Movies by John Payne

Miracle on 34th Street

Miracle on 34th Street

Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2009.

Kansas City Confidential

Kansas City Confidential

An ex-convict sets out to uncover who framed him for an armored car robbery.

Indianapolis Speedway

Indianapolis Speedway

A champion auto racer who unhappily learns his kid brother wants to enter the same profession rather than finish school.

Rails Into Laramie

Rails Into Laramie

A federal agent arrives in Laramie to try to find out who is behind the efforts to stop the construction of a new railroad track.

Tennessee's Partner

Tennessee's Partner

A tough, womanizing high-stakes gambler known only as Tennessee has an uneasy relationship with Duchess, madam of a thinly-disguised bordello, and no other friends at all. But he's saved from murder by a lonesome cowpoke ('My friends call me Cowpoke'), in town to meet his fiancée Goldie on the steamboat. When she arrives, there's a mysterious undercurrent between Goldie and Tennessee, whose newfound friendship with Cowpoke is destined to be severely tried...

The Road to Denver

The Road to Denver

The Mayhew brothers flee from one Texas town to another as older brother Bill repeatedly attempts to keep younger brother Sam out of jail. Bill finally gives up on his younger brother and heads for Colorado. He gets a job and all is well until his brother shows up and takes a job that puts them on opposite sides of the law.

Movieland Magic

Movieland Magic

Released as part of a series of WB shorts under the collective title of "Technicolor Specials" (WB production number 2003) this short most likely holds the WB house record for a 20-minute film containing footage from the most different titles in their inventory. It's theme of a singing guided tour of the lot (and some of the footage) is from 1944's "Musical Movieland", the former title holder, and it contains clips from 1939's "Quiet, Please" and "Royal Rodeo"; "Sunday Roundup" from 1936 and 1940's "The Singing Dude." Pieces from "Out Where ...

King of the Lumberjacks

King of the Lumberjacks

Outdoor drama about a newly-hired lumberjack discovering that his former girlfriend is now his new boss's wife.

Sentimental Journey

Sentimental Journey

An actress becomes taken with Hitty, a young orphan prone to dreaming. Julie soon finds out that she is ill and has only a short time to live. She decides to adopt the child so that her husband Bill will not be alone when she dies. Unfortunately, Bill is not charmed by Hitty.

Love on Toast

Love on Toast

The plot concerns a female press agent who must select a "Mr. Manhattan" and "Miss Brooklyn" for an ad campaign mounted by a soup company. The Mr. Manhattan chosen is a singing soda jerk, who doesn't want to play along until he is given the honor of choosing his own Miss Brooklyn.

Maryland

Maryland

A woman tormented by the hunting death of her husband forbids her son to have anything to do with horses. But when he falls for the daughter of his father's trainer, he defies his mother by entering the Maryland Hunt.

Wake Up and Dream

Wake Up and Dream

Aided by her eccentric friends, a young woman goes looking for her missing brother.

Fair Warning

Fair Warning

In California's Death Valley a chemistry whiz-kid helps a sheriff track the man who murdered a wealthy mine owner who had been staying at a fancy winter resort.

Kid Nightingale

Kid Nightingale

A waiter becomes a singing prizefighter.

The Blazing Forest

The Blazing Forest

Estranged brothers (John Payne, Richard Arlen) find themselves on the same lumberjack crew hired by a feisty widow to clear the timber from her Nevada property.

Bailout at 43,000

Bailout at 43,000

An Air Force major feels a volatile mixture of relief and anger when he is excused from performing a dangerous test in a new aircraft.

Tripoli

Tripoli

In 1805, the United States battles the pirates of Tripoli as the Marines fight to raise the American flag.

The Great American Broadcast

The Great American Broadcast

After WWI two men go into radio. Failure leads the wife of one to borrow money from another; she goes on, after separation, to stardom. A coast-to-coast radio program is set up to bring everyone back together.

Tear Gas Squad

Tear Gas Squad

A brash night club singer becomes a cop to impress a woman.