Madge Evans
Nacimiento : 1909-07-01, New York City, New York, USA
Muerte : 1981-04-26
Historia
Lovely Madge Evans was the perennial nice girl in films of the 1930's. By then, she had been in front of the camera for many years, starting with Fairy Soap commercials at the age of two (she sat on a bar of soap holding a bunch of violets with the tag line reading "have you a little fairy in your home?"). 'Baby Madge' also lent her name to a children's hat company. In 1914, aged five, she was picked out by talent scouts to appear in the William Farnum movie The Sign of the Cross (1914), followed by The Seven Sisters (1915) with Marguerite Clark.
By the end of the following year, she had amassed some twenty film credits, appearing with such noted contemporary stars as Pauline Frederick or Alice Brady. All of her early films were made on the East Coast, at studios in Ft.Lee, New Jersey. In 1917 (aged eight), Madge made her Broadway debut in 'Peter Ibbetson' with John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore. She resumed her stage career in 1926 as an ingenue with 'Daisy Mayme' and the following year appeared with Billie Burke in Noel Coward's costume drama 'The Marquise' (1927).
Her pleasing looks and personality soon attracted the attention of Hollywood and she was eventually signed by MGM in 1931. During the next decade, she appeared in several A-grade productions, notably as Lionel Barrymore's daughter in MGM's Dinner at Eight (1933) and as the dependable Agnes Wickfield in one of the best-ever filmed versions of David Copperfield (1935). She co-starred opposite James Cagney in the gangster movie The Mayor of Hell (1933), Spencer Tracy in The Show-Off (1934) and listened to Bing Crosby crooning the title song in Pennies from Heaven (1936). Madge received praise for her performance as the star of Beauty for Sale (1933) and The New York Times review of January 13 1934 described her acting in Fugitive Lovers (1934) (opposite Robert Montgomery ) as 'spontaneous and captivating'. Many of her 'typical American girl' roles did not allow her to express aspects of the greater acting range she undoubtedly possessed. Too often she was cast as the 'nice girl' - and those rarely make much of a dramatic impact. On the few occasions she was assigned the role of 'other woman' , such as the Helen Hayes-starrer What Every Woman Knows (1934), audiences found her character difficult to believe and disassociate from her all-round wholesome image. When her contract with MGM expired in 1937, Madge wound down her film career and, following her 1939 marriage, concentrated on being the wife of celebrated playwright Sidney Kingsley. She last appeared on stage in one of his plays, "The Patriots", in 1943.
Self (archive footage)
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
'Dinner at Eight' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
Julie Armstrong
A young captain hoping to replace the U.S. Army's horses with mechanized vehicles faces court-martial after his commanding officer, who's opposed to modern changes, is killed.
Anne Wesson
The survivors from a plane crash are washed up on an island where the only inhabitants are Mr. Taylor and his servant, Ping. The mismatched group must learn to get along and work together if they are to convince Taylor to let them borrow his boat and return to the main land.
Nell O'Neill
A phony psychic tries to solve a murder that took place during her seance.
Patricia Booth
Two reporters pose as man and wife in order to get the goods on a munitions supplier and the rumours of war in Europe.
Susan Sprague
Larry Poole, in prison on a false charge, promises an inmate that when he gets out he will look up and help out a family. The family turns out to be a young girl, Patsy Smith, and her elderly grandfather who need lots of help. This delays Larry from following his dream and going to Venice and becoming a gondolier. Instead, he becomes a street singer and, while singing in the street, meets a pretty welfare worker, Susan Sprague. She takes a dim view of Patsy's welfare under the guardianship of Larry and her grandfather and starts proceedings to have Patsy placed in an orphanage.
Ann Chester
Jim's father wants to marry Eugenia, but her sister Netta refuses to allow it. When Jim sees Ann at a club, he falls for her even though she is with Lord Priory. He meets her the next day at the riding path, but she quickly loses him. He searches all over for her, not knowing that his father's hopeful fiancée is her Aunt. As his caricature work suffers as he searches, he is fired from his paper. But he makes a comeback with the comics 'Rags to Riches' which is based upon the Pett's. But this upsets the Pett's so much that they go back to New York, and he follows, being careful not to let them know that he is the one who draws the strip that parodies them.
