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Stephen Morehouse Avery is a Scriptwriter American born on 20 december 1893 at Missouri (USA)

Stephen Morehouse Avery

Stephen Morehouse Avery
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Nationality USA
Birth 20 december 1893 at Missouri (USA)
Death 10 february 1948 (at 54 years) at Los Angeles (USA)

Stephen Morehouse Avery (December 20, 1893–February 10, 1948) was an American author who wrote numerous Hollywood screenplays. His daughter is the actress Phyllis Avery.

Avery was born to Charles M. and Jesse Avery in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The senior Avery was a cashier at an insurance company. Stephen Avery attended the University of Missouri at Columbia and was employed in Detroit, Michigan, before he began professional writing.

Avery wrote for national publications until 1933, when he began to specialize in screenplays. His work included Wharf Angel (1934), Our Little Angel (1935), One Rainy Afternoon with Ida Lupino and Francis Lederer (1936), The Gorgeous Hussy for Joan Crawford, I'll Take Romance (1937), Four Mothers (1941), The Male Animal (1942), starring Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland and based on a James Thurber play. and Deep Valley (1947), with Ida Lupino and Dane Clark, the story of a lonely woman living on a farm who is smitten by an escaped convict.

Shortly before his death of a heart attack at his Los Angeles, California, apartment at the age of fifty-four, Avery penned the scripts for The Woman in White and Every Girl Should Be Married, a romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Betsy Drake. In 1935, he was nominated with Don Hartman for an Academy Award for writing The Gay Deception, a film unrelated to homosexuality and not to be confused with two other comedy films with similar titles, The Gay Deceiver (1926) and The Gay Deceivers (1969). In the story, Mirabel, portrayed by Frances Dee, wins a $5,000 lottery, a near fortune in 1935, and moves to New York City, where she meets Sandro, played by Francis Lederer, a bellboy who is really a prince. The film was directed by William Wyler.

Avery was survived by his wife, the former Marian Baldwin, and his only child, Phyllis Avery (born 1924), who launched her acting career in 1951. Among other stars, Phyllis Avery was cast opposite Charlton Heston, George Gobel, Richard Egan, Chuck Connors, Lew Ayres, and Ray Milland.

Usually with

Irving Bacon
Irving Bacon
(4 films)
Don Hartman
Don Hartman
(2 films)
Jack Mower
Jack Mower
(4 films)
Bess Flowers
Bess Flowers
(4 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Stephen Morehouse Avery (13 films)

