Sterling HollowayFilmography

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Actors: Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an hour-long compendium of the three Disney "Winnie" animated short subjects produced between 1966 and 1974. Sterling Holloway provides the voice of A.A. Milne's whimsical pooh-bear in all three cartoons, the first two of which are directed by Wolfgang Reithermann Read More

Thunder and Lightning

Actors: David Carradine, Kate Jackson, Roger C. Carmel, Sterling Holloway, Ed Barth

Synopsis: David Carradine and Kate Jackson spend most of their time peering over dashboards and revving up outboard motors in this extended chase film about moonshiners engaged in a frantic racing contest. Carradine is Harley Thomas, a Florida moonshiner who challenges Ralph Junior (Roger C. Carmel), the Read More

Super Seal

Synopsis: In this comedy-drama, a family's well-ordered life is thrown into chaos after the youngest daughter brings home a wounded baby seal who grows up to be quite the mischief maker. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood

Actors: Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, Art Carney, Phil Silvers, Ron Leibman

Synopsis: This spoof makes fun of a certain famous German shepherd movie star from the 1920s. The mayhem begins when the head honcho of a financially struggling studio turns a lost dog into a legend. The story features a number of old stars making cameo appearances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!

Synopsis: This third entry in Disney's animated-featurette series based on A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh tales was also the first directed by someone other than Wolfgang Reithermann. The story involves the efforts made by the other denizens of the Hundred Acre Forest to take some of the "bounce" out of Read More

All About Me [TV Series]

Actors: Jasper Carrott, Meera Syal, Jamil Dhillon, Ryan Cartwright

Synopsis: Originally telecast January 13, 1973, as an episode of the Saturday-morning NBC Children's Theatre anthology, "All About Me" was the first of five proposed programs using animation, live action and puppets to dispense education in an amusing (and painless manner). In this entry, a schoolboy falls Read More

The Aristocats

Actors: Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: The Aristocats was the first Disney Studios animated feature to be produced after Walt Disney's death. A wealthy woman leaves her vast fortune to her four cats: the well-bred Duchess and her kittens, Berlioz, Toulouse, and Marie. Jealous butler Edgar, eager to get his mitts on the cats' legacy Read More

Live a Little, Love A Little

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

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

Synopsis: Winnie The Pooh & the Blustery Day was the second Disney animated featurette based on characters created by A. A. Milne. It was released December 20, 1968, two years and ten months after the first Disney "Pooh Corner" tales, Winnie the Pooh & the Honey Tree. As in the earlier film, Sterling Read More

Family Affair: Fancy Free

Synopsis: Now that they're in an accelerated-learning class, Buffy (Anissa Jones) and Jody (Johnnie Whitaker) must face the treacherous perils of "New Math". Unfortunately, their Uncle Bill (Brian Keith) hasn't the time to help with the twins' homework, since he is being kept occupied by his latest lady Read More

Gilligan's Island: The Pigeon

Actors: Sterling Holloway, Harry Swoger, Janos Prohaska

Synopsis: The Castaways pin their rescue hopes on a homing pigeon named Walter. Unfortunately, the recipient of Walter's messages is a guy named Burt (Sterling Holloway), who thinks the whole thing is a hoax. Worse is still to come when Gilligan (Bob Denver) and company are obliged to rescue the pigeon from Read More

The Jungle Book

Actors: Bruce Reitherman, Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway, J. Pat O'Malley

Synopsis: The final animated feature produced under the supervision of Walt Disney is a lively neo-swing musical, loosely based upon the tales of Rudyard Kipling. The story takes place in a tropical jungle where people are conspicuously absent. But one day Bagheera the Panther (voice of Sebastian Cabot) Read More

F Troop: Wilton the Kid

Synopsis: Ken Berry essays a dual role in this episode as mild-mannered Captain Wilton Parmenter and his ill-mannered lookalike, a fugitive bank robber named Kid Vicious. As O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker), Agarn (Larry Storch) and doddering Sheriff Lawton (Sterling Holloway) conduct an extensive search for Kid Read More

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree

Synopsis: "Bears love honey and I'm a Pooh bear," sings Winnie the Pooh setting the stage for the goings-on in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, the first of four Disney featurettes based upon the A.A. Milne characters. Indeed, Pooh has rather an insatiable desire for honey, and when he spies a group of Read More

The Twilight Zone: What's in the Box

Actors: William Demarest, Joan Blondell, Sterling Holloway, Herbert Lytton, Sandra Gould

Synopsis: As a repairman (Sterling Holloway) works on his malfunctioning television set, middle-aged TV addict Joe Britt (William Demarest) fusses and fumes, while his wife Phyllis (Joan Blondell) launches another of her nag sessions. Once the repairman leaves, Joe tunes in to his favorite program, only to Read More

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Phil Silvers, Dick Shawn, Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton

Synopsis: With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the Read More

My Six Loves

Actors: Debbie Reynolds, Cliff Robertson, Eileen Heckart, David Janssen, Hans Conried

Synopsis: This was the first film directed by dancer and choreographer Gower Champion, already experienced at directing television and theatrical productions by the early '60s. The routine romantic comedy, somewhat bogged down by the children it features, is centered on overwrought actress Janice Courtney (Debbie Reynolds Read More

The Andy Griffith Show: The Merchant of Mayberry

Actors: Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: Town curmudgeon Ben Weaver (Will Wright) is on the warpath again. This time, Ben demands that itinerant peddler Bert Miller (Sterling Holloway) remove himself from the sidewalk across the street from Ben's store. Fed up with Weaver's rantings, Andy aligns himself with the woebegone Bert-resulting Read More

Alakazam the Great!

