Dramatic School(1938). Romantic/drama directed by Robert B. Sinclair. Cast: Luise Rainer, Paulette Goddard, Alan Marshal, Lana Turner and Gale Sondergaard. Based on the play School of Drama by Hans Székely and Zoltan Egyed. MGM had planned for Greer Garson to make her film debut in the film, but shortly before shooting began, Garson injured her back and the role was recast with Luise Rainer.
Although her heart is in the right place Louise Mauban, can't keep falling asleep in Madame Charlot's class at the National School of Dramatic Arts in Paris. The other girls in class invite her to go out to parties with them, but Louise always refuses, claiming that she has other plans. The truth is.. Louise works at a factory to earn enough money to to pay for her classes.
One night, Gina Bertier, who wants to do research for a role as a poor working girl, comes to the factory where Louise works and Marquis Andre D'Abbencourt, decides to tag along. Louise, who is attracted to Andre, begins to fantasize that they are lovers and shares with her classmates exciting stories about their(made up) romance.
Nana, believes that she is lying and to prove her suspensions, she throws a party and invites both Andre and Louise. Nana and her friends are all hoping that Louise will be humiliated when Andre arrives and doesn't recognize her. The kindhearted butler advises Andre that he should not destroy a girl's romantic dreams, Andre agrees and pretends that he is in love with Louise.
It does not take long and Andre, now really is in love with Louise and begins to tire of her dramatic studies and she leaves him after learning that he has spent the night with another woman.
One night, Gina, who is supposed to play the lead in Joan of Arc refuses to play her part, Louise is selected to go on in her place. She is a success and is visited backstage by Andre, who now wants her back. Will Louise forgive him and allow him back into her live or will she choose the theater?
Video:
Before a big audition, students Simone (Virginia Grey) and Mado (Lana Turner) gossiping about Fluery (Anthony Allan) to the alarm of ambitious Nana (Paulette Goddard), who is later counseled by the more philosophical Louise (Luise Rainer), in MGM's Dramatic School, 1938.
The film was interesting and Luise Rainier did remind me a little of Greer Garson.
Gale Sondergaard was very good as was Goddard. It was interesting to watch such great stars as Lana Turner and Ann Rutherford in early performances of their careers.
Genevieve Tobin (November 29, 1899 – July 21, 1995)
The daughter of a vaudeville performer, Tobin made her film debut in 1910 in Uncle Tom's Cabin as Eva.
She appeared in a few films as child, and formed a double act with her sister Vivian. Their brother, George, also had a brief acting career.
Following her education in Paris and New York, Tobin concentrated on a stage career in New York.
Although she was seen most often in comedies, she also played the role of Cordelia in a Broadway production of King Lear in 1923.
Popular with audiences, she was often praised by critics for her appearance and style rather than for her talent, however in 1929 she achieved a significant success in the play Fifty Million Frenchmen. She introduced and popularized the Cole Porter song "You Do Something to Me" and the success of the role led her back to Hollywood, where she performed regularly in comedy films from the early 1930s.
She played prominent supporting roles opposite such performers as Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Joan Blondell and Kay Francis, but occasionally played starring roles, in films such as Golden Harvest (1933) and Easy to Love (1934). She played secretary Della Street to Warren William's Perry Mason in The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935).
One of her most successful performances was as a bored housewife in the drama The Petrified Forest (1936) opposite Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart.
She married the director William Keighley in 1938 and made only a couple more films, her final film before her retirement was No Time for Comedy (1940) with James Stewart and Rosalind Russell.
The Women(1939). Comedy/drama directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code. Cast: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Mary Boland, and Virginia Grey, Marjorie Main and Phyllis Povah, the last two of whom reprise their stage roles from the play. Florence Nash, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Weidler, Butterfly McQueen(debut), and Hedda Hopper also appeared in smaller roles.
While having her nails painted "jungle red," as the catty Sylvia Fowler learns from Olga, the manicurist, that her good friend Mary Haines's husband Stephen, is having an affair with perfume clerk Crystal Allen.
Mary is hosting a luncheon that afternoon and Sylvia cannot wait to spread the gossip among their friends. When Stephen calls to cancel a trip they had been planning, making matters worse.
Sylvia,recommends Olga to Mary for a "jungle red" manicure, who shares with her the details of Stephen's affair, not realizing that Mary is Mrs. Haines.
