|
Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford (born Samuel Grundy Jones; 12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English-born naturalized American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with a small but powerful, stocky physique. Early life He was born Samuel Grundy Jones in Bolton, Lancashire, England, into a working-class family of limited means. At the age of three, he was placed by his uncle and aunt, in whose care he had been, into a Barnardo's orphanage home, since they were unable to maintain his upkeep along with their own several children. When he was seven, he and other children from similar backgrounds were shipped to Canada to be found new homes with farming foster families as a part of the British Empire's ongoing programme to populate the territory. Samuel was adopted by a family in Manitoba. He was ill-treated and became a serial runaway, being resettled several times with different families by ... [...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] |
Seventeen (Tarkington Novel)
''Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family Especially William'' is a humorous novel by Booth Tarkington that gently satirizes first love, in the person of a callow 17-year-old, William Sylvanus Baxter. ''Seventeen'' takes place in a small city in the Midwestern United States shortly before World War I. It was published as sketches in the '' Metropolitan Magazine'' in 1915 and 1916, and collected in a single volume by Harper and Brothers in 1916, when it was the bestselling novel in the United States. Plot summary The middle-class Baxter family enjoys a comfortable and placid life until the summer when their neighbors, the Parcher family, play host to an out-of-town visitor, Lola Pratt. An aspiring actress, Lola is a "howling belle of eighteen" who talks baby-talk "even at breakfast" and holds the center of attention wherever she goes. She instantly captivates William with her beauty, her flirtatious manner, and her ever-present prop, a tiny white lap do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roar Of The Press
''Roar of the Press'' is a 1941 American comedy-drama crime film directed by Phil Rosen and starring Jean Parker and Wallace Ford. Plot Married only a few hours, small-town girl Alice makes her first visit to New York with new husband Wally Williams, a hotshot reporter for the Globe. A body falls from a building. Williams steals the identification and calls in the story to city editor MacEwen, who makes Wally follow it up. Reporters' wives warn Alice to expect this kind of thing. A personal ad leads Wally to a second corpse. The police read about in the Globe and angrily haul Wally in for questioning. Alice's irritation grows, as does that of reporters from other newspapers at Wally's continued scoops. Evildoers from an anti-American organization kidnap Wally, and when he won't reveal how he gets his information, they grab Alice as well. Sparrow McGraun runs a numbers racket but likes Wally better than these foreigners, so he saves the newlyweds. A grateful Wally gives this sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder By Invitation
''Murder by Invitation'' is a 1941 American mystery film directed by Phil Rosen and starring Wallace Ford. Plot The relatives of Cassandra "Cassie" Denham, an old unmarried lady living in New York who is reputedly good for three million dollars, try to make a judge declare her unable to take care of herself financially. The attempt fails, and in charge of handing in the petition is Cassie's nephew Garson Denham, a lawyer. Instead he summons a newspaper reporter, Bob White (Wallace Ford), and his girlfriend, Nora O'Brien (Marian Marsh), and tells them he has been invited to stay a week at Cassie's estate up in the mountains. The invitation states that any relative not arriving at the specified time will be excluded from the will. Garson believes his aunt is mentally unsound and plans to kill them all during the stay. Despite this Garson and his wife, his brothers Tom and Larry and their mother Martha keep the appointment. As they arrive Cassie tells them that they are there so th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rogues' Tavern
''The Rogues' Tavern'' is a 1936 American murder mystery film directed by Robert F. Hill and starring Wallace Ford, Barbara Pepper, and Joan Woodbury. The film was produced by Mercury Pictures, and released by Puritan Picture on June 4, 1936. Plot It is a bleak and windy night when Jimmy Kelly (Wallace Ford) and Marjorie Burns (Barbara Pepper) arrive at the Red Rock Tavern with plans to marry as soon as possible, but are told there are no rooms available. Mrs. Jamison (Clara Kimball Young) agrees to let them stay until the justice of the peace gets there, as they've arranged to meet him there. Everyone in the tavern is shocked when Harrison is killed, apparently by a wild dog that breaks in and attacks him. Mason appears to call the coroner and asks for him to get there as soon as possible. Because of the weather and the late hour, Mrs. Jamison agrees to let Jimmy and Marjorie stay the night, Jimmy in Bill's room, and Marjorie in Joan's room. A little while later Hughes is kille ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
