Nora Cecil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nora Cecil (September 20, 1878 – May 1, 1951) was a British-American character actress whose 30-year career spanned both the silent and sound film eras. Cecil's career began on the stage, where she appeared in a single Broadway production, The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, which ran for more than 240 performances at the Broadway Theatre in 1901-02. (A 1930 newspaper article says that Cecil "made her debut, three decades ago, on the London stage.") Cecil appeared in well over 100 feature films and film shorts. In 1915, she moved from the stage into films, her first appearance being in a starring role in The Arrival of Perpetua, directed by Émile Chautard. She often played "thin-lipped, stern-visaged dowagers and forbidding mothers-in-law" and "welfare workers, landladies, schoolmistresses and maiden aunts". One of the most significant roles was in the W.C. Fields vehicle, The Old Fashioned Way in 1934. Some of the other notable films in which Cecil appeared include: Ernst Lubitsch's historical romance, The Merry Widow, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald; the 1939 version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Mickey Rooney; the John Ford classic, Stagecoach, with John Wayne. Her final acting performance was in a featured role in Mourning Becomes Electra in 1947, starring Rosalind Russell.
Stagecoach
as Boone's Landlady (uncredited)A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of...
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I Married a Witch
as Harriet Wooley (uncredited)A 17th-century witch returns to wreak havoc in the life of a descendant of the Puritan witch...
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Hell's Angels
as Helen's Maid (uncredited)When the Great War breaks out, brothers Roy and Monte Rutledge, each attending Oxford...
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The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
as Hospital Nurse (uncredited)A small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild...
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Union Pacific
as Snoring Woman on Train (uncredited)One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad...
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Nothing Sacred
as Schoolteacher (uncredited)When a small-town girl is incorrectly diagnosed with a rare, deadly disease, an unknowing...
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The Bitter Tea of General Yen
as MissionaryAn American missionary is gradually seduced by a courtly warlord holding her in Shanghai.
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Design for Living
as Tom's Secretary (uncredited)An independent woman can't choose between the two men she loves so the trio agree to try living...
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Pack Up Your Troubles
as Welfare Association Officer (uncredited)The story begins in 1917 with Stan and Ollie being drafted into the U.S. Army to fight in World...
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The Sea of Grass
as Mrs. Ryan - Nurse (uncredited)On America's frontier, a St. Louis woman marries a New Mexico cattleman who is seen as a tyrant...
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The Merry Widow
as Animal Woman (uncredited)A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
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The Bank Dick
as Lompoc Ladies Auxiliary (uncredited)Egbert Sousé becomes an unexpected hero when a bank robber falls over a bench he's occupying....
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Fury
as Albert's Mother (uncredited)Joe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to...
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The Thin Man Goes Home
as Miss PeavyOn a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
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Hail the Conquering Hero
as Train Ticket Clerk (uncredited)Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action,...
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Lady on a Train
as uncreditedWhile watching from her train window, Nikki Collins witnesses a murder in a nearby building....
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Gold Diggers of 1935
as Housekeeper (uncredited)Romance strikes when a vacationing millionairess and her daughter and son spend their vacation...
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
as Mrs. Shackleford (uncredited)Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes...
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The Poor Little Rich Girl
as One of Gwendolyn's Teachers (uncredited)Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so...
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The Old-Fashioned Way
as Mrs. WendelschafferThe Great McGonigle and his troupe of third-rate vaudevillians manage to stay one step ahead of...
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Street Scene
as Alice Simpson - Welfare WorkerThe setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as...
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Night Must Fall
as uncreditedWealthy widow Mrs. Bramson notices that her maid is distracted, and when she learns the girl's...
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The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
as Miss JenkinsAlexander Graham Bell falls in love with deaf girl Mabel Hubbard while teaching the deaf and...
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Young People
as Righteous Old LadyWendy Ballantine's parents decide to retire from show biz so she can have a normal life. They...
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Hold Your Man
as Miss Campbell (uncredited)Ruby falls in love with small-time con man Eddie. During a botched blackmail scheme, Eddie...
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Mourning Becomes Electra
as Louisa AmesNear the end of the Civil War, the proud residents of Mannon Manor await the return of shipping...
