Zasu Pitts
Birthday: 1894-01-02
Place of Birth: Parsons, Kansas, USA
Biography: Zasu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the advent of sound films. She may be best known for her performance in Erich von Stroheim's epic silent film Greed. Based on her performance, von Stroheim labeled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". He also featured her in his films The Honeymoon (1928), The Wedding March (1928), War Nurse (1930) and Walking Down Broadway, released as Hello, Sister! (1933). However, for the most part, with the advent of sound Pitts was mostly relegated to comedy parts. A bitter disappointment was when she was replaced in the classic war drama All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) by Beryl Mercer after her initial appearance in previews drew unintentional laughs, despite her intense performance. She had viewers rolling in the aisles in Finn and Hattie (1931), The Guardsman (1931), Blondie of the Follies (1932), Sing and Like It (1934) and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). In 1936 and 1937 she portrayed Hildegarde Withers in two movies, succeeding Edna May Oliver as the spinster sleuth, but they were not well received. In the 1950s she started focusing on television. This culminated in her best known series role, playing second banana to Gale Storm on CBS's The Gale Storm Show (1956) (also known as Oh, Susannah) in the role of Elvira Nugent ("Nugie"), the shipboard beautician. In 1961, Pitts was cast opposite Earle Hodgins in the episode "Lonesome's Gal" on the ABC sitcom, Guestward, Ho!, set on a dude ranch in New Mexico. In 1962, Pitts appeared in an episode of CBS's Perry Mason, "The Case of the Absent Artist". Her final role was as Gertie, the switchboard operator in the Stanley Kramer comedy epic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
Movies
Greed
A lottery win of $5,000 forever changes the lives of a miner turned dentist and his wife....
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Blondie of the Follies
New York City tenement dwelling neighbors Blondie and Lottie are longtime best friends. When Lottie ...
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The Thrill of It All
A housewife's sudden rise to fame as a soap spokesperson leads to chaos in her home life....
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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $...
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Thunder Mountain
Sam Martin grows up in the Kentucky hills with a preacher as his closest friend and father figure. T...
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13 Washington Square
In this comedy, a wealthy matron is terribly upset when she learns that her socialite son is plannin...
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The Squealer
A gangster's wife, fearful that he is about to be murdered by his rivals, tips off the police to his...
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Ruggles of Red Gap
In this comedy of an Englishman stranded in a sea of barbaric Americans, Marmaduke Ruggles - a gentl...
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Life with Father
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really ru...
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The Talk of the Town
Her strict upbringing is driving Genevra French (Dorothy Phillips) crazy, so when she gets her hand ...
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Francis
During World War II, a junior American Army officer, Lt. Peter Stirling, gets sent to the psychiatri...
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The Big Gamble
A gambler, hopelessly in debt, agrees to pay off his debt by allowing his creditor to take out a lif...
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52nd Street
The story of how 52nd Street became New York City's "Nightclub Row" in the 1930s....
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The Honeymoon
The honeymoon of Prince Nicki in the Alps, and the wedding of Mitzi and Schani. Mitzi still loves N...
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The Dummy
The title character is office-boy Barney. Pretending to be a deaf-mute, Barney tries to trump his de...
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Patsy
Patsy is the awkward sister of the lovely Grace. She is also in love with Grace's boyfriend. Mother ...
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Wife Savers
While stationed in Switzerland, soldiers Louis and Rodney fall in love with local damsel Colette, mu...
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It All Came True
After crooked nightclub owner murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to allow hi...
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The Locked Door
On her first anniversary, Ann Reagan finds that her sister-in-law is involved with a shady character...
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Dear Miss Gloria
A short subject, intended as the first of a series, where Gloria Swanson plays "Miss Gloria," advice...
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On the Loose
Two young women, Zasu and Thelma, complain that all of their dates take them to Coney Island. The ne...
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Oh, Yeah!
A couple of roving vagabonds hitch a freight to the railroad town of Linda, and between bouts with t...
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Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
The Wiggs family plan to celebrate Thanksgiving in their rundown shack with leftover stew, without M...
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Changing Husbands
A bored rich housewife wants to go on the stage, but her husband won't let her. When she meets a des...
