William JanneyFilmography

Penthouse Party

Actors: Marguerite Churchill, Bruce Cabot, Evelyn Brent, Reginald Denny, Dorothy Lee

Synopsis: In this drama, a middle-aged housewife decides that she has had enough of her philandering husband's neglect and her children's ingratitude. To liven up her life, she has an enormous penthouse party where she proceeds to drink herself blind. Fortunately, her adult children intervene and get her Read More

Sitting on the Moon

Actors: Roger Pryor, Grace Bradley, Pert Kelton, Henry Kolker

Synopsis: At their best, the Republic musicals of the 1930s could hold their own against anything turned out by MGM or Warner Bros. Republic's Sitting on the Moon is an excellent showcase for second-echelon stars Roger Pryor and Grace Bradley, here cast as songwriter Danny West and fading movie star Polly Read More

Hopalong Cassidy Returns

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, George "Gabby" Hayes, Gail Sheridan, Evelyn Brent

Synopsis: The seventh of the "Hopalong Cassidy" westerns, Hopalong Cassidy Returns stars, as always, William Boyd as the black-stetsoned hero. This one is a surprisingly sadistic item, in which a mysterious predator forces various ranchers off their land through rather direct means. In the opening scene, a Read More

Sutter's Gold

Actors: Edward Arnold, Lee Tracy, Binnie Barnes, Katherine Alexander, Addison Richards

Synopsis: Universal plunged into the clutches of its creditors with its expensive fiasco Sutter's Gold. Edward Arnold plays Swiss immigrant Johann Sutter, who seeks his fortune in the California of the 1830s. Against all odds, Sutter builds up a huge land empire, only to watch its explode when gold is Read More

The Great Hotel Murder

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen, Rosemary Ames, Mary Carlisle, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: A writer of mysteries helps a house detective solve a murder in this murder mystery. The murder occurs in the hotel in which the writer is staying. It is a mystery because, though the corpse was found in a hotel room, it was not the room he had registered for. One of the suspects claims that the Read More

Sweepstake Annie

Actors: Tom Brown, Marian Nixon, Wera Engels, Inez Courtney, Ivan Lebedeff

Synopsis: In this drama, a studio script girl works very hard to support her no-account family. One day she wins a lottery, gives her family some of the winnings and moves in with her best friend. She had a boy friend, but he became disgusted with her loyalty to her lazy family and abandoned her. Soon after Read More

Bonnie Scotland

Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, June Lang, William Janney, Anne Grey

Synopsis: Stanley MacLaurel (Stan Laurel), the American "black sheep" of the MacLaurel clan, stows away on a cattle boat to Scotland in the company of his pal Ollie (Oliver Hardy) so that he can claim his share of his late uncle Angus Ian MacLaurel's fortune. Alas, Stan's inheritance consists of a snuffbox Read More

Born to Gamble

Actors: Onslow Stevens, H.B. Warner, Maxine Doyle, Eric Linden, Lois Wilson

Synopsis: Born to Gamble was one of the more palatable efforts of M.H. Hoffman's poverty-row Liberty Films. The four protagonists are brothers who are "cursed" by their family's gambling bug. All four try to overcome the urge to speculate: only one, the youngest, is successful. Onslow Stevens plays both the Read More

A Modern Hero

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Jean Muir, Marjorie Rambeau, Veree Teasdale, Florence Eldridge

Synopsis: Produced by Warner Bros. in 1934, A Modern Hero was the only American talkie directed by the great German filmmaker G. W. Pabst. Richard Barthelmess plays Pierre, the bastard son of blowzy, besotted circus performer Mme. Azais (Marjorie Rambeau). Fiercely ambitious, Pierre enters the world of Read More

A Successful Failure

Synopsis: In this comedy, an experienced newspaperman caves in to the constant badgering of his thoughtless family and ends up losing his job. Fortunately, he finds a new niche on the radio. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The King of the Wild Horses

Actors: Rex the Wonder Horse, Lady, William Janney, Dorothy Appleby

Synopsis: Columbia's King of the Wild Horses is a remake of the silent Hal Roach western feature of the same name -- and with the same "star," Rex the Wonder Horse, in the lead. Most of the story involves the romantic triangle between rogue stallion Rex, the gorgeous mare Lady, and villainous black steed Read More

As the Earth Turns

Actors: Jean Muir, Donald Woods, William Janney, David Landau

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling Gladys Hasty Carroll novel of the same name, As the Earth Turns covers four seasons in the life of a Maine farming family. Jean Muir stars as Jen Shaw, daughter of dirt-poor farmers Mark and Min Shaw (David Landau, Dorothy Appleby). Jen's parents have an abiding distrust Read More

Secret of the Blue Room

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas, Edward Arnold, Onslow Stevens

Synopsis: This tight little melodrama opens with a group of wealthy people staying at a luxurious European mansion. According to legend, the mansion's "blue room" is cursed--everyone who has ever spent the night in that room has met with an untimely end. The three suitors of the heroine (Gloria Stuart) Read More

The World Changes

Actors: Paul Muni, Mary Astor, Aline MacMahon, Donald Cook, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: This well-wrought drama chronicles the rise and fall of a midwestern family dynasty from the mid 1800s through the Great Depression. Most of the tale centers on a young Dakota farm boy whose grand schemes and ambition lead him on a cattle drive to Texas. From there he hooks up with the owner of a Read More

Should Ladies Behave?