Actors: Frankie Avalon, Dodie Stevens, Jonathan Winters, Arnold Stang, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: Originally released in Japan as Saiyu-ki, this animated feature film was purchased by American-International Productions, then retitled, re-edited and redubbed for American consumption. Alakazam is a timid little monkey, who has greatness thrust upon him when he is chosen to rule over all the Read More

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Actors: Tony Randall, Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore, Patty McCormack, Neville Brand

Synopsis: MGM's all-star 1960 filmization of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn surgically removes the sociological subtext of Mark Twain's novel in the interests of "entertainment for the whole family." The emphasis is on the adventuresome escapades of Huck (Eddie Hodges) and fugitive slave Jim (played by Read More

The Shirley Temple Show: The Land of Oz

The Untouchables: The Unhired Assassin, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, Capone's second-in-command Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon) steps up his heretofore unsuccessful efforts to eliminate Anton Cermak (Robert Middleton), the incorruptable mayor of Chicago. Scheduled to appear at a public event in Miami with president-elect Franklin Read More

Bell Science: Hemo the Magnificent

Actors: Dr. Frank Baxter, Richard Carlson, Sterling Holloway, Mel Blanc, Paul H. Frees

Synopsis: The second in a group of full-color Bell Science Specials produced, written and directed by the legendary Frank Capra, Hemo the Magnificent is an hour-long combination of animation and live action, explaining in the most entertaining manner possible the human circulatory system. Shakesepearean Read More

Shake, Rattle and Rock

Actors: Fats Domino, Lisa Gaye, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: The endearingly awful Shake, Rattle and Rock! serves as a showcase for four top rock-and-roll talents of the 1950s. Fats Domino heads the cast as "himself", performing "I'm in Love Again", "Ain't it a Shame" and "Honey Chile". Likewise, Joe Turner offers renditions of "Feelin' Happy" and Read More

Disneyland: The Liberty Story

Actors: Luana Patten, Jeff York, Rusty Lane, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: This 1957 Disneyland episode is essentially a promotional film for the upcoming Disney theatrical release Johnny Tremain. An early segment, chronicling man's struggle for liberty as manifested in the Magna Carta and the exploits of Robin Hood, leads smoothly into a lengthy excerpt of the new film Read More

Disneyland: Adventures in Fantasy

Actors: The Andrews Sisters, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: Disneyland host Walt Disney endeavors to demonstrate how inanimate objects can become "human", with the attendant full range of emotions and problems, in the wonderful world of animation. To demonstrate, Walt has three otherwise non-living objects narrate a series of cartoon segments, lifted from Read More

Kentucky Rifle

Synopsis: In order to pass through Comanche territory, the stranded passengers of a West-bound wagon train must sell the Indians their rifles in this western from Carl Hittleman. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Adventures of Superman: Through the Time Barrier

Synopsis: The Adventures of Superman switches from black and white to color in this first episode of the series' fourth season. Just as a crook named Turk (Jim Hyland) has shown up in the office of "Daily Planet" editor Perry White (John Hamilton) to sign a confession, in bursts eccentric scientist Read More

Superman and the Jungle Devil

Actors: George Reeves

The Adventures of Superman: The Whistling Bird

Synopsis: Sterling Holloway returns as eccentric scientist Uncle Oscar, who while trying to cook up a formula for flavored stamp glue ends up with a powerful explosive. Rather than write down the entire formula, Uncle Oscar teaches vital segments of the formula to his talking parakeet Schuyler. A pair of Read More

Ben and Me

Synopsis: Though running slightly less than a half-hour, Walt Disney Productions' animated Ben and Me is produced with as much loving care and attention to detail as any of Disney's feature-length cartoons. Sterling Holloway provides the voice of Amos Mouse, who, according to this cartoon, was the principal Read More

The Adventures of Superman: The Machine That Could Plot Crimes

Synopsis: Ex-mobster Larry McCoy (Billy Nelson) is looking to make a comeback, and finds the means to do so in the work of his eccentric scientist neighbor (terling Holloway), who has invented a super-computer (referred to here as a "thinking machine"). The device, referred to by its maker as "Mr. Kelso," Read More

Lambert the Sheepish Lion

Actors: Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: Narrated by the ubiqitous Sterling Holloway, the cartoon begins as Mr. Stork delivers a new batch of arrivals to a flock of mother sheep. But there's been a mixup at headquarters, and one of the little lambs turns out to be a baby lion named "Lambert". Be that as it may, one of the ewes adopts Read More

