Charles Lane
Charles Lane (born Charles Gerstle Levison; January 26, 1905 – July 9, 2007) was an American character actor and centenarian whose career spanned 77 years. Lane gave his last performance at the age of 101 as a narrator in 2006. Lane appeared in many Frank Capra films,... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Date with an Angel
An aspiring composer discovers a broken-winged, beautiful angel in his swimming pool. When everyone finds out, he must deal with his jealous fiancée, his future father-in-law, and his friends who have a business plan.
When the Bough Breaks
A child psychologist ties a traumatized seven-year-old girl's tale of shadows to murders and a circle of powerful men.
Murphy's Romance
Emma, a divorced single mother seeking to start her life over, moves to a small town in Arizona. She befriends Murphy, the older local pharmacist, but things turn complicated when her ex-husband shows up.
Strange Invaders
Charlie's ex-wife disappears, and he goes to where she grew up--a rural town in the midwest--to look for her. But, surprisingly, nobody knows about her or any of her many relatives, the Newmans. He meets aliens; but when he contacts the FBI, they don't believe him. He tells his story to a tabloid; and suddenly, he is chased by the aliens.
Strange Behavior
In a small town in Illinois, normal high school kids are turning into ruthless killers seemingly overnight.
The Little Dragons
Karate experts attempt to rescue a girl who was kidnapped by a mother and her two psycho sons.
Movie Movie
Three movie genres of the 1930s, boxing films, WWI aviation dramas, and backstage Broadway musicals, are satirized using the same cast.
Sybil
The true story of a young woman named Sybil, whose childhood was so harrowing to her that she developed at least 13 different personalities.
The AristoCats
Upon Madame Adelaide Bonfamille's passing her cat Duchess and 3 kittens stand to inherit her fortune. But not if Edgar the butler can help it.
The Gnome-Mobile
An eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren are embroiled in the plights of some forest gnomes who are searching for the rest of their tribe. While helping them, the millionaire is suspected of being crazy because he's seeing gnomes! He's committed, and the niece and nephew and the gnomes have to find him and free him.
The Ugly Dachshund
The Garrisons are the "proud parents" of three adorable dachshund pups - and one overgrown Great Dane named Brutus, who nevertheless thinks of himself as a dainty dachsie. His identity crisis results in an uproarious series of household crises that reduce the Garrisons' house to shambles - and viewers to howls of laughter!
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
A timid typesetter hasn't a ghost of a chance of becoming a reporter--until he decides to solve a murder mystery and ends up spending a fright-filled night in a haunted house.
The Carpetbaggers
Jonas Cord is a disagreeable young tycoon who's building planes, directing films, and catting around on the corporate make in 1930s Hollywood.
The Wheeler Dealers
Henry J. Tyroon leaves Texas, where his oil wells are drying up, and arrives in New York with a lot of oil money to play with in the stock market. He meets stock analyst Molly Thatcher, who tries to ignore the lavish attention he spends on her but, in the end, she falls for his charm.
Papa's Delicate Condition
A jolly, family-oriented railroad superintendent tries to get his act together when his love for the bottle starts to alienate him from his wife and oldest daughter. His younger daughter, however, still remains unflinchingly loyal to him, and they share many fun misadventures over the course of the movie.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.
The Music Man
A con man comes to a Midwestern town with a scam using a boy's marching band program, but things don't go according to plan.
The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock
In one of his rare performances without Bud Abbott, Lou Costello plays a delivery boy who invents a machine which turns his girlfriend into a giantess.
Teacher's Pet
A rugged city editor (Clark Gable) poses as a journalism student and flirts with the professor (Doris Day).
The Sniper
Eddie Miller struggles with his hatred of women, he's especially bothered by seeing women with their lovers. He starts a killing spree as a sniper by shooting women from far distances. In an attempt to get caught, he writes an anonymous letter to the police begging them to stop him.
Here Comes the Groom
Foreign correspondent Pete Garvey has 5 days to win back his former fiancée, or he'll lose the orphans he adopted.
The Yellow Cab Man
A clumsy, accident-prone taxicab driver, after inventing elastic glass, risks losing his valuable invention to a group of con men led by a crooked lawyer, but the pretty lady owner of the Yellow Cab Co. comes to his aid.
