Alexander Hall

Alexander Hall

Birth : 1894-01-11, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Death : 1968-07-30

History

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alexander Hall (January 11, 1894, Boston, Massachusetts – July 30, 1968, San Francisco, California) was an American theatre actor and film director. Hall acted in the theatre from the age of four through 1914, when he began to work in silent movies. Following his military service in World War I, he returned to Hollywood and pursued a career in film production. He worked as a film editor and assistant director at Paramount Pictures until 1932, when he directed his first feature film, Sinners in the Sun. From 1937 to 1947, he was a contract director at Columbia Pictures, where he earned a reputation for sophisticated comedies. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). Hall was married to actress Lola Lane from 1934 to 1936. He was engaged briefly to Lucille Ball, who left him when she met Desi Arnaz. The couple later hired him to direct their 1956 film Forever, Darling. Hall died of complications from a stroke in San Francisco. Description above from the Wikipedia article Alexander Hall, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Profile

Alexander Hall

Movies

Forever, Darling
Director
Susan and Lorenzo have been married for over five years and they are starting to drift apart. So into her life comes an angel, which only Susan can see, to tell her that there will be trouble ahead if they do not work out their problems. Lorenzo is developing insecticide #383 at Finlay Vega Chemical Co. and plans to test it on a camping trip that he takes with Susan, but the trip becomes an obstacle course for him.
Let's Do It Again
Director
Composer Gary Stuart (Ray Milland) and his wife, Connie (Jane Wyman), have an argument over her alleged affair with Courtney Craig (Tom Helmore). The Stuarts agree to get divorced, and each tries to move on to a new love: Gary with socialite Deborah Randolph (Karin Booth) and Connie with businessman Frank McGraw (Aldo Ray). However, they start to realize that they still have strong feelings for each other. The Stuarts must make a decision before their divorce is final.
Because You're Mine
Director
A famous opera singer falls for his sergeant's sister at boot camp.
Up Front
Director
Military comedy set during WWII, inspired by Bill Mauldin's popular newspaper cartoons of soldiers "Willie" and "Joe".
Love That Brute
Director
The story of a crude gangster hopelessly falling for a sweet young city government employee.
Louisa
Director
Architect Hal Norton and wife Meg invite his widowed mother Louisa to move in with them, only to discover the sweet elderly lady is romantically involved with what seems to be every old coot in town.
The Great Lover
Director
The French Surete and private eye Higgins are after a killer who uses innocent young Americans in a crooked gambling racket, and who sets sail on an ocean liner that also carries inept scoutmaster Freddie Hunter and his troop of boys. Freddie, who's been a "boy scout" too long, has designs on gorgeous Duchess Alexandria. The boys, far better organized than Freddie, are determined to save him from himself. But who will save Freddie from being the killer's next victim?
Down to Earth
Director
Upset about a new Broadway musical's mockery of Greek mythology, the goddess Terpsichore comes down to earth and lands a part in the show. She works her charms on the show's producer and he incorporates her changes into the show. Unfortunately, her changes also produce a major flop.
She Wouldn't Say Yes
Director
Susan Lane is a gifted psychiatrist, grounded in self-control. Before returning by train to her practice in Chicago, she spends time back East with war veterans, building their self-esteem, but frowning on the impulsive, as represented by a favorite comic strip called "The Nixie." She bumps into Michael Kent, an officer and the comic strip's author. He likes her instantly and she dislikes him. He's headed to the Pacific, sees her on the train, gets off in Chicago, and with her father's help, pursues her and hatches a plan to marry her. Meanwhile, she has her own plan to get rid of him with the help of a blond patient. Will the Nixie get into her psyche?
Once Upon a Time
Director
Broadway producer Jerry Flynn is anxious to recapture the magic and reclaim the crowds after a set of costly flops. Outside his theater one night, Flynn meets a young boy who just might save the day. Inside a small box the boy shows Flynn his pride and joy: a caterpillar named Curly that dances to Yes Sir, That's My Baby. Word quickly spreads about the amazingly talented hoofer, and the caterpillar becomes a symbol of hope for wartime America. Soon, offers are pouring in to capitalize on this sensational insect.
The Heavenly Body
Director
The beautiful wife of a tweedy astronomer becomes convinced that her astrologer's prediction of a new dream man in her life will come true.
My Sister Eileen
Director
Sisters Ruth and Eileen Sherwood move from Ohio to New York in the hopes of building their careers. Ruth wants to get a job as a writer, while Eileen hopes to succeed on the stage. The two end up living in a dismal basement apartment in Greenwich Village, where a parade of odd characters are constantly breezing in and out. The women also meet up with magazine editor Bob Baker, who takes a personal interest in helping both with their career plans.
