Frances Gifford
Also Known As: Mary Frances Gifford, Mary Gifford
Biography: Frances Gifford had a somewhat unorthodox introduction to the movie business. Born and raised in Long Beach, California, she had no ambition to be an actress, and in fact had applied to UCLA when, at age 16, she and a friend got to visit the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, where they watched a movie being shot. A studio exec saw her and asked if she would take a screen test. She did, the studio was impressed with the result and put her under contract. Nothing much came of it, however, other than bit parts, and she moved to RKO. Nothing much happened there, either. She had married actor James Dunn and decided to retire, which she did, in 1938. Off the screen for almost two years, she got a small part in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and her career began to revive. She was signed by Paramount, which soon loaned her to Republic, where she made the film she is probably most remembered for: the serial Jungle Girl (1941), based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs story. Unfortunately, her career never really took off, and she bounced around among several studios. In 1948 she was involved in an auto accident in which she received severe head injuries. Although she seemed to recover physically, her career took a nosedive, and she made her last film in 1953. In 1958 newspaper stories reported that as a result of the injuries sustained in the accident, she was admitted to a California state mental hospital. Nothing further was heard from her or about her until 1983, when a writer for a film magazine found her in Pasadena. She had apparently fully overcome her physical and mental problems and was working for the city library. She died of emphysema in Pasadena in 1994.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Long Beach, California, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: December 07, 1919
Age: 105 years old
Gender: Female
Deathday: January 15, 1994
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Known For:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Overview: After the death of a United States Senator, idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. Soon, the naive and earnest new senator has to battle political corruption.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-10-19
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American Empire
Overview: Richard Dix as Dan Taylor and Preston S. Foster as Paxton Bryce are two longtime friends seeking their fortune in Texas after the war. The two men decide, not without problems, to establish a cattle empire. Paxton becoming too ambitious, distances himself from Dan and Abby, Paxton's wife. It will only be after a personal tragedy that he will come back to his senses.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-12-11
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The Reluctant Dragon
Overview: Humorist Robert Benchley attempts to find Walt Disney to ask him to adapt a short story about a gentle dragon who would rather recite poetry than be ferocious. Along the way, he is given a tour of Walt Disney Studios, and learns about the animation process.
Genres: Animation Family Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-06-19
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The Arnelo Affair
Overview: A neglected wife gets mixed up with an hypnotic charmer and murder.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-02-13
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Having Wonderful Time
Overview: Teddy Shaw, a bored New York office girl, goes to a camp in the Catskill Mountains for rest and finds Chick Kirkland.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-07-01
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The Glass Key
Overview: A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Genres: Crime Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-09-08
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Border Vigilantes
Overview: A town bedeviled with outlaws sends for Hoppy, Lucky and California after their own vigilante committee fails to solve the towns problems. Hoppy discovers that the bad guys are led by the town boss, and so are the vigilantes.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-04-18
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Cry 'Havoc'
Overview: The Army nurses on Bataan need help badly, but when it arrives, it sure isn't what they expected. A motley crew, including a Southern belle, a waitress, and a stripper, show up. Many conflicts arise among these women who are thrown together in what is a desperate and ultimately hopeless situation.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-11-23
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Tarzan Triumphs
Overview: Zandra, white princess of a lost civilization, comes to Tarzan for help when Nazis invade the jungle with plans to conquer her people and take their wealth. Tarzan, the isolationist, becomes involved after the Nazis shoot at him and capture Boy: "Now Tarzan make war!"
Genres: Action Adventure War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-01-20
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Sky Commando
Overview: Colonel Ed Wyatt is regarded by pilots under his command as being a ruthless disciplinarian. His co-pilot, Lt. Hobson Lee, and Jo McWethy, a war correspondent assigned to the squadron become more friendly than meets Wyatt's approval. When Wyatt's plane is forced down behind enemy lines, he orders his crew to proceed to the American lines with the vital film they have shot, while he remains behind to hold off the enemy.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-08-21
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Star Spangled Rhythm
Overview: Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio's dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade. Things get more complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount's top contract players.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-03-05
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Maid's Night Out
Overview: A millionaire's son works as a milkman for a month to win a bet with his father. While delivering milk he falls in love with a young debutante whom he mistakes for a maid.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-03-03
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Stage Door
Overview: The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel. Centres particularly on the conflict and growing friendship between Terry Randall, a rich girl confident in her talent and ability to make it to the top on the stage, and Jean Maitland, a world weary and cynical trouper who has taken the hard knocks of the ruthless and over-populated world of the Broadway apprentice.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-10-08
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Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
Overview: Welcome to Fuller Junction, Wisconsin, a friendly small town settled by Norwegian farmers. Here we see the exploits of two young cousins, Selma and Arnold, who learn about their world and experience the ups and downs of life as the season pass.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-09-06
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Riding High
Overview: A horse trainer who has fallen on hard times looks to his horse, Broadway Bill, to finally win the big race.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-04-12
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Little Mister Jim
Overview: After his mother's death, a young boy tries to help his father stop drinking.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-04-01
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Hold That Woman!
