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Norman Krasna
Norman Krasna (November 7, 1909 – November 1, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna directed three films during a forty-year career in Hollywood. He garnered four Academy Award screenwriting nominations, winning once for 1943's ''Princess O'Rourke'', which he also directed. Biography Early life Krasna was born in Queens, New York City. He attended Columbia University and St John's University School of Law, working at Macy's Department Store during the day. He wanted to get into journalism and talked his way into a job as a copy boy for the Sunday feature department of the ''New York World'' in 1928. (He worked with Lewis Weitzenkorn who turned Krasna into a character in the play ''Five Star Final''.) He quit law school, worked his way up to being a drama critic, at first for ''The World'' then the ''New York Evening Graphic'' and ''Exhibitors Herald World''. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queens, New York
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long Island to its west, and Nassau County to its east. Queens also shares water borders with the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island (via the Rockaways). With a population of 2,405,464 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Queens is the second most populous county in the State of New York, behind Kings County (Brooklyn), and is therefore also the second most populous of the five New York City boroughs. If Queens became a city, it would rank as the List of United States cities by population, fifth most-populous in the U.S. after New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. Approximately 47% of the residents of Queens are foreign born, foreign-born. Queens is the most linguistics, linguistically diverse place on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollywood Speaks
''Hollywood Speaks'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code comedy film. Cast * Genevieve Tobin as Gertrude Smith, later known as Greta Swan *Pat O'Brien as Jimmy Reed *Lucien Prival as Frederick Landau *Ralf Harolde as Carp *Rita La Roy as Millie Coreen *Leni Stengel as Mrs. Landau *Anderson Lawlor as Joe Hammond * Jack Holt as himself Production Columbia announced the film in August 1931. It was Norman Krasna's first film under his contract with Columbia and he started writing it in April 1932. The same amount the studio announced Eddie Buzzel would direct and Genevieve Tobin would star. Reception The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it a "routine melodrama with little to say of interest."Stage and Screen: Los Angeles Times August 21, 1932: B17. References External links''Hollywood Speaks''at IMDb''Hollywood Speaks''at TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Hours To Kill!
''Four Hours to Kill!'' is a 1935 American drama film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Richard Barthelmess. Plot Taft, a policeman, has fugitive murderer Tony Mako in custody and in handcuffs, two thousand miles from the prison from which Mako escaped. With four hours to kill, Taft takes his prisoner to a theater where the cop's wife, Mae, is a hostess. Mae is an unfaithful schemer. She is trying to extort $200 from coat-check kid Eddie, insinuating she is pregnant. Eddie doesn't want his fiancee Helen to hear this, true or otherwise, so he tries to raise the money to pay Mae's blackmail. Eddie is also suspected of stealing an expensive piece of jewelry. Mako made the journey this far in the hope of gaining revenge against Anderson, a man who informed on him. After telling Taft he would prefer a quick death to a painful execution, Mako breaks free and shoots Anderson before being shot by Taft, dying the kind of death he wanted. Eddie is cleared and now free to marry Hel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romance In Manhattan
''Romance in Manhattan'' is a 1935 American comedy/romance film directed by Stephen Roberts, starring Francis Lederer and Ginger Rogers, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Plot Karel Novak (Lederer), an incredibly naive Czech immigrant, arrives in New York with $58; but now he must have $200 or be sent back. Novak escapes from the ship and is rescued by dock workers; but he loses his money. He wanders the streets and eats food left by chorus girls. Sylvia Dennis (Rogers) questions him. He refuses money but wants a job. Two women suggest an institution for Sylvia's brother Frank (Jimmy Butler), because he missed two days of school. Sylvia says no. Sylvia gives Karel blankets to sleep on the roof, and she explains about the Depression. Frank shares his job selling newspapers with Karel and takes over after school. Karel does not admit he was fished out of the river and so does not get his $58 back. He asks the police officer Murphy (J. Farrell MacDonald) if someone could get in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Richest Girl In The World (1934 Film)
''The Richest Girl in the World'' is a 1934 romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea. Norman Krasna was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story. It was remade in 1944 as ''Bride by Mistake'' with Laraine Day and Alan Marshal. Plot When the sinks, infant Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) is left an orphan. She is brought up by John Connors (Henry Stephenson), whose wife was also lost in the disaster. He goes to such great lengths to protect her privacy that, though she has grown into adulthood and acquired the title of the richest girl in the world, the newspapers do not have an up-to-date photograph of her. She returns to America, but her friend and secretary, Sylvia Lockwood (Fay Wray), impersonates her in a meeting with the managers of her fortune. After seeing how happy Sylvia is with her new husband, Phillip ( Reginald Denny), she broaches the topic of setting a wedding date with Donald (George Meeker), her longtim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meet The Baron
