William DemarestFilmography

The Wild McCullochs

Actors: Forrest Tucker, Julie Adams, Max Baer, Jr., Janice Heiden, Dennis Redfield

Synopsis: Originally released as The Wild McCulloughs, this AIP melodrama stars Forrest Tucker as J.J. McCulloch, a domineering patriarch. In their race to escape their father's overbearing influence, J.J.'s grown sons come to grief; one son dies in Korea, while another is arrested for murder. Only Gary Read More

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Actors: Kim Darby

Synopsis: Ranking with Dan Curtis' Trilogy of Terror as one of the spookiest made-for-TV horror films of the 1970's, this atmospheric monster chiller stars Kim Darby and Jim Hutton as a comfortable, reasonably happy young couple who inherit the archetypal "Old Dark House" from the wife Sally's deceased Read More

My Three Sons: Season 06

Actors: William Demarest

That Darn Cat

Actors: Hayley Mills, Dean Jones, Dorothy Provine, Roddy McDowall, Neville Brand

Synopsis: Though overlong even for a Hayley Mills vehicle, That Darn Cat is an expert blend of laughs and suspense. The eponymous feline is D.C., a Siamese belonging to sisters Hayley Mills and Dorothy Provine. One evening, D.C. comes flouncing home with a lady's wristwatch attached to her neck. The watch Read More

Viva Las Vegas

Actors: Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret, Cesare Danova, William Demarest, Nicky Blair

Synopsis: Viva Las Vegas, one of Elvis Presley's most popular vehicles, adheres as rigidly to formula as a Kabuki dance. Elvis plays a race-car driver competing in the Las Vegas Grand Prix opposite his principal rival, Cesare Danova. To finance his entry, Elvis takes a job as a casino waiter. Naturally, he Read More

Bonanza: Old Sheba

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, William Demarest

Synopsis: "Old Sheba" is a scraggly circus elephant, which the Cartwrights receive as payment for Hoss' one-night stand as a big-top performer. Ben and Adam insist that Hoss and Joe return the pachyderm, but the boys are convinced that they can take care of Old Sheba all by themselves. To make a long story Read More

The Twilight Zone: What's in the Box

Actors: William Demarest, Joan Blondell, Sterling Holloway, Herbert Lytton, Sandra Gould

Synopsis: As a repairman (Sterling Holloway) works on his malfunctioning television set, middle-aged TV addict Joe Britt (William Demarest) fusses and fumes, while his wife Phyllis (Joan Blondell) launches another of her nag sessions. Once the repairman leaves, Joe tunes in to his favorite program, only to Read More

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Phil Silvers, Dick Shawn, Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton

Synopsis: With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the Read More

Son of Flubber

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

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

Bonanza: The Hayburner

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, William Demarest

Synopsis: In this comic episode, Adam and Hoss Cartwright want to enter their newly purchased thoroughbred in the Virginia City Sweepstakes. Alas, Hoss loses the horse in a card game, and now must move heaven and earth to win the nag back. Complication piles upon complication, culminating in a wild Read More

Twenty Plus Two

Actors: David Janssen, Jeanne Crain, Dina Merrill, Agnes Moorehead, Jacques Aubuchon

Synopsis: Sounding something like a standard '40s police story, this talkative but interesting murder mystery stars David Janssen of TV's The Fugitive series. Janssen plays Tom Alder, a gumshoe looking into the murder of the secretary of a shady Hollywood film star when he discovers that the murder is Read More

Gunfight in Black Horse Canyon

Actors: Dale Robertson, Ellen Burstyn, George Kennedy

Synopsis: Bounty hunters hired by an ex-con focus on the Wells Fargo agent who placed the ex-con in prison. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

King of the Roaring '20s: The Story of Arnold Rothstein

Actors: Dan O'Herlihy, David Janssen, Dianne Foster, Jack Carson, Diana Dors, Mickey Shaughnessy, Mickey Rooney

Synopsis: David Janssen is hardly perfect casting for the role of 1920s gambling king Arnold Rothstein (Rod Steiger or Gene Barry may have been better choices), but the sure-handed direction of Joseph Newman smooths over all the rough spots in this fanciful biopic. Set up in the gambling business by crooked Read More

Pepe

Actors: Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones, Carlos Montalban, Vicki Trickett, Bing Crosby

Synopsis: Popular Mexican comedian Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) plays the title character in this star-studded, amusing comedy drama by George Sidney. Pepe is the same sort of impoverished stereotype Cantinflas made famous in several of his comedies; in this case he is a hired hand on a ranch who chases down a Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: And the Desert Shall Blossom

Synopsis: Tom (William Demarest) and Ben (Roscoe Ates) are a pair of old coots living in the Nevada desert. The local sheriff (Ben Johnson) shows up at their place with an eviction notice, but he agrees to let them stay on their property if they can get a dead rosebush to bloom within the next 30 days. Not Read More

The Mountain

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Claire Trevor, William Demarest, Barbara Darrow, Anna Kashfi

Synopsis: To fully enjoy the rugged outdoors adventure The Mountain, one must accept the notion that 55-year-old Spencer Tracy and 25-year-old Robert Wagner are brothers. Tracy plays veteran mountain guide Zachary Wheeler, who is coaxed out of retirement when a passenger plane crashes on high mountain. He Read More

The Rawhide Years

Actors: Tony Curtis, Colleen Miller, Arthur Kennedy

Synopsis: In this western, an adventurous gambler goes on the lam when he is falsely accused of a riverboat killing. He hides out for three years before returning to prove his innocence, and to find the girl he loves. Unfortunately, the girl is involved with a gambler, the ringleader of the gang responsible Read More

Sincerely Yours

Actors: Liberace, Joanne Dru, Dorothy Malone, Alex Nicol, William Demarest

Synopsis: At the height of his TV fame, flamboyant pianist Liberace starred in the lavish Warner Bros. production Sincerely Yours. A remake of the old George Arliss vehicle The Man Who Played God, the film casts "Mr. Showmanship" as famed concert pianist Anthony Warren, who at the height of his popularity Read More

The Private War of Major Benson

Actors: Charlton Heston, Julie Adams, Tim Hovey, William Demarest, Nana Bryant, Tim Considine

Synopsis: A too-tough Army major gets himself sent to run an ROTC program at a Santa Barbara military school after he calls unwanted attention to the military by mouthing off to a prominent news magazine. When he arrives to his new post, the major is shocked to find it run by nuns and that his new troops Read More

Jupiter's Darling

Actors: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, George Sanders

Synopsis: Esther Williams' long association with MGM came to an abrupt end with Jupiter's Darling, which even she will admit was her silliest film. Based on Robert Sherwood's satirical play The Road to Rome, the film cast as Williams as Amytis, fiancee of vacillating Roman statesman Fabius Maximus (George Sanders Read More

Hell on Frisco Bay

Actors: Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, Joanne Dru, William Demarest, Paul Stewart, Fay Wray

