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Napoleon Whiting
Napoleon Whiting (September 21, 1910, Mississippi – October 22, 1984, Los Angeles, California), was an American character actor. He played many bit parts, often uncredited, as a menial worker such as the African American butler, a stereotypical role. He also appeared as the butler in ''Giant'' (1956). Whiting was best known to television audiences for his work as Silas on ''The Big Valley'', a typecast but highly visible role A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, moral obligation, obligations, beliefs, and social norm, norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavi .... Filmography References External links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whiting, Napoleon 1910 births 1984 deaths African-American male actors American male film actors American male television actors Male actors from Mississippi 20th-century American male actors 20th-century African-American people We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mississippi's western boundary is largely defined by the Mississippi River. Mississippi is the 32nd largest and 35th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states and has the lowest per-capita income in the United States. Jackson is both the state's capital and largest city. Greater Jackson is the state's most populous metropolitan area, with a population of 591,978 in 2020. On December 10, 1817, Mississippi became the 20th state admitted to the Union. By 1860, Mississippi was the nation's top cotton-producing state and slaves accounted for 55% of the state population. Mississippi declared its secession from the Union on January 9, 1861, and was one of the seven original Confederate States, which constituted the largest slaveholding states in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spy Train
''Spy Train'' is a 1943 American crime film directed by Harold Young and written by Leslie Swabacker and Bart Lytton. The film stars Richard Travis, Catherine Craig, Chick Chandler, Thelma White, Evelyn Brent and Warren Hymer. The film was released on July 9, 1943, by Monogram Pictures. Plot Bruce Grant is the author of ''Darkest Germany'', an exposé about Nazi Germany. He and his friend Stew Stewart board a train in the United States to go meet Max Thornwald, owner of a chain of newspapers. Nazi agents in America have fabricated a photograph showing Thornwald's daughter, Jane, having lunch with Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler, and have successfully blackmailed Thornwald into suppressing Bruce's articles exposing Nazi atrocities. Bruce wants to know why his items aren't being published. Jane and her maid, Millie, happen to be on the train as well. Meanwhile, Nazi husband-wife spy team Hugo and Frieda Molte have left a suitcase bomb in the train station's baggage check. Other s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Helen Morgan Story
''The Helen Morgan Story'', released in the UK as ''Both Ends of the Candle'', is a 1957 American biographical film directed by Michael Curtiz starring Ann Blyth and Paul Newman. The screenplay by Oscar Saul, Dean Riesner, Stephen Longstreet, and Nelson Gidding is based on the life and career of torch singer/actress Helen Morgan, with fictional touches liberally added for dramatic purposes. This turned out to be Blyth's final film role. Another version of Morgan's life story, '' Helen Morgan'', was produced as a live television drama on '' Playhouse 90'', with Polly Bergen as Morgan. Despite requests to delay the television version, it aired five months before the release of the motion picture. Plot Helen Morgan begins her career as a Chicago carnival dancer. She catches the eye of fast-talking, double-dealing Larry Maddux, whose promotion catapults her to fame as a Broadway performer in ''Show Boat'' and a headliner in her own nightclub. Helen is involved in two romantic re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tattered Dress
''The Tattered Dress'' is a 1957 American CinemaScope film noir crime film released by Universal Pictures and directed by Jack Arnold. It stars Jeff Chandler, Jeanne Crain, Jack Carson, Gail Russell and Elaine Stewart. Plot In a California resort community, the wealthy Michael Reston is charged with the murder of a man he claimed attacked his wife, Charleen. Reston hires a high-priced lawyer, James Gordon Blane, a man known to do anything it takes to win a case. Blane makes few friends in the community because the victim was a popular figure while the Restons are not popular with anyone. But his skillful cross-examination of a sheriff, Nick Hoak, results in Blane's client being found not guilty. Hoak decides to get even. He fabricates evidence that Blane bribed a woman on the jury by pressuring her to perjure herself. Now it is Blane who goes on trial, with only his estranged wife, Diane, and his friend, Billy, coming to his aid. While defending himself, Blane begins to feel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Narrow Margin
''The Narrow Margin'' is a 1952 American film noir starring Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the RKO picture was written by Earl Felton, based on an unpublished story written by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard. The screenplay by Earl Felton was nominated for an Academy Award. A police detective plays a deadly game of cat-and-mouse aboard a train with mob assassins out to stop a slain gangster's widow before she can testify before a grand jury. Plot Detective Sergeant Walter Brown ( Charles McGraw) of the Los Angeles Police Department and his partner are assigned to protect a mob boss's widow, Mrs. Frankie Neall ( Marie Windsor), as she rides a train from Chicago to Los Angeles to testify before a grand jury. She is also carrying a payoff list that belonged to her murdered husband. The mob's hitmen do not know what she looks like. On the way to pick her up, Brown bets his partner and friend, Sergeant Gus Forbes ( Don Beddoe), what she wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tall Target
''The Tall Target'' is a 1951 American historical crime film directed by Anthony Mann and starring Dick Powell, Paula Raymond and Adolphe Menjou. Powell stars as a police sergeant who tries to stop the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at a train stop as Lincoln travels to his inauguration. It is based on the alleged Baltimore Plot. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Eddie Imazu and Cedric Gibbons. Plot New York Police Sergeant John Kennedy once guarded Abraham Lincoln for 48 hours while he was campaigning for President of the United States, and came away deeply impressed by the man. Kennedy has infiltrated a cabal and discovered that an assassination attempt will be made as the president-elect makes his way by train via Baltimore to Washington, DC. His boss, Superintendent Simon G. Stroud, dismisses the threat as "hogwash", as does Caleb Jeffers, a militia colonel with whom Stroud is meeting. Kennedy resigns on the spot to try to foil the conspirators on his own. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Friend Irma Goes West
