William Bakewell
William Bakewell (May 2, 1908 – April 15, 1993), also known as Billy Bakewell, was an American actor, who achieved his greatest fame as one of the premiere juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Bakewell, educated at Los Angeles Harvard Military School, began his film career as an extra in the silent movie Fighting Blood (1924), and went on to appear in some 170 films and television shows. He had supporting roles at the end of the silent era and reached the peak of his career around 1930. He is perhaps best remembered for playing German soldier Albert Kropp in the film classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), and Rodney Jordan, Joan Crawford's brother, in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931). He also co-starred in Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) with Winnie Lightner and Lilyan Tashman. In 1933, he contributed to the founding of the Screen Actors Guild, and was member 44 of the original 50. He never achieved stardom after the Depression years, although he became familiar in dozens of films, including his short appearance as a mounted soldier in Gone with the Wind (1939) whom Scarlett O'Hara asks when the Yankee soldiers are coming to Atlanta.
During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army with the rank of second lieutenant. He was stationed at the 73rd Evacuation Hospital and at the Radio Section of the Special Service Division as the Post Intelligence Officer. He also worked under the department that handled distribution of recorded programs to overseas station circuits.
He starred in the Columbia Pictures serial Hop Harrigan (1946), where he played a top Air Corps pilot. He also portrayed Major Tobias Norton and a Keelboat Race Master of Ceremonies in the phenomenally popular Disney series Davy Crockett (1954-1955).
In the 1960s, he guest starred in numerous situation comedy television series, including Guestward, Ho!, Pete and Gladys, Bringing Up Buddy, The Tab Hunter Show, Mister Ed, Leave It to Beaver, The Jack Benny Program, Petticoat Junction , and Hazel. He also was cast in episodes of Peter Gunn, Sea Hunt, Wagon Train, The Roaring 20s, The Virginian, Arrest and Trial, and 87th Precinct He played the Virginia statesman George Wythe in the episode "George Mason" in the 1965 NBC documentary series, Profiles in Courage. He made his last film in 1975.
For four decades, Bakewell served on the board of Motion Picture and Television Fund. He died on April 15, 1993 of leukemia at the age of 84.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 3.482 |
Birthday | 1908-05-02 |
Place of Birth | Los Angeles, California, USA |
Also Known As | Billy Bakewell, William Bakewell Jr., Bill Bakewell, |
1930
All Quiet on the Western Front
7.761/800
When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is dest...
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All Quiet on the Western Front
1939
Gone with the Wind
7.941/4023
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruc...
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Gone with the Wind
1935
Laddie
0/0
A romance between two young lovers is complicated by their prohibitive parents. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
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Laddie
1942
Dr. Kildare's Victory
5.8/8
Dr. Gillespie supports Kildare's crusade against their hospital's deal with a rival hospital.
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Dr. Kildare's Victory
1942
I Live on Danger
5.7/6
A cocky radio reporter sets out to prove an ex-convict is innocent in the murder of a mob boss.
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I Live on Danger
1954
Lucky Me
6.7/9
Three struggling theatrical performers meet a famous songwriter who is trying to convince a wealthy oilman to finance a musical he is scripting, promi...
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Lucky Me
1947
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
6.931/124
Teenager Susan Turner, with a severe crush on playboy artist Richard Nugent, sneaks into his apartment to model for him and is found there by her sist...
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The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
1940
Seven Sinners
6/29
Banished from various U.S. protectorates in the Pacific, a saloon entertainer uses her femme-fatale charms to woo politicians, navy personnel, gangste...
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Seven Sinners
1948
Romance on the High Seas
6.7/29
Georgia Garrett is sent by jealous wife Elvira Kent on an ocean cruise to masquerade as herself while she secretly stays home to catch her husband che...
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Romance on the High Seas
1950
The Capture
6.1/17
A badly injured fugitive explains to a priest how he came to be in his present predicament.
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The Capture
1935
Together We Live
0/0
A ham-handed cautionary fable against communism, the film concerns a group of Civil War veterans who are appalled by the burgeoning radical movement i...
