Jean Brooks
Also Known As: Ruby M. Kelly, Jeanne Kelly, Ruby Matilda Kelly
Biography: Fluent in Spanish, Jean Brooks began professionally by singing with Enric Madriguera and Orchestra in New York. She had a small role in the New York City-filmed The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935) and the second lead in a Broadway play, "Name Your Poison" (1938), with Lenore Ulric, all under her real name of Jeanne Kelly. She was signed by an independent film production company that had gone under by the time she got to Hollywood. She spent several years at Universal as a leading lady in "B" pictures, including several Johnny Mack Brown westerns, but her option was dropped in late 1941. By this time she had married writer (later director) Richard Brooks and, with a certain Broadway hoofer having just signed at MGM, dropped the Kelly and became Jean Brooks. She signed with RKO, where film buffs know her for her three appearances for cult producer Val Lewton, particularly her stunning performance as a haunted devil worshiper in The Seventh Victim (1943). Her clipped delivery and intense, forceful acting style made her a promising bet for stardom, but RKO lost interest in her by mid-'44 and her roles got gradually smaller until she was dropped in 1946. She and Brooks divorced (his later studio biographies omitted her name as one of his ex-wives). For many years she was listed as a "Lost Player" championed in several magazine articles by writer Doug McClelland. She was eventually located in San Francisco, where she had moved after her film career petered out, and was employed as a classified ad solicitor on the "San Francisco Examiner" newspaper. She had married a printer called Leddy. Her death at the Kaiser Hospital in Richmond, California, in 1963 was due to nutritional problems caused by alcoholism, a sad ending for a stylish and talented performer who didn't get the breaks she deserved, both personally and professionally. Date of Death 25 November 1963, Richmond, California (extreme malnutrition & alcoholism)
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Houston, Texas, USA
Birthday: December 23, 1915
Deathday: November 25, 1963
Adult: No
Gender: Female
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Known For:
The Seventh Victim
Overview: After young Mary Gibson discovers that her older sister Jacqueline has disappeared, she leaves her boarding school and heads to New York City to track down her sibling. But Mary gets drawn deeper into the mystery.
Genres: Horror Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-08-21
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Women in the Night
Overview: During WW2 six allied nations women at Shanghai University are arrested by the Germans accused of killing a German officer and forced to entertain the Japanese.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-01-02
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The Leopard Man
Overview: When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.
Genres: Horror Mystery Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-05-19
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Two O'Clock Courage
Overview: A cab driver nearly hits a man with amnesia, then helps him unravel his past, only to discover he's a murder suspect as she falls for him.
Genres: Mystery Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-04-13
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The Falcon in Danger
Overview: Two industrialists disappear from an airplane while the plane is in the air. Also missing is $100,000. The Falcon investigates and discovers a plot against the government.
Genres: Crime Mystery War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-07-17
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The Falcon in Hollywood
Overview: Suave amateur detective Tom Lawrence--aka Michael Arlen's literary hero The Falcon--arrives in Hollywood for some rest and relaxation, only to find himself involved in the murder of a movie actor. There's no shortage of suspects: the costume designer to whom he was married, a tyrannical director, a beautiful young French starlet, a Shakespeare-quoting producer, even a New York gangster. Helping The Falcon solve the crime is a cute, wise-cracking cab driver and a pair of bumbling cops.
Genres: Mystery Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-12-08
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The Falcon and the Co-Eds
Overview: The Falcon is called to a young woman's school to investigate a murder. When he arrives, another victim is discovered.
Genres: Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-11-10
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The Falcon's Alibi
Overview: A society sleuth sets out on the trail of a society matron's lost jewels.
Genres: Adventure Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-04-12
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The Boss of Big Town
Overview: Quality was seldom a consideration in the low-budget films of PRC Studios; still, the company was a welcome harbor for character actors who aspired to occasional leading roles. In Boss of Big Town, veteran supporting player John Litel is top-billed as crusading city market official Michael Lynn. When a criminal gang muscles in on the local food distribution markets, Lynn vows to throw the rascals out. First, however, he pretends to join the villains as a paid government stooge, the better to find out the identity of the "Mister Big" behind the distribution racket. The exposure of the "mystery villain" will come as a shock to fans of the 1927 Cecil B. DeMille epic The King of Kings--but not to dyed-in-the-wool movie buffs.
