Acting

Jack Roper

Born — Died

1904-03-25 — 1966-11-28

Place of birth

Ponchatoula, Louisiana, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

46 titles

Known for

The Harder They Fall poster
7.2

Jobless sportswriter Eddie Willis is hired by corrupt fight promoter Nick Benko to promote his current protégé, an unknown Argentinian boxer named Toro Moreno. Although Moreno is a hulking giant, his chances for success are hampered by a powder-puff punch and a glass jaw. Exploiting Willis' reputation for integrity and standing in the boxing community, Benko arranges a series of fixed fights that propel the unsophisticated Moreno to #1 contender for the championship. The reigning champ, the sadistic Buddy Brannen, harbors resentment at the publicity Toro has been receiving and vows to viciously punish him in the ring. Eddie must now decide whether or not to tell the naive Toro the truth.

The Harder They Fall

1956

Swing Fever poster
6.0

Comedy about a bandleader with hypnotic powers.

Swing Fever

1943

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion poster
6.2

Jonesy and Lou are in Algeria looking for a wrestler they are promoting. Sergeant Axmann tricks them into joining the Foreign Legion, after which they discover Axmann's collaboration with the nasty Sheik Hamud El Khalid.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion

1950

M poster
6.5

In the city, someone is murdering children. The police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.

M

1951

The Bank Dick poster
6.5

Egbert Sousé becomes an unexpected hero when a bank robber falls over a bench he's occupying. Now considered brave, Egbert is given a job as a bank guard. Soon, he is approached by charlatan J. Frothingham Waterbury about buying shares in a mining company. Egbert persuades teller Og Oggilby to lend him bank money, to be returned when the scheme pays off. Unfortunately, bank inspector Snoopington then makes a surprise appearance.

The Bank Dick

1940

No Time for Love poster
7.0

An upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to a hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson River.

No Time for Love

1943

Film credits

1980s · 1 titles

1950s · 5 titles

The Harder They Fall poster
7.2

Jobless sportswriter Eddie Willis is hired by corrupt fight promoter Nick Benko to promote his current protégé, an unknown Argentinian boxer named Toro Moreno. Although Moreno is a hulking giant, his chances for success are hampered by a powder-puff punch and a glass jaw. Exploiting Willis' reputation for integrity and standing in the boxing community, Benko arranges a series of fixed fights that propel the unsophisticated Moreno to #1 contender for the championship. The reigning champ, the sadistic Buddy Brannen, harbors resentment at the publicity Toro has been receiving and vows to viciously punish him in the ring. Eddie must now decide whether or not to tell the naive Toro the truth.

The Harder They Fall

1956

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion poster
6.2

Jonesy and Lou are in Algeria looking for a wrestler they are promoting. Sergeant Axmann tricks them into joining the Foreign Legion, after which they discover Axmann's collaboration with the nasty Sheik Hamud El Khalid.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion

1950

M poster
6.5

In the city, someone is murdering children. The police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.

M

1951

Joe Palooka in the Squared Circle poster
8.0

Joe Palooka encounters gangsters and tries to alert the law.

Joe Palooka in the Squared Circle

1950

Stop That Cab poster
9.0

The trials and tribulations of a cab driver working the night shift, who must put with an assortment of crazies, hardcases and sob stories during work and then has to come home to a loud, argumentative, shrewish wife.

Stop That Cab

1951

1940s · 30 titles

Swing Fever poster
6.0

Comedy about a bandleader with hypnotic powers.

Swing Fever

1943

The Bank Dick poster
6.5

Egbert Sousé becomes an unexpected hero when a bank robber falls over a bench he's occupying. Now considered brave, Egbert is given a job as a bank guard. Soon, he is approached by charlatan J. Frothingham Waterbury about buying shares in a mining company. Egbert persuades teller Og Oggilby to lend him bank money, to be returned when the scheme pays off. Unfortunately, bank inspector Snoopington then makes a surprise appearance.

The Bank Dick

1940

No Time for Love poster
7.0

An upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to a hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson River.

No Time for Love

1943

Gentleman Jim poster
7.2

As bare-knuckled boxing enters the modern era, brash extrovert Jim Corbett uses new rules and dazzlingly innovative footwork to rise to the top of the boxing world.

Gentleman Jim

1942

In the Navy poster
6.4

Popular crooner Russ Raymond abandons his career at its peak and joins the Navy using an alias, Tommy Halstead. However, Dorothy Roberts, a reporter, discovers his identity and follows him in the hopes of photographing him and revealing his identity to the world. Aboard the Alabama, Tommy meets up with Smoky and Pomeroy, who help hide him from Dorothy, who hatches numerous schemes in an attempt to photograph Tommy/Russ being a sailor.

In the Navy

1941

Tin Pan Alley poster
5.5

Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England, and Katy joins her after the boys give a new song to Nora Bayes. All are reunited when the boys, now in the army, show up in England.