Backfire
When he's discharged from a military hospital, ex-GI Bob Corey (Gordon MacRae) goes on a search for his army buddy Steve Connolly (Edmond O'Brien). A reformed crook, Connolly is on the lam from a trumped-up murder rap, and Corey hopes to clear his pal. Tagging along is Army nurse Julie Benson (Virginia Mayo), who has fallen for Corey.
The House Across the Street
Crusading newspaperman Dave Joslin (Wayne Morris) is kicked downstairs to the "Advice to the Lovelorn" column when he manages to offend a politically powerful racketeer. While pretending to stick to his job, Joslin conducts his own investigation to bring the villain to justice.
Mighty Joe Young
After being taken from his home in Africa, Gorilla "Joe" is an instant hit in a Hollywood nightclub. This fun and wonderfully entertaining slant on "King Kong" is much better than Kong's 1934 sequel, "Son of Kong". This all ages adventure has superb special effects from Willis O'Brien and his protege, Ray Harryhausen.
State of the Union
An industrialist is urged to run for President, but this requires uncomfortable compromises on both political and marital levels.
Race Street
A night club owner takes on the crooks who killed his best friend.
Moonrise
Danny is being despised by his schoolmates because his father was accused to have killed another man and is condemned to the death penalty.
Call Northside 777
It Happened on Fifth Avenue
A New Yorker hobo moves into a mansion and along the way he gathers friends to live in the house with him. Before he knows it, he is living with the actual home owners.
Bury Me Dead
A woman watches her own funeral, then sets out with her lawyer to learn who was in the casket.
Mysterious Intruder
A private detective is hired to find a young heiress but finds himself accused of murder.
It's a Wonderful Life
An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would had been like if he never existed.
A Close Call for Boston Blackie
Sleuth Blackie is framed for murder but manages to catch the culprit.
Arsenic and Old Lace
The American screwball comedy from 1944 based off of the theatrical piece of the same name from Joseph Kesselring adapted from the author Julius J. Epstein. Cary Grant’s hands are full when his crazy family neglects his marriage.
Tarzan's New York Adventure
Circus owner Buck Rand kidnaps Boy to perform in his show. He forces a pilot to fly him, Boy and his animal trainer out of the jungle. Tarzan and Jane follow them to New York.
Pardon My Sarong
A pair of bus drivers accidentally steal their own bus. With the company issuing a warrant for their arrest, they tag along with a playboy on a boat trip that finds them on a tropical island, where a jewel thief has sinister plans for them.
A Close Call for Ellery Queen
Amateur sleuth Ellery Queen learns the truth about a businessman's two long-lost daughters.
The Big Store
The Marx brothers run havoc in a department store while protecting it's owner.
I Wake Up Screaming
A young promoter (Mature) is accused of the murder of Vicky Lynn (Landis), a young actress he "discovered" as a waitress while out with ex-actor Robin Ray and gossip columnist Larry Evans.
Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery
Ventriloquist and world traveler Gordon Cobb is murdered by a gang of jewel thieves. Baffled by the contradictory clues, Inspector Queen asks his son, Ellery, to help out.
Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime
Several days after one of his company's dams burst, ruining the life savings of several investors, a shady power company president is found stabbed to death. Ellery Queen gets to the bottom of the mystery.
Birth of the Blues
Jeff grows up near Basin Street in New Orleans, playing his clarinet with the dock workers. He puts together a band, the Basin Street Hot-Shots, which includes a cornet player, Memphis. They struggle to get their jazz music accepted by the cafe society of the city.
Ball of Fire
A group of professors working on a new encyclopedia while residing in a Manhattan mansion take in a sassy nightclub singer who the police need to help them bring down her mob-boss lover.
The Invisible Woman
A sexy model volunteers to be a test subject for a new invisibility machine. But does she have ulterior motives?
Rhythm on the River
Popular songwriter Oliver Courtney has been getting by for years using one ghost writer for his music and another for his lyrics. When both writers meet at an inn, they fall in love and then try to sell their songs under their own name. The problem is every song publisher thinks they're copying Courtney's style.
Primrose Path
Girl from the "wrong" side of the tracks falls in love with an ambitious young man from the "right" side of the tracks.