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Together We Live
1928
West Point
7.4/9
Arrogant and wise-cracking Brice Wayne enrolls at the United States Military Academy at West Point and adjusts to life as a plebe. He tries out for th...
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West Point
1933
Three-Cornered Moon
5.2/5
Elizabeth Rimplegar inhabits a household populated by virtual lunatics. Her mother, Nellie, mishandled the family fortune, and, alas, the stock market...
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Three-Cornered Moon
1926
Bertha the Sewing Machine Girl
0/0
Bertha Sloan loses her job as a sewing-machine girl and subsequently is employed as telephone girl with a lingerie manufacturing company. She soon fal...
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Bertha the Sewing Machine Girl
1942
The Dawn Express
4/5
A Nazi spy ring is after a chemical formula that increases the power of ordinary gasoline for U.S. Army aviation use. Two U.S. chemical companies are...
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The Dawn Express
1929
Gold Diggers of Broadway
7/1
Three Broadway chorus girls seek rich husbands.
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Gold Diggers of Broadway
1955
Davy Crockett Goes to Congress
10/1
The second of five programs about Davy Crockett involves him being bored with life, so he and Georgie plan to resettle their families and file their c...
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Davy Crockett Goes to Congress
1934
Green Eyes
5/4
The owner of a large mansion in the country throws a costume party for some of his friends. However, the party turns sour when he is found stabbed to...
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Green Eyes
1931
Dance, Fools, Dance
6.4/19
When misfortune hits hard on the Jordan family of Chicago's upper class, Bonnie Jordan, a dazzling and witty girl, finds a job as an aspiring reporter...
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Dance, Fools, Dance
1937
Trapped by G-Men
0/0
Granite-jawed Jack Holt performs a dual role in Columbia's Trapped by G-Men.
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Trapped by G-Men
1929
On With the Show!
5/3
With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the l...
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On With the Show!
1931
Guilty Hands
5.8/10
A district attorney commits the perfect murder when he kills his daughter's womanizing fiancé and then tries framing the fiancé's lover.
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Guilty Hands
1947
The Trespasser
5/4
Stevie Carson, a newspaper reporter, and Danny Butler, the "morgue" manager on the same newspaper, set out to track down the killer of a colleague, a...
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The Trespasser
1931
Politics
6.3/5
A widow's decision to run for mayor kicks off a battle of the sexes in a small town.
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Politics
1935
Strangers All
5.5/1
Domestic drama about an elderly woman and her four squabbling adult children.
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Strangers All
1934
Straight Is the Way
5.5/2
Just out of prison, Benny Horowitz tries to go straight. Things are complicated by his former girlfriend and his former gangster buddies.
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Straight Is the Way
1934
You Can't Buy Everything
7/1
A scorned woman dreams of revenge on the man who betrayed her.
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You Can't Buy Everything
1936
Lady Luck
5/1
New York manicurist Mamie Murphy plans to marry a rich man, so she repeatedly turns down the proposals of honest reporter David Haines. When she is an...
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Lady Luck
1935
Happiness C.O.D.
6/1
A young man, hard-pressed to pay off his mortgage and support his family, decides that he'll get money any way he can--honestly or otherwise.
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Happiness C.O.D.
1935
On Probation
0/0
A corrupt politician adopts a young girl. A few years later he finds himself falling in love with her, but discovers that she in turn loves a rich you...
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On Probation
1937
Dangerous Holiday
0/0
A young violin prodigy is assumed kidnapped after he runs away from home.
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Dangerous Holiday
1947
King of the Bandits
4/1
Traveling north into Arizona, Cisco finds that someone committing robberies has been impersonating him and he is a wanted man. After retrieving some o...
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King of the Bandits
1937
Jungle Menace
5/1
Mystery and adventure, surrounding a stolen rubber harvest.
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Jungle Menace
1934
Crimson Romance
6/1
After Fred von Bergen, a German immigrant in America, is forced from his job by anti-German hysteria before the first world war, he and his friend Bob...
