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Mantan Moreland
Although his brand of humor has been reviled for decades, Negro character actor Mantan Moreland parlayed his cocky but jittery character into a recognizable presence in the late 1930s and early 1940s, appearing in a long string of comedy thrillers . . . and was considered quite funny at the time!
Born just after the turn of the century in Louisiana, Mantan began running away from home at age 12 to join circuses and medicine shows, only to be brought back time and again. During these times he sharpened his comic skills and developed routines and acts that eventually became popular on the vaudeville stage, or what was then called the "chitlin' circuit." A solo performer by nature, he often teamed up with other famous comics (such as Ben Carter) to keep working, and became a deft performer of "indefinite talk" routines, where two quicksilver comics continually topped each other in mid-sentence, as if reading each other's mind (i.e., "Say, did you see...?" "Saw him just yesterday...didn't look so good"). Mantan's focus gradually shifted his trade toward film, where he initially appeared in servile bits (shoeshine men, porters, waiters). However, his talent for making people laugh couldn't be overlooked and he soon earned featured status in Harlem-styled western parodies and grade "A" comedy films playing the superstitious, ever-terrified manservant running from any kind of impending doom.
Moreland's peak in movies came with his recurring role as Birmingham, the skittish chauffeur, in the "Charlie Chan" series, where he was forever forewarning his boss to stay away from an obviously dangerous case or situation. Though haunted mansions were an ideal place for setting off his stereotyped character, Mantan would be haunted in a different way by this Hollywood success in years to follow. By the 1950s, racial attitudes began to change and, with the rise of the civil rights movement, what was once considered hilarious was now interpreted as demeaning and offensive to both blacks and whites. Mantan and others, such as Stepin Fetchit, were ostracized and ridiculed by Hollywood for their past negative portrayals. It took decades for audiences to forgive and newer generations to forget the Depression-era comedy of Mantan Moreland in order for the actor to come back.
In the late 1960s he managed a modest resurgence on TV and in commercials and occasional films, allowing him to work again with such comic heavyweights as Bill Cosby, Godfrey Cambridge and director Carl Reiner. It was all too brief, however, for Mantan, long suffering from ill health, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1973, just as he was settling in to his renewed popularity. Today, audiences tend to be kinder and more understanding of Moreland, remembering him as a highly talented comic who, in the only way he knew, broke major barriers and opened the doors for others black actors to follow.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 1.155 |
Birthday | 1902-09-03 |
Place of Birth | Monroe, Louisiana, USA |
Also Known As | Man Tan Moreland, Manton Moreland, Manten Moreland, Carter & Moreland, Moreland, |
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1941
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King of the Zombies
5.2/45
During World War II, a small plane somewhere over the Caribbean runs low on fuel and is blown off course by a storm. Guided by a faint radio signal, t...
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King of the Zombies
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1941
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It Started with Eve
7.1/27
A young man asks a hat check girl to pose as his fiancée in order to make his dying father's last moments happy. However, the old man's health takes a...
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1967
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6.9/167
In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family lives with the inherited curse of a disease that causes th...
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1970
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Watermelon Man
6.4/52
A racist insurance agent lives in a typical suburban neighborhood. But his bigoted world of taunting and harassing black people on and off the job is...
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Watermelon Man
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1942
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Footlight Serenade
0/0
Conceited World Champion boxer Tommy Lundy decides to test his popularity in a Broadway show. Tommy always has an eye for the ladies and he starts pay...
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Footlight Serenade
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1945
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The Spider
5.3/11
An ex-cop is suspected of murder after he is found with a dead woman. The private detective is on the run -- attempting to prove his innocence.
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1944
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Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
5.9/26
Charlie Chan is an agent of the US government working in Washington DC and he is assigned to investigate the murder of the inventor of a highly advanc...
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Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
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1944
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Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat
6.4/15
To solve the murder of a man shot in a locked room, Chan must wade through a Fun House, the writings of an unscrupulous author, and chess pieces.
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1944
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Black Magic
7.031/16
Chinese detective Charlie Chan solves a murder linked to the occult.
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1945
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The Shanghai Cobra
5.7/16
Someone is attempting to steal radium stored in a bank. Death by cobra venom connects a number of murders. Charlie Chan investigates.
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1945
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The Scarlet Clue
5.9/21
Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan discovers a scheme for the theft of government radar plans while investigating several murders.
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1945
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The Jade Mask
6.1/17
The latest assignment for respected detective Charlie Chan has come directly from the government and involves the disappearance of a scientist named H...
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The Jade Mask
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1946
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5.7/9
In San Francisco's Chinatown, Charlie helps two different people search for their missing relatives and uncovers a murder for insurance scheme.
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1946
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Dark Alibi
6.1/20
After three men are convicted of bank robberies, Charlie becomes suspicious. After some investigation Charlie finds the men are innocent and that the...
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
1946
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The Trap
6.7/18
When a troupe of showgirls with their impresario and press agent vacation at a Malibu Beach resort, two of them are garroted. Charlie takes on the cas...
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The Trap
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1941
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Sleepers West
6.3/15
Private eye Mike Shayne encounters a large amount of trouble while attempting to guard a murder witness.
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Sleepers West
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1948
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Docks of New Orleans
5.9/6
Detective Charlie Chan springs into action when top officials of a New Orleans chemical company begin dropping like flies.
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1947
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The Chinese Ring
4.9/15
Soon after a Chinese princess comes to the US to buy planes for her people, she is murdered by a poison dart fired by an air rifle.
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The Chinese Ring
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1948
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The Shanghai Chest
6.1/5
Charlie attempts to solve a triple murder in which a dead man's finger prints show up at all three murder sites, and all three victims were connected...
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The Shanghai Chest
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1948
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The Feathered Serpent
5.8/12
In order to learn the location of a fabled Aztec treasure, a professor kidnaps his colleague, the only man able to read the ancient Aztec script that...
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The Feathered Serpent
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1942
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Eyes in the Night
6/30
Blind detective Duncan Maclain gets mixed up with enemy agents and murder when he tries to help an old friend with a rebellious stepdaughter.
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Eyes in the Night