Synopsis: Hell on Frisco Bay is a slam-bang return to the sort of gangster fare turned out by the yard at Warner Bros. in the 1930s. Alan Ladd plays ex-cop Steve Rollins, who serves five years on a manslaughter rap. Upon his release, Rollins dedicates himself to finding the real killer. He soon learns that Read More

The Far Horizons

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Charlton Heston, Donna Reed, Barbara Hale, William Demarest

Synopsis: The Untamed West is the reissue title of the Pine-Thomas production The Far Horizons. This romanticized retelling of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-06 stars Fred MacMurray as Meriwether Lewis and Charlton Heston as Bill Clark. The film doesn't delve much into the real-life animosity Read More

Lucy Gallant

Actors: Edith Head, Jane Wyman, Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest

Synopsis: An unusually matronly Jane Wyman plays the title character in Lucy Gallant. Adapted from a novel by Margaret Cousins, the story concerns the efforts by Lucy Gallant to make the wide-open spaces of Texas a mecca for High Fashion. Jilted at the altar, Lucy retreats to a booming oil town, where she Read More

The Yellow Mountain

Actors: Lex Barker, Mala Powers, Howard Duff, William Demarest, John McIntire

Synopsis: Lex Barker trades his Tarzan loincloth for buckskins in the Universal western Yellow Mountain. Barker stars as gold prospector Andy Martin, who has a serious falling out with his partner Pete Menlo (Howard Duff) over the affections of pretty Nevada Wray (Mala Powers). But Andy and Pete patch up Read More

Escape from Fort Bravo

Actors: William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe, William Demarest, William Campbell

Synopsis: A nail-biting Indian deadlock remains the climax of this otherwise overly verbose Western filmed in M-G-M's then-new Ansco colors (forerunner of Eastmancolor). After ruthlessly dragging an escaped prisoner through the Arizona desert, Union Army Captain Roper (William Holden) suffers rebuke from Read More

Dangerous When Wet

Actors: Esther Williams, Fernando Lamas, Jack Carson, Charlotte Greenwood, Denise Darcel

Synopsis: Esther Williams stars in this button-cute musical about a health-conscious family of swimmers who fall in with con man Windy Weebe (Jack Carson). The Higgins family decides to swim the English Channel in order to raise money to purchase a prize bull for their Arkansas farm. As she practices for Read More

The Lady Wants Mink

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Ruth Hussey, Eve Arden, William Demarest, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: In this comedy, a housewife schemes to make her dreams of feeling the soft touch of mink on her hardworking shoulders a reality. Unfortunately her husband does not have enough money for such a luxury. Being a resourceful lass, the wife decides the only viable alternative is to raise her own mink. Read More

Here Come the Girls

Actors: Bob Hope, Tony Martin, Arlene Dahl, Rosemary Clooney, Millard Mitchell

Synopsis: Originally intended as a 3D film, this standard-issue Bob Hope musical comedy was released "flat." The 50-year-old Hope plays over-aged chorus boy Stanley Snodgrass, whose attempts to get ahead in the early 20th-century theatre world always come acropper. His luck suddenly changes when he's Read More

The Blazing Forest

Actors: John Payne, William Demarest, Agnes Moorehead, Richard Arlen, Susan Morrow

Synopsis: Library footage from the 1940 Paramount feature The Forest Rangers is used sparingly but effectively in the 1952 Pine-Thomas production The Blazing Forest. John Payne plays troubleshooting logger Kelly Hanson, who is hired by timber baroness Jessie Crain (Agnes Moorehead). Hanson is promised a Read More

What Price Glory?

Actors: James Cagney, Dan Dailey, Corinne Calvet, William Demarest, Craig Hill, Robert Wagner

Synopsis: James Cagney signed on to play Captain Flagg in 20th Century Fox's 1952 remake of the 1926 classic What Price Glory after being told that the old property was being converted into a musical. By the time Cagney learned that Fox had no intention of adding songs and dances to the venerable Maxwell Anderson Read More

Behave Yourself!

Actors: Farley Granger, Shelley Winters, William Demarest, Francis L. Sullivan, Margalo Gillmore

Synopsis: One of the oddest comedies of the 1950s, Behave Yourself! stars Farley Granger and Shelley Winters as a pair of none-too-bright newlyweds. Granger and Winters adopt a stray pooch named Archie, who unbeknownst to them has been trained as a go-between for a couple of underworld gangs. To the Read More

Excuse My Dust

Actors: Red Skelton, Sally Forrest, MacDonald Carey, William Demarest, Monica Lewis

Synopsis: Excuse My Dust is one of the few Red Skelton musicals in which Skelton is not obliged to share screen space with the likes of Eleanor Powell, Esther Williams or Fernando Lamas. Set in 1900, the film stars Red as zany inventor Joe Belden. Enchanted by the new-fangled horseless carriages, Belden Read More

The First Legion

Actors: Charles Boyer, William Demarest, Lyle Bettger, Leo G. Carroll

Synopsis: Since its lapse into public domain in 1978, First Legion has joined Love Affair and Algiers as the most readily available of Charles Boyer's films. Boyer plays Fr. Marc Arnoux, the head of St. Gregory's seminary, who can never quite shake the feeling that he shouldn't have given up his career as Read More

The Strip

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Sally Forrest, William Demarest, James Craig, Kay Brown

Synopsis: Mickey Rooney returned to his "home" studio MGM, after a three-year absence, in the location-filmed melodrama The Strip. Rooney is cast as Stanley Maxton, an aspiring drummer who has the misfortune to fall within the orbit of bookie Sunny Johnson (James Craig). Out of the goodness of his heart Read More

Riding High

Actors: Bing Crosby, Coleen Gray, Charles Bickford, Frances Gifford, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: Anxious to remain active in the 1950s, director Frank Capra wanted to prove to Paramount Pictures that he could deliver an "A" picture on a modest budget. To that end, Capra bought the rights of his 1934 film Broadway Bill from Columbia, and remade it under the title Riding High. He then hired Read More

He's a Cockeyed Wonder

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Terry Moore, William Demarest, Charles Arnt, Ross Ford

Synopsis: He's a Cockeyed Wonder stars Mickey Rooney as the title character. Try as he might, Freddy Frisby (Rooney) can't succeed at anything. Things take an upward turn when Freddy inherits the estate of his uncle, a famed magician. Armed with all sorts of legerdemain, Freddy begins giving shows at local Read More

Never a Dull Moment

Actors: Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, William Demarest, Andy Devine

Synopsis: In this 1951 comedy Irene Dunne stars as Kay, a Manhattan-based songwriter who marries widowed rodeo cowboy Chris (Fred MacMurray). In the tradition of The Egg and I, Kay suffers a great deal of culture shock when she moves into Chris' western ranch. When she isn't being bedeviled by her new Read More

When Willie Comes Marching Home

Actors: Dan Dailey, Corinne Calvet, Colleen Townsend, William Demarest, Jimmy Lydon, Mae Marsh