Alice in Wonderland

Actors: Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna

Synopsis: This Disney feature-length cartoon combines the most entertaining elements of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Chasing after the White Rabbit, who runs into view singing "I'm Late! I'm Late!," Alice falls down the rabbit hole into the topsy-turvy alternate world Read More

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend

Actors: Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, Olga San Juan, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: Preston Sturges' final American film was generally conceded to be a disaster in 1949; even star Betty Grable publicly bad-mouthed the finished product. When seen today, Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, while no classic, seems a lot better than it did five decades ago. Grable plays a western Read More

Robin Hood of Texas

Actors: Stanley Andrews, Gene Autry, Michael Branden, Al Bridge, Paul Bryar

Synopsis: A dude ranch, unemployed cowhands, modern-day bank robbers, and music are the main ingredients in this, Gene Autry's swan song for Republic Pictures, lovingly restored by UCLA and Gene Autry Entertainment in 2001. Swindled out of their savings, Gene and the Cass County Boys mistakenly get mixed up Read More

Saddle Pals

Actors: Lynne Roberts, Sterling Holloway, Irving Bacon, Damian O'Flynn

Synopsis: Saddle Pals hits a new low for Gene Autry's postwar Republic westerns, containing literally no action at all. Autry is drawn into the plot when he's given power of attorney in a property settlement involving his old pal (Sterling Holloway) and a gang of land swindlers. The pal then goes on an Read More

Addio Mimi!

Actors: Marta Eggerth, Jan Kiepura, Janis Carter, Douglas Dumbrille, Marc Platt

Synopsis: The Italian-American Her Wonderful Lie is based on the novel Latin Quarter by Murger. This literary work is better known as the source for the Puccini opera La Boheme, and indeed, Her Wonderful Life is a modernized adaptation of the Puccini classic, with a few songs from other operas thrown in for Read More

Trail to San Antone

Actors: Gene Autry, Peggy Stewart, Sterling Holloway, William Henry

Synopsis: Gene Autry is back near the saddle, trying to help out a crippled jockey. Gene is certain that the jockey can ride in the Big Race if the lad can regain his self-confidence. Meanwhile, Gene and comical sidekick Sterling Holloway have another problem on their hands: A rogue stallion has "kidnapped" Read More

Twilight on the Rio Grande

Actors: Gene Autry, Sterling Holloway, Adele Mara, Bob Steele, Charles Evans

Synopsis: Smugglers are working the border between Mexico and California in this action-filled and, of course, tuneful Gene Autry Western. Autry, sidekick Sterling Holloway, and the Cass County Boys get involved with fiery Elena Del Rio (Adele Mara), a singer in the local cantina who alternately throws 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

Sioux City Sue

Actors: Gene Autry, Lynne Roberts, Sterling Holloway, Richard Lane, Ralph Sanford

Synopsis: In his first film after four-years of military duty, Gene Autry returns to a familiar setting: a modern western musical-comedy with accent on music and comedy. Crooning Jimmie Hodges' lilting "Someday You'll Want Me to Want You", cattle rancher Gene Autry is discovered by Hollywood talent scouts Read More

Make Mine Music

Actors: Benny Goodman, Sterling Holloway, Dinah Shore, David Lichine

Synopsis: In his first postwar animated feature, Walt Disney attempted to repeat the Fantasia formula, substituting "pop" music for the Classics. Make Mine Music consists of ten unrelated cartoon vignettes, each one featuring a popular recording artist. "A Rustic Ballad" is the story of the Martin-Coy Read More

Peter and the Wolf

Synopsis: This animated musical was included in a 1946 feature called Make Mine Music, after originally being planned for the oft-delayed sequel to Fantasia. Featuring narration by Sterling Holloway, Peter & the Wolf adds Walt Disney's touch to Prokofiev's masterpiece, telling the story of the brave young Read More

The Three Caballeros

Actors: Aurora Miranda, Carmen Molina, Dora Luz, Clarence Nash, Joaquin Garay

Synopsis: Three Caballeros is the first Walt Disney feature to combine animation with live action footage. Originally conceived as World War II propaganda promoting good relations between the United States and Latin America, the film details the adventures of Donald Duck as he meets two Latin birds--Jose Read More

A Walk in the Sun

Actors: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, John Ireland, Norman Lloyd, George Tyne, Lloyd Bridges, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: Harry Brown's honest, unsentimental WW2 novel A Walk in the Sun has been effectively adapted for the screen by Robert Rossen. Dana Andrews stars as Sgt. Tyne, a platoon squad leader in Italy who ends up assuming command of his platoon after a series of deaths. As they prepare to attack an isolated Read More

Wildfire

Actors: Bob Steele, Sterling Holloway, William Farnum

Synopsis: Wildfire was the first release from Screen Guild Productions, the adventuresome little independent that would eventually metamorphose into Lippert Pictures Inc. The title character is a magnificent wild horse, slated to be destroyed by a group of ranchers. It seems that Wildfire is being held Read More

Iceland

Actors: Sonja Henie, John Payne, Jack Oakie, Felix Bressart, Osa Massen

Synopsis: When the US marines land in Iceland during WW2, camp lothario John Payne wastes no time scoping out the local female population. He makes a casual pass at skating champ Sonja Henie, only to discover that she has taken his attentions as a marriage proposal! Unable to weasel out of his situation Read More