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Crimson Romance
1952
Radar Men from the Moon
4.4/19
Commando Cody, 'Sky Marshal of the Universe', works with American scientists Joan Gilbert and Ted Richards in the development of a flying suit and a r...
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Radar Men from the Moon
1937
Exiled to Shanghai
4.9/4
A fired cameraman by way of a girl's mistaken identity wins back his job through pioneering work in television.
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Exiled to Shanghai
1931
Reducing
3.8/5
Culture shock bombards a woman and her family when they leave their hick town to help her sister out in her big-city beauty parlor.
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Reducing
1929
Show of Shows
5.5/2
Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the firs...
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Show of Shows
1930
Playing Around
4.7/6
New York girl has a dull boyfriend and seems destined for a dull marriage when she meets a rich playboy who has money to burn and places to go.
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Playing Around
1933
Straightaway
0/0
Auto race champ Tim Dawson and his brother Billy are fired by boss Turnberg when they won't throw an important race to his son Carl. Pop Reeves, a com...
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Straightaway
1934
Speed Wings
0/0
A kidnapping, three airplane crashes and several fist-fights adds speed to the plot in which the plans of a new, faster airplane motor invented by bro...
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Speed Wings
1925
The Last Edition
5/3
A twenty-year veteran of the printing room of The San Francisco Chronicle is passed up for a promotion at the same time his son is accused of graft an...
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The Last Edition
1929
The Iron Mask
6.7/28
King Louis XIII of France is thrilled to have born to him a son - an heir to the throne. But when the queen delivers a twin, Cardinal Richelieu sees t...
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The Iron Mask
1933
A Man of Sentiment
0/0
A man and woman fall in love at first sight, but everyone in their universe tries to keep them apart except one old fool with a sentimental heart.
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A Man of Sentiment
1934
Sons of Steel
5/1
Chadburne Steel is run by two brothers, old men. They each have different plans for their sons. Curtis (Holmes Herbert) has put Ronald (William Blakew...
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Sons of Steel
1931
A Woman of Experience
5.2/3
It is 1915 in Vienna and the Great War has caused many casualties. Elsa, a beautiful prostitute, wants to help the war effort, but is rejected as a nu...
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A Woman of Experience
1928
Harold Teen
7/1
Farmboy Harold moves to the city and there attends high school. Soon he is very popular, his spirited nature causing much excitement on the campus. He...
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Harold Teen
1930
The Bat Whispers
6.3/27
Infamous burglar "The Bat" commits a daring jewelry theft despite heavy police presence. Soon after, a bank theft occurs, which may be the work of the...
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The Bat Whispers
1932
While Paris Sleeps
5.8/4
To save his daughter Manon from falling into the hands of a vicious gang of pimps, convict Jacques Costard escapes from jail. Jacques' problems are tw...
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While Paris Sleeps
1933
Lucky Devils
6.3/3
Two Hollywood stuntmen compete for the same pretty extra.
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Lucky Devils
1934
The Curtain Falls
5/1
In this drama an older actress plays her last role. The aging thespian is terribly depressed and ready to kill herself when she finds out that an olde...
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The Curtain Falls
1973
Set This Town on Fire
0/0
After serving seven years in prison for manslaughter, a man returns to his hometown to find that the eyewitness whose testimony convicted him has seco...
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Set This Town on Fire
1939
Zenobia
4.6/12
A modest country doctor in the antebellum South has to contend with his daughter's upcoming marriage and an affectionate medicine show elephant.
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Zenobia
1955
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
6.4/106
Legends (and myths) from the life of famed American frontiersman Davy Crockett are depicted in this feature film edited from television episodes. Croc...
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Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
1984
Bruised Celluloid
0/0
The 1930 Hollywood-produced anti-war film "Nothing New in the West" is one of the great works in film history. But like hardly any other cinema classi...
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Bruised Celluloid
1927
The Shield of Honor
4.3/3
Can Jack MacDowell, the first flying policeman on the force, save his dad from stop-at-nothing jewel thieves?
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The Shield of Honor
1932
Cheaters at Play
0/0
Modest picture centering on a blunderous jewel heist aboard an ocean liner.
