Stuart Erwin Filmography

Perry Mason: The Case of the Impetuous Imp

Synopsis: While on a fishing vacation, Perry (Raymond Burr) rescues novelist Diana Carter (Bonnie Jones) from a watery grave. He must then save Diana from a charge of being an accomplice in a $50,000 jewel theft. And THEN, it's up to Perry to clear the girl on a charge of murdering Addison Powell. A forged Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor

Synopsis: Fresh from her six-year stint on Lassie, June Lockhart is cast as Mona Harvey, the wife of wildly eccentric sculptor Hannibal Harvey (Sean McClory), and the principal stockholder in the highly respected publishing firm owned by her uncle Everett Stanton (Stuart Erwin). In dire need of $10,000 Read More

The Misadventures of Merlin Jones

Actors: Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Leon Ames, Stuart Erwin, Alan Hewitt

Synopsis: In this Disney family film, brainy college student Merlin Jones (Tommy Kirk) invents a mind-reading machine, but the consequences of its use prove to be a lot of trouble. With help from his girlfriend (Annette Funicello), he must set to right all that has gone wrong. The movie spawned the sequel Monkey's Uncle Read More

Son of Flubber

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk

Synopsis: Son of Flubber represented the first time that Walt Disney ever attempted a theatrical feature sequel: in this case, the earlier film was the 1961 moneyspinner The Absent-Minded Professor. While Flubber is more formula-bound than Professor, it proved an instant audience-pleaser, and a hit to the Read More

The Untouchables: The Floyd Gibbons Story

Synopsis: This episode of The Untouchables was intended as the pilot for a spinoff series starring Scott Brady as celebrated war correspondent and gonzo journalist Floyd Gibbons. When his fellow reporter Carleton Edmunds (Paul Langton) is murdered while investigating a illegal scrap-metal operation, Gibbons Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Double-Entry Mind

Synopsis: No one would ever suspect meek, mild bookkeeper Clem Sandover (Stuart Erwin) of embezzling $201,000 from his company--which is probably why Sandover has gotten away with just that. Discovering the shortage, Sandover's fellow employee Lita Krail (Kathleen Hughes) threatens to blow the whistle, only Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Posthumous Painter

Synopsis: The plot gets under way when artist Jack Culross (Britt Lomond) fakes his own suicide so that his paintings will increase in value. Upon discovering that her husband is still alive, Culross' wife Edna (Lori March) tracks him down and angrily confronts him. Not long afterward, Culross is found dead Read More

Moochie of the Little League

Synopsis: This Disney family film presents a nice slice of American pie as it chronicles the exploits of an enterprising young man who enlists the aid of a dapper British fellow to put together a Little League baseball team. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

For the Love of Mike

Actors: Richard Basehart, Arthur Shields, Armando Silvestre, Elsa Cardenas

Synopsis: A young Native American boy saves the day in this competent children's western by director George Sherman. Little twelve-year-old Michael (Danny Bravo) is an orphan whose best friends are young Father Phelan (Richard Basehart) and the curmudgeonly Father Walsh (Arthur Shields). The good fathers Read More

The Andy Griffith Show: Opie's Charity

Actors: Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: Sheriff Andy is coaxed into heading the fund-raising campaign for the children's charity established by Annabelle Silby (Lurene Tuttle), the wealthiest woman in Mayberry. Reasoning that charity begins his home, Andy scolds his son Opie for contributing a puny three cents to the charity. Andy soon Read More

Walt Disney Presents: Moochie of the Little League: Wrong Way Moochie

Synopsis: In the concluding episode of Walt Disney's two-part miniseries Moochie of the Little League, the Bobcats baseball team has successful prevented their ball field from being sold, and young Moochie Morgan (Kevin Corcoran) and several of his fellow Bobcats have been selected to play in an all-star Read More

Walt Disney Presents: Moochie of the Little League: A Diamond is a Boy's Best Friend

Synopsis: In the first episode of Walt Disney's two-part miniseries Moochie of the Little League, young Montgomery "Moochie" Morgan (Kevin Corcoran) spends his summer mornings delivering papers and his afternoons as a member of the Bobcats Little League team. Because of his diminutive size, he has spent Read More

