Billy Bevan
Birthday: 1887-09-29
Place of Birth: Orange, New South Wales, Australia
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Billy Bevan (born William Bevan Harris, 29 September 1887 – 26 November 1957) was an Australian-born vaudevillian, who became an American film actor. He appeared in 254 American films between 1916 and 1950. Bevan was born in the country town of Orange, New South Wales, Australia. He went on the stage at an early age, traveled to Sydney and spent eight years in Australian light opera, performing as Willie Bevan. He sailed to America with the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company in 1912 and later toured Canada. Bevan broke into films with the Sigmund Lubin studio in 1916. When the company disbanded, Bevan became a supporting actor in Mack Sennett movie comedies. An expressive pantomimist, Bevan's quiet scene-stealing attracted attention, and by 1922 Bevan was a Sennett star. He supplemented his income, however, by establishing a citrus and avocado farm at Escondido, California. Usually filmed wearing a derby hat and a drooping mustache, Bevan may not have possessed an indelible screen character like Charlie Chaplin but he had a friendly, funny presence in the frantic Sennett comedies. Much of the comedy depended on Bevan's skilled timing and reactions; the famous "oyster" routine performed on film by Curly Howard, Lou Costello, and Huntz Hall—in which a bowl of "fresh oyster stew" shows alarming signs of life and battles the guy trying to eat it—was originated on film decades earlier by Bevan in the short film Wandering Willies. By the mid-1920s Bevan was often teamed with Andy Clyde; Clyde soon graduated to his own starring series. The late 1920s found Bevan playing in wild marital farces for Sennett. The advent of talking pictures took their toll on the careers of many silent stars, including Billy Bevan. Bevan began a second career in "talkies" as a character actor and bit player in roles such as that of a bus driver in the 1929 film High Voltage, a hotel employee in the Mae Murray film Peacock Alley, and the supporting role of Second Lieutenant Trotter in Journey's End in 1930. His starring roles had come to an end, however, and for the next 20 years he often would play rowdy Cockneys (as in Pack Up Your Troubles with The Ritz Brothers), and affable Englishmen (as in Tin Pan Alley and Terror by Night). He played a friendly bus conductor opposite Greer Garson in one of the opening scenes of Mrs. Miniver. Bevan died in 1957 in Escondido, California, just before new audiences discovered him in Robert Youngson's silent-comedy compilations. (The Youngson films mispronounce his name as "Be-VAN"; Bevan himself offered the proper pronunciation in a Voice of Hollywood reel in 1930.)
Movies
Rebecca
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Bringing Up Baby
David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strang...
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The Secret Of St. Ives
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Terror by Night
Holmes and Watson board a passenger train bound from London to Edinburgh, to guard the Star of Rhode...
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Dracula's Daughter
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Suspicion
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Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
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Fortunes of Captain Blood
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Pop's Pal
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The Pearl of Death
The famous Borgia Pearl, a valuable gem with a history of bringing murder and misfortune to its owne...
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Off His Trolley
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A Tale of Two Cities
Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French docto...
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Around the Town: British Film Stars and Studios
The other side of the screen with noted producers and film stars....
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The Invisible Man Returns
The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him in...
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The Invisible Man's Revenge
A fugitive, dangerous madman reaches an English village where he confronts his former partner who le...
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Payment Deferred
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Mysterious Mr. Moto
The Japanese detective rounds up a league of assassins for Scotland Yard....
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Tonight and Every Night
An American girl falls for an RAF pilot while performing at a British music hall....
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Journey's End
In France, 1917, an alcoholic captain is afraid that his new replacement, his sweetheart's brother, ...
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The Girl of the Golden West
A bandit disguises himself as an officer in an attempt to woo a saloon singer....
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Bombs and Bandits
The Mayor and the Chief of Police have offices in the same building, and are both enamored of the ch...
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The Lost Patrol
A World War I British Army patrol is crossing the Mesopotamian desert when their commanding officer,...
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The Girl from Everywhere
Mack Sennett comedy short subject spoofing filmmaking, with girls, lions, and limburger cheese....
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The Bicycle Flirt
Billy is a professional deadbeat who prefers to ride his bicycle instead of work. His wife's brother...
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The Girl from Nowhere
Dress shop owner, Tillie Tucker, lands a job at a Hollywood film studio and brings her boyfriend and...
