William Powell
Also Known As: William H. Powell, Уильям Пауэлл, ویلیام پاول
Biography: William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947). After high school, he left home for New York and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of 18. In 1912, Powell graduated from the AADA, and worked in some vaudeville and stock companies. After several successful experiences on the Broadway stage, he began his Hollywood career in 1922, playing a small role as an evil henchman of Professor Moriarty in a production of Sherlock Holmes with John Barrymore. His most memorable role in silent movies was as a bitter film director opposite Emil Jannings' Academy Award-winning performance as a fallen general in The Last Command (1928). This success, along with Powell's pleasant speaking voice, led to his first starring role as amateur detective Philo Vance in the "talkie" The Canary Murder Case (1929). Powell's most famous role was that of Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with The Thin Man in 1934, based upon Dashiell Hammett's novel. The role provided a perfect opportunity for Powell, with his resonant speaking voice, to showcase his sophisticated charm and witty sense of humor, and he received his first Academy Award nomination for The Thin Man. Myrna Loy played his wife, Nora, in each of the Thin Man films. Their on-screen partnership, beginning alongside Clark Gable in 1934 with Manhattan Melodrama, was one of Hollywood's most prolific, and they appeared in 14 films together. Loy and Powell starred in the Best Picture of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld, with Powell in the title role and Loy as Ziegfeld's wife Billie Burke. That same year, he also received his second Academy Award nomination, for the comedy My Man Godfrey. In 1935, he starred with Jean Harlow in Reckless. A serious romance developed between them, and in 1936, they were reunited on screen and with Loy and Spencer Tracy in the screwball comedy Libeled Lady. However, Harlow surprisingly and quickly became ill, and died from uremia at the age of 26 in June 1937 before they could marry. His distress over her death, as well as a cancer diagnosis of his own, caused him to accept fewer acting roles. Powell's career slowed considerably in the 1940s, although he received his third Academy Award nomination in 1947 for his role as the cantankerous Clarence Day, Sr., in Life with Father. His last film was 1955's Mister Roberts. Powell died in Palm Springs, California, on March 5, 1984, at the age of 91 from heart failure, nearly 30 years after his retirement. He is buried at the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, near his third wife Diana Lewis, and his only child, his son William David Powell.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: July 28, 1892
Age: 132 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: March 05, 1984
Popularity:
Known For:
How to Marry a Millionaire
Overview: Three women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-10-29
Popularity:
The Thin Man
Overview: A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Genres: Comedy Mystery Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-05-25
Popularity:
Love Crazy
Overview: Circumstance, an old flame and a mother-in-law drive a happily married couple to the verge of divorce and insanity.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-05-23
Popularity:
Double Wedding
Overview: A bohemian free spirit helps meek Waldo win back his fiancée and falls in love with her over-controlling sister in the process.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-10-15
Popularity:
I Love You Again
Overview: Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-08-09
Popularity:
Take One False Step
Overview: Catherine Sykes disappears after a midnight drive with Professor Andrew Gentling . When she's presumed murdered, his friend Martha convinces him that he's a prime suspect and should investigate before he's arrested.
Genres: Crime Drama Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-08-14
Popularity:
Libeled Lady
Overview: When a major newspaper accuses wealthy socialite Connie Allenbury of being a home-wrecker, and she files a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit, the publication's frazzled head editor, Warren Haggerty, must find a way to turn the tables on her. Soon Haggerty's harried fiancée, Gladys Benton, and his dashing friend Bill Chandler are in on a scheme that aims to discredit Connie, with amusing and unexpected results.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-10-09
Popularity:
The Heavenly Body
Overview: The beautiful wife of a tweedy astronomer becomes convinced that her astrologer's prediction of a new dream man in her life will come true.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-03-23
Popularity:
My Man Godfrey
Overview: Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock needs a "forgotten man" to win a scavenger hunt, and no one is more forgotten than Godfrey Park, who resides in a dump by the East River. Irene hires Godfrey as a servant for her riotously unhinged family, to the chagrin of her spoiled sister, Cornelia, who tries her best to get Godfrey fired. As Irene falls for her new butler, Godfrey turns the tables and teaches the frivolous Bullocks a lesson or two.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-09-02
Popularity:
One Way Passage
Overview: A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific crossing, each without knowing the other's secret.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-10-04
Popularity:
Manhattan Melodrama
Overview: The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-05-04
Popularity:
Life with Father
Overview: A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
Genres: Comedy Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-09-13
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After the Thin Man
Overview: Nick and Nora Charles investigate when Nora's cousin reports her disreputable husband is missing, and find themselves in a mystery involving the shady owners of a popular nightclub, a singer and her dark brother, the cousin's forsaken true love, and Nora's bombastic and controlling aunt.