Tin Pan Alley

1940

Drums of Fu Manchu poster
6.2

The nefarious Dr. Fu Manchu searches for the keys to the tomb of Genghis Khan, in order to fulfill a prophecy that will enable him to conquer the world. His nemesi, Dr. Nayland Smith and his associates fight to keep the evil doctor from getting his hands on the keys. In 1943 the serial was edited together into a feature movie also called Drums of Fu Manchu.

Drums of Fu Manchu

1940

Gentleman Joe Palooka poster
NR

In the second film of Monogram's Joe Palooka series, Joe is 'used', by two state senators scheming to obtain oil-rich lands, in a publicity campaign to get the land transferred to the state, supposedly for a park. When Joe learns that he has been used as a dupe he becomes disillusioned and leaves the prize=fighting profession. But, his manager, sparring partners, and fiancée manage to expose the land-grab scheme, clear Joe's name and discredit the crooked politicians.

Gentleman Joe Palooka

1946

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe poster
5.8

A mysterious plague, the Purple Death, ravages the earth. Dr. Zarkov, investigating in his spaceship, finds a ship from planet Mongo seeding the atmosphere with dust. Sure enough, Ming the Merciless is up to his old tricks. So it's back to Mongo for Flash, Dale, and Zarkov.

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

1940

Panhandle poster
5.8

An ex-gunfighter woos two women while avenging his brother, victim of a crooked gambler.

Panhandle

1948

Joe Palooka in the Big Fight poster
6.5

Gangsters frame Joe on a drunk charge and a murder rap so they can put their own fighter into a big event. Joe investigates in an attempt to prove his innocence.

Joe Palooka in the Big Fight

1949

My Little Chickadee poster
6.4

On her way by stagecoach to visit relatives out west, Flower Belle Lee is held up by a masked bandit who also takes the coach's shipment of gold. When he abducts Flower Belle and they arrive in town, Flower Belle is suspected of being in collusion with the bandit.

My Little Chickadee

1940

Angels Over Broadway poster
5.9

Small-time businessman Charles Engle is threatened with exposure for embezzling $3,000 for his free-spending wife. Deciding on suicide, he scribbles a note, stuffs it in his pocket and goes for one last night on the town. He is pulled into a poker game by conman Bill O'Brien and singer Nina Barone, but when they discover the dropped note, they resolve to turn the tables, get Engle his $3,000 and save his life.

Angels Over Broadway

1940

Larceny in Her Heart poster
6.0

In the second of the PRC "Michael Shayne" series,civic crusader Burton Stallings hires private detective Michael Shayne to locate the former's missing step-daughter Helen. Shayne discovers that Stallings himself has had Helen confined in an asylum in order to obtain her money.

Larceny in Her Heart

1946

The Ring and the Belle poster
7.0

Andy becomes the manager of a prizefighter. The problem is, the figher has just skipped town.

The Ring and the Belle

1941

West of Carson City poster
5.5

West of Carson City remains one of the best of Johnny Mack Brown's Universal westerns. The story takes place in a gold-rush community where the locals are taken to the cleaners by duplicitious Eastern gamblers. When it becomes obvious that the local constabulary has been "bought off" by the crooks, two-fisted cattleman Jim Bannister (Brown) swings into action. The film's highlight is an outsized fistic brawl between the hero and secondary villain Breed, played by loose-limbed comic stuntman Frank Mitchell.

West of Carson City

1940

Hold That Woman! poster
7.0

A skip tracer--someone who collects late payments from people who've purchased appliances, etc., or takes them back them when they don't pay--repossesses a small radio from a deadbeat who's skipped payments. What he doesn't know is that a gang that has stolen diamonds from a Hollywood movie star has stashed them inside the radio, and they start hunting for him.

Hold That Woman!

1940

Junior G-Men poster
6.5

A gang of urban street kids and a club of suburban would-be federal agents, at first rivals, join forces to rescue the father of one of the kids, the inventor of a super-explosive and its remote detonator, from the clutches of a band of foreign subversives call the "Flaming Torch Gang". A 12-episode movie serial with the chapters: •1. Enemies Within •2. The Blast of Doom •3. Human Dynamite •4. Blazing Danger •5. Trapped By Traitors •6. Traitors' Treachery •7. Flaming Death •8. Hurled Through Space •9. The Plunge of Peril •10.The Toll of Treason •11.Descending Doom •12.The Power of Patriotism

Junior G-Men

1940

A Man Betrayed poster
5.5

A bucolic lawyer takes on big-city corruption, setting out to prove that an above-suspicion politician is actually a crook - all while falling in love with the politician's daughter.

A Man Betrayed

1941

Ridin' the Cherokee Trail poster
7.0

Singing cowboy Tex Ritter and his sidekick, Slim Andrews, star in this musical Western about a couple of Texas Rangers who defend the citizens of a small territory from power-hungry outlaws. Villain Bradley Craven (Forrest Taylor) is determined to stop the election process that would allow the region to join the Union. Tex and Slim join a rancher and his daughter to stop Craven, with fearless Tex going undercover to ensure that justice is served.

