Norman Foster
Also Known As: John Hoeffer
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Norman Foster (December 13, 1903 - July 7, 1976) was an American film director and actor. Born John Hoeffer in Richmond, Indiana, Foster originally became a cub reporter on a local newspaper in Indiana before going to New York in the hopes of getting a better newspaper job but there were no vacancies. He tried a number of theatrical agencies before getting stage work and later appeared on Broadway in the George S. Kaufman / Ring Lardner play June Moon in 1929. He has also acted in London, England. He started working in crowd scenes in films before moving to bigger parts. His film acting credits include Prosperity (1932), Pilgrimage (1933), Rafter Romance (1933) with Ginger Rogers and State Fair (1933). He has written several plays. He gave up acting in the late 1930s to pursue directing, although he occasionally appeared in movies and television programs. Some of Foster's directorial efforts include The Sign of Zorro (1958), and the stylish films noir Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948), Woman on the Run (1950) and Journey into Fear (1943). Foster directed Rachel and the Stranger and the Davy Crockett segments of Disneyland that were edited into feature films Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and Davy Crockett and the River Pirates where he did not accept any interference from Walt Disney. In 1967, he directed Brighty of the Grand Canyon, based on a children's novel by Marguerite Henry about a burro in the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. The film starred Joseph Cotten, Karl Swenson, Dick Foran, and Pat Conway. It was rumored that Orson Welles took over direction of Journey Into Fear, which Welles later denied. Foster was the director of the "My Friend Bonito" segment of Orson Welles' Pan-American anthology film It's All True until RKO aborted the project. Foster directed a number of Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto mysteries, including Charlie Chan in Panama (1940), Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939), Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939), Charlie Chan in Reno (1939), Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939), Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938), Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938), Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937), and Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937). Foster was married to Claudette Colbert from 1928 until their divorce in 1935. In 1937, he wed actress Sally Blane, an older sister of Loretta Young. The couple remained married until his death in 1976 from cancer in Santa Monica at the age of 75. They had two children, Robert and Gretchen. He is buried in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery. Description above from the Wikipedia article Norman Foster, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Directing
Place of Birth: Richmond, Indiana, USA
Birthday: December 13, 1903
Deathday: July 07, 1976
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Mysterious Mr. Moto
Overview: The Japanese detective rounds up a league of assassins for Scotland Yard.
Genres: Mystery Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-09-17
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State Fair
Overview: The children of Iowa farmers find love, with mixed results, at the state fair.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-02-10
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Skyscraper Souls
Overview: After bank president David Dwight makes a vast loan to himself to build a remarkable skyscraper, his board questions the propriety of the loan. Despite the devotion of longtime mistress Sarah, the ruthless David, while seeking bank mergers to protect his building, tries to seduce Sarah's secretary, Lynn. David then agrees to a plot by a bank board member to inflate his bank's stock and sell short — just before the market crashes.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-07-16
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Under Eighteen
Overview: Working girl Margie Evans has decided there are two kinds of opportunities for a slum kid during the Depression: Those you make and those you take. Determined to help her family out of its financial bind, she is ready to do both after she shows up at the penthouse pool bash of a wealthy playboy.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-01-02
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Behind the Green Lights
Overview: A police detective's (Norman Foster) lawyer girlfriend (Judith Allen) works for a crooked criminal lawyer (Sidney Blackmer).
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-03-11
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Rafter Romance
Overview: A working girl shares her apartment with an artist, taking the place in shifts.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-09-01
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Confessions of a Co-Ed
Overview: A young college student gets pregnant by the man she loves, but circumstances prevent their marrying, so she marries a classmate she doesn't love. Soon, however, her lover returns, and she finds herself in a dilemma as to who to choose.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-07-11
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Pilgrimage
Overview: A mother from Arkansas is very possessive of her grown son. To prevent him from getting married she has him drafted into WW I.