Genres: Comedy Mystery Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-12-25
Popularity:
Shadow of the Thin Man
Overview: High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.
Genres: Comedy Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-11-21
Popularity:
Another Thin Man
Overview: Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.
Genres: Comedy Mystery Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-11-17
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The Thin Man Goes Home
Overview: On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
Genres: Comedy Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-12-24
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Song of the Thin Man
Overview: Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.
Genres: Comedy Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-08-28
Popularity:
Crossroads
Overview: A French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.
Genres: Drama Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-07-23
Popularity:
The Great Ziegfeld
Overview: At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, sideshow barker Florenz Ziegfeld turns the tables on his more-successful neighbor Billings, and also steals his girlfriend. This pattern repeats throughout their lives, as Ziegfeld makes and loses many fortunes putting on ever-bigger, more spectacular shows
Genres: Music Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-04-08
Popularity:
Ziegfeld Follies
Overview: The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-08-26
Popularity:
The Senator Was Indiscreet
Overview: A bumbling, long-winded and crooked Southern senator, considered by some as a dark horse for the Presidency, panics his party when his tell-all diary is stolen.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-12-31
Popularity:
Mister Roberts
Overview: Mr. Roberts is a Navy officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War II on a non-commissioned ship run by the bullying Captain Morton.
Genres: Comedy Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-07-10
Popularity:
High Pressure
Overview: Gar Evans is a con artist, who pretends to be the owner of a "Golden Gate Artificial Rubber Company", and he is looking for investors. Finding them is relatively easy, but it becomes difficult when those want to see the inventor of the synthetic rubber...
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-01-10
Popularity:
Private Detective 62
Overview: A former government agent in France, who has failed at an assignment and been disavowed, is deported back to the USA, where he can only find work at a low-rent detective agency. He soon gets involved with a woman with ties to a crooked gambling club owner, who is a client of his agency.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-06-10
Popularity:
The Benson Murder Case
Overview: A ruthless, crooked stockbroker is murdered at his luxurious country estate, and detective Philo Vance just happens to be there; he decides to find out who killed him.
Genres: Crime Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-04-13
Popularity:
Jewel Robbery
Overview: A gentleman thief charms a Viennese baron's wife and also conducts a daring daylight robbery of a jeweller's shop.
Genres: Romance Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-07-08
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Reckless
Overview: A theatrical star, born on the wrong side of the tracks, marries a drunken blue-blood millionaire.
Genres: Music Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-04-19
Popularity:
The Canary Murder Case
Overview: A beautiful showgirl, name "the Canary" is a scheming nightclub singer. Blackmailing is her game and with that she ends up dead. But who killed "the Canary". All the suspects knew and were used by her and everyone had a motive to see her dead. The only witness to the crime has also been 'rubbed out'. Only one man, the keen, fascinating, debonair detective Philo Vance, would be able to figure out who is the killer.
Genres: Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-02-16
Popularity:
The Last Command
Overview: A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.
Genres: Drama History War Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-01-21
Popularity:
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Overview: Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
Genres: Documentary Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1983-02-25
Popularity:
Feel My Pulse
Overview: A rich but hypochondriac heiress inherits a sanitarium. What she doesn't know is that it is a front for bootleggers, and a hideout for criminals on the run from the law.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: xx
Release Date: 1928-02-26
Popularity:
Sherlock Holmes
Overview: Sherlock Holmes is a master at solving the most impenetrable mysteries, but he has his work cut out for him on his latest case. As the famed detective investigates an alleged theft, he’s brought face to face with his most devious adversary yet — Professor Moriarty.
