William A. Seiter

Directing

William A. Seiter

Born — Died

1890-06-10 — 1964-07-26

Place of birth

New York City, New York, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

41 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia William A. Seiter (June 10, 1890 - July 26, 1964) was an American film director. He was born in New York City. After attending Hudson River Military Academy, Seiter broke into films in 1915 as a bit player at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, doubling a cowboy. He graduated to director in 1918. At Universal Studios in the mid-1920s, Seiter was principal director of the popular Reginald Denny vehicles, most of which co-starred Seiter's then wife Laura La Plante (his second wife was actress Marian Nixon). This period also included The Beautiful and Damned and The Family Secret. In the early talkie era, Seiter helped nurture the talents of RKO's comedy du…

Known for

Film credits

Behind the camera

Nice Girl? poster
6.4

Jane is a nice girl and has had her eyes on a young man who seems more interested in his hand-built car than in Jane. She decides to shed her "nice girl" image when an associate of her father comes to town on his way to study Australian Aboriginal tribes.

Nice Girl?

1941

You Were Never Lovelier poster
7.1

An Argentine heiress thinks a penniless American dancer is her secret admirer.

You Were Never Lovelier

1942

One Touch of Venus poster
6.7

A window dresser's kiss brings a statue of the Roman goddess of love to life.

One Touch of Venus

1948

Sons of the Desert poster
7.1

Ollie and Stan deceive their wives into thinking they are taking a medically necessary cruise when they are really going to a lodge convention.

Sons of the Desert

1933

Sons of the Desert poster
7.1

Ollie and Stan deceive their wives into thinking they are taking a medically necessary cruise when they are really going to a lodge convention.

Sons of the Desert

1933

The Aviator poster
8.3

Alain's uncle sends him to France to toughen him with his aviator friend Pierre. He meets Suzanne on the voyage and fights for her love against José in an airplane.

The Aviator

1931

Dimples poster
6.6

Dimples Appleby lives with her pick-pocket grandfather in 19th century New York City. She entertains the crowds while he works his racket. A rich lady makes it possible for the girl to go legit.

Dimples

1936

Room Service poster
6.5

Broke Gordon Miller tries to land a backer for his new play while he has to deal with with the hotel manager trying to evict him and his cast.

Room Service

1938

Little Giant poster
5.3

Lou Costello plays a country bumpkin vacuum-cleaner salesman, working for the company run by the crooked Bud Abbott. To try to keep him under his thumb, Abbott convinces Costello that he's a crackerjack salesman. This comedy is somewhat like "The Time of Their Lives," in that Abbott and Costello don't have much screen time together and there are very few vaudeville bits woven into the plot.

Little Giant

1946

Professional Sweetheart poster
6.0

Radio singer Glory Eden is publicized as the ideal of American womanhood in order to sell the sponsor's product Ippsie-Wippsie Washcloths. In reality, Glory would like to at least sample booze, jazz, gambling, and men. When the strain of representing "purity" brings her to rebellion, the sponsor and his nutty henchmen pick her a public-relations "sweetheart" from fan mail, who turns out to be a hayseed.

Professional Sweetheart

1933

Appointment for Love poster
5.8

Charming Andre Cassil woos physician Jane Alexander and the two impulsively get married. The honeymoon ends very quickly when Jane voices her progressive views on marriage which include the two having separate apartments. Andre then tries to make his wife jealous in order to lure her into his bedroom.

Appointment for Love

1941

Waterfront poster
8.0

Waterfront is a 1928 silent film released with sound effects and music, produced and released by First National Pictures. The film was directed by William A. Seiter and starred Dorothy Mackaill and Jack Mulhall, then a popular duo under the First National banner.

Waterfront

1928

The Affairs of Susan poster
6.5

Susan is about to be married, but the wedding may get called off after her fiancé summons three former beaus. Each reveals a different portrait of Susan: one describes her as a naive country girl who reluctantly becomes an actress, another paints a picture of a gay party girl and and the third describes a serious intellectual.

The Affairs of Susan

1945

The Family Secret poster
6.4

The daughter of a wealthy man secretly marries a man below her station— one whom her father violently disapproves of. The father, in an excess of parental concern, separates the lovers by sending his daughter away so that she might forget her lover, unaware of their married state. During this time, she gives birth to a daughter. After some months, the young mother returns to her family manor and presents her father with his new granddaughter, which causes a most unfortunate scene. Unbeknownst to the young woman, her enraged father falsely accuses his son-in-law of theft and has him incarcerated in order to separate the lovers in an irrational attempt to force his daughter to forget this "unworthy" young man.

