Robert Siodmak was a German film director who also worked in the United States. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of films noir he made in the 1940s, such as The Killers (1946).
Nancy Kelly was an American actress in film, theater, and television. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The March of Time, and appeared in several films in the late 1920s. She became a leading lady upon returning to the screen in the late 1930s, while still in her teens, and made two dozen movies between 1938 and 1946, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone, later that same year. After turning to the stage in the late 1940s, she had her greatest success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 1955 stage production and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for the 1956 film adaptation, her last film role. Kelly then worked regularly in television until 1963, then took over the role of Martha in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for several months. She returned to television for a handful of appearances in the mid-1970s.
Cry of the City is a 1948 American film noir starring Victor Mature, Richard Conte, and Shelley Winters. Directed by Robert Siodmak, it is based on the novel by Henry Edward Helseth, The Chair for Martin Rome. The screenwriter Ben Hecht worked on the film's script, but is not credited. The film was partly shot on location in New York City.
Christmas Holiday is a 1944 American film noir crime film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly. Based on the 1939 novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham, the film is about a woman who marries a Southern aristocrat who inherited his family's streak of violence and instability and soon drags the woman into a life of misery. After he is arrested, the woman runs away from her husband's family, changes her name, and finds work as a singer in a New Orleans dive. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score for Hans J. Salter.
A Very Young Lady is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Harold D. Schuster and starring Jane Withers and Nancy Kelly. It was produced and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. It was based on the play Matura by Ladislas Fodor which had previously been adapted by the studio into the 1936 film Girls' Dormitory.
Betrayal from the East is a 1945 American spy drama film starring Lee Tracy and Nancy Kelly. The film was directed by William A. Berke and based on the book Betrayal from the East: The Inside Story of Japanese Spies in America by Alan Hynd. The supporting cast features Richard Loo, Regis Toomey, Philip Ahn, Victor Sen Yung, Jason Robards Sr. and Drew Pearson.
Vigil in the Night is a 1940 RKO Pictures drama film based on the 1939 serialized novel Vigil in the Night by A. J. Cronin. The film was produced and directed by George Stevens and stars Carole Lombard, Brian Aherne and Anne Shirley.
The Magnetic Monster is a 1953 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, produced by Ivan Tors and George Van Marter, directed by Curt Siodmak and (uncredited) Herbert L. Strock. The film stars Richard Carlson, King Donovan, and Jean Byron. Strother Martin appears briefly in one scene as an airliner co-pilot. The film was released by United Artists.
Cyrus Willard Kendall was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1935 and 1950. Kendall's heavy-set, square-jawed appearance and deep voice were perfect for wiseguy roles such as policemen and police chiefs, wardens, military officers, bartenders, reporters, and mobsters.
Roy Paul Harvey was an American character actor who appeared in at least 177 films.
Frank Reppy Wilcox was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films and television series, as well as Broadway plays.
Whispering Smith Hits London is a 1952 British mystery film directed by Francis Searle and starring Richard Carlson, Greta Gynt and Herbert Lom. It was released in the United States by RKO Pictures as Whispering Smith vs. Scotland Yard.
The Millerson Case is a 1947 American mystery drama film directed by George Archainbaud and starring Warner Baxter, Nancy Saunders and Clem Bevans. In the 8th film of Columbia's Crime Doctor series, Dr. Robert Ordway is vacationing in the Blue Ridge Mountains district of West Virginia when a Typhoid fever epidemic breaks out. Three deaths occur, with the first two being typhoid-caused. The death of the third person is from poisoning.
The Burning Secret is a 1933 Austrian-German drama film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Alfred Abel, Hilde Wagener and Hans Joachim Schaufuß. It was based on the 1913 novella of the same title by Stefan Zweig. It was released by the German branch of Universal Pictures. It was shot at the EFA Studios in Berlin and on location around Ascona in Switzerland. The film's sets were designed by the art director Robert A. Dietrich.
Highways by Night is a 1942 American crime drama film directed by Peter Godfrey from a screenplay by Lynn Root and Frank Fenton, based on the story Silver Spoon, by Clarence Budington Kelland. The film stars Richard Carlson and Jane Randolph.
West Point Widow is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Anne Shirley, Richard Carlson and Richard Denning. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
The Night Before the Divorce is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lynn Bari, Mary Beth Hughes and Joseph Allen, adapted from the 1937 play of the same name by Gina Kaus and Ladislas Fodor.
My Heart Belongs to Daddy is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Richard Carlson, Martha O'Driscoll and Cecil Kellaway.
The Night Club Lady is a 1932 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Irving Cummings and starring Adolphe Menjou, Mayo Methot and Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher. It was followed by a sequel The Circus Queen Murder in 1933 with Menjou reprising his role. A third, unrelated film featuring Thatcher Colt, The Panther's Claw, was released in 1942.
John Hugh Elliott was an American actor who appeared on Broadway and in over 300 films during his career. He worked sporadically during the silent film era, but with the advent of sound his career took off, where he worked constantly for 25 years, finding a particular niche in "B" westerns.