B Movies
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature (akin to B-sides for recorded music). However, the U.S. production of films intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s. With the emergence of commercial television at that time, film studio B movie production departments changed into television film production divisions. They created much of the same type of content in low budget films and series. The term ''B movie'' continues to be used in its broader sense to this day. In its post-Golden Age usage, B movies can range from lurid exploitation films to independent arthouse films. In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low-budget science-fiction and horror films became more popular in the 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tod Browning
Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of various genres between 1915 and 1939, but was primarily known for horror films, and was often cited in the trade press as the Edgar Allan Poe of cinema. Browning's career spanned the silent film and sound film eras. He is known as the director of ''Dracula (1931 English-language film), Dracula'' (1931), ''Freaks (1932 film), Freaks'' (1932), and his silent film collaborations with Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean. Early life Charles Albert Browning, Jr., was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the second son of Charles Albert and Lydia Browning. Charles Albert Sr., "a bricklayer, carpenter and machinist," provided his family with a middle-class and Baptists, Baptist household. Browning's uncle, the baseball star Pete Browning, Pete "Louisville Slug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freaks (1932 Film)
''Freaks'' (also re-released as ''The Monster Story'', ''Forbidden Love'', and ''Nature's Mistakes'') is a 1932 American pre-Code horror film produced and directed by Tod Browning, starring Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, and Roscoe Ates. ''Freaks'', originally intended as a vehicle for Lon Chaney, is set amongst the backdrop of a travelling French circus and follows a conniving trapeze artist who joins a group of carnival sideshow performers with a plan to seduce and murder a dwarf in the troupe to gain his inheritance. However, her plot proves to have dangerous consequences. The film is based on elements from the short story " Spurs" by Tod Robbins, first published in ''Munsey's Magazine'' in February 1923, with the rights being purchased by the studio, responsible by MGM art department chief Cedric Gibbons. Filmed in Los Angeles in the fall of 1931, some employees at MGM were discomfited by the presence of the actors portraying the "freaks" on set, and, other tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions, Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur (1959 film), Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford launched a publicity campaign and built an image as a nationally-known flapper by the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money. By the end of the 1930s, she was labeled "box office poison". After an absence of nearly two years fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades of which was as a leading man. Gable died of a heart attack at the age of 59; his final on-screen appearance was as an aging cowboy in '' The Misfits'', released posthumously in 1961. Born and raised in Ohio, Gable traveled to Hollywood where he began his film career as an extra in silent films between 1924 and 1926. He progressed to supporting roles for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and his first leading role in ''Dance, Fools, Dance'' (1931) was alongside Joan Crawford, who requested him for the part. His role in the romantic drama '' Red Dust'' (1932) with reigning sex symbol Jean Harlow, made him MGM's biggest male star. Gable won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Frank Capra's romantic comedy ''It Happened One Night'' (1934), co-starring C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Possessed (1931 Film)
''Possessed'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Clarence Brown, starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film is the story of Marian Martin, a factory worker who rises to the top as the mistress of a wealthy attorney. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee was adapted from the 1920 Broadway play ''The Mirage'' by Edgar Selwyn. ''Possessed'' was the third of eight movie collaborations between Crawford and Gable. Plot Marian Martin (Joan Crawford) is a factory girl living with her mother in the working class section of Erie, Pennsylvania. Factory boy Al Manning (Wallace Ford) hopes to marry her, but Marian is determined to find a better life. When a train makes a stop in town, Marian looks through the windows and sees the wealthy passengers. She then makes the acquaintance of one of the train passengers, Wally Stuart (Richard "Skeets" Gallagher), a New Yorker who gives her champagne and writes down his address, telling her to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_-_12.jpg "Click for more on -> Tod Browning")
