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Birthday:
06-28-1883
Deathday:
01-24-1952 (68 years)
Birthplace:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Biography
Pauline Theresa Moran (June 28, 1883 – January 24, 1952) billed as Polly Moran, was an American actress of vaudeville, stage and screen and a comedian.
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Their works
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The Hollywood Revue of 1929
Act like Self
event1929 star_border 5.7
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An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.
Petticoat Politics
Act like Widow Jones
event1941
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Pa Higgins has decided to retire but winds up being forced to run for mayor. Ladd is both boyfriend to the Higgins girl and the son of Pa's opponent.
Alice in Wonderland
Act like Dodo Bird
event1933 star_border 6.1
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In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.
Sheriff Nell's Tussle
Act like Sheriff Nell McCarthy - Still the Pride of Triggerville
event1918
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A slick city crook arrives in the town and succeeds in making honest Nell fall in love with him. He then suggests an entertainment with local talent, the while his confederates crack the safe and make off with the town's wealth. Nell, with her faithful but brainless lover, journeys to the city in pursuit of the loot and the looter
Tom Brown's School Days
Act like Sally Harowell
event1940 star_border 7.2
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When private tutor Thomas Arnold (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) becomes headmaster at Rugby, a boy's preparatory school in England, he puts into place a policy of strict punishment for unruliness and bulying. Arnold finds an ally in Tom Brown (Jimmy Lydon), a new student who is subjected to hazing and abuse by a group of older boys and is pressured by his friends to keep quiet about it. Fed up, he leads his fellow classmates in an underground rebellion against their tormentors. But certain unspoken rules still apply at the school and Brown loses his hero status when he is accussed of breaking the Rugby code of silence.
The Pullman Bride
Act like Sheriff Nell - the Pullman Drunk's Wife
event1917
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The Pullman Bride is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by Clarence G. Badger and starring Gloria Swanson.
Are Brunettes Safe?
Act like Dance partner
event1927
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Are Brunettes Safe?
A Favorite Fool
Act like The Widow Wallop
event1915
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Arling, ringmaster of a small wagon circus, abuses Polly and her seven children. Foy, a farmhand, sympathizes with her and she decides to quit her place as trapeze woman in the show and get other work. She sends her brood to the poorhouse, and Foy, ignorant of her flock, makes love to her and is accepted.
The Unknown
Act like Landlady / Servant in Audience (uncredited)
event1927 star_border 7.5
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On the lam, criminal Alonzo hides in the circus as The Armless Wonder – a performer who uses his feet to hurl knives. Alonzo keeps the arms he really has concealed to hide his identity. Meanwhile, ringmaster's daughter Nanon has a phobia of being touched by men, but is romantically pursued by not only Alonzo but the strongman Malabar. Alonzo's desperation to remain with Nanon will only end in tragedy.
The Blackbird
Act like Flower Lady at Music Hall (uncredited)
event1926 star_border 6.3
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Two thieves, the Blackbird and West End Bertie, fall in love with the same girl, a French nightclub performer named Fifi. Each man tries to outdo the other to win her heart.
The Passionate Plumber
Act like Albine
event1932 star_border 6
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Paris plumber Elmer Tuttle is enlisted by socialite Patricia Alden to help make her lover Tony Lagorce jealous. With the help of his friend Julius J. McCracken and through the high society contacts he has made through Patricia, Elmer hopes to find financing for his latest invention, a pistol with a range-finding light. Comic complications ensue when Elmer's effort to interest a military leader is misconstrued as an assassination attempt.
Luck
Act like Dumb Dora - Fight Enthusiast
event1923 star_border 7
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A young man is bet $100,000 that his famous luck can hold out and he can make that sum in one year's time, literally starting with nothing. He proceeds to Pennsylvania, where prize fight winnings are used to build a new town.
Red River Range
Act like Mrs. Maxwell
event1938 star_border 5
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The Cattlemen's Association has called in the Mesquiteers to find cattle rustlers. They get Tex Riley to pose as Stony so Stony can arrive posing as a wanted outlaw. This gets Stony into the gang of rustlers and he alerts Tucson and Lullaby as to the next raid. But Hartley is on hand and unknown to anyone is the rustler's boss and he joins the posse with a plan that will do away with the Mesquiteers.
Way Out West
Act like Pansy
event1930 star_border 5.9
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Wise-guy carnival barker Windy bilks a group of cowboys out of their money, gets caught and is forced into working off the debt on their ranch. He falls in love with Molly, the pretty owner of the ranch, but runs afoul of foreman Steve, who also loves Molly.
Politics
Act like Ivy Higgins
event1931 star_border 6.3
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A widow's decision to run for mayor kicks off a battle of the sexes in a small town.
Her Painted Hero
Act like A Stage-Struck Maiden
event1915 star_border 5.8
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A stage-struck young woman becomes an heiress, and hopes to use her new-found wealth to fulfill a fantasy.
A Lady of Chance
Act like Hotel maid
event1928 star_border 6.5
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A con woman working the Atlantic City hotels targets a visiting businessman from Alabama.
The Divine Woman
Act like Mme. Pigonier
event1928 star_border 6.9
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[For 9 minute surviving fragment] Lucian, a soldier in Paris, is to ship out for Algiers at 9 that evening. He stops by for a last meal with his love, Marianne. He may be worried that when he leaves she will find another soldier to love. They argue then embrace and, when the clock strikes midnight, he is still in her arms. Is desertion in the cards? Can the relationship survive the military demands and a soldier's obligations? A lost film.
The Girl Said No
Act like Polly
event1930 star_border 5.5
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A comedy romance in which breezy Haines, as a young lady killer, tries to capture the heart of Hyams who has turned him down for Bushman. Haines plots dozens of extreme measures to win her over, and finally goes so far as to drag her from the altar, bound and gagged.
So This Is College
Act like Polly
event1929 star_border 4.2
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Scheming coed Babs comes between college buddies Eddie and Biff.
Hollywood Party
Act like Henrietta Clemp
event1934 star_border 5.8
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Jimmy Durante is jungle movie star Schnarzan the Conqueror, but the public is tiring of his fake lions. When Baron Munchausen comes to town with real man-eating lions, Durante throws him a big Hollywood star-studded party so that he might use the lions in his next movie. But, his film rival sneaks into the party to buy the lions before Durante.
Down to Their Last Yacht
Act like Nella Fitzgerald
event1934 star_border 6
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Left only with their yacht after going broke in the Great Depression, a high-society family sets sail for the South Seas. Screwball comedy, with songs.
The Yellow Cab Man
Act like Bride's Mother
event1950 star_border 6.3
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Pirdy is accident prone. He has been denied insurance from every company in town because he is always getting hit or hurt in some way. On the day that he meets the lovely Ellen of the Yellow Cab Co., he also meets the crooked lawyer named Creavy. Pirdy is an inventor and when Creavy learns about elastic-glass, his new invention, he makes plans to steal the process. With the help of another con man named Doksteader, and the boys, he will steal this million dollar invention no matter who gets hurt.
Reducing
Act like Polly Roche
event1931 star_border 3.8
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Culture shock bombards a woman and her family when they leave their hick town to help her sister out in her big-city beauty parlor.
Remote Control
Act like Polly
event1930 star_border 4.7
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A radio announcer gets caught up with a fake clairvoyant and his gang of thieves.
The Affairs of Anatol
Act like Orchestra Leader
event1921 star_border 5.6
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Socialite Anatol Spencer, finding his relationship with his wife lackluster, goes in search of excitement. After bumping into old flame Emilie, he lets an apartment for her only to find that she cheats on him. He is subsequently robbed, conned, and booted from pillar to post. He decides to return to his wife and discovers her carousing with his best friend Max.
Prosperity
Act like Lizzie Praskins
event1932 star_border 4.7
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Longtime friends become feuding mothers-in-law when their children marry.
Way for a Sailor
Act like Polly
event1930 star_border 4.4
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A devoted sailor jeopardizes his love life for love of the sea.
The Unholy Night
Act like Polly, Maid
event1929 star_border 5.3
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When a rash of murders depletes their number, a billionaire's employees are brought together at an Englishman's estate.
Chasing Rainbows
Act like Polly
event1930 star_border 4
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The road-show troupe of a top Broadway show go cross-country while taking the audience along on the on-stage scenes as well as what happens and is happening back stage of the production. The spectacular dancing ensembles and colorful costumes and pulchritude on-stage offers a contrasting background to the drabness of the backstage, where joy, sorrow, tragedies, deception, and romance are intertwined.
Crazy House
Act like Singer
event1930 star_border 4
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Benny Rubin takes a tour of the Lame Brain Sanitarium and meets some of its strange patients.
