Claire Trevor
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year is a once-over-lightly evocation of a slate of classic films unmatched before or since. In a year permitting 10 Best Picture nominees, the final cut included Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Love Affair. Shut out: The Roaring '20s, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Intermezzo, Destry Rides Again, Idiot's Delight, Young Mr. Lincoln, Gunga Din. This hour-long film finds room to acknowledge a few of these non-starters, but its brevity means a lot gets left out. This includes the absence of anything that doesn't celebrate the studio system, including the practices of the shrewd tyrants who ran them, seen in brief archival footage.
Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Albert Warner and Sam Warner were siblings who were born in Poland and emigrated to Canada near the turn of the century. In 1903, the brothers entered the budding motion picture business. In time, the Warner Brothers moved into film production and would open their own studio in 1923.
Inspired by a Norman Rockwell painting, this 1950s coming of age drama centers on a young man leaving home to attend college, where he will learn the lessons in becoming a man. While his family must deal with a life threatening illness.
Not until three years after the death of her husband Jolly, Kay dares to move back into their former home, persuaded by her new fiancée Rupert. But soon her worst expectations come true, when not only her old memories haunt her, but also Jolly's ghost, who doesn't approve of her new mate. Invisible to anyone but Kay, he tries to prevent the wedding. Written by Tom Zoerner
Stanley Ford leads an idyllic bachelor life. He is a nationally syndicated cartoonist whose Bash Brannigan series provides him with a luxury townhouse and a full-time valet, Charles. When he wakes up the morning after the night before - he had attended a friend's stag party - he finds that he is married to the very beautiful woman who popped out of the cake - and who doesn't speak a word of English. Despite his initial protestations, he comes to like married life and even changes his cartoon character from a super spy to a somewhat harried husband.
An aging former movie starlet whose Hollywood career went nowhere, now reduced to dancing with a third-rate touring show, finds herself stranded in a small town where she's courted by an infatuated and naive local teenager.
While working as a counselor at a summer camp, college-student Marjorie Morgenstern falls for 32-year-old Noel Airman, a would-be dramatist working at a nearby summer theater. Like Marjorie, he is an upper-middle-class New York Jew (born 'Ehrman'), but has fallen away from his roots, and Marjorie's parents object among other things to his lack of a suitable profession, such as medicine or law. Noel himself warns Marjorie repeatedly that she's much too naive and conventional for him, but they nonetheless fall in love. As they pursue an on-again-off-again relationship, Marjorie completes her studies at Hunter College, and works to establish an acting career, while Noel first leaves the theater for a job with an advertising agency, but later completes a musical he'd started writing before he and Marjorie had first met.
Selfish Chris Teller pressures his older brother, a retired climber, to accompany him on a treacherous Alpine climb to loot the bodies of plane crash victims.
Director Robert Parrish's 1955 drama, spanning many years, stars Jane Wyman as a spirited western shopkeeper who watches as her small store flourishes and grows into a hugely profitable business empire. The cast also includes Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest and Wallace Ford.
Man Without a Star is a 1955 western film starring Kirk Douglas as a wanderer who gets dragged into a range war. It was based on the novel of the same name by Dee Linford.
Dan Roman is a veteran pilot haunted by a tragic past. Now relegated to second-in-command cockpit assignments he finds himself on a routine Honolulu-to-San Francisco flight - one that takes a terrifying suspense-building turn when disaster strikes high above the Pacific Ocean at the point of no return.
Live television broadcast of the world premiere. Described by various participants as the biggest world premiere in memory, even bigger than the Academy Awards.
Having been a spy for Quantrill's raiders during the Civil War, Jeff Travis thinking himself a wanted man, flees to Prescott Arizona where he runs into Jules Mourret who knows of his past. He takes a job on the stage line that Mourret is trying to steal gold from. When Mourret's men kill a friend of his he sets out to get Mourret and his men. When his plan to have another gang get Mourret fails, he has to go after them himself.
It's a deadly play for power when a Mafia chieftain's top gun goes straight and threatens to testify against the big boss and his cruel, nationwide network of crime. The picture, which was shot in a semi-documentary style, was inspired by the Kefauver investigations of 1950-51.
A gangster and his wife attempt to go straight. Comedy. Remake of the 1938 film "A Slight Case of Murder".
