Crane Whitley

Birth : 1899-10-28, New York City, New York, USA

Death : 1958-02-28

History

Crane Whitley was born on October 28, 1899 in New York City, New York, USA as Clement Samuel Wilenchick. He was an actor, known for The Tiger Woman (1944), The Pilgrimage Play (1949) and Captain America (1944). He died on February 28, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Movies

Spy Smasher Returns
Dr. Hauser
Edited version of the 1942 Republic serial "Spy Smasher," cut down to one hour and sold for TV release in 1966 in a syndication package with other truncated Republic serials.
Hannah Lee: An American Primitive
Barfly
Professional killer Bus Crow is hired by cattlemen to eliminate squatters. When Marshal Sam Rochelle is sent to investigate, saloon owner Hallie has to be a reluctant witness.
Submarine Command
Submarine commander Ken White is forced to suddenly submerge, leaving his captain and another crew member to die outside the sub during WW II. Subsequent years of meaningless navy ground assignments and the animosity of a former sailor, leave White (now a captain) feeling guilty and empty. His life spirals downward and his wife is about to leave him. Suddenly, he is forced into a dangerous rescue situation at the start of the Koren War.... reassigned to the same submarine where all of his problems began.
Red Mountain
Cavalry Major
Towards the end of the American Civil War, a rebel captain flees to Colorado to join a band of Southern mercenaries. He drags an innocent gold prospecting couple into trouble when the husband is accused of a murder he committed.
Insurance Investigator
Chief Meyers
When a businessman who has had a double indemnity policy taken out on him dies mysteriously, his insurance company sends an undercover investigator to town to determine exactly what happened.
The Sword of Monte Cristo
Hansmann
In 1858 France, Emperor Louis Napoleon sends Captain Renault of the Royal Dragoons, Minister La Roche and Major Nicolet to Normandy in search of the members of a group of rebels. A Masked Cavalier, the niece, Lady Christianne, of the Marquis De Montableau, announces at a secret meeting of the Normandy underground leaders that the fabled treasure of Monte Cristo was willed to her and she will use it to finance their cause. Her uncle, the only one who can decipher the symbols on the sword of Monte Cristo, the key to the treasure, derides her stand against the Emperor. La Roche takes possession of the sword and has the Marquis put into the dungeon. Christianne, as the Masked Cavalier, regains the sword from La Roche, but Captain Renault apprehends her and returns to sword to La Roche.
California Passage
Vigilante in Mob (uncredited)
A series of reversals bring two desperate people together. When a saloon owner is framed by his partner for a stagecoach robbery, he fights to secure an acquittal.
The Savage Horde
Greb
A charismatic gunfighter who is on the run takes refuge in a frontier cattle town and attempts to help a group of ranchers against a wealthy cattle baron.
The Pilgrimage Play
Longinus
Nelson Leigh assumes the role of Jesus Christ in this drama that depicts such historical events as the Sermon on the Mount and the Last Supper while portraying the period in which Christ roamed the countryside preaching the gospel.
Hellfire
Zeb Smith is a gambler with a larcenous streak, but when an itinerant preacher takes a bullet meant for him, Zeb vows to fulfill the preacher's mission of building a church. Frustrated in his attempts to get donations, Zeb attempts to capture fugitive Doll Brown in order to obtain the reward. But he finds that there's more to Doll than meets the eye. When his old friend Bucky McLean shows up gunning for Doll, Zeb sees a chance to redeem them all... one way or another.
Outpost in Morocco
Caid Osman
Captain Gerard, greatest lover in the Foreign Legion, is assigned to escort an emir's daughter to her father's mountain citadel and find out what he can about the emir's activities. Gerard enjoys his work with lovely Cara, but arrives to find rebellion brewing.
The Crooked Way
Doctor Kemble / Off-Screen Narrator
A war veteran suffering from amnesia, returns to Los Angeles from a San Francisco veterans hospital hoping to learn who he is and discovers his criminal past.