Genres: Drama Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-03-07
Popularity:
When Knighthood Was in Flower
Overview: Mary Tudor falls in love with a new arrival to court, Charles Brandon. She convinces her brother King Henry VIII to make him his Captain of the Guard. Meanwhile, Henry is determined to marry her off to the aging King Louis XII of France as part of a peace agreement.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-09-15
Popularity:
Romola
Overview: In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-12-06
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The Treasure of Lost Canyon
Overview: Young David, orphaned en route to California, falls into the hands of medicine-show rascal Baltimore Dan. Years later, now a trained thief, he's adopted by eccentric 'Doc' Brown, retired miner and pharmacist. Doc and David become fast friends in their scenic outdoor rambles. But when they discover a hidden treasure, the idyllic interlude gives way to more troubles and a strange coincidence.
Genres: Adventure Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-03-01
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The Girl Who Had Everything
Overview: Attorney's daughter falls for one of his gangster clients.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-03-27
Popularity:
Dancing in the Dark
Overview: Emery Slade was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood in 1932, but by 1949 his career has hit the skids. Fortunately, he is able to convince studio head Melville Crossman to cast him in the adaptation of a hit Broadway show. Crossman has one condition: Slade must travel to New York and convince the female star of the stage production to join the film. Slade goes, but, when he eyes the winsome Julie Clarke, he hatches a different scheme.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-12-02
Popularity:
The Hoodlum Saint
Overview: A former reporter comes back home after serving in the army during World War I and finds that it's much more difficult to find work than he expected. Desperate, one day he crashes a wedding attended by many of the city's rich and powerful, meets a beautiful girl named Kay who turns out to be his ticket to meeting those rich and powerful people, and he soon manages to land a job on a newspaper. He gets caught up in the "make money at all costs" game but receives a rude awakening when the stock market crashes in 1929.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-04-04
Popularity:
It's a Big Country
Overview: Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston resident becomes angry when the census forgets to record her presence. Another sketch chronicles the achievements of African Americans while still another pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to Texas.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-11-20
Popularity:
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
Overview: As told to a psychiatrist: Mr. Peabody, a middle-aged Bostonian on vacation with his wife in the Caribbean, hears mysterious, wordless singing on an uninhabited rock in the bay. Fishing in the vicinity, he catches...a mermaid. He takes her home and, though she has no spoken language, falls in love with her. Of course, his wife won't believe that the thing in the bathtub is anything but a large fish.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-08-11
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Rendezvous
Overview: A decoding expert tangles with enemy spies.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-10-25
Popularity:
Star of Midnight
Overview: When a dancer disappears from a theater, Clay Dalzell is asked to investigate, leading him on a trail of murder and deception.
Genres: Comedy Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-04-19
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The Baroness and the Butler
Overview: A Butler gets elected to the Hungarian parliament where he opposes his master's government.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-02-18
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The Emperor's Candlesticks
Overview: Spies on opposite sides fall in love in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Genres: Drama History Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-07-02
Popularity:
Evelyn Prentice
Overview: A criminal lawyer's wife is blackmailed when she is falsely accused of infidelity.
Genres: Drama Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-11-09
Popularity:
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
Overview: A doctor is driven into an investigation of sinister goings-on at a horse race track by his mystery writer ex-wife.
Genres: Comedy Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-04-24
Popularity:
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
Overview: A chic American jewel thief falls in love with one of her marks, an English lord.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-02-19
Popularity:
The Key
Overview: A British officer stationed in Ireland falls for the wife of an intelligence man.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-06-09
Popularity:
Fashions of 1934
Overview: When the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Snap and fashion designer Lynn Mason to provide discount shops with cheap copies of Paris couture dresses.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-02-14
Popularity:
The Kennel Murder Case
Overview: Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder of a prominent and much-hated collector whose broken Chinese vase provides an important clue.
Genres: Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-10-28
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The Greene Murder Case
Overview: Philo Vance investigates when a murderer preys upon members of a wealthy family on New York's Upper East Side.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-08-11
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Man of the World
Overview: A young American girl visits Paris accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets and is romanced by a worldly novelist; what she doesn't know is that he is a blackmailer who is using her to get to her uncle.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-03-24
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The Four Feathers
Overview: An Englishman (Richard Arlen) fights in the Sudan after receiving white feathers of cowardice from his fiancee (Fay Wray) and friends.
