Buddy Messinger

Acting

Buddy Messinger

Born 1907-10-26 · San Francisco, California, USA

Buddy Messinger (born Melvin Joseph Messinger; 26 October 1907 – 25 October 1965) was an American actor who was cast in substantial roles in dozens of films during the silent film era. He began his career as a jovial chubby child actor. With the advent of sound films he was relegated mostly to bit parts.

Acting credits

Citizen Kane poster
8.0

Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.

Citizen Kane

1941

Modern Times poster
8.3

A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Modern Times

1936

Devil's Doorway poster
6.9

A Native American Civil War hero returns home to fight for his people.

Devil's Doorway

1950

Libeled Lady poster
7.3

When a major newspaper accuses wealthy socialite Connie Allenbury of being a home-wrecker, and she files a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit, the publication's frazzled head editor, Warren Haggerty, must find a way to turn the tables on her. Soon Haggerty's harried fiancée, Gladys Benton, and his dashing friend Bill Chandler are in on a scheme that aims to discredit Connie, with amusing and unexpected results.

Libeled Lady

1936

Edgar Camps Out poster
9.0

Edgar is about to lose the lady of his heart because the Bates boys have been given a complete camping outfit for their back yard: tent, stove, and everything. However, Edgar soon rallies and organizes a side show, displaying the greatest freaks on earth. This soon draws attention from the Bates boys, and Edgar is himself again, until that night when he camps out in the sideshow tent. Then the spooks hover about and Edgar is carried shrieking into the house by his father. This film is presumably lost.

Edgar Camps Out

1920

College Holiday poster
5.7

College students rally to save a struggling hotel from closing. Comedy.

College Holiday

1936

Turnabout poster
6.0

Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue who grants their wish and they wind up living each other's life.

Turnabout

1940

Idiot's Delight poster
6.1

A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.

Idiot's Delight

1939

Too Hot to Handle poster
6.0

While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding. She does not trust him, but he manages to hire her as his assistant. During an adventurous expedition through the jungles of South America, her opinion of him begins to change.

Too Hot to Handle

1938

Sergeant Madden poster
7.5

A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime.

Sergeant Madden

1939

The Devil Is a Sissy poster
7.0

A well-bred young English lad living in lower Manhattan tries to gain acceptance from his not-so-well-bred peers at school.

The Devil Is a Sissy

1936

The Shining Hour poster
6.7

A nightclub dancer shakes the foundations of a wealthy farming family after she marries into it.

The Shining Hour

1938

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante poster
5.7

Judge Hardy takes his family to New York City, where Andy quickly falls in love with a socialite. He finds the high society life too expensive, and eventually decides that he liked it better back home.

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante

1940

Shadows poster
6.2

Yen Sin, a humble Chinese, is washed ashore after a storm and finds himself an outsider in the deeply Christian fishing community of Urkey. Yen Sin elects to stay, despite his status as a despised 'heathen', only to reveal hypocrisy amid the self-righteous township.

Shadows

1922

Keeping Company poster
6.7

Wholesome comedy about newlyweds (and the bride's understanding--but sometimes interfering--parents) discovering married life isn't always bliss.

Keeping Company

1940

Hold Back the Dawn poster
6.7

Romanian-French gigolo Georges Iscovescu wishes to enter the USA. Stopped in Mexico by the quota system, he decides to marry an American, then desert her and join his old partner Anita, who's done likewise. But after sweeping teacher Emmy Brown off her feet, he finds her so sweet that love and jealousy endanger his plans.

Hold Back the Dawn

1941

Penrod and Sam poster
7.5

Penrod and his gang don't want to let neighborhood "goodie-goodie" Georgie Bassett into their club, but Penrod's father pressures him to allow the boy in because his parents are wealthy and prominent members of the town. Finally the boys agree to let Georgie join, but first they demand that he undergo an "initiation", and they're determined to make it one that Georgie won't soon forget.

Penrod and Sam

1923

The Affairs of Martha poster
6.6

Members of a well-to-do small community become worried when it is revealed that one of their maids is writing a telling exposé.

The Affairs of Martha

1942

Fan Fan poster
NR

The Japanese emperor's son, Hanki Pan (Francis Carpenter) is in love with beautiful Fan Fan (Virginia Lee Corbin) and is determined to marry her, even though his father has decreed that he shall wed the Ancient and Honorable Lady Shoo, an ugly hag.

Fan Fan

1918

Edgar's Country Cousin poster
7.0

Edgar from the city goes to visit his country cousin and at once begins to impress him and his gang with the superiority of life and ways in the city. His brave effort to go barefoot "like we do in the city" causes him much pain, and everything he attempts to demonstrate the city's superiority has disastrous results. However, a black eye, a face full of bee-stings, and the general bawling-out of the gang fails to conquer him, and he declares that he is having a bully time. This silent comedy short is presumably lost.

Edgar's Country Cousin

1921

Edgar's Little Saw poster
10.0

Among other Christmas gifts, Edgar receives a tool chest containing a little saw. While he is out displaying some of his other presents to the boy next door, little brother Charlie saws up everything in the house, furniture, hats, and at length attempts operations on the cat. Edgar gets the blame, and is being kept from his sweetheart's party as punishment, when Charlie's guilt is discovered. This film is presumably lost.

Edgar's Little Saw

1920

The Housekeeper's Daughter poster
4.6

A mobster's moll leads a newsman, cub reporter and photographer to a scoop.

The Housekeeper's Daughter

1939

Edgar's Hamlet poster
10.0

Edgar and his schoolmates put on a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet such as the townsfolk have never seen.

Edgar's Hamlet

1920

Stage Mother poster
6.3

Kitty Lorraine has one purpose in life: turning her daughter Shirley into a star. Kitty controls every aspect of the girl's nascent career -- even blackmailing a stage manager so that Shirley can take a more prestigious gig. But Kitty goes too far when she breaks up her daughter's budding relationship with sweet artist Warren Foster. Heartbroken, Shirley sets off on a series of disastrous but profitable relationships.

Stage Mother

1933