Johnny Arthur

Actor

May 18, 1883 (68 years)

† December 31, 1951

Scottdale, Pennsylvania, USA

Biography

No biography available.

Filmography

7.5

You Can't Take It with You

Kirby's Office Aide (uncredited)

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.

7.1

It Happened on Fifth Avenue

Apartment Manager (uncredited)

A New Yorker hobo moves into a mansion and along the way he gathers friends to live in the house with him. Before he knows it, he is living with the actual home owners.

6.2

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford

Mr. Frankenstein (uncredited)

A doctor is driven into an investigation of sinister goings-on at a horse race track by his mystery writer ex-wife.

4.2

Convention City

Leonard Travis

Extra-marital fun and games at a convention of the Honeywell Rubber Company in Atlantic City. President J.B. Honeywell is to choose a new company sales manager. T.R. Kent and George Ellerbe are two salesmen who both want the job. However, they both get into trouble: T.R. is discredited when jealous saleswoman, Arlene Dale, interferes with his attempted seduction of Honeywell's daughter, Claire, and George attempts to seduce Nancy Lorraine. The position of sales manager is bestowed upon a drunken employee as a bribe after he catches J.B. about to visit "Daisy La Rue, Exterminator." Considered a lost film.

6.4

Road to Singapore

Timothy Willow (uncredited)

Two playboys try to forget previous romances in Singapore – until they meet a beautiful dancer.

6.5

Dames

Billings

A reformer's daughter wins the lead role in a scandalous Broadway show.

4.9

Rendezvous

Code Room Clerk (uncredited)

A decoding expert tangles with enemy spies.

6.8

The Show of Shows

Hero - Performer in 'The Pirate' (uncredited)

Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!

6.1

Li'l Abner

Montague

Li'l Abner becomes convinced that he is going to die within twenty-four hours, so agrees to marry two different girls: Daisy Mae (who has chased him for years) and Wendy Wilecat (who rescued him from an angry mob). It is all settled at the Sadie Hawkins Day race.

6.2

Something to Sing About

Mr. Daviani (as John Arthur)

James Cagney has a rare chance to show his song-and-dance-man roots in this low-budget tale of a New York bandleader struggling with a Hollywood studio boss.

6.3

It's in the Air

Jones, Photographer

Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match. Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, but first the men must dodge a dogged IRS agent and bilk a bunch of aviation investors out of the backing boodle for a balloon excursion into the stratosphere.

9.0

The Gamblers

George Cowper

A father-and-son team of cons gamble their firm’s assets. The son is caught investing money that doesn't belong to him and is indicted on a swindling charge. The plot gets spicy when the District Attorney handling the case is his former sweetheart's husband. This situation gives the DA an opportunity to prosecute his romantic rival.

8.0

The Unknown Purple

Freddie Goodlittle

Inventor Peter Marchmont has discovered a purple light that renders the user invisible. On his release from prison, Marchmont, disguised as Victor Cromport, uses the light to revenge himself against his former wife, Jewel, and her partner, James Dawson, who framed him for theft. Making himself invisible, Marchmont gradually ruins Dawson. He so wins Jewel's confidence and love that she is willing to kill Dawson at Marchmont's request. Finally, Marchmont leaves the scheming couple to their own misery and marries Jewel's sister, Ruth Marsh.

5.1

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender

Self (archive footage)

A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift those veils, one by one, to find how images, at one time seeming innocent, have revealed, after decades, to have homosexual overtones.

9.0

Cleaning Up

The Husband

While his wife is away, the husband attempts to clean the house which ends up being a disaster. The house is completely destroyed by an overflowing bathtub, fire in the kitchen, feathers from the pillows everywhere, and a dog decides to chase a cat around the house wiping out what the water and fire didn't damage already.

7.5

Doubting Thomas

Ralph Twiller

A husband makes fun of his wife's theatrical aspirations when she agrees to appear in a local production. When she begins to neglect him, he decides to retaliate by also going on stage.

7.3

Fugitives for a Night

Tootsies, Car Rental Man

A faded star is suspected of killing a studio executive.

5.3

Things You Never See on the Screen

Self

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1935.

6.0

The King Steps Out

Chief of the Secret Police

Princess is destined to marry the Emperor, until her sister steps in.

6.4

Danger on the Air

Aiken

Trouble begins when a hated cad of a sponsor is found murdered during the climax of a live radio show. A radio engineer then tries to solve the murder.