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Harry Wilson (actor)
Harry Wilson (22 November 1897 – 6 September 1978) was a British character actor who appeared in over 300 films from 1928 to 1965 and proudly proclaimed himself "Hollywood's ugliest man". Slide, Anthony: Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players and Stand-Ins, Univ. Press of Mississippi, , p110 His distinctive facial features and voice (often said to be the result of acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland, although they do not fully meet the criteria) often led to him being cast as various henchmen, thugs, convicts and brawlers. His best-known roles include a Winkie Guard in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939); the female monster in ''Frankenstein's Daughter'' (1958); and together with Mike Mazurki, the henchman of George Raft's "Spats Colombo" in '' Some Like It Hot'' (1959). In 1961, in a credited role, he appeared as a townsman in the TV Western series ''Bat Masterson'' (S3E18 "The Prescott Campaign"). For over fifteen years Wilson was a stand-in for W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
He Walked By Night
''He Walked by Night'' is a 1948 American police procedural film noir directed by Alfred L. Werker and an uncredited Anthony Mann. The film, shot in semidocumentary tone, was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, a former Glendale, California police department employee and World War II veteran who unleashed a crime spree of burglaries, robberies, and shootouts in the Los Angeles area in 1945 and 1946. During the film's production, one of the actors, Jack Webb, struck up a friendship with the police technical advisor, Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn, and was inspired by a conversation with Wynn to create the radio and later television program '' Dragnet''. ''He Walked by Night'' was released by Eagle-Lion Films and is notable for the camera work by renowned ''noir'' cinematographer John Alton. Today the film is in the public domain. It is aired frequently on the over-the-air channel, Movies! network. Plot On a Los Angeles str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Racket (1928 Film)
''The Racket'' is a 1928 American silent crime drama film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Thomas Meighan, Marie Prevost, Louis Wolheim, and George E. Stone. The film was produced by Howard Hughes, written by Bartlett Cormack and Tom Miranda, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was adapted from Cormack's 1927 Broadway play '' The Racket. Background Due to the controversial portrayal of a corrupt police force and city government, both the film and the play were banned at the time in Chicago. The main antagonist Nick Scarsi was modeled after Al Capone while "The Old Man" was modeled after Chicago Mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson. Plot Chicago Police Department officer James "Mac" McQuigg tries to keep the peace in Chicago during the Prohibition gang wars but is hampered by massive corruption. After a shootout McQuigg manages to arrest mob boss Nick Scarsi's henchman Spike Corcoran, the political boss "The Old Man" arranges to have all charges dropped. Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Beast Of The City
''The Beast of the City'' is a 1932 American pre-Code gangster film featuring cops as vigilantes and known for its singularly vicious ending. Written by W.R. Burnett, Ben Hecht (uncredited), and John Lee Mahin, and directed by Charles Brabin, the film stars Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford, Jean Hersholt, and Tully Marshall. Plot Police Captain Jim Fitzpatrick (Walter Huston) is a dedicated family man and crime fighter not averse to using violence to fight violence. Although he's been demoted for political reasons, public outcry forces the mayor to take more aggressive action against sleazy gang boss Sam Belmonte (Jean Hersholt), and Fitzpatrick is promoted to police chief. His younger brother, Police Detective Ed Fitzpatrick (Wallace Ford), allows himself to be seduced by a languorously sexy Belmonte gang moll (Jean Harlow) and needs money to continue the relationship. Frustrated when his principled brother will not promote him, he betrays Jim's trust by conspiring with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delicious (film)