Synopsis: A rare comedy from director John Ford, this story about a WWII soldier trying to gain some respect is based on the published war memoirs of Sy Gomberg. Bill Kluggs (Dan Dailey) is the first man in his small West Virginia town to enlist, and his father Herman (William Demarest) and the locals give Read More

Red, Hot and Blue

Actors: Betty Hutton, Victor Mature, William Demarest, June Havoc, Jane Nigh

Synopsis: Taken (as far as possible) from the Cole Porter musical comedy of the same name, Red, Hot and Blue stars Betty Hutton as an ambitious chorus girl. Hutton gets a job with a musical comedy bankrolled by gangsters, and is the wrong girl at the wrong place when one of the show's backers (William Talman Read More

Jolson Sings Again

Actors: Larry Parks, Barbara Hale, William Demarest, Ludwig Donath, Bill Goodwin

Synopsis: This Technicolor follow-up to Columbia's 1946 blockbuster The Jolson Story again stars Larry Parks as legendary entertainer Al Jolson--and Jolson himself, as Parks' singing voice. The story concentrates on Jolson's tireless activities entertaining the troops during WW II. After VJ day, Jolson Read More

Sorrowful Jones

Actors: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, William Demarest, Mary Jane Saunders, Bruce Cabot, Thomas Gomez

Synopsis: This second of four film adaptations of Damon Runyon's Little Miss Marker is tailored to the talents of Bob Hope. A shifty Broadway bookie, Sorrowful Jones (Hope) becomes a reluctant foster parent when an anxious gambler leaves behind his little girl Martha Jane (Mary Jane Saunders) as a "marker," Read More

Whispering Smith

Actors: Alan Ladd, Brenda Marshall, Robert Preston, Donald Crisp, William Demarest

Synopsis: This fact -based western follows a soft-spoken railroad detective (Alan Ladd) as he brings a murderous ring of robbers to justice and rekindles an old flame. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Gail Russell, John Lund, Virginia Bruce, William Demarest, Richard Webb

Synopsis: A man who dreams of seeing the future discovers the horrible burden that it can carry in this film noir suspense story. Suicidal Jean Courtland (Gail Russell) is prevented from killing herself by her fiancée Elliot Carson (John Lund). When they consult psychic John Triton (Edward G. Robinson Read More

On Our Merry Way

Actors: Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, Fred MacMurray, James Stewart, Hugh Herbert, Dorothy Lamour

Synopsis: Also known as A Miracle Can Happen, On Our Merry Way is a multipart comedy linked by inquiring reporter Burgess Meredith. It is Meredith's job to interview several people, asking them what effect children have had on their lives. First he checks with two itinerant musicians (James Stewart and Henry Fonda Read More

The Sainted Sisters

Actors: Veronica Lake, Joan Caulfield, Barry Fitzgerald, William Demarest, George Reeves

Synopsis: Never mind Veronica Lake and Joan Caulfield: the real star of The Sainted Sisters is Barry Fitzgerald, dispensing Hibernian blarney by the wheelbarrowful. The story begins as turn-of-the-century golddiggers Letty and Jane Stanton (Lake and Caulfield) escape New York after divesting a gullible Read More

Variety Girl

Actors: Mary Hatcher, Eric Alden, William Bendix, Olga San Juan, MacDonald Carey, DeForest Kelley, William Demarest, Joan Caulfield, Stanley Clements, Frank Faylen

Synopsis: This story of two young hopefuls who come to Hollywood is merely a thin device to feature almost every star working for Paramount Studios in 1947. Mary Hatcher plays Catherine Brown, a woman of humble origins who arrives in Hollywood, where she meets another wanna-be movie star, Amber La Vonne Read More

The Perils of Pauline

Actors: Betty Hutton, John Lund, Constance Collier, William Demarest, Billy De Wolfe

Synopsis: The third of four films bearing the title of The Perils of Pauline, this musical biopic purports to tell the life story of famed silent serial queen Pearl White. Right at the beginning, however, an introductory title informs the audience that what follows is merely "suggested" by incidents in White Read More

The Jolson Story

Actors: Larry Parks, Evelyn Keyes, William Demarest, Bill Goodwin, Ludwig Donath

Synopsis: Though legendary entertainer Al Jolson was a highly visible presence on the U.S.O. circuit during World War II, he was generally regarded as a relic of an earlier time until his movie comeback in 1945's Rhapsody in Blue. Showing up 30 minutes into this biopic of George Gershwin, Jolson literally Read More

Our Hearts Were Growing Up

Actors: Gail Russell, Diana Lynn, Brian Donlevy, James Brown, Bill Edwards

Synopsis: Our Hearts Were Growing Up is the sequel to Paramount's surprise 1944 hit Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. The first film was based on the memoirs of actress Cornelia Otis Skinner; the sequel was inspired by the fevered imaginations of the screenwriters. Gail Russell plays Ms. Skinner, while Diana Lynn Read More

Duffy's Tavern

Actors: Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Paulette Goddard, Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour

Synopsis: Several of Paramount Pictures brightest stars make cameo appearances in this comedy set in "Duffy's Tavern," a favorite watering hole from old time radio shows. The trouble begins when the neighborhood bar is in danger of closing. The trouble begins when the proprietor, Archie, discovers that one Read More

Pardon My Past

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Marguerite Chapman, Akim Tamiroff, William Demarest, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: A case of mistaken identity leads to hilarity in this comedy. Eddie (Fred MacMurray) and Chuck (William Demarest) are a pair of GIs who've just been sprung from the service and plan to open a mink ranch in Wisconsin. No sooner do they arrive in the Cheese State than one Jim Arnold (Akim Tamiroff) Read More

Salty O'Rourke

Actors: Alan Ladd, Gail Russell, William Demarest, Bruce Cabot, Spring Byington

Synopsis: The tumultuous world of horse-racing provides the backdrop of this drama. Directed by Raoul Walsh, Salty O'Rourke features the exploits of luckless gambler Salty O'Rourke (Alan Ladd) and his pal Smitty (William Demarest), who are indebted to a bookie and deeply in need of a fast dollar. Desperate Read More

Along Came Jones

Actors: Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest, Dan Duryea, Frank Sully

Synopsis: Gary Cooper added "producer" alongside "star" on his resume with this light-hearted Western about a mild-mannered cowboy (Cooper) who drifts into a small town with his sidekick (William Demarest). Naturally, he's mistaken for a notorious highway robber (Dan Duryea), although he can barely handle a Read More

Once Upon a Time

Actors: Cary Grant, Janet Blair, James Gleason, Ted Donaldson, Howard Freeman, William Demarest

Synopsis: Based on Norman Corwin's satirical radio play My Client Curley, Once Upon a Time is an engaging bit of whimsy, completely dominated by the personality of star Cary Grant. It all begins when fly-by-night Broadway producer Jerry Flynn (Grant) learns of a trained caterpillar (!) that dances to the Read More

