
Acting
James Gleason
Born 1882-05-23 · New York City, New York, USA
James Gleason was born in New York City to William Gleason and Mina Crolius, who were both in the theatre. He was married to Lucile Gleason (born Lucile Webster), and had a son, Russell Gleason. As a young man James fought in the Spanish-American War. After the war he joined the stock company at the Liberty Theater in Oakland, California, which his parents were running. James and his wife then moved to Portland, Oregon, where they played in stock at the Baker Theater. For several years afterward they toured in road shows until James enlisted in the army during World War I. When he returned he appeared on the stage in "The Five Million." He then turned to writing, including "Is Zat So", which he produced for the NY stage. He also wrote and acted in "The Fall Guy" and "The Shannons on Broadway." Next he wrote The Broadway Melody (1929) for MGM. He collaborated, in 1930, on The Swellhead (1930), Dumbbells in Ermine (1930), What a Widow! (1930), Rain or Shine (1930) and His First Command (1929). He and his wife were then contracted to Pathe, Lucille to act, and James (or Jimmie as he was known) as a writer. Probably his most famous acting role was as Max Corkle, the manager of Joe Pendleton who was wrongly plucked from this life into the next, in the hit fantasy Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941).
Acting credits
7.9In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
The Night of the Hunter
1955
5.9A Justice of the Peace performed weddings a few days before his license was valid. A few years later five couples learn they have never been legally married.
We're Not Married!
1952
7.6Mortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright, and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts, he finds out his aunts' hobby - killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar!
Arsenic and Old Lace
1944
7.1An Episcopal Bishop, Henry Brougham, has been working for months on the plans for an elaborate new cathedral which he hopes will be paid for primarily by a wealthy, stubborn widow. He is losing sight of his family and of why he became a churchman in the first place. Enter Dudley, an angel sent to help him. Dudley does help everyone he meets, but not necessarily in the way they would have preferred. With the exception of Henry, everyone loves him, but Henry begins to believe that Dudley is there to replace him, both at work and in his family's affections, as Christmas approaches.
The Bishop's Wife
1947
5.1The sheriff of Gunlock is planning to hang Sam Hall, who shot three farmers found on cattle land, at sundown. At the casino, betting is 8 to 3 he won't make it. The cattlemen are set to rescue Sam; the farmers hope to lynch him before he can be rescued; and Hall schemes for escape with his girl Nellie. But Sheriff Jorden is most concerned with finding out who hired Hall: a leading suspect is the sheriff's future brother-in-law.
Star in the Dust
1956
6.3A sideshow bally girl sets out to seduce the naive son of the show's manager to get even with him for a friend that he jilted.
Hoopla
1933
7.1A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a priest, flourishes in his calling as a priest in a more Christian area of the world, Father Chisholm struggles. He encounters hostility, isolation, disease, poverty and a variety of set backs which humble him, but make him more determined than ever to succeed.
The Keys of the Kingdom
1944
4.5Mystery writer Marian Carstairs is hard at work trying to finish her latest novel. Her three children meanwhile are entertaining themselves by trying to solve a murder in their own neighborhood. In between gathering clues, the kids play matchmaker by trying to fix up their widowed mom with the handsome detective investigating the case.
Home Sweet Homicide
1946
7.0A promising young prizefighter sees his career start to go down the drain after he gets married and allows his wife's father and no-good brother to move in with them.
The Count of Ten
1928
6.5In the second film of the series (and not a second part of anything), Gay Lawrence, aka The Falcon, is about to depart the city to marry his fiancée, Helen Reed, when a mystery girl, Rita Mara, asks for his aid in disposing of a secret formula for making synthetic diamonds. He deliberately allows himself to be kidnapped by the gang for which Rita works. His aide, "Goldy" Locke, trails the kidnappers and brings the police. But the head of the gang escapes, and the Falcon continues the pursuit.
A Date with the Falcon
1942
5.4Catherine Sykes disappears after a midnight drive with Professor Andrew Gentling . When she's presumed murdered, his friend Martha convinces him that he's a prime suspect and should investigate before he's arrested.
Take One False Step
1949
6.4The tranquility of a small town is marred only by sheriff Tod Shaw's unsuccessful courtship of widow Ellen Benson, a pacifist who can't abide guns and those who use them. But violence descends on Ellen's household willy-nilly when the U.S. President passes through town... and slightly psycho hired assassin John Baron finds the Benson home ideal for an ambush.
Suddenly
1954
7.3As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement.
Meet John Doe
1941
7.2In a changing world where television has become the main source of information, Adam Caulfield, a young sports journalist, witnesses how his uncle, Frank Skeffington, a veteran and honest politician, mayor of a New England town, tries to be reelected while bankers and captains of industry conspire in the shadows to place a weak and manageable candidate in the city hall.
The Last Hurrah
1958
6.3Colonel Barkley is very proud of his assistant, Sergeant Doubleday, who has a photographic memory. Doubleday shows off his book knowledge on firearms during a class given by Sergeant Ames, embarrassing him. Through a series of misunderstandings, Colonel Barkley thinks the gun shy Doubleday is an expert marksman, and he sets him up in a shooting match against Ames and Sergeant Cobb.
Hay Foot
1942
7.1A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City.
The Clock
1945
6.6Penny Morris and Tommy Williams are both starstruck young teens but nobody seems to give them any chance to perform. Instead, they decide to put up their own show to collect money for a summer camp for the kids.
