
Directing
Norman Taurog
Born — Died
1899-02-23 — 1981-04-07
Place of birth
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Known for
Directing
Credits
45 titles
Norman Rae Taurog (February 23, 1899 - April 7, 1981) was an American film director and screenwriter. Between 1920 and 1968, Taurog directed over 140 films, and directed Elvis Presley in nine films, more movies than any other director. He won the 1931 Academy Award for Best Director for the film Skippy and held the record as the youngest director (32) to win for 86 years. He was later nominated for Best Director for the 1938 film, Boys Town. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Norman Taurog has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1600 Vine Street.
Known for
6.4Although the son of a skilled golfer and an outstanding player in his own right, Harvey Miller is too nervous to play in front of a gallery, so he acts as coach and caddy for Joe Anthony, his girlfriend's brother.
The Caddy
1953
6.0Just discharged GI Chad Gates returns to Hawaii, where he becomes a tour guide, defying his mother's wishes for him to join the family business.
Blue Hawaii
1961
6.9Johnny Brett and King Shaw are an unsuccessful dance team in New York. A producer discovers Brett as the new partner for Clare Bennett, but Brett, who thinks he is one of the people they lent money to, gives him the name of his partner.
Broadway Melody of 1940
1940
5.6Band singer/race driver Mike McCoy must choose between marrying a beautiful girl and driving her father's car in a prestigious race.
Spinout
1966
4.9When singer Guy Lambert goes on tour in Europe, he is pursued by two beautiful women, bumbling jewel thieves, and a mysterious killer.
Double Trouble
1967
5.8Mike Edwards and Danny Burke fly a cropduster, but due to Danny's gambling debts, a local sheriff takes custody of it. Trying to earn money, they hitchhike to the World's Fair in Seattle and, while Danny tries to earn money playing poker, Mike cares for a small girl whose father has disappeared.
It Happened at the World's Fair
1963
Film credits
2000s · 2 titles
8.3As Hollywood biographies go, Judy Garland's story is one of the saddest success stories you'll ever hear. The sanitized studio version of her life presented a smiling kid with the big voice, who, alongside Mickey Rooney, just wanted to put on a show. But drugs, overwork, even psychological abuse at the hands of the studio is now part of the Garland legend. But despite the number of Garland books and documentaries, one account has always been missing -- Garland herself never managed to write a memoir. She did make several attempts at an autobiography, often recording stories on a tape recorder. Judy Garland: By Myself (2004), finally fills in the blanks - using Judy's personal recordings to tell the story in her own words.
Judy Garland: By Myself
2004
An overview of Cole Porter’s musical contributions to the film Broadway Melody of 1940.
Cole Porter in Hollywood: Begin the Beguine
2003
Behind the camera
6.4Although the son of a skilled golfer and an outstanding player in his own right, Harvey Miller is too nervous to play in front of a gallery, so he acts as coach and caddy for Joe Anthony, his girlfriend's brother.
The Caddy
1953
6.0Just discharged GI Chad Gates returns to Hawaii, where he becomes a tour guide, defying his mother's wishes for him to join the family business.
Blue Hawaii
1961
6.9Johnny Brett and King Shaw are an unsuccessful dance team in New York. A producer discovers Brett as the new partner for Clare Bennett, but Brett, who thinks he is one of the people they lent money to, gives him the name of his partner.
Broadway Melody of 1940
1940
5.6Band singer/race driver Mike McCoy must choose between marrying a beautiful girl and driving her father's car in a prestigious race.
Spinout
1966
4.9When singer Guy Lambert goes on tour in Europe, he is pursued by two beautiful women, bumbling jewel thieves, and a mysterious killer.
Double Trouble
1967
5.8Mike Edwards and Danny Burke fly a cropduster, but due to Danny's gambling debts, a local sheriff takes custody of it. Trying to earn money, they hitchhike to the World's Fair in Seattle and, while Danny tries to earn money playing poker, Mike cares for a small girl whose father has disappeared.
It Happened at the World's Fair
1963
6.4Father Flanagan raises funds, helps a disabled boy, and saves an older boy from reform school.
Men of Boys Town
1941
6.6Bill Miller is an unsuccessful Broadway performer until his handlers convince him to enhance his act with a stooge—Ted Rogers, a guy positioned in the audience to be the butt of Bill's jokes. After Ted begins to steal the show, Bill's girlfriend and his pals advise him to make Ted an equal partner.
The Stooge
1951
5.4When he learns that his boss is retiring to Arizona, sailor Ross Carpenter has to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he and his father built. Meanwhile, he's also caught between two women: insensitive club singer Robin and sweet Laurel.
Girls! Girls! Girls!
1962
5.9Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Tom's only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.
Young Tom Edison
1940
5.9A race car driver tries to outrun the beautiful tax auditor out to settle his account.
Speedway
1968
6.5Homer Flagg is a railroad worker in the small New Mexico town of Desert Hole. One day, he finds an abandoned automobile at an old atomic proving ground. His doctor and best friend, Steve Harris, diagnoses him with radiation poisoning and gives Homer three weeks to live. A big city reporter hears of Homer's plight and convinces her editor to provide an all-expenses paid trip to New York.
Living It Up
1954
6.6Anne and "Poppy" Rose have three quirky kids. Anne has a generous heart and the belief in the innocence of children. To the unhappy surprise of her husband she takes in the orphan Jane, a problem child who already tried to kill herself once.
Room for One More
1952
5.9Encomium to Larry Hart (1895-1943), seen through the fictive eyes of his song-writing partner, Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): from their first meeting, through lean years and their breakthrough, to their successes on Broadway, London, and Hollywood. We see the fruits of Hart and Rodgers' collaboration - elaborately staged numbers from their plays, characters' visits to night clubs, and impromptu performances at parties. We also see Larry's scattered approach to life, his failed love with Peggy McNeil, his unhappiness, and Richard's successful wooing of Dorothy Feiner.
Words and Music
1948
6.7Rich momma's boy Wade Kingsley Jr. an Eastern dude, tries to follow in his murdered father's footsteps by returning to the West to partner up with Slim Moseley Jr.,the son of his father's former partner. Wade overcomes Slim's initial reluctance to accept him by using his fortune to buy a prize cow and new car to help Slim in his job as foreman on the Kingsley family ranch, currently under siege by a gang of outlaws called "masked raiders." Wade generously tries to pay off the ranch's mortgage with $15,000 of his own money, but unfortunately neither "pardner" realizes that respected banker Dan Hollis, the son of their fathers' murderer, is the leader of the gang.
Pardners
1956
6.5Stationed in West Germany, soldier Tulsa McLean hopes to open a nightclub once he's discharged. Although he may lack the capital for such a venture, a chance to raise the cash comes his way through a friendly wager. Local dancer Lili is a notorious ice queen, and Tulsa bets everything he has that a friend of his can earn her affections. But when the friend is dispatched to Alaska, it's up to Tulsa to melt Lili's heart.
G.I. Blues
1960
5.5Photographer Greg Nolan moonlights in two full-time jobs to pay the rent, but has trouble finding time to do them both without his bosses finding out.
Live a Little, Love a Little
1968
6.6Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witnessing a murder.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1938
6.4The Navy expects a veteran to pay for the ship he commanded, as they have no record of its return.
Don't Give Up the Ship
1959
6.4Kitschy musical remake of "Bachelor Mother". Debbie Reynolds plays an over-eager clerk in a large department store and Eddie Fisher plays the boss' son. After getting fired from her job, she finds an adorable baby on the steps of the foundling home and the folks inside mistake her for the mother. Fisher, well-meaning, but obtuse, tries to help her out with the baby, and the buds of romance begin to appear. Meanwhile old Merlin, the owner of the store, thinks he just might be a grandfather...
Bundle of Joy
1956
5.3Mad scientist Dr. Goldfoot has invented an army of bikini-clad robots programmed to seek out wealthy men and charm them into signing over their assets. Secret agent Craig Gamble and millionaire Todd Armstrong set out to foil his fiendish plot.
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
1965
6.7Beautiful high society type Doris Worthington is entertaining guests on her yacht in the Pacific when it hits a reef and sinks. She makes her way to an island with the help of singing sailor Stephen Jones. Her friend Edith, Uncle Hubert, and Princes Michael and Alexander make it to the same island but all prove to be useless in the art of survival. The sailor is the only one with the practical knowhow to survive but Doris and the others snub his leadership offer. That is until he starts a clam bake and wafts the fumes in their starving faces. The group gradually gives into his leadership, the only question now is if Doris will give into his charms.
We're Not Dressing
1934
6.6When an aspiring barber becomes inadvertently involved in the theft of a valuable diamond, necessity forces him to masquerade as a 12 year-old child - with humorous consequences.
You're Never Too Young
1955
6.0A singing rodeo rider takes a job at an all-female dude ranch, where he gets involved with a physical trainer and a treasure hunt for gold in a ghost town, leading to a showdown with kidnappers.
Tickle Me
1965
6.5Nightclub entertainer Hap Smith has a new act since his former partner Chick Allen joined the army. With his lovely new female partner, Hap now plays a clownish parody of a soldier. When Chick organises a soldier show at Fort Benning, he realizes he needs his former partner's help—so, to get onto the base, Hap impersonates a hapless real soldier, but circumstances force them to prolong the masquerade, creating an increasingly tangled Army-sized SNAFU.
Jumping Jacks
1952
6.4Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant.
Presenting Lily Mars
1943
5.5An irresponsible student enlists in the Coast Guard expecting to sit out World War II.
Onionhead
1958
6.8Devout but iron-willed Father Flanagan leads a community called Boys Town, a different sort of juvenile detention facility where, instead of being treated as underage criminals, the boys are shepherded into making themselves better people. But hard-nosed petty thief and pool shark Whitey Marsh, the impulsive and violent younger brother of an imprisoned murderer, might be too much for the good father's tough-love system.
Boys Town
1938
5.8Two-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
7.4On an ocean voyage, a card shark and her father cheat a naive man out of his money. Things take a twist when the girl falls in love with the man she's just fleeced.
The Birds and the Bees
1956
6.8Cora, an heiress who gives it all up for the excitement of looking for a job and living on her own, meets up with unemployed and flat broke Dick. The two of them embark on a wild night of gambling and winning, where everything they touch turns to gold. Pretty soon they're in love and, to the horror of Cora's father, married.
Lucky Night
1939
5.3The weirdest alien of the galaxy pays a visit to Earth... Jerry Lewis is Kreton, a childish alien who, against his teacher's will leaves his planet to visit the Earth, and lands in the backyard of a famous television journalist who doesn't believe in UFOs and aliens. Wanting to study humans but not able to fully understand them, Kreton makes a mess out of it, generating a lot of comic situations.
Visit to a Small Planet
1960
6.7McGrath publishes books for children and Uncle Bump is one of the best sellers. Unfortunately, Greg, who is Uncle Bump, tends to drink too much and has not started his next book. Martha won a contest to illustrate the book and the first thing that happens is that Greg gets her soused. To keep her there to illustrate, John gets a juvenile delinquent named Danny to play his son and show how much pressure he is under. The ploy works at first, but Greg's heart was broken by Tillie, and Martha may be the girl who makes him forget all about her.
The Bride Goes Wild
1948
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
6.5Too bad for the presidential hopes of banker T.K. Blair; his party feels he has too little flair for savoir faire. But at a medicine show, the party bosses find Blair's double: huckster Doc Varney. Of course, they scheme to make Varney T.K.'s public spokesman; at first, he even fools Blair's girlfriend Felicia, providing a romantic complication. But as election eve approaches, the conspirators face the problem of what to do with Varney...who has difficult decisions of his own to make.
The Phantom President
1932
5.7Rich kid Danny Churchill has a taste for wine, women and song, but not for higher education. So his father ships him to an all-male college out West where there's not supposed to be a female for miles. But before Danny arrives, he spies a pair of legs extending out from under a stalled roadster. They belong to the Dean's granddaughter, Ginger Gray, who is more interested in keeping the financially strapped college open than falling for Danny's romantic line. At least at first...
Girl Crazy
1943
6.6Meek Eddie Pink becomes manager of an amusement park beset by mobsters.
Strike Me Pink
1936
6.5Starving playwright Judith Wells meets playboy writer of musicals, George Macrae, over a plate of stolen spaghetti. He persuades producer Sam Gordon to buy her ridiculous play "North Winds" just to improve his romantic chances, and even persuades her to sing in the sort of show she pretends to despise. But just when their romance is going well, Gordon's former flame Lulu reveals the ace up her sleeve...
You Can't Have Everything
1937
5.1A woman in London unexpectedly inherits a Texas ranching fortune, and takes a transatlantic voyage to collect her fortune, not suspecting two men aboard both plan on winning her hand before she reaches America. One is a gambler interested in her money, and the other, a rich man looking for a wife. The rich man's friend, meanwhile, believes the heiress is actually a gold-digger.
Please Believe Me
1950
5.2Snooty opera singer meets a rough-and-tumble fisherman in the Louisiana bayous, but this fisherman can sing! Her agent lures him away to New Orleans to teach him to sing opera but comes to regret this rash decision when the singers fall in love.
The Toast of New Orleans
1950


