Marjorie Main

Marjorie Main

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marjorie Main (born Mary Tomlinson, February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an American actress, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player and for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies. Main worked in vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit and in Chautauqua presentations, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931. Main began playing upper class dowagers, but ultimately was typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinctive voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, and was subsequently cast repeatedly as the mother of gangsters. She again transferred a strong stage performance, as a dude-ranch operator in The Women, to film in 1939. At this time, she guest-starred on radio programs such as Columbia Presents Corwin and The Goldbergs. Main was signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1940 and stayed with the studio until the mid-1950s. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946). She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946). The director George Sidney remarked in the commentary for the film that Miss Main was a "great lady" as well as a great actress who donated most of her paychecks over the years to the support of a school. Perhaps her most famous role is that of Ma Kettle, which she first played in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle films. By the early 1950s, she had appeared in several MGM musicals, including, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Belle of New York. She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio's all-star film It's a Big Country (1951). In 1954, Marjorie Main played her last roles for the studio: Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer and Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie. In 1956, Main's performance as the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion was well-received, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1958, Main appeared twice as rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes "The Cassie Tanner Story" and "The Sacramento Story" on NBC's television series Wagon Train. In the first segment, she joins the wagon train, casts her romantic interest on Ward Bond as Major Adams, and helps the train locate needed horses despite a Paiute threat.

  • Popularity : 5.462
  • Known For : Acting
  • Birthday : 1890-02-22
  • Place of Birth : Acton, Indiana, USA
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Marjorie Main Movies

  • 1944
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    Meet Me in St. Louis

    Meet Me in St. Louis

    7 1944 HD

    Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family up to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

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  • 1951
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    Mr. Imperium

    Mr. Imperium

    5.3 1951 HD

    A pretty singer/dancer is becoming an actress whereas the playboy crown prince is becoming a monarch. Each will have their clandestine romance...

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  • 1939
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    The Women

    The Women

    7.1 1939 HD

    A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.

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  • 1954
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    The Long, Long Trailer

    The Long, Long Trailer

    6.8 1954 HD

    A newly wed couple, Tacy and Nicky, travel in a trailer for their honeymoon. The journey is a humorous one that could end up destroying their...

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  • 1947
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    The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap

    The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap

    6.1 1947 HD

    Chester Wooley and Duke Egan are travelling salesmen who make a stopover in Wagon Gap, Montana while enroute to California. During the stopover, a...

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  • 1941
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    A Woman's Face

    A Woman's Face

    7 1941 HD

    A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.

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  • 1937
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    Dead End

    Dead End

    6.952 1937 HD

    Mobster "Baby Face" Martin returns home to visit the New York neighborhood where he grew up, dropping in on his mother, who rejects him because of...

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  • 1952
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    Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair

    Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair

    5.9 1952 HD

    Ma and Pa are trying to raise enough money at the county fair to send their daughter Rosie to college. Ma competes in baking and Pa enters a trotter...

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  • 1947
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    The Egg and I

    The Egg and I

    7 1947 HD

    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....

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  • 1956
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    Friendly Persuasion

    Friendly Persuasion

    6.6 1956 HD

    The story of a family of Quakers in Indiana in 1862. Their religious sect is strongly opposed to violence and war. It's not easy for them to meet the...

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  • 1941
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    The Shepherd of the Hills

    The Shepherd of the Hills

    6.6 1941 HD

    Young Matt Matthews, an Ozark Mountains moonshiner, hates the father he has never seen, who apparently deserted Matt's mother and left her to die....

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  • 1952
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    The Belle of New York

    The Belle of New York

    5.6 1952 HD

    In squeaky-clean New York at the turn of the century, playboy Charlie Hill falls so much in love that he can walk on air. The object of his...

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  • 1950
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    Summer Stock

    Summer Stock

    6.7 1950 HD

    To Jane Falbury's New England farm comes a troup of actors to put up a show, invited by Jane's sister. At first reluctant she has them do farm chores...

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  • 1937
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    Stella Dallas

    Stella Dallas

    6.9 1937 HD

    After divorcing a society man, a small-town woman tries to build a better life for their daughter.

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  • 1946
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    Undercurrent

    Undercurrent

    5.8 1946 HD

    After a rapid engagement, a dowdy daughter of a chemist weds an industrialist, knowing little of his family or past. He transforms her into an...

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  • 1949
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    Ma and Pa Kettle

    Ma and Pa Kettle

    7.2 1949 HD

    The Kettles and their fifteen children are about to be evicted from their rundown rustic home when Pa wins the grand prize by coming up with a new...

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  • 1943
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    Heaven Can Wait

    Heaven Can Wait

    6.898 1943 HD

    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...

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  • 1955
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    Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki

    Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki

    6.8 1955 HD

    Ma and Pa, along with daughter Rosie, go off to Hawaii in answer to cousin Rodney's call for help running his pineapple farm while he recovers from...

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  • 1952
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    Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation

    Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation

    7.2 1952 HD

    The Kettles are in Paris along with their daughter-in-law's parents the Parkers. Pa tries to buy racy postcards. He also gets in big trouble when he...

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  • 1942
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    Tennessee Johnson

    Tennessee Johnson

    6.2 1942 HD

    The tumultuous presidency of 19th-president Andrew Johnson is chronicled in this biopic. The story begins with Johnson's boyhood and covers his early...

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  • 1950
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    Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town

    Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town

    6.1 1950 HD

    When Pa wins a jingle-writing contest, he and Ma head for New York City. They they get in trouble with gangsters when they lose some stolen money...

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  • 1951
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    Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm

    Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm

    6.3 1951 HD

    The Kettles leave their ultra-modern home and return to the country looking for uranium. Ma and Tom's mother-in-law, Mrs. Parker, fight over whether...

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  • 1951
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    It's a Big Country

    It's a Big Country

    5.3 1951 HD

    Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best...

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  • 1956
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    The Kettles in the Ozarks

    The Kettles in the Ozarks

    6.4 1956 HD

    Ma and the kids head out to help Pa's brother Sedgewick with the his farm in Mournful Hollow, Arkansas. Things get tighter when a couple of...

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  • 1941
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    Honky Tonk

    Honky Tonk

    6.4 1941 HD

    Fast-talking con-man and grifter Candy Johnson rises to be the corrupt boss of Yellow Creek, but his wife's alcoholic father tries to set things...

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  • 1942
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    The Bugle Sounds

    The Bugle Sounds

    6 1942 HD

    An old-time cavalry sergeant's resistance to change could cost him his post.

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  • 1942
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    Jackass Mail

    Jackass Mail

    7 1942 HD

    An unknowing orphan idolizes the horse thief/mail robber who has shot his father.

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  • 1957
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    The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm

    The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm

    6.1 1957 HD

    Ma and Pa do their bit to hook lumberman Brad Johnson up with spoiled socialite Sally Flemming. Ma teaches Sally how to behave like a hick so she'll...

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  • 1939
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    Angels Wash Their Faces

    Angels Wash Their Faces

    6.4 1939 HD

    A young man just released from a reformatory moves to a new neighborhood with his sister, intending to start a new life. However, he gets mixed up...

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  • 1948
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    Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'

    Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'

    6.5 1948 HD

    A fast-talking salesman is "kidnapped" by a town, which intends to use him in its annual race with a rival community.

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  • 1945
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    Murder, He Says

    Murder, He Says

    6.6 1945 HD

    Pete Marshall is sent as a replacement to the mountain district town of Plainville when a public opinion surveyor who went there goes missing....

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  • 1950
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    Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone

    Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone

    6 1950 HD

    Harriet O'Malley tries to solve a murder aboard a train en route to New York.

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  • 1941
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    The Wild Man of Borneo

    The Wild Man of Borneo

    6.5 1941 HD

    A medicine show man tries to con people into believing he's a legitimate stage actor.

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  • 1933
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    New Deal Rhythm

    New Deal Rhythm

    5.5 1933 HD

    Plotless musical revue celebrating President Franklin D. Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration.

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  • 1937
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    The Shadow

    The Shadow

    6.5 1937 HD

    Mary Gillespie is restoring the Col. Gillespie Circus to its former splendor after her father's death. With the help of her publicist boyfriend Jim,...

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  • 1940
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    I Take This Woman

    I Take This Woman

    6.2 1940 HD

    On return from Europe Dr. Decker foils glamour girl Georgi from jumping overboard. At Decker's suggestion to keep busy, she assists at his clinic...

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  • 1941
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    Barnacle Bill

    Barnacle Bill

    7.7 1941 HD

    A fishing boat captain searches for romance in hopes of improving his financial picture.

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  • 1954
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    Rose Marie

    Rose Marie

    4 1954 HD

    Rose Marie Lemaitre, an orphan living in the Canadian wilderness, falls in love with her guardian, Mike Malone, an officer of the Royal Canadian...

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  • 1939
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    Lucky Night

    Lucky Night

    6.6 1939 HD

    Cora, an heiress who gives it all up for the excitement of looking for a job and living on her own, meets up with unemployed and flat broke Dick. The...