Father Is a Bachelor

Actors: William Holden, Coleen Gray, Mary Jane Saunders, Charles Winninger, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: Father is a Bachelor is a pleasant throwback to the "rural" comedies of the 1930s. William Holden plays Johnny Rutledge, a philosophical hobo to whom fishing is the only reason for living. Rutledge is forced to take a few jolts of responsibility when he crosses the path of five orphans. The kids Read More

The Trouble with Father [TV Series]

Actors: Stuart Erwin, June Collyer

Strike It Rich

Actors: Rod Cameron, Bonita Granville, Don Castle, Stuart Erwin, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: Wildcatters in search of a gusher during the late 1920s provide the basis of this comedy-drama that centers on a rambunctious trio of men. When not drinking and fighting, the three are enthusiastically drilling for black gold. The trouble begins when one of the wildcatters grows dissatisfied with Read More

Killer Dill

Actors: Frank Albertson, Stanley Andrews, Stuart Erwin, Dorothy Granger, Anne Gwynne

Synopsis: Screen Guild's Killer Dill trods a comedy path previously taken by such films as Mr. Lemon of Orange and The Whole Town's Talking. Stuart Erwin stars as Johnny Dill, milquetoast door-to-door salesman who happens to be the exact double of a notorious Prohibition gangster. When the bad guy murders a Read More

Heaven Only Knows

Actors: Robert Cummings, Brian Donlevy, Marjorie Reynolds, Jorja Curtright, Bill Goodwin

Synopsis: Also released as Montana Mike, Heaven Only Knows is an offbeat western with fantasy overtones. Hard-bitten gambling boss Brian Donlevy rules his frontier community with brawn and bullets. To his dismay, Donlevy discovers that he has a guardian angel (Robert Cummings), who shows up in the guise of Read More

Heading for Heaven

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Glenda Farrell, Russ Vincent, Irene Ryan, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: In this comedy, a realtor at the end of his rope is grossly misdiagnosed as having three months to live. The already hyper-nervous man is therefore convinced that he will die. Later some of his clothing is recovered from a local creek and his family and friends assume that the poor man took his Read More

Pillow to Post

Actors: Ida Lupino, Sydney Greenstreet, Stuart Erwin, Johnny Mitchell

Synopsis: Yes, even Ida Lupino occasionally starred in screwball comedies during the 1930s and 1940s. Pillow to Post casts Lupino as free-spirited travelling saleswoman Jane Howard, who has trouble finding suitable lodgings during the wartime housing shortage. In order to secure a room at a motor camp Read More

The Great Mike

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Robert "Buzzy" Henry, Pierre Watkin, Gwen Kenyon

Synopsis: The Great Mike is a horse owned by sensitive farm boy Jimmy (Buzzy Henry). Though the nag is prestently hitched to a milkwagon, Jimmy is convinced that he's got a racing champ on his hands. Convincing big-time sportsman Whitley (Pierre Watkin) that The Great Mike has what it takes, Jimmy and Read More

He Hired the Boss

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Evelyn Venable, Thurston Hall, Vivian Blaine, William Orr

Synopsis: In this comedy, a milque-toast bookkeeper buckles under his overbearing girl friend's constant nagging and begins investing his money so he won't have to wait for a raise from his boss. His girl friend pushes him, because she wants to marry him and he refuses to until he has enough money. Luckily Read More

Drums of the Congo

Actors: Ona Munson, Stuart Erwin, Peggy Moran, Don Terry, Richard Lane

Synopsis: A talented cast hacks its way through a so-so script and miles of stock footage in Universal's Drums of the Congo. In the heart of Africa, naval intelligence officer Kirk (Don Terry) searches for a rare metal vital to the war effort (just why it's vital is never thoroughly explained). He is aided Read More

Blondie for Victory

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Majelle White

Synopsis: Anxious to do her bit for the war effort, Blondie (Penny Singleton) joins the Housewives of America, a home defense league. Husband Dagwood (Arthur Lake) soon finds that Blondie is neglecting her responsibilities at home in favor of her war work; also disgruntled are Dagwood's chauvinistic boss Read More

The Adventures of Martin Eden

Actors: Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor, Evelyn Keyes, Stuart Erwin, Dickie Moore

Synopsis: Glenn Ford plays Martin Eden, an aspiring writer who signs on a merchant ship as a sailor. Tormented by the ship's sadistic captain (Ian McDonald), Eden survives the voyage, determined to write an expose of his horrible experiences. At first opposed by the maritime authorities, Martin's book Read More