Genres: Drama Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-06-01
Popularity:
Paid to Love
Overview: An American banker goes to a small Balkan country looking to invest his bank's money and shore up the country's weak economy in order to maximize the return on their investment. Towards that end he befriends the country's king and they come up with a scheme to get the Crown Prince married, a prospect not particularly appealing to the Crown Prince--until he sees the beautiful cabaret dancer the pair has picked for him to marry.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-07-23
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The Youngest Profession
Overview: Joan Lyons and her friend Patricia Drew are autograph hounds spending most of their day bumping into, and having tea, with the likes of Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Based on misinformation from a meddling old-maid governess, Miss Featherstone, Joan also devotes some time to working on the no-problem marriage of her parents to the extent of hiring Dr. Hercules, the strong man from a side show to pay attention to her mother in order to make her father jealous, despite the good advice received from Walter Pidgeon.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-02-26
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Nevada
Overview: A once notorious gunfighter takes a respectable job on a ranch. "Nevada" is charged with protecting the ranch owner's pretty daughter, arousing the enmity of ranch foreman Clan Dillon, who is in love with the girl. The villainous foreman leaks a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and the former outlaw is soon on the run again.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-08-01
Popularity:
Lawyer Man
Overview: Idealistic attorney Anton Adam makes headlines when he successfully prosecutes a prominent New York racketeer named Gilmurry. Adam's sudden renown attracts the attention of high-profile legal eagle Granville Bentley, who asks Adam to become a partner in his law firm. But Adam's rising career takes a nosedive when he's framed by Gilmurry and a sexy actress in a trumped-up breach of promise suit. The only constant in Adam's life is the loyalty and unrequited love of his secretary Olga.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-12-24
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Interference
Overview: Paramount's first all-talking picture, Interference was dismally directed by Roy Pomeroy, whose lofty status as the studio's "technical wizard" did not necessarily qualify him to be a director. Evelyn Brent heads the cast as scheming Deborah Kane, who sets out to blackmail Faith Marley (Doris Kenyon), the above-reproach wife of Sir John Marlay.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-11-04
Popularity:
Street of Chance
Overview: 'Natural' Davis (William Powell) is a respected gambler who follows a ruthless code of honor with those who cheat against him. His wife, Alma (Kay Francis), wants to divorce him because of his addiction and lifestyle, but they agree on a reconciliation and second honeymoon together and 'Natural' promises to give up gambling. However, his plans change when his brother, 'Babe' (Regis Toomey), arrives in town looking to score big, and 'Natural' has to devise a plan quickly to put him off gambling forever.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-02-08
Popularity:
Escapade
Overview: A romantic comedy-drama-musical of mistaken identity, infidelity and farce, set in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-07-05
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Double Harness
Overview: After tricking him into marriage, a woman tries to win the love of her philandering husband.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-07-21
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Beau Geste
Overview: Michael "Beau" Geste leaves England in disgrace and joins the infamous French Foreign Legion. He is reunited with his two brothers in North Africa, where they face greater danger from their own sadistic commander than from the rebellious Arabs.
Genres: Action Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-08-24
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Charming Sinners
Overview: Charming Sinners was a stilted adaptation of Somerset Maugham's play The Constant Wife. Robert Miles (Clive Brook) starts the ball rolling when he falls in love with Anne-Marie Whitley (Mary Nolan), the best friend of his own wife Kathryn (Ruth Chatterton). In retaliation, Kathryn begins a flirtation with her former boyfriend Karl Kraley (William Powell). After reels and reels of verbal fencing, the status quo is re-established, and Robert and Kathryn are reunited.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-08-17
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The Road to Singapore
Overview: A woman's life falls to pieces when she's caught cheating on her husband.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-09-02
Popularity:
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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Behind the Make-Up
Overview: Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has a bicycle riding act. Gardoni shows his appreciation by stealing the clown's act and his girlfriend, whom he marries.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-01-18
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For the Defense
Overview: William Foster is a slick attorney who stays within the law, but specializes in representing crooks and shady characters. He's adept at keeping them out of jail, winning acquittals, and having decisions reversed, thus springing criminals out of prison. He is romantically involved with dancer Irene Manners, who is two-timing him, although she wants to marry him. She kills a man driving while out with her other man, Jack Defoe, who takes the blame. Unfortunately, a ring Foster had just given Irene is found at the crime scene. Foster ends up defending Jack, but when the ring is found, he thinks he is protecting Irene, so pleads guilty to jury tampering.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-07-19
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The Bright Shawl
Overview: Charles Abbott is implicated in the death of his friend Escobar, brother to the woman he loves.