Display filmography as list

Scriptwriter

Every Girl Should Be Married, 1h25
Directed by Don Hartman
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy, Romance
Actors Betsy Drake, Cary Grant, Franchot Tone, Diana Lynn, Alan Mowbray, Bess Flowers
Roles Writer
Rating62% 3.100763.100763.100763.100763.10076
Department store salesclerk Anabel Sims (Betsy Drake) is very enamoured with the idea of getting married. So when handsome pediatrician Dr. Madison Brown (Cary Grant) asks for her help in making a purchase, she decides that he is the one for her.
The Woman in White, 1h49
Directed by Peter Godfrey, Peter Godfrey
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Romance
Actors Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet, Gig Young, Agnes Moorehead, John Abbott
Roles Writer
Rating65% 3.2935253.2935253.2935253.2935253.293525
Arriving at an estate in England to teach drawing to wealthy Laura Fairlie (Eleanor Parker), artist Walter Hartright (Gig Young) sees a mysterious woman in white who promptly vanishes.
Deep Valley, 1h44
Directed by Jean Negulesco
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime, Romance
Actors Ida Lupino, Dane Clark, Wayne Morris, Fay Bainter, Henry Hull, Willard Robertson
Rating67% 3.388563.388563.388563.388563.38856
A young woman, Libby Saul (Ida Lupino), lives with her parents, who are themselves estranged, on an isolated farm not far from the California coast. Libby is used by her parents as a diplomatic middle-man, since they no longer speak to ach other directly. She has developed a stammer over the years, and spends ost of her spare time wandering around in the nearby woods with her beloved dog, Joe. One day when she is out wandering she bumps into a group of convicts who are building a road along the coastline. She takes an interest in the convicts and their building, so she returns for several days, without her parents knowing, to watch them at a distance. She is particularly interested in one of the handsome young convicts, Barry Burnett (Dane Clark).
The Male Animal, 1h41
Directed by Elliott Nugent
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy, Romance
Themes Films about education, Films based on plays
Actors Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson, Eugene Pallette, Hattie McDaniel
Rating65% 3.2936053.2936053.2936053.2936053.293605
Tommy Turner (Henry Fonda) is an English teacher at football-crazed Midwestern University. Although he is uninvolved with the politics of the day, Tommy suddenly finds himself the center of a free-speech debate on campus. An editorial in a student magazine praises him for planning to read Bartolomeo Vanzetti's sentencing statement to his class as an example of eloquent composition, even in broken English composed by a non-professional.
Rio
Rio (1939)
, 1h15
Directed by John Brahm
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Crime, Romance
Actors Basil Rathbone, Victor McLaglen, Sigrid Gurie, Robert Cummings, Leo Carrillo, Billy Gilbert
Rating60% 3.0349453.0349453.0349453.0349453.034945
French financier Paul Reynard (Rathbone) is sentenced to a ten-year term in a South American penal colony for bank fraud. His wife Irene (Gurie) and Paul's faithful servant Dirk (McLaglen) travel to Rio de Janeiro to arrange for Paul's escape. But once she's landed in the Brazilian capital, Irene falls in love with American engineer Bill Gregory (Cummings). After his escape Paul realizes that he's lost his wife forever to a better man. Seeking revenge, he prepares to shoot Bill in cold blood, but Dirk intervenes and kills Reynard instead.
Hard to Get, 1h22
Directed by Ray Enright
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy, Romance
Actors Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Charles Winninger, Allen Jenkins, Bonita Granville, Melville Cooper
Roles Story
Rating66% 3.343333.343333.343333.343333.34333
New York oil magnate Ben Richards (Charles Winninger) and his family are preparing to leave for Newport for their summer vacation. His spoiled willful daughter Margaret (Olivia de Havilland) refuses to go and storms out of the house, borrowing a car belonging to her father's valet. On the road she notices the car is low on gas and stops at an auto court gas station. The attendant, Bill Davis (Dick Powell), fills up the tank and requests the $3.50 payment. With no money on her, Margaret tries to charge the amount to her father's account, but Bill refuses, not knowing who she is. Instead, he offers to let her work off her debt by making the beds and cleaning the rooms at the auto court motel. Outraged by this suggestion, Margaret attempts to drive off, but backs into a truck preventing her from leaving. When a police officer arrives, Margaret is forced to comply with Bill's offer, and she spends the next few hours making beds and cleaning rooms.
The Gorgeous Hussy, 1h43
Directed by Clarence Brown
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Historical, Romance
Themes Political films
Actors Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Young, Franchot Tone, Melvyn Douglas
Rating56% 2.8014052.8014052.8014052.8014052.801405
In 1823 Washington D.C., Major O'Neal (Gene Lockhart) and his daughter Margaret "Peggy" O'Neal (Joan Crawford) run an inn that is frequented by politicians. Peggy is outspoken for a woman of her time, and when Tennessee senator Andrew Jackson (Lionel Barrymore) visits, she affectionately refers to him as "Uncle Andy."
One Rainy Afternoon, 1h34
Directed by Rowland V. Lee
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy
Actors Francis Lederer, Ida Lupino, Hugh Herbert, Roland Young, Erik Rhodes, Joseph Cawthorn
Rating58% 2.943742.943742.943742.943742.94374
On a rainy afternoon in Paris, debonair actor Phillipe Martin (Francis Lederer) goes to a darkened movie theatre for a romantic assignation with his married mistress, Yvonne (Liev De Maigret), but sits in the wrong seat and kisses instead lovely Monique Pelerin (Ida Lupino), the daughter of a powerful publisher (Joseph Cawthorn). Monique, who is engaged to powerful Count Alfredo Donstelli (Erik Rhodes), makes a public accusation against Phillip, and the priggish head of the Purity League (Eily Malyon) exploits the incident until it becomes a national scandal, with Phillipe dubbed "The Kissing Monster". When Phillipe is tried, his defense is that he was overcome by Monique's beauty, and that it is a Frenchman's nature to be romantic, even to perfect strangers. His punishment is to spend just three days in jail, but when he is released, he discovers that Monique has paid his fine, supposedly to avoid more publicity, but actually because she is secretly attracted to him.
The Gay Deception, 1h17
Directed by William Wyler
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy, Romance
Themes Children's films
Actors Francis Lederer, Frances Dee, Benita Hume, Alan Mowbray, Luis Alberni, Akim Tamiroff
Rating67% 3.3885453.3885453.3885453.3885453.388545
Secretary Mirabel Miller (Frances Dee) wins a lottery and decides to live it up in a luxurious New York hotel, where she clashes with a bellboy (Francis Lederer) who is more than he appears to be.
Our Little Girl, 1h5
Directed by John S. Robertson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Children's films
Actors Shirley Temple, Joel McCrea, Rosemary Ames, Lyle Talbot, Erin O'Brien-Moore, J. Farrell MacDonald
Roles Adaptation
Rating63% 3.1949953.1949953.1949953.1949953.194995
Don Middleton (Joel McCrea) is so caught up with his work he neglects his wife Elsa (Rosemary Ames). Lonely Elsa begins to spend more time with Don's best friend and they become attracted to one another. Don and Elsa decide to get a divorce, unaware of the effect their problems are having on their daughter Molly (Shirley Temple). When Elsa announces plans to remarry, Molly runs away from home.
Wharf Angel, 1h5
Directed by William Cameron Menzies
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Victor McLaglen, Dorothy Dell, David Landau, Preston Foster, Alison Skipworth, Mischa Auer
Rating64% 3.249433.249433.249433.249433.24943
Two stokers who work on the same ship become rivals for the love of a woman who works in a saloon in the tough Barbary Coast area of San Francisco.