Bambi

Synopsis: The classic Felix Salter story Bambi provides the basis for this near-perfect Disney animated feature. We follow the male deer Bambi from birth, through his early childhood experiences with woodland pals Thumper the rabbit and Flower the skunk, the traumatic sudden death of Bambi's mother at the Read More

The Lady Is Willing

Actors: Marlene Dietrich, Fred MacMurray, Aline MacMahon, Arline Judge, Stanley Ridges

Synopsis: Mitchell Leisen directed this romantic comedy with melodramatic overtones, starring Marlene Dietrich in a sympathetic role as famed stage star Elizabeth Madden. Elizabeth longs for motherhood but has no husband. Her desire appears to be fulfilled when she finds an abandoned baby, but she doesn't Read More

Star Spangled Rhythm

Actors: Victor Moore, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Anne Revere, Walter Abel

Synopsis: Star-Spangled Rhythm is a typical wartime all-star musical-comedy melange, this time from Paramount Pictures. The slender plot involves the efforts by humble studio doorman Pop Webster (Victor Moore) to pass himself off as a big-shot Paramount executive for the benefit of his sailor son Jimmy (Eddie Bracken Read More

Top Sergeant

Actors: Leo Carrillo, Andy Devine, Don Terry, Elyse Knox, Don Porter

Synopsis: Top Sergeant was the third of four inexpensive Universal action films top-billing Leo Carrillo, Andy Devine and Don Terry. Terry plays the title character, drill sergeant Dick Manson of the Engineer Corps. Carrillo and Devine are cast respectively as Corporals Frenchy Devereaux and Andy Jarrett Read More

Dumbo

Actors: Sterling Holloway, Edward S. Brophy, Herman Bing, Verna Felton, Cliff Edwards

Synopsis: The shortest of Disney's major animated features Dumbo involves a baby elephant with unusually large ears. Ostracized from the rest of the circus animals, poor Dumbo is even separated from his mother, who is chained up in a separate cage after trying to defend her child. Only brash-but-lovable Read More

New Wine

Actors: Ilona Massey, Alan Curtis, Binnie Barnes, Albert Basserman, Billy Gilbert

Synopsis: Also released as The Great Awakening, New Wine purports to recreate an incident in the life of Austrian composer Franz Schubert. Though the real-life Schubert was chubby and homely, he is played on screen by the slim-and-handsome Alan Curtis. Unable to convince the world of his talent, Schubert is Read More

Don't Get Personal

Actors: Hugh Herbert, Mischa Auer, Jane Frazee, Anne Gwynne, Robert Paige

Synopsis: Three different Universal pictures made between 1922 and 1941 bore the catchall title Don't Get Personal. The 1941 film stars Hugh Herbert as a ditzy pickle manufacturer whose favorite radio program stars Jane Frazee and Robert Paige. The couple plays a bickering husband and wife on the air, and 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

Cheers for Miss Bishop

Actors: Martha Scott, William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn, Sterling Holloway, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: Something of a distaff Mr. Chips, schoolteacher Ella Bishop (Martha Scott) devotes her life to her work, ageing 50 years (from 19 to 69) in the course of the film. At a testimonial dinner on the occasion of her retirement, Miss Bishop's former students wonder why their beloved teacher never Read More

Look Who's Laughing

Actors: Edgar Bergen, Dummy: Charlie McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Marian Jordan, Lucille Ball

Synopsis: Several popular radio personalities converge in the RKO Radio "comedy salad" Look Who's Laughing. Taking a vacation from his radio series, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen sets out in his private plane, accompanied by his dummy Charlie McCarthy. Developing engine trouble, Bergen makes a forced landing Read More

Meet John Doe

Actors: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, Spring Byington

Synopsis: The first of director Frank Capra's independent productions (in partnership with Robert Riskin), Meet John Doe begins with the end of reporter Ann Mitchell's (Barbara Stanwyck) job. Fired as part of a downsizing move, she ends her last column with an imaginary letter written by "John Doe." Angered Read More

Remember the Night

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, Willard Robertson

Synopsis: A romantic comedy drama directed by former art director Mitchell Leisen and based on a skillful Preston Sturges screenplay. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Lee Leander, a New York City shoplifter who is arrested just before Christmas after trying to filch an expensive piece of jewelry. Her trial delayed Read More

Street of Memories

Actors: Lynne Roberts, Guy Kibbee, John McGuire, Hobart Cavanaugh

Synopsis: In this drama, a transient farm worker suffering from amnesia gets in trouble with the cops. One day he drifts into a town, finds a good woman and marries. Soon after, a blow to the head restores his memory. He remembers that his father is a prominent businessman in Chicago. At first, he does not Read More

The Blue Bird

Actors: Shirley Temple, Spring Byington, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Eddie Collins

Synopsis: When Darryl F. Zanuck's arrangement to loan Shirley Temple to MGM as star of The Wizard of Oz fell through, Zanuck hastily assembled a lavish Technicolor vehicle for his diminutive star which, he hoped, would match Wizard in popularity and appeal. The result was The Blue Bird, adapted from the Read More