1948
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The Golden Eye
5.4/14
A gold mine in Arizona, that was formerly losing a lot of money, suddenly turns into a veritable money-making machine. However, the owner, instead of...
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The Golden Eye
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1942
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The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
5.1/19
Private eye Jerry Church is hired by a criminal defense lawyer after five mobsters he has gotten acquitted are apparently strangled by a serial killer...
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The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
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1942
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Lucky Ghost
6.2/6
An all-black horror comedy starring Mantan Moreland and sometimes partner (and straight man) F.E. Miller, Lucky Ghost is amusing low-brow fare that ex...
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Lucky Ghost
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1942
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Tarzan's New York Adventure
6.3/92
Circus owner Buck Rand kidnaps Boy to perform in his show. He forces a pilot to fly him, Boy and his animal trainer out of the jungle. Tarzan and Jane...
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Tarzan's New York Adventure

1940
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Up in the Air
5.5/4
A none-too-popular (nor good) radio singer, Rita Wilson is murdered while singing on the air in a radio studio. Radio page boy, Frankie Ryan, and his...
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Up in the Air

1943
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Cabin in the Sky
6.4/38
When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where he learns that he will be sent back to Earth for si...
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Cabin in the Sky

1941
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Birth of the Blues
5.3/7
Jeff grows up near Basin Street in New Orleans, playing his clarinet with the dock workers. He puts together a band, the Basin Street Hot-Shots, which...
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Birth of the Blues
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1945
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She Wouldn't Say Yes
5.9/5
Susan Lane is a gifted psychiatrist, grounded in self-control. Before returning by train to her practice in Chicago, she spends time back East with wa...
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She Wouldn't Say Yes
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1940
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On the Spot
5.3/2
Frankie Kelly is the soda jerk and embryo scientist in Midvales only drugstore. Two murders and an attempted killing suddenly swing Midvale into natio...
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On the Spot
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1938
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Frontier Scout
4.5/2
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant has a job for Wild Bill Hickok (George Houston) and his sidekick (Al St. John).
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Frontier Scout

1942
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Phantom Killer
4.3/3
Well-known philanthropist and deaf-mute John G. Harrison is identified leaving the scene of several murders but evades successful prosecution as there...
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Phantom Killer
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1941
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Sign of the Wolf
6/1
Two German shepherds and their mistress (Grace Bradley) crash-land in Canada by a fox breeder's (Michael Whalen) farm.
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Sign of the Wolf

1943
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Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher
4/7
Cosmo Jones, a correspondence-school detective from a small town, comes to the big city to offer his services to the police. He happens by where a gan...
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Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher

1943
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Melody Parade
0/0
The owner and staff of a Hollywood nightclub struggle to keep their establishment from closing.
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Melody Parade

