Donald Cook
Also Known As: Дональд Кук
Biography: Donald Cook (September 26, 1901 – October 1, 1961) was an American stage and film actor. Born in Portland, Oregon, he originally studied farming but later started business with a lumber company. He joined the Kansas Community Players and through this received an offer of stage work. He started screen work in "shorts" before going on to films. Cook was known for his portrayal of Mike Powers in the film The Public Enemy. He also was one of the first film actors to portray Ellery Queen, in The Spanish Cape Mystery. He played opposite Helen Morgan in the 1936 film adaptation of Show Boat was one of the suspects in the Philo Vance mystery The Casino Murder Case, starred as an heroic immigration inspector in Ellis Island. Other film credits include The Man Who Played God, Our Very Own and The Penguin Pool Murder (1932). Cook made his Broadway debut in 1926 as Donn Cook, and his New York theatrical career continued until 1959. His credits included a 1948 revival of Private Lives. Cook was married to Princess Gioia Tasca di Cuto from 1937 until his death from a heart attack in New Haven. Description above from the Wikipedia article Donald Cook, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Portland, Oregon
Birthday: September 26, 1901
Deathday: October 01, 1961
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Show Boat
Overview: Despite her mother's objections, the naive young daughter of a show boat captain is thrust into the limelight as the company's new leading lady.
Genres: Music Romance Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-05-17
Popularity:
Baby Face
Overview: A young woman uses her body and her sexuality to help her climb the social ladder, but soon begins to wonder if her new status will ever bring her happiness.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-07-13
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Viva Villa!
Overview: In this fictionalized biography, young Pancho Villa takes to the hills after killing an overseer in revenge for his father's death.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-04-27
Popularity:
The Public Enemy
Overview: Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-04-23
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The Spanish Cape Mystery
Overview: Ellery Queen's vacation is interrupted when murder strikes next door to his oceanside cabin.
Genres: Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-10-09
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Safe in Hell
Overview: To avoid the rigors of the law, Gilda flees New Orleans and hides on a Caribbean island where the worst criminals can ask for asylum. Besieged by the scum of the earth, Gilda will soon find out that she has found refuge in hell.
Genres: Thriller Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-12-12
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The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas
Overview: The made for television movie Munster's Scary Little Christmas, created three decades after the demise of the original series, concerns son Eddie missing his home in Transylvania. Soon the entire family bands together to teach the young boy everything great about the holiday season.
Genres: Comedy Family TV Movie Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-12-17
Popularity:
Frisco Jenny
Overview: Jenny is carrying the child of a young man who dies in the San Francisco earthquake (1906). After giving birth, she decides to place her child in the custody of a wealthy married couple. Years later, thanks to the protection of a corrupt politician, she becomes the main "madame" of San Francisco, in addition to participating in various illegal activities.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-01-14
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Penguin Pool Murder
Overview: New York schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers assists a detective when a body of unscrupulous stockbroker Gerald Parker suddenly appears in the penguin tank at the aquarium.
Genres: Comedy Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-12-09
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Our Very Own
Overview: During a heated argument with her sister Joan, Gail discovers the shocking news that she is adopted. With the reluctant support of her adoptive parents and baby sister Penny, Gail goes in search of her biological mother and true identity.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-07-27
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The Casino Murder Case
Overview: When Philo Vance receives a note that harm will befall Lynn at the casino that night, he takes the threat seriously while the DA dismisses it. At the casino owned by Uncle Kinkaid, Lynn is indeed poisoned under the watchful eye of Philo. However, he recovers, but the same cannot be said for Lynn's wife Virginia, who is at the family home. Only a family member could have poisoned Lynn and Virginia and everyone has their dark motives. Philo will follow the clues and find the perpetrator.
