Wake Island is a 1942 American action drama war film directed by John Farrow, written by W. R. Burnett and Frank Butler, and starring Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Barbara Britton, and William Bendix. The film tells the story of the United States military garrison on Wake Island and the onslaught by the Japanese following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Buddy Ebsen, also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971); afterwards he starred as the title character in the television detective drama Barnaby Jones (1973–1980).
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.
Barnaby Jones is an American detective television series starring Buddy Ebsen as a formerly retired investigator and Lee Meriwether as his widowed daughter-in-law. They run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show was originally introduced as a midseason replacement on the CBS network and ran from 1973 to 1980. Halfway through the series' run, Mark Shera was added to the cast as a much younger cousin of Ebsen's character, who eventually joined the firm.
Eamon Joseph O'Brien was an American actor of stage, screen, and television, and film director. His career spanned almost 40 years, and he won one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Charles John "Tim" Holt III was an American actor. He was a popular Western star during the 1940s and early 1950s, appearing in forty-six B westerns released by RKO Pictures.
The United States Army Airborne School—widely known as Jump School—conducts the basic paratrooper training for the United States Armed Forces. It is operated by the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 507th Infantry, United States Army Infantry School, Fort Moore, Georgia. The Airborne School conducts the Basic Airborne Course, which is open to troops from all branches of the United States Department of Defense, Reserve Officer Training Corps, and allied military personnel.
Flying Tigers is a 1942 American black-and-white war film drama from Republic Pictures that was produced by Edmund Grainger, directed by David Miller, and stars John Wayne, John Carroll, and Anna Lee.
Dave O'Brien was an American film actor, director, and screenwriter.
Mail Order Bride is a 1964 American Western comedy film directed by Burt Kennedy and starring Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea and Lois Nettleton. The screenplay concerns an old man who pressures the wild son of a dead friend into marrying a mail-order bride in an attempt to settle him down.
Ceiling Zero is a 1936 American adventure drama film directed by Howard Hawks and starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The picture stars Cagney as daredevil womanizing pilot "Dizzy" Davis and O'Brien as Jake Lee, his war veteran buddy and the operations manager of an airline company. Based on a stage play of the same name, the film blends drama with some light comedy. The title, as defined at the beginning of the picture, is an insider term referring to those moments when the sky is so thick with fog that navigating an aircraft is nearly impossible.
Bombardier is a 1943 film war drama about the training program for bombardiers of the United States Army Air Forces. The film stars Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott. Bombardier was nominated for an Oscar in 1944 for the special effects used in the film. It was largely filmed at Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico, site of the first bombardier training school.
Marine Raiders is a 1944 RKO war film showing a fictional depiction of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion and 1st Marine Parachute Battalion on Guadalcanal, R&R in Australia, retraining in Camp Elliott and a fictional attack in the Solomon Islands. Produced by Robert Fellows, and directed by Harold D. Schuster, it stars Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, and Ruth Hussey.
Behave Yourself! is a 1951 American comedy film directed and cowritten by George Beck, starring Farley Granger and Shelley Winters and released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Paul G. Fredricks was an American brass musician of the Big Bands Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He is known for his unique skills as a trumpeter and left his mark on a range of larger bands such as the orchestras of Alvino Rey, Charlie Spivak, Les Brown's Band of Renown, and Mel Torme's Mel-Tones, in the jazz music scene of the period surrounding World War II . He later ventured off with his own New Orleans-style Dixieland jazz band The Paul Fredricks Orchestra, later The Crescent City Stompers. He was featured in some Hollywood films including A. Edward Sutherland and RKO Pictures' Sing Your Worries Away (1942), starring Buddy Ebsen, Patsy Kelly and Bert Lahr.
A Girl, a Guy and a Gob is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Richard Wallace and starring George Murphy, Lucille Ball, and Edmond O'Brien. Produced by Harold Lloyd, it was made and distributed by RKO Pictures.
They Met in Argentina is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Leslie Goodwins and Jack Hively for RKO Pictures. Hively had to come in and finish the picture after Goodwins was hospitalized for pneumonia. Maureen O'Hara plays an Argentinian who falls in love with a Texan, who is attempting to buy a racehorse from her father. It was one of a number of Hollywood films from the 1940s produced to reflect America's "Good Neighbor policy" towards Latin American countries. They Met in Argentina was not well received by audiences, critics, or the Argentine government.
The Night of January 16th is a 1941 American crime drama film directed by William Clemens, based on a 1934 play of the same name by Ayn Rand. The story follows Steve Van Ruyle and Kit Lane as they investigate the apparent murder of Lane's boss, in an attempt to clear her as a suspect.
Don Terry was an American film actor, best known for his lead appearances in B films and serials in the 1930s and early 1940s. Perhaps his best-known role is Naval Commander Don Winslow in two Universal Pictures serials of the early 1940s, Don Winslow of the Navy (1942) and Don Winslow of the Coast Guard (1943).
The Daughters of Joshua Cabe is a 1972 American made-for-television Western film directed by Philip Leacock. The story is about an aging homesteader in the Old West who needs children to help him establish his claim on his property. With his real daughters unavailable, he recruits three young women with minor criminal backgrounds to pose as his daughters.
