"All bad little films when they die go to Ralph Spence." So read the Hollywood trade-paper advertisement of this former Houston journalist, who entered movies as a film editor in 1921. By the mid-'20s, Spence was firmly established as one of Hollywood's top title writers, supplying clever, witty dialogue for such silent film favorites as Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, and Marie Dressler. He was also famous as a "film doctor," rearranging scenes and rewriting subtitles in order to make poor films good and good films great. Legend has it that he once completely altered the mood and tone of a mediocre melodrama by reworking one single introductory title, transforming the villain's mistress into his maiden aunt. Many of his "gag" titles became classics: In 1927's The Callahans and the Murphys, for example, he has a drunken woman exclaim, "This stuff makes me see double and feel single!" Reportedly, Spence was considered so valuable a Hollywood commodity that he earned 10,000 dollars a picture; he was also the first title writer to receive separate billing on theater marquees, and at one juncture even starred in his own series of two-reel comedies. In the talkie era, Spence continued to specialize in comedy, collaborating on many of the early Wheeler and Woolsey vehicles at RKO; he was also one of the scenarists on Laurel and Hardy's 1939 "comeback" picture The Flying Deuces. Ralph Spence's final film credit was the 1943 musical Higher and Higher.
| Title | Year | Editors' Rating | User Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The Plainsman and the Lady
Screen Story |
1946 | |||
|
Higher and Higher
Screenwriter |
1944 | |||
|
Around the World
Screenwriter |
1943 | |||
|
Seven Days Leave
Screenwriter |
1942 | |||
|
The Fleet's In
Screenwriter |
1942 | |||
|
Lady Be Good
Screenwriter |
1941 | |||
|
Down Argentine Way
Screen Story |
1940 | |||
|
The Flying Deuces
Screenwriter |
1939 | |||
|
The Gang's All Here
Screenwriter |
1939 | |||
|
The Gorilla
Play Author |
1939 | |||
|
King Solomon's Mines
Screenwriter |
1937 | |||
|
Sh! The Octopus
Play Author |
1937 | |||
|
Silent Barriers
Screenwriter |
1937 | |||
|
Smash and Grab
Screenwriter |
1937 | |||
|
Strangers Honeymoon
Screenwriter |
1937 | |||
|
Sweet Devil
Screenwriter |
1937 | |||
|
The Sky's the Limit
Screen Story |
1937 | |||
|
Everybody Dance
Screenwriter |
1936 | |||
|
Poor Little Rich Girl
Screen Story |
1936 | |||
|
Where There's a Will
Screenwriter |
1936 | |||
|
Going Highbrow
Play Author |
1935 | |||
|
Here Comes the Band
Screenwriter |
1935 | |||
|
The Big Broadcast of 1936
Screenwriter |
1935 | |||
|
The Winning Ticket
Screenwriter |
1935 | |||
|
Cockeyed Cavaliers
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
Death on the Diamond
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
I'll Tell the World
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
Murder in the Private Car
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
Stand up and Cheer
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
Strictly Dynamite
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
Student Tour
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
The Band Plays On
Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
The Loudspeaker
Screen Story, Screenwriter |
1934 | |||
|
Her Bodyguard
Screenwriter |
1933 | |||
|
Mr. Skitch
Screenwriter |
1933 | |||
|
Sailor Be Good
Screenwriter |
1933 | |||
|
The Warrior's Husband
Screenwriter |
1933 | |||
|
Tomorrow at