Genres: Action Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-12-07
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Youth Runs Wild
Overview: The teens of a defense-plant town hop on the road to juvenile delinquency while their parents are busy with the war.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-09-01
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The Bamboo Blonde
Overview: A pilot of a B 29 meets Louise Anderson, a singer in a New York nightclub. He falls in love with her, but he had to leave next day for action in the Pacific. He lets paint her picture on his bomber, the "Bamboo Blonde" and becomes a hero with his crew sinking a Japanese battleship and shooting down a Japanese fighter wing. Back in New York, he leaves his fiancée and engages him to Louise.
Genres: War Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-07-15
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A Night of Adventure
Overview: A lawyer tries to clear his wife's lover of murder charges.
Genres: Crime Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-06-02
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Miracle on Main Street
Overview: On Christmas Eve in the Spanish quarter of L.A. police try to arrest a couple running a shady floor show. Hiding in a church, the young woman finds an abandoned baby and uses it as cover to escape capture.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-12-19
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Man from Montana
Overview: A sheriff tries to prevent a range war between cattlemen and homesteaders.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-09-05
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The Devil's Pipeline
Overview: A secretary sends a coded plea for help in her monthly report; two detectives investigate and find out that men are jailed on phony charges, forced to work in oil fields and then murdered if they try to escape.
Genres: Romance Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-10-31
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Frankie and Johnnie
Overview: The story of a woman, Frankie, and the man who has done her wrong, Johnnie.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-04-30
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The Invisible Killer
Overview: Reporter Sue Walker has too much inside information on the local gambling rackets to suit her sweetheart, Detective Lieutenant Jerry Brown, chief of the police Homicide Squad. When the call comes in that there has been a killing at Lefty Ross' place, a notorious gambling joint, Jerry is peeved when Sue beats him there. He discovers that gambler Jimmy Clark was killed as he answered a telephone call, and his body is riddled with bullets but Jerry can't find any weapon. Sue is amazed to see Gloria Cunningham there. Gloria's father is one of the town's leading reformers and she is engaged to District Attorney Richard Sutton. Ross decides to give Sutton all the information he needs and makes an appointment to go to Sutton's home. Once there, Ross is called to the telephone before he can give any information, and is killed in the same mysterious manner as Jimmy Clark.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-11-14
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The Green Hornet Strikes Again!
Overview: Second serial featuring The Green Hornet and Kato.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-12-24
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The Invisible Man Returns
Overview: The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him invisible, despite its side effect: gradual madness.
Genres: Horror Mystery Science Fiction Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-01-12
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The Crime of Doctor Crespi
Overview: A crazed scientist invents a serum that induces a catatonic state in anyone who gets the injection. He uses the serum to paralyze his enemies, in order to bury them alive.
Genres: Crime Horror Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-09-23
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Riders of Death Valley
Overview: The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. The two heroes defend the Death Valley borax miners from an outlaw gang headed by Wolf Reade. An extraordinarily strong cast -- for a serial, at least -- supported the stars, headed by Charles Bickford as Reade, Leo Carillo, Lon Chaney, Jr., and silent screen star Monte Blue. Leading lady Jeanne Kelly later changed her name to Jean Brooks and starred in the atmospheric RKO thriller The Seventh Victim (1943). Universal claimed to have spent $1 million on this serial and made sure to get their money's worth by endlessly recycling the action footage in serials and B-westerns for years to come.
Genres: Action Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-07-01
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Meet the Chump
Overview: A comedy about a man who tries to avoid giving up the $10,000,000 trust he's been administering so well that there's hardly any money left.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-02-14
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A Dangerous Game
Overview: Detectives Dick Williams and Andy McAllister find themselves trying to solve several crimes at an isolated mentally-ill hospital, where the patients range from slightly daffy to criminally insane, and they don't know which is which. A gang is out to steal a fortune inherited by one of the patients and, before Dick and Andy solve the case, several patients are transferred to the cemetery. And 'tiddlie-winks" are indeed involved.
