William Keighley

William Keighley

Birth : 1889-08-04, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Death : 1984-06-24

History

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. William Jackson Keighley  (August 4, 1889, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - June 24, 1984, New York, New York) was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director. After graduating from the Ludlum School of Dramatic Art, Keighley began acting at the age of 23. By the 1910s and 1920s, he was acting and directing on Broadway. With the advent of talking pictures, he relocated to Hollywood. He eventually signed with Warner Bros., where he proved adept at directing in a wide variety of genres. He was the initial director of The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, but was replaced by Michael Curtiz. During World War II, he supervised the U.S. Army Signal Corp's motion picture unit. He retired in 1953 and moved to Paris with his actress wife Genevieve Tobin. Description above from the Wikipedia article William Keighley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Profile

William Keighley

Movies

The Master of Ballantrae
Director
Scottish highlander Jamie Durie falls into a life of piracy after joining the failed rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie against the British crown.
Close to My Heart
Director
A journalist's wife insists on adopting an abandoned child.
Rocky Mountain
Director
A Confederate troop, led by Captain Lafe Barstow, is prowling the far ranges of California and Nevada in a last desperate attempt to build up an army in the West for the faltering Confederacy. Because the patrol saves a stagecoach, with Johanna Carterr as one of the passengers, from an Indian attack, and is marooned on a rocky mountain, it fails in its mission but the honor of the Old South is upheld.
The Street with No Name
Director
After two gang-related killings in "Center City," a suspect (who was framed) is arrested, released on bail...and murdered. Inspector Briggs of the FBI recruits a young agent, Gene Cordell, to go undercover in the shadowy Skid Row area (alias George Manly) as a potential victim of the same racket. Soon, Gene meets Alec Stiles, neurotic mastermind who's "building an organization along scientific lines." Stiles recruits Cordell, whose job becomes a lot more dangerous.
Honeymoon
Director
A prospective bride and groom have misadventures in Mexico City.
Target for Today
Director
A bombing mission over Germany by the American Eighth Air Force, from the initial planning for the mission through final completion, with all of its intricacies from beginning to end.
George Washington Slept Here
Director
New Yorkers Bill and Connie Fuller have to move from their apartment. Without Bill's knowledge, Connie purchases a delapidated old farmhouse in Pennsylvania, where George Washington was supposed to have actually slept during the American Revolution.
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Director
An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in indefinitely with a Midwestern family.
The Bride Came C.O.D.
Director
A financially-strapped charter pilot hires himself to an oil tycoon to kidnap his madcap daughter and prevent her from marrying a vapid band leader.
Four Mothers
Director
Four married sisters face motherhood, financial, marital and family issues together.
No Time for Comedy
Director
Director William Keighley's 1940 film adaptation of S. N. Behrman's stage hit, about an aspiring playwright who finds himself an overnight Broadway success, stars James Stewart, Rosalind Russell, Genevieve Tobin, Louise Beavers, Charles Ruggles and Allyn Joslyn.
Torrid Zone
Director
A Central American plantation manager and his boss battle over a traveling showgirl.
The Fighting 69th
Director
Although loudmouthed braggart Jerry Plunkett alienates his comrades and officers, Father Duffy, the regimental chaplain, has faith that he'll prove himself in the end.
Each Dawn I Die
Director
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Yes, My Darling Daughter
Director
Ellen is a free spirited young woman in love with Doug. Sadly he must leave America for a two year job in Belgium. Ellen and Doug decide to spend their last weekend together in a tourist cabin at a rural lake. Her family is shocked that a young unmarried woman would engage in such amoral activity. The comic plot develops as Ellen argues her case for women's freedom and independence, trying to win over her mother, grandmother, and other dubious relatives.
Brother Rat
Director
Story of three buddies at the Virginia Military Institute. Cadet Bing Edwards is secretly married and soon to be a father.
Valley of the Giants
Director
A lumberman takes on a sleezy corporate giant wanting to move in and do whatever it takes to drive everyone else out of business.
Secrets of an Actress
Director
Two architects lose their heads over a glamorous actress.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Director
Robin Hood fights nobly for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian.
Varsity Show
Director
Winfield College students rebel against a stodgy professor who won't permit "swing" music be played in their varsity show. They appeal to a big Broadway alumnus and have him direct their show. What they don't know is that this "star's" last three shows were flops.
The Prince and the Pauper
Director
Two boys – the prince Edward and the pauper Tom – are born on the same day. Years later, when young teenage Tom sneaks into the palace garden, he meets the prince. They change clothes with one another before the guards discover them and throw out the prince thinking he's the urchin. No one believes them when they try to tell the truth about which is which. Soon after, the old king dies and the prince will inherit the throne.
God's Country and the Woman
Director
Hard-nosed Jefferson Russett runs a logging company; his brother, Steve, is the prodigal son. Steve becomes stranded on the competition's property and slowly learns the business and of his brother's dirty tricks.
The Green Pastures
Director
God, heaven, and several Old Testament stories, including the Creation and Noah's Ark, are described supposedly using the perspective of rural, black Americans.
Bullets or Ballots
Director
After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner, former detective Johnny Blake publicly punches him, convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. "Bugs" Fenner, meanwhile, is certain that Blake is a police agent.
The Singing Kid