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Don't Get Jealous
Wilbur is insanely jealous of every man and believes that his wife, Carmelita, is being unfaithful. ...
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Counter-Espionage
The Lone Wolf tracks down Nazi spies in London during the German bombing....
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Cavalcade
A cavalcade of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 is seen through the eyes of well-to-...
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Calling Hubby's Bluff
Late silent short with a Hal Roach approach to situational comedy. Bevan is battling a widow and his...
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Pink Pajamas
Billy treats his marriage vows lightly, and his wife suspects him. Nieghbor Vernon is murderously je...
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Musclebound Music
Bill and Oscar are musicians but they can't make enough to pay their room-and-board, and they are bo...
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From Rags to Britches
Billy inherits a major department store, but has to pretend not to be married in order to claim it -...
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The Man Who Wouldn't Die
A man believed to be dead and buried escapes from his grave and returns to the scene of the crime se...
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Trimmed in Gold
Two barbers, Billy and Andy head out West when one of their customers tells them that gold can liter...
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Wandering Waistlines
The on and off land escapades of a sailor as he prepares for a boxing match....
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The Cannon Ball Express
Fun develops after a feud between a railroad president and a promoter, and takes the form of a race ...
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The Crossroads of New York
A young man from the country travels to the city to find his fortune. Although he has a letter of in...
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Sneezing Beezers
An exiled king supports his daughter and himself by serving genuine chili con carne at a rapid-servi...
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Little Robinson Corkscrew
Returning to his hometown a fitness equipment salesman falls in love with the store keeper's daughte...
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Over Thereabouts
Hapless pilot Billy manages to raise himself from KP duty to flying ace. He manages to wreck havoc ...
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Peaches and Plumbers
To make her boyfriend jealous a society girl starts dating a plumber but his sweetheart gets revenge...
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Cured in the Excitement
Professor Brawn has been swinging a dumbbell for so long he looks like one!...
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Weak But Willing
Dave Finkel's family and friends take him out to a Speakeasy for a birthday celebration. Many distra...
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God's Country and the Woman
Hard-nosed Jefferson Russett runs a logging company; his brother, Steve, is the prodigal son. Steve ...
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Pirates of the Air
The proprietor of the Crowing Rooster Inn was a bad man, but he went one too many when he stole the ...
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Luxury Liner
This drama offers a few slices from the lives of those who live, work, and travel upon a luxurious t...
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His New Stenographer
Billy Brooks, a lawyer, sets out to get a divorce for a client by framing him in a compromising situ...
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High Voltage
A busload of passengers gets stranded in a snowstorm and take refuge in an abandoned church, where t...
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Wandering Willies
Percy Nudge (Australian-born Billy Bevan) and Dusty Duncan (Scotsman Andy Clyde) are two hoboes play...
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Butter Fingers
The key to baseball is the pitcher, of course. In this comedy short, the pitcher has something speci...
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Vanity Fair
In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the positio...
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Hubby’s Quiet Little Game
A dancing instructor goes to a married woman's home, to giver her lessons, while her husband is abse...
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The Best Man
A bride and groom are all set to get married, but they can't until the best man shows up. When the b...
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The Beach Club
In and out of the water, Billy makes waves at the Blue Point Beach Club....
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Piccadilly Jim
Jim's father wants to marry Eugenia, but her sister Netta refuses to allow it. When Jim sees Ann at ...
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Mrs. Miniver
Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxf...
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Sky Devils
Wilkie and Mitchell, trying to desert their draft into the army, stow away on a ship which takes the...
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The Slappiest Days of Our Lives
Laurel is a Scottish reporter suspected of being a spy by police detective James Finlayson. Although...
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Limehouse Blues
Fresh from Chinatown in New York, Harry Young has taken over the illegal import business in the seam...
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Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies
An eccentric inventor has thought of a way that automobiles can run on radio waves, without gasoline...
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Stingaree
A young lady named Hilda who works as a servant for the wealthy Clarksons, sheep farmers, and dream...
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Slave Ship
Action-filled drama about a ship captain, ashamed of his background in the slave trade, forced again...
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Hoboken to Hollywood
Billy Judkins is a naturally gloomy Gus. His life changes when he is transferred from working in his...
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Lizzies of the Field
There is no love lost between the Red Dog Garage and the Black Cat Garage, two auto repair shops on ...
