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The Music Goes 'Round (1936)
Character: Lucifer
Harry Wallace (Harry Richman) is the star of a musical comedy who, while on a leave of absence from Broadway, encounters a troupe of untalented showboat players and takes them to New York City. Without letting them in on the joke, he then features them in a new revue, hoping that unintentionally-funny act will bring the house down.
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Public Wedding (1937)
Character: Man Carrying Coat
The operators of a bankrupt carnival sideshow hope to restore their fallen fortunes by staging a fake 'public wedding' in the mouth of their unprofitable giant whale. But the intended 'bridegroom' absconds with the proceeds, arranging a substitute. The bride, Flip Lane (Jane Wyman), much to her surprise, finds herself really married to a handsome stranger, whose career as an artist she decides to manage, much to his dismay.
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Jack Benny Christmas Shopping Show (1957)
Character: Rochester Van Jones
Jack is determined to finish his Christmas shopping in one visit and tortures a wallet salesman with constant changes to his order. Meanwhile, Dennis is having difficulty finding the right present for his mother.
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Jack Benny's Bag (1968)
Character: Self
Jack Benny's 1968 TV specials features topical references including a parody of The Graduate.
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TV in Black: The First Fifty Years (2004)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Discover how television has reflected the African American experience in this retrospective of the medium's first half-century. Actors, writers and historians discuss the image of black America on television from Amos and Andy to the present day. The interviews accompany clips from groundbreaking shows and performances by entertainment pioneers that create a timeline of the portrayal of African Americans throughout TV history.
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Is Everybody Listening? (1947)
Character: Rochester, Jack Benny Radio Program
A documentary about the 82% of US citizens that listen to the radio for their entertainment, news and sport.
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Rainbow on the River (1936)
Character: Doctor
A young boy is forced to leave his family in the South and move in with relatives he doesn't know in New York.
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You Can Change The World (1950)
Character: Rochester
Comedian Jack Benny has his butler, Rochester, call several of his celebrity friends over to the house. Benny introduces them to a Catholic priest, who speaks to them about doing a film for a group called the Christophers. The Christophers are an organization that wants to use different mediums such radio, TV, and film to inspire young people to change the world for the better by pursuing careers in public service like teaching and government work. The priest gives the celebrities a history lesson about the founding of the U.S. and God's role in it, and he asks for their help.
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I Love a Bandleader (1945)
Character: Newton H. Newton
A painter suffering from amnesia convinces himself that he's a famous bandleader and finds romance with a pretty singer. Comedy with music.
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Bill Cracks Down (1937)
Character: Chauffeur
William Reardon, a steel magnate, dies and leaves a strange will. When his spineless and dandified heir and son returns home from living in Paris, he finds "Tons' Walker, a strong and burly steel worker running the company, per his late-father's will request. He also finds that his father's will specifies the Junior will change his name to Bill Hall and work in the family steel mill for a year under the fake name. Walker's job is to make a man out of the son. The son is not overjoyed by this prospect. Neither is Walker.
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Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
Character: Rochester
Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio's dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade. Things get more complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount's top contract players.
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Honolulu (1939)
Character: Washington
Wanting a break from his overzealous fans, a famous movie star hires a Hawaiian plantation owner to switch places with him for a few weeks.
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Over the Goal (1937)
Character: William
The Carlton State star quarterback is wrongly thrown in jail, almost guaranteeing a major loss as well as costing the college a donation which would save the school from closing.
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Topper Returns (1941)
Character: Edward ("Eddie"), the Chauffeur
Topper is once again tormented by a fun-loving spirit. This time, it's Gail Richards, accidentally murdered while vacationing at the home of her wealthy friend, Ann Carrington, the intended victim. With Topper's help, Gail sets out to find her killer with the expected zany results.
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Show-Business at War (1943)
Character: Self
A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.
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What Price Hollywood? (1932)
Character: Max's Butler James (uncredited)
Sassy and ambitious waitress Mary Evans amuses and befriends amiable seldom-sober Hollywood film director Max Carey when he stumbles into her restaurant. Max invites Mary to his film premiere and, after a night of drinking and carousing, Mary is granted a screen test. A studio contract follows. Just as Mary finds her dreams coming true, Carey’s life and career begins its descent.
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When Love Is Young (1937)
Character: Taxi Driver (uncredited)
In this drama, a girl from a small town in Pennsylvania dreams of being a star while she goes to school. The trouble is, no one notices her. Later a mentor turns her into a successful Broadway entertainer. She returns to her former college to get sweet revenge.
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White Bondage (1937)
Character: Old Glory (uncredited)
A reporter risks lynching to prove that share croppers are being cheated.
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Reckless Living (1938)
Character: Dreamboat
This harmless Universal musical comedy is worth having as one of the few filmed records of legendary Broadway comedian Jimmy Savo (his previous starrer, Once in a Blue Moon, is among the rarest of collector's item). The story proper is carried by Robert Wilcox and Nan Grey, cast as a pair of mismatched lovers who share a common interest in horse racing. Hero and heroine get mixed up in a shady get-rich-quick scheme, which threatens to turns disastrous but which ends up solving everyone's problems.