The Christmas Party
Act like Herself (uncredited)
event1931 star_border 4.9
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In this holiday short, Jackie Cooper wants to throw a Christmas party for his friends on his football team but doesn't know how to go about it. His fellow stars at MGM help him out.
Caught Short
Act like Polly Smith
event1930
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Landladies Polly Smith and Marie Jones, who operate boardinghouses on the same side of the street, are afflicted with numerous petty envies and jealousies but nevertheless are the best of friends. Polly invests in the stock market and begins to reap rewards, but she is unable to persuade Marie to use her life's savings to buy shares of American Cheese or Brazilian Bananas. Meanwhile, Marie's daughter, Genevieve, and Polly's son, William, just back from college, fall in love; but an argument between the ladies breaks up the romance; and smarting under Polly's patronizing manner, Marie plunges into the market herself and with the winnings is able to stage a society splurge at a fashionable resort.
Came the Dawn
Act like Mama Gimplewort
event1928 star_border 6.5
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Papa, Mama, Daughter and Son Gimplewort move into their new house. Two movers are talking to each other about the murder of a saxophone player that took place in the house. They say his ghost still roams the house. Night comes and every noise and creak in the house scares the papa, mama and son (the daughter is out on a date). The Mover gives the daughter a parrot saying "It's a religious parrot – I bought it from a sailor". At any rate, the parrot gets into the act by yelling scaring Papa and Son who have come down looking for the source of the noise. Later Daughter and Remover return from a costume party and sneak into the house. The young man is dressed in a skeleton outfit and the fun continues. There has been film reconstruction in a number of places, particularly the last third of the film. In many cases there is a photograph depicting the scene being described.
The Show
Act like Sideshow Spectator (uncredited)
event1927 star_border 6
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Cock Robin is the swaggering ballyhoo man of a Hungarian sideshow known as the Palace of Illusions. The highlight of the show is a reenactment of Salome's dance of the seven veils, replete with the beheading of Jokanaan. The performer portraying Salome is in love with Cock Robin. Jealous, sinister The Greek is determined to eliminate that competition.
Hot for Paris
Act like Polly
event1929
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A romantic adventure musical film directed by Raoul Walsh....The film is believed to be lost.
Madcap Ambrose
Act like Rosie Bloom
event1916 star_border 4
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Ambrose likes his mother's assistant, but when she inherits a fortune, the obstacles to their relationship keep mounting.
Speedway
Act like Waitress
event1929 star_border 5.5
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Bill Whipple is a happy-go-lucky mechanic for MacDonald who thinks that he is the worlds greatest driver and lover. Mac has treated Bill like a son since he took him in. One day at the track, Bill sees Pat Bannon, and tries his best to impress her, but to no avail. On his way to catch a flight, he tricks Pat into taking him to the airport and she gets even by taking him up in a plane. He hates to fly, but will not show her that he is afraid and when the plane breaks up, he is a hero for rescuing her. This gets him publicity and Renny offers him his car to drive in the Indianapolis 500. Bill breaks with Mac to drive the car and puts it on the pole for the race. Then Renny double crosses Bill and plans to drive the car himself since Bill has tuned it so well.
London After Midnight
Act like Miss Smithson, the New Maid
event1927 star_border 6.6
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The abandoned Balfour House, the owner of which was found dead five years earlier, comes back to life with the arrival of two suspicious sinister-looking tenants. This film was lost in the 1965 MGM vault fire; only a few stills exist.
London After Midnight
Act like Miss Smithson, the New Maid (archive footage)
event2002 star_border 6.9
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A reconstruction, made from still photographs, of the lost 1927 Tod Browning film London After Midnight (1927) starring Lon Chaney.
Dangerous Females
Act like Tibby Cram
event1929
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Roommates panic and plan when they hear a radio report of a murderer loose in their neighborhood.
While the City Sleeps
Act like Mrs. Minnie McGinnis
event1928 star_border 5.9
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A tough New York cop is determined to bring down a crook who has always managed to provide an alibi for the crimes he's been accused of, even though the detective knows he's guilty of committing them.
Honeymoon
Act like Polly
event1928
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Two men are rivals for the same girl. When she finally agrees to marry one, the other--appearing to be magnanimous in defeat--presents his former rival with a beautiful German Shepherd dog as a wedding present. It turns out, however, that he had an ulterior motive--he had trained the pooch to allow absolutely no one to get near the young woman. Complications ensue.
China Bound
Act like Sarah
event1929
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Two loony buddies get caught up in a Chinese revolution.
A Schoolhouse Scandal
event1919
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A surrealistic stew of airplanes, tornadoes, trick mirrors, and underwater car repair. Footage was recycled for the studios’ 1920 release Hold Me Tight. (MoMA)
High & Dry
event1921
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Jimmie Adams and Sid Smith comedy produced by Jack White and distributed by Educational.
Their Social Splash
Act like Polly - the Unruly Guest
event1915 star_border 4.8
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Pretty Dixie Chene is abut to be married to Slim Summerville besides a swimming pool stocked with baby alligators -- wait for it -- but before the minister shows up, Charles Murray and a drunken Polly Moran manage to cause quite a fuss.
The Trail of '98
Act like Lars' Nagging Wife (uncredited)
event1928 star_border 6.2
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Fortune hunters from all over the country rushing to the Klondike in 1897 to seek their fortunes in the gold are tested by hardships of the journey.
Bringing Up Father
Act like Maggie Jiggs
event1928 star_border 3
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The wealthy Jiggs is tired of being left out of the swanky parties thrown by his social-climbing wife Maggie and their daughter. He decides to teach them a "lesson" by faking his own suicide, but things don't quite turn out the way he planned.
The Rounder
Act like Mary
event1930 star_border 5.5
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A drunkard climbs a ladder into a bedroom in the wrong house and gets romantically involved with the woman who lives there.
Two Wise Maids
Act like Prudence Matthews
event1937
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The two leading ladies are cast as Prudence and Agatha, a pair of old-fashioned schoolteachers in an old-fashioned small town. Disdaining the wimpy theories of "progressive" education, Prudence and Agatha stick to the reliable "Three R's," often teaching to the tune of a hickory stick. Though ridiculed for their so-called outmoded methods, the heroines manage to turn out quite a few prize students, earning the undying gratitude of the local citizenry.
It's a Wise Child
Act like Bertha
event1931
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In this comedy, a conservative family becomes alarmed when they begin believing their daughter is pregnant.
Ladies in Distress
Act like Lydia Bonney
event1938
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Alison Skipworth plays female mayor Josephine Bonney, at present having trouble dealing with her town's criminal element. Josephine enlists the aid of home town boy Braddock (Robert Livingston), a pretty tough customer himself, to take on the crooks.
Show People
Act like The Maid
event1928 star_border 7.1
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Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.
Guilty Hands
Act like Aunt Maggie
event1931 star_border 6
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A district attorney commits the perfect murder when he kills his daughter's womanizing fiancé and then tries framing the fiancé's lover.
The Stolen Jools
Act like Norma Shearer's Maid
event1931 star_border 5.6
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Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.)
Adam's Rib
Act like Mrs. McGrath
event1949 star_border 7.1
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A woman's attempted murder of her uncaring husband results in everyday quarrels in the lives of Adam and Amanda, a pair of happily married lawyers who end up on opposite sides of the case in court.
Those Three French Girls
Act like Elmer's Wife (uncredited)
event1930 star_border 4
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An addled Englishman's efforts to save three young women from eviction land them all in jail and leads to other adventures and mischief.
Screen Snapshots (Series 10, No. 8)
Act like Self
event1931 star_border 6
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Pola Negri, Bebe Daniels, Mitzi Green, Polly Moran, Mack Sennett and Marjorie Beebe are seen relaxing at Palm Springs, a California winter resort; Barbara Stanwyck and Ricardo Cortez play golf; other celebrities are shown in Malibu Beach.
Beyond the Sierras
Act like Inez
event1928
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A masked avenger takes on claim jumpers.
Paid
Act like Polly (uncredited)
event1930 star_border 6.8
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Mary Turner gets a three years prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit. Once released, she plots to get back at the man responsible for her conviction.
Hollywood on Parade No. B-9
Act like Hick
event1934
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Jimmy Durante asks popular song writing team Mack Gordon and Harry Revel to demonstrate some of their songs. There is interplay with impersonator Florence Desmond, Ben Turpin, Rudy Vallee and many others.
Flesh and the Devil
Act like Family Retainer with bouquet (uncredited)
event1926 star_border 7.2
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When lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home after completing their military training, Leo meets the stunning Felicitas at a railway station and is mesmerized by her beauty. A scandal follows, for which Leo is sent away. Returning home three years later, he discovers that much has changed.
