Francis Sayles

Acting
1891-11-22
Buffalo, New York, USA

Biography

Francis Sayles was born on November 22, 1891 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Black Legion (1937), The Purple Vigilantes (1938) and Midnight Phantom (1935). He died on March 19, 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Known For & Full Filmography52 Titles

#1Citizen Kane

Movie - 1941, 2h 15m as Politician (uncredited)

8.0 / 10
MysteryDrama

Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.

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#2Man-Made Monster

Movie - 1941, 2h 15m as Frank Davis (uncredited)

6.1 / 10
HorrorSci-Fi

Mad scientist turns a man into an electrically-controlled monster to do his bidding.

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#3Union Pacific

Movie - 1939, 2h 15m as Railwayman (uncredited)

6.7 / 10
DramaWestern

One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?

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#4The Glass Key

Movie - 1942, 2h 15m as Seedy-Looking Man at Campaign Headquarters (uncredited)

6.6 / 10
CrimeMysteryThriller

A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.

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#5Ball of Fire

Movie - 1941, 2h 15m as Taxi Driver (uncredited)

7.4 / 10
ComedyRomanceCrime

A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated, he ventures into the wide world to learn about the evolving language. Here he meets Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer, who’s on top of all the slang—and, it just so happens, needs a place to stay.

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#6Blonde Venus

Movie - 1932, 2h 15m as Charlie Blaine (uncredited)

6.8 / 10
Drama

In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.

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#7Easy Living

Movie - 1937, 2h 15m as Martin - Houseman (uncredited)

7.2 / 10
ComedyRomance

J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.

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#8Dodge City

Movie - 1939, 2h 15m as Stage Shotgun Guard (uncredited)

6.9 / 10
Western

In this epic Western, Wade Hatton, a wagon master turned sheriff, tames a cow town at the end of a railroad line.

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#9Ministry of Fear

Movie - 1944, 2h 15m as Man Answering Rennit's Knock (uncredited)

6.9 / 10
CrimeMysteryThriller

Stephen Neale is released into WWII England after two years in an asylum, but it doesn't seem so sane outside either. On his way back to London to rejoin civilization, he stumbles across a murderous spy ring and doesn't quite know to whom to turn.

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#10Make Way for Tomorrow

Movie - 1937, 2h 15m as Bartender (uncredited)

7.5 / 10
DramaRomance

An elderly couple are forced to separate themselves from each other after their children refuse to take both into one house.

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#11Wells Fargo

Movie - 1937, 2h 15m as Townsman

5.5 / 10
HistoryWestern

In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fresh oysters to Buffalo from New York City. When he rescues Justine Pryor and her mother, who are stranded in a broken wagon on his route, he doesn't let them slow him down and gives the ladies an exhilirating ride into Buffalo. He arrives in time to obtain the contract and is then sent by company president Henry Wells to St. Louis to establish a branch office.

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#12The Pride of the Yankees

Movie - 1942, 2h 15m as Cab Driver (uncredited)

7.4 / 10
DramaFamily

The story of the life and career of the baseball hall of famer, Lou Gehrig.

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#13Black Legion

Movie - 1937, 2h 15m as Charlie

6.6 / 10
CrimeDrama

When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.

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#14Big Brown Eyes

Movie - 1936, 2h 15m as Barber (Uncredited)

6.2 / 10
ComedyCrimeMystery

Sassy manicurist Eve Fallon is recruited as an even more brassy reporter and she helps police detective boyfriend Danny Barr break a jewel theft ring and solve the murder of a baby.

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#15Satan Met a Lady

Movie - 1936, 2h 15m as Detective (uncredited)

5.8 / 10
ComedyMysteryCrime

In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress and a lady jewel thief.

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#16Devil's Island

Movie - 1939, 2h 15m as Boatman Taking Madame Lucien to Mainland

5.7 / 10
Drama

A French doctor sentenced for treason performs brain surgery on the prison commandant's daughter.

