Writing

Ralph Spence

Born — Died

1890-11-04 — 1949-12-21

Place of birth

Key West, Florida, USA

Known for

Writing

Credits

40 titles

Known for

The Flying Deuces poster
6.4

Ollie falls in love with a woman. When he discovers she's already married, he unsuccessfully attempts suicide but he and Stan then decide to join the Foreign Legion to get away from their troubles. When they’re arrested for soon trying to desert the Legion—they escape a firing squad by stealing an aircraft.

The Flying Deuces

1939

King Solomon's Mines poster
5.4

White hunter Allan Quartermain and his enigmatic guide help a young Irish woman locate her missing father in unexplored Darkest Africa.

King Solomon's Mines

1937

The Big Broadcast of 1936 poster
5.8

Two-bit radio station owner Spud Miller doubles as the station's sole announcer. On the verge of bankruptcy, Spud is receptive to the wacky notions of George and Gracie, who've just invented a television device that can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere.

The Big Broadcast of 1936

1935

Show People poster
7.1

Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.

Show People

1928

The Band Plays On poster
8.3

A judge hands four wayward boys to a college football coach who turns them into backfield stars.

The Band Plays On

1934

Death on the Diamond poster
7.3

Pop Clark is about to lose his baseball team, unless they can win the pennant so he can pay off debts. He hires ace player Larry Kelly to ensure the victory. As well as rival teams, mobsters are trying to prevent the wins, and as the pennant race nears the end, Pop's star players begin to be killed, on and off the field. Can Larry romance Pop's daughter, win enough games, and still have time to stop a murderer before he strikes more than three times?

Death on the Diamond

1934

Behind the camera

The Flying Deuces poster
6.4

Ollie falls in love with a woman. When he discovers she's already married, he unsuccessfully attempts suicide but he and Stan then decide to join the Foreign Legion to get away from their troubles. When they’re arrested for soon trying to desert the Legion—they escape a firing squad by stealing an aircraft.

The Flying Deuces

1939

King Solomon's Mines poster
5.4

White hunter Allan Quartermain and his enigmatic guide help a young Irish woman locate her missing father in unexplored Darkest Africa.

King Solomon's Mines

1937

The Big Broadcast of 1936 poster
5.8

Two-bit radio station owner Spud Miller doubles as the station's sole announcer. On the verge of bankruptcy, Spud is receptive to the wacky notions of George and Gracie, who've just invented a television device that can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere.

The Big Broadcast of 1936

1935

Show People poster
7.1

Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.

Show People

1928

The Band Plays On poster
8.3

A judge hands four wayward boys to a college football coach who turns them into backfield stars.

The Band Plays On

1934

Death on the Diamond poster
7.3

Pop Clark is about to lose his baseball team, unless they can win the pennant so he can pay off debts. He hires ace player Larry Kelly to ensure the victory. As well as rival teams, mobsters are trying to prevent the wins, and as the pennant race nears the end, Pop's star players begin to be killed, on and off the field. Can Larry romance Pop's daughter, win enough games, and still have time to stop a murderer before he strikes more than three times?

Death on the Diamond

1934

The Crooked Circle poster
5.3

A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occultists.

The Crooked Circle

1932

Hook, Line and Sinker poster
5.6

Two fast-talking insurance salesmen meet Mary, who is running away from her wealthy mother, and they agree to help her run a hotel that she owns. When they find out that the hotel is run down and nearly abandoned, they launch a phony PR campaign that presents the hotel as a resort favored by the rich. Their advertising succeeds too well, and many complications soon arise.

Hook, Line and Sinker

1930

Her Bodyguard poster
6.7

The "sugar daddy" of a Broadway star hires a bodyguard to protect her from thieves out to steal the jewels he's given her and also from the attentions of other men, most notably the producer of the show in which she's starring. However, soon the bodyguard and the star begin to become attracted to each other.

Her Bodyguard

1933

Here Comes the Band poster
7.0

In this musical, a songwriter goes to court to claim the rights to his song that was stolen by an unscrupulous music publisher. He brings his girlfriend with him. Also going to court are the Jubilee singers, hillbillies, and some cowboys and Indians who demonstrate that the composer wrote his song by rearranging four folk tunes. He wins his song back and $50,000 in damages. Songs include: "Heading Home," "Roll Along Prairie Moon," "Tender Is the Night," "You're My Thrill," "I'm Bound for Heaven," and "The Army Band."