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Cheaters at Play
1931
Daybreak
4/4
An Austrian soldier must choose between a wealthy fiancee and a new girl who takes his fancy.
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Daybreak
1946
Jungle Terror
0/0
Re-edited feature film version of the 1937 serial, Jungle Menace.
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Jungle Terror
1940
The Saint Takes Over
6.3/11
The Saint Takes Over, released in 1940 by RKO Pictures, was the fifth motion picture featuring the adventures of Simon Templar, a.k.a. "The Saint" the...
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The Saint Takes Over
1934
The Quitter
0/0
When her husband, who founded the town's crusading local newspaper, doesn't come back from the French battlefields of World War I, a woman struggles t...
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The Quitter
1966
Not With My Wife, You Don't
6/9
During the Korean War, Italian nurse Virna Lisi falls in love with two American fliers, Tony Curtis and George C. Scott. Lisi marries Curtis after he...
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Not With My Wife, You Don't
1937
Mile a Minute Love
6/1
William Bakewell stars as an inventor who develops a high-powered boat engine. Bakewell, of course, created this wonder machine to benefit mankind-and...
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Mile a Minute Love
1951
When the Redskins Rode
4.7/3
A French spy (Mary Castle) flirts with an Indian chief's son (Jon Hall) amid war in 1753 Williamsburg, Va.
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When the Redskins Rode
1938
The Higgins Family
0/0
Pa Higgins' attempts at success in the advertising business are constantly frustrated by his eccentric family.
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The Higgins Family
1936
Sea Spoilers
4.7/3
Bob Randall, temporarily in command of the Coast Guard vessel Niobe, expects a promotion and the captaincy of his ship. Instead, he is replaced by Lie...
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Sea Spoilers
1942
The Postman Didn't Ring
0/0
Stolen way back in 1880, a sack of United States mail is discovered in an old attic in 1942. The letters are finally delivered, profoundly affecting t...
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The Postman Didn't Ring
1928
Annapolis
3/1
Bill is a young man who arrives at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He is an incorrigible know-all, and emerges a sober man. Meanwhile, Bill is accused...
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Annapolis
1928
The Battle of the Sexes
5.2/10
Gum-chewing frizzy-haired golddigger Marie Skinner cooks up a scheme with her lover Babe Winsor, a jazz hound, to fleece a portly middle-aged real est...
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The Battle of the Sexes
1956
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
6.3/60
Davy Crockett and his sidekick Georgie compete against boastful Mike Fink ("King of the River") in a boat race to New Orleans. Later, Davy and Georgie...
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Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
1946
Hop Harrigan: America's Ace of the Airways
3.7/3
Hop Harrigan, a top Air Corps pilot, leaves the military and he and his mechanic, Tank Tinker, open up a small charter air service. They are hired to...
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Hop Harrigan: America's Ace of the Airways
1940
Beyond Tomorrow
6.047/32
The ghosts of three elderly industrialists killed in an airplane crash return to Earth to help reunite a young couple whom they initially brought toge...
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Beyond Tomorrow
1926
Old Ironsides
6/12
An embellished account of the 1803 expedition by famed frigate U.S.S. Constitution--a.k.a. "Old Ironsides"--against the Barbary pirates then terrorizi...
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Old Ironsides
1947
The Fabulous Dorseys
6/12
The story of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey from their boyhood in Pennsylvania through their rise, their breakup, and their personal reunion.
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The Fabulous Dorseys
1947
The Farmer's Daughter
6.9/36
After leaving her family's farm to study nursing in the city, a young woman finds herself on an unexpected path towards politics.
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The Farmer's Daughter
1932
Back Street
6.1/12
A woman's love for and devotion to a married man results in her being relegated to the "back streets" of his life.
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Back Street
1942
The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe
5.7/6
Biography of Edgar Allan Poe and the women in his life.
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The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe
1937
Quality Street
5.9/15
In the 1810s, an old maid poses as her own niece in order to teach her onetime beau a lesson.