Babes on Broadway
1941
5.8Two military men, Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt, who are rivals to begin with, grow more at odds with each other when Quirt is made Flagg's top sergeant. And when a local beauty comes between them, their rivalry escalates even further. But when they discover that the woman has marriage in mind, they now compete to try to avoid marching down the aisle - that is, until they are called upon to march into battle.
What Price Glory
1952
7.0Boxer Joe Pendleton, flying to his next fight, crashes...because a Heavenly Messenger, new on the job, snatched Joe's spirit prematurely from his body. Before the matter can be rectified, Joe's body is cremated; so the celestial Mr. Jordan grants him the use of the body of wealthy Bruce Farnsworth, who's just been murdered by his wife. Joe tries to remake Farnsworth's unworthy life in his own clean-cut image, but then falls in love; and what about that murderous wife?
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
1941
5.7A popular jockey is disbarred from racing after he's accused of throwing a race.
Sweepstakes
1931
6.8An average television repairman must care for the newborn triplets of his former hometown sweetheart—now a famous movie star—so her career will not suffer.
Rock-a-Bye Baby
1958
6.4A US Navy submarine, the USS Corsair, is operating in the North Atlantic, hunting German merchant raiders that are preying on Allied shipping. Its new executive officer, Lt. Ward Stewart, has been transferred back into submarines after commanding his own PT boat. At the submarine base in New London, Connecticut, he asks his new captain, Lt. Cmdr. Dewey Connors, for a weekend leave to settle his affairs before taking up his new assignment. On a train bound for Washington D.C., Stewart accidentally encounters New London school teacher Jean Hewlett and her students. Despite her initial resistance to his efforts, he charms her and they fall in love.
Crash Dive
1943
6.8A young captain hoping to replace the U.S. Army's horses with mechanized vehicles faces court-martial after his commanding officer, who's opposed to modern changes, is killed.
Army Girl
1938
5.2A prostitute sees a friendly sailor as a way out of Havana's grimy underworld.
Her Man
1930
Behind the camera
5.4"In the Gay Nineties New York had grown up into bustles and balloon Sleeves ... but The Bowery had grown younger, louder and more rowdy until it was known as the 'Livest Mile on the face of the globe' ... the cradle of men who were later to be famous.
The Bowery
1933
7.0An amateur handicapper must help his future son-in-law recoup the money he lost while playing the ponies.
Hot Tip
1935
6.5Young Mary Rainey takes the reins of her deceased father's failing circus. With the help of the Inimitable Smiley Johnson, she hopes to bring fortune back to her ragtag band of ragged shoeleather performers.
Rain or Shine
1930
7.3A young woman's elderly husband dies and leaves her $5 million. She travels to Paris and becomes part of the "Continental" set and is pursued by a rich playboy and a lawyer who works for her.
What a Widow!
1930
8.5A playboy is in love with a woman and enters the army thinking it will improve his chances with her.
His First Command
1929
6.3Johnny Quinlan is so desperate for a job that he takes a gig as a "bag man" for the mob. Meanwhile, his beleaguered wife has to deal with her bizarre, unemployed, wise-cracking brother and various neighbors while keeping house in their Brooklyn tenement.
The Fall Guy
1930
3.3Three young girls live together in a one room apartment just scraping by while dreaming of Hollywood stardom. When one refuses a small role because they the producers won't meet her price the newest of the trio whose fresh off the bus from Omaha takes it and finds success.
Three Hollywood Girls
1931
5.2A busload of passengers gets stranded in a snowstorm and take refuge in an abandoned church, where they run into a mysterious man who may be on the run from the law.
High Voltage
1929
8.0The Shannons, a vaudeville act, are performing in a New England town when the local hotel owner barges in and yanks his daughter Tessie, who is in the audience with her boyfriend Chuck, out of the theater. Young Mickey Shannon confronts the father, and the upshot is that Chuck's wealthy father threatens to foreclose on the hotel. The Shannons wind up buying the hotel, but it turns out not to be quite the deal they thought it was.
The Shannons of Broadway
1929
6.3Catherine and Mack and their close friends Chris and Madge graduate from a West Coast college and fly to New York City to find work.
Change of Heart
1934
It begins with the Mustangs in trouble in their championship series... all the players are banged up and they're being clobbered. But a sports reporter insists that his nephew, Minor, can really play ball and will help the team win.
Off His Base
1932
9.0Four battle-weary American soldiers under fire reflect on the women they left behind.
Beyond Victory
1931
5.7In a small town in Virginia, Faith Corey, daughter of a socially prominent family, meets and falls in love with Jerry Malone, a prizefighter, though her straitlaced mother wants her to marry Siegfried, a spellbinding "missionary reformer." Though Grandma Corey promotes the romance with the prizefighter, Mike, the fighter's hardboiled, wisecracking manager, tries to keep them apart; following a quarrel, Faith reconciles herself to marrying Siegfried, but when he invites a group of "weak sisters" to a revival meeting, he is disgraced when one accuses him of her downfall. Finally, with Mike's advice, Jerry wins back Faith and they are united with the family's blessings.
Dumb-bells in Ermine
1930
NRA brash American movie producer arrives at an army base in England wanting to shoot a movie and use the soldiers as extras. The base commander doesn't want any part of it, but the producer and his secretary cook up a scheme to trick the officer into letting him use the base and its men. Their plan succeeds, but things don't turn out quite the way they were expecting.
Orders Is Orders
1933
NRWhen Russel Gleason is thought to have made a kick by Jim Thorpe, he is reinstated on the college team in time for the big game.
Always Kickin'
1932