Porter Hall
Date of Birth: 19 Sep 1888
Country: USA
Biography: An American character actor who possessed a weak chin and shifty eyes, Hall played movie villains or comedic incompetent characters. He made his film debut in the 1931 drama Secrets of a Secretary. He later appeared in The Petrified Forest (1936), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and Ace in the Hole (1951).
Total Credits at Criticker: 63 (Actor)
Biography last updated by Antares, and picture by kangadoodoo
Find more information about Porter Hall at The Internet Movie Database
Titles you haven't rated - Actor (63)
An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions. (imdb)
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A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying. (imdb)
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A director of escapist films goes on the road as a hobo to learn about Life...which gives him a rude awakening. (imdb)
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Trudy Kockenlocker, a small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers, wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married someone she can't remember--and she's pregnant (imdb)
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When a man is trapped alive in a mine collapse, a self-interested reporter and the townspeople cynically create what we now call a "media circus". (imdb)
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Ma & Pa spend their last day together in New York City, and depart to separate nursing homes from the same train station they had arrived on to being their Honeymoon. (imdb)
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Alan Squier, a failed, world-weary British writer, hikes into an isolated, weather-beaten desert café in Arizona owned by Jason Marple... (imdb)
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Comedy-mystery featuring Nick and Nora Charles: a former detective and his rich, playful wife. They solve a murder case mostly for the fun of it. (imdb)
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When a nice old man who claims to be Santa Claus is institutionalized as insane, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing. (imdb)
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Helen and Ken are a pretty strange couple. She is a pathological liar, and he is a scrupulously honest (and therefore unsuccessful) lawyer. Helen starts a new job, and when her employer is found dead, all the (circumstantial) evidence points at her. (imdb)
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Saloon-bar singer Freddie gets very angry whenever boyfriend Blackie seems to be playing around. She always packs a six-shooter, so this is bad news for anything that happens to be in the way. (imdb)
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This is the story of David Marshall 'Marsh' Williams, the real life inventor of the world famous M-1 Carbine automatic riffle used in WWII... (imdb)
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Cowpoke Bob Seton becomes a rival for William Cantrell's girl and for the sheriff's job Cantrell covets. When Seton wins both, Cantrell forsakes his respected position as schoolteacher and leads a band of renegades through Kansas, looting and destroying, all in the name of the Confederacy. (imdb)
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Popular mailcoach driver Uncle Willie is in fact in league with the town's crooked banker. They plan to have the bank robbed after emptying it, and when Willie's choice for this doesn't show in time, he gets some local boys to do it. When his man does turn up he decides to stick around, as he is pals with the sheriff and also takes a shine to Willie's daughter Allison. This gives the bad men several new problems. (imdb)
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Sardonic detective Shane, thrown out of one town for bringing trouble, heads for home and his ex-partner's detective agency. The business is in a sad way, and Shane, who has had the forethought to provide himself with a 250-dollar commission from an old lady on the train, is welcomed with open arms... (imdb)
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In the winter of 1868, Eben Frost (William Demarest) goes to a Boston pawnshop and redeems a silver medal, inscribed to "Dr. W.T.G. Morton, the Benefactor of Mankind, with the Gratitude of Humanity." Frost drives to a country farmhouse and gives the medal to Morton's widow, Elizabeth Morton (Betty Field) who explains to her daughter, Betty (Donivee Lee), that Frost was the first person given anesthesia by her father, Boston dentist Dr. W.T.G. Morton... (imdb)
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A new priest shows up at the parish of a crusty old priest named Father Fitzgibbon. The new man, Father O'Malley, must ingratiate himself with both the old man and his congregation. There are various ups and downs in their relationship but on the whole, it all seems to be going rather well. Then one night, the church burns to the ground. (imdb)
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In revolution-torn China, American mercenary O'Hara is entrusted with a perilous mission, to get arms for the helpless authorities in a province ravaged by warlord General Yang. On the train to Shanghai, he meets Judy Perrie, whose father is in league with Yang. Will Judy regret agreeing to lure O'Hara to his doom, and if so, can she make it up to him? The balance of power seesaws to a perilous conclusion. (imdb)
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Anything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets a world-weary war correspondent and mistakes him for a jewel thief; a soldier learns that without an operation he'll die and so looks for one last romance with a beautiful but ambitious stenographer, and more... (imdb)
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In 1763, felon Abby Hale is sentenced to slavery in America. In Virginia, heroic Capt. Holden buys her, intending to free her, but villain Garth foils this plan, and Abby toils at Dave Bone's tavern. Garth is fomenting an Indian uprising to clear the wilderness of settlers, giving him a monopoly of the fur trade. Holden discovers Garth's treachery, but cannot prove anything against him. Can Holden and Abby save Fort Pitt from the Senecas? Many hairbreadth escapes. (imdb)
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Wild Bill Hickok attempts to stop an Indian uprising that was started by white gun-runners. (imdb)
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Biography of the man who invented pasteurization and made the first vaccine against rabies. (imdb)
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Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok develop the Pony Express uniting the country. Charlton Heston demonstrates his role as his generation's WIlliam Shatner.