They All Kissed the Bride
Director
Margaret Drew runs her trucking company single-mindedly, if not ruthlessly. The only thorn in her side is writer Michael Holmes who is writing a book on some of her tough ways. With no time for men, the effect an attractive stranger has on her at her sister's wedding is unnerving. When it turns out this is the hated writer, she starts seriously to lose her bearings. Surely it can't become Maggie and Mike?
Bedtime Story
Director
A Braodway playwright wants to keep on writing plays for his wife to star in, but all she wants is to retire to Connecticut and, following a few 'worlds-apart" discussion of the issue, they get a divorce. The actress marries a banker in a fit of pique only to quickly discover the divorce was not valid. She communicates this information to her not-yet ex-husband and he, to prevent consummation of the invalid marriage rescues her by sending plumbers, waiters, porters, chambermaids, bellhops, desk clerks, exterminators and, finally, a crowd of roistering conventioneers to the suite to ensure no bedtime story would take place there
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Director
Boxer Joe Pendleton, flying to his next fight, crashes...because a Heavenly Messenger, new on the job, snatched Joe's spirit prematurely from his body. Before the matter can be rectified, Joe's body is cremated; so the celestial Mr. Jordan grants him the use of the body of wealthy Bruce Farnsworth, who's just been murdered by his wife. Joe tries to remake Farnsworth's unworthy life in his own clean-cut image, but then falls in love; and what about that murderous wife?
This Thing Called Love
Director
Two professional people marry, but the wife insists that they be celibate for the first three months to make sure they are truly compatible.
He Stayed for Breakfast
Director
Set in Paris, this romantic comedy revolves around the beautiful estranged wife of a wealthy banker who hides a handsome and fiery Communist fugitive in her apartment.
The Doctor Takes a Wife
Director
A best-selling author of women's issues and a medical academic find it is to their mutual advantage to falsely claim that they are married.
The Amazing Mr. Williams
Director
Kenny Williams, a lieutenant on the homicide squad, is engaged to Maxine Carroll, the Mayor's secretary. Or isn't he rather married with his job? For each time he has a date with his longtime fiancée, he is prevented from keeping it by his devotion to duty. Maxine, in desperation, decides to take action and bring Kenny to the altar. Who will win, Maxine's curves or the glorious fight against crime?
Good Girls Go to Paris
Director
Jenny Swanson, a waitress on a college campus, is dying to visit Paris. Thanks to English professor Ronald Brooke, she manages to make her dream come true. Besides seeing the sights in the French capital she makes friends with a wealthy family there, the Brands.
The Lady's from Kentucky
Director
Good-natured gambler Marty Black falls into ownership of a booking joint but soon falls on hard times. His one out is a marker for half-ownership in a young thoroughbred, which he quickly calls in. He discovers the other owner to be a young woman from an old horse racing family who wants to protect her colt almost as much as Marty wants to rush him into big races for a fast buck. While they clash, Marty soon comes to understand the human bond with the horses and what it means to be a thoroughbred.
There's That Woman Again
Director
Bill Reardon, a private detective, is working on a case involving stolen items from a local jewelry store. The case takes a different turn when Bill's prying wife wants to help catch the crook.
I Am the Law
Director
With the aid of his former law students, a professor-turned-prosecutor battles corruption and organized crime.
There's Always a Woman
Director
An investigator for the District Attorney's office quits to open his own detective agency. However, business is so bad that he finally decides to give it up and go back to his old job. As his wife is at his office closing up, a wealthy society matron walks in with a case: she wants to know if her husband is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend, who is now married. The wife accepts what looks to be an easy case, figuring than she can then persuade her husband to re-start the agency. However, when the client's husband is found murdered, she decides to investigate the murder herself. Her husband has also been assigned by the D.A. to investigate the murder, and he doesn't know that his wife is also on the case. Complications ensue.
Exclusive
Director
