Phillips Holmes
Also Known As: Phillips Raymond Holmes, Phillips R. Holmes
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Phillips Raymond Holmes (July 22, 1907 – August 12, 1942) was an American actor. In 1928 Holmes was spotted in the undergraduate crowd at Princeton University during the filming of Frank Tuttle's Varsity and offered a screen test. In the early 1930s he became a popular leading man, playing leads in a few important productions, notably in Josef von Sternberg's An American Tragedy. At Paramount, Holmes starred in melodrama and comedy. In 1933 his Paramount contract ran out and he moved to MGM for one year. As the decade progressed, his career declined, and he appeared in a few box-office failures, including Sam Goldwyn's poorly received Nana (1934). His last American movie was General Spanky (1936). In 1938 Holmes appeared in two UK movies. Housemaster was his last film. Then he returned to acting on stage in the United States. At the start of World War II, Holmes joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was killed in a mid-air collision in northwest Ontario, Canada in 1942. For his contributions to the film industry, Phillips Holmes was posthumously given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: July 22, 1907
Age: 117 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: August 12, 1942
Popularity:
Known For:
Penthouse
Overview: Gertie Waxted knows how notorious gangster Jim Crelliman runs his rackets, because she's long been under the hoodlum's thumb. She's secretly helping lawyer Jackson Durant in a snoop job aimed at pinning a murder on the thug. Her life will be in peril when that secret gets out.
Genres: Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-09-08
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The Criminal Code
Overview: After young Robert Graham commits a murder while drunk and defending his girlfriend, he is prosecuted by ambitious Mark Brady and sentenced to 10 years. Six years later, Brady becomes the prison warden and offers the beleaguered Robert a job as his chauffeur. Robert cleans up his act, but, on the eve of his pardon, his cellmate drags him back into the world of violence, and he faces a difficult choice that could return him to prison.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-01-03
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The Wild Party
Overview: Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she is decent by shielding an innocent girl and winning the professor's respect.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-04-06
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General Spanky
Overview: Orphaned shoeshine boy Spanky is working on a Mississippi riverboat during the Civil War. There he befriends young runaway slave Buckwheat. After wronging a vicious gambler, Spanky and Buckwheat are forced to jump ship. Finding solace at a nearby house, the two are picked by Marshall Valiant for an important mission. This inspires Spanky to organize the local kids to form a small army of their own.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-12-11
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An American Tragedy
Overview: A social climber charms a debutante, seduces a factory worker and commits murder.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-08-22
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The Secret of Madame Blanche
Overview: A murder trial reunites a former chorus girl and her son, a grandson of an English aristocrat.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-02-03
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Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Overview: A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to the sale of its back lot and props. By extension this provides a general history of Hollywood's Golden Age and the legendary studio system.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-01-10
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Confessions of a Co-Ed
Overview: A young college student gets pregnant by the man she loves, but circumstances prevent their marrying, so she marries a classmate she doesn't love. Soon, however, her lover returns, and she finds herself in a dilemma as to who to choose.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-07-11
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Nana
Overview: Young Parisian Nana wards off of a boozed-up military officer at a local restaurant, and fellow diner Gaston Greiner is so impressed with her pluck that he decides to make her a performer at his musical theater. Soon, Nana is a star, and the girlfriend of Greiner and two other men. But when he learns that she's been getting around, Greiner fires her. As she tries to reclaim her singing job while dodging yet another suitor, her treachery might get the better of her.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-02-01
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Night Court
Overview: A corrupt night court judge tears an innocent young family apart in his efforts to elude a special prosecutor.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-06-04
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Only the Brave
Overview: Cooper is a Union Army officer who after being jilted by girlfriend, Virginia Bruce, volunteers on what could be a suicide mission. He volunteers to go behind enemy lines disguised in Confederate gray as a staff officer to Robert E. Lee. He's to ride to a certain plantation which is a local brigade headquarters and deliberately let himself be caught with maps showing false Union troop positions. Of course, the penalty, then as now, is execution.
Genres: War Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-03-07
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Man to Man
Overview: A young man attempts to overcome the memory of his father, who was sent to jail for committing a murder.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-12-05
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Men Must Fight
Overview: Prophetic tale of a mother in 1940 trying to keep her son out of war.
Genres: Drama War Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-02-17
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Stolen Heaven
Overview: A hooker gets followed home by a man she thinks is drunk, but it turns out he's been wounded in a robbery of a radio factory where he used to work. As the police swarm into the seedy tenement, she decides to help him, and the two form an uneasy alliance culminating in a suicide pact.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-02-20
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Great Expectations
Overview: A young boy, Pip, encounters an escaped prisoner, Magwitch, and steals food for him. After the convict is captured, Pip meets the reclusive Miss Havisham and her niece, Estella, eventually becoming friends with the girl. Wealth comes to Pip via a mysterious benefactor and he goes off to London for an education. As adults, Pip and Estella become romantic, and Pip learns the identity of his patron.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-10-22
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Beauty for Sale
Overview: A beautiful woman lands a job at an exclusive salon that deals with the wives of wealthy businessmen. Her contact with these men leads to a series of affairs.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-09-01
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Grumpy
Overview: An exhaustingly cantankerous old man solves a jewel robbery.
