Gertrude Purcell

Writing

Gertrude Purcell

Born June 14, 1895 · New York City, New York, USA

Died May 1, 1963 · aged 67

Purcell (who was described by a friend as a "masculine, funny, and hard-drinking woman") worked as a freelancer for much of her career, penning scripts for most of the major studios. During the McCarthy era she became an important informer due to her communist past, but before the process she attempted suicide. She then retired from her cinema career, but lived a decade more.

Known For

Reckless AgeReckless Age · 1944
Reckless Age
9.01944
MovieAdventureComedy
Linda Wadsworth rebels against her millionaire grandfather, J. H. Wadsworth, and runs away from home. Unknown to Mr. Wadsworth, she gets a job at one of his many five-and-ten-cents stores as a clerk.
Hitting a New HighHitting a New High · 1937
Hitting a New High
5.51937
MovieComedyMusic
A Paris cabaret singer dreams of becoming a Metropolitan Opera singer. A press agent arranges her Manhattan debut by way of Africa.
Love Before BreakfastLove Before Breakfast · 1936
Love Before Breakfast
6.11936
MovieComedyRomance
Scott is a very rich businessman who hangs out with a snooty, silly Countess, but has the hots for Kay who is already engaged to Bill. Scott pursues Kay like crazy, going so far as to buy Bill's oil company so that he can banish him to Japan, leaving Kay unmoored.
Follow the BoysFollow the Boys · 1944
Follow the Boys
5.71944
MovieMusicComedy
During World War II, all the studios put out "all-star" vehicles which featured virtually every star on the lot--often playing themselves--in musical numbers and comedy skits, and were meant as morale-boosters to both the troops overseas and the civilians at home. This was Universal Pictures' effort. It features everyone from Donald O'Connor to the Andrews Sisters to Orson Welles to W.C. Fields to George Raft to Marlene Dietrich, and dozens of other Universal players.
If You Could Only CookIf You Could Only Cook · 1935
If You Could Only Cook
7.41935
MovieComedyRomance
An auto engineer and a professor's daughter pose as married servants in a mobster's mansion.
Stella DallasStella Dallas · 1937
Stella Dallas
6.81937
MovieDramaRomance
A working-class woman is willing to do whatever it takes to give her daughter a socially promising future.
Super-SleuthSuper-Sleuth · 1937
Super-Sleuth
5.61937
MovieMysteryComedy
A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.
Destry Rides AgainDestry Rides Again · 1939
Destry Rides Again
7.21939
MovieWesternComedy
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.

Filmography

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Child of ManhattanChild of Manhattan · 1933
Child of Manhattan
7.21933
MovieDramaRomance
Paul Vanderkill is extraordinarily wealthy because his grandfather happened to buy farmland in what was to become Midtown Manhattan. The Loveland Dance Hall is one of the tenants of the Vanderkill estates. To reassure his aunt Sophie, Vanderkill visits Loveland to determine whether it is as disreputable as Sophie suspects. There he meets a dime-a-dance girl, Madeleine MacGonagal, who charms him with her quaint proletarian accent. They begin a secret affair, which turns into a secret marriage when pregnancy ensues. When the baby fails to survive, Madeleine decides that since he had married her only for the baby's sake, she should make haste to Mexico to secure a divorce. There she meets Panama Canal Kelly, a former suitor who now owns a silver mine. Her plans for divorce and quick remarriage are complicated when Vanderkill arrives to confront her.

Screenplay

Paris UndergroundParis Underground · 1945
Paris Underground
6.21945
MovieDramaWar
Constance Bennett both produced and starred in the espionager Paris Underground. Bennett and Gracie Fields play, respectively, an American and an English citizen trapped in Paris when the Nazis invade. The women team up to help Allied aviators escape from the occupied city into Free French territory. The screenplay was based on the true wartime activities of Etta Shiber, who engineered the escape of nearly 300 Allied pilots. British fans of comedienne Gracie Fields were put off by the scenes in which she is tortured by the Gestapo, while Constance Bennett's following had been rapidly dwindling since the 1930s; as a result, the heartfelt but tiresome Paris Underground failed to make a dent at the box-office. It would be Constance Bennett's last starring film--and Gracie Fields' last film, period.

Screenplay