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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 | 1.622 |
Birthday | 1908-05-02 |
Place of Birth | Los Angeles, California, USA |
Also Known As | Billy Bakewell, William Bakewell Jr., Bill Bakewell, |
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1930
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All Quiet on the Western Front
7.8/816
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
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1939
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Gone with the Wind
7.9/4074
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
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1935
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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
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1942
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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
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1942
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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
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1954
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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
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The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
6.94/126
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
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1940
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Seven Sinners
5.953/32
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
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1948
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Gold Diggers of Broadway
7/1
Three Broadway chorus girls seek rich husbands.
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Gold Diggers of Broadway

1955
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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
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1934
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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
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Dance, Fools, Dance
6.4/20
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
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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
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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!
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1931
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Guilty Hands
6/11
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
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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
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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
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Strangers All
5.5/1
Domestic drama about an elderly woman and her four squabbling adult children.
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Strangers All

1934
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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1935
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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
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Dangerous Holiday
0/0
A young violin prodigy is assumed kidnapped after he runs away from home.
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Dangerous Holiday

1947
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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
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Jungle Menace
5/1
Mystery and adventure, surrounding a stolen rubber harvest.
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Jungle Menace

1934
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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1934
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
6.4/110
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
4.5/4
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
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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
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Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
6.4/62
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
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Beyond Tomorrow
6/33
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
6.192/13
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
5.9/16
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
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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
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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
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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

1929
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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
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The Strongest Man in the World
6.1/65
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
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1928
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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
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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
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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
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1934
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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
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1948
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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1927
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The Heart Thief
0/0
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The Heart Thief

1948
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You Gotta Stay Happy
6.462/13
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
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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
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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
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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
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Whispering Wires
0/0
A woman hears of a murder plot through a whispered voice on the telephone.
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