Van JohnsonFilmography

Three Days to a Kill

Synopsis: Fred Williamson directed and stars in this average action film as Col. Wright, who teams up with a paroled thief (Bo Svenson) and the former lover of a Colombian druglord to rescue the kidnapped World Security Ambassador. Henry Silva is the kingpin, and the film is full of nudity and violence, but Read More

Delta Force Commando 2: Priority Red One

Actors: Richard Hatch, Fred Williamson, Van Johnson, Giannina Facio

Synopsis: This convoluted sequel once again centers upon the courageous exploits of a secret, elite cadre of American jet fighters struggling to keep the world safe from communism. This time they must stop an enemy conspiracy to steal nuclear weapons. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Fuga Dal Paradiso

Actors: Fabrice Josso, Ines Sastre, Horst Buchholz, Aurore Clément, Jacques Perrin

Synopsis: In this post-apocalpytic adventure story, narrated by Van Johnson), Teo (Fabrice Josso) lives underground in a cave with his father, who is a member of a ruling clan. Except for people within a family, all contacts between citizens are supposed to be electronic. However, Teo manages to contact and Read More

Murder, She Wrote: Hannigan's Wake

Synopsis: Jessica (Angela Lansbury) agrees to finish a book that was inaugurated by recently deceased Pulitzer-winning journalist Daniel Hannigan (Van Johnson). The book was intended to reopen a 16-year-old murder case, and to prove that the man convicted of murdering one Lydia Thurlow was really innocent. Read More

Laggiu Nella Giungla

Murder, She Wrote: Menace Anyone?

Synopsis: In Boston, Jessica agrees to serve as honorary chairperson at a charity tennis tournament where her former student Carol (Linda Hamilton) is one of the players. It so happens that Carol is the girlfriend of a much-hated tennis star, who ends up being blown to bits by a bomb planted in Carol's car. Read More

The Purple Rose of Cairo

Actors: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest, Van Johnson

Synopsis: Woody Allen blurs the the boundaries between the real and unreal in this unique comic fantasy. The scene is a small town in the mid-1930s. Trapped in a dead-end job and an abusive marriage, Cecelia (Mia Farrow) regularly seeks refuge in the local movie house. She becomes so enraptured by the Read More

Glitter

Glenn Miller: A Moonlight Serenade

Murder, She Wrote: Hit, Run and Homicide

Synopsis: Angela Lansbury's former MGM colleagues Van Johnson and June Allyson are prominently featured in this episode. A double-dealing businessman is killed when he is run over by a remote-controlled station wagon. Suspicion immediately falls upon the victim's disgruntled former partner, an oddball Read More

Antropophagous 2

Synopsis: Aristide Massaccesi directed this gory sequel to Antropophagous under the pseudonym Peter Newton, although he is best known as Joe D'Amato. The plot is styled more after Halloween II than the original, however, as the mutant cannibal (Luigi Montefiore) murders people in a hospital while being Read More

The Scorpion with Two Tails

Synopsis: Sergio Martino directed this strange mixed-genre horror film starring Elvire Audray as the young widow of an archaeologist (John Saxon), who was murdered while working on an Etruscan dig. Dreaming a premonition of his death, the widow leaves New York for Italy to investigate. Before long, she is Read More

The Kidnapping of the President

Actors: William Shatner, Hal Holbrook, Van Johnson, Ava Gardner, Miguel Fernandes

Synopsis: After Third World terrorists abduct the Commander-in-Chief, it's up to Secret Service head William Shatner to get him back in this thriller based on a novel by Charles Templeton. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Concorde Affaire '79

Synopsis: This half-baked but entertaining disaster film (not to be confused with America's The Concorde - Airport '79) deals with the attempts of an evil corporation to sabotage the Concorde before it hurts their own airline business. James Franciscus plays a reporter who teams up with Mimsy Farmer Read More

Getting Married

Actors: Richard Thomas, Bess Armstrong, Dena Dietrich, Fabian, Mark Harmon

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a news anchorwoman's prenuptial jitters increase dramatically when another man, a songwriter, falls deeply in love with her and decides that he would do anything to be her husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Superdome

