Walter Connolly Trailers
Black Shadows on a Silver Screen TrailerThe Great Victor Herbert TrailerFifth Avenue Girl Trailer
The name may have been forgotten, especially today (seven decades later), but the portly, apoplectic, exasperated figure on the 1930s screen wasn't. While his film career, save a couple of silents, lasted a paltry seven years (1932-1939), character actor Walter Connolly certainly ran the distance. While some film historians complain that a number of his performances were annoying or overbaked, he was for the most part applauded for his zesty contributions to a number of comedy classics. Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933), Broadway Bill (1934) and It Happened One Night (1934), not to mention the Carole Lombard/Fredric March screwball farce Nothing Sacred (1937) as news reporter March's hot-headed editor boss are sure-fire examples.
The Cincinnati, Ohio native was born on April 8, 1887 and schooled there. The son of the head of the Western Union relay office, he attended St. Xavier College and the University of Dublin in Ireland before making his New York debut in 1910 in an outdoor presentation of "As You Like It". For the next year or so he was a member of E.H. Sothern's touring company and played supporting roles in a number of Shakespearean shows on the road. After a few silent pictures left him unimpressed with film-making, he turned to the Broadway stage in the 1920s and scored quite well. Somewhat short and tubby, it was not difficult for the jowly, mustachioed actor to seize laughs and he found his share in such outings as "The Talking Parrot" (1923), "Applesauce" (1925), "The Springboard" (1927), "The Happy Husband" (1928), "Stepping Out" (1929), "Your Uncle Dudley" (1930), "Anatol" (1931), "Six Characters in Search of an Author" (1931), "The Good Fairy" (1932) and "The Late Christopher Bean" (1932).
With his talents as a stage farceur firmly established, it was time to make a second attempt at a film career and Hollywood (specifically, Columbia) wisely opened their doors to him. Interestingly, his debut in a full-length talking picture came at age 45 in the form of a drama, Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932), where he was third-billed as a rather benign senator. For the next seven years Connolly, often playing older than he really was, could be found everywhere giving good fluster to the greatest and glossiest of stars -- Janet Gaynor, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, Paul Muni, Spencer Tracy, and Ginger Rogers, among hordes of others.
His hobbies were collecting old books and theatre programmes. Connolly was married to actress Nedda Harrigan from 1923 to his death. They had one daughter, Ann (1924–2006). Connolly suffered a fatal stroke on May 28, 1940, and was buried in New St. Joseph Cemetery in Cincinnati.
Most Popular Walter Connolly Trailers
Total trailers found: 49
25 September 1934
Heiress Hedda Nillson certain that her family is about to lose all its money, takes a job as a maid. After the usual trials and tribulations, Hedda falls in love with humble chauffeur Eric Landstrom.
03 March 1938
After retiring from movies to get an education, a man discovers his ex-staff is trying to have him expelled.
15 October 1932
Button Gwinett Brown is a freshman congressman on a mission to rid Washington of corruption. He quickly runs afoul of the powerful Senator Norton.
25 November 1932
Despite loving another man, a young woman is talked into marrying a wealthy and boorish prince in order to help her financially-strapped father.
21 September 1939
Dr. MacAuley, a kindly, beloved country doctor, is sent to Fillmore Prison. His crime was for removing a bullet from a young man who was escaping from the police.
05 February 1938
The story of a D.A. who becomes a prison warden and winds up overseeing the sentence of a man he prosecuted.
02 November 1934
Alcoholic newspaperman Steve Bramley boards the San Capador for a restful cruise, hoping to quit drinking and begin writing a book.
12 March 1937
After being in jail for seventeen years a crook is met by the girl he kidnapped as a baby. She now thinks he's her father.
27 December 1935
A powerful publisher John Mitchell whose pursuit of sensational headlines at the expense of all else takes a personal toll when his daughter Joan is implicated in a murder.
26 May 1939
A carefree playboy with an aversion to marriage falls for a lass he meets in the French Alps.
19 April 1975
Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.
30 November 1934
Tycoon J.L. Higgins controls his whole family, but one of his sons-in-law, Dan Brooks, and his daughter Alice are fed up with that.
28 November 1933
One of ten films that Fay Wray made in 1993 (including King Kong), Master of Men casts her as Kay Walling, a woman who is being ignored by her husband, Buck (played by Jack Holt).
