipper was released only a year after the first transpacific flight in history. Pat O'Brien stars as Dave Logan, a man completely obsessed with starting the first commerical airline across the Pacific ocean. Engineer Dad Brunn (Henry B. Read More

Public Enemy's Wife

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, Robert Armstrong, Cesar Romero, Dick Foran

Synopsis: Margaret Lindsay stars in the title role, playing a young woman imprisoned for a crime which she didn't commit. The real culprit is her jailbird husband (Cesar Romero), a smooth jewel thief with a jealous streak. Margaret hopes to put her past behind her by taking up with a society man (Dick Read More

I Married a Doctor

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Josephine Hutchinson, Ross Alexander, Guy Kibbee

Synopsis: In this drama, the big city wife of a small town doctor learns a valuable lesson as she struggles to adapt to rural life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Ceiling Zero

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, June Travis, Stuart Erwin, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: Ceiling Zero is an adaptation of the Broadway play by Frank "Spig" Wead. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien are supremely typecast as, respectively, Dizzy Davis, a cocky civil aviator and Jake Lee, a sober-sided ground commander. Dizzy ducks out of a dangerous mission in order to dally with pretty Tommy Read More

Devil Dogs of the Air

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, Frank McHugh, Helen Lowell

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' Devil Dogs of the Air is very much a "formula" picture -- but what a wonderful formula it is! James Cagney plays reckless stunt flyer Tommy O'Toole, who is encouraged to join the Marine Flying Corps by his old Brooklyn buddy Lt. William Brannigan (Pat O'Brien). An undeniably talented Read More

In Caliente

Actors: Dolores Del Rio, Pat O'Brien, Leo Carrillo, Edward Everett Horton, Glenda Farrell

Synopsis: Per its title, this merry Warner Bros. musical was filmed on location in the resort community of Agua Caliente. Pat O'Brien plays magazine editor Larry MacArthur, whose scathingly negative review of tempestuous dancer La Espanita (Dolores Del Rio) has incurred the lady's considerable wrath. Read More

Stars over Broadway

Actors: Pat O'Brien, James Melton, Jane Froman, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: This musical chronicles the rise to stardom of a humble bellhop after he is discovered by a talent agent. Though he becomes a very popular singer of contemporary songs, the young man really aspires to a career in opera. At first his manager is appalled and refuses to let him, but when his Read More

The Irish in Us

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Olivia de Havilland, Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: This fast-paced Warner Bros. comedy stars James Cagney and Pat O'Brien as brothers who fight over the same girl. Mrs. O'Hara (Mary Gordon) is the loving mother of three sons: fireman Mike (Frank McHugh), policeman Pat (O'Brien), and the boxing promoter Danny (Cagney). Mike wants to marry Lucille Read More

Outlawed Guns

Actors: Monte Montague, Buck Jones, Pat O'Brien, Frank McGlynn, Sr.

Synopsis: Outlawed Guns stars Buck Jones as Reece Rivers, the nice-guy older brother of headstrong Babe Rivers (played by Pat O'Brien -- not the Warner Bros. star of the same name). When Babe gets mixed up with outlaws, Reece loyally takes the rap. Eventually Babe pays for his recklessness with his life Read More

Page Miss Glory

Actors: Marion Davies, Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Mary Astor, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions moved from MGM to Warners with Page Miss Glory--along with Cosmopolitan's biggest commodity, actress Marion Davies. The plotline has something to do with a composite photo prepared for a magazine contest: The combined facial attributes of Garbo, Dietrich Read More

Oil for the Lamps of China

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Josephine Hutchinson, Jean Muir, Lyle Talbot, John Eldredge

Synopsis: This drama about corporate treachery was based on the best-selling novel by Alice Tisdale Hobart. Stephen Chase (Pat O'Brien) is a salesman and inventor with an American oil company who is sent to China to reach that nation's untapped market. While Stephen is often told that his company looks Read More

Flirtation Walk

Actors: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Pat O'Brien, Ross Alexander, Glen Boles, John Eldredge

Synopsis: Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler reunite once again for this musical salute to the West Point Military Academy, including many scenes shot at West Point with "the full cooperation of the United States Army." Powell is Canary Dorcey, a private at a Hawaiian army post where he meets the perky Kitt Fits (Ruby Keeler Read More

I Sell Anything

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ann Dvorak, Claire Dodd, Roscoe Karns, Hobart Cavanaugh

Synopsis: "I Sell Anything" is the boast of penny-ante auctioneer Spot Cash Cutler (Pat O'Brien), and he more than makes good his boast in this brisk Warner Bros. programmer. When Cutler accidentally sells a rare antique to clever Millicent Clark (Claire Dodd) for a mere 50 bucks, he demands a cut when Read More

