Tommy NoonanFilmography

Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Mamie van Doren, Tommy Noonan, Ziva Rodann, Paul Gilbert, John Cronin

Synopsis: One year after his financially successful Promises Promises with Jayne Mansfield, director Tommy Noonan released another nudie comedy with Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt. This time, it is Mamie Van Doren who gets to show various parts of her anatomy as she plays a stripper who collaborates with Read More

Promises! Promises!

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jayne Mansfield, Marie McDonald, Mickey Hargitay, Tommy Noonan, Fritz Feld

Synopsis: Jayne Mansfield bares almost all (and became the first Hollywood actress to do so) in this nearly universally panned sex comedy from the early 1960s. In the story, poor Sandy is desperate to get pregnant. Unfortunately, her husband, a television script writer, is too wound up over his high stress Read More

Swingin' Along

Actors: Tommy Noonan, Peter Marshall, Barbara Eden, Connie Gilchrist, Carol Christensen

Synopsis: Bungling courier Freddie Merkel (Tommy Noonan) dreams of creative success but always manages to botch things up at crucial moments. Shortly after destroying his motorcycle, he decides to become a songwriter. This gives con man Duke (Peter Marshall) the perfect opportunity for his latest scam, one Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Crying Comedian

Synopsis: After she escapes from an asylum for alcoholics, Anne Gilrain (Gloria Talbott) is sent right back by her husband Tom (Liam Sullivan). Sensing that she is being mistreated by her husband, Anne's former boyfriend, comedian Charlie Hatch (Tommy Noonan), vows to "rescue" her. When Tom Gilrain is Read More

The Rookie

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter, Songwriter

Actors: Claude Stroud, Norman Leavitt, Joe Besser, Vince Barnett, Herb Armstrong

Synopsis: This is an out-dated, feeble World War II comedy about a new army recruit who ends up alone with his Master Sergeant and a striking model on a deserted island, deserted except for two enemy soldiers. When Tommy Noonan (playing himself) insists on being drafted, the local boot camp has been all but Read More

The Girl Most Likely

Actors: Jane Powell, Cliff Robertson, Keith Andes, Kaye Ballard, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: The Girl Most Likely owns the distinction of being the last RKO Radio picture ever produced at the studio's Hollywood facilities; shortly afterward, RKO moved out and Desilu moved in. A musical remake of the 1941 Ginger Rogers comedy Tom, Dick and Harry, the film stars Jane Powell as Dodie, an Read More

The Ambassador's Daughter

Actors: Olivia de Havilland, John Forsythe, Myrna Loy, Adolphe Menjou, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: The offspring of the American ambassador to France (the star was then living in Paris with her journalist husband), De Havilland tries to dissuade narrow-minded senator Adolphe Menjou from declaring Paris "off limits" to American servicemen. One such man in uniform is sergeant John Forsythe, who Read More

The Best Things in Life Are Free

Actors: Gordon MacRae, Don Dailey, Sheree North, Ernest Borgnine, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: The Best Things in Life are Free is the tuneful if uninspired life story of popular composers DeSylva (Gordon MacRae), Brown (Ernest Borgnine) and Henderson (Dan Dailey). Pooling their talents, the trio rises from Tin Pan Alley to fame and fortune. The team's future is threatened when Buddy Read More

Bundle of Joy

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

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

How to Be Very, Very, Popular

Actors: Betty Grable, Sheree North, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: Betty Grable's final film was a remake of the 1934 Bing Crosby-Miriam Hopkins musicomedy She Loves Me Not, which in turn was based on a play by Howard Lindsay. Betty and Sheree North star as a couple of striptease "artistes" who have the bad luck to witness a murder. Hoping to evade the killer Read More

Violent Saturday

Actors: Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Virginia Leith, Lee Marvin, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: Three bank robbers (J. Carroll Naish, Lee Marvin, Stephen McNally) case a small Arizona mining town prior to pulling a holdup. The audience get to know the various townsfolk as they're scrutinized by the crooks. Victor Mature plays a man who is a disappointment to his son because he didn't serve Read More

A Star is Born

Actors: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, Charles Bickford, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: The 1954 musical remake of A Star is Born could have been titled A Star is Reborn, in that it represented the triumphal return to the screen of Judy Garland after a four-year absence. The remake adheres closely to the plotline of the 1937 original: An alcoholic film star, on his last Read More