22 February 1934
A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leaves them behind.
23 December 1938
A wealthy playboy surreptitiously romances a scullery maid to gain access to her mistress with whom he is in love, but doesn't count on the maid falling in love with him.
25 May 1937
Nero Wolfe agrees to investigate a series of murders that seem to be tied in with a past Harvard hazing prank that went awry.
24 March 1934
An able nurse clashes with a new doctor at her hospital.
31 December 1938
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
10 February 1939
Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River.
20 June 1939
Jenny Swanson, a waitress on a college campus, is dying to visit Paris. Thanks to English professor Ronald Brooke, she manages to make her dream come true.
04 December 1937
A politician's wife plots for her husband to become the next U.S. President.
12 July 1934
Broadway's most successful producer, John Forrester, is deeply in love with his wife Margaret and dreams of the future when his son Jack will step into his shoes.
09 October 1936
When a major newspaper accuses wealthy socialite Connie Allenbury of being a home-wrecker, and she files a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit, the publication's frazzled head editor, Warren Haggerty, must find a way to turn the tables on her.
11 May 1934
A temperamental Broadway producer trains an untutored actress, but when she becomes a star, she proves a match for him.
14 December 1934
After notorious jewel thief Flambeau meets Evelyn Fischer during a raid on a casino, he falls deeply in love with her.
13 September 1933
Apple Annie is an aging New York City fruit seller whose daughter Louise has been raised in a Spanish convent since she was an infant.
16 September 1938
While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding.
04 August 1938
A public relations man falls for his most difficult client's granddaughter.
02 June 1937
China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.
20 November 1933
Bill takes Trina into his depression camp cabin. Later, just as he finds showgirl LaRue who will support him, Trina becomes pregnant.
27 May 1936
Princess is destined to marry the Emperor, until her sister steps in.
25 November 1935
A convict marries the warder's daughter after his escape and she eventually persuades him to finish his sentence.
25 December 1932
An American missionary is gradually seduced by a courtly warlord holding her in Shanghai.
19 December 1915
While engaged in battle, Pierre Duval, a French soldier, stumbles onto the mortally wounded Count de Morave.
20 December 1935
During the American Civil War, Valette Bedford waits patiently for her husband Duncan Bedford, to return home, praying that she will not become a widow.
15 November 1932
Johnny McCloud, a tough police inspector given more to fisticuffs than investigating has the hots for torch-singer Lola Parker, but Miss Parker is much taken with a good-looking crook named George Perry.
25 November 1937
When a small-town girl is incorrectly diagnosed with a rare, deadly disease, an unknowing newspaper columnist turns her into a national heroine.
01 September 1933
In Ireland, Major Adair’s older daughter Eileen is about to marry Lawrence Blake for his money in order to pay off her father’s debts, even though she really loves Jack Breen.
08 October 1935
The wealthy Van Dyke family are constantly in the media for outrageous behavior, much to the frustration of the patriarch, Dan Van Dyke.
22 September 1939
A wealthy man hires a poor girl to play his mistress in order to get more attention from his neglectful family.
17 January 1936
Tycoon Humphrey Craig is fearful that a "soak the rich" bill will pass in the United States Senate.
04 August 1939
Steady, dependable Coast Guard Lieutenant Raymond "Ray" Dower and reckless aviator Thomas "Speed" Bradshaw are the closest of friends.
27 February 1936
Harry Wallace (Harry Richman) is the star of a musical comedy who, while on a leave of absence from Broadway, encounters a troupe of untalented showboat players and takes them to New York City.
05 January 1934
In an exclusive Swiss school for young girls, Christa Storm discovers that she is going to have a baby.
15 October 1934
To improve her image, a fan dancer "adopts" an old woman to be her mother.
28 November 1933
A kindly, elderly couple who run a New York City boarding house form the steady center around which the lives and loves of their various residents unfold.
02 March 1934
Short film in which Frankie Darro as a Telegram delivery boy visits various Hollywood locations to make deliveries.
29 December 1939
In his last film assignment, portly Walter Connolly fills the title role (in more ways than one) in The Great Victor Herbert.
14 April 1937
Political kingmaker Joe Quinn attempts to elevate his daughter's ambitious suitor, George Willoughby, into the the higher echelons of politics by getting him elected to Congress.
