Dudley Murphy

Dudley Murphy

Birth : 1867-07-10, Winchester, Massachusetts, United States

Death : 1968-02-22

History

Dudley Bowles Murphy (July 10, 1897 – February 22, 1968) was an American film director. In his first short film, Soul of the Cypress (1921), a variation on the Orpheus myth, the film's protagonist falls in love with a dryad (a wood nymph whose soul dwells in an ancient tree) and throws himself into the sea to become immortal and spend eternity with her. Murphy's then-wife Chase Harringdine played the dryad. Murphy followed this with Danse Macabre (1922) featuring Adolph Bolm, Olin Howland, and Ruth Page. Description above from the Wikipedia article Dudley Murphy licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Profile

Dudley Murphy

Movies

Yolanda
Director
About the Russian dancer Yolanda who arrives in Mexico with her company in 1909. There she falls in love with the young cadet Julio. However, the influential Carlos opposes this love. He wants Yolanda for himself and threatens her with a possible deportation to Siberia if she rejected his romantic advances.
Alabamy Bound
Director
Soundie, in which Jacky Green impersonates Eddie Cantor, and The Five Spirits of Rhythm are porters shining shoes.
Lazybones
Director
The singer here is Hoagy Carmichael on the piano singing the title song whose lyrics is by Johnny Mercer. He has a couple of beautiful white women at his side while Dorothy is a maid who's trying to keep butler Peter Ray from letting a tray with pitcher on it from falling off his head.
Main Street Lawyer
Director
Story of a lawyer, gangster and a floozy.
One Third of a Nation
Adaptation
The negligent owner of a tenement slum becomes romantically involved with one of the building's residents.
One Third of a Nation
Director
The negligent owner of a tenement slum becomes romantically involved with one of the building's residents.
Don't Gamble with Love
Director
Standard tale of husband and wife living a party lifestyle. He works in a gambling hall and she occasionally models and sings. Because they want to start a family wife feels the need to change their situation. Situation is changed and husband gets a new job and then a promotion but is tricked into a bad business deal and wants to go back to his old life.
The Night Is Young
Director
Young Austrian Archduke Paul "Gustl" Gustave is in an arranged engagement but his uncle, the emperor, decides to let Gustl carry on a fling with ballet dancer Lisl Gluck.
The Emperor Jones
Director
Unscrupulously ambitious, Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and, through bluff and bravado, finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.
The Sport Parade
Director
Two Dartmouth football players fall in love with the same girl following college graduation.
Confessions of a Co-Ed
Director
A young college student gets pregnant by the man she loves, but circumstances prevent their marrying, so she marries a classmate she doesn't love. Soon, however, her lover returns, and she finds herself in a dilemma as to who to choose.
He Was Her Man
Director
A dancer is jealous for her lover.
Dracula
Dialogue
British estate agent Renfield travels to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a castle in London and is, unbeknownst to Renfield, a vampire. After Dracula enslaves Renfield and drives him to insanity, the pair sail to London together, and as Dracula begins preying on London socialites, the two become the subject of study for a supernaturalist professor, Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula
Continuity
British estate agent Renfield travels to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a castle in London and is, unbeknownst to Renfield, a vampire. After Dracula enslaves Renfield and drives him to insanity, the pair sail to London together, and as Dracula begins preying on London socialites, the two become the subject of study for a supernaturalist professor, Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula
Additional Dialogue
British estate agent Renfield travels to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a castle in London and is, unbeknownst to Renfield, a vampire. After Dracula enslaves Renfield and drives him to insanity, the pair sail to London together, and as Dracula begins preying on London socialites, the two become the subject of study for a supernaturalist professor, Abraham Van Helsing.
Black and Tan
Writer
Duke Ellington plays hot jazz in a fictional story that finds him down on his luck; he tries in vain to dissuade his friend, dancer Fredi Washington, from working with heart trouble even though it means work for his band. Sure enough, she collapses on stage...
Black and Tan
Director
Duke Ellington plays hot jazz in a fictional story that finds him down on his luck; he tries in vain to dissuade his friend, dancer Fredi Washington, from working with heart trouble even though it means work for his band. Sure enough, she collapses on stage...
Jazz Heaven
Writer
A young songwriter struggles to make good in New York.
St. Louis Blues
Writer
In this all-black cast short, legendary blues singer Bessie Smith finds her gambler lover Jimmy messin' with a pretty, younger woman; he leaves and she sings the blues, with chorus and dancers.
St. Louis Blues
Director
In this all-black cast short, legendary blues singer Bessie Smith finds her gambler lover Jimmy messin' with a pretty, younger woman; he leaves and she sings the blues, with chorus and dancers.
Skyscraper
Story
Blondy and Swede are gruff best friends who build skyscrapers. Blondy gets sweet on a girl he saves from a falling beam, Sally, but when he is injured in an accident and temporarily crippled, he rejects her. Swede tries every desperate measure to get Blondy to fight back, to try to walk, even masquerading as stealing Sally away from him.
Ballet Mécanique
Cinematography
Ballet Mécanique (1923-4) is a Dadaist, post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by artist Fernand Léger and filmmaker Dudley Murphy (with cinematographic input from Man Ray). It has a musical score by the American composer George Antheil (However, the film premiered with no soundtrack, on September 24th, 1924 at the Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik in Vienna). It is considered one of the masterpieces of early experimental filmmaking.
Ballet Mécanique
Director
Ballet Mécanique (1923-4) is a Dadaist, post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by artist Fernand Léger and filmmaker Dudley Murphy (with cinematographic input from Man Ray). It has a musical score by the American composer George Antheil (However, the film premiered with no soundtrack, on September 24th, 1924 at the Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik in Vienna). It is considered one of the masterpieces of early experimental filmmaking.
Danse macabre
Director
The Black Death is ravaging Spain. As Camille Saint-Saëns's "Danse Macabre" plays on the soundtrack, a mix of animation and acted scenes tells the story of Youth and Love meeting one night. They dance, embrace, and kiss. As the night wears on, exuberant Death, a skeletal figure with a violin, pursues the couple. They try to elude him. Eventually, Love swoons. Youth is powerless to protect her. Is she doomed?
Soul of the Cypress
Director
Influenced by California Pictorialist photography of the preceding decades, it was in its own day recognized as an avant-garde film, but nevertheless it secured successful commercial distribution.