Una MerkelFilmography

A Tiger Walks

Actors: Brian Keith, Vera Miles, Pamela Franklin, Sabu, Edward Andrews

Synopsis: After a dangerous tiger turns on its trainer and escapes from the circus, a small town in Texas finds itself in an uproar over its capture. As it is hunted by numerous parties, a young girl begins protesting and starts a nationwide movement to plead for the tiger's safety. As the situation gains Read More

Summer Magic

Actors: Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, Dorothy McGuire, Deborah Walley, Eddie Hodges

Synopsis: A young widow from Boston travels with her three children to Maine to enjoy their summer vacation. Margaret Carey (Dorothy McGuire) is helped by the friendly Osh Popham (Burl Ives), who finds the family a rent-free house vacated by a vacationing landowner. Daughter Nancy (Hayley Mills) catches the Read More

The Parent Trap

Actors: Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Charlie Ruggles, Una Merkel

Synopsis: We get a double dose of Hayley Mills in this Disney vehicle: she plays 13-year-old identical twins Susan and Sharon, who meet for the very first time in summer camp. They soon learn that they were separated at a very early age when their parents Mitch and Maggie (Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara) Read More

Disneyland: Title Makers and Nature's Half Acre

Actors: Tommy Sands, Annette Funicello, Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara

Synopsis: The first half of this 1961 Walt Disney Presents episode shows the work that went behind the delightful animated opening titles of the upcoming Disney theatrical feature The Parent Trap. Famed studio artists Bill Justice, X. Attencio, and T. Hee are seen bringing the titles to life, from Read More

Summer and Smoke

Actors: Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page, John McIntire, Una Merkel, Rita Moreno, Malcolm Atterbury

Synopsis: Tennessee Williams' Broadway play Summer and Smoke (expanded from his one-act piece Eccentricities of a Nightingale) was brought to the screen by adaptors James Poe and Meade Roberts and director Peter Glenville. Geraldine Page repeats her stage role as minister's daughter Alma Winemiller, who Read More

The Mating Game

Actors: Debbie Reynolds, Tony Randall, Paul Douglas, Fred Clark, Una Merkel

Synopsis: George Marshall directed this breezy romantic comedy starring Tony Randall and Debbie Reynolds. Randall plays Lorenzo Charlton, a stuffy tax investigator sent to the farm of Pop Larkin (Paul Douglas) and Ma Larkin (Una Merkel) to find out why they haven't been paying taxes. He discovers that the 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 Fuzzy Pink Nightgown

Actors: Jane Russell, Keenan Wynn, Ralph Meeker, Fred Clark, Una Merkel, Benay Venuta

Synopsis: Coproduced by actress Jane Russell and her husband Robert Waterfield, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown represented Russell's final starring film of the 1950s--and her last movie appearance until 1964. Decked out in an unbecoming blonde wig, Jane is cast as Hollywood starlet Laurel Stevens. On the eve of Read More

The Kettles in the Ozarks

Actors: Marjorie Main, Arthur Hunnicutt, Una Merkel, Ted de Corsia, Olive Sturgess

Synopsis: The Kettles in the Ozarks was the eighth of Universal's "Ma and Pa Kettle" series--minus "Pa" (actor Percy Kilbride had left the series). Carrying on without the Kettle paterfamilias, Ma Kettle (Marjorie Main) and her large brood of children head for the Ozarks to visit her brother-in-law Sedge (Arthur Hunnicutt 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

The Kentuckian

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Dianne Foster, Diana Lynn, John McIntire, Una Merkel, Walter Matthau

Synopsis: Produced and directed by star Burt Lancaster, The Kentuckian is a leisurely western occasionally punctuated by spurts of startling brutality. The recently widowed Lancaster heads towards Texas with his son Donald McDonald. Most of the folks he meets, notably winsome schoolmarm Diana Lynn Read More

I Love Melvin

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Una Merkel, Richard Anderson, Jim Backus, Allyn Joslyn

Synopsis: Singin' in the Rain co-stars Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds were re-teamed in the ebullient little musical I Love Melvin. O'Connor plays Melvin Hoover, the hapless assistant to Look magazine photographer Mergo (Jim Backus). When he falls in love with chorus girl Judy LeRoy (Reynolds), Melvin Read More