Mary's mother, Mrs. Morehead, advises her daughter to keep silent, but during a fashion show, Mary unexpectedly meets the gold digger Crystal. Sylvia, loves that the confrontation made the society columns front page.
Heartbroken, Mary, now facing every woman's nightmare, wants a divorce and travels by train to Reno. While on the train, Mary meets her friends, Peggy Day, Miriam Aarons and Flora, the Countess De Lave, as they all travel to Reno to get their divorces.
Soon after arriving at a dude ranch for women, they are joined by Sylvia, who has just been left by her husband for Miriam.
On the day that Mary's divorce is to become final, Miriam tells her to forget her pride and take back her husband, but Mary is too late, as Stephen is planning to marry Crystal.
Two years later, Crystal, now bored with Stephen, begins an affair with singing cowboy Buck Winston, the countess' young husband.
Mary is still in love with her ex-husband Stephen, and becomes hopeful when her daughter, Mary, shares with her mother that her daddy is not happy with his new wife.
Deciding to fight for Stephen.. Mary, tricks Sylvia, who has become friends with Crystal, into publicly exposing Crystal's affair. Will Stephen and Mary, reconcile and get back together?
Fun Facts:
No doubles were used in the fight scene where Rosalind Russell bites Paulette Goddard. Despite the permanent scar resulting from the bite, the actresses remained friends.
Sydney's, the beauty salon, was named after Sydney Guilaroff, the chief hairstylist at MGM from 1934 to the late 1970's. He was brought to MGM from New York at the request of Joan Crawford.
According to her autobiography, Rosalind Russell called in sick because Norma Shearer refused to share top billing. She stayed "sick" until Shearer finally relented.
Myrna Loy and Greta Garbo were the only top-tier female stars at MGM who did not star in this film, although Loy was considered for the role of Crystal Allen.
My favorite scenes in this highly entertaining film: the fight scene with Goddard and Russell, the bath scene with Crawford and last scene when all the woman get into a cat-fight at the ball. With beautiful costumes designed by Adrian.
Phyllis Povah (July 21, 1893 – August 7, 1975), made her Broadway theatre debut in Mr. Pim Passes By in 1921 and acted in minor roles in several productions over the next two decades.
She achieved a notable success in a featured role in the stage production of The Women, and the play ran for 18 months, from 1936 until 1938.
When a film version was planned, Povah and Marjorie Main were the only members of the cast who were chosen to reprise their roles in the film which was released in 1939. (The film was directed by George Cukor).
The film was a success, but Povah continued to work steadily in theatre, and appeared in the film Let's Face It (1943) with Bob Hope and Betty Hutton.
Dear Ruth, in which Povah starred with John Dall and Virginia Gilmore played on Broadway from 1944 until 1946, and provided her with a substantial role and her biggest success during the 1940s.
She made two films in 1952, The Marrying Kind with Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray, and Pat and Mike with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, both directed by George Cukor.
Her final Broadway role was in Anniversary Waltz with MacDonald Carey and Kitty Carlisle in 1954 and 1955.
The film version, re-titled Happy Anniversary (1959) and costarring David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor, was her final film.
She died from a heart attack in Port Washington, New York, aged 82.
So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Directed and produced by Mark Sandrich. Cast: Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance and Veronica Lake. The script for this film was written by using the stories from journals, and diaries of the actual nurses who served at Corregidor. Some of the surviving nurses of Corregidor were also brought in during production as technical advisers to the film makers. A few of them were used as extras. Issues of Life magazine and photographers from Life magazine who were there, were brought in assure even more accuracy concerning uniforms and surroundings.
On 5 May 1942, an Army plane with the only eight surviving nurses from the hard-hit Army base in Corregidor, are headed back to the United States. A physician asks them to recount their tour of duty so that he can help bring their superior officer, Lieutenant Janet "Davey" Davidson, out of the emotional breakdown that has caused her silence.
Lieut. Sadie Schwartz goes back to the day in 1941 when the nurses under Davey's command met in San Francisco to board the Army transport ship that was to take them to Honolulu, Hawaii, for their two-year tour of duty:
Pearl Harbor, is bombed on 7 Dec 1941 in a surprise attack by the Japanese, the United States declares war and the nurses' ship is rerouted to meet with the Army ships in the Pacific Ocean. One of the convoy ships is torpedoed and the survivors are saved by the nurses's ship. Among the survivors is Olivia D'Arcy, a nurse who is so distant that she alienates the other nurses.
