Dave O'Brien Trailers
42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage TrailerThat's Entertainment, Part II TrailerThe Big Parade of Comedy Trailer
Dave O'Brien (born David Poole Fronabarger, May 31, 1912 – November 8, 1969) was an American film actor, director, and writer.
O'Brien was best known to movie audiences in the 1940s as the hero of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy short film series Pete Smith Specialties narrated by Pete Smith. O'Brien wrote and directed many of these subjects under the name David Barclay. He also appeared in many low-budget Westerns, often billed as Tex O'Brien. In 1942, O'Brien starred in the movie serial Captain Midnight.
Modern audiences perhaps best remember O'Brien as a frantic dope addict in the 1936 low-budget exploitation film Tell Your Children (better known under its reissue title, Reefer Madness).
As a writer for The Red Skelton Show, O'Brien shared an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1961 and shared a nomination for the same award in 1963.
O'Brien died, aged 57, of a heart attack while competing in a yachting race.
Most Popular Dave O'Brien Trailers
Total trailers found: 191
08 July 1932
A boatload of Westerners is trapped in Manchuria as bandits led by Russian renegade Voronsky ravage the area.
17 June 1932
William Poster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyone as long as he gets the credit.
16 May 1976
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
02 July 1934
Young Alice Mason wishes to start a family, but because her own has been deemed "defective" by the state health authorities—her parents are lazy alcoholics who continue breeding, and her siblings are disabled, have mental problems or are imprisoned—she is ordered by a court to undergo sterilization so that her family's "defective genes" won't be passed on to any further.
23 November 1933
Jack Oakie and Jack Haley are songwriters are enroute from New York to Hollywood to make their fame and fortune; Ginger Rogers, a lunchwagon proprieter, joins them.
10 July 1935
A husband makes fun of his wife's theatrical aspirations when she agrees to appear in a local production.
10 July 1930
World War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but he soon is promoted to squadron commander and learns harsh lessons about sending subordinates to their deaths.
27 June 1939
Will Parker has been destroyed by a local politician and now must steal to feed his family. He steals a steer from the Three Mesquiteers.
24 October 1939
A young man forges a check in order to help his mother, but is caught and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
25 December 1941
Two ex-cons plan to kill the range rider marshal who sent them to prison and, when their plan fails, join forces with their former boss, a crooked saloon owner who has the same idea.
01 August 1939
In an effort to get Jim Martin to sell his ranch, the Halsey brothers have kidnapped his son Tom. When Bob Burke goes after him alone, he gets help from the gang known as the Riders of the Sage.
06 June 1953
A variety of fanciful innovations in "future" T.V. sets, including a model with a built-in stove, and a number of highly interactive models.
19 April 1939
A railway postal clerk goes after a sweepstakes counterfeiting ring.
15 August 1941
The heirs of Anton Benson are searching Bensonhurst for hidden gold; they are joined by a reporter, a gangster.
30 September 1937
Millionaire Larry Duane is posing as his own chauffeur while touring the West and meets Molly Hennessey.
02 August 1935
Just after a jury finds Ann Grey guilty of murder, the car carrying her to prison crashes into another car.
16 September 1938
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant has a job for Wild Bill Hickok (George Houston) and his sidekick (Al St. John).
09 May 1941
The evil and masked "Gargoyle" is sabotaging all of America's industrial plants. It is up to the Spider to save the country.
11 June 1940
Frankie Kelly is the soda jerk and embryo scientist in Midvales only drugstore. Two murders and an attempted killing suddenly swing Midvale into national prominence.
29 April 1938
Ken and Happy, looking for their friend Cherokee, run into an outlaw gang led by Ritter who have been terrorizing the ranchers.
07 May 1945
Charley Gray is about to be released from the state penitentiary after serving a long term for the robbery of a government gold shipment.
08 February 1945
In this western, the Texas Rangers must stop a range war between sheepherders and cattle ranchers from erupting.
15 June 1938
High-school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll relates to an audience of parents that marijuana can have devastating effects on teens: a drug supplier entices several restless teens, Mary and Jimmy Lane, sister and brother, and Bill, Mary's boyfriend, into frequenting a reefer house.
26 November 1953
A pair of divorced actors are brought together to participate in a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew.
14 June 1935
A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.
26 April 1944
A masked desperado wants to disrupt the mail service between two frontier communities.