Genres: Adventure Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-04-22
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The Great Gatsby
Overview: Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby. He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-11-21
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Ladies' Man
Overview: A society gigolo goes after a rich mother and her daughter, but tries to find true happiness with his girlfriend, who is neither rich nor in "society."
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-04-16
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Going Hollywood: The '30s
Overview: Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-01-01
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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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Forgotten Faces
Overview: A petty thief (Clive Brook) just robs the very rich at speakeasies, and gets away with it because the rich don't want the bad publicity, finally is caught and sent to Sing Sing. After good behavior, he gets an emergency permission for a return home, so that he may save his daughter from the hands of her disreputable mother (Baclanova). However, he must first promise not to kill his wife while he is out of prison.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-08-05
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The Runaway
Overview: A movie actress, mistakenly thinking she has killed a fellow actor, goes on the run and finds herself taken in by a Kentucky mountain family.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-04-04
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Partners in Crime
Overview: After being dismissed for imitating his boss's voice on radio, former Assistant District Attorney Richard Deming witnesses a store robbery and is taken captive by the criminals. Suspected of the crime, he is sought by the police, but his sweetheart, Marie, convinced of his innocence, enlists the help of two friends, a newspaper reporter and a half-witted detective. Hoping to win the girl's favor, the two go to the gangsters' hideout, encounter a violent gang war, and accidently set off a case of police tear bombs. The police, summoned by Marie, arrive just in time to save the kidnaped attorney.
Genres: Romance Action Adventure Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-03-01
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Shadow of the Law
Overview: John Nelson, a well-to-do businessman, is escorting a woman he knows as Ethel Barry to the door of her apartment suite when a man steps out of the shadows and angrily demands to know where she has been. The embarrassed Nelson excuses himself and goes to his rooms in the same hotel. The woman rushes into his apartment followed by the man who met her in the hall. The man threatens her with violence and Nelson comes to her defense. In the ensuing fight, the man is knocked out of the window and falls to his death to the pavement many stories down. He is charged with the killing and his only witness that can prove self-defense for him has disappeared, and can not be found.
Genres: Crime Drama Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-06-06
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Special Delivery
Overview: The second and last of Eddie Cantor's silent vehicles, Special Delivery casts the wide-eyed comedian as a hapless mailman. While going through his swiftly appointed rounds, Eddie stumbles upon a gang of crooks who are planning a large-scale confidence scam. He exposes the villains and wins the love of heroine Madge (Jobyna Ralston). Though Cantor was a fine physical comic, he didn't truly score in films until the arrival of talkies allowed his fans to hear as well as see him. Special Delivery was directed by "William Goodrich," who in reality was comedian Fatty Arbuckle, hoping to stage a comeback after the sex scandal that destroyed his career.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-05-06
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Paramount on Parade
Overview: This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, credits 11 directors
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-04-22
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Aloma of the South Seas
Overview: A young South Seas native boy is sent to the U.S. for his education. He returns to his island after his father dies to try to stop a revolution.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-05-15
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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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La Fiesta de Santa Barbara
Overview: La Fiesta de Santa Barbara is a 1935 American comedy short film directed by Louis Lewyn. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 9th Academy Awards in 1936 for Best Short Subject (Color). It features a young, pre-stardom 13-year-old Judy Garland singing "La Cucaracha" with her two sisters (billed as "The Garland Sisters"). In the film, Hollywood stars participate in a Mexican-themed revue and festival in Santa Barbara. Andy Devine, the "World's Greatest Matador," engages in a bullfight with a dubious bovine supplied by Buster Keaton, and musical numbers are provided by Joe Morrison and The Garland Sisters. Comedy bits and dance numbers are also featured.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-12-07
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The Voice of Hollywood
Overview: The Voice of Hollywood hosted by Pat O'Brien. Features Joan Blondell, Robert Montgomery, Elissa Landi, Warner Baxter, and the coronation of Mary Pickford as "Queen of the Arts." It is not currently clear which number in the series this is because it isn't on IMDB or any listing).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-08-30
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Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell
Overview: Actress Sharon Stone hosts this documentary about the life and career of 1930s sex symbol Jean Harlow. Included are clips from many of her films, photos and stories about her life before she became a movie star, and accounts of her troubled personal life, including a domineering mother, the failure of her three marriages and the suicide of her second husband.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-02-06
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Too Many Kisses
Overview: Wanting his son to get away from his many girlfriends and buckle down to work, the New York industrialist father of a playboy sends him to an obscure village in Spain to find samples of a rare mineral. When the son gets to Spain, he runs afoul of the local police chief - who has a secret that he tries to keep the young man from discovering.
