James Westerfield
Also Known As: James A. Westerfield
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James A. Westerfield (22 March 1913 – 20 September 1971) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, to candy-maker Brasher Omier Westerfield and his wife Dora Elizabeth Bailey, he was raised in Detroit, Michigan. (A news story in the June 12, 1949, issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle calls the information in the preceding sentence into question. It describes Westerfield as "the son of a famous producer-director" and says that he was "a youngster in Denver, Col.") He became interested in theatre as a young man and in the 1930s joined Gilmor Brown's famed Pasadena Community Playhouse, appearing in dozens of plays. He played in numerous films following his debut in 1940, then went to New York City and appeared on Broadway, winning two New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for his supporting roles in The Madwoman of Chaillot and Detective Story. He then returned to Hollywood and made more than 40 more films. Westerfield maintained an interest in the theatre. He directed more than 50 musicals in a summer-musical tent he owned in Danbury, Connecticut, and was the original stage director and producer for the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. He directed three seasons of "Theatre Under the Stars" in Vancouver, British Columbia, and appeared in musical roles with the Detroit Civic Light Opera, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, and the San Francisco Civic Light Opera. On film, Westerfield had roles in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), On The Waterfront (1954), Lucy Gallant (1955), the 1957 Budd Boetticher-directed Western Decision at Sundown starring Randolph Scott, Cowboy (1958), a repeating role in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and its sequel Son of Flubber (1963), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Man's Favorite Sport (1964), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Hang 'Em High (1968) and True Grit (1969). Westerfield had many roles on television, including seven episodes as John Murrel from 1963 to 1964 on ABC's The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring child actor Kurt Russell in the title role. He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Sheriff Bert Elmore in the 1957 episode, "The Case of the Angry Mourner." He also appeared in an episode of The Lone Ranger in 1954 entitled "Texas Draw." Westerfield's other appearances were on such series as The Rifleman, The Californians, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Alaskans, The Rebel, Straightaway, Going My Way, The Asphalt Jungle, Hazel, The Andy Griffith Show, Daniel Boone, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Gunsmoke. He played the circus leader, Dr. Marvello, in an episode of Lost in Space "Space Circus" (1966). Westerfield as a young man was a roommate of fellow Pasadena Playhouse actor George Reeves. The two remained close friends until Reeves's death in 1959. Westerfield was married to Alice G. Fay (an actress under the name Fay Tracey), who, along with his mother, survived him. Westerfield died from a heart attack in Woodlands Hills, California, at the age of fifty-eight.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: March 22, 1913
Age: 112 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: September 20, 1971
Popularity:
Known For:
Birdman of Alcatraz
Overview: After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-07-04
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On the Waterfront
Overview: Terry Malloy is a kindhearted dockworker, and former boxer, who is tricked by his corrupt bosses into leading his friend to death. After falling in love, he tries to leave the waterfront and expose his employers.
Genres: Crime Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-06-22
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Hang 'em High
Overview: Marshall Jed Cooper survives a hanging, vowing revenge on the lynch mob that left him dangling. To carry out his oath for vengeance, he returns to his former job as a lawman. Before long, he's caught up with the nine men on his hit list and starts dispensing his own brand of Wild West justice.
Genres: Western Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-04-12
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Man with the Gun
Overview: A stranger comes to town looking for his estranged wife. He finds her running the local girls. He also finds a town and sheriff afraid of their own shadow, scared of a landowner they never see who rules through his rowdy sidekicks. The stranger is a town tamer by trade, and he accepts a $500 commission to sort things out.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-11-05
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The Chase
Overview: Chuck Scott gets a job as chauffeur to tough guy Eddie Roman; but Chuck's involvement with Eddie's fearful wife becomes a nightmare.
Genres: Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-11-16
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Homicidal
Overview: A woman named Emily checks into a hotel and offers the bellboy $2000 to temporarily marry her. We soon find out Emily is the caretaker of a wheelchair-bound mute named Helga, who was the childhood guardian of a pair of siblings: Miriam Webster and her half-brother, Warren, who is about to inherit the estate of their late father. Who is the mysterious Emily and what are her intentions?
Genres: Horror Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-07-26
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The Bachelor Party
Overview: Five office friends meet up for a night on the town to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of one of them. As the night wears on and the drink starts to tell, they become more confidential in expressing their concerns and hopes.