Toni Adams
An escaped lunatic, a mysterious swami, and various lovers all have designs on a famous opera singer.
Ann Devlin
A reporter and his newspaper's attorney try to gather evidence that will put a notorious gangster behind bars.
Ruth McAllan
El objetivo es una titánica empresa, un túnel submarino que cruce el Océano Atlántico y conecte Gran Bretaña con Estados Unidos. Diversas erupciones y desastres naturales amenazan con convertir la obra en un gran fracaso.
Helen Sherwood
A G-man woos a newswoman and corners bank robbers with a hostage in a factory.
Rosalind Rockwell
A recently-fired advertising executive starts his own company, Confidential Services, to help clients solve their unusual and problematic situations.
Maxine Bennett
Un editor de libros vive con su mujer y su hijo pequeño, pero ella decide divorciarse y abandona a su familia por un millonario. Algún tiempo después, la ambiciosa mujer intentará conseguir, con la ayuda de su suegra, la custodia del niño.
Agnes Wickfield as a Woman
Inglaterra, siglo XIX. Cuando el padre del joven David muere, su madre se vuelve a casar. Su padrastro es un hombre cruel que, después de enviudar, manda a David a Londres para que viva de su trabajo. Adaptación de la famosa novela de Charles Dickens. Obtuvo tres nominaciones a los Oscar, incluyendo la de mejor película.
Lady Sybil Tenterden
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.
Frances Clark
Alguien está asesinando a los jugadores de los Cardinals de St. Louis. Ahora el pitcher del equipo es la próxima víctima (y de hecho ya ha sufrido dos atentados).
Julie
Expatriates and foreign correspondents mix in a Paris bistro...
Lady Mary Fielding
Based on an AJ Cronin novel, a disgraced doctor exiled to the Canary Islands, meets and falls in love with a married woman.
Mary Adams
El presidente Roosevelt nombra nuevo Secretario de Diversiones a un productor teatral, con el fin de levantar los ánimos del pueblo estadounidense. El nuevo secretario pronto se harta de los grupos de presión que intentan destruir su departamento.
Amy Fisher Piper
Aubrey hace creer a Amy que es un pez gordo del ferrocarril. Cuando se casan, debido a los gastos excesivos han de refugiarse en casa de los padres de Amy. Aubrey pierde el empleo, pero ayuda a un amigo a vender una patente por un buen precio, y vuelve a las andadas.
Letty Morris
In a hopeful effort to evade gangster Legs Caffey, chorus girl Letty Morris hops a bus in New York bound for Los Angeles--with Legs close on her heels. Along the way the bus picks up escaped convict Paul Porter, who quickly allies himself with Letty. With the police in hot pursuit and Legs monitoring his every move with Letty, Paul is running out of both time and ideas.
Paula Jordan
Una mujer prepara una cena para unos amigos. Quiere animar a su marido, cuya salud está un poco resentida. No obstante, invita al responsable de las principales preocupaciones de su marido, un hombre de negocios que pretende hacerse con las acciones de la empresa que su marido tiene.
Dorothy Day
In this brutal prison drama a hen-pecked husband is sentenced to prison after getting caught with his hand in the company till. He is sent to a high-rise facility in LA. It seems the fellow was only following the instructions of his domineering, constantly nagging wife who, as soon as he is put away, takes up with a more successful businessman. This causes her new lover's ex-lover to get insanely jealous and kill the conniving wife.
Anne Ainsley
Tres generaciones de vodeviles luchan por el estrellato en el escenario y en la pantalla.
Letty Lawson
A beautiful woman lands a job at an exclusive salon that deals with the wives of wealthy businessmen. Her contact with these men leads to a series of affairs.
