Directing

Hamilton MacFadden

Born — Died

1901-04-26 — 1977-01-01

Place of birth

Chelsea, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

49 titles

Hamilton MacFadden (April 26, 1901 – January 1, 1977) was an American actor, screenwriter and film director. MacFadden's parents were Rev. Robert A. MacFadden and Edith Hamilton MacFadden. His father died in 1909, leaving his mother to support herself and four children. In 1928, she became the first woman to file papers to run for governor of Massachusetts. MacFadden was a 1925 graduate of Harvard University. Soon after graduating, he became producer of the American Theatre Company, which presented plays for 10 weeks in the Boston area. The project was backed by Michael Strange, a writer who made her professional stage debut in the productions. He also served as director of the Community A…

Known for

The Reluctant Dragon poster
6.6

Humorist Robert Benchley attempts to find Walt Disney to ask him to adapt a short story about a gentle dragon who would rather recite poetry than be ferocious. Along the way, he is given a tour of Walt Disney Studios, and learns about the animation process.

The Reluctant Dragon

1941

Walt Disney's Fables - Vol.6 poster
8.8

Two classic animated shorts from the Disney studios. In 'The Reluctant Dragon' (1941), a young boy and a famous dragon fighter team up to teach a docile dragon the art of being a force to be reckoned with. In 'Mickey and the Beanstalk' (1947), Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck confront the fearsome Willie the Giant to try to retrieve the magical singing harp to Happy Valley.

Walt Disney's Fables - Vol.6

2004

The Lady in Question poster
6.7

When a jury member takes in the defendant he couldn't convict, she has a bad influence on his son.

The Lady in Question

1940

The Jones Family in Hollywood poster
10.0

Father goes to an American Legion convention in Hollywood and the family goes along, visiting a studio a causing havoc on the set.

The Jones Family in Hollywood

1939

Riders of the Purple Sage poster
8.0

Lassiter's sister was killed and her young daughter taken and raised by outlaws. Years later Lassiter arrives at the Withersteen ranch looking for the now grown daughter. He immediately gets caught up in the ranch's struggle against rustlers. Trailing a rustled herd of horses leads him to the rustler's hideout and the missing daughter.

Riders of the Purple Sage

1931

Michael Shayne: Private Detective poster
6.6

Millionaire sportsman Hiram Brighton hires gumshoe Michael Shayne to keep his spoiled daughter Phyllis away from racetrack betting windows and roulette wheels. After Phyllis slips away and continues her compulsive gambling, Shayne fakes the murder of her gambler boyfriend, who is also romancing the daughter of casino owner Benny Gordon, in order to frighten her. When the tout really ends up murdered, Shayne and Phyllis' Aunt Olivia, an avid reader of murder mysteries, both try to find the identity of the killer.

Michael Shayne: Private Detective

1940

Film credits

1940s · 8 titles

The Reluctant Dragon poster
6.6

Humorist Robert Benchley attempts to find Walt Disney to ask him to adapt a short story about a gentle dragon who would rather recite poetry than be ferocious. Along the way, he is given a tour of Walt Disney Studios, and learns about the animation process.

The Reluctant Dragon

1941

The Lady in Question poster
6.7

When a jury member takes in the defendant he couldn't convict, she has a bad influence on his son.

The Lady in Question

1940

Michael Shayne: Private Detective poster
6.6

Millionaire sportsman Hiram Brighton hires gumshoe Michael Shayne to keep his spoiled daughter Phyllis away from racetrack betting windows and roulette wheels. After Phyllis slips away and continues her compulsive gambling, Shayne fakes the murder of her gambler boyfriend, who is also romancing the daughter of casino owner Benny Gordon, in order to frighten her. When the tout really ends up murdered, Shayne and Phyllis' Aunt Olivia, an avid reader of murder mysteries, both try to find the identity of the killer.

Michael Shayne: Private Detective

1940

Dressed to Kill poster
6.3

A detective's wedding is postponed when gunshots are heard nearby.

Dressed to Kill

1941

Sleepers West poster
6.4

Private eye Mike Shayne encounters a large amount of trouble while attempting to guard a murder witness.

Sleepers West

1941

Shooting High poster
7.0

A movie company making a film about a famous sheriff hires his grandson as a stand-in for the lead.