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  • 1949
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    Big Jack

    Big Jack

    6 1949 HD

    Wallace Beery, in his final film, plays a bandit in this period drama set in Colonial America.

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  • 1946
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    Bad Bascomb

    Bad Bascomb

    6.2 1946 HD

    A western bandit is reformed by his love for a little girl.

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  • 1942
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    We Were Dancing

    We Were Dancing

    4.2 1942 HD

    A penniless former princess weds an equally cash-strapped baron, so they support themselves by becoming houseguests at the homes of wealthy American...

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  • 1944
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    Rationing

    Rationing

    3 1944 HD

    A small-town butcher has problems coping with meat rationing.

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  • 1937
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    The Wrong Road

    The Wrong Road

    4.3 1937 HD

    A young married couple whose plans for their life together haven't turned out as expected decide to rob the bank where the husband works of $100,000,...

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  • 1951
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    The Law and the Lady

    The Law and the Lady

    6.1 1951 HD

    A former housemaid now works as a confidence trickster, but her plans for a big job in California go awry.

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  • 1942
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    The Affairs of Martha

    The Affairs of Martha

    5.8 1942 HD

    Members of a well-to-do small community become worried when it is revealed that one of their maids is writing a telling exposé.

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  • 1938
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    Boy of the Streets

    Boy of the Streets

    5 1938 HD

    Cocky young street kid worships his father, a sleazy political operative.

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  • 1938
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    Under the Big Top

    Under the Big Top

    5.5 1938 HD

    Director Karl Brown's 1938 circus drama stars Marjorie Main as a tough, fur-coat-wearing circus boss who raises her orphaned niece to be a trapeze...

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  • 1937
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    The Man Who Cried Wolf

    The Man Who Cried Wolf

    5.5 1937 HD

    An actor plots "the perfect crime" by confessing to murders he didn't commit.

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  • 1940
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    Women Without Names

    Women Without Names

    4.8 1940 HD

    Joyce and Fred MacNeil's honeymoon comes to an abrupt and unsatisfying halt when Fred is accused of murder. Railroaded into prison through the...

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  • 1938
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    Girls' School

    Girls' School

    6 1938 HD

    Wealthy high school girls are sent to a boarding school to learn proper etiquette. Linda Simpson stays out all night. She tells her roommate, Betty...

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  • 1938
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    Too Hot to Handle

    Too Hot to Handle

    5.8 1938 HD

    While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding. She does not trust him, but he...

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  • 1938
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    Little Tough Guy

    Little Tough Guy

    5.95 1938 HD

    The son of a man sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit vows to become a criminal himself. He starts his own street gang, and their crime...

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  • 1946
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    The Show-Off

    The Show-Off

    7 1946 HD

    Chaos is brought to a family when daughter marries a brash young man met on a blind date.

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  • 1938
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    Romance of the Limberlost

    Romance of the Limberlost

    1 1938 HD

    An orphaned girl is being raised in the Limberlost by her aunt, who hates her because the girl's mother married the man that the aunt loved. The...

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  • 1942
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    Tish

    Tish

    5.7 1942 HD

    In this comedy, the town gossip fills her time running the lives of others. Naturally, she is also a matchmaker.

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  • 1939
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    Two Thoroughbreds

    Two Thoroughbreds

    2 1939 HD

    A farm boy trains a wild colt on his own.

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  • 1940
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    Susan and God

    Susan and God

    6.5 1940 HD

    A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.

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  • 1954
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    Ma and Pa Kettle at Home

    Ma and Pa Kettle at Home

    5.8 1954 HD

    The Indians try to make a fire in the Kettles fireplace the old fashion way, the smoke signal way. Judges are a comin' to award a child with a...

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  • 1938
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    There Goes My Heart

    There Goes My Heart

    7.154 1938 HD

    An heiress takes a job as a department store clerk.

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  • 1944
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    Gentle Annie

    Gentle Annie

    5.2 1944 HD

    The Goss family live on a farm they call the dust bowl where the wind blows during the day and the coyotes howl at night. When the train is robbed,...

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  • 1940
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    Wyoming

    Wyoming

    5.9 1940 HD

    With the army after him and his partner deserting, Reb decides that a change of scenery would be nice so he heads for Wyoming with Dave.

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  • 1946
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    The Harvey Girls

    The Harvey Girls

    6.4 1946 HD

    On a train trip out west to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley meets a cheery crew of young women traveling out to open a "Harvey House"...

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  • 1938
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    Prison Farm

    Prison Farm

    5.7 1938 HD

    Shirley Ross plays an innocent young girl convicted for complicity in a crime committed by her boy friend (Lloyd Nolan). The male crook is sentence...

