Monty Banks
Also Known As: Montague 'Monty' Banks, Montague Banks, Mario Bianchi, Frenchie Bianchi
Biography: Monty Banks was a short, stocky but somehow debonair Italian-born comic actor, later also writer and director. In the US from 1914, he first appeared on stage in musical comedy and cabaret. By 1917 he was working as a dancer in New York's Dominguez Cafe. After this he turned to films, acting and doing stunt work at Keystone, Universal and for Al Christie. Changing his name from Mario Bianchi to Monty Banks may have been prompted by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as a passing reference to his playing '"montebanks". By 1919 Banks had moved to Vitagraph to play a villain in The Grocery Clerk (1919), foil to star comic Larry Semon. Banks first came to the fore in his own right as star of the "Welcome Comedies" made by Warner Brothers. He spent the early 1920s at Fox and Grand Asher, graduating to writing and directing two-reel comedies with himself as the star. Most noteworthy entries in regard to inventive sight gags and Mack Sennett--style madcap plots are Pay or Move (1924) and The Golf Bug (1924). The success of this series prompted Banks to create an independent production company, the Monty Banks Pictures Corporation, in conjunction with writer/director Howard Estabrook. He made several feature-length films for Pathe, including Play Safe (1927)) (generally considered his best work), which featured a climactic runaway train sequence. This style of fast-action slapstick made it inevitable that Banks suffered more than his fair share of injuries, especially since he continued to do many of his own stunts. From the late 1920s Banks worked in England and made several appearances in sound films. However, his accent proved to be something of an obstacle. He therefore decided, after 1930, to concentrate on directing and producing. He helmed four features starring the popular entertainer Gracie Fields, who became his second wife in 1940. In 1935 he directed a well-received George Formby comedy, No Limit (1935), about the TT motorcycle races on the Isle of Man, which were shot on location there. With the outbreak of World War II Banks--being an Italian citizen--would have faced internment in England as an enemy alien. He therefore deemed it necessary to flee to Canada, and from there to the neutral United States. He eventually obtained American citizenship, for which he had applied years earlier, but had forgotten to submit the necessary paperwork. Back in Hollywood he ended up at 20th Century-Fox, directing Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Great Guns (1941), arguably one of their lesser efforts. Banks died of a heart attack during a trip through Italy in January 1950, aged just 52. Sadly, the majority of his one- and two-reelers are now considered lost films. As a result, his status as a leading comic of the silent screen may have somewhat diminished--except, perhaps, in his home town of Cesena, where a foundation was established in his honor (the "Aula Didattica Monty Banks"), offering students "practical courses on experimental aspects of video production".
Department: Directing
Place of Birth: Cesena, Forlì-Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Birthday: July 14, 1897
Deathday: January 07, 1950
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Falling in Love
Overview: British comedy. It was released in the United States the following year under the alternative title Trouble Ahead.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-09-04
Popularity:
Play Safe
Overview: A gang of bad guys menace a feller's gal. She hides in a freight car and a misstep sends the otherwise-empty train out of the station with the lever pushed to full speed. As the train gains speed, the captive's boyfriend must board the runaway train, repel the pursing gang, get his girl out of the box car, and somehow get the two of them to safety. Tunnels, a water tower, a steep grade, and a frayed rope complicate the hero's task.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-01-30
Popularity:
Blood and Sand
Overview: Bullfighter Juan Gallardo falls for socialite Dona Sol, turning from the faithful Carmen who nevertheless stands by her man as he continues to face real danger in the bullring.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-05-30
Popularity:
Tonight's the Night - Pass It On
Overview: Slapstick comedy in which luckless slate club treasurer Bill Smithers is sent to prison for three years after being mistakenly accused of stealing funds.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-12-26
Popularity:
The Grocery Clerk
Overview: Big Ben has the largest store in the town of New Ralgia. His chief clerk is in love with the post mistress. The three of them get involved in a series of mishaps with their customers and with the town ladies' man, whose advances conceal a more sinister purpose.