When Mountain City racketeer Charles Gillette is acquitted, he arrives at the Mountain City World newsroom and vows revenge on the Better Government Committee who put him behind bars. Members of the committee include Colonel Bogardus, owner of the World , Horace Mitchell, a candidate for mayor, and Mr. Franklin, a department store owner. First Gillette buys a rival newspaper, the Sentinel , and offers a pricey editorship to World newsman Ralph Houston, who refuses the offer on principle. That evening, Ralph and his partner, Tod Swain, are greeted at home by a creditor, and Vina Swain, Ralph's fiancée, is furious to find out he turned down Gillette's offer. When she learns Ralph went into debt to put her through college, she warns Gillette of a police raid and pays back Ralph's debt with Gillette's renumeration. When Ralph orders Vina not to work for Gillette, she breaks their engagement.
The Toast of New York
Assistant Director
After the American Civil War, Jim Fisk, a former peddler and cotton smuggler, arrives in New York, along with his partners Nick and Luke, where he struggles to make his way through the treacherous world of Wall Street's financial markets.
Yours for the Asking
Director
Casino operator Johnny Lamb hires down-on-her-luck socialite Lucille Sutton as his casino hostess, in order to help her and to improve casino income. But Lamb's pals fear he may follow Lucille onto the straight-and-narrow path, which would not be good for business. So they hire Gert Malloy and Dictionary McKinney, a pair of con-artists, to manipulate Johnny back off the path of righteousness.
Give Us This Night
Director
After being introduced to the world of opera, a fisherman (Jan Kiepura) falls for a woman (Swarthout) whose guardian is a noted composer (Philip Merivale). They met when the fisherman evaded the police by seeking refuge in the village church. While there, they are each captivated by hearing the other singing Mass. The beautiful woman falls in love with the fisherman with the wonderful voice.
Annapolis Farewell
Director
Commodore Fitzhugh, an old retired naval officer, lives at the Annapolis Naval Academy and, unhappy with the "modern" navy, likes to talk about his days in the "old" navy, especially about his part in the Battle of Manila Bay under Adm. Dewey during the Spanish-American War, when he commanded the USS Congress. That ship, now decommissioned and docked in Annapolis harbor, is--unknown to Fitzhugh--about to be towed out to sea to be used for target practice. When Fitzhugh finds this out, he sets out to either save his beloved vessel or "go down with his ship".
Goin' to Town
Director
Cleo Borden grew up in a saloon, loves the men—and the men love her—but her aspirations lead her to enter into a contract to marry a wealthy man. When he dies and leaves her all of his fortune, she soon learns that although she has money, she is not yet a lady, so she embarks on a journey to become one. She has no desire to change herself, but the man she sets her sights on does—so she obliges.
Limehouse Blues
Director
Fresh from Chinatown in New York, Harry Young has taken over the illegal import business in the seamy Limehouse district of London, where he cold-bloodedly disposes of rivals and runs a smoky nightclub. He falls for a low-class, white pickpocket, diminishing his pride in the Chinese half of his heritage and sparking the jealousy of the nightclub's moody star performer.
The Pursuit of Happiness
Director
Lederer is a Hessian soldier who defects to the Americans during the Revolutionary War.He falls in love with a Yankee girl, but a thuggish local militiaman jealously makes things hard for him while he's a prisoner of war.
Little Miss Marker
Director
Big Steve Halloway, gambler and proprietor of New York's Horseshoe Cabaret, where his girl, Bangles Carson sings, is in desperate need of money. He arranges for his fellow bookies, especially Sorrowful Jones, to each pay him $1,000 for his racehorse, Dream Prince, to lose. With all bets being placed at the window, Sorrowful encounters a gambler, having lost $500, wanting to place his bet but is unable to come up with $20. Instead, he places his daughter, Marthy Jane (Shirley Temple), as security, or in bookie's terms, a "marker". Having lost his bet, he commits suicide, leaving "little Miss Marker" under the care of Sorrowful Jones. As Steve hides out in Chicago to avoid investigation for his crooked bets, he entrusts Sorrowful to watch over Bangles during his absence, at which time the "gold digger" helps "tight-wod" with his trouble. When Big Steve learns Bangles is involved with Sorrowful, he returns to New York to do something about it.
Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen
Director
Miss Madeline Fane is a famous California screen star who has been devoted to her baby son Michael since her husband's death the previous year. One morning she awakens to find Michael has been kidnapped. After a day, she calls in the police, who instantly begin an all-out search.
Torch Singer
Director
When she can't support her illegitimate child, an abandoned young woman puts her up for adoption and pursues a career as a torch singer. Years later, she then searches for the child she gave up.
Midnight Club
Director
With a sparkling script by Leslie Charteris, creator of "The Saint" - the latest crime wave has Scotland Yard baffled. Commissioner Hope (Sir Guy Standing) sends two of his officers (Billy Bevan and Charles McNaughton) to the Midnight Club to check up on a couple of shady characters - Colin Grant (Clive Brook) and Arthur Bradley (Allan Mowbray) and a girl, Iris Witney (Helen Vinson). There have been a number of jewel robberies around town recently, but, unknown to the police, these three have the perfect alibis!!! They have found "doubles", and while they are out committing the robberies, their doubles spend the night at the club, confusing the two officers who are on their tail.
