
Acting
Allan Cavan
Born — Died
1880-03-24 — 1941-01-19
Place of birth
Concord, California, USA
Known for
Acting
Credits
60 titles
Known for
7.8After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battling political corruption.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1939
7.3When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
The Man Who Laughs
1928
6.4The Biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood, with a parallel story of soldiers in the First World War.
Noah's Ark
1928
5.8A 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
6.4A woman infiltrates a criminal mob to avenge her brother's death.
The Widow from Chicago
1930
6.8Second serial featuring The Green Hornet and Kato.
The Green Hornet Strikes Again!
1940
Film credits
1940s · 4 titles
5.8A 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
6.8Second serial featuring The Green Hornet and Kato.
The Green Hornet Strikes Again!
1940
5.7When a police officer is murdered, Captain Street looks to Mr. Wong to catch the killer. Prime Suspect: Frank Belden Jr., whose father is a businessman well known for both his success and dishonesty. Mr. Wong faces increasing danger and is nearly executed himself as the investigation develops in treachery and complexity. As Mr. Wong follows the trail of dead bodies, he uncovers a jewel smuggling ring on the San Francisco waterfront and a case much larger than the death of a police officer.
The Fatal Hour
1940
4.5Newly-elected reform Mayor Jones celebrates his victory over the crooked political machine with a party at Earl Carroll's night club. Steve Kalkus, the defeated racketeer-politician, has Earl Carroll and several of his acts kidnapped, figuring the kidnapping coup will cause Jones to be laughed out of office. In Carroll's absence his assistant, Ramona Lisa, and his press agent, Barney Nelson put on the show themselves with the remaining talent, the chorus girls and also pressing into the entertainment cigarette girls, cloakroom girls, the doorman and others including oil heiresses Brenda Gusher and Cobina Gusher. Carroll and the other prisoners make their escape when a kidnapped juggling act sends their captors down in a barrage of beer bottles.
A Night at Earl Carroll's
1940
1930s · 42 titles
7.8After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battling political corruption.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1939
6.4A woman infiltrates a criminal mob to avenge her brother's death.
The Widow from Chicago
1930
5.8Buster agrees to pose as a murderer to throw off the police while his room mate, a reporter, searches for the real killer.
Jail Bait
1937
5.9Five men have to prove their innocence when a blackmailer is murdered.
The Phantom of Crestwood
1932
5.2Thirteen years after a dinner party in which the thirteenth guest failed to arrive, the remaining guests are being murdered one by one, and their bodies being placed at the same dinner table in the appropriate seats they occupied thirteen years prior.
The Thirteenth Guest
1932
7.2A 12 episode serial starring Rex, the King of the Wild Horses and Rin-Tin-Tin, Jr. Rex is brought from the island of Sujan, where he is worshiped as a God-Horse, to the U.S. to be trained as a polo pony. He escapes, meets Rinty and with the help of Frank Bradley is returned to Sujan. The natives have been persuaded to turn against their God-Horse, however he is rescued just in time before he is burned as a sacrifice.
The Adventures of Rex and Rinty
1935
7.1A sleazy lawyer's female assistant sets out to end his cheating ways.
The Defense Rests
1934
5.7A rising stage star's ambition causes trouble.
Comet Over Broadway
1938
7.0The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.
Dishonored
1931
5.2A mad doctor named Zanoff uses a drug to bring himself back from the dead after his execution in prison. Dick Tracy sets out to capture Zanoff before he can put his criminal gang back together again.
Dick Tracy's G-Men
1939
6.8A famous aviator helps an amateur enter a cross-country air race for women.
Women in the Wind
1939
6.7John Nelson, a well-to-do businessman, is escorting a woman he knows as Ethel Barry to the door of her apartment suite when a man steps out of the shadows and angrily demands to know where she has been. The embarrassed Nelson excuses himself and goes to his rooms in the same hotel. The woman rushes into his apartment followed by the man who met her in the hall. The man threatens her with violence and Nelson comes to her defense. In the ensuing fight, the man is knocked out of the window and falls to his death to the pavement many stories down. He is charged with the killing and his only witness that can prove self-defense for him has disappeared, and can not be found.
Shadow of the Law
1930
4.2A hospital surgeon (James Dunn) protects a mystery woman (Gloria Stuart) who knows too much about a card-game murder.
The Girl in 419
1933
6.5A loose biopic based on the life of Gilded Age tycoon "Diamond" Jim Brady.
Diamond Jim
1935
6.1A federal tax agent goes undercover as a reporter and, working with a mobster's pretty bookkeeper, infiltrates a crime ring to catch the racketeer. When she agrees to testify, an informant exposes them and she's kidnapped.