''My Friend Irma Goes West'' is a 1950 American comedy film directed by Hal Walker and based on the radio show ''My Friend Irma.'' It stars the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The film is a sequel to ''My Friend Irma'' (1949) and was released on May 31, 1950 by Paramount Pictures. Plot Immediately after the events in ''My Friend Irma'', Al is still trying to promote Steve's career. Eventually, he gets booked to a local television station and is spotted by a movie producer. He is offered a contract and Steve, as well as the rest of the gang, Irma, Jane and Seymour, all head to Hollywood. The trip ends suddenly when the producer is discovered to be an escaped lunatic. Al tries to set things straight by taking the gang to Las Vegas to work at a casino, but things aren't as they seem. Irma causes havoc by wrecking a rigged roulette wheel, and she gets kidnapped and held for ransom until Al can raise $50,000. Meanwhile, Seymour, dressed as an Indian brave, locates Irma and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mystery Street
''Mystery Street'' is a 1950 black-and-white film noir featuring Ricardo Montalbán, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester, and Marshall Thompson. Produced by MGM, it was directed by John Sturges with cinematography by John Alton. The film was shot on location in Boston and Cape Cod; according to one critic, it was "the first commercial feature to be predominantly shot" on location in Boston. Also featured are Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts and Harvard Yard in nearby Cambridge. According to Frances Glessner Lee biographer Bruce Goldfarb, the story of the death of Irene Perry, in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in 1940, as suggested by Glessner Lee (creator of The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death), was the basis of the film. The story earned Leonard Spigelgass a nomination as Best Story for the 1951 Academy Awards. Plot Brassy blonde B-girl Vivian (Jan Sterling) is agitated and seeking to arrange a meeting with a man she has been dating. In spite of co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Woman Of Distinction
''A Woman of Distinction'' is a 1950 American romantic comedy film directed by Edward Buzzell and starring Rosalind Russell and Ray Milland. Plot Susan Manning Middlecott is dean of a New England school called Benton College and it is her whole life, apart from living with dad Mark and raising an adopted daughter, Louisa. A British astronomy professor she has never met, Alec Stevenson, mentions to a lecture-tour publicist named Teddy Evans that he has a locket belonging to Susan that he wants to deliver to her. For publicity's sake, Teddy invents a story that Alec and Susan are involved in a romance. Susan is miffed and boards a train to Boston to confront him. She is unaware that Alec has been to her campus and is now on the same train. A photographer snaps their picture getting off the train. Susan, livid, hits Alec with her purse, and Teddy makes sure their spat makes the newspapers. Susan believes that Alec is a publicity seeker, rejecting his attempts to explain. Susan's d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Clock (film)
''The Big Clock'' is a 1948 American film noir directed by John Farrow and adapted by novelist-screenwriter Jonathan Latimer from the 1946 novel of the same title by Kenneth Fearing. The black-and-white film is set in New York City, and stars Ray Milland, Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Sullivan. Elsa Lanchester and Harry Morgan, in an early film role, also appear. Noel Neill has an uncredited part as an elevator operator very early in the film. Plot George Stroud, editor-in-chief of ''Crimeways'' magazine, hides from building security inside the "big clock," which is the largest and most sophisticated clock ever built. The clock dominates the lobby of the Janoth Publications building in New York City, where Stroud works. Thirty-six hours earlier, Stroud is eager to embark on a long-postponed honeymoon in Wheeling, West Virginia with his wife Georgette and son. His tyrannical boss Earl Janoth wants him to stay to pursue a missing-person story that Stroud has just cracked, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bride Goes Wild
''The Bride Goes Wild'' is a 1948 American romantic comedy film directed by Norman Taurog. Van Johnson stars as irresponsible children's book author and part-time playboy Uncle Bumps, who is introduced to a no-nonsense children's book illustrator played by June Allyson. Cast * Van Johnson as Greg Rawlings * June Allyson as Martha Terryton * Butch Jenkins as Danny * Hume Cronyn as John McGrath * Una Merkel as Miss Doberly * Arlene Dahl as Tillie Smith * Richard Derr as Bruce Kope Johnson * Lloyd Corrigan as "Pop" * Elisabeth Risdon as Mrs. Carruthers * Clara Blandick as Aunt Pewtie * Kathleen Howard as Aunt Susan * Byron Foulger as Max (uncredited) * Hank Mann as Wedding Guest (uncredited) * William Severn as Piute Leader (uncredited) Reception The film earned $2,707,000 in the US and Canada and $1,059,000 elsewhere. On June 4, 1948, ''The New York Times''' Bosley Crowther wrote: “For a movie with as inauspicious a title as ''The Bride Goes Wild…'' this patchwork of se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Born To Kill (1947 Film)
''Born to Kill'' (released in the U.K. as ''Lady of Deceit'' and in Australia as ''Deadlier Than the Male'') is a 1947 American film noir co-starring Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor and Walter Slezak, with Esther Howard, Elisha Cook Jr., and Audrey Long in supporting roles. Directed by Robert Wise for RKO Pictures, the feature was the first film noir production by Wise, whose later films in the genre include '' The Set-Up'' (1949) and '' The Captive City'' (1952). Plot San Francisco socialite Helen Brent has established residence in Reno, Nevada in order to get a divorce decree and is lodging in a boarding house, owned by the feisty Mrs. Kraft. Helen meets Laury Palmer, a fellow boarder and Mrs. Kraft's best friend, who confides that she is going on a date with Danny, to incite jealousy in her new beau, Sam Wilde. Sam sees them together that evening. Later, he enters Mrs. Kraft's house, and confronts Danny. Sam bludgeons him to death, and then kills Laury, because she was a witn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