Shooting High

1940

Charlie Chan in Rio poster
6.5

In Rio de Janiero to arrest a nightclub singer on suspicion of a murder in Hawaii, Charlie Chan becomes involved with the Rio police in solving the singer's own murder.

Charlie Chan in Rio

1941

Young America poster
9.0

Young America is a 1942 American drama film directed by Louis King and written by Samuel G. Engel. The film stars Jane Withers, Jane Darwell, Lynne Roberts, Robert Cornell, William Tracy and Roman Bohnen. The film was released on February 6, 1942, by 20th Century Fox.

Young America

1942

1930s · 7 titles

The Jones Family in Hollywood poster
10.0

Father goes to an American Legion convention in Hollywood and the family goes along, visiting a studio a causing havoc on the set.

The Jones Family in Hollywood

1939

Charlie Chan in Reno poster
6.5

Mary Whitman has gone to Reno to obtain a divorce. While there she is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow guest at her hotel (which specializes in divorcers). There are many others at the hotel who wanted the victim out of the way. Charlie comes from his home in Honolulu to solve the murder.

Charlie Chan in Reno

1939

Tarnished Angel poster
5.3

A showgirl with a dubious reputation flees the cops and transforms herself into a phony evangelist offering "cures" to the sick and disabled.

Tarnished Angel

1938

While New York Sleeps poster
7.0

Newspaperman (Whalen) looks into the deaths of bond-carriers while romancing a show girl (Rogers).

While New York Sleeps

1938

The Black Camel poster
6.1

Movie star Shelah Fane is seeing wealthy Alan Jaynes while filming in Honolulu, Hawaii, but won't marry him without consulting famed psychic Tarneverro first. Enter inspector Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police, investigating the unsolved murder, three years earlier, of a Hollywood actor.

The Black Camel

1931

Chicken Wagon Family poster
10.0

Addie Fippany, her father Jean Paul Batiste Fippany, her mother Josephine and her sister Cecile roam the country-side in a mule-drawn wagon, trading trinkets to farmers for chickens which they sell in the cities. Addie and her father love the care-free life, but Mrs. Fippany and Cecile want to settle down in New York City. As soon as the "chicken wagon family" reaches New York, Addie gets into mischief and a policeman, Matt Hibbard, helps her and falls in love with Cecile. He helps the family settle into a deserted firehouse which is up for public sale.

Chicken Wagon Family

1939

Sharpshooters poster
8.0

Ace newsreel cameraman is working in a mythical European country when the king is assassinated. He gets his negatives out of the country and finds the young crown prince who is also in danger.

Sharpshooters

1938

Behind the camera

Riders of the Purple Sage poster
8.0

Lassiter's sister was killed and her young daughter taken and raised by outlaws. Years later Lassiter arrives at the Withersteen ranch looking for the now grown daughter. He immediately gets caught up in the ranch's struggle against rustlers. Trailing a rustled herd of horses leads him to the rustler's hideout and the missing daughter.

Riders of the Purple Sage

1931

Charlie Chan in Paris poster
6.6

Charlie's visit to Paris, ostensibly a vacation, is really a mission to investigate a bond-forgery racket. But his agent, apache dancer Nardi is killed before she can tell him much. The case, complicated by a false murder accusation for banker's daughter Yvette, climaxes with a strange journey through the Paris sewers.

Charlie Chan in Paris

1935

Stand Up and Cheer! poster
5.3

President Franklin Roosevelt appoints a theatrical producer as the new Secretary of Amusement in order to cheer up an American public still suffering through the Depression. The new secretary soon runs afoul of political lobbyists out to destroy his department.

Stand Up and Cheer!

1934

The Fourth Horseman poster
9.0

Retiring from a life of train robbing, Benjamin R. Jones takes over the ghost town of Stillwell, knowing full well that the property belongs to Molly O'Rourke. Enter horse wrangler Tom Mason, who smells a rat and does his best to unmask Jones as the crook he knows him to be. Molly at first falls for Jones' scheme, but confronts him when a general feeling of lawlessness sets in. The villain, alas, has an ace up his sleeve: Molly owes back taxes on her property, which is ripe for a takeover.

The Fourth Horseman

1932

Mother's Helper poster
NR

Fox Film’s promotional short subject for the Federal Government’s National Recovery Act, in which working man El Brendel explains to his wife (ZaSu Pitts) what the NRA means to them.