Thru Different Eyes

Actors: Frank Craven, Mary Howard, June Walker, Donald Woods, Vivian Blaine

Synopsis: Thru Different Eyes is a remake of the 1929 film of the same name. The original was hailed for its creative use of sound and subjective photography; the remake is a standard crime melodrama, elevated slightly by an engaging narrative gimick. In trying to explain how the American judicial system Read More

Cracked Nuts

Synopsis: No relation to the Cracked Nuts he directed in 1931, this hokey sci-fi-comedy from director Edward F. Cline stars Stuart Erwin as Lawrence Trent, a country rube who wins a refrigerator-slogan contest and gets some money for his efforts. Meanwhile, mad scientist Boris Kabikoff (Mischa Auer) builds Read More

The Bride Came C.O.D.

Actors: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Stuart Erwin, Jack Carson, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Neither James Cagney nor Bette Davis were particularly pleased with the outdated screwball comedy The Bride Came C.O.D., but both performers behaved with thorough professionalism, doing a lot more for the film than the film did for them. Davis stars as flighty heiress Joan Winfield, whose Read More

Our Town

Actors: William Holden, Martha Scott, Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell

Synopsis: Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town is given the Hollywood treatment in this adaptation directed by Sam Wood featuring an evocative score by Aaron Copland and outstanding production design by William Cameron Menzies. Frank Craven is Mr. Morgan, the narrator and our guide through Read More

When the Daltons Rode

Actors: Randolph Scott, Kay Francis, Brian Donlevy, George Bancroft, Broderick Crawford

Synopsis: When the Daltons Rode is the much-embellished tale of that celebrated outlaw family, the Daltons. Broderick Crawford, Brian Donlevy, Stu Erwin and Frank Albertson play the gunslinging brothers, with Mary Gordon on hand as Ma Dalton. In the tradition of the 1939 western Jesse James, the film Read More

A Little Bit of Heaven

Actors: Gloria Jean, Robert Stack, Hugh Herbert, C. Aubrey Smith, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: Teenaged soprano Gloria Jean plays the Little-Miss-Fixit heroine in Universal's Little Bit of Heaven. The most precocious member of an impoverished 10th Avenue family, little Midge (Gloria Jean) makes an impulsive appearance on a "man in the street" radio interview show. Catapulted to stardom Read More

Sandy Gets Her Man

Actors: Baby Sandy, Stuart Erwin, Una Merkel, Edgar Kennedy, William Frawley

Synopsis: The brief but lively film career of infant star Baby Sandy came to an end with Sandy Gets Her Man. In this one, Sandy is the granddaugther of town councilman Clark (William B. Davidson), while her widowed mother Nan (Una Merkel) finds herself torn between the affections of fireman Bill (Stu Erwin) Read More

Hollywood Cavalcade

Actors: Alice Faye, Don Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg, Alan Curtis, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: Hollywood Cavalcade was a fictionalized history of silent films and the growth of the movie industry. Don Ameche portrays a character based on equal portions of Mack Sennett and D. W. Griffith, while Alice Faye's silent star is an amalgam of Mabel Normand and Gloria Swanson. Ameche breaks into Read More

The Honeymoon's Over

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Marjorie Weaver, Patric Knowles, Russell Hicks, Jack Carson

Synopsis: In this comedy, newlyweds soon discover that life in the fast lane is not as fun as it seems. As they both work for the same advertising agency, they can well afford the high life. They joyfully spend all their money on fast cars, country clubs, and booze. They begin to change their lifestyle Read More

It Could Happen to You

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Gloria Stuart, Raymond Walburn, Douglas Fowley, June Gale

Synopsis: In this comedy/mystery a milquetoast ad man finds his good ideas constantly copped by ambitious coworkers. His boss doesn't even seem to see him. The ad man's wife pushes her husband into confronting his boss during a party. Unfortunately, the timid fellow finds himself accused of murder after a Read More

Back Door to Heaven

Actors: Wallace Ford, Aline MacMahon, Stuart Erwin, Patricia Ellis

Synopsis: William K. Howard, a once-prestigious director fallen on hard times in 1939, proved that he still had the "right stuff" with the modest tearjerker Back Door to Heaven. Wallace Ford stars as Frankie, a pugnacious drifter stigmatized by his reform-school upbringing. Frankie and his former Read More