Sailor Maid
event1937
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An immigrant girl hears that if she marries an American citizen she won't be deported, so she goes looking for a husband.
Oh, Duchess!
Act like Polly Moran, the Duchess
event1936
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A fish peddler is known to her customers as "The Duchess"; her fiance's father hears this and thinks she is a real duchess.
Meet the Missus
Act like Widow Ella Jones
event1940
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Gran Higgins falls under the spell of a love-starved widow.
That's Entertainment! III
Act like (archive footage)
event1994 star_border 6.9
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Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
Telling the World
Act like Landlady
event1928
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The journalist Don Davis becomes involved in a murder case, where Chrystal Malone is part of it. Davis follows Chrystal to China. When Chrystal arrives in China, Davis has to save her from an execution.
The Scarlet Letter
Act like Jeering Townswoman (uncredited)
event1927 star_border 7.3
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In Puritan Boston, seamstress Hester Prynne and kindly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fall in love. After Dimmesdale must go away for a time to England, he returns to discover that Hester has given birth to their child and is the focus of local censure.
His Naughty Thought
Act like Polly - Walter's Bride
event1917
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Café ownder Mack Swain goes gaga over a gal.
The Enemy
Act like Baruska
event1927 star_border 5.5
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Carl Behrend, son of a wealthy businessman, marries Pauli Arndt, daughter of a pacifist professor. When World War I breaks out, Carl is drafted. Pauli and her family and friends are left behind to experience the suffering which befell civilians during the war. Her luck worsens when her father is dismissed from his professorship for teaching that war is evil. Her father argues violently with Carl's father, and degradation and despair descend on Pauli and her family as they await Carl's return from the front.
Happy Times and Jolly Moments
Act like (archive footage)
event1943
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This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.
Smith's Cook
Act like Polly - the Cook
event1927
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The Smiths' cook, exasperated by giving up her day off in order to cook for an unappreciative guest, decides to leave her employment in order to get married. But when Mr Smith and his family set out to drive her across town to her bridegroom, everything goes wrong.
The Callahans and the Murphys
Act like Mrs. Murphy
event1927
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The story of two feuding Irish immigrant families living in a tenement.
The Big Parade of Comedy
Act like Sarah in 'China Bound' (archive footage)
event1964 star_border 6.3
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Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
The Thirteenth Hour
Act like Polly
event1927 star_border 7
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A detective goes in search for the villain responsible for several burglaries and a murder.
Rose-Marie
Act like Lady Jane
event1928 star_border 5
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Sergeant Malone of the Mounties and effeminate Etienne Doray are both in love with Rose-Marie, but she doesn't light up until soldier of fortune Jim Kenyon drifts into the post. Soon Jim is accused of murder but he escapes.
Buttons
Act like Polly
event1927 star_border 1
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Working as a pageboy on an ocean liner, a street orphan and his friend Slugger end up on the wrong side of the ship's captain when they try to tell him that his wife is cheating on him with other members of the crew. The boys end up in deeper trouble, after they are thrown in the brig and the ship starts sinking...
Two Weeks with Pay
Act like Chambermaid
event1921
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Pansy O'Donnell, a salesgirl, is given a two-week vacation at a summer resort, where she advertises clothing made by her company. The hotel clerk mistakes her for movie actress Marie La Tour, and gossip spreads that she is staying incognito.
Ambush
Act like Cora, diner owner
event1939 star_border 5
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Four bandits swoop down on a California bank and flee with $98,000, leaving a truck as the only clue to their identity. Jane Hartman, bank secretary, recognizes the truck as one on which her brother Charles worked. Fleeing to her brother, she is trapped by the gang, composed of its master-mind, Gibbs, Sidney, a gunman, and Randall, a blackballed airplane pilot. Under threat of bodily harm to her brother, she lures truck-driver Tony Andrews to the hideout, and he is forced to help them in their escape attempt.
Shadows of the Night
Act like Entertainer
event1928
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Gray plays a reporter trying to unravel a murder involving organized crime. Lorraine plays the heroine.
She Loved Him Plenty
event1918 star_border 5
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“ Polly Moran, known as Becky O'Brien in this picture, conducts a pawn shop with Ben Turpin and Charles Lynn as her appraisers and clerks. Ben is her sweetheart and Polly sure does love him, but Ben is not quite so enthusiastic, excepting when the cash register is made to tingle, then all his love is for Becky. ” - Synopsis from Motion Picture News
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