Little Men

Actors: Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft, Jimmy Lydon, Ann Gillis

Synopsis: Little Men, Louisa May Alcott's followup to her successful novel Little Women, has never truly adapted well to the screen, though this 1940 version is better than most. Kay Francis stars as the all-grown-up Jo March, now in charge of a private school for young boys. Her most contentious charge is Read More

Hit Parade of 1941

Actors: Kenny Baker, Frances Langford, Hugh Herbert, Mary Boland, Ann Miller

Synopsis: In this musical, the second entry in a five-film series, a thrift shop owner sells his business and buys a small time radio station. He begins looking for sponsors. He finds one with a department store owner who will only lend him the money if he will allow his daughter, an aspiring tap-dancer and Read More

Nick Carter, Master Detective

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson, Henry Hull, Stanley Ridges, Donald Meek

Synopsis: Pulp-novel detective Nick Carter was created in the 1880s, but most film versions of the character have been updated to modern times. Such was the case with MGM's three-episode "Nick Carter" series, which got off to a good start with Nick Carter, Master Detective. Walter Pidgeon plays the title Read More

St. Louis Blues

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Tito Guizar, Jerome Cowan, Jessie Ralph

Synopsis: Dorothy Lamour had been playing "sarong girls" long enough to parody her screen character in 1939's Best of the Blues. Tired of portraying jungle princesses, a temperamental Broadway star (Lamour) runs out on her manager (Jerome Cowan) and joins a Mississippi showboat under a phony name. Read More

Professor Beware

Actors: Phyllis Welch, Raymond Walburn, Lionel Stander, William Frawley

Synopsis: Harold Lloyd plays a professor of Egyptology, frightened by the notion that he has fallen under an ancient Egyptian curse. Lloyd has the opportunity to join an archeological expedition to search for a missing tablet that will determine his fate, but he has to travel from Los Angeles to New York Read More

Spring Madness

Actors: Maureen O'Sullivan, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey, Burgess Meredith, Ann Morriss

Synopsis: In this collegiate romance, the love affair between two seniors is threatened by their different graduation plans. The fellow and his roommate are planning a two-year trek through Europe after the ceremony. This doesn't set well with the young woman who uses all her feminine wiles to convince him Read More

Of Human Hearts

Actors: Walter Huston, James Stewart, Beulah Bondi, Guy Kibbee, Charles Coburn

Synopsis: Clarence Brown directed this heart-tugging piece of Americana, set during the Civil War era. Walter Huston plays a stern family patriarch, a preacher who thrusts his family into poverty in order to set an example for his parishioners. As a result, his son (James Stewart) grows up to resent him. He Read More

Doctor Rhythm

Actors: Bing Crosby, Mary Carlisle, Beatrice Lillie, Andy Devine, Rufe Davis

Synopsis: Bing Crosby plays the melodic medico of the title. To help cover for his ailing policeman pal (Andy Devine), Crosby takes the policeman's latest assignment and becomes the bodyguard for a loopy but wealthy matron (Bea Lillie). Bing falls in love with the lady's niece (Mary Carlisle), expressing Read More

Join the Marines

Actors: Paul Kelly, June Travis, Purnell Pratt, Reginald Denny, Warren Hymer

Synopsis: This service comedy from the Republic Studio mills was perhaps the most aggressively titled of the "Marine Corps" film cycle of the mid-1930s (Come on Leathernecks, Pride of the Marines et. al.) Paul Kelly plays Phil Donlan, a pugnacious ex-cop and ex-Olympic athlete who is run out of New York in Read More

When Love Is Young

Actors: Virginia Bruce, Kent Taylor, Walter Brennan, Greta Meyer, Christian Rub

Synopsis: In this drama, a girl from a small town in Pennsylvania dreams of being a star while she goes to school. The trouble is, no one notices her. Later a mentor turns her into a successful Broadway entertainer. She returns to her former college to get sweet revenge. Songs include: "When Love Is Young," Read More

Varsity Show

Actors: Dick Powell, Fred Waring, Priscilla Lane, Walter Catlett, Ted Healy

Synopsis: If you're wondering which Warners musical featured the songs "Old King Cole" and "Have You Got Any Castles?," we refer you to Varsity Show. Dick Powell stars as a musical producer, called back to his alma mater to stage the annual college variety show. Uptight dean Walter Catlett is dead set Read More

Behind the Mike

Actors: William Gargan, Judith Barrett, Don Wilson, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: Rivalry surfaces between radio producers as they fight for control of programs and sponsors in this lively comedy that features Jack Benny's radio announcer, Don Wilson. One of the producers has trouble because he tends to tell the sponsors exactly what he thinks, no holds barred. Fortunately Wilson Read More

The Woman I Love

Actors: Paul Muni, Miriam Hopkins, Louis Hayward, Colin Clive, Minor Watson

Synopsis: Director Anatole Litvak's first Hollywood film was a remake of his French success L'Equipage, itself based on a novel by Joseph Kessel. Paul Muni stars as Maury, an unorthodox, abrasive WWI fighter-pilot whose skill in the air is compromised by his inability to get along with his colleagues and Read More