Synopsis: An upcoming Super Bowl provides the framework for this suspenseful thriller set in New Orleans. The trouble begins when a murderous stalker begins threatening assorted lovers, gamblers, and con artists who typically surround the big game. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Black Beauty, Part 2

Synopsis: The locale of Anna Sewell's 1906 novel Black Beauty was changed from England to Maryland in this five-part TV miniseries. Still, the script adheres to the basic chronology of the Sewell original. In Part One the wife of incapacitated farmer Tom Gray sells the frisky colt Black Beauty. In Part Two Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Snake Eyes, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of Quincy, M.E.'s two-part Season Two opener (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Quincy (Jack Klugman) continues to look for the source of a mysterious epidemic that has caused several deaths at a pathologist's convention in a Lake Tahoe casino. The casino's Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Snake Eyes, Part 1

Synopsis: After a four-episode tryout as a component of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie anthology, Quincy, M.E. launched its regular weekly run with this episode, originally telecast as a two-hour special but since re-edited for syndication as two one-hour installments. In Part One, we find LA County medical Read More

Rich Man, Poor Man

Actors: Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, Susan Blakely, Steve Allen, Ed Asner, Bill Bixby

Synopsis: More ambitious and expensive than ABC's first "novel for television" miniseries QB VII, the eight-episode, 12-hour Rich Man, Poor Man was the one that truly put the genre on the map, its phenomenal success in the ratings making possible the even more spectacular Roots. Adapted from the mammoth Read More

The Girl on the Late, Late Show

Actors: Van Johnson, Cameron Mitchell, John Ireland

Synopsis: Don Murray stars as slick network news producer William Martin in The Girl on the Late, Late Show. In addition to his administrative duties, Martin is a news reporter, and it is in this capacity that he investigates a series of Hollywood murders. The unifying link between the killings would seem Read More

Wheeler and Murdoch

Synopsis: In this detective drama, a mismatched pair of gumshoes get into hot water with the Syndicate. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Call Her Mom

Synopsis: "Mom" is Connie Stevens, who stars in this made-for-TV comedy. Stevens plays a small-town waitress who is appointed the housemother for a rambunctious fraternity house on the local college campus. The frat boys assume that freewheeling Stevens will allow them to party to their hearts' content, but Read More

L'Occhio Del Ragno

San Francisco International

Synopsis: San Francisco International is a multiplotted drama set at the titular air transport center. Several storylines intersect at various junctures: A $3,000,000 cargo plane robbery, a teenaged boy commandeering an aircraft, and a violent confrontation between a nasty businessman and a an airheaded Read More

Company of Killers

Synopsis: In this thriller a police detective must find a renegade assassin who is not only wanted by the cops, he is also wanted by his bosses at Murder, Inc. Conspiracy abounds as the hitman controls other assassin's who keep the police preoccupied by their attempts on the life of a multimillionaire. The Read More

Il Prezzo del Potere

Synopsis: Italian director Tonino Valerii recreates a fistful of JFK conspiracy theories in Western settings with this bizarre look at the assassination of President James Garfield in 1890 Dallas. Granted, the assassination really occurred in Washington in 1881, but Valerii and screenwriter Massimo Patrizi Read More

La Battaglia d'Inghilterra

Synopsis: Based on actual World War II events, La Battaglia d'Inghilterra chronicles the success of a German intelligence group's efforts to infiltrate the British army on the eve of the historic Battle of Britain. Directed by Enzo G. Castellari, the film features Ida Galli, Christian Hay, Van Johnson, Renzo Palmer Read More

Brass Ring

Synopsis: Boxer Lazaro Perez is suspended when he punches out an obstreperous reporter. Feeling partly responsible, Crime magazine editor Dan Farrell (Robert Stack) tries to help the young fighter. Farrell soon learns that the boy's manager (Van Johnson) may be arranging a fixed bout. Brass Ring Read More

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Stella Stevens, Binnie Barnes, Mary Wickes, Dolores Sutton, Susan Saint James