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Gone with the Wind (1939)
Character: Aunt Pittypat's Coachman 'Uncle Peter'
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
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You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Character: Donald
Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don't turn out the way Alice had hoped.
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Three Men on a Horse (1936)
Character: Moses, the Elevator Operator
A meek salesman with an uncanny ability to pick horses is virtually kidnapped by a trio of gamblers.
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The Mouse That Jack Built (1959)
Character: Rochester (voice)
In this spoof of "The Jack Benny Program", a mouse with Jack Benny's personality and poor violin playing ability lives, along with a mouse version of Benny's valet, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, in a hole in a wall of Jack Benny's own home. Jack the rodent takes a mouse version of 'Mary Livingstone (I)' out to dinner, and the two unwittingly walk right into the disguised mouth of an orange cat!
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Love Thy Neighbor (1940)
Character: Rochester
Capitalizing on the famous radio 'feud' between comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen. The two stars play versions of themselves, constantly at each other's throats due to real and imagined slights.
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Birth of the Blues (1941)
Character: Louey
Jeff grows up near Basin Street in New Orleans, playing his clarinet with the dock workers. He puts together a band, the Basin Street Hot-Shots, which includes a cornet player, Memphis. They struggle to get their jazz music accepted by the cafe society of the city. Betty Lou joins their band as a singer and gets Louie to show her how to do scat singing. Memphis and Jeff both fall in love with Betty Lou.
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The Meanest Man in the World (1943)
Character: Shufro
Compassionate small-town lawyer Richard Clarke moves to New York City to seek his fortune, but is unsuccessful until he takes a friend's advice and tries to convince the world he's a ruthless heel. Suddenly he's the most popular lawyer in town -- but he could lose his fiancée.
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Hat Check Girl (1932)
Character: Walter (uncredited)
Gerry Marsh is a hat-check girl in a nightclub surrounded by bootleggers, blackmailers and others before she falls in love with millionaire playboy Buster Collins. Gerry is supported by her girlfriend Jessie.
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Two in a Crowd (1936)
Character: Swipe (uncredited)
When two halves of a thousand-dollar bill are discovered in the snow, the penniless pair that individually grabs each half must come to terms. Actress Julia Wayne needs the whole $1,000, and so does sportsman Larry Stevens. Since compromise will serve neither of their needs, they are stalemated - until complications arise.
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You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939)
Character: Sam (uncredited)
Johnnie learns crime from petty thug Frank Wilson. When Wilson kills a pawnbroker with a gun stolen from Johnnie's sister Madge's fiance Fred Burke, Fred goes to Sing Sing's death house. Wilson uses all the pressure can to keep Johnnie silent, even after he and Johnnie themselves wind up in the big house.
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Going Places (1938)
Character: Groom
A sports store clerk poses as a famous jockey as an advertising stunt, but gets more than he bargained for.
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I Love That Man (1933)
Character: Charlie - Porter (uncredited)
Innocent Nancy Carroll falls in love with con man Edmund Lowe and the pair swindle their way across the country until they decide to settle down in a small town and give up their life of crime. He goes into business and all seems to be going well until some ex-partners he double crossed show up in town demanding the money he cheated them out of.
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On Such a Night (1937)
Character: Henry Clay Washington
When her husband is accused of murder, an actress tries to prove his innocence.
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The Gay Bride (1934)
Character: 2nd bootblack (uncredited)
Mary wants to marry a gangster because that is where the money is. Unfortunately, the life expectancy and finances of a gangster are unstable.
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Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)
Character: Doorman
When the representative of the Paris International Dance Exposition arrives in New York to invite the Academy Ballet of America to compete for monetary prizes, the taxi driver mistakenly brings him to the Club Ballé, a nightclub on the brink of declaring bankruptcy. The owners, Terry Moore and Duke Dennis, jump at the chance to go, despite being aware of the mistake. They hire ballet teacher, Luis Leoni, and his only pupil, Kay Morrow, to join the group, hoping to teach their two dozen show girls ballet en route to Paris by ship. Also going along and rooming with Kay is Mona, Terry's ex-wife, who wants to keep an eye on her alimony checks. Naturally, Kay and Terry fall in love.
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Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1941)
Character: George
New York chorus girl Cindy Lou Bethany becomes frustrated when she prepares for an audition for a Broadway musical, but the auditions close and her roommate, Gwen Abbott, is hired to be secretary to Top Rumson, the show's financial backer. Gwen tells Cindy that the director, Lloyd Lloyd, and composer, Dick Rayburn, have been sent to the South on a talent search for a classic Southern belle type to star in the show, although their shows usually feature Myra Stanhope, an actress whose style is hopelessly inappropriate for this show. Desperate for work, Cindy returns to her aunt Lily Lou and uncle Jefferson Davis Bethany's home in the South and schemes to get Lloyd and Rayburn to audition her.
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Jezebel (1938)
Character: Gros Bat
In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.
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The Green Pastures (1936)
Character: Noah
God, heaven, and several Old Testament stories, including the Creation and Noah's Ark, are described supposedly using the perspective of rural, black Americans.
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Man About Town (1939)
Character: Rochester
Producer Bob Temple, who's brought an American show to London, loves his star Diana, but she won't take him seriously as a lover. To show her, he picks up stranger Lady Arlington, whose financier husband neglects her. On a weekend at the Arlington country house, Bob is used by both Lady A. and her friend to make their husbands jealous; this works all too well, and Bob is in danger from both husbands.
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From Hell to Heaven (1933)
Character: Sam's Pal (uncredited)
The various residents and occupants of a resort hotel await the outcome of a horse race at a nearby track, as it will affect each of their lives in different ways.
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Love Is News (1937)
Character: Man Getting Marriage License (uncredited)
When a crafty reporter uses false pretenses to get a story out of heiress Tony Gateson, she turns the tables on him, telling the press that they are engaged. Suddenly he's front page news, every salesman is at his doorstep, and he loses his job. A series of misadventures ensues with him alternately back on his job and fired and her ex-fiancé showing up.
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Show Boat (1936)
Character: Boonville man speaking film's first line
Despite her mother's objections, the naive young daughter of a show boat captain is thrust into the limelight as the company's new leading lady.
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Terror Aboard (1933)
Character: Seaman (uncredited)
An ocean liner is found at sea with everyone on board dead. An investigation is begun to find out what happened.
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Exposed (1938)
Character: William
A magazine reporter exposes a crooked District Attorney, resulting in his trial. Complications ensue, however, when the man is acquitted.
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That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
Character: (archive footage)
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
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Buck Benny Rides Again (1940)
Character: Rochester
Radio star Jack Benny, intending to stay in New York for the summer, is forced by the needling of rival Fred Allen to prove his boasts about roughing it on his (fictitious) Nevada ranch. Meanwhile, singer Joan Cameron, whom Jack's fallen for and offended, is maneuvered by her sisters to the same Nevada town. Jack's losing battle to prove his manhood to Joan means broad slapstick burlesque of Western cliches.
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Transient Lady (1935)
Character: 'Noxious'
A senator's brother turns up murdered, and the senator tries to pin the blame on a man he knows is innocent.
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His Night Out (1935)
Character: Bellhop (uncredited)
When a meek purchasing agent is told by a quack doctor that he only has three months to live, he gets involved with a bank robbery and kidnapped by the gang.
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The Sailor Takes a Wife (1945)
Character: Harry
While waiting in New York City to ship out to Europe, a sailor stops by a serviceman's canteen and meets a USO hostess. They immediately fall for each other and get married that night. However, when the sailor is notified that he has been reclassified as 4-F (unfit for service) by the Navy and then discharged, he and his new wife realize that, having to set up house before they expected to, they actually know very little about each other. Complications ensue.
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One Mile from Heaven (1937)
Character: Henry Bangs
A female journalist travels to a new neighborhood after getting a (false) lead and is surprised by what she finds.
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The Show-Off (1946)
Character: Eddie
Chaos is brought to a family when daughter marries a brash young man met on a blind date.
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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Character: Second Cab Driver
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.
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Brewster's Millions (1945)
Character: Jackson
Monty Brewster is a pennyless, former U.S. Army soldier back from World War II Europe who learns that he has inherited $8 million from a distant relative. But there's a catch: he must spend $1 million of that money in less than two months before his 30th birthday in order to inherit the rest.
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Wake Up and Live (1937)
Character: Elevator Operator
Satire on radio, built around the supposed feud between bandleader Ben Bernie and journalist Walter Winchell.
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Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Character: Joseph 'Little Joe' Jackson
When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where he learns that he will be sent back to Earth for six months to prove that he deserves to be in heaven. He awakens, remembering nothing and struggles to do right by his devout wife, Petunia, while an angel known as the General and the devil's son, Lucifer Jr., fight for his soul.
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Broadway Rhythm (1944)
Character: Eddie
Broadway producer Johnny Demming is only interested in big-name talent and scoffs that his sister, father and other small-time talent could be used in a successful show.
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You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939)
Character: Cheerful
Fields plays "Larsen E. Whipsnade", the owner of a shady carnival that is constantly on the run from the law. Whipsnade is struggling to keep a step ahead of foreclosure, and clearly not paying his performers, including Bergen and McCarthy, who try to coax money out of him, or in McCarthy's case, steal some outright.
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Tales of Manhattan (1942)
Character: Rev. Lazarus
Ten screenwriters collaborated on this series of tales concerning the effect a tailcoat cursed by its tailor has on those who wear it. The video release features a W.C. Fields segment not included in the original theatrical release.
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While New York Sleeps (1938)
Character: Janitor
Newspaperman (Whalen) looks into the deaths of bond-carriers while romancing a show girl (Rogers).
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Kentucky (1938)
Character: Groom
Young lovers Jack and Sally are from families that compete to send horses to the 1938 Kentucky Derby, but during the Civil War, her family sided with the South while his sided with the North--and her Uncle Peter will have nothing to do with Jack's family.
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Thanks for the Memory (1938)
Character: Janitor
Steve Merrick is an out of work writer who stays home and plays house husband while his wife goes to work for her former fiancé and Merrick's publisher who is still carrying a torch for her.
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