Writing

Allen Rivkin

Born — Died

1903-11-20 — 1990-02-17

Place of birth

Hayward, Wisconsin, USA

Known for

Writing

Credits

41 titles

Allen Rivkin (20 November 1903 – 17 February 1990) was an American screenwriter. Rivkin was a advertising copy writer, who went to Hollywood and joined the RKO Pictures publicity department. He formed a film writing team with P. J. Wolfson, who got a writer’s contract on the strength of "Bodies Are Dust". They started at Universal Pictures the same day. Through a luncheon conversation that day decided to collaborate on a story. In less than two years the pair wrote ten screen plays. They later wrote for the B. P. Schulberg company at Paramount Pictures. He was one of the co-founders of the Screenwriters Guild, later the Writers Guild of America. He wrote several of his scripts with his wife…

Known for

Our Little Girl poster
5.3

Don Middleton is so caught up with his work he neglects his wife Elsa. Lonely Elsa begins to spend more time with Don's best friend and they become attracted to one another. Don and Elsa decide to get a divorce, unaware of the effect their problems are having on their daughter Molly. When Elsa announces plans to remarry, Molly runs away from home.

Our Little Girl

1935

Highway West poster
6.6

A young woman marries a man who turns out to be a bank robber.

Highway West

1941

The Thrill of Brazil poster
6.2

Steve, revue producer in Rio de Janeiro, is still in love with his ex-wife Vicki, his star Linda is in love with Steve and Tito is in love with Linda. Because of this they all get small problems.

The Thrill of Brazil

1946

Cheating Cheaters poster
7.0

The Palmers, an apparently wealthy family, move into the house next door to the Lazarres. However, the Palmers are actually a gang of thieves plotting to rob the Lazarres.

Cheating Cheaters

1934

Dancing Lady poster
6.9

Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get a job in a real Broadway musical being directed by Patch. Tod thinks he can get what he wants from Janie, Patch thinks Janie is using her charms rather than talent to get to the top, and Janie thinks Patch is the greatest. Steve, the stage manager, has the Three Stooges helping him manage all the show girls. Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy make appearances as famous Broadway personalities.

Dancing Lady

1933

The Road to Denver poster
7.0

The Mayhew brothers flee from one Texas town to another as older brother Bill repeatedly attempts to keep younger brother Sam out of jail. Bill finally gives up on his younger brother and heads for Colorado. He gets a job and all is well until his brother shows up and takes a job that puts them on opposite sides of the law.

The Road to Denver

1955

Film credits

Behind the camera

Our Little Girl poster
5.3

Don Middleton is so caught up with his work he neglects his wife Elsa. Lonely Elsa begins to spend more time with Don's best friend and they become attracted to one another. Don and Elsa decide to get a divorce, unaware of the effect their problems are having on their daughter Molly. When Elsa announces plans to remarry, Molly runs away from home.

Our Little Girl

1935

Highway West poster
6.6

A young woman marries a man who turns out to be a bank robber.

Highway West

1941

The Thrill of Brazil poster
6.2

Steve, revue producer in Rio de Janeiro, is still in love with his ex-wife Vicki, his star Linda is in love with Steve and Tito is in love with Linda. Because of this they all get small problems.

The Thrill of Brazil

1946

Cheating Cheaters poster
7.0

The Palmers, an apparently wealthy family, move into the house next door to the Lazarres. However, the Palmers are actually a gang of thieves plotting to rob the Lazarres.

Cheating Cheaters

1934

Dancing Lady poster
6.9

Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get a job in a real Broadway musical being directed by Patch. Tod thinks he can get what he wants from Janie, Patch thinks Janie is using her charms rather than talent to get to the top, and Janie thinks Patch is the greatest. Steve, the stage manager, has the Three Stooges helping him manage all the show girls. Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy make appearances as famous Broadway personalities.

Dancing Lady

1933

The Road to Denver poster
7.0

The Mayhew brothers flee from one Texas town to another as older brother Bill repeatedly attempts to keep younger brother Sam out of jail. Bill finally gives up on his younger brother and heads for Colorado. He gets a job and all is well until his brother shows up and takes a job that puts them on opposite sides of the law.

The Road to Denver

1955

It Could Happen to You poster
4.8

In this comedy/mystery a milquetoast ad man finds his good ideas constantly copped by ambitious coworkers. His boss doesn't even seem to see him. The ad man's wife pushes her husband into confronting his boss during a party. Unfortunately, the timid fellow finds himself accused of murder after a corpse is found in the trunk of his car. He is quickly incarcerated for the crime. Meanwhile his wife begins investigating in an attempt to prove his innocence.

It Could Happen to You

1939

Tension poster
6.8

Warren Quimby manages a drugstore while trying to keep his volatile wife, Claire, happy. However, when Claire leaves him for a liquor store salesman, Warren can no longer bear it. He decides to assume a new identity in order to murder his wife's lover without leaving a trace. Along the way, his plans are complicated by an attractive neighbor, as well as a shocking discovery that opens up a new world of doubts and accusations.

Tension

1949

The Farmer's Daughter poster
7.1

After leaving her family's farm to study nursing in the city, a young woman finds herself on an unexpected path towards politics.

The Farmer's Daughter

1947

Let Us Live poster
6.8

When a confused eyewitness identifies New York City cabbie Brick Tennant as a killer, he is sentenced to death for a murder that he wasn't involved in. Though no one is willing to listen to the innocent prisoner's pleas for freedom, Brick's faithful fiancée, Mary, knows that her lover is innocent because she was with him when the crime was committed. As the scheduled execution draws ever nearer, Mary begins to investigate the murder herself.

Let Us Live

1939

The Eternal Sea poster
6.6

Biography of Admiral John Hoskins' efforts to retain active command despite WW2 injury.

The Eternal Sea

1955

Till the End of Time poster
6.4

Three former marines have a hard time readjusting to civilian life. Perry can't deal with the loss of the use of his legs. William is in trouble with bad debts. And Cliff can't decide what he wants to do with his life, although he gets encouragement from war widow Pat Ruscomb.

Till the End of Time

1946

Gambling House poster
6.2

A gambler faces deportation when he gets mixed up with murder.

Gambling House

1950

Kid Glove Killer poster
6.4

Van Heflin stars as the head of a city crime lab who tries to solve the murder of the town mayor by scientifically analyzing evidence.

Kid Glove Killer

1942

Singapore Woman poster
7.2

A fallen woman seeks redemption at a Singapore rubber plantation. Melodrama.

Singapore Woman

1941

Singapore Woman poster
7.2

A fallen woman seeks redemption at a Singapore rubber plantation. Melodrama.

Singapore Woman

1941

The Big Operator poster
6.0

A power-mad union boss resorts to murder to eliminate witnesses scheduled to testify against him.

The Big Operator

1959

What Price Hollywood? poster
6.8

Sassy and ambitious waitress Mary Evans amuses and befriends amiable seldom-sober Hollywood film director Max Carey when he stumbles into her restaurant. Max invites Mary to his film premiere and, after a night of drinking and carousing, Mary is granted a screen test. A studio contract follows. Just as Mary finds her dreams coming true, Carey’s life and career begins its descent.

What Price Hollywood?

1932

This Is My Affair poster
7.3

President McKinley asks Lt. Richard L. Perry to go underground to identify some obviously very well briefed Mid-Western bank robbers based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

This Is My Affair

1937

The Strip poster
5.9

Drummer Stanley Maxton moves to Los Angeles with dreams of opening his own jazz club, but falls in with a gangster and a nightclub dancer and ends up accused of her murder.

The Strip

1951

The Devil Is Driving poster
5.2

Gabby Denton, a hard-drinking, down-on-his-luck drifter, seems to get a chance at redemption when his brother-in-law helps get him a job as a mechanic. Not realizing the garage he works for is actually a front for a stolen car ring, Gabby soon finds himself mixed up in both murder and a liaison with the boss's girl.

The Devil Is Driving

1932

Straight, Place and Show poster
7.0

The Ritz Brothers go to the race track. They raise training end entrance money in a wrestling match and help a young man train the horse of his fiancée.

Straight, Place and Show

1938

Prisoner of War poster
4.5

American soldiers, captured by North Korean's, are periodically brainwashed into giving up their capitalist ways to join the communist movement.

Prisoner of War

1954

Joe Smith, American poster
6.5

Joe Smith is an ordinary American family man who works in an aircraft factory. Shortly after being a promoted to a much higher position, Joe is kidnapped by enemy agents who are determined to get military secrets out of him by any means possible. Will Joe keep quiet or betray his country...

Joe Smith, American

1942

Live Fast, Die Young poster
5.8

A teenager finds her wayward sister running with thieves in San Francisco.

Live Fast, Die Young

1958

Timberjack poster
4.2

A young man seeks his father's killers among lumberjacks, and discovers that they are actually timber barons who also seek to control lumber mills. Based on the novel of the same name.

Timberjack

1955

Meet the Baron poster
5.3

A charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school.

Meet the Baron

1933

The Guilt of Janet Ames poster
5.8

A hard-drinking reporter tries to help the embittered widow of the soldier who had saved his life during the war.

The Guilt of Janet Ames

1947

Half Angel poster
7.5

Allison Long is acquitted on charges of poisoning her father but then her benefactor is poisoned. Reporter Duffy Giles has faith in her innocence.

Half Angel

1936

Girls on the Loose poster
6.2

A nightclub operator, her sister, a beautician and two other women rob a payroll.

Girls on the Loose

1958

Madison Square Garden poster
6.8

Eddie Burke is a wise-guy pugilist whose talent is unevenly matched by his ego. Despite his character flaws, Eddie knows the meaning of loyalty. When his manager Doc Williams is offered the opportunity to stage a match at Madison Square Garden, but only if he gets rid of his stable of fighters, Eddie fabricates an alibi and stages a walkout on Doc.

Madison Square Garden

1932

Sunday Punch poster
6.0

Ma Galestrum (Connie Gilchrist) is a boardinghouse owner whose tenants are a group of aspiring boxers. When her young niece, Judy (Jean Rogers), comes to stay for a visit, college dropout Ken Burke (William Lundigan) and Swedish janitor Ole (Dan Dailey Jr.) immediately fall for her charms. Ken considers going back to college for Judy, but his fight promoter is less than thrilled with this idea. Meanwhile, Ole is determined to meet Ken in the ring to vie for Judy's heart.

Sunday Punch

1942

Love Under Fire poster
5.2

A suspense-thriller-comedy set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.

Love Under Fire

1937

Typhoon poster
6.7

Two men searching for black pearls are marooned on an island when their crew mutinies. There they run into a beautiful girl who had been washed up on the island in her childhood. They must fight angry natives and a typhoon in order to survive.

Typhoon

1940

Bad Boy poster
7.5

An unemployed loafer who spends his time playing pool decides he's ready to look for a job so he can secure his girlfriend's parents' approval for their marriage.

Bad Boy

1935

Headline Shooter poster
6.3

A newsreel photographer neglects his love life to get the perfect shot.

Headline Shooter

1933

Dancing on a Dime poster
5.0

Director Ted Brooks and comedians Jack Norcross, Dandy Joslyn and Phil Miller are part of a troupe of promising young players rehearsing for a WPA show at the Garrick Theater in New York and are stunned when the government withdraws their funding on the day of the show's dress rehearsal. Destitute, the troupe plans to return home when Mac, the stage doorman, offers to allow four of the men, Phil, Dandy, Jack and Ted, to use the theater for a boardinghouse. After accepting Mac's offer, the men improvise bedrooms out of the set pieces and meet amateur actress Lorie Fenton from Cleveland, who is eager to audition for them. When the men learn she recently received a small inheritance, they allow her to audition, hoping she will back the show.

Dancing on a Dime

1940

Grounds for Marriage poster
5.0

Opera singer Ina Massine tries to win back former husband Dr. Lincoln I. Bartlett.

Grounds for Marriage

1951

Champagne Charlie poster
5.4

The story is told in flashback. Backers want a gambler to marry a rich girl for her dowry.

Champagne Charlie

1936

Black Sheep poster
7.3

On an ocean liner crossing a professional gambler comes to the aid of a naive young man victimized by a jewel thief. The young man turns out to be his son he's not seen since infancy.

Black Sheep

1935