The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It also features Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, and Eric Blore. The screenplay was written by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost, and Edward Kaufman. It is based on the Broadway musical Gay Divorce, written by Dwight Taylor, with Kenneth Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein adapting an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners.
ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, starred in many silent film dramas, such as Erich von Stroheim's 1924 epic Greed, and comedies, before transitioning successfully to mostly comedy roles with the advent of sound films. She also appeared on numerous radio shows and, later, made her mark on television. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 at 6554 Hollywood Blvd.
Gwili Andre was a Danish model and actress who had a brief career in Hollywood films.
Toshia Mori was an American actress who had a brief Hollywood film career during the late 1920s and 1930s. Born as Toshiye Ichioka in Kyoto, Mori moved to the United States when she was 10.
She is a 1935 American adventure film produced by Merian C. Cooper. It is based on the 1887 novel of the same name by H. Rider Haggard. A man named Leo Vincey travels with his friend and the daughter of a guide to a mysterious place in Northern Siberia, where his ancestor reported finding the secret to immortality. They discover a lost world where a woman named She Who Must Be Obeyed - known as "She" - rules over an exotic civilization. She believes Leo is a reincarnation of his ancestor, whom She loved, and offers to share the secret of immortality with him. She dies in an effort to demonstrate that the immortal flame will not kill Leo. The film stars Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott and Nigel Bruce. Cooper originally wanted to film She in color, but switched to black-and-white after last-minute budget cuts.
Hildegarde Withers is a fictional character, an amateur crime-solver, who has appeared in several novels, short stories and films. She was created by American mystery author Stuart Palmer (1905–1968).
Without Reservations is a 1946 RKO Radio Pictures American comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Claudette Colbert, John Wayne and Don DeFore. The film was adapted by Andrew Solt from the novel Thanks, God! I'll Take It From Here by Jane Allen and Mae Livingston.
Joan of Paris is a 1942 war film about five Royal Air Force pilots shot down over Nazi-occupied France during World War II and their attempt to escape to England. It stars Michèle Morgan and Paul Henreid, with Thomas Mitchell, Laird Cregar and May Robson in her last role.
The Falcon's Brother is a 1942 American crime drama film in which George Sanders, who had been portraying "The Falcon" in a series of films, appears with his real-life brother Tom Conway; with Sanders handing off the series to Conway, who would play the new Falcon in nine subsequent films. Jane Randolph was featured in a supporting role. The Falcon's Brother, the only one to feature two Falcons, was directed by Stanley Logan.
C. Henry Gordon was an American stage and film actor.
Westward Passage is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Robert Milton and starring Ann Harding, Laurence Olivier, ZaSu Pitts and Irving Pichel. The screenplay concerns a woman who falls in love and marries, but soon discovers how unpleasant her new husband is. The film marked Olivier's second major role in the United States. It was not a commercial or critical success, and Olivier did not make another film in America until 1939 when he starred in Wuthering Heights. The film recorded a loss of $250,000.
Isle of Destiny is a 1940 American comedy adventure film set in the South Seas. The film was directed by Elmer Clifton and originally produced by Franklyn Warner for Grand National Pictures in 1939. Isle of Destiny was the only feature film filmed in the Cosmocolor process with prints by Cinecolor. Isle of Destiny stars William Gargan, Wallace Ford, June Lang and Gilbert Roland.
The Monkey's Paw is a 1933 American pre-Code horror film co-directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack (prologue) and Wesley Ruggles, based on the short story "The Monkey's Paw" (1902) by W. W. Jacobs. It tells of a family who obtains a cursed monkey paw that grants three wishes. Because the film was shorter than anticipated after the initial shooting, the producers added a prologue. Though the film was not widely viewed upon its release in the United States, it was well-liked in England. Critical reviews were mixed, ranging from an appreciation of its suspense to a dislike of its plot. It has been considered a lost film, but parts of it were rediscovered in 2016.
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA executive David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone, and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name. Two years later, another Kennedy concern, the Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum.
Cross Fire is a 1933 American pre-Code Western film starring Tom Keene and directed by Otto Brower. Produced and distributed by RKO, it cost $26,000 to make and produced a profit of $30,000. The plot follows a soldier who returns from World War I and seeks justice for a man falsely accused of murder. Critical reviews were mixed, with some praising the story and others stating that the action was overridden by the plot.
The Falcon in Hollywood is a 1944 crime film directed by Gordon Douglas and stars Tom Conway in his recurring role as a suave amateur sleuth, supported by Barbara Hale, Jean Brooks, and Rita Corday. The film was the 10th of 16 in Falcon detective series.
Week-End for Three is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Irving Reis and starring Dennis O'Keefe, Jane Wyatt and Edward Everett Horton. It was produced and distributed by RKO Pictures.
The Falcon in Mexico is a 1944 film directed by William Berke and stars Tom Conway in his recurring role as a suave amateur sleuth, supported by Mona Maris and Martha Vickers. Conway would play the Falcon seven more times before RKO retired the franchise in 1946.The Falcon in Mexico was the ninth of 16 films in the Falcon detective series. The film features many second unit sequences filmed in Mexico and Brazil; the latter scenes from Orson Welles's aborted film It's All True.
Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Mark Sandrich and written by Humphrey Pearson and Edward Kaufman. The film stars Charles Farrell, Wynne Gibson, William Gargan, ZaSu Pitts, Betty Furness and Blanche Friderici. The film was released on November 3, 1933, by RKO Pictures.
Forty Naughty Girls is a 1937 American comedy mystery film directed by Edward F. Cline and written by John Grey. The film stars James Gleason, ZaSu Pitts, Marjorie Lord, George Shelley and Joan Woodbury. It is the sixth and final entry in RKO Pictures' series of Hildegarde Withers films. This film was the sixth film in the Hildegarde Withers-Oscar Piper series, and the second film in which ZaSu Pitts appeared as Hildegarde. Before Pitts, Edna May Oliver and Helen Broderick had played the role.