The Family Secret

1924

Allegheny Uprising poster
5.9

South western Pennsylvania area of colonial America, 1760s. Colonial distaste and disapproval of the British government is starting to surface. Many local colonists have been killed by American Indians who are armed with rifles supplied by white traders.

Allegheny Uprising

1939

Susannah of the Mounties poster
6.5

This classic family drama stars Shirley Temple as young orphan Susannah Sheldon, the sole survivor of a brutal Indian attack who's befriended by Canadian Mountie Angus Montague (Randolph Scott) and his girlfriend, Vicky (Margaret Lockwood). The couple takes Susannah under their wing and soon learn that having a precocious child around can come in handy; when the Indians return, the girl uses her charm to broker peace.Shirley is the orphaned survivor of an Indian attack in the Canadian West. A Mountie and his girlfriend take her in...

Susannah of the Mounties

1939

Champ for a Day poster
7.0

An up-and-coming heavyweight fighter, George Wilson, arrives in Vulcan City, a small mid-western town over-run by racketeers, to fight a heavily-favored Frankie Sebastian. George arrives but his manager Dolan is nowhere to be found. But Ma and Pa Karlsen, owners of Karlsen's Kozy Kottages motel and restaurant take him under their wing. He meets Miss Gormley who is also there to meet the no-show manager who is blackmailing her brother. Dolan still hasn't arrived by the date of the fight but, to the surprise of sports-promoters Tom Healy and Dominic Guido, George shows up and wins the fight. This wins him the friendship of trainer Al Muntz and the enmity of Willie Foltis, a punchy ex-fighter and a Healy henchman. This leads George to a fight with "Soldier" Freeman, whose manager Scotty Cameron has made arrangements for the favored-Freeman to take a dive, so he and Healy and Guido can clean up betting on the underdog. But Honest George has other plans.

Champ for a Day

1953

Champ for a Day poster
7.0

An up-and-coming heavyweight fighter, George Wilson, arrives in Vulcan City, a small mid-western town over-run by racketeers, to fight a heavily-favored Frankie Sebastian. George arrives but his manager Dolan is nowhere to be found. But Ma and Pa Karlsen, owners of Karlsen's Kozy Kottages motel and restaurant take him under their wing. He meets Miss Gormley who is also there to meet the no-show manager who is blackmailing her brother. Dolan still hasn't arrived by the date of the fight but, to the surprise of sports-promoters Tom Healy and Dominic Guido, George shows up and wins the fight. This wins him the friendship of trainer Al Muntz and the enmity of Willie Foltis, a punchy ex-fighter and a Healy henchman. This leads George to a fight with "Soldier" Freeman, whose manager Scotty Cameron has made arrangements for the favored-Freeman to take a dive, so he and Healy and Guido can clean up betting on the underdog. But Honest George has other plans.

Champ for a Day

1953

If I Had a Million poster
6.5

An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each to eight strangers chosen at random from the phone directory.

If I Had a Million

1932

The Daring Young Man poster
10.0

The Daring Young Man is hotshot-reporter Don McLane, played by James Dunn. Always on the prowl for a good story, McLane is persistently outscooped by his rival, sob sister Martha Allen (Mae Clarke). After several reels of double-crossing one another, hero and heroine give in to the inevitable and fall in love. But as Martha waits at the altar in her wedding gown, McLane is off on another crusade, this time getting himself arrested to expose corruption within the prison system.

The Daring Young Man

1935

Roberta poster
7.1

Football player John Kent tags along as Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians travel to an engagement in Paris, only to lose it immediately. John and company visit his aunt, owner of a posh fashion house run by her assistant, Stephanie. There they meet the singer Scharwenka (alias Huck's old friend Lizzie), who gets the band a job. Meanwhile, Madame Roberta passes away and leaves the business to John and he goes into partnership with Stephanie.

Roberta

1935

Hello, Everybody! poster
7.0

The setting is a farm. Kate Smith and Sally Blane play sisters; assorted relatives live with the sisters, but everyone at home, and in the whole town, depends on Kate to hold everything together. The power company wants to build a dam which will require flooding many of the farms; Kate is holding out; if Kate sells, everyone else will sell; if Kate refuses, the rest of the town will refuse as well. Randolph Scott meets Kate's beautiful sister, Sally Blane, at a dance. Randolph Scott, as it turns out, is an agent for the power company. Kate thinks he's just using Sally; Sally believes that he truly likes her. Randolph comes to the farm and appears to woo Kate. Kate remains unconvinced about selling out, but falls for Randolph.

