Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan was an American actress, producer and entrepreneur. Born in Texas to Irish immigrant parents, Guinan decided at an early age to become an entertainer. After becoming a star on the New York stage, the repercussions of her involvement in a weight loss scam motivated her to switch careers to the film business. Spending several years in California appearing in numerous productions, she eventually formed her own company.
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in Quick Millions (1931) with Spencer Tracy, Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, Invisible Stripes (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon, and as a dancer in Bolero (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Bogart.
They Drive by Night is a 1940 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh and starring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, and Humphrey Bogart. The picture involves a pair of embattled truck drivers and was released in the UK under the title The Road to Frisco. The film was based on A. I. Bezzerides' 1938 novel Long Haul, which was later reprinted under the title They Drive by Night to capitalize on the success of the film. Part of the film's plot was borrowed from another Warner Bros. film, Bordertown (1935) with Paul Muni and Bette Davis; almost a year after the release of Bordertown, actress and comedienne Thelma Todd's actual death in 1935 by carbon monoxide poisoning in her garage is generally agreed to be an accident resulting from intoxication.
The Bowery is a 1933 American pre-Code action film set in the Lower East Side of Manhattan around the start of the 20th century directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Wallace Beery and George Raft. The supporting cast features Jackie Cooper, Fay Wray, and Pert Kelton.
Each Dawn I Die is a 1939 gangster film directed by William Keighley and starring James Cagney and George Raft. The plot of Each Dawn I Die involves an investigative reporter who is unjustly thrown in jail and befriends a famous gangster. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Jerome Odlum and the supporting cast features Jane Bryan, George Bancroft, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, and Victor Jory.
Broadway is a 1942 crime drama musical film directed by William A. Seiter and starring George Raft as himself and Pat O'Brien as a detective. The supporting cast features Janet Blair and Broderick Crawford.
Sextette is a 1978 musical comedy film directed by Ken Hughes and released by Crown International Pictures. It stars Mae West, alongside an ensemble cast including Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, George Hamilton, Alice Cooper and Walter Pidgeon.
The Princess Comes Across is a 1936 mystery/comedy film directed by William K. Howard and starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray, the second of the four times they were paired together. Lombard, playing an actress from Brooklyn pretending to be a Swedish princess, does a "film-length takeoff" on MGM's Swedish star Greta Garbo. The film was based on the 1935 novel A Halálkabin by Louis Lucien Rogger, the pseudonym of Laszlo Aigner and Louis Acze.
Belle of the Nineties is a 1934 American Western film directed by Leo McCarey and released by Paramount Pictures. Mae West's fourth motion picture, it was based on her original story It Ain't No Sin, which was also to be the film's title until censors objected. Johnny Mack Brown, Duke Ellington, and Katherine DeMille are also in the cast. The film is noted for being the premiere performance of the jazz standard "My Old Flame", performed by West with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
You and Me is a 1938 American crime film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Sylvia Sidney and George Raft. They play a pair of criminals on parole and working in a department store full of similar cases; Harry Carey's character routinely hires ex-convicts to staff his store. The film was written by Norman Krasna and Virginia Van Upp.
Night World is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film featuring Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, and Boris Karloff. The supporting cast includes George Raft and Hedda Hopper.
Madame Racketeer is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film featuring Alison Skipworth, Richard Bennett and George Raft. The movie was directed by Harry Wagstaff Gribble and Alexander Hall. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Winner Take All is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney as a boxer. The film also features a single scene of George Raft conducting a band that had been lifted from Queen of the Nightclubs, an earlier film and lost film. Cagney and Raft would not make a full-fledged film together until Each Dawn I Die seven years later.
All of Me is a 1934 American pre-Code drama film directed by James Flood and starring Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, and George Raft. The film was written by actor Thomas Mitchell and Sidney Buchman from Rose Porter's play Chrysalis.
Queen of the Night Clubs is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical drama film produced and directed by Bryan Foy, distributed by Warner Bros., and starred legendary nightclub hostess Texas Guinan. The picture, which featured appearances by Eddie Foy, Jr., Lila Lee, and George Raft, is now considered a lost film. A still existing vintage movie trailer of this film displays no clip of the feature.
Rumba is a 1935 musical drama film starring George Raft as a Cuban dancer and Carole Lombard as a Manhattan socialite. The movie was directed by Marion Gering and is considered an unsuccessful follow-up to Raft and Lombard's smash hit Bolero the previous year.
Alison Skipworth was an English stage and screen actress.
The Story of Temple Drake is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by Stephen Roberts and starring Miriam Hopkins and Jack La Rue. It tells the story of Temple Drake, a reckless woman in the American South who falls into the hands of a brutal gangster and rapist. It was adapted from the highly controversial 1931 novel Sanctuary by William Faulkner. Though some of the more salacious elements of the source novel were not included, the film was still considered so indecent that it helped give rise to the strict enforcement of the Hays Code.
Broadway Through a Keyhole, also billed as Broadway Thru a Keyhole, is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film produced by Twentieth Century Pictures and released by United Artists.
They Call It Sin is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Loretta Young as a farmer's daughter who follows a traveling salesman to New York City, only to discover he already is engaged.
