Walter ConnollyFilmography

Coast Guard

Actors: Randolph Scott, Frances Dee, Ralph Bellamy, Walter Connolly, Warren Hymer

Synopsis: In this action film two Coast Guard pilots fall in love with the same woman. She chooses the more macho of the two, but soon tires of his hyper-masculine behavior. She leaves him. He tries to win her back by showing off in a Navy plane, but ends up crashing and losing his pilot's wings. When his Read More

Bridal Suite

Actors: Annabella, Robert Young, Walter Connolly, Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Veteran German director William Thiele managed to add a continental flavor to the MGM assembly-line romance Bridal Suite. Annabella stars as Luise Anzengruber, a poor but cheerful young lady who manages an Alpine hotel. When handsome playboy Neill McGill (Robert Young) checks into Luise's Read More

Those High Grey Walls

Actors: Walter Connolly, Onslow Stevens, Paul Fix, Bernard Nedell, Iris Meredith

Synopsis: In this prison drama, a physician ends up incarcerated after he treats a long-time patient who was a fugitive convict. As soon as he gets there, the doctor tries to get on the medical staff, but the head doctor will not allow it. When a prisoner's visiting wife goes into labor, the doctor is asked Read More

Land of Liberty

Synopsis: Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited Read More

The Great Victor Herbert

Actors: Allan Jones, Mary Martin, Walter Connolly, Lee Bowman

Synopsis: In his last film assignment, portly Walter Connolly fills the title role (in more ways than one) in The Great Victor Herbert. Very little of Herbert's life story is incorporated in the screenplay (a closing title actually apologizes for the film's paucity of cold hard facts); instead, the writers Read More

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Walter Connolly, William Frawley, Rex Ingram, Lynne Carver

Synopsis: Mickey Rooney may have been born to play Mark Twain's legendary hellraiser Huck Finn, but 1939's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is so MGM-ized that Rooney seems to be sedated. Otherwise, this is a slick retelling of the Twain classic, with Huck escaping both the oppressive kindliness of the Read More

Fifth Avenue Girl

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, Veree Teasdale, James Ellison, Tim Holt

Synopsis: A wealthy older man and a poor young woman each get a chance to see how the other half lives in this comedy. Alfred Borden (Walter Connolly) is a millionaire who feels neglected by his family. His wife Martha (Verree Teasdale), daughter Katherine (Kathryn Adams), and son Tim (Tim Holt) usually Read More

Penitentiary

Actors: Walter Connolly, John Howard, Jean Parker, Robert H. Barrat, Marc Lawrence

Synopsis: Penitentiary was the first of two remakes of Howard Hawks' 1931 prison flick The Criminal Code (the second remake was 1950's Convicted). Sent to prison on a manslaughter charge, young William Jordan (John Howard) is befriended by the man who sent him up, Judge Mathews (Walter Connolly). The judge Read More

Four's a Crowd

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles, Walter Connolly

Synopsis: A standard-issue "screwball comedy" of the 1930s, Four's a Crowd starred a quartet of Warner Bros' biggest stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Rosalind Russell and Patric Knowles. Flynn plays a publicity agent hired to stir up "good press" for a nasty millionaire (Walter Connolly). Errol Read More

Too Hot to Handle

Actors: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Walter Pidgeon, Walter Connolly, Leo Carrillo

Synopsis: Alternating effortlessly between comedy and suspense and back again, Too Hot to Handle stars Myrna Loy as a famous aviatrix and Clark Gable as an opportunistic newsreel photographer. Gable and rival shutterbug Walter Pidgeon agree to accompany Loy on her search for her missing brother, sensing a Read More

The Girl Downstairs

Actors: Franziska Gaal, Franchot Tone, Walter Connolly, Reginald Gardiner, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: "Discovered" for American films by Cecil B. DeMille, popular Hungarian actress Franceska Gaal made the last of her three Hollywood screen appearances in MGM's The Girl Downstairs. A Cinderella yarn, the film stars Gaal as scullery maid Katerina Linz, who is romanced by callous playboy Paul Wagner Read More

Start Cheering

Actors: Jimmy Durante, Joan Perry, Charles Starrett

Synopsis: Start Cheering is Columbia Pictures' idea of a college musical: Practically everyone in the cast is past the age of 30. Charles Starrett plays a movie star who wearies of Hollywood and decides to get a college education. He enrolls incognito in a small university, much to the discomfort of his Read More

Nancy Steele Is Missing!