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#17The Night Riders

Movie - 1939, 2h 15m as President James A. Garfield

5.8 / 10
HistoryWestern

Talbot uses a phony land grant to rule thirteen million acres, taxing everyone heavily and evicting those who won't pay. The Three Mesquiteers becomes mysterious "night riders" to fight this evil.

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#18Crazy House

Movie - 1943, 2h 15m as Stooge

6.0 / 10
MusicComedy

Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson are Broadway stars who return to Universal Studios to make another movie. The mere mention of Olsen and Johnson's names evacuates the studio and terrorizes the management and personnel. Undaunted, the comedians hire an assistant director and unknown talent, and set out to make their own movie.

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#19The Mystery of Marie Roget

Movie - 1942, 2h 15m as Parisian

5.7 / 10
CrimeMysteryHorror

A detective investigates the mysterious death of a young actress.

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#20Dr. Broadway

Movie - 1942, 2h 15m as Clerk (uncredited)

6.0 / 10
CrimeDramaMystery

A New York doctor saves a chorus girl from a window ledge, twice, and rounds up racketeers.

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#21Down on the Farm

Movie - 1938, 2h 15m as Member of Chamber of Commerce

10.0 / 10
Comedy

Excitement runs high when a family's farm is chosen as the site for a big cornhusking contest.

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#22It Happened in Hollywood

Movie - 1937, 2h 15m as Waiter

6.3 / 10
DramaComedy

A silent Western star has trouble adjusting to the coming of sound.

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#23Coney Island

Movie - 1943, 2h 15m as Heckler

6.3 / 10
ComedyMusic

Set at the turn of the century, smooth talking con man Eddie Johnson weasels his way into a job at friend and rival Joe Rocco's Coney Island night spot. Eddie meets the club's star attraction (and Joe's love interest), Kate Farley, a brash singer with a penchant for flashy clothes. Eddie and Kate argue as he tries to soften her image. Eventually, Kate becomes the toast of Coney Island and the two fall in love. Joe then tries to sabotage their marriage plans.

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#24Pacific Blackout

Movie - 1941, 2h 15m as Court Clerk

6.6 / 10
MysteryRomanceThriller

Falsely convicted of murder, young Robert Draper escapes custody during a practice blackout drill. Under cover of darkness, Draper hopes to find the real killer, who turns out to be a member of a Nazi sabotage ring. Completed shortly before America entered WW2.

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#25The Arizona Kid

Movie - 1939, 2h 15m as Man Reporting Roy Alive

6.1 / 10
Western

Roy is a Confederate officer stationed in Missouri during the Civil War. He must put an end to outlaw gangs working under the pretense of service to the Confederacy.

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#26Sunset on the Desert

Movie - 1942, 2h 15m as Desk Clerk

6.0 / 10
ActionWestern

Judge Kirby is being blackmailed and forced to let outlaws go free. He was once the partner of Roy's father and when Roy reads in the paper that he is in trouble he heads out to help him. Arriving, Roy quickly realizes he has been mistaken for one of the outlaws and is not wanted in town. However he stays, and now posing as that outlaw, hopes to learn who is causing all the problems.

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#27The Son of Davy Crockett

Movie - 1941, 2h 15m as Dr. Banks

10.0 / 10
Western

Dave Crockett (Bill Elliott) comes to the aid of ranchers living on the Yucca Strip, who want their area made part of the United States. A greedy land baron, however, wants the property as his own.

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#28Bad Man of Deadwood

Movie - 1941, 2h 15m as Show Spectator

5.3 / 10
ActionWestern

Roy and Gabby fight bad guys to save the town of Deadwood.

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#29Hollywood Cavalcade

Movie - 1939, 2h 15m as Second Cab Driver

6.2 / 10
ComedyDramaHistory

Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for him as director of her next film. Many silent stars shown making the transition to sound.