Chu Chu Ramirez is a Mexican farm laborer in California, with lofty ideals, who is very proud of his new American citizenship. During his time off, he tries to befriend the alcoholic bar girl Nancy. After working for a month for the subsistence farmer Mr. Ames and his frustrated wife, Chu Chu discovers that his paycheck bounces and Ames stalls in paying him. Just after a confrontation between Ames and Chu Chu, Ames is accidentally wounded by his own shotgun and he and his wife blame it on Chu Chu. Despite the support of his friends and sympathetic sheriff, Chu Chu is given a year's sentence.
When most people look at Florence Farley, they see a pretty teenager. But when Milly Farley looks at her daughter she sees something else: a tennis prodigy who could be Milly’s ticket to money and fame. Released in 1951, Hard, Fast and Beautiful foresaw our modern era of big-time women’s sports – and of driven parents who would stop at nothing to “help” their daughters grab the golden ring. Sally Forrest plays Florence, who finds athletic success but not happiness. Claire Trevor seethes with barely concealed malice and greed as Milly. And behind the camera is movie star Ida Lupino, guiding one of a series of low-budget, big-concept films that established her as a rarity in mid-century Hollywood: a successful and stylish female director.
Though RKO Radio Pictures was, in 1951, still faithful to the concept of "B" westerns starring Tim Holt, the studio was more than capable of turning out an "A" oater from time to time. Best of the Badmen stars Robert Ryan as a former Union officer who persuades a fictional vigilante group which closely resembles Quantrill's Raiders to lay down their arms and seek out new and honest lives. Ryan is undercut by shifty Pinkerton man Robert Preston, who wants to collect the rewards on the heads of the ex-vigilantes; to that end, he frames Ryan for murder. With the help of Preston's embittered wife Claire Trevor, Ryan escapes and turns outlaw with the men whom he'd earlier convinced to turn honest.
Two undercover agents infiltrate a drug-smuggling ring in Mexico, thee find them selves falling in love with each other. Neither is aware of the other's identity As they decide to make a run for the border.
After accidentally killing her lecherous producer, a famous actress tries to hide her guilt.
The baseball player (William Bendix) goes from wayward youth to Boston Red Sox pitcher to New York Yankees home-run hero.
Helen Brent has just received a Reno divorce. That night, she discovers her neighbor Laury Palmer and a gentleman caller murdered in Palmer's home. The killer is her neighbor's other boyfriend Sam Wilde, an insanely jealous man who won't abide anyone "cutting in" on him.
A department store floor walker is persuaded by four husband-seeking salesgirls to pose as their father in a Long Island mansion which they have rented by pooling resources and pretending to be wealthy themselves.
George Raft plays a sailor who sets out to solve his father's mysterious death.
Gumshoe Philip Marlowe is hired by the oafish Moose Malloy to track down his former girlfriend. He's also hired to accompany an effeminate playboy buy back some jewels. When the exchange results in the playboy's murder, Marlowe can't leave the case alone, and soon discovers it's related to Malloy's. As he gets drawn deeper into a complex web of intrigue by a mysterious blonde, the detective finds his own life in increasing jeopardy.
Originally, producer Harry Sherman's Woman of the Town was slated for Paramount release, but that studio was overloaded with product, so the film was deferred to United Artists. Nonetheless, the finished product has the "look" of a Paramount, right down to the presence of character actor Albert Dekker in a leading role. Dekker plays Bat Masterson, who after failing to secure a job as a newspaper reporter becomes marshal of Dodge City. Preferring socializing to peacekeeping, Masterson falls in love with Dora Hand (Claire Trevor), the obligatory golden-hearted chorus girl whose concern for the welfare of her fellow citizens at time reaches Madonna-like dimensions. When Dora is shot down cattle baron King Kennedy (Barry Sullivan), Masterson begins taking his job seriously. After taking care of Kennedy, Masterson determines to enshrine the memory of Dora, whose efforts to clean up Dodge City were largely ignored by the "decent" townsfolk.
Popular mailcoach driver Uncle Willie is in fact in league with the town's crooked banker. They plan to have the bank robbed after emptying it, and when Willie's choice for this doesn't show in time, he gets some local boys to do it. When his man does turn up he decides to stick around, as he is pals with the sheriff and also takes a shine to Willie's daughter Allison. This gives the bad men several new problems.
