Buddy Messinger

Acting

Buddy Messinger

Born — Died

1907-10-26 — 1965-10-25

Place of birth

San Francisco, California, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

60 titles

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.

Known for

Film credits

1940s · 10 titles

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

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante poster
5.8

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

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

Crime by Night poster
6.4

A private eye and his secretary probe a murder and find an international spy.

Crime by Night

1944

Hullabaloo poster
6.5

A radio actor faces trouble when a science-fiction story causes the audience to panic.

Hullabaloo

1940

The Mexican Spitfire's Baby poster
4.6

An advertising executive and his temperamental wife adopt a war orphan who turns out to be a beautiful woman.

The Mexican Spitfire's Baby

1941

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

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

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

Love Thy Neighbor poster
7.3

Capitalizing on the famous radio 'feud' between comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen. The two stars play versions of themselves, constantly at each other's throats due to real and imagined slights.

Love Thy Neighbor

1940

1930s · 21 titles

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

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

Three of a Kind poster
5.8

A truck driver and a gold-digger meet at a swank hotel and both think the other is wealthy. A drama of greed and society.

Three of a Kind

1936

Too Hot to Handle poster
6.1

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

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

Wild Boys of the Road poster
6.8

At the height of the Great Depression, Tommy's mother has been out of work for months when Eddie's father loses his job. Eager not to burden their parents, the two high school sophomores decide to hop the freight trains and look for work.

Wild Boys of the Road

1933

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

Four Girls in White poster
7.2

Four student nurses at a large urban hospital cope with life's problems and career issues.

Four Girls in White

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

The Lone Ranger Rides Again poster
7.3

Homesteaders are moving into the valley settled many years ago by rancher Craig Dolan. He wants to keep them out by legal means but his nephew Bart brings in outlaws to drive them out. The Lone Ranger is on hand to help the homesteaders battle Bart's men as he overcomes traps, ambushes, burning buildings and other obstacles in his attempt to bring peace to the valley.

The Lone Ranger Rides Again

1939

Fast and Furious poster
5.2

Joel & Garda Sloan, a husband and wife detective team, who also sell rare books in New York, take a vacation to Seaside City. At Seaside, Joel's pal, Mike Stevens is managing and preparing for their beauty pageant. Joel is made one of the judges plus he has invested $5,000 in it, to Garda's dismay. Eric Bartell, promoter, arrives to dupe Stevens. When Ed Connors, New York racketeer arrives, Bartell is mysteriously murdered. Joel and Garda set out to investigate the murder.

Fast and Furious

1939

No artwork available
8.0

Thelma volunteers Patsy as a subject for her friend who is in dental school and needs somebody to practice on.

An All American Toothache

1936

Fast and Loose poster
5.8

The Sloanes tie murder to the theft of a Shakespeare manuscript.

Fast and Loose

1939

College Holiday poster
5.7

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

College Holiday

1936

Hold That Kiss poster
7.0

Two young people meet at a wedding and begin dating, each thinking the other is extremely wealthy. Comedy.

Hold That Kiss

1938

The Housekeeper's Daughter poster
4.7

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

The Housekeeper's Daughter

1939

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

Wings Over Honolulu poster
6.4

A Navy pilot gets involved in a romantic triangle while stationed in Hawaii.

Wings Over Honolulu

1937

Cheer Up and Smile poster
10.0

When a popular radio singer is knocked unconscious during a robbery, a squeaky-voiced college boy fills in for him. To everyone's amazement, especially his recent girlfriend, who just broke up with him, he becomes an overnight sensation.

Cheer Up and Smile

1930

Keyhole Katie poster
NR

A snooping reporter at a college newspaper angers a rival sorority, so they steal a statue before its unveiling to get revenge, leading to a sorority vs. sorority brawl. Co-eds end up tearing each other's clothes off.

Keyhole Katie

1933

1920s · 22 titles

No artwork available
6.5

Two henpecked men run off and pretend to be athletic trainers in order to get jobs in a weight loss club for women. The Sunkist Bathing Beauties are featured performers.

