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Jack Cheatham
John Preston Cheatham (December 28, 1894 – March 30, 1971) was an American character actor of the 1930s and 1940s. During his career he appeared in almost 200 films, with 100 of them being features. Life and career Born John Preston Cheatham on December 28, 1894, in Jackson, Mississippi, he began acting in the 1920s, including two Broadway appearances. In 1928 he would appear in the successful '' Diamond Lil'', written by and starring Mae West. Cheatham entered the film industry with his performance in a featured role in 1931's ''Shanghaied Love'', starring Richard Cromwell, Noah Beery, and Sally Blane. Notable films in which Cheatham appeared include: ''The Whole Town's Talking'' (1935), starring Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur; ''The Petrified Forest'' (1936), starring Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart, and Bette Davis; Frank Capra's 1936 comedy, '' Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'', starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur; the classic ''Meet John Doe'' (1941), directed by Capr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Fig Leaf For Eve
''A Fig Leaf for Eve'' is a 1944 American film directed by Don Brodie. The film is also known as ''Desirable Lady'', ''Flaming Girls'', ''Hollywood Nights'', ''Not Enough Clothes'', ''Reckless Youth'', ''Room for Love'', and ''Strips and Blondes'' as American reissue titles. Plot Young Eve Lorraine ( Jan Wiley) is an exotic dancer at the Club Cézanne in New York who is arrested for indecency while performing Salome's dance one night, when her manager Dan "Mac" McGrath ( Phil Warren) is trying to make a greater impression and get her some publicity. In court Eve meets a bail-bondsman, Gus Hoffman ( Eddie Dunn), who bails her out of jail. They talk to about Eve's background, where she mentions that her parents died when a theater collapsed somewhere twenty-three years ago, which makes Gus suspect that she is the rightful heir of the J.P. Sardam hair tonic empire and estate. There is a $1,000 reward for the one who finds the missing daughter of the Sardam spouses, who died during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. Bogart began acting in Broadway shows, beginning his career in motion pictures with '' Up the River'' (1930) for Fox and appeared in supporting roles for the next decade, regularly portraying gangsters. He was praised for his work as Duke Mantee in ''The Petrified Forest'' (1936), but remained cast secondary to other actors at Warner Bros. who received leading roles. Bogart also received positive reviews for his performance as gangster Hugh "Baby Face" Martin, in '' Dead End'' (1937), directed by William Wyler. His breakthrough from supporting roles to stardom was set in motion with '' High Sierra'' (1941) and catapulted in '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (1947 Film)
''The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'' is a 1947 Technicolor comedy film, loosely based on the 1939 short story of the same name by James Thurber. The film stars Danny Kaye as a young daydreaming proofreader (later associate editor) for a magazine publishing firm and Virginia Mayo as the girl of his dreams. The film was adapted for the screen by Ken Englund, Everett Freeman, and Philip Rapp (uncredited), and directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Plot Walter Mitty (Kaye) is an "inconsequential guy from Perth Amboy, New Jersey". He is henpecked and harassed by everyone in his life including his bossy mother, his overbearing, idea-stealing boss Bruce Pierce, his dimwitted fiancée Gertrude Griswold, Gertrude's obnoxious would-be suitor Tubby Wadsworth, Gertrude's poodle Queenie and her loud-mouthed mother, Mrs. Griswold. Walter's escape from their incessant needling is to imagine all sorts of exciting and impossible lives for himself, fueled by the pulp magazines he reads every day as an ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Mayo
Virginia Mayo (born Virginia Clara Jones; November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Brothers' biggest box-office money-maker in the late 1940s. She also co-starred in the 1946 Oscar-winning movie '' The Best Years of Our Lives'' and ''White Heat'' (1949). Biography Early life Born in St. Louis, Missouri; Mayo was the daughter of newspaper reporter Luke and his wife, Martha Henrietta (née Rautenstrauch) Jones. Her family had roots back to the earliest days of St Louis, including great-great-great grandfather Captain James Piggott, who founded East St. Louis, Illinois, in 1797. Young Virginia's aunt operated an acting school in the St. Louis area, which Virginia began attending at age six. She also had a series of dancing instructors engaged by her aunt. Vaudeville Following her graduation from Soldan High School in 1937, she landed her first professional acting and dancing jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Kaye starred in 17 films, notably '' Wonder Man'' (1945), '' The Kid from Brooklyn'' (1946), '' The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'' (1947), '' The Inspector General'' (1949), '' Hans Christian Andersen'' (1952), '' White Christmas'' (1954), and '' The Court Jester'' (1955). His films were popular, especially for his performances of patter songs and favorites such as "Inchworm" and "The Ugly Duckling". He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honour in 1986 for his years of work with the organization. Early years David Daniel Kaminsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 18, 1911 (though he would later say 1913), to Ukrainian–Jewish immigrants Jacob and Clar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Kid From Brooklyn