Special Agent
1935
6.8A political hack becomes President during the height of the Depression and undergoes a metamorphosis into an incorruptible statesman after a near-fatal accident.
Gabriel Over the White House
1933
6.8A European princess arrives in New York City to secure a much-needed loan for her country. She contracts the mumps, and an actress who looks exactly like her is hired to impersonate her.
Thirty Day Princess
1934
4.3An Austrian soldier must choose between a wealthy fiancee and a new girl who takes his fancy.
Daybreak
1931
6.2Three people live together in the maintenance shed at Central Park as an alternative to living on the streets.
One More Spring
1935
5.2Roy Rogers is a cowboy who joins the Border Patrol, only to have his buddy Tommy get killed at a local saloon. Determined to get revenge at any cost, Roy and Rusty cross the border in search of Arizona Jack, the man responsible for Tommy's death.
Rough Riders' Round-up
1939
6.5Though he was protecting her when he accidentally killed a man, Mabel Kane (Thelma Todd) refuses to testify on behalf of her dance partner Jerry Davis (George Murphy), and he's sent to jail. In a riot, a hostile convict (Jack La Rue) forces Jerry to help him escape, so Jerry takes to the streets himself. Nightclub entertainer Anne Taylor (Nancy Carroll) meets him, and convinces her boss Louis (Arthur Hohl) to hire him as her partner.
After the Dance
1935
6.0Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she's a special investigator for a streetcar company he's repeatedly victimized.
The Nuisance
1933
5.8Talbot uses a phony land grant to rule thirteen million acres, taxing everyone heavily and evicting those who won't pay. The Three Mesquiteers becomes mysterious "night riders" to fight this evil.
The Night Riders
1939
6.3Mary Smith is picked up by the police and is about to be sentenced, in night court, to jail for prostitution. But a stranger, Jimmie Martin, stands up and tells the judge that Mary was waiting for him and they were going to be married.
Slightly Married
1932
7.5Button Gwinett Brown is a freshman congressman on a mission to rid Washington of corruption. He quickly runs afoul of the powerful Senator Norton...
Washington Merry-Go-Round
1932
9.0Desperate 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
8.0Dave Durkin and Andy Blane are a pair of ace newsreel cameramen with Durkin being the assistant who does all the dirty work, with Blane getting the credit and collecting the bonuses. They are both in love with Ann Jordan. Fed up with being double-crossed, Durkin quits the team and goes free-lancing on his own...and promptly screws up. Now he has to find a big story to redeem himself in Ann's eyes.
Men of the Hour
1935
4.6A murder is committed aboard a cruise ship just before it sinks in a storm. The survivors, including the killer, land on a mysterious jungle island.
The Intruder
1933
8.0Ford Beebe's "original screenplay" (he had used it before) finds the cattlemen, headed by "Calamity" Parker, opposing the use of their rangelands by sheepherders, with cattlemen Lee Jamison and Ed Randall in the dissenting minority and they offer sheepman Angus McLeod free grazing privileges. Saloon owner Barney Ross offers to keep the sheepmen off of the range and out of town if each cattleman will pay $500.
Code of the Range
1936
9.0A power-broker ward-heeler, Bill Grimes, wields more power than the elected politicians and has no problem in getting matters-of-the-city handled in which ever way is best for his needs. But when he tries to fix his adored kid brother's place on the school football team, he meets his match in school-teacher Anne Barry.
I'll Fix It
1934
10.0Wealthy, aging millionaire John Hunter Yates (Frank Morgan) seeks to recapture his youth by pursuing a young actress, Blossom Bailey (Elissa Landi), leading him from America to Europe, where he finances her and a musician lover, only to realize his mistakes and return to his neglected wife, Elinor, understanding their true connection.
Sisters Under the Skin
1934
Patsy tries to stay with Thelma at the hospital where she works, but Thelma is forced to pretend that Patsy is a patient.
Opened by Mistake
1934
7.0In this crime drama, a gangster uses an innocent newsboy to manipulate the jury just prior to his manslaughter trial. The 10-year-old newsboy idolizes the gangster. Eventually the lad's admiration comes to deeply affect the gangster who begins to soften up. Meanwhile his moll plans to rob him. The newsboy intervenes and stops her.
I Am a Criminal
1938
7.5The Louisiana Purchase is imminent and Gilmore is smuggling guns into St. Louis so his men can make him Governor of the new Louisiana Territory. But John Colfax fights to defeat Gilmore.