Maid of Salem

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Harvey Stephens, Gale Sondergaard, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: Claudette Colbert is a young freethinking woman living in Salem, Massachusetts during the notorious 17th century "witch trials". Colbert falls in love with adventurer Fred MacMurray, causing no end of scandal with the Puritan townsfolk. A hateful little girl (Bonita Granville) pretends to be Read More

Palm Springs

Actors: Frances Langford, Smith Ballew, Guy Standing, Ernest Cossart, Spring Byington

Synopsis: Just before his brief turn as a "singing cowboy," radio crooner Smith Ballew starred in Paramount's Palm Springs. Filmed on location at the famed California resort community, the story concerns the efforts by near-bankrupt gambler Capt Smyth (Sir Guy Standing) to marry off his daughter Joan (Frances Langford Read More

Career Woman

Actors: Claire Trevor, Michael Whalen, Eric Linden, Virginia Field

Synopsis: Admidst a sea of melodramatic and unbelievable courtroom dramas, Career Woman is distinguished by its comparative realism. Law school graduate Carroll Aiken (Claire Trevor) is idealistic; her colleague Barry Conant (Michael Whalen) is cynical and mercenary. Despite their ethical differences, they Read More

Doubting Thomas

Actors: Will Rogers, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Sterling Holloway, Andrew Tombes

Synopsis: Doubting Thomas is the 1935 film version of George Kelly's satirical comedy The Torch Bearers, tailored for the talents of Will Rogers. Billie Burke, Will's wife, becomes so involved in a local amateur theatre group that she has no time for her husband. In retaliation, Will pretends to "go Read More

Life Begins at 40

Actors: Will Rogers, Rochelle Hudson, Richard Cromwell, George Barbier, Jane Darwell

Synopsis: A best-selling nonfictional book of the 1920s provided the title for this Will Rogers vehicle. Rogers plays a small town newspaper editor who prints all the news that fits his own homespun view of the world. Against the wishes of the town higher-ups, Rogers tries to clear the name of Richard Cromwell Read More

Lottery Lover

Actors: Lew Ayres, Pat Paterson, Peggy Fears, Sterling Holloway, Walter Woolf King

Synopsis: In their never-ending efforts to transform contract actress Pat Paterson a major star, Fox Studios cast the lovely lady opposite such established favorites as Lew Ayres in such frothy musicals as Lottery Lover. Ayres plays American naval cadet Frank Harrington, on vacation in Paris with several Read More

I Live My Life

Actors: Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Frank Morgan, Aline MacMahon, Eric Blore

Synopsis: Feeling stifled by her wealthy existence, flighty heiress Kay (Joan Crawford) falls in love with poor archaeologist Terry (Brian Aherne). The couple seems happiest when they're yelling at one another, indicating perhaps that screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz was none too fond of either character. Read More

Rendezvous

Actors: William Powell, Rosalind Russell, Binnie Barnes, Lionel Atwill, Cesar Romero

Synopsis: This espionage thriller with romantic comedy touches was loosely based on the book American Black Chamber by the real-life head of the U.S. Secret Service during World War I, Herbert O. Yardley. Bill Gordon (William Powell) is a newspaper puzzle editor who becomes a lieutenant in 1917 when he Read More

Girl of My Dreams

Actors: Mary Carlisle, Sterling Holloway, Eddie Nugent, Arthur Lake, Creighton Chaney

Synopsis: Long before its "Teen Agers" series of the 1940s, Monogram Pictures went to college in the minor musical Girl of My Dreams. Heading the somewhat over-aged student body are BMOC Larry Haynes (Edward Nugent) and track-star Don Cooper (a handsome young Lon Chaney Jr., here still billed as Creighton Chaney Read More

$1,000 a Minute

Actors: Roger Pryor, Leila Hyams, Edgar Kennedy, Edward S. Brophy, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: Two rich and wealthy millionaires who have a lot of money bet that reporter Robert Pryor can't spend $720,000 in twelve hours. If you're asking "Why $720,000?", the answer is: because this Republic programmer is titled $1000 a Minute . Anyway, a couple of cops spot Pryor flashing a roll of bills Read More

Down to Their Last Yacht

Actors: Mary Boland, Polly Moran, Ned Sparks, Sidney Fox, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: The musical picture that ended Lou Brock's career as an RKO Radio producer, Down to Their Last Yacht is almost festive in its awfulness. The nonsensical plot finds a group of impoverished socialites (including Sidney Blackmer and Marjorie Gateson) trying to raise money by renting out their yacht Read More

The Merry Widow

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel, George Barbier

Synopsis: Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1934 musical comedy The Merry Widow, based on the 1905 operetta by Franz Lehar. In 1885, King Achmed (George Barbier) strives to protect the financial interests of his small, poor kingdom of Marshovia in Central Europe. When the kingdom's wealthiest widow, Sonia (Jeanette MacDonald Read More

A Wicked Woman

Actors: Mady Christians, Jean Parker, Charles Bickford, Betty Furness, William Henry

