20-669: Edward Buzzell (November 13, 1895 – January 11, 1985) was an American film actor and director whose credits include Child of Manhattan (1933); Honolulu (1939); the Marx Brothers films At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940); the musicals Best Foot Forward (1943), Song of the Thin Man (1947), and Neptune's Daughter (1949); and Easy to Wed (1946). Born in Brooklyn, Buzzell appeared in vaudeville and on Broadway, and he
40-427: A 1970s book interview for Whatever Happened to... , Hamilton said he had been banned from A level work for insulting a studio executive. A Roman Catholic, Hamilton said that his faith got him through the difficult period of late 1942 to early 1944 when he could not obtain film employment and was down on his luck financially. When television came along, Hamilton hosted Hollywood Screen Test (1948-1953), co-starred in
60-721: A film about the incredibly harsh conditions in Germany after World War I, Isn't Life Wonderful (1924). While he was filming America (1924), a soldier's arm was blown off. Actor Charles Emmett Mack recalled: "Neil Hamilton and I went to neighboring towns and raised a fund for him—I doing a song and dance and Neil collecting a coin." Hamilton was signed by Paramount Pictures in the mid-1920s and became one of its leading men. He often appeared opposite Bebe Daniels . He played one of Ronald Colman 's brothers in Paramount's original silent version of Beau Geste (1926) and Nick Carraway in
80-480: A job as a shirt model in magazine advertisements. After this, he became interested in acting and joined several stock companies , where he gained experience and training as an actor in professional stage productions. This allowed him to get his first film role, in Vitagraph's The Beloved Impostor (1918). He got his big break in D. W. Griffith 's The White Rose (1923). He traveled to Germany with Griffith and made
100-499: A number of his plays, screenplays, and films contain 'sudden transitions in socioeconomic status'. [...] "His 1932 play Child of Manhattan , subsequently made into a movie by Columbia Pictures (Edward Buzzell, 1933), involves the relationship of the son of the immensely wealthy Paul Vanderkill with a dime-a-dance girl". Taxi dancer Madeleine McGonegle ( Nancy Carroll ) attracts the attention of millionaire Paul Vanderkill ( John Boles ), and when she becomes pregnant, they marry to avoid
120-485: A scandal. When the baby dies at birth, Madeleine runs away to Mexico, to give Paul the divorce she thinks he wants. There, she meets "Panama Canal" Kelly (cowboy star Buck Jones ), an old friend who proposed to her before he went west. Undeterred by her recent past, he asks her again to marry, and she eventually agrees. When Paul discovers where she is, he shows up just as the couple is about to be wed. When Panama overhears Madeleine confess her love to Paul, he bows out of
140-517: The Batman television series (1966–68) as well as the 1966 film of the same name. Yvonne Craig , who played Commissioner Gordon's daughter Barbara , said Hamilton "came every day to the set letter perfect in dialogue and never missed a beat—a consummate professional." Hamilton was married to Elsa Whitmer from 1922 until his death in September 1984. They had one child. Hamilton was a Roman Catholic, and
160-681: The Ape Man (1932), where he got top billing. Hamilton reprised the role in the pre-Code sequel Tarzan and His Mate (1934) at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . He made five films in England in 1936 and 1937. "A"-level work in Hollywood dried up for Hamilton by the 1940s, and he was reduced to working in serials, "B" films, and other low-budget projects. He starred as the villain in King of the Texas Rangers (1941), one of
180-587: The Republic Pictures most successful movie serials. In Since You Went Away (1944), about life on the home front in World War II, Hamilton is seen only in still photographs as a serviceman away at war. His family's travails during his absence are the center of the movie. Hamilton reportedly shot scenes for the movie before filmmakers decided to keep his character off-screen. He appeared in the film noir When Strangers Marry (1944) with Robert Mitchum . In
200-643: The Wind . They divorced in 1931. He married socialite Sara Clark on August 11, 1934, but the marriage only lasted five weeks. He married actress Lorraine Miller on December 10, 1949. He died in Los Angeles in 1985 at the age of 89. Buzzell's brother, Samuel Jesse Buzzell, was a music patent attorney in New York City; his daughter (Edward's niece) Gloria Joyce Buzzell was married to Academy Award-winning film producer Harold Hecht , and his son (Edward's nephew) Loring Buzzell