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When a police officer is shot arresting a car thief, Captain Barnaby uses his skills and contacts to track down the culprits and uncovers a bank heist plan in the process. Barnaby has no qualms about bending the law to achieve his ends, including trumped up charges to persuade his only witness to cooperate or detaining some call girls to coerce their madam to help him. In the meantime he deals with everyday police business, juggling seemingly trivial matters with more serious ones. (imdb)
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Phoebe Titus is a tough, swaggering pioneer woman, but her ways become decidedly more feminine when she falls for California bound Peter Muncie. But Peter won't be distracted from his journey and Phoebe is left alone and plenty busy with villains Jefferson Carteret and Lazarus Ward plotting at every turn to destroy her freighting company. She has not seen the last of Peter, however. (imdb)
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Nick Condon is a newspaper reporter working in Tokyo who refuses to toe the Japanese line on the expansionist policies of the anti-democratic Imperialist government. When it become clear to the authorities that Condon isn't going to cooperate and that he has some valuable information and contacts, they decide to get him in their clutches for some interrogations and then dispose of him. (imdb)
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Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites, is found standing over the body of a dead white man, holding a pistol that has recently been fired. (imdb)
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A pollster stumbles on a family of murderous hillbillies, and joins in their search for hidden treasure. (imdb)
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Cooper and Raft save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about slave trade on the high seas in 1842. (imdb)
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In the small town of Crown Port local attorney Bill Adams is trying to break up the ring of corrupt town officials by running for mayor. The cards seemed stacked against him when he gets help from a visiting hunter who, unknown to Adams and the rest of the town, is actually vacationing supreme court justice John Josephus Grant. (imdb)
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Captain Drummond becomes a prisoner when he intents to protect a beautiful heiress of an espionage organization. (imdb)
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In this episode captain Drummond tries to find the killer of various people. All assassinations were provoked by a diamond of great value, but Drummond will face the danger. (imdb)
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A drifter claims the money in an old bank account. Soon he finds himself the target of two men who turn out to be the sons of the man's old partner, who is now in prison because of a conflict with him over the money in that account. (imdb)
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A boy runs away from home and ends up at a music school for poor children. When the school suffers hard times, he enlists the aid of violinist Heifetz to save the day. (imdb)
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Bat Masterson's girl tries to get him to give up gunfighting and become a respectable journalist, but Bat has other problems - his rival is in town gunning for him. (imdb)
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Alan Tanner's new play opens in a week, but Tanner just can't finish the third act. He's retreated to a snowbound cottage to work, but blonde neighbor Pat Quinn wants to play. Producer Arthur Layton sends Alice, Alan's first wife, to help him stick to business. But then Daisy, his second wife, shows up wanting her alimony... (imdb)
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Ruth Raymond works on the switchboard and her boyfriend is John Blake. It has taken 14 years, but a detective named Murray has found her and confirmed that she is Ruth Carson. As a child, she was kidnaped by her uncle and is the daughter of a wealthy railroad tycoon. Under the watchful eye of Godfrey D. Scott, an attempt on her life is foiled. But a fake telegram put her on a private railroad car heading east. It is in this car that her life is again in danger and people are murdered. (imdb)
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Famed German filmmaker E. A. Dupont, who in his peak years was responsible for such classics as Variety, merely goes through the motions in this updated sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Instead of Jim Hawkins, the film offers Jim's beautiful female descendant Jamesina (Dawn Addams), who manages to get her hands on Captain Flint's fabled treasure map. (allmovie.com)
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When Andrew Long, hyper-efficient small town accountant, finds a $1240 discrepancy in the city budget, his superiors try to explain it away. When he insists on pursuing the matter, he's in danger of being blamed himself. In his trouble, the spirit of Andrew Jackson, whom he idolizes, visits him, and in turn, summons much high-powered talent from American history...which only Andrew can see. Can he get out of trouble before too many people think he's crazy? (imdb)
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There is a fortune in gold on Apache land, and Archer, a dirty politician, intends to have it. Things reach the boiling point, but Young, a slick gambler, comes along and saves the day (imdb)
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A rueful wife (circa 1910) recalls 20 years of her husband's financial fumbles, as she keeps a boarding house to support the family. (imdb)
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An heiress with a penchant for speeding runs afoul of a traffic cop. Romance develops between the two, but it's soon complicated when he believes she is responsible for killing someone due to reckless driving. (imdb)
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A millionaire joins the Navy hoping to find a girl who'll marry him for himself, not for his money. A beautiful gold-digger who works at a resort hotel sets out to get him. (imdb)
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The Broadway citizen Aloysius 'Butch' Grogan is known far and wide to be involved with criminal activities. Butch is motivated to pursue a life of crime in order to provide the lovely widow Susie O'Neill with the funds to support herself and her little son. Butch is the lookout for a gang of safe crackers. One of them is forced to bring his squalling baby son along with him on the job. Butch is obliged to mind the baby while the safe is being knocked over. (imdb)
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In its never-ending efforts to find a "rustic" screen personality to replace the late Will Rogers, Hollywood turned to popular radio humorist Bob Burns. In Paramount's The Arkansas Traveller, Burns plays the nameless title character, who wanders in out of the nowhere to settle down in a dusty Arkansas farming community. (allrovi.com)
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Three men, reared together in New Orleans, but whose paths have drifted apart, each face a crisis during the last weekend of Mardi Gras. (imdb)
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A convict who has just escaped from Alcatraz Prison takes over a passenger ship. Two of the ship's crew hatch a plot to overpower him and rescue the ship's passengers. (imdb)
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The further adventures of Twain's most beloved fictitional characters of Tom Sawyer and his friend, Huckleberry Finn.
