Donald O'Connor

A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound. (imdb)

An eccentric toymaker finds his family business horribly misused by his militaristic uncle who is bequeathed control of the company. (imdb)

T.V. movie based on the classic story by Lewis Carroll. (imdb)

Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart. (imdb)

Washington hostess Sally Adams becomes a Truman-era US ambassador to a European grand duchy. (imdb)

MGM musical numbers from the introduction of sound in the late '20s through to the 1950s, possibly with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Judy Garland getting the most coverage. Linked by some of the stars who worked at MGM handing the commentary on one to another. (imdb)

Melvin Hoover, a budding photographer for Look magazine, accidentally bumps into a young actress named Judy LeRoy in the park. They start to talk and Melvin soon offers to do a photo spread of her. His boss, however, has no intention of using the photos. Melvin wants to marry Judy, but her father would rather she marry dull and dependable Harry Black. As a last resort, Melvin promises to get Judy's photo on the cover of the next issue of Look, a task easier said than done. (imdb)

Beau, John, and Digby Geste are three inseparable, adventurous brothers who haven been adopted into the wealthy household of Lady Brandon. When money in the uppercrust household grows tight, Lady Brandon is forced to sell her most treasured jewel the mighty "Blue Water" sapphire. The household gets it out for one final look, the lights go out and it vanishes stolen by one of the brothers, no doubt... (imdb)

Bill Benson and Ted Adams are to appear in a Broadway show together and, while in Paris, each 'discovers' the perfect leading lady for the plum female role. Each promises the prize role to the girl they selected without informing the other until they head back across the Atlantic by liner - with each man having brought his choice along! It becomes a stormy crossing as each man has to tell his 'find' that she might not get the role after all. (imdb)

A female DJ who also sings has been getting a monthly stipend from a prominent family. Everyone assumes that she has been having an affair with the patriarch. Things get only more complicated from there.

A poor young man finds a magic lamp that possesses a genie, who will grant the boy three wishes if he sets him free from the lamp. (imdb)

Care-free Charlie (Walter Matthau) cons his widower brother-in-law Herb (Jack Lemmon) into an expenses-paid luxury cruise in search of rich, lonely ladies. The catch is that they are required to be dance hosts! With a tyrannical cruise director, and the luscious Liz and lovely Vivian, our heroes have lots of mis-adventures before they finally return to port. ((imdb))

The "life" story of the legendary silent film comedian.

Traveling entertainer gets mixed up with bank robbers. (imdb)

After being falsely accused of dishonesty, a young man decides to become a pirate. (imdb)

Movie and stage icon Debbie Reynolds hosts the making of "Singin' in the Rain". The short documentary includes Donald O'Connor, who played the comical "Cosmo Brown", Stanley Donen, one half of the directors next to Gene Kelly, and Kathleen Freeman, who played Phoebe Dinsmore, Lina Lamont's (Jean Hagen) voice coach. (imdb)

Joan Howell, a young and pretty maid-for-hire, meets and begins dating wealthy New York City businessman Tom Milford. Embarrassed about bringing him back to her tiny apartment that she shares with her roommate Audrey, Joan brings Tom over to a fancy apartment that she cleans on a daily basis not knowing that it's his place. Tom plays along with the charade despite not knowing who Joan really is, while she tries to tidy up Tom's place not knowing who he really is. (imdb)

U.S. Navy photographic team uses Tokyo geisha house as its home. (imdb)

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. (imdb)

Tom Smothers stars as the brave mountie, who along with his trusty horse and bitter deputy Paul Reubens must track down a killer who is stalking coeds at a nearby cheerleader camp. (imdb)

On arrival at Fort Chase, ex-soldier Peter Stirling, recalled to active duty, is re-united with his old pal Francis the Talking Mule. Gradually, it dawns on Peter that a clerical error has assigned him to an all-female WAC base, where broad slapstick is the order of the day and Francis has more horse sense than any of the human officers. Too innocent to appreciate the pleasant aspects of his predicament, Peter ends by helping the "enemy" in a war-game battle of the sexes. (imdb)

Stars O'Connor as GI Peter Sterling, who appears to be bucking for a Section Eight. Seems that Sterling keeps insisting that Francis, a cantankerous Army mule, has the power of speech. It turns out that Francis not only can talk, but is also a superb military strategist. With Francis' help, Sterling breaks up a Nazi spy ring and becomes a hero -- but this is only the beginning, as the future entries in Universal's Francis series would prove over and over. (allmovie.com)

A man who has a talking mule gets a job on a newspaper, and both get mixed up in a murder trial. (imdb)

The owner of a talking mule, now a horse-breeder, gets involved with gangsters. (imdb)

Francis the talking mule gets his owner in and out of trouble while he is taking basic training at West Point. (imdb)

Complaining that Francis the Mule was getting more fan mail than he was, Donald O'Connor bade adios to the "Francis" series with this 1955 entry. Once more, O'Connor plays Army lieutenant Peter Sterling, who heads to a navy base when it looks like his old pal Francis is about to be auctioned off as surplus. In short order, Sterling is mistaken for a bos'n's mate whom he resembles, and it's off to sea for both Peter and the mule. (allmovie.com)

Roger Bradley, son of a milk magnate, isn't allowed to work for his dad's company because of a lingering war trauma: in moments of stress he quacks like a duck. Desperate to escape from idleness, he gets a job with his father's arch-rival, sponsored by eccentric milkman Breezy Albright, and promptly falls in love with the boss's daughter. But his career as a milkman soon degenerates into slapstick. (imdb)

A fast-talking salesman is "kidnapped" by a town, which intends to use him in its annual race with a rival community. (imdb)

At Middleton College, controlled by rich donor Melton, only paying sports are allowed. But Freddie Frye, conniving student body president, has to get a letter in some sport to win back his girl Susie; he schemes to revive crew boat racing. Sinking boats, no money, and his own waistline stand in his way. Can they win the big race with State University? (imdb)

Of the singing Beebe brothers, young Mike just wants to be a kid; responsible Dave wants to work in his garage and marry Martha; but feckless Joe thinks his only road to success is through swapping and gambling. It seems the only thing all three can join in is their singing act, which Mike and Dave hate. Finally, all Joe's hopes are pinned on a race horse he's acquired, but it's a bigger gamble than his family knows. Hilarious sequence involving a lecturer on seals. (imdb)

Talented GI pals group up to form a band, but do not find true fame until they adopt that lively Dixieland sound. (allrovi.com)

Milton Haskins, a math genius known for his infallibility with numbers, quits his job with an insurance company when he discovers he made a mistake, and hooks up with a traveling carnival. His knowledge of mathematics makes him a natural as an assistant at the wheel of fortune. His fiancée begs him to return to his job but he refuses, so she joins the carnival and becomes a striptease artist. (imdb)

The son of a strict Navy officer falls for the daughter of a musical-comedy star. (imdb)

The further adventures of Twain's most beloved fictitional characters of Tom Sawyer and his friend, Huckleberry Finn.

Two Bowery vaudevillians compete to be the first to produce shows on Broadway. They might be friends were they not so convinced that each has stolen ideas from the others. This bouncy musical chronicles their rivalry and the success they find after they finally team up. Unfortunately the success is short-lived when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman. This time the feud erupts with a vengeance. Fortunately, their paths again cross and a happy ending follows. (allmovie.com)

Shopkeeper Homer Fitch (Ruggles) hates the changes in his household when his wife adopts two orphan boys but realizes how much he loves the boys when they are struck with scarlet fever. (imdb)

Oliver Quade is a pitchman who follows state fairs that feature dog shows---which limits his territory more than a little---at which he sells encyclopedias...and does it well as he possesses a photographic memory that amazes the rubes. The Champion, in the title, is a Great Dane who has won the title at the Rubeville State Fair, and it isn't long before the Champion turns up dead, which is because somebody---motive unknown at the moment---has killed the Champion. (imdb)

Orphan prodigy singer runs away from her oppressive aunt and tricks a rural couple into adopting her. (imdb)

Peggy (Peggy Ryan), a messenger, delivers a telegram to The Flamingo Club where the Andrews Sisters (The Andrews Sisters) and Bob Edwards' Orchestra are appearing. Peggy learns that the club's owner, Harrison (William Frawley), intends to enlarge his show and she persuades him to give her and her friends a tryout. If they make good, they can save the dancing school run by Professor Woof ('Charles Butterworth' )) and Gribble (Walter Catlett)) . (imdb)

Russ Matthews, a theatrical agent who is not above pulling off a hoax or two or more to further the career of his clients (and himself), and a newspaper gossip-columnist, Carol Wilson, get involved with gangsters when one of Larry's radio-program future-predicting cons gets out of hand. (imdb)

It Comes Up Love was typical of teenaged songstress Gloria Jean's Universal vehicles: good songs and a strong cast squandered on a low-budget B effort. Jean and Mary Lou Harrington play Victoria and Constance, the precocious daughters of big-city businessman Tom Peabody (Ian Hunter). Long separated from his girls, who've been raised in the country, the widowed Peabody brings them to live with him in New York. (allmovie.com)

Operatic tenor James Melton stars as on-the-skids bandleader Tod Weaver, who finds himself in charge of an all-girl orchestra. Though he tries to remain oblivious to his musicians' charms, he can't help but fall in love with assistant conductor Gale Starr (Patricia Ellis). Things look bad for hero and heroine when seductive Lorna Wray (Winifred Shaw) comes between them, but Tod is brought back to earth with a well-aimed slap. (allmovie.com)

Brash and vigorous director William Wellman always had a place in his filmography for movies glorifying the early years of aviation -- from the start of his career (Wings), until the end (Lafayette Escadrille). But, perhaps, never has his devotion to aviation been made more vivid than in his 1938 drama Men With Wings. Wellman, in this film, attempts to dramatize the history of aviation from the early days of the Wright Brothers until the 1930s, when airline transportation first became viable. (allmovie.com)

The Merry Monahans is one of the higher-budgeted Universal musicals of the 1940s, even though the storyline is strictly grade-B material. During the first two decades of the 20th century the film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan (Jack Oakie). Because of his love affair with the bottle, Pete manages to get himself and his family blacklisted from every major vaude house in the country. (allmovie.com)

At the Davis School of the Theatre, ran by Jeremy Taswell, where teen-age kids study drama and the serious arts, instructors Johnny Hanley and Alice Taswell are in love. The students, including Donald, Patricia and Peggy, secretly want to become singers. Patricia's aunt, Mrs. Davis, owns the school and disapproves. Donald has written a musical comedy for the year's class play, which the students want to do, but Mrs. Davis has selected and insists they do Sophocles' "Antigone". (imdb)

Sons of The Legion is a film about a group of young men looking to start a squadron in their Legion Post. However, because the boy's father wrongfully received a dishonorable discharge after World War I, his father cannot join the Legion and in turn his son cannot join the squadron.

18-year-old Angela, reared in a New England town by her Aunt Betsy, receives an inheritance which she uses to go to New York, ostensibly for voice training, but she is pursuing Major Hilary Jarret, an Army surgeon with whom she has become infatuated. Her departure depresses her childhood friend Jimmy Plum. Dr. Plum devises an errand on which to send his love-sick son to New York, where Jimmy discovers Angela thinks she is Jarret's fiancée.

A young hoofer quits vaudeville to become a composer and hooks up with a Russian ballet troupe. (imdb)

Allan Jones is cast as war hero Johnny Kovacs, who wearies of the adulation heaped upon him and takes refuge under an assumed name in a theatrical boarding house. Here he befriends orchestra leader Phil Spitalny and his all-girl aggregation, including the inimitable Evelyn and Her Magic Violin. When Army officials trace Johnny to the boarding house, his new friends assume that he's a deserter and try to convince him to return to duty.

Musical in which a family puts on a show to boost the morale of the local factory workers.

Talented youngster Pat Donahue is working in the Berkshires. He learns of a great part in New York City and auditions. But after winning the role he finds out it was originally intended for his father Patrick. The son is reluctant to do what's right.

A washed-up boxer and a sassy nightclub operator move to a small town and take over a house complete with orphan.

Soft-spoken Homer C. Fitch works his first day as manager of the Windsor Arms, a posh apartment building, and that night shares his problems with his wife Sybil, their daughter Patricia, adopted son Joe and Butch Smiley, an orphan whom they want to adopt. They also discuss Butch's future, for although Homer has written to Butch's grandfather concerning the adoption, they have received no response. Later in the evening, police officer Flannigan brings in Butch, whom he caught trying to run away.

At a college, a group of ex-GIs clash with their wives about over playing football.