Mother's Helper

1933

She Was a Lady poster
8.0

Before his daughter can formally claim her rightful title, her father dies. Now her blue-blooded American suitor finds that his father refuses to allow the two to marry as she is not a high-born lady.

She Was a Lady

1934

The Legion of Missing Men poster
6.7

Bob Carter, a member of the Foreign Legion, is glad to see his brother, Don, for the first time in ten years but is sorry that Don has joined the Legion. Bob, Don and Bob's buddies, Muggsy and Bilgey, go to a café and there Don falls for Nina, a singer in love with Bob. Bob doesn't know this and thinks she is Garccia's girl, and warns Don to have nothing to do with her. Don disregards the warning and Garcia discovers Nina and Don together and provokes Don into hitting him. Don is arrested and thrown into the company brig. Nina, with the aid of an Arabian sheik, Ul Ahmed, helps Don escape. Bob, Muggsy and Bilgey follow but are captured and taken to Ul Hamid's headquarters. The sheik tortures Don to force Bob to work some captured machine guns for him. Ah Hamid and his tribe attack the fort, but Bob manages to turn the machine guns against his captors, and the fort is saved.

The Legion of Missing Men

1937

It Can't Last Forever poster
6.5

Russ Matthews, a theatrical agent who is not above pulling off a hoax or two or more to further the career of his clients (and himself), and a newspaper gossip-columnist, Carol Wilson, get involved with gangsters when one of Larry's radio-program future-predicting cons gets out of hand.

It Can't Last Forever

1937

The Power of God poster
NR

As the elderly man visiting his wife's grave remembers how a renewed faith in Christianity help a shady businessman, a juvenile delinquent a young couple and a shiftless man find the way to righteousness.

The Power of God

1942

The Black Camel poster
6.1

Movie star Shelah Fane is seeing wealthy Alan Jaynes while filming in Honolulu, Hawaii, but won't marry him without consulting famed psychic Tarneverro first. Enter inspector Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police, investigating the unsolved murder, three years earlier, of a Hollywood actor.

The Black Camel

1931

Oh, for a Man! poster
6.2

Disenchanted opera star Carlotta Manson falls for ruffian cat burglar Barney McGann and gives up her career to marry him. But Barney grows disenchanted himself at being known as the husband of a diva and itches to get back to his life of crime and manliness.

Oh, for a Man!

1930

Charlie Chan's Greatest Case poster
8.0

When a good-for-nothing man named Dan is stabbed to death and his arm broken, Charlie Chan is on the case. His first clue comes from the victim's sister, who noticed a prowler wearing a glow-in-the-dark wristwatch.

Charlie Chan's Greatest Case

1933

Cheaters at Play poster
7.0

Modest picture centering on a blunderous jewel heist aboard an ocean liner.

Cheaters at Play

1932

Second Hand Wife poster
5.5

A daughter and devious ex-wife complicate an executive's marriage to his secretary.

Second Hand Wife

1933

Second Hand Wife poster
5.5

A daughter and devious ex-wife complicate an executive's marriage to his secretary.

Second Hand Wife

1933

Elinor Norton poster
6.5

A romantic triangle during WW I provides the basis of this drama. The trouble begins when a young wife gets involved with a coffee baron while her husband is off fighting WW I. Her shell-shocked husband finally returns. He is terribly jealous. To help him, the wife takes him to a Western dude ranch. Her lover also goes, and the two men soon become friends. The coffee magnate helps to cure him, but then breaks his heart by telling him that he and the wife are planning to run away.

Elinor Norton

1934

Escape by Night poster
6.0

Runyonesque crooks on the lam hide out on blind man's pastoral farm and decide to go straight.

Escape by Night

1937

The Honeymoon's Over poster
8.0

Newly married copywriters become seduced by life with the country-club set, until mounting bills and legal troubles snap them back to reality.

The Honeymoon's Over

1939

Hold That Girl poster
9.0

"That girl" is newspaper sob-sister Tony Bellamy (Claire Trevor), whose nose for news gets her into one jam after another, especially when she poses as an exotic dancer to get the goods on a gangster.

Hold That Girl

1934

The Man Who Dared poster
7.5

An "imaginative biography" of Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago who was killed in the line of fire during an assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami on February 15, 1933.

