Monty Banks

Directing

Monty Banks

Born — Died

1897-07-14 — 1950-01-07

Place of birth

Cesena, Forlì-Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Known for

Directing

Credits

100 titles

Monty Banks was a short, stocky but somehow debonair Italian-born comic actor, later also writer and director. In the US from 1914, he first appeared on stage in musical comedy and cabaret. By 1917 he was working as a dancer in New York's Dominguez Cafe. After this he turned to films, acting and doing stunt work at Keystone, Universal and for Al Christie. Changing his name from Mario Bianchi to Monty Banks may have been prompted by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as a passing reference to his playing '"montebanks". By 1919 Banks had moved to Vitagraph to play a villain in The Grocery Clerk (1919), foil to star comic Larry Semon. Banks first came to the fore in his own right as star of the "Welcome C…

Known for

Film credits

1930s · 12 titles

Leave It to Me poster
7.0

The owner of a professional help agency poses as a poet at a wealthy patron's ball and prevents a necklace from being stolen by thieves.

Leave It to Me

1933

No artwork available
8.0

An American woman is fooled into thinking that she is the heiress to an estate in England.

The Girl in Possession

1934

For the Love of Mike poster
7.0

A useless secretary and his private detective friend try to help an heiress from being swindled by her guardian.

For the Love of Mike

1932

So You Won't Talk poster
8.0

The owner of a small Italian restaurant in central London is left a million pound inheritance, the only stipulation to the will being that he cannot speak or write anything for a period of one month.

So You Won't Talk

1935

Man of the Moment poster
7.5

Love blossoms after a young man rescues a pretty girl who attempted to drown herself.

Man of the Moment

1935

Tonight's the Night - Pass It On poster
10.0

Slapstick comedy in which luckless slate club treasurer Bill Smithers is sent to prison for three years after being mistakenly accused of stealing funds.

Tonight's the Night - Pass It On

1931

Heads We Go poster
8.0

A model inherits a great deal of money and pretends to be a movie star.

Heads We Go

1933

You Made Me Love You poster
7.1

A rich American businessman in London makes believe he's lost all his money so that his daughter will marry a composer.

You Made Me Love You

1933

Shipyard Sally poster
5.7

A lancashire singer buys a pub in Clydebank and hits money troubles when the shipbyards are closed. She takes a petition to London to try to get them reopened.

Shipyard Sally

1939

The Church Mouse poster
5.8

When a meek secretary goes to work for her new boss, she becomes a sophisticated lady.

The Church Mouse

1934

No artwork available
9.0

British comedy. It was released in the United States the following year under the alternative title Trouble Ahead.

Falling in Love

1934

Queen of Hearts poster
7.0

A woman prevents a popular stage performer getting arrested for drunk driving, though has to pretend to be a rich benefactor when she next meets him.

Queen of Hearts

1936

1920s · 29 titles

No artwork available
NR

A wild taxi driver can't get ahead with his fares but he is still willing to help his sweetheart at the drugstore, especially when he figures out how to sell hair tonic

Taxi Please

1923

Brilliantine the Bull Fighter poster
NR

Brilliantino the Bullfighter (originally titled Flood and Sand) is one of the first spoofs of Blood and Sand, Paramount’s smoldering matador melodrama that set box offices ablaze. Like Mud and Sand, starring Stan Laurel, the Banks parody was rushed into theaters in November 1922, while memory of the Valentino vehicle was fresh. The concept of Monty Banks impersonating the passionate matador must have been innately hilarious to audiences who had seen the original picture.

Brilliantine the Bull Fighter

1922

Where Is My Wife? poster
NR

Lovable buffoon Monty Banks tries to relax, but ultimately spends his day worrying about who is keeping company with his wife.

Where Is My Wife?

1921

Keep Smiling poster
7.0

The Boy, involved in a maritime disaster as a child, suffers from hydrophobia. He invents a life preserver that automatically inflates when it hits the water, using it to save the life of Rose Ryan, the daughter of a steamship magnate.