Synopsis: Mother Simplicia (Rosalind Russell) is the head nun at an all-girl school. Aided by the young Sister George (Stella Stevens), the two try to convert the wayward girls to prim and proper ladies with a solid religious foundation. Rosabelle (Susan St. James) and Marvel Ann (Barbara Hunter), are the Read More

Yours, Mine and Ours

Actors: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson, Tom Bosley, Louise Troy

Synopsis: This story is taken from the real-life marriage of two people in the early 1960s. Helen North (Lucille Ball) is a widow with eight children who falls in love with Naval officer Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda), a widower with ten children of his own. The two marry as comedy ensues from the sheer Read More

Divorce American Style

Actors: Dick Van Dyke, Debbie Reynolds, Jason Robards, Jr., Jean Simmons, Van Johnson

Synopsis: An unhappy couple discover breaking up really is hard to do in this satiric comedy. Richard Harmon (Dick Van Dyke) and his wife, Barbara (Debbie Reynolds), are a typical married couple in American Suburbia -- which is to say they're not very happy with each other. After 15 years together, Richard Read More

The Doomsday Flight

Synopsis: In this made-for-TV movie, a deadly bomb is concealed aboard a passenger jet in a devious plan to blackmail the airline company. With the bomb threatening to go off any minute, the passengers and crew aboard the plane must search to find and dismantle the deadly device. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Read More

Wives and Lovers

Actors: Janet Leigh, Van Johnson, Shelley Winters, Martha Hyer, Ray Walston

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, Bill Austin (Van Johnson) is an unsuccessful writer who lives in a forlorn New York tenement while his wife Bertie (Janet Leigh) earns an income for both of them. Their lives change dramatically when Bill's first novel becomes a best-seller. Bill persuades Bertie to quit Read More

The Enemy General

Actors: Van Johnson, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dany Carrel, Françoise Prevost

Synopsis: A routine wartime tale of double-crossing spies and Nazi evils, The Enemy General is about the stereotypical, not exceedingly brilliant, and crass fascist Gen. Bruger (John Van Dreelen) who is one of the targets of the French Resistance movement. When Lemaire (Van Johnson) gets the unwanted Read More

Subway in the Sky

Actors: Van Johnson, Hildegarde Neff, Katherine Kath

Synopsis: Berlin provides the backdrop for this crime drama that centers on a military doctor falsely accused of dealing illegal drugs. Determined to prove his innocence, he escapes from the MPs and ends up holing up in the apartment his wife rented. He doesn't know that she has sublet the flat to a Read More

Web of Evidence

Actors: Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Emlyn Williams, Bernard Lee, Jean Kent

Synopsis: Beyond This Place is a tame murder mystery based on a novel by A. J. Cronin. Van Johnson is cast as an American citizen whose British father has supposedly been dead for years. On a visit to London, Johnson discovers that his father is very much alive, serving a life sentence for murder. Johnson Read More

The Last Blitzkrieg

Actors: Van Johnson, Kerwin Mathews, Dick York, Larry Storch, Lisa Bourdin

Synopsis: Filmed on location in Holland, The Last Blitzkrieg stars Van Johnson in the atypical role of WW2 German officer Kroner. The son of a high-ranking Nazi official, Kroner is called upon to lead a dangerous mission in the waning days of the war. He and several other English-speaking Germans are Read More

Action of the Tiger

Actors: Van Johnson, Martine Carol, Herbert Lom, Jose Nieto, Sean Connery

Synopsis: In one of her few English-speaking appearances, French leading lady Martine Carol plays Tracy, the daughter of a political prisoner. Tracy hires soldier-of-fortune Carson (Van Johnson) to smuggle her into Albania by way of Greece. Once behind the Iron Curtain, Tracy and Carson enlist the aid of a Read More

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Actors: Van Johnson, Claude Rains, Kay Starr, Doodles Weaver, Stanley Adams

Synopsis: The Pied Piper of Hamelin was originally filmed as a television special, then released theatrically outside the United States. The story is the familiar one: the town of Hamelin, plagued by rats, hires a mysterious piper (Van Johnson) to rid the town of rodents. The piper does so, on the promise Read More