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Alice Brady, Conway Tearle, Katherine Alexander, Mary Carlisle

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a middle-aged woman married to a much older man begins a harmless flirtation with an artistically inclined gigolo after she mistakes him for her long-lost lover. Unfortunately, the opportunist really loves the woman's daughter. He is also smitten with another woman. Read More

Terror Aboard

Synopsis: In this suspenseful mystery, a murderous psychopath aboard a luxury liner begins a series of grisly but creative murders. One victim is found in a refrigerator, one is poisoned. Still others are shot and stabbed. In the end, he dumps a lifeboat filled with sailors into the sea where they drown. Read More

The Crime of the Century

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Wynne Gibson, Stuart Erwin, Frances Dee, David Landau

Synopsis: This unique thriller chronicles the exploits of a doctor who will do almost anything to please his young, second wife. She wants more money. He arranges to get it by hypnotizing a bank official and making him extract $100,000 from the vault. The doctor then plans to murder him and then rob him. Read More

The Iron Master

Actors: Reginald Denny, Lila Lee, John Farrell MacDonald, Esther Howard, Virginia Sale

Synopsis: In this drama, a bright young mill worker is left in charge of his late employer's estate. This causes many hard feelings from the surviving family. He forces the boss's son and daughter to work in the factory. They do not want to. For revenge they begin divulging trade secrets to a competitor. Read More

The Man Who Played God

Actors: George Arliss, Violet Heming, Ivan Simpson, Louise Closser Hale, Bette Davis

Synopsis: George Arliss is a world-renowned pianist, engaged to a young woman (Bette Davis) much younger than himself. An explosion renders Arliss completely deaf, but he soon becomes an expert lip-reader. To practice this skill, he looks out his window through binoculars, reading the lips of those who pass Read More

A Successful Calamity

Actors: George Arliss, Mary Astor, Evelyn Knapp, Grant Mitchell, David Torrence

Synopsis: Veteran stage and screen star George Arliss forsakes his biographical roles for domestic comedy in A Successful Calamity. Arliss plays an elderly millionaire saddled with a selfish young second wife (Mary Astor) and a pair of spoiled grown children (William Janney and Evelyn Knapp). To test his Read More

Two Seconds

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Preston S. Foster, Vivienne Osborne, J. Carrol Naish, Guy Kibbee

Synopsis: About to die in the electric chair, John Allen (Edward G. Robinson) uses the last two seconds of his life to recall the events leading up to his present predicament. A $62.50-per-week riveter ("That's more than most college professors make!"), Allen gets drunk at a speakeasy and impulsively Read More

Under Cover Man

Actors: George Raft, Nancy Carroll, Roscoe Karns, Gregory Ratoff, Lew Cody

Synopsis: In his first starring role, George Raft plays Nick Darrow, a fence convinced by the police to go undercover after his father is killed in a Wall Street heist. Teaming up with Lora Madigan (Nancy Carroll), yet another victim of the gang, Nick gets close to the gang boss, Mason (Lew Cody), and his Read More

The Mouthpiece

Actors: Warren William, Aline MacMahon, William Janney, John Wray

Synopsis: In this crime drama, an assistant DA must scramble to save the life of an innocent man he mistakenly sent to the chair. Unfortunately, he is too late and turns to alcoholism to soothe his throbbing conscience. It is only down from there and soon the attorney begins working for the mob until he Read More

Crooner

Actors: David Manners, Ann Dvorak, Ken Murray, Sheila Terry, William Janney

Synopsis: Sudden success can be a double-edged sword as this drama aptly proves. An aspiring musician finds success when his manager has him switch from playing the sax to vocals. He soon becomes a popular star. Unfortunately as his popularity swells, so does his head. His arrogance and megalomania cause Read More

Girls Demand Excitement

Actors: Virginia Cherrill, John Wayne, Marguerite Churchill, Helen Jerome Eddy, Marion Byron

Synopsis: No relation to the 1935 Mascot programmer of the same name, Girls Demand Excitement offers an early starring appearance by John Wayne. The Duke is cast as college basketball player Peter Brooks, who's in love with sports-happy Joan Madison (Virginia Cherrill). Their hot-and-cold relationship Read More