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A story of the boys who are sent to military school in order to get them out of the way of their too-busy-to-bother parents or guardians. Lonely young Philip Stewart (George Ernest)writes himself letters his father, Mark Stewart (Lester Matthews, should be writing. When his hoax is discovered Philip attempts suicide. (imdb)
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The inimitable Preston Sturges originally scripted Hotel Haywire with George Burns and Gracie Allen in mind, but by the time the film went before the cameras, the Burns and Allen roles had been recast with Benny Baker and Colette Lyons -- and significantly abbreviated in the process. A dentist named Parkhouse (Lynne Overman) plays a practical joke on a poker-playing buddy by sending him home with a lady's chemise stuffed in his coat pocket. (imdb)
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Akim Tamiroff, Paramount Pictures' resident crime lord, runs all illegal gambling activities in a major city. Reporter Lloyd Nolan struggles to get the goods on Tamiroff, but runs up against a stone wall until he meets nightclub singer Claire Trevor. Trevor is anxious to avenge the death of her sister (Helen Burgess), who was done in by Tamiroff's minions. Though only a "B" picture, King of Gamblers was given "A" treatment by director Robert Florey. (allmovie.com)
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Corliss Archer, 15, and Mildred Pringle, 17, are best friends, and get into some mischief together which causes their parents to start fighting over who is a bad influence on whom. Their fight also has an affect on Mildred and Lenny Archer, Corliss' brother, who elope one weekend when Lenny's home on leave from the Army. Fearing that the Pringles would want the marriage annulled, the couple decides not to tell anyone about it except Corliss. (imdb)
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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)
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In this drama, an ingenious journalist finds himself at odds with his brother the district attorney over his unconventional methods of investigating a story; especially when they interfere with the judicial process as they did when he began eavesdropping upon a grand jury. One of the reporter's tricks involves several ham radios strategically placed around the city. With the help of the operators, the journalist is able to get scoops. (allmovie.com)
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A young woman falls in love with with an armed robber. She gets arrested while visiting him in prison, and winds up in prison herself. (imdb)
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Publisher Jerry North returns home exhausted from a business trip only to be stunned when he and his scatter-brained wife, Pam, find a dead body in a closet. (imdb)
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During World War II, Lee Stevens travels to Washington D.C. with his secretary Jane Rogers in order to secure a government contract. Not thinking it through, Jane cancels their hotel reservations when she feels the accomodations are inadequate. With no rooms available in the entire city Lee and Jane pose as a married couple and take positions as maid and butler in the Cromwell's home until the contract can be secured.
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A famous singer and matinée idol helps a pretty young theater usher in her dreams of becoming a singer, but when her career begins to take off and she becomes engaged to a wealthy young man, he realizes he's fallen for her and plots to break up her impending marriage.
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A librarian is ostracised by neighbours who feel that her involvement with a local lothario makes her guilty of murder.
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The mayor of wild and woolly mining town Panamint, in San Francisco to fetch a preacher for the new church, happens upon young Philip Pharo, as handy with his fists as with a sermon. Arrived, it appears to Philip that some of the town's "bad" folks are better than the "better element." When he sets out to better the lives of the miners and bring flagrant sinners into his flock, the "godly" folks are of course outraged. What form will their retribution take?
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After the U.S. Senate allocates two billion dollars for veteran bonuses, Harrison Gentry, owner of Gentry Machinery and Supply Co. in Gentry, Oklahoma, plans to use his $1,100 bonus to marry his secretary and fiance of five years, Caroline Williams. Harrison's maiden aunts, with whom he lives, however, hope to use his bonus to erect a granite shaft in honor of their father on twenty acres they purchased eleven years before as "Ezra Gentry Park."
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Newspaper reporter Perry Brown is infatuated with fellow reporter Judy McGowan, but although she flirts with him, she is not romantically inclined toward him. The staff accountant, P. E. Dodd, is also in love with Judy, but he is so prudish, penny-pinching and regimented that he is unappealing. P. E. goes to the cabin belonging to his cousins, Bill and Jennie Hawkins, for a vacation in the mountains. When Cyrus K. West, the wealthiest man in the country,
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