''Delicious'' (1931) is an American pre-Code Gershwin musical romantic comedy film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, directed by David Butler, with color sequences in Multicolor (now lost). Production background The film features music by George Gershwin, including the introduction of ''Rhapsody in Rivets'', which was expanded by the composer even before the film soundtrack was recorded into the concert work for piano and orchestra '' Second Rhapsody'', regarded today as one of Gershwin's neglected masterpieces. Gershwin also contributed other sequences for the score, but only a five-minute dream sequence called ''The Melting Pot'' and the six-minute ''Rhapsody in Rivets'' made the final cut. Fox Film Corporation rejected the rest of the score. Gaynor plays a Scottish girl emigrating by ship to America who runs afoul of the authorities and has to go on the run, falling in with a ragtag group of immigrant musicians in Manhattan. Gaynor and Farrell made almost a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ladies Of The Big House
''Ladies of the Big House'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Marion Gering and written by Ernest Booth, William Slavens McNutt and Grover Jones. The film stars Sylvia Sidney, Gene Raymond, Wynne Gibson, Earle Foxe, Rockliffe Fellowes, Purnell Pratt and Frank Sheridan. The film was released on December 26, 1931, by Paramount Pictures. Plot Young florist Kathleen Storm ( Sylvia Sidney) is instantly the object of desire of a young man standing in front of the shopwindow, where she is arranging flowers. They have two wonderful weeks in their life together before they marry. The same day her criminal ex-boyfriend Kid Athens (Earle Foxe), who heard about her wedding, decides to frame her and her new husband. She and her husband Standish (Gene Raymond) end up in prison. He is sentenced to death penalty on a charge of murder and she to a life sentence. In prison she meets a woman, Susie Thompson (Wynne Gibson), who was Kid Athens' girlfriend before her, who after an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guilty Generation
''The Guilty Generation'' is a 1931 American pre-code crime film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Leo Carrillo, Constance Cummings and Robert Young. Plot The children of feuding gangsters fall in love and fight to escape their parents' notoriety. Cast * Leo Carrillo as Mike Palmiero * Constance Cummings as Maria Palmiero * Robert Young as Marco Ricca * Boris Karloff as Tony Ricca * Emma Dunn as Nina Palmero * Leslie Fenton as Joe Pamiero * Murray Kinnell as Jerry * Ruth Warren as Nellie Weaver See also * Boris Karloff filmography Boris may refer to: People * Boris (given name), a male given name *:''See'': List of people with given name Boris * Boris (surname) * Boris I of Bulgaria (died 907), the first Christian ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, canonized after his ... External links * * 1931 films 1931 drama films American black-and-white films American drama films Columbia Pictures films Films directed by Rowland V. Lee 1930s English-language ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mad Genius
''The Mad Genius'' (1931) is an American pre-Code drama film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and directed by Michael Curtiz. The film stars John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, and in small roles, Boris Karloff and Frankie Darro. The film is based on the play ''The Idol'' (1929) by Martin Brown, which opened in Great Neck, Long Island but never opened on Broadway. Plot A crippled puppeteer, Ivan Tsarakov (Barrymore), is frustrated that he will never dance ballet. He adopts a protégé, Fedor Ivanoff (Darro as a child, Cook as an adult), whom he makes into the greatest dancer in the world. Fedor falls in love with a dancer, Nana Carlova (Marsh), but Tsarakov fears that she will ruin Fedor as a dancer. He tries to separate them and ultimately fires Nana from the ballet troupe. Fedor runs away with Nana to Paris, but Tsarakov has blacklisted him, and he cannot get ballet jobs and is reduced to working in a cabaret. Nana begs Tsarakov to give ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tip-Off (film)
''The Tip-Off'' is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Albert S. Rogell, written by Earl Baldwin, and starring Eddie Quillan, Robert Armstrong, Ginger Rogers, Joan Peers and Ralf Harolde. The film was released on October 16, 1931, by RKO Pictures. Plot Young Tommy Jordan (Eddie Quillan) is sent for a repair job. When he arrives at the address he was told, two guys are waiting for him on the street, bringing him somewhere else - without letting him see where - to repair a radio. He jokes about "must be a hide-out, that I should not know where I am", for which he earns a "you're a smart guy". When left in the apartment doing his job, he follows a wire and ends up in the bedroom, lying on the floor under the bed. At this point, the telephone rings and a woman comes out of the bathroom and answers. He is trapped under the bed and can only see her legs. When the lady has finished her conversation, they have to talk and he is told that his great idol Kayo McClure (Rob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidewalks Of New York (1931 Film)