Olivia, soon has problems with her fun loving roommate, Joan O'Doul. Wanting to get to the bottom of the bickering Davey befriends Olivia and finds out that she watched her fiance die at Pearl Harbor.
After the nurses are stationed at an army hospital in the Bataan Peninsula, Olivia requests duty taking care of the wounded Japanese prisoners, intending to kill them, but.. finds herself unable to go through with her plans.
While the camp is being evacuated... Joan runs back to her tent to get her treasured black nightgown. The delay causes the death of their escorts and the nurses are forced to hide from the Japanese soldiers. Realizing there is no other way out, Olivia grabs a grenade and turns herself over to the enemy. She pulls the pin... saving the other nurses.
Their new base Hospital Kilometer, is a primitive camp in the jungle where the nurses care for over 8,000 wounded men. Malaria and dysentery, make life miserable through the camp, but the affected nurses continue to work. After, Ma's son dies from war wounds, Davey's commanding officer informs her that General Douglas MacArthur, has left the island and that the supply ship has been sunk.
After a moving to another base, a Japanese bomb kills nurse Rosemary Larson, while assisting surgeon Jose Bardia. Davey, burns her hands trying to saving them from the burning building. Bataan, is evacuated and the roads and waterways are filled with evacuees headed for Mariveles.
After, completing the surgery on John's wounded leg, Davey boards a rowboat hoping to escape to Corregidor. Finally reaching the underground base at Corregidor, the nurses continue to work under the constant stress of the air raids until their supplies run out.
John joins a group headed for Mindanao for supplies, he and Davey break military rules by getting married. They spend their wedding night next to a gun-mount by the bay and at five in the morning, John leaves on his mission.
Several days later, the nurses under Davey's command are the first to be secretly evacuated from Corregidor. Davey, resists going because she promised John, that she would be there to meet him when he returns, but a bombing attack forces her to leave and she goes into shock.
Now back to the present.. the doctor reads to Davey a letter from John, informing her that he is safe and that he continues to fight for the peace of all people. Along with the letter is a deed to his American farm, where he promises to meet her some day. Knowing that her husband is safe, Davey says his name.
Fun Fact:
In keeping with Army regulation, Veronica Lake (Lt. Olivia D'Arcy) changed her famous "peek-a-boo" hairstyle. She only let her hair down once, in her final scene. Later she cut it, with much publicity, because women who copied her and worked in factories kept getting their hair caught in the machinery.
"So Proudly We Hail!" was one of the first films that put women in the spotlight as honored war heroes. Amazing performances by: Claudette Colbert, George Reeves, you will be impressed by Veronica Lake and Paullette Goddard who was nominated for an Academy Award.
Barbara Britton (September 26, 1919 – January 17, 1980) is best known for her Western film roles opposite Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Gene Autry, and for her two-year tenure as inquisitive amateur sleuth Pam North on the television series Mr. and Mrs. North.
While in school she began to show an interest in acting and began working on local stage productions.
In 1941, while appearing in a Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, a photo of Britton was used on the front page of a local newspaper. A talent scout took notice, and she was soon signed to a Paramount Pictures contract. That same year, she appeared in her first two films: the William Boyd western Secret of the Wasteland and Louisiana Purchase starring Bob Hope.
Her first major film appearance was in a small role in the John Wayne film Reap the Wild Wind (1942).
During the 1940's Britton starred in three films for which she is most recognized today, two of which co-starred Randolph Scott. The first was the 1945 film Captain Kidd with Scott, followed by The Virginian in 1946 opposite Joel McCrea. The third was the 1947 Randolph Scott film Gunfighters.
She teamed with Scott again in the 1948 western Albuquerque, and that same year she starred opposite Gene Autry in Loaded Pistols.
Reportedly because of lasting trauma suffered while making the 1943 war picture So Proudly We Hail!, she sought the help of physician and psychoanalyst Dr. Eugene J. Czukor in 1944. The film was about a group of nurses returning from the war in the Philippines who recall their experiences in combat and in love.
Britton and Dr. Czukor (22 years her senior) were married on April 2, 1945, and the marriage lasted until Britton's death 34 years later.
Britton starred in the 1950's television show Mr. and Mrs. North, a Thin Man-like mystery show, with Richard Denning and Francis De Sales.
She was probably best known for being the spokesperson for Revlon products in the 1950's and 1960's, appearing in ads and commercials that included live spots on The $64,000 Question.
She also portrayed Laura Petri in Carl Reiner's Head of the Family, the 1959 pilot for the later Dick Van Dyke Show.
One of Britton's last roles was on the daytime TV soap opera One Life to Live in 1979.
She died of pancreatic cancer in New York City on January 17, 1980 at the age of 60.
Paulette Goddard (June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990), was a film and theatre actress. She started out as a child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl and she became a major star for Paramount Studio's in the 1940's.
She was married several times, her husbands were: Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.
Goddard, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, So Proudly We Hail! (1943).
Personal Quote:
"You live in the present and you eliminate things that don't matter. You don't carry the burden of the past. I'm not impressed by the past very much. The past bores me, to tell you the truth; it really bores me. I don't remember many movies and certainly not my own."
Paris Model(1953). Was directed by Alfred E. Green. Cast: Marilyn Maxwell, Paulette Goddard, Eva Gabor, Barbara Lawrence.
The story begins at the Parisian designer shop Elissa de France, Gogo Montaine, wants a special gown for a party, to impress the Maharajah of Kim-Kepore. Dress designer Lisa Jones, designs a copy of a beautiful dress called, "Nude at Midnight" and Gogo loves the dress and decides to charge the dress to a former lover, Louis-Jean Vacheron.
While at dinner, Gogo flirts with the Raj, who is not interested in her.
Later in the evening, while gambling, Gogo watches Raj flirt and leave with another woman. Gogo, decides to leave with Jean-Louis, promising to return the dress and his money. .
After arriving in New York, Lisa Jones, takes the dress she designed to Mason's, to be reproduced.
Attorney Edgar Blevins, is talking with his wife Cora, about an important dinner engagement and she wants a new dress, as Edgar's secretary, Betty Barnes who has eyes for her boss, listens to their conversation.
That afternoon, Betty shops at Mason's and asks the saleswoman for a sexy dress, telling her that she wants to take her boss away from his wife, not realizing that Cora is listening. The saleswoman shows Betty the dress "The Nude at Midnight," which Betty buys.
At dinner the following night, Edgar loves Betty's dress. Betty, nearly has him convinced to divorce his wife when Cora shows up wearing the same dress. Edgar, is captivated at the change in his wife and leaves with her. Leaving Betty, behind at the restaurant.
Marion Parmelee, shops for a special gown for the retirement party of her husband's boss, Patrick James "P. J." Sullivan, who designs designer beds. The sales clerk promises Marion, that the dress she likes, "Nude at Midnight," is a original copy of a copy of a Parisian design.
When Marion and Jack arrive at the party, P. J. loves Marion's beautiful gown. P. J. invites Marion to his private office to flirt with her, while Marion insists that P. J. pick Jack as his replacement. Nora, begins the evening's tributes and when Jack demonstrates the latest bed design, P. J. and Marion, roll out in in front of everyone. P. J. recovers and begins to announce his replacement, but Nora interrupts, saying that since her family started the business, she should be allowed to pick the next president.
Now in Hollywood, California, Marta Jensen celebrates her twenty-first birthday in the gown "Nude at Midnight" she purchased at a thrift shop for $19. She is hoping for proposal from her boyfriend, Charlie Johnson.
Charlie takes Marta to a fancy Restaurant and when he is refused a table, Prince Michael Romanoff, the restaurant owner, is taken with Marta beauty and finds the couple a private table. The only thing Charlie wants to talk about is sports cars. When playboy Johnny Grandville arrives, Marta talks about his nine marriages. Marta receives a note from the Maharajah of Kim-Kepore, asking her to have dinner with him. When she considers joining him, Charlie proposes to Marta.
I would call this a woman's picture and you may only want to watch it because of the actresses. Although.. I did enjoy watching Tom Conway, who was served very fancy dishes at the restaurant and wasn't to sure what to think of them.