Genres: Comedy Crime Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-12-01
Popularity:
The Slappiest Days of Our Lives
Overview: Laurel is a Scottish reporter suspected of being a spy by police detective James Finlayson. Although trailed by the latter, Stan, who is reporting on the movie world, manages to be hired by Mack Sennett. He makes his debut in Nevada, in the middle of gold diggers. After managing to clear his name he becomes, with Oliver Hardy, a big comedy star.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1951-03-23
Popularity:
The Garage
Overview: Roscoe and Buster operate a combination garage and fire station. In the first half they destroy a car left for them to clean. In the second half they go off on a false alarm and return to find their own building on fire.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-01-11
Popularity:
Derby Day
Overview: Very hungry Monty chases a garbage truck all around town to retrieve a box lunch thrown away by a picky young lady.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-06-23
Popularity:
Pay or Move
Overview: Monty is trying to collect rent from a couple of tough deadbeats who have made a sport of beating rent collectors.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-03-17
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The Covered Schooner
Overview: Monty Banks becomes a sailor in the hunt for his girl.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-09-29
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Wedding Bells
Overview: Monty Banks plays a groom who is about to get married. In fact, he has the marriage license just about in hand. Apparently, he's had a bachelor party the night before and when his fiancée rings him, he can't find the phone, but there's several other guys sleeping it off. The landlady suspects that some hijinks have gone on and looks to investigate. Monty figures things out pretty quickly. Luckily for him, one of the gentlemen sleeping it off is in a policeman's uniform and Monty has him pretend he's arrested everybody in the room.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-03-16
Popularity:
The Church Mouse
Overview: When a meek secretary goes to work for her new boss, she becomes a sophisticated lady.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-12-10
Popularity:
Africa F.O.B.
Overview: Monty Banks becomes a car salesman and is shifted to Africa to sell one to King Obogeegee.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-09-15
Popularity:
Olympic Honeymoon
Overview: Comedy set in Switzerland. An estranged honeymooner, mistaken for an ice- hockey champion, helps England to win an international ice hockey match.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-06-21
Popularity:
A Scrap of Paper
Overview: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle confronts the Kaiser in his headquarters, and tells him that he will be be defeated by "scraps of paper," i.e. War Bonds.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-10-13
Popularity:
Elstree Story
Overview: Starting in 1927 when the first film, The White Sheik, was made there, Elstree Story features excerpts from over forty productions – including Hitchcock’s Blackmail, the first feature-length British talkie ever shown – with early appearances by some of cinema’s greatest stars; it is a most memorable and evocative journey through the years.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-01-01
Popularity:
The Purple Mask
Overview: Cunard turns into The Queen of the Apaches, an outlaw who steals from the rich to gives to the poor, always leaving a purple mask behind as a trademark.
Genres: Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-12-25
Popularity:
Don't Park Here
Overview: Not one but two of Charlie Chaplin impersonators, Harry Mann and Monty Banks, a film directed by Charley Chase still under the name of Charles Parrott. They go driving around town experiencing various car theft problems.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-05-19
Popularity:
Chasing Choo Choos
Overview: Virginia Craig will become super-wealthy and gain sole control of her factory, unless insubordinate schemers can trick her into marrying one of their clique. Unfortunately for them, she loves Monty, one of her employees. When the schemers' plot is discovered, a chase starts away from the factory and onto a runaway train.
Genres: Action Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-06-21
Popularity:
Flying Luck
Overview: A naive young man joins the Army in order to become a pilot.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-12-04
Popularity:
Love
Overview: "Fatty", a poor good hearted farm boy is deeply in love with Winifred, a farmer's daughter. A rich neighbor offers the farmer a large plot of land if Winifred marries his slow witted son Al. "Fatty" has less then one day to save heartbroken Winifred from the rushed ceremony.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-03-01
Popularity:
Brilliantine the Bull Fighter
Overview: Brilliantino the Bullfighter (originally titled Flood and Sand) is one of the first spoofs of Blood and Sand, Paramount’s smoldering matador melodrama that set box offices ablaze. Like Mud and Sand, starring Stan Laurel, the Banks parody was rushed into theaters in November 1922, while memory of the Valentino vehicle was fresh. The concept of Monty Banks impersonating the passionate matador must have been innately hilarious to audiences who had seen the original picture.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-11-21
Popularity:
Oils Well!