The Merry Widow

Actors: Lana Turner, Fernando Lamas, Una Merkel, Richard Haydn, Thomas Gomez

Synopsis: Based on an operetta by Franz Lehar, this remake of the 1934 original finds a wealthy widow (Lana Turner) returning to her husband's native land to dedicate a memorial to him. The king (Thomas Gomez) of the country, deep in debt, tries to convince her to stay by offering a young count (Fernando Lamas Read More

With a Song in My Heart

Actors: Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne, Thelma Ritter, Robert Wagner

Synopsis: With a Song in My Heart is the story of popular 1930s songstress Jane Froman, here portrayed by Susan Hayward. We first see Ms. Froman as a humble staff singer at a Cincinnati radio stations, but it doesn't take her long to rise to the uppermost rungs of network radio fame. Jane gratefully marries Read More

Rich, Young and Pretty

Actors: Jane Powell, Danielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey, Vic Damone, Fernando Lamas

Synopsis: Rich, Young and Pretty succinctly describes Jane Powell, the heroine of this frothy MGM musical. Vacationing in Paris with her father, Jim Stauton Rogers (Wendell Corey) -- a cattle baron-turned-politician, Elizabeth Rogers (Powell) falls in love with handsome Andre Milan (Vic Damone, in his film Read More

Golden Girl

Actors: Mitzi Gaynor, Dale Robertson, Dennis Day, James Barton, Una Merkel

Synopsis: Golden Girl is the life story (sort of) of legendary 19th-century American entertainer Lotta Crabtree. The daughter of a luckless gambler (James Barton), young Lotta (Mitzi Gaynor) supports herself and her dad by singing and dancing in mining camps during the California Gold Rush of 1849. She Read More

A Millionaire for Christy

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Eleanor Parker, Richard Carlson, Una Merkel, Kay Buckley

Synopsis: In this old-fashioned screwball comedy, Christy Sloane (Eleanor Parker) is a secretary with a large legal firm who is sent to California to inform Peter Lockwood (Fred MacMurray), an overly sentimental radio host, that he's just inherited $2 million. Christy is looking to raise her standard of Read More

My Blue Heaven

Actors: Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, David Wayne, Jane Wyatt, Mitzi Gaynor

Synopsis: In this musical comedy with dramatic touches, Jack and Molly Moran (Dan Dailey and Betty Grable) are a show business couple who, after hosting their own radio show, have just been given a deal to star in a TV series. They're also thrilled to discover that Molly is expecting a baby, but their joy Read More

Kill the Umpire

Actors: William Bendix, Una Merkel, Ray Collins, Gloria Henry, Richard Taylor

Synopsis: William Bendix is perfectly cast as a diehard baseball fan who hates umpires with every fibre of his being. Bendix' devotion to baseball has lost him job after job, so his father-in-law (Ray Collins)--who happens to be an umpire--forces Our Hero to enroll in umpire school. Eventually Bendix learns Read More

Emergency Wedding

Actors: Larry Parks, Barbara Hale, Willard Parker, Una Merkel, Alan Reed, Sr.

Synopsis: 1950's Emergency Wedding is a remake of 1940's You Belong to Me. The later film stars Larry Parks, who'd had a bit role in the original. Parks plays wealthy Peter Kirk, a playboy, while Barbara Hale co-stars as female doctor Helen Hunt. When Peter marries Helen, it is a "given" that he'll stay Read More

The Bride Goes Wild

Actors: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Hume Cronyn, Una Merkel

Synopsis: In this funny tale of deception and romantic fireworks, a rather prissy New England school marm finally gets a chance to achieve her dream and become a commercial artist when she is hired to illustrate the beloved "Uncle Bump's" latest children's book. She adores Bump's earlier works and is Read More

The Man from Texas

Actors: James Craig, Lynn Bari, Johnny Johnston, Una Merkel, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Eagle-Lion studios inaugurated its new "big budget" western policy with 1948's The Man From Texas. James Craig stars as the El Paso Kid, who can't make up his mind whether to be an upstanding, decent citizen or a masked bandit. He continues to vacillate all through the picture, much to the dismay Read More

It's a Joke, Son!

