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Irene Dunne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn, December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama (1948). In 1985, Dunne was given Kennedy Center Honors for her services to the arts. Dunne was discovered by Hollywood while starring with the road company of Show Boat in 1929. She signed a contract with RKO and appeared in her first movie, Leathernecking (1930), a film version of the musical Present Arms. Already in her thirties when she made her first film, she would be in competition with younger actresses for roles, and found it advantageous to evade questions that would reveal her age. Her publicists encouraged the belief that she was born in 1901 or 1904, and the former is the date engraved on her tombstone.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Dunne blossomed into a popular screen heroine in movies such as the original Back Street (1932) and the original Magnificent Obsession (1935) and re-created her role as Magnolia in Show Boat (1936), directed by James Whale. Love Affair (1939) is the first of three films she made opposite Charles Boyer. She starred, and sang "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film version of the musical Roberta (1935).
Dunne was apprehensive about attempting her first comedy role, as the title character in Theodora Goes Wild (1936), but discovered that she enjoyed it. She turned out to possess an aptitude for comedy, with a flair for combining the elegant and the madcap, a quality she displayed in such films as The Awful Truth (1937) and My Favorite Wife (1940), both co-starring Cary Grant. Other roles include Julie Gardiner Adams in Penny Serenade (1941), again with Grant, Anna and the King of Siam (1946) as Anna Leonowens, Lavinia Day in Life with Father (1947), and Marta Hanson in I Remember Mama (1948). In The Mudlark (1950), she was nearly unrecognizable under heavy makeup as Queen Victoria.
The comedy It Grows on Trees (1952) became Dunne's last screen performance, although she remained on the lookout for suitable film scripts for years afterwards. The following year, she was the opening act on the 1953 March of Dimes showcase in New York City. While in town, she made an appearance as the mystery guest on What's My Line? She also made television performances on Ford Theatre, General Electric Theater, and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, continuing to act until 1962.
In 1952–53, Dunne played newspaper editor Susan Armstrong in the radio program Bright Star. The syndicated 30-minute comedy-drama also starred Fred MacMurray.
Dunne commented in an interview that she had lacked the "terrifying ambition" of some other actresses and said, "I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is."
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 0.888 |
Birthday | 1898-12-20 |
Place of Birth | Louisville, Kentucky, USA |
Also Known As | Irene Marie Dunn, |
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1936
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Show Boat
6.7/43
Despite her mother's objections, the naive young daughter of a show boat captain is thrust into the limelight as the company's new leading lady.
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Show Boat
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1935
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Roberta
7/43
Football player John Kent tags along as Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians travel to an engagement in Paris, only to lose it immediately. John and...
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Roberta
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1944
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Together Again
5.4/9
Anne Crandall is the mayor of a small town in Vermont. Her deceased husband had been the mayor for years and when he died, she was left to carry on an...
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Together Again
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1940
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My Favorite Wife
6.9/156
Years after she was presumed dead in a shipwreck, Ellen Arden returns home to the surprise of her husband recently remarrying. But he too gets a shock...
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My Favorite Wife
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1947
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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
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1937
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The Awful Truth
7.2/310
Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.
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The Awful Truth
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1931
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Cimarron
5.6/129
When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his fa...
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Cimarron
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1943
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A Guy Named Joe
6.5/51
A cocky Air Force pilot stationed in England during World War II falls for a daring female flier. After he's killed on a mission, he is sent back to...
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A Guy Named Joe
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1948
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I Remember Mama
7.1/58
Norwegian immigrant Marta Hanson keeps a firm but loving hand on her household of four children, a devoted husband and a highly-educated lodger who re...
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I Remember Mama

1946
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Anna and the King of Siam
6.1/36
In 1862, a young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.
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Anna and the King of Siam

1941
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Penny Serenade
6.6/110
Julie and Roger are a love-struck married couple who desperately want to have a child. Tragedy after tragedy gets in their way, as the two attempt to...
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Penny Serenade
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1933
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Ann Vickers
5.9/9
After a love affair ending in an abortion, a young prison reformer submerges herself in her work. She then falls for a controversial and married judge...
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Ann Vickers
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1934
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Sweet Adeline
5.7/3
In 1898, composer Sid Barnett manages to get his sweetheart, Adeline the beer-garden singer, to sing the lead in his new Broadway operetta; this infur...
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Sweet Adeline
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2017
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Becoming Cary Grant
6.6/40
For the first time one of Hollywood's greatest stars tells his own story, in his own words. From a childhood of poverty to global fame, Cary Grant, th...
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Becoming Cary Grant

1939
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Love Affair
7/111
A French playboy and an American former nightclub singer fall in love aboard a ship. They arrange to reunite six months later, if neither has changed...
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Love Affair
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1938
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Joy of Living
5.7/7
Falling in love with the voice of Broadway chanteuse Margaret Garret, cocksure young tycoon Daniel Brewster decides to rescue the star from her hectic...
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Joy of Living
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1935
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Magnificent Obsession
7.4/18
A playboy tries to redeem himself after his careless behavior causes a great man's death.
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Magnificent Obsession

1936
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Theodora Goes Wild
6.6/44
The small-town prudes of Lynnfield are up in arms over 'The Sinner,' a sexy best-seller. They little suspect that author 'Caroline Adams' is really Th...
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Theodora Goes Wild
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1937
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High, Wide and Handsome
6.3/3
The setting is a small town in 1870s Pennsylvania. Sally Waterson and her father have stopped in town with their traveling medicine show, but when the...
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High, Wide and Handsome