A 4F military school teacher's lie about being accepted for active duty causes problems on the home front.
A French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.
In this Cornell Woolrich thriller, a man's memory is recovered after being injured by falling construction material. Discovering a year-long lapse, he returns to his old life and discovers a lot of mysterious happenings.
Author writes about his experiences sailing at sea, struggles to get his work published.
Two Virginians are heading for a new life in Texas when they witness a stagecoach being held up. They decide to rob the robbers and make off with the loot. To escape a posse, they split up and don't see each other again for a long time. When they do meet up again, they find themselves on different sides of the law. This leads to the increasing estrangement of the two men, who once thought of themselves as brothers.
Fast-talking con-man and grifter Candy Johnson rises to be the corrupt boss of Yellow Creek, but his wife's alcoholic father tries to set things right.
When transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas he finds much to like about the place, especially Mary McCloud, daughter of the local banker. Politics is in the air however. It's just prior to the civil war and there is already a sharp division in the Territory as to whether it will remain slave-free. When he gets the opportunity to run for marshal, Seton finds himself running against the respected local schoolteacher, William Cantrell. Not is what it seems however. While acting as the upstanding citizen in public, Cantrell is dangerously ambitious and is prepared to do anything to make his mark, and his fortune, on the Territory. When he loses the race for marshal, he forms a group of raiders who run guns into the territory and rob and terrorize settlers throughout the territory. Eventually donning Confederate uniforms, it is left to Seton and the good citizens of Lawrence to face Cantrell and his raiders in one final clash.
A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo, and learn something about each other in the process.
A cabbie and petty thief dreams of the big heist that will end his thieving ways.
South western Pennsylvania area of colonial America, 1760s. Colonial distaste and disapproval of the British government is starting to surface. Many local colonists have been killed by American Indians who are armed with rifles supplied by white traders.
A lumberman takes on a sleezy corporate giant wanting to move in and do whatever it takes to drive everyone else out of business.
Five closely knit showgirls sign a pact to reunite one year after the closing of their Broadway production, but the lives of all five take many different turns, often for the worse.
A wealthy society doctor decides to research the medical aspects of criminal behaviour by becoming one himself. He joins a gang of thieves and proceeds to wrest leadership of the gang away from it's extremely resentful leader.
Rival reporters compete to sign the Wyatt Quintuplets to be guests on their radio shows.
Mobster "Baby Face" Martin returns home to visit the New York neighborhood where he grew up, dropping in on his mother, who rejects him because of his gangster lifestyle, and his old girlfriend, Francey, now a syphilitic prostitute. Martin also crosses paths with Dave, a childhood friend struggling to make it as an architect, and the Dead End Kids, a gang of young boys roaming the streets of the city's East Side slums.
A girl (Trevor) escapes marriage and hitchhikes with a young man (Whalen) in whose car a jewel thief has planted his loot.
When a department store songstress becomes a radio star she keeps her identity secret, as the "Masked Countess", because he estranged husband is a crook.
A female journalist travels to a new neighborhood after getting a (false) lead and is surprised by what she finds.
Raoul McLish stops over in Miami Beach where he runs into his ex-wife, Vicky Benton, and her new husband Bob, a belt manufacturer. At first Bob enjoys Raoul's presence - in part because Vicky is his not Raoul's and in part because Raoul is a lot of fun. The fun wears thin for Bob as his seriousness and possessiveness take over. When Bob leaves for a few days to settle a labor dispute at his factory, Vicky and Raoul spend time together, Winchell's column implies untoward behavior, Bob barks at Vicky, and that gets her back up. Can things be sorted out? Help comes from Raoul's upright valet, McTavish, and a principled cigarette girl, Joy, whom Raoul picks up.
A young woman graduates from a New York City law school, returns to her small hometown, and finds her first case is defending a childhood friend accused of murder. Director Lewis Seiler's 1936 courtroom drama stars Claire Trevor, Isabel Jewell, Michael Whalen, Gene Lockhart, Eric Linden, Charles Middleton, Edward Brophy, Kathleen Lockhart, Guinn Williams, El Brendel, Sterling Holloway, Ray Brown, Howard Hickman, Frank McGlynn Sr., Charles Waldron Sr., Spencer Charters and Eily Malyon.