Actors: Kenny Delmar, Una Merkel, June Lockhart, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Radio actor Kenny Delmar created the character of bombastic Southern Senator Claghorn for a 1945 installment of The Fred Allen Show. The character immediately caught on with the public, spawning an overabundance of merchandising and thousands of ersatz Claghorn imitators (foremost among these was Read More

Sweethearts of the USA

Actors: Una Merkel, Parkyakarkus [Harry Einstein], Donald Novis, Lillian Cornell, Judith Gibson

Synopsis: Perennial second lead Una Merkel and radio dialect comedian Parkyakarkus team up in the Monogram musical fantasy Sweethearts of the USA. While working in a defense plant, Patsy (Merkel) is rendered unconscious-or at least, more unconscious than usual. While knocked out, she dreams that she's a Read More

This Is the Army

Actors: George Murphy, Joan Leslie, Ronald Reagan, George Tobias, Alan Hale, Julie Oshins, Charles Butterworth

Synopsis: The splashy, star-studded This is the Army is based on the Irving Berlin Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was a reworking of Berlin's WW1 "barracks musical" Yip Yip Yaphank. In both instances, the cast was largely comprised of genuine servicemen, many of them either recently Read More

The Mad Doctor of Market Street

Actors: Una Merkel, Lionel Atwill, Nat Pendleton, Claire Dodd, Richard Davies

Synopsis: Considering the fact that it was the only Universal horror film directed by cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis, it's a shame that Mad Doctor of Market Street isn't better than it is. Lionel Atwill dominates the proceedings as Dr. Benson, an addlepated medico obsessed with the notion of restoring the Read More

Twin Beds

Actors: George Brent, Joan Bennett, Mischa Auer, Una Merkel, Glenda Farrell

Synopsis: This third film version of the hectic Margaret Mayo-Salisbury Field stage farce Twin Beds officially stars George Brent and Joan Bennett, but it's Mischa Auer's picture all the way. Newlyweds Mike and Julia Abbott (Brent and Bennett) can never be "alone at last" thanks to the unwelcome drop-ins by Read More

Double Date

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Una Merkel, Peggy Moran, Rand Brooks, Tommy Kelly

Synopsis: In this drama two children return from their separate boarding schools to a nasty surprise. The father of one is romantically involved with the other's aunt. The two immediately try to destroy the love affair. They all get involved with chasing some thieves and end up in jail. There the judge 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

Road to Zanzibar

Actors: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Una Merkel, Joan Marsh

Synopsis: The second Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "Road" picture casts Crosby as a penny-ante sideshow promoter and Hope as Crosby's only client, "Fearless Frazier." Under Crosby's tutelage, Hope has been shot from a cannon, zapped in an electric chair and nearly strangled by an octopus. Now they're practically Read More

Comin' Round the Mountain

Actors: Una Merkel, Jerry Colonna, Don Wilson

Synopsis: Comin' Round the Mountain was a tailor-made vehicle for bucolic radio humorist Bob "Bazooka" Burns. After striking out in New York, backwoods musician Jed Blower (Burns) and his hillbilly family band return to their native Tennessee. Here they land a job at a tinker-toy radio station in a 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

The Bank Dick

Actors: W.C. Fields, Cora Witherspoon, Una Merkel, Evelyn del Rio, Jessie Ralph, Franklin Pangborn

Synopsis: W.C. Fields plays Egbert Souse, a bibulous denizen of Lompoc who supports his family by winning radio contests. When a fleeing bank robber is knocked cold upon tripping over the park bench where Egbert sits, Souse is hailed as a hero and offered the job of bank guard. The next day, he is Read More

Four Girls in White

Actors: Florence Rice, Una Merkel, Ann Rutherford, Mary Howard, Alan Marshal

Synopsis: This hospital drama chronicles the exploits of four nursing students enrolled in a three-year training course. One of them decides that she will have a brilliant young doctor, but then she changes her mind and begins pursuing a wealthy playboy. Unfortunately, the playboy loves another nurse. A Read More

Some Like It Hot

Actors: Bob Hope, Shirley Ross, Una Merkel, Gene Krupa, Rufe Davis

Synopsis: Rhythm Romance is the television title for the 1939 Bob Hope comedy Some Like It Hot (the change was made to avoid confusion with the 1959 Billy Wilder film of the same name). Hope plays a penny-ante carnival concessionaire with both eyes on the Main Chance. Exploiting the musical talents of his Read More