Kelly and Me

Actors: Van Johnson, Piper Laurie, Martha Hyer, Onslow Stevens, Herbert Anderson

Synopsis: Kelly is a big, lovable, immensely talented German Shepherd. "Me" is Len Carmody (Van Johnson), a third-rate vaudevillian. Carmody's fortunes take an upswing when he teams with the personable Kelly for professional reasons. When talking pictures come in, Carmody is signed to appear in short Read More

Miracle in the Rain

Actors: Jane Wyman, Van Johnson, Eileen Heckart, Fred Clark, Peggie Castle

Synopsis: The fate that brings lovers together can easily tear them apart as can be seen in this sentimental tragedy that centers on an ordinary-looking secretary's (Jane Wyman) lonely life. Other than working and spending some free time with a spinster (Eileen Heckart), who is her best friend, the woman Read More

The Bottom of the Bottle

Actors: Van Johnson, Joseph Cotten, Ruth Roman, Jack Carson, Maggie Hayes

Synopsis: Two brothers face their personal demons in this crime melodrama. Donald Martin (Van Johnson) is an alcoholic criminal who has escaped from prison and needs help crossing the Mexican border to freedom. Desperate, he arrives at the ranch of his lawyer brother Martin (Joseph Cotten). Martin has Read More

Slander

Actors: Van Johnson, Ann Blyth, Steve Cochran, Marjorie Rambeau, Richard Eyer

Synopsis: Anyone who thinks that tabloid journalism is an aberration of the 1980s should take a look at the 1956 release Slander. The film stars Van Johnson as a happily married, well respected TV kiddie show host who becomes the subject of an expose' from a Confidential style magazine. The publisher (Steve Cochran Read More

23 Paces to Baker Street

Actors: Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Cecil Parker, Patricia Laffan, Maurice Denham

Synopsis: Van Johnson portrays a blind American writer living in London. Blessed with an acute hearing sense, Johnson overhears a kidnapping plot but neither his friends nor the authorities believe him, chalking up his story as the product of a writer's imagination. Disgruntled, Johnson vows to scuttle the Read More

The End of the Affair

Actors: Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills, Peter Cushing, Stephen Murray, Michael Goodliffe

Synopsis: Recently freed from his MGM contract, Van Johnson headed to England to star in a series of pictures, the first of which was The End of the Affair. Adapted by Lenore Coffee from the novel by Graham Greene, the film casts Johnson as Maurice Bendrix, the clandestine lover of married Briton Sarah Read More

I Love Lucy: The Dancing Star

Actors: Van Johnson, Doris Singleton, Wilber Hatch, Marco Rizo

Synopsis: Lucy's friend Caroline Appleby (Doris Singleton) arrives in Hollywood, demanding to meet some of the celebrities with whom Lucy has claimed to be so chummy. First on Caroline's list is Van Johnson, whom, of course, Lucy has never met. Our heroine manages to get herself into a hole by inviting Read More

Brigadoon

Actors: Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Elaine Stewart, Barry Jones

Synopsis: Reportedly, Vincente Minnelli turned down the opportunity to film Brigadoon on location in Scotland insisting that MGM's studio mockups looked more Scottish than the genuine article. This lavish adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe Broadway musical stars Gene Kelly as an American tourist who Read More

The Caine Mutiny

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis, May Wynn

Synopsis: Robert Francis is at the center of the story as Willis Keith, a newly minted ensign assigned to the U.S.S. Caine. Keith has an uneasy relationship with his skipper, Lt. Comdr. DeVries (Tom Tully), partly through his own ineptitude and as a result of his disapproval of the slovenly way DeVries Read More

The Siege at Red River

Actors: Van Johnson, Joanne Dru, Richard Boone, Milburn Stone, Jeff Morrow

Synopsis: Siege of Red River stars Van Johnson as a Confederate officer, who "appropriates" a shipment of gatling guns from the Northern troops in the waning days of the Civil War. Posing as a medicine show entrepreneur, Johnson smuggles the guns through enemy lines in his wagon. Renegade rebel Richard Boone Read More

