Directing

Hamilton MacFadden

Born 1901-04-26 · Chelsea, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

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 Arts Association in Santa Barbara, California, and the Theatre Guild School of Acting in New York. Plays that MacFadden produced on Broadway included Gods of the Lightning and La Gringa. After starting out on Broadway in the 1920s, he moved into filmmaking in Hollywood. During the early 1930s he was a contract director at Fox. McFadden made a number of films for them including several early entries in the Charlie Chan series such as Charlie Chan Carries On (1931). He was released from his Fox contract following the 1934 merger with Twentieth Century Pictures. Thereafter he mixed occasional directing jobs with a number of small supporting appearances in films. Later in his career, MacFadden was associate chief of the United States Department of State's international motion picture division.

Acting credits

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

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

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

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

Dressed to Kill poster
6.3

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

Dressed to Kill

1941

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheaters at Play poster
7.0

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

Cheaters at Play

1932

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 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

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

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

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

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

Oh, for a Man! poster
6.3

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 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

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

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

Are You There? poster
7.0

Beatrice Lillie shines in disguise as a private detective.

Are You There?

1930

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

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

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

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

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