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  • 1940
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    Turnabout

    Turnabout

    6 1940 HD

    Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue of Buddha and wind up living each other's life.

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  • 1938
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    Three Comrades

    Three Comrades

    7.172 1938 HD

    A love story centered on the lives of three young German soldiers in the years following World War I. Their close friendship is strengthened by their...

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  • 1938
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    Test Pilot

    Test Pilot

    6.544 1938 HD

    Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.

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  • 1939
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    Another Thin Man

    Another Thin Man

    7.141 1939 HD

    Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.

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  • 1939
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    They Shall Have Music

    They Shall Have Music

    6 1939 HD

    The future is bleak for a troubled boy from a broken home in the slums. He runs away when his step father breaks his violin, ending up sleeping in...

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  • 1938
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    King of the Newsboys

    King of the Newsboys

    6 1938 HD

    A poor young man's girlfriend leaves him for a gangster, who has the money and power she wants and the young man doesn't have. Determined to show her...

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  • 1953
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    Fast Company

    Fast Company

    7 1953 HD

    The temperamental Carol Maldon leaves New York behind to take control of her father's stable, she inherited. Rick Grayton is a horse racing trainer...

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  • 1954
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    Ricochet Romance

    Ricochet Romance

    7 1954 HD

    Marjorie Main is the whole show in the Universal programmer Ricochet Romance. Playing the outspoken new cook at a rundown dude ranch, Marjorie forces...

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  • 1931
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    A House Divided

    A House Divided

    6.2 1931 HD

    A New England fisherman's second wife prefers his son.

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  • 1941
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    The Trial of Mary Dugan

    The Trial of Mary Dugan

    5 1941 HD

    Mary Dugan is a young woman accused of murdering her billionaire lover. In the process, his defense lawyer acts wrongly against them, and is replaced...

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  • 1943
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    Johnny Come Lately

    Johnny Come Lately

    6.7 1943 HD

    Cagney is a human dynamo as a drifter who helps save ailing Grace George from losing her newspaper. The pace is fast, and audiences of all ages will...

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  • 1934
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    Music in the Air

    Music in the Air

    4.8 1934 HD

    A songwriter's young daughter (June Lang) begins to dream of stardom when she's offered the lead role in a new operetta.

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  • 1940
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    Dark Command

    Dark Command

    6.378 1940 HD

    When transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas he finds much to like about the place, especially Mary McCloud, daughter of the local...

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  • 1932
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    Hot Saturday

    Hot Saturday

    6.6 1932 HD

    A pretty but virtuous small-town bank clerk is the victim of a vicious rumor from an unsuccessful suitor that she spent the night with a notorious...

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  • 1940
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    The Captain Is a Lady

    The Captain Is a Lady

    6 1940 HD

    Because of a bad investment, Captain and Mrs. Peabody are evicted from their home. Mrs. Peabody finds lodging at a retirement home, but as only...

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  • 1932
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    Broken Lullaby

    Broken Lullaby

    7.5 1932 HD

    A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each...

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  • 1934
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    Art Trouble

    Art Trouble

    6.5 1934 HD

    Harry Gribbon and Shemp Howard enter the world of fine art in Paris.

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  • 1929
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    Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties

    Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties

    1 1929 HD

    Harry Fox performs his vaudeville act.

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  • 1933
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    Close Relations

    Close Relations

    1 1933 HD

    Roscoe believes he is in line to receive a large inheritance, but the reality is considerably more psychopathic-- no, nuts.

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  • 1936
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    Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)

    Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)

    6 1936 HD

    Viewers are provided a visit to Ken Maynard's private circus; Bette Davis poses for her portrait; Frank McHugh plays with his children; a visit to...

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  • 1934
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    Crime Without Passion

    Crime Without Passion

    5.8 1934 HD

    Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry is going out with Katy Costello, but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown. When he wants to end the dalliance...

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  • 1965
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    The World of Abbott and Costello

    The World of Abbott and Costello

    6.3 1965 HD

    A compilation of clips from 19 Abbott & Costello features: The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap, In the Navy, Hit the Ice, Who Done It?, Abbott and...

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  • 1938
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    Penitentiary

    Penitentiary

    1 1938 HD

    The story of a D.A. who becomes a prison warden and winds up overseeing the sentence of a man he prosecuted.

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  • 1954
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    December Bride

    December Bride

    5.5 1954 HD

    December Bride is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1954 to 1959, adapted from the original CBS radio network series...

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  • 1957
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    Wagon Train

    Wagon Train

    6.4 1957 HD

    The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert...

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