
Directing
Norman Z. McLeod
Born 1898-09-20 · Grayling, Michigan, USA
Norman Zenos McLeod (September 20, 1898, Grayling, Michigan – January 27, 1964, Hollywood, California) was an American film director, cartoonist and writer. He is considered one of the best directors of comedy films of all time. McLeod made several successful and influential movies such as Taking A Chance (1928), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932), Topper (1937) and Merrily We Live (1938). Other memorable films directed by McLeod includes It's a Gift (1934) with W.C. Fields, and the Danny Kaye comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). His nickname, as recorded on a publicity still on the set of Monkey Business, was "Macko." Description above from the Wikipedia article Norman Z. McLeod, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting credits
Behind the camera
6.5An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each to eight strangers chosen at random from the phone directory.
If I Had a Million
1932
5.7Sailors and spies mingle in between the acts at Hattie's nightclub in the Canal Zone.
Panama Hattie
1942
6.7Madcap couple George and Marion Kerby are killed in an automobile accident. They return as ghosts to try and liven up the regimented lifestyle of their friend and bank president, Cosmo Topper. When Topper starts to live it up, it strains relations with his stuffy wife.
Topper
1937
6.1Skippy, the mischievous son of a wealthy doctor, meets Sooky in poverty-ridden Shantytown, and together they try to save Sooky's pet from a cruel dogcatcher.
Skippy
1931
6.1In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.
Alice in Wonderland
1933
6.8Walter Mitty, a daydreaming writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures. His dream becomes reality when he accidentally meets a mysterious woman who hands him a little black book. According to her, it contains the locations of the Dutch crown jewels hidden since World War II. Soon, Mitty finds himself in the middle of a confusing conspiracy, where he has difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1947
6.1Insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth sells a man a life policy only to discover that the man in question is the outlaw Jesse James. Milford is sent to buy back the policy, but is robbed by Jesse. And when Jesse learns that Milford's boss is on the way out with more cash, he plans to rob him too and have Milford get killed in the robbery while dressed as Jesse, and collect on the policy.
Alias Jesse James
1959
6.1Bob Hope stars in this laugh-packed wild west spoof co-starring Jane Russell as a sexy Calamity Jane, Hope is a meek frontier dentist, "Painless" Peter Potter, who finds himself gunslinging alongside the fearless Calamity as she fights off outlaws and Indians.
The Paleface
1948
7.2Larry Poole, in prison on a false charge, promises an inmate that when he gets out he will look up and help out a family. The family turns out to be a young girl, Patsy Smith, and her elderly grandfather who need lots of help. This delays Larry from following his dream and going to Venice and becoming a gondolier. Instead, he becomes a street singer and, while singing in the street, meets a pretty welfare worker, Susan Sprague. She takes a dim view of Patsy's welfare under the guardianship of Larry and her grandfather and starts proceedings to have Patsy placed in an orphanage.
Pennies from Heaven
1936
9.0A film star finds herself in trouble with her co-star when she has to flirt with the backer to prevent him from withdrawing his support.
Redheads on Parade
1935
6.0A burlesque comic doubles for a spy in Tangier and meets the spy's girlfriend, who is also a spy.
My Favorite Spy
1951
6.9Four stowaways get mixed up with gangsters while running riot on an ocean liner.
Monkey Business
1931
10.0A woman's ceaseless badgering sends her husband on a drinking bender. Along the way, he makes a new female acquaintance.
Mama Loves Papa
1933
6.9Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley U, hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against rival Darwin U.
Horse Feathers
1932
6.8Scat Sweeney and Hot Lips Barton, two out of work musicians, stow away onboard a ship bound for Rio, after accidentally setting fire to the big top of a circus. They then get mixed up with a potential suicide Lucia, who first thanks them, then unexpectedly turns them over to the ship's captain. When they find out that she has been hypnotized, to go through a marriage of convenience, when the ship reaches Rio, the boys turn up at the ceremony, in order to stop the wedding, and to help catch the crooks.
Road to Rio
1947
6.1Italy 1757, Pippo Popolino, a lowly tailor, disguises himself as the great Casanova in order to romance the attractive widow Francesca. He little suspects what awaits him... Locked into the incongruous role by the desperation of the real Casanova's creditors, Pippo must journey to Venice on a delicate mission far beyond his capabilities.
Casanova's Big Night
1954
6.9Society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome tramp who shows up at her doorstep and ends up in a chauffeur's uniform. He also catches the eye of Geraldine.
Merrily We Live
1938
6.6Mrs. Topper's friend Mrs. Parkhurst has convinced Mrs Topper to file for a divorce from Cosmo due to the strange circumstances of his trip with ghost Marion Kirby. Marion comes back from heaven's door to help Cosmo again, this time only with dog Mr. Atlas. Due to a strange behavior of Cosmo, the judge refuses to divorce them, so Mrs. Parkhurst takes Mrs. Topper on a trip to France where she tries to arrange the final reasons for the divorce. With help of a gold-digging French baron, Marion takes Cosmo to the same hotel to bring them back together and to get her own final ticket to heaven, but the whole thing turns out to be not too easy.
Topper Takes a Trip
1938
7.0Two small-town sisters who've come to New York City for very different reasons find themselves competing for the affections of a brash magazine photographer. Comedy.
The Powers Girl
1943
6.3Shy milkman Burleigh Sullivan accidentally knocks out drunken Speed McFarlane, a champion boxer who was flirting with Burleigh's sister. The newspapers get hold of the story and photographers even catch Burleigh knock out Speed again. Speed's crooked manager decides to turn Burleigh into a fighter. Burleigh doesn't realize that all of his opponents have been asked to take a dive. Thinking he really is a great fighter, Burleigh develops a swelled head which puts a crimp in his relationship with pretty nightclub singer Polly Pringle. He may finally get his comeuppance when he challenges Speed for the title.
The Kid from Brooklyn
1946
5.5Jo March and her husband Professor Bhaer operate the Plumfield School for poor boys. When Dan, a tough street kid, comes to the school, he wins Jo's heart despite his hard edge, and she defends him when he is falsely accused. Dan's foster father, Major Burdle, is a swindler in cahoots with another crook called Willie the Fox. When the Plumfield School becomes in danger of foreclosure, the two con men cook up a scheme to save the home.
Little Men
1940
6.8Street-smart Maisie from Brooklyn lands a job at an airplane assembly plant during WWII and falls in love with handsome pilot "Breezy" McLaughlin. Breezy, however, falling in love with and getting engaged to Maisie's conniving roommate Iris, doesn't realize she's using him and it's up to Maisie to convince him.
Swing Shift Maisie
1943
7.0A couple of down-and-out British aristocrats buy an American roadhouse.
A Lady's Profession
1933
6.1Years after the death of her husband, Kitty McNeil takes her son and flees from the home of her wealthy and controlling mother-in-law. Alone and jobless in New York, she runs into an old flame, her USO partner Donald Elwood, who agrees to help her fight for custody of the child.
Let's Dance
1950