Known for Art
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Randall Duell (July 14, 1903 – November 28, 1992) was an American architect and motion picture art director. Duell attended the University of Southern California School of Architecture and graduated in 1925. Joining the Los Angeles architectural firm Webber, Staunton and Spaulding, Duell contributed to designs for notable building projects in metropolitan Los Angeles during the 1920s and 1930s, among them the Avalon Casino on Catalina Island, Frary Dining Hall and adjacent residence halls at Pomona College, and Greenacres, the estate of silent movie actor Harold Lloyd in Beverly Hills. He and architect Sumner Spaulding collaborated in the design of the Atkinson residence in Bel Air, which was modeled after the Petit Trianon at Versailes. As construction declined during the Great Depression, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired Duell in 1936 to design the set of the Capulet home in Irving Thalberg's production of Romeo and Juliet. In 1937, he joined the MGM art department in a full-time capacity. During his career as a motion picture art director, he was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. He received screen credit for his work on 38 films, among them Ninotchka (1939), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Intruder in the Dust (1949), and Singin' in the Rain (1952). Additionally he worked on a number of motion pictures without film credit, among them The Wizard of Oz, 1939. He retired from MGM in 1959. Duell was born on a farm in Russell County, Kansas, moved with his family to Los Angeles, California in 1912, and died in Los Angeles, California. He was inducted into the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions' Hall of Fame in 1993.
Born
July 14, 1903
Died
November 28, 1992 (age 89)
Filmography
45 films


Count Your Blessings
1959 · 1h 42m · US
Englishwoman Grace Allingham marries Frenchman Charles Edouard de Valhubert, but their marriage quickly becomes unusual. Because Charles cheats on her and lives away from his family out of professional obligation to his government, Grace ends up raising the couple's son, Sigismond, on her own. Grace and Charles are finally reunited after nearly a decade apart, and, while they seem headed for a permanent split, there's still a spark between them.


The Tunnel of Love
1958 · 1h 38m · US
A series of misunderstandings leaves a married man believing he has impregnated the owner of an adoption agency, and that she will be his and his wife's surrogate.


Party Girl
1958 · 1h 39m · US
Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life than winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.


The High Cost of Loving
1958 · 1h 27m · US
Middle-aged middle-manager Jim Fry, with the same company for fifteen years, is in a comfortable rut. But life becomes less predictable when he doesn't receive an invitation to an important luncheon being held by the new company president. Convinced that he's about to lose his job, Jim begins to mull over his limited prospects when his wife confirms that she's pregnant.


Silk Stockings
1957 · 1h 57m · US
After three bumbling Soviet agents fail in their mission to retrieve a straying Soviet composer from Paris, the beautiful, ultra-serious Ninotchka is sent to complete their mission and to retrieve them. She starts out condemning the decadent West, but gradually falls under its spell—with the help of an American movie producer. A remake of Ninotchka (1939).


Ten Thousand Bedrooms
1957 · 1h 54m · US
In this musical-comedy, Dean Martin plays an American hotel mogul who becomes smitten with a young Italian woman (Anna Maria Alberghetti) when buying a hotel in Rome. To marry this gal, he has to get her three older sisters married off.


Jailhouse Rock
1957 · 1h 36m · US
Young convict Vince Everett, serving time for manslaughter, discovers his musical talent in prison and becomes a rock and roll star after his release, navigating fame and relationships.


The Great American Pastime
1956 · 1h 30m · US
Bruce Hallerton becomes coach of the Panthers, a little league baseball team. The fact that an attractive widow has her son on the team causes problems with his wife.


Invitation to the Dance
1956 · 1h 33m · US
Three completely different stories are told through dance.


The Swan
1956 · 1h 52m · US
Princess Beatrice's days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her only daughter, Princess Alexandra, makes a good impression on a distant cousin when he pays a surprise visit to their palace. Prince Albert has searched all over Europe for a bride and he's bored by the whole courtship routine. He is more interested in the estate's dairy than Alexandra's rose garden. And then he starts playing football with the tutor and Alexandra's brothers. Invite the tutor to the ball that night and watch how gracefully Alexandra dances with him.


Trial
1955 · 1h 45m · US
A Mexican boy accused of rape and murder becomes a pawn for Communists and red-baiters. A courtroom drama set in 1947 and underlying post-WW2 acute problems facing the USA such as stormy race relations and the growing threat of local communism.


The Prodigal
1955 · 1h 52m · US
A wealthy young Hebrew traveling in Damascus renounces his faith after he is seduced by an alluring pagan priestess and cheated of his fortune by the High Priest as well.


Blackboard Jungle
1955 · 1h 41m · US
Richard Dadier is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadier makes various attempts to engage the students' interest in education, challenging both the school staff and the pupils. He is subjected to violence as well as duplicitous schemes.


The Last Time I Saw Paris
1954 · 1h 56m · US
Reporter Charles Wills, in Paris to cover the end of World War II, falls for the beautiful Helen Ellswirth following a brief flirtation with her sister, Marion. After he and Helen marry, Charles pursues his novelistic ambition while supporting his new bride with a deadening job at a newspaper wire service. But when an old investment suddenly makes the family wealthy, their marriage begins to unravel — until a sudden tragedy changes everything.


All the Brothers Were Valiant
1953 · 1h 41m · US
In the South Pacific islands, two brothers, one good and one bad, fight over the same girl and over a bag of pearls.


The Girl Who Had Everything
1953 · 1h 9m · US
Attorney's daughter falls for one of his gangster clients.


Everything I Have Is Yours
1952 · 1h 32m · US
A husband and wife act are hoping to find success on Broadway.


Shadow in the Sky
1952 · 1h 18m · US
Burt, a WW2 veteran suffering from battle fatigue, is deathly afraid of rain and confined to an asylum, but showing improvement. He wants to live with his sister's family, but they have young children.


Singin' in the Rain
1952 · 1h 43m · US
In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his paranoid screen partner struggle to make the difficult transition to talking pictures.


The Unknown Man
1951 · 1h 26m · US
A scrupulously honest lawyer discovers that the client he's gotten off was really guilty.


Pagan Love Song
1950 · 1h 16m · US
Island girl Mimi plans to leave Tahiti, but maybe she'll have a reason to stay when Mr. Endicott arrives.


The Asphalt Jungle
1950 · 1h 53m · US
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.


East Side, West Side
1949 · 1h 48m · US
A vain businessman puts strains on his happy marriage to a rich, beautiful socialite by allowing himself to be seduced by a former girlfriend.


Intruder in the Dust
1949 · 1h 27m · US
Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites, is found standing over the body of a dead white man, holding a pistol that has recently been fired. Quickly arrested for murder and jailed, Beauchamp insists he's innocent and asks the town's most prominent lawyer, Gavin Stevens, to defend him, but Stevens refuses. When a local boy whom Beauchamp has helped in the past and who believes him to be innocent hears talk of a mob taking Beauchamp out of jail and lynching him, he pleads with Stevens to defend Beauchamp at trial and prove his innocence.


In the Good Old Summertime
1949 · 1h 42m · US
Two co-workers in a music shop dislike one another during business hours but unwittingly carry on an anonymous romance through the mail.


The Sun Comes Up
1949 · 1h 33m · US
Set in the rural south of the United States, a bereaved war widow learns to put aside her bitterness and grief as she grows to love a young orphan boy and his dog.


Big Jack
1949 · 1h 25m · US
Wallace Beery, in his final film, plays a bandit in this period drama set in Colonial America.


The Kissing Bandit
1948 · 1h 40m · US
Ricardo, the milquetoast son of a Mexican bandit, would rather lead a quiet life in Boston. But the family would rather that he follow in his father's footsteps and become "The Kissing Bandit".


Homecoming
1948 · 1h 53m · US
Self-absorbed Dr. Lee Johnson enlists with the Army medical corps during World War II, more out of a feeling that it's "the thing to do" rather than deep-seated patriotism. On his first day, he's put into place by 'Snapshot', a sassy and attractive nurse. Their initial antagonism blossoms into romance. Lee then finds himself torn with guilt over being unfaithful to his wife, Penny, who's waiting for him back home.


This Time for Keeps
1947 · 1h 45m · US
An ex-GI falls for a bathing beauty.


Song of the Thin Man
1947 · 1h 26m · US
While attending a glamorous jazz cruise on New York’s East River, Nick and Nora Charles witness the fatal shooting of a wealthy patron. When suspicion falls on a young bandleader and his musicians, the couple steps in to clear their friends and uncover the real killer. Their investigation leads through a lively world of jazz clubs, radio personalities, high society, and backstage rivalries, where almost everyone has a secret and the next clue may be hidden in the music.


Undercurrent
1946 · 1h 56m · US
After a rapid engagement, a dowdy daughter of a chemist weds an industrialist, knowing little of his family or past. He transforms her into an elegant society wife, but becomes enraged whenever she asks about Michael, his mysterious long-lost brother.


The Postman Always Rings Twice
1946 · 1h 53m · US
A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.


Anchors Aweigh
1945 · 2h 23m · US
Two sailors on shore leave head out for four days of partying – only to become involved in the affairs of an aspiring singer and her precocious nephew.


Mrs. Parkington
1944 · 2h 4m · US
In this family saga, Mrs. Parkington recounts the story of her life, beginning as a hotel maid in frontier Nevada where she is swept off her feet by mine owner and financier Augustus Parkington. He moves them to New York, tries to remake her into a society woman, and establishes their home among the wealthiest of New York's high society. Family and social life is not always peaceful, however, and she guides us, in flashbacks, through the rises and falls of the Parkington family fortunes.


The White Cliffs of Dover
1944 · 2h 6m · US
American Susan travels with her father to England for a vacation. Invited to a society ball, Susan meets Sir John Ashwood and marries him after a whirlwind romance. However, she never quite adjusts to life as a new member of the British gentry. At the outbreak of World War I, John is sent to the trenches and never returns. When her son goes off to fight in World War II, Susan fears the same tragic fate may befall him too.


Above Suspicion
1943 · 1h 30m · US
Two newlyweds spy on the Nazis for the British Secret Service during their honeymoon in Europe.


Come Live with Me
1941 · 1h 26m · US
Seeking US citizenship, a Viennese refugee arranges a marriage of convenience with a struggling writer.


The Chaser
1938 · 1h 16m · US
A sleazy lawyer gains clients by showing up at terrible accidents. His boss, determined to stop him, hires a pretty girl to cozy up and coerce the truth out of the ambulance-chaser. Unfortunately, the boss doesn't count on the romance factor and sure enough, love blossoms between the girl and the shyster.