Ridin' the Cherokee Trail

1941

Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad poster
8.0

Joe Palooka goes blind during a fight. An operation restores his vision, but he's told not to fight for a year. His trainer Knobby has picked up another fighter, but gangsters are pressing him to fix fights. Joe decides to risk his eyesight to save Knobby's honor.

Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad

1948

Joe Palooka in Winner Take All poster
7.5

Joe is scheduled for the big fight as usual. This one has more fight sequences than plot.

Joe Palooka in Winner Take All

1948

Mutiny in the Arctic poster
7.5

A pair head to the frozen wastes with an expedition in search of radium deposits. Certain members of the group succumb to greed, plotting to bump off the others and claim the radium for themselves.

Mutiny in the Arctic

1941

Mom and Dad poster
5.0

A teenage girl from a traditional family goes on a date with a pilot and ends up having sex with him. After the pilot dies in a plane crash, the girl discovers she is pregnant with his child.

Mom and Dad

1945

Heroes of the Saddle poster
9.0

A fast-paced, enjoyable entry in the long-running Three Mesqueteers Western series, Heroes of the Saddle featured the three cowboy pals promising to look after Peggy Bell, the little daughter of mortally wounded rodeo champ Montana. Legal technicalities, however, halt the adoption proceeding and Stony, Rusty, and Rico can only watch as the little girl is placed in the county orphanage.

Heroes of the Saddle

1940

North from the Lone Star poster
8.0

Wild Bill Hickock (William Elliott), aka The Peaceable Man, meters out justice in the tough town of Deadwood in this highly fictional western from Columbia. Unlike the historic character, Elliott's gunfighter survives his encounter with the South Dakota hellhole, where he arrives to aid beleaguered livery stable owner Clint Wilson (Richard Fiske) and his sister, Madge (Dorothy Fay), in their battle against self-appointed town czar "Flash" Kirby (Arthur Loft). But before he gets that far, there is a little matter of proving Kirby guilty of wrongdoing and to achieve that, Wild Bill earns the enmity of both the Wilsons.

North from the Lone Star

1941

The Spider Returns poster
8.5

The evil and masked "Gargoyle" is sabotaging all of America's industrial plants. It is up to the Spider to save the country.

The Spider Returns

1941

Joe Palooka, Champ poster
8.0

After losing heavyweight contender Al Costa to mob boss Florini fight promoter Knobby Walsh recruits small town boy Joe Palooka to take his place. First in the series.

Joe Palooka, Champ

1946

The Pittsburgh Kid poster
7.0

Unable to sign boxer Joe Louis to movie contract, Republic Pictures had to make do with the losers of Louis' heavyweight championship bouts. One of these was Billy Conn, who after being knocked out by Louis in the 13th round awakened to star in the Republic programmer The Pittsburgh Kid. The story finds clean-limned pugilist Conn (playing himself) being managed by pretty Patricia Mallory.

The Pittsburgh Kid

1941

Broadway Big Shot poster
9.0

This drama chronicles the extreme measures taken by a determined young crime reporter to get an interview with a notorious convict. The zealous journalist, also a star quarterback on the town college team, decides to become a convict himself. He gets into the prison, becomes president of the prisoners' union, does his interview, successfully woo's the warden's daughter, and gets out in time to publish his story before anyone else does. His career is off to a tremendous start.

Broadway Big Shot

1942

1930s · 7 titles

Wall Street Cowboy poster
5.8

When his ranch falls on hard times, Cowboy Roy Roger has trouble making his mortgage payment and he takes his song and dance to Wall Street to try to raise cash fast.

Wall Street Cowboy

1939

Unmarried poster
4.8

Pals Pat Rogers and Slag Bailey try to collect a debt from Slag's recently deceased boxing promoter but wind up collecting his child, instead, and raising him as their own son.

Unmarried

1939

The Garden Murder Case poster
5.7

Two people with ties to rich murdered socialite Lowe Hammle die from unusual suicides—but Vance suspects foul play.

The Garden Murder Case

1936

Captain Kidd's Treasure poster
5.6

In this short, a modern-day promoter tries to sell a man the idea of searching for Captain Kidd's buried treasure, claiming he has the original map. A flashback reveals that Kidd was known to be a pirate and also to have had a commission from William III at one time, which instructed him to act as a unit of the British Navy. What became of the fabulous treasure Kidd took from the ship "Kedah Merchant".

Captain Kidd's Treasure

1938

Flaming Frontiers poster
5.1

Tom Grant has found a rich gold vein and Bart Eaton is after it. Tom's sister Mary heads for the gold fields and Eaton and his men follow. Eaton teams up with Ace Daggett who plans to doublecross him and get the gold for himself. They frame Tom for murder and then try to get him to sign over his claim. The famous scout Tex Houston is on hand, escaping the attempts on his life, saving Mary from various perils, and trying to bring in the real killer and clear Tom.

Flaming Frontiers

1938

Invitation to Happiness poster
7.0

An egotistical boxer romances a rich backer's daughter.

Invitation to Happiness

1939

The Nitwits poster
6.7

A would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher.

The Nitwits

1935

1920s · 2 titles