
Acting
Mary Beth Hughes
Born — Died
1919-11-13 — 1995-08-27
Place of birth
Alton, Illinois, USA
Known for
Acting
Credits
73 titles
Mary Beth Hughes (November 13, 1919) – August 27, 1995) was an American film, television, and stage actress best known for her roles in B movies.
Known for
5.3Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.
Matinee Theater
1955
6.6The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
6.5Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Dragnet
1951
5.4An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions.
Studio One
1948
7.3The tale of trail boss Gil Favor and his trusty foreman Rowdy Yates as they drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.
Rawhide
1959
7.1Wanted: Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as the bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons from 1958–61. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–59 western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Four Star Television in association with CBS Television. The series launched McQueen into becoming the first television star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.
Wanted: Dead or Alive
1958
Film credits
1970s · 3 titles
4.9A painter, a stripper and a newcomer with no money and a math degree... Three young, ambitious roommates navigating the eccentric and dangerous underworld of 1970s Los Angeles to achieve financial independence
The Working Girls
1974
4.7Jack Romanti runs a theater company that offers sexual therapy as well as a break in the movie business to insecure and inexperienced young new talents. This boils down to them being pimped out to sponsors but they all benefit from it.
How's Your Love Life?
1971
3.0THE BLUE HOUR tells the story of Tanya, a young woman with a mysterious past who finds herself trapped in a sexual hell in Los Angeles. Punctuated by striking visuals and avant-garde editing, THE BLUE HOUR is a lost masterpiece of late period sexploitation.
The Blue Hour
1971
1950s · 9 titles
6.4Taken in by the musical world as a young orphan, Rick Martin grows up with a desire to play pure jazz instead of the commercial gigs he lands, whilst also coping with the problems caused by his tempestuous marriage to an aloof heiress.
Young Man with a Horn
1950
5.7Ex-Marine Jim Henry, on the lam from a murder charge, hitches a ride with a glamour-magazine photographer, who is journeying cross-country with her principal model. Tensions rise, however, when the women realize their traveling companion may be a killer.
Highway Dragnet
1954
5.8A teacher writing a book about gambling meets a hotel/casino owner threatened by a gangster.
Las Vegas Shakedown
1955
6.6A journalist's wife insists on adopting an abandoned child.
Close to My Heart
1951
5.2An outlaw saved by a Mexican girl hunts the holdup partner who shot him in the back.
Gun Battle at Monterey
1957
4.2The boys buy a uranium mine out west, but when they get there they find that it's pretty much worthless. However, the local badmen are distrustful of these new strangers, and when they mistakenly get the impression that the mine is loaded with uranium, they hatch a scheme to get rid of the boys and take over the mine.
Dig That Uranium
1955
7.5A young executive is trying to convince an airline to sponsor a travel show on television, but he's not getting anywhere. When he tells his fiancé that he may have to postpone their honeymoon, she goes off on him, and as he backs away from her he hits his head on a fire extinguisher and knocks himself out. While unconscious he dreams his own version of the show he's trying so hard to sell.
Holiday Rhythm
1950
6.9Bank teller Mike Donovan (Barry Sullivan) takes the first step on the road to Perdition when he fails to report a $49,000 shortage. Accused of theft, Donovan is fired from his job. He is then prevented from finding other employment by Javert-like insurance investigator Gus Slavin (Charles McGraw). Despite many setbacks, Donovan attempts to clear his muddied name.
Loophole
1954
8.0An airliner flying nonstop at night from Miami to New York fails to check in, then disappears from radar. We see how its disappearance affects people on the ground.
No Time at All
1958
1940s · 39 titles
7.7A posse discovers a trio of men they suspect of murder and cow theft and are split between handing them over to the law or lynching them on the spot.
The Ox-Bow Incident
1943
6.1A beautiful but unscrupulous female performer manipulates all the men in her life in order to achieve her aims.
The Great Flamarion
1945
7.3Stories of women who live in an all-women hotel. One (Bari) works hard and marries a millionaire; another (Hughes) cheats and goes to jail.
Free, Blonde and 21
1940
6.5A famous singer reflects on her life, including her journey from being an orphan to her fame as a singer, as she tries to decide which of her three suitors she will choose.
Men on Her Mind
1944
6.4Private eye Mike Shayne encounters a large amount of trouble while attempting to guard a murder witness.
Sleepers West
1941
5.6Marital comedy with a dash of murder.