Synopsis: Helen Hayes reportedly turned down the opportunity to play the title role in this dreary melodrama about self-sacrificing motherhood; the opportunity, if that's the word, instead went to Viennese import Mady Christians. After killing her abusive husband (Paul Harvey) in self-defense, downtrodden Read More

Gift of Gab

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Gloria Stuart, Ruth Etting, Phil Baker

Synopsis: In this musical, a radio-announcer is fired after giving a false interview. For consolation he begins to drink heavily. It is his girlfriend who helps him sober up when she provides him with a major scoop--a missing airplane. He enthusiastically sets out after it and eventually finds it. As a Read More

Tomorrow's Children

Synopsis: Heralded as the "most daring, sensational drama ever filmed," this exploitation-melodrama is actually a rather confused argument both for and against forced sterilization. Their children either in jail, physically handicapped, or "feeble-minded," Mr. and Mrs. Mason (Arthur Wanzer and Sarah Padden) Read More

Back Page

Strictly Dynamite

Actors: Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez, Norman Foster, William Gargan, Marian Nixon

Synopsis: Six writers were involved in the RKO Radio musical comedy Strictly Dynamite; ironically, the plot concerns a radio comedian who's running out of material. Jimmy Durante stars as Maxie Slaight, an airwaves mirthmaker who hires young Nick Montgomery (Norman Foster) as his new gag man. Before he Read More

Operator 13

Actors: Gary Cooper, Marion Davies, Jean Parker, Katherine Alexander, Ted Healy

Synopsis: If you can accept blonde, blue-eyed Marion Davies disguising herself in blackface, chances are you'll swallow the rest of Operator 13. Davies plays a Belle Boyd-like actress who agrees to become a Northern spy during the Civil War. She assumes the identity of an octoroon servant and heads into Read More

Dancing Lady

Actors: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, May Robson, Winnie Lightner, Fred Astaire

Synopsis: Virtually everybody except President Roosevelt was in the lavish MGM backstage musical Dancing Lady. Joan Crawford stars as Janie Barlow, an impoverished dancer reduced to working in a seedy Manhattan burlesque house. While on a slumming party with his society friend, wealthy young Tod Newton (Franchot Tone Read More

Going Hollywood

Actors: Marion Davies, Bing Crosby, Fifi D'Orsay, Stuart Erwin, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: Reportedly at the request of Marion Davies herself, Bing Crosby was borrowed from Paramount for the MGM Davies vehicle Going Hollywood. Der Bingle plays a struggling crooner who falls in love with Davies, a French teacher in a girl's school. He rises to fame and fortune in Hollywood, leaving Read More

When Ladies Meet

Actors: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, Alice Brady, Frank Morgan

Synopsis: Henry Beaumont directed this verbose adaptation of Rachel Crother's play. Ann Harding plays Claire Woodruff, the wife of philandering publisher Rogers Woodruf (Frank Morgan). Myrna Loy is Mary Howard, a lithe and beautiful writer of novels with whom Rogers is in love. Meanwhile, her friend Jimmie Read More

Fast Workers

Actors: John Gilbert, Robert Armstrong, Mae Clarke, Muriel Kirkland, Vince Barnett

Synopsis: This story centers around a love triangle between two construction workers and a girl. The film climaxes with a fight on top of a skyscraper. The story is based on a play called Rivets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Female

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Philip Faversham, Ruth Donnelly, Johnny Mack Brown

Synopsis: Ruth Chatterton tears up the screen in this fast-paced, lusty comedy. Alison Drake is an automobile magnate, a hard-nosed, hardboiled business woman making dozens of important decisions a day. In her private life, however, she is passionate and bold in her pursuit of male companionship, which she Read More

Gold Diggers of 1933

Actors: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell

Synopsis: The second talkie version of the Avery Hopwood's theatrical war-horse The Golddiggers of Broadway, Gold Diggers of 1933 was the second of three back-to-back 1933 Warner Bros. musicals benefiting from the genius of Busby Berkeley. The basic plot is retained from the Hopwood play: Showgirls Joan Blondell Read More

Lawyer Man

Actors: William Powell, Joan Blondell, Helen Vinson, Alan Dinehart, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: William Powell is a poor East Side lawyer who works his way up the ladder to assistant prosecutor. He isn't too particular how he uses and misuses the law, much to the dismay of his faithful secretary (Joan Blondell). Powell's downfall comes when he falls for a shady lady (Claire Dodd) who Read More

Elmer the Great

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Patricia Ellis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd, Preston S. Foster

Synopsis: Joe E. Brown plays Elmer Kane, a rookie ballplayer with the Chicago Cubs whose ego is matched only by his appetite. Because he is not only vain but naive, Elmer's teammates take great delight in pulling practical jokes on him. Still, he is so valuable a player that the Cubs management hides the Read More

Picture Snatcher

Actors: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis, Alice White, Ralf Harolde, Robert E. O'Connor

Synopsis: An admirably tough B-picture enlivened by an energetic James Cagney performance, Picture Snatcher stars Cagney as Danny Kean, a former gangster who has decided to go straight after a stretch in the big house. Danny has fallen for Patricia (Patricia Ellis), the daughter of the cop who put him away (Robert Emmett O'Connor Read More