1943

Swing Fever
5/3
Comedy about a bandleader with hypnotic powers.
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Swing Fever

1942

Freckles Comes Home
5/3
Freckles Winslow comes home from college and the sheriff accuses him of murder, gangsters put him on the spot, and his girl friend, Jane, falls in lov...
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Freckles Comes Home

1941
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The Gang's All Here
5/8
Two friends take jobs as truck drivers, unaware that the trucking company is being targeted by a gang of saboteurs who will stop at nothing, including...
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The Gang's All Here

1943

Revenge of the Zombies
5.2/24
When Dr. Von Altermann's wife Lila dies mysteriously at his spooky mansion her relations suspect murder. They also suspect the doctor is turning her i...
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Revenge of the Zombies

1946

Mantan Messes Up
0/0
Mantan takes a job as office boy at a new TV station and gets to watch several pre-recorded musical numbers.
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Mantan Messes Up

1941

You're Out of Luck
6/1
An elevator operator and a janitor team up to solve two murders that may be connected to an illegal gambling operation. Monogram.
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You're Out of Luck

1942

Four Jacks and a Jill
6/3
Karanina "Nina" Novak, is befriended by Nifty, the leader of a four-piece orchestra, and in return, secures an engagement for them at the Little Arega...
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Four Jacks and a Jill

1938

Next Time I Marry
6.8/6
Heiress Nancy Crocker Fleming will only receive her inheritance if she marries a "plain American." Her late father was afraid a foreign gigolo would s...
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Next Time I Marry

1938

Spirit of Youth
5.5/6
The story of the rise of boxer Joe Thomas, which paralleled the life of Joe Louis.
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Spirit of Youth

1938

Two-Gun Man from Harlem
4.5/6
A cowboy is wrongfully accused of murder. He winds up in Harlem, where he assumes the identity of a preacher-turned-gangster who looks like him. He in...
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Two-Gun Man from Harlem

1942

Mr. Washington Goes to Town
3/1
While serving time in county prison, Wallingford sees a story in the newspaper that his cellmate, Schenectady, has inherited a mansionfrom his recentl...
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Mr. Washington Goes to Town

1939

Irish Luck
5.8/4
A spunky young bellhop investigates the murder of a hotel guest.
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Irish Luck

1944

Pin Up Girl
6.1/16
Glamorous Lorry Jones, the toast of a Missouri military canteen, has become "engaged" to almost every serviceman she's signed her pin-up photo for. No...
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Pin Up Girl

1943

Sarong Girl
0/0
A dancer in a girlie show plots revenge when a judge orders her show closed.
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Sarong Girl

1941

Let's Go Collegiate
5/4
Rawley University is about to receive a star athlete who could give it the first championship rowing team it's ever had. Unfortunately, he gets drafte...
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Let's Go Collegiate

1946

Riverboat Rhythm
5/2
A financially-strapped showboat captain struggles to stay in business.
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Riverboat Rhythm

1942

Andy Hardy's Double Life
4.6/9
Andy is about to head off to college but he's got a few things to take care of before leaving. For starters, he must try and sell his junk car for $20...
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Andy Hardy's Double Life

1941

Dressed to Kill
6.386/22
A detective's wedding is postponed when gunshots are heard nearby.
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Dressed to Kill

1941

Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery
5.3/3
Chinese ventriloquist Gordon Cobb is murdered by a gang of jewel thieves. Baffled by the contradictory clues, Inspector Queen asks his son Ellery to h...
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Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery

1945

Captain Tugboat Annie
0/0
This tale of two tugboats focuses upon the rivalries between two operators competing to win a major shipping contract. Meanwhile a tugboat office secr...
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Captain Tugboat Annie

1956

Rockin' the Blues
0/0
DJ Hal Jackson is the all-rhyming onstage host of this all-black musical.
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Rockin' the Blues

1967

Enter Laughing
4/7
A machinist's apprentice in Depression-era New York, David dreams of becoming the new Ronald Colman. Defying the wishes of his parents, David lands a...
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Enter Laughing

1944

Chip Off the Old Block
4/1
The son of a strict Navy officer falls for the daughter of a musical-comedy star.
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Chip Off the Old Block

1937

Harlem on the Prairie
5/1
A cowboy helps a pretty young woman find lost gold. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with additional funding from the National Endowment for the...
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Harlem on the Prairie