Genres: Action Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-03-15
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Party Husband
Overview: Party Husband finds ex-Ziegfield Girl Dorothy playing the better half of a thoroughly “modern marriage” whose openness threatens to bring about its premature end. Fellow Ziegfield alum Mary Doran plays the coquette whose intended conquest of the free-thinking hubby (James Rennie) starts to throw the couple’s “understanding” awry.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-06-06
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Confidential
Overview: A Treasury agent gains the trust of a mob gunman while working under cover to smash a crime syndicate.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-10-16
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Most Precious Thing in Life
Overview: An unwed mother watches as her illegitimate son is raised by others. Director Lambert Hillyer's 1934 drama stars Jean Arthur, Richard Cromwell, Donald Cook, Anita Louise, Jane Darwell, Mary Forbes and Ward Bond.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-06-15
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The Circus Queen Murder
Overview: Suave, lip-reading DA Thatcher Colt plans to get away from the big city for a while. So he and his secretary, Miss Kelly hop on a train for an Upstate NY town called Gilead. They expect a calm oasis, but when a small time circus rolls into town they soon find themselves caught up in a sordid tale of marital infidelity, murder, cruelty to animals, and cannibalism.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-04-10
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The Man Who Played God
Overview: While giving a private performance for a visiting monarch, concert pianist Montgomery Royale is deafened when a bomb is detonated in an attempt to assassinate the foreign ruler. With his career over as a result of his injury, Royale returns to New York City with his sister Florence, close friend Mildred Miller, and considerably younger fiancée Grace Blair. After abandoning thoughts of suicide, Montgomery discovers he can lip read, and he spends his days observing people in Central Park from his apartment window. As he learns of people's problems, he tries to help them anonymously. He becomes absorbed in his game of "playing God" but his actions are without sincerity.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-02-09
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The Mad Genius
Overview: A crippled puppeteer rescues an abused young boy and turns the boy into a great ballet dancer. Complications ensue when, as a young man, the dancer falls in love with a young woman the puppeteer is also in love with.
Genres: Drama Horror Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-09-30
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Motive for Revenge
Overview: Bank teller Barry Webster is driven to stealing bank funds by his mother-in-law who continually nags him about forcing her daughter Muriel to live in poverty...
Genres: Drama Thriller Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-05-15
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Murder in the Blue Room
Overview: A young woman, a trio of singers, and a mystery writer are among the guests at a house long-considered to be haunted.
Genres: Comedy Mystery Music Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-10-27
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The Kiss Before the Mirror
Overview: When a famous doctor kills his adulterous wife, he is defended by his best friend, an attorney who suspects that his own wife is having an affair.
Genres: Mystery Thriller Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-05-04
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The Heart of New York
Overview: A poor New York plumber's wife and children hope to move "uptown" from their lower East Side neighborhood after he sells his new invention.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-03-26
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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
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Beware Of Ladies
Overview: An unhappily married newspaper reporter discovers she's being used as a pawn in a scheme to discredit the political candidate she's been assigned to write about.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-12-21
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Patrick the Great
Overview: A famous stage actor hopes to land the lead role in a big new Broadway musical, but he's unaware his teenage son has already been given the part.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-05-04
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Brief Moment
Overview: A high living society playboy marries a nightclub singer, and she soon realizes that, though they're genuinely in love, the husband's endless partying completely dominates and is destroying their marriage.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-09-29
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Jennie Gerhardt
Overview: This turn-of-the-century tragedy chronicles the sorrowful travails of a woman who endures a series of devastating losses.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-06-08
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The World Changes
Overview: Generational saga tracing the events in the lives of the midwest pioneering Nordholm family, as seen through the eyes of businessman Orin Nordholm Jr., who ages from a youth to an elderly grandfather.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-11-25
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The 9th Guest
Overview: Eight people are invited by an unsigned telegram to a penthouse apartment, where they find themselves locked in and greeted by their unknown host's voice via the radio, who explains that before the night is over each one will be die unless they manage to outwit the ninth guest, Death.
Genres: Horror Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-01-31
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The Night Is Young
Overview: Young Austrian Archduke Paul "Gustl" Gustave is in an arranged engagement but his uncle, the emperor, decides to let Gustl carry on a fling with ballet dancer Lisl Gluck.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-01-11
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Ellis Island
Overview: It opens in 1926 when three bank robbers, Theodore Kedrich, Jan Imarski, and Petra Lonelli, stage a daring daylight bank robbery and get away with a million dollars in cash. They are soon apprehended and sent to prison for ten years but the money is not recovered. Flash forward to 1936 when all three men have been released from prison and are about to be deported back to where they came from via the Deportation department at Ellis Island. They arrive by the ferry boat and already on hand to bid them adieu, and possibly learn where they stashed the missing money, is gang leader Dude and his three henchmen, Nails, Moxie and Bugs, and also Kendrich's niece Betty Parker there to bid old Uncle Ted a fond goodbye. Also on Ellis Island is a crook called Solo, who has an upper hand as he has stolen the credentials of a Treasury Agent named Peter James and has access to the prisoners, and has cut a deal with Kendrichs to get him off of Ellis Island.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-11-04
Popularity:
Ladies Love Danger
Overview: A mystery-comedy with multiple backgrounds set in a back-stage and penthouse backgrounds finds actress Rita Witherspoon mistakenly entering the apartment of Ricardo Souchet, a rich bachelor. He immediately suspects her of a murder that has just been committed in the apartment next to his. His prisoner for the night, she slips out at dawn, after two more murders have happened.