The Right of Way

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Loretta Young, Fred Kohler, William Janney, Snitz Edwards

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1915 and 1920, Sir Gilbert Parker's novel The Right of Way was exhumed once more in 1931. Conrad Nagel stars as Conrad Steele, a Canadian lawyer saddled with a nagging wife (Olive Tell) and a lazy brother-in-law (William Janney). When the latter steals some of Conrad's money Read More

Meet the Wife

Actors: Laura La Plante, Lew Cody, Joan Marsh, Harry Myers, Claud Allister

Synopsis: Two holdovers from the silent-film era top the cast of Columbia's Meet the Wife. Laura La Plante and Lew Cody are cast respectively as scatterbrained wife Gertrude Lennox and Getrude's first husband Phillip Lord. Long believed dead, Lord returns from the ashes as a successful writer. Meanwhile Read More

Young Desire

Actors: Mary Nolan, Ralf Harolde, Mae Busch

Synopsis: Released in both silent and sound versions, this lurid melodrama from Universal was based on the 1924 play Carnival by William R. Doyle. Mary Nolan, whose demure name hid a rather volatile personality, played Helen Herbert, a sideshow dancer falling for handsome socialite Bobby Spencer (Leon Read More

Those Who Dance

Actors: Monte Blue, Lila Lee, Betty Compson, William Janney

Synopsis: Those Who Dance is not so much a film as a "class reunion" for several former silent-screen favorites. Monte Blue stars as Dan Hogan, a cop who poses as a Detroit gangster, the better to ferret out the murderer of his brother. He does this as much for himself as for his sweetheart Nora Brady (Lila Lee Read More

The Pay Off

Actors: Lowell Sherman, Marian Nixon, Hugh Trevor, George F. Marion

Synopsis: Exercising his usual creative prerogative, Lowell Sherman was both star and director of RKO's The Pay Off. Sherman plays Gene Fenmore, a jaded gangster boss who falls in love with innocent young Nancy Porter (Marian Nixon). When Nancy's sweetheart Tommy Brown (William Janney) faces execution for a Read More

The Dawn Patrol

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., James Finlayson, Neil Hamilton, Gardner James, William Janney, Edmund Breon, Clyde Cook

Synopsis: Set during World War I, The Dawn Patrol is a study of the pressures and pitfalls of authority. A British Royal Flying Corp squadron commander (Neil Hamilton) is compelled by the higher-ups to send his boys out in dangerous, rickety aircraft. He is tormented by the responsibility, but does his duty Read More

The Girl Said No

Actors: William Haines, Leila Hyams, Polly Moran, Marie Dressler

Synopsis: Screenland magazine summed up the William Haines vehicle The Girl Said No thusly: "The star plays another of his cut-up roles that make the critics gnash their teeth and the audience chortle." Had this review been printed in the 1990s, the character played by Haines might have been labelled a Read More

Shooting Straight

Actors: Richard Dix, Mary Lawlor, James Neill, Matthew Betz, George Cooper

Synopsis: In this lively drama, a gambler believes he has killed a man and so boards the first train out of town. Unfortunately, a crash ensues and the wounded fugitive ends up recuperating at the home of a minister who has mistaken the card sharp for a traveling evangelist. The opportunistic gambler begins Read More

Cimarron

Actors: Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor, Nance O'Neil, William Collier, Jr.

Synopsis: Cimarron was the first Western to win the Oscar for Best Picture--and, until Dances with Wolves in 1990, the only one. The film begins on April 22, 1889, the opening day of the great Oklahoma Land Rush on the Cherokee Strip. Boisterous Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) is cheated out of his land claim Read More

Salute

Actors: George O'Brien, William Janney, Frank Albertson, Ward Bond, Helen Chandler, Joyce Compton

Synopsis: One of the few pre-1930 John Ford films currently available, the part-talkie Salute was co-directed by Ford and David Butler. George O'Brien is cast as cadet John Randall, star player for the Army college football team. His principal gridiron opponent is Navy player Paul Randall (William Janney) Read More

Mexicali Rose

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Sam Hardy, William Janney, Louis Natheaux, Arthur Rankin

Synopsis: In this drama, set in a bordertown gambling saloon, the owner falls in love with a promiscuous young girl. When she has an affair with another, he tosses her out of town. She gets revenge by marrying his younger brother. To make it worse, she and her new hubby honeymoon in the jilted brother's Read More

Coquette

Actors: Mary Pickford, Johnny Mack Brown, Matt Moore, John St. Polis, William Janney

Synopsis: Coquette is Mary Pickford's first talkie, based on the play by George Abbott and Ann Preston Bridgers. The story was already made famous on the stage by star Helen Hayes. At almost 40 years old and lacking her signature curls, Pickford plays the young Southern belle Norma Besant, who is courting Read More