
Doro Merande
Actor · 1892 – 1975 · Columbus, Kansas, USA
Plain, angular Doro Merande was one of those delightful character actresses you couldn't take your eyes off of, no matter how minuscule the part. She excelled at playing older than she was -- doting aunts, inveterate gossips, curt secretaries and small-minded townspeople -- all topped with an amusing warble in her voice and bristly eccentric edge. Too bad then that she wasn't used more in films, but she preferred live theater and based herself for the most part on the East Coast. She was born Dora Matthews in Kansas in 1892 and orphaned as a child. Growing up in boarding schools, she headed to New York and pursued an acting career immediately after finishing her education. She appeared long and hard on the stock stage before making it on Broadway at age 43. She settled there sparking over 25 Broadway plays in her lifetime, including a scene-stealing turn in the classic Thorton Wilder play "Our Town" which brought her to Hollywood to preserve the role on film. On and off she remained a delightful film and TV cameo player with roles in The Gazebo (1959), The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966), and The Front Page (1974). She and star Enid Markey (Jane of the "Tarzan" film silents) starred together as pampering aunts in the sitcom Bringing Up Buddy (1960), but, despite promising ratings, the two veteran actresses did not get along and the series folded after only a season. Ms. Merande was also a recurring presence for Jackie Gleason on his variety show. She died, in fact, of a stroke while there in Miami to film an episode. Date of Birth 31 March 1892, Columbia, Kansas Date of Death 1 November 1975, New York City, New York (stroke)
Movies24
Movie7.0ComedyRomanceWhen his family goes away for summer vacation, a hitherto faithful publishing executive with an overactive imagination is tempted by an attractive new neighbor.
The Seven Year Itch
1955 · 1K votes
Movie7.1DramaCrimeWhen illegal card dealer and recovering heroin addict Frankie Machine gets out of prison, he decides to straighten up. Armed with nothing but an old drum set, Frankie tries to get honest work as a drummer. But when his former employer and his old drug dealer re-enter his life, Frankie finds it hard to stay clean and eventually finds himself succumbing to his old habits.
The Man with the Golden Arm
1955 · 263 votes
Movie7.3ComedyRuthless Chicago newspaper editor Walter Burns resorts to dubious motives in order to get top reporter Hildy Johnson to cover one more big crime story before retirement.
The Front Page
1974 · 395 votes
Movie6.5DramaHistoryA young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal.
The Cardinal
1963 · 54 votes
Movie6.5ComedyWarWhen a Soviet submarine gets stuck on a sandbar off the coast of a New England island, its commander orders his second-in-command, Lieutenant Rozanov, to get them moving again before there is an international incident. Rozanov seeks assistance from the island locals, including the police chief and a vacationing television writer, while trying to allay their fears of a Communist invasion by claiming he and his crew are Norwegian sailors.
The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!
1966 · 139 votes
Movie6.4DramaA ruthless Southern opportunist tries to buy his cousin's land, and when thwarted, brings several tragedies to the lives of his loved ones.
Hurry Sundown
1967 · 39 votes
Movie7.0ComedyRomanceWhile traveling home from Vegas, an amorous lounge singer named Dino gets conned by a local mechanic/songwriter into staying in town for the night. The mechanic's songwriting partner, Orville, offers Dino his home for overnight lodging and enlists a local waitress/call girl to pose as his wife in order to placate Dino's urges.
Kiss Me, Stupid
1964 · 222 votes
Movie6.9ComedyCrimeTV writer Elliott Nash buries a blackmailer under the new gazebo in his suburban backyard. But the nervous man can't let the body rest there.
The Gazebo
1959 · 39 votes
Movie7.1DramaMysteryVirginia Cunningham is confused upon finding herself in a mental hospital, with no memory of her arrival at the institution. Tormented by delusions and unable to even recognize her husband, Robert, she is treated by Dr. Mark Kik, who is determined to get to the root of her mental illness. As her treatment progresses, flashbacks depict events in Virginia's life that may have contributed to her instability.
The Snake Pit
1948 · 118 votes
Movie5.4CrimeDramaDr. John Carpenter takes the job of running a health center in a low-income district. He enlists three women to help out who — unbeknownst to him — are actually nuns in street clothes. The church wants to improve the neighborhood but fears that nuns in full habit would be poorly received. Unaware of her unavailability, John falls for Sister Michelle, serenading her with his guitar — which, luckily for him, effectively wears away at her religious resolve.