On Borrowed Time

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Cedric Hardwicke, Una Merkel, Beulah Bondi, Bobs Watson

Synopsis: Old Gramps (Lionel Barrymore) is not about to go gentle into that good night when Mr. Brink (Cedric Hardwicke), who sometimes travels under the name of the Grim Reaper, comes calling. Through a ruse, Gramps chases Brink up a tree in his garden, rendering the mysterious stranger helpless. As a Read More

Destry Rides Again

Actors: James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Winninger, Mischa Auer, Brian Donlevy

Synopsis: Tom Destry (James Stewart), son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn't believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent (Brian Donlevy). His detractors laugh even louder when 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

True Confession

Actors: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, John Barrymore, Una Merkel, Porter Hall

Synopsis: Carole Lombard stars as Helen Bartlett, a compulsive liar who always tips the audience to an oncoming whopper by sticking her tongue in her cheek. Helen is married to a Kenneth Bartlett, a scrupulously honest lawyer whose integrity has always held him back professionally. Hoping to help Kenneth Read More

Don't Tell the Wife

Actors: Guy Kibbee, Una Merkel, Lynne Overman, Thurston Hall, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: Guy Kibbee, moviedom's archetypal small-town bigshot, stars in RKO Radio's Don't Tell the Wife. On this occasion, Kibbee, playing Malcolm Winthrop, has greatness thrust upon him when he buys a few shares of supposedly worthless mining stock. Though it looks as though he and the entire town will be Read More

Saratoga

Actors: Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Frank Morgan, Walter Pidgeon

Synopsis: Jean Harlow offers her final screen performance in this witty and -- in retrospect -- quite moving racetrack comedy-drama co-starring Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon. When her father dies shortly after losing his horse farm to Duke Bradley (Gable), Carol Clayton (Harlow) refuses the handsome Read More

The Good Old Soak

Actors: Wallace Beery, Una Merkel, Eric Linden, Judith Barrett, Betty Furness

Synopsis: Good Old Soak was based on a story by Don Marquis, creator of the immortal "Archy and Mehitabel." Wallace Beery is well-cast as town drunk Clem Hawley, a blot on the escutcheon of a small Prohibition-era Midwestern town. When a large sum of bank money is stolen, Clem immediately falls under Read More

We Went to College

Actors: Charles Butterworth, Walter Abel, Hugh Herbert, Una Merkel, Edith Atwater

Synopsis: We Went to College is a perceptive spoof of alumni "homecoming" reunions. Hugh Herbert plays a daffy economics professor, who invites old grads Glenn Harvey (Charles Butterworth), Phil Talbot (Walter Abel) and Senator Budger (Walter Catlett), among many others, to attend the annual homecoming Read More

Speed

Actors: James Stewart, Wendy Barrie, Una Merkel, Weldon Heyburn, Ted Healy

Synopsis: The fast-paced world of Indy car racing provides the backdrop for this drama. The story centers on a test driver who works at a major auto plant. He and his cohorts have invented a new kind of carburetor and are feverishly working to perfect and use it in the upcoming Indianapolis 500. As the race Read More

Born to Dance

Actors: Eleanor Powell, James Stewart, Virginia Bruce, Una Merkel, Sid Silvers

Synopsis: A never-completed stage musical was the source for the MGM superproduction Born to Dance. The plot is another three-sailors-on-leave affair, with Ted (James Stewart), Mush (Buddy Ebsen) and Gunny (Sid Silvers, who also co-wrote the script) romancing the eminently romanceable Nora (Eleanor Powell) Read More

The Night Is Young

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Evelyn Laye, Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel, Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: Based on a story by Vicki Baum, the Sigmund Romberg-Oscar Hammerstein operetta The Night is Young is set in Vienna during the Franz Josef era. To cover up an affair with the married Countess Rafay (Rosalind Russell), Archduke Gustave (Ramon Novarro), the emperor's nephew, feigns a romance with Read More

Murder in the Fleet

Actors: Robert Taylor, Jean Parker, Ted Healy, Una Merkel, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Having gained considerable audience attention for his appearance in the 1935 "Crime Does Not Pay" 2-reeler Buried Loot, new MGM contractee Robert Taylor was awarded with his first starring feature, the modestly budgeted Murder in the Fleet. Taylor is cast as Lt. Tom Randolph, one of several naval Read More