''Sidewalks of New York'' is a 1931 American comedy film directed by Zion Myers and Jules White and starring Buster Keaton. The film was commercially successful. Plot Harmon (Keaton) is a wealthy landlord. When he goes to visit one of his tenements, he gets caught in the middle of a brawl between groups of kids, one of whom, Clipper Kelly (Phillips) starts to attack Harmon. When Harmon defends himself, he is seen by Clipper's sister, Margie (Page). Harmon falls in love at first sight and begins to woo her following his trial for attacking Clipper. In order to demonstrate that he is okay, Harmon opens a gymnasium for the street boys, but Clipper, who has fallen in with a small-time gangster, Butch (Rowan), wants nothing to do with Harmon and turns the other boys against him. Harmon tries to win them over by staging a wrestling match with his friend Poggle (Edwards) and a rigged boxing match with Mulvaney ( Saylor). In the meantime, Butch has gotten Clipper involved in a series o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gay Diplomat
''The Gay Diplomat'' is a 1931 American film. Directed by Richard Boleslawski for RKO Radio Pictures, it starred Ivan Lebedeff, Genevieve Tobin and Betty Compson. Synopsis Captain Orloff (Ivan Lebedeff) is a Russian military officer who is sent to Bucharest to discover and dispose of a female spy. The three suspected spies are Countess Diana Dorchy (Genevieve Tobin), Baroness Alma Corri (Betty Compson) and Madame Blinis (Ilka Chase). Before learning the identity of the spy, Orloff falls in love with Diana. In the course of events, the spy is revealed to be Alma who is ultimately tricked into confessing. Orloff returns with his prisoner to St. Petersburg and is joined on the train by Diana. Cast * Genevieve Tobin as Countess Diana Dorchy * Betty Compson as Baroness Alma Corri * Ivan Lebedeff as Captain Ivan Orloff * Ilka Chase as Madame Blinis * Purnell Pratt as Colonel George Gorin * Colin Campbell as Gamble * Arthur Edmund Carew as The Suave Man * Edward Martindel as Ambassa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Lady's Morals
''A Lady's Morals'' is a 1930 American pre-Code film offering a highly fictionalized account of opera singer Jenny Lind. The movie features Grace Moore as Lind, Reginald Denny as a lover, and Wallace Beery as P. T. Barnum. The film contains some opera arias by Moore and was directed by Sidney Franklin. Wallace Beery would play Barnum again four years later in ''The Mighty Barnum'' (1934), with Virginia Bruce as Jenny Lind. Cast *Grace Moore as Jenny Lind * Reginald Denny as Paul Brandt *Wallace Beery as P. T. Barnum *Jobyna Howland as Josephine *Gus Shy as Olaf *Gilbert Emery as Broughm *George F. Marion as Innkeeper *Paul Porcasi as Innkeeper Soundtrack *"It Is Destiny" :Lyrics by Clifford Grey :Music by Oscar Straus :Copyright 1930 by Harms Inc. :Played by Reginald Denny on piano and sung by Grace Moore :Reprised by Grace Moore singing and on piano *"Rataplan" :from "La fille du régiment" :Music by Gaetano Donizetti :Played at an opera house with Grace Moore singing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Way For A Sailor
''Way for a Sailor'' is a 1930 American Pre-Code film starring John Gilbert.''Harrison's Reports'' film review; November 15, 1930, page 182. The supporting cast includes Wallace Beery, Jim Tully, Leila Hyams, and Polly Moran. The film was directed by Sam Wood, who insisted on no screen credit. The film is reputed to be so bad that the studio might have used it to sabotage leading man Gilbert's career in the sound era due to animosity from Louis B. Mayer. MGM produced a Spanish language version of this film, ''Love in Every Port'', starring Jose Crespo and Conchita Montenegro. Cast * John Gilbert as Jack *Wallace Beery as Tripod * Jim Tully as Ginger *Leila Hyams as Joan *Polly Moran as Polly *Doris Lloyd Hessy Doris Lloyd (3 July 1891 – 21 May 1968) was an English–American film and stage actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in ''The Time Machine'' (1960) and ''The Sound of Music'' (1965). Lloyd appeared in two Academy Award w ... as Flossy Opening capt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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