Dumb-Belles

1927

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

A Lady of Chance poster
6.5

A con woman working the Atlantic City hotels targets a visiting businessman from Alabama.

A Lady of Chance

1928

Edgar Takes the Cake poster
9.0

Edgar delivers a cake to his sister's ill friend. The cake arrives safely, but not sound, and Edgar is taken to task for his careless handling of the article.

Edgar Takes the Cake

1920

No artwork available
7.0

Wealthy miser Martin Stanley forces his family into desperate financial measures. His daughter Diana secretly works as an artist's model for Paul Howard, sparking jealousy from her sister Marjorie—who loves Paul—and fury from their mother. To sabotage Diana's relationship with her boyfriend Bobby, Paul maliciously alters the painting to look scandalous. Marjorie discovers the plot and attacks Paul, leaving him for dead. When Paul unexpectedly revives, murder charges are avoided, and Martin finally realizes the toxic cost of his cheapness, allowing the family to find peace and reconcile.

Undressed

1928

No artwork available
10.0

Episode 11 of the series of 2-reel comedies “The Adventures and Emotions of Edgar Pomeroy”.

Edgar's Feast Day

1921

Hot Stuff poster
10.0

An uptight society aunt sends her too sexy niece to college so she can land a man.

Hot Stuff

1929

The Flirt poster
7.0

Treats of the average, smalltown, middle class family life. Flirtatious Cora Madison is engaged to Richard Lindley but is attracted to Val Corliss, who has come to town to promote oil stock. When Cora's father refuses to become involved, she forges his name on some papers, thus enabling Corliss to sell many shares.

The Flirt

1922

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

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 and the Teacher's Pet poster
8.0

The story of Edgar Pomeroy, the first in a series, in which the boy Edgar imagines himself the triumphant master of his fate, revenging himself on a scornful young female classmate. But then the real events are seen in contrast with the ones Edgar has created in his mind.

Edgar and the Teacher's Pet

1920

Trifling with Honor poster
7.0

Released from prison on parole, the "Gas-Pipe Kid" returns to his home in the slums to find his mother dead and his father evicted. He is arrested for beating up the landlord but escapes with the help of Ida Hunt, his sweetheart. Years later he is a baseball star known as Bat Shugrue and is widely idolized by boys who read about his clean living,

Trifling with Honor

1923

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

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

Edgar's Sunday Courtship poster
9.0

On the way to Sunday school, Edgar meets the lady of his heart--and his hated rival. The Sunday-school lesson on David and Goliath so intrigues Edgar that he sees himself as David, saving the entire school, sweetheart and rival included, from Goliath's sword. Edgar's answer to the teacher's question proves his straying thoughts. As a result he is placed on the platform, where he sees himself descending to the "lower regions" as the "worst boy in the school." Edgar's Sunday adventures end with him at peace with the world, after two helpings of pie.

Edgar's Sunday Courtship

1920

Edgar's Jonah Day poster
8.0

Edgar is called upon by his mother to execute a disagreeable errand, has to mind his troublesome younger brother, and runs away.

Edgar's Jonah Day

1920

Monkeys Prefer Blondes poster
NR

A Sunkist Comedy

Monkeys Prefer Blondes

1926

The Whispered Name poster
9.0

Anne Gray (Ruth Clifford) runs off with Robert Gordon (William E. Lawrence), believing that he is going to marry her. When they arrive at a hotel, another guest, Langdon Van Kreel (Charles Clary), sees though Gordon's ploy and chases him away.

The Whispered Name

1924

A Front Page Story poster
7.0

Rodney Marvin hears a vague account of a dispute between Mayor Gorham and Matt Hayward from Hayward's daughter, Virginia. She is employed by her father on his paper the Gazette, a sworn enemy to the Mayor. Rodney outwits the Mayor and buys from him a note that would have endangered the fortune of the Gazette. Rodney realizes that the only remedy for the situation is to get the two men to shake hands and be friends.