Overview: Set in the oil-soaked country of “Chilitina”—shot on location in San Diego’s Balboa Park—Oils Well! follows the travails of Monty, an everyman office clerk, who thinks only of his boss’s daughter. When Herbert Hester, an oilman “so crooked he cheats when counting his pulse,” schemes to cover up the company’s new gusher so he can claim it himself and get the girl, Monty swings into action. He eludes the hapless Chilitinan army, sidesteps the General’s amorous wife, thwarts Herbert, and saves the day.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-02-13
Popularity:
Hot Sands
Overview: Monty Banks finds love and mischief at the amusement park, in this two-reel comedy
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-02-29
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For the Love of Mike
Overview: A useless secretary and his private detective friend try to help an heiress from being swindled by her guardian.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-12-01
Popularity:
Shipyard Sally
Overview: A lancashire singer buys a pub in Clydebank and hits money troubles when the shipbyards are closed. She takes a petition to London to try to get them reopened.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-09-30
Popularity:
Cold Hearts and Hot Flames
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-09-20
Popularity:
Nearly Married
Overview: Monty Banks comedy produced by Warners.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-12-11
Popularity:
Queen of Hearts
Overview: A woman prevents a popular stage performer getting arrested for drunk driving, though has to pretend to be a rich benefactor when she next meets him.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-10-04
Popularity:
Always Late
Overview: Monty is chronically late. He comes to work late and loses his job, and then manages to miss his own wedding...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-01-01
Popularity:
Six A.M.
Overview: After drinking all night, Monty and his friend try to get home, but it turns out to be not easy. The next day, Monty tries to win the heart of a theater actress.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-01-01
Popularity:
Days of Thrills and Laughter
Overview: An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-03-21
Popularity:
You Made Me Love You
Overview: A rich American businessman in London makes believe he's lost all his money so that his daughter will marry a composer.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-10-01
Popularity:
A Blind Pig
Overview: A French perfume salesman is mistaken for a bootlegger. Partially missing two-reeler with 11 minutes surviving.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-06-12
Popularity:
Atta Boy
Overview: Monty Milde, would-be newspaper reporter, stumbles into a high-profile kidnapping mystery.
Genres: Comedy Action Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-10-10
Popularity:
One Night Only
Overview: Misadventures of a traveling company of actors performing for one night in a small town. When the troupe's leading lady deserts the show for a better paying job as a waitress, a young woman from the town gets the role for one night.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-08-01
Popularity:
A Bedroom Scandal
Overview: A Monty Banks comedy short.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-01-15
Popularity:
Where Is My Wife?
Overview: Lovable buffoon Monty Banks tries to relax, but ultimately spends his day worrying about who is keeping company with his wife.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-01-15
Popularity:
Heads We Go
Overview: A model inherits a great deal of money and pretends to be a movie star.
Genres: Comedy Mystery Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-07-28
Popularity:
The Girl in Possession
Overview: An American woman is fooled into thinking that she is the heiress to an estate in England.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-07-16
Popularity:
Coppers and Scents
Overview: Monty Banks plays Sherlock McNutt in this Charley Chase short. Partially lost; five minutes survive.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-04-01
Popularity:
Her First False Hare
Overview: Four men are out rabbit hunting and encounter a beautiful young lady, who promises to marry the first one who brings her a white rabbit.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-05-01
Popularity:
A Flivver Wedding
Overview: The misadventures of a young man who sets out in his flivver to stop the girl he loves from being forcibly married to a rival.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-09-01
Popularity:
Fresh Air
Overview: A hunting comedy full of cartoonish gags.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-10-01
Popularity:
Cleaned and Dry
Overview: Monty is the driver of a delivery wagon for a cleaning and dyeing establishment, romps with a Ford and gets himself into many ridiculous scrapes.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-11-01
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Love's Handicap
Overview: Horse racing hijinks in the Old South with Monty Banks.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-05-18
Popularity:
Squirrel Food
Overview: A fortuneteller informs Monte that he will marry the first girl he meets. After several false starts, he meets what he is sure is "the" girl. She takes him to jail, hits him with a book, and affects her brother's escape, leaving Monte inside. He finally gets out, a chase occurs and he swears off girls forever, only to be snared again.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date:
Popularity:
Paging Love
Overview: Monty appears as a chap whose prospective father-in-law, to find out the stuff of which he is made, sets him out to peddle an encyclopedia which no one else can sell.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-07-26
Popularity:
A Wild Goose Chase
Overview: Monty chases a goose. Hilarity ensues. (This film is partially lost.)