Overview: A skip tracer--someone who collects late payments from people who've purchased appliances, etc., or takes them back them when they don't pay--repossesses a small radio from a deadbeat who's skipped payments. What he doesn't know is that a gang that has stolen diamonds from a Hollywood movie star has stashed them inside the radio, and they start hunting for him.
Genres: Crime Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-06-28
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Jungle Girl
Overview: Dr. John Meredith has been driven from civilization by the criminal activities of his twin brother Bradley Meredith. With his infant daughter, he settles in the African jungle, where his ability to cure the native ills has resulted in his virtual control of the Masamba tribes, who possess vast diamond mines coveted by a gang of crooks.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-06-21
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Thrill of a Romance
Overview: A soldier falls in love with a newly-married woman after her husband abandons her for a business meeting on their honeymoon.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-05-23
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She Went to the Races
Overview: A group of scientists develop a system to pick winners at the racetrack. Comedy.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-11-04
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Night Spot
Overview: A young singer, Marge Dexter, becomes involved in trouble when she works in a nightclub in which two of the band-members are in reality undercover-police officers who believe that the club is the headquarters of a dangerous gang of crooks.
Genres: Comedy Romance Music Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-02-25
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Living on Love
Overview: A man and woman, who've never met, are forced by circumstances to share the same apartment. A remake of the 1933 film "Rafter Romance".
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-11-12
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New Faces of 1937
Overview: A crooked producer makes money from Broadway flops by selling more than 100% interest to multiple parties. He only fails if it makes a profit.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-07-02
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Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour
Overview: Teenager Henry Aldrich becomes a hometown celebrity when he wins a date with a sexy movie star. The sixth entry in the "Henry Aldrich" series of eleven films.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-04-30
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Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die
Overview: Uneven version of Wyatt Earp vs. the Clanton Gang with a little romance thrown in haphazardly.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-06-13
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Beyond the Blue Horizon
Overview: A young girl's parents are killed on a tropical island, and the girl is raised and protected by the jungle animals. When she is found, as a grown woman, she is taken back to the United States to claim her inheritance. There are several people, with vested interests, who stand to gain something if she is shown not to be the missing heir.
Genres: Action Adventure Comedy Drama Fantasy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-06-25
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West Point Widow
Overview: In this romance, a hospital nurse marries a West Point football hero. She soon gets pregnant, but this doesn't stop her from annulling the marriage so as not to interfere with her husband's military career.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-06-20
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My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Overview: A distinguished professor finds his well-ordered life tospy-turvy after he is forced to take in a pregnant widow.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-11-07
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Mercy Plane
Overview: Air-race champions "Speed" Leslie and Branda Fowler combine to open a very profitable airplane service that flies patients to other cities for special treatment. Gangsters soon move in and offer to take over, without an invitation.
Genres: Action Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-12-04
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Luxury Liner
Overview: Capt. Jeremy Bradford has a particularly exciting luxury liner cruise in store when he's charged with transporting a troupe of opera singers to Rio de Janeiro. Anxious to become a singer herself, Bradford's young daughter, Polly, decides to skip out on school and sneak onto the ship before it departs. Angry that his daughter disobeyed him, Bradford puts her to work on the ship for punishment, but Polly has her own ideas about how to spend the trip.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-11-09
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Forty Little Mothers
Overview: An out-of-work professor gets a break from an old college buddy to teach at an exclusive girl's school. But events conspire against him: he finds an abandoned child which he takes under his wing, despite the school's rules against teachers having a family; and the girls in the school resent his replacing a handsome and popular teacher, and do everything in their power to get him fired.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-04-26
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There Goes the Groom
Overview: After striking it rich in Alaskan gold, a young man returns to marry his fiancé only to be snubbed. Her sister, however, is worth considering, until he learns about her gold-digging family.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-10-29
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The Remarkable Andrew
Overview: When Andrew Long, hyper-efficient small town accountant, finds a $1240 discrepancy in the city budget, his superiors try to explain it away. When he insists on pursuing the matter, he's in danger of being blamed himself. In his trouble, the spirit of Andrew Jackson, whom he idolizes, visits him, and in turn, summons much high-powered talent from American history...which only Andrew can see.
Genres: Fantasy Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-03-05
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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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Marriage Is a Private Affair
Overview: Theo has had many boyfriends who wanted to marry her. Since her mother, Mrs. Selworth, has been married many times, Theo is unsure of commitment. Without much thought, she finally accepts the proposal of Air Corps Lieutenant Tom West. After the honeymoon, Tom's father dies and Tom goes into the defense industry. When Theo has a baby, she hates the idea of being matronly and wants to be the old party girl. The problem is that her husband is working constantly. She looks to her friends, who are having their own problems, and to her old flame Captain Lancing. To decide on what she wants to do with her baby and her life, Theo must grow up.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-08-23
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Walt Disney's Fables - Vol.6
Overview: Two classic animated shorts from the Disney studios. In 'The Reluctant Dragon' (1941), a young boy and a famous dragon fighter team up to teach a docile dragon the art of being a force to be reckoned with. In 'Mickey and the Beanstalk' (1947), Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck confront the fearsome Willie the Giant to try to retrieve the magical singing harp to Happy Valley.
Genres: Animation Family Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2004-05-31
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