''The Kid from Brooklyn'' is a 1946 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Steve Cochran, Walter Abel, Eve Arden, and Fay Bainter. Virginia Mayo's and Vera-Ellen's singing voices were dubbed by Betty Russell and Dorothy Ellers, respectively.Despite modern awareness of these uncredited singers, even some professional authors continue to ascribe singing to the actors, e.g. "capitalized on the stylized vocals of the radiant Virginia Mayo", in Frederick V. Romano, ''The Boxing Filmography: American Features, 1920-2003'' (Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2004), 108; Produced by Samuel Goldwyn, it is a remake of the Harold Lloyd film '' The Milky Way'' (1936) about a milkman who becomes world boxing champion. Lionel Stander plays the role of "Spider" Schultz in both versions of the movie. Plot Well-meaning and mild-mannered milkman Burleigh Sullivan (Kaye) meets Polly Pringle (Mayo), a beautiful, but out-of-work, singer, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990) was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as '' The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941) and ''Princess O'Rourke'' (1943), and in dramatic films, especially two of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, '' Saboteur'' (1942) and '' Dial M for Murder'' (1954).Wise and Wilderson 2000, p. 189. He received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance in 1955. On February 8, 1960, he received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture and television industries, at 6816 Hollywood Boulevard and 1718 Vine Street. He used the stage name Robert Cummings from mid-1935 until the end of 1954 and was credited as Bob Cummings from 1955 until his death. Early life Cummings was born in Joplin, Missouri, a son of Dr. Charles Clarence Cummings and the former Ruth Annabelle Kraft.FilmRefe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priscilla Lane
Priscilla Lane (born Priscilla Mullican, June 12, 1915 – April 4, 1995) was an American actress, and the youngest sibling in the Lane Sisters of singers and actresses. She is best remembered for her roles in the films ''The Roaring Twenties'' (1939) co-starring with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart; ''Saboteur'' (1942), an Alfred Hitchcock film in which she plays the heroine; and '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1944), in which she portrays Cary Grant's fiancée and bride. Early years Priscilla Mullican was born on June 12, 1915, in Indianola, Iowa, a small college town south of Des Moines. She was the youngest of five daughters of Dr. Lorenzo Mullican, DDS, and his wife, Cora Bell Hicks. Dr. Mullican had a dental practice in Indianola. The family owned a large house with 22 rooms, some of which they rented to students attending nearby Simpson College. Priscilla and one of her sisters, Rosemary, traveled to Des Moines every weekend to study dancing with Rose Lorenz, a renowned danc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saboteur (film)
''Saboteur'' is a 1942 American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay written by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison and Dorothy Parker. The film stars Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane and Norman Lloyd. Plot Barry Kane is falsely accused of torching Stewart Aircraft Works in Glendale, California, an act of sabotage that incinerates one of his co-workers. Barry believes the real culprit is a man named Fry, but investigators find no such name on the employee list. Thus Barry becomes the target of a manhunt. While eluding capture, he remembers Fry's address from an envelope, so he thumbs a truck ride to a huge ranch in the High Desert. While there, he learns the whereabouts of Fry and that the ranch's owner, Charles Tobin, is collaborating with Fry and other saboteurs. Barry escapes the ranch, later taking refuge with a blind man whose niece, Patricia Martin, attempts to betray him to police. Barry insists he is innocent and kidnaps Patricia. This leads to a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are still widely watched and studied today. Known as the "Master of Suspense", he became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Best Director despite five nominations. Hitchcock initially trained as a technical clerk and copy writer before entering the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer. His directorial debut was the British-German silent film '' The Pleasure Garden'' (1925). His first successful film, '' The Lodger: A Story of the London Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic screen presence and versatility. She was a favorite of directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra, and made 85 films in 38 years before turning to television. Orphaned at the age of four and partially raised in foster homes, she always worked. One of her directors, Jacques Tourneur, said of her, "She only lives for two things, and both of them are work." She made her debut on stage in the chorus as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923, at age 16, and within a few years was acting in plays. Her first lead role, which was in the hit ''Burlesque'' (1927), established her as a Broadway star. In 1929, she began acting in talking pictures. Frank Capra chose her for his romantic drama '' Ladies of Leisure'' (1930). This led to additi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meet John Doe
''Meet John Doe'' is a 1941 American comedy-drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, written by Robert Riskin, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The film is about a "grassroots" political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist with the involvement of a hired homeless man and pursued by the paper's wealthy owner.Dirks, Tim"Filmsite Movie Review: Meet John Doe (1941)."''Filmsite.org (AMC Networks)''. Retrieved: March 13, 2015. It became a box-office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. It was ranked No. 49 in AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Cheers. In 1969, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. It was the first of two features Capra made for Warner Brothers, after he left Columbia Pictures, the other being '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1944). Plot A local newspaper, ''The Bulletin'', is under new management, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