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Actors: Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, William Demarest, Brian Donlevy, Porter Hall

Synopsis: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon 'em." Firmly in the latter category is Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), a feckless wartime 4-F who must stand by helplessly as his sweetheart Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) entertains every visiting GI in town. One Read More

The Great Moment

Actors: Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey, William Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt, Franklin Pangborn

Synopsis: After producing, writing and directing one hit film after another, Preston Sturges finally misfired with the biopic The Great Moment. Sturges was always fascinated with the saga of W.T.G. Morton, the 19th century Boston dentist who, after inventing the first truly effective anesthesia, was forced Read More

Hail the Conquering Hero

Actors: Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, William Demarest, Bill Edwards, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: It took nerve for writer/director Preston Sturges to lampoon the whole concept of hero worship in the middle of World War II, but once more Sturges' oddball sense of taste and propriety paid off at the box office in Hail the Conquering Hero. Eddie Bracken plays the son of a World War I Marine hero Read More

Nine Girls

Actors: Ann Harding, Evelyn Keyes, Jinx Falkenburg, Anita Louise, Leslie Brooks

Synopsis: Nine Girls stars several of Columbia's loveliest contract actresses as sorority sisters at an exclusive California college. None of the girls is fond of nasty student Anita Louise--in fact, sometime dislikes her enough to kill her. Police detectives William Demarest and Willard Robertson are Read More

Johnny Doughboy

Actors: Jane Withers, Henry Wilcoxon, William Demarest, Ruth Donnelly

Synopsis: A grown-up Jane Withers is joined by a whole slew of former child stars in the lightweight Republic musical Johnny Doughboy. Withers capably essays the part of a teenaged movie star who tires of the spotlight and runs away from Hollywood. Adopting an alias, she joins "The Junior Victory Caravan" Read More

Stage Door Canteen

Actors: Cheryl Walker, William Terry, Marjorie Riordan, Lon McCallister, Margaret Early

Synopsis: This star-studded musical drama was largely financed by Theatre Guild, with all proceeds going to various wartime fundraising concerns. Most of the story takes place at the Stage Door Canteen, a Manhattan-based home away from home for soldiers, sailors and marines (the real-life Canteen on 44th Read More

True to Life

Actors: Mary Martin, Franchot Tone, Dick Powell, Victor Moore, Mabel Paige, William Demarest

Synopsis: True to Life stars Dick Powell as a radio writer in search of saleable material. He comes up with a weekly sitcom about a typical American family. To soak up inspiration, he hangs around the household of waitress Mary Martin and her parents (Ernest Truex, Mabel Paige), transcribing their Read More

Dangerous Blondes

Actors: Allyn Joslyn, Evelyn Keyes, Edmund Lowe, John Hubbard, Anita Louise

Synopsis: Stalwart supporting actor Allyn Joslyn is afforded a rare leading role in the Columbia mystery meller Dangerous Blondes. Joslyn and Evelyn Keyes play Harry and Jane Craig, a road-company Nick and Nora Charles. A popular mystery writer, Harry occasionally indulges in amateur detective work, with Read More

My Favorite Spy

Actors: Ellen Drew, Jane Wyman, Robert Armstrong, Helen Westley

Synopsis: Produced by silent-film comedian Harold Lloyd, My Favorite Spy is a vehicle for bespectacled bandleader Kay Kyser, who resembles Lloyd more than somewhat. Just before embarking on his honeymoon with new bride Terry (Ellen Drew), Kyser is drafted into the Army. Proving to be a monumentally Read More

True to the Army

Actors: Judy Canova, Allan Jones, Ann Miller, Jerry Colonna, William Demarest

Synopsis: In this musical comedy set during WW II, a circus aerialist desires to be closer to her lover, a soldier. When she finds herself chased by gangsters, the woman dresses up as a man and joins the military. Mayhem ensues as she tries to undergo training and keep her sex a secret. The secret is Read More

Life Begins at 8:30

Actors: Monty Woolley, Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Sara Allgood, Melville Cooper

Synopsis: In this drama, a has-been stage thespian finds that his alcoholism is ruining his life. When his daughter, a cripple, attempts to show her concern, he rebuffs her with his cruel, razor sharp witticism. His drinking and cynicism continue to increase, but, through it all, his daughter stands Read More

The Palm Beach Story

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, William Demarest

Synopsis: As for the opening reels, the principal motivating factor is money. After a deliberately confusing pre-credit sequence (not explained until the film's punch line), Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) and Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) are married. "And so they lived happily ever after," exults a title Read More

Pardon My Sarong

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Robert Paige

Synopsis: One of the most often revived of Abbott & Costello's early-1940s films, Pardon My Sarong casts Bud and Lou as Chicago bus drivers Algy Shaw and Wellington Pflug. At the behest of millionaire playboy Tommy Layton (Robert Paige), Algy and Wellington hijack their own bus and speed off to California Read More

Behind the Eight Ball

Actors: The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], Carol Bruce, Dick Foran, Grace McDonald, Johnny Downs

Synopsis: To say that Behind the Eight Ball is the best of the Ritz Brothers' quartet of Universal vehicles is faint praise indeed, but it's fact that the Ritzes pack an awful lot of laughs in the film's 60-minute running time. The story takes place at a summer theater in the Berkshire Mountains, where Read More

All Through the Night

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, Jane Darwell, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Humphrey Bogart plays Gloves Donahue, a rough-hewn but essentially decent New York gambler. The Runyonesque plot gets moving when Gloves tries to find out what's holding up his favorite restaurant's daily shipment of cheesecake. Paying a call on the bakery, Gloves stumbles into a Nazi spy ring Read More

Rookies on Parade

Actors: Bob Crosby, Ruth Terry, Gertrude Niesen, Eddie Foy, Jr., Marie Wilson

Synopsis: Hoping to cash in on the success of Universal's Buck Privates, Republic Pictures hastily commissioned an imitation, Rookies on Parade. Instead of Abbott and Costello, Republic settled for bandleader Bob Crosby and comedian Eddie Foy Jr., a not-so-unfair exchange at that. The story details the Read More

Ride on Vaquero

Actors: Cesar Romero, Mary Beth Hughes, Lynne Roberts, Chris-Pin Martin, Robert Lowery

Synopsis: Cesar Romero plays the Cisco Kid, who may be a bandit but is no kidnapper. This being the case, Cisco and his pal Pancho (Chris-Pin Martin) offer to help round up a vicious frontier kidnapping ring. The leaders turn out to be several solid citizens of a western town, but Cisco knows a rat when he Read More

Country Fair

Actors: Eddie Foy, Jr., June Clyde, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, William Demarest, Harold Huber

Synopsis: Republic Pictures obviously hoped to build vaudevillian Eddie Foy Jr. into a major screen comedian, as witness such efforts as Country Fair. Foy plays Johnny Campbell, glib campaign manager for gubenatorial candidate Stogie McPhee (William Demarest). Having impulsively promised Johnny that she'll Read More

