Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Trailers
The Real Charlie Chaplin Trailer1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year TrailerMary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies Trailer
Although he appeared in approximately 100 movies or television shows, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. never really intended to take up acting as a career. However, the environment he was born into and the circumstances naturally led him to be a thespian.
The son of future silent era swashbuckling idol Douglas Fairbanks (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman) and Beth Sully - the daughter of a very wealthy cotton mogul - was born in 1909 and soon proved a gifted boy. To the end of his life he remained a multi-talented, hyperactive man, not content to appear in the 100 films mentioned above. Handsome, distinguished and extremely bright, he excelled at sports (much like his father), notably during his stay at the Military Academy in 1919 (his role in Claude Autant-Lara's "L'athlète incomplete" illustrated these abilities). He also excelled academically, and attended the Lycéee Janson de Sailly in Paris, where he had followed his divorced mother. Very early in his life he developed a taste for the arts as well and became a painter and sculptor.
Not content to limiting himself to just one field, he became involved in business, in fields as varied as mining, hotel management, owning a chain of bowling alleys and a firm that manufactured popcorn. During World War II he headed London's Douglas Voluntary Hospital (an establishment taking care of war refugees), was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's special envoy for the Special Mission to South America in 1940 before becoming a lieutenant in the Navy (he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1954) and taking part in the Allies' landing in Sicily and Elba in 1943. A fervent Anglophile, Fairbanks was knighted in 1949 and often entertained Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in his London mansion, "The Boltons".
His film career began at the age of 13 when he was signed by Paramount Pictures. He debuted in Stephen Steps Out (1923), but the film flopped and his career stagnated despite a critically acclaimed role in Stella Dallas (1925). Things really picked up when he married Lucille Le Sueur, a young starlet who was soon to become better known as Joan Crawford. The young couple became the toast of the town and good parts and success followed, such as Fairbanks' role as the hapless partner of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1931), a favorably reviewed turn as the villain in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), or more debonair characters in slapstick comedies or adventure yarns.
The 1930s were a fruitful period for Fairbanks, his most memorable role probably being that of the British soldier in Gunga Din (1939); although it was somewhat of a "swasbuckling" role, Fairbanks made a point of never imitating his father.
After World War II, his star waned and, despite a moving part in Ghost Story (1981), he did not appear in a major movie. Now a legend himself, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. left this world with the satisfaction of having lived up to the Fairbanks name at the end of a life nobody could call "wasted". He died on 7 May 2000 in New York City, New York, the result of a heart attack.
Most Popular Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Trailers
Total trailers found: 132
25 February 1983
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
01 October 1928
The Toilers (1928)
26 February 1949
A swashbuckling Irishman opposes French agents during the Napoleonic wars.
03 September 1930
A variety of broad-painted and unlikely characters are trapped in an underground café when a Mississippi River levee breaks and causes flood havoc above and below.
17 September 1930
A group of strangers find themselves aboard an unmanned ship, surrounded by fog and uncertain of their destination.
14 June 1940
Millionaire Baron de Courland and his fiancée Linda Stewart employ Jim Logan as a guide for their hunting trip in the jungle.
30 September 1996
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work.
01 August 2002
In this documentary on the life of Joan Crawford, we learn why she should be remembered as the great actress she was, and not only as "mommie dearest.
08 July 1953
A young woman discovers her grandfather owns the true Aladdin's lamp and discovers it's handsome Genie inside as well.
15 March 1925
Russ Kane obtains work as a pilot in the airmail service with the purpose of robbing the mails. However, during his training period at the Reno field, he becomes imbued with the spirit of the service and dedicates himself to getting the mail through.
01 January 1986
TV Movie A woman starts working for a prestigious pharmaceutical company that's developing a new miraculous cure.
19 September 1980
A flamboyant master criminal and several specialists stage an audacious scheme to capture the Eiffel Tower and hold as hostage one of its visitors, the U.
06 January 1929
When Steve Maxwell and flapper Sue Randall wreck her father's automobile during a drunken escapade, her father exploits the mishap and blackmails Steve's father into supporting an illegal contract in city affairs.
15 January 1928
A grease monkey discovers a defect in an auto engine being turned out by his employer. But since our hero discovers this only after losing an important race, his boss chalks up the loss to Fairbanks' supposed cowardice.
01 August 1930
Mr. and Mrs. Warner Bros. Pictures and their precocious offspring, Little Miss Vitaphone, host a dinner in honor of Warner Bros.
03 February 2004
Until 1932's Grand Hotel, never had there existed an all-star ensemble cast on film. Conceived by MGM's production genius Irving Thalberg, the film boasted names like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and John and Lionel Barrymore and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
12 September 2000
Arguably the quintessential film siren of the silent era, Mary Pickford was known as "America's Sweetheart.
01 January 1930
Jay Rountree, a young, rising businessman and a son of a wealthy manufacturer gets caught up in a web involving an escort service or 'party girls' and trapped into an unhappy marriage.
20 October 1932
Eddie Kane wanders round the studio back-lot, opening various doors to see which stars pop out.
18 December 1981
Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year-old secret.
19 August 1933
While waiting out World War I in a German POW camp, Captain Fred Allison discovers that his oldest and dearest friend Digby has also been captured and put into the same camp with him.
25 January 1931
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
09 February 1934
The woman who will become Catherine the Great marries into the Russian royal family when she weds Grand Duke Peter, the nephew of Empress Elizabeth.
30 January 1968
Composed of three shorts – Ride of the Valkyrie, The White Bus, and Red and Blue – from three of Britain’s most-celebrated directors - Lindsay Anderson, Peter Brook, and Tony Richardson.
08 November 1939
The struggle of a man to build a steam ship to take him across the Atlantic in spite of all setbacks, and his win against a crack sailing boat in the early 19th century.
15 May 1927
A rich man hires a pair of brothers, one to teach him to box and the other to manage him. Meanwhile, the rich man must fend off his brother-in-law, who is after the family inheritance.
26 January 1939
British army sergeants Ballantine, Cutter and MacChesney serve in India during the 1880s, along with their native water-bearer, Gunga Din.
02 April 1932
Scotty, an unwilling Navy war hero is cast into the limelight. He wants to get married and be an engineer, but is forced to fulfil the expectations of the public, his employer and his PR agent, which he hates.
21 May 1990
A celebrity benefit for The Actors' Fund of America, featuring music, songs, dance and comedy.
05 June 1988
A retrospective of the life and career of actor Cary Grant, including clips from his films and interviews with his friends and co-workers.
18 August 1933
Wildly optimistic chatterbox Eva Lovelace is a would-be actress trying to crash the New York stage. She attracts the interest of a paternal actor, a philandering producer, and an earnest playwright.
15 June 1950
Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up with Harry's schemes, his girlfriend, Mary, becomes fed up when he taps her for yet another loan.
26 January 1940
A group of adventurers head deep into South American jungle in search of an ancient Incan treasure.
30 January 1931
Alain's uncle sends him to France to toughen him with his aviator friend Pierre. He meets Suzanne on the voyage and fights for her love against José in an airplane.
02 February 1930
A grandmother's will leaves her fortune to a few, mostly to her great-niece Ann. Ann will only receive her inheritance once she marries, with the approval of three of her stuffed-shirt relatives, and without scandal.
08 July 1933
An Englishman sought for murder, tries to escape fate to South Seas island.
06 August 1975
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
08 August 1968
Musical short, filmed for the abandoned portmanteau film Red, White and Zero (1967).
11 September 1950
While working in England, an American surgeon Dr. John Marlowe is invited to Vosnia (a fictitious East-European country) to receive an award and demonstrate his life-saving surgery.
07 October 2001
The life and work of Samuel Goldwyn, a Polish-born glove salesman who became one of Hollywood's greatest independent producers, is remembered in this classy documentary created for the PBS American Masters series.
13 July 1950
This short focuses on the job of the costume designer in the production of motion pictures. The costume designer must design clothing that is correct for the film historically and geographically, and must be appropriate for the mood of the individual scene.
31 December 1978
A documentary about the film roles of British actor Alec Guinness. Volume 8 in a series produced by Janus Films.
08 March 1982
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
24 October 1982
A multi-award winning biography covering the life and career of legendary screen and stage actor/director Laurence Olivier.
16 January 1958
A woman who lives in Spain has trouble convincing anybody that a complete stranger has taken her dead brother's identity.
16 November 1925
An eccentric lower class woman struggles to gain respect in high society after marrying a wealthy man, and the problem gets worse when their daughter starts growing up.
01 December 1987
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Peter Fonda host an examination of the history of decency standards for movies from the early 1920s onwards.
18 December 1936
Tony and his dance partner/wife Gaby headline a Paris musical. Tony becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Yvette.
02 October 1940
Small-time businessman Charles Engle is threatened with exposure for embezzling $3,000 for his free-spending wife.
03 September 1937
A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation.
02 July 2009
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special.
12 February 1927
A young woman can't marry a millionaire because she was born illegitimately.
10 November 1929
Marty Reid, the star quarterback at Sanford College, is constantly singled out by the opposition for punishment, and he swears to his pal, Honey Smith, and to Coach Wilson that he will quit the game forever.
23 November 1980
Musical Special designed to showcase the minimal talents of Raquel Welch.
Highlights include: a scene featuring Welch and Mickey Rooney, portraying a cab driver with seemingly magical abilities; a scene featuring Welch in a subway station performing a medley and dance sequence; a scene wherein Welch attempts to sing “Money Makes the World Go Round”; Raquel performing a version of “We Are Family” in a martial arts training class; Rooney and Welch performing “Heaven on Earth”; Welch performing “Don’t Rain on My Parade” while escaping from a straitjacket; Welch performing “A Quiet Thing”; and Welch and Rooney performing “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.
13 January 1947
Daredevil sailor Sinbad embarks on a voyage across the Seven Seas to find the lost riches of Alexander the Great.
04 February 1928
Toni Le Brun, a beautiful Viennese singer, becomes the ward of the wardrobe mistress of a Monte Carlo nightclub.
18 February 1968
Musical version of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Songs by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen include, "Out in the Open Air", "Prithee Please", "A Happy Happenstance", "Ever So Softly", "Nottingham Fair", and "The Star Beyond the Star".
28 August 1921
In 17th century France, young D'Artagnan wants to join the King's Musketeers, but instead befriends three legendary musketeers—Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—and together, they become embroiled in the political intrigue surrounding King Louis XIII and his adversaries, particularly the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.
12 September 1931
A bookworm goes to Latin America and saves a politician's daughter from a forced marriage.
03 June 1933
Champion boxer Jimmy Dolan has cultivated a wholesome image for himself, but he's a boozer and womanizer behind the scenes.