A Front Page Story

1922

Edgar, the Detective poster
9.0

Edgar buys a badge and a book of instructions and starts to learn the detective business. When he and his chum accompany his uncle's hired hand and his girl to town on a load of hay, and learn that a stop at the minister's means a marriage and not a murder, the two boys are sadly disappointed.

Edgar, the Detective

1921

Young Ideas poster
7.0

Universal star Laura LaPlante stars in this lighthearted comedy based on Sophie Kerr's magazine story, Relative Values. Octavia Lowden (LaPlante) has virtually become a drudge in order to support her sponging relatives -- flapper sister Eloise (Lucille Ricksen), hypochondriac Aunt Minnie (Lydia Yeamans Titus), and storytelling Uncle Eph (James O. Barrows). Only Octavia's frail grandmother (Jennie Lee) really needs help. When Octavia's sweetheart, photographer Pritchett Spence (T. Roy Barnes), discovers the toll these bloodsuckers are exacting, he plots with the family doctor to rescue her.

Young Ideas

1924

When Love Comes poster
8.0

Jane Coleridge and Peter Jamison are a pair of small town sweethearts. She's an old-fashioned girl and he's timid, but he manages to get up the nerve to propose and asks her to run away with him. Unfortunately, around the time Jane's supposed to meet him at the station her father dies and she has to take care of her brothers and sisters. Jamison believes she loves someone else and disappears for several years. When he finally returns, he has a three-year-old child in tow. But he explains that his wife has been unfaithful and he and Jane renew their romance. Then wife shows up and causes trouble by claiming that Jamison left her for Jane.

When Love Comes

1922

1910s · 6 titles

The Babes in the Woods poster
6.0

A story within a story, including a passage from Hansel and Gretel.

The Babes in the Woods

1917

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp poster
4.8

In Bagdad, Princess Badr al-Budur, the daughter of the Sultan, falls in love with Aladdin, the son of a poor tailor, and rejects the suit of evil alchemist al-Talib, her father's choice. Al-Talib consults his Evil Spirit, who advises him to find the magic lamp hidden in an underground cave. Unable to get it himself, al-Talib hires Aladdin, who secures the lamp but keeps it when he realizes al-Talib's wickedness. With wealth obtained through wishes, Aladdin courts the princess. After the lamp changes hands between al-Talib and Aladdin, al-Talib steals it and abducts the princess to the desert. Aladdin follows with only a gourd of water. Suffering from thirst and exhaustion, Aladdin nearly succumbs, but the horsemen of the Sultan, who learned of his daughter's abduction, ride up and rescue Aladdin.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

1917

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

The Hoodlum poster
6.0

A spoiled young rich girl is forced by misfortune to fight for survival in the slums and alleys, where she becomes involved with all manner of unpleasantness.

The Hoodlum

1919

Jack and the Beanstalk poster
5.0

Jack exchanges his cow for some magic beans. The beans grow overnight into a beanstalk, which Jack climbs, arriving at a castle that is his. Jack sets a deal with the giant in exchange for their fortune.

Jack and the Beanstalk

1917

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves poster
NR

Ali Baba, a poor Turkish wood chopper, discovers that a robbers' cave, concealed in the mountains that surround his house, opens to the magical phrase, "Open Sesame." Learning that the cave is filled with stolen treasure, he takes home as much as he can carry, but his greedy brother forces him to reveal the cave's location. After gaining admittance to the cave, Ali Baba's brother is seen by the thieves and killed. Meanwhile, Ali Baba falls in love with Morgianna, a slave girl forced to dance in the local inn, and by securing her freedom, he wins her love and loyalty. The leader of the band of robbers suspects that Ali Baba knows the secret of the treasure cave, and in the guise of an oil merchant, he visits Ali Baba with his forty thieves concealed in oil jars. When Morgianna discovers the robbers, she fills the jars with boiling oil, thereby killing them all. Ali Baba defeats the robber chief in combat and then marries his beautiful Morgianna.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

1918