Dressed to Kill

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Mary Beth Hughes, Sheila Ryan, William Demarest, Ben Carter

Synopsis: The fourth of 20th Century-Fox's "Michael Shayne" mysteries finds private detective Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) anxiously preparing for his long-delayed marriage to showgirl Joanne La Mar (Mary Beth Hughes). Alas, Mike's pre-nuptual tete-a-tete with Joanne is interrupted by the sound of a scream. Rushing Read More

Sullivan's Travels

Actors: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Robert Warwick, Porter Hall

Synopsis: In Preston Sturges' classic comedy of Depression-era America, filmmaker John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), fed up with directing profitable comedies like "Ants in Your Plants of 1939," is consumed with the desire to make a serious social statement in his upcoming film, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" Read More

The Devil and Miss Jones

Actors: Jean Arthur, Charles Coburn, Robert Cummings, Edmund Gwenn, S.Z. Sakall, Spring Byington

Synopsis: The Devil and Miss Jones is a social comedy with left-wing undertones. John P. Merrick (Charles Coburn), the world's richest man, gets word that someone is trying to unionize a department store that he owns. To thwart this blatant act of democracy, Merrick changes his name and takes a menial job Read More

The Lady Eve

Actors: Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest, Eric Blore

Synopsis: (Preston Sturges) wrote and directed this classic romantic comedy starring Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, who are involved in a scintillating battle of the sexes, as Sturges points up the terrors of sexual passion and the unattainability of the romantic ideal. Henry Fonda plays Charles Pike Read More

The Golden Fleecing

Actors: Lew Ayres, Rita Johnson, Lloyd Nolan, Virginia Grey, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Dumb but honest insurance agent Henry Twinkle (Lew Ayres) is in love with Mary Blake (Rita Johnson), the secretary of Henry's boss. To impress Mary, Henry sells a huge policy to wealthy Gus Fender (Lloyd Nolan), who turns out to be a notorious gangster on the lam from the law. If he wants to save Read More

The Farmer's Daughter

Actors: Martha Raye, Charlie Ruggles, Richard Denning, Gertrude Michael, William Frawley

Synopsis: Imagine the dismay of those hapless TV station managers who've booked the 1940 Martha Raye vehicle The Farmer's Daughter in the belief that they've actually gotten hold of the same-named 1947 Loretta Young picture. Hardly in the same league as its namesake, the 1940 film casts Raye as Patience Read More

The Great McGinty

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, Allyn Joslyn, William Demarest

Synopsis: The moral of Preston Sturges' first directorial effort The Great McGinty seems to be: If you're a crook, stay a crook, because honesty will get ya every time. Brian Donlevy plays Dan McGinty, a Chicago hobo who is hired by local political bosses as a "professional voter", casting ballots under a 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

Wolf of New York

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Rose Hobart, James Stephenson, Jerome Cowan, William Demarest

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a brilliant lawyer is renowned for getting guilty-as-sin-but-powerful crime figures acquitted. He has never lost a case until he defends an innocent man. The hapless client ends up imprisoned and executed for killing a policeman. The loss traumatizes the lawyer and compels him Read More

Little Men

Actors: Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft, Jimmy Lydon, Ann Gillis

Synopsis: Little Men, Louisa May Alcott's followup to her successful novel Little Women, has never truly adapted well to the screen, though this 1940 version is better than most. Kay Francis stars as the all-grown-up Jo March, now in charge of a private school for young boys. Her most contentious charge is Read More

Christmas in July

Actors: Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn, Alexander Carr, William Demarest

Synopsis: This modest Preston Sturges comedy stars Dick Powell as an office clerk dreaming of better things and Ellen Drew as his more pragmatic girlfriend. Powell convinces himself that his fortune will be made if he can win a slogan contest sponsored by a coffee company. Powell's contribution: "If you Read More

Glamour Boy

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Susanna Foster, Walter Abel, Darryl Hickman, Ann Gillis

Synopsis: Former child star Jackie Cooper headlines this sentimental behind-the-scenes comedy drama. He plays an ex-child star who now jerks sodas for a living in Hollywood. He gets back into the movie business when he overhears a conversation between producers discussing their newest prodigy. Cooper butts Read More

The Gracie Allen Murder Case

Actors: Gracie Allen, Warren William, Ellen Drew, Kent Taylor, Jed Prouty

Synopsis: A longtime fan of comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen, "Philo Vance" creator S. S. Van Dyne wrote a tailor-made screenplay for the team, which emerged on-screen as The Gracie Allen Murder Case. The Paramount studio executives decided to dispense with the services of George Burns, leaving Read More

Miracles for Sale

Actors: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Frank Craven, Henry Hull, Lee Bowman

Synopsis: Merlini the Magician, Clayton Rawson's crime-solving illusionist, has been singularly ill-used by Hollywood, having appeared in a mere two films, "starring" in only one. Miracles for Sale compounds the oversight by rechristening Merlini as "Michael Morgan", in the person of Robert Young. The Read More

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Actors: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee, Eugene Pallette, Beulah Bondi, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior Read More

The Cowboy Quarterback

Actors: Bert Wheeler, Marie Wilson, Gloria Dickson, Eddie Foy, Jr.

Synopsis: A tough football scout thinks he has finally found a potential star quarterback when he sees a burly country-store stock boy casually unloading huge sacks of potatoes. Then and there the talent scout signs the boy to play for the Green Bay Packers. This comedy examines what happens when the naive Read More

Laugh It Off

Actors: Johnny Downs, Constance Moore, Marjorie Rambeau, Cecil Cunningham, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: Laugh it Off was one of two Johnny Downs vehicles released within the same week in December of 1939 (the other was Bad Boy). Downs plays Stephen Hannis, a Broadway bandleader who aspires to become a lawyer. He gets his big break when he champions the cause of a group of elderly ex-chorus dancers Read More

King of the Turf

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Roger Daniel, Dolores Costello, Walter Abel, William Demarest, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: A remake of Racetrack, King of the Turf stars Adolphe Menjou as a seedy, alcoholic bookie with a long-dormant streak of decency. Roger Daniel is a young stable boy whom Menjou befriends and offers advice. The bookie and the stable boy purchase a racehorse, with Daniel training to be a top jockey Read More

One Wild Night

Actors: June Lang, Dick Baldwin, Lyle Talbot, J. Edward Bromberg, Sidney Toler

Synopsis: In the course of One Wild Night, four prominent businessmen withdraw their savings from the bank and disappear from sight. Student criminologist Jimmy Nolan (Dick Baldwin) suspects foul play, and with the help of girl reporter Jennifer Jewel (June Lang) he intends to prove his thesis. During a Read More

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Actors: Shirley Temple, Randolph Scott, Jack Haley, Gloria Stuart, Phyllis Brooks, Helen Westley