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Eternally Yours
Anita, engaged to solid Don Barnes, is swept off her feet by magician Arturo. Before you can say pre...
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The Guardsman
An acclaimed actor and his equally acclaimed actress wife, who have been married for less than a yea...
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What Happened to Jones?
On the night before his wedding, a young man plays poker with friends. When the game is raided by th...
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This Could Be the Night
To earn extra money, a prim schoolteacher takes a second job as secretary to the uncouth owner of a ...
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The Plot Thickens
A priceless Cellini silver cup is stolen from a local museum with both Hildegarde and Oscar on the c...
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Once in a Lifetime
Story of a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies....
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Shopworn
A waitress falls for a wealthy young man but has to fight his mother to find happiness....
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Hollywood
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She l...
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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 Bad Sister
Marianne falls in love with con man Valentine who uses their relation to get her father's endorsemen...
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The Crooked Circle
A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occ...
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Strangers of the Evening
Bodies start mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue. An investigator tries to determine what...
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Forty Naughty Girls
Hildegarde Withers and Inspector Piper try to solve a murder while attending a popular Broadway show...
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Mad Holiday
A temperamental film star's vacation turns deadly when he uncovers a murder....
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A Little Princess
Little Sara Crewe is placed in a boarding school by her father when he goes off to war, but he does ...
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Meet the Baron
A charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school....
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So's Your Aunt Emma!
A dizzy old spinster gets involved in the boxing racket and gangland murders....
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Make Me a Star
A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. ...
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Going Highbrow
A ditzy wife yearns to join "high society" when she and her husband become suddenly wealthy....
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Denver and Rio Grande
Jim Vesser and his team of railroading men try to build a rail line through a mountain pass, while a...
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The Bashful Bachelor
Lum Edwards is annoyed with his partner in Pine Ridge's Jot-'em-Down general store, Abner Peabody, b...
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Broadway Limited
A publicity stunt staged on a train known as the Broadway Limited gets out of control, as no one wan...
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The Lottery Bride
Sundered lovers meet again amid tragic irony at a mining camp in northern Norway....
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Sin Takes a Holiday
Dowdy Sylvia accepts her boss' marriage proposal, even though he only asked her to avoid marriage to...
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Westward Passage
A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Eu...
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Pretty Ladies
Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit ...
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The Squall
A fiesty, sexy and manipulative gypsy disrupts the lives of a conservative farm family....
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Passion Flower
A bored society woman invites scandal and heartache when she falls in love with her low-born chauffe...
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Sing and Like It
While breaking into a bank safe, a gangster overhears a bank employee singing and decides to put her...
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Let's Face It
A soldier stationed on an army base and his fiancé, who runs a women's "fat farm" nearby, want to ge...
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Spring Tonic
Betty Ingals walks out on her fiancé in search of adventure. She gets more than she bargained for wh...
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Mexican Spitfire at Sea
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife sail to Hawaii in search of business. The fifth...
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The Gay Bride
Mary wants to marry a gangster because that is where the money is. Unfortunately, the life expectanc...
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Professional Sweetheart
Radio singer Glory Eden is publicized as the ideal of American womanhood in order to sell the sponso...
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Seed
Bart is a clerk for a publishing company; he has written a novel. His wife Peggy and he have five ch...
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Uncle Joe
A pretty Chicago teenager (Gale Storm), who's being courted by an older man, is sent by her worried ...
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Teenage Millionaire
A teenager whose father is a millionaire radio station owner secretly records a song and plays it on...
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Destry Rides Again
The story about a man framed for a crime he didn't commit, who returns to wreak havoc following his ...
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Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men
Tough Aggie gives a street guy polish and a rich kid gumption....
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Weekend for Three
Jim is hardly thrilled when his new bride, Ellen, invites an old friend, Randy, over for dinner. Yet...
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The Mexican Spitfire's Baby
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife adopt a war orphan who turns out to be a beautif...
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Mr. Skitch
After losing their Missouri home during the Great Depression, the Skitch family pulls up stakes and ...
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13 Hours by Air
Womanizer and airline pilot Jack Gordon must fly the world's fastest airliner from New York to Calif...
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The Meanest Gal in Town
A stranded actress turned manicurist affects the lives of people in a small American town....
