John Berkes

John Berkes

Born: June 13, 1895
Died: July 5, 1951
in Trenton, New Jersey, USA

Movies for John Berkes...

Journey Into Light
Title: Journey Into Light
Character: Racky
Released: September 28, 1951
Type: Movie
John Burrows, an ordained minister from a small village in the East, envisions himself with a larger congregation. He is mortified when his wife drunkenly interrupts a sermon, then despondent after her suicide. Burrows travels to Los Angeles for a fresh start, but takes to the bottle himself and ends up arrested for public intoxication. A skid-row con man, Gandy, finds him a bed at a flop house, while a street preacher, Doc Thorssen, and daughter Christine take him to a local mission. Christine is blind. She falls in love with Burrows, enjoying his discussions of the spirit and the soul but knowing little of his past. One day she is struck by a streetcar and knocked unconscious, causing Burrows to once again question his faith. He ultimately accepts the Lord's will and is offered a better place to live and preach. Burrows decides he is better suited to the mission, with Christine by his side.
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Ace in the Hole
Title: Ace in the Hole
Character: Papa Minosa
Released: June 29, 1951
Type: Movie
An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.
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Branded
Title: Branded
Character: Tattoo
Released: November 3, 1950
Type: Movie
A gunfighter takes part in a scheme to bilk a wealthy cattle family out of half a million dollars by pretending to be their son, who was kidnapped as child.
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No Sad Songs for Me
Title: No Sad Songs for Me
Character: Joe - Restaurant Owner (uncredited)
Released: April 27, 1950
Type: Movie
Mary Scott learns she only has ten months to live before dying of an incurable disease. She manages to keep the news from her husband, Brad and daughter, Polly. She tries to make every moment of her life count, but her effort is weakened by the discovery that Brad is interested in his assistant, Chris Radner. But when she learns that Brad does indeed love her and not Chris, and that Chris is leaving town, she realizes what she must do to ensure the future happiness of Brad and Polly. She persuades Chris to stay, makes a genuine friend of her and watches Polly grow towards Chris.
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Dancing in the Dark
Title: Dancing in the Dark
Character: Marshall
Released: December 2, 1949
Type: Movie
Emery Slade was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood in 1932, but by 1949 his career has hit the skids. Fortunately, he is able to convince studio head Melville Crossman to cast him in the adaptation of a hit Broadway show. Crossman has one condition: Slade must travel to New York and convince the female star of the stage production to join the film. Slade goes, but, when he eyes the winsome Julie Clarke, he hatches a different scheme.
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Title: The Lone Ranger
Character: Hank
Released: September 15, 1949
Type: TV
The Lone Ranger is an American western television series that ran from 1949 to 1957, starring Clayton Moore with Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action series initially featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator. Fred Foy served as both narrator and announcer of the radio series from 1948 to its finish and became announcer of the television version when story narration was dropped there. This was by far the highest-rated television program on the ABC network in the early 1950s and its first true "hit".
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My Dream Is Yours
Title: My Dream Is Yours
Character: Character Actor
Released: April 15, 1949
Type: Movie
Conceited singer Garry Mitchell refuses to renew his radio contract, so agent Doug Blake decides to find a new personality to replace him. In New York, he finds Martha Gibson, a single mother with a great voice. He arranges for her to move to Hollywood, but then has a problem trying to sell her to the show's sponsor. Doug tries every trick he can think of to make Martha a star, and as the two work more closely, he falls in love with her. Complicating matters further, Martha meets and becomes attracted to Garry.
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Station West
Title: Station West
Character: Pianist
Released: September 1, 1948
Type: Movie
When two US cavalrymen transporting a gold shipment get killed, US Army Intelligence investigator John Haven goes undercover to a mining and logging town to find the killers.
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Romance on the High Seas
Title: Romance on the High Seas
Character: The Drunk
Released: June 25, 1948
Type: Movie
Georgia Garrett is sent by jealous wife Elvira Kent on an ocean cruise to masquerade as herself while she secretly stays home to catch her husband cheating. Meanwhile equally suspicious husband Michael Kent has sent a private eye on the same cruise to catch his wife cheating. Love and confusion ensues along with plenty of musical numbers.
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The Corpse Came C.O.D.
Title: The Corpse Came C.O.D.
Character: Larry Massey, Photographer
Released: June 2, 1947
Type: Movie
Rival reporters (George Brent, Joan Blondell) investigate a Hollywood star (Adele Jergens) and the box she receives with a dead man inside.
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The Egg and I
Title: The Egg and I
Character: Geoduck
Released: May 1, 1947
Type: Movie
World War II veteran Bob MacDonald surprises his new wife, Betty, by quitting his city job and moving them to a dilapidated farm in the country. While Betty gamely struggles with managing the crumbling house and holding off nosy neighbors and a recalcitrant pig, Bob makes plans for crops and livestock. The couple's bliss is shaken by a visit from a beautiful farm owner, who seems to want more from Bob than just managing her property.
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Johnny O'Clock
Title: Johnny O'Clock
Character: Waiter
Released: January 7, 1947
Type: Movie
When an employee at an illegal gambling den dies suspiciously, her sister, Nancy, looks into the situation and falls for Johnny O'Clock, a suave partner in the underground casino. Selfish and non-committal by nature, Johnny slowly begins to return Nancy's affection and decides to run away with her, but conflict within his business threatens their plans. As Johnny tries to distance himself from the casino, his shady past comes back to haunt him.
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The Killers
Title: The Killers
Character: Mr. Plunther (uncredited)
Released: August 30, 1946
Type: Movie
Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man.
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Inside Job
Title: Inside Job
Character: Freddie
Released: June 14, 1946
Type: Movie
A pair of married ex-convicts trying to go straight get jobs at a department store. A gangster who knows about their past threatens to expose it unless they agree to help him rob the department store.
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Two Sisters from Boston
Title: Two Sisters from Boston
Character: Ticket Man (uncredited)
Released: June 6, 1946
Type: Movie
Abigail Chandler has written her stuffy Boston relatives that she's a successful opera singer in New York. In reality, she works at a burlesque house and is billed as High-C Susie. When her sister Martha comes for a visit, Abigail tries to hide the truth from her.
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Blonde Alibi
Title: Blonde Alibi
Character: Louie Comey
Released: March 1, 1946
Type: Movie
Soon after a young woman breaks off her engagement to a doctor, the doctor is found murdered. Suspicion falls on his ex-fiancé and a pilot with a checkered past.
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Adventure
Title: Adventure
Character: Bum (uncredited)
Released: December 28, 1945
Type: Movie
A rough and tumble man of the sea falls for a meek librarian.
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Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
Title: Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
Character: Circus Driver
Released: September 6, 1945
Type: Movie
Welcome to Fuller Junction, Wisconsin, a friendly small town settled by Norwegian farmers. Here we see the exploits of two young cousins, Selma and Arnold, who learn about their world and experience the ups and downs of life as the season pass.
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Character: Mr. Creckenbox (uncredited)
Released: February 28, 1945
Type: Movie
In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.
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The Suspect
Title: The Suspect
Character: Det. Sgt. Pennyfeather (uncredited)
Released: January 31, 1945
Type: Movie
Genial shopkeeper Philip has to endure the constant nagging of a shrewish wife while he secretly yearns for a pretty young stenographer. When the henpecking gets to be too much, Philip murders his wife and manages to make her death look like an accident. A ruthless blackmailer and a low-key detective both discover Philip's secret, and he has to decide which of them poses the more dangerous threat.
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Lost in a Harem
Title: Lost in a Harem
Character: Pianist (uncredited)
Released: December 1, 1944
Type: Movie
Two bumbling magicians help a Middle Eastern prince regain his rightful throne from his despotic uncle.
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Mrs. Parkington
Title: Mrs. Parkington
Character: Beggar (uncredited)
Released: October 12, 1944
Type: Movie
In this family saga, Mrs. Parkington recounts the story of her life, beginning as a hotel maid in frontier Nevada where she is swept off her feet by mine owner and financier Augustus Parkington. He moves them to New York, tries to remake her into a society woman, and establishes their home among the wealthiest of New York's high society. Family and social life is not always peaceful, however, and she guides us, in flashbacks, through the rises and falls of the Parkington family fortunes.
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Christmas Holiday
Title: Christmas Holiday
Character: Waiter
Released: July 31, 1944
Type: Movie
Don't be fooled by the title. Christmas Holiday is a far, far cry from It's a Wonderful Life. Told in flashback, the story begins as Abigail Martin marries Southern aristocrat Robert Monette. Unfortunately, Robert has inherited his family's streak of violence and instability, and soon drags Abigail into a life of misery.
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Phantom Lady
Title: Phantom Lady
Character: Man with Poodle (uncredited)
Released: January 28, 1944
Type: Movie
A mystery woman is a murder suspect's only alibi for the night of his wife's death.
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Madame Spy
Title: Madame Spy
Character: Hotel Clerk
Released: December 11, 1942
Type: Movie
Joan Bannister is the wife of globe-trotting war correspondent David Bannister. Returning to the US, Bannister becomes suspicious when Joan begins keeping company with known Nazi functionaries, notably the sinister Mr. Peter. Suspecting that his own wife may be the elusive “Madame Spy” wanted by American authorities, Bannister is in for quite a few surprises.
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War Dogs
Title: War Dogs
Character: Sam Stoner
Released: November 13, 1942
Type: Movie
A young boy donates his pet, a police dog, to the army to be trained as a war dog.
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Bowery at Midnight
Title: Bowery at Midnight
Character: Fingers Dolan
Released: October 30, 1942
Type: Movie
A seemingly charitable soup kitchen operator (who moonlights as a criminology professor) uses his Bowery mission as a front for his criminal gang. Police attempt to close in on the gang as they commit a series of robberies, murders and bizarre experiments on corpses.
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Mr. Blabbermouth!
Title: Mr. Blabbermouth!
Released: August 8, 1942
Type: Movie
Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, America was rife with rumors about the size of Japan's armed forces and how well-equipped they were to wage war against the U.S. Using animation, the first part of this film dispels these rumors by showing that the U.S. had more raw materials and more fighting ships. The narrator also cautions moviegoers against spreading rumors (which are often initiated by enemy infiltrators to create fear and dissention) and believing everything they read in the newspapers. Just because "they say" something, that doesn't make it true.
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About Face
Title: About Face
Character: Barfly (uncredited)
Released: April 16, 1942
Type: Movie
Two Army sergeants disrupt a bar, a party and an Army-Navy dance.
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Gang Busters
Title: Gang Busters
Character: Mr. Grubb
Released: March 31, 1942
Type: Movie
Police detectives battle the League of Murdered Men, a gang of resurrected dead criminals.
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Woman of the Year
Title: Woman of the Year
Character: Pal (uncredited)
Released: February 5, 1942
Type: Movie
Rival reporters Sam and Tess fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess' hectic lifestyle.
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Cowboy Serenade
Title: Cowboy Serenade
Character: Joe Crowley
Released: January 30, 1942
Type: Movie
Gene Autry heads a cattlemen's association and calls on the inexperienced Jim Agnew to negotiate the sale of five hundred heads of cattle. Jim ends up losing the cattle in a crooked poker game, however, and Gene and his sidekick Frog set out to find the cheating gamblers. It soon becomes clear that the leader of the gamblers is none other than Asa Lock, the dastardly father of Gene's romantic interest Stephanie.
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Alex in Wonderland
Title: Alex in Wonderland
Character: Man with pie
Released: March 9, 1940
Type: Movie
In this Warner Bros. short film, Alex visits his sister Belinda and her husband Fred. It looks like Alex is going to be around for a while, much to Fred's displeasure. Alex in is New York to look for a job and he sees an ad for a champagne salesman. He decides to crash a swank party given by railroad tycoon J.D. Swinnerton and his wife. Alex has his own zany way of getting an introduction to the man. Mayhem ensues when several of the guests come as Robin Hood and one of them is a jewel thief.
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I Stole a Million
Title: I Stole a Million
Character: Hobo (uncredited)
Released: August 1, 1939
Type: Movie
A cabbie and petty thief dreams of the big heist that will end his thieving ways.
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Winter Carnival
Title: Winter Carnival
Character: Reporter at Terminal
Released: July 28, 1939
Type: Movie
A divorced glamour girl keeps warm with a professor amid sports and romance at Dartmouth College's Winter Carnival.
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While New York Sleeps
Title: While New York Sleeps
Character: Eddie - Dance Director
Released: December 16, 1938
Type: Movie
Newspaperman (Whalen) looks into the deaths of bond-carriers while romancing a show girl (Rogers).
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Taking the Count
Title: Taking the Count
Character: Johnny
Released: April 24, 1937
Type: Movie
Now that they're engaged, Ann wants Joe to retire from the ring, seeing as how he's the heavyweight champ. Ann's mother, who doesn't want her daughter marrying "beneath" the wealthy family's standing, to set Ann up with a European count. What the mother doesn't know is that the "count" is after the family's money more than he is Ann.
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Black Legion
Title: Black Legion
Character: Convicted Black Legion Member (uncredited)
Released: January 30, 1937
Type: Movie
When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.
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The Blonde Bomber
Title: The Blonde Bomber
Character: Johnnie
Released: November 28, 1936
Type: Movie
The Palooka gang is out of money again, and Knobby and Johnny try to raise some quick cash by selling phony watches. Their first sale is their last, when a burly customer realizes he's been had. Next stop, Joe, Knobby and Punchy load up at a local diner, and Knobby has a scheme to skip out on the bill. Of course, the diner owner turns out to be their watch customer, and the boys make a hasty exit with the manager's waitress girlfriend in tow. Knobby books Palooka into a local vaudeville house to put on some exhibition bouts. Of course, their friend from the diner is in the audience, with a bag of rotten tomatoes, and he's more than willing to come on stage when Knobby asks for a volunteer to box with Joe.
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Sheik to Sheik
Title: Sheik to Sheik
Character: Johnnie
Released: October 10, 1936
Type: Movie
A radio salesman gets knocked out by a golf ball and dreams he's in the desert where he sells radios to sheiks.
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The Choke's on You
Title: The Choke's on You
Character: Johnny
Released: September 12, 1936
Type: Movie
Joe Palooka and Strangler Chokeovitch have set up training camps on adjacent beachfront sites. When Joe knocks out the Strangler after a misunderstanding, Chokeovitch's manager challenges the champ to a professional wrestling bout, with the winner taking all the gate receipts.
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Punch and Beauty
Title: Punch and Beauty
Character: Johnny
Released: August 15, 1936
Type: Movie
Before the big fight, Joe and his opponent come to blows at their hotel. Palooka knocks him out and the fight has to be postponed.
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The Good Old Plumbertime
Title: The Good Old Plumbertime
Released: August 8, 1936
Type: Movie
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Absorbing Junior
Title: Absorbing Junior
Character: Johnnie
Released: May 8, 1936
Type: Movie
Johnny's freeloading brother Henry will go to any length to bet on a tip at Belmont, including stealing from Junior's piggy bank. When Johnny's mother-in-law tells them to take Junior to the dentist to have a tooth pulled, and gives them $2 for the doctor, the game is afoot. The money goes to Henry's bookie, and the boys decide to pull Junior's tooth themselves... by tying a string onto the back bumper of a car. But a pet parrot spills the beans, and mother-in-law goes chasing after them with fire in her eye, and a fireplace poker under her coat.
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Calling All Tars
Title: Calling All Tars
Character: Johnnie
Released: March 25, 1936
Type: Movie
This early comedy short has Bob Hope and John Berkes putting on sailor uniforms to find dates, getting mistaken for real sailors and being dragged back to a Navy ship by the shore patrol. Though not much plot, the short does give each star a chance to shine doing comedy bits both together and separately.
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For the Love of Pete
Title: For the Love of Pete
Character: Pete
Released: March 14, 1936
Type: Movie
Boxer Joe Palooka steps into the ring after a friend's dog gets kicked.
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While the Cat's Away
Title: While the Cat's Away
Character: Johnnie
Released: January 4, 1936
Type: Movie
Henry and Johnnie need to clean the apartment before the wives get home.
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Double Exposure
Title: Double Exposure
Character: Photographer's Assistant
Released: November 23, 1935
Type: Movie
An aspiring photographer and his bumbling assistant go to great lengths to take a picture of a beautiful actress whose wealthy husband does not want her photographed.