It's in the Air

Actors: Jack Benny, Ted Healy, Una Merkel, Nat Pendleton, Mary Carlisle

Synopsis: Jack Benny is cast against type as a small-time con man in this lightweight MGM programmer. Whenever he manages to outsmart himself, Calvin (Benny) returns to his ever-patient wife Alice (Una Merkel) to bail him out. In dutch with the law again -- this time he's managed to offend the IRS! Read More

One New York Night

Actors: Franchot Tone, Una Merkel, Conrad Nagel, Harvey Stephens, Steffi Duna

Synopsis: In this western, a cowpoke from Wyoming rides into the big city to look for a wife. Instead he finds himself investigating the mysterious death of a man in the hotel room next to his. In the corpse's room, the cowpoke found a lost bracelet. He and the hotel phone operator use this clue to solve Read More

Broadway Melody of 1936

Actors: Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, Robert Taylor, Una Merkel, Sid Silvers

Synopsis: The Broadway Melody of 1936 was designed as the first of many annual follow-ups to "MGM"'s early-talkie triumph Broadway Melody (1929). Jack Benny is atypically cast as a Walter Winchell type who carries on a feud with Broadway producer Robert Taylor. Into this fray comes Taylor's childhood Read More

Biography of a Bachelor Girl

Actors: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Edward Everett Horton, Edward Arnold, Una Merkel

Synopsis: In this romantic drama a woman with a scandalous past tells all in an autobiography. It seems the woman, an artist, received special favors from a politician in exchange for a few favors from her. The pushy magazine editor who tries to convince her to write her memoirs, despises everything she Read More

Riff Raff

Actors: Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy, Una Merkel, Joseph Calleia, Victor Kilian, Mickey Rooney

Synopsis: Riff-Raff begins riff-raffing when boastful fisherman Dutch (Spencer Tracy) marries down-to-earth cannery worker Hattie (Jean Harlow). Their happiness is marred by Dutch's egomania, which results in the loss of his job and the alienation of his friends. Eventually he deserts Hattie, but she Read More

Baby Face Harrington

Actors: Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel, Harvey Stephens, Eugene Pallette, Ruth Selwyn

Synopsis: Directed by Raoul Walsh, Baby Face Harrington features actor Charles Butterworth as Willie, a meek clerk who unintentionally gets involved with the mob when he misplaces two thousand dollars from the life insurance policy he was forced to cash after losing his job. While searching for the missing 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

This Side of Heaven

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Fay Bainter, Mae Clarke, Tom Brown, Una Merkel

Synopsis: This Side of Heaven is an early, muted example of what would refine itself into the "screwball comedy" genre. Lionel Barrymore plays an accountant, who's also the head of a large family consisting principally of dizzy buffoons. Not only that, but the Barrymore clan is selfish, totally Read More

Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back

Actors: Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Warner Oland, Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel

Synopsis: This second and final "Bulldog Drummond" film to star Ronald Colman, finds the famed sleuth in the midst of a sinister plan orchestrated by Warner Oland. Damsel in distress Loretta Young reports that her wealthy and influential uncle is missing, but all those concerned insist that the uncle never Read More

Murder in the Private Car

Actors: Charlie Ruggles, Una Merkel, Mary Carlisle, Russell Hardie, Porter Hall

Synopsis: Harry Beaumont, a director-composer most closely associated with MGM's musical product, does a nice job handling the tongue-in-cheek melodramatics of Murder in the Private Car. Charlie Ruggles goes through his standard drunken-detective act as amateur gumshoe Scott, who stumbles onto a dead body Read More

Paris Interlude

Actors: Madge Evans, Robert Young, Una Merkel, Otto Kruger, Ted Healy

Synopsis: In director Edwin L. Marin's film Paris Interlude, a beautiful French woman named Julie Bell (Madge Evans) unexpectedly falls in love with Sam Colt (Otto Kruger, a vulgar American news journalist. Based on (All Good Americans), a play by Laura and .J. Perelman , Sam spends most of his time in Read More

The Women in His Life

Actors: Otto Kruger, Una Merkel, Ben Lyon, Isabel Jewell, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a famous criminal attorney is abandoned by his wife who has tired of his neglect and heavy drinking. She runs to the arms of a prominent gangster. Later, the lawyer must take a murder case--his ex-wife is the victim. It is quite a shock, but somehow he manages to keep it Read More