Marilyn Maxwell (August 3, 1921 – March 20, 1972, was best known for her blond hair, she performed in many films and radio programs, and entertained the troops during World War II and the Korean War on USO tours with Bob Hope.
She started her professional entertaining career as a radio singer while still a teenager before signing with MGM in 1942 as a contract player.
Among the programs in which she appeared was The Abbott and Costello Show.
Some of her film roles included Lost in a Harem (1944), Champion (1949), The Lemon Drop Kid (1951), and Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958). "Silver Bells" made its debut in The Lemon Drop Kid, sung by Maxwell and Hope.
Eva Gabor (February 11, 1921 – July 4, 1995), was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. Her first movie role was a bit part in, Forced Landing.
She acted in movies and on the stage throughout the 1950's.
In 1965, she performed in her best known role in the TV sitcom Green Acres, in which she played Lisa Douglas, the New York wife of Oliver Wendell Douglas played by Eddie Albert who left New York City to live on a farm. This was a hit show for six seasons, ending in 1971.
In later years, Gabor did voice-over work for Disney movies, providing the European-accented voices of Duchess in, The Aristocats, Miss Bianca in, The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under, and the Queen of Time in, Nutcracker Fantasy.
Barbara Jo Lawrence (born February 24, 1928), began her career as a model and performed in her first film, Diamond Horseshoe (1945).
She had a small part in the film, Captain from Castile(1947) with Tyrone Power.
While going to UCLA, she attracted the attention of talent scouts from, 20th Century Fox and she landed a parts in the films, A Letter to Three Wives, The Street with No Name, Thieves' Highway and Here Come the Nelsons.
After moving to MGM, Lawrence starred with Gig Young in the 3D movie, Arena.
She then starred in, Her Twelve Men with Greer Garson.
Lawrence also played the major role of Gertie Cummings in the film, Oklahoma!, in which she gets into a knockdown fight with Gloria Grahame.
In 1957, she starred in Kronos with Jeff Morrow, which eventually attracted a cult following for its story-line and special effects.
"Old Ski Nose" Bob Hope has starred with many of Hollywood's most fetching beauties in his hilarious comedies: Dorothy Lamour, Virgina Mayo, Lucille Ball, Hedy Lamarr, Jane Russell and Paulette Goddard. I personally think Paulette was his best on screen partner, no offense Bing. But Bob and Paulette did have wonderful chemistry. They made three films together: The Cat and The Canary (1939), The Ghost Breakers (1940) and Nothing But The Truth (1941). All three are very funny and showcase Bob and Paulette at their best. Their first film together The Cat and the Canary, which is a remake of the 1927 film of the same name. The plot has relatives gathering in New Orleans for the reading of a will and the setting is a creepy old mansion. Paulette plays Joyce, the heir who will inherit everything if she survives the night. Hope is Wally, a radio personality,who becomes involved with Joyce. There are thrills amid the laughs and it's a very good comedy but not the best of the three Hope and Goddard made together.
They would come back one year later for the much better The Ghost Breakers. This film pretty much has the same plot as The Cat and The Canary in that Bob plays another radio personality and him and Paulette must survive a night in another haunted mansion. But the laughs come much faster in this one. And the duo's chemistry is perfect as Bob has the scaredy guy down straight and Paulette is quite the beguiling leading lady. All that adds up to a wonderfully funny film.
However the two stars saved their best for last with the truly zany 1941 comedy Nothing But The Truth. In this one Bob plays stockbroker Steve Bennett who makes a bet with his co-workers that he can tell the truth for 24 hours. Paulette is the boss's niece who wants Steve to invest some money for her. The whole cast winds up on a yacht for a dinner party and it's a gas seeing Hope tap dance around the truth for a solid hour. Hope has never been better and Goddard ratchets up her game as well as she gets in on the fun too. I think it was a great move by placing the duo in a modern setting and not dealing with haunted mansions, zombies and murder. This made it seem like a breath of fresh air seeing the stars in this type of setting. It's too bad they didn't make anymore films together.
Paulette Goddard, was A former child fashion model and performed in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl, she was a big star in the 1940's. She was married to Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith and Erich Maria Remarque.
Goddard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). A film about a group of U.S. Army nurses, who leave San Francisco for their tour of duty in Hawaii in December 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor forever changes their lives.
