Dudley Digges
Birth : 1879-06-09, Dublin, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]
Death : 1947-10-24
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dudley Digges (June 9, 1879 – October 24, 1947) was an Irish character actor on stage and in motion pictures.
He was born in Dublin. He went to America with a group of Irish players in 1904 and became successful both as an actor and producer. For a time he was stage manager to Charles Frohman and George Arliss. He went to Hollywood in 1930.
On stage, one of his famous roles was as Ficsur in the original 1921 Broadway production of Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, the play that Rodgers and Hammerstein later musicalized as Carousel. Ficsur was the criminal who talks Liliom into helping him commit a robbery; in Carousel, his name was changed to Jigger Craigin, but the character otherwise remained almost the same. He played the role of the Heavenly Examiner in both the original Broadway and the 1930 screen versions of Sutton Vane's hit play Outward Bound.
Digges appeared in forty films between 1929 and 1946, including the original, nearly forgotten 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon, as Caspar Gutman, the character later made famous by Sydney Greenstreet in the 1941 Humphrey Bogart film version of the story. He also worked as a director on Broadway.
In 1924, Digges founded the Maverick Theater, in Woodstock, New York, with the assistance of Hervey White, the founder of the Maverick Arts Colony. Digges was artistic director of a company that included Helen Hayes and Edward G. Robinson.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Dudley Digges (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Self (archive footage)
Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.
Moses
With a screenplay adapted by Lillian Hellman from her own play, director William Dieterle's 1946 drama stars Robert Young as a U.S. ambassador in Europe in the years before WW2.
Pratt
Sir Arthur Blake has inherited title and lands from his brother. He also has his orphaned nephew Benjamin working for him as a bonded servant. While he believes the lad was born out of wedlock and so cannot claim the inheritance, he is taking no chances. Benjamin eventually rebels against his uncle and sets sail to try and make his fortune. This may enable him to return to prove his claim to being the rightful heir to the estate.
Chefarzt
The Fight for Life was documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz' first "dramatic" film, utilizing the talents of several top New York stage actors. A tribute to the Chicago Maternity Center and its efforts to provide the best possible care for destitute mothers, the film is based on the book of the same name by Paul de Kruif. Myron McCormick plays the largest role as a dedicated intern, while others in the cast include such theatrical heavywrights as Will Geer, Dudley Digges and Dorothy Adams. The film's many vignettes range from the tragic (a mother dying in childbirth in the opening scene) to the exultant (another mother rescued from the brink of death in a disease-ridden tenement). Filmed in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, Fight for Life is a worthwhile effort, though Lorentz seems more comfortable with the "actuality" scenes than with the dramatized passages.
The Nilghai
A London artist struggles to complete one last painting before going blind.
MacKenzie
Man about town and First Class cricketer A.J. Raffles keeps himself solvent with daring robberies. Meeting Gwen from his schooldays and falling in love all over again, he spends the weekend with her parents, Lord and Lady Melrose. A necklace presents an irresistible temptation, but also in attendance is Scotland Yard's finest, finally on the trail.
Cyrus Jeffrey
When a crafty reporter uses false pretenses to get a story out of heiress Tony Gateson, she turns the tables on him, telling the press that they are engaged. Suddenly he's front page news, every salesman is at his doorstep, and he loses his job. A series of misadventures ensues with him alternately back on his job and fired and her ex-fiancé showing up.
Mr. Wu
China, 1930s, during the ravaging civil war. General Pen entrusts O'Hara, an intrepid American adventurer, with the mission of providing a large sum of money to Mr. Wu with the task of buying weapons in Shanghai to help end General Yang's tyranny that keeps an entire province under his ruthless iron boot.
Dennis Ringrose
Carrie Snyder is a prostitute, who is forced out of the fictional southern town of Crebillon, after forming a friendship with a young boy named Paul, whose dying mother is unable to protest against her son visiting such a woman. After Carrie has left town Paul runs away from his abusive father, and meets a girl named Lady who has run away from a burning trainwreck, not wanting to go back to the people she was with. Carrie comes back for Paul and ends up taking Paul and Lady to New York with her.
Samuel Metford
A blackmailer tries to stop a woman from revealing evidence that could save a condemned man.
Jacob Terry
A Missouri farmer's (Lionel Barrymore) son (Eric Linden) loves the daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan) of a neighbor who has killed the farmer's foxhound.
Inspector Briggs
Three WWI veterans thought long dead turn out to be still alive and return home - much to the consternation of their friends and family.
Mr. Edwards
Mary, a woman with good intentions, takes pity on Henry, an artist with no home. What begins as a simple offer to come inside from the cold for tea gradually turns into more. Before the unsuspecting woman knows it, Henry, his family, and his friends con their way into her home. Eventually, Mary creates a ruse to rid herself of the parasites, but they have a different plan.
Bacchus
Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on avenging his captors.
Red
On a walking tour of English cathedrals, Donald Meadows meets Hester Granthem in church. Hearing he is from that hot-bed of crime, Chicago, Hester asks Donald to help her in a robbery she has planned. Thinking it a joke, he plays along; but Hester is serious, and hearing that she plans to rob Mr. Waller, the man who has cheated her father out of thousands of pounds, Donald agrees. A robbery at a pub is arranged, but the Bishop of Broadminster, an avid mystery fan, and his sister stumble into it. Playing detective the Bishop complicates matters and each side, the Bishop, the unscrupulous Waller, the gang Hester hires, and Hester and Donald, each get the upper hand along the way.
