Ding Dong Williams, a clarinet player who can neither read nor write music is employed at a motion picture studio. The studio plans to use him and his six-piece band but his musical deficiencies are discovered and the plan scrapped. But the secretary of the head of the music department intercedes on his behalf and he is given a chance in the film.
04-15-1946
1h 1m
THIS
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Felix Bressart (March 2, 1892 – March 17, 1949) was a German-American actor of stage and screen.
Felix Bressart (pronounced "BRESS-ert") was born in East Prussia, Germany (now part of Russia) and was already a very experienced stage actor when he had his film debut in 1928. He started off as a supporting actor, e.g. as the Bailiff in the box-office hit Die Drei von der Tankstelle (1930), but had soon established himself in leading roles of minor movies. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Jewish-born Bressart had to leave Germany and continued his career in German-speaking movies in Austria, where Jewish artists were still relatively safe. After no fewer than 30 films in eight years, he emigrated to the United States.
One of Bressart's former European colleagues was Joe Pasternak, now a successful Hollywood producer. Bressart's first American film was Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), a vehicle for Universal Pictures' top attraction, Deanna Durbin. Pasternak also selected the reliable Bressart to perform in a screen test opposite Pasternak's newest discovery, Gloria Jean. The influential German community in Hollywood helped to establish Bressart in America, as his earliest American movies were directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Henry Koster, and Wilhelm Thiele (director of Die Drei von der Tankstelle).
Bressart scored a great success in Lubitsch's Ninotchka, produced at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM signed Bressart to a studio contract in 1939. Most of his MGM work consisted of featured roles in major films like Edison, the Man.
He combined his mildly inflected East European accent with a soft-spoken delivery to create kindly, friendly characters, as in Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be, in which he sensitively recites Shylock's famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech from The Merchant of Venice. Lubitsch also directed Bressart to similar effect in The Shop Around the Corner.
Bressart soon became a popular character actor in films like Blossoms in the Dust (1941), The Seventh Cross (1944), and Without Love (1945). Perhaps his largest role was in RKO Radio Pictures' "B" musical comedy Ding Dong Williams, filmed in 1945. Bressart, billed third, played the bemused supervisor of a movie studio's music department, and appeared in formal wear to conduct Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu."
After almost 40 Hollywood pictures, Felix Bressart suddenly died of leukemia at the age of 57. His last film was My Friend Irma (1949), the movie version of a popular radio show. Bressart died during production, forcing the producers to finish the film with Hans Conried. In the final film, Conried speaks throughout, but Bressart is still seen in the long shots.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Felix Bressart, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anne Jeffreys (born Annie Jeffreys Carmichael; January 26, 1923 – September 27, 2017) was an American actress and singer.
Born Annie Jeffreys Carmichael on January 26, 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Jeffreys entered the entertainment field at a young age, having her initial training in voice (she was an accomplished soprano). "She became a member of the New York Municipal Opera Company on a scholarship and sang the lead at Carnegie Hall in such things as La bohème, Traviata, and Pagliacci." However, she decided as a teenager to sign with the John Robert Powers agency as a junior model.
Her plans for an operatic career were sidelined when she was cast in a staged musical review, Fun for the Money. Her appearance in that revue led to her being cast in her first movie role, in I Married an Angel (1942), starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. She was under contract to both RKO and Republic Studios during the 1940s, including several appearances as Tess Trueheart in the Dick Tracy series, and the 1944 Frank Sinatra musical Step Lively. She also appeared in the horror comedy Zombies on Broadway with Wally Brown and Alan Carney in 1945 and starred in Riffraff with Pat O'Brien two years later. Jeffreys also appeared in a number of western films and as bank robber John Dillinger's moll in 1945's Dillinger.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Anne Jeffreys, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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.
Tommy Noonan (born Thomas Noone ( April 29, 1921 – April 24, 1968) was a comedy genre film performer, screenwriter and producer. He acted in a 65 projects including high-profile films as well as B movies from the 1940s through the 1960s and he made several tv appearances also; he is best known for his supporting performances as Gus Esmond, wealthy fiancé of Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe), in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and as musician Danny McGuire in A Star Is Born (1954). In addition to starring alongside Marilyn Monroe, Noonan is also noted for having played love interests to Jayne Mansfield in Promises..... Promises! (1963) and Mamie Van Doren in 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (Which he also directed) (1964), making him the only actor to play love interests to the 3 former who were dubbed the 3 Ms of Golden Age Hollywood.
Cliff Nazarro (January 31, 1904 – February 18, 1961) was an American double-talk comedian of the 1930s and 1940s who appeared in films such as You'll Never Get Rich (1941) as Swivel Tongue, In Old Colorado (1941) as Nosey Haskins, and Hillbilly Blitzkrieg (1942) as Barney Google.
Nazarro was the voice of Warner Bros. Cartoons' cartoon character Egghead. He made a few commercial recordings, including a 1932 date as vocalist with swing band Roane's Pennsylvanians and a 1942 comic recitation, "News of the World". He made several uncredited appearances on the Jack Benny Program during the 1930s and early 1940s.
[biography (edited) from Wikipedia]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ruth Lee (September 14, 1895 - August 3, 1975) was an American film and stage actress. In film she played primarily uncredited parts. As a stage actress she acted in stock theater with the National Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Lee died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. She was married to the actor Grandon Rhodes.
Famed American stage actor. Trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. Appeared in many films, initially as a leading man, then in character roles and occasional bits. Consistently billed as Jason Robards, as his more famous son, Jason Robards, did not come into fame until the end of the elder Robards' career. Only referred to as Jason Robards Sr. in retrospect. Died in 1963, having lived to see his namesake son and grandson (Jason Robards III) carry on the family acting tradition.
