

The Matinee Idol(1928)
Here's a real comedy of the theater, which takes you behind the scenes of a thrilling melodrama and shows you how they acted in the old ten-twenty-thirties. You'll learn how to make love and say nice things to your sweetheart.
The famous matinee idol and blackface comedian, Don Wilson, heads out of town to escape adulation. There, calling himself Harry Mann, he accidentally joins a traveling acting troupe, and falls in love with Ginger Bolivar, who runs the troupe and stars in their Civil War melodrama. Don's producer sees the play, and thinks it's a comic masterpiece, and just what Don's Broadway show needs. But when Ginger finds out she's been played for a fool, will she forgive Don? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in 1997.

Movie: The Matinee Idol
Top 9 Billed Cast
Eric Barrymaine
Auditoning Actor (uncredited)
Recommendations Movies
6.5The Babadook(en)
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
6.1Ladies of Leisure(en)
Kay Arnold is a gold digger who wanders from party to party with the intention of catching a rich suitor. Jerry Strong is a young man from a wealthy family who strives to succeed as an artist. What begins as a relationship of mutual convenience soon turns into something else.
7.1The Kid with a Bike(fr)
Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in the hands of an unqualified childcare provider.
7.3Pierrot le Fou(fr)
Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.
8.1Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb(en)
After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop it.
7.4Hour of the Wolf(sv)
While vacationing on a remote German island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.
5.9The Million Dollar Hotel(en)
A federal agent searches for a potential killer among the bizarre residents of a dilapidated Los Angeles hotel.
7.5Love and Death(en)
In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
7.0The Adventures of Baron Munchausen(en)
An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.
6.9Outrage(ja)
When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.
6.9Those People(en)
On Manhattan's gilded Upper East Side, a young gay painter is torn between an obsession with his infamous best friend and a promising new romance with an older foreign pianist.
7.8Into the Wild(en)
After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.
7.3Airplane!(en)
An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
7.4The Marriage of Maria Braun(de)
Maria marries a young soldier in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. She must rely on her beauty and ambition to navigate the difficult post-war years alone.
6.5The Grifters(en)
A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.
7.3Three Days of the Condor(en)
When bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines who he can really trust.
7.1Buffalo '66(en)
Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.
7.6Purple Noon(fr)
Tom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess.
7.4Human Capital(it)
The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
7.2Rosetta(fr)
Young, impulsive Rosetta lives a hard and stressful life as she struggles to support herself and her alcoholic mother. Refusing all charity, she is desperate to maintain a dignified job.
Similar Movies
5.5He Comes Up Smiling(en)
Jerry Martin quits his dull job as a bank clerk and falls in with a band of hobos. He takes on the guise of Bachelor, the "king of the market," and finds himself pursued by dangerous men who are after the real Bachelor. *Only fragments are known to exist. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.
7.0M*A*S*H(en)
One of the world's most acclaimed comedies, M*A*S*H focuses on three Korean War Army surgeons brilliantly brought to life by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, they adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff and Sally Kellerman co-star as a sanctimonious Major, an other-worldly Corporal, and a self-righteous yet lusty nurse.
7.5A Grand Day Out(en)
Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.
7.8The Wrong Trousers(en)
Wallace rents out Gromit's former bedroom to a penguin, who takes up an interest in the techno trousers created by Wallace. However, Gromit later learns that the penguin is a wanted criminal.
7.6A Close Shave(en)
Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.
7.8Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans(en)
A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.
6.8Lord Jim(en)
After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.
7.4Miracle on 34th Street(en)
Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity.
6.8Human Desire(en)
A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in a sordid affair with a co-worker's wife and murder. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, in 1997.
7.7The Sound of Music(en)
In the years before World War II, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children and brings a new love of life and music into the home.
7.4Leave Her to Heaven(en)
A socialite marries a prominent novelist, which spurs a violent, obsessive, and dangerous jealousy in her.
7.6The Big Country(en)
Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the Old West, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between his future father-in-law, Major Terrill, and the rough and lawless Hannasseys over a valuable patch of land.
6.9The Misfits(en)
While filing for a divorce, beautiful ex-stripper Roslyn Taber ends up meeting aging cowboy-turned-gambler Gay Langland and former World War II aviator Guido Racanelli. The two men instantly become infatuated with Roslyn and, on a whim, the three decide to move into Guido's half-finished desert home together. When grizzled ex-rodeo rider Perce Howland arrives, the unlikely foursome strike up a business capturing wild horses.
6.4Night Tide(en)
A young sailor falls in love with a mysterious woman performing as a mermaid on the local pier. As they become entwined, he comes to suspect the woman might be a real mermaid who lures men to a watery death during the full moon. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2007.
6.5The Tune(en)
Del is a song writer for the obnoxious Mr. Mega, and in love with Didi, Mega's secretary. His quest to write a hit tune brings him to the wacky world of Flooby Nooby, where he just might learn to write songs from the heart.
6.6The Crimson Kimono(en)
Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.
0.0Estrellados(en)
A matinée idol and a bumbling manager fight for the love of a would-be starlet. Estrellados is the Spanish version of Free and Easy (1930) with Hispanic/Spanish-speaking actors.
6.9Spider Baby(en)
In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family lives with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they physically develop. The family chauffeur looks out for them and covers up their indiscretions. Trouble comes when greedy distant relatives and their lawyer arrive to dispossess the family of its home.
0.0I Think I'm Going to Like it Here(en)
Chris Columbus's NYU student film follows a naïve freshman from the Midwest as he becomes acclimated to his first year at NYU. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.
7.2Wings(en)
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.






