Charles R. Moore

Charles R. Moore

Born: April 23, 1893
Died: July 20, 1947
in Chicago, Illinois, USA
Charles R. Moore (April 23, 1893, Chicago, Illinois - July 20, 1947, Los Angeles, California) was an African-American actor who appeared in over 100 films in his acting career, and was sometimes credited as Charles Moore or Charlie Moore Moore played small parts such as servants, bootblacks, elevator operators, menial laborers, and, especially, railroad porters and Red Caps. Film buffs may remember him in Meet John Doe where he played the City Hall janitor trying to smoke a cigar while washing the floor on the Christmas Eve that John Doe has threatened to jump off the building. Moore was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in six of Sturges' films. In Sullivan's Travels, Moore had a memorable moment as the chef who is propelled headfirst through the roof of the land yacht during the chase scene. Moore was also a dancer, but that skill was not often called for in his film appearances.

Movies for Charles R. Moore...

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
Title: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
Character: Bootblack (uncredited)
Released: April 4, 1947
Type: Movie
Twenty-three years after scoring the winning touchdown for his college football team mild-mannered Harold Diddlebock, who has been stuck in a dull, dead-end book-keeping job for years, is let go by his pompous boss, advertising tycoon J.E. Wagglebury, with nothing but a tiny pension. Harold, who never touches the stuff, takes a stiff drink with his new pal... and another, and another. What happened Wednesday?
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Suddenly It's Spring
Title: Suddenly It's Spring
Character: Charlie
Released: February 13, 1947
Type: Movie
A WAC officer returns from the war to find her husband wants a divorce.
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Without Reservations
Title: Without Reservations
Character: Redcap (uncredited)
Released: May 13, 1946
Type: Movie
Kit Madden is traveling to Hollywood, where her best-selling novel is to be filmed. Aboard the train, she encounters Marines Rusty and Dink, who don't know she is the author of the famous book, and who don't think much of the ideas it proposes. She and Rusty are greatly attracted, but she doesn't know how to deal with his disdain for the book's author.
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True to Life
Title: True to Life
Character: Gabe the Butler (uncredited)
Released: December 24, 1943
Type: Movie
A writer for a radio program needs some fresh ideas to juice up his show. For inspiration, he rents a room with a typical American family and begins to secretly write about their true life antics. The show becomes a big hit, but he begins to feel guilty about his charade when he falls in love with the family's pretty older daughter.
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Calling Dr. Death
Title: Calling Dr. Death
Released: December 17, 1943
Type: Movie
Losing his memories of the last few days, neurologist Dr. Steele is told that his wife has been brutally murdered. Steele, aware of his conniving wife's infidelity, believes he may have been the killer and enlists the aid of his pretty nurse Stella to hypnotize him into recovering his lost memories.
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Son of Dracula
Title: Son of Dracula
Character: Matthew (uncredited)
Released: November 5, 1943
Type: Movie
Carpathian Count Alucard is invited to the U.S. by a young heiress. Her boyfriend and local officials are suspicious of the newcomer, who is interested in the "virile" soil of the new world.
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Dixie
Title: Dixie
Character: News Vendor (uncredited)
Released: June 23, 1943
Type: Movie
A young songwriter leaves his Kentucky home to try to make it in New Orleans. Eventually he winds up in New York, where he sells his songs to a music publisher, but refuses to sell his most treasured composition: "Dixie." The film is based on the life of Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the classic song "Dixie."
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Strictly in the Groove
Title: Strictly in the Groove
Character: Cactus (uncredited)
Released: November 20, 1942
Type: Movie
College student, cattle baron, confused love story.
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I Married a Witch
Title: I Married a Witch
Character: Rufus - Samuel's Servant (uncredited)
Released: October 30, 1942
Type: Movie
Rocksford, New England, 1672. Puritan witch hunter Jonathan Wooley is cursed after burning a witch at the stake: his descendants will never find happiness in their marriages. At present, politician Wallace Wooley, who is running for state governor, is about to marry his sponsor's daughter.
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Sunset Serenade
Title: Sunset Serenade
Character: Sam
Released: September 14, 1942
Type: Movie
Bad guys plot to trick a newly arrived Eastern girl out of a ranch which belongs to her infant ward. Roy, of course, saves the ranch for the girl. Songs include "I'm Headin's for the Home Corral," "He's a No Good Son of a Gun," "Sandman Lullaby," "Song of the San Joaquin," and "I'm a Cowboy Rockefeller."
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The Palm Beach Story
Title: The Palm Beach Story
Character: Colored Porter
Released: August 28, 1942
Type: Movie
A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry (Geraldine), decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.
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This Gun for Hire
Title: This Gun for Hire
Character: Pullman Waiter (uncredited)
Released: April 24, 1942
Type: Movie
Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.
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Sullivan's Travels
Title: Sullivan's Travels
Character: Colored Chef
Released: November 30, 1941
Type: Movie
Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.
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Jesse James at Bay
Title: Jesse James at Bay
Character: Mose
Released: October 17, 1941
Type: Movie
When Jesse learns that Krager is cheating settlers, he and his gang rob trains to obtain money for them to purchase their land. Krager, finding a Jesse look alike in Burns, hires him to wreck havoc on the ranchers. When Jesse kills Burns he switches clothes and goes after the culprits.
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The Little Foxes
Title: The Little Foxes
Character: Simon
Released: August 29, 1941
Type: Movie
In 1900, a clan attempts to strike a deal with a Chicago industrialist to get him to build cotton mills in their Deep South town.
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Hit the Road
Title: Hit the Road
Character: Martin
Released: June 27, 1941
Type: Movie
Kids look to get revenge when their fathers are all killed in a mob war.
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Kansas Cyclone
Title: Kansas Cyclone
Character: T-Bone (as Charles Moore)
Released: June 24, 1941
Type: Movie
The irrepressible Donald Barry is twice falsely accused of murder in this typical low-budget but well-mounted Republic Western. Barry plays Jim Randall, a lawman assigned to investigate a series of gold shipment robberies. Arriving in the middle of a hold-up, Randall finds himself accused of killing the driver (Yakima Canutt). Wells Fargo agent Cal Chambers (Milton Kibbee) vouches for his innocence, however, claiming him to be a noted geologist. Along with several of the prospectors, Jim devises a plan to prove that Jud Parker (Harry Worth) is using his dummy mine as a cover for stealing ore.
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Desert Bandit
Title: Desert Bandit
Character: T-Bone Jones
Released: May 24, 1941
Type: Movie
Bantam-weight western star Don "Red" Barry certainly deserved his designation as "The Cowboy Cagney" in Republic's Desert Bandit. Barry is cast as two-fisted Texas Ranger Bob Crandall, who after being dishonorably discharged heads to the Mexican border to start life anew. He falls in with a gang of gun runners, headed by corrupt lawman Largo (William Haade). It turns out, of course, that Crandall's "disgrace" was merely a ruse to allow him to work undercover in bringing Largo and his minions to justice.
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Sleepers West
Title: Sleepers West
Character: Porter (uncredited)
Released: March 14, 1941
Type: Movie
Private eye Mike Shayne encounters a large amount of trouble while attempting to guard a murder witness.
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Blonde Inspiration
Title: Blonde Inspiration
Character: Elevator Operator (uncredited)
Released: February 7, 1941
Type: Movie
A writer of pulp Westerns cranks out more words than his editor and publisher want to pay for.
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Second Chorus
Title: Second Chorus
Character: Sam - Elevator Operator (uncredited)
Released: January 3, 1941
Type: Movie
Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are rival trumpeters with the Perennials, a college band, and both men are still attending college by failing their exams seven years in a row. In the midst of a performance, Danny spies Ellen Miller who ends up being made band manager. Both men compete for her affections while trying to get the other one fired.
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Tin Pan Alley
Title: Tin Pan Alley
Character: Porter at Railroad Station (uncredited)
Released: November 29, 1940
Type: Movie
Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England, and Katy joins her after the boys give a new song to Nora Bayes. All are reunited when the boys, now in the army, show up in England.
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The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date
Title: The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date
Character: Sam - Carriage Driver
Released: November 2, 1940
Type: Movie
Complicated plot involving missing stamp collection and kidnapped businessman, with the Lone Wolf keeping one step ahead of the police in Havana trying to solve the crime and make a profit.
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Christmas in July
Title: Christmas in July
Character: Porter in Maxford's Office (uncredited)
Released: October 25, 1940
Type: Movie
An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves. His latest attempt is the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest. As a joke, some of his co-workers put together a fake telegram which says that he won the $25,000 grand prize.
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So You Won't Talk?
Title: So You Won't Talk?
Character: Bootblack
Released: October 2, 1940
Type: Movie
A shy book reviewer is confused with a notorious gangster who has just been release from prison.
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The Great McGinty
Title: The Great McGinty
Character: McGinty's Valet (uncredited)
Released: August 1, 1940
Type: Movie
Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...
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Maryland
Title: Maryland
Released: July 19, 1940
Type: Movie
A woman tormented by the hunting death of her husband forbids her son to have anything to do with horses. But when he falls for the daughter of his father's trainer, he defies his mother by entering the Maryland Hunt.
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Carolina Moon
Title: Carolina Moon
Character: Servant (uncredited)
Released: July 14, 1940
Type: Movie
A singing cowboy and his sidekick encounter misunderstandings and rodeo havoc as they try and save a man and daughter from con men.
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Queen of the Mob
Title: Queen of the Mob
Character: Cocktail Party Butler
Released: June 28, 1940
Type: Movie
Ma Webster (Blanche Yurka) and her boys rob a bank on Christmas Eve; G-men stop them with Tommy guns.
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Two Girls on Broadway
Title: Two Girls on Broadway
Character: Porter at Bus Station (uncredited)
Released: April 19, 1940
Type: Movie
Eddie Kerns sells his song to a Broadway producer and also lands a job dancing in the musical. He sends for his dance partner-fiancée Molly Mahoney who brings her younger sister Pat. Upon seeing Molly and Pat dance, the producer picks Pat for the show and gives Molly a job selling cigarettes. A wealthy friend of the producer named "Chat" Chatsworth also has his eye on Pat. Pat is teamed with Eddie in the specialty number as Kerns and Mahoney. Pat and Eddie soon realize that they are in love and must tell Molly. Pat balks at hurting Molly and goes out with Chat who already has five ex-wives. Remake of The Broadway Melody (1929).
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Title: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Character: Porter (uncredited)
Released: October 19, 1939
Type: Movie
Naive and idealistic Jefferson Smith, leader of the Boy Rangers, is appointed to the United States Senate by the puppet governor of his state. He soon discovers, upon going to Washington, many shortcomings of the political process as his earnest goal of a national boys' camp leads to a conflict with the state political boss.
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Only Angels Have Wings
Title: Only Angels Have Wings
Character: Charlie - Waiter
Released: May 15, 1939
Type: Movie
A traveling performer arrives at a remote South American port town where the head of an air freight service must risk his pilots' lives to earn a major contract.
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Big Town Czar
Title: Big Town Czar
Character: Ray
Released: May 3, 1939
Type: Movie
When gangster Phil Daley gets rid of his chief Paul Burgess he has everything that money can buy, except the respect of his parents and his sweetheart Susan Warren. His younger brother Danny quits college and forces Phil to make him part of the gang. The overly-ambitious Danny fixes a prize-fight on which rival gang-leader Mike Luger loses heavily and, thinking that Phil has double-crossed him, sends gunmen out to kill Phil. They kill Danny instead and the frightened Phil flees to a country hideout. His chief lieutenant, Sid Travis, sets a trap for Phil when he returns.
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Southward Ho!
Title: Southward Ho!
Character: Skeeter
Released: March 19, 1939
Type: Movie
Roy and Gabby return to Gabby's Texas ranch, after fighting with the Confederate military during the American Civil War, to find that a blustery Union Colonel whom they have previously hassled is now their district commander. Unbeknownst to the Colonel, however, is that the soldiers he believes have been sent to assist him are actually Union Army rejects who have come to loot the civilian populace under the guise of reinstituting normalcy to the former Confederate district.
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Kentucky
Title: Kentucky
Character: Stable Swipe
Released: December 30, 1938
Type: Movie
Young lovers Jack and Sally are from families that compete to send horses to the 1938 Kentucky Derby, but during the Civil War, her family sided with the South while his sided with the North--and her Uncle Peter will have nothing to do with Jack's family.
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Comet Over Broadway
Title: Comet Over Broadway
Character: Sam - Cleaning Man (uncredited)
Released: December 3, 1938
Type: Movie
Story of a rising stage star and the trouble she causes by her ambition.
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Adventure in Sahara
Title: Adventure in Sahara
Character: Gungadin
Released: November 15, 1938
Type: Movie
Agadez is a lonely French outpost baking under the desert sun and commanded by the cruel and oppressive Captain Savatt. To it comes, at his own request, Legionnaire Jim Wilson soon followed by his fiancée, Carla Preston, who has been tracing him from post to post. Legionnaires seize the fort and turn Savitt loose in the Arab-haunted desert with only a fraction of the water and food needed to get back to civilization. But Savitt gets through and returns to the fort at the head of an avenging troop of men. But Arabs surround Savitt and his men, and the mutineers, knowing that to leave the fort and aid them means their own death
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Spring Madness
Title: Spring Madness
Character: Excited Porter in Diner
Released: November 11, 1938
Type: Movie
Harvard senior Sam Thatcher (Lew Ayres) and his best friend and roommate, known as "The Lippencott" (Burgess Meredith), plan to go to Russia after graduation, a decision Sam has kept from his girlfriend, Alexandra Benson (Maureen O'Sullivan).
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Professor Beware
Title: Professor Beware
Character: Bootblack
Released: July 29, 1938
Type: Movie
Egyptologist, Dean Lambert, accused of car-theft, skips bail and begins a cross-country trek to join a group in New York headed for Egypt. With the police close on his trail he gets in and out of scrapes along the way.
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Doctor Rhythm
Title: Doctor Rhythm
Character: Tooter, the Chauffeur
Released: May 6, 1938
Type: Movie
Dr. Bill Remsen pretends to be a policeman, and ends up being assigned to guard Judy Marlowe. Amazingly, he falls in love with her.
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Start Cheering
Title: Start Cheering
Character: Train Porter
Released: March 3, 1938
Type: Movie
After retiring from movies to get an education, a man discovers his ex-staff is trying to have him expelled.
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God's Step Children
Title: God's Step Children
Character: School Superintent
Released: January 1, 1938
Type: Movie
Naomi, a light-skinned Black child, is abandoned by her mother and raised by the virtuous Mrs. Saunders. When the girl's fixation with whiteness turns her against her own race, she is sent to a convent. Hopelessly in love with her adoptive brother Jimmie, Naomi consents to marry his friend, but is repulsed by his darker skin and unrefined ways.
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College Holiday
Title: College Holiday
Character: Red-Cap Porter
Released: December 19, 1936
Type: Movie
College students rally to save a struggling hotel from closing. Comedy.
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The Accusing Finger
Title: The Accusing Finger
Character: Black Prisoner
Released: November 17, 1936
Type: Movie
A proud, pro-capital punishment district attorney with a 90% execution rate, finds himself wrongly convicted of murdering his estranged wife and sentenced to die. The woman he loves and his investigator rival for her affections rally to find the real killer, while he is confronted by the misery of life on death row.
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Killer at Large
Title: Killer at Large
Character: Highpockets (uncredited)
Released: October 27, 1936
Type: Movie
A master of disguise poses as a wax figure to rob a safe of its jewels.
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36 Hours to Kill
Title: 36 Hours to Kill
Character: Red Cap
Released: July 24, 1936
Type: Movie
Duke and Jeanie Benson, an outlaw couple hiding out under assumed names. Duke realizes that he has a winning sweepstake ticket and will win $150,000 if he can cash it in without getting apprehended
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Exclusive Story
Title: Exclusive Story
Character: Bootblack (uncredited)
Released: January 17, 1936
Type: Movie
A reporter and his newspaper's attorney try to gather evidence that will put a notorious gangster behind bars.
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Page Miss Glory
Title: Page Miss Glory
Character: The Porter (uncredited)
Released: September 7, 1935
Type: Movie
A country girl goes to the city and gets a job in a posh hotel, and winds up becoming an instant celebrity thanks to an ambitious photographer.
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Diamond Jim
Title: Diamond Jim
Character: Cook
Released: September 1, 1935
Type: Movie
A loose biopic based on the life of Gilded Age tycoon "Diamond" Jim Brady.
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It's A Small World
Title: It's A Small World
Character: Doorman (uncredited)
Released: April 12, 1935
Type: Movie
Socialite, privileged, Jane Dale and lawyer Bill Shevlin meet in an automobile accident at night, on a dirt road, in a storm, near a hick town which fleeces travelers through corrupt law enforcement.
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I'll Fix It
Title: I'll Fix It
Character: Nifty
Released: November 10, 1934
Type: Movie
A power-broker ward-heeler, Bill Grimes, wields more power than the elected politicians and has no problem in getting matters-of-the-city handled in which ever way is best for his needs. But when he tries to fix his adored kid brother's place on the school football team, he meets his match in school-teacher Anne Barry.
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He Was Her Man
Title: He Was Her Man
Character: Manhattan Turkish Bath Attendant
Released: June 16, 1934
Type: Movie
A safecracker goes straight after doing a stretch for a bum rap. He agrees to do one last job for his "pals".
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Manhattan Melodrama
Title: Manhattan Melodrama
Character: Black Man in Speakeasy (uncredited)
Released: May 4, 1934
Type: Movie
The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.
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Fast Workers
Title: Fast Workers
Character: Liar Fined in Court (Uncredited)
Released: March 10, 1933
Type: Movie
Gunner and Bucker are friends who work as riveters. Whenever Bucker gets the urge to marry, which is often, Gunner will hit on his girl to see if she is true or not. So far, Gunner hasn't failed. But one night, while Gunner is in jail, Bucker meets Mary, a tough dame with a line. He falls for her, and she falls for his money. But Mary is already a gal pal of Gunner, and no two know about the third one. The trouble starts when the triangle is revealed too late.
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Girl Missing
Title: Girl Missing
Character: Elevator Operator (Uncredited)
Released: March 4, 1933
Type: Movie
Kay and June, two showgirls, are hurt when they seek financial help from Daisy. On Daisy's wedding night when she is rendered missing, Kay and June decide to look for her to claim the reward.
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Blonde Venus
Title: Blonde Venus
Character: Charlie, the Bartender (uncredited)
Released: September 23, 1932
Type: Movie
In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.
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Million Dollar Legs
Title: Million Dollar Legs
Character: Porter (uncredited)
Released: July 8, 1932
Type: Movie
A small country on the verge of bankruptcy is persuaded to enter the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a means of raising money.
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Beach Pajamas
Title: Beach Pajamas
Released: September 21, 1931
Type: Movie
Beach Pajamas is a 1931 Comedy short
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The Exile
Title: The Exile
Released: May 15, 1931
Type: Movie
An idealistic young man is torn between a sultry Chicago nightclub owner and a Scottish South Dakotan farmgirl.
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The Prodigal
Title: The Prodigal
Character: Railroad Porter (uncredited)
Released: February 21, 1931
Type: Movie
An aspiring singer, who has fallen on hard times and is now living as a hobo, returns to his wealthy southern family.
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A Daughter of the Congo
Title: A Daughter of the Congo
Released: April 5, 1930
Type: Movie
A US cavalry officer rescues a mulatto girl, raised in Africa, from slavers.
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His First Command
Title: His First Command
Character: Homer (as Charles Moore)
Released: December 28, 1929
Type: Movie
A playboy is in love with a woman and enters the army thinking it will improve his chances with her.
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The Ninety and Nine
Title: The Ninety and Nine
Character: Sam Grant
Released: December 17, 1922
Type: Movie
Melodramatic thriller, presented in 9.5mm format