Rags Ragland Filmography

Born:: August 23, 1905 in Louisville, KY
Occupation:: Actor
Biography:: Before plunging into show business, comedian Rags Ragland was a truck driver, a boxer (which explains his cauliflower ears), and a movie projectionist. He entered burlesque in his twenties, working his way up to "top banana" at Minsky's. Among his fellow burlesque performers, Ragland was famous...Read More

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The Hoodlum Saint

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
Her Highness and the Bellboy

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Robert Walker, June Allyson, Carl Esmond, Agnes Moorehead

Synopsis: This tender but fluffy romantic comedy centers on the romantic travails of a beautiful European princesss who goes to New York to find the newspaper reporter she fell for when he was visiting her mythical country. She stays at the Big Apple's finest hotel and while there finds herself mistaken for Read More

1945
Anchors Aweigh

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly, José Iturbi, Dean Stockwell

Synopsis: This mammoth musical is at base the story of two sailors on leave in Hollywood. Brash Joseph Brady (Gene Kelly) has promised his shy pal Clarence Doolittle (Frank Sinatra) that he will introduce Clarence to all the glamorous movie starlets whom he allegedly knows so well. Actually, the only Read More

1945
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Frances Rafferty, Robert Stanton, Jean Porter

Synopsis: The last of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's three MGM features, Abbott & Costello in Hollywood is a loose remake of Buster Keaton's Free and Easy. Bud and Lou play a pair of Tinseltown barbers who dream of becoming high-priced showbiz agents. Their first clients are Frances Rafferty and Robert Stanton Read More

1945
Meet the People

Actors: Lucille Ball, Dick Powell, Virginia O'Brien, Bert Lahr, Rags Ragland

Synopsis: MGM's musical extravaganza Meet the People top-bills two future powerful TV executives: Dick Powell and Lucille Ball. Ball plays a popular but stuck-up Broadway star who leaves the bright lights to become a welder in a shipyard. Here she meets and falls in love with coworker Powell. This being a Read More

1944
The Canterville Ghost

Actors: Charles Laughton, Robert Young, Margaret O'Brien, William Gargan, Peter Lawford, Una O'Connor, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: The whimsical Oscar Wilde fantasy yarn The Canterville Ghost is updated to WW2 in this economical but attractively produced MGM filmization. Charles Laughton plays Sir Simon de Canterville, a feckless 17th century British aristocrat who, after proving himself a coward on the field of honor, is Read More

1944
Three Men in White

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Marilyn Maxwell, Keye Luke, Ava Gardner

Synopsis: MGM's popular Dr. Kildare series spanned 1938-47. Lew Ayres played the title character, but parted in 1942. Though crusty and craggly Lionel Barrymore, portrayed Dr. Gillespie (one of {%Kildare's contemporaries at Blair General Hospital)) from the beginning of the series, he initially came second Read More

1944
Du Barry Was a Lady

Actors: Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly, Virginia O'Brien, Zero Mostel, Rags Ragland

Synopsis: The racy, ribald Cole Porter musical Du Barry Was a Lady is here given a thorough dry-cleaning by prudish MGM. Richard "Red" Skelton takes over the role of Louis Blore (played on Broadway by Bert Lahr), while Lucille Ball steps into the shoes of the original play's Ethel Merman. The story proposes Read More

1943
Girl Crazy

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
Whistling in Brooklyn

Actors: Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, Jean Rogers, Ray Collins

Synopsis: The last of three films starring Red Skelton as ace radio detective Wally "The Fox" Benton, Whistling in Brooklyn opens with Fox and girl friend Carol Lambert (Ann Rutherford) making final preparations for a trip to Niagara Falls, where they intend to get married. Of course, they've made these Read More

1943
The War Against Mrs. Hadley

Actors: Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, Richard Ney, Jean Rogers, Sara Allgood

Synopsis: In this WW II propaganda piece a wealthy American society matron refuses to sacrifice her material comforts to aid the war effort until she realizes that her selfishness is cheating the boys overseas who are fighting for her freedom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1942
Sunday Punch

Actors: William Lundigan, Jean Rogers, Dan Dailey, Guy Kibbee, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: Another graduate of MGM's short-subject department, director David Miller proved he had what it took to helm a feature film for the studio in Sunday Punch. The harmless but diverting story concerns the rivalry, in and out of the ring, between prizefighters Ken Burke (William Lundigan) and Olaf Read More

1942
Maisie Gets Her Man

Actors: Ann Sothern, Red Skelton, Leo Gorcey, Allen Jenkins, Donald Meek

Synopsis: The combination of Ann Sothern and Red Skelton pays off in giggles, chortles and guffaws in Maisie Gets Her Man. Broke and stranded once more, showgirl Maisie Revere briefly works as the wrong end of a knife-throwing act, then dedicates herself to helping would-be comedian Hap Hixby (Skelton) Read More

1942
Whistling in Dixie

Actors: Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, George Bancroft, Guy Kibbee, Diana Lewis

Synopsis: This second entry in MGM's "Whistling" series is more elaborate than the first (Whistling in the Dark) and equally as funny. Red Skelton returns as radio sleuth Wally Benton, aka "The Fox", while Ann Rutherford is back as his ever-patient fiancee Carol Lambert (Ann Rutherford). After receiving a Read More

1942
Somewhere I'll Find You

Actors: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Robert Sterling, Patricia Dane, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Unable to convince their isolationist New York editor (Charles Dingle) that America must be alerted to the threat of encroaching Nazism, pugnacious war correspondents Johnny and Kirk Davis (Clark Gable and Robert Sterling) are relieved of their European assignments. Back in the USA, Johnny Read More

1942
Panama Hattie

Actors: Red Skelton, Ann Sothern, Rags Ragland, Ben Blue, Marsha Hunt

Synopsis: Cole Porter's musical hit Panama Hattie originally starred Ethel Merman on Broadway. But Merman was not a proven movie commodity, thus it was Ann Sothern who appeared in the film version as Hattie, brassy but golden-hearted proprietress of a Canal Zone hotel. Accustomed to dealing with such Read More

1942
Born to Sing

Actors: Virginia Weidler, Ray McDonald, Leo Gorcey, Rags Ragland, Douglas McPhail

Synopsis: This happy musical chronicles the exploits of a suicidal composer who is desolate after someone swiped his newest musical comedy. He is saved by three young people who join up with the writer's daughter and put on the production. With the help of a pugnacious cab driver, they manage to draw their Read More

1942
Ringside Maisie

Actors: Ann Sothern, George Murphy, Robert Sterling, Virginia O'Brien, Natalie Thompson

Synopsis: Broke and stranded once more, golden-hearted showgirl Maisie Revere (Ann Sothern) finds herself in upstate New York in general proximity with a prizefighting camp. She meets and ultimately falls in love with up-and-coming boxer Terry Dolan (played by Ann Sothern's future husband Robert Sterling). Read More

1941
Whistling in the Dark

Actors: Red Skelton, Conrad Veidt, Ann Rutherford, Virginia Grey, Rags Ragland

Synopsis: Though based on a stage play by Laurence Gross and Edward Childs Carpenter (previously filmed as an Ernest Truex vehicle in 1933), MGM's Whistling in the Dark was clearly inspired by the success of Paramount's Bob Hope comedy-mystery The Ghost Breakers. In his first film starring role, Red Skelton Read More

1941