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Nurse Edith Cavell
British nurse Edith Cavell is stationed at a hospital in Brussels during World War I. When the son o...
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Two Alone
Mazie, a poor orphan girl, is mistreated by cruel farmer Slag and his wife for whom she works. Mazie...
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River's End
Sgt. Conniston and his alcoholic guide O'Toole are on the trail of an escaped murderer named Keith. ...
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The Devil's Holiday
Beautiful manicurist Hallie Hobart sets her sights on handsome David Stone, the son of wealthy wheat...
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Finn and Hattie
The Haddocks are going on a European vacation and from their reception at the station, where the who...
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The Trial of Vivienne Ware
Vivienne Ware is defended by her ex-beau when she's accused of killing her faithless fiance....
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Hello, Sister!
Peggy and her friend Millie are strolling down Broadway while Jimmy and Mac are trolling Broadway, a...
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Is My Face Red?
William Poster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyo...
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Roar of the Dragon
A boatload of Westerners is trapped in Manchuria as bandits led by Russian renegade Voronsky ravage ...
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The Bargain of the Century
Comedy short with ZaSuPitts and Thelma Todd. After accidentally getting a policeman friend fired, t...
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Show Business
The girls and their pet monkey create havoc on board a train carrying a traveling Broadway troupe....
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Sealskins
In their first comedy two-reeler of 1932, vivacious Thelma Todd and fluttery ZaSu Pitts learn that t...
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Asleep in the Feet
The girls moonlight as taxi dancers in order to earn some extra money....
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Risky Business
A domineering mother sets out to break up the romance and possible marriage of her daughter, Cecily ...
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Beyond Victory
Four battle-weary American soldiers under fire reflect on the women they left behind....
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Madison Square Garden
Eddie Burke is a wise-guy pugilist whose talent is unevenly matched by his ego. Despite his characte...
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Steady Company
Truck driver Norman Foster has aspirations to become a prize fighter, but romantic interest June Cly...
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Casey at the Bat
Casey is a slovenly junk man in a turn of the twentieth century hick town who has a remarkable abili...
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Penrod and Sam
Best pals Penrod and Sam are leaders of a super-secret neighborhood society, the In-Or-In Boys Club....
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Lazybones
Steve Tuttle, the titular lazybones, takes on the responsibility of raising a fatherless girl, causi...
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A Woman of Experience
It is 1915 in Vienna and the Great War has caused many casualties. Elsa, a beautiful prostitute, wan...
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Tish
In this comedy, the town gossip fills her time running the lives of others. Naturally, she is also a...
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Maids a la Mode
Instead of delivering some fancy dresses to a customer, the girls wear them to a party....
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The Affair of Susan
Two people go to Coney Island to find romance and wind up in jail....
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Sing Me a Love Song
A young playboy inherits a financially-troubled New York City department store. To learn the busines...
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Love, Honor and Oh, Baby!
A lawyer devises a plan to fake a breach of contract suit against a wealthy womanizer....
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The Other Half
Social drama about a friendship that is pressurized by class differences....
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The Vanishing Frontier
Its 1850 and California is under ruthless military rule. Kirby Tornell's rancho has been taken over ...
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How Could You, Jean?
A lost Film. Mary Pickford plays a socialite who, having lost her fortune, takes a job as a Swedish ...
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Three Wise Fools
Sydney Fairchild, the daughter of a woman who was once loved by three bachelors, surprises the men w...
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The Great Love
Struggling young doctor in a rural community, Dr. Lawrence Tibbits, cures Norma, a circus elephant, ...
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A Modern Musketeer
A young man grows restless living in a small Kansas town, dreaming of the adventures of the Three Mu...
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Out All Night
A "mama's boy" falls for a spinster who takes care of children at a department store nursery....
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A Daughter of Luxury
When a lawsuit deprives a rich woman, Mary Fenton, of her wealth, she decides to impersonate another...
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The Pajama Party
After running their car off the road, a society matron insists that the girls spend the evening at h...
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The Old Bull
Thelma and Zazu are on a leisurely excursion in a borrowed car. Thelma lets Zazu drive. When she bra...
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The Soilers
Zasu and Thelma are working their way through college by selling magazine subscriptions. Finding lit...