1941

Up Jumped the Devil
0/0
Two ne'er-do-wells, Washington and Jefferson, just out of prison are looking for jobs so they won't get arrested for vagrancy. They find out that the...
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Up Jumped the Devil

1942

Professor Creeps
0/0
Two cut-rate private detectives are broke, hungry and down to their last nickel. They decide to hock their banjo in order to get some money for food,...
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Professor Creeps

1947

Return of Mandy's Husband
0/0
In order to make some cash, buddies Mantan and Alex found the "Ghost Association," which will hold mock seances for the local residents. After studyin...
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Return of Mandy's Husband

1942

Girl Trouble
6.5/1
A South American in New York rents the apartment of a socialite who pretends to be his maid.
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Girl Trouble

1939

Tell No Tales
5.3/5
A newspaper editor turns a kidnapping into the banner headlines and exclusive story that could save his publication.
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Tell No Tales

1942

Law of the Jungle
5.1/7
Nona Brooks, former member of a stranded theatrical troupe, earns a temporary living singing in a café in Duakwa, British Rhodesia, Africa. The café o...
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Law of the Jungle

1939

Riders of the Frontier
0/0
The Rancho Grande, a Texas border ranch, cut off from the law by a gang of outlaws led by ranch foreman Bart Lane, who is holding the elderly owner of...
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Riders of the Frontier

1944

Moon Over Las Vegas
0/0
A beautiful woman goes to Las Vegas in a scheme to make her husbnd jealous, but once she gets there she becomes involved with another man.
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Moon Over Las Vegas

1940

Chasing Trouble
5/3
A delivery boy for a flower shop, who thinks of himself as an amateur detective, finds out that his boss is mixed up with a foreign espionage ring.
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Chasing Trouble

1949

Come On, Cowboy!
0/0
Mr. Wilson hires Mantan to travel out West and clean out an old property. Mantan runs into trouble in believing the house is haunted while a gang uses...
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Come On, Cowboy!

1940

Millionaire Playboy
2.7/3
A young millionaire gets hiccups whenever he kisses a pretty woman.
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Millionaire Playboy

1940

The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
4/2
A man involved in a crime (Nolan) kills his key witness by mistake and resigns himself to death. He changes his name so as not to harm his family. The...
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The Man Who Wouldn't Talk

1940

Viva Cisco Kid
5.5/4
Cisco saves a stagecoach from being robbed and takes a shine to one of the passengers whose father is in cahoots with a vicious criminal who plans to...
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Viva Cisco Kid

1942

Treat 'Em Rough
6/1
When his father is accused of graft, a former boxer returns home to clear his name.
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Treat 'Em Rough

1940

Star Dust
4.7/3
When Hollywood film studios reject her because she's too young, an Arkansas woman sets out to build a career as an actress on her own.
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Star Dust

1936

The Green Pastures
6.3/14
God, heaven, and several Old Testament stories, including the Creation and Noah's Ark, are described supposedly using the perspective of rural, black...
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The Green Pastures

1940

Laughing at Danger
0/0
Frankie Kelly, pageboy at the beauty salon ran by Madam Celeste, and his helper Jefferson find the routine broken when the body of one of the operator...
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Laughing at Danger

1940

Drums of the Desert
5.5/2
On his way to a post as special adviser of the new parachute troops of the French Foreign Legion in Morocco, Paul Dumont meets the beautiful Helene on...
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Drums of the Desert

1940

Four Shall Die
0/0
Helen Fielding, heir to the fortunes of the late millionaire Roger Fielding, Sr., has broken off her relationship with the unscrupulous Lew Covey to p...
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Four Shall Die

1943

He Hired the Boss
3/1
A shy bookkeeper accidentally discovers that the company where he works is targeted in a series of late-night robberies.
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He Hired the Boss

1942

A-Haunting We Will Go
6/36
Stan and Ollie get involved with con men, crooks, a genial magician, and two interchangeable coffins with disastrous but funny results.
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A-Haunting We Will Go

1946

Mantan Runs for Mayor
0/0
After collecting his usual meager paycheck, Mantan, a part time janitor at the local courthouse, commiserates with his ne'er-do-well friend Alex, who...
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Mantan Runs for Mayor