Mr. Boggs Steps Out

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Helen Chandler, Toby Wing, Tully Marshall, Spencer Charters

Synopsis: In this comedy, a dull statistician changes his life after winning a pile of money after successfully determining the number of beans in a barrel. He decides to do something novel with the prize and ends up buying a barrel factory. He encounters trouble when the nearby pickle factory is threatened Read More

Passport Husband

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Pauline Moore, Douglas Fowley, Joan Woodbury, Robert Lowery

Synopsis: For reason unknown, the otherwise thorough 1980 volume The Films of Twentieth Century-Fox utterly ignores the zany 1938 Fox release Passport Husband. Stuart Erwin plays Henry Cabot, overaged busboy at the Club Habana. Whenever the nightclub's singer Conchita Montez (Joan Woodbury) is accosted by a Read More

Three Blind Mice

Actors: Loretta Young, Joel McCrea, David Niven, Stuart Erwin, Marjorie Weaver

Synopsis: Whenever things got slow at 20th Century-Fox, the studio revved up its old reliable "three girls looking for millionaires" plotline. Three Kansas sisters (Loretta Young, Marjorie Weaver and Pauline Moore) use a small inheritance to set themselves up in a Manhattan penthouse. Figuring that Young 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

Checkers

Actors: Jane Withers, Stuart Erwin, Una Merkel, Marvin Stephens, Andrew Tombes

Synopsis: The owner of a racehorse, the owner's lovely niece and a jockey must deal with a number of travails before the big race in this comedy. The uncle must win so he can afford to keep the bank from foreclosing on his horse farm. Unfortunately, his horse breaks his leg and all seems to be lost. Read More

Second Honeymoon

Actors: Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Stuart Erwin, Claire Trevor, Marjorie Weaver

Synopsis: This cinematic meringue stars Loretta Young as a young woman whose second husband (Lyle Talbot) is a hard working but dull business exec. She pines for hubby Number One (Tyrone Power), an irresponsible playboy. Young runs into Tyrone again during a Florida vacation, spurning him at first because Read More

Dance, Charlie, Dance

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Jean Muir, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Addison Richards

Synopsis: This drama is based upon a play by George S. Kaufman, The Butter and Egg Man. It tells the tale of Erwin, a naive yokel who dreams of making it in show biz. He comes to the big city with $20,000. In the city he gets involved with some crooked promoters who manage to con him into backing a dreadful Read More

I'll Take Romance

Actors: Grace Moore, Melvyn Douglas, Helen Westley, Stuart Erwin, Walter Kingsford

Synopsis: Opera diva Grace Moore plays (what a stretch!) an opera diva in I'll Take Romance. Moore reneges on an agreement to open the opera season in Buenos Aires, opting instead for a better-paying job in Paris. Melvyn Douglas, acting on behalf of the Buenos Aires company, pretends to fall in love with Moore Read More

Small Town Boy

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Joyce Compton, Jed Prouty, Clara Blandick, James "Doc" Blakely

Synopsis: Small Town Boy was the 33rd release from the burgeoning "B"-picture factory of Grand National Pictures. Stuart Erwin plays the title character, a milquetoast named Henry, who's brimming with good ideas but lacks the confidence to express them. All this changes when he finds a thousand-dollar bill Read More

It Could Happen to You

Actors: Alan Baxter, Andrea Leeds, Owen Davis, Jr., Astrid Allwyn, Walter Kingsford

Synopsis: It Could Happen to You is one of those captivating "little" pictures whose reputation is built up via word of mouth. Alan Baxter and Owen Davis Jr. star as Bob and Fred, the sons of immigrant Pa Barrett (Al Shean). Fred is a dutiful offspring, but Bob, an adoptee, is a no-good, stealing money from Read More

All-American Chump

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Robert Armstrong, Betty Furness, Edmund Gwenn, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: Bucolic Elmer Lamb (Stuart Erwin), who only wants to raise dairy cattle, is a mathematical prodigy; he's even a whiz at playing bridge. Circus pitchman Bill (Robert Armstrong) and circus owner Jeffrey Crane (Edmund Gwenn) want to make money off Elmer, but Jeff's daughter Kitty (Betty Furness) Read More