Genres: Comedy Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-08-01
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Stage Mother
Overview: Kitty Lorraine has one purpose in life: turning her daughter Shirley into a star. Kitty controls every aspect of the girl's nascent career -- even blackmailing a stage manager so that Shirley can take a more prestigious gig. But Kitty goes too far when she breaks up her daughter's budding relationship with sweet artist Warren Foster. Heartbroken, Shirley sets off on a series of disastrous but profitable relationships.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-09-29
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Chatterbox
Overview: Teenage orphan Jenny Yates becomes starstruck when a revival of an old Victorian melodrama passes through her small New England town, to the disapproval of her stern grandfather, Uriah. Stowing away in the car of Philip Greene, a wealthy young man working with the theater troupe, Jenny talks her way into the play's lead role. But director Archie Fisher doesn't tell her that the new version of the play is meant as a spoof.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-01-17
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Pointed Heels
Overview: Fay Wray plays a beautiful showgirl who falls for a rich Park Avenue guy played by Phillips Holmes. William Powell is a producer in love with Miss Wray, but he won't use his influences to take any advantages.... as usual, he's a perfect gentleman. Pointed Heels was supposed to have been a vehicle for "boop-boop-a-doop" girl Helen Kane, but by the time the film was released, Kane's role was reduced to a supporting part.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-12-20
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The Devil's Holiday
Overview: Beautiful manicurist Hallie Hobart sets her sights on handsome David Stone, the son of wealthy wheat farmer Ezra Stone. Professing to hate men, Hallie is only interested in luring David in for a lucrative business deal. David easily falls in love, but older brother Mark brands Hallie a gold-digger. To get even with the straight-laced Stone family, Hallie accepts David's marriage proposal.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-05-09
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Broken Lullaby
Overview: A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-01-19
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Varsity
Overview: The story deals with college life at Princeton with a different angle of situations and romance than is usually served from the screen (Tampa Times, Nov. 1928)
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-10-27
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Storm at Daybreak
Overview: Sarajevo June 28, 1914. Dushan, the Serbian mayor of a Hungarian town, has come to see the parade of Archduke Ferdinand. While there he runs into Geza, an old friend in the Hungarian Army and invites him to come to his house and visit him and his new wife.
Genres: Drama Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-06-14
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Two Kinds of Women
Overview: The daughter of a senator from South Dakota visits Manhattan for the first time, eager to see the sights of the big city. While there, she finds herself caught up in an affair with a married man, whose wife soon commits suicide. Complications ensue.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-01-16
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Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Overview: Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-12-31
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Looking Forward
Overview: Depression Era story set in London about a wealthy shop owner who goes bankrupt and is forced to fire his faithful staff.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-04-28
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Dinner at Eight
Overview: An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial woes, causing a lot of tension between the couple. Meanwhile, their high-society friends and associates, including the gruff Dan Packard and his sultry spouse, Kitty, contend with their own entanglements, leading to revelations at the much-anticipated dinner.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-12-22
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Million Dollar Ransom
Overview: To stop his mother from marrying a man he doesn't like, a young millionaire hires an ex-con in helping him fake his own kidnaping.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-09-01
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Caravan
Overview: A countess marries a Gypsy fiddler instead of a baron's son at harvest time in Tokay wine country, Hungary.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-12-30
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The Big Brain
Overview: A small-town barber finds himself short of stature but a giant in the world of stock promotion. As his bank account grows, Stone's ethics diminish, and soon he's playing fast and loose with other people's money. Disgruntled investor Fay Wray is the one who finally blows the whistle on the prevaricating hair-snipper.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-08-04
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The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Overview: The Return of Sherlock Holmes was the first sound film to feature Sherlock Holmes.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-10-26
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The House of a Thousand Candles
Overview: The story of diplomatic courier Tony Carleton, who's been entrusted with a secret message vital to the cause of International peace. En route to Geneva by train, Tony is drugged by sexy cabaret dancer Raquel, who promptly steals the message -- only to be murdered by sinister master spy Sebastian, owner of a posh gambling casino known as The House of a Thousand Candles.
Genres: Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-04-02
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No Ransom
Overview: In this family comedy, the wealthy executive of a steel company must endure life with a strict, teetotaling wife, a wild daughter, and a deadbeat son. To gain some much needed attention, the lonesome fellow hires a hitman to kill him. Instead, the gunman kidnaps him to frighten the family into appreciating their devoted father.
Genres: Crime Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-10-07
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The Dominant Sex
Overview: A mature comedy based on the hit stage play in which a loving but strained marriage is put to the test!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-01-26
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The Divine Spark
Overview: British musical film directed by Carmine Gallone.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-06-01
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Housemaster
Overview: Three girls arrive at a stuffy English public school and cause all sorts of problems with both the staff and pupils.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-01-31
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His Private Life
Overview: Story of a Frenchman who seduces women all over Paris, but he meets his match in a proper American tourist. He does everything he can to seduce her, but he will only find romance when he does so on her terms!
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-11-17
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Her Man
Overview: A prostitute sees a friendly sailor as a way out of Havana's grimy underworld.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-09-21
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Make Me a Star
Overview: A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, his acting ability is non-existent.
Genres: Romance Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-07-01
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The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Overview: This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-10-01
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70,000 Witnesses
Overview: College football player is asked to dope a star teammate by his crooked gambler brother. He refuses, but they player is doped anyway and collapses and dies. A detective has the whole game re-enacted to find important clues.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-09-09
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The House That Shadows Built
Overview: The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. It was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release and includes a brief history of Paramount, interviews with various actors, and clips from upcoming projects (some of which never came to fruition). The title comes from a biography of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, The House That Shadows Built (1928), by William Henry Irwin.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-07-08
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The Big Parade of Comedy
Overview: Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
Genres: Comedy Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-09-02
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Ten Minute Alibi
Overview: Derwent dreams up an unbreakable alibi for a murder. Once the crime is attempted, it then falls to Pember and Brace of Scotland Yard to sort things out.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-08-12
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Stairs of Sand
Overview: An outlaw with a Heart of Gold sacrificing his own life for the happiness of two young people in love.
Genres: Romance Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-06-08
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