Director
Neurotic Broadway star Al Jackson faces professional ruin when he loses his voice. While recuperating in the country, he falls in love with farm girl Ruth Haines, the pretty aunt of precocious little Sybil Haines.
Stars Over Broadway
Director
An aggressive agent turns a hotel porter into an overnight sensation.
Special Agent
Director
Newspaperman Bill Bradford becomes a special agent for the tax service trying to end the career of racketeer Nick Carston. Julie Gardner is Carston's bookkeeper. Bradford enters Carston's organization and Julie cooperates with him to land Carston in jail. An informer squeals on them. Julie is kidnapped by Carston's henchmen as she is about to testify
'G' Men
Director
James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mobster, but always has refused to get involved with the underworld. When a friend of his is gunned down by a notorious criminal, Brick decides to abandon the exercise of the law and join the Department of Justice to capture the murderer.
Mary Jane's Pa
Director
Sam Preston is a small-town newspaper publisher who suffers from wanderlust. Leaving his family, he thinks well-provided for, he packs a suitcase and hits the road. Ten years later he comes back to find the newspaper shuttered and his family gone.
The Right to Live
Director
A man with a broken back dies after his wife has an affair with his brother.
Babbitt
Director
Middle aged George F. Babbitt is a leading citizen in the town of Zenith, the fastest growing community in America according to its town sign. George is a large part of that growth as a property developer and realtor. He is lovingly married to his wife Myra, the two who have two children, Ted and Verona who are approaching adulthood. George has always had a fearless attitude, much like that of a naive child, which has led to his business success. He encounters some personal stresses when he faces what he believes is a potential home-wrecking issue, and when his oldest friend Paul and his wife Zilla deal with domestic problems. These stresses make George want to provide even more to his own family, leading to George agreeing to participate in a less than scrupulous but lucrative business dealing. George's bravura gets him into a potential scandal. This situation makes him question his general behavior, especially toward his family.
Big Hearted Herbert
Director
After cantankerous and miserly Herbert Kalness insults his daughter's fiance and prospective in-laws at a dinner party, Mrs. Kalness devises a scheme to teach her husband a lesson in good manners.
Kansas City Princess
Director
Rosie and Marie are wisecracking Kansas City manicurists. Marie is an unabashed golddigger but Rosie would like to marry her gangster boyfriend Dynamite, who's given her an expensive ring. When she loses the ring, both friends have to flee Dynamite's wrath; their adventures include masquerading as girl scouts and taking an ocean voyage to Paris.
Dr. Monica
Director
A prominent New York doctor, unable to have a child, discovers her philandering husband has impregnated her best friend.
Journal of a Crime
Director
A woman murders her husband's mistress and someone else gets accused of the crime.
Easy to Love
Director
Carol feels, for whatever reason, that her husband, John, has grown indifferent to her, and is on a quest to find out why, suspecting another woman. She sees the family physician, Dr. Swope, first and then hires a private detective. Her own sleuthing is more effective and she devises a plan; having long been pursued by Eric, she apparently accedes and accompanies him to an apartment and, per her plan, enter the wrong one. There, they find Carol's best friend, Charlotte, and John hiding in a closet. The latter, showing more nerve than good sense, goes into a rage and berates Carol for her apparent philandering. The battle continues at home, where their daughter Janet informs them that because of them, she and Paul have given up on the idea of marriage, but are going away together, anyway. Carol and John trail them to a hotel and find them in twin beds, whereupon John, armed with a fire-ax, summons a justice of the peace and demands a fire-ax version of a shotgun wedding.
Mary Stevens, M.D.
Dialogue
A woman doctor decides to have a baby without benefit of marriage.
Picture Snatcher
Writer
An ex-con uses his street smarts to become a successful photojournalist.
Ladies They Talk About
Director
A moll, imprisoned after participating in a bank robbery, helps with a breakout plot.
The Match King
Director
Unscrupulous Chicago janitor Paul Kroll uses deceit to fund a return trip to his homeland of Sweden. There, via ongoing continuing deceit and manipulation, he gradually attains a monopoly on the matchstick market in several countries and becomes an influential international figure. Based on the true story of Ivar Kreuger.
Scarlet Dawn
Assistant Director
During the Russian Revolution, a young nobleman and his peasant maid flee from their homeland to Constantinople where they marry and begin a challenging new life.
The Cabin in the Cotton
Assistant Director
Sharecropper's son Marvin tries to help his community overcome poverty and ignorance.
Jewel Robbery
Assistant Director
A gentleman thief charms a Viennese baron's wife and also conducts a daring daylight robbery of a jeweller's shop.
Resurrection
Captain Schoenbock
Katusha, a country girl, is seduced and abandoned by Prince Nekludov. Nekludov finds himself, years later, on a jury trying the same Katusha for a crime he now realizes his actions drove her to. He follows her to imprisonment in Siberia, intent on redeeming her and himself as well.
The Third Degree
Dialogue Coach
Alicia, a circus artist, deserts her husband and child to elope with Underwood, her handsome lover. Fifteen years later, Annie Martin, Alicia's deserted daughter, is a trapeze performer in a sideshow at Coney Island, operated by Mr. and Mrs. Chubb, and has married Howard Jeffries in spite of opposition by his wealthy parents. Jeffries, Sr., hires a man (Underwood) to separate the young couple. Underwood convinces the newlyweds that each is being unfaithful to the other, and consequently, he is threatened by Howard. Driven to fury by Underwood's uncontrollable demands, Alicia shoots him in a quarrel and makes her escape just as Howard enters; despite his innocence, Howard confesses to the crime when subjected to the third degree. Annie, realizing her mother's guilt, claims to be guilty, but Alicia then confesses. Annie is saved from suicide by Howard, and they are united by love.