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Quality Street
1947
Messenger of Peace
0/0
Poignant true story of Pastor Armin Ritter, who is sent to build a church in a backwoods community and rebuilds the faith of the residents. He ministe...
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Messenger of Peace
1939
Hotel Imperial
6/2
It is the fate of a small frontier town, adjoining the no-man's-land where the Russians and Austrians are fighting out one of the final campaigns of W...
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Hotel Imperial
1942
King of the Mounties
0/0
King of the Candian riding police is up against Japs and Nazis who are about to invade Canada. They just want to clear the way with a new futuristic p...
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King of the Mounties
1951
Wells Fargo Gunmaster
0/0
Rocky Lane, Special Investigator for Wells Fargo, shows up just in time to save the stage from being robbed. Unable to find the mastermind, or even th...
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Wells Fargo Gunmaster
1951
Come Fill the Cup
7/5
Alcoholic newspaperman Lew Marsh hits bottom, loses his job and is rehabilitated by Charley Dolan. After six years on the wagon he gets his job back a...
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Come Fill the Cup
1953
So This Is Love
5.5/2
Film biography of opera star Grace Moore, released in 1953.
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So This Is Love
1929
Hot Stuff
0/0
An uptight society aunt sends her too sexy niece to college so she can land a man.
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Hot Stuff
1975
The Strongest Man in the World
6.1/63
Medfield College science major Dexter Riley and his classmates have been working on a new vitamin compound when a lab accident creates a supercharged...
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The Strongest Man in the World
1928
The Latest from Paris
0/0
The Latest from Paris takes place in New York's garment district, where business rivals Blogg and Littauer have been carrying on a feud for years. In...
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The Latest from Paris
1930
Paid
6.8/13
Mary Turner gets a three years prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit. Once released, she plots to get back at the man responsible for her conv...
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Paid
1939
King of the Turf
7/1
Mason is a former race-horse owner who gave up everything and started to drink after the death of one of his jockeys. One day he meets Goldie who has...
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King of the Turf
1934
The Party's Over
3/1
Bruce Blakely, a meek, mild-mannered certified public accountant, finally gets fed up with his money-grubbing family sponging off of him, and decides...
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The Party's Over
1948
Night Wind
0/0
A boy tries to protect his dog, a German shepherd that served with U.S. Army forces after it begins attacking strangers several years after the war.
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Night Wind
1948
Arthur Takes Over
2/1
A young woman must find a way to break the news to her parents and a stuffy suitor that she is now married to a sailor.
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Arthur Takes Over
1954
Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter
6.5/3
Davy Crockett seeks a truce with his Indian foes.
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Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter
1927
Mother
0/0
When architect Lee Ellis is discharged from his position in a large firm and has difficulty in finding a new job his devoted wife Mary invests in a bu...
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Mother
1938
The Duke of West Point
3.8/4
A cocky new West Point cadet from Cambridge is given the cold shoulder by his classmates because of his rule-breaking antics.
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The Duke of West Point
1948
So This Is New York
6/5
A small town man inherits a significant fortune and takes his family to New York City whereupon they are continually shocked at the alien culture of t...
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So This Is New York
1927
The Heart Thief
0/0
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The Heart Thief
1948
You Gotta Stay Happy
6.4/11
Indecisive heiress Dee Dee Dillwood is pushed into marrying her sixth fiancée, but unable to face the wedding night, she flees into the adjacent hotel...
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You Gotta Stay Happy
1931
The Spirit of Notre Dame
6.3/3
Story of two friends who play football, one of whom is a self-centered quarterback who thinks he's the only man on the team.
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The Spirit of Notre Dame
1972
Call Her Mom
4/1
A sexy waitress becomes a house mother in a fraternity house and involves the college in a nationwide women's lib controversy.
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Call Her Mom
1929
Lady of the Pavements
4.6/7
Karl, a German diplomat in Paris, discovers that his fiancee, Diane, has been cheating on him. He tells her that he would rather marry a "girl of the...
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Lady of the Pavements
1926
Whispering Wires
0/0
A woman hears of a murder plot through a whispered voice on the telephone.
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