Stand By For Action
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Stand By For Action
''Stand By for Action'' (British title: ''Cargo of Innocents'') is a 1942 American black-and-white U.S. Navy war film from MGM, directed by Robert Z. Leonard, and starring Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Charles Laughton, Walter Brennan. Marilyn Maxwell made her film debut in this feature. Suggested by a story by Laurence Kirk, and with an original story by Captain Harvey Haislip and R. C. Sherriff, the film's screenplay was written by George Bruce, John L. Balderston, and Herman J. Mankiewicz. Plot During the early months of U.S. involvement in World War II, well-connected, Harvard-educated Lieutenant Gregg Masterman enjoys his cushy posting as the junior aide to Rear Admiral Stephen "Old Ironpants" Thomas, playing tennis and arranging various Navy social functions. During a chance encounter, he gives bad advice to up-from-the-ranks Lieutenant Commander Martin J. Roberts. As a result, Thomas gives Roberts command of a once obsolete but now reconditioned World War I-era destroyer, ...
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Film Poster
A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. They normally contain an image with text. Today's posters often feature printed likenesses of the main actors. Prior to the 1980s, illustrations instead of photos were far more common. The text on film posters usually contains the film title in large lettering and often the names of the main actors. It may also include a tagline, the name of the director, names of characters, the release date, and other pertinent details to inform prospective viewers about the film. Film posters are often displayed inside and on the outside of movie theaters, and elsewhere on the street or in shops. The same images appear in the film exhibitor's pressbook and may also be used on websites, DVD (and historically VHS) packaging, flyers, advertisements in newspap ...
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Executive Officer
An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer, or "XO", is the second-in-command, reporting to the commanding officer. The XO is typically responsible for the management of day-to-day activities, freeing the commander to concentrate on strategy and planning the unit's next move. Administrative law While there is no clear line between principal executive officers and inferior executive officers, principal officers are high-level officials in the executive branch of U.S. government such as department heads of independent agencies. In ''Humphrey's Executor v. United States'', 295 U.S. 602 (1935), the Court distinguished between executive officers and quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial officers by stating that the former serve at the pleasure of the president and may be removed at their di ...
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Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most populous city in the country. The city boundaries encompass an area of about and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. It is the seat of Suffolk County (although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999). The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States. Boston is one of the oldest ...
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Edmund Gwenn
Edmund Gwenn (born Edmund John Kellaway; 26 September 1877 – 6 September 1959) was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the corresponding Golden Globe Award. He received a second Golden Globe and another Academy Award nomination for the comedy film ''Mister 880'' (1950). He is also remembered for his appearances in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. As a stage actor in the West End and on Broadway, he was associated with a wide range of works by modern playwrights, including Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and J. B. Priestley. After the Second World War, he lived in the United States, where he had a successful career in Hollywood and Broadway. Life and career Early years Gwenn was born in Wandsworth, London to John and Catherine ( Oliver) Kellaway. His brother was the actor Arthur Chesney, and his cousin ...
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Robert Donat
Friedrich Robert Donat (18 March 1905 – 9 June 1958) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's '' The 39 Steps'' (1935) and ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1939), winning for the latter the Academy Award for Best Actor. In his book, ''The Age of the Dream Palace'', Jeffrey Richards wrote that Donat was "British cinema's one undisputed romantic leading man in the 1930s". "The image he projected was that of the romantic idealist, often with a dash of the gentleman adventurer." Donat suffered from chronic asthma, which affected his career and limited him to appearing in only 20 films. Early life Friedrich Robert Donat was born and baptised in Withington, Manchester, the fourth and youngest son of Ernst Emil Donat, a civil engineer of German origin from Prussian Poland, and his wife, Rose Alice Green. He was of English, Polish, German and French descent and was educated at Manchester Central Grammar School for Boys. His older brother was Phili ...
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Clarence Brown
Clarence Leon Brown (May 10, 1890 – August 17, 1987) was an American film director. Early life Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to Larkin Harry Brown, a cotton manufacturer, and Katherine Ann Brown (née Gaw), Brown moved to Tennessee when he was 11 years old. He attended Knoxville High School (Tennessee), Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of 19 with two degrees in engineering. An early fascination in Car, automobiles led Brown to a job with the Stevens-Duryea, Stevens-Duryea Company, then to his own Brown Motor Car Company in Alabama. He later abandoned the car dealership after developing an interest in motion pictures around 1913. He was hired by the Peerless Studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and became an assistant to the French-born director Maurice Tourneur. Career After serving as a fighter pilot and flight instructor in the United States Army Air Service during World War I,
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Douglass Dumbrille
Douglass Rupert Dumbrille (October 13, 1889 – April 2, 1974) was a Canadian actor who appeared regularly in films from the early 1930s. Life and career Douglass Dumbrille ( ) was born in Hamilton, Ontario. As a young man, he was employed as a bank clerk in Hamilton while pursuing an interest in acting. He eventually left banking for the theatre, finding work with a stock company that led him to Chicago, Illinois, and another that toured the United States. In 1913, the East Coast film industry was flourishing and that year he appeared in the film ''What Eighty Million Women Want'', but it would be another 11 years before he appeared on screen again. In 1924, he made his Broadway debut and worked off and on in the theatre for several years while supplementing his income by selling such products as car accessories, tea, insurance, real estate, and books. During the Great Depression, Dumbrille resumed his screen career in Hollywood, where he specialized in playing secondar ...