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Hot Saturday
as Gossip on Telephone (Uncredited)A pretty but virtuous small-town bank clerk is the victim of a vicious rumor from an...
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Easy Living
as Miss SwerfJ.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's...
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Millie
as Helen and Angie's Landlady (uncredited)After a tumultuous first marriage, Millie Blake learns to love her newfound independence and...
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Seven Days Leave
as Amelia TwymleyIn London, during WWI, a lonely woman who wants to feel a part of the war effort pretends to her...
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King of the Jungle
as Spinster in park (uncredited)A white youth raised in the jungle by animals is captured by a safari and brought back to...
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Fast Workers
as Tall Window-Shopper (Uncredited)Gunner and Bucker are friends who work as riveters. Whenever Bucker gets the urge to marry,...
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Arrowsmith
as Nurse (uncredited)A medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use...
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Two Sisters from Boston
as Mrs. Mulberry - Recital Guest (uncredited)Abigail Chandler has written her stuffy Boston relatives that she's a successful opera singer in...
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Big Town
as Miss Lovelace (uncredited)A newspaper editor goes on an anti-crime crusade, but gets carried away.
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Chained
as Edith (uncredited)Richard, a millionaire in love with his secretary, Diane, is dispirited when his wife refuses to...
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The Missing Lady
as Miss MillieWhile investigating the theft of a valuable jade statue known as "The Missing Lady" -- and the...
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Partners in Crime
as HousekeeperDetective Hank Hyer investigates a blackmail case involving a candidate for mayor.
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Obliging Young Lady
as Miss Hollyrod - Bird Lover (uncredited)A woman attempts to shelter a young girl from the publicity surrounding her socialite parents'...
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Bachelor Bait
as Mrs. Trutmanner (uncredited)After being fired from his job at the Marriage License Bureau, a clerk turns to matchmaking.
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Some Like It Hot
as Mrs. Beckett (uncredited)Nicky Nelson is a fast-talking sideshow barker with a wax-and-alive concession on Atlantic...
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Stage Mother
as Miss Gilford, Kitty's Music Store BossKitty Lorraine has one purpose in life: turning her daughter Shirley into a star. Kitty controls...
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A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob
as CharwomanSteve is a shy quiet man who is an executive for a shipping firm. He meets Dot at the Opera...
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International Settlement
as English WomanIn Shanghai amidst Sino-Japanese warfare an adventurer (Sanders) collecting money from gun...
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Three Girls About Town
as Casket CustomerFaith and Hope Banner, sisters, are "convention hostesses" in a hotel. A body is discovered next...
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Footlights and Fools
as (uncredited)Moore plays the "dual" role of a French singer in America who was originally an American chorus...
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Collegiate
as Miss CurtissA Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school and tries to save it by a big show.
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The Wife Takes a Flyer
as Miss UpdikeChristopher Reynolds, an American flying with the R.A.F, is shot down over German-occupied...
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Manslaughter
as Lydia's Chaperone (uncredited)Society-girl thrillseeker Lydia's fun comes to an end when she accidentally causes the death of...
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Lucky Partners
as Women's Club President (uncredited)Two strangers split a sweepstake prize to go on a fake honeymoon with predictable results.
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Mr. Boggs Steps Out
as Widow PeddieA dull statistician changes his life after winning a pile of money after successfully...
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Seven Footprints to Satan
as Old WitchA young man of society wants to make an expedition to Africa, but his fiancée asks him for help...
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Way Down East
as Townswoman at PartyA family living on a farm in Maine takes in a young woman to stay with them, not knowing that...
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Three Smart Boys
as Miss Witherspoon, SuperintendentWhen they overhear Miss Witherspoon, the school superintendent, say that nothing short of an...
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Apache Trail
as Passenger (uncredited)The brother of a notorious outlaw is put in a charge of a stagecoach line way station in...
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Biography of a Bachelor Girl
as Ship's Matron (uncredited)Everyweek Newsmagazine editor Richard Kurt pursues famous free-spirited portrait artist Marion...
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The Unknown Guest
as Martha WilliamsResidents get suspicious when a shady character takes over the local hunting lodge right after...
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The Baby Cyclone
as Mrs. CrandallA woman thinks a small dog is an angel pet in this silent comedy.
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Chip of the Flying U
as Dr. Cecil GranthamA remake of a 1915 Tom Mix/Selig Western, this film was yet another silent oater (loosely) based...
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Sensation Seekers
as Mrs. LodgeRay Sturgis, leader of the fashionable Long Island jazz set, is engaged to "Egypt" Hagen, an...
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The Deadwood Coach
as Matilda Shields - in playA man searches for the villains who murdered his parents
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Upperworld
as Housekeeper (uncredited)A railroad tycoon, disillusioned with his marriage, starts seeing a showgirl. Things go...
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The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
as uncreditedThe sinister Dr. Fu Manchu returns to destroy the people he holds responsible for the death of...
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Little Miss Nobody
as Mrs. RobinsonA runaway orphan is befriended by a kind-hearted pet store owner with a criminal past.
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The Devil Dancer
as JuliaAn English explorer disturbed by the practices of an isolated tribe attempts to rescue a native...
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Going Hollywood
as Briarcroft's TeacherThe film tells the story of Sylvia, a French teacher at an all-girl school, who wants to find...
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The Ruling Voice
as Malcom's Nurse (uncredited)A mob boss has a change of heart when his daughter convinces him to move on from crime.
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You're Telling Me!
as Mrs. PriceSam Bisbee is an inventor whose works (e.g., a keyhole finder for drunks) have brought him only...
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Meet the Baron
as Professor Winterbottom (uncredited)A charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school.
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The Big Parade of Comedy
as Actress in 'Hollywood Party' (archive footage) (uncredited)Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
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Doctor Bull
as Aunt Emily BanningIn this engaging adaptation of James Gould Cozzen's novel The Last Adam, film icon Will Rogers...
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Two in the Dark
as Mrs. Potter, LandladyFord Adams regains consciousness in Boston, bloody and suffering from amnesia. Information he...
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Dancing Pirate
as Landlady (uncredited)Jonathan Pride is a mild-mannered dance instructor in 1820 Boston. En route to visit relatives,...
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Too Many Crooks
as (uncredited)Too Many Crooks is a lost 1927 American comedy silent film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, written...
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The Cavalier
as Lucia's AuntIn old Mexico a masked rider (Talmadge) and an impoverished girl (Bedford) fall in love, against...
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Little Men
as Head of OrphanageJo March and her husband Professor Bhaer operate the Plumfield School for poor boys. When Dan, a...
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Night of Mystery
as uncreditedOne of a series of movies based on the character Philo Vance
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Everything’s Rosie
as Hotel ProprietressA little orphan girl walks into the life of a hand-to-mouth carnival huckster. He teaches her...
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Under Your Spell
as School Teacher (uncredited)A famous singer, bored with music and fans, goes to live in Mexico. His manager sends a woman to...
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The Mighty Treve
as Old Maid at Dog ShowStory of a dog that is fanatically devoted to its master.
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East Lynne
as Charity Bazaar CommitteeThe refined Lady Isabel Carlisle, after leaving her family and enduring nearly a decade of...
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She Asked for It
as Elderly lady (uncredited)Dwight Stanford and his wife, Penny, are a pair of spendthrifts who can't hold on to money,...
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The Spectacle Maker
as DuchessA parable about magic glasses involving on the nature of beauty, truth, good, and evil set in...
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His Majesty, Bunker Bean
as Countess CasanovaHis Majesty, Bunker Bean is a 1925 silent film comedy directed by Harry Beaumont and starring...
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Champagne Waltz
as Train PassengerIn Vienna, a new jazz club featuring American trumpeter Buzzy Bellew threatens the existence of...
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Borrowing Trouble
as DressmakerThe Jones family drugstore is robbed and it looks like the culprit is a boy the family has taken...
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Blossoms On Broadway
as Leader of Committee (uncredited)A young singer hopes to become a success on Broadway.
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Laughing Boy
as SchoolteacherA young Navajo defies tribal custom to marry an outcast.
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Footfalls
as uncreditedA blind cobbler is able, by dint of his extraordinary hearing, to recognize the identity of a...
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The Daughter Pays
as uncreditedFor revenge, wealthy Osbert Gault marries Virginia Mynors, the daughter of a woman who had...
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Asleep in the Feet
as Female Police OfficerThe girls moonlight as taxi dancers in order to earn some extra money.
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The Big Broadcast of 1937
as Home Economics WomanThe employees of a failing radio station must put on a huge ratings winner to have any chance of...
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Let's Make a Million
as uncreditedA wealthy mama's boy finds himself the victim of con artists involved in an oil stocks racket.
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Search for Beauty
as Miss PettigrewThree con artists dupe two Olympians into serving as editors of a new health and beauty magazine...
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Car 99
as Granny AdamsA story of the Michigan State Police and the strong sense of loyalty and duty it instills in its...
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What a Life
as Miss EgglestonJackie Cooper stars in this first film in the wholesome "Henry Aldrich" series of teen comedies.
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American Buds
as EmilyLetters from the late mother of orphaned sisters Jane and Katherine seem to indicate that their...
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Mr. Bride
as Mrs. CecilCharley's boss "rehearses" for his honeymoon--with Charley.
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The Social Secretary
as Spinster (uncredited)An attractive young girl struggles to hold a job as she deals with unwanted romantic advances...
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A Trick of Hearts
as The MayorIn this comedy-western, based on the life of Henry Irving Dodge, our cowboy hero keeps his...
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College Holiday
as Miss Elkins (uncredited)College students rally to save a struggling hotel from closing. Comedy.
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Vagabond Lady
as Miss Perkins (uncredited)Josephine Spiggins is thinking of marrying John Spear, the stuffed-shirt son of a department...
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Nature in the Wrong
as Muriel's motherCharley, hoping to find cultured people in his ancestry in order to be suitable to Muriel's...
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Peg o' My Heart
as Smythe (maid)Peg and her father live a simple life in an Irish fishing village. One day Sir Gerald arrives at...
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Mixed Nuts
as Mrs. TwitchettOddly enough for a Roach comedy the premise of MIXED NUTS is grounded in topical political...
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Love Net
as Miss Prudence TillyLittle Patty Barnes lives with her grandfather, Captain Amos Barnes, in a rickety shack on the...
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Young Bride
as Landlady (uncredited)A newlywed discovers her husband is a cheating phony.
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Timothy's Quest
as TownswomanTimothy and Gay, orphans from the slums of Boston, escape to Maine in search of a home and...
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The Demi-Bride
as School TeacherTrouble begins when Mme. Girard steps out on her husband, Criquette's father, to fool around...
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Memories and Melodies
as Customer (uncredited)This Technicolor short features the songs of the great American popular composer Stephen Collins...
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Little Accident
as Dr. ZerneckeOn the day before his second wedding, a man finds out that his bride-to-be has had a baby.
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The Wild Girl
as Undetermined Role (uncredited)A dying stranger abandons a baby girl in a gypsy camp, with a note explaining that on her...
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Only Saps Work
as Mrs. PartridgeRubber-legged comedian Leon Errol made his talkie starring bow in Paramount's Only Saps Work....
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Midnight Faces
as Mrs. HartA young man inherits a mansion in a Florida swamp from an uncle he never knew he had. When he,...
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The Silent Rider
as Mrs. RandallCowboy Jerry Alton is content with life on the Bar Z Ranch until Mrs. Randall hires pretty...
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Girl Grief
as Miss Tuttle, PrincipalAlthough terrified of girls, Charley must take a job teaching at a girls school.
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Amateur Daddy
as SalesladyJim Gladden, a construction site foreman, is partially responsible for the accidental death of...
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The Fortune Hunter
as Betty CarpenterThe Fortune Hunter is a lost 1927 silent film comedy directed by Charles Reisner and starring...
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A Royal Romance
as Miss McPhersonPrincess Sylvia refuses to marry the Emperor Maximilian of Rhaetia because his proposal has been...
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Slightly Static
as Beauty Products Announcer (uncredited)Thelma and Patsy get jobs at a radio station.
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Girls
as Matron Helen HuntWhen the girls on campus learn that Tom Drake is so super-shy that he never kissed a girl, they...
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Prunella
as uncreditedWhen Tourneur adapted the allegorical plays The Blue Bird by Belgian symbolist Maurice...
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