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War Mamas
During WW1, the girls become spies when they spend the evening with two German officers....
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Sneak Easily
Juror Zasu accidentally swallows a piece of evidence which just happens to be a time bomb....
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Alum and Eve
When Thelma is stopped by a cop for speeding, she tries to get out of it by telling him that she and...
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One Track Minds
Thelma wins a screen test with a Hollywood studio, but trouble ensues on the train trip out there....
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The Wedding March
A young impoverished aristocrat falls in love with an inn-keeper's daughter, but has to marry money....
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A Society Sensation
A wealthy society playboy falls in love with the daughter of a poor fisherman. After Valentino shot ...
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She Gets Her Man
Esmeralda is a cook in a diner in a small Arkansas town. When a gang of crooks moves into town and p...
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The Secret Witness
A wealthy, cheating husband is found murdered in his penthouse apartment. The police soon arrest a s...
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Naughty But Nice
Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell) is a stuffed-shirt, classical music professor. His family and small-to...
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Their Big Moment
Early '30s comedy-mystery involving magicians, fake psychics and murder....
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No, No, Nanette
A bible publisher is falling in love with a chorus girl and finds himself backing a Broadway show....
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Miss Polly
A small-town spinster, who's a born romantic, takes on the strict members of the local "Purity Leagu...
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War Nurse
Women from various backgrounds volunteer as nurses in France at the outbreak of World War I....
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Monte Carlo
Three girls from a small town win a trip to Monte Carlo. The trip was sponsored by their local newsp...
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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Behind in the mortgage on Sunnybrook Farm and barely managing to feed seven hungry mouths, mother se...
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'49–'17
A judge who had taken part in the gold rush of 1849 hires an acting troupe to recreate the experienc...
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Heart of Twenty
Katie Abbott, despairing of being a wallflower, is about to attempt suicide in the village pond when...
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Mickey the Kid
A bank robber and his boy make a run for it during winter in a bus full of children....
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Private Scandal
"Private Scandal" is a 1934 American Pre-Code comedy film directed by Ralph Murphy and written by Ve...
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The Argyle Case
A multimillionaire is murdered, and his will leaves all his money to a beautiful young blonde. The m...
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A Lady's Name
Bright young novelist Mabel Vere is engaged to Gerald Wantage, a prig who angrily objects when she a...
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Broken Lullaby
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, lik...
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Breakfast in Hollywood
The goings on of a few members of a radio show's audience is the premise for this feature film deriv...
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Their Mad Moment
Dorothy Mackaill stars in this old-fashioned melodrama set in the Basque country of Spain. She is Em...
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Back Street
A woman's love for and devotion to a married man results in her being relegated to the "back streets...
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Twin Beds
A young husband just wants to spend a quiet evening at home with his wife, but her collection of zan...
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Love Birds
ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville meet when both are sold deeds to an abandoned ranch in the Californi...
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Hot Tip
An amateur handicapper must help his future son-in-law recoup the money he lost while playing the po...
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Secrets of the Night
At a lavish house party, bank president Robert Andrews stages his own “murder” to distract a visitin...
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Francis Joins the WACS
Peter Stirling (with his old friend the talking mule) is recalled to active duty...in the WACs!...
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No, No, Nanette
Perky young Nanette attempts to save the marriage of her uncle and aunt by untangling Uncle Jimmy fr...
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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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1925 Studio Tour
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and giv...
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Honey
A once-wealthy sister and brother rent out their Southern mansion and stay on as cook and butler....
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Three on a Honeymoon
This romantic comedy takes place on an ocean liner. One of the few unattached passengers is heiress ...
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Mannequin
Adapted from the Fannie Hurst story of the same name, Mannequin is the story of Joan Herrick, kidnap...
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Little Accident
On the day before his second wedding, a man finds out that his bride-to-be has had a baby....
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And She Learned About Dames
Students at New York's Rovina Finishing School for Girls send their photographs to the makers of Cla...
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The Lady's from Kentucky
Good-natured gambler Marty Black falls into ownership of a booking joint but soon falls on hard time...
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The Perfect Marriage
A couple celebrate their tenth anniversary by quarreling their way to divorce court....
