Billy Curtis
Also Known As: Luigi Curto
Biography: Billy Curtis (June 27, 1909 - November 9, 1988) was an American film and television actor. He was a dwarf who had a 50-year career in a variety of roles. He was born on 27 June 1909 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and died November 9, 1988 in Dayton, Nevada, of a heart attack. According to the IMDb site, his birth name was Luigi Curto, and his height was 4 feet 2 inches (1.27 m). The bulk of his work was in the western and science fiction genres. One of his early jobs was as one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. He also appeared in Adventures of Superman in the 1950s. Most notably, Curtis worked in westerns, including the Clint Eastwood feature, High Plains Drifter in which he featured as Mordecai, a friendly dwarf sympathetic to Eastwood, he also appeared in the 1938 Musical/Western The Terror of Tiny Town. This film is, as far as is known, the world's only Western with an all-dwarf cast. Many of the actors in Tinytown were part of a performing troupe called Singer's Midgets, who also played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939. He also had a starring role in American International Pictures' 1973 release, Little Cigars, about a gang of "midgets" on a crime spree.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
Birthday: June 27, 1909
Deathday: November 09, 1988
Adult: No
Gender: Male
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Known For:
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Overview: A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
Genres: Science Fiction Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-02-22
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High Plains Drifter
Overview: A gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago. After gunning down three gunmen who tried to kill him, the townsfolk decide to hire the Stranger to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.
Genres: Western Drama Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-04-19
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The Terror of Tiny Town
Overview: Using a conventional Western story with an all dwarf cast, the filmmakers were able to showcase gags such as cowboys entering the local saloon by walking under the swinging doors, and pint-sized cowboys galloping around on Shetland ponies while roping calves.
Genres: Western Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-12-01
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Eating Raoul
Overview: A prudish married couple feel put upon by the swingers living in their apartment building. One night, by accident, they discover a way to both rid themselves of the “perverts” down the hall and simultaneously realize their dream of opening a restaurant.
Genres: Comedy Crime Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-03-24
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Superman and the Mole-Men
Overview: Reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in the small town of Silsby to witness the drilling of the world's deepest oil well. The drill, however, has penetrated the underground home of a race of small, furry people who then come to the surface at night to look around. The fact that they glow in the dark scares the townfolk, who form a mob, led by the vicious Luke Benson, intent on killing the strange people. Only Superman has a chance to prevent this tragedy.
Genres: Action Adventure Family Fantasy Romance Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-11-23
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Pygmy Island
Overview: Jungle Jim searches for a female Army captain who's gone missing.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-11-22
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Little Cigars
Overview: A gangster's former mistress hooks up with a troupe of circus midgets who, as a sideline, rob banks and casinos.
Genres: Action Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-06-22
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Homicide for Three
Overview: While on shore leave to celebrate his first anniversary, Lt. Peter Duluth (Warren Douglas) takes his wife, Iris (Audrey Long), to a Los Angeles hotel but is turned away. When mysterious Colette (Stephanie Bachelor) offers them her suite, the young couple becomes entangled in a murder plot. Aided by two PIs, Peter and Iris find two corpses and are desperate to locate Colette before she becomes the next victim, but the killers are one step ahead.
Genres: Action Adventure Crime Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-12-08
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White House Madness
Overview: The Nixon Administration falls apart in a farcical manner in the time of the Watergate Scandal.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-01-01
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Emergency Landing
Overview: A test pilot and his weather observer develop a "robot" control so airplanes can be flown without pilots, but enemy agents get wind of it and try to steal it or destroy it.
Genres: Action Drama Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-03-07
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Aphrodisiac: The Love Secret
Overview: A documentary examining the use of marijuana by young people in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Included are interviews with people who regularly use marijuana and testify to its beneficial effects as an aphrodisiac and scenes of nude encounter groups, instructions for making marijuana brownies, soldiers in Vietnam smoking marijuana, etc.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-11-05
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Princess of the Nile
Overview: Shalimar, an Egyptian princess, striving to rid her country of its Bedouin conquerors, forms an alliance with Prince Haidi, son of the Caliph of Bagdad. She practices her intrigues both at the court and, disguised as a dancing girl, in the market place.