I've Got Your Number

Actors: Joan Blondell, Pat O'Brien, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Completed just before the Production Code went into effect, I've Got Your Number is delightfully racy, risque entertainment. Pat O'Brien is all wisecracks and left hooks as Terry, a troubleshooter for the New York telephone company. Terry puts his talents -- and his eavesdropping skill -- to good Read More

Twenty Million Sweethearts

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, Allen Jenkins, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: A satire on radio crooners, Twenty Million Sweethearts stars Dick Powell as a singing waiter--fake handlebar mustache and all. Publicity man Pat O'Brien discovers Powell and gets him a radio gig, leading to nationwide adulation for the nonplused tenor. All of this jeopardizes Powell's happy Read More

The Personality Kid

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Glenda Farrell, Claire Dodd, Henry O'Neill, Robert Gleckler

Synopsis: In his autobiography, Pat O'Brien described his character in The Personality Kid as a "Cassius Clay" type (this of course, was before Clay metamorphosed into Muhammad Ali). Indeed, arrogant prizefighter Ritzy (Pat O'Brien) is quite a piece of work, wearing a derby hat in the ring and dancing an Read More

Here Comes the Navy

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Gloria Stuart, Frank McHugh, Dorothy Tree

Synopsis: Actually this film should have been titled "Here Comes Jimmy Cagney Again, so Duck!". James Cagney is a bantam-cock sailor who runs up against chief petty officer Pat O'Brien. Seems that Cagney and O'Brien had come to blows early in the film when O'Brien stole Cagney's date at a dance hall. Read More

Flaming Gold

Actors: William "Stage" Boyd, Pat O'Brien, Mae Clarke, Rollo Lloyd, Helen Ware

Synopsis: With William Boyd in the cast, one would think that Flaming Gold was a "Hopalong Cassidy" western -- and one would be wrong. Boyd and Pat O'Brien play Dan Manton and Ben Lear, wildcat oil men at large in Mexico. Dan and Ben continually run afoul of a powerful oil cartel, determined to put our Read More

Gambling Lady

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Pat O'Brien, Claire Dodd, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Born on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, Lady Lee (Barbara Stanwyck) rises to prominence as a professional gambler. Though she works in a somewhat shady casino, our heroine enjoys a reputation for utter honesty, refusing all entreaties to turn crooked. Impressed by this quality, wealthy 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

Bombshell

Actors: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone, Pat O'Brien, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Jean Harlow is the "bombshell" of the title, a popular movie actress named Lola. Though she seemingly has everything a girl could possibly want, Lola is fed up with her sponging relatives, her "work til you drop" studio, and the nonsensical publicity campaigns conducted by press agent Lee Tracy. Read More

Bureau of Missing Persons

Actors: Bette Davis, Lewis Stone, Pat O'Brien, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: Although claiming to be based on actual cases, this mild crime drama appears to have been derived more from a screenwriter's manual than a police blotter. Newly transferred from robbery to missing persons, glib Butch Saunders (Pat O'Brien) is like the proverbial bull in a china shop at first, but Read More

The World Gone Mad

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Evelyn Brent, Neil Hamilton, Mary Brian, Louis Calhern

Synopsis: Plodding through the dialogue-heavy script, this is still a timely movie topic. Dealing with white collar crime, this is the story of a reporter who discovers that the District Attorney is going to be murdered by some high-rolling Wall Streeters. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Destination Unknown

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ralph Bellamy, Alan Hale, Russell Hopton, Tom Brown

Synopsis: This film offers melodrama on the high-seas as it follows the miraculous salvation of a becalmed ship filled with bootleg liquor. To make matters worse, they are out of fresh water, the captain and mate drowned during a storm, and the boat is sinking. The bo'sun has taken charge, and the crew is Read More

Laughter in Hell

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Tommy Conlon, Merna Kennedy, Gloria Stuart

Final Edition

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Mae Clarke, Mary Doran, Bradley Page, Morgan Wallace

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a reporter pursues the crime lord in charge of laundering the town's dirty money. The new police commissioner vows to gather enough evidence to capture the head crook, who in turn murders the commissioner. Meanwhile, the intrepid reporter befriends the crime lord's assistant Read More

Case of Clara Deane

Actors: Wynne Gibson, Pat O'Brien, Frances Dee, Dudley Digges, George Barbier

Synopsis: Based on a play by Arthur M. Brilant, The Case of Clara Deane stars Wynne Gibson, repeating her original Broadway role. Accused of a crime she didn't commit, young mother Clara Deane is forcibly separated from her baby daughter then coerced into surrendering all claims to the child. Fifteen years Read More