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#30Yours for the Asking

Movie - 1936, 2h 15m as Waiter (uncredited)

5.3 / 10
RomanceComedy

Casino operator Johnny Lamb hires down-on-her-luck socialite Lucille Sutton as his casino hostess, in order to help her and to improve casino income. But Lamb's pals fear he may follow Lucille onto the straight-and-narrow path, which would not be good for business. So they hire Gert Malloy and Dictionary McKinney, a pair of con-artists, to manipulate Johnny back off the path of righteousness.

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#31Honeymoon Lodge

Movie - 1943, 2h 15m as Bailiff

6.5 / 10
MusicComedy

Honeymoon Lodge is a musical variation on the old Awful Truth plotline. Divorce-bound Bob and Carol Sterling (David Bruce, June Vincent) make a last-ditch attempt to avoid their legal breakup by restaging their mountain-resort honeymoon. Things get complicated when a rancher named Big Boy (Rod Cameron, in a Ralph Bellamy-style "sap" role) shows up at the resort in ardent pursuit of Carol, while Lorraine Logan (Harriet Hilliard) sets her cap for Bob.

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#32Girl Missing

Movie - 1933, 2h 15m as Motorcycle Policeman (Uncredited)

5.2 / 10
ComedyCrimeMystery

Showgirls Kay and June are stranded on Palm Beach when they become involved in the case of a fellow chorine who has gone missing on her wedding night.

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#33Private Affairs

Movie - 1940, 2h 15m as Bailiff (uncredited)

7.0 / 10
RomanceComedy

A girl decides to consult her natural father, whom she's never seen, for advice on her mixed-up love life.

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#34Below the Deadline

Movie - 1936, 2h 15m as Train Conductor (uncredited)

4.9 / 10
CrimeDramaMystery

After a good-natured Irish cop is framed for a diamond robbery and murder and presumed dead in a train wreck, he gets plastic surgery and returns to expose the real killers.

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#35Alcatraz Island

Movie - 1937, 2h 15m as Court Clerk (uncredited)

5.1 / 10
RomanceDramaAction

A man who has been railroaded into prison is framed for the murder of a fellow inmate and must prove his innocence.

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#36Wild Bill Hickok Rides

Movie - 1942, 2h 15m as Ben Freeman

5.5 / 10
Western

The Western hero takes on a ruthless land baron whose henchmen killed his best friend.

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#37Florida Special

Movie - 1936, 2h 15m as Sergeant (uncredited)

7.0 / 10
ComedyMystery

A Florida-bound train is filled with romance and intrigue when one of the passengers disappears while carrying $11-million in unset jewels.

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#38Stagecoach Express

Movie - 1942, 2h 15m as Postmaster (uncredited)

6.3 / 10
DramaWestern

Ellen has the contract for the South West Stage Line through the panhandle. Her father had the run for years and Haney, who runs the office, worked for him. But Ellen does not know that Haney is in league with Elkins and they want the stage line so they can rob the gold shipments. All they need do is stop the stage and end her contract, but that is not easy with Dave driving for Ellen.

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#39The Fighting Devil Dogs

Movie - 1938, 2h 15m as Renault (uncredited)

6.8 / 10
ActionSci-Fi

Two marine lieutenants battle a masked would-be world conqueror who uses electricity as a weapon.

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#40One Crowded Night

Movie - 1940, 2h 15m as Jasper, Postman

5.5 / 10
Drama

The future of a group of strangely connected lives is determined on one crucial night at a dinky motel in the desert.