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-10-11
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The Human Jungle
Overview: Danforth is assigned to take over the police department in a section of a large city saddled with juvenile delinquency, petty crimes, graft and also a recent unsolved murder of a strip-tease dancer. Recognizing the laxity of the department he implements many changes and soon finds himself under fire by the newspapers, the attorney of a racket leader and the denizens of this human jungle.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-10-03
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Undercurrent
Overview: After a rapid engagement, a dowdy daughter of a chemist weds an industrialist, knowing little of his family or past. He transforms her into an elegant society wife, but becomes enraged whenever she asks about Michael, his mysterious long-lost brother.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-11-11
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The Sons of Katie Elder
Overview: The four sons of Katie Elder reunite in their hometown of Clearwater, Texas for their mother's funeral, and discover that the family ranch is now in the hands of Morgan Hastings, the town's gunsmith.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-06-23
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Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
Overview: When Pa wins a jingle-writing contest, he and Ma head for New York City. They they get in trouble with gangsters when they lose some stolen money which they had already agreed to deliver to one of the thugs.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-04-01
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Decision at Sundown
Overview: A man and his partner arrive at a small Western town to kill its most powerful man because the former blames him for his wife's death.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-11-10
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True Grit
Overview: The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy on a mission of 'justice', which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, 'Rooster' Cogburn because he has 'true grit', and a reputation of getting the job done.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-06-11
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Man's Favorite Sport?
Overview: Roger Willoughby is a renowned fishing expert, who, unbeknownst to his friends, co-workers, or boss, has never cast a line in his life. One day, he crosses paths with Abigail Paige, a sweetly annoying girl who has just badgered his boss into signing Roger up for an annual fishing tournament.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-01-31
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Away All Boats
Overview: The story of USS 'Belinda', a U.S. naval ship, and its crew during the battle of the Pacific 1943-1945, as it prepares for action and landing troops on enemy beachheads.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-08-16
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Scalplock
Overview: This Western is a pilot for the series "The Iron Horse," in which a dapper frontier gambler wins a railroad line in a poker game and has his hands full holding it from the clutches of various conniving bad guys.
Genres: Western TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-04-10
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Highway West
Overview: A young woman marries a man who turns out to be a bank robber.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-08-07
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Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round
Overview: A sophisticated con man mounts an intricate plan to rob an airport bank while the Soviet premier is due to arrive.
Genres: Crime Thriller Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-10-12
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A Man Called Gannon
Overview: A seasoned cowboy takes a young tender-foot under his wing. They become embroiled in a range war, and end up on opposite sides.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-03-08
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Wild River
Overview: A young bureaucrat for the Tennessee Valley Authority goes to rural Tennessee to oversee the building of a dam. He encounters opposition from the local people, in particular a farmer who objects to his employment (with pay) of local black laborers. Much of the plot revolves around the eviction of a stubborn octogenarian from her home on an island in the river, and the young man's love affair with that woman's widowed granddaughter. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-05-26
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The Further Adventures of Gallegher
Overview: The young copyboy helps the town’s first female newspaper reporter, who is writing a series on confidence men. The swindlers are caught up in a sting, but they catch on and the reporter and Gallegher have to subdue them in order to escape and write their article.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-10-03
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The Cobweb
Overview: Patients and staff at a posh psychiatric clinic clash over who chooses the clinic’s new drapes – but drapes are the least of their problems.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-06-07
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The Gunfight at Dodge City
Overview: Fleeing to Dodge City after killing a man in self defence Masterson finds his brother Ed (Harry Lauter) running for sheriff of the town. When Ed is killed by hired guns of the corrupt incumbent Bat is determined to settle the score with violence but he is convinced by the townspeople that the best way to avenge his brother's death is by taking Ed's place on the ballot. Bat agrees and wins the election but his new role on the right side of the law will lead him to unexpected confrontations as he finds himself torn between his loyalties to his friends and his duties as sheriff.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-05-01
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The Proud Rebel
Overview: Searching for a doctor who can help him get his son to speak again--the boy hadn't uttered a word since he saw his mother die in the fire that burned down the family home--a Confederate veteran finds himself facing a 30-day jail sentence when he's unfairly accused of starting a brawl in a small town. A local woman pays his fine, providing that he works it off on her ranch. He soon finds himself involved in the woman's struggle to keep her ranch from a local landowner who wants it--and whose sons were responsible for the man being framed for the fight.