Genres: Adventure Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-01-11
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Dangerous Money
Overview: Boardinghouse servant Adele Clark is unexpectedly awarded the ownership of a certain piece of New York City property known as Clark's Field. The trustees send her to a finishing school, whose headmistress, Signorina Vitale, persuades Adele and her sweetheart, Tim Sullivan, that she should travel in Europe. Adele's new riches cause her to lose her sense of proportion, and she soon is involved with a fast set indulging in the jazz life. Even Tim cannot curb Adele's extravagance, and he returns to America while Adele marries Italian fortune-hunter Prince Arnolfo Da Pescia. When a will is discovered naming Tim as the rightful heir to Clark's Field, Adele and Arnolfo hurry to New York, and Arnolfo tries to steal the will, then dies in a hotel fire.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-10-13
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Under the Red Robe
Overview: A young man is tasked by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu to capture one of the cardinal's enemies but falls in love with his target's sister. The film marks the last motion picture appearance by stage actor Robert B. Mantell who plays Cardinal Richelieu and the only silent screen performance of opera singer John Charles Thomas.
Genres: History Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-11-12
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Outcast
Overview: A down-on-her luck streetwalker is ultimately redeemed by the love of a decent man.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-12-07
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Sea Horses
Overview: Helen Salvia sets sail with her 4-year-old daughter for Panda, an isolated East African port, where she expects to join her Italian husband, Lorenzo, who deserted her a year after their marriage. Cochran, the burly first mate, and Harvey, the youthful third officer, openly vie for her favor, while Captain Glanville remains aloof. In Panda, Helen discovers that her husband has become a drunken derelict and returns to the ship, but Glanville is forced to buy her release from Salvia. Fearful of the implication, Helen returns ashore with her daughter, flees from Lorenzo's attempts to attack her, and is found by Glanville just as a typhoon breaks in all its fury. In regaining possession of the child from Lorenzo, the captain is wounded; and Cochran, covering their retreat, kills Lorenzo. Cochran pays for his daring with his life, and Helen is free to return to England with Glanville. It is considered a lost film.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-02-22
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The Beautiful City
Overview: For their mother's sake, a man takes the blame for a robbery committed by his brother and his brother's gangster boss. Considered a lost film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-10-25
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Desert Gold
Overview: George Thorne is a young army lieutenant at a border post. He is in love with Mercedes Castanada who, in the lawless life about the fort, is always in danger of falling into the hands of Snake Landree's bandit gang that is the terror of the region. Into the life of the post comes Dick Gale, a man from the East who is soon engaged in a battle for the heart of the girl, whom he has quickly come to love. He aids her in a battle with the desperados. They escape onto the desert and are lost in a sandstorm. They are rescued by the lieutenant, whom, the young woman confesses to the other man, she loves. The Easterner accepts his defeat in the struggle for her affections. According to silentera.com the film survives while Arne Andersen Lost Film Files has it as a lost film.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-03-22
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My Lady's Lips
Overview: A newspaper publisher finds out that his wild daughter has fallen in with a ring of gamblers. A reporter who has infiltrated the gang to get a story falls in love with the gang's female leader, and when the two are caught in a police raid, they find themselves in equal amounts of trouble.
Genres: Thriller Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-07-01
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White Mice
Overview: Roddy Forrester has formed the White Mice club with a pal. The purpose of the club is to help those in trouble. When Roddy's father sends him to the South American republic of Montebello, he gets his chance to be of service. General Rojas, the former president, is locked away in a prison and slowly dying. Roddy decides to rescue him, especially since he has been inspired by the general's pretty daughter, Inez.