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#41Alias Boston Blackie

Movie - 1942, 2h 15m as Laundry Proprietor (uncredited)

5.7 / 10
Mystery

It is the Christmas Holidays and reformed thief, Boston Blackie goes to Castle Theater to pick up players who will perform for prisoners that are still in prison. He takes a girl with him who has a brother already in prison. She has visited the prison twice in the month, so is not suppose to visit again. However when the group is completed the girl is included as well as Inspector Farrady. One of the clowns in the show is kidnapped and replaced by a con who wants to get even with two ex-partners. Boston Blackie figures out that a con has replaced one of his clowns but is unable to stop him. Blackie's clothes are stolen and a murder is committed. Of course, the Inspector immediately suspects Blackie of being involved. Now it is Blackie's job to find the killer, exonerate himself and help the girl free her brother.

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#42Riders of Black River

Movie - 1939, 2h 15m as Doc Josh Greene

10.0 / 10
Western

Former Texas Ranger Wade Patterson (Starrett) returns to his home town, only to find that the territory is in the grip of cattle rustlers. For a while, it looks as though heroine Linda Holden (Meredith) is in cahoots with the bad guys, but Patterson quickly clears her name and takes on the crooks himself.

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#43Midnight Phantom

Movie - 1935, 2h 15m as Police Surgeon Kelly

5.1 / 10
Mystery

A newly hired police chief vows to clean up a notoriously corrupt police department. When he is murdered, investigators find that there is no shortage of suspects, most of them being fellow cops.

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#44Bum Voyage

Movie - 1934, 2h 15m as Madame Zaza's Manager (uncredited)

6.5 / 10
Comedy

The girls find a pair of steamship tickets, not knowing that the cabin the tickets are for is inhabited by a gorilla.

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#45Alibi for Murder

Movie - 1936, 2h 15m as Waiter (Uncredited)

6.5 / 10
ActionAdventureCrime

A radio commentator named Perry Travis fancies himself a brilliant amateur detective. The cops wish he’d stick to his microphone and let them do the detecting. This proves impossible when a famed scientist is murdered in Perry’s studio, right in the middle of the interview. All evidence points to Perry, and he sets out to clear his name before the Shadow-like villain roaming the hallways of the radio station gets away with murder.

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#46Trapped

Movie - 1937, 2h 15m as Chong

9.0 / 10
WesternDrama

Ted Haley rides to his brother's ranch and finds him dying from a knife wound. The brother names Sol Rothert as his killer. Leaving the house, Ted doesn't notice a mysterious man watching him, but he sees a rider gallop up to the house and enter, and Ted rushes to investigate.

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#47One in a Million

Movie - 1935, 2h 15m as Mr. Dickman

5.7 / 10
Drama

A department store clerk, wrongly accused of stealing by her lecherous boss, becomes involved in a romantic relationship with the boss's son.

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#48Overland with Kit Carson

Movie - 1939, 2h 15m as Dr. Parker

5.3 / 10
Western

When Pegleg and his Black Raiders threaten the westward expansion of the United States, the government sends Kit Carson and David Brent to straighten things out.

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#49The Purple Vigilantes

Movie - 1938, 2h 15m as Wiliam Jones

4.7 / 10
Western

David Ross organizes the ranchers into a vigilante group to rid the town of outlaws. The plan succeeds but the trouble starts when some of the men form a new vigilante group and posing as the original one plunder for loot.

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#50Strangers of the Evening

Movie - 1932, 2h 15m as Roberts

5.1 / 10
ComedyCrimeMystery

Bodies start mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue. An investigator tries to determine what is going on.

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#51Riders of Pasco Basin

Movie - 1940, 2h 15m as Rancher (uncredited)

5.5 / 10
MusicWestern

Kirby and Evans are pulling off an irrigation project swindle and newspaper editor Scott realizes it and sends for Lee. Lee agrees with Scott and forms a vigilante group to fight the Sheriff and his deputies brought in by Kirby. But a dying Uncle Dan sets the Sheriff straight and this brings the two sides together for the big shootout.

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#52Moonlight in Vermont

Movie - 1943, 2h 15m as Dr. Stubbs

6.5 / 10
ComedyDramaMusic

A poor country girl from Vermont travels to New York City to attend a theatrical school.

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