William Keighley

Directing

William Keighley

Born — Died

1889-08-04 — 1984-06-24

Place of birth

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

42 titles

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. William Jackson Keighley  (August 4, 1889, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - June 24, 1984, New York, New York) was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director. After graduating from the Ludlum School of Dramatic Art, Keighley began acting at the age of 23. By the 1910s and 1920s, he was acting and directing on Broadway. With the advent of talking pictures, he relocated to Hollywood. He eventually signed with Warner Bros., where he proved adept at directing in a wide variety of genres. He was the initial director of The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, but was replaced by Michael Curtiz. During World War II, he supervised the U.S. A…

Known for

Film credits

Behind the camera

The Adventures of Robin Hood poster
7.5

Robin Hood fights nobly for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian.

The Adventures of Robin Hood

1938

Ladies They Talk About poster
6.2

A moll, imprisoned after participating in a bank robbery, helps with a breakout plot.

Ladies They Talk About

1933

'G' Men poster
6.6

James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mobster, but always has refused to get involved with the underworld. When a friend of his is gunned down by a notorious criminal, Brick decides to abandon the exercise of the law and join the Department of Justice to capture the murderer.

'G' Men

1935

The Master of Ballantrae poster
6.0

Scottish highlander Jamie Durie falls into a life of piracy after joining the failed rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie against the British crown.

The Master of Ballantrae

1953

Special Agent poster
6.1

A 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

Each Dawn I Die poster
6.9

A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.

Each Dawn I Die

1939

The Prince and the Pauper poster
6.8

Two boys – the prince Edward and the pauper Tom – are born on the same day. Years later, when young teenage Tom sneaks into the palace garden, he meets the prince. They change clothes with one another before the guards discover them and throw out the prince thinking he's the urchin. No one believes them when they try to tell the truth about which is which. Soon after, the old king dies and the prince will inherit the throne.

The Prince and the Pauper

1937

The Street with No Name poster
6.4

After two gang-related killings in "Center City," a suspect (who was framed) is arrested, released on bail...and murdered. Inspector Briggs of the FBI recruits a young agent, Gene Cordell, to go undercover in the shadowy Skid Row area (alias George Manly) as a potential victim of the same racket. Soon, Gene meets Alec Stiles, neurotic mastermind who's "building an organization along scientific lines." Stiles recruits Cordell, whose job becomes a lot more dangerous.

The Street with No Name

1948

Close to My Heart poster
6.6

A journalist's wife insists on adopting an abandoned child.

Close to My Heart

1951

The Bride Came C.O.D. poster
6.9

A financially-strapped charter pilot hires himself to an oil tycoon to kidnap his madcap daughter and prevent her from marrying a vapid band leader.

The Bride Came C.O.D.

1941

The Man Who Came to Dinner poster
7.1

An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in indefinitely with a Midwestern family.

The Man Who Came to Dinner

1941

Rocky Mountain poster
5.8

A Confederate troop, led by Captain Lafe Barstow, is prowling the far ranges of California and Nevada in a last desperate attempt to build up an army in the West for the faltering Confederacy. Because the patrol saves a stagecoach, with Johanna Carterr as one of the passengers, from an Indian attack, and is marooned on a rocky mountain, it fails in its mission but the honor of the Old South is upheld.

Rocky Mountain

1950

Bullets or Ballots poster
6.6

After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner, former detective Johnny Blake publicly punches him, convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. "Bugs" Fenner, meanwhile, is certain that Blake is a police agent.

Bullets or Ballots

1936

Rebecca poster
NR

A play version of Daphne du Maurier’s book starring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier

Rebecca

1950

George Washington Slept Here poster
6.5

New Yorkers Bill and Connie Fuller have to move from their apartment. Without Bill's knowledge, Connie purchases a delapidated old farmhouse in Pennsylvania, where George Washington was supposed to have actually slept during the American Revolution.

George Washington Slept Here

1942

Picture Snatcher poster
6.9

An ex-con uses his street smarts to become a successful photojournalist.

Picture Snatcher

1933

Valley of the Giants poster
6.7

A lumberman takes on a sleezy corporate giant wanting to move in and do whatever it takes to drive everyone else out of business.

Valley of the Giants

1938

Yes, My Darling Daughter poster
4.5

Ellen is a free spirited young woman in love with Doug. Sadly he must leave America for a two year job in Belgium. Ellen and Doug decide to spend their last weekend together in a tourist cabin at a rural lake. Her family is shocked that a young unmarried woman would engage in such amoral activity. The comic plot develops as Ellen argues her case for women's freedom and independence, trying to win over her mother, grandmother, and other dubious relatives.

Yes, My Darling Daughter

1939

Honeymoon poster
6.5

A prospective bride and groom have misadventures in Mexico City.

Honeymoon

1947

Stars Over Broadway poster
5.6

An aggressive agent turns a hotel porter into an overnight sensation.

Stars Over Broadway

1935

No Time for Comedy poster
5.4

An aspiring playwright finds himself an overnight Broadway success.

No Time for Comedy

1940

The Green Pastures poster
6.3

God, heaven, and several Old Testament stories, including the Creation and Noah's Ark, are described supposedly using the perspective of rural, black Americans.

