Acting

Noel Francis

Born August 31, 1906 · Temple, Texas, USA

Died October 30, 1959 · aged 53

Noel Francis was born in Temple, Texas in 1906. By age 20 she was appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies, working opposite the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey. Eventually Fox scouts noticed her and in 1929 she was signed to a Hollywood contract. Because of her Follies background, Fox intended to develop Noel as a musical and dance star. Unfortunately, musicals were on the wane at the time (they did …

Known For

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang · 1932

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.

Bureau of Missing Persons

Bureau of Missing Persons · 1933

Bureau of Missing Persons

MovieCrimeComedy

A young woman goes to the police looking for her missing husband. When it turns out her husband is both a murder victim and a bachelor - and that she is the primary suspect - tough cop Butch Saunders comes up with a scheme to crack the case.

The Expert

The Expert · 1932

MovieComedyDrama

An elderly gentleman arrives for an extended stay with his grown son in Chicago.

Only Yesterday

Only Yesterday · 1933

MovieDramaRomance

On the back of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, a young businessman is about to commit suicide. With a note to his wife scribbled down and a gun in his hand, he notices an envelope addressed to him on his desk. As he begins to read, we're taken back to World War One and his meeting with a young woman named Mary Lane.

Imitation of Life

Imitation of Life · 1934

Imitation of Life

MovieDramaRomance

A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.

Guilty as Hell

Guilty as Hell · 1932

Richard Arlen is the convicted murderer and Adrienne Ames his sister who believes in his innocence. We see the murder and the framing set-up at the beginning of the film, so there’s no mystery for the audience to solve. Just the pleasure of watching an intricate cat-and-mouse game, with the murderer one step ahead of his pursuers until the final, tense confrontation.

Up the River

Up the River · 1930

MovieComedyCrime

Daily life at men and women's prison units where baseball and the marching band are serious business. Two prisoners escape in order to help paroled Steve from being blackmailed by his girlfriend's ex-partner-in-crime.

Mutiny Ahead

Mutiny Ahead · 1935

MovieActionAdventure

A wealthy playboy winds up getting himself involved with mobsters and a search for buried treasure.

Filmography

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I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang · 1932

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.

Linda

Bureau of Missing Persons

Bureau of Missing Persons · 1933

Bureau of Missing Persons

MovieCrimeComedy

A young woman goes to the police looking for her missing husband. When it turns out her husband is both a murder victim and a bachelor - and that she is the primary suspect - tough cop Butch Saunders comes up with a scheme to crack the case.

Alice Crane

The Expert

The Expert · 1932

MovieComedyDrama

An elderly gentleman arrives for an extended stay with his grown son in Chicago.

Daisy

Only Yesterday

Only Yesterday · 1933

MovieDramaRomance

On the back of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, a young businessman is about to commit suicide. With a note to his wife scribbled down and a gun in his hand, he notices an envelope addressed to him on his desk. As he begins to read, we're taken back to World War One and his meeting with a young woman named Mary Lane.

Letitia

Imitation of Life

Imitation of Life · 1934

Imitation of Life

MovieDramaRomance

A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.

Mrs. Eden (uncredited)

Guilty as Hell

Guilty as Hell · 1932

Richard Arlen is the convicted murderer and Adrienne Ames his sister who believes in his innocence. We see the murder and the framing set-up at the beginning of the film, so there’s no mystery for the audience to solve. Just the pleasure of watching an intricate cat-and-mouse game, with the murderer one step ahead of his pursuers until the final, tense confrontation.

Julia Reed

Up the River

Up the River · 1930

MovieComedyCrime

Daily life at men and women's prison units where baseball and the marching band are serious business. Two prisoners escape in order to help paroled Steve from being blackmailed by his girlfriend's ex-partner-in-crime.

Sophie (uncredited)

Mutiny Ahead

Mutiny Ahead · 1935

MovieActionAdventure

A wealthy playboy winds up getting himself involved with mobsters and a search for buried treasure.

Mimi

Smart Money

Smart Money · 1931

MovieCrimeDrama

Two brothers' trip to the big city to do a little gambling results in a fateful turn of events.

Marie

Good Dame

Good Dame · 1934

A chorus girl gets stranded in a small midwestern town. Against her better judgement, she hooks up with a smooth-talking con artist who says he can help her get out of town.

Puff Warner

What's Your Racket

What's Your Racket · 1934

What's Your Racket

Mae Cosgrove, a nightclub hostess, carries out a robbery on the safe of a gangster's palatial home.

Mae Cosgrove

The Loudspeaker

The Loudspeaker · 1934

The Loudspeaker

MovieDramaComedy

A young man from a small town hits New York City, bound and determined to become a radio star. Amazingly, he achieves his ambition, but in the process alienates everyone around him with his arrogance and egomania.

Dolly

My Pal, the King

My Pal, the King · 1932

My Pal, the King

The king of a European country, who is a child, meets the cowboy star of a traveling circus.

Princess Elsa

Stone of Silver Creek

Stone of Silver Creek · 1935

Stone of Silver Creek

In perhaps the most tranquil B-Western of the 1930s, Buck Jones, who also produced, plays the tough but goodhearted proprietor of the Bonanza, the only gambling establishment in otherwise God-fearing Silver Creek. Noel Francis, who used to play blonde schemers in Warner Bros. gangster films, earns second billing as the casino's equally goodhearted chanteuse.

Lola

Ladies of the Big House

Ladies of the Big House · 1931

Ladies of the Big House

A woman tries to save her husband from the electric chair after both are sent to prison for a murder they didn't commit.

Thelma

So Big!

So Big! · 1932

MovieDramaRomance

A farmer's widow takes on the land and her late husband's tempestuous son.

Mabel

Left-Handed Law

Left-Handed Law · 1937

Left-Handed Law

An army colonel tries to bring peace to a lawless community.

Betty Golden

Blonde Crazy

Blonde Crazy · 1931

MovieDramaCrime

The adventures of a cocky con man and his beautiful accomplice.

Helen Wilson

Son of a Sailor

Son of a Sailor · 1933

Son of a Sailor

MovieComedyAdventure

A lovesick fool bumbles into espionage and finds a stolen plane.

Queenie

The Mouthpiece

The Mouthpiece · 1932

A prosecutor quits his job and becomes a defense attorney when he finds out that a man he got convicted and executed was actually innocent.

Miss DeVere

Flames

Brown is a confident young firefighter. He and his buddy become interested in two girls, after saving their cat. He then fights a fire in the apartment building next door to his new girlfriend.

Pat

Rough Romance

Rough Romance · 1930

MovieAdventureWestern

Love and logging in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon.

Flossie

Smart Woman

Smart Woman · 1931

MovieComedyDrama

A society man's loving, devoted wife, upon learning that he has been unfaithful and is planning to leave her for the other woman, strategically pretends to be having an affair of her own. The woman's friends gladly assist in the deception.

Peggy Preston

New Movietone Follies of 1930

New Movietone Follies of 1930 · 1930

New Movietone Follies of 1930

Minimum plot. Maximum stars of early cinema. Rich young Conrad Sterling (William Collier Jr.) is in love with struggling actress Mary Mason (Miriam Seeger). To prove his love, he hires Mary and the entire company of the show in which she is appearing to entertain his weekend guests at his lavish mansion.

Gloria de Witt