Dorothy Griffith
A Patsy Gargan, un antiguo criminal, sus corruptos compinches políticos le pagan sus servicios nombrándolo inspector de un reformatorio. Al principio no muestra ningún interés por la escuela, pero la simpatía que siente por los niños que son víctimas de abusos y maltrato por parte del despiadado director y sus matones, lo empuja a aceptar el trabajo.
Joan
On leave in Italy, Lt. Tommy Knowlton falls in love with Jean Standish, who's not only married, but is the daughter of his submarine's commander. Friction between the two officers becomes intolerable once at sea and after Commander Toler is forced to abandon Tommy's best friend topside while the sub dives to escape enemy planes, Tommy is no longer able to contain his anger.
Dorothy Mason
Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she's a special investigator for a streetcar company he's repeatedly victimized.
Claire
A satire about the power of publicity. Robert Montgomery plays Jeff Bidwell, a dashing Broadway press agent who has his own private club where he cultivates the rich and powerful. With the help of his selfless ex-wife (Madge Evans), Jeff molds an illiterate, suicidal young woman (Sally Eilers) into a celebrity socialite.
June Marcher
El jefe de un grupo de vagabundos del Central Park mejora su aspecto, del que no reniega, por el amor que siente por una joven que ha perdido la memoria. Cuando ella la recupera, él se convierte, de nuevo, en vagabundo.
Shirley
Two sailors (William Haines and Cliff Edwards) are leaving the US Navy after 10 years. In their spare time, one of them (Haines) invents a carburetor that should increase the speed that powered boats will run, but all they succeed in doing is sinking the Admiral's barge. After discharge, broke and out of work, they find work with a boat builder who wants the fastest race boat in the world. They design the boat, carburetor and the engine but lack of money and the foreclosure of the business hinders their efforts to prove the new design.
Rosalie
El hijo de unos inmigrantes italianos consigue una beca y va a estudiar a Yale. Durante cuatro años aprenderá sobre fútbol, amor y prejuicios clasistas.
Laura O'Neil
WBLA is on the air, presenting the live music, the sudsy dramas and the sell-sell-sell of commercial interludes that keep consumers buying and sponsors smiling. But one sponsor, a producer of plumbing supplies, isn’t happy. So WBLA scriptwriter Bill Grimes is bounced from his job, setting in motion this movie’s turn from comedic to darkly tragic. William Haines, two years removed from being Tinseltown’s top male star, plays Grimes in a melodrama noted for its glimpses of live radio production and for a Depression-era ethos that includes peroxide cuties eager to land a job, a sugar daddy or both.
Polaire
A trio of money-hungry women rent a luxurious penthouse, spending their dough on drink and debonair clothing, backbiting and catfighting as they steal each other's boyfriends.
Mary Blayne
A daydreaming dramatist and his beloved persevere through hard times in the hope that one of his plays will be a hit.
Anne
A wealthy soldier returns home after WWI, discovers his socialite fiancee no longer wants to marry him, and weds an admitted gold-digger he's just met after a night of drinking and partying.
Barbara 'Babs' Grant
Complicada historia sobre la vivencia de un padre acusado de haber asesinado al amante de su hija.
Miss 'Missy' Ruby
El criador de caballos Jim Rellence se siente orgulloso de sus caballos y exalta con placer sus virtudes para los potenciales compradores. Hasta que un día, su yegua favorita sufre un accidente durante una tormenta, y no tiene cura. Tío Ben decide adoptar los potros de la yegua, y más tarde, el caballo Tommy Boy cae en manos de un mafioso que proyecta transformarlo en un campeón...
Janice
An Indian jewel merchant goes from penniless to wealthy in this story about gratitude.
Helen
Two bored couples think they can find happiness if they exchange spouses for the evening.
Newspaper columnist helps finishing school students get out of trouble after the night club in which they go to see him is raided.
Sylvia
Duncan, the son of a village postmaster, is in love with Sylvia, daughter of a rich and snobbish family. He enrolls at West Point but ends up having a fist fight with Sylvia’s other suitor, Bert, his classmate at the academy.