Genres: Romance Adventure Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-07-01
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The Wizard of Oz
Overview: Young Dorothy finds herself in a magical world where she makes friends with a lion, a scarecrow and a tin man as they make their way along the yellow brick road to talk with the Wizard and ask for the things they miss most in their lives. The Wicked Witch of the West is the only thing that could stop them.
Genres: Adventure Fantasy Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-08-15
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Out of Sight
Overview: Teenage beach party/spy spoof/musical comedy about a plot to bomb a music fair. As his boss is on vacation, a superspy's butler must come to the rescue, while being pursued by a trio of gorgeous assassins who're agents of F.L.U.S.H. Features George Barris hotrods, along with the musical talents of Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Astronauts, The Knickerbockers, Freddy and the Dreamers, and the only film appearance of The Turtles.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-05-12
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Robin and the 7 Hoods
Overview: Set in Prohibition era Chicago, bootlegger Robbo and his cronies refuse to pay the greedy Guy Gisborne a cut of their profits after Guy shoots mob boss Big Jim and takes over. When Big Jim's daughter, Marian, gives Robbo a large sum, believing he has avenged her father's death, the gangster donates to an orphanage, cementing his reputation as a softhearted hood.
Genres: Music Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-06-24
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The Wild McCullochs
Overview: A story about the rich McCulloch Family, their overbearing father and the children's misguided blaming him for everything that doesn't go right.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-05-21
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Hello, Dolly!
Overview: Dolly Levi is a strong-willed matchmaker who travels to Yonkers, New York in order to see the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder. In doing so, she convinces his niece, his niece's intended, and Horace's two clerks to travel to New York City.
Genres: Music Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-12-12
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Three Texas Steers
Overview: Nancy Evans, lovely circus owner, has a ranch that she's never visited, but for sentimental reasons won't sell to Mike Abbott. Her partners, secretly in league with Abbott, sabotage the circus to force Nancy to sell the ranch; instead, she goes there to live. Will her neighbors, the Three Mesquiteers, be a match for the secret swindlers? And what's so valuable about that run-down ranch anyway?
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-05-12
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Jungle Moon Men
Overview: Priestess Oma is forever young in this Jungle Jim knockoff of "She" or the La of Opar stories from "Tarzan". The Jungle Jim-type character is played by Weissmuller using his own name.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-04-08
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Don't Lie
Overview: After Buckwheat tells the gang he's seen a big monkey, Spanky, Froggy and Mickey decide to teach him once and for all not to lie. What the gang doesn't know is that the monkey is real, and hilarity will ensue.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-04-04
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Evil Roy Slade
Overview: Orphaned and left in the desert as an infant, Evil Roy Slade (John Astin) grew up alone—save for his teddy bear—and mean. As an adult, he is notorious for being the "meanest villain in the West"—so he's thrown for quite a loop when he falls for sweet schoolteacher Betsy Potter (Pamela Austin). There's also Nelson L. Stool (Mickey Rooney), a railroad tycoon, who, along with his dimwitted nephew Clifford (Henry Gibson), is trying to get revenge on Evil Roy Slade for robbing him.
Genres: TV Movie Western Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-02-18
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Planet of the Apes
Overview: Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.
Genres: Science Fiction Adventure Drama Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-02-07
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The Adventures of Super Pup
Overview: The intrepid journalist of the Daily Bugle newspaper, Bark Bent, is secretly Superpup and must save his friend and co-worker Pamela Poodle from the clutches of the evil Professor Sheepdip.
Genres: Family TV Movie Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-01-01
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April Showers
Overview: A married couple who have a song-and-dance act in vaudeville are in trouble. Their struggling act is going nowhere, they're almost broke and they have to do something to get them back on top or they'll really be in trouble. They decide to put their young son in the act in hopes of attracting some new attention. The boy turns out to be a major talent, audiences love him and the act is on its way to the top. That's when an organization whose purpose is to stop children from performing on stage shows up, and they're dead set on breaking up the act.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-03-27
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Buck Privates Come Home
Overview: Two ex-soldiers return from overseas--one of them having smuggled into the country a French orphan girl he has become attached to. They wind up running into their old sergeant--who hates them--and getting involved with a race-car builder who's trying to find backers for a new midget racer he's building.
Genres: Comedy Romance Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-04-04
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Limelight
Overview: A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.