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Walter Connolly, Peter Lorre, June Lang, Robert Kent

Synopsis: Nancy Steele was the baby daughter of a munitions tycoon who was kidnapped by an antiwar activist who did it to protest the magnate's support of WW I. This drama provides a sympathetic portrait of the kidnapper who leaves the baby with two close friend who assume it's his and raise her. The Read More

The League of Frightened Men

Actors: Walter Connolly, Lionel Stander, Eduardo Ciannelli, Irene Hervey, Victor Kilian

Synopsis: League of Frightened Men was the second and last entry in Columbia's short-lived mystery series based on the "Nero Wolfe" novels by Rex Stout. Taking over from Edward Arnold as crabby, corpulent consulting detective Nero Wolfe is Walter Connolly, who despite his physical resemblance to the Stout Read More

Let's Get Married

Actors: Ida Lupino, Walter Connolly, Ralph Bellamy, Reginald Denny, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: Contrary to earlier published reports, Columbia's Let's Get Married was not directed by Leo McCarey. Nor would McCarey have evinced much interest in this minor-league romantic comedy set in, of all places, a weather bureau. Ralph Bellamy plays the diligent chief weatherman who falls in love with Read More

First Lady

Actors: Kay Francis, Anita Louise, Veree Teasdale, Louise Fazenda, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: Based on the 1935 Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Katharine Dayton, First Lady is not, as might be assumed, the story of the first woman president. The central character, played by Kay Francis, is the granddaughter of a president (though clearly inspired by Teddy Roosevelt's daughter Read More

The Good Earth

Actors: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly, Tilly Losch, Charles Grapewin

Synopsis: Based on Donald Davis and Owen Davis' stage-adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's sprawling novel, Sidney Franklin's The Good Earth is the story of a Chinese farming couple whose lives are torn apart by poverty, greed, and nature. Paul Muni stars as Wang Lung a hardworking, but poor, farmer who weds Read More

Nothing Sacred

Actors: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly, Sig Rumann

Synopsis: "This is New York, Skyscraper Champion of the World...Where the Slickers and Know-It-Alls peddle gold bricks to each other...And where Truth, crushed to earth, rises again more phony than a glass eye..." With this jaundiced opening title, scripter Ben Hecht introduces his classic comedy Nothing Sacred Read More

Soak the Rich

Actors: Walter Connolly, Mary Taylor, John Howard, Alice Duer Miller, Ilka Chase

Synopsis: In the print ads for Soak the Rich, writers/producers/directors Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur were shown singing "We're the boys who wrote the yarn/ And here's what it's about/ Class ideas don't mean a thing/ When love kicks 'em out." The film pokes broad fun at New Deal liberalism and 1930s Read More

The Music Goes 'round

Actors: Harry Richman, Rochelle Hudson, Walter Connolly, Douglas Dumbrille, Lionel Stander

Synopsis: Harry Richman was a major stage and radio star of the 1930s, but his overbearing personality never clicked in films. After bombing out in 1930's Puttin' on the Ritz, he tried again six years later in The Music Goes 'Round, with marginally better results. Richman plays Harry Wallace, headliner of a Read More

The King Steps Out

Actors: Grace Moore, Franchot Tone, Walter Connolly, Raymond Walburn, Victor Jory

Synopsis: Josef Von Sternberg, past directorial master of movie exotica, came down to earth with The King Steps Out, a major studio musical. Set in 19th century Vienna, the plot concerns a sprightly young lady (opera star Grace Moore) who wishes to rescue her sister from marrying their cousin, the "wicked" Read More

Libeled Lady

Actors: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Walter Connolly

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, and William Powell star in this crackling screwball comedy about a cut-throat newspaper editor's scheme to prevent a libel suit that ends up exploding in everybody's face. Tracy plays Warren Haggerty, the managing editor of a newspaper that mistakenly prints a story Read More

She Couldn't Take It

Actors: George Raft, Joan Bennett, Walter Connolly, Billie Burke, Lloyd Nolan

Synopsis: When he's shipped off to prison on a tax-evasion charge, millionaire Van Dyke (Walter Connolly) breathes a sigh of relief: at least he'll be free of his dizzy, spendthrift wife (Billie Burke) and spoiled-rotten daughter Carol (Joan Bennett). Once behind bars, Van Dyke strikes up a friendship with Read More