The Last Time I Saw Paris

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Donna Reed, Eva Gabor

Synopsis: Loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Paradise Revisited, MGM's The Last Time I Saw Paris is a star-studded soap opera, luxuriously lensed by director Richard Brooks. In his last film as an MGM contractee, Van Johnson plays reporter Charles Wills, who while covering the VE Day celebrations in Read More

Men of the Fighting Lady

Actors: Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Louis Calhern, Dewey Martin, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: Leave it to MGM to turn the Korean War into a splashy, big-budget, all-star extravaganza. Men of the Fighting Lady is set on the US aircraft career of the same name. Van Johnson stars as Lt. Howard Thayer, while other MGM stalwarts in the cast include Walter Pidgeon, Kennan Wynn and Louis Calhern. Read More

Remains to Be Seen

Actors: June Allyson, Van Johnson, Louis Calhern, Angela Lansbury, John Beal

Synopsis: June Allyson plays a band singer working in New York City; Van Johnson is the manager of a fancy apartment house where a murder is committed. The victim is Allyson's wealthy uncle, and since she can't account for her actions at the time of the crime, Our Heroine is the principal suspect. The real Read More

Confidentially Connie

Actors: Van Johnson, Janet Leigh, Louis Calhern, Walter Slezak, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Confidentially Connie is an MGM factory product starring Janet Leigh and Van Johnson. Upon learning she is pregnant, Leigh tries to convince her husband Johnson, a humble teacher, to find a better-paying job. But Johnson is a proud man, so much so that he refuses to request money from his wealthy Read More

Easy to Love

Actors: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Tony Martin, John Bromfield, Edna Skinner

Synopsis: The Cole Porter title tune is but one of the musical highlights in the (literally) splashy Esther Williams musical Easy to Love. Reshuffling plot devices utilized in previous Williams vehicles, the film casts Williams as Julie Hallerton, the star of Ray Lloyd's (Van Johnson) aquacade. She loves Read More

Washington Story

Actors: Van Johnson, Patricia Neal, Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer, Philip Ober

Synopsis: Washington Story stars Van Johnson as mildly liberal congressman Joseph T. Gresham. For reasons that he can't fathom, Gresham has been targeted for abuse by powerful columnist Gilbert Nunnaly (Philip Ober). Working in cahoots with Nunnaly is journalist Alice Kingsley (Patricia Neal), who pretends Read More

The Plymouth Adventure

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Gene Tierney, Van Johnson, Lloyd Bridges, Leo Genn

Synopsis: Plymouth Adventure earned a footnote in film history as the last directorial effort by the prolific Clarence Brown. Otherwise, this colorful re-creation of the Pilgrims' journey to America is a workmanlike job, never inspired but always interesting. Spencer Tracy stars as bull-stubborn Captain Read More

Invitation

Actors: Van Johnson, Dorothy McGuire, Ruth Roman, Louis Calhern, Ray Collins

Synopsis: Bronislau Kaper's haunting musical score for A Life of Her Own (1951) was recycled in the romantic melodrama Invitation. Dorothy McGuire stars as Ellen Bowker, a wealthy young woman with a rare heart condition. Knowing that his daughter may have only a year or so to live, Ellen's father Simon Read More

When in Rome

Actors: Van Johnson, Paul Douglas, Joseph Calleia, Carlo Rizzo, Tudor Owen

Synopsis: During the Vatican Holy Year of 1950, confidence trickster Joe Brewster (Paul Douglas) disguises himself as a priest and heads to the Holy City. It is Brewster's intention to use his faux clerical garb to evade arrest by the American authorities. But through the influence of American priest Father Read More

Too Young to Kiss

Actors: June Allyson, Van Johnson, Gig Young, Kathryn Givney

Synopsis: Can it be that June Allyson is Too Young to Kiss in this bit of MGM fluff? Well, not really. Pianist Cynthia Potter (Allyson) is well into her 20s, but she's posing as a 14-year-old musical prodigy. It's part of her desperate effort to become a client of highly selective concert-promoter Eric Read More

Go for Broke!