Genres: Action Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-01-31
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Faint Perfume
Overview: After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, taking their young son Oliver with her. Barnaby follows her, to ask for custody of the boy, but meets and falls in love with Richmiel's pretty and sensitive cousin Ledda. Complications ensue.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-06-08
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Tin Gods
Overview: In a mountain village in South America, Dr. McCoy and the padre watch Roger Drake enter a small chapel near a towering bridge, and McCoy recounts the story of Drake's life: As a rising engineer, he marries Janet Stone, the ambitious daughter of a wealthy family, and neglects his career while Janet becomes a candidate for the State Assembly. Drake comes into conflict with her political friends, and when their baby falls from its nursery window, the couple remorsefully decide to separate. Drake, degenerated by drink, goes to South America to construct a bridge; there he is stricken by fever and is redeemed by the love and care of Carita, a dancer. Carita, however, learns of Janet's political defeat and her attempt to effect a reconciliation with Drake; thinking he still loves his wife, she leaps from the bridge. Drake returns each year to the chapel he has erected in her memory. A lost film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-09-19
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Love's Greatest Mistake
Overview: On a train bound for New York, where she hopes to find work, Honey McNeil captures the appreciative eye of William Ogden, a financier, who offers her a job. At the apartment of her married sister, Jane, Honey renews her acquaintance with Sara Foote, now a worldly New Yorker secretly jealous of Jane. Honey is disappointed when young architect Harvey Gibbs brings her home from an unspectacular evening, and she declines his numerous proposals. Ogden, already married, is also rejected by Honey, despite the luxury he offers her. Don Kendall, in conspiracy with Sara, tries to obtain love letters Ogden has written Honey, so as to blackmail him, and her refusal to give them up causes him to beat her brutally. Realizing that Ogden does not love her, Honey dismisses Gibbs, who doubts her. Jane leaves her husband and elopes with Don. Honey is ultimately united with Gibbs, who wins a prize for designing a church. The film is now lost.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-02-20
Popularity:
New York
Overview: A product of the Bowery, Trent Regan grows up to become a powerful gangster. Regan's girlfriend Angie Miller, hearing that her childhood sweetheart (and Regan's lifelong pal) Mike Cassidy is about to marry Marjorie Church, pays a visit to Mike to offer congratulations. Convinced that Angie is fooling around behind his back, Regan accidentally kills her. A lost film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-01-30
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She's a Sheik
Overview: The daughter of a desert chief kidnaps a member of the French Foreign Legion in the hopes of wooing him.
Genres: Romance Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-11-12
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Time to Love
Overview: Alfred Sava-Goiu, who, after being dumped by his sweetheart, philosophically decides to end it all by jumping into the Seine. Instead, he lands in a passing boat owned by the Countess Elvire. Falling in love with his savior, Alfred returns the compliment by rescuing the Countess from a precipitous waterfall.
Genres: Romance Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-06-18
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The Drag Net
Overview: Captain Timothy 'Two Gun' Nolan is appointed head of the New York detective force, and as his first act, rounds up every criminal in town. Gang boss 'Dapper' Frank Trent stands bail for all of them as independent minor gang-leader. Setting out to get Trent, Nolan moves in on his hideout, assisted by his friend 'Shakespeare.' Trent kills Shakespeare, but makes Nolan believe it is his shot that has done so. Nolan resigns his commission and becomes a drunk. Found unconscious by Trent, he is offered as the pièce de résistance at a gangland banquet which 'The Magpie' attends. A lost film.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-05-01
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The Vanishing Pioneer
Overview: A western settlement of pioneer descendants is threatened with the loss of its water supply through the encroachments of nearby townspeople.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-06-23
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Overview: Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-08-06
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Hollywood: Style Center of the World
Overview: This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America. A mother and daughter go to town to buy a new dress. In the dress shop window is a designer dress worn by Joan Crawford in a recent movie. We then go to Hollywood and visit Adrian, MGM's chief of costume design, and see how multiple copies of a single clothing pattern are produced. The film ends with short segments of several MGM features.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-05-29
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That's Entertainment, Part II
Overview: Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-05-16
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The Romance of Celluloid