1939
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Invitation to Happiness
0/0
An egotistical boxer romances a rich backer's daughter.
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Invitation to Happiness

1944
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The White Cliffs of Dover
6.7/21
American Susan travels with her father to England for a vacation. Invited to a society ball, Susan meets Sir John Ashwood and marries him after a whir...
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The White Cliffs of Dover
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1931
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The Stolen Jools
5.6/29
Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tubercu...
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The Stolen Jools
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1932
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Thirteen Women
6.3/31
Thirteen women who were schoolmates ask a swami to cast their horoscopes. The news they receive is not good for any of them.
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Thirteen Women
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1941
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Unfinished Business
5.3/2
Starting with a cruel joke – a couple of callow men make a bet that one of them can seduce the woman sharing their train compartment – the film charts...
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Unfinished Business
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1933
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The Secret of Madame Blanche
4/4
A murder trial reunites a former chorus girl and her son, a grandson of an English aristocrat.
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The Secret of Madame Blanche
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1931
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Bachelor Apartment
6.2/6
A New York playboy, Wayne Carter, dates wild women until he falls for a hard-working stenographer, Helene Andrews.
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Bachelor Apartment
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1932
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Symphony of Six Million
5.4/5
A young doctor escapes the slums of New York City to make his fortune as a Park Avenue doctor. When a fatal mistake results in tragedy his resolve to...
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Symphony of Six Million
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1945
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Over 21
5.25/4
A woman screenwriter lives in a shabby bungalow in order to be near her husband, a 39-year-old newspaper editor who has just joined the army.
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Over 21
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1933
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The Silver Cord
7.1/7
A domineering matriarch is less than happy when her son brings home his new bride. She immediately sets to work at sabotaging their marriage as well a...
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The Silver Cord
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1932
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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

1934
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The Age of Innocence
5.4/7
An engaged attorney and a divorcee fall for each other in 1870s Manhattan.
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The Age of Innocence
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1950
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The Mudlark
6.5/8
It's 1875 and a young street urchin wants to see Queen Victoria...
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The Mudlark
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1933
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If I Were Free
5/5
A recently divorced interior decorator falls in love with a married barrister.
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If I Were Free

1942
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Lady in a Jam
5.5/10
A psychiatrist's patient, a nutty heiress, travels west to find gold in her grandfather's abandoned mine. The psychiatrist, unable to talk her out of...
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Lady in a Jam
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1931
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Consolation Marriage
6.1/10
A sportswriter jilted by his globe-trotting girlfriend marries a woman jilted by her boyfriend.
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Consolation Marriage

1931
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The Great Lover
5.3/3
An aspiring classical singer is romanced by both a famous opera star and his younger understudy.
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The Great Lover

1939
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When Tomorrow Comes
5.3/12
A famous concert pianist unhappily married to a woman who suffers from mental illness falls in love with a waitress.
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When Tomorrow Comes
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1934
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Stingaree
5.9/9
A young lady named Hilda who works as a servant for the wealthy Clarksons, sheep farmers, and dreams of being a great singer. An upcoming visit by Si...
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Stingaree

1950
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Never a Dull Moment
5.4/9
Kay Kingsley, a sophisticated and successful songwriter in New York City. falls in love with a widowed rancher, Chris Heyward, she meets at the Madiso...
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Never a Dull Moment
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1934
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This Man Is Mine
5.5/8
The seemingly happy relationship between Tony and Jim is threatened when his manipulative, seductive former fiancee visits.
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This Man Is Mine
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1933
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No Other Woman
5.2/6
A steelworker and his aspiring wife make millions when they become partners in a dyeworks. Unfortunately, success does not bring happiness.
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No Other Woman
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1952
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It Grows on Trees
7.7/5
The Baxters are a typical happy American family trying to live on too little money. Mrs. Polly Baxter acquires two mysterious trees that got into a nu...
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It Grows on Trees
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2022
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Rat Pack
9/2
In the 1950s, a small group of artists monopolized the attention of the cameras and the public. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bish...
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Rat Pack
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1988
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Cary Grant: A Celebration of a Leading Man
7/4
A retrospective of the life and career of actor Cary Grant, including clips from his films and interviews with his friends and co-workers.
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Cary Grant: A Celebration of a Leading Man
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1930
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Leathernecking
0/0
Chick Evans is a Marine private in Honolulu, Hawaii. He falls for society girl Delphine Witherspoon, and begins to scheme as to how to win her over.
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Leathernecking
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1935
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Things You Never See on the Screen
5/3
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1935.
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Things You Never See on the Screen
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1943
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Show-Business at War
7/3
A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.
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Show-Business at War
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1975
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
5.7/7
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
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1944
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Twenty Years After
6/1
This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.
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Twenty Years After
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1950
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You Can Change The World
5.8/4
Comedian Jack Benny has his butler, Rochester, call several of his celebrity friends over to the house. Benny introduces them to a Catholic priest, wh...
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You Can Change The World
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1936
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Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
6/1
Viewers are provided a visit to Ken Maynard's private circus; Bette Davis poses for her portrait; Frank McHugh plays with his children; a visit to the...
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Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
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2009
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1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
7.5/12
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special.
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1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
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1985
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Musical Comedy Tonight III
0/0
Sylvia Fine hosts this musical show featuring some great American singing and dancing stars, featuring music by Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart, Berlin and K...
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