Genres: Comedy Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-21
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Buck Privates
Overview: Petty con artists Slicker Smith and Herbie Brown mistakenly join the Army evading the cops. The cop chasing them winds up as their drill instructor. A rich young man and his former working class chauffeur are not only in the same unit, they're vying for a pretty girl who seems attracted to both.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-01-31
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Son of Roaring Dan
Overview: In this exciting western, Roaring Dan is the meanest old cuss around. He and his "son" are constantly bickering. But things are not as they seem as the young man is only pretending to be Dan's son so they can find the killers of the young man's real father. Among the guilty are two women.
Genres: Music Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-07-25
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Junior G-Men
Overview: A gang of urban street kids and a club of suburban would-be federal agents, at first rivals, join forces to rescue the father of one of the kids, the inventor of a super-explosive and its remote detonator, from the clutches of a band of foreign subversives call the "Flaming Torch Gang". A 12-episode movie serial with the chapters: •1. Enemies Within •2. The Blast of Doom •3. Human Dynamite •4. Blazing Danger •5. Trapped By Traitors •6. Traitors' Treachery •7. Flaming Death •8. Hurled Through Space •9. The Plunge of Peril •10.The Toll of Treason •11.Descending Doom •12.The Power of Patriotism
Genres: Adventure Crime Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-11-01
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Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
Overview: A mysterious plague, the Purple Death, ravages the earth. Dr. Zarkov, investigating in his spaceship, finds a ship from planet Mongo seeding the atmosphere with dust. Sure enough, Ming the Merciless is up to his old tricks. So it's back to Mongo for Flash, Dale, and Zarkov.
Genres: Science Fiction Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-03-03
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Klondike Fury
Overview: In this Alaskan adventure, a surgeon becomes a pilot after he messes up an operation. Unfortunately, he crashes during a storm and finds himself cared for by a lovely woman. He gets a chance to reclaim his self-esteem when her son suddenly needs the same operation the surgeon botched.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-03-20
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Boot Hill Bandits
Overview: Bolton's men blow up the wagon carrying the mine payroll and Marshal Crash Corrigan is supposedly killed in the explosion. A man finds his badge and gives it to Bolton. Thinking Crash dead, Bolton gives the badge away and it ends up with the Sheriff. Crash is OK and the Range Busters know Bolton is the head of the gang but that he gets his orders from someone else and that is the man they want.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-04-24
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Fighting Bill Fargo
Overview: Johnny Mack Brown essays the title role in Universal's Fighting Bill Forgo. Returning to his home town, Bill Fargo takes over the operation of his late father's newspaper. He quickly gets swept up in political intrigue fomented by political boss Hackett (Kenneth Harlan), who has a cute habit of rubbing out any and all honest candidates for the sheriff's office.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-12-09
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Badlands of Dakota
Overview: In the Dakotas during the days of the Great Gold Boom, brothers Jim and Bob Holliday are bumping heads over the affections of pretty Anne Grayson. While all this is going on, Wild Bill Hickok does his best to neutralize the local criminal element-and to fend off the romantic overtures of boisterous Calamity Jane.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-09-15
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Tango Bar
Overview: Ricardo Fuentes (Carlos Gardel) leaves Buenos Aires after loosing in horse races to go to Barcelona, where he plans to open a tango bar, a new concept of tango dance show and dance saloon. On the ship he meets Laura Montalván (Rosita Moreno) who happens to be a thief working with a thief pal. Ricardo watches them robbing a lady's bracelet aboard but decides not to report them because he has fallen in love with Laura. Once in Barcelona, he opens the tango bar but Laura's partner tells him he sold the bracelet and now needs to recover it to avoid both Laura and him going to jail.
Genres: Music Drama
Original Language: es
Release Date: 1935-02-22
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Obeah
Overview: A sailor, known as the Adventurer, searching for a lost American explorer discovers him being held hostage on a remote island in the South Sea. The man is held captive by the island's natives, who have placed him under a voodoo spell known as "obeah.
Genres: Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-02-01
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