
Gertrude Michael
Actor · 1911 – 1964 · Talladega, Alabama, USA
Gertrude Michael (June 1, 1911, Talladega, Alabama – December 31, 1964, Beverly Hills, California) was an American film, stage and television actress. Born as Lillian Gertrude Michael in Talladega, Alabama, she reportedly graduated from high school at the age of 14. She became a radio singer on the radio. She attended the University of Alabama and Converse College, Cincinnati. Her childhood home in Talladega, Alabama was destroyed by fire in 2007. In 1929 in Cincinnati she made her stage debut in a stock company. She subsequently appeared on Broadway in Rachel Crothers' Caught Wet (1931). She entered the movies playing Richard Arlen's finaceé in Wayward (1932), but her best-remembered role is probably as Rita Ross in Murder at the Vanities (1934), one of the last pre-Code films, in which she sang an ode to marijuana (Sweet Marijuana). She had an affair with writer Paul Cain (aka Peter Ruric).After they broke up, Cain wrote the role of the alcoholic lover (based on Michael) in his only novel published during his lifetime, Fast One. Gertrude Michael died, aged 53, from undisclosed causes, in Beverly Hills, California. Description above from the Wikipedia article Gertrude Michael,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies24
Movie6.3ComedyRomanceBold performer Tira works as dancing beauty and lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent financial need, she agrees to a risky new number: she'll put her head into the lion's mouth! With this attraction, the circus makes it to New York and Tira can pursue her dearest occupation — flirting with rich men and accepting expensive presents.
I'm No Angel
1933 · 66 votes
Movie6.1HistoryDramaThe queen of Egypt barges the Nile and flirts with Mark Antony and Julius Caesar.
Cleopatra
1934 · 102 votes
Movie7.1DramaA single mistake puts a 19-year old girl behind bars, where she experiences the terrors and torments of women in prison.
Caged
1950 · 92 votes
Movie5.6MusicMysteryShortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's Vanities, someone is attempting to injure the leading lady Ann Ware, who wants to marry leading man Eric Lander. Stage manager Jack Ellery calls in his friend, policeman Bill Murdock, to help him investigate. Bill thinks Jack is offering to let him see the show from an unusual viewpoint after he forgot to get him tickets for the performance, but then they find the corpse of a murdered woman and Bill immediately suspects Eric of the crime.
Murder at the Vanities
1934 · 14 votes
Movie5.4WesternOld enemies stationed together at an Army post vie for the same woman.
Bugles in the Afternoon
1952 · 14 votes
Movie7.2ComedyTwo absentee American parents get to know their three children again after spending five years in Panama.
Darling, How Could You!
1951 · 5 votes
Movie7.0DramaRomanceA stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Flamingo Road
1949 · 60 votes
Movie8.0DramaCrimeA gangland murder is the motivating factor of this fast-moving crime drama. George Murphy stars as reporter Kent Shevlin, whose investigation of the murder leads to a tenure as a temporary FBI agent.
Woman Trap
1936 · 1 votes
Movie5.4ComedyMusicA country bumpkin becomes a singing sensation on the radio.
Mr. Dodd Takes the Air
1937 · 9 votes
Movie7.0DramaAn aspiring writer and her boyfriend, a professional agitator head off to the Big Apple in search of good fortune. Unfortunately, the agitator soon finds himself in trouble with the cops. Meanwhile the writer attempts to become a Greenwich Village Bohemian type. She and her new friends are all starving for their art until a kindly gent offers them financial assistant. They refuse on principle. Tragedy pays a call when the writer learns that her boyfriend has been untrue.
I Believed in You
1934 · 1 votes
Movie5.3ComedyBroadway producer Nicksie North and press agent Scoop Trimble find an investor for their next show who insists that they cast his ex-girlfriend, Clarice Sheldon, in the lead role and rehearse out of town. The crew set up on a family farm, and all is well until the leading man falls for the farmer's daughter, Patience Bingham.
The Farmer's Daughter
1940 · 6 votes
Movie7.0ComedyMusicIn I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby, Broderick Crawford plays a sentimental gangster who abducts songwriter Johnny Downs and forces him to write a love ballad. It is Crawford's hope that the song will reach out and touch his long-lost childhood sweetheart. I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby was based on James Edward Grant's short story Trouble in B Flat; echoes of the basic premise later resurfaced in the 1957 "A" picture The Girl Can't Help It.
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby
1940 · 2 votes
Movie6.4ComedyMysteryThere are plenty of guilty secrets at the school where Hildegarde Withers teaches. When she finds the body of the pretty music teacher, she calls in her old friend Inspector Piper, who promptly arrests the obvious suspect. Clues multiply and everyone looks suspicious as Piper and Miss Withers continue their battle of the sexes.
Murder on the Blackboard
1934 · 10 votes
Movie5.7DramaCrimeA detective who has "four hours to kill" before delivering his prisoner, an escaped killer, spends the time in the lobby of a Broadway theater where a musical is playing. The film focuses on the relationship between the two men, and also between various characters in the theater audience, staff and cast.
Four Hours to Kill!