Keep Smiling

1925

No artwork available
10.0

Monty Banks plays a groom who is about to get married. In fact, he has the marriage license just about in hand. Apparently, he's had a bachelor party the night before and when his fiancée rings him, he can't find the phone, but there's several other guys sleeping it off. The landlady suspects that some hijinks have gone on and looks to investigate. Monty figures things out pretty quickly. Luckily for him, one of the gentlemen sleeping it off is in a policeman's uniform and Monty has him pretend he's arrested everybody in the room.

Wedding Bells

1924

No artwork available
NR

Very hungry Monty chases a garbage truck all around town to retrieve a box lunch thrown away by a picky young lady.

Derby Day

1922

Horse Shoes poster
9.0

A Monty Banks comedy that includes the 'Undressing in the Upper Berth' routine

Horse Shoes

1927

Africa F.O.B. poster
NR

Monty Banks becomes a car salesman and is shifted to Africa to sell one to King Obogeegee.

Africa F.O.B.

1925

No artwork available
7.0

Monty Banks finds love and mischief at the amusement park, in this two-reel comedy

Hot Sands

1924

The Garage poster
6.1

Roscoe and Buster operate a combination garage and fire station. In the first half they destroy a car left for them to clean. In the second half they go off on a false alarm and return to find their own building on fire.

The Garage

1920

Fresh Air poster
NR

A hunting comedy full of cartoonish gags.

Fresh Air

1921

Adam's Apple poster
7.0

An American on his honeymoon in Paris, organises the kidnapping of his interfering mother-in-law.

Adam's Apple

1928

No artwork available
NR

Monty chases a goose. Hilarity ensues. (This film is partially lost.)

A Wild Goose Chase

1924

Atlantic poster
5.2

English-language version. "Atlantic" is a drama film based on the sinking of the RMS "Titanic" and set aboard a fictional ship, called the "Atlantic". The main plotline revolves around a man who has a shipboard affair with a fellow passenger, which is eventually discovered by his wife. The ship also has aboard an elderly couple, the Rools, who are on their anniversary cruise. Midway across the Atlantic Ocean, the "Atlantic" strikes an iceberg and is damaged to the point where it is sinking into the Atlantic.

Atlantic

1929

No artwork available
NR

Monty is the driver of a delivery wagon for a cleaning and dyeing establishment, romps with a Ford and gets himself into many ridiculous scrapes.

Cleaned and Dry

1921

Chasing Choo Choos poster
6.5

Virginia Craig will become super-wealthy and gain sole control of her factory, unless insubordinate schemers can trick her into marrying one of their clique. Unfortunately for them, she loves Monty, one of her employees. When the schemers' plot is discovered, a chase starts away from the factory and onto a runaway train.

Chasing Choo Choos

1927

Atta Boy poster
9.0

Monty Milde, would-be newspaper reporter, stumbles into a high-profile kidnapping mystery.

Atta Boy

1926

A Flivver Wedding poster
NR

The misadventures of a young man who sets out in his flivver to stop the girl he loves from being forcibly married to a rival.

A Flivver Wedding

1920

The Compulsory Husband poster
8.0

A recently engaged girl invites her parents to meet her fiance. They learn that he also loves another woman.

The Compulsory Husband

1929

No artwork available
10.0

Monty Banks becomes a sailor in the hunt for his girl.

The Covered Schooner

1923

No artwork available
NR

Monty and his wife are newlyweds dealing with things like making breakfast that’s edible and dealing with a persistent book salesman. Only reel 1 survives, so a proper plot synopsis is difficult.

In and Out

1921

No artwork available
8.0

A lawyer spends the weekend with a married actress at the same hotel as his wife and her lover. This British silent film exists in an abridged 2-reel (32-min) format.

Week-End Wives

1929

A Perfect Gentleman poster
8.0

Monty Banks gets involved in tracking down a stolen fortune, his adventures culminating in a whirlwind, gag-filled climax at sea.

A Perfect Gentleman

1928

Flying Luck poster
9.0

A naive young man joins the Army in order to become a pilot.