220-517: The film, which co-starred Jimmie Rodgers and Chill Wills . During the 1960s, Hamilton appeared in three Jerry Lewis films: The Patsy (1964), The Family Jewels (1965), and Which Way to the Front? (1970). Hamilton co-starred in the Season One episode of The Munsters , Autumn Croakus, as a conman named Malcolm. He also appeared as Police Commissioner James "Jim" Gordon in all 120 episodes of
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#1732877149137240-564: The first film of The Great Gatsby (1926), now a lost film. He starred with Victor McLaglen in John Ford's Mother Machree (1928), whose title became the catchphrase of Gordon's associate Chief O'Hara (played by Stafford Repp ) on the Batman television series almost four decades later. Machree is likely an English representation of the Irish phrase "mo chroí", meaning "my heart", and has identical pronunciation. In 1930, Hamilton appeared in
260-514: The late 1940s and early 1950s, Hamilton performed on Broadway in Many Happy Returns (1945), The Men We Marry (1948), To Be Continued (1952), and Late Love (1953–54). In 1960, actor Richard Cromwell was seeking a comeback of sorts in 20th Century Fox 's planned production of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come but Cromwell died of complications from liver cancer. Producer Maury Dexter quickly signed Hamilton to replace Cromwell in
280-521: The original production of The Dawn Patrol (retitled "Flight Commander" after its remake), playing the squadron commander, who was played by Basil Rathbone in the 1938 remake. Hamilton was billed above newcomer Clark Gable in Laughing Sinners (1931), in which he played a cad who deserts Joan Crawford 's brokenhearted character. He originated the role of milksop Harry Holt , Jane's fiancé, in Tarzan
300-638: The picture. This film was in production from November 12 through December 6, 1932. The movie shot for two weeks with Neil Hamilton playing the part of "Paul", before he was replaced by John Boles. The film had a limited release on February 4, 1933, and went into general release in New York on February 11. It was marketed with the taglines: The World called her BAD because she dared to LOVE! and Women called her Sinner! Men called her Siren! He called her Sweetheart! Neil Hamilton (actor) James Neil Hamilton (September 9, 1899 – September 24, 1984)
320-434: The screen by Gertrude Purcell , and stars Nancy Carroll , star of musical comedies at Paramount , John Boles , and cowboy star Charles "Buck" Jones . This was the second of Sturges' plays to be adapted into a film, after Strictly Dishonorable . "Most of the wittier and more pungent lines were lost in translation." "As Andrew Horton notes, Sturges appears to have had a fascination with [...] inter-class narratives, and
340-706: The short-lived sitcom That Wonderful Guy with Jack Lemmon (1949–50), at the same time as Hollywood Screen Test, and did guest shots on numerous series of the 1950s and 1960s, such as seven episodes of Perry Mason : in 1958 he played murder victim Bertrand Allred in "The Case of the Lazy Lover" and Grove Dillingham in "The Case of the Drifting Dropout" in 1964. He was in five episodes of 77 Sunset Strip . He appeared on Maverick , Tales of Wells Fargo , The Real McCoys , Mister Ed , Bachelor Father , The Outer Limits , and The Cara Williams Show . During
360-424: Was a music publisher and partner in the firm Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music , and was married to singer Lu Ann Simms . As Actor as Director Child of Manhattan (film) Child of Manhattan is a 1933 American pre-Code melodrama film based on the play Child of Manhattan by Preston Sturges , which was presented on Broadway in 1932. The film was directed by Edward Buzzell and written for
380-572: Was an American stage, film and television actor, best remembered for his role as Commissioner Gordon on the Batman TV series of the 1960s, having first played a character by that name in 1928's Three Week-Ends . During his motion picture career, which spanned more than a half century, Hamilton performed in over 260 productions in the silent and sound eras. An only child, Hamilton was born in Lynn, Massachusetts. His show business career began when he secured
400-518: Was hired to star in the 1929 film version of George M. Cohan 's Little Johnny Jones with Alice Day . Buzzell appeared in a few Vitaphone shorts and the two-strip Technicolor short The Devil's Cabaret (1930) as Satan's assistant. He wrote screenplays in the early 1930s and later produced the popular The Milton Berle Show , which premiered on television in 1948. In 1926, Buzzell married actress Ona Munson , who later played Belle Watling in Gone with
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