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-06-02
Popularity:
Home Cooking
Overview: A new bridegroom discovers his wife's astounding ability to create culinary disasters.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-07-15
Popularity:
The Compulsory Husband
Overview: A recently engaged girl invites her parents to meet her fiance. They learn that he also loves another woman.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-11-13
Popularity:
Week-End Wives
Overview: A lawyer spends the weekend with a married actress at the same hotel as his wife and her lover. This British silent film exists in an abridged 2-reel (32-min) format.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-05-14
Popularity:
Atlantic
Overview: English-language version. "Atlantic" is a drama film based on the sinking of the RMS "Titanic" and set aboard a fictional ship, called the "Atlantic". The main plotline revolves around a man who has a shipboard affair with a fellow passenger, which is eventually discovered by his wife. The ship also has aboard an elderly couple, the Rools, who are on their anniversary cruise. Midway across the Atlantic Ocean, the "Atlantic" strikes an iceberg and is damaged to the point where it is sinking into the Atlantic.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-11-15
Popularity:
Adam's Apple
Overview: An American on his honeymoon in Paris, organises the kidnapping of his interfering mother-in-law.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-09-03
Popularity:
A Perfect Gentleman
Overview: Monty Banks gets involved in tracking down a stolen fortune, his adventures culminating in a whirlwind, gag-filled climax at sea.
Genres: Comedy Crime Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-01-15
Popularity:
So You Won't Talk
Overview: The owner of a small Italian restaurant in central London is left a million pound inheritance, the only stipulation to the will being that he cannot speak or write anything for a period of one month.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-03-01
Popularity:
Man of the Moment
Overview: Love blossoms after a young man rescues a pretty girl who attempted to drown herself.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-09-01
Popularity:
The Golf Bug
Overview: Golf with Monty Banks and pals.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-07-08
Popularity:
Taxi Please
Overview: A wild taxi driver can't get ahead with his fares but he is still willing to help his sweetheart at the drugstore, especially when he figures out how to sell hair tonic
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-11-30
Popularity:
The Belles of Liberty
Overview: Monty Banks plays a paramour who starts all sort of silly highjinks with Eva Novak and Carolyne Wright
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-07-10
Popularity:
Horse Shoes
Overview: A Monty Banks comedy that includes the 'Undressing in the Upper Berth' routine
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-04-17
Popularity:
Keep Smiling
Overview: The Boy, involved in a maritime disaster as a child, suffers from hydrophobia. He invents a life preserver that automatically inflates when it hits the water, using it to save the life of Rose Ryan, the daughter of a steamship magnate.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-09-06
Popularity:
A Bell for Adano
Overview: Major Joppolo and his men are assigned to restore order to the war-torn Italian town of Adano. He has to manage getting supplies into town without interfering with troop movements, all the while dealing with colorful citizens of the town. One of his quests is to replace the bell which orders the town's life.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-06-21
Popularity:
Too Much Johnson
Overview: Augustus Billings has a domineering mother-in-law, and to get away from both her and his wife, he takes a trip, claiming that he is going off to check on Mexican oil investments. But he's really going on a cruise with Mrs. Dathis, who has purchased his yacht. To throw everyone off track, he uses the name Mr. Johnson. When he decides to repeat the trip, however, all hell breaks loose -- the jealous Mr. Dathis is out to get his hands on this Johnson character, while a real Mr. Johnson shows up in Mexico, and Mrs. Billings shows up with her mother, and the confusion continues from there.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-12-01
Popularity:
Camping Out
Overview: Camping Out is a 1919 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle. Fatty is the suffering spouse who comes home every night to an empty house and a neglectful wife. His wife is furious when she discovers Fatty is cheating on her with a neglected wife.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-01-05
Popularity:
The Sheriff
Overview: Roscoe Arbuckle plays a Douglas Fairbanks fan who becomes a rotund version of his hero. As "The Sheriff", he must rescue abducted schoolteacher Betty Compson.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-11-24
Popularity:
In and Out
Overview: Monty and his wife are newlyweds dealing with things like making breakfast that’s edible and dealing with a persistent book salesman. Only reel 1 survives, so a proper plot synopsis is difficult.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-07-17
Popularity:
Did She Do Wrong?
Overview: An industrious criminal plays his game so crookedly that he "double crosses" himself.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-03-10
Popularity:
Leave It to Me
Overview: The owner of a professional help agency poses as a poet at a wealthy patron's ball and prevents a necklace from being stolen by thieves.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-04-01
Popularity: