Moroni Olsen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moroni Olsen (June 27, 1889 – November 22, 1954) was an American actor.
Olsen was born in Ogden, Utah, to Mormon parents Edward Arenholt Olsen and Martha Hoverholst, who named him after the Moroni found in the Book of Mormon. Some sources have claimed that Olsen's birth name was John Willard Clawson, but there appears to be no support for this claim.
Olsen studied at Weber Stake Academy, the predecessor of Weber State University. He then went to study at the University of Utah, where one of his teachers was Maud May Babcock. During World War I, he sold war bonds for the United States Navy. He also studied and performed in the Eastern United States around this time.
In 1923, Olsen organized the "Moroni Olsen Players" out of Ogden. They performed at both Ogden's Orpheum Theatre and at various other locations spread from Salt Lake City to Seattle.
After having worked on Broadway, he made his film debut in a 1935 adaptation of The Three Musketeers. He later played a different role in a 1939 comedy version of the story, starring Don Ameche as D'Artagnan and the Ritz Brothers as three dimwitted lackeys who are forced to substitute for the musketeers, who have drunk themselves into a stupor.
His most famous role was the voice of the Slave in The Magic Mirror in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Olsen also provided the voice of the senior angel in It's a Wonderful Life.
Olsen was an active member of the LDS Church, being a teacher of youth in the Hoolwood Ward. He also was director of the Pilgramage Play of Hollywood for several years.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 10.402 |
Birthday | 1889-06-26 |
Place of Birth | Ogden, Utah, USA |
Also Known As | Maroni Olsen, Moroni Olson, John Willard, |
1946
Notorious
7.7/1609
In order to help bring Nazis to justice, U.S. government agent T.R. Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman, the American daughter of a convicted German war c...
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Notorious
1938
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
7.12/7445
A beautiful girl, Snow White, takes refuge in the forest in the house of seven dwarfs to hide from her stepmother, the wicked Queen. The Queen is jeal...
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1940
Santa Fe Trail
5.667/48
As a penalty for fighting fellow classmates days before graduating from West Point, J.E.B. Stuart, George Armstrong Custer and four friends are assign...
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Santa Fe Trail
1945
Mildred Pierce
7.6/397
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
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Mildred Pierce
1947
Possessed
6.844/80
After being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.
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Possessed
1950
Father of the Bride
6.98/205
Proud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself,...
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Father of the Bride
1951
Father's Little Dividend
6.4/64
Newly married Kay Dunstan announces that she and her husband are having a baby, leaving her father to come to grips with the fact that he will soon be...
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Father's Little Dividend
1949
The Fountainhead
6.8/143
An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to...
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The Fountainhead
1954
The Long, Long Trailer
6.8/51
A newly wed couple, Tacy and Nicky, travel in a trailer for their honeymoon. The journey is a humorous one that could end up destroying their marriage...
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The Long, Long Trailer
1938
What Do You Think? Tupapaoo
7.5/1
An American trader disrupts life on a Polynesian island.
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What Do You Think? Tupapaoo
1939
Dust Be My Destiny
6.235/17
Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman's daughter l...
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Dust Be My Destiny
1948
Call Northside 777
6.623/155
In 1932, a cop is killed and Frank Wiecek sentenced to life. Eleven years later, a newspaper ad by Frank's mother leads Chicago reporter P.J. O'Neal t...
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Call Northside 777
1946
The Strange Woman
6.3/35
In early 19th century New England, an unscrupulous woman uses her beauty and wits to seduce, deceive and control the men around her.
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The Strange Woman
1947
High Wall
6.1/25
Steven Kenet, suffering from a recurring brain injury, appears to have strangled his wife. Having confessed, he's committed to an understaffed county...
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High Wall
1947
Life with Father
6.5/63
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
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Life with Father
1944
Buffalo Bill
5.7/35
Scout William F. Cody (Joel McCrea) marries a U.S. senator's daughter (Maureen O'Hara), fights the Cheyenne and leads a Wild West show.
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Buffalo Bill
1939
Allegheny Uprising
5.6/26
South western Pennsylvania area of colonial America, 1760s. Colonial distaste and disapproval of the British government is starting to surface. Many l...
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Allegheny Uprising
1939
Rose of Washington Square
5.7/3
Rose Sargent, a Roaring '20s singer, becomes a Ziegfeld Follies star as her criminal husband gets deeper in trouble.
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Rose of Washington Square
1944
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
6.2/34
Orphaned as a young child and adopted by a band of notorious thieves, now-grown Ali Baba sets out to avenge his father’s murder, reclaim the royal thr...
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Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
1935
Annie Oakley
6.4/30
Awkward Annie loves her sharpshooting rival in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
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Annie Oakley
1947
The Long Night
5.8/31
City police surround a building, attempting to capture a suspected murderer. The suspect knows there is no escape but refuses to give in.
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The Long Night
1942
Nazi Agent
6.6/11
Humble stamp dealer Otto Becker has little to do with international politics, so when he receives a surprise visit from his estranged twin brother and...
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Nazi Agent
1942
The Glass Key
6.6/117
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
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The Glass Key
1941
Dive Bomber
6.3/28
A military surgeon teams with a ranking navy flyer to develop a high-altitude suit which will protect pilots from blacking out when they go into a ste...
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Dive Bomber
1937
The Last Gangster
6.3/24
A crime boss goes searching for his ex-wife and son after a ten-year prison stint. His old gang has other plans though, and use the child to try and m...
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The Last Gangster
1941
Dangerously They Live
5.9/8
A doctor tries to rescue a young innocent from Nazi agents.
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Dangerously They Live
1945
Pride of the Marines
6.5/12
Marine hero Al Schmid is blinded in battle and returns home to be rehabilitated. He readjusts to his civilian life with the help of his soon to be wif...
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Pride of the Marines
1951
No Questions Asked
6/16
With the help of some seedy gangsters, young attorney Steve Keiver makes some quick cash by bending the law, and in the process, he impresses the mobs...
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No Questions Asked
1940
Brigham Young
4.4/15
Based on the story of the famous Mormon leader, it follows Brigham Young and his challenge to transport his people across the Rocky mountains to settl...
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Brigham Young
1941
One Foot in Heaven
6.6/17
Episodic look at the life of a minister and his family as they move from one parish to another.
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One Foot in Heaven
1945
Week-End at the Waldorf
6/9
Anything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets a world-weary war correspondent and mistakes him for...
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Week-End at the Waldorf
1953
Marry Me Again
0/0
Bill, a jet pilot hero from the Korean War, returns home with intentions of marrying his sweetheart, Doris. But Doris has inherited a million dollars...
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Marry Me Again
1946
The Walls Came Tumbling Down
5.875/8
A PI investigates a priest's murder.
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The Walls Came Tumbling Down
1944
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
6.61/59
In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Jap...
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Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
1935
The Three Musketeers
6.4/6
The young Gascon D'Artagnan arrives in Paris, his heart set on joining the king's Musketeers. He is taken under the wings of three of the most respect...
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The Three Musketeers
1944
Roger Touhy, Gangster
6/3
Set during Prohibition, the movie centers on Touhy's rise from small time thug to the city's most powerful bootlegger whose empire is rivaled only by...
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Roger Touhy, Gangster
1952
At Sword's Point
4.8/11
France, 1648: Richelieu and Louis XIII are dead, the new king is a minor, and the Duc de Lavalle is in virtually open rebellion, scheming to seize pow...
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At Sword's Point
1940
East of the River
5.7/7
Two troublesome boys grow into very different men, one becoming a hoodlum and the other embracing college but both are in-love with the same girl.
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East of the River
1952
Washington Story
6/2
A reporter (Patricia Neal) suspects the "nice guy" image of a respected Congressman (Van Johnson) is all a facade and sets out to uncover the truth.
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Washington Story
1935
Seven Keys to Baldpate
6.6/8
A writer, looking for some peace and quiet in order to finish a novel, takes a room at the Baldpate Inn. However, peace and quiet are the last things...
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Seven Keys to Baldpate
1936
Grand Jury
7/1
When a grand jury acquits a gangster accused of murder, a retired elderly citizen decides it's up to him to see that the criminal is proven guilty and...
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Grand Jury
1946
Boys' Ranch
6.5/4
A juvenile delinquent is sent to a rehabilitation ranch, but he immediately proves to be a troublemaker.
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Boys' Ranch
1939
Code of the Secret Service
3.5/5
Secret Service agents try to solve the theft of treasury banknote plates.
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Code of the Secret Service
1939
Barricade
5/2
In China, a singer and a journalist meet while traveling on a train attacked by bandits.
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Barricade
1947
That Hagen Girl
5.2/7
Mary Hagen lives in a small town in Ohio and goes to Jordon Junior College. For years, there has been whispers, rumors and gossip about who are her re...
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That Hagen Girl
1953
So This Is Love
4.5/4
Film biography of opera star Grace Moore, released in 1953.
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So This Is Love
1941
Life with Henry
5/1
Henry Aldrich wants to win a trip to Alaska.
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Life with Henry
1948
Up in Central Park
7/4
A newspaper reporter and the daughter of an immigrant maintenance man help expose political corruption in New York City.
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Up in Central Park
1942
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
0/0
In the shanty town called the Cabbage Patch, Mrs. Wiggs scrabbles for survival with her brood of children and hopes for the return of her husband, who...
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Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
1935
We're Only Human
6.5/2
A cop, who plays by his own rules, brings down a notorious gangster.
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We're Only Human
1936
M'Liss
5/1
The third film version of the Bret Harte tale, starring Anne Shirley as a miner's daughter in a small town who falls for a handsome young schoolteache...
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M'Liss
1949
Samson and Delilah
6.53/217
When strongman Samson rejects the love of the beautiful Philistine woman Delilah, she seeks vengeance that brings horrible consequences they both regr...
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Samson and Delilah
1936
Yellow Dust
4/4
After he's accused of a series of stagecoach robberies, an innocent man has to find the real crooks.
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Yellow Dust
1938
Submarine Patrol
6.6/5
A naval officer is demoted for negligence and put in command of a run-down submarine chaser with a motley crew.
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Submarine Patrol
1938
Kentucky
5.7/11
Young lovers Jack and Sally are from families that compete to send horses to the 1938 Kentucky Derby, but during the Civil War, her family sided with...
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Kentucky
1939
Susannah of the Mounties
6.3/15
This classic family drama stars Shirley Temple as young orphan Susannah Sheldon, the sole survivor of a brutal Indian attack who's befriended by Canad...
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Susannah of the Mounties
1936
Mary of Scotland
6.3/36
The recently widowed Mary Stuart returns to Scotland to reclaim her throne but is opposed by her half-brother and her own Scottish lords.
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Mary of Scotland
1952
Lone Star
5.6/22
Rip-roaring big star, big budget semi-historical story about cattle baron Devereaux Burke, who is enlisted by an aging Andrew Jackson to dissuade Sam...
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Lone Star
1938
There Goes My Heart
7.154/13
An heiress takes a job as a department store clerk.
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There Goes My Heart
1939
That's Right – You're Wrong
5.7/3
J. D. Forbes, head of the almost-bankrupt Four Star Studios in Hollywood contacts band leader Kay Kyser, who puts on a radio and-live theatre program...
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That's Right – You're Wrong
1948
Command Decision
6.6/21
High-ranking officers struggle with the decision to prioritize bombing German factories producing new jet fighters over the extremely high casualties...
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Command Decision
1939
Homicide Bureau
6/1
After being criticized by the Citizens' League for his inability to cope with a crime wave, Police Captain Haines orders his men in the Homicide Burea...
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Homicide Bureau
1936
Two in Revolt
6/1
A dog and a horse become unlikely allies when they attempt to thwart a crooked gambler from rigging a race.
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Two in Revolt
1936
Mummy's Boys
4.7/7
Wheeler & Woolsey comedy about two moronic ditch diggers, recruited for an archaeology expedition, getting mixed up with jewel thieves and an ancient...
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Mummy's Boys
1940
Virginia City
6.141/32
Union officer Kerry Bradford escapes from a Confederate prison and races to intercept $5 million in gold destined for Confederate coffers. A Confedera...
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Virginia City
1939
The Three Musketeers
5.8/9
A parodic remake of the story of the young Gascon D'Artagnan, who arrives in Paris, his heart set on joining the king's Musketeers. He is taken under...
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The Three Musketeers
1941
Three Sons o' Guns
5/1
Three reckless brothers dodge the draft then sign up and become men.
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Three Sons o' Guns
1936
The Witness Chair
6.2/6
Late one night, secretary Paula Young (Ann Harding) leaves the office of her boss, Stanley Whittaker (Douglas Dumbrille, locking the door and taking t...
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The Witness Chair
1945
Don't Fence Me In
4.3/3
Wildcat Kelly has been dead and buried for years. Or has he? Dale is a reporter for an Eastern magazine who comes West to find out the true story of K...
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Don't Fence Me In
1937
Adventure's End
5.5/1
Pacific pearl diver Duke Slade escapes angry natives by joining a whaler whose dying captain persuades him to marry his daughter who is already being...
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Adventure's End
1938
Kidnapped
6/2
Robert Louis Stevenson's hero David Balfour joins rebel Alan Breck Stewart in 18th-century Scotland.
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Kidnapped
1946
It's a Wonderful Life
8.3/4398
A holiday favourite for generations... George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinfli...
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It's a Wonderful Life
1943
Air Force
6.402/56
The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of t...
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Air Force
1949
Task Force
7/13
After learning the finer points of carrier aviation in the 1920s, career officer Jonathan Scott and his pals spend the next two decades promoting the...
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Task Force
1940
Brother Rat and a Baby
5.2/3
Three comrades graduate from Viriginia Military Institute. Bing has a chance to return to VMI as a football coach.
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Brother Rat and a Baby
1936
The Farmer in the Dell
0/0
An Iowa farmer's wife makes him move to Hollywood so their daughter can become a star.
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The Farmer in the Dell
1951
Submarine Command
5.6/16
Submarine commander Ken White is forced to suddenly submerge, leaving his captain and another crew member to die outside the sub during WW II. Subsequ...
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Submarine Command
1936
The Plough and the Stars
5.6/15
A husband clashes with his wife over his membership to the Irish citizen army during the Easter rebellion.
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The Plough and the Stars
1938
Gold Is Where You Find It
6.9/9
Colonel Ferris, a wealthy farmer in northern California, is strongly opposed to hydraulic mining, a new method developed during the gold rush of the 1...
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Gold Is Where You Find It
1938
That Certain Age
5/6
Dashing reporter Vincent Bullit has just returned from covering the Spanish Civil War. His boss, newspaper magnate Fullerton, has more plans to send h...
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That Certain Age
1947
Black Gold
6/2
A Native American man trains a horse for the Kentucky Derby.
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Black Gold
1942
My Favorite Spy
5.2/5
The Army takes a bandleader (Kay Kyser) away from his bride (Ellen Drew) and sends him on a spy mission with a woman (Jane Wyman).
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My Favorite Spy
1941
Respect the Law
6/1
Shows how so-called "minor" lawbreakers can do more damage than major criminals.
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Respect the Law
1942
Sundown Jim
0/0
US marshal Sundown Jim Majors main purpose in life is to bring a deadly frontier feud to a peaceful end. This requires him to clean out the local crim...
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Sundown Jim
1951
Payment on Demand
6.2/22
David gives his wife, Joyce, an unexpected—and unpleasant—surprise when he suddenly demands a divorce. When she then learns that David has taken up wi...
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Payment on Demand
1937
The Soldier and the Lady
6.5/2
In the face of rebellion in Russia, Czar Alexander II sends soldier Michael Strogoff 2,000 miles away, with a critical message for Grand Duke Vladimir...
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The Soldier and the Lady
1954
Sign of the Pagan
5.2/4
Roman centurion Marcian is captured by Attila the Hun en route to Constantinople, but escapes. On arrival, he finds the eastern Roman emperor Theodosi...
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Sign of the Pagan
1939
Off the Record
6/4
After a socially conscience reporter adopts a slum orphan after she causes his brother's gang to go to prison.
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Off the Record
1940
If I Had My Way
6.4/5
Construction worker Buzz Blackwell becomes the guardian of 12-year-old Pat Johnson after one of his buddies, her father, is killed. Buzz and Pat, alon...
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If I Had My Way
1939
The Bill of Rights
6/2
This short subject is a lavish costumed color production which dramatizes the birth of the American Bill of Rights. It depicts leading political figur...
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The Bill of Rights
1943
Madame Curie
7.171/38
Poor physics student Marie is studying at the Sorbonne in 1890s Paris. One of the few women studying in her field, Marie encounters skepticism concern...
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Madame Curie
1943
Mission to Moscow
5.2/17
Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to the US as an advocate of socialism.
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Mission to Moscow
1943
We've Never Been Licked
0/1
Young Brad Craig enters the military school with a chip on his shoulder which upperclassmen quickly knock off. Once adjusted, Craig falls in love with...
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We've Never Been Licked
1946
From This Day Forward
5.2/12
A young American soldier, with an honorable discharge, returns home from World War II to his bride, whom he married after a short courtship and has no...
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From This Day Forward
1944
Cobra Woman
5.2/23
A man tracks his kidnapped bride to a jungle island, where her twin is the high priestess.
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Cobra Woman
1942
Reunion in France
6.6/17
Frenchwoman Michele de la Becque, an opponent of the Nazis in German-occupied Paris, hides a downed American flyer, Pat Talbot, and attempts to get hi...
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Reunion in France
1939
Invisible Stripes
6.125/20
A gangster is unable to go straight after returning home from prison.
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Invisible Stripes
1938
Marie Antoinette
6.4/29
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the riv...
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Marie Antoinette
1934
Death Takes a Holiday
6.4/41
After years of questioning why people fear him, Death takes on human form so he can mingle among the mortals and find an answer. However, events soon...
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