Genres: Romance Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-10-23
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Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!
Overview: Jackie Gleason and Jack Durant are teamed for the first and only time as Hank and Jed, a pair of dimwitted barbers who are forced into bankruptcy because all their customers have marched off to war. Figuring that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, Hank and Jed try to join the Army themselves, only to be rejected for a variety of reasons (When asked to read the eye-chart, Hank says he can't-not because he can't see, but because he can't read).
Genres: War Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-04-02
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Father Guido Sarducci's Vatican Inquirer: The Pope's Tour
Overview: Sketch comedy.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-10-18
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Friendly Persuasion
Overview: The story of a family of Quakers in Indiana in 1862. Their religious sect is strongly opposed to violence and war. It's not easy for them to meet the rules of their religion in everyday life but when Southern troops pass the area they are in real trouble. Should they fight, despite their peaceful attitude?
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-11-25
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Norwood
Overview: A Vietnam veteran returns to his Texas home but feels restless and decides to become a radio singer.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-11-24
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Lucky Legs
Overview: Chorus girl Gloria Carroll inherits one million dollars from Broadway playboy Herbert Dinwiddle. Producer Ned McLane persuades her to advance him the money on a production called "Lucky Legs" that will star her. Unfortunately, the money has "made the rounds" prior to reaching Gloria and several less-than-scrupulous characters set out to separate Gloria from her inheritance.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-10-01
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Saboteur
Overview: Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane flees across the United States after he is wrongly accused of starting the fire that killed his best friend.
Genres: Thriller Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-04-24
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Overview: Snow White must flee from her evil stepmother. She's taken in by the lovable seven dwarves. Will the wicked queen be able to get rid of her rival?
Genres: Fantasy Romance TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-07-16
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Ice-Capades
Overview: Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating on a different New York rink and pass her off as Karen. The scheme backfires when promoter Larry Herman takes a look at Bob's film and decides to make the skater a star. Unfortunately, it's actually amateur (and illegal immigrant) Marie Bergin in the newsreel footage, not the great figure skater from Switzerland. Chaos ensues as Bob tries to straighten everybody out.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-19
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Loose Shoes
Overview: Broad satire and buffoonery presented as a series of movie trailers. Among the titles and subjects are: "The Howard Huge Story", "Skate-boarders from Hell", "The Invasion of the Penis Snatchers", Woody Allen (pre-Mia), movie trailer come-ons, Charlie Chaplin, war movies, Billy Jack. The source of the title is presented about an hour into the film.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-09-01
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Hellzapoppin'
Overview: Olsen and Johnson, a pair of stage comedians, try to turn their play into a movie and bring together a young couple in love, while breaking the fourth wall every step of the way.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-12-25
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Man of a Thousand Faces
Overview: The turbulent life and professional career of vaudeville actor and silent screen horror star Lon Chaney (1883-1930), the man of a thousand faces; bearer of many personal misfortunes that even his great success could not mitigate.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-08-15
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The Hard Way
Overview: Helen Chernen pushes her younger sister Katherine into show business in order to escape their small town poverty.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-01-13
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Head Office
Overview: In this comic take on big-business wheelings and dealings, an ambitious senator's son moves up the corporate ladder through undeserved promotions. But against his better judgment, he falls for a woman (the chairman's daughter, no less) who's leading a protest against the company's shady business practices.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-06-06
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Backstage Party
Overview: Party, enterianment, and Behind the scenes
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-12-17
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Maisie Was a Lady
Overview: Showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself once again out of work. She meets a wealthy playboy who hires her to be his family's new maid. Maisie soon finds herself trying to mend the family's many problems.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-01-10
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Bob Hope Christmas Show
Overview: This Is Bob (For The First Time In Living Color) Hope' on NBC December 15th, 1965 With Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Janet Leigh, and Nancy Wilson join Bob for this hour of Christmas entertainment.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-12-15
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The Legend of Lylah Clare
Overview: A dictatorial film director hires an unknown actress to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.
Genres: Drama Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-08-21
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Two on a Guillotine
Overview: The daughter of a dead magician who accidentally killed his wife, her mother, while performing a guillotine trick must spend the night in his house in order to collect her inheritance. Is the house haunted or is it all magic?
Genres: Mystery Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-01-13
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