The Night Before the Divorce
1942
6.5Connie Ward is in seventh heaven when Gene Morrison's band rolls into town. She is swept off her feet by trumpeter Bill Abbot. After marrying him, she joins the band's tour and learns about life as an orchestra wife, weathering the catty attacks of the other band wives.
Orchestra Wives
1942
6.3A detective's wedding is postponed when gunshots are heard nearby.
Dressed to Kill
1941
6.8An alcoholic film star attempts a comeback. Director Walter Lang's 1940 comedy stars John Barrymore, Mary Beth Hughes, Anne Baxter, John Payne, Lionel Atwill and Edward Brophy.
The Great Profile
1940
7.5Joe is scheduled for the big fight as usual. This one has more fight sequences than plot.
Joe Palooka in Winner Take All
1948
2.9Ignored by his alcoholic parents, Jimmy Wilson starts hanging around with some shady characters. After falling in love with a lounge singer, Jimmy tries to impress her by doing jobs for her shady boss. After one of these jobs goes bad, Jimmy ends up on the run. Eventually, he must confront the truth, his past, and his parents. The judge cites parental neglect in the case of a teenager (John Miljan) charged with murder.
I Accuse My Parents
1944
8.0Berle plays a mystery writer who forever writes himself into corners and is never able to finish a story. While visiting his wife (Mary Beth Hughes) at the office where she works, Berle overhears several men discussing the suicide of a coworker. Struck with a brilliant notion, Berle decides to confess to the murder of the dead man, certain that he'll be able to wriggle out of the situation and thereby have plenty of material for a story.
Over My Dead Body
1942
9.0Jack Haley plays Jack North, the nether end of a vaudeville horse act who inherits a western ranch. When he heads to the Great Outdoors to take possession, Jack winds up at the wrong place: a swanky dude ranch. He immediately begins running things, at it's quite a while before his error is discovered. By the time he shows up at his own ranch, he's up to his ears in unpaid debts-which naturally requires a fund-raising musical show as a bail-out. Harriet Hilliard handles the romantic portion of the proceedings, occasionally dueting with her real-life husband, bandleader Ozzie Nelson.
Take It Big
1944
3.2A cowboy must clear himself of a murder he did not commit.
Last of the Wild Horses
1948
6.4When asked about the Ghost Riders song he sings, Gene Autry tells this legend: Gene is about to resign as an investigator for the county attorney and go into the cattle business with his pal Chuckawalla Jones but decides instead to help Anne Lawson clear her father, rancher Ralph Lawson, of a false murder charge. He looks for the three witnesses who can testify that Lawson shot only in self defense in killing a gambler, but the witnesses are terrorized by another gambler, town boss Rock McCleary, who shoots witness Pop Roberts Morgan. Fatally wounded, Pop gives Gene the information needed to clear Lawson, then dies crying the "Ghost Riders" are coming for him. Gene then heads for a showdown with McCleary.
Riders in the Sky
1949
7.5Insurance agent Jesse Arno is posing as a sailor while on the trail of a gang of waterfront thieves, supposedly headed by Tip Banning. Arno is aware that a gang member has been murdered by Rhino, Banning's simple-minded right-hand man, but says nothing when he is questioned by the police, who are unaware of his real profession. Banning, knowing that Jesse knew who the killer was, admits him into the gang.
The Devil's Henchmen
1949
5.0A killer hides out in a small-town boarding house.
Inner Sanctum
1948
6.0Big cats are killing people... after being trained by a twisted lion tamer.
Caged Fury
1948
5.2The Cisco Kid is captured while keeping a rendezvous with cantina dancer Dolores but is released by his captor, the commander of a U.S. Army regiment, to help break up a kidnap ring. On his way to Las Tables with his pal, Gordito, he makes a stop at the Martinez Rancho, where they learn that his friend Carlos has been kidnapped, from his wife Marquerita. At the Crystal Palace Saloon, Cisco runs into an old girlfriend, Sally, who he once jilted for a tight-rope walker, but she doesn't betray him when the sheriff and an army officer enter searching for Cisco.
Ride on Vaquero
1941
5.1A newsman (Walter Pidgeon) falls in love on Cape Cod with the judge (Rosalind Russell) his angry boss (Edward Arnold) expects him to discredit.
Design for Scandal
1941
6.0Ex-confederate officer Clay Fletcher jumps at the chance to reunite with his once lady-friend, Susan Jeffers, when his father, Judge Fletcher, sends him on an errand to El Paso, Texas to get the signature of Susan's father, Judge Jeffers, on a legal document. Once there he finds the judge has become a drunk and a laughing stock, doing the bidding of local magnate Bert Donner and his running dog, Sheriff La Farge. Just as Clay starts straightening out the town's problems, events occur which force him to abandon the legal system and instead adopt the murderous tactics of a vigilante.
