The partners of stage-producer J. J. Hobart gamble away the money for his new show. They enlist a gold-digging chorus girl to help get it back by conning an insurance company. But they don’t count on the persistence of insurance man Rosmer Peck and his secretary Norma Perry.
12-28-1936
1h 41m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Lloyd Bacon
Production:
Warner Bros. Pictures
Key Crew
Screenplay:
Warren Duff
Costume Design:
Orry-Kelly
Associate Producer:
Earl Baldwin
Executive Producer:
Hal B. Wallis
Music Director:
Leo F. Forbstein
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Filming:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.
Born in Mountain View, the seat of Stone County in northern Arkansas, Powell attended the former Little Rock College in the state capital, before he started his entertainment career as a singer with the Charlie Davis Orchestra, based in the midwest. He recorded a number of records with Davis and on his own, for the Vocalion label in the late 1920s.
Powell moved to Pittsburgh, where he found great local success as the Master of Ceremonies at the Enright Theater and the Stanley Theater. In April 1930, Warner Bros. bought up Brunswick Records which at that time owned Vocalion. Warner Bros. was sufficiently impressed by Powell's singing and stage presence to offer him a film contract in 1932. He made his film debut as a singing bandleader in Blessed Event. He went on to star as a boyish crooner in movie musicals such as 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, Flirtation Walk, and On the Avenue, often appearing opposite Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell.
Powell desperately wanted to expand his range but Warner Bros. wouldn't allow him to do so, although they did (mis)cast him in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) as Lysander. This was to be Powell's only Shakespearean role and one he did not want to play, feeling that he was completely wrong for the part. Finally, reaching his forties and knowing that his young romantic leading man days were behind him he lobbied to play the lead in Double Indemnity. He lost out to Fred MacMurray, another Hollywood nice guy. MacMurray’s success, however, fueled Powell’s resolve to pursue projects with greater range and in 1944, he was cast in the first of a series of films noir, as private detective Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, directed by Edward Dmytryk. The film was a big hit and Powell had successfully reinvented himself as a dramatic actor.
The following year Dmytryk and Powell re-teamed to make Cornered, a gripping, post-WWII thriller that helped define the film noir style. He became a popular "tough guy" lead appearing in movies such as Johnny O'Clock and Cry Danger. But 1948 saw him step out of the brutish type when he starred in Pitfall, a film noir that sees a bored insurance company worker fall for an innocent but dangerous femme fatale, played by Lizabeth Scott. Even when he appeared in lighter fare such as The Reformer and the Redhead and Susan Slept Here (1954) he never sang in his later roles. The latter, his final onscreen appearance in a feature film, did include a dance number with costar Debbie Reynolds.
From 1949-1953, Powell played the lead role in the National Broadcasting Company radio theater production Richard Diamond, Private Detective. His character in the 30-minute weekly was a likable private detective with a quick wit. When Richard Diamond came to television in 1957, the lead role was portrayed by David Janssen.
Rose Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress.
After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career. Establishing herself as a sexy wisecracking blonde, she was a pre-Code staple of Warner Brothers and appeared in more than 100 movies and television productions. She was most active in films during the 1930s, and during this time she co-starred with Glenda Farrell in nine films, in which the duo portrayed gold-diggers. Blondell continued acting for the rest of her life, often in small character roles or supporting television roles. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Blue Veil (1951).
Blondell was seen in featured roles in two films, Grease (1978) and the remake of The Champ (1979), released shortly before her death from leukemia.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Joan Blondell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glenda Farrell (June 30, 1904 – May 1, 1971) was an American actress of film, television, and theater. She is best known for her role as Torchy Blane in the Warner Bros. Torchy Blane film series and the Academy Award-nominated films Little Caesar (1931), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), and Lady for a Day (1933). With a career spanning more than 50 years, Farrell appeared in over 100 films and television series, as well as numerous Broadway plays. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960, and won an Emmy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in the television series Ben Casey in 1963.
Victor Moore was born on February 24, 1876 in Hammonton, New Jersey, USA as Victor Frederick Moore. He was an actor, known for Swing Time (1936), Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). He was married to Shirley Paige and Emma Littlefield. He died on July 24, 1962 in East Islip, Long Island, New York, USA.
Moore and his first wife were a vaudeville team for several decades before her death. Moore did not announce his marriage to Shirley Paige until they had been married for a year and a half. At the time of the announcement he was 67 and she was 22.