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1917 and 1932, Kate Douglas Wiggins' bucolic novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is herein refashioned--and completely, totally, utterly rewritten--as a vehicle for 10-year-old Shirley Temple. Unable to land a radio contract for himself and his niece Rebecca Winstead (Temple) Read More

While New York Sleeps

Actors: Michael Whalen, Jean Rogers, Chick Chandler, Robert Kellard, Joan Woodbury

Synopsis: While New York Sleeps is when fast-talking reporter Barney Callahan (Michael Whalen) prowls the night beat for a great metropolitan newspaper. At present, Callahan is trying to find out who's responsible for a series of baffling murders. The victims were all bond carriers, and the cops have Read More

Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus

Actors: Tommy Kelly, Ann Gillis, Edgar Kennedy, Benita Hume

Synopsis: Peck's Bad Boy and his gang of mischievous misfits (including Spanky McFarland) make all kinds of trouble around the circus. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Great Man Votes

Actors: John Barrymore, Peter Holden, Virginia Weidler, Katherine Alexander, Donald MacBride

Synopsis: Ageing, alcohol-benumbed John Barrymore had one last great performance left in him before his death in 1942, and The Great Man Votes was the ideal vehicle for that performance. Barrymore plays a widowed, once-distinguished professor, lately reduced to being a night watchman. He tries to stay off Read More

Josette

Actors: Don Ameche, Simone Simon, Robert Young, Joan Davis, Bert Lahr

Synopsis: In this musical comedy of errors, David Brassard, Sr. (William Collier, Sr.) has his heart stolen from him by a conniving, gold-digging nightclub singer named Josette (Tala Birell). Brassard's two sons, Pierre (Robert Young) and David Junior (Don Ameche) are both horrified and vow to lure the Read More

Rosalie

Actors: Nelson Eddy, Eleanor Powell, Frank Morgan, Edna May Oliver, Ray Bolger

Synopsis: More burdened with leaden production numbers than plot, Rosalie took Sigmund Romberg and George Gershwin's 1928 Broadway hit, threw out most of the songs, including "How Long Has This Been Going On?," but retained the spindly story of the incognito Princess Rosalie of Romanza (Eleanor Powell), who Read More

Romance on the Run

Actors: Donald Woods, Patricia Ellis, Grace Bradley, Edward S. Brophy, William Demarest

Synopsis: Though its title suggests yet another rip-off of It Happened One Night, Republic's Romance on the Run is more accurately classifed as a crime caper comedy. Private detective Barry Drake (Donald Woods) gives chase when jewel thieves Lily (Grace Bradley) and Cooper (Craig Reynolds) skip town and Read More

Time out for Romance

Actors: Claire Trevor, Michael Whalen, Joan Davis, Chick Chandler, Douglas Fowley

Synopsis: Scheduled to marry a man she doesn't love (and for good reason), spoiled heiress Barbara Blanchard (Claire Trevor) runs away from her wedding and hits the road. While hitchhiking, Trevor is given a ride by Bob Reynolds (Michael Whalen), a personable young auto salesman who's been hired to deliver Read More

Blonde Trouble

Actors: Eleanore Whitney, Johnny Downs, Lynne Overman, Terry Walker, Ben Baker

Synopsis: Johnny Downs takes a break from his usual campus musicals to play a small-town songsmith in Blonde Trouble. Attempting to make it big in New York, Downs falls victim to con artists, back-stabbing agents and vainglorious "artistes." But with the help of down-to-earth Eleanor Whitney, Downs pens a Read More

The Big City

Actors: Luise Rainer, Spencer Tracy, Charles Grapewin, Janet Beecher, Eddie Quillan

Synopsis: The Big City is an improbable urban melodrama which takes place during a "taxi war" between honest independent cabdrivers and graft-ridden taxi monopolies. Looking for a scapegoat for a recent gangland bombing, crooked city officials deport the foreign wife (Luise Rainer) of rabble-rousing cabbie Spencer Tracy Read More

Charlie Chan at the Olympics

Actors: Allan Lane, Warner Oland, Katherine de Mille, Pauline Moore, Keye Luke, C. Henry Gordon

Synopsis: Actual footage of the 1936 Berlin Olympics is rabbeted into the action of this superior Charlie Chan entry. Assigned by the U.S. Navy to track down a gang of international spies, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) heads to Berlin, where as luck would have it his son Lee (Keye Luke) is representing the Read More

Wake up and Live

Actors: Walter Winchell, Ben Bernie, Alice Faye, Patsy Kelly, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: The hyped-up 1930s radio feud between bandleader Ben Bernie and columnist Walter Winchell is all but forgotten today, but that doesn't lessen the entertainment value of the Bernie/Winchell vehicle Wake Up and Live. Amidst the bickering of the two stars, the film traces the progress of mike-shy Read More

Mind Your Own Business

Actors: Charlie Ruggles, Alice Brady, Lyle Talbot, Ben Baker, Jack LaRue

Synopsis: In this drama, a Boy Scout leader hosts a local gossip show. Trouble ensues when he predicts a politician's murder just before it occurs. He is arrested by the DA, but before getting to jail, he is abducted by irate gangsters--the real killers. Fortunately, his loyal Scout troop rallies to his Read More

The Great Gambini

Actors: Akim Tamiroff, John Trent, Marian Marsh, Genevieve Tobin, Reginald Denny

Synopsis: Akim Tamiroff plays the Great Gambini, a famous magician mixed up in a murder case. In addition to his card tricks and onstage illusions, Gambini is something of a mystic, and has predicted the death of the murder victim. Suspects breed like rabbits, but the actual culprit turns out to be the only Read More

The Hit Parade

Actors: Frances Langford, Phil Regan, Louise Henry, Pert Kelton, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: In this musical an agent hawks a new singing star to irritate a wealthy socialite whom he managed to get on the radio. There the socialite found some success, but then she dumped her agent. As the radio network continues to search for new talent, music and mayhem ensue. Songs include: "Sweet Read More

Oh, Doctor

Actors: Edward Everett Horton, William Hall, Eve Arden, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: In this black comedy, a twitchy hypochondriac ends up conned into giving up his $500,000 inheritance in exchange for $50,000 cash. He does this because he is sure that he will die before he can get the money. The fellow's nurse loves her healthy charge and inspires him to live again. Together they 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

The Great Hospital Mystery

Actors: Jane Darwell, Sig Rumann, Sally Blane, Thomas Beck, Joan Davis

Synopsis: The Great Hospital Mystery is based on one of Mignon Eberhardt's "Nurse Sarah Keate" whodunits. Physically and temperamentally, Jane Darwell at least approximates the middle-aged Sarah (here renamed Miss Keats), but otherwise the film runs far afield from Eberhardt's original concept. As the night Read More

Easy Living

Actors: Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Luis Alberni, Mary Nash

Synopsis: Financier J.B. Ball (Edward Arnold) -- known in the press as "the Bull of Broad Street" -- may be one of the wealthiest investment bankers in the country, but he also knows the value of a dollar. And when his wife (Mary Nash) spends 50,000 of them on a sable coat, he is driven into such a fury in Read More