El Paso
1949
7.0A western rodeo rider is cast in a starring role in a new Hollywood film, but his temperamental and spoiled leading lady proves difficult to tame.
The Cowboy and the Blonde
1941
8.0The owner and staff of a Hollywood nightclub struggle to keep their establishment from closing.
Melody Parade
1943
6.5In 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
6.0Cisco and Gordito arrive to find there is an outlaw operating in the area who is assumed to be the Cisco Kid. When a reward is offered for his capture and a large shipment of money goes out, Cisco is on hand. Seeing the gang rob the stage he goes after them only to be wounded. The gang leader leaves Cisco's handkerchief at the scene and now he is wanted for the murder he tried to break up.
Lucky Cisco Kid
1940
5.8Rancher Rusty Williams is away at agricultural college and leaves his spread in the hands of his older cousin Shorty. Shorty wants to do more than run a ranch, however -- he wants to prospect for gold, but he has no money. He recruits a pair of partners in the guise of two runaway vagrants and a pair of backers in two stranded singers. But then Rusty shows up, and his four somewhat bumbling hired hands manage to compound Larry and Curly's deep ineptitude, and Rusty wants them all out of his hair.
Rockin' in the Rockies
1945
5.2An undercover Army captain links missing gold and murder to a gambler's ghost.
Rimfire
1949
8.0In this above-average western, a villainous land grabber attempts to force horse ranchers to sell their ranches so he can become king of the horse market. One stubborn rancher refuses to relent and his killed. His two surviving sisters then continue the fight. They are soon assisted by a passing drifter who ends up falling for one of them. In the end a gunfight between the good and bad guys ensues.
The Return of Wildfire
1948
6.5In order to win back his girlfriend, Mike Shayne promises to give up his detective practice and get a job as riveter in an aircraft plant. He quickly finds himself investigating the theft of industrial diamonds from the plant's safe and, utilizing a variety of false identities, traces them first to a dress factory and later to a Hawaii-bound ocean liner. Escaping several attempts on his life, he is able to uncover a Nazi smuggling ring, but the location of the missing diamonds continues to elude him.
Blue, White and Perfect
1942
4.5An estranged wife shows up after a nearly 7 years of disappearance -- thought to be dead, to prevent her husband from marrying his new love until someone kills her.
The Lady Confesses
1945
10.0A film company is shooting a western on location when the star breaks his leg. A local mule herder, who had never acted before, is "shanghaied" into taking over the role. Complications ensue.
Grand Canyon
1949
10.0A songwriter is sued for libel, and when he gets to court he discovers that his girlfriend is the plaintiff's attorney.
Good Morning, Judge
1943
6.0Russ Evans, A WWII veteran army pilot, decides to check up on the widow of an old war buddy of his, Elaine Graham. The logging company she inherited is doing poorly, but Elaine gets an order in for a huge shipment of lumber. Russ and his friend Squirrel volunteer to help her cut the timber for the shipment, along with her friends Smacksie Golden and his girlfriend Lil Boggs, who are not used to doing physical labor. Russ pilots the plane to deliver the lumber before the company falls to a slimy businessman.
Timber Queen
1944
9.0A farmer from Vermont travels to New York and becomes a successful singer in a nightclub.
Follow the Band
1943
7.0Four Sons is a 1940 film directed by Archie Mayo. It stars Don Ameche and Eugenie Leontovich. It is a remake of the 1928 film of the same name.
Four Sons
1940
7.0Hoping to put the cuffs on criminal mastermind Socks Barstow, detective Mike Hanrohan is stymied by the fact that his younger brother Denny has joined Barstow's gang. Things get worse after a bloody shootout, in which Mike apparently guns down his own brother.
Waterfront at Midnight
1948
7.0Nightclub gangsters hire a vaudeville act called the Three Funny Bunnies (Ritz Brothers).
Never a Dull Moment
1943
5.7When Hollywood film studios reject her because she's too young, an Arkansas woman sets out to build a career as an actress on her own.
Star Dust
1940
5.0Two talent scouts for a New York-based country music TV show called "Square Dance Jubilee" are sent out West to get authentic western singing acts. They find what they're looking for, but also get mixed up in cattle rustling and murder.