The Man Who Dared

1933

Inside the Law poster
6.7

A gang of crooks wrestles with the temptation to rob the bank that they now manage.

Inside the Law

1942

No artwork available
9.0

Six months after the unsolved murder of a young woman who had been his assistant magician Azrah arranges a seance that will be attended by his former partner La Tour, as well by detectives and interested parties who may also be suspects. The seance is abruptly ended when la Tour is murdered and general confusion and much activity inside and outside Azrah’s stone fortress, a veritable castle of magic, ensues until everything is sorted out and the culprit is revealed.

Trick for Trick

1933

Charlie Chan Carries On poster
7.0

Charlie steps in to solve the murder of a wealthy American found dead in a London hotel. Settings include London, Nice, San Remo, Honolulu and Hong Kong. Fast-paced with lots of wisecracking. The first film to star Warner Oland as Charlie Chan.

Charlie Chan Carries On

1931

Sea Racketeers poster
4.7

J. Carrol Naish plays a slimy villain again; this time he's running a casino on a ship and smuggling furs past the Coast Guard.

Sea Racketeers

1937

As Husbands Go poster
8.0

Lucille Lingard and her friend Emmie bid farewell to their European friends on their last night in Paris. Lucille has fallen for the debonair Ronald Derbyshire and dreads returning to her mundane Midwestern hometown in Iowa and her stolid husband Charles. Back in America, Lucille plans to get a divorce and is delighted when Ronald show up. However, he and Charles unexpectedly become close friends, and Ronald admits that he does not find Lucille as attractive as he did in Paris. He leaves the next day and Lucille stays with her husband, won over once more to her family life.

As Husbands Go

1934

Their Mad Moment poster
7.5

Dorothy Mackaill stars in this old-fashioned melodrama set in the Basque country of Spain. She is Emily Stanley, betrothed to foppish Englishman Sir Harry Congers, but in love with Basque peasant Esteban Cristera. Deciding on a final fling before wedlock, Emily goes to Esteban's village in the mountains, but is wounded in a car accident. Recuperating, she learns about the hardships endured by Basque women from Esteban's grandmother and former girlfriend, Stancia, and decides to return to Sir Harry in Biarritz.

Their Mad Moment

1931

Are You There? poster
7.0

Beatrice Lillie shines in disguise as a private detective.

Are You There?

1930

Crazy That Way poster
10.0

Young heiress Ann Jordan and her fiancè Frank Oakes would be happy except for the constant appearance of Robert Metcalf, who follows her or them everywhere. This continues into their time at the country club, even interfering with tennis games. The two boys are constantly arguing, and Ann grows weary of them both, and after a knock down, drag out fight that destroys the Jordan garden, they realize she has fallen for an older man, Jack Gardner, an engineering friend of her father.

Crazy That Way

1930

Crazy That Way poster
10.0

Young heiress Ann Jordan and her fiancè Frank Oakes would be happy except for the constant appearance of Robert Metcalf, who follows her or them everywhere. This continues into their time at the country club, even interfering with tennis games. The two boys are constantly arguing, and Ann grows weary of them both, and after a knock down, drag out fight that destroys the Jordan garden, they realize she has fallen for an older man, Jack Gardner, an engineering friend of her father.

Crazy That Way

1930

Fighting Youth poster
7.7

A radical campus group persuades student Carol Arlington to lead a protest of a college's football team. She manages to recruit Larry Davis, even though he is a star player for State's team.

Fighting Youth

1935

Fighting Youth poster
7.7

A radical campus group persuades student Carol Arlington to lead a protest of a college's football team. She manages to recruit Larry Davis, even though he is a star player for State's team.

Fighting Youth

1935

Harmony at Home poster
8.0

This comedy story of Joe Haller unwittingly running a sweatshop and Mama Haller keeping the suitors away from her daughters by discussing marriage.

Harmony at Home

1930

No artwork available
8.0

Set in the post-WWI days in the Siberian tank town of Skzavoskanoff, U. S. Army Sergeant Chuck Connors and Private Jiimy Barton are charged with upholding the principles of American Democracy in the face of the exotic charms of Olga, and a dastardly plot by the phony General Stavinski and his treacherous aide. Finally the impostors are exposed.

Three Legionnaires

1937