''Meet the Baron'' is a 1933 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code comedy film starring Jack Pearl, Jimmy Durante, Edna May Oliver, ZaSu Pitts, Ted Healy and the Three Stooges, His Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). The title of the film refers to Pearl's character of Baron Munchhausen, which he made famous on his radio show. Plot A couple of bunglers (Jimmy Durante and Jack Pearl) are abandoned in the jungles of Africa by Baron Munchausen. A rescue team mistake Pearl for the missing Baron, and take the two of them back to America where they receive a hero's welcome. The phony Baron is invited to speak at Cuddle College, run by Dean Primrose (Edna May Oliver). There he falls for ZaSu Pitts and meets three crazy janitors (The Three Stooges), and faces exposure as a fraud. Cast *Jack Pearl as Baron Munchausen, The Famous Baron Munchausen of the Air *Jimmy Durante as Joe McGoo – the Favorite "Schnozzle" of the Screen *ZaSu Pitts as Zasu, Upstairs Maid *Ted Healy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Small Miracle
''Small Miracle'' is a 1934 play by Norman Krasna, presented on Broadway with Joseph Calleia in the featured role. Directed by George Abbott with a single setting designed by Boris Aronson, the three-act melodrama opened September 26, 1934, at the John Golden Theatre, New York. It continued at the 48th Street Theatre November 11, 1934 – January 5, 1935. On February 7, 1935, the play began a run at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, with Calleia, Joseph King and Robert Middlemass reprising their Broadway roles. It was Krasna's second play, written in the evenings while he was working as a Columbia Pictures contract writer during the day. He adapted the play for the Paramount Pictures film, ''Four Hours to Kill!'' (1935). Cast * Edward Crandall as Carl Barrett, Jr. * Joseph Calleia as Tony Mako * Joseph King as Joseph Taft * Eva Condon as Ma * William Wadsworth as Herman * G. Albert Smith as William S. Johnson * Myron McCormick as Eddie * Elspeth Eric as Mae Danish * Wyrley B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chester Morris
John Chester Brooks Morris (February 16, 1901 – September 11, 1970) was an American stage, film, television, and radio actor. He had some prestigious film roles early in his career, and received an Academy Award nomination for ''Alibi'' (1929). Chester Morris is remembered for portraying Boston Blackie, a criminal-turned-detective, in the ''Boston Blackie'' film series of the 1940s. Early years Chester Morris was born John Chester Brooks Morris in New York City, and was one of five children of Broadway stage actor William Morris and stage comedienne Etta Hawkins. His siblings who lived to adulthood were screenwriter-actor Gordon Morris, actor Adrian Morris, and actress Wilhelmina Morris. Another brother, Lloyd Morris, had died young. Morris dropped out of school and began his Broadway career at 15 years old opposite Lionel Barrymore in ''The Copperhead''. He made his film debut in the silent comedy-drama film ''An Amateur Orphan'' (1917). After appearing in several mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Love, Honor, And Oh Baby!
''Love, Honor, and Oh Baby!'' is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film, starring Slim Summerville, ZaSu Pitts, and George Barbier. The 1940 Universal Pictures film with the same title is not a remake. Adapted from the stage play, ''"Oh, Promise Me"''. Pitts plays a secretary that plots with her ambulance chasing lawyer, Slim, to compromise her employer for a breach of promise suit. Besides recovering handsomely at the trail, her boyfriend is provided with a case. A capable group of stars rounds out the rest of the cast that includes Donald Meek, Lucille Gleason and Varree Teasdale. The movie did not do well nor was it well reviewed by The New York Times which called it unfunny. Cast *Slim Summerville as Mark Reed *ZaSu Pitts as Connie Clark * George Barbier as Jasper B. Ogden *Lucille Gleason as Flo Bowen *Verree Teasdale as Elsie Carpenter *Donald Meek as Luther Bowen *Purnell Pratt as Marchall Durant *Adrienne Dore as Louise *Dorothy Granger as Mrs. Brown *Neely Edwards as Mr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parole Girl
''Parole Girl'' is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Edward Cline. The film stars Mae Clarke and Ralph Bellamy. Plot When Sylvia Day (Mae Clarke) is caught trying to pull a scam on the Taylor Department Store in New York City, she pleads with the store manager to let her go, but his boss, Joe Smith (Ralph Bellamy), insists on following store policy, and she is handed over to the police, convicted and sentenced to a year in prison. Sylvia is consumed with the idea of getting revenge on Joe. She becomes friends with chatty fellow inmate Jeanie Vance (Marie Prevost), who offers to team up with her and commit more crimes once they have served their time. When Sylvia learns that Jeanie has a surprising connection to Joe, she decides to get out early. She sets a fire, then passes out from the smoke while trying to put it out. For her "heroism", she is granted parole. Tony Gratton (Hale Hamilton), her partner in the failed con, tries to talk her into marrying h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheeler And Woolsey
Wheeler & Woolsey were an American vaudeville comedy double act who performed together in comedy films from the late 1920s. The team comprised Bert Wheeler (1895–1968) of New Jersey and Robert Woolsey (1888–1938) of Illinois. Collaboration and background The Broadway theatre performers were initially teamed as the comedy relief for the 1927 Broadway musical '' Rio Rita'', and came to Hollywood to reprise these roles for the film version. The film's success convinced them to become a permanent team, and they continued to make very popular comedy feature films from 1930 until 1937, all for RKO Radio Pictures—except the 1933 Columbia Pictures release '' So This Is Africa'' (which was made during a contract dispute with RKO). Curly-haired Bert Wheeler played an ever-smiling innocent, who was easily led and not very bright, but who would also sometimes display a stubborn streak of conscience. Bespectacled Robert Woolsey played a genially leering, cigar-smoking, fast-talking ide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
