One-time movie song-and-dance man James Dunn won an Academy Award for his "comeback" performance in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Based on the best-selling novel by Betty Smith, the film relates the trials and tribulations of a turn-of-the-century Brooklyn tenement family. The father, Dunn, is a likable but irresponsible alcoholic whose dreams of ...
A midwestern girl heads for Hollywood in hopes of becoming a star. She is accompanied by two good buddies and this comedy chronicles their adventures in Tinseltown. It all begins when the new arrivals enroll in a bogus acting school run by two con artists. A wealthy entrepreneur shows up looking to invest his money. One of the greedy grifters ...
The bloom of youth had long faded on actor James Dunn when he starred in Shadows Over Shanghai. Even so, he is fairly convincing as hotshot newspaperman Johnny McGinty, on assignment in war-torn China (courtesy of the General Service Studios backlot). McGinty is one of several interested parties involved in a stolen Chinese amulet, which allegedly ...
Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven deserves a historical footnote as director William Castle's only comedy western. Future Wild Bill Hickok star Guy Madison plays Eddie Taylor, a lonesome cowboy who falls in love with city-gal Perry Dunkin (Diana Lynn). The couple "meets cute" in Brooklyn, where the two have migrated to seek their fortunes. The plot veers ...
Comedian Morey Amsterdam and cartoonist Milt Gross were responsible for the script of the low-budget comedy The Ghost and the Guest. James Dunn and Florence Rice play newlyweds Webster and Jackie Frye, who spend their honeymoon in a sinister old country house. Before long, the Fryes are besieged by a gang of crooks, searching for a fortune in ...
In this high-gloss soap opera (not dissimilar to the then-popular Peyton Place), Guy (Richard Burton) is a doctor who returns to the New England town where he grew up to help care for his good friend Larry (Tom Drake), who is dying of Hodgkins Disease. Guy gets to know Larry's wife Margaret (Barbara Rush), and a strong attraction quickly develops ...
Despite stiff competition like Poor Little Rich Girl and Heidi, Bright Eyes is arguably the best of Shirley Temple's 1930s vehicles. The little curly-top is cast as Shirley Blake, daughter of Mary Blake (Lois Wilson), the widowed housemaid of snooty J. Wellington and Anita Smythe (Theodore Von Eltz and Dorothy Christy). Though continually ...
First-time director Lew Ayres performs miracles on a tiny budget in the Civil War drama Hearts in Bondage. The story offers a romanticized version of the events leading up to the battle between the "ironclads" Monitor and Merrimac. Northern naval officer Kenneth (James Dunn), the nephew of Monitor designer John Ericsson (Fritz Leiber) is ...
Shirley Temple's first starring vehicle casts her as the button-cute daughter of ex-convict Eddie Ellison (James Dunn) and his wife Kay (Claire Trevor). Ellison and his old cellmate Larry Scott (Ray Walker) manage to land jobs as chauffeurs for a wealthy family. When a valuable string of pearls disappears, both men are fired and Eddie is accused ...
James Dunn and Frances Gifford were husband and wife when they costarred in PRC's Hold That Woman. Dunn plays Jimmy Parker, ace operative for Skip Tracers Ltd., a process-serving firm. Repossessing a radio from a recalcitrant debtor, Jimmy finds a fortune in stolen jewels hidden inside the box. Arrested for theft, Parker spends the rest of the ...
Based on an idea by Will Rogers, the story concerns the efforts by the President of the United States to get the public's mind off the Depression. To this end, he appoints Broadway impresario Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter) to the new cabinet position of "Secretary of Amusement." Wasting no time, Cromwell sets about to nationalize the ...
In this drama, a test pilot plies his trade on a prototype medical plane. Unfortunately, when the craft is stolen, he becomes the prime suspect and is grounded. Fortunately, a female flying ace convinces her brother to employ him. Later it is revealed that the brother leads a gang of plane thieves. They take the stolen birds, including the medical ...
In this Navy drama, a young sailor finds himself interested in everything but marriage. But then he encounters a runaway orphan who sees the sailor and decides that he would do anything to make him become his father. He begins dogging the salt, who does everything he can to get rid of the troublesome kid. Eventually he can't help but care for the ...
In this melodrama, a self-absorbed mother unwittingly teaches her daughter some terrible habits. From her, the girl learns that she should simply take everything she wants without considering the consequences of her actions. Her conniving tactics make her rich, but unlucky in love. Fortunately, her second husband teaches her some important life ...
A remake of Rafter Romance (1933), which starred Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster, Living On Love treats the story of two unwilling apartment-mates a bit more briskly and broadly, to the point of being downright screwy at times. This time out, it's Solly Ward as landlord Eli White, who takes two tenants (James Dunn, Whitney Bourne) who can't afford ...
In one of his first "adult" roles (he made his last Andy Hardy vehicle only a year earlier), Mickey Rooney plays Tommy McCoy, a dancer who performs in a going-nowhere nightclub act with his alcoholic father, Brian (James Dunn). Johnny Martin (Mickey Knox), a lightweight boxing champ who is headlining the show that Tommy and his Dad are currently ...
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