Genres: Comedy Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-05-03
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Side Show
Overview: A circus side show performer tries to discourage her younger sister from following in her footsteps.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-09-19
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Circus Girl
Overview: A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival.
Genres: Drama Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-03-01
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Long Lost Father
Overview: A long-absent father is reunited with his daughter, who still holds a grudge that he had deserted his family years earlier.
Genres: Romance Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-01-19
Popularity:
Unfaithful
Overview: In this society drama set in contemporary England, a noblewoman pretends to be an adulteress in order to protect her sister-in-law, who actually is.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-03-14
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The Conquerors
Overview: A newlywed couple journeys west to make their fortune, and begins a banking empire.
Genres: Western Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-11-18
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The Trial of Vivienne Ware
Overview: Vivienne Ware is defended by her ex-beau when she's accused of killing her faithless fiance.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-05-01
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Whirlpool
Overview: An ex-convict tries to connect with the daughter who doesn't even know he exists.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-04-10
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Fury of the Jungle
Overview: Joan Leesom is stranded in a remote South American jungle village. She is pursued by the rapacious Taggart Taggart, however, has been involved with the beautiful native girl Chita. Chita now feels nothing but hatred for Joan, creating a deadly triangle that leads to an explosive ending.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-10-23
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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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Here Comes the Band
Overview: In this musical, a songwriter goes to court to claim the rights to his song that was stolen by an unscrupulous music publisher. He brings his girlfriend with him. Also going to court are the Jubilee singers, hillbillies, and some cowboys and Indians who demonstrate that the composer wrote his song by rearranging four folk tunes. He wins his song back and $50,000 in damages. Songs include: "Heading Home," "Roll Along Prairie Moon," "Tender Is the Night," "You're My Thrill," "I'm Bound for Heaven," and "The Army Band."
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-08-30
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Freedom Comes High
Overview: A young wife learns that freedom must sometimes be paid for in lives, when her husband's ship is struck during battle.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-01-01
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Murder in the Fleet
Overview: A traitor is lurking somewhere aboard the USS Carolina, and Lt. Tom Randolph is determined to find the offender. First a revolutionary new piece of technology -- an electric firing device -- is sabotaged. Then one of the cruiser's crew is murdered. In order to catch the killer, the captain locks down the ship. With foreign dignitaries, corporate goons and even Tom's girlfriend, Betty, trapped on the vessel, there is no shortage of suspects.
Genres: Drama Mystery Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-05-24
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The Girl from Mandalay
Overview: John Foster and Kenneth Grainger are a couple of Englishmen stationed at a teak wood post. When Foster's fiancée, Mary Trevor, writes him that their engagement is off, he goes off to Mandalay.
Genres: Action Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-04-19
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Two Wise Maids
Overview: The two leading ladies are cast as Prudence and Agatha, a pair of old-fashioned schoolteachers in an old-fashioned small town. Disdaining the wimpy theories of "progressive" education, Prudence and Agatha stick to the reliable "Three R's," often teaching to the tune of a hickory stick. Though ridiculed for their so-called outmoded methods, the heroines manage to turn out quite a few prize students, earning the undying gratitude of the local citizenry.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-02-15
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Blonde Ransom
Overview: Vicki Morrison is the niece of the irascible old scoundrel Uncle William Morrison. When Vicki's boyfriend and owner of a Broadway nightclub Duke Randall needs $63,000 in a hurry, Vicki fakes her own kidnapping to raise the ransom money from her uncle. Things get sticky when the phony abduction turns real.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-05-01
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Bowery to Broadway
Overview: Two Bowery vaudevillians find success in producing shows on Broadway, but when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman, a feud erupts.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-11-03
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Fugitive Lady
Overview: In this thriller, a young woman marries a dashing young man who, unbeknownst to her, is a jewel thief.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-12-10
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The Woman I Stole
Overview: A man (Jack Holt) wins his best friend's wife (Fay Wray) and seems to be plotting to ruin the man's oil business.
