Ralph Spence
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"All bad little films when they die go to Ralph Spence." So read the Hollywood trade-paper advertisement of this former Houston journalist, who entered movies as a film editor in 1921. By the mid-'20s, Spence was firmly established as one of Hollywood's top title writers, supplying clever, witty dialogue for such silent film favorites as Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, and Marie Dressler. He was also famous as a "film doctor," rearranging scenes and rewriting subtitles in order to make poor films good and good films great. Legend has it that he once completely altered the mood and tone of a mediocre melodrama by reworking one single introductory title, transforming the villain's mistress into his maiden aunt. Many of his "gag" titles became classics: In 1927's The Callahans and the Murphys, for example, he has a drunken woman exclaim, "This stuff makes me see double and feel single!" Reportedly, Spence was considered so valuable a Hollywood commodity that he earned 10,000 dollars a picture; he was also the first title writer to receive separate billing on theater marquees, and at one juncture even starred in his own series of two-reel comedies. In the talkie era, Spence continued to specialize in comedy, collaborating on many of the early Wheeler and Woolsey vehicles at RKO; he was also one of the scenarists on Laurel and Hardy's 1939 "comeback" picture The Flying Deuces. Ralph Spence's final film credit was the 1943 musical Higher and Higher.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Higher and Higher |
|
— | 1943 |
No Score Yet | Around the World |
|
— | 1943 |
No Score Yet | Seven Days' Leave |
|
— | 1942 |
No Score Yet | The Fleet's In |
|
— | 1942 |
No Score Yet | Lady Be Good |
|
— | 1941 |
83% | The Flying Deuces |
|
— | 1939 |
100% | King Solomon's Mines |
|
— | 1937 |
No Score Yet | Silent Barriers |
|
— | 1937 |
No Score Yet | Where There's a Will |
|
— | 1936 |
No Score Yet | The Big Broadcast of 1936 |
|
— | 1935 |
No Score Yet | Here Comes the Band |
|
— | 1935 |
No Score Yet | Millions in the Air |
|
— | 1935 |
No Score Yet | Cockeyed Cavaliers |
|
— | 1934 |
No Score Yet | Murder in the Private Car |
|
— | 1934 |
No Score Yet | Stand Up and Cheer! |
|
— | 1934 |
No Score Yet | Student Tour |
|
— | 1934 |
No Score Yet | The Loudspeaker |
|
— | 1934 |
No Score Yet | Strictly Dynamite |
|
— | 1934 |
No Score Yet | Tomorrow at Seven |
|
— | 1933 |
No Score Yet | The Warrior's Husband |
|
— | 1933 |
No Score Yet | Mr. Skitch |
|
— | 1933 |
No Score Yet | The Crooked Circle |
|
— | 1932 |
No Score Yet | Speak Easily |
|
— | 1932 |
No Score Yet | Peach-O-Reno |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Caught Plastered |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Everything's Rosie |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Cracked Nuts |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Laugh and Get Rich |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Hook, Line and Sinker |
|
— | 1930 |
No Score Yet | Half Shot at Sunrise |
|
— | 1930 |
No Score Yet | The Florodora Girl |
|
— | 1930 |
No Score Yet | A Lady of Chance |
|
— | 1928 |
No Score Yet | American Pluck |
|
— | 1925 |
No Score Yet | The Poor Little Rich Girl |
|
— | 1917 |
Quotes from Ralph Spence's Characters
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