Here Comes the Band

1935

The Fleet's In poster
6.0

Shy sailor Casey Kirby suddenly becomes known as a sea wolf when his picture is taken with a famous actress. Things get complicated when bets are placed on his prowess with the ladies.

The Fleet's In

1942

I'll Tell the World poster
7.0

Lee Tracy once again plays a Winchellesque newspaper reporter in Universal's I'll Tell the World. More interested in his sex life than his career, news hawk Brown nonetheless agrees to cover the activities of a European archduke on behalf of his wire service.

I'll Tell the World

1934

Mr. Skitch poster
7.3

After losing their Missouri home during the Great Depression, the Skitch family pulls up stakes and heads west to California to begin life anew. Comedy, released in 1933.

Mr. Skitch

1933

Seven Days' Leave poster
7.3

Soldier Johnny Grey is engaged to marry singer Mapy Cortes, but his plans go awry when he learns that he is the heir to $100,000 from his great-grandfather -- a bequest that comes with a catch: before claiming the money, Johnny must marry a descendant of his great-grandfather's Civil War enemy, General Havelock-Allen. Not wanting to disrupt his planned marriage to Mapy, Johnny must figure out how to concoct a temporary marriage-of-convenience with the descendant -- who turns out to be the beautiful Terry Havelock-Allen.

Seven Days' Leave

1942

Student Tour poster
6.7

A philosophy professor accompanies his school's rowing team on a worldwide tour.

Student Tour

1934

American Pluck poster
10.0

Blaze Derringer is a Texas cattle baron's son. He goes to a cabaret on his birthday, helps a pretty young woman and her guardian avoid a raid, but gets tossed from college for bad behavior. His disgusted father dispatches him to seek his fortune. Blaze jumps a freight, befriends a fake British duke and a sporting African-American, and is offered a prize fight in Galveston. He wins, but may have killed his opponent, so he takes the offer of the woman from the cabaret to accompany her to Begonia, where she's a princess about to be crowned. A court minister, the dastardly Count Verensky, has plans to share the throne and her affections. Can the plucky American help the Europeans sort things out?

American Pluck

1925

Baby Mine poster
8.0

Remake of the 1917 film of the same name. A young chiropractor is tricked by a tall, homely girl into marriage, but he ducks out the morning after the honeymoon. Months go by and he learns that his bride has become a mother. Obliged to his responsibilities, he returns. however, it's just another ruse, with three borrowed babies and a midget dressed as one standing in for his new children.

Baby Mine

1928

The Gang's All Here poster
7.5

John Forrest is anticipating a quiet retirement spent penning detective fiction when he learns that a priceless collection of jewels belonging to a foreign potentate, Prince Homouska, has just vanished from the safekeeping of the Stamford Assurance Company. Aided by his butler, his Cockney assistant and his (initially) unwilling wife, Forrest sets out on the trail of the thieves.

The Gang's All Here

1939

Murder in the Private Car poster
5.6

Ruth Raymond works on the telephone switchboard of a large NYC office building. One day, a private detective informs her that she is actually the daughter of railroad tycoon Luke Carson, and that she had been kidnapped as a baby 14 years ago by Luke's vindictive brother Elwood, and placed with strangers.

Murder in the Private Car

1934

For Heaven's Sake poster
6.9

An irresponsible young millionaire changes his tune when he falls for the daughter of a downtown minister.

For Heaven's Sake

1926

Strictly Dynamite poster
6.5

A failed poet ends up becoming a gag writer for a bombastic comedian.

Strictly Dynamite

1934

No artwork available
7.0

Instead of accepting a well-to-do suitor, an orphan marries a tramp as a bet, but he turns out to be an English peer on the run for a murder he did not commit.

Strangers on Honeymoon

1936

Higher and Higher poster
6.2

A valet to a bankrupt millionaire plans to rebuild his boss's fortune by passing a scullery maid off as a high-society debutante.

Higher and Higher

1943

The Rounder poster
5.8

A drunkard climbs a ladder into a bedroom in the wrong house and gets romantically involved with the woman who lives there.

The Rounder

1930

A Friendly Husband poster
8.0

An amiable couple buy a trailer and start out on a camping vacation, only to be joined at the last minute by the wife's family. The husband remains friendly, even though all the work and few of the comforts are left to him. After many comic situations the husband rescues his wife from a western-style attack by a gang of bandits and receives a reward for their capture.

A Friendly Husband

1923

It's the Old Army Game poster
5.0

Druggist Elmer Prettywillie is sleeping. A woman rings the night bell only to buy a two-cent stamp. Then garbage collectors waken him. Next it's firemen on a false alarm. And then a real fire.

It's the Old Army Game

1926

Sailor Be Good poster
8.0

A Navy boxer (Jack Oakie) meets a dance-hall hostess (Vivienne Osborne) who tries to sober him up for a fight.

Sailor Be Good

1933

Mademoiselle Modiste poster
9.0

Hiram Bent, impressed with the sales ability of Fifi, opens a fashionable establishment, and exploits her beauty and capabilities to advantage. Cavalry officer Etienne, her fiancé, is shocked by the seeming lack of modesty of Fifi, who is now known as Mademoiselle Modiste, becomes disillusioned and leaves her. Disheartened, Fifi asks Hiram to take her to Deauville, where she meets Etienne. Enraged with jealousy, Etienne challenges Hiram to a duel. Fifi says that Hiram is her husband, but the truth is later revealed. Etienne proposes and Fifi accepts. A lost film.

Mademoiselle Modiste

1926

Johnny Get Your Hair Cut poster
7.0

An orphan is adopted by a kindly old racehorse owner. He decides to pay back his benefactor by training to ride the horse so he can win an important race.

Johnny Get Your Hair Cut

1927

The Winning Ticket poster
4.2

A barber tries to find the winning lottery ticket he hid from his moralistic wife.

The Winning Ticket

1935

Fast Life poster
8.5

Two sailors (William Haines and Cliff Edwards) are leaving the US Navy after 10 years. In their spare time, one of them (Haines) invents a carburetor that should increase the speed that powered boats will run, but all they succeed in doing is sinking the Admiral's barge. After discharge, broke and out of work, they find work with a boat builder who wants the fastest race boat in the world. They design the boat, carburetor and the engine but lack of money and the foreclosure of the business hinders their efforts to prove the new design.

Fast Life

1932

The Taxi Dancer poster
7.7

A southern girl tries her luck as a dancer in New York City.

The Taxi Dancer

1927

Jack Spurlock, Prodigal poster
NR

George Walsh plays the "prodigal" hero in this fast-moving star vehicle from the Fox factory. An incurable cut-up, Jack Spurlock throws a college campus in an uproar when he shows up the first day of classes with his pet bear. Needless to say, Jack is immediately booted out of college, infuriating his big-businessman father (Dan Mason).

Jack Spurlock, Prodigal

1918

The Callahans and the Murphys poster
8.0

The story of two feuding Irish immigrant families living in a tenement.

The Callahans and the Murphys

1927

A Ridin' Romeo poster
9.0

Jim Rose is a young ranch hand in love with the boss' daughter, Mabel. The rancher, King Brentwood, who is being sued for breach of promise by a local widow, opposes the match. Learning that the annoying woman is coming to pay him a visit, Brentwood has his men fake a holdup of her stagecoach.

A Ridin' Romeo

1921

No artwork available
10.0

A wealthy society wife discovers her husband's long-hidden secret--he has a brother, who is not only his twin but his "evil" twin. The long-lost brother shows up at the couple's doorstep one day and proceeds to turn their life upside down, especially when he begins to impersonate his newfound wealthy brother.

Adam and Evil

1927

Caught Plastered poster
6.2

Set in a drugstore the boys take on to save a nice old lady from the clutches of the local charming crook.

Caught Plastered

1931

No artwork available
NR

Lost at the Front is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by Del Lord and written by Hampton Del Ruth, Frank Griffin, and Ralph Spence. The film stars George Sidney, Charles Murray, Natalie Kingston, John Kolb, Max Asher, and Brooks Benedict. The film was released on May 29, 1927, by First National Pictures.

Lost at the Front

—

Tomorrow at Seven poster
6.2

People in an old, dark mansion are menaced by a maniac called "The Black Ace".

Tomorrow at Seven

1933

Behind the Front poster
6.2

During World War I a young man joins the army and winds up befriending another young recruit, not knowing that it's the same pickpocket who stole his watch. After finishing basic training, the two are sent to the front lines in France, where they wind up in trouble with the MPs, getting involved with some cute French girls and "volunteering" for a dangerous front-line mission, and their antics result in their endangering the armistice.

Behind the Front

1926