Genres: Western Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-07-01
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Dead Aim
Overview: A traveling gravedigger during an (unspecified) war adopts a orphan he finds alone in the desert. After the war with the orphan grown and business slow, the orphan begins to generate business himself by shooting people. The orphan wants to make one big score by robbing a bank but the gravedigger resists. Their dream is to open a fancy funeral parlor and cemetery. The orphan becomes obsessed with a prostitute he saw who was later abandoned by her outlaw partner after a robbery attempt on a gold wagon goes bad. He eventually leaves the gravedigger to find her
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-01-01
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Now You See It, Now You Don't
Overview: A bumbling art expert, hired by an insurance company to protect a Rembrandt on loan from the Louvre, schemes to steal it.
Genres: Comedy Crime TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-11-11
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The Plunderers
Overview: Four young toughs have ridden into Trail City and claimed it as easy pickings for their bullying and gunplay. The whole town will be overrun by lawlessness if decent folks like rancher and Civil War veteran Sam Christy don’t take a stand.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-11-05
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The Pride of the Yankees
Overview: The story of the life and career of the baseball hall of famer, Lou Gehrig.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-07-14
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Jungle Heat
Overview: Japanese communists attempt to take over Hawaii and only Dr. Jim Ransom can stop them.
Genres: Action Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-07-22
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The Scarlet Coat
Overview: An American officer goes undercover to unmask a Revolutionary War traitor.
Genres: History Drama Adventure War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-07-29
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Three Brave Men
Overview: A lawyer takes the case of a Navy clerk who sues after he's fired for suspected Communist beliefs.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-12-01
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Side Street
Overview: A struggling young father-to-be gives in to temptation and impulsively steals an envelope of money from the office of a corrupt attorney. Instead of a few hundred dollars, it contains $30,000, and when he decides to return the money things go wrong and that is only the beginning of his troubles.
Genres: Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-03-23
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The Violent Men
Overview: A former Union Army officer plans to sell out to Anchor Ranch and move east with his fiancée, but the low price offered by Anchor's crippled owner and the outfit's bullying tactics make him reconsider. When one of his hands is murdered he decides to stay and fight, utilizing his war experience. Not all is well at Anchor with the owner's wife carrying on with his brother who also has a Mexican woman in town.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-01-26
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Blue
Overview: A young man is torn between the woman he loves and his loyalty to his father, the leader of a Mexican gang.
Genres: Romance Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-05-09
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The Helen Morgan Story
Overview: Broadway legend Helen Morgan 's life as told by her mother, from her early start in second rate speakeasies to star of top rated shows and owning her own club. Also seen is her poor choices, such as her affair with a married man, her short marriage to a much younger man, a court fight over an adopted baby and her fatal descent into booze addiction.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-05-16
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Set This Town on Fire
Overview: After serving seven years in prison for manslaughter, a man returns to his hometown to find that the eyewitness whose testimony convicted him has second thoughts, and the town drunk has confessed to the crime.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-01-08
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The Shaggy Dog
Overview: Through an ancient spell, a boy changes into a sheepdog and back again. It seems to happen at inopportune times and the spell can only be broken by an act of bravery....
Genres: Comedy Family Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-03-19
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Old Man
Overview: In the South, convicts get a temporary release to help during a flood.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-11-20
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Cowboy
Overview: Chicago hotel clerk Frank Harris dreams of life as a cowboy, and he gets his chance when, jilted by the father of the woman he loves, he joins Tom Reece and his cattle-driving outfit. Soon, though, the tenderfoot finds out life on the range is neither what he expected nor what he's been looking for...
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-01-23
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The Magnificent Ambersons
Overview: The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-07-10
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The Hangman
Overview: A marshal nicknamed "The Hangman" because of his track record in hunting down and capturing wanted criminals traces a robbery suspect to a small town. However, the man is known and liked in the town, and the citizens band together to try to help him avoid capture.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-06-17
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The Absent-Minded Professor
Overview: Bumbling professor Ned Brainard accidentally invents flying rubber, or "Flubber", an incredible material that gains energy every time it strikes a hard surface. It allows for the invention of shoes that can allow jumps of amazing heights and enables a modified Model-T to fly. Unfortunately, no one is interested in the material except for Alonzo Hawk, a corrupt businessman who wants to steal the material for himself.