International House

Actors: Peggy Hopkins Joyce, W.C. Fields, Stuart Erwin, Sara Maritza, George Burns, Rudy Vallee

Synopsis: Hollywood responded to the exigencies of the Depression with such glorious nonsense as International House. The plot is motivated by a revolutionary television device called the Radioscope, which its Chinese inventor (Edmund Breese) is offering to the highest bidder. All interested parties are Read More

Professional Sweetheart

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster, ZaSu Pitts, Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: An earthy, fun-loving radio pitchwoman finds it difficult to live up to her squeaky-clean public persona as the "Purity Girl of the Air." This comedy chronicles the frantic efforts of her bosses to keep her on the straight and narrow when she goes out on the town. It's not easy because she is a Read More

Blondie Johnson

Actors: Joan Blondell, Chester Morris, Claire Dodd, Allen Jenkins, Earl Foxe, Mae Busch

Synopsis: Set during the Depression, this crime drama centers upon a basically honest girl who is forced into prostitution by circumstance. She then becomes a gangster's moll where she learns a bitter lesson about the criminal life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Alice in Wonderland

Actors: Charlotte Henry, Richard Arlen, Roscoe Ates, William Austin, Billy Barty

Synopsis: This star-laden version of Lewis Carroll's novel combines elements of both the title novel and Carroll's sequel, Through the Looking Glass. In England of the 19th century, young Alice finds that the mirror over the library fireplace opens into a strange world. She has odd adventures and changes Read More

Hard to Handle

Actors: James Cagney, Mary Brian, Ruth Donnelly, Allen Jenkins, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: Hard to Handle stars James Cagney as a fast-talking promoter who pounces upon every current fad and foible to make a quick buck. He promotes marathon dances (where spectators feel cheated because no one drops dead), crash diets, reducing creams and treasure contests, finagling his way into the Read More

Hell Below

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Madge Evans, Jimmy Durante, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Hell Below transcends its hackneyed World War I plot to emerge as a drama of rare originality and gutsiness. Walter Huston stars as a submarine commander whose lieutenant (Robert Montgomery) falls in love with Huston's daughter (Madge Evans). All cliches (including the intrusive comedy relief of Jimmy Durante Read More

Wild Boys of the Road

Actors: Frankie Darro, Dorothy Coonan, Rochelle Hudson, Anne Hovey

Synopsis: This earnest, socially-conscious road drama centers on two California teenagers who find their comfortable lives thrown into turmoil during the Great Depression. To find work for themselves, the adventurous lads sneak aboard a Chicago-bound train. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Adorable

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Henri Garat, C. Aubrey Smith, Herbert Mundin

Synopsis: Frisky princess Marie Christine, known as Mitzi (Janet Gaynor) passes herself off as a manicurist, and falls in love with Karl (Henry Garat), a delicatessen worker, though he's really a lieutenant in Mitzi's army. Back at the palace, the Prime Minister (C. Aubrey Smith) tells Mitzi her betrothal Read More

Advice to the Lovelorn

Actors: Lee Tracy, Sally Blane, Sterling Holloway, Jean Adair, Paul Harvey

Synopsis: Based very loosely on Nathaniel West's Miss Lonelyhearts, Advice to the Lovelorn is a comedy-drama about a hotshot reporter (Lee Tracy) who is forced to become an advice columnist. Hiding behind a female nom de plume, the cynical Tracy dispenses fatuous advice and becomes quite popular. Read More

Faithless

Actors: Tallulah Bankhead, Robert Montgomery, Hugh Herbert, Maurice Murphy, Louise Closser Hale

Synopsis: Tallulah Bankhead plays a giddy 1920s heiress who spurns the affections of executive Robert Montgomery because he makes a "mere" $20,000 per year. Tallulah is impoverished by the Depression, as is Montgomery. She refuses again to marry him now that they are equals, preferring to maintain her Read More

Blonde Venus

Actors: Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore, Gene Morgan, Francis Sayles

Synopsis: Marlene Dietrich stars as Helen Faraday, a German cabaret singer in the States whose husband, Ned, falls ill and his only hope is to receive expensive medical treatment at a clinic in Europe. Struggling to afford his care and to support their son Johnny, she works at a nightclub and succumbs to 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

Rockabye

Actors: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Paul Lukas, Walter Pidgeon, Jobyna Howland

Synopsis: Despite a troubled production that witnessed the exits of both leading man (Phillips Holmes) and director (George Fitzmaurice), this tearjerker was a winner at the box office in November of 1932. Constance Bennett plays Broadway diva Judy Carroll who loses custody of a wee orphan after testifying Read More

The Girl from Nowhere

Casey at the Bat

Actors: Wallace Beery, Ford Sterling, ZaSu Pitts, Sterling Holloway, Spec O'Donnell

Synopsis: Because of its heavy reliance on slapstick (a no-no for features in the late '20s), this picture, very loosely based on the Ernest Thayer poem, got mixed reviews. But with comedians like Wallace Beery, Ford Sterling, ZaSu Pitts, and Sterling Holloway in the cast, it's a surprise that anyone Read More