Lisbeth
An inventor, David Hammond is the son of a ship's captain. He leaves his sweetheart, Lisbeth Bixler, and goes to the city to promote his invention. Lisbeth's father, an unsuccessful artist, deserts his family, secretly intending to commit suicide.
Patty Barnes
Little Patty Barnes lives with her grandfather, Captain Amos Barnes, in a rickety shack on the New England coast. The wealthy Mrs. Gaythorne, who wishes to adopt Patty, instructs James Henley to secure the mortgage on the shack, and when Amos, now homeless and penniless, departs for the poor farm, Patty is forced to live with the cruel old woman.
Deanie Consadine
In order to help her poverty-stricken family, Jonnie Consadine, a strong-willed young woman from the Blue Ridge Mountains, comes to the city and takes a job in a mill, while her uncle, Pros Passmore, continues his endless search for a lost silver mine.
Ruth Le Page - as a child
A renegade American and his innocent daughter become entangled in the snares of German secret agents during the First World War.
Ruth, as a Child
True Blue begins with the marriage of black-sheep British nobleman Gilbert Brockhurst to the daughter of a Western rancher. When he learns that he has inherited his father's title and estate, Brockhurst deserts his wife and young son Bob. Upon attaining adulthood, Bob becomes the boss of his grandfather's ranch.
Self
Madge Evans, World Film Corp. juvenile star, is sent to her Quaker grandparents, Timothy and Tabitha Mendenhall, when her father and mother go to serve in World War I. After bidding farewell to the World stars, Madge goes to her grandparent's home where she experiences stern discipline.
Marjorie
When his wife Grace inherits her father's stock, John Miller, the president of the Western Power and Development Company, becomes a millionaire and moves to New York with his family. Beset by business problems, Miller pays little attention to his wife, and Grace, feeling neglected, takes up with a bohemian set. Among her new acquaintances she meets Stuart Mordant, the attorney for Thomas Hurd, a business rival of Miller's. Grace seeks refuge from loneliness in Mordant, who makes a bargain with Hurd to gain control of her husband's company for half a million dollars.
Georgia Gwynne, as a girl
The New South is a silent 1916 drama.
Jane Baxter
Seventeen year old William Sylvanus Baxter has fallen madly in love with young coquette, Lola Pratt. After spending all of his money on the fickle girl, she runs off with an older man. William now heartbroken, contemplates suicide, until a friend from childhood, May Parcher, pays a visit and William decides to fall in love with her.
Dot
Janet Hall (Ethel Clayton) is "wronged" by Henry Dalton (Montagu Love) and becomes pregnant. She has the child and begs Dalton to marry her but he refuses. However, when he comes to a sudden end, he leaves her with a cottage and a small income. Then she meets and falls in love with Dale Overton (Irving Cummings), a minister who's fond of preaching the virtues of charity and forgiveness.
Nannie Stevens
Silent film drama...
Bessie
When Doris Baker spends her husband Dick into serious debt, he embezzles funds from the bank where he works to cover some speculative investments. He is joined in these plans by one of the bank's directors, but when Doris unknowingly snubs the director's wife, he pulls out his aid. Dick finds himself in serious trouble, and then Doris leaves him after an argument. She is about to leave for the Orient with her daughter Bessie, a friend, Mrs. Prescott, and an admirer, Patrick Alliston, but they are stopped at the station because Dick is believed to be with them. He isn't, and his difficulties drive him to an aborted suicide attempt. Doris finally wakes up to what is going on and reconciles with Dick. The bank examiner looks over the books and helps Dick get back on his feet, much to the director's chagrin.
Clara
Mici is the middle of seven sisters, who all believe if a younger sister marries first, the oldest sisters all doomed to be old maids. The elder sisters conspire to have the younger, pretty Mici sent away to a convent school. Mici manages to slip away and attend a fancy party, where she meets Count Horkoy. They fall in love and to the delight of Mici's sisters, the Count also finds suitable husbands for all of them.
