Florence Bates

Florence Bates

Born: April 13, 1888
Died: January 31, 1954
in San Antonio, Texas, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Florence Bates (born Florence Rabe, April 15, 1888 – January 31, 1954) was an American film and stage character actress who often played grande dame characters in supporting roles.

Her path to becoming an actress had many turns. She had a degree in Mathematics, taught school until married, then became the first Texas female lawyer. Then she became a bilingual radio commentator. After her husband lost her fortune, she and her husband opened a bakery in Los Angeles.

In the mid-1930s, Bates auditioned for and won the role of Miss Bates in a Pasadena Playhouse adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. When she decided to continue working with the theatre group, she changed her professional name to that of the first character she played on stage. In 1939, she was introduced to Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in her first major screen role, the vain dowager Mrs. Van Hopper, in Rebecca (1940).

Bates appeared in more than sixty films over the course of the next thirteen years. Among her cinema credits are Kitty Foyle, Love Crazy, The Moon and Sixpence, Mr. Lucky, Heaven Can Wait, Lullaby of Broadway, Mister Big, Since You Went Away, Kismet, Saratoga Trunk, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Winter Meeting, I Remember Mama, Portrait of Jennie, A Letter to Three Wives, On the Town, and Les Misérables. In television, Bates had a regular role on The Hank McCune Show and made guest appearances on I Love Lucy, My Little Margie, I Married Joan and Our Miss Brooks.

Movies for Florence Bates...

Title: Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Character: Mrs. Van Hopper (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: October 2, 1955
Type: TV
A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
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Paris Model
Title: Paris Model
Character: Nora Sullivan
Released: November 10, 1953
Type: Movie
A new dress plays a key role in the lives of four women who are not acquainted with each other.
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Main Street to Broadway
Title: Main Street to Broadway
Character: Mrs. Bessmer in Fantasy Sequence
Released: October 12, 1953
Type: Movie
In New York, a surly, down-on-his-heels playwright meets a country girl who's giving up trying to act and returning home. He goes with her for inspiration when his agent convinces a stage star to take his next effort. When he returns to Broadway, his girl stays behind and starts seeing a local businessman.
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Title: Four Star Playhouse
Character: Ottilie
Released: September 25, 1952
Type: TV
Four 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.
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Les Miserables
Title: Les Miserables
Character: Madame Bonnet
Released: August 14, 1952
Type: Movie
Jean Valjean, a Frenchman of good character, has nevertheless been convicted for the minor crime of stealing bread. A minor infraction leads to his pursuit by the relentless policeman Javert, a pursuit that consumes both men's lives for many years.
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The San Francisco Story
Title: The San Francisco Story
Character: Sadie
Released: May 11, 1952
Type: Movie
After five years of being away, Rick Nelson (Joel McCrea) returns to San Francisco to find it filled with corruption - and crooked politicians. It isn't until he meets a beautiful San Franciscan (Yvonne De Carlo), that Nelson decides to get involved with bringing law-and-order to the city by the bay!
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Title: I Love Lucy
Character: Mrs. Pettebone
Released: October 15, 1951
Type: TV
Cuban Bandleader Ricky Ricardo would be happy if his wife Lucy would just be a housewife. Instead she tries constantly to perform at the Tropicana where he works, and make life comically frantic in the apartment building they share with landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz, who also happen to be their best friends.
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Havana Rose
Title: Havana Rose
Character: Mrs. Fillmore
Released: September 15, 1951
Type: Movie
Ambassador Rico DeMarco is in Washington trying to raise a five-million dollar loan for his country, Lower Salamia. Filbert Filmore and his domineering wife are about to sign on the dotted line for the loan when DeMarco's vivacious daughter, Estelita, upsets the deal by accidentally knocking hot coffee over the papers---and Mrs. Fillmore, who leaves the house in a huff. When word of the difficulties filters back home it's Viva la Revolution. But Estelita, disguised as a fortune teller tries to convince astrology believer Fillmore that the stars are propitious for his making the loan.
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The Tall Target
Title: The Tall Target
Character: Mrs. Charlotte Alsop
Released: August 17, 1951
Type: Movie
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride headed for Washington in 1861.
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Father Takes the Air
Title: Father Takes the Air
Character: Minerva Bobbin
Released: June 17, 1951
Type: Movie
In the fifth and final movie in Monogram's "Father" series, Henry Latham and Mayor Colton dream of reliving their WWI flying careers, leading to an increasingly antagonistic competition.
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Lullaby of Broadway
Title: Lullaby of Broadway
Character: Mrs. Anna Hubbell
Released: March 26, 1951
Type: Movie
Pretty Melinda Howard has been abroad singing with a musical troupe. She decides to return home to surprise her mother whom she thinks is a successful Broadway star with a mansion in Manhattan. She doesn't know that her mother is actually a burnt-out cabaret singer with a love for whiskey. When she arrives at the mansion, she is taken in by the two servants who are friends of her mother's. The house actually belongs to Adolph Hubbell, a kind-hearted Broadway producer who also gets drawn into the charade. Hubbell takes a shine to Melinda and agrees to star her in his next show. Melinda also finds romance with a handsome hoofer who's also in the show. All is going well for Melinda except that she wants to see her mother who keeps putting off their reunion.
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County Fair
Title: County Fair
Character: Nora 'Ma' Ryan
Released: July 30, 1950
Type: Movie
"Ma" Ryan, who runs a burger stand at the county fair, asks daughter Loretta to put a bet on a horse that Loretta's boyfriend Tommy is riding. Unfortunately, Loretta mistakenly places the bet on the wrong horse. When she discovers her error she tries to get the cashier to exchange the ticket for the horse she wanted, but the cashier refuses. Peter Brennan, standing in back of her in line, buys the ticket for the horse Loretta wants and then exchanges it with her. It turns out that Peter is from a wealthy family that owns racehorses, and Peter is a horse trainer himself. He soon begins to fall for Loretta, and Tommy doesn't like it one bit. Complications ensue.
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The Second Woman
Title: The Second Woman
Character: Amelia Foster
Released: July 7, 1950
Type: Movie
In flashback from a 'Rebecca'-style beginning: Ellen Foster, visiting her aunt on the California coast, meets neighbor Jeff Cohalan and his ultramodern clifftop house. Ellen is strongly attracted to Jeff, who's being plagued by unexplainable accidents, major and minor. Bad luck, persecution...or paranoia? Warned that Jeff could be dangerous, Ellen fears that he's in danger, as the menacing atmosphere darkens.
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Belle of Old Mexico
Title: Belle of Old Mexico
Character: Nellie Chatfield
Released: March 1, 1950
Type: Movie
Wealthy Kip Artmitage III (Robert Rockwell) honors his late wartime friend's request to look after the friend's "little sister."
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On the Town
Title: On the Town
Character: Madame Dilyovska
Released: December 8, 1949
Type: Movie
Three sailors wreak havoc as they search for love during a whirlwind 24-hour leave in New York City.
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The Girl from Jones Beach
Title: The Girl from Jones Beach
Character: Miss Emma Shoemaker
Released: July 16, 1949
Type: Movie
Glamour artist Bob Randolph is world famous for his paintings of a stunning beauty dubbed "The Randolph Girl". What the world doesn't know is that his pin-up creation is really a composite of parts of the anatomy of 12 different models. In an effort to find one girl who possesses all the proper physical attributes, Randolph and PR man Chuck Donovan pursue Ruth Wilson, a beauteous schoolteacher who prefers to be admired for her brain rather than her curves. Ruth changes her tune, however, when a published photo of her in a swimsuit causes her to be fired by the uptight schoolboard. She sues for reinstatement and in the process learns that swimsuits and sex appeal do have a place in her world, after all. Written by Dan Navarro
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A Letter to Three Wives
Title: A Letter to Three Wives
Character: Mrs. Manleigh
Released: January 20, 1949
Type: Movie
A letter is addressed to three wives from their "best friend" Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands - but she does not say which one.
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Portrait of Jennie
Title: Portrait of Jennie
Character: Mrs. Jekes
Released: December 25, 1948
Type: Movie
A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.
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My Dear Secretary
Title: My Dear Secretary
Character: Horrible Hannah Reeve (the landlady)
Released: November 5, 1948
Type: Movie
A budding young writer thinks it's her lucky day when she is chosen to be the new secretary for Owen Waterbury, famous novelist. She is soon disppointed, however, when he turns out to be an erratic, immature playboy. Opposites attract, of course, but not without sub-plots that touch on competitiveness within marriage and responsibility.
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Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
Title: Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
Character: Mandy
Released: July 16, 1948
Type: Movie
Eddie Tayloe's grandfather leaves him six thousand dollars and the money belt it came in, freeing Tayloe to leave his dull newspaper job in Texas and move to New York to become a playwright. Along the way, his car breaks down and a girl walking along the highway asks for a lift. It turns out she's a nice girl, named Perry, running away from a job at a gasoline station. Soon they're off to New York together, but part ways once they arrive. Time passes and Eddie is failing to sell his play; Perry is failing to find a job. Odd circumstances, involving an old pickpocket named Mandy, bring them together again.
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River Lady
Title: River Lady
Character: Ma Dunnegan
Released: June 1, 1948
Type: Movie
In the 1850s, in a logging town on the Mississippi River, a conflict between the people of a mill town and the lumberjacks who work downriver. Romance and deceit are catalyzed by the arrival of the gambling river boat, River Lady, owned by the beautiful Sequin. Bauvais, a representative of the local lumber syndicate and Sequin's business partner, is trying to convince H.L. Morrison, the mill owner, to sell his business.
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Winter Meeting
Title: Winter Meeting
Character: Mrs. Castle
Released: April 7, 1948
Type: Movie
A repressed poetess and an embittered war hero help each other cope with their problems.
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The Inside Story
Title: The Inside Story
Character: Geraldine Atherton
Released: March 14, 1948
Type: Movie
A collection agent arrives in a small town with $1000 for a local farmer. Whilst waiting for the farmer to arrive the money is put in a safe at a hotel for safe keeping. However, it is removed by mistake and solves a number of financial problems before it is returned.
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I Remember Mama
Title: I Remember Mama
Character: Florence Dana Moorhead
Released: March 9, 1948
Type: Movie
Norwegian immigrant Marta Hanson keeps a firm but loving hand on her household of four children, a devoted husband and a highly-educated lodger who reads great literature to the family every evening. Through financial crises, illnesses and the small triumphs of everyday life, Marta maintains her optimism and sense of humor, traits she passes on to her aspiring-author daughter, Katrin.
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The Judge Steps Out
Title: The Judge Steps Out
Character: Chita
Released: December 15, 1947
Type: Movie
A judge flees the pressures of professional and family life for a job as a short-order cook.
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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Title: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Character: Mrs. Griswold
Released: September 1, 1947
Type: Movie
Walter Mitty, a daydreaming writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures. His dream becomes reality when he accidentally meets a mysterious woman who hands him a little black book. According to her, it contains the locations of the Dutch crown jewels hidden since World War II. Soon, Mitty finds himself in the middle of a confusing conspiracy, where he has difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction.
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Love and Learn
Title: Love and Learn
Character: Mrs. Bella Davis - Landlady
Released: May 2, 1947
Type: Movie
A wealthy socialite bored with her life meets and falls in love with a struggling songwriter on the verge of leaving New York and quitting the music business.
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The Brasher Doubloon
Title: The Brasher Doubloon
Character: Mrs. Murdock
Released: February 6, 1947
Type: Movie
Mrs. Elizabeth Bright Murdock hires Marlowe to find an old rare coin, the Brasher Doubloon, that belonged in her deceased husband's collection. Marlowe begins investigating, but quickly finds himself entangled in a series of unexplained murders.
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The Time, The Place and The Girl
Title: The Time, The Place and The Girl
Character: Mme. Lucia Cassel
Released: December 26, 1946
Type: Movie
The stuffy manager of lovely opera singer Vicki Cassel and her uncle, a classical conductor, is determined to close down the noisy nightclub next door to the Cassels' home. The club's owners--Steve, a handsome ladies' man, and Jeff, his clownish sidekick--hatch a plan to keep the club open. Steve arranges to meet--and woo--Vicki and then invite her and her uncle to the club. When Vicki's snobbish aunt and the manager discover that Vicki now favors popular music over the classics, they arrange to get the club closed. But that doesn't keep Steve and Jeff down. Instead, they decide to put on a Broadway show if they can get a backer. They find their "angel" in Vicki's uncle who agrees to finance the show only if Vicki is the leading lady. But again, Vicki's aunt and manager may be the spoiler in everyone's plans.
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Cluny Brown
Title: Cluny Brown
Character: Dowager at Ames's Party
Released: June 2, 1946
Type: Movie
Amateur plumber Cluny Brown gets sent off by her uncle to work as a servant at an English country estate.
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Claudia and David
Title: Claudia and David
Character: Nancy Riddle
Released: February 25, 1946
Type: Movie
The follow-up film to "Claudia", with Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young reprising their earlier roles as a young married couple living in a small Connecticut town.
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The Diary of a Chambermaid
Title: The Diary of a Chambermaid
Character: Rose
Released: February 15, 1946
Type: Movie
Celestine, the chamber-maid, has a new job in the country, at the Lanlaires. She has decided to use her beauty to seduce a wealthy man, but Mr. Lanlaire is not a right choice: the house is firmly controlled by Madame Lanlaire, helped by the strange valet Joseph. Then she tries the neighbour, former officer Mauger. This seems to work. But soon the son of the Lanlaires comes back. He is young, attractive and does not share his mother's antirepublican opinions. So Celestine's beauty attracts Captain Mauger, young Georges Lanlaire, and Joseph. Three men, from three different social classes, with three different conceptions of life. Will Celestine be able to convince Georges of her sincerity?
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Whistle Stop
Title: Whistle Stop
Character: Molly Veech
Released: January 25, 1946
Type: Movie
When beautiful Mary returns to her "whistle stop" hometown, long-standing feelings of animosity between two of her old boyfriends leads to robbery and murder.
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San Antonio
Title: San Antonio
Character: Henrietta
Released: December 29, 1945
Type: Movie
Rancher Clay Hardin arrives in San Antonio to search for and capture Roy Stuart, notorious leader of a gang of cattle rustlers. The vicious outlaw is indeed in the Texan town, intent on winning the affections of a beautiful chanteuse named Jeanne Starr. When the lovely lady meets and falls in love with the charismatic Hardin, the stakes for both men become higher.
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Saratoga Trunk
Title: Saratoga Trunk
Character: Sophie Bellop
Released: November 21, 1945
Type: Movie
An opportunistic Texas gambler and the exiled Creole daughter of an aristocratic family join forces to achieve justice from the society that has ostracized them.
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Out of This World
Title: Out of This World
Character: Harriet Pringle
Released: July 13, 1945
Type: Movie
An all-girl band hits paydirt—and mud—when they sign a male crooner and then sell five 25% shares of his contract.
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Tonight and Every Night
Title: Tonight and Every Night
Character: May Tolliver
Released: January 9, 1945
Type: Movie
An American girl falls for an RAF pilot while performing at a British music hall.
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Tahiti Nights
Title: Tahiti Nights
Character: Queen Liliha
Released: December 28, 1944
Type: Movie
Islanders make arrangements for an American bandleader to marry a princess.
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Belle of the Yukon
Title: Belle of the Yukon
Character: Viola Chase
Released: December 27, 1944
Type: Movie
Left by a con man, Belle De Valle, a dancer, finds him again in gold-rush Alaska running an honest casino/dance hall.
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Kismet
Title: Kismet
Character: Karsha
Released: October 1, 1944
Type: Movie
Hafiz, a rascally beggar on the periphery of the court of Baghdad, schemes to marry his daughter to royalty and to win the heart of the queen of the castle himself.
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The Mask of Dimitrios
Title: The Mask of Dimitrios
Character: Madame Elise Chavez
Released: June 23, 1944
Type: Movie
A mystery writer is intrigued by the tale of notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropolous, whose dead body was found washed up on the shore in Istanbul. He decides to follow the career of Dimitrios around Europe, in order to learn more about the man. Along the way he is joined by the mysterious Mr. Peters, who has his own motivation.
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His Butler's Sister
Title: His Butler's Sister
Character: Lady Sloughberry
Released: November 26, 1943
Type: Movie
Aspiring singer Ann Carter visits her stepbrother in New York, hoping to make it on Broadway.
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Heaven Can Wait
Title: Heaven Can Wait
Character: Mrs. Edna Craig (uncredited)
Released: August 5, 1943
Type: Movie
Spoiled playboy Henry van Cleve dies and arrives at the entrance to Hell, a final destination he is sure he deserves after living a life of profligacy. The devil, however, isn't so sure Henry meets Hell's standards. Convinced he is where he belongs, Henry recounts his life's deeds, both good and bad, including an act of indiscretion during his 25-year marriage to his wife, Martha, with the hope that "His Excellency" will arrive at the proper judgment.
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Mr. Lucky
Title: Mr. Lucky
Character: Mrs. Van Every
Released: July 1, 1943
Type: Movie
A conman poses as a war relief fundraiser, but when he falls for a charity worker, his conscience begins to trouble him.
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Mister Big
Title: Mister Big
Character: Mrs. Mary Davis
Released: May 28, 1943
Type: Movie
Students at the Davis School of the Theatre are assigned "Antigone" as their class play, but they conspire to do a swing musical instead.
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Slightly Dangerous
Title: Slightly Dangerous
Character: Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
Released: April 1, 1943
Type: Movie
Small-town soda-jerk Peggy Evans quits her dead-end job and moves to New York where she invents a new identity.
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They Got Me Covered
Title: They Got Me Covered
Character: Gypsy Woman
Released: March 4, 1943
Type: Movie
Bumbling reporter Robert Kittredge has been fired after bungling his latest assignment. His career isn't all he's botched up: his girlfriend Chris is tired of waiting for him to marry her. When he gets a hot tip on some Nazi spies operating in Washington, D.C., he convinces Chris to help him break the story so he can get his job back. The pair soon find themselves in several awkward predicaments as they track the criminals down in a night club, a burlesque show, and face a final showdown at a beauty salon.
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My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Title: My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Character: Mrs. Saunders
Released: November 7, 1942
Type: Movie
A distinguished professor finds his well-ordered life tospy-turvy after he is forced to take in a pregnant widow.
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The Moon and Sixpence
Title: The Moon and Sixpence
Character: Tiare Johnson
Released: October 27, 1942
Type: Movie
Loosely inspired from Gauguin's life, the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbrocker who abandons his middle-classed life, his family, his duties to start painting, what he has always wanted to do. He is from now on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.
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The Tuttles of Tahiti
Title: The Tuttles of Tahiti
Character: Emily
Released: May 1, 1942
Type: Movie
After a long absense from the island, Chester Tuttle returns to Tahiti to find that little has changed. His large family, particularly his scheming Uncle Jonas, would rather dance and romance than earn a living. When Jonas loses the family plantation in a cockfight, Chester saves the day by towing in a large ship abandoned at sea and claiming the salvage. But opening a joint bank account in the name of the Tuttle clan may not have been a wise decision.
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We Were Dancing
Title: We Were Dancing
Character: Mrs. Elsa Vanderlip
Released: April 30, 1942
Type: Movie
A penniless former princess weds an equally cash-strapped baron, so they support themselves by becoming houseguests at the homes of wealthy American socialites.
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Mexican Spitfire at Sea
Title: Mexican Spitfire at Sea
Character: Mrs. Baldwin
Released: March 13, 1942
Type: Movie
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife sail to Hawaii in search of business. The fifth entry (of eight) in the "Mexican Spitfire" comedy series.
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The Chocolate Soldier
Title: The Chocolate Soldier
Character: Madame Helene
Released: November 1, 1941
Type: Movie
Maria and Karl Lang are the singing duo of Vienna. Maria is very flirtatious and Karl very jealous. Karl decides to masquerade as a Russian guardsman and attempts to make Maria flirt with him - to test her loyalty to him - as the Russian, Karl makes a vigorous attempt to seduce Maria. For a moment she accepts then rejects. Karl is left in turmoil...
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Love Crazy
Title: Love Crazy
Character: Mrs. Cooper
Released: May 23, 1941
Type: Movie
Circumstance, an old flame and a mother-in-law drive a happily married couple to the verge of divorce and insanity.
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Strange Alibi
Title: Strange Alibi
Character: Katie
Released: April 19, 1941
Type: Movie
An undercover cop finds himself on the wrong side of the law when the mob discovers his true identity.
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The Devil and Miss Jones
Title: The Devil and Miss Jones
Character: Store Shopper
Released: April 11, 1941
Type: Movie
The wealthiest man in the world, John P. Merrick, is a private person who likes to stay anonymous. One of his many assets is Neeley's Department Store. There is labor unrest at the store, and the employees' anger is directed at him, who they hang in effigy outside the store despite not knowing what he looks like. Merrick, not happy at what he sees going on, decides to mete out the rabble-rousers. So he goes undercover as a sales clerk in the shoe department.
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Road Show
Title: Road Show
Character: Mrs. Newton
Released: February 18, 1941
Type: Movie
Rich playboy Drogo Gaines is in imminent danger of marrying a gold digger, and escapes by feigning insanity. The joke's on him when he wakes up in an asylum full of comical lunatics. There he befriends Colonel Carraway, and together they escape, catching a ride with a beautiful blonde who proves to be Penguin Moore, carnival owner.
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Kitty Foyle
Title: Kitty Foyle
Character: Customer
Released: December 27, 1940
Type: Movie
Kitty Foyle, a hard-working white-collar girl from a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania low, middle-class family, meets and falls in love with young socialite Wyn Strafford but his family is against her.
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The Son of Monte Cristo
Title: The Son of Monte Cristo
Character: Countess Mathilde Von Braun
Released: December 5, 1940
Type: Movie
Rightful owner of the kingdom, the Duchess of Zona, is engaged in a power struggle with the evil General Gurko. Edmond, the son of Monte Cristo, dons many disguises to come to the aid of the Duchess.
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Calling All Husbands
Title: Calling All Husbands
Character: Emmie Trippe
Released: September 7, 1940
Type: Movie
A henpecked husband and his bossy wife are due for a surprise when the wife's former boyfriend unexpectedly turns up.
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Rebecca
Title: Rebecca
Character: Edythe Van Hopper
Released: March 23, 1940
Type: Movie
Story of a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. The young wife must come to grips with the terrible secret of her handsome, cold husband, Max De Winter. She must also deal with the jealous, obsessed Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who will not accept her as the mistress of the house.