Shockproof
Foreman (Uncredited)
Jenny Marsh is a hard-luck dame who's just finished five years in the slammer for killing a man. Jenny's not exactly the murdering type -- she did the deed while defending her jailbird lover, Harry, which is probably one reason she's attracted the attention of her parole officer, Griff Marat. In fact, Griff is so taken with Jenny that he gets her a job caring for his ailing mother, but although Jenny tries to fly right, she's not yet over Harry.
Walk a Crooked Mile
A security leak is found at a Southern California atomic plant. The authorities stand in fear that the information leaked would go to a hostile nation. To investigate the case more efficiently, Dan O'Hara, an FBI agent, and Philip Grayson, a Scotland Yard sleuth, join forces. Will they manage to stop the spy ring from achieving their aim?
Where There's Life
Assassin With Cane
In a far off country, their king is critically wounded after an assassination attempt and the only heir is a timid New York radio personality, Michael Valentine (Bob Hope). After reluctantly traveling to his father's homeland, Michael is not happy that he's become the target of the same terrorist organization that attacked the king.
House of Cards
In this film without sound, a man awakes disheveled in a rooming house. He stares out the window seeing children playing and a well-dressed man sitting on a chair in the middle of the street reading a newspaper and looking up at him. A headline describes the murder of a child. The disheveled man, whose face expresses fear and despair, leaves, going through the city, alarmed when anyone looks at him. A woman invites him to look through a public telescope. He does then keeps going. He climbs a hill. Two fencers appear; so does a jester. Is flight fruitless?
The Case Of The Baby-Sitter
Charlie Moore, hotel manager
The baby sitter is none other than veteran Hollywood tough guy Tom Neal. A private detective, Neal is hired to keep an eye on the child of married couple George Meeker and Rebel Randall. Actually, Meeker and Randall are jewel thieves, and their "baby" is their stolen loot. Neal eventually catches on when he realizes that this is the quietest child on earth. Running a scant 41 minutes, Case of the Baby Sitter was designed to be shown in tandem with another Screen Guild Productions "briefie," The Hat Box Mystery: the films were shot back to back, with Tom Neal and Pamela Blake starring in both.
Pursued
General (uncredited)
A boy haunted by nightmares about the night his entire family was murdered is brought up by a neighboring family in the 1880s. He falls for his lovely adoptive sister but his nasty adoptive brother and mysterious uncle want him dead.
O.S.S.
Arnheim
The (O)ffice of (S)trategic (S)ervices' Cmdr. Brady (Patric Knowles) forms Operation "Applejack" (based on a composite of actual incidents during WWII) and sends Lt. (j.g.) Philip Masson, U.S.N.R. aka John Martin as spy Philippe Martine (Alan Ladd) along with Miss Ellen Rogers posing as her college roommate, Madame Elaine Duprez (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and Robert Bouchet, Tech Sgt., A.U.S. as Albert Bernardito (Richard Benedict) to acquire secret Nazi plans. After nearly getting caught they succeed and get new identities. However they discover a secret that could change the war and risk their lives to get the information back to London before it jeopardizes their lives. Martine and Duprez then get reassigned to assist fellow spy Frank Schmidt aka Parker (Richard Webb) embedded in the German army so he can relay important Nazi troop movements. Then she is discovered by an old foe, Col. Paul Meister (John Hoyt) but Martine must radio the vital information and misses her.
The Lost Weekend
Waiter at Harry & Joe's Bar (uncredited)
Don Birnam, a long-time alcoholic, has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last - one way or another.
The Affairs of Susan
Colonel (Uncredited)
Susan is about to be married, but the wedding may get called off after her fiancé summons three former beaus. Each reveals a different portrait of Susan: one describes her as a naive country girl who reluctantly becomes an actress, another paints a picture of a gay party girl and and the third describes a serious intellectual.
Bewitched
Warden Clark (uncredited)
A girl enlists a psychic to get rid of her murderous alternate personality.
Phantoms, Inc.
Inspector Becker
This Crime Does Not Pay entry focuses on fake spiritualists. A mother is worried about her son, who is missing in action. Over time, she gives a con man all of the family savings to find reassurance that her son is all right. When she can no longer pay, events take a tragic turn.