21 August 1942
Billy the Kid and his pals Jeff Travis and Fuzzy Jones are arrested and brought to Fort Culver, where Billy is amazed to discover that he and the post commander Lieutenant Ted Morrison, are exact doubles.
19 September 1935
A super-efficient secretary at a department store falls for and marries her boss, but finds out that taking care of him at home (and especially his spoiled-brat daughter) is a lot different than taking care of him at work.
05 October 1934
A philosophy professor accompanies his school's rowing team on a worldwide tour.
01 September 1945
Ellen Williams' father has a valuable collection of furs and an outlaw gang is after them. Before he is killed, Williams hides a note revealing their location.
20 November 1942
The East Side Kids find a young girl in the apartment of a man who has just been murdered. Believing her to be innocent, they hide her in their clubhouse while they try to find the real killer.
09 November 1942
A popular band joins the army with the idea of putting on shows for troops overseas. During rehearsals, a battle erupts and the musicians must exchange their musical instruments for guns and fight.
23 December 1932
The story of corrupt, power-hungry, manipulative Grigori Rasputin's influence on members of the Russian Imperial family and others, and what resulted.
09 November 1935
The singing stoker and the vamp.
22 September 1944
Tex put the Kern gang away once but they have returned with reinforcements and have take over the town of Red Rock capturing the townsmen and forcing them to work for them in the gold mines.
28 June 1940
A skip tracer--someone who collects late payments from people who've purchased appliances, etc., or takes them back them when they don't pay--repossesses a small radio from a deadbeat who's skipped payments.
31 March 1940
Cowboy puts on a black mask and a black outfit to fight a gang of land-grabbing crooks.
16 November 1938
Jack has been called in to investigate stage robberies where the stolen gold bullion mysteriously disappears, He finds the Professor, an elderly ex-con, and convincing him they used to work together, gets the Professor to get him in to the gang.
06 July 1940
Sgt. Renfrew and Constable Kelly go aloft to search for a plane missing with a shipment of gold from the Yukon Mine Company.
05 November 1939
Ann Fenwick is a witness to a bank robbery in the U.S. and the bandits, led by Trigger and Leon capture her and when she disappears, a warrant is issued for her arrest as a material witness.
15 March 1945
A war hero returns home following a medical discharge and ends up entangled with a young woman speeding away from her wedding day in her fiance's car.
08 July 1944
This Pete Smith Specialty short takes a humorous look at the inconsiderate pests whose annoying habits make enjoying a movie impossible.
24 October 1941
A group of delinquents on their way to summer camp get stuck in a haunted house.
29 December 1944
Rangers Tex Haines and Dave Wyatt track a killer known as the Whispering Skull. In the wake of the Skull's slaughter, a band of thieves takes advantage of the fear he's brought to town.
14 August 1937
When Jim and Scrubby arrive to see Scrubby's sister, they find her murdered and suspect it was her no good husband Jake.
01 May 1942
Knowing the Army is arriving to establish a post. Doc Hagan and his gang and the crooked Sheriff are trying to drive the ranchers off the land.
24 March 1933
The scheme of a pair of married con artists goes awry when their victim dies, and they are both caught and imprisoned.
11 May 1946
This humorous Pete Smith Specialty short looks around various studios on a film lot.
22 July 1942
An American astronomer living on a Pacific island attempts to thwart the Japanese during WWII.
30 March 1940
A runaway boy pretends to be the son of a Navy man, only to turn both their lives upside down.
01 March 1939
A cowboy helps a pretty young woman and her father in their fight against land-grabbers who are trying to swindle them out of their cattle ranch.
06 May 1950
This short looks at the following questions: How would you act as an expectant father? How many greeting cards are sold in the USA each year?
21 November 1931
A sportswriter jilted by his globe-trotting girlfriend marries a woman jilted by her boyfriend.
13 July 1934
A polo-playing grandmother and her broke brood get back in the money with a Wall Street bet.
02 November 1946
This comedic Pete Smith Specialty short examines the folly of using "home remedies" for various ills.
02 September 1964
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
07 December 1946
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, a wife endures the trials of being married to a husband with traits that drive her crazy.
26 August 1940
The owner of an Alaskan gambling boat and her business partner help thwart a crooked businessman who attempts to steal claims from local miners.
06 January 1939
Shirley Martin finds that Weylan has diverted the water from the valley and her cattle are dying. First she and her foreman Bob Lawson go to court.
14 November 1931
An inventor and his lanky girlfriend set an altitude record in his winged contraption.
