Una Merkel
Southerner Una Merkel was a popular American stage, screen, and television actress. In movies, while often cast as the female lead, she more typically appeared in prominent supporting roles.
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
That's Entertainment! III
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
Spinout
Band singer/race driver Mike McCoy must choose between marrying a beautiful rich girl and driving her father's car in a prestigious race.
Summer Magic
Mother Carey, a Bostonian widow, and her three children move to Maine. Postmaster Osh Popham helps them move into a run-down old house and fixes it up for them.
The Parent Trap
Hayley Mills plays twins who, unknown to their divorced parents, meet at a summer camp. Products of single parent households, they switch places (surprise!) so as to meet the parent they never knew, and then contrive to reunite them.
Summer and Smoke
In a small Mississippi town in 1916, an eccentric spinster battles her romantic yearnings for the randy boy next door. A 1961 film, adapted from a Tennessee Williams play, starring Geraldine Page, Laurence Harvey, John McIntire, Una Merkel and Rita Moreno.
The Kettles in the Ozarks
Ma and the kids head out to help Pa's brother Sedgewick with the his farm in Mournful Hollow, Arkansas. Things get tighter when a couple of bootleggers rent Sedge's barn to manufacture moonshine. With Ma and the kids, the bootleggers get their pay.
Bundle of Joy
After finding a baby outside an orphanage, a salesgirl receives sympathy from those around her, including her boss' son, as they all assume the baby is hers.
The Kentuckian
A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.
I Love Melvin
Melvin Hoover, a budding photographer for Look magazine, accidentally bumps into a young actress named Judy LeRoy in the park. They start to talk, and Melvin soon offers to do a photo spread of her. His boss, however, has no intention of using the photos.
With a Song in My Heart
Jane Froman, an aspiring songstress, lands a job in radio with help from pianist Don Ross, whom she later marries. Jane's popularity soars, and she leaves on a European tour... but her plane crashes in Lisbon, and she is partially crippled. Unable to walk without crutches, Jane nevertheless goes on to entertain the Allied troops in World War II.
The Merry Widow
Marshovia, a small European kingdom, is on the brink of bankruptcy but the country may be saved if the wealthy American Crystal Radek, widow of a Marshovian, can be convinced to part with her money and marry the king's nephew count Danilo. Arriving to Marshovia on a visit, Crystal Radek change places with her secretary Kitty.
Rich, Young and Pretty
A rancher's daughter visits Paris to meet her mother and find love.
Golden Girl
Against the background of the Civil War, sixteen-year-old song-and-dance artiste Lotta Crabtree works her way across America, becoming ever more popular.
My Blue Heaven
Radio star Kitty Moran, long married to partner Jack, finds she's pregnant, but miscarries. For a change, the couple turn their act into a series on early TV and try to adopt a baby. Finally they acquiring a girl in a somewhat back alley manner.
It's a Joke, Son!
Claghorn gets into some financial difficulties and is forced by a machine-political gang to enter a race for state senator against his wife (Una Merkel) who appears to have a good chance to beat the political hack backed by the machine.
Road to Zanzibar
Stranded in Africa, Chuck and his pal Fearless have comic versions of jungle adventures, featuring two attractive con-women.
The Bank Dick
The Bank Dick is a comedy from 1940 starring W.C. Fields (who also wrote the story). The film is one of the greatest works from an American comedian.
On Borrowed Time
Young Pud is orphaned and left in the care of his aged grandparents. The boy and his grandfather are inseparable. Gramps is concerned for Pud's future and wary of a scheming relative who seeks custody of the child.
Destry Rides Again
Tom Destry, son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn’t believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent.
True Confession
A writer takes a job as a secretary because her scrupulous husband isn't bringing in the dough as an attorney. When her new employer is murdered, she can't seem to make up her mind as to whether she "dunnit" or not.
Saratoga
A horse breeder's (Lionel Barrymore) granddaughter (Jean Harlow) falls in love with a gambler (Clark Gable) in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Riffraff
Fisherman Dutch marries cannery worker Hattie. After he is kicked out of his union and fired from his job he leaves Hattie who steals money for him and goes to jail. He gets a new job, foils a plot to dynamite the ship, and promises to wait for Hattie.
Broadway Melody of 1936
Lovely, gifted Irene Foster hopes that her childhood sweetheart-turned Broadway producer Robert Gordon will recognize her--and her talent. Gordon is too busy sparring with a dirt-dishing gossip columnist to notice, but his wisecracking, heart-of-gold secretary certainly does. She and Irene must use their wits to show him what he's missing!
The Merry Widow
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
The Cat's-Paw
Naive Ezekial Cobb, brought up by his missionary father in China returns to America to seek a wife. Corrupt politicians enlist him to run for mayor as a dummy candidate with no chance of winning. Their plan backfires as he wins and embarks upon a reform crusade.
Evelyn Prentice
A criminal lawyer's wife faces blackmail when she has an affair.
Bombshell
Sexpot film star Lola Burns (Jean Harlow) is at the top of the pile in Hollywood in this pre-code film directed by Victor Fleming But with her father and brother always hanging around for handouts and the studio PR honcho cooking up endless lurid newspaper stories, she decides to get a new image by trying all sorts of schemes which go awry.
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.
They Call It Sin
An innocent young chorus girl fights the advances of her lecherous producer.
Red-Headed Woman
A gold-digging secretary will do whatever it takes to get ahead in society-including luring her morally minded boss away from his happy marriage.
Men Are Such Fools
An immigrant and his wife arrive in America hoping to make it big in the world of music. Shortly thereafter, though, the husband finds out his wife is having an affair with a local lowlife; when he turns up dead, the husband is jailed for his murder, even though he protests his innocence.
Man Wanted
A female executive falls in love with her male secretary.
The Maltese Falcon
A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.
The Bat Whispers
Infamous burglar "The Bat" commits a daring jewelry theft despite heavy police presence. Soon after, a bank theft occurs, which may be the work of the criminal as well. Meanwhile, Cornelia Van Gorder has various people arrive at her old mansion, including her niece, Dale, a bank employee, and police detective Anderson.
Abraham Lincoln
A biopic dramatizing Abraham Lincoln's life through a series of vignettes depicting its defining chapters: his romance with Ann Rutledge; his early years as a country lawyer; his marriage to Mary Todd; his debates with Stephen A. Douglas; the election of 1860; his presidency during the Civil War; and his assassination in Ford’s Theater in 1865.