Evelyn Prentice

Actors: Myrna Loy, William Powell, Rosalind Russell, Una Merkel, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: Filmed between the original Thin Man and the first of its sequels, Evelyn Prentice re-teamed William Powell and Myrna Loy as another husband-and-wife team knee deep in a murder mystery. In this one, Powell is John Prentice, a prominent lawyer with an eye for women other than his own wife. His Read More

The Cat's Paw

Actors: Harold Lloyd, Una Merkel, George Barbier, Nat Pendleton, Grace Bradley

Synopsis: Harold Lloyd plays Ezekial Cobb, a missionary's son who has spent his entire life in China. Cobb is sent to his father's home church in California, where it is hoped he will find a wife. A true babe in the woods, Cobb is befriended by politician Jake Mayo (George Barbier). Mayo is a cog in a 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

Reunion in Vienna

Actors: John Barrymore, Diana Wynyard, Frank Morgan, Henry Travers, May Robson

Synopsis: Reunion in Vienna is a trapped-in-amber adaptation of Robert Sherwood's popular stage play. John Barrymore brings virtually the only life to the proceedings as an amorous Austrian archduke, long exiled from his homeland. Returning to Vienna after twelve years, Barrymore tries to take up where he Read More

Men Are Such Fools

Actors: Vivienne Osborne, Una Merkel, Joseph Cawthorn, Tom Moore

Synopsis: An immigrant and his wife arrive in America hoping to make it big in the world of music. Shortly thereafter, though, the husband finds out his wife is having an affair with a local lowlife; when he turns up dead, the husband is jailed for his murder, even though he protests his innocence. ~ Brian Read More

42nd Street

Actors: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Una Merkel, Guy Kibbee, Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell

Synopsis: The quintessential "backstage" musical, 42nd Street traces the history of a Broadway musical comedy, from casting call to opening night. Warner Baxter plays famed director Julian Marsh, who despite failing health is determined to stage one last great production, "Pretty Lady." Others involved Read More

Scared

Synopsis: In this mystery, an aspiring mystery writer breaks into a home and finds it inhabited by dangerous gangsters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Whistling in the Dark

Actors: Ernest Truex, Una Merkel, Edward Arnold, John Miljan

Synopsis: In this crime-comedy, an aspiring pulp writer elopes with a young woman and ends up in a boot-legger's lair. There he decides to impress his bride and the crooks with a story about the perfect murder. The crime boss likes the idea and uses it to plot the demise of his arch rival. When the would-be Read More

The Secret of Madame Blanche

Actors: Irene Dunne, Lionel Atwill, Phillips Holmes, Una Merkel, Douglas Walton

Synopsis: Secret of Madame Blanche is one of those "confessional" film dramas which movie fans of the early 1930s ate up like bonbons. Irene Dunne stars as a musical hall entertainer who is impregnated by a wealthy young man (Phillips Holmes). They marry, but the husband kills himself. Under the pressure of Read More

Bombshell

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

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

Broadway to Hollywood

Actors: Alice Brady, Frank Morgan, Madge Evans, Russell Hardie, Jackie Cooper

Synopsis: Broadway to Hollywood is a through-the-years saga about a show business family. Frank Morgan and Alice Brady play vaudeville headliners of the 1880s whose fame is eclipsed by their son (played as a youth by Jackie Cooper, then as an adult by Russell Hardie). Morgan and Brady are reduced to bit Read More

Midnight Mary

Actors: Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone, Andy Devine, Una Merkel

Synopsis: Loaned to MGM by her home studio of Warner Bros., Loretta Young suffers her way through the title role in Midnight Mary. A good girl led astray, Mary (Young) endeavors to save the life of her boyfriend Tom (Franchot Tone) by killing the aptly named Leo the Rat (Ricardo Cortez). As her case is Read More

Beauty for Sale

Actors: Madge Evans, Otto Kruger, Alice Brady, Una Merkel, May Robson

Synopsis: The beauty-parlor craze of the early 1930s was given a good going-over in MGM's Beauty for Sale. Madge Evans, Florine McKinney and Una Merkel star as Letty, Jane and Carol, three employees of a swank Manhattan beauty salon. While Carol wisecracks her way through life, Letty takes things more Read More