Flying Luck

1927

No artwork available
6.0

Monty is trying to collect rent from a couple of tough deadbeats who have made a sport of beating rent collectors.

Pay or Move

1924

Nearly Married poster
NR

Monty Banks comedy produced by Warners.

Nearly Married

1920

No artwork available
NR

Horse racing hijinks in the Old South with Monty Banks.

Love's Handicap

1923

Paging Love poster
7.0

Monty appears as a chap whose prospective father-in-law, to find out the stuff of which he is made, sets him out to peddle an encyclopedia which no one else can sell.

Paging Love

1923

Play Safe poster
7.0

A gang of bad guys menace a feller's gal. She hides in a freight car and a misstep sends the otherwise-empty train out of the station with the lever pushed to full speed. As the train gains speed, the captive's boyfriend must board the runaway train, repel the pursing gang, get his girl out of the box car, and somehow get the two of them to safety. Tunnels, a water tower, a steep grade, and a frayed rope complicate the hero's task.

Play Safe

1927

1910s · 14 titles

Love poster
5.8

"Fatty", a poor good hearted farm boy is deeply in love with Winifred, a farmer's daughter. A rich neighbor offers the farmer a large plot of land if Winifred marries his slow witted son Al. "Fatty" has less then one day to save heartbroken Winifred from the rushed ceremony.

Love

1919

Don't Park Here poster
7.0

Not one but two of Charlie Chaplin impersonators, Harry Mann and Monty Banks, a film directed by Charley Chase still under the name of Charles Parrott. They go driving around town experiencing various car theft problems.

Don't Park Here

1919

The Purple Mask poster
NR

Cunard turns into The Queen of the Apaches, an outlaw who steals from the rich to gives to the poor, always leaving a purple mask behind as a trademark.

The Purple Mask

1916

Cold Hearts and Hot Flames poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Cold Hearts and Hot Flames

1916

The Sheriff poster
10.0

Roscoe Arbuckle plays a Douglas Fairbanks fan who becomes a rotund version of his hero. As "The Sheriff", he must rescue abducted schoolteacher Betty Compson.

The Sheriff

1918

The Belles of Liberty poster
7.0

Monty Banks plays a paramour who starts all sort of silly highjinks with Eva Novak and Carolyne Wright

The Belles of Liberty

1918

One Night Only poster
NR

Misadventures of a traveling company of actors performing for one night in a small town. When the troupe's leading lady deserts the show for a better paying job as a waitress, a young woman from the town gets the role for one night.

One Night Only

1919

Her First False Hare poster
7.0

Four men are out rabbit hunting and encounter a beautiful young lady, who promises to marry the first one who brings her a white rabbit.

Her First False Hare

1919

Too Much Johnson poster
9.0

Augustus Billings has a domineering mother-in-law, and to get away from both her and his wife, he takes a trip, claiming that he is going off to check on Mexican oil investments. But he's really going on a cruise with Mrs. Dathis, who has purchased his yacht. To throw everyone off track, he uses the name Mr. Johnson. When he decides to repeat the trip, however, all hell breaks loose -- the jealous Mr. Dathis is out to get his hands on this Johnson character, while a real Mr. Johnson shows up in Mexico, and Mrs. Billings shows up with her mother, and the confusion continues from there.

Too Much Johnson

1919

The Head Waiter poster
7.0

The headwaiter does tricks with spaghetti that the greatest spaghetti handlers in the world never heard of. The sight makes your mouth water. Besides food, the scenes are garnished with a couple of trayfuls of beautiful girls.

The Head Waiter

1919

No artwork available
NR

An industrious criminal plays his game so crookedly that he "double crosses" himself.

Did She Do Wrong?

1918

No artwork available
6.7

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle confronts the Kaiser in his headquarters, and tells him that he will be be defeated by "scraps of paper," i.e. War Bonds.

A Scrap of Paper

1918

The Grocery Clerk poster
5.8

Big Ben has the largest store in the town of New Ralgia. His chief clerk is in love with the post mistress. The three of them get involved in a series of mishaps with their customers and with the town ladies' man, whose advances conceal a more sinister purpose.

The Grocery Clerk

1919

A Blind Pig poster
10.0

A French perfume salesman is mistaken for a bootlegger. Partially missing two-reeler with 11 minutes surviving.

A Blind Pig

1918

Behind the camera

No artwork available
7.0

Because Colin has a charming smile, he seduces his boss, a great decorator. And Colin, who ruined himself to approach the young woman, succeeds in becoming her partner and then her husband.

Votre sourire

1934

No artwork available
7.0

A young poultry farmer is flattered and persuaded into financing a film production. He attempts to interfere in the direction, is swindled and left in the lurch but eventually manages to turn the tables on his former associates.

Hello, Sweetheart

1935

Great Guns poster
6.0

Laurel and Hardy join the army. They are hardly soldiers, but they believe their employer, (Dick Nelson) will need them now he's drafted.

Great Guns

1941

We're Going to Be Rich poster
5.0

A perpetual dreamer talks his wife into moving with him from their home in Australia to South Africa, where he hopes to discover gold and finally become wealthy.

We're Going to Be Rich

1938

Leave It to Me poster
7.0

The owner of a professional help agency poses as a poet at a wealthy patron's ball and prevents a necklace from being stolen by thieves.

Leave It to Me

1933

No artwork available
8.0

An American woman is fooled into thinking that she is the heiress to an estate in England.

The Girl in Possession

1934

No artwork available
8.0

An American woman is fooled into thinking that she is the heiress to an estate in England.

The Girl in Possession

1934

For the Love of Mike poster
7.0

A useless secretary and his private detective friend try to help an heiress from being swindled by her guardian.

For the Love of Mike

1932

No artwork available
9.0

A beauty salon owner puts on a cabaret.

The Musical Beauty Shop

1930

Keep Smiling poster
7.0

The Boy, involved in a maritime disaster as a child, suffers from hydrophobia. He invents a life preserver that automatically inflates when it hits the water, using it to save the life of Rose Ryan, the daughter of a steamship magnate.

Keep Smiling

1925

Man of the Moment poster
7.5

Love blossoms after a young man rescues a pretty girl who attempted to drown herself.

Man of the Moment

1935

Why Sailors Leave Home poster
7.0

When their ship arrives in an Arabian port, the sailors are given shore leave among them Bill Biggles, who has previously had little success with women. Visiting a sheik who has long been under obligation to him, Bill is welcomed at the palace, and the polygamous ruler, who has abducted a damsel, decides to absent himself and appoint Bill as his deputy. It seems Bill's luck is set to change dramatically until the wives decide to go on strike!

Why Sailors Leave Home

1930

Tonight's the Night - Pass It On poster
10.0

Slapstick comedy in which luckless slate club treasurer Bill Smithers is sent to prison for three years after being mistakenly accused of stealing funds.

Tonight's the Night - Pass It On

1931

No artwork available
7.0

Farcical confusions ensue when newlywed bride Peggy Gay overhears her husband Jack discussing the purchase of a piano, and somehow interprets what he has said to mean he is the father of an illegitimate child.

My Wife's Family

1931

Keep Your Seats, Please poster
6.5

Despite being on his uppers, George is still prepared to pawn his beloved banjo in order to help his girlfriend save her niece from the orphanage. Help seems to be at hand when George is left a fortune by his old auntie, but unfortunately his inheritance is hidden inside a chair which has already been auctioned off! Can George and his chums track down his rightful due before his grasping solicitor (Alastair Sim, in an early film appearance) snatches the lot? It's hard to say, but he still finds time to perform both the title song and the classic 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'.

Keep Your Seats, Please

1936

Heads We Go poster
8.0

A model inherits a great deal of money and pretends to be a movie star.

Heads We Go

1933

You Made Me Love You poster
7.1

A rich American businessman in London makes believe he's lost all his money so that his daughter will marry a composer.

