Аватар персоны Gertrude Purcell

Gertrude Purcell

Writer
Purcell (who was described by a friend as a "masculine, funny, and hard-drinking woman") worked as a freelancer for much of her career, penning scripts for most of the major studios. During the McCarthy era she became an important informer due to her communist past, but before the process she attempted suicide. She then retired from her cinema career, but lived a decade more.

14-06-1895

Birthday

Gemini

Zodiac Sign

-

Genres

0

Total Films

Also known as (female)

New York City, New York, USA

Place of Birth

Popular works

Creative career

actor

0 Works

producer

0 Works

director

41 Works

writer

39 Works

other

2 Works

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland

A farm girl has a romance with a ski instructor.
4.3

Year:

1946

Paris Underground

Paris Underground

Constance Bennett both produced and starred in the espionager Paris Underground. Bennett and Gracie Fields play, respectively, an American and an English citizen trapped in Paris when the Nazis invade. The women team up to help Allied aviators escape from the occupied city into Free French territory. The screenplay was based on the true wartime activities of Etta Shiber, who engineered the escape of nearly 300 Allied pilots. British fans of comedienne Gracie Fields were put off by the scenes in which she is tortured by the Gestapo, while Constance Bennett's following had been rapidly dwindling since the 1930s; as a result, the heartfelt but tiresome Paris Underground failed to make a dent at the box-office. It would be Constance Bennett's last starring film--and Gracie Fields' last film, period.
5.4

Year:

1945

Reckless Age

Reckless Age

Linda Wadsworth rebels against her millionaire grandfather, J. H. Wadsworth, and runs away from home. Unknown to Mr. Wadsworth, she gets a job at one of his many five-and-ten-cents stores as a clerk.
0.0

Year:

1944

Follow the Boys

Follow the Boys

During World War II, all the studios put out "all-star" vehicles which featured virtually every star on the lot--often playing themselves--in musical numbers and comedy skits, and were meant as morale-boosters to both the troops overseas and the civilians at home. This was Universal Pictures' effort. It features everyone from Donald O'Connor to the Andrews Sisters to Orson Welles to W.C. Fields to George Raft to Marlene Dietrich, and dozens of other Universal players.
5.3

Year:

1944

Ice Capades Revue

Ice Capades Revue

Promoter Ann Porter decides to start her own Ice Show despite the efforts of ex-racketeer Duke Baldwin who owns a rival show. Jeff Stewart, a rich, suave young Broadwayite, falls in love with Ann and aids her in her fight against Baldwin.
5.7

Year:

1942

In Old California

In Old California

Boston pharmacist Tom Craig comes to Sacramento, where he runs afoul of local political boss Britt Dawson, who exacts protection payment from the citizenry. Dawson frames Craig with poisoned medicine, but Craig redeems himself during a Gold Rush epidemic.
5.1

Year:

1942

A Close Call for Ellery Queen

A Close Call for Ellery Queen

Amateur sleuth Ellery Queen learns the truth about a businessman's two long-lost daughters.
5.2

Year:

1942

Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring

Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring

The benefactor of the Stack Memorial Hospital dies after an operation. Ellery Queen investigates when it is revealed the cause of death was murder by strangulation.
5.7

Year:

1941

Arkansas Judge

Arkansas Judge

Arkansas Judge is a 1941 American film starring Roy Rogers as a young lawyer defending a farmer accused of slander.
0.0

Year:

1941

The Invisible Woman

The Invisible Woman

Kitty Carroll, an attractive store model, volunteers to become a test subject for a machine that will make her invisible so that she can use her invisibility to exact revenge on her ex-boss.
5.7

Year:

