Writing

Paul Gerard Smith

Born 1894-09-14 · Omaha, Nebraska, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Paul Gerard Smith (September 14, 1894 – April 4, 1968) was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 90 films between 1926 and 1955. Smith started writing musical revues at the age of ten. He joined the Marines for World War I and while still in Germany wrote and directed the Sixth Marine Revue in the Rhine Occupation Area. He arrived back in the States in 1919 and started writing vaudeville acts. He became so successful that he was one of the few writers to be credited on the playbill. He scripted the Ziegfeld Follies of 1924, 1925, and 1926 and was also one of the writers of Funny Face. Smith was brought to Hollywood by Buster Keaton to work on The General and Battling Butler. Early film credits include In Old Arizona, Mother Knows Best, and Dressed to Kill, as well as the first talkies of Harold Lloyd, Welcome Danger and Feet First. He wrote dozens of B movies for Universal Studios, Fox Film Corporation, Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, Warner Bros., and Hal Roach Studios. He also scripted USO shows and personal appearances for many film and radio stars entertaining overseas. After World War II he returned to film and radio scripting and also wrote and directed some early television programs on ABC, including The Gay Nineties Revue. He returned to stage writing with Hullabaloo for the Pasadena Playhouse.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Turn Off the Moon poster
8.0

Department store owner J. Elliott Dinwiddy has waited fifteen years for the perfect astrological moment to propose to his secretary, Myrtle Tweep. His astrological advisor, Dr. Wakefield, has told him that if he can unite a boy and a girl in true love before midnight, he can propose to Myrtle the following night. Fate then brings unemployed dancer Caroline Wilson into the music department of Dinwiddy's, where she meets handsome songwriter Terry Keith.

Turn Off the Moon

1937

Niagara Falls poster
6.7

The nosy antics of a honeymooner puts an unwed couple in the same room.

Niagara Falls

1941

Hold 'Em Yale poster
7.0

A pretty young socialite falls for a charming but shady hustler, who abandons her when he finds that she has been disowned by her wealthy father. Three of the hustler's partners, who have also been left high and dry by heir former associate, come up with a plan to get her to the annual Yale-Harvard football game to reunite with her former sweetheart, an honest but nerdy bookworm.

Hold 'Em Yale

1935

In Holland poster
7.0

Comedy short.

In Holland

1929

Harold Teen poster
6.5

A young reporter pines for his high-school sweetheart, but she's preoccupied with appearing in their small town's community musical show. This 1934 comedy, with numerous songs, was inspired by the popular Depression-era comic strip of the same title. With Hal Le Roy, Rochelle Hudson, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert,Douglass Dumbrille and Patricia Ellis.

Harold Teen

1934

Harpoon poster
7.0

A tale of feuding and revenge among whalers in Alaska in the late 19th century.

Harpoon

1948

Son of a Sailor poster
6.0

A lovesick fool bumbles into espionage and finds a stolen plane.

Son of a Sailor

1933

One Hour Late poster
3.8

A secretary catches the eye of her amorous boss while her regular boyfriend keeps trying to propose marriage to her.

One Hour Late

1934

Wild Bill Hickok Rides poster
5.5

The Western hero takes on a ruthless land baron whose henchmen killed his best friend.

Wild Bill Hickok Rides

1942

It's a Great Life poster
9.0

Desperate for work, Johnny Barclay leaves Ma and Grandpop to join the newly formed Civilian Conversation Corps. On the way he meets cynical young hobo Roscoe "Rockie" Johnson, and, although Rockie believes that hopping freight trains is a great life, Johnny convinces him to join the Corps.

It's a Great Life

1935

It's a Joke, Son! poster
6.6

Claghorn gets into some financial difficulties and is forced by a machine-political gang to enter a race for state senator against his wife (Una Merkel) who appears to have a good chance to beat the political hack backed by the machine. Claghorn is in to siphon votes and ensure his wife's opponent will win and is expected to run a campaign that will defeat himself and his wife. But, he runs to win and the machine's henchies abduct him.

It's a Joke, Son!

1947

Steel Against the Sky poster
5.4

Steel-worker brothers compete for the same woman.

Steel Against the Sky

1941

Ditto poster
5.8

Buster, an ice delivery man, falls for one of his customers, not knowing she has a twin sister living next door.

Ditto

1937

Earthworm Tractors poster
5.4

A salesman tries to sell a tractor to a customer who hates tractors while falling for the girl.

Earthworm Tractors

1936

Sandy Gets Her Man poster
6.5

A young widow lets her baby be the deciding factor as to which eligible bachelor she should marry.

Sandy Gets Her Man

1940

Welcome Home poster
9.0

A con artist attends a reunion in his hometown and discovers that his former classmates are trying to trick an old millionaire into returning to build a factory.

Welcome Home

1935

La Conga Nights poster
7.7

In this comedy, actor Hugh Herbert plays six different roles. Only one of the roles is a man. The story centers around a dizzy music lover, who has grown rich through real estate deals. Also figuring in the story are a cab driver/performer, and a down-on-her-luck, aspiring singer. They meet when she hails his cab as she skips out on her former boarding house because she cannot pay rent.

La Conga Nights

1940

No artwork available
7.0

In this musical, an idealistic college graduate is bitten by the show business bug after he finds success writing and producing the campus variety show. Wanting to launch his career, he convinces his father to allow him to create a production using the workers at the old man's clothing factory. Unfortunately, the young man is naive and an unscrupulous producer bilks his father's advance money from him.

Sing Another Chorus

1941

No artwork available
10.0

An amoral young dancer falls in love with a band leader.

She Knew What She Wanted

1936

Dangerous Nan McGrew poster
4.5

Dangerous Nan McGrew is the sharp-shooting expert of a traveling medicine show that is stranded in the Canadian northwest at the snowbound hunting lodge of wealthy Mrs. Benson. Nan is invited to put on a show for the benefit of Mrs. Benson's Christmas-Eve guests. While performing her boop-a-doop songs, Eustace Macy, the saxophone-tooting nephew of Mrs. Benson falls in love with Nan. And, then, the villain, the bank-robbing Doc Foster, makes his entrance. Can Dawes of the Royal Mounted be seen slushing in pursuit behind the gangster? Could Be.

Dangerous Nan McGrew

1930

Mama Runs Wild poster
7.0

Suburban Paradise Park becomes a heaven for social-minded Mrs. Alice Summers (Mary Boland), when she accidentally causes the apprehension of two bank robbers after walking into the bank during the robbery and one of the robbers, in taking money from her purse, left his fingerprints on the purse. She is made an honorary police captain and, with her society sisters sets about "keeping lawlessness" out of the town. From that point on, life becomes miserable for her hen-pecked husband Calvin (Ernest Truex).

Mama Runs Wild

1937

You're in the Army Now poster
4.4

Incompetent door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen become enlisted without their knowledge.

You're in the Army Now

1941

Margie poster
9.0

Newlyweds Bret (Tom Brown) and Margie (Nan Grey) both aspire to show-biz careers: he wants to be a songwriter, while she is desirous of becoming a radio scripter. Inevitably, Bret and Margie quarrel and break up, only to be reunited by their efforts to snag "banana king" Gomez (Mischa Auer) for a lucrative radio contract. The old 1920s tune "Margie" is heard throughout the proceedings, frequently fitted out with ludicrous new lyrics ("Bananas! We're Always Thikin' of Bananas!" etc.) by a zany songwriting team (Eddie Quillan and Wally Vernon).

Margie

1940

Jail House Blues poster
9.0

A prisoner about to be pardoned puts it off until he can put on one last variety show for his fellow inmates.

Jail House Blues

1942