1948

The Dreamer
0/0
An all-black musical featuring the talent of funnyman Mantan Moreland.
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The Dreamer
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Ebony Parade
0/0
Mantan Moreland hosts a series of filmed song, dance and band numbers by various artists, mostly released previously as individual "soundies".
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Ebony Parade
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1948
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She's Too Mean for Me
0/0
Mantan Moreland's comedy feature.
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She's Too Mean for Me
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1948
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What a Guy
0/0
Mantan Moreland's comedy feature.
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What a Guy
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1940
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Girl in 313
5.6/6
A priceless necklace goes missing at a plush party. Police close in on the jewel thieves but is one cop getting too close to one of the crooks?
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Girl in 313
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1940
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Maryland
6.2/2
A woman tormented by the hunting death of her husband forbids her son to have anything to do with horses. But when he falls for the daughter of his fa...
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Maryland
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1940
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City of Chance
5.2/7
Texas girl goes to New York, becomes a newspaper reporter, and tries to get her gambler boyfriend to come home.
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City of Chance
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1949
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Sky Dragon
7.7/3
All the passengers on an airplane headed for San Francisco are drugged, and when they wake up, it is discovered that a quarter-million dollars is miss...
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Sky Dragon
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1938
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Gang Smashers
0/0
An undercover police woman poses as a nighclub entertainer to catch the main man behind the racketeers going on around Harlem. Meanwhile two men are f...
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Gang Smashers
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1941
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Cracked Nuts
0/0
A young man in a small town wins $5000 in a radio contest. He goes to New York City to propose to his girlfriend, but gets mixed up with a crooked att...
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Cracked Nuts
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1942
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Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost
4.4/5
Carmelita and Uncle Matt find themselves in a haunted house, but the "ghosts" are actually enemy agents who are trying to frighten away visitors in or...
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Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost
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1943
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Slightly Dangerous
5.8/6
Small-town soda-jerk Peggy Evans quits her dead-end job and moves to New York where she invents a new identity.
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Slightly Dangerous
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1944
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Bowery to Broadway
0/0
Two Bowery vaudevillians find success in producing shows on Broadway, but when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman, a feud erup...
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Bowery to Broadway
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1943
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You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith
3.5/2
A young woman marries a soldier to fulfill the conditions of a will. However, when she gets ready to divorce him, she realizes that she actually loves...
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You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith
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1944
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South of Dixie
0/0
To save their music publishing firm from bankruptcy, Bill "Brains' Watson creates a colorful life-story about his partner, Danny Lee, representing him...
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South of Dixie
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1943
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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
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1943
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Hit the Ice
5.9/24
After Flash Fulton and Weejie McCoy take pictures of a bank robbery, they're lured to the mountain resort hideout of the robbers, where they meet an o...
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Hit the Ice
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1933
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That's the Spirit
2/1
In this musical short, two night watchmen hear songs performed in a haunted pawn shop.
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That's the Spirit

1946
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Tall, Tan and Terrific
0/0
Professional gambler The Duke (Dots Johnson) attempts to cheat Handsome Harry Hansom (Monte Hawley), who owns a successful Harlem nightclub, out of hi...
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Tall, Tan and Terrific
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1944
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See Here, Private Hargrove
6/1
Journalist Marion Hargrove enters the Army intending to supplement his income by writing about his training experiences. He muddles through basic trai...
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See Here, Private Hargrove

1943
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Swing Fever
5/3
Comedy about a bandleader with hypnotic powers.
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Swing Fever

1964
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The Patsy
6.2/52
When a star comedian dies, his comedy team decides to train a 'nobody' to play the Star in a big TV show (a Patsy). But the man chosen, bellboy Stanle...
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The Patsy
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1973
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The Young Nurses
4.2/5
Sexy young nurses apply special therapy in their daily rounds, as they work against a drug ring operating out of the hospital
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The Young Nurses

1941
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Marry the Boss's Daughter
0/0
Young man from Kansas goes to New York to work for his tycoon-hero. His superiors won't listen to his ideas about business, but the boss and his daugh...
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Marry the Boss's Daughter
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1939
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One Dark Night
0/0
Samson Brown is a lazy and shiftless husband who lets his wife, Hannah, support the family. He is constantly insulted and annoyed by his in-laws, who...
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One Dark Night
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1940
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While Thousands Cheer
0/0
Kenny Harrington, the star football player of Gilmore College, leads his team to many victories, raising hopes that Gilmore will play in the "Peach Bo...
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While Thousands Cheer

1969
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The Comic
5.9/10
An account of the rise and fall of a silent film comic, Billy Bright. The movie begins with his funeral, as he speaks from beyond the grave in a bitte...
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