The Scarlet Clue
Henchman Cooper
Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan discovers a scheme for the theft of government radar plans while investigating several murders.
The Power of the Whistler
Police Captain
A woman uses a deck of cards to predict death within 24 hours for a stranger sitting at a bar, then tries to help him remember who he is based on items in his pockets.
To Have and Have Not
Gaulist (uncredited)
A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.
Oh, What a Night!
Sullivan
An international jewel thief tries to keep his secret from his neice.
The Tiger Woman
Tom Dagget
Greedy oil speculators, led by Morgan, are trying to force Tiger Woman and her band of warriors from their jungle home. Allen Saunders of Inter-Ocean Oil wants to develop the oil, too, but fights with Tiger Woman to stop the bad guys.
Mr. Skeffington
Louie (uncredited)
A beautiful but vain woman who rejects the love of her older husband must face the loss of her youth and beauty.
The Fighting Seabees
Lt. Cmdr. Hunter (uncredited)
Construction workers in World War II in the Pacific are needed to build military sites, but the work is dangerous and they doubt the ability of the Navy to protect them. After a series of attacks by the Japanese, something new is tried, Construction Battalions (CBs=Seabees). The new CBs have to both build and be ready to fight.
Around the World
American Captain
Bandleader Kay Kyser takes his troupe of nutty musicians, goofball comics and pretty girl singers on a tour around the world to entertain the troops during World War II.
For God and Country
Chaplain
The story of the U.S. Army Chaplain Service as dramatized in the stories of three chaplains, Father Michael O'Keefe, Arnold Miller, and Tom Manning.
Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines
A.T. Atkinson
A training film for OSS agents who are to be dropped behind enemy lines.
Reunion in France
Officer (uncredited)
Frenchwoman Michele de la Becque, an opponent of the Nazis in German-occupied Paris, hides a downed American flyer, Pat Talbot, and attempts to get him safely out of the country.
Underground Agent
Giuseppe Ormanti
In this espionage caper, a government spy must keep enemy agents from spying upon a defense plant. His work is made easier by his newest invention, a word scrambler which makes it difficult for the enemy agent.
Lucky Jordan
Gardener
Lucky Jordan is a gangster living in New York City and when he's drafted into the army, he tries to escape duty by using an old con woman named Annie to convince the draft board he's needed at home. When that fails, Jordan is sent to boot camp, but he doesn't stay there long. He takes a beautiful USO worker hostage and flees back to New York. There, he learns that a rival gangster is plotting against America.
Who Done It?
Radio Actor (uncredited)
Two dumb soda jerks dream of writing radio mysteries. When they try to pitch an idea at a radio station, they end up in the middle of a real murder when the station owner is killed during a broadcast.
They Raid by Night
Doctor
The British Commandos send Bob Owen (Lyle Talbot) to Norway to prepare for a raid. His mission also includes freeing General Heden (Paul Baratoff) who is being held by the Nazis. His aides include Eric Falken (George Nesie) and Harry (Charles Rogers). Inga (June Duprez), a Norwegian girl to whom Falken was once engaged but who has become the sweetheart of Oberst Von Ritter (Victor Varconi), betrays their hiding place. The three overpower the Gestapo men sent after them, take their uniforms and enter the prison camp and free Heden. The four men then start for the coast to meet the Commando expedition. Inga, who the men still trust, again informs von Ritter and Falken is captured but Bob and Harry escape with the aid of Dalberg, who they thought was a Quisling stooge.
Eagle Squadron
German Sentry
An American joins the British Royal Air Force just before Pearl Harbor is attacked, and falls in love with a beautiful English girl.
Spy Smasher
Hauser
Prior to the United States' involvement in World War II, the masked vigilante Spy Smasher fights Nazi agents operating within the US, led by the treacherous sabotage leader codenamed The Mask.
My Favorite Blonde
Ulrich - Henchman
Larry Haines, a mediocre vaudeville entertainer, boards a train for Los Angeles. Aboard, he meets an attractive, blonde British agent carrying a coded message hidden in a brooch—and is being pursued by Nazi agents.