The Great Ziegfeld

Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice

Synopsis: In MGM's three-hour-plus The Great Ziegfeld, William Powell stars as the titular theatrical impresario, whose show business empire begins when he stage-manages a tour for legendary strongman Sandow (Nat Pendleton). With nary a penny in the bank, he charms European stage star Anna Held (Luise Rainer Read More

Love on the Run

Actors: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Reginald Owen, Mona Barrie

Synopsis: Having turned down the opportunity to produce Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), MGM's Louis B. Mayer had second thoughts when the Capra film swept the 1935 Oscars ceremony. Mayer hastily commissioned an It Happened One Night wannabe titled Love on the Run, tailored for the talents of Joan Crawford Read More

Wedding Present

Actors: Joan Bennett, Cary Grant, George Bancroft, Conrad Nagel, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: In this newspaper farce, an editor loses his voice and his job after he tires of being tormented by the practical jokes of one of two reporters. The joker ends up the new editor. Soon after taking the job, his personality changes dramatically and soon he has become a pompous and excessively harsh Read More

Charlie Chan at the Opera

Actors: Warner Oland, Boris Karloff, Keye Luke, Charlotte Henry, Thomas Beck

Synopsis: "Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff" read the billing on the opening credits of Charlie Chan at the Opera. Karloff plays a once-famous opera star who has long been confined to an insane asylum. He escapes, ostensibly to seek revenge on the diva wife (Nedda Harrigan) who'd betrayed him years earlier. Karloff 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

After Office Hours

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

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

Diamond Jim

Actors: Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, Binnie Barnes, Cesar Romero, Eric Blore

Synopsis: Screenwriter Preston Sturges never lets the facts get in the way of a good story in this colorful filmed biography of turn-of-the-century millionaire Diamond Jim Brady. The hearty Edward Arnold stars as Brady, who parlays a small-time railroad supply firm into a thriving financial empire. Once Read More

The Casino Murder Case

Actors: Paul Lukas, Alison Skipworth, Donald Cook, Rosalind Russell, Arthur Byron

Synopsis: S. S. Van Dine's intelligent, insufferable amateur sleuth Philo Vance is the protagonist of The Casino Murder Case. Paul Lukas plays Vance, who is brought to the mansion of a wealthy, eccentric widow (Alison Skipworth) by a mysterious unsigned letter. Several murders are committed in the elderly Read More

Hands Across the Table

Actors: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Astrid Allwyn, Ruth Donnelly

Synopsis: After nearly a decade of nominal "leading lady" roles, Carole Lombard landed her first genuine starring vehicle with Hands Across the Table. Reasoning that the way to a man's heart is through his cuticles, Regi Allen (Carole Lombard) takes a job as a manicurist at a fancy barbershop, unabashedly Read More

The Murder Man

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Harvey Stephens, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy plays a hard-driving newsman with a special instinct for solving sensational murders before the police can. This earns him the grudging respect of his peers, but his editor always puts him in his place. Tracy spends most of his time solving cases and almost never sleeps at home. This Read More

Bright Lights

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Ann Dvorak, Patricia Ellis, William Gargan, Joseph Cawthorn

Synopsis: Joe E. Brown's extensive circus and burlesque training serve him well in this familiar but likeable yarn. Brown and Ann Dvorak stars as small-time vaudevillians Joe and Fay Wilson, presently employed by a seedy burlesque troupe. Also on tour with the Wilsons is society girl Peggy (Patricia Ellis) Read More

Many Happy Returns

Actors: Guy Lombardo, Gracie Allen, George Burns, Joan Marsh, George Barbier

Synopsis: Department-store owner Horatio Allen's (George Barbier) biggest mistake is to name his scatterbrained daughter Gracie (Gracie Allen) as his sole heir. Suddenly Gracie becomes obsessed with the notion of converting her dad's store into a bird sanctuary. Psychologist Dr. Otto von Strudel (Egon Brecher Read More

Fugitive Lady

Actors: Neil Hamilton, Florence Rice, Donald Cook, Clara Blandick, Nella Walker

Synopsis: In this thriller, a young woman marries a dashing young man who, unbeknownst to her, is a jewel thief. After his latest job, he takes off and leaves her to take the rap. In court she is found guilty. She is riding a train en route to prison when the train crashes. Her identity is confused with Read More

The Circus Clown

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Patricia Ellis, Dorothy Burgess, William Demarest, Donald Dilloway, Gordon Westcott

Synopsis: Joe E. Brown plays a dual role in Circus Clown, as would-be circus entertainer Happy Howard and his rustic old father. When dad, a former circus man himself, disapproves of Happy hitting the sawdust trail, the boy does so anyway, smitten by a beautiful female bareback rider. So naïve is our hero Read More

Fog over Frisco

Actors: Bette Davis, Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay, Lyle Talbot, Hugh Herbert

Synopsis: Cited by film historian William K. Everson as one of the fastest-moving crime melodramas of the 1930s (if not the fastest) Fog Over Frisco still manages to leave viewers breathless. Top-billed Bette Davis plays giddy heiress Arlene Bradford, whose perverse fascination with gangsters gets her mixed Read More

A Girl in Every Port

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong, Louise Brooks, Maria Casajuana, Dorothy Mathews, Sally Rand, Natalie Joyce

Synopsis: The rampant male chauvinism in A Girl in Every Port might be hard for contemporary audiences to stomach, but fans of director Howard Hawks will be delighted. Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong play Spike and Salami, two sailors who become close pals but only after dukeing it out over a dame. Read More

Sharp Shooters

Actors: George O'Brien, Lois Moran, Noah Young, Tom Dugan, William Demarest

Synopsis: George O'Brien stars as George, a footloose sailor who adheres to a philosophy of "love 'em and leave 'em." While on leave in Morocco, George makes the acquaintance of fiery French dancer Lorette (Lois Moran), who of course falls madly in love with him. Regarding Lorette as just another diversion Read More

Five and Ten Cent Annie

Actors: Gertrude Astor, Tom Ricketts, Douglas Gerrard, André Beranger

Synopsis: A poor street cleaner inherits a fortune in this farce, which came complete with a music score and sound effects. According to a provision in his uncle's will, Elmer, the street cleaner (Clyde Cook), must marry or forfeit the inheritance to Briggs (William Demarest), the deceased man's faithful Read More

Crash

Actors: Milton Sills, Thelma Todd, Wade Boteler, William Demarest, DeWitt Jennings

Synopsis: Comedy specialist Edward F. Cline was a curious choice to direct the typically two-fisted Milton Sills vehicle The Crash. Sills plays the head guy of a wrecking crew who, while out on the town, is smitten by burlesque dancer Thelma Todd. At first, Sills' intentions toward Todd are strictly Read More

The Escape

Actors: William Russell, Virginia Valli, Nancy Drexel, George Meeker, William Demarest