Her first stage performance was, No Foolin(1926) where she played a small role. The next year, she made her stage acting debut in, The Unconquerable Male.
She changed her name to Paulette and took her mother's maiden name as her last name. Goddard then returned to Hollywood in 1929 where she performed in small roles in the classic films:
The Girl Habit (1931). A story about Charlie Floyd, a wealthy bachelor known for his womanizing, becomes engaged to the wealthy socialite Lucy Ledyard, which breaks many girls hearts.
Charlie meets Lucy and her overbearing mother Blanche at Rendel's department store to pick out Lucy's trousseau at the same time he is supposed to meet Sonya, a Russian saleslady with whom he has been involved.
At the advice of Huntley Palmer, who wants to marry Lucy for her money, Sonya lures Charlie to her flat with plans of blackmailing him with incriminating love letters. Sonya is married to New York's infamous killer, Tony Maloney, who promises to kill Charlie after walking in on them, while he is attempting to grab the letters.
Scared for Charlie's life, Sonya finds him eating dinner at the Ledyards' and returns the letters, but further tarnishes his reputation with his future in-laws when Palmer reads aloud a letter about her under things.
Maloney, has knocked out the caterer and has entered the house looking to kill Charlie. Maloney and his thugs follow Charlie out of the house and he escapes with a car full of giggling girls, who happen to be driving by.
Palmer, who is Maloney's lawyer, talks Charlie into getting arrested because he feels jail is the only safe place for him. He gets himself arrested for accosting a woman, while Maloney takes the blame when Charlie hits a policeman with a brick.
Charlie's job is to keep the prison books and discovers that Henry the warden has embezzled $5,000, and uses the information to blackmail Henry into protecting him from Maloney.
The day of Maloney's and Charlie's release, Lucy and Blanche arrive with Palmer to inspect the prison and find Charlie hiding under the bed of the warden's wife, whom Charlie befriended when he found Henry abusing her.
When Charlie leaves the prison, Maloney's men surround him, but Sonya intervenes. Maloney then forces Palmer to confess that he framed Charlie with the letters. Despite her mother's objections, Lucy runs off with Charlie and leaves her mother to take the blame when Charlie hits another policeman with a brick.
The Mouthpiece (1932). When a successful prosecutor learns that a man he helped get convicted and then executed was in really innocent, he quits his DA job and becomes a defense attorney. He becomes rich and powerful defending guilty racketeers, but eventually sees that he went down the wrong path.
She then signed a contract with Hal Roach Studios and performed in:
The Kid from Spain(1932). Eddie and his Mexican friend Ricardo are expelled from college after Ricardo put Eddie in the girl's dormitory while he was drunk.
Eddie finds himself mixed up in a bank robbery and is forced to drive the robbers get away car. To get rid of him they force him to leave the USA for Mexico, but a cop is following him.
Eddie meets Ricardo there, Ricardo helps him avoid being arrested by the cop when he introduces Eddie as the great Spanish bullfighter Don Sebastian II.
The cop is still curious, buys tickets for the bullfight. Eddie's situation becomes more critical, when he tries to help Ricardo to win the girl he loves, but she's engaged to a "real" Mexican, who is, unknown to her father, involved in illegal business.
While trying to avoid all this trouble, Eddie himself falls in love with his friend's girl friend's sister Rosalie, who wants to see the great Don Sebastian II in the bull ring.
Pack Up Your Troubles (1932). The boys' Army buddy, Eddie Smith, is killed in the trenches in France, leaving his baby girl an orphan.
Back home in trying try to find Eddie's father, they keep coming up with the wrong Smiths and in the process disrupt a wedding by proclaiming the baby to be the groom's child.
Trying to avoid the child protective services, they sell their lunch wagon for the money to leave town. They accidentally knock the bank president unconscious and end up being wanted for a bank robbery.
In 1932, she met Charlie Chaplin, who began planning a film with Goddard, that would be released in 1936 as Modern Times. A story is about a Tramp, who struggles to live in modern times with the help of a young homeless woman.
Goddard also performed in a few films for Samuel Goldwyn Productions. Goddard became a 'Goldwyn Girl' and was featured in films such as:
Roman Scandals (1933). A story about a kind-hearted young man, who is thrown out of the corrupt town of West Rome, Oklahoma.
He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the early days of Rome, where he gets mixed up with a murder plot against the Emperor.
Kid Millions (1934). A musical comedy about a Brooklyn boy who inherits a fortune from his archaeologist father, but has to go to Egypt to claim it.
Following the film Modern Times, Chaplin planned other films with Goddard in mind as a co-star. Tired of waiting around for things to happen, she signed a contract with David O. Selznick and was interested in the role of Scarlett O'Hara in his film version of, Gone with the Wind.
She performed in the comedy, The Young in Heart (1938). Thrown out of the Riviera, a family of drifters meets a lonely, vulnerable rich old woman and sponge off her.
Selznick loaned her to MGM to perform in the classic film, Dramatic School (1938). Aspiring actress Louise Muban attends a well known Paris School of Drama during the day and works at night at a factory assembling gas meters.
She daydreams her way through life and her friends at school begin to suspect her stories are all made up.
After Louise, has actual meeting with a playboy in a fantasy club, her friend Nana believes she is lying until she too meets the playboy. Nana sets a trap for Louise, to find out the truth...
The Women (1939). A story about the romantic lives of the interconnected women. With an all-female cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell, Goddard played the supporting role of Miriam Aarons.
Goddard signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and her next film, The Cat and the Canary (1939), which was a turning point in the careers of both actors.
When an eccentric family meets in their uncle's remote, decaying mansion on the tenth anniversary of his death for the reading of his will... murder and problems follow.
She starred with Chaplin again in his 1940 film, The Great Dictator. Dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a twin, a poor but kind Jewish barber living in the slums, who one day is mistaken for Hynkel.
She was Fred Astaire's leading lady in the musical, Second Chorus (1940), where she met Burgess Meredith.
When college students Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are forced to make it on their own, the competitive pair get jobs with Artie Shaw's band and reunite with ex-manager Ellen Miller.
One of her best-remembered film appearances was in the variety musical, Star Spangled Rhythm (1943), in which she sang a comic number "A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang" with contemporary sex symbols Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake.
Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio's dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade.
Things get complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount's favorite stars.
Her most successful film was, Kitty (1945), where she played the title role of an 18th century London wench, who gets involved with the nobility.
In The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946). Celestine, the chambermaid, has a new job in the country, at the Lanlaires. She has decided to seduce a wealthy man.
But Mr Lanlaire is not a right choice: the house is controlled by Mme Lanlaire, helped by the valet Joseph.
Then she sets her cap for the neighbor ex-officer Mauger. This seems to work, until the son of the Lanlaires comes back. He is young and does not share his mother's anti-republicans opinions.
Celestine attracts: Captain Mauger, young Georges Lanlaire, and also Joseph. Three men, from three different social classes. Will Celestine be able to convince Georges of her sincerity ? Will sinister and inflexible Joseph let his views upon Celestine be ruined ?
In 1947 she performed in the classic film, An Ideal Husband. A prominent politician wants to expose a huge financial scandal. Until a woman who has invested in the shady venture threatens to uncover a damaging secret in the politician's past if he comes forward with what he knows. His problem is compounded by his wife's intolerance of the slightest character flaws.
In 1949, she formed Monterey Pictures with John Steinbeck.
Her last starring roles were the English productions:
A Stranger Came Home(1954). A man on a fishing trip with three of his friends is hit in the head which causes him lose his memory.
Three years later.. it all comes back to him, but on the day it does one of the men who was on the fishing trip turns up dead.
Charge of the Lancers(1954). During the Crimean War, Jean Pierre Aumont and Richard Stapley are guards of a new cannon that can pierce the walls of the Russian fortress. They both are in love with the same nurse Karin Booth who, is really a Russian spy.
The Russians kidnap Stapley and Aumont is assigned to rescue him. On the way, he meets up with a gypsy family that includes Paulette Goddard as a daughter. Will he be able to find his friend?
She also acted in summer stock and on television, including in the 1955 television remake of The Women, playing a different character than she played in the 1939 film.
In 1964, she attempted a comeback in films with a supporting role in the Italian film, Time of Indifference, but that turned out to be her last feature film. About a penniless countess, who falls in love with a cad, unaware that he is also involved with her beautiful daughter.
Her last acting role was in, The Snoop Sisters (1972) for television.
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