Hello, Everybody!

1933

Way Back Home poster
6.3

A rural Maine farmer fights for custody of the boy who he's raised as his own.

Way Back Home

1931

If You Could Only Cook poster
7.4

An auto engineer and a professor's daughter pose as married servants in a mobster's mansion.

If You Could Only Cook

1935

The Lady Wants Mink poster
8.0

A woman raises mink to get the coat she's always wanted.

The Lady Wants Mink

1953

Big Business Girl poster
6.8

A young woman goes to New York and finds success in advertising thanks to her legs while her boyfriend spends the summer in Europe with his band.

Big Business Girl

1931

Big Business Girl poster
6.8

A young woman goes to New York and finds success in advertising thanks to her legs while her boyfriend spends the summer in Europe with his band.

Big Business Girl

1931

Love Birds poster
6.5

ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville meet when both are sold deeds to an abandoned ranch in the California desert. Their lonely lives become much more crowded when a drifter discovers gold on the property—though all he’s found is Slim’s missing filling. (adapted from MoMA capsule)

Love Birds

1934

Chance at Heaven poster
5.8

A young woman's ambitious boyfriend falls for a ditzy socialite.

Chance at Heaven

1933

Stowaway poster
6.7

Chin-Ching gets lost in Shanghai and is befriended by American playboy Tommy Randall. She falls asleep in his car which winds up on a ship headed for America. Susan Parker, also on the ship, marries Randall to give Chin-Ching a family.

Stowaway

1936

Four Jills in a Jeep poster
6.8

Reenactments of actual USO experiences of its female stars entertaining troops overseas.

Four Jills in a Jeep

1944

In Person poster
6.8

Carol Corliss, a beautiful movie star so insecure about her celebrity that she goes around in disguise, meets a rugged outdoorsman who is unaffected by her star status.

In Person

1935

We're Rich Again poster
6.2

A polo-playing grandmother and her broke brood get back in the money with a Wall Street bet.

We're Rich Again

1934

Listen Lester poster
5.0

Widower Colonel Dodge enjoys being single, but when Arbutus Quilty, his former sweetheart, threatens to sue him for breach of promise, he decides its time for him and his daughter Mary to take themselves a little vacation trip to Florida.

Listen Lester

1924

The Richest Girl in the World poster
5.8

Millionairess Dorothy Hunter is tired of finding out that her boyfriends love her for her money, and equally weary of losing eligible beaus who don't want to be considered fortune-hunters. That's why she trades identities with her secretary Sylvia before embarking on her next romance with Tony Travers. This causes numerous complications not only for Dorothy and Tony but for Sylvia, whose own husband Philip is not the most patient of men.

The Richest Girl in the World

1934

The Moon's Our Home poster
6.9

A writer and an actress meet and marry without really knowing each other--they are even unaware that both bride and groom are equally famous. During the honeymoon, all hell breaks loose as a comedic war of the sexes leads inevitably to love.

The Moon's Our Home

1936

Make Haste to Live poster
6.0

A single mother in New Mexico senses her own death in the hands of a mysterious stalker.

Make Haste to Live

1954

It's a Pleasure poster
5.2

A star hockey player with the Wildcats is barred from Hockey for hitting a referee. Through the actions of Chris, Don is able to get a job with Buzz Fletcher's ice-show as the novelty act.

It's a Pleasure

1945

A Lady Takes a Chance poster
5.9

A city girl on a bus tour of the West encounters a handsome rodeo cowboy who helps her forget her city suitors.

A Lady Takes a Chance

1943

Diplomaniacs poster
7.5

Barbers Willy Nilly and Hercules Glub have opened a barbershop in an Indian reservation, where they have no customers. When suddenly a white man asks for a shave, several Indians of the Oopadoop nation also enter, hearing the usual barbershop banter about foreign debts, they force them to be ambassadors of their nation at the Peace conference in Geneva. Ammunition industry executive Winkelreid is scheming to prevent their mission becoming an success, but the vamp Dolores aboard the ship fails, falling in love with Nilly, and so does Fifi, the toughest person of the world in Paris, falling for Glub. Although Winkelreid is able to steal their secret papers, Nilly and Glub don't give up after being reminded by constant observation of their Indians and enter the Peace conference, which turns out to be a battlefield...

Diplomaniacs

1933