Actors: Van Johnson, Kane Nakano, Gianna Maria Canale, George Miki, Akira Fukunaga, Ken K. Okamoto

Synopsis: Robert Pirosh wrote and directed this little-known World War II drama from MGM that commemorates the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a combat unit composed of Japanese-Americans who fought valiantly during World War II, with many of the actual veterans of the combat unit appearing as actors in the Read More

Three Guys Named Mike

Actors: Jane Wyman, Van Johnson, Howard Keel, Barry Sullivan, Phyllis Kirk

Synopsis: Pretty stewardess Marcy Lewis (Jane Wyman) must choose between Three Guys Named Mike in this frothy MGM concoction. There's Mike Lawrence (Van Johnson), a science student who moonlights as a bartender. There's Mike Tracy (Barry Sullivan), a wheeler-dealer ad executive. And finally, there's Mike Read More

Grounds for Marriage

Actors: Van Johnson, Kathryn Grayson, Paula Raymond, Barry Sullivan, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: Grounds for Marriage is another attractively packaged sausage from the MGM assembly line. Van Johnson is a doctor, while Kathryn Grayson is an opera singer. They marry, but the pressures of their careers lead them to the divorce court. But they still love another, so any and all prospective Read More

The Big Hangover

Actors: Van Johnson, Elizabeth Taylor, Percy Waram, Fay Holden, Leon Ames

Synopsis: Nobody sits on the fence so far as The Big Hangover is concerned. Leonard Maltin considers it "predictable, as well as silly and boring," while the late William K. Everson regarded it as one of Hollywood's best and most underappreciated screwball comedies. Examine the premise and judge for Read More

It's a Big Country

Actors: Ethel Barrymore, Gary Cooper, Van Johnson, Gene Kelly, Janet Leigh

Synopsis: Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston Read More

The Duchess of Idaho

Actors: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, John Lund, Paula Raymond, Clinton Sundberg

Synopsis: This formula Esther Williams musical casts the star as Midwestern carnival swimmer Christine Duncan, in love with bandleader Dick Layn (Van Johnson). Attempting to smooth the course of romance for her friend Ellen Hallet (Paula Raymond), Christine makes a play for Ellen's wealthy boss Douglas J. Read More

In the Good Old Summertime

Actors: Judy Garland, Van Johnson, Buster Keaton, S.Z. Sakall, Spring Byington, Clinton Sundberg

Synopsis: In the Good Old Summertime is a musical remake of the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch comedy The Shop Around the Corner, which in turn was based on a play by Miklos Laszlo. The locale has been changed from Hungary to Chicago, but the turn-of-century time frame and the plot remain the same. Van Johnson and Judy Garland Read More

Battleground

Actors: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Marshall Thompson, James Whitmore

Synopsis: Incoming MGM production head Dore Schary ramrodded Battleground into the studio's schedule over the virulent protests of MGM boss Louis Mayer. The result was an award-winning box-office hit, as well as the beginning of the end of Mayer's power. This dramatization of the battles of Bastogne and the Read More

Scene of the Crime

Actors: Van Johnson, Arlene Dahl, Gloria de Haven, Norman Lloyd, Tom Drake, Leon Ames

Synopsis: The Dore Schary regime at MGM brought a much-needed dose of stark realism to the venerable studio. Van Johnson sheds his boy-next-door image to play L.A. plainclothes lieutenant Mike Conovan. Determined to bring a cop killer to justice, Conovan will let no man stand in his way -- not even his Read More

Mother Is a Freshman

Actors: Loretta Young, Van Johnson, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence, Robert Arthur, Betty Lynn

Synopsis: The same studio that brought forth Father Was a Fullback was responsible for Mother is a Freshman. Loretta Young stars as Abbigail Abbott, the widowed mother of coed Susan Abbott (Betty Lynn). In order to legally validate Susan's scholarship fund (a legacy of her late grandmother), Abigail enrolls Read More

State of the Union

Actors: Florence Auer, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Irving Bacon, Art Baker, Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Adolphe Menjou, Tom Fadden

Synopsis: Frank Capra's only MGM film, State of the Union was adapted by Anthony Veiller and Myles Connolly from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. Spencer Tracy plays an aircraft tycoon who is coerced into seeking the Republican Presidential nomination by predatory 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