Genres: Drama War Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-07-12
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It Pays to Advertise
Overview: To prove his thesis that any product--even one that doesn't exist--can be merchandized if it is advertised properly, a young man gets together with his father's savvy secretary to market a non-existent laundry soap. Complications ensue when his "product" turns out to be more successful than even he imagined--and now he has to deliver.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-02-18
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Week-End Marriage
Overview: In this comedy, a hard-working husband loses his job and his wife becomes the bread winner.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-06-18
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High Tension
Overview: Brawling cable layer Steve Reardon doesn't want to marry girlfriend Edith but he also doesn't want her to date other men.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-07-10
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The Hoosier Schoolmaster
Overview: Right after the Civil War, an ex-Union soldier sets out to become a schoolmaster in his small town, even though many locals still harbor a resentment against "Yankees". He goes up against the town bully, who both want the same girl, and his troubles multiply when a vicious band of nightriders set out to drive him out of town.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-05-14
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Suicide Squad
Overview: Larry Baker is a young fireman whose daring exploits have led him to receiving a lot of newspaper publicity which goes to his head. His sweetheart, Mary O'Connor, and fire-department friends begin to shun him as they think he is just a publicity hound. But a daring rescue of Mary and her younger brother, Mickey, from a blazing inferno shows him to be more than just a publicity-chaser and, now, a real hero to all.
Genres: Action Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-12-02
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Ladies Crave Excitement
Overview: Bored rich girl hooks up with news photographer, gets caught up in his adventures.
Genres: Drama Action Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-06-21
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Reckless Living
Overview: In order to be able to buy a gas station, a young couple run a speakeasy. Complications arise when the husband loses their money to bookies.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-10-20
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Strictly Dynamite
Overview: A failed poet ends up becoming a gag writer for a bombastic comedian.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-05-11
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Young Man of Manhattan
Overview: Two flappers try to get their newspaper reporter boyfriends to pay attention to them.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-04-19
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Professional Sweetheart
Overview: Radio singer Glory Eden is publicized as the ideal of American womanhood in order to sell the sponsor's product Ippsie-Wippsie Washcloths. In reality, Glory would like to at least sample booze, jazz, gambling, and men. When the strain of representing "purity" brings her to rebellion, the sponsor and his nutty henchmen pick her a public-relations "sweetheart" from fan mail, who turns out to be a hayseed.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-06-09
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The Fire-Trap
Overview: An insurance investigator falls in love with a society girl, unaware that her uncle and his boss are conspiring to commit insurance fraud by overvaluing a decrepit warehouse and its contents and burning the building to the ground.
Genres: Romance Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-11-26
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Girl of the Rio
Overview: A café dancer bluffs a Mexican landowner to save her lover.
Genres: Comedy Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-01-15
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Play Girl
Overview: A young innocent falls for a compulsive gambler.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-12
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No Limit
Overview: Theater usherette Bunny O'Day (Clara Bow) inadvertently becomes hostess of a private gambling den, and gets involved in a romance with a ne'er-do-well gambler.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-01-15
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Strange Justice
Overview: Socialite banker Henry Judson maintains his extravagant lifestyle by embezzling from his bank, but is caught by sleazy assistant manager Waters and is blackmailed by him into continuing. Close to being found out, the two devise a scheme which sends Wally, the ex-con boyfriend of pretty hat check girl Rose Abbott, to death row.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-10-07
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Prosperity
Overview: Longtime friends become feuding mothers-in-law when their children marry.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-11-18
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Alias the Doctor
Overview: Karl is the workaholic adopted son while Stephan is the lazy one. They both go to Munich to study medicine and Karl is at the top of the class while Stephan is barely passing. When Stephan's actions causes the death of Anna, Karl is the one who takes the wrap and three years in prison. When he gets out, he finds Stephan is dead and a sick child needs an operation and he does brilliant surgery. This gets him noticed and his mother tells them that he is Stephan Brenner, not Karl Brenner. She tells Karl that he must cure sickness in the world. But, being that he is Stephan, he can no longer marry Lottie, as she is now his sister.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-02-25
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Steady Company
Overview: Truck driver Norman Foster has aspirations to become a prize fighter, but romantic interest June Clyde finds the idea deplorable. Henry Armetta and ZaSu Pitts supply the laughs.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-13
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Behind the Evidence
Overview: Norman Foster plays a millionaire who takes a job as a reporter after he's wiped out in the Stock Market. Foster's managing editor Samuel S. Hinds considers the young upstart to be a pain in the neck. But all is forgiven-at least until next time-when Foster solves a series of puzzling robberies..
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-01-08
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I Cover Chinatown
Overview: A tour guide in Chinatown and his girlfriend get mixed up with jewel thieves and murder.
Genres: Crime Drama Music Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-10-01
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Fatal Lady
Overview: On her debut as an opera star, Marion Stuart is interrogated and possibly implicated in the death of a male acquaintance. Released, although thoroughly shaken-up, Marion attempts to perform but loses her voice onstage. Humiliated, but driven to sing, she travels to South America under the assumed name of Maria Delasano, and works in an opera company under the tutelage of Feodor Glinka, who wants her to shun men and save herself for her art. Mary resists the persistent attentions of wealthy young Phil Roberts, who follows the company in hopes of marrying her. ...