Pigskin Parade

Actors: Patsy Kelly, Jack Haley, Stuart Erwin, Johnny Downs

Synopsis: The first of 20th Century-Fox's college musicals, Pigskin Parade is also close to the best of them in musical terms -- though they were all at least pretty good on that level -- principally thanks to the presence of 13-year-old Judy Garland, playing an Arkansas farm girl with surprising sincerity Read More

Women Are Trouble

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Paul Kelly, Florence Rice, Margaret Irving, Cy Kendall

Synopsis: Ace reporter Casey (Stu Erwin) and city editor Blaine (Paul Kelly) are agreed on only one point: women are trouble! This is confirmed when Casey is constantly outscooped by rival news-hound Ruth (Florence Rice), whose sugary Southern-belle accent conceals a will of iron. Casey and Ruth are forced Read More

Absolute Quiet

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Irene Hervey, Raymond Walburn, Stuart Erwin, Ann Loring

Synopsis: Despite its title, things get pretty noisy in MGM's Absolute Quiet. Lionel Atwill heads the cast as reclusive financier G. A. Axton, who squirrels himself away at a remote ranch to recuperate from an illness. The only other person at the ranch is Axton's secretary Laura Tait (Irene Hervey), but Read More

Exclusive Story

Actors: Franchot Tone, Madge Evans, Stuart Erwin, Joseph Calleia, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: Former newspaperman Martin Mooney based his script for Exclusive Story on the racket-busting activities of New York district attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Franchot Tone plays the lawyer for a major newspaper which is conducting a campaign against gang boss Joseph Calleia. The paper can't get any 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

After Office Hours

Actors: Clark Gable, Constance Bennett, Stuart Erwin, Billie Burke, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: Society girl Constance Bennett goes to work as a reporter for a big-city newspaper. Harried editor Clark Gable fires the flighty socialite, but rehires her when Bennett starts dating the co-respondent (Harvey Stephens) in a major divorce case. Things get sticky when the wife in the case is Read More

Viva Villa!

Actors: Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo, Fay Wray, Donald Cook, Joseph Schildkraut, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: A far from factual filmed biography of Mexican patriot Pancho Villa, Viva Villa! was written by lengendary screenwriter Ben Hecht. We first meet the young Villa when his father is beaten to death after protesting Diaz' seizure of the Mexican peons' land. Pancho exacts a temporary revenge by Read More

Have a Heart

Actors: Jean Parker, James Dunn, Una Merkel, Stuart Erwin, Willard Robertson

Synopsis: The career of dance instructor Sally (Jean Parker) comes to an abrupt end when she is crippled in an accident on the eve of her wedding. Sally's far-from-supportive fiancé (Paul Page) walks out on her, but good old Jimmie (James Dunn), who has loved her all along, offers to marry her and help Read More

The Band Plays On

Actors: Robert Young, Stuart Erwin, Betty Furness, Leo Carrillo, Ted Healy

Synopsis: Robert Young had to be the busiest leading man in Hollywood in 1934. He appeared in no fewer than nine pictures, four of them at his home studio of MGM. The Band Plays On features Young as one of four close pals, who have grown up together and are now college football champs known as "The Four Read More

Palooka

Actors: Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez, Stuart Erwin, Robert Armstrong, Mary Carlisle

Synopsis: Based on the popular comic strip by Ham Fisher, this fast-paced and funny boxing outing follows the exploits of a boxing manager and the up-and-coming fighter he mentors to. The film is also known as Joe Palooka. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Bachelor Bait

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Rochelle Hudson, Pert Kelton, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: After several years' faithful service in RKO Radio's short-subject department, director George Stevens was rewarded with his first feature-length assignment, the innocuous comedy Bachelor Bait. Stu Erwin plays Wilbur Fess, the busy owner of a matrimonial agency called Romance, Inc. So dedicated is Read More

Chained

Actors: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Otto Kruger, Stuart Erwin, Una O'Connor

Synopsis: Joan Crawford is at her most glamorous (a different outfit and hairdo in each scene!) in the romantic melodrama Chained. Crawford plays Diane Lovering, the mistress of prominent Manhattan businessman Richard Field (Otto Kruger). Though she really isn't in love with him, she feels obligated to Read More