Square Dance Jubilee
1949
1930s · 9 titles
7.2A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
The Women
1939
6.5Shopgirl Mary Turner, sentenced to prison for someone else's theft, is released and takes revenge upon those who wronged her in powerful but lawful ways.
Within the Law
1939
5.9A drunken college student invites a dance hostess to the big college dance and then forgets he asked her. When she shows up at school, he tries to get rid of her, but she won't leave. Instead, she stays and shows up both him and his classmates' snooty dates.
These Glamour Girls
1939
5.4A carefree playboy with an aversion to marriage falls for a lass he meets in the French Alps.
Bridal Suite
1939
7.0A loud-mouthed Texas cowpuncher tries his hand at polo finding himself at odds with high society and trying to save a floundering Wild West show.
The Kid From Texas
1939
5.2Joel & Garda Sloan, a husband and wife detective team, who also sell rare books in New York, take a vacation to Seaside City. At Seaside, Joel's pal, Mike Stevens is managing and preparing for their beauty pageant. Joel is made one of the judges plus he has invested $5,000 in it, to Garda's dismay. Eric Bartell, promoter, arrives to dupe Stevens. When Ed Connors, New York racketeer arrives, Bartell is mysteriously murdered. Joel and Garda set out to investigate the murder.
Fast and Furious
1939
6.6A married singer, pianist/composer team are struggling to hit it big in New York. Finally, they audition before a Broadway producer, but the producer only wants the singer, leaving the husband without a job and feeling a failure.
Broadway Serenade
1939
6.5After discovering his star dancer is expecting and can't perform, film producer H.W. Workman and his publicist concoct a scheme to stage a college dance contest to find a new star.
Dancing Co-Ed
1939
7.0The Higgins family prepares for a long-awaited cruise to Rio, but while father Joe bids farewell to his co-workers at the bank, mother Lil unwittingly sabotages their plans by telling insurance representative Wells that Joe is only forty-four, not forty-five, and is therefore ineligible to collect the annuity insurance that was to pay for the cruise.
The Covered Trailer
1939
Series credits
5.3Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.
Matinee Theater
1955
6.6The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
6.5Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Dragnet
1951
5.4An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions.
Studio One
1948
7.3The tale of trail boss Gil Favor and his trusty foreman Rowdy Yates as they drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.
Rawhide
1959
7.3The tale of trail boss Gil Favor and his trusty foreman Rowdy Yates as they drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.
Rawhide
1959
7.1Wanted: Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as the bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons from 1958–61. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–59 western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Four Star Television in association with CBS Television. The series launched McQueen into becoming the first television star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.
Wanted: Dead or Alive
1958
6.2December Bride is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1954 to 1959, adapted from the original CBS radio network series that aired from June 1952 through September 1953.
December Bride
1954
7.2Bud and Lou are unemployed actors living in Mr. Fields’ boarding house. Lou’s girlfriend Hillary lives across the hall. Many situations arise leading to slapstick and puns.
The Abbott and Costello Show
1952
7.6Nick Charles was a private detective who married the wealthy Nora and decided to settle down and leave the good life. Unfortunately for the couple, Nick's past frequently caught up with him and got the couple involved in mystery after mystery. The series was based on the popular MGM series of movies of the 1930's starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk starred as the televison versions of Nick and Nora which ran on NBC for two seasons from 1957-59.
The Thin Man
1957
6.5Racket Squad is an American TV crime drama series starring Reed Hadley as Captain John Braddock, a fictional detective working for the San Francisco, California Police Department. The show aired in syndication for a season before being picked up by CBS for three seasons. The series was filmed at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California, and was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, hence there was a pack of the sponsor's brand on Braddock's desk at the beginning and end of the episode, as well as occasional scenes of him or other characters "lighting up".
Racket Squad
1951
6.2The Public Defender is a half-hour 69-episode television dramatic series starring Reed Hadley as Bart Matthews, an attorney for the indigent. The series aired on CBS from March 11, 1954 to June 23, 1955, a season and a half.
Public Defender
1954
5.0The Hollywood Palace is an hour-long American television variety show that was broadcast weekly on ABC from January 4, 1964 to February 7, 1970. Originally titled The Saturday Night Hollywood Palace, it began as a mid-season replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show which had lasted only three months. It was staged in Hollywood at the former Hollywood Playhouse on Vine Street, which was renamed The Hollywood Palace during the show's duration and is today known as Avalon Hollywood. A little-known starlet named Raquel Welch was cast during the first season as the "Billboard Girl", who placed the names of the acts on a placard.
The Hollywood Palace
1964