Johnny Apollo
Wall Street broker Robert Cain, Sr., is jailed for embezzling. His college graduate son Bob then turns to crime to raise money for his father's release. As assistant to mobster Mickey Dwyer, then falls for Dwyer's girl Lucky. He winds up in the same prison as his father.
Ellery Queen, Master Detective
Famed detective and crime novelist Ellery Queen solves a case involving the suspicious death of a rich man whose inheritors fight over his estate.
Edison, the Man
82-year-old inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Alva Edison is honored in 1929 and he reflects back on his sixty-year career of scientific achievement.
City for Conquest
Danny is a content truck driver, but his girl Peggy shows potential as a dancer and hopes he too can show ambition. Danny acquiesces and pursues boxing to please her, but the two begin to spend more time working than time together.
Blondie Plays Cupid
The Bumstead family is off to see relatives in the country when Blondie runs into Charlie and Millie, an eloping couple needing her help.
The Cat and the Canary
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 madness follow.
Second Fiddle
Studio publicist (Power) discovers Minnesota skating teacher (Henie) and takes her to Hollywood. She goes back to Minnesota but he follows her.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.
Miracles for Sale
A maker of illusions for magicians protects an ingenue likely to be murdered.
5th Ave Girl
Feeling unwanted by his wife and children, a wealthy industrialist hires an unemployed young woman to pose as his mistress.
You Can't Take It with You
Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby. His wealthy banker father, Anthony P. Kirby, and his snobbish mother, strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things do not turn out the way Alice had hoped.
Joy of Living
Falling in love with the voice of Broadway chanteuse Margaret Garret, cocksure young tycoon Daniel Brewster decides to rescue the star from her hectic lifestyle of frenzied fans and mooching relatives. When Margaret has her ardent suitor arrested, the judge appoints her as Daniel's probation officer, forcing the duo to spend time together.
Blondie
Blondie and Dagwood are about to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary but this happy occasion is marred when the bumbling Dagwood gets himself involved in a scheme that is promising financial ruin for the Bumstead family.
Nothing Sacred
An eccentric woman learns she is not dying of radium poisoning as earlier assumed, but when she meets a reporter looking for a story, she feigns sickness again for her own profit.
Internes Can't Take Money
Dr. Kildare treats and falls for impoverished ex-con Janet Haley, widow of a bank robber, who can't find her baby. Later she helps Kildare sew up gangster Hanlon in a tavern back room. Kildare pursues Janet and enlists Hanlon to help her; the gangster's solution, not surprisingly, is violent.
The Milky Way
Timid milkman, Burleigh Sullivan, somehow knocks out a boxing champ in a brawl. The fighter's manager decides to build up the milkman's reputation in a series of fixed fights and then have the champ beat him to regain his title.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.
The Florentine Dagger
A playwright descended from the Borgia family becomes a murder suspect.
Twentieth Century
Oscar Jaffe is a successful Broadway director; Lily Garland, one of his stars. But when she leaves his direction, his success goes with her. When he recognizes her aboard the Twentieth Century Limited, the train that both of them are riding, he tries to get her back for a new show. But accomplishing that feat isn't as simple as he had thought.
Broadway Bill
A runaway heiress and her sister's husband join forces to race the latter's fast horse, Broadway Bill.
The Bowery
"In the Gay Nineties New York had grown up into bustles and balloon Sleeves ... but The Bowery had grown younger, louder and more rowdy until it was known as the 'Livest Mile on the face of the globe' ... the cradle of men who were later to be famous.
Gold Diggers of 1933
A wealthy composer rescues unemployed Broadway performers with a new play, but insists on remaining anonymous.
Blondie Johnson
A Depression-downtrodden waif uses her brains instead of her body to rise from tyro con artist to crime boss.
42nd Street
When the leading lady of a Broadway musical breaks her ankle, she is replaced by a young unknown actress, who becomes the star of the show.
Smart Money
A Greek barber has uncommon skills in playing poker and soon rises in the seedy world of illegal gambling, but pretty blondes remain his Achilles' heel.
City Girl
Lem goes to Chicago to sell the wheat his family has grown on their farm in Minnesota. There he meets the waitress Kate.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 horror silent film based upon Robert Louis Stevenson's novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and starring actor John Barrymore.