Winners of the Lucky Stars National Dance Contest - one woman from each state of the United States - are welcomed to Palm Springs. Palm Springs being the desert playground for the movie stars, the women are introduced to the cavalcade of stars vacationing in Palm Springs at the time.
Blind Mrs. Lind comes to American to visit her three children whom she thinks are successful.
Insurance investigator Trevor pretends to be a thief to enter a gang of jewel thieves.
Bonnie Brewster (Claire Trevor) and "Packy" Campbell (Brian Donlevy), rival reporters on competing newspapers, team up to put an end to a smuggling gang that brings illegal aliens to the United States, and then makes further victims of them by extortion payments. They go to Vancouver, Canada and board a ship carrying aliens. But the gang recognizes them as reporters and gang-henchmen Tony Scula (Ralf Harolde) and Ira Conklin (Harry Woods, posing as government officials take them off the ship. But Campbell recognizes Scula as the gunman who killed Carmen Zoro (Rita Hayworth).
Mary stands by Jack after the Depression of 1929 but considers divorce when he again becomes successful by 1935. Bill, who loves Mary, works at keeping them together.
When gangster's bullets put an end to the career of H.J. Barton, underworld gambling czar who masquerades as a respectable member of high society, his daughter Carol is left to bear the brunt of social stigma.
Julia and Hap are a dance team. He drinks and gambles, she succeeds for a while with the help of producer Alan.
On an ocean liner crossing a professional gambler comes to the aid of a naive young man victimized by a jewel thief. The young man turns out to be his son he's not seen since infancy.
A carny builds a gambling empire at the expense of his family's wellbeing.
Claire Trevor walks out on her fiance Lew Ayres in search of adventure. She gets more than she bargained for when she stumbles upon a gang of bootleggers. Ayres comes to the rescue with the help of a circus troupe. The film was based on Man Eating Tiger, an obscure play by Ben Hecht and Rose Caylor.
"That girl" is newspaper sob-sister Tony Bellamy (Claire Trevor), whose nose for news gets her into one jam after another, especially when she poses as an exotic dancer to get the goods on a gangster.
Elinor Norton is a 1934 American drama film directed by Hamilton MacFadden and written by Rose Franken and Philip Klein. The film stars Claire Trevor, Gilbert Roland, Henrietta Crosman, Hugh Williams and Norman Foster.[
Eddie Ellison is an ex-con who spent time in Sing-Sing prison. Kay marries him as soon as he serves his time. Five years later, Eddie and his ex-convict buddy Larry, have both gone straight, and Eddie and Kay have a beautiful little girl named Shirley. However, Welch has kept a close eye on them for years. He believes in "once a criminal, always a criminal." Then, when Eddie's employer's wife's pearls go missing, it comes out that Eddie and Larry both spent time in prison, and they're fired. Welch suspects that Eddie and Larry have something to do with the theft of the pearls. Will Welch prove that Eddie and Larry had something to do with the theft, or will the truth prevail?
A young man desperately in love with a nightclub singer sees an opportunity to spend some time alone with her when they're traveling through the Nevada gold country, and he takes the carburetor off her car and throws it in the river, stranding them there. They wind up staying at the cabin of a crusty old prospector, and soon the manager of a nightclub act shows up with his bevy of beautiful showgirls.
Jimmy and Sally is a 1933 American comedy film directed by James Tinling and written by William M. Conselman, Marguerite Roberts and Paul Schofield. The film stars James Dunn, Claire Trevor, Harvey Stephens, Lya Lys, Jed Prouty and Gloria Roy.
Based on a Zane Grey story, The Last Trail stars virile cowboy hero George O'Brien in a largely anti-heroic role. Escaping from a posse, the "good bad man" (O'Brien) boards an Eastbound train, where he strikes up a friendship with a genial gangster (J. Carroll Naish). Later on, the cowboy returns to the West as a member of the gangster's gang. He poses as the heir to a vast cattle ranch, never dreaming that he really is the heir. When the truth is revealed, the wayward cowboy switches to the side of the Law, while another of the gangster's flunkeys (Claire Trevor) reveals herself to be an honest newspaperwoman -- and thus a suitable candidate for romance.
Bootlegger Ed Carson is sent to prison. His old gang turns from liquor (now legal) to kidnapping. When they nab the son and daughter-in-law of the judge who sent Carson to prison, he is paroled to help in the capture.