Overview: Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the movie going public has in going to the theater, are presented. They include: the production of celluloid aka film stock, the materials used in the production of which include cotton and silver; construction crews who build sets including those to look like cities, towns and villages around the world; a visit with Jack Dawn who demonstrates the process of creating a makeup design; the screen testing process, where many an acting hopeful gets his/her start; the work of the candid camera man, the prying eyes behind the movie camera; a visit with Adrian, who designs the clothes worn by many of the stars on screen; and a visit with Herbert Stothart as he conducts his musical score for Conquest (1937). These behind the scenes looks provide the opportunity to get acquainted with the cavalcade of MGM stars and their productions that will grace the silver screen in the 1937/38 movie season.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-08-27
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A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Overview: This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-10-24
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The Great Morgan
Overview: Frank Morgan is hired to put together a movie using odds and ends from the MGM vaults. He does so by splicing together a string of completely unrelated short subjects and musical numbers, interspersed with a repeated loop of a scene from some melodrama. (Contains in their entirety the shorts, "Musical Masterpieces," "Our Old Car," and "Badminton," as well as clips from other projects)
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-01-01
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From the Ends of the Earth
Overview: An MGM short showing how materials are shipped by boat 'From the Ends of the Earth' to Hollywood. Featuring footage from the MGM films being made at the time. Such as The Women, Thunder Afloat, Siren of the Tropics, Ninotchka, Northwest Passage, and At the Circus.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-05-28
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The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
Overview: In this tribute to her frequent co-star and longtime love, Katharine Hepburn hosts a behind-the-scenes look at Spencer Tracy's personal and professional life that features intimate personal accounts, interviews and clips from his most acclaimed work on the silver screen.
Genres: TV Movie Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-03-09
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Beau Sabreur
Overview: The film is about a desert-bound member of the French Foreign Legion who exposes a betrayer to the Legion and is then sent on a mission among the Arabs to conclude the signing of a crucial peace treaty.
Genres: Adventure Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-01-22
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William Powell: A True Gentleman
Overview: A short documentary about William Powell.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-08-02
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Twenty Years After
Overview: This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-01-01
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Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
Overview: This tribute to Myrna Loy is organized chronologically with a few photographs, many film clips, a handful of personal appearances, and a detailed commentary delivered on camera by Kathleen Turner. Turner walks us through Loy's career as a dancer and an actress miscast as an exotic. She comes into her own as a grown-up women: shrewd, funny, decorous, and sexy - in "Manhattan Melodrama" and "The Thin Man." Her volunteer work during World War II, later stage work, and progressive politics come in for admiration as well. It's her style - seen best in her roles as a wife of charm and independence - that's captured and celebrated here.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-06-04
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Senorita
Overview:
Genres: Action Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-04-01
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James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Overview: Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-11-22
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It's Showtime
Overview: A collection of film clips profiling animal actors.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-03-31
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Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts
Overview: The story of Italian cinema under Fascism, a sophisticated film industry built around the founding of the Cinecittà studios and the successful birth of a domestic star system, populated by very peculiar artists among whom stood out several beautiful, magnetic, special actresses; a dark story of war, drugs, sex, censorship and tragedy.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: it
Release Date: 2017-06-14
Popularity:
Platinum Bombshell
Overview: Short documentary about Jean Harlow's life and career.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-12-26
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The Love Story of Jean Harlow and William Powell
Overview: The intertwined lives of Jean Harlow and William Powell, from childhood struggles to Hollywood stardom. The rise of Jean Harlow and William Powell in Hollywood, from humble beginnings to success in the transition to talkies.The journey of Jean Harlow's rise to stardom, from being discovered by Howard Hughes to her relationship with Paul Bern. Tragic love stories of iconic Hollywood stars, Jean Harlow and William Powell, intertwined with scandals and success. The transformation of Jean Harlow's career in Hollywood due to the implementation of the Hays Code. The romantic relationship between Jean Harlow and William Powell blossoms amidst Hollywood's glamour and studio pressures. The tumultuous relationship between Jean Harlow and William Powell, marked by unfulfilled engagement and family interference. Tragic love story of Jean Harlow and William Powell leading to Jean's untimely death. The tragic love story between two iconic Hollywood stars, Jean Harlow and William Powell.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2023-02-20
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