Genres: Adventure Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-06-29
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Roseland
Overview: A pretty dance hall girl is looking for the right guy.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-09-07
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Ring Around the Moon
Overview: Despite being in love with coworker Kay Duncan, high-flying newspaperman Ross Graham winds up engaged to socialite Gloria Endicott, a woman he doesn't love. Turmoil ensues for Ross as he tries to make his marriage work.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-02-15
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The Calling of Dan Matthews
Overview: Dan Matthews (Richard Arlen), a young parson, is in love with Hope Strong (Charlotte Wynters), the daughter of James B. Strong ('FRederick Burton'), a man who controls the town with his real estate and business interests. Strong is an upstanding citizen who has fallen into the hands of a clever racketeer, Jeff Hardy (Douglass Dumbrille), who acts as Strong's manager of some innocent-appearing amusement places that are really secret dens of vice.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-12-10
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Here Come the Co-eds
Overview: Molly, her brother, Slats, and his pal, Oliver, are taxi dancers at the Miramar Ballroom. As a publicity stunt, Slats plants an article about Molly claiming her ambition is to earn enough money to attend staid, all-girl Bixby College. Bixby's progressive dean offers Molly a scholarship. Molly accepts on the condition that Slats and Oliver come along too as campus caretakers. But the pompous Chairman threatens to foreclose on the school's mortgage if Molly isn't expelled. Together, the trio, with the help of some new friends, concocts a scheme to raise enough money to save the school. The plan involves a bet on the Bixby basketball team, which is playing in a game rated at 20 to 1 by the local bookie. But the bookie has other plans for their dough and hires a group of ringers to step in for the opponents. All is not lost, at least while Oliver has the chance to turn things around for his friends-one way or another.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-02-02
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Taxi!
Overview: Amidst a backdrop of growing violence and intimidation, independent cab drivers struggling against a consolidated juggernaut rally around hot-tempered Matt Nolan. Nolan is determined to keep competition alive on the streets, even if it means losing the woman he loves.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-12-29
Popularity:
Jealousy
Overview: Larry O'Roark is a boxer who's insanely posssesive and jealous of his fiancee, Jo. the sight of her and her employer, Mr. Lambert, at ringside during his big fight distracts Larry and he is knocked out. He then promises never to be jealous again and marries Jo. When she realizes that they're broke she asks Lambert for a job (she had quit on marrying Larry.) One thing leads to another and Larry, enraged with jealousy, end up killing Lambert. He then wanders off in a daze, and Jo takes the rap for the murder. Larry descends from his amnesiac fog just in time to interrupt the announcement of the jury's verdict in Jo's trial. then it's off to the chair for Larry. Or is it?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-11-23
Popularity:
Gigolette
Overview: Kay Parrish, a society girl, finds she is penniless when her father dies. However she persuades Terry Gallagher to give her a hostess job at his New York City clip-joint, which he operates on the theory that if the suckers want it he'll give it to them, albeit he does apply some principles regarding the matter. A Broadway playboy, Greg Emerson, falls in love with Kay and proposes but his high-society parents object strongly. Terry. although he also has fallen in love with Kay and doesn't realize she feels the same about him, sets out to provide a happy ending for the couple.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-02-15
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How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 11: 'Practice Shots'
Overview: Golf expert Bobby Jones arrives on the golf course to join actors James Cagney, Anthony Bushell, Donald Cook, Evalyn Knapp, and Louise Fazenda in shooting a golf instruction film. Louise Fazenda however has no knowledge of golf and her ongoing commentary disrupts Jones's attempts to practice. While Cagney and Bushell hold Louise's mouth shut, Jones demonstrates his approach to golf. Later, upon arrival of director George Marshall, Louise is sent off "to practice" alone while the cast and crew go about shooting the film.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-04-15
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Private Jones
Overview: After America enters World War I, young William "Bill" Jones tries to avoid military service by telling the draft board that he is the sole supporter of his family and is employed by businessman Roger Winthrop, his sister Helen's boss.
Genres: War Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-03-25
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Fog
Overview: The murders are committed in swift succession on board a liner crossing the Atlantic in a dense fog, and many of the passengers come under suspicion before the actual killer is bought to justice with the aid of a very substantial "ghost."
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-11-11
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Can This Be Dixie?
Overview: A young girl and her uncle who run a traveling medicine show lend their efforts to salvage an old plantation.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-11-13
Popularity: