Edward Buzzell
1900 - 1985Edward Buzzell (November 13, 1900 - January 11, 1985) was an American film director whose credits for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer included Honolulu (1939), the Marx Brothers films At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940), the musicals Best Foot Forward (1943) with Lucille Ball and Neptune's Daughter (1949) with Esther Williams, and Easy to Wed, starring Van Johnson, Williams, and Ball.
Buzzell was born in Brooklyn. He appeared on Broadway, and was hired to star in the 1929 film version of George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones with Alice Day. Buzzell appeared in a few Vitaphone shorts, and the two-strip Technicolor short The Devil's Cabaret (1930) as Satan's assistant. He wrote a few screenplays in the early 1930s and later produced The Milton Berle Show which premiered on television in 1948.
Buzzell married actress Ona Munson in 1927, and they divorced in the early 30s. He later married actress Lorraine Miller. He died in Los Angeles at the age of 84.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Edward Buzzell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Virtue
Edward Buzzell
Carole Lombard, Pat O’Brien
Given a second chance after her arrest for prostitution, Mae decides to go straight. Mae is soon befriended by kindly cab driver Jimmy Doyle who gets her work at a diner, where she meets Gert, another former prostitute. Mae and Jimmy fall in love, marry and save to buy a small business. Gert then pleads for money from Mae, which results in her unwitting involvement in a crime. Believing Mae has lied and cheated him, Jimmy threatens to leave her.
Virtue
At the Circus
Edward Buzzell
Groucho Marx, Chico Marx
Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10,000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter lets his accomplices steal the money, so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.
At the Circus
Go West
Edward Buzzell
Groucho Marx, Chico Marx
Embezzler, shill, all around confidence man S. Quentin Quale is heading west to find his fortune; he meets the crafty but simple brothers Joseph and Rusty Panello in a train station, where they steal all his money. They're heading west, too, because they've heard you can just pick the gold off the ground. Once there, they befriend an old miner named Dan Wilson whose property, Dead Man's Gulch, has no gold. They loan him their last ten dollars so he can go start life anew, and for collateral, he gives them the deed to the Gulch. Unbeknownst to Wilson, the son of his longtime rival, Terry Turner (who's also in love with his daughter, Eva), has contacted the railroad to arrange for them to build through the land, making the old man rich and hopefully resolving the feud. But the evil Red Baxter, owner of a saloon, tricks the boys out of the deed, and it's up to them - as well as Quale, who naturally finds his way out west anyway - to save the day.
Go West
A Woman of Distinction
Edward Buzzell
Rosalind Russell, Ray Milland
Ice-cold college dean Susan Middlecott feels there's no room in her life for romance. Enter Prof. Alec Stevenson, British lecturer on astronomy, touring North America and in possession of a keepsake of Susan's he wants to return. Desperate for publicity, lecture bureau press agent Teddy Evans magnifies this into a great romance. The efforts of both dignified principals to quash the story have the opposite effect; matters get more and more involved.
A Woman of Distinction
Honolulu
Edward Buzzell
Eleanor Powell, Robert Young
Movie star Brooks Mason tries to avoid his fans and spend some weeks on vacation. When Hawaiian plantage-owner George Smith is mistaken by Mason's fans for Mason and brought to Mason's home. They decide to change their identities for a few weeks. But George Smith is mobbed by Mason's fans again on a personal appearance tour in New York, Mason falls in love to dancer Dorothy March, who also is on her way to Hawaii. Problems for Mason arise due to the fact that Smith is engaged with Cecilia Grayson, and her wealthy father believes, that Smith has double-crossed him. Mason isn't able to establish a connection with Smith in New York due to his agent's orders.
Honolulu
Ship Ahoy
Edward Buzzell
Eleanor Powell, Red Skelton
Miss Winters is a dancer with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and is asked to secretly transport a prototype magnetic mine to Puerto Rico. She thinks that she is working for the US Government, but fails to see why she would be involved.
Ship Ahoy
Cross Country Cruise
Edward Buzzell
Lew Ayres, June Knight
A young woman is involved with a married man, although she does not know that he is married. He kills his jealous wife and implicates her in the murder. However, a playboy character who had been flirting with the woman earlier turns amateur detective and clears her.
Cross Country Cruise
Best Foot Forward
Edward Buzzell
Lucille Ball, William Gaxton
Bud Hooper, a cadet at Winsocki Military Academy, sends an invitation to movie star Lucille Ball to come to Winsocki's big dance. Ball's publicity-hungry agent convinces her to go in order to boost her career. Complications arise when Bud's girlfriend Helen Schlesinger unexpectedly shows up, too.
Best Foot Forward
Child of Manhattan
Edward Buzzell
Nancy Carroll, John Boles
Paul Vanderkill is extraordinarily wealthy because his grandfather happened to buy farmland in what was to become Midtown Manhattan. The Loveland Dance Hall is one of the tenants of the Vanderkill estates. To reassure his aunt Sophie, Vanderkill visits Loveland to determine whether it is as disreputable as Sophie suspects. There he meets a dime-a-dance girl, Madeleine MacGonagal, who charms him with her quaint proletarian accent. They begin a secret affair, which turns into a secret marriage when pregnancy ensues. When the baby fails to survive, Madeleine decides that since he had married her only for the baby's sake, she should make haste to Mexico to secure a divorce. There she meets Panama Canal Kelly, a former suitor who now owns a silver mine. Her plans for divorce and quick remarriage are complicated when Vanderkill arrives to confront her.
Child of Manhattan
Neptune's Daughter
Edward Buzzell
Esther Williams, Red Skelton
Scatterbrained Betty Barrett mistakes masseur Jack Spratt for Jose O'Rourke, the captain of the South American polo team. Spratt goes along with the charade, but the situation becomes more complicated when they fall in love. Meanwhile, Betty's sensible older sister Eve fears Betty's heart will be broken when Jose returns to South America. She arranges to meet with the real O'Rourke and love soon blossoms between them as well.
Neptune's Daughter
