Charles Lederer Trailers
Ocean's Eleven TrailerKiss of Death TrailerKismet Trailer
Charles Lederer (December 31, 1906 – March 5, 1976) was an American screenwriter and film director. He was born into a prominent theatrical family in New York, and after his parents divorced, was raised in California by his aunt, Marion Davies, mistress to newspaper publisher William Randolf Hearst. A child prodigy, he entered college at age 13, but dropped out after a few years to work as a journalist with Hearst's newspapers.
Lederer is recognized for his comic and acerbic adaptations and collaborative screenplays of the 1940s and early 1950s. His screenplays frequently delved into the corrosive influences of wealth and power. His comedy writing was considered among the best of the period, and he, along with writer friends Ben Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz, became major contributors to the film genre known as "screwball comedy".
Among his notable screenplays which he wrote or co-wrote, were The Front Page (1931), the critically acclaimed His Girl Friday (1940), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Ocean's 11 (1960), and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).
With Ben Hecht, he co-wrote the original Kiss of Death which was to feature the actor Richard Widmark's chilling debut as the psychopathic killer with a giggle. In addition, he wrote and directed the 1959 film Never Steal Anything Small, an adaptation of a play by Maxwell Anderson and Rouben Mamoulian, starring James Cagney. The Spirit of St. Louis was Lederer's last significant film work. The films that followed that were primarily vehicles for established stars.
In 1954, he won three Tony Awards for the Broadway Musical Kismet, as Best Producer (Musical), as Best Author (Musical) with Luther Davis, and as co-author of the book which, with several collaborators, contributed to the Best Musical win.
Most Popular Charles Lederer Trailers
Total trailers found: 41
07 December 2001
Less than 24 hours into his parole, charismatic thief Danny Ocean is already rolling out his next plan: In one night, Danny's hand-picked crew of specialists will attempt to steal more than $150 million from three Las Vegas casinos.
26 August 1949
After marrying an American lieutenant with whom he was assigned to work in post-war Germany, a French captain attempts to find a way to accompany her back to the States under the terms of the War Bride Act.
24 February 1933
An honest and naive schoolteacher gets a lesson in how the world works outside the classroom, when a rich Baron and his mistress use the teacher's name and outstanding reputation in a crooked business scheme.
01 April 1957
Charles Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his 1927 New York to Paris flight the first solo trans-Atlantic crossing.
30 January 1964
Bob Hope becomes surrogate father to a baby found abandoned at the United Nations. Director Jack Arnold's 1964 comedy also stars Yvonne De Carlo, Robert Sterling, John McGiver and Lilo Pulver.
11 April 1962
When the Kwimper family car runs out of fuel on a new Florida highway and an officious state supervisor tries to run them off, Pop Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little homesteading.
23 May 1941
Circumstance, an old flame and a mother-in-law drive a happily married couple to the verge of divorce and insanity.
10 August 1960
Danny Ocean and his gang attempt to rob the five biggest casinos in Las Vegas in one night.
06 September 1957
Broke and about to divorce his wife, a pilot joins a smuggling scheme in postwar Madrid.
09 May 1956
A ballerina resorts to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War II.
01 April 1943
Small-town soda-jerk Peggy Evans quits her dead-end job and moves to New York where she invents a new identity.
05 September 1949
In her attempts to make a splash on Broadway, a lively would-be-actress lands herself in hot water with the mob.
19 August 1959
While on leave in New York, a serviceman both weds a chorus girl and wins a red convertible in a charity raffle.
08 October 1955
A silver-tongued poet and self-proclaimed "King of the Beggars" searches old Baghdad for a rich bachelor to marry his dreamy daughter, Marsinah.
14 July 1953
Lorelei Lee is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond, much to the disapproval of Gus' rich father, Esmond Sr.
23 January 1932
An opera diva sets her sights on a womanizing army officer.
28 September 1951
After years of living in her selfish parents' (Melvyn Douglas and Lynn Bari) egotistical shadows, desperate teenager Jill Bradley (Joan Evans) makes a last-ditch play for attention by attempting suicide.
27 August 1947
An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.
31 March 1950
Andy Clark discovers he was cheated out of a half interest in partner Mike's business, now a thriving dance hall in 1892 Chicago.
17 March 1939
Shopgirl Mary Turner, sentenced to prison for someone else's theft, is released and takes revenge upon those who wronged her in powerful but lawful ways.
18 January 1940
Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife.
17 September 1937
A philanthropist's will dictates that four people receive $5,000 apiece, with the stipulation that the first one who can double the amount -- without dishonesty-- will win a cool million.
11 February 1959
Director Charles Lederer's 1959 musical stars James Cagney as an unscrupulous longshoreman who'll resort to every dirty trick in the book to win his union's presidency.
24 October 1967
The story follows one fateful day as a beggar-poet and his daughter cross paths with a wicked wazir, a wily temptress, a handsome prince, a magical curse, opulent sets and exotic adventure.
07 April 1939
A married singer, pianist/composer team are struggling to hit it big in New York. Finally, they audition before a Broadway producer, but the producer only wants the singer, leaving the husband without a job and feeling a failure.
08 November 1962
The Bounty leaves Portsmouth in 1787. Its destination: to sail to Tahiti and load bread-fruit. Captain Bligh will do anything to get there as fast as possible, using any means to keep up a strict discipline.
09 March 1960
Parisian nightclub owner Simone Pistache is known for her performances of the can-can, which attracts the ire of the self-righteous Judge Philipe Forrestier.
21 April 1995
Jimmy Kilmartin's an ex-con who's trying to go straight. But he can't say no to a quick driving job because his so-called friend's life is threatened.
22 April 1942
In Chicago, an unemployed actor aims to solve the mystery concerning a string of ax murders, apparently committed by a lunatic.
05 April 1951
Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.
04 April 1931
Hildy Johnson is an investigative reporter looking for a bigger paycheck. When an accused murderer escapes from custody, Hildy sees an opportunity for the story of a lifetime.
03 September 1952
Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler.
18 June 1937
Mary Beamish, a folksy Ozark girl, yearns for the glitter of show business and for a man. She knows she is anything but gorgeous, but figures her enthusiasm offsets that small deficit.
13 December 1940
An American reporter smuggling news out of Soviet Moscow is blackmailed into helping a beautiful Communist leave the country.
08 October 1947
A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.
12 April 1935
Thanks to a series of comic mishaps, a timid, small-town office clerk finds himself wanted by the police and labeled by the media as "Public Enemy No.
09 August 1940
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
15 August 1952
A young man brings his pet lion with him when he's drafted into the U.S. Army.
26 February 1943
Joan Lyons and her friend Patricia Drew are autograph hounds spending most of their day bumping into, and having tea, with the likes of Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon.
12 November 1947
Bill Weldon is an Ad man who craves his wife Margaret's approval of his work, instead he gets constructive (and on-target) feedback, which he hates.
01 August 1958
A convicted bank robber, serving his sentence and yearning for freedom, becomes entangled with a psychotic, homicidal inmate.