Underground
Gestapo Agent
A World War II Hollywood propaganda film detailing the dark underside of Nazism and the Third Reich set between two brothers, Kurt and Erik Franken, whom are SS officers in the Nazi party. Kurt learns and exposes the evils of the system to Erik and tries to convince him of the immoral stance that marches under the symbol of the swastika.
Hold That Woman!
Defense Attorney
A skip tracer--someone who collects late payments from people who've purchased appliances, etc., or takes them back them when they don't pay--repossesses a small radio from a deadbeat who's skipped payments. What he doesn't know is that a gang that has stolen diamonds from a Hollywood movie star has stashed them inside the radio, and they start hunting for him.
The Invisible Man Returns
Minor Role (uncredited)
The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him invisible, despite its side effect: gradual madness.
Charlie McCarthy, Detective
Henchman Pete
Scotty Hamilton is a reporter who works for a crooked editor. Bill Banning is another reporter who is about to expose the editor's ties to the mob. When the editor is killed, both reporter Banning and mobster Tony Garcia are suspected.
The Invisible Killer
Dist. Atty. Richard Sutton
Reporter Sue Walker has too much inside information on the local gambling rackets to suit her sweetheart, Detective Lieutenant Jerry Brown, chief of the police Homicide Squad. When the call comes in that there has been a killing at Lefty Ross' place, a notorious gambling joint, Jerry is peeved when Sue beats him there. He discovers that gambler Jimmy Clark was killed as he answered a telephone call, and his body is riddled with bullets but Jerry can't find any weapon. Sue is amazed to see Gloria Cunningham there. Gloria's father is one of the town's leading reformers and she is engaged to District Attorney Richard Sutton. Ross decides to give Sutton all the information he needs and makes an appointment to go to Sutton's home. Once there, Ross is called to the telephone before he can give any information, and is killed in the same mysterious manner as Jimmy Clark.
The Flying Deuces
Corporal
Ollie is in love with a woman. When he discovers that she is already married, he tries to kill himself. Of course, the suicide is avoided and the boys join the Foreign Legion to get away from their troubles. Finally, they are arrested for trying to desert the Legion and to escape the firing squad by stealing a plane.
Television Spy
Tamley
A scientist invents a television device called the Iconoscope. Foreign agents hear about it and try to steal it.
Hitler - Beast of Berlin
Klee
Hans Memling, a young intellectual, patriotic German, is secretly opposed to the Nazi regime. With the aid of Gustav Schultz, Father Pommer, Anna Wahl and others, he is gleaning accurate information from foreign radio broadcasts and distributing it through Germany with an underground-press operation. He convinces his brother-in-law Karl Bach, the brother of his wife Elsa, that Hitler is leading Germany toward a second world war. Karl, in love with Anna, joins the movement, determined to restore German culture and save the people from the brutality of the Storm Troopers and the Gestapo. The group has an inside link through Albert Stalhelm, a Storm Trooper and one of Hitler's Elite Guards. Albert is sickened by the brutalities he sees and wants to resign and flee Germany, but Hans persuades him to remain until they can find a replacement. He agrees, but warns the group that he is forced to join in the Nazi orgies and liquor loosens his tongue...
Bad Boy
Henchman
Johnny Fraser (Johnny Downs) leaves his mother (Helen MacKellar) in their small home town and sets out for the big city. He obtains a job with a large firm of architects. Steve Carson (Archie Robbins), a fellow employee, is constantly flaunting the money he has won at the race track. Johnny also bets the races, but loses heavily and takes some of the firm's money to cover his losses.
S.O.S Tidal Wave
A news reporter-commentator at a combined radio-television broadcasting station gives up his stand against the election of a corrupt mayoral candidate after a gangster threatens his family. Features tidal wave stock footage from RKO's "Deluge" (1933), q.v.
The Last Warning
Detective Slocumbe
In their third and last teaming, Bill Crane and Doc Williams visit a country estate to investigate threatening letters from the mysterious 'Eye.'
A Man to Remember
Tough Guy Funeral Observer (uncredited)
On the day of his funeral, a dedicated smalltown doctor is remembered by his neighbors and patients.