Hollywood Speaks

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Genevieve Tobin, Lucien Prival, Leni Stengel

Synopsis: The darkest side of Tinseltown is depicted in this drama that centers upon a Hollywood columnist determined to reveal the awful truth about entertainment business. He writes of starlets abused by directors on the casting couch, and of mob involvement in motion pictures. It also concerns the Read More

Hell's House

Actors: Charles Grapewin, Junior Coughlan, Junior Durkin, Pat O'Brien

Synopsis: Bette Davis was on loan from Universal when she appeared in this little juvenile delinquent melodrama from independent producer B.F. Zeidman. Although Davis earned above-title billing (along with Pat O'Brien), Junior Durkin is the real star, a teenager who is sent to juvenile prison after being Read More

Air Mail

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ralph Bellamy, Russell Hopton, George "Slim" Summerville, Gloria Stuart

Synopsis: The air-mail pilots who fly from a small airport in the Rocky Mountains are determined but not paid well, and there are occasional fatal crashes. It's a tradition of long standing that when this happens, chief pilot Mike Miller (Ralph Bellamy) makes the next flight himself. Daredevil Duke Talbot (Pat O'Brien Read More

Scandal for Sale

Actors: Charles Bickford, Rose Hobart, Pat O'Brien, Claudia Dell, John Farrell MacDonald

Synopsis: In this newspaper drama, a dedicated small-town reporter works hard and becomes the editor of a major New York paper. Unfortunately the man's ambition has blinded him to the needs of his wife and son. When the son dies, the bereaved, and lonely woman decides to leave him. Later the editor Read More

The Strange Case of Clara Deane

Virtue

Actors: Carole Lombard, Pat O'Brien, Mayo Methot, Jack LaRue, Ward Bond

Synopsis: The title Virtue should be a good tip-off that the central character is a step below virtuous. Carole Lombard, still not established as a comedienne in 1932, plays a streetwalker seeking an escape from her sordid existence. She meets Pat O'Brien, one of the few men who doesn't expect a quick fix Read More

American Madness

Actors: Walter Huston, Pat O'Brien, Kay Johnson, Constance Cummings, Gavin Gordon, Robert Ellis

Synopsis: Bank president Thomas Dickson (Walter Huston) has instituted a lending policy that shows great faith in ordinary people but which also irritates his board of directors, as does his claim that an increased money supply will help end the Depression. Elsewhere in the bank, criminal Dude Finlay (Robert Ellis Read More

Honor Among Lovers

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Monroe Owsley, Charlie Ruggles, Ginger Rogers

Synopsis: Trailblazing female director Dorothy Arzner helmed this well-crafted romantic drama. Julia Traynor (Claudette Colbert) is a secretary working for Jerry Stafford (Frederic March), a successful stock broker. Jerry has taken a decidedly non-professional interest in Julia, and when he asks her to join Read More

The Front Page

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Pat O'Brien, Mary Brian, Edward Everett Horton, Walter Catlett

Synopsis: This first of four film versions of the Ben Hecht/Charlrd MacArthur Broadway hit stars Adolphe Menjou as explosive Chicago newspaper-editor Walter Burns and Pat O'Brien as his star reporter Hildy Johnson. Hildy is on the verge of getting married and retiring from Burns' dirty little tabloid, but Read More

Consolation Marriage

Actors: Irene Dunne, Pat O'Brien, John Halliday, Matt Moore, Lester Vail

Synopsis: Consolation Marriage (British title: Marriage in Haste) stars Irene Dunne and Pat O'Brien. When hero and heroine are jilted by their respective sweethearts Lester Vail and Myrna Loy, they marry each other on the rebound. Having already been burned around the heart, Dunne and O'Brien agree that Read More

Flying High

Actors: Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, Pat O'Brien, Kathryn Crawford, Charles Winninger

Synopsis: Flying High was a nonsensical Broadway musical hit of 1930 starring Bert Lahr. The film version, made one year later by MGM, made a few efforts to "cinematize" the stage original, but the focus was on Lahr, re-creating his Broadway performance virtually verbatim -- except for his famous (and Read More

Personal Maid

Actors: Nancy Carroll, Pat O'Brien, Gene Raymond, Hugh O'Connell, Mary Boland

Synopsis: In this drama, a humble Irish lass from New York City's East Side, dreams of ascending the social ladder to escape her tumultuous family life. She attempts to live her dream by becoming a servant in upscale homes. Soon she finds that wealthy families are just as troubled as her own. Fortunately Read More