The Girl in 419
Director
A hospital surgeon (James Dunn) protects a mystery woman (Gloria Stuart) who knows too much about a card-game murder.
She Done Him Wrong
Editor
New York singer and nightclub owner Lady Lou has more men friends than you can imagine. One of them is a vicious criminal who’s escaped and is on the way to see “his” girl, not realising she hasn’t exactly been faithful in his absence. Help is at hand in the form of young Captain Cummings, a local temperance league leader.
Madame Racketeer
Director
International con artist Martha Hicks a.k.a. Countess von Claudwig is released from another stay in prison and decides to treat her rheumatism with a stay at her estranged husband's hotel at a Wisconsin spa. There undercover, she checks in on the two daughters she abandoned as infants.
Sinners in the Sun
Director
A New York fashion model finds herself being pursued by a poor but honest garage mechanic and a rich philanderer.
The Last Flight
Editor
Cary, Shep, Bill, and Francis are pilots during World War I. The four friends, haunted by the devastation of the war, head to Paris instead of home, where they meet Nikki, an eccentric and wealthy young woman. Nikki is drawn to Cary, and the five friends, tagged by the boorish reporter, Frink, drink their way from Paris to Lisbon.
Woman Hungry
Editor
This film, believed lost, was based on William Vaughn Moody's 1906 play The Great Divide. The story was filmed as a silent film by MGM as The Great Divide (1925) and as an early silent/sound hybrid by First National also called The Great Divide (1929). Judith Temple has come West to Arizona for some excitement. As she says goodbye to her brother and his wife, who are returning to the East, Dr. Neil Cranford, who is in love with her, is called away to tend the broken ribs of a man injured in a barroom brawl.
Kismet
Editor
Hajj, a rascally beggar on the periphery of the court of Baghdad, schemes to marry his daughter to royalty and to win the heart of the queen of the castle himself. This film is believed lost.
The Song of the Flame
Editor
This was a screen version of the 1925 operetta by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Herbert Stohart, and George Gershwin. The story of the movie is about a peasant who is known as "The Flame" who leads a revolution in Russia. This peasant who is in love with a Russian prince saves his life by agreeing to sacrifice her virginity to an evil fellow-conspirator. This was an all Technicolor musical which was had a sequence in Vitascope (a Warner Brother's wide screen process)
Smiling Irish Eyes
Editor
A 1929 film directed by William A. Seiter.
Lilac Time
Editor
In France during World War I, a charming farm girl keeps a squadron of English pilots in good spirits as best as she can. She falls for a handsome newcomer who is already engaged.
Her Wild Oat
Editor
In this feature comedy, silent film star Colleen Moore plays a woman who owns a small lunch wagon and falls for a duke’s son, played by Larry Kent, who is pretending to be his own chauffeur. With her savings, she pursues him to a resort hotel, only to be mistaken for a duchess. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Národní filmový archív in 2007.
The White Monkey
Assistant Director
Two hundred fifty thousand have read this startling novel with its revelations on married life-its intimate story of the times and follies of new conventions that hurl their challenge to the old!
The Great Opium Case
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
The Crimson Clue
Director
A Nick Carter Mystery
$100,000 Kiss
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
Missing Millions
Director
A Nick Carter Mystery
The Diamond Trail
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
The Blackmailer's Bluff
Director
A Nick Carter mystery.
Who's Guilty?
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
Dodging the Law
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
Sealed Orders
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
The Spendthrift
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
Nick Carter Down East
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
Birds of Prey
Director
A Nick Carter mystery
Among the Counterfeiters
Director
Among the Counterfeiters has Nick Carter infiltrating a counterfeiting ring to save grandfather of a little girl who was accused of passing bogus bills.
Doing Their Bit
Miles O'Dowd
Little Kate and Janie O'Dowd are sent to their wealthy American uncle, Michael O'Dowd, after their Irish father loses his life on a World War I battlefield. Having been locked accidentally into O'Dowd's munitions plant one evening, the children catch sight of their intoxicated cousin Miles O'Dowd admitting two men into the factory. The girls recognize the two as spies they had seen on the boat to America sending signals to a German submarine. After the spies knock Miles cold, the children trap them in a die-stamping machine until help arrives.