You Made Me Love You

1933

Horse Shoes poster
9.0

A Monty Banks comedy that includes the 'Undressing in the Upper Berth' routine

Horse Shoes

1927

No Limit poster
6.5

George Shuttleworth is convinced that he has the talent to win the Isle of Man TT races, despite what his neighbours back home in Wigan may think. During the trials, the brakes go on George's bike, 'The Shuttleworth Snap', which he made himself. As a result, he breaks the TT lap record, becoming an instant motor-cycling star. As the big race approaches, George soon realises that other jealous riders will stop at nothing to make sure he does not take part in the race. An early George Formby film and probably his best.

No Limit

1935

No artwork available
7.0

Monty Banks finds love and mischief at the amusement park, in this two-reel comedy

Hot Sands

1924

No artwork available
8.0

A comedy musical Directed by Monty Banks.

Amateur Night in London

1930

No artwork available
8.0

A comedy musical Directed by Monty Banks.

Amateur Night in London

1930

Not So Quiet on the Western Front poster
7.0

A musical comedy directed by Monty Banks. A cook recalls a night spent in a French estaminet in 1915.

Not So Quiet on the Western Front

1930

Shipyard Sally poster
5.7

A lancashire singer buys a pub in Clydebank and hits money troubles when the shipbyards are closed. She takes a petition to London to try to get them reopened.

Shipyard Sally

1939

Poor Old Bill poster
7.0

A man sponges off an old comrade from the First World War who believes he has saved his life during the war, although this ultimately proves not to be true.

Poor Old Bill

1931

No artwork available
10.0

An agile waiter unmasks a cabaret conjurer as a thief.

The New Waiter

1930

Old Soldiers Never Die poster
10.0

A comedy film directed by Monty Banks.

Old Soldiers Never Die

1931

Old Soldiers Never Die poster
10.0

A comedy film directed by Monty Banks.

Old Soldiers Never Die

1931

The Black Hand Gang poster
7.5

Wee Georgie Wood and his gang have their sights set on a notorious villain.

The Black Hand Gang

1930

The Church Mouse poster
5.8

When a meek secretary goes to work for her new boss, she becomes a sophisticated lady.

The Church Mouse

1934

18 Minutes poster
9.5

A lion-tamer's partly innate and partly acquired attitude to other living beings - that they shall submit without question to his will - is applied with unseeing kindness to an orphan girl whom the lion tamer adopts.

18 Minutes

1935

No artwork available
9.0

British comedy. It was released in the United States the following year under the alternative title Trouble Ahead.

Falling in Love

1934

Love and Luck poster
8.0

A gambler has the same name as a billionaire. Suddenly he gets lucky, finds love and wins 24 million.

Love and Luck

1932

Queen of Hearts poster
7.0

A woman prevents a popular stage performer getting arrested for drunk driving, though has to pretend to be a rich benefactor when she next meets him.

Queen of Hearts

1936

No artwork available
10.0

A bank clerk takes the blame for a theft which he believes was committed by his ex-convict father.

Father and Son

1935

The Compulsory Husband poster
8.0

A recently engaged girl invites her parents to meet her fiance. They learn that he also loves another woman.

The Compulsory Husband

1929

Money for Nothing poster
10.0

As he pursues Joan Blossom, ruined gambler Jeff Cheddar is mistaken for two-faced financier Jay Cheddar, eventually leading to Joan's stockbroker father, Sir Henry Blossom, investing heavily in a supposedly worthless gold mine. Financial chaos ensues in a farcical comedy of confused identities, romantic entanglements, and a fortune hiding in a hat.

Money for Nothing

1932

Kiss Me Sergeant poster
10.0

In India, a British soldier saves the jeweled eye of a sacred idol.

Kiss Me Sergeant

1930

Cocktails poster
7.0

The guardian of an heiress tries to destroy the reputation of her lover by planting drugs on him.

Cocktails

1928

What a Night! poster
8.0

While staying at a reportedly haunted inn a traveller discovers that the 'ghost' is a thief.

What a Night!

1931