The Green Pastures

1936

The Fighting 69th poster
5.9

Although loudmouthed braggart Jerry Plunkett alienates his comrades and officers, Father Duffy, the regimental chaplain, has faith that he'll prove himself in the end.

The Fighting 69th

1940

Journal of a Crime poster
5.9

A woman murders her husband's mistress and someone else gets accused of the crime.

Journal of a Crime

1934

God's Country and the Woman poster
5.2

Hard-nosed Jefferson Russett runs a logging company; his brother, Steve, is the prodigal son. Steve becomes stranded on the competition's property and slowly learns the business and of his brother's dirty tricks.

God's Country and the Woman

1937

Secrets of an Actress poster
6.0

Two architects lose their heads over a glamorous actress.

Secrets of an Actress

1938

Brother Rat poster
6.0

Story of three buddies at the Virginia Military Institute. Cadet Bing Edwards is secretly married and soon to be a father.

Brother Rat

1938

Kansas City Princess poster
5.2

Rosie and Marie are wisecracking Kansas City manicurists. Marie is an unabashed golddigger but Rosie would like to marry her gangster boyfriend Dynamite, who's given her an expensive ring. When she loses the ring, both friends have to flee Dynamite's wrath; their adventures include masquerading as girl scouts and taking an ocean voyage to Paris.

Kansas City Princess

1934

Torrid Zone poster
7.0

A Central American plantation manager and his boss battle over a traveling showgirl.

Torrid Zone

1940

Mary Jane's Pa poster
6.8

Sam Preston is a small-town newspaper publisher who suffers from wanderlust. Leaving his family, he thinks well-provided for, he packs a suitcase and hits the road. Ten years later he comes back to find the newspaper shuttered and his family gone.

Mary Jane's Pa

1935

The Right to Live poster
4.9

A man with a broken back dies after his wife has an affair with his brother.

The Right to Live

1935

The Singing Kid poster
6.0

Neurotic Broadway star Al Jackson faces professional ruin when he loses his voice. While recuperating in the country, he falls in love with farm girl Ruth Haines, the pretty aunt of precocious little Sybil Haines.

The Singing Kid

1936

Varsity Show poster
6.8

Winfield College students rebel against a stodgy professor who won't permit "swing" music be played in their varsity show. They appeal to a big Broadway alumnus and have him direct their show. What they don't know is that this "star's" last three shows were flops.

Varsity Show

1937

Four Mothers poster
6.7

Four married sisters face motherhood, financial, marital and family issues together.

Four Mothers

1941

Dr. Monica poster
5.1

A prominent New York doctor, unable to have a child, discovers her philandering husband has impregnated her best friend.

Dr. Monica

1934

The Match King poster
6.7

Unscrupulous Chicago janitor Paul Kroll uses deceit to fund a return trip to his homeland of Sweden. There, via ongoing continuing deceit and manipulation, he gradually attains a monopoly on the matchstick market in several countries and becomes an influential international figure. Based on the true story of Ivar Kreuger.

The Match King

1932

Easy to Love poster
5.1

Carol feels, for whatever reason, that her husband, John, has grown indifferent to her, and is on a quest to find out why, suspecting another woman. She sees the family physician, Dr. Swope, first and then hires a private detective. Her own sleuthing is more effective and she devises a plan; having long been pursued by Eric, she apparently accedes and accompanies him to an apartment and, per her plan, enter the wrong one. There, they find Carol's best friend, Charlotte, and John hiding in a closet. The latter, showing more nerve than good sense, goes into a rage and berates Carol for her apparent philandering. The battle continues at home, where their daughter Janet informs them that because of them, she and Paul have given up on the idea of marriage, but are going away together, anyway. Carol and John trail them to a hotel and find them in twin beds, whereupon John, armed with a fire-ax, summons a justice of the peace and demands a fire-ax version of a shotgun wedding.

Easy to Love

1934

Big Hearted Herbert poster
5.5

After cantankerous and miserly Herbert Kalness insults his daughter's fiance and prospective in-laws at a dinner party, Mrs. Kalness devises a scheme to teach her husband a lesson in good manners.

Big Hearted Herbert

1934

Babbitt poster
6.3

Middle aged George F. Babbitt is a leading citizen in the town of Zenith, the fastest growing community in America according to its town sign. George is a large part of that growth as a property developer and realtor. He is lovingly married to his wife Myra, the two who have two children, Ted and Verona who are approaching adulthood. George has always had a fearless attitude, much like that of a naive child, which has led to his business success. He encounters some personal stresses when he faces what he believes is a potential home-wrecking issue, and when his oldest friend Paul and his wife Zilla deal with domestic problems. These stresses make George want to provide even more to his own family, leading to George agreeing to participate in a less than scrupulous but lucrative business dealing. George's bravura gets him into a potential scandal. This situation makes him question his general behavior, especially toward his family.

Babbitt

1934

No artwork available
6.0

A bombing mission over Germany by the American Eighth Air Force, from the initial planning for the mission through final completion, with all of its intricacies from beginning to end.

Target for Today

1944