1935 · 6 votes
Movie6.7ComedyCrimeAfter an extended stay in England, Sophie Lang returns to America. She is beautiful, sophisticated--and a notorious jewel thief. A New York police detective who's been trying to nail her finally comes up with what seems a foolproof scheme--to catch her off guard by having her fall for a handsome and suave jewel thief who happens to be in the U.S. traveling under an assumed name.
The Notorious Sophie Lang
1934 · 6 votes
Movie7.0CrimeDramaJudy Wilson (Gale Storm), feeling neglected because both of her parents are working in defense plants, meets and falls in love with Danny Chester (Jackie Cooper), who enlists in the Navy and is sent to San Diego for training. She accepts an invitation to go on a ride to San Diego with her friends Herb (Neyle Morrow), Opal (Evelyn Eaton)and Jerry (Jimmy Zahner) but doesn't know the car has been stolen.
Where Are Your Children?
1943 · 2 votes
Movie5.4MusicReporter Miss Lee is looking for a story and approaches George White as he's assembling the latest edition of his famous revue. As it turns out, she has lots of backstage gossip to choose from
George White's Scandals
1934 · 8 votes
Movie5.8DramaCrimeA crusading psychiatrist battles a sadistic female warden to improve conditions at a women's prison.
Women's Prison
1955 · 19 votes
Movie6.8CrimeDramaIn order to give up her life of crime and go straight, renowned jewel thief Sophie Lang fakes her own death and retires to London. She soon finds a job as a companion to a wealthy old lady who is also a jewel collector. One day her employer decides to take an ocean trip to the US, taking Sophie with her. She also takes along a $200,000 diamond, which she locks up in the ship's safe. Of course, the diamond is soon stolen from the safe. A reporter also happens to be aboard the ship, and he has had his suspicions about who Sophie really is. Sophie has to find the real thief and recover the jewel before the ship docks in New York, because an investigation could reveal her true identity.
The Return of Sophie Lang
1936 · 5 votes
Movie6.3DramaStory of a mother's antagonism to her son's wife. Based on the novel "Wild Beauty" by Mateel Howe Farnham.
Wayward
1932 · 3 votes
Movie4.3DramaTom and Cora Elliott love their active social life so much that they neglect their daughter Mary and son Les. Fred Mason, Tom's neighbor and the doctor at the defense plant employing Tom, worries about the effect that Tom and Cora's drinking and socializing have on the children....
Faces in the Fog
1944 · 3 votes
- Movie8.0Mystery
What would you do in this house of fear... if you knew that your husband killed your former flame?
Three's a Crowd
1945 · 1 votes
Movie8.0CrimeDramaReformed jewel-thief Sophie Lang, tired of being questioned by the New York City police every time a jewel disappears, decides to head for California only to get into more trouble.
Sophie Lang Goes West
1937 · 2 votes
- Movie10.0Comedy
A group of private detectives working for a jeweler pursue a gang of thieves in Argentina.
Just like a Woman
1939 · 1 votes
Series7
TV7.7MysteryDramaThe cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.
Perry Mason
1957 · 140 votes
TV6.8DramaComedyFour Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953. The original premise was that Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell would take turns starring in episodes. However, several other performers took the lead from time to time, including Ronald Colman and Joan Fontaine. Blake Edwards was among the writers and directors who contributed to the series. Edwards created the recurring character of illegal gambling house operator Willie Dante for Dick Powell to play on this series. The character was later revamped and spun off in his own series starring Howard Duff, then-husband of Lupino. The pilot for Meet McGraw, starring Frank Lovejoy, aired here, as did another episode in which Lovejoy recreated his role of Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone, from the radio drama Nightbeat.
Four Star Playhouse
1952 · 11 votes
TV6.0DramaThe 20th Century Fox Hour is an American drama anthology series televised in the United States on CBS from 1955 to 1957. Some of the shows in this series were restored, remastered and shown on the Fox Movie Channel in 2002 under the title Hour of Stars. The season one episode Overnight Haul, starring Richard Conte and Lizabeth Scott, was released in Australia as a feature film.
The 20th Century Fox Hour
1955 · 10 votes
TV6.7Action & AdventureDramaSea Hunt is an American adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular in syndication for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges as ex-Navy frogman Mike Nelson, and was produced by Ivan Tors.
Sea Hunt
1958 · 20 votes
TV4.6DramaCavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company, although it occasionally presented a musical, such as an adaptation of Show Boat, and condensed biographies of popular composers. It was initially broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1953, and later on television from 1952 to 1957. Originally on CBS, the series pioneered the use of anthology drama for company audio advertising. Cavalcade of America documented historical events using stories of individual courage, initiative and achievement, often with feel-good dramatizations of the human spirit's triumph against all odds. This was consistent with DuPont's overall conservative philosophy and legacy as an American company dating back to 1802. The company's motto, "Maker of better things for better living through chemistry," was read at the beginning of each program, and the dramas emphasized humanitarian progress, particularly improvements in the lives of women, often through technological innovation.
Cavalcade of America
1952 · 5 votes
TV8.8DramaLong-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951 · 8 votes
TV7.2DramaComedySchlitz Playhouse of Stars is an anthology series that was telecast from 1951 until 1959 on CBS. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. The title was shortened to Schlitz Playhouse, beginning with the fall 1957 season.
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951 · 5 votes