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Chill Wills
Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American actor and a singer in the Avalon Boys quartet. Early life Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas, on July 18, 1902. Career He was a performer from early childhood, forming and leading the Avalon Boys singing group in the 1930s. After appearing in a few Westerns, he disbanded the group in 1938, and struck out on a solo acting career. One of his more memorable roles was that of the distinctive voice of Francis the Talking Mule in a series of popular films. Wills' deep, rough voice, with its Western twang, was matched to the personality of the cynical, sardonic mule. As was customary at the time, Wills was given no billing for his vocal work, though he was featured prominently on-screen as blustery General Ben Kaye in the fourth entry, ''Francis Joins the WACS''. He provided the deep voice for Stan Laurel's performance of "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" in '' Way Out West'' (1937), in which th ...
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Marta Linden
Marta Linden (born Marta Leffler; October 24, 1903 - December 13, 1990) was an American actress. She was best known for appearing in Mickey Rooney's film ''A Yank at Eton'' (1942). Early life Linden was born Marta Leffler on October 24, 1903, in New York City, and she was the daughter of Swedish parents. In the 1920s, she married businessman Alfred Schmid, whose fortune disappeared in the Great Depression. After her husband lost his fortune, Linden found a job working at a candy counter. Eventually she decided that opportunity awaited in Hollywood, so the family moved there. Her acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse developed into playing female leads. That exposure, in turn, led to interest from film executives. Career Film career In 1942, Linden signed a long-term contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Films in which she appeared include ''The Youngest Profession'' (1943), ''A Yank at Eton'' (1942), ''Maisie Goes to Reno'' (1944), and ''Stand By for Action'' (1942). Broa ...
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Henry O'Neill
Henry O'Neill (August 10, 1891 – May 18, 1961) was an American film actor known for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles during the 1930s and 1940s. Early years He was born in Orange, New Jersey. Career O'Neill began his acting career on the stage, after dropping out of college to join a traveling theatre company. He served in the Navy in World War I, after which he worked at several jobs, including being an usher in a funeral home. Eventually, he returned to the stage. His Broadway debut came in ''The Spring'' (1921), and his final Broadway appearance was in ''Shooting Star'' (1933). He also acted with the Provincetown Players and the Celtic Players. In the early 1930s he began appearing in films, including ''The Big Shakedown'' (1934), the Western ''Santa Fe Trail'' (1940), the musical ''Anchors Aweigh'' (1945), ''The Green Years'' (1946), and ''The Reckless Moment'' (1949). His last film was ''The Wings of Eagles'' (1957), starring J ...
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Navy Cross
The Navy Cross is the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps' second-highest military decoration awarded for sailors and marines who distinguish themselves for extraordinary heroism in combat with an armed enemy force. The medal is equivalent to the Army's Distinguished Service Cross, the Air Force and Space Force's Air Force Cross, and the Coast Guard Cross. The Navy Cross is bestowed by the Secretary of the Navy and may also be awarded to members of the other armed services, and to foreign military personnel while serving with the U.S. naval services. The Navy Cross was established by Act of Congress ( Public Law 65-253) and approved on February 4, 1919. History The Navy Cross was instituted in part due to the entrance of the United States into World War I. Many European nations had the custom of decorating heroes from other nations, but the Medal of Honor was the sole U.S. award for valor at the time. The Army instituted the Distinguished Service Cross and Distin ...
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Torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such a device was called an automotive, automobile, locomotive, or fish torpedo; colloquially a ''fish''. The term ''torpedo'' originally applied to a variety of devices, most of which would today be called naval mine, mines. From about 1900, ''torpedo'' has been used strictly to designate a self-propelled underwater explosive device. While the 19th-century battleship had evolved primarily with a view to engagements between armored warships with naval artillery, large-caliber guns, the invention and refinement of torpedoes from the 1860s onwards allowed small torpedo boats and other lighter surface combatant , surface vessels, submarines/submersibles, even improvised fishing boats or frogmen, and later light aircraft, to destroy large shi ...
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