Command Decision

Actors: Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Command Decision is a stagebound but consummately acted adaptation of William Wister Haines' Broadway play. Clark Gable, starring in the role essayed on Broadway by Paul Kelly, plays Air Force Brigadier General "Casey" Dennis. With time at a premium, Dennis sends waves of bomber squadrons into Read More

The Romance of Rosy Ridge

Actors: Van Johnson, Joyce Arling, Janet Leigh, James Bell, William Bishop, Thomas Mitchell, Jim Davis, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: Janet Leigh made an impressive film-debut in MGM's The Romance of Rosy Ridge. Though the title suggests a lighthearted musical, the film is actually a fairly sober adaptation (with slight comic undertones) of a novel by Mackinlay Kantor. In the days following the Civil War, a Missouri farming Read More

The High Barbaree

Actors: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Thomas Mitchell, Marilyn Maxwell, Cameron Mitchell

Synopsis: In this war movie, set during WW II, a pilot must crash land in the Pacific after he is shot down. As he floats upon the waves, he begins remembering the mythical island of Barbaree that his grandfather used to tell him about. To keep his wounded companion alive, he begins telling his life story. Read More

Till the Clouds Roll By

Actors: June Allyson, Robert Walker, Judy Garland, Gower Champion, Lucille Bremer, Cyd Charisse, Joan Wells, Van Heflin, Bruce Cowling

Synopsis: MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses Read More

No Leave, No Love

Actors: Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, Patricia Kirkwood, Marie Wilson, Edward Arnold

Synopsis: In this WWII musical, a young hero and his buddy decide to celebrate his receiving the Medal of Honor by partying. He is terribly excited about seeing his fiancée again. Unfortunately, she has fallen for another in his absence. He is later consoled by a lovely radio singer. Songs include "All the Read More

Easy to Wed

Actors: Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: This Technicolor musical remake of the 1936 comedy classic Libeled Lady isn't quite up to the standards of the original, but on its own terms is quite entertaining. Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn expertly assume the roles originally played by William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow Read More

Ziegfeld Follies

Actors: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue Read More

Thrill of a Romance

Actors: Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Frances Gifford, Henry Travers, Spring Byington

Synopsis: This aquatic musical is set at a mountain resort in the beautiful Sierra Nevadas where a heroic Army Air Corpsman has come for a vacation. There he falls in love with the lovely swimming instructor, who is unfortunately newly married to a rather stodgy businessman. The mayhem begins when her new Read More

Weekend at the Waldorf

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Edward Arnold

Synopsis: Weekend at the Waldorf is an unabashed remake of MGM's 1932 Oscar-winner Grand Hotel: in fact, at several points in the story, the cast makes pointed references to the earlier film. The posh Waldorf Hotel in the heart of New York is the setting for several plots and subplots. Ginger Rogers plays Read More

A Guy Named Joe

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson, Ward Bond, James Gleason, Lionel Barrymore

Synopsis: Opening in England during the middle of World War II, A Guy Named Joe tells the story of Pete Sandidge (Spencer Tracy), a tough, devil-may-care bomber pilot who's amassed an enviable record in combat, mostly by taking chances that give his C.O. (James Gleason) the shakes, much as he and the top Read More

The White Cliffs of Dover

Actors: Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Frank Morgan, Ralph Morgan, Roddy McDowall, Van Johnson

Synopsis: The White Cliffs of Dover is one of those overlong MGM wartime films that everyone seems to have seen a part of, but no one can remember the film as a sum total. Based on a poem by Alice Duer Miller, the story chronicles the trials and tribulations of one courageous woman through two world wars. Read More

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Actors: Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Phyllis Thaxter, Tim Murdock, Scott McKay, Robert Mitchum

Synopsis: Billed third, Spencer Tracy plays Lt. Col. James P. Doolittle, who led the bombing raid over Tokyo. Most of the footage concerns pilot Ted Lawson (Van Johnson), who loses a leg while escaping from China after the attack; other subplots concern the meticulous preparations for the raid, and the Read More

