Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director and producer. During the 1930s, he was one of the two great practitioners of economical and effective film directing at Warner Brothers studios, the other his colleague, Michael Curtiz. LeRoy's most acclaimed films of his tenure at Warners include Little Caesar (1931), I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) and They Won't Forget (1937). LeRoy left Warners and moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1939 to serve as both director and producer. Perhaps his most notable achievement as a producer is the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
Marion Davies was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl. As a teenager, she appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, Runaway Romany (1917). She soon became a featured performer in the Ziegfeld Follies. While performing in the 1916 Follies, the nineteen-year-old Marion met the fifty-three-year-old newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst, and became his mistress. Hearst took over management of Davies' career and promoted her as a film actress.
Arthur Lake was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie, to life in film, radio, and television.
Show People is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by King Vidor. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film was a starring vehicle for actress Marion Davies and actor William Haines and included notable cameo appearances by many of the film personalities of the day, including stars Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and John Gilbert, and writer Elinor Glyn. Vidor also appears in a cameo as himself, as does Davies.
Old Acquaintance is a 1943 American drama film released by Warner Bros. It was directed by Vincent Sherman and produced by Henry Blanke with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay by John Van Druten, Lenore Coffee and Edmund Goulding was based on Van Druten's 1940 play of the same title.
The Battle Over Citizen Kane is a 1996 American documentary film directed and produced by Thomas Lennon and Michael Epstein, from a screenplay by Lennon and Richard Ben Cramer, who also narrates. It chronicles the clash between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst over the production and release of Welles's 1941 film Citizen Kane, which has been considered the greatest film ever made.
Robert Paige was an American actor and a TV newscaster and political correspondent and Universal Pictures leading man who made 65 films in his lifetime.
Noah's Ark is a 1928 American part-talkie epic disaster film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Dolores Costello and George O'Brien. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The story is by Darryl F. Zanuck. The film was released by the Warner Bros. studio. Most scenes are silent with a synchronized music score and sound effects, in particular the biblical ones, while some scenes have dialogue.
Laughing Sinners is a 1931 American pre-Code Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in a story about a cafe entertainer who experiences spiritual redemption. The dialogue by Martin Flavin was based upon the play Torch Song by Kenyon Nicholson. The film was directed by Harry Beaumont. Laughing Sinners was the second of eight cinematic collaborations between Crawford and Gable.
The Trail of '98 is a 1928 American synchronized sound action-adventure/drama film featuring Harry Carey and Dolores del Río about the Klondike Gold Rush. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score, with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film was originally released by MGM in a short-lived widescreen process called "Fantom Screen". The film is based on the 1910 novel of the same name, written by Robert W. Service.
Roscoe Karns was an American actor who appeared in nearly 150 films between 1915 and 1964. He specialized in cynical, wise-cracking characters, and his rapid-fire delivery enlivened many comedies and crime thrillers in the 1930s and 1940s.
Hollywood Canteen is a 1944 American musical romantic comedy film starring Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Dane Clark and features many stars in cameo roles. and produced by Warner Bros. The film was written and directed by Delmer Daves and received three Oscar nominations.
One Sunday Afternoon is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Roberts and starring Gary Cooper and Fay Wray. Based on the 1933 Broadway play by James Hagan, the film is about a middle-aged dentist who reminisces about his unrequited love for a beautiful woman and his former friend who betrayed him and married her. This pre-Code film was released by Paramount Pictures on September 1, 1933.
The Great White Way is a 1924 American silent comedy film centered on the sport of boxing. It was directed by E. Mason Hopper and produced by Cosmopolitan Productions and distributed through Goldwyn Pictures. The film was made with the cooperation of the New York City Fire Department. The film stars Oscar Shaw and Anita Stewart. It was remade twelve years later as Cain and Mabel with Marion Davies and Clark Gable.
Little Old New York is a 1923 American silent historical drama film starring Marion Davies and directed by Sidney Olcott that was based on a play of the same name by Rida Johnson Young. The film was produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan production unit.
Sincerely Yours is a 1955 Warner Color film romantic music comedy starring Liberace. It was Liberace's first starring motion picture and was a recreation of his concert performances and a remake of the Warner Bros. 1932 film The Man Who Played God, which was itself a remake of the 1922 film The Man Who Played God, also based on the 1914 Jules Eckert Goodman play The Silent Voice.
Red Hot Tires is a 1935 American crime drama film produced and distributed by Warner Bros., directed by D. Ross Lederman, and starring Lyle Talbot and Mary Astor. The plot involves a racing driver (Talbot) falsely accused of murdering a rival driver during a race and his friends' attempts to prove his innocence.
Boy Meets Girl is a 1938 American screwball comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The supporting cast features Marie Wilson, Ralph Bellamy, Frank McHugh, Dick Foran and Ronald Reagan. The screenplay by Bella and Sam Spewack is based on their 1935 stage play of the same name, which ran for 669 performances on Broadway. The two zany screenwriters played by Cagney and O'Brien were based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, while Ralph Bellamy's part as the producer was based on Darryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox.
Merry Wives of Reno is a 1934 American pre-Code comedy film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and starring Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay, Hugh Herbert, Frank McHugh and Ruth Donnelly. The film was released by Warner Bros. on May 12, 1934.
Polly of the Circus was a 1907 Broadway play by Margaret Mayo which starred Mabel Taliaferro and was produced by Taliaferro's husband, Frederic Thompson. A circus girl/minister love story known for its drama and its spectacle staging, the cast also included Edith Taliaferro, Herbert Ayling, Joseph Brennan, Mattie Ferguson, John Findlay, Guy Nichols, Ida St. Leon and Malcolm Williams.