Her First Mate

Actors: George "Slim" Summerville, ZaSu Pitts, Una Merkel, Warren Hymer, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: One wonders if William Wyler ever gave Her First Mate a second thought when he was busy directing such subsequent films as The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver,The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur. This early Wyler efforts stars Slim Summerville and ZaSu Pitts as John and Mary Horner; he's a peanut Read More

Day of Reckoning

Actors: Richard Dix, Madge Evans, Conway Tearle, Una Merkel, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: In this brutal prison drama a hen-pecked husband is sentenced to prison after getting caught with his hand in the company till. He is sent to a high-rise facility in LA. It seems the fellow was only following the instructions of his domineering, constantly nagging wife who, as soon as he is put Read More

Clear All Wires

Actors: Lee Tracy, Benita Hume, Una Merkel, James Gleason, Alan Edwards

Synopsis: A splashy journalist finds herself embroiled in international intrigue when she hooks up with a sneaky Russian correspondent who curries favor by saving a Secret Police official. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Impatient Maiden

Actors: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Una Merkel, John Halliday, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke, the reigning king and queen of the Universal lot in 1932, were teamed under the guidance of the studio's star director James Whale in Impatient Maiden. Anticipating his "Dr. Kildare" duties by nearly six years, Ayres is cast as inexperienced young surgeon Myron Brown. In Read More

Red Headed Woman

Actors: Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Leila Hyams, Una Merkel

Synopsis: Jack Conway complained about being assigned to direct this comedy, claiming that a woman like the title character had almost ruined his own marriage. In a way he had a point , but only Jean Harlow could have made gold digger Lil Andrews a sympathetic protagonist. And Katherine Brush's racy novel Read More

They Call It Sin

Actors: Loretta Young, George Brent, David Manners, Louis Calhern, Una Merkel

Synopsis: Though only 19, Loretta Young was an established Hollywood star in 1932, appearing in six films in that year alone. In They Call It Sin, Young plays Marion, a church organist in a picturesque Kansas village. She falls in love with visiting city slicker Jimmy (David Manners) -- who, worse luck, is Read More

She Wanted a Millionaire

Actors: Joan Bennett, Spencer Tracy, Una Merkel, James Kirkwood, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: The moral of this drama could very well be for people to exercise caution with what they wish for as they just might get it. So it is with the lovely young woman who wins a beauty contest and the love of a millionaire, two things she had aspired to for ages. Unfortunately, her wealthy hubby is Read More

Man Wanted

Actors: Kay Francis, David Manners, Andy Devine, Una Merkel, Ken Thomson

Synopsis: In her first film under contract to Warner Bros., Kay Francis plays Lois Ames, a magazine editor whose husband Fred (Kenneth Thomson) is too busy with his polo friends to pay her much attention. But when her secretary (Charlotte Merriam) suddenly leaves, Lois hires handsome Tom Sheridan (David Read More

The Huddle

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Madge Evans, Una Merkel, Ralph Graves, John Arledge

Synopsis: In this football drama, a tough steelworker's son wins a scholarship to Yale and attempts to use his talent on the football field to become popular. His ploy doesn't work. He cannot even con the girl of his dreams into going out with him. After four years, he finally grows up and his future begins Read More

Don't Bet on Women

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Roland Young, Jeanette MacDonald, J.M. Kerrigan, Una Merkel

Synopsis: This French-style farce is set at a large party. There a young misogynist explains why he cannot trust women. A man overhears him and wagers $10,000 that the woman-hater will not succeed in getting the next woman through the door to kiss him. He has 48 hours to succeed or fail. Unfortunately the Read More

Daddy Long Legs

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Warner Baxter, Una Merkel, John Arledge, Claude Gillingwater

Synopsis: Janet Gaynor plays a teenaged orphanage waif who protects the younger children from the harshness of the supervisors. One of the orphanage's trustees is millionaire Warner Baxter, who spots Gaynor while visiting the home, is impressed by her tenacity, and decides to secretly adopt the girl and pay Read More

Private Lives

Actors: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Reginald Denny, Una Merkel, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: Amanda (Norma Shearer) and Elyot (Robert Montgomery) -- a witty, sophisticated married couple -- divorce and marry other mates. Amanda chooses stuffy Victor (Reginald Denny), while Elyot's selection is the tiresome Sibyl (Una Merkel). Coincidentally, both newlywed couples honeymoon at the same Read More