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Actors: Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: Second-billed Marilyn Monroe is the blonde in question in this second film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: Miss Lorelei Lee, whose philosophy is "diamonds are a girl's best friend." Together with her best human friend Dorothy (top-billed Jane Russell), showgirl Lorelei embarks upon a boat Read More

FBI Girl

Actors: Cesar Romero, George Brent, Audrey Totter, Tom Drake, Raymond Burr

Synopsis: Audrey Totter plays an FBI clerk who is pressed into more active duties by her bosses Cesar Romero and George Brent. Audrey's job is to uncover the criminal past of above-reproach politician Raymond Greenleaf. A pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr plays a hulking hoodlum who suspects that Audrey is Read More

The Model and the Marriage Broker

Actors: Jeanne Crain, Scott Brady, Thelma Ritter, Zero Mostel, Michael O'Shea

Synopsis: The model (Jeanne Crain) is stuck in an unhappy relationship with a married man. The marriage broker (Thelma Ritter) doesn't like this and tries to match the model with a lonely x-ray technician (Scott Brady). The model is so grateful that she tries to find an eligible bachelor for the broker. The Read More

Holiday Rhythm

Actors: Mary Beth Hughes, David Street, Wally Vernon, Alan Harris

Synopsis: Little Lippert Studios wasn't really equipped to produce large-scale musicals, but the company can't be faulted for trying. Holiday Rhythm stars David Street as Larry, a TV producer who plans a big musical spectacular. Knocked unconscious, Larry dreams of all the wonderful acts he intends to Read More

The Return of Jesse James

Actors: John Ireland, Ann Dvorak, Henry Hull, Hugh O'Brian, Reed Hadley

Synopsis: Return of Jesse James is an excellent example of how to get full value for money from an attenuated budget. John Ireland plays Johnny, a bank robber who closely resembles the late Jesse James. As Johnny's crime spree spreads, so do rumors that Jesse is still alive. This forces Jesse's brother Read More

Adam's Rib

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, David Wayne

Synopsis: Written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, Adam's Rib is a peerless comedy predicated on the double standard. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play Adam and Amanda Bonner, a husband-and-wife attorney team, both drawn to a case of attempted murder. The defendant (Judy Holliday) had tearfully Read More

Trapped

Actors: Lloyd Bridges, John Hoyt, Barbara Payton, James Todd, Russ Conway

Synopsis: When nearly perfect counterfeit 20-dollar bills start turning up, the Treasury Department recognizes them as the work of Tris Stewart (Lloyd Bridges), a man already doing a long prison stretch. They offer Stewart a break on his sentence if he'll help them find out who got hold of his old plates Read More

I Cheated the Law

Actors: Tom Conway, Steve Brodie, Robert Osterloh, Barbara Billingsley, Russell Hicks

Synopsis: This independently produced crime caper was picked up for distribution by 20th Century-Fox. Tom Conway stars as criminal attorney John Campbell. After saving Frank Bricolle (Steve Brodie) from a murder charge, Campbell is taunted with revelation that Bricolle is actually guilty. Even more galling Read More

I Shot Jesse James

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Barbara Britton, John Ireland, Reed Hadley, J. Edward Bromberg

Synopsis: This dark, gloomy Western chronicles the shame and self-destruction of Bob Ford, the real-life James Gang member that murdered Jesse James for the reward money. In this fictionalized account, James (Reed Hadley) tends to Ford (John Ireland) after he is wounded during a heist. When Ford's longtime Read More

The Set-Up

Actors: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: As shown by the clock face that opens and closes the film, The Set-Up takes place within a compact 72 minutes, with the action played out in "real time." Robert Ryan plays Bill "Stoker" Thompson, a washed-up boxer who refuses to give up his career despite the pleas of his wife Julie (Audrey Read More

Open Secret

Actors: John Ireland, Jane Randolph, Roman Bohnen, Sheldon Leonard, George Tyne

Synopsis: Photographer Paul Lester (John Ireland) and his wife, Nancy (Jane Randolph), are invited to share an apartment with Paul's ex-army buddy Ed Stevens. They arrive to find Stevens gone, and a mysterious phone call gets Paul to the other end of town. While he's away, Nancy is assaulted by a would-be Read More

Jungle Patrol

Actors: Kristine Miller, Arthur Franz, Ross Ford, Tommy Noonan, Gene Reynolds

Synopsis: In this war drama, set in New Guinea circa 1943, a squadron of fliers, stationed near Port Moresby must keep the Japanese at bay until a permanent air base can be built. They successfully shoot down 100 Japanese planes without losing one of their own. The men, realizing that they cannot beat the 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

A Likely Story

Actors: Barbara Hale, Bill Williams, Lanny Rees, Sam Levene, Dan Tobin

Synopsis: Soon to be married in real life, Barbara Hale and Bill Williams also played sweethearts on screen in the frantic farce A Likely Story. After a routine medical examination, ex-GI Bill Baker (Bill Williams) overhears a conversation between two doctors, leading him to the mistaken conclusion that Read More

Born to Kill

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak, Phillip Terry, Audrey Long

Synopsis: Somehow the titles of the films of hardcase actor Lawrence Tierney seemed to be extensions of the man's personality, as witness such films as The Devil Thumbs a Ride and Born to Kill. In the latter picture, Tierney starts the ball rolling by committing a double murder in a jealous pique. Claire Trevor Read More

The Big Fix

Synopsis: A star basketball player is assailed by gangsters who want him to throw the Big Game in this drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Bamboo Blonde

Actors: Frances Langford, Ralph Edwards, Russell Wade, Richard Martin

Synopsis: In this WW II romance, a small-time nightclub singer who works in a little Manhattan nightclub has a one-night stand with a handsome fly-boy. The next day, the B-29 pilot is sent to the Pacific and once there, his crew mischievously paints the picture of the singer upon his plane with the words 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

The Truth About Murder

Actors: Bonita Granville, Morgan Conway, Rita Corday, Donald Douglas, June Clayworth

Synopsis: In this courtroom drama, a husband finds himself accused of murder after his wife, a photographer, is found dead in her studio. The DA is determined to prosecute, but the lawyer soon has troubles of his own when his girl friend, convinced of the husband's innocence, elects to defend him. With the Read More

Ding Dong Williams

Actors: Glenn Vernon, Marcy McGuire, Felix Bressart, Anne Jeffreys, James Warren

Synopsis: A moody but extremely talented clarinet playing band-leader is contracted to write a symphonic, bluesy soundtrack for an upcoming film. Unfortunately, he can neither read nor write music. Instead he simply plays whatever he feels. The comedy in this musical begins when two professional arrangers Read More

From This Day Forward

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Mark Stevens, Rosemary de Camp, Bobby Driscoll, Wally Brown, Henry Morgan

Synopsis: In this romantic drama, Bill and Susan Cummings (Mark Stevens and Joan Fontaine), a couple from the Bronx, look back at the early days of their marriage. When they meet in 1938, Bill is working as a machinist, and Susan is a clerk in a bookstore. They fall in love and decide to wed, but it's not Read More

Dick Tracy, Detective

Actors: Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Mike Mazurki, Jane Greer, Mickey Kuhn, Lyle Latell

Synopsis: Dick Tracy, Detective (originally just Dick Tracy) was the first of four RKO Radio B-pictures based on Chester Gould's classic comic strip. Though Ralph Byrd is most closely associated with the role of Tracy, the title character is played herein by Morgan Conway (Byrd would be seen as Tracy in the Read More

Bedlam

Actors: Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House, Glenn Vernon, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: Bedlam is one of the costlier psychological-horror efforts from RKO producer Val (Curse of the Cat People) Lewton. Boris Karloff stars as the supervisor of the notorious 18th century British insane asylum St. Mary's of Bethlehem, better known as "Bedlam." Anna Lee, who co-stars as the feisty Read More

George White's Scandals

Actors: Joan Davis, Jack Haley, Martha Holliday, Phillip Terry, Ethel Smith, Jane Greer

Synopsis: Like the same-named 1934 and 1935 films, RKO Radio's 1945 musical George White's Scandals uses the eponymous Broadway revue as a framework for a fabricated plotline. The main story concerns the romance between stage comedienne Joan Mason (Joan Davis) and back-bay Bostonite Jack Williams (Jack Read More

Boys Town

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

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