Change of Habit
1969 · 29 votes
Movie4.7ComedyCrimeEx-gangster Tony Banks is called out of retirement by mob kingpin God to carry out a hit on fellow mobster "Blue Chips" Packard. When Banks demurs, God kidnaps his daughter Darlene on his luxury yacht.
Skidoo
1968 · 26 votes
Movie6.6MysteryInsurance investigator Sam Donovan is looking into the apparent suicide of a man in a small Midwestern town. All clues leads him into suspecting murder. Unfortunately, no one wants to assist him with the case, including Sheriff Larry Best.
Cover Up
1949 · 27 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
Movie7.2ComedyPosing as a man over 70, a lecturer (Clifton Webb) enters an old-folks home to prove age is a state of mind.
Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell
1951 · 9 votes
Movie5.9DramaRomanceChange comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. We see birth, life and death in this small community.
Our Town
1940 · 38 votes
Movie6.8DramaA newly promoted plant supervisor finds himself in the position of having to announce a layoff of his fellow workers.
The Whistle at Eaton Falls
1951 · 5 votes
Movie7.1ComedyIn early 1900s' Pennsylvania, Mr. Pennypacker has two company offices and two families with a combined total of 17 children. With an office in Harrisburg and an office in Philadelphia, he has successfully kept two separate homes. However, when an emergency requires his oldest son to find him, Mr. Pennypacker's dual life is revealed.
The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker
1959 · 7 votes
Movie6.3ComedyDramaThe children of Iowa farmers find love, with mixed results, at the state fair.
State Fair
1933 · 28 votes
Movie7.0DramaJudy Peters is about to be sentenced after she has pled guilty to her third offense of prostitution, when Dr. Nelson interrupts and tells her story to the court. (Mubi.)
Bondage
1933 · 1 votes
MovieTV MovieComedyThe life and complex relationships of ambitious college professor Walter Hubbard and the titular character, Elizabeth Owen, exploring the deeply intertwined personal and professional conflicts he faces, and how Elizabeth's presence and their history together reshape his trajectory.
Movie6.5DramaRomanceNora Ryan, a poor Irish girl, living in New York decides to change her life by working as a personal maid for the wealthy, Gary family.
Personal Maid
1931 · 2 votes
Movie4.8DramaRomanceZani is an unusual young man who has spent his entire life in a zoo in Budapest. His only true friends are the zoo's animals. When Zani meets Eve, a young orphan girl, they fall in love. To be together Eve must somehow escape from her strict orphan school. When she does she and Zani must hide overnight in the zoo - where everyone is looking to find them.
Zoo in Budapest
1933 · 15 votes
Movie7.5ComedyDramaAn unemployed loafer who spends his time playing pool decides he's ready to look for a job so he can secure his girlfriend's parents' approval for their marriage.
Bad Boy
1935 · 2 votes
Movie6.0DramaRomanceA Hawaiian naval nurse weds a widowed officer partly because he has a crippled daughter.
Navy Wife
1935 · 2 votes
Series8
TV8.5Sci-Fi & FantasyMysteryAn anthology series containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.
The Twilight Zone
1959 · 1.1K votes
TV7.8MysteryDramaA television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955 · 266 votes
TV6.7CrimeThriller is an American anthology television series that aired during the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons on NBC. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing a mix of self-contained, macabre weird-horror and morbid, hitchockian crime stories, in some of which he also starred.
Thriller
1960 · 20 votes
TV7.0Talk ShowOmnibus is an American, commercially sponsored, educational television series.
Omnibus
1952 · 4 votes
TV6.7DramaSam Benedict is an American legal drama that aired on NBC from September 1962 to March 1963. The series was created and executive produced by E. Jack Neuman. Sam Benedict is based on real-life lawyer Jacob W. "Jake" Erlich, who served as technical consultant for the series.
Sam Benedict
1962 · 3 votes
TV6.4Sci-Fi & FantasyTales of Tomorrow is an American anthology science fiction series that was performed and broadcast live on ABC from 1951 to 1953. The series covered such stories as Frankenstein, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Thomas Mitchell as Captain Nemo, and many others featuring such performers as Boris Karloff, Brian Keith, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Bruce Cabot, Franchot Tone, Gene Lockhart, Walter Abel, Leslie Nielsen, and Paul Newman. The series had many similarities to the later Twilight Zone which also covered one of the same stories, "What You Need". In total it ran for eighty-five 30-minute episodes.
Tales of Tomorrow
1951 · 7 votes
TV7.7DramaThe New Breed
1961 · 3 votes
TV9.0ComedyBringing Up Buddy is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS during the 1960–1961 season.