Old Louisiana
1937
5.9The gang is participating in a program sponsored by the Golden Age Dramatic League. They present their own fractured version of Quo Vadis. Things go from bad to worse when the neighborhood tough kids disrupt the show. The pie fight is given a new twist by use of some slow motion sequences.
Shivering Shakespeare
1930
5.8Will Parker has been destroyed by a local politician and now must steal to feed his family. He steals a steer from the Three Mesquiteers.
Wyoming Outlaw
1939
4.0Night riders are terrorizing homesteaders, and the town doctor tries to keep the locals from forming a vigilante group. After more towns people are killed, however, the rest of the town makes the doctor the town sheriff and tells him to clean up the gang.
The Law Commands
1937
6.0Broadway's most successful producer, John Forrester, is deeply in love with his wife Margaret and dreams of the future when his son Jack will step into his shoes. He sails to England to produce a show but the ship strikes a derelict wreckage and is sinking rapidly. In the ensuing wild panic, Forrester saves many lives, until finally, panic stricken by sudden fear, he dons a woman's clothes and is among the rescued. On the coast of Newfouldland, the villagers, not aware of his true identity, curse him but he is befriended by Alec who helps him conceal his identity. With a planned story of his survival, he returns to New York but cannot face his family or friends after he sees the plaque to his heroism on his New York theatre. Deciding to remain thought of as dead, he becomes a derelict himself, surviving on odd jobs as he watches from afar his now-grown son begin his career as a producer.
Whom the Gods Destroy
1934
7.0Bob Allen in his starring debut gets a job on Wright's ranch where he hopes to find the rustlers no one else has been able to locate. Everyone is looking for men when the actual rustler is a horse.
The Unknown Ranger
1936
Charley Chase, a stockbroker, gets rich by mistake, has parking trouble, then at home finds his wife Toots seeing a psychic who apparently causes husband and wife to switch bodies!
Okay Toots!
1935
6.3A Treasury agent gains the trust of a mob gunman while working under cover to smash a crime syndicate.
Confidential
1935
7.0Rollo and Lane just happen to be tossed off the train at White Beach where Robert Story -Air ace and writer- is supposed to stop. It is a case of mistaken identity as no one knows what Story looks like. So they get free room and meals at the Palm Inn and everything is going well until they want Story to fly in the race on Saturday. Rollo has never even be up in a plane, never mind fly one, so he must figure a way out. But the girls have everything bet on his winning the race. Written by Tony Fontana
Going Wild
1930
1920s · 12 titles
7.3When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
The Man Who Laughs
1928
6.4The Biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood, with a parallel story of soldiers in the First World War.
Noah's Ark
1928
6.6The abandoned Balfour House, the owner of which was found dead five years earlier, comes back to life with the arrival of two suspicious sinister-looking tenants.
London After Midnight
1927
8.0Bill Holmes rescues Rinty from a car wreck not realizing that there is a stolen $50,000 diamond necklace hidden in the dog's collar.
The Million Dollar Collar
1929
6.4An unhappily married woman is caught up in scandal and murder when her affection toward a young man is misinterpreted.
The Kiss
1929
6.9A stenographer who works for a lawyer falls in love with and marries a wealthy young man. His family has the marraige annulled, after which she gives birth to a child. Her former boss helps her out to ensure the child's welfare, which starts gossip that she is a "kept woman."
The Trespasser
1929
6.0The kids from Our Gang have to attend a wedding, and they bring along their flea collection--which gets loose.
Thundering Fleas
1926
6.0Stan & Ollie attempt to fool their wives by sneaking out to a poker game, but instead get involved with two flirty ladies, one of whom is the girlfriend of a jealous boxer.
We Faw Down
1928
10.0Landing at a Chinese port, tough sea captain Bucklin and his passengers are threatened by a marauding war lord, who intends to kill the captain and hold the others hostage as part of his campaign of destruction against all white men.
Shanghai Bound
1927
5.5Society-girl thrillseeker Lydia's fun comes to an end when she accidentally causes the death of motorcycle policeman.
Manslaughter
1922
10.0silent cowboy western starring Dustin Farnum as a rancher whose partner is killed by rustlers. He takes in his partner's young son, and begins to sell his ranch, but the boy finds oil on the land.
The Primal Law
1921
6.0In this melodrama set during WWI, a gangster joins the army and is promoted to major. He then returns from war torn Europe to tell a family that their beloved son had died in his arms during a battle. The major then falls in love with the late soldier's sister and decides to accept a position in town as the new police commissioner.
The Mighty
1929