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Flirty Four-Flushers
With her winnings from an essay contest, a waitress gets dolled up and goes to a swanky resort to sn...
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Be Reasonable
Billy is a bit of a masher. He meets a lady on the beach and immediately gives her an expensive gift...
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Astray from the Steerage
While an immigrant couple are detained by authorities to see if they're fit, a smuggler tries to sne...
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Mystery Woman
A French military officer is convicted of treason and sent to Devil's Island. His wife takes it upon...
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The Sky Hawk
Jack Bardell, a British aviator in World War I, a dashing hero to all who know him, is discharged fo...
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Whispering Whiskers
Billy Bevan and Andy Clyde play hobos who hop onto a train where they are hired. Their misadventures...
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The Wrong Road
A young married couple whose plans for their life together haven't turned out as expected decide to ...
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Pack Up Your Troubles
Three American soldiers help a young girl deliver a secret message across enemy lines....
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The Hollywood Kid
A short packed with more stars and gags than most features of its day, this film delivered a gaggle ...
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Who's Who in the Zoo
Billy takes a trip to the the zoo with his wife and two sons. He is proud to show his knowledge abou...
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Shining Victory
In a Scottish sanitarium, a brilliant research psychiatrist works on a treatment for dementia praeco...
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Peacock Alley
Claire Tree spends the night in the hotel room of her friend and confidante, saying goodbye to him b...
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Too Much Harmony
A singer is involved with two women in his life, one a "good" girl and one a "bad" one."...
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Shadows Over Shanghai
A pilot carrying a valuable amulet is shot down over China by a ruthless Russian agent, who also wan...
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Galloping Bungalows
All the qualified men line up to be chosen, as an heiress advertises that she will marry the man wit...
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Looking Forward
Depression Era story set in London about a wealthy shop owner who goes bankrupt and is forced to fir...
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Hans Christian Andersen
A small-town shoemaker with a knack for spinning yarns, Hans encounters happiness and heartbreak on ...
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A Sea Dog's Tale
An island princess falls in love with a young man whose picture she sees in the newspaper. Her fathe...
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Ice Cold Cocos
Billy and Andy impersonate two ice-delivery men in a suburban town. Billy takes a fancy to a newly-w...
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Black Sheep
On an ocean liner crossing a professional gambler comes to the aid of a naive young man victimized b...
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Private Number
Ellen Neal, a young and inexperienced maid, becomes romantically involved with her employers son whi...
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Moss Rose
When a music-hall dancer is murdered, a moss rose marks the page of a Bible next to her body. Luckil...
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Gymnasium Jim
Keystone comedy about a garage owner pining for the girl next door, coming into money, and betting o...
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The Extra Girl
Sue Graham is a small town girl who wants to be a motion picture star. She wins a contract when a pi...
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Love and Doughnuts
Ben and fiancée Haver run a bakery and grocery. A mostly lost film, only seven minutes survive....
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Bright Eyes
An oil heir and the daughter of a social climbing family are set to marry....
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Easy Pickings
Simeon Van Horne is poisoned by Stewart, his lawyer, who hopes to get a part of the estate to be div...
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Penny Serenade
Julie and Roger are a love-struck married couple who desperately want to have a child. Tragedy after...
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Alice in Wonderland
In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderla...
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Gertie's Gasoline Glide
Two men are vying for the favours of Gaby. One of them takes her for a motorcycle ride, the other in...
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Somebody's Widow
A comedy in which the widow Mary makes a bet with her friends that she can win over a writer named J...
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Blond Cheat
Socially prominent Michael Ashburn, chief assistant for a London loan broker makes a large loan duri...
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Champagne Charlie
The story is told in flashback. Backers want a gambler to marry a rich girl for her dowry....
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Arrest Bulldog Drummond
The invention of a machine that can cause remote explosions brings the attention of Scotland Yard an...
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Born to Love
A pregnant American nurse living in London during WWI, believing her soldier-fiance has been killed ...
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Caravan
A countess marries a Gypsy fiddler instead of a baron's son at harvest time in Tokay wine country, H...
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Let Freedom Ring
A Harvard man fights a railroad baron with a disguise and the power of the press....
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We Are Not Alone
A British doctor and his son's Austrian governess have an affair and are accused of killing his wife...