The Maltese Falcon

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, Bebe Daniels, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel, Robert Elliott

Synopsis: This first of three film adaptations of Dashiel Hammett's The Maltese Falcon plays at times like the road-company version of the more famous 1941 John Huston/Humphrey Bogart adaptation. Ricardo Cortez stars as a slick, rogueish edition of Sam Spade, using his office as a trysting place for his Read More

The Command Performance

Actors: Neil Hamilton, Una Merkel, Helen Ware, Albert Gran, Lawrence Grant

Synopsis: Based on a stage play by C. Stafford Dickens, Command Performance is also beholden to The Prisoner of Zenda and other Ruritanian romances of that ilk. Neil Hamilton stars as Peter Fedor, a stage actor who bears a striking resemblance to Prince Alexis of Kordovia (also Neil Hamilton). Getting into Read More

Wicked

Actors: Elissa Landi, Victor McLaglen, Theodore Von Eltz, Una Merkel, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: Wicked stars Elissa Landi as Margot Rande, a basically decent woman led down the path to perdition by her bank-robber husband Tony (Theodore Von Eltz). When Tony is cornered by the police, Margot tries to protect him, shooting a policeman in the process. Sentenced to a 20-year prison term, the Read More

The Bargain

Actors: Evelyn Knapp, Charles Butterworth, Doris Kenyon, John Darrow

Synopsis: Philip Barry's wistful comedy You and I was brought to the screen by its original stage director Robert Milton. All it lacked was its original title; First National Pictures felt that The Bargain was a more saleable cognomen. Lewis Stone stars as a successful soapmaker who'd wanted to be a painter Read More

The Secret Witness

Actors: Una Merkel, William Collier, Jr., ZaSu Pitts, Purnell Pratt, Clyde Cook

Synopsis: Rita La Roy has good reasons to hate her philandering husband, Hooper Atchley, in this low-budget but sumptuous-looking art deco mystery directed by comedy specialist Thornton Freeland. The cool and calculated Miss La Roy isn't the only person with a grudge against the nasty Atchley, however; in Read More

Six Cylinder Love

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel

Synopsis: In his third feature-film appearance, Spencer Tracy plays a small-town hotshot named William Donroy, who talks a young married couple, Gilbert and Marilyn Sterling (Lorrin Raker, Sidney Fox), into purchasing an expensive car. At this point, Donroy takes a back seat to the plot proper, as poor Gil Read More

The Eyes of the World

Actors: Eulalie Jensen, Hugh Huntley, Florence Roberts, Nance O'Neil

Synopsis: Still in the "Lillian Gish" phase of her career, Una Merkel plays the put-upon heroine in The Eyes of the World. The story begins with an urban romantic triangle involving handsome artist John Holland, his lover Gertrude (Fern Andra), and Gertrude's fossilized millionaire husband Brandon Hurst. Read More

The Bat Whispers

Actors: Spencer Charters, Chester Morris, Una Merkel, Chance Ward, William Bakewell, Richard Tucker, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Wilson Benge

Synopsis: Magnificently restored by UCLA to its original "Grandeur" wide-screen format The Bat Whispers may not be a cinematic masterpiece but is certainly worth a second look. Opening with a series of flamboyant tracking shots, director Roland West soon enough settles down to the usual "Old House" Read More

Abraham Lincoln

Actors: Walter Huston, Una Merkel, Kay Hammond, Jason Robards, Sr., Ian Keith

Synopsis: To date, this D.W. Griffith epic is the only talking-picture effort to encapsulate the entire life of Abraham Lincoln, from cradle to grave. The script, credited to Stephen Vincent Benet, manages to include all the familiar high points, including Lincoln's tragic romance with Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel Read More

The White Rose

Actors: Mae Marsh, Carol Dempster, Ivor Novello, Neil Hamilton, Lucille La Verne

Synopsis: Too long by at least 3 reels, D. W. Griffith's The White Rose is nonetheless one of the best and most accomplished of the director's "pastoral" films. Mae Marsh plays a virginal young lass of modest means who pretends to be more worldly than she actually is. Aristocratic divinity student Ivor Read More