1940

One Night in the Tropics

One Night in the Tropics

Jim "Lucky" Moore, an insurance salesman, comes up with a novel policy for his friend, Steve: a 'love insurance policy', that will pay out $1-million if Steve does not marry his fiancée, Cynthia. The upcoming marriage is jeopardized by Steve's ex-girlfriend, Mickey, and Cynthia's disapproving Aunt Kitty. The policy is underwritten by a nightclub owner, Roscoe, who sends two enforcers - Abbott and Costello - to ensure that the wedding occurs as planned.
5.6

Year:

1940

A Little Bit of Heaven

A Little Bit of Heaven

A child from the New York tenements sings on a radio quiz show and is eventually hired to a big-bucks contract, which allows her and her family to move into a posh apartment, with all the usual problems that accompany sudden wealth.
1.0

Year:

1940

Destry Rides Again

Destry Rides Again

Tom Destry, son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn’t believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent.
7.2

Year:

1939

First Love

First Love

In this reworking of Cinderella, orphaned Connie Harding is sent to live with her rich aunt and uncle after graduating from boarding school. She's hardly received with open arms, especially by her snobby cousin Barbara. When the entire family is invited to a major social ball, Barbara sees to it that Connie is forced to stay home. With the aid of her uncle, who acts as her fairy godfather, Connie makes it to the ball and meets her Prince Charming in Ted Drake, her cousin's boyfriend.
7.8

Year:

1939

The Lady and the Mob

The Lady and the Mob

Hattie Leonard sets out to break a criminal gang controlling the dry cleaning business.
6.3

Year:

1939

Service de Luxe

Service de Luxe

Glamorous and efficient Helen Murphy runs a service that will provide any type of assistance to wealthy customers, but what she's really looking for is a man who can take care of himself.
6.5

Year:

1938

Mother Carey's Chickens

Mother Carey's Chickens

A financially-strapped mother and her children relocate from the city to a small rural town.
5.2

Year:

1938

Hitting a New High

Hitting a New High

A Paris cabaret singer dreams of becoming a Metropolitan Opera singer. A press agent arranges her Manhattan debut by way of Africa.
5.1

Year:

1937

Music for Madame

Music for Madame

An Italian immigrant singer, Nino, hoping to succeed in Hollywood, falls in with a gang of crooks who use his talent to distract everyone at a party while they steal the jewels.
5.0

Year:

1937

Stella Dallas

Stella Dallas

After divorcing a society man, a small-town woman tries to build a better life for their daughter.
6.9

Year:

1937

Super-Sleuth

Super-Sleuth

A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.
5.0

Year:

1937

Make Way for a Lady

Make Way for a Lady

An imaginative teenager decides to play matchmaker for her widowed father. Director David Burton's 1936 comedy stars Herbert Marshall, Anne Shirley, Gertrude Michael, Margot Grahame, Clara Blandick, Frank Coghlan Jr., Willie Best and Maxine Jennings.
5.0

Year:

1936

The Witness Chair

The Witness Chair

Late one night, secretary Paula Young (Ann Harding) leaves the office of her boss, Stanley Whittaker (Douglas Dumbrille, locking the door and taking the stairs to avoid being seen by the elevator operator (Frank Jenks). The next morning, the cleaning lady finds Whittaker's dead body, an apparent suicide. Police Lieutenant Poole (Moroni Olsen) finds a letter signed by Whittaker in which the deceased states he embezzled $75,000. Soon, however, he suspects otherwise and, after investigating, arrests widower James "Jim" Trent (Walter Abel), the vice president of Whittaker.
6.2

Year:

1936

Love Before Breakfast

Love Before Breakfast

Scott is a very rich businessman who hangs out with a snooty, silly Countess, but has the hots for Kay who is already engaged to Bill. Scott pursues Kay like crazy, going so far as to buy Bill's oil company so that he can banish him to Japan, leaving Kay unmoored.
5.8

Year:

1936

If You Could Only Cook

If You Could Only Cook

An auto engineer and a professor's daughter pose as married servants in a mobster's mansion.
7.4

Year:

1935

The Girl Friend

The Girl Friend

An actor and two songwriters become rural con men.
0.0

Year:

1935

Redheads on Parade

Redheads on Parade

A 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.
0.0

Year:

1935

The Human Side

The Human Side

The story of a theatrical producer, his divorced wife and their four children.
0.0

Year:

1934

She Was a Lady

She Was a Lady

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.
0.0

Year:

1934

Palooka

Palooka

Joe Palooka is a naive young man whose father Pete was a champion boxer, but his lifestyle caused Joe's mother Mayme to leave him and to take young Joe to the country to raise him.
3.2

Year:

1934

Another Language

Another Language

A newlywed discovers that she and her husband's snobby family speak different languages.
6.3

Year:

1933

Cocktail Hour

Cocktail Hour

Cynthia Warren, independently wealthy through her ability as an illustrator and poster artist, rebels against the premise that every woman is destined for matrimony and motherhood and decides she has as much right as a man to play around.
4.8

Year:

1933

Child of Manhattan

Child of Manhattan

Paul Vanderkill is extraordinarily wealthy because his grandfather happened to buy farmland in what was to become Midtown Manhattan. The Loveland Dance Hall is one of the tenants of the Vanderkill estates. To reassure his aunt Sophie, Vanderkill visits Loveland to determine whether it is as disreputable as Sophie suspects. There he meets a dime-a-dance girl, Madeleine MacGonagal, who charms him with her quaint proletarian accent. They begin a secret affair, which turns into a secret marriage when pregnancy ensues. When the baby fails to survive, Madeleine decides that since he had married her only for the baby's sake, she should make haste to Mexico to secure a divorce. There she meets Panama Canal Kelly, a former suitor who now owns a silver mine. Her plans for divorce and quick remarriage are complicated when Vanderkill arrives to confront her.
8.0

Year:

1933

No More Orchids

No More Orchids

Despite loving another man, a young woman is talked into marrying a wealthy and boorish prince in order to help her financially-strapped father.
6.8

Year:

1932

Vanity Street

Vanity Street

A New York policeman helps a hungry and penniless young woman start life anew by arranging to get her a job in "The Follies".
6.8

Year:

1932

The Night Mayor

The Night Mayor

Opportunistic film seeking to capitalize on a scandal in New York mayor Jimmy Walker's office before his name was out of the newspapers. Tracy plays a mayor who has a penchant for the night life, sports, the theater, and an actress, Knapp. When scandal rocks his administration, Tracy has his girl friend marry Dillaway, a writer friend, so that the press will leave him alone.
0.0

Year:

1932

The Girl Habit

The Girl Habit

A Lothario tries to get arrested as protection from the gangster husband who has threatened him.
0.0

Year:

1931

Honor Among Lovers

Honor Among Lovers

Jerry Stafford falls for his secretary, Julia Traynor, but instead she marries a shady character who causes trouble for both of them.
5.7

Year:

1931

The Royal Family of Broadway

The Royal Family of Broadway

Julie Cavendish comes from a family of great Broadway actors. Her mother Fanny staunchly continues acting. Her boisterous brother Tony is fleeing a breach of promise suit in Hollywood. Her daughter Gwen must decide between going on stage, or settling down in a conventional marriage. Julie is just thinking that it would be nice to retire and get married, when who should turn up but her old beau, Gilmore Marshal, the platinum magnate from South America.
5.7

Year:

1930

Follow the Leader

Follow the Leader

A kooky waiter and sometimes vaudevillian promises to get his employer's daughter into a Broadway show. When he kidnaps the show's star, she gets her opportunity, as the understudy, to play the role and become a star herself.
5.4

Year:

1930

The Sap from Syracuse

The Sap from Syracuse

Ellen Saunders is an heiress on a cruise to Europe being pursued by a day laborer mistaken for a prominent mining engineer. During the cruise, he foils two crooks trying to get their hands on her lucrative nickel mine.
4.7

Year:

1930