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The Big Squeal
Andy Wilson (Andy Clyde), a millionaire pig farmer from Kansas, comes to Chicago (unless New York ha...
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When Summer Comes
Rampaging lions are on the loose in a hunting lodge. Approximately, only eight minutes of the short ...
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On Patrol
Billy Bevan trying to escape the cops! Roughly only half of the original short's twenty-two minutes ...
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Wall Street Blues
A bumbling bank custodian becomes an unlikely hero when he foils a robbery....
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One Cylinder Love
A broken engagement sends a sweetheart on the trail for her near-husband-to-be, who is finally corra...
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Her Rustic Romeo
A Billie Rhodes comedy produced by Strand. Billy Bevan plays the farmer's son....
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Jane Eyre
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happi...
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Three Foolish Weeks
A roguish baron saves a girl from a carriage accident, and brings her to a backwoods Inn during a st...
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It Had to Be You
A chronic runaway bride is haunted by her conscience, who becomes reality....
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The Sheik Steps Out
In this comedy, a wealthy sheik kidnaps and falls for a snobby socialite....
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Transatlantic
As a luxurious ocean liner makes its way across the Atlantic Ocean, the audience is made privy to th...
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Confirm or Deny
Newsman Mitch and teletype operator Jennifer, whose job is to see he doesn't send inappropriate stuf...
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Riley the Cop
In this early comedy from John Ford, Riley is a New York Irish cop sent to Germany to track down a y...
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Another Dawn
Colonel John Wister, on duty with the British army in the desert region of Dubik, returns to England...
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Shock
Captain Bob Hayworth, his brother Lieutenant Gilroy Hayworth and Captain Derek Marbury are in a Worl...
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The Earl of Chicago
A behind the times Chicago bootlegger goes to England with his lawyer to claim his estate as the Ear...
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The Lodger
In Victorian era London, the inhabitants of a family home with rented rooms upstairs fear the new lo...
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London Blackout Murders
A young girl, Mary Tillet, is forced to find a new place to live due to her London home being bombed...
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The Golf Nut
Many of its members are spending a leisurely day at the the El Caballero Golf Club, the most beautif...
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll believes good and evil exist in everyone and creates a potion that allows his evil side, ...
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The Black Arrow
A young British nobleman comes back from fighting in the War of the Roses to discover that his fathe...
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Rogues of Sherwood Forest
The son of Robin Hood carries on his late father's tradition....
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Peg o' My Heart
Peg and her father live a simple life in an Irish fishing village. One day Sir Gerald arrives at the...
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Thundering Taxis
Rival Taxi Companies compete for business and make a slapstick mess of everything....
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Vanessa: Her Love Story
The Victorian wife of a mad baron waits years for a British soldier sent to Egypt....
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The Silent Witness
A London nobleman (Lionel Atwill) takes the blame and stands trial after his son strangles a lover (...
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Tin Pan Alley
Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to Engla...
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The Long Voyage Home
The crew of the merchant ship Glencairn hope to survive a transatlantic crossing during World War II...
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She Whoops To Conquer
Both the maid and the youngest daughter are after the same man who wants nothing to do with either o...
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The Last Outpost
During WW1, the destinies of British officers Michael Andrews and John Stevenson seem intertwined on...
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Nip and Tuck
Billy Bevan, Harry Gribbon, Kewpie Morgan and their dog engage in a poker game....
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Temptation
Pre-code crime drama directed by E. Mason Hopper starring Lois Wilson, Lawrence Gray, Billy Bevan an...
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Forever and a Day
In World War II, American Gates Trimble Pomfret is in London during the Blitz to sell the ancestral ...
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Me and My Gal
Jaunty young policeman Danny Dolan falls in love with waterfront cafe waitress Helen Riley....
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Personal Property
Raymond Dabney returns to his family after trouble with the law. He convinces the sheriff to give hi...
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Captain Fury
An Irish convict sentenced to hard labor in Australia escapes into the outback, and organizes a band...
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I Married a Witch
A 17th-century witch returns to wreak havoc in the life of a descendant of the Puritan witch hunter ...
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Monte Carlo
A countess fleeing her husband mistakes a count for her hairdresser at a Monte Carlo casino....
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The Trespasser
A stenographer who works for a lawyer falls in love with and marries a wealthy young man. His family...
