James Dunn Trailers
Hollywood’s Children TrailerThe Biggest Little Star of the 30's TrailerBrother, Can You Spare a Dime? Trailer
James Dunn worked on the stage, in vaudeville and as an extra in silent movies before he was signed by Fox in 1931. His first movie with Fox was 1931's Sob Sister (1931). While at Fox, he appeared with Shirley Temple in her first three features: Baby Take a Bow (1934), Stand Up and Cheer! (1934) and Bright Eyes (1934). Dunn's screen character was usually the boy next door or the nice guy. In 1935 musicals at the new 20th Century-Fox were out and Dunn would move to the "B" list, from which he would never return. In The Payoff (1935) he plays the nice guy newspaper columnist whose wife ruins his career. By the late 1930s he was drinking heavily and become unemployable. He would appear in small roles in films during the early 1940s, but those parts were few. In 1945 he was able to make a comeback and win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), but his rejuvenated career would not continue. By 1951 he would again be unemployed and bankrupt. Television would later supply some work and he would be a regular on the series It's a Great Life (1954).
Dunn was born 2 November 1901, New York City, New York, USA, and he died 1 September 1967, Santa Monica, California, USA (following abdominal surgery)
Most Popular James Dunn Trailers
Total trailers found: 64
17 January 1932
Jimmy Mulligan and Poppy Kirk, both out of work, strike up a conversation outside a radio shop and discover a shared dream of hitting it big dancing and decide to team up.
09 January 1935
An honest sports columnist's greedy wife persuades him to go easy on a cheat, famous for crooked sports deals.
22 July 1933
A team of con men trying to double-cross a woman they are supposedly helping to get some stolen money back wind up getting crossed themselves.
29 March 1935
A Broadway producer discovers new talent in a small Georgia town and brings them to New York for his new show.
30 March 1940
A runaway boy pretends to be the son of a Navy man, only to turn both their lives upside down.
17 March 1933
U.S. sailor Jimmy Harrigan, on shore leave in San Pedro, meets and falls for Sally Brent She promises to wait for him when he ships out to San Francisco, but Jimmy becomes jealous and tells her off when he learns Sally has entered a marathon dance contest sponsored by a lecherous snake named Baron Portola.
05 March 1968
A corrupt sheriff knows the secrets of everyone in town and uses that information to go unchallenged.
16 July 1948
Eddie Tayloe's grandfather leaves him six thousand dollars and the money belt it came in, freeing Tayloe to leave his dull newspaper job in Texas and move to New York to become a playwright.
06 August 1975
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
29 November 1931
In their farm house in a New York village, Ma Shelby prepares breakfast for her four children, Isaac, Tommy, Johnny and Susan, and then awakens them.
05 November 1943
An aviation engineer and a government secretary are thrown together by the war effort.
01 December 1947
Tommy McCoy grew up poor and scrappy. As a young man he discovers that he can fight with his powerful right arm.
10 August 1950
Sponsored by The Protestant Film Commission, this religiously-affiliated tale centers around citizen Henry Wood (played by Oscar winner James Dunn from "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"), who loved family and church, gave to the needy, and donated most of his money to charity.
22 March 1950
Joe Riley is a boxing referee whose life-code is the same as the sporting rules of the prizefight ring.
04 March 1966
An amoral lowlife accidentally stumbles into an acting career that sets him on a trajectory to Hollywood stardom.
04 December 1939
Air-race champions "Speed" Leslie and Branda Fowler combine to open a very profitable airplane service that flies patients to other cities for special treatment.
17 July 1944
A young husband becomes a game-show participant in the hopes of winning the cash to pay his pregnant wife's doctor.
04 May 1934
President Franklin Roosevelt appoints a theatrical producer as the new Secretary of Amusement in order to cheer up an American public still suffering through the Depression.
11 August 1942
A detective investigating kidnapping case discovers the victim, who may be a zombie.
26 May 1936
Best friends Kenneth Reynolds and Raymond Jordan are U.S. Navy officers, and Kenneth is engaged to Raymond's sister.
24 February 1960
A young doctor returns to his Massachusetts home town at the request of a terminally ill old friend.
25 October 1931
Jane Ray, a very clever reporter of crimes of passion, or "sob sister," for a New York tabloid, begins to feel depressed by the sordidness of her latest assignment, the investigation of a young woman's murder by her husband.
28 December 1934
An orphaned girl is taken in by a snobbish family at the insistence of their rich, crotchety uncle, even as her devoted aviator godfather fights for custody.
17 July 1935
The Daring Young Man is hotshot-reporter Don McLane, played by James Dunn. Always on the prowl for a good story, McLane is persistently outscooped by his rival, sob sister Martha Allen (Mae Clarke).
27 December 1936
While crossing on the train ferry to New Orleans, roving reporter Addison Francis Murphy borrows money from singing hillbilly "Carolina," then loses it all in a crap game.
25 July 1962
Young and restless Nick Adams, the only son of a domineering mother and a weak but noble doctor father, leaves his rural Michigan home to embark on an eventful cross-country journey.
23 March 1934
"That girl" is newspaper sob-sister Tony Bellamy (Claire Trevor), whose nose for news gets her into one jam after another, especially when she poses as an exotic dancer to get the goods on a gangster.
23 January 1939
A disruptive Annapolis naval cadet refuses to tow the line and so gets booted out of the prestigious academy.
14 May 1937
A fast-talking, street-wise con-man forsakes the tank-towns of Pennsylvania for the greener pastures in Manhattan, and gains fame-and-fortune as New York City's number one merchandise promoter.
04 November 1933
Jimmy is a wiseguy press agent whose efforts to promote a meat-packing firm come to naught. Our hero is fired from his job, whereupon his sweetheart Sally steps in, immediately succeeding where Jimmy had failed.
19 April 1943
Newlyweds Webster and Jackie Frye spend their honeymoon in a sinister old country house. Before long, they are besieged by a gang of crooks, searching for a fortune in diamonds.
11 December 1934
Down-on-his-luck film director Jimmie Dale takes a job at a fly-by-night acting school. He is drawn into the plans of the school's owner to bilk a wealthy young man out of the funds he has supplied to shoot a movie starring pretty student Alice Perkins.
26 May 1933
A hospital surgeon (James Dunn) protects a mystery woman (Gloria Stuart) who knows too much about a card-game murder.
15 August 1936
Mickey, is a prizefighter whose bright career hits the skids when he comes under the guidance of Ginger, a female fight promoter, when he becomes involved with June Prentice and her high-society crowd.
25 October 1935
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.
28 February 1945
In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism.
07 November 1936
A fast-talking pitchman working the con-games on the streets, works himself up into an executive position of a large department store, with the aide of his shill, Mae.
01 January 1976
A compilation of Shirley Temple newsreel appearances from the 1930's.
10 January 1957
After World War III a small group of people live in the desert. A young man tries to run away, hoping to find other communities of survivors, but is told by the elders that he must stay and marry the group's only young woman.
28 March 1937
A trio of American crooks board a ship bound for Europe, intending to get rid of $100,000 in stolen dough.
30 June 1934
Eddie Ellison is an ex-con who spent time in Sing-Sing prison. Kay marries him as soon as he serves his time.
09 August 1935
A con artist attends a reunion in his hometown and discovers that his former classmates are trying to trick an old millionaire into returning to build a factory.
13 August 1931
A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage.
25 November 1933
Take a Chance was based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, though only one of the original songs, Eadie Was a Lady, has been retained.
18 May 1934
Catherine and Mack and their close friends Chris and Madge graduate from a West Coast college and fly to New York City to find work.
20 May 1933
Newly married sweethearts Chuck Evans and Molly Roberts work at Blair's Department Store and Molly plans to quit to be a stay-at-home wife and mother.
11 May 1957
A musical television special chronicling the early career of playwright George M. Cohan, focusing primarily on his vaudeville years as part of his family singing group "The Four Cohans.
07 September 1934
Sally (Jean Parker) is engaged to be married, loves dancing and kids. But her life is ruined when an accident cripples her and her betrothed magnanimously offers to not back out of the marriage.
24 February 1982
A documentary about child actors, since the beginning of motion pictures (narrated by Roddy McDowell).
08 June 1930
'Blind Bob' has written a song and the folks at the music publishing company think that Joe Frisco, his old friend from the Bowery is just right for it.
23 December 1946
Raised by Natalie Brennan, a flamboyant and irresponsible mother, Ziggy Brennan gets involved in hustling men at a young age.
14 October 1938
A pilot carrying a valuable amulet is shot down over China by a ruthless Russian agent, who also wants the amulet.
18 August 1919
The story of Helen Keller and how she overcame her disabilities.
14 April 1933
While Peggy deeply falls in love with Jimmy, her best friend Millie becomes increasingly frustrated with men and very jealous with Peggy, so she tries everything to destroy the new love.
26 August 1944
Private Investigator Terry Moran, who is in love with Nora O'Brien the daughter of Police Detective Tim O'Brien, is hired by Mrs.
29 May 1932
Johnny is training for a championship fight. Judy distracts him, so his manager Briscoe walks out on him.
25 December 1932
Bill Gordon (James Dunn), whose lot-in-life is rising, falls in love with Helen Barlow (Boots Mallory), who is raising two cute motherless children who nearly wreck her romance when they can't understand why grown-ups kiss.
12 February 1936
Two college students, Bob McDonald and Arthur Hale, find themselves expelled after they are unable to pay their tuition.
12 November 1937
A man and a woman, who have never met, are forced by pecuniary circumstances to share the same basement apartment in shifts.
28 June 1940
A skip tracer--someone who collects late payments from people who've purchased appliances, etc., or takes them back them when they don't pay--repossesses a small radio from a deadbeat who's skipped payments.