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-05-15
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Walls of Gold
Overview: A career woman marries her boyfriend's rich uncle when the boyfriend marries her sister.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-10-21
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Double Solitaire
Overview: With his parents about to celebrate their wedding anniversary, a middle-aged husband agrees to renew his vows to his longtime wife. But as they assess their relationship, the couple discovers that their marriage no longer has any meaning. A televised production of Robert Anderson's thoughtful play, this fascinating drama deftly examines the institution of marriage and the nature of love.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-01-16
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Up Pops the Devil
Overview: The marriage of an advertising man is jeopardized when he gets a chance to sell a novel he's been working on and quits his job to concentrate on writing. In order to support the family, the wife is forced to take a job as a dancer in a Broadway show. As the marriage begins to fall apart, complications ensue when she discovers that she's pregnant.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-05-19
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The Leavenworth Case
Overview: Director Lewis D. Collins' 1936 whodunit is about the investigation into the death of an elderly tycoon, who is murdered shortly after announcing he plans to change his will and give away his fortune.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-01-20
Popularity:
Orient Express
Overview: Based on Graham Greene's novel Stamboul Train, the movie focuses on the lives of individuals aboard the Orient Express as it makes a three-day journey from Ostend to Constantinople.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-02-28
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The Bishop Misbehaves
Overview: On a walking tour of English cathedrals, Donald Meadows meets Hester Granthem in church. Hearing he is from that hot-bed of crime, Chicago, Hester asks Donald to help her in a robbery she has planned. Thinking it a joke, he plays along; but Hester is serious, and hearing that she plans to rob Mr. Waller, the man who has cheated her father out of thousands of pounds, Donald agrees. A robbery at a pub is arranged, but the Bishop of Broadminster, an avid mystery fan, and his sister stumble into it. Playing detective the Bishop complicates matters and each side, the Bishop, the unscrupulous Waller, the gang Hester hires, and Hester and Donald, each get the upper hand along the way.
Genres: Crime Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-09-13
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Men Call It Love
Overview: Pre-code melodrama about high society marriage and fidelity.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-03-14
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Gentlemen of the Press
Overview: A newspaperman is drawn away from family life by the needs of his paper until a new woman enters his life.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-05-04
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Elinor Norton
Overview: A romantic triangle during WW I provides the basis of this drama. The trouble begins when a young wife gets involved with a coffee baron while her husband is off fighting WW I. Her shell-shocked husband finally returns. He is terribly jealous. To help him, the wife takes him to a Western dude ranch. Her lover also goes, and the two men soon become friends. The coffee magnate helps to cure him, but then breaks his heart by telling him that he and the wife are planning to run away.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-11-02
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The Other Side of the Wind
Overview: Surrounded by fans and sceptics, grizzled director J.J. "Jake" Hannaford returns from years abroad in Europe to a changed Hollywood, where he attempts to make his innovative comeback film. This film was started in 1970 but never completed during Welles's lifetime.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-11-02
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They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
Overview: As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-08-31
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Love at First Sight
Overview: Musical comedy.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-12-15
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Play It as It Lays
Overview: Burned-out B-movie actress Maria, depressed and frustrated with her loveless marriage to an ambitious film director, Carter Lang, who would rather work on his career than on his relationship with her, numbs herself with drugs and sex with strangers. Only her friendship with a sensitive gay movie producer, B.Z., offers a semblance of solace. But even that relationship proves to be fleeting amidst the empty decadence of Hollywood.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-10-19
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The Disneyland Story
Overview: Walt Disney presents a preview for both his upcoming park called Disneyland and several episodes of the show to come. Then the show focuses primarily on the career of Mickey Mouse.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-10-27
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Escape from Devil's Island
Overview: Two men escape from the French penal colony but not from their jealousy over a woman.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-11-24
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The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood
Overview: The Cohens and the Kellys invade a Hollywood studio after Kitty becomes the darling of the studio.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-27
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Woman in the Rain
Overview: A once-popular singer gives a candid interview, revealing the sordid details of her rags-to-riches-to-rags odyssey in the tawdry entertainment world.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-09-01
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Everybody's Old Man
Overview: An elderly businessman thinking about aging and death takes time off to help teach a dead friend's children about life and business.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-03-20
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