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The Young in Heart
A family of confidence tricksters sets their sights on a very rich, very lonely old lady named Miss ...
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National Velvet
Mi Taylor is a young wanderer and opportunist who finds himself in the quiet English countryside hom...
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A Christmas Carol
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable e...
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Honeymoon Beach
Glenn Tryon is at his Bachelor's Dinner, attended only by a dozen of his girl friends, prior to marr...
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Song and Dance Man
Julia and Hap are a dance team. He drinks and gambles, she succeeds for a while with the help of pro...
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The White Sin
Wealthy playboy Grant Van Gore means to have his way with his beautiful maid, the innocent Hattie Lo...
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his ...
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A Small Town Idol
Sam, a young man in a small town, is accused of being a thief. Unable to prove his innocence--and no...
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The Quack Doctor
In one of the handful of Sennett/ Paramount Films to survive we visit a traveling medicine show....
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The Return of the Vampire
In 1918, an English family is terrorized by a vampire, until they learn how to deal with it. They th...
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Cupid In Quarantine
Eleanor Field and Cullen Landis are in love, but her father, Billy Bevan, objects because.... hey th...
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The Lion's Whiskers
Billy works at a film studio where lots of things keep going wrong. First, while filming, the camera...
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Honeymoon Hardships
A newly married couple go to spend their honeymoon far out in the country with demented relatives wh...
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His Unlucky Night
Friends Billy Trotter and Homer Brown are both traveling salesmen who meet up at a hotel on their tr...
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Happy Times and Jolly Moments
This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era....
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Fight Night
While somewhat happily married, Walter Moore's eyes do stray from time to time, especially when Tess...
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Chances
Two brothers, Jack and Tom, are in love with the same woman, Molly. While the two brothers go off to...
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Let's Live a Little
A harried, overworked advertising executive is being pursued romantically by one of his clients, a s...
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The Widow from Monte Carlo
In this romantic comedy, an aspiring socialite heads for a vacation in Monte Carlo where she befrien...
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Lloyd's of London
Norfolk, England, 1770. The nephew of an innkeeper and the son of a reverend maintain a very close f...
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Three Secrets
A five-year-old boy is the sole survivor of a devastating plane crash in the mountains of California...
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The Golden Age of Comedy
A compilation featuring comedic stars of the silent era including Will Rogers, Laurel and Hardy, and...
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Waterloo Bridge
In World War I London, Myra is an American out-of-work chorus girl making ends meet by picking up me...
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One More River
A young lady leaves her brutal husband and meets another man on board a ship....
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Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
Bulldog Drummond finds himself immersed in another adventure when he stumbles upon a corpse in the m...
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The Secret Garden
When Cholera takes the parents of Mary Lennox, she is shipped from India to England to live with her...
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This Above All
In 1940 England, aristocratic Prudence Cathaway alarms her snobbish parents by joining the WAF servi...
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Devotion
In Victorian England, literary siblings Emily and Charlotte Brontë vie for the affection of the Rev....
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The Way to Love
Francois, a cheerful Parisian bohemian, wants more than anything to be a tour guide in his beloved c...
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For the Love o' Lil
Directed by James Tinling. With Jack Mulhall, Sally Starr, Elliott Nugent, Margaret Livingston....
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Tell It to the Judge
Marsha Meredith, an attorney-at-law, is nominated for a federal judgeship, but her nomination is opp...
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A Study in Scarlet
In London, a secret society led by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew collects the assets of any of its deceas...
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30 Years of Fun
Three decades of fun packed into one convenient package with this compilation of classic black-and-w...
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Techno-Crazy
TECHNO-CRAZY has to be one of the strangest comedy shorts of the 1930's. Starring Monte Collins as a...
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Cluny Brown
Amateur plumber Cluny Brown gets sent off by her uncle to work as a servant at an English country es...
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Distilled Love
Alice Howell is a simple milkmaid in love with color-blind artist Dick Smith. Oliver Hardy is a boot...
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Are Married Policemen Safe?
A crusade against women wearing clothes which are more abbreviated than the law allows results in po...
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Love, Honor and Behave
A young married couple appears before a judge to get a divorce. The wife shows the judge some pictur...
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Married Life
Ben Turpin's rival marries his college sweetheart played by Phyllis Haver....
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