Synopsis: This second filmization of Paul Armstrong's play Escape is a bleak study of slum life. Virginia Valli plays May Joyce, the daughter of a scummy bootlegger who falls in love with medical intern Jerry Magee (William Russell). When May is forced to go to work in a sleazy nightclub, Jerry becomes so Read More

Butter and Egg Man

Synopsis: George S. Kaufman's satirical 1926 play about a small-town clerk who becomes a top Broadway producer was filmed by First National two years later as a vehicle for mustachioed Jack Mulhall. Mulhall played Peter Jones, a lowly clerk conned into buying a supposedly worthless play by a shady operator (William Demarest Read More

Pay As You Enter

Actors: Clyde Cook, Louise Fazenda, William Demarest, Myrna Loy

Synopsis: In this broad comedy, Clyde Jones (Clyde Cook) and "Terrible Bill" McGovern (William Demarest) are a pair of streetcar conductors who are rivals for the affections of waitress Mary Jones (Louise Fazenda). Myrna Loy appears in a typically exotic supporting role as Yvonne De Russo. Like many early Read More

The Jazz Singer

Actors: Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, Eugénie Besserer, William Demarest, Otto Lederer

Synopsis: On the verge of receivership in 1926, Warner Bros. studio decides to risk its future by investing in the Vitaphone sound system. Warners' first Vitaphone release, Don Juan, was a silent film accompanied by music and sound effects. The studio took the Vitaphone process one step farther in its 1927 Read More

Finger Prints

Actors: Louise Fazenda, Warner P. Richmond, Helene Costello, John T. Murray

Synopsis: Hardly an important film, Finger Prints pleased the crowd with its heady combination of slapstick comedy and old-dark-house melodrama. A professional crook is collared by the law, but not before squirreling away a fortune in hidden money in a crumbling country mansion. The crook's sister is Read More

Simple Sis

Actors: William Demarest, Myrna Loy, Billy Kent Schaeffer, Cathleen Calhoun

Synopsis: The title refers to ugly-duckling heroine Louise Fazenda, who sweats and strains at a hand laundry. One fine day, shy truckdriver Clyde Cook shows up at the establishment with a load of grimy clothes. He takes one look at Fazenda, and it's love at first sight. That's about all there is to the Read More

What Happened to Father

Actors: Warner Oland, Flobelle Fairbanks, William Demarest, Vera Lewis, John Miljan

Synopsis: Long before he was established as screendom's Charlie Chan, Warner Oland was Warner Bros.' "all-purpose" character actor, playing everything from kindly rabbis to evil Chinese warlords. In What Happened to Father, Oland was afforded the opportunity to display his comedy prowess as henpecked Read More

A Sailor's Sweetheart

Actors: Louise Fazenda, Clyde Cook, Myrna Loy, William Demarest, John Miljan

Synopsis: It would seem that Warner Bros. was trying to develop hoydenish Louise Fazenda and diminutive Clyde Cook into a screen team, which would explain the existence of such trifles as A Sailor's Sweetheart. Upon inheriting a fortune, old-maid schoolmarm Cynthia Botts (Fazenda) takes a trip to Hawaii in Read More

The Gay Old Bird

Actors: John T. Murray, Jane Winton, William Demarest, John Steppling, Louise Fazenda

Synopsis: The Gay Old Bird in this silent Warner Bros. programmer is Louise Fazenda, cast as ugly-duckling maidservant Sisseretta Simpkins. Our heroine is in the employ of the unhappily married Cluneys (John T. Murray, Jane Winton). Mr. Cluney's wealthy uncle (John Stepping) has promised to bequeath a Read More

Million Bid

Actors: Dolores Costello, Warner Oland, Malcolm McGregor, Betty Blythe, William Demarest

Synopsis: A Million Bid came about because Warner Bros. promised a film of that title to exhibitors in early 1927. Unable to deliver at that time, Warners offered theaters its annual Dolores Costello "special" Old San Francisco instead. Exhibitors were so pleased with this money-maker that they were willing Read More

Matinee Ladies

Actors: May McAvoy, Malcolm McGregor, Hedda Hopper, Margaret Seddon, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: May McAvoy stars as Sallie Smith, a nightclub cigarette girl who falls in love with Bob Ward (Malcolm McGregor), who's working his way through college as a paid escort. Alas, Sally's head is turned by wealthy cad Tom Mannion (Richard Tucker), who lures the girl to a wild weekend party at his Long Read More

First Auto

Actors: Barney Oldfield, Patsy Ruth Miller, Russell Simpson, Frank Campeau, William Demarest

Synopsis: Legendary racecar driver Barney Oldfield plays himself in the engaging little period piece The First Auto. Russell Simpson plays livery-stable owner Hank Armstrong, who is appalled beyond words when his son Bob (Charles E. Mack) comes home with one of those newfangled "horseless carriages." Read More

Don't Tell the Wife

Actors: Irene Rich, Huntly Gordon, Lilyan Tashman, William Demarest, Otis Harlan

Synopsis: The Carters (Irene Rich and Huntley Gordon), a nouveau riche couple from Peoria, Illinois, decide to take a trip to Europe in the company of John Carter's best friend Henry (William Demarest). While in Paris, Henry begins squiring the coquettish Suzanne (Lilyan Tashman), who throws him over in Read More

The Bush Leaguer

Actors: Leila Hyams, Clyde Cook, William Demarest, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: The popularity of MGM's Slide, Kelly, Slide led to a brief cycle of baseball pictures in 1927. Warner Bros.' contribution was The Bush Leaguer, starring Monte Blue as small-town garage owner and would-be inventor Specs White. Though he's the local ball team's star pitcher, Specs is more interested Read More

The Black Diamond Express

Actors: Monte Blue, Edna Murphy, Myrtle Stedman, Carroll Nye

Synopsis: The screenplay for Warner Bros.' Black Diamond Express was credited to "Mark Canfield," one of the many pseudonyms of Warner workhorse Darryl F. Zanuck. Monte Blue heads the cast as a muscular railroad worker, in love with heroine Edna Murphy. Several obstacles are placed in the path of true Read More

Reno Divorce

Actors: May McAvoy, Ralph Graves, Hedda Hopper, Robert Ober, Anders Randolf

Synopsis: Actor-director Ralph Graves, the "auteur" of Columbia Pictures, paid a brief visit to Warner Bros. to put together Reno Divorce. While driving around in her car, wealthy but inattentive heroine May McAvoy knocks down aspiring artist Graves. She takes him to her home to recuperate, whereupon the Read More

When the Wife's Away

Actors: George K. Arthur, Dorothy Revier, Ina Rorke, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: To impress his wealthy uncle Hiram (Tom Ricketts), Billy Winthrop (George K. Arthur) and his wife Ethel (Dorothy Revier) overextend their bank account and rent a posh apartment. Knowing full well that he will inherit Uncle's fortune provided he has become a success in life, Billy puts on quite a Read More