Genres: Comedy Family Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-03-16
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The Howards of Virginia
Overview: Beautiful young Virginian Jane steps down from her proper aristocratic upbringing when she marries down-to-earth surveyor Matt Howard. Matt joins the Colonial forces in their fight for freedom against England. Matt will meet Jane's father in the battlefield.
Genres: Drama History War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-09-19
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Son of Flubber
Overview: Beleaguered professor Ned Brainard has already run into a pile of misfortunes with his discovery of the super-elastic substance "Flubber." Now he hopes to have better luck with a gravity-busting derivative he's dubbed "Flubbergas." Ned's experiments, constantly hampered by government obstruction, earn the consternation of his wife, Betsy. But a game-winning modification to a football uniform may help Ned make the case for his fantastic new invention.
Genres: Comedy Family Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-01-16
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Three Hours to Kill
Overview: After three years on the run, Jim Guthrie returns with the scar of a rope burn on his neck. In a flashback, we learn how he was framed for murder but then escaped from the lynch mob just as he was about to be hung. Tired of running, he has returned to find the real killer and the Sheriff has given him just three hours to do it.
Genres: Western Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-11-04
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That Funny Feeling
Overview: Joan Howell, a young and pretty maid-for-hire, meets and begins dating wealthy New York City businessman Tom Milford. Embarrassed about bringing him back to her tiny apartment that she shares with her roommate Audrey, Joan brings Tom over to a fancy apartment that she cleans on a daily basis not knowing that it's his place. Tom plays along with the charade despite not knowing who Joan really is, while she tries to tidy up Tom's place not knowing who he really is. Written by Matthew Patay
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-08-14
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Bartleby
Overview: Bartleby, an enigmatic man who calmly refuses to carry out his duties, is introduced in this period dramatization of Melville’s haunting story as a scrivener in a 1969 film production of Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-10-10
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Smith!
Overview: When the Indian Jimmyboy is accused of murder of a white man, he flees onto the ranch of Smith, who's well known for his tolerance for Indians, since he was raised by the old Indian Antoine. Smith helps Jimmyboy against the mean Sheriff and promises to speak for him in court, thus persuading him to surrender himself to the police.
Genres: Drama Family Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-03-21
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The Love God?
Overview: Ornithologist Abner Peacock sells off his modest-selling birdwatching periodical to a charlatan who turns it into a girlie mag, making it a massive financial success. After Peacock and the magazine are taken to court on obscenity charges, he unwillingly becomes a reluctant hero and ends up a swinging libertine.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-08-01
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About Face
Overview: Two Army sergeants disrupt a bar, a party and an Army-Navy dance.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-04-16
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The Whistle at Eaton Falls
Overview: A newly promoted plant supervisor finds himself in the position of having to announce a layoff of his fellow workers.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-08-02
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Chief Crazy Horse
Overview: When young Crazy Horse, of whom great things were predicted, wins his bride, rival Little Big Man goes to villainous traders with evidence of gold in the sacred Lakota burial ground. Of course, a new gold rush starts despite all treaties, and Crazy Horse becomes military leader of his people. Initial Indian victories lead to the inevitable result. Uniquely, all is told from the Indian perspective.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-04-01
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Around the World
Overview: Bandleader Kay Kyser takes his troupe of nutty musicians, goofball comics and pretty girl singers on a tour around the world to entertain the troops during World War II.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-11-27
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The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
Overview: A frontier huckster, Colonel Ryder, and a young orphan, Davey, operate a travelling tent show. They are loaned an elephant by an old friend, Molly, who is also a rival circus owner. Davey trains the elephant and the two soon become inseparable. When the Colonel loses the elephant in gambling, Davey steals the elephant and begins a 20-mile search for Molly, the rightful owner.
Genres: Family Drama Adventure TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-09-20
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Lucy Gallant
Overview: A spirited dressmaker's small store flourishes into a business empire in the midst of the Texas oil boom of the 1940s.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-10-20
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Bikini Beach
Overview: A millionaire sets out to prove his theory that his pet chimpanzee is as intelligent as the teenagers who hang out on the local beach, where he is intending to build a retirement home.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-07-22
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