Barbara Read
Actor · 1917 – 1963 · Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada
Born in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, Barbara Read was the daughter of a contractor. Under contract to Columbia, she was paid but never used for a single picture. She quit in disgust. She was later signed by Universal and was cast as one of the Craig sisters inThree Smart Girls (1936) along with Deanna Durbin and Nan Grey. This was Barbara's first and best remembered film. Her career was over by the time she married actor William Talman, of "Perry Mason" fame, in 1953. The couple had two children: Barbara ("Barbie") and William III ("Bobo"). The marriage was turbulent as both she and Talman suffered from alcohol problems. They divorced in 1960 with Barbara gaining custody of the children. Talman took over custody a year later when Barbara's alcoholism and mental/emotional problems became overbearing. Committed suicide at her Laguna Beach, California home when she turned on the gas jets of her stove and sealed the doors and windows. She left a suicide note blaming "ill health". Barbara Read bore a powerful likeness to Deanna Durbin, whose sister she was portraying in "Three Smart Girls". Date of Death: 11 December 1963, Laguna Beach, California (suicide)
Movies21
Movie7.5DramaRomanceAn elderly couple are forced to separate themselves from each other after their children refuse to take both into one house.
Make Way for Tomorrow
1937 · 228 votes
Movie5.5DramaCrimeRacketeer Gillin is paroled from prison and immediately goes to work trying to make an illegal buck from America's war effort. With rationing in effect the black market tire business is booming. Gillen's mob sets up car lots around town where they peddle stolen tires and "new" tires milled in the gangster's factories from cheap faulty materials. People begin to die in crashes as the defective tires fail. Bill Barry leads his fellow defense plant workers on a crusade to uncover the source of the black market rubber and bring the guilty to justice. Although clearly intended to warn the public about black market tire smuggling, Rubber Racketeers holds it own as a saga of mobsters versus an irate public.
Rubber Racketeers
1942 · 4 votes
Movie5.7WesternA dance hall girl is murdered and her body robbed of a quantity of gold obtained illegally. The killer flees into Death Valley and encounters the rightful owner of the gold and her sweetheart.
Death Valley
1946 · 3 votes
Movie6.5ComedyRomanceThe three Craig sisters – Penny, Kay, and Joan – go to New York to stop their divorced father from marrying gold digger Donna Lyons and reunite him with their mother.
Three Smart Girls
1936 · 27 votes
Movie10.0DramaDoctor in jungle works on cure for fever.
The Crime of Doctor Hallet
1938 · 1 votes
Movie9.0DramaThe adventures of a boy and his dog in a small town.
Ginger
1947 · 1 votes
Movie7.5ComedyRomanceTwo screwy characters travel to Hollywood and cause mischief.
Merry Go Round of 1938
1937 · 2 votes
Movie5.7DramaRomanceTwo married couples become engulfed in a storm of emotional fury when Doctor Leslie Yates runs into writer Doris Wilding, his old college flame, whom he has not seen in ten years. After reminiscing about their past, Doris and Leslie make a dinner date with their respective spouses. On the eve of the Yates's dinner party, Leslie's wife Helen brings home a magazine article written by Doris, which sparks Leslie's memory of his separation from her.
Married and in Love
1940 · 6 votes
Movie7.0CrimeDramaAn actor plots "the perfect crime" by confessing to murders he didn't commit.
The Man Who Cried Wolf
1937 · 3 votes
Movie7.3RomanceDramaA young girl begins to wonder if she really fits into the upper-class sorority she's trying to join.
Sorority House
1939 · 7 votes
Movie6.2WesternA man is bent on taking revenge on those responsible for his fiancée's death.
Coroner Creek
1948 · 31 votes
Movie6.7DramaWarAfter the First World War a group of German soldiers try to readjust to civilian life. A sequel to 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.
The Road Back
1937 · 9 votes
Movie6.2CrimeRomanceJed Marlowe is a brilliant, scheming, unscrupulous criminal lawyer whose specialty is defending criminal he knows is guilty but gets them off through loop-holes or bribery. Then his daughter, misled by her father’s courtroom performance, but unaware of his back-room tactics, marries the killer her father has just unjustly save from the electric chair. What’s a poor father to do?
The Spellbinder
1939 · 4 votes
Movie4.8Science FictionCrimeWhile investigating the theft of a valuable jade statue known as "The Missing Lady" -- and the subsequent murder of an art dealer -- imperceptible sleuth Lamont Cranston aka the Shadow finds himself being blamed for the crime. It doesn't help the Shadow's claims of innocence when more bodies begin piling up. Good thing he knows exactly who's guilty among an increasingly smaller group of suspects.
The Missing Lady
1946 · 12 votes
Movie5.5MysteryScience FictionFalsely accused of murdering a crooked newspaper reporter, suave detective Lamont Cranston -- aka the Shadow -- vows to track down the real killer.
Behind the Mask
1946 · 8 votes
Movie4.8CrimeDramaA man takes over the identity of a dead man while on the lam from a crime he didn't commit.
Key Witness
1947 · 14 votes
Movie5.8MysteryScience FictionThe Shadow (Kane Richmond) cracks a case of missing jewels, murder and plastics.
The Shadow Returns
1946 · 11 votes
Movie5.8ComedyThanks to a fib intended to ward off an annoying real estate developer, a young bachelor finds himself engaged to three different women and pursued by a fourth, a gangster's sister.
Too Many Women
1942 · 5 votes
Movie7.2ComedyTwo theatrical producers plan to get even with a demanding actress by tricking her into starring in the worst play they can find.
Curtain Call
1940 · 5 votes
Movie5.9CrimeComedyA former actor poses as the son of a wealthy man and gets involved in a murder in which the real son is the suspect.
Midnight Intruder
1938 · 7 votes
Movie7.5ActionAdventureStory of a dog that is fanatically devoted to its master.
The Mighty Treve
1937 · 2 votes