Three Men in White

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

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

Between Two Women

Actors: Van Johnson, Lionel Barrymore, Keenan Wynn, Marilyn Maxwell

Synopsis: The oft-used movie title Between Two Women was resurrected once more for this entry in MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series. Though Kildare is nowhere to be found, Lionel Barrymore is very much in evidence as Dr. Leonard Gillespie, crusty chief surgeon of Blair General Hospital. Gillespie's assistant is Dr. Read More

Two Girls and a Sailor

Actors: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Gloria de Haven, Jimmy Durante, Lena Horne

Synopsis: Two Girls and a Sailor is another of those all-star, no-plot wartime musicals turned out by the bushel basket in the 1940s. Its lack of nuance does not lessen its entertainment value in the least. Gloria DeHaven and June Allyson play a couple of well-meaning sisters who stage their own USO shows Read More

Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Donna Reed, Keye Luke

Synopsis: The third of MGM's Dr. Kildare series to dispense with the services of Dr. Kildare (Lew Ayres), Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case stars crusty old Lionel Barrymore in the title role. The first half of the film concerns Gillespie's efforts to expedite the romance of Army sergeant Orisin (Michael Duane) Read More

The Human Comedy

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, Fay Bainter, James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Ray Collins, Van Johnson

Synopsis: Author William Saroyan's corn-shucking brand of sentimentality works wonders in this 1943 filmization of his novel. Narrator Ray Collins is dead before the film begins; thus he is able to provide an all-seeing overview of the tiny community of Ithaca, California. The principal character, played by Mickey Rooney Read More

Madame Curie

Actors: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Robert Walker, Van Johnson, Albert Basserman, Margaret O'Brien, Henry Travers

Synopsis: Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon team for the third time in this fact-based biography directed by Mervyn Leroy, based on Eve Curie's book about her mother. In early 1900s Paris, poor Polish student Marie (Greer Garson) gets a chance to study magnetism with kindly professor Jean Perot (Albert Basserman Read More

Pilot No. 5

Actors: Franchot Tone, Marsha Hunt, Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Alan Baxter

Synopsis: Pilot No. 5 is an oddly liberal-minded film to come from conservative old MGM. Franchot Tone plays an army pilot stationed in Java who volunteers for a suicide mission. He is chosen from five possible Allied candidates, hence the title. We learn via flashback just why Tone holds his life at so low Read More

The War Against Mrs. Hadley

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

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

Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Susan Peters, Richard Quine, Keye Luke

Synopsis: On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) realizes that it's time to appoint a new assistant to replace young Dr. Kildare. Gillespie is obliged to choose from three highly qualified candidates: Dr. Randall "Red" Adams (Van Johnson), Dr. Lee Wong How (Keye Luke) Read More

Somewhere I'll Find You

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

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

Murder in the Big House

Actors: Faye Emerson, Van Johnson, George Meeker, Frank Wilcox

Synopsis: Murder in the Big House was a remake of the 1936 Warner Bros. programmer Jailbreak. In his first starring role, Van Johnson plays reporter Bert Bell, who wonders how it came to be that death-row inmate Dapper Dan Mallory (Michael Ames) was "accidentally" killed just before his appointment with the Read More

Too Many Girls

Actors: Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Eddie Bracken, Frances Langford, Desi Arnaz

Synopsis: Now immortalized as the film on which Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz met, Too Many Girls is a faithful adaptation of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart-George Abbott Broadway musical hit. The light-as-a-feather plotline finds four football players hired to escort dizzy heiress Connie Casey (Lucille Read More

Desert Mesa

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Wally West, Tonya Beauford, Franklin Farnum, Bill Patton, Lew Meehan

Synopsis: Produced by Victor Adamson (aka Denver Dixon), directed by Alan James (aka Alvin J. Neitz), and written by Van Johnson (no, not that Van Johnson), this minor -- very minor -- Western-melodrama starred yet another alias, Tom Wynn, the real name, apparently, of stuntman Wally West. Wynn played a Read More

Easter Teleparade of Stars

Synopsis: A Lenten period television variety special. ~ All Movie Guide Read More