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Mary Forbes

Mary Forbes

Mary Forbes (1 January 1883 – 22 July 1974), born Ethel Louise Young, was a British-American film actress, based in the United States in her latter years, where she died. She appeared in more than 130 films between 1919 and 1958.

Forbes was born in Hornsey, England.

She made her first public appearance on the concert platform giving recitals. Her acting debut was in 1908 on the London stage at Aldwych Theatre. Her American stage debut came in Romance at Maxine Elliott's Theatre in 1913.

She took over management of the Ambassadors Theatre in 1913 and had several years experience on stage in Britain and America before her appearances in Hollywood films. Two of her three children by her first marriage in the first quarter of 1904 to Ernest J. Taylor, Ralph and Dorothy Brenda, known as Brenda, were also actors. The middle child of the three, Phyllis Mary Taylor, was not in the acting business. Her second husband was British actor Charles Quartermaine, who married in 1925; the union ended in divorce. She married her third husband, Wesley Wall, an American businessman, in 1935; the couple remained married until her death in 1974.

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Movies Starring Mary Forbes (93)

Houseboat (1958)

An Italian socialite on the run signs on as housekeeper for a widower with three children. ...

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Les Miserables (1952)

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France. ...

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You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)

Indecisive heiress Dee Dee Dillwood is pushed into marrying her sixth fiancée, but unable to face the wedding night, she flees into the adjacent hotel room of commercial pilot Marvin Payne, who just wants to sleep. She then persuades him to take her to Ca ...

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The Black Arrow (1948)

A young British nobleman comes back from fighting in the War of the Roses to discover that his father has been murdered by an old family friend who is now an outlaw. However, he becomes suspicious about the exact circumstances of his father's death and det ...

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The Judge Steps Out (1947)

A judge flees the pressures of professional and family life for a job as a short-order cook. ...

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It Had to Be You (1947)

A chronic runaway bride is haunted by her conscience, who becomes reality. ...

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The Exile (1947)

In 17th-century England, Charles II, the rightful heir to the kingdom, is driven from his country by militants working for rogue leader Oliver Cromwell. Charles ends up in the Netherlands, where he falls for local beauty Katie and spends his days happily i ...

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Ivy (1947)

When Ivy, an Edwardian belle, begins to like Miles, a wealthy gentleman, she is unsure of what to do with her husband, Jervis, or her lover, Dr. Roger. She then hatches a plan to get rid of them both. ...

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Cigarette Girl (1947)

A young man and woman base their love on lies that eventually manage to come true. ...

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Terror by Night (1946)

Holmes and Watson board a passenger train bound from London to Edinburgh, to guard the Star of Rhodesia, an enormous diamond worth a fortune belonging to an elderly woman of wealth; but within the first hour of the trip, the woman's son is murdered and the ...

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Lady on a Train (1945)

While watching from her train window, Nikki Collins witnesses a murder in a nearby building. When she alerts the police, they think she has read one too many mystery novels. She then enlists a popular mystery writer to help her solve the crime on her own, ...

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Earl Carroll Vanities (1945)

Broadway producer Earl Carroll was a Ziegfeld-like entrepreneur who staged lavish revues featuring attractive young ladies. Carroll's annual "Vanities" provided story material for three Hollywood films: Murder at the Vanities (34), A Night at Earl Carroll' ...

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I'll Remember April (1945)

The daughter of a formerly wealthy man tries to get a job singing on a radio show, but gets involved in a feud and murder. ...

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The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all. ...

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Tender Comrade (1944)

Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation. ...

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Jane Eyre (1943)

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in f ...

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Dangerous Blondes (1943)

Mystery writer Barry Craig (Allyn Joslyn) and his wife Jane (Evelyn Keyes), prefer solving crimes rather than writing about them. They get a chance when killings plague the fashion photography studio of Ralph McCormick (Edmund Lowe). After his secretary, J ...

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Mr. Lucky (1943)

A conman poses as a war relief fundraiser, but when he falls for a charity worker, his conscience begins to trouble him. ...

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Two Tickets to London (1943)

Accused of helping an enemy submarine, a man escapes and joins a beautiful girl in trying to find the real traitors. ...

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Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)

In World War II, a British secret agent carrying a vitally important document is kidnapped en route to Washington. The British government calls on Sherlock Holmes to recover it. ...

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The Great Impersonation (1942)

An Englishman kills a German look-alike and poses as a Nazi spy in London. ...

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Almost Married (1942)

To avoid a costly breach of contract suit, a rich young man marries a nightclub singer. ...

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This Above All (1942)

In 1940 England, aristocratic Prudence Cathaway alarms her snobbish parents by joining the WAF service branch. She soon meets and falls in love with the brooding Clive Briggs, despite his prejudice against the upper classes, and agrees to spend a week with ...

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Twin Beds (1942)

Mike Abbott just wants to spend a quiet evening at home with his wife, but her collection of zany friends make hash of his hopes. ...

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Klondike Fury (1942)

In this Alaskan adventure, a surgeon becomes a pilot after he messes up an operation. Unfortunately, he crashes during a storm and finds himself cared for by a lovely woman. He gets a chance to reclaim his self-esteem when her son suddenly needs the same o ...

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Nothing but the Truth (1941)

A stockbroker bets his new partners $10,000 that he can tell the truth, and only the truth, for twenty-four hours. ...

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Back Street (1941)

In turn-of-the-century Cincinnati, vibrant shop girl Ray Smith falls in love with banker Walter Saxel, who is engaged to a socially prominent woman. Inadvertently prevented from running away with Walter, Ray remains single but reunites with him five years ...

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South of Suez (1940)

Greedy diamond mine owner Eli Snedeker, resentful that his ex-foreman John Gamble stopped him from taking over kindly, but drunken, mine owner Roger Smythe's mine just as he was about to strike it rich, kills Smythe and blames it on Gamble. Grabbing the di ...

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All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

When lovely and virtuous governess Henriette Deluzy comes to educate the children of the debonair Duc de Praslin, a royal subject to King Louis-Philippe and the husband of the volatile and obsessive Duchesse de Praslin, she instantly incurs the wrath of he ...

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Private Affairs (1940)

A girl decides to consult her natural father, whom she's never seen, for advice on her mixed-up love life. ...

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Blame It on Love (1940)

A short film put out by the Hotpoint Company to demonstrate their Electric Ranges. ...

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Florian (1940)

Set against the backdrop of WWI Europe, a man and woman of different classes are brought together by their love of Lippizan horses. ...

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Laddie (1940)

Handsome Laddie Stanton courts neighbor Pamela Pryor, meeting opposition from her stern military father, recently immigrated from England. ...

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Ninotchka (1939)

A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest. ...

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Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)

Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for him as director of her next film. Many silent stars shown making the transition to sound. ...

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)

Having once again avoided criminal conviction, Professor Moriarity develops a murderous plan to "finish off" his last major nemesis, Sherlock Holmes, by making him fail to prevent the perfect crime. ...

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These Glamour Girls (1939)

A drunken college student invites a dance hostess to the big college dance and then forgets he asked her. When she shows up at school, he tries to get rid of her, but she won't leave. Instead, she stays and shows up both him and his classmates' snooty date ...

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I Stole a Million (1939)

A cabbie and petty thief dreams of the big heist that will end his thieving ways. ...

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The Sun Never Sets (1939)

The Randolph family have a tradition of working in the British colonial service. Clive comes home from a mission in the Gold Coast of Africa accompanied by his wife Helen. He discovers his younger brother John, is not keen on following in his footsteps. Jo ...

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Outside These Walls (1939)

Walen plays Dan Sparling, a convicted embezzler who becomes editor of his prison newspaper. After serving out his sentence, he sets up an independent newspaper devoted to attacking corruption in public life, encountering various difficulties due to his bei ...

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Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939)

Three sisters who believe life is going to be easy, now that their parents are back together, until one sister falls in love with another's fiancé, and the youngest sister plays matchmaker. ...

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The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)

Mary and Larry are are a modestly successful skating team. Shortly after their marriage, Mary gets a picture contract, while Larry is sitting at home, out of work. ...

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Risky Business (1939)

Radio commentator Dan Clifford takes desperate chances to save the life of a young girl who has been kidnapped. ...

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You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939)

Fields plays "Larsen E. Whipsnade", the owner of a shady carnival that is constantly on the run from the law. Whipsnade is struggling to keep a step ahead of foreclosure, and clearly not paying his performers, including Bergen and McCarthy, who try to coax ...

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Fast and Loose (1939)

The Sloanes tie murder to the theft of a Shakespeare manuscript. ...

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Three Loves Has Nancy (1938)

A small-town country homebody goes to New York to find her missing fiancé and gets romantically involved with two sophisticated men. ...

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You Can't Take It with You (1938)

Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby, but his wealthy banker father and snobbish mother strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted ...

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Always Goodbye (1938)

Following the death of her fiancé, Margot Weston is left pregnant and unmarried. Former doctor Jim Howard helps the desperate Margot. When her son is born, Jim helps her find a home for the baby with Phil Marshall and his wife. Margot insists that neither ...

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The Rage of Paris (1938)

Nicole has no job and is several weeks behind with her rent. Her solution to her problems is to try and snare a rich husband. Enlisting the help of her friend Gloria and the maitre'd at a ritzy New York City hotel, the trio plot to have Gloria catch the ey ...

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Outside of Paradise (1938)

Daniel Francis O'Toole, singing maestro in a New York restaurant, finds himself the unexpected heir to an estate in Ireland. He doesn't have money enough for the passage to Ireland, but the band members decide to incorporate him, advancing him the fare for ...

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Everybody Sing (1938)

Boisterous teen Judy Bellaire is expelled from her all-female boarding school for convincing her fellow school chorus members to sing a classical piece with a modern swing beat. She returns to her dysfunctional home, dejected, but, with the encouragement o ...

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What Do You Think? (Number Three) (1938)

This short looks at the possibility that those who have passed on can communicate with us in ways we least expect. ...

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The Awful Truth (1937)

Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance. ...

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Stage Door (1937)

A spirited heiress wishing to break into theatre on her own merit arrives at a boardinghouse where aspiring young actresses and showgirls are brought together through their cynicism and disappointments. ...

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One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)

The daughter of a struggling musician forms a symphony orchestra made up of his unemployed friends and through persistence, charm and a few misunderstandings, is able to get Leopold Stokowski to lead them in a concert that leads to a radio contract. ...

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The Life of the Party (1937)

A singer finds another heir (Gene Raymond) to marry, to avoid the one (Joe Penner) her mother found. ...

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Wee Willie Winkie (1937)

In 1897, little Priscilla Williams, along with her widowed mother, goes to live with her army colonel paternal grandfather on the British outpost he commands in northern India. ...

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Another Dawn (1937)

Colonel John Wister, on duty with the British army in the desert region of Dubik, returns to England on leave. There he falls in love with Julia Ashton, who cares deeply for him but believes herself incapable of love following the death of her fiancé; som ...

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Women of Glamour (1937)

A girl with a reputation falls for a wealthy playboy. ...

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Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

The small-town prudes of Lynnfield are up in arms over 'The Sinner,' a sexy best-seller. They little suspect that author 'Caroline Adams' is really Theodora Lynn, scion of the town's leading family. Michael Grant, devil-may-care book jacket illustrator, pe ...

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Wedding Present (1936)

Charlie Mason and Rusty Fleming are star reporters on a Chicago tabloid who are romantically involved as well. Although skilled in ferreting out great stories, they often behave in an unprofessional and immature manner. After their shenanigans cause their ...

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The White Angel (1936)

In Victorian England, Florence Nightingale's heroic measures slowly change the attitude towards nurses when it was considered a disreputable profession. ...

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Captain Blood (1935)

Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate. ...

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The Widow from Monte Carlo (1935)

In this romantic comedy, an aspiring socialite heads for a vacation in Monte Carlo where she befriends a wealthy widowed duchess and then begins blackmailing her after she steals a scandalous letter. ...

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The Perfect Gentleman (1935)

A strait-laced country vicar is very embarrassed by his father's naughty exploits with a lively actress. ...

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Rendezvous (1935)

A decoding expert tangles with enemy spies. ...

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Anna Karenina (1935)

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg's high society, a relationship like this could de ...

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Stranded (1935)

A Traveler's Aid worker who delights in solving people's problems gets mixed up with gangsters. ...

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Dizzy Dames (1935)

A musical comedy in a theatrical boarding house. ...

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Les Misérables (1935)

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France. ...

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Laddie (1935)

A romance between two young lovers is complicated by their prohibitive parents. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013. ...

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Roberta (1935)

Football player John Kent tags along as Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians travel to an engagement in Paris, only to lose it immediately. John and company visit his aunt, owner of a posh fashion house run by her assistant, Stephanie. There they meet the ...

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We Live Again (1934)

Nekhludoff, a Russian nobleman serving on a jury, discovers that the young girl on trial, Katusha, is someone he once seduced and abandoned and that he himself bears responsibility for reducing her to crime. He sets out to redeem her and himself in the pro ...

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Happiness Ahead (1934)

Society heiress Joan Bradford rebels against her mother's choice of a future husband by masquerading as a working class girl and dating a window washer. ...

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Two Heads on a Pillow (1934)

A lawyer handing a divorce case discovers the attorney for the opposition is his ex-wife. ...

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A Lost Lady (1934)

A bitter woman who thinks she'll never love again marries, only to fall for a brash young man. ...

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British Agent (1934)

In the days leading up to the Russian Revolution, Stephen Locke, a minor British diplomat in St Petersburg, falls in love with a Russian spy. ...

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She Was a Lady (1934)

Before his daughter can formally claim her rightful title, her father dies. Now her blue-blooded American suitor finds that his father refuses to allow the two to marry as she is not a high-born lady. ...

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Blind Date (1934)

A young woman is torn between a wealthy suitor who wants her body and the honest young man who wants what's best for her. ...

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Shock (1934)

Captain Bob Hayworth, his brother Lieutenant Gilroy Hayworth and Captain Derek Marbury are in a World-War 1 trench on the front-lines in France. Bob Hayworth resents Marbury greatly as the latter had married the girl, Lucy Neville, Marbury was courting in ...

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Most Precious Thing in Life (1934)

An unwed mother watches as her illegitimate son is raised by others. Director Lambert Hillyer's 1934 drama stars Jean Arthur, Richard Cromwell, Donald Cook, Anita Louise, Jane Darwell, Mary Forbes and Ward Bond. ...

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Sadie McKee (1934)

A maid has romances with a two-timer, a boozing millionaire and the master of the house. ...

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You Can't Buy Everything (1934)

A scorned woman dreams of revenge on the man who betrayed her. ...

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Bombshell (1933)

A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on. ...

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Cavalcade (1933)

A cavalcade of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 is seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners Jane and Robert Marryot. Amongst events touching their family are the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, and th ...

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A Farewell to Arms (1932)

A tale of the World War I love affair, begun in Italy, between American ambulance driver Lt. Frederic Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley. Eventually separated by Frederic's transfer, tremendous challenges and difficult decisions face each as the war ...

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Vanity Fair (1932)

In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society. ...

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The Silent Witness (1932)

A London nobleman (Lionel Atwill) takes the blame and stands trial after his son strangles a lover (Greta Nissen). ...

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Working Girls (1931)

Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, whi ...

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The Brat (1931)

A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon her behavior has forever altered their snobbish ways. ...

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Chances (1931)

Two brothers, Jack and Tom, are in love with the same woman, Molly. While the two brothers go off to war and Molly does her part in the effort, Tom believes that Molly is waiting for him, while in fact, she loves Jack and only turned to Tom on the rebound. ...

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Born to Love (1931)

A pregnant American nurse living in London during WWI, believing her soldier-fiance has been killed in France, marries a wealthy aristocrat so her child will have a father. ...

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The Man Who Came Back (1931)

A spoiled carefree rich kid gets into too much trouble for his father who sends him out on his own to prove himself capable of making a respectable man of himself. ...

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