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The Great Divide
Alone and unprotected in an isolated wilderness cabin, Ruth Jordan is discovered by three drunken br...
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Free Love
A wife's psychiatrist tells her that she is being dominated by her husband. Her solution is to divor...
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Paris
Irène Bordoni is cast as Vivienne Rolland, a Parisian chorus girl in love with Massachusetts boy And...
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Buck Privates
Pvt. Smith, an American soldier stationed in a German town during the occupation of Germany after Wo...
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Old Shoes
A widowed woman marries her husband's brother, who soon proves to be a tyrant stepfather to his adop...
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For the Defense
Singer Anna Woodstock loses her voice, but a visit to a hypnotist, Dr. Joseph Kasimir, brings it bac...
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The Big Parade of Comedy
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history....
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They Just Had to Get Married
Molly Hull, a maid, and Sam Sutton, a butler, are bequeathed a million dollars, and they encounter m...
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This Thing Called Love
A romance runs into difficulties because the girl has seen a great deal of the turbulence in her sis...
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Wanted!
A married couple are mistaken for jewel thieves and forced to go to a party. The husband turns on th...
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Her Private Life
A English aristocrat causes a scandal when she divorces her husband and runs off with a young Americ...
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Mary of the Movies
Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood studio a...
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Better Times
Ezra Scroggs is a shiftless gambler who has let his hotel, the Lakeview, fall on hard times. Finally...
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Tea- With a Kick!
The tale of Bonnie Day, a rambunctious young lady who is rankled when she is expelled from college f...
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Sunny Side Up
Sunny sings in the streets to obtain funds for a country outing. A theatre owner hears her and takes...
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Disneyland '59
Walt Disney and Art Linkletter co-host a live celebration of Disneyland's 1959 expansion that consis...
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The Goldfish
A newly married husband and wife make an agreement that should either of them want to terminate thei...
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Sins of the Fathers
A married restaurant owner is persuaded to become a bootlegger by a beautiful young girl. When he st...
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The Unexpected Father
A wealthy bachelor hires a pretty young nanny to look after his adopted daughter. Sparks quickly fly...
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Lum and Abner
Chester Lauck and Norris Goff tried to bring their highly successful radio show to TV but it didn’t ...
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Seeing It Through
Swindled out of her small property by crooked money lender Bogrum, Betty Lawrence turns to large est...
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Early to Wed
Tommy and Daphne Carter, a young married couple, following the advice of a pretentious friend, decid...
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Wages for Wives
Nell Bailey, taking a lesson from the married lives of her sister, Luella Logan, and her mother, agr...
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Uneasy Money
Bill is the editor of the country paper and Suza his assistant. Lil and Milt arrive in town, and Suz...
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West of the Water Tower
Young marrieds Guy & Bee are ostracized by their supposed friends in town when Bee discovers she is ...
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Her Big Night
Tom Barrett, a motion picture press agent, noting Frances Norcross' resemblance to film star Daphne ...
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His Fatal Beauty
Perscilla (Zasu Pitts) holds the mortgage on Milt's (Milburn Morante) home but says she will cancel ...
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The Re-Creation of Brian Kent
To support a demanding wife, bank clerk Brian Kent embezzles a large sum of money and, overcome with...
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Poor Relations
Dorothy Perkins, the eldest daughter of a simple, wholesome country family, leaves for the big city ...
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As the Sun Went Down
Although a female, gunfighter "Colonel Billy" is feared by the men of Rattlesnake Gulch, a mining ca...
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Mother's Helper
Fox Film’s promotional short subject for the Federal Government’s National Recovery Act, in which wo...
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Why They Left Home
Ira, who is employed at the oil station, falls in love with Flossie, wife of Jack, as they drive by....
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Daughters of Today
Mabel Vandergrift moves from the country to the city and enrolls in an upscale college. She starts t...
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Is Matrimony a Failure?
Mr. and Mrs. Amos Saxby's silver wedding anniversary is interrupted by the surprise elopement of the...
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Youth to Youth
A pretty young girl from the country arrives in New York, hoping to become a Broadway star. She achi...
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A Woman's Faith
Donovan Steele returns to Quebec to be married and finds his fiancée in the arms of another man. Thi...
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