Moore, or his family, was into buying real estate. A building in the Jackson Heights section of Queens is named after him. The Victor Moore Arcade is bounded by Roosevelt Ave., Broadway (Queens' Broadway) and 75th St. It houses stores, offices, a bus terminal and two entrances to a subway station. The Victor Moore Arcade was actually seen in a movie. Henry Fonda exits from the subway at this building at the start of Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Osgood Perkins (May 16, 1892 – September 21, 1937) was an American actor. Perkins was born James Ripley Osgood Perkins in West Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Helen Virginia (née Anthony) and Henry Phelps Perkins. He is a descendant of a Mayflower passenger John Howland. Perkins made his Broadway debut in 1924 in the George S. Kaufman – Marc Connelly play Beggar on Horseback. Within the next dozen years he would appear in 24 productions, including The Front Page and Uncle Vanya.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Osgood Perkins licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Charles D. Brown was an American stage and screen actor. His Broadway career spanned the years 1911 through 1937, while his film career, that included more than 100 movies, stretched from 1921 to his death in 1948. Brown additionally, in 1914, wrote and directed one short film, The Bank Burglar's Fate.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William B. Davidson (June 16, 1888 – September 28, 1947) was an American film actor.
Davidson attended Columbia University where he played football. He became a popular football star. This fame eventually led to his foray into motion pictures after he had spent some time as a lawyer. He started in films in 1914 with Vitagraph and supported well known stage and film actresses such as Ethel Barrymore, Mabel Taliaferro, Charlotte Walker, Olga Petrova, Viola Dana, June Caprice, Edna Goodrich, and Mae West. He appeared in 318 films between 1915 and 1949.
He was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and died in Santa Monica, California. His first Hollywood film was For the Honor of the Crew. Afterward, he appeared in many films, his best-known role was perhaps the Ship's captain in The Most Dangerous Game. He remained in show business until his sudden death after surgery in 1947.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Olin Ross Howland (February 10, 1886 – September 20, 1959) was an American film and theatre actor.
Howland was born in Denver, Colorado, to Joby A. Howland, one of the youngest enlisted participants in the Civil War, and Mary C. Bunting. His older sister was the famous stage actress Jobyna Howland.
From 1909 to 1927, Howland appeared on Broadway in musicals, occasionally performing in silent films. The musicals include Leave It to Jane (1917), Two Little Girls in Blue (1921) and Wildflower (1923). He was in the film Janice Meredith (1924) with Marion Davies. With the advent of sound films, his theatre background proved an asset, and he concentrated mostly on films thereafter, appearing in nearly two hundred movies between 1918 and 1958.
Howland often played eccentric and rural roles in Hollywood. His parts were often small and uncredited, and he never got a leading role. He was a personal favorite of David O. Selznick, who cast him in his movies Nothing Sacred (1937) as a strange luggage man, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938, as the teacher Mr. Dobbins) and Gone with the Wind (1939) as a carpetbagger businessman. He also played in numerous westerns from Republic Pictures, including the John Wayne films In Old California (1942) and Angel and the Badman (1947). As a young man, Howland learned to fly at the Wright Flying School and soloed on a Wright Model B. This lent special sentiment in his scenes with James Stewart in the film The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), as Stewart was also a pilot in real life. The Spirit of St. Louis and Them (1954),where he played a drunken old man, and The Blob (1958) were his last films.
He also played in telelevision shows during the 1950s. In 1958 and 1959, he was cast as Charley Perkins in five episodes of ABC's sitcom The Real McCoys, starring Walter Brennan.
Howland never married and had no children. He worked until his death in Hollywood, California, at the age of 73.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Crehan (July 15, 1883 – April 15, 1966) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1916 and 1965, and notably played Ulysses S. Grant nine times between 1939 and 1958, most memorably in Union Pacific and They Died With Their Boots On. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland and died in Hollywood, California from a stroke.
Crehan often played alongside Charles C. Wilson with whom he is sometimes confused.
Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C. from United Artists. She was known as "The Ping Girl" and "The Chest" because of her curvy figure.
Landis was reportedly crushed when actor Rex Harrison refused to divorce his wife for her. Unable to cope any longer, on July 5, 1948, she died by suicide in her Pacific Palisades home by taking an overdose of Seconal.
From Wikipedia.
Jane Wyman (born Sarah Jane Mayfield; January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007) was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Johnny Belinda (1948), and later achieved success during the 1980s for her leading role in the television series Falcon Crest.
Wyman was the first wife of Ronald Reagan. They married in 1940 and divorced in 1948, before Reagan ran for public office. She is the only person to have won an Oscar and married a future President of the United States.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Jane Wyman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Milton Kibbee (born Milne Bryan Kibbee) was an American screen actor. He appeared in over 360 films from 1933 to 1953. His older brother was popular character actor Guy Kibbee.