Dawson
Captain Alan Gaskell sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret cargo: a fortune in British gold. That's not the only risky cargo he carries; both his fiery mistress and his refined fiancee are aboard!
A lawyer sets out to commit the perfect murder.
Estate Administrator
A countess marries a Gypsy fiddler instead of a baron's son at harvest time in Tokay wine country, Hungary.
Col. Jackson
A man dodges jewel thieves while carrying a fortune in diamonds on the Orient Express.
James Wylie
Aspiring young Scottish politician John Shand enters into an unusual agreement with the wealthy Wylie family -- if they fund his education, he must marry their daughter, Maggie. Staying true to his word, John weds Maggie and begins a successful career, thanks largely to his savvy wife. The couple's relationship is placed in jeopardy when John faces temptation in the form of the lovely aristocrat Lady Sybil Tenterden.
Mr. Manning
Two families, cotton merchants in England and America, with branches in France and Prussia swear to stand by each other in a belief that a great business firmly established in four countries will be able to withstand even such another calamity as the Napoleonic Wars from which Europe is slowly recovering. Then many years later, along comes World War One and the years that follow, to test the businesses.
Elihu P. Quissenberry
Upon the death of his father, who was the tribal chieftain, Joe Thunder Horse returns to the reservation of his youth, only to discover that his people are dying of various diseases and are being systematically cheated of their possessions and basic rights by crooked Indian agents. He heads to Washington in hopes of righting these wrongs, only to experience prejudice and hatred all along the way.
Chief Detective
Working in Dr. Cranley's laboratory, scientist Jack Griffin was always given the latitude to conduct some of his own experiments. His sudden departure, however, has Cranley's daughter Flora worried about him. Griffin has taken a room at the nearby Lion's Head Inn, hoping to reverse an experiment he conducted on himself that made him invisible. But the experimental drug has also warped his mind, making him aggressive and dangerous. He's prepared to do whatever it takes to restore his appearance.
'Doc' Parrish
Joan Leesom is stranded in a remote South American jungle village. She is pursued by the rapacious Taggart Taggart, however, has been involved with the beautiful native girl Chita. Chita now feels nothing but hatred for Joan, creating a deadly triangle that leads to an explosive ending.
Smithers
Unscrupulously ambitious, Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and, through bluff and bravado, finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.
Horace Merrick
After the death of a gangster, those familiar with his million dollar stash start mysteriously dying. Police detectives with the help of a clairvoyant try to determine who, living or dead, is responsible.
Doctor Saunders
An Englishman sought for murder, tries to escape fate to South Seas island.
Thompson
Members of a teenage gang are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the callous Thompson. Soon Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner, arrives and takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. Thompson needs a quick way to discredit him.
Professor Axel Nyberg
As the demand for raw silk goes sky high, crooked businessman Wallace Myton corners the market with plans to drive up the price. Determined to fulfill his contracts, manufacturer Donald Kilgore imports $3 million worth of silk to Seattle and accompanies it by special train to New York. But when his secretary is found murdered, Kilgore soon discovers Myton has planted three killers on board with orders to stop the express and its passengers dead in their tracks.
Count Rayburn, the Lord Chamberlain
The king of an unnamed European country abdicates and tries to recapture the happiness with the wife he had to give up for the throne.
Captain Howland
When Captain Howland decides that his daughter Tess is getting a bit to old to continue to go to sea with him, they move into a small cottage on the coast of Maine, but not for long. A local millionaire, Frederick Garfield, lays a false claim to the property and has them evicted. Later, when Tess saves a young man about her age from drowning, she is a bit dismayed to learn that he is Garfield's son. But when her father is jailed on a false-accusation charge of murder, the younger Garfield comes to their aid and proves he himself.
Dr. Anderson
Grace Livingston is leading a happy life in her small town, with her mother and father, being courted by two men, the steady but predictable Tommy Tucker and the more ambitious, flashy, and worldly Dick Loring, who seems closer to Grace in his desire for travel and adventure.
Johnson
A boatload of Westerners is trapped in Manchuria as bandits led by Russian renegade Voronsky ravage the area. Seeking refuge in a fortified inn, the group is led by the boat's Captain Carson, who becomes involved with a woman who "belongs" to Voronsky. Carson must contend with the bandits outside and the conflicting personalities of those trapped inside the inn, as well as dealing with spies among the inn's personnel.
Detective Garrison
A young dress designer marries an insurance agent. They soon have a daughter, but what the wife doesn't know is that her husband is actually a criminal...
Nog Hong Fah
When he's forced to kill his best friend, a Chinese hit man adopts the man's daughter.
Sergeant Herbert Coggins
A young Londoner (Ann Harding) disguises herself to become governess of the son of the barrister (Leslie Howard) she loves.
Senator Timothy Roberts
The founding father has an extramarital affair and meets with the likes of Thomas Jefferson.
Abner Sneed
A mob boss has a change of heart when his daughter convinces him to move on from crime.
Casper Gutman
A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.
Thompson, the Examiner
A group of strangers find themselves aboard an unmanned ship, surrounded by fog and uncertain of their destination. As they attempt to make sense of their situation, the group of passengers discover that all they have in common is that each is dead and en route to their final judgment.
Jean Vidal
Suave thief Colman is sent to Devil's Island, where he becomes romantically involved with the wife of sadistic warden Digges.
