Henri Letondal

Henri Letondal

Born: June 29, 1901
Died: February 15, 1955
in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Henri Letondal was a French-Canadian music critic, administrator, cellist, playwright and actor. He was a man of wide interests and wrote many sketches and revues, including, on occasion, the music. In his youth he studied the cello with Gustave Labelle. Around 1920 he became a critic of concerts and variety shows for "La Patrie" (Montreal) and served 1926-29 as that paper's Paris correspondent. He also wrote about music for "Le Petit Journal" and was music critic around 1935 for "Le Canada". For CKAC radio in Montreal he was artistic director 1929-38 of 'L'Heure provinciale,' which was sponsored by the Quebec government to promote the province's musicians and composers. He also was director general of the film company France-Film.

It has been estimated that Letondal wrote some 160 radio plays and sketches 1937-1948, producing them himself and occasionally writing the music. In 1946 he embarked on an intensive Hollywood film career, appearing in 35 Hollywood films and one Canadian, before he he died in Hollywood in 1955.

Movies for Henri Letondal...

A Bullet for Joey
Title: A Bullet for Joey
Character: Dubois
Released: April 15, 1955
Type: Movie
Raoul Leduc is a police inspector trailing a spy who plots to kidnap an important American atomic scientist. Joe Victor a gangster who is hired to carry out the abduction, balks when he learns what is at stake and helps Leduc out instead.
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The Gambler from Natchez
Title: The Gambler from Natchez
Character: Police Commissioner Robert Renard
Released: August 4, 1954
Type: Movie
A discharged army Captain returns home to New Orleans to take revenge on the men who murdered his father.
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Little Boy Lost
Title: Little Boy Lost
Character: Tracing Service Clerk
Released: September 21, 1953
Type: Movie
A war correspondent who was stationed in Paris during WW II married a French girl who was murdered by the Nazis. After the war he returns to to try to find his son, whom he lost during a bombing raid but has been told is living in an orphanage in Paris.
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Title: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Character: Grotier (uncredited)
Released: July 14, 1953
Type: Movie
Lorelei Lee is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond, much to the disapproval of Gus' rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw, Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone, a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.
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South Sea Woman
Title: South Sea Woman
Character: Alphonse
Released: June 27, 1953
Type: Movie
Marine Sergeant James O'Hearn is being tried at the San Diego Marine base for desertion, theft, scandalous conduct and destruction of property in time of war. He refuses to testify or plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. Showgirl Ginger Martin takes the stand against his protest. She testifies O'Hearn won't talk because he is protecting the name of his pal, Marine Private Davey White. Ginger tells how she, broke and stranded, met the two marines in Shanghai two weeks before Pearl Harbor.
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Dangerous When Wet
Title: Dangerous When Wet
Character: Joubert
Released: June 18, 1953
Type: Movie
The health conscious, dairy-farming Higgins family begin each day with an invigorating swim. One day, traveling health-tonic salesman, Windy Weebe, comes to town and suggests they could swim the English Channel. Sponsored by "Liquapep" and coached by Windy, the family arrive in Europe. There it is decided that daughter Katie is the only one strong enough to enter the contest. But while she should be focused on the difficult and risky task ahead, Katie is pursed by dashing Frenchman, André Lanet... This comedic musical is well remembered for the scene when Katie dreams she is swimming with cartoon characters Tom & Jerry!
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Monkey Business
Title: Monkey Business
Character: Jerome Kitzel
Released: September 3, 1952
Type: Movie
Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.
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What Price Glory
Title: What Price Glory
Character: Cognac Pete
Released: August 22, 1952
Type: Movie
Two military men, Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt, who are rivals to begin with, grow more at odds with each other when Quirt is made Flagg's top sergeant. And when a local beauty comes between them, their rivalry escalates even further. But when they discover that the woman has marriage in mind, they now compete to try to avoid marching down the aisle - that is, until they are called upon to march into battle.
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The Big Sky
Title: The Big Sky
Character: La Badie
Released: August 19, 1952
Type: Movie
Two tough Kentucky mountaineers join a trading expedition from St. Louis up the Missouri River to trade whisky for furs with the Blackfoot Indians. They soon discover that there is much more than the elements to contend with.
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The Wild North
Title: The Wild North
Character: John Mudd (uncredited)
Released: January 28, 1952
Type: Movie
In the Canadian mountains, a trapper goes on the run accused of a crime and is pursued by a rugged and determined lawman of the Royal North-West Mounted Police.
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Kind Lady
Title: Kind Lady
Character: Monsieur Malaquaise
Released: June 20, 1951
Type: Movie
Mary Herries has a passion for art and fine furniture. Even though she is getting on in years, she enjoys being around these priceless articles. One day she meets a strange young painter named Elcott, who uses his painting skill to enter into her life. Little does she expect that his only interest in Mary is to covet everything she has.
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On the Riviera
Title: On the Riviera
Character: Louis Foral
Released: April 20, 1951
Type: Movie
In this fast-paced remake of the Maurice Chevalier vehicle Folies Bergère, talented Danny Kaye plays both a performer and a heroic French military pilot.
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Royal Wedding
Title: Royal Wedding
Character: Purser (uncredited)
Released: March 8, 1951
Type: Movie
Tom and Ellen are asked to perform as a dance team in England at the time of Princess Elizabeth's wedding. As brother and sister, each develops a British love interest, Ellen with Lord John Brindale and Tom with dancer Anne Ashmond.
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Please Believe Me
Title: Please Believe Me
Character: Jacques Carnet
Released: May 12, 1950
Type: Movie
A woman in London unexpectedly inherits a Texas ranching fortune, and takes a transatlantic voyage to collect her fortune, not suspecting two men aboard both plan on winning her hand before she reaches America. One is a gambler interested in her money, and the other, a rich man looking for a wife. The rich man's friend, meanwhile, believes the heiress is actually a gold-digger.
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Madame Bovary
Title: Madame Bovary
Character: Guillaumin
Released: August 25, 1949
Type: Movie
After marrying small-town doctor Charles Bovary, Emma becomes tired of her limited social status and begins to have affairs, first with the young Leon Dupuis and later with the wealthy Rodolphe Boulanger. Eventually, however, her self-involved behavior catches up with her.
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Come to the Stable
Title: Come to the Stable
Character: Father Barraud (uncredited)
Released: July 27, 1949
Type: Movie
Two nuns arrive unannounced in the small New England town of Bethlehem, where they recruit various townspeople to help them build a children's hospital.
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Mother Is a Freshman
Title: Mother Is a Freshman
Character: Prof. Romaine (uncredited)
Released: March 12, 1949
Type: Movie
Widow Abby Abbott is having serious money problems and has to dip into the family trust in order to pay for her daughter Susan's college tuition. The catch: Abby must also become a co-ed or she can't touch the money. After passing her entrance exams, Abby goes to college and becomes very popular, especially with a handsome English professor whom Susan has a crush on.
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Apartment for Peggy
Title: Apartment for Peggy
Character: Prof. Roland Pavin
Released: September 30, 1948
Type: Movie
Professor Henry Barnes decides he's lived long enough and contemplates suicide. His attitude is changed by Peggy Taylor, a chipper young mother-to-be who charms him into renting out his attic as an apartment for her and her husband Jason, a former GI struggling to finish college.
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The Big Clock
Title: The Big Clock
Character: Antique Dealer
Released: March 18, 1948
Type: Movie
Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor has to post-pone a vacation with his wife, again, when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss Janoth to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence (albeit wrong) that he is the killer.
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The Crime Doctor's Gamble
Title: The Crime Doctor's Gamble
Character: Louis Chabonet
Released: November 27, 1947
Type: Movie
While visiting France, a criminal psychologist tries to clear a disturbed young man of his father's murder.
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The Fortress
Title: The Fortress
Character: Edward Durant
Released: April 22, 1947
Type: Movie
After hearing that a famous actress is dying in a hospital after being hit by a car, a reporter goes to the hospital to interview the actress. She then tells the reporter that her wealthy fiance, who was killed in an accident several years before, was actually murdered. Before long the reporter finds herself in a web of corruption, mental illness and murder.
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Magnificent Doll
Title: Magnificent Doll
Character: Count D'Arignon
Released: December 8, 1946
Type: Movie
While packing her belongings in preparation of evacuating the White House because of the impending British invasion of Washington D.C., Dolly Payne Madison thinks back on her childhood, her first marriage, and later romances with two very different politicians, Aaron Burr and his good friend James Madison. She plays each against the other, not only for romantic reasons, but also to influence the shaping of the young country. By manipulating Burr's affections, she helps Thomas Jefferson win the presidency, and eventually she becomes First Lady of the land herself.
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The Razor's Edge
Title: The Razor's Edge
Character: Police Inspector at Sophie's Death (uncredited)
Released: November 19, 1946
Type: Movie
An adventurous young man goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. But when he returns 10 years later, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married.