Movies: Jack Oakie

In this visual essay, Charles Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance, author of "Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema", draws upon a wealth of photography as well as a wide range of interviews (Paulette Goddard, Sydney Chaplin, Chuck Jones, Leni Riefenstahl, Mel ...

Two down-on-their-luck former outlaws volunteer to be Texas Rangers and find themselves assigned to bring in an old friend, now a notorious outlaw....

Wendy Ballantine's parents decide to retire from show biz so she can have a normal life. They are unwelcome in the small town until a storm lets the family show their stuff....

Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she...

Chester Carr, owner of a dude ranch in the Rockies, caters to guests seeking the thrill of the Wild West. Among his guests are the wealthy Spruce Meadows and his daughter Susan. But the West isn't wild anymore and most of Carr's guests are bored and ...

In Vienna, a new jazz club featuring American trumpeter Buzzy Bellew threatens the existence of its neighbor, the Waltz Palace, run by Franz Strauss and featuring his granddaughter, singer Elsa. Smitten by Elsa, Buzzy hides his identity and associati...

Bonny Kane and 'Skid' Johnson are vaudeville performers in the 1920s. The two of them suffer marital difficulties when Skid gets an offer to appear on Broadway while Bonny gets left behind on the road. Things get worse with Skid's increasing drinking...

A press agent, a composer and a landlord of a theatrical boardinghouse revive vaudeville on Broadway....

Two Bowery vaudevillians find success in producing shows on Broadway, but when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman, a feud erupts....

Chorus girl Barbara Pell (Nancy Carroll) inherits a school for boys, and uses her position to sabotage the football career of the boy who jilted her....

After their annual free concert at Chicago's Dearborn Settlement, Benny Goodman and his band are packing up to go to their next engagement when a kid steals Goodman's clarinet. Goodman and Popsie pursue him to a tenement flat where he has led them to...

A bandleader tries to romance a dancer by sending her boyfriend, a musician, out of town. However, things get complicated when he finds out that a gangster has designs on her too....

Wrestling trainer puts himself in charge of a singer's love life when the singer is jilted by a rich girl....

Marco Perkins is a garage mechanic and a would-be-prizefighter who gets a place on the ritzy country club's polo team because he is the town's most proficient mallet-wielder, having learned to play polo while serving in the U.S. army. His hobnobbing ...

Annabel Allison, star of Wonder Pictures, is irked at her poor publicity, especially when a rival gets engaged to a Marquis; so she makes studio head Webb re-hire disgraced publicity agent Morgan for her personal appearance tour. The trip proceeds wi...

Marjorie, a song-and-dance girl in the stage show of a palatial movie theater, becomes interested in Al West, a warehouse clerk who has put together an unusual jazz band, and uses her influence to get him a place on one of the programs. Max Mindel, t...

Jack Oakie plays Eddie Doyle, a gumball machine salesman who marries Pat Smith (Shirley Grey) knowing full well that the girl is on the rebound from a failed romance with aspiring Jewish doctor Max Silver (Leon Ames). But when Pat is nearly killed in...

Searchlight Doyle, lightweight boxing champion of the United States Navy, is shanghaied into the fleet of Sainte Cassette, an island republic, as a replacement for a wealthy slacker who must serve his country to receive a $2 million inheritance, a sc...

A college professor and the school's star football player are both rivals for the same beautiful coed....

Just discharged from the Marine Corps, Oscar Kilroy arrives in the small town of Wilton Junction. Befriending the young Bill Fuller, he gets involved in the affairs of the town and hilarity ensues. The mayor of the city, fearing Oscar Kilroy's popula...