Elliott Nugent
1896 - 1980Elliott Nugent (September 20, 1896, Dover, Ohio - August 9, 1980, New York City) was an American actor, writer, and film director. He successfully made the transition from silent film to sound. He directed The Cat and the Canary (1939), starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. He also directed the Hope films Never Say Die (1939) and My Favorite Brunette (1947).
Nugent was a college classmate (and lifelong friend) of fellow Ohioan James Thurber. Together, they wrote the Broadway play The Male Animal (1940) in which Nugent starred with Gene Tierney. He also directed the 1942 Warner Bros. film version of The Male Animal, starring Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland.
Nugent's autobiography Events Leading Up to the Comedy (1965) skips over large portions of Nugent's life and work, but deals honestly with the alcoholism that largely ended his career.
Nugent was the son of veteran actor J.C. Nugent who sometimes wrote or acted with Elliott.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Elliott Nugent, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
The Cat and the Canary
Elliott Nugent
Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard
Ten years after the death of millionaire Cyrus Norman, his will is to be read out to his six relatives, including Joyce Norman and Wally Campbell. Organized by Norman's lawyer, Crosby, the six meet at Norman's eerie New Orleans Gothic mansion. During the reading, the superstitious housekeeper declares that someone will be dead by midnight. Wally fears for Joyce when she is declared the sole inheritor, but all are alarmed when Crosby turns up dead.
The Cat and the Canary
Nothing But the Truth
Elliott Nugent
Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard
Gwen Saunders teams up with her uncle's employee, Steve Bennett, in an attempt to double her $10,000 investment in the family firm. If she can reach the $20,000 mark, her uncle T.T. Ralston will match the figure. Steve bets that if he can spend an entire day without telling a lie, Ralston and his business partners must double Gwen's money. Bennett then earns the enmity of everyone involved in his attempt to win the bet.
Nothing But the Truth
The Last Flight
William Dieterle
Richard Barthelmess, David Manners
Cary, Shep, Bill, and Francis are pilots during World War I. The four friends, haunted by the devastation of the war, head to Paris instead of home, where they meet Nikki, an eccentric and wealthy young woman. Nikki is drawn to Cary, and the five friends, tagged by the boorish reporter, Frink, drink their way from Paris to Lisbon.
The Last Flight
Welcome Stranger
Elliott Nugent
Bing Crosby, Joan Caulfield
Crusty Dr. McRory of Fallbridge, Maine, hires his vacation replacement sight unseen. Alas, he and young singing Doctor Jim Pearson don't hit it off; but once he meets teacher Trudy Mason, Pearson is delighted to stay. The locals, taking their cue from McRory, cold-shoulder Pearson, especially Trudy's stuffy fiancé. But then, guess who needs an emergency appendectomy?
Welcome Stranger
Never Say Die
Elliott Nugent
Martha Raye, Bob Hope
Bob Hope is being stalked by a predatory widow who is a widow of wealthy husbands many times over. Martha Raye is a Texan heiress who wants to marry her boyfriend Andy Devine, but her father is determined that she marry into royalty. To solve both their problems, Martha Raye and Bob Hope decide to marry, but will they ever find love together?
Never Say Die
My Favorite Brunette
Elliott Nugent
Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour
Baby photographer Ronnie Jackson, on death row in San Quentin, tells reporters how he got there: taking care of his private-eye neighbor's office, Ronnie is asked by the irresistible Baroness Montay to find the missing Baron. There follow confusing but sinister doings in a gloomy mansion and a private sanatorium, with every plot twist a parody of thriller cliches.
My Favorite Brunette
My Girl Tisa
Elliott Nugent
Lilli Palmer, Sam Wanamaker
1905 was a period of heavy immigration from Europe to America before laws were passed restricting the flow of immigrants. Almost every character in this movie is a recent arrival. Tisa has been in America only four months, yet she is holding four jobs to save enough money to pay for her father's boat passage to America. She works in a garment factory in Greenwich Village owned by Mr. Grumbach, who is studying to pass his citizenship test. Denek, a brash young man, tries to help her but gets her into trouble and her deportation is ordered by an immigration judge.
My Girl Tisa
College Scandal
Elliott Nugent
Arline Judge, Edward Nugent
Julie Fresnel is a co-ed at Redgate University and her father, Dr. Henri Fresnel, is the new French professor. Julie attraction from the make students drops a bit when two of her admirers are found murdered. When an attempt on the life of a third one is made. Seth Dunlap, an instructor at the school, decides to turn detective and find the killer. Assisted by his sister, who is in love with the third student, Dunlap begins to follow the the small trail of clues left by the killer.
College Scandal
The Male Animal
Elliott Nugent
Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland
The trustees of Midwestern University have forced three teachers out of their jobs for being suspected communists. Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild mannered English Professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in class. Tommy is upset that his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage. Meanwhile, Ellen's old boyfriend, the football player Joe Ferguson, comes to visit for the homecoming weekend. He takes Ellen out dancing after the football rally, causing Tommy to worry that he will lose her to Joe.
The Male Animal
Wives Never Know
Elliott Nugent
Charles Ruggles, Mary Boland
Homer Bigelow has an ideal marriage, with a wife who loves him very much as does he in return. Hilarity ensues when, his wife and him take "marital advice" from an old school friend, who thinks marriage is a farce.
Wives Never Know
It's All Yours
Elliott Nugent
Madeleine Carroll, Francis Lederer
Jimmy Barnes arrives from Europe to be educated by his multi-millionaire uncle, Edward J. Barnes and in five years the extravagant escapes of Jimmy, now a lawyer, are the talk of San Francisco. Linda Gray is a mouse-like secretary to the elder Barnes who has fallen in love with Jimmy, but he favors actress Constance "Connie" Marlowe. Mr. Barnes dies and leaves everything to Linda but he has urged his partner, Alexander Duncan, to plan things so that Jimmy and Linda will get married. Coached by Duncan, Linda accepts the inheritance and announces that she is departing for New York on a wild spending spree. He tells Jimmy that the will can be broken but only after many months and he suggests that Jimmy follow Linda and curb her spending or there won't be any money left. In New York, Linda hires Jimmy as her private secretary. Connie also arrives in New York, as does the ingenious Baron Rene de Montigny with the intention of marrying the wealthy Miss Gray.
It's All Yours