Father Brown, Detective

Actors: Walter Connolly, Paul Lukas, Gertrude Michael, Robert Loraine, Halliwell Hobbes

Synopsis: G.K. Chesterton's crime-solving cleric Father Brown was first brought to the screen in 1934, in the corpulent form of Walter Connolly. The good father spends most of the film trying to retrieve a valuable diamond cross from elusive thief Flambeau (Paul Lukas). Father Brown is convinced that Read More

One-Way Ticket

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Peggy Conklin, Walter Connolly, Edith Fellows, Gloria Shea

Synopsis: The creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission would soon render anachronistic such crime melodramas as One Way Ticket. Upon discovering that a prominent banker has absconded with his customers' funds, Jerry (Lloyd Nolan), one of the unlucky depositors, reacts by turning thief. He steals Read More

White Lies

Actors: Walter Connolly, Fay Wray, Victor Jory, Leslie Fenton, Irene Hervey

Synopsis: Walter Connolly, Columbia's answer to Edward Arnold, is his usual bombastic self in White Lies. Connolly is cast as powerful publisher John Mitchell, whose pursuit of sensational headlines at the expense of all else takes a personal toll when his daughter Joan (Fay Wray) is implicated in a murder. Read More

So Red the Rose

Actors: Margaret Sullavan, Walter Connolly, Janet Beecher, Harry Ellerbe, Robert Cummings

Synopsis: So Red the Rose is a Civil War drama that plays like a warm-up for Gone With the Wind--and, unlike Wind, has two genuine Southerners in the leading roles. Margaret Sullavan is the aristocratic mistress of a sprawling Southern plantation, whose sheltered lifestyle is rent asunder by the War. Read More

Whom the Gods Destroy

Actors: Walter Connolly, Robert Young, Doris Kenyon, Scotty Beckett

Synopsis: Inspired by the Titanic tragedy, Whom the Gods Destroy is a tour de force for character actor Walter Connolly. The star is cast as theatrical entrepreneur John Forrester, who finds himself on board an ocean liner crippled in a shipwreck. At first he behaves courageously, but as the ship goes down Read More

Servants' Entrance

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Lew Ayres, Ned Sparks, Walter Connolly, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: Inasmuch as the film was based on a novel by Swedish author Sigrid Boo, Fox's Servant's Entrance is logically set in Sweden. Heiress Hedda Nillson (Janet Gaynor) certain that her family is about to lose all its money, takes a job as a maid. After the usual trials and tribulations, Hedda falls in Read More

The Captain Hates the Sea

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Helen Vinson, John Gilbert, Alison Skipworth, Wynne Gibson

Synopsis: It's Grand Hotel on the high seas, with a remarkable cast -- particularly for the usually parsimonious Columbia Pictures. As irascible captain Helquist (Walter Connolly) pilots his boat along the Atlantic, an assortment of subplots involving a vast array of characters play themselves out. Among Read More

Eight Girls in a Boat

Actors: Dorothy Wilson, Douglass Montgomery, Kay Johnson, Barbara Barondess, Ferike Boros

Synopsis: Paramount's Eight Girls in a Boat was a remake of the 1932 German film of the same name. Impregnated by medical student David Perrin (Douglass Montgomery), European schoolgirl Christa Storm (Dorothy Wilson) contemplates killing herself. Wisely, she chooses instead to explain her plight to her Read More

Broadway Bill

Actors: Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Walter Connolly, Helen Vinson, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Just after completing It Happened One Night, director Frank Capra churned out a bread-and-butter picture titled Broadway Bill. Warner Baxter plays the carefree scion of a wealthy, highly-respected family. Baxter's cold but socially correct wife Helen Vinson forces her husband into the family Read More

Twentieth Century

Actors: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Etienne Girardot

Synopsis: Flamboyant, egomaniacal theatrical impresario Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) transforms chorus girl Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard) into leading lady Lily Garland, the toast of Broadway. Once she's ascended to stardom, Mildred/Lily cannot abide Jaffe's obsessive control of her life and career. When Read More

It Happened One Night

Actors: Claire McDowell, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas

Synopsis: Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who has married fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), despite her father (Walter Connolly)'s Read More

Lady by Choice

Actors: Carole Lombard, May Robson, Roger Pryor, Walter Connolly, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: Promoted as a follow-up to Frank Capra's 1933 hit Lady for a Day, Lady by Choice resembles the earlier film only in its choice of leading lady. May Robson plays a drunken derelict who'd once been quite a heartbreaker. Her self-respect is restored when she is asked to pose as fan-dancer Carole Lombard Read More

Once to Every Woman

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Fay Wray, Walter Connolly, Mary Carlisle, Walter Byron

Synopsis: Columbia's Once to Every Woman was the first of A. J. Cronin's medical novels to be adapted for the screen. The drama of the piece hinges on the conflict between brilliant young surgeon Barclay (Ralph Bellamy) and crusty hospital head Dr. Selby (Walter Connolly). On another, less-crucial front Read More

East of Fifth Ave.

Actors: Wallace Ford, Dorothy Tree, Mary Carlisle, Walter Connolly, Willard Robertson

Synopsis: This drama, set within a boarding house, centers around a pregnant show girl abandoned by her boyfriend, a married man who conveniently returns to his wife. The despairing young woman considers ending her life, but is talked out of it by an aged couple. They themselves end up committing suicide. Read More

Paddy, the Next Best Thing

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Warner Baxter, Walter Connolly, Harvey Stephens, Mary McCormick

Synopsis: At age 26, Janet Gaynor was still playing "gamin" roles in such musical trifles as Paddy, the Next Best Thing. Gaynor stars as a spirited Irish lass whose older sister (Margaret Lindsay) is about to marry a wealthy gent (Warner Baxter). Fully aware that Sis doesn't love the man, Gaynor sacrifices Read More

Lady for a Day

Actors: Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: May Robson plays Apple Annie, a slatternly Broadway apple peddler. Annie has a curious setup whereby she is able to finagle other street merchants and beggars to pony up part of their weekly earnings to her--yet she never seems to spend any of the money on herself. This is because Annie has a Read More

A Man's Castle

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Loretta Young, Marjorie Rambeau, Glenda Farrell, Walter Connolly, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: This Depression-era romantic drama, which offers a surprisingly potent and unsentimental view of the economic hardships of the time, stars Spencer Tracy as Bill, a rough-hewn laborer struggling to get by and sleeping in a Hooverville shack. Bill meets Trina (Loretta Young), a sad and desperate Read More

No More Orchids

Actors: Carole Lombard, Lyle Talbot, Walter Connolly, Louise Closser Hale, Allen Vincent

Synopsis: A wealthy, but sad young woman falls in love with an impoverished fellow in this bittersweet romance. While her father is only concerned with her happiness, her uncle strongly objects to the match as he wants her to marry into royalty. When the father's bank is on the verge of collapsing, he asks Read More

Master of Men

Actors: Jack Holt, Fay Wray, Theodore Von Eltz, Walter Connolly, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: One of ten films that Fay Wray made in 1993 (including King Kong), Master of Men casts her as Kay Walling, a woman who is being ignored by her husband, Buck (played by Jack Holt). Buck owns a prosperous steel mill and they make a very good living, but he is ambitious and wants more. To this end Read More

The Bitter Tea of General Yen

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Asther, Gavin Gordon, Toshia Mori, Walter Connolly

Synopsis: The Bitter Tea of General Yen is the oddest, least characteristic talkie effort of director Frank Capra. Barbara Stanwyck stars as the intended of an American missionary (Gavin Gordon) who is sent to spread the good word in China. During a military revolution, Stanwyck and her fiance inadvertently Read More

Man Against Woman

Actors: Jack Holt, Lillian Miles, Walter Connolly, Gavin Gordon, Arthur Vinton

Synopsis: In this detective drama, a gumshoe falls in love with a torch singer who is unfortunately, involved with a crook. The two lovers then take off to Bermuda, but not before the crook double-crosses his own gang. The detective is then persuaded into following the two and bringing the traitor back to Read More

Washington Merry-Go-Round

Actors: Lee Tracy, Constance Cummings, Alan Dinehart, Walter Connolly, Clarence Muse

Synopsis: In this political melodrama, an idealistic freshman congressman swears to do his best to get relief for his impoverished constituents who lost everything in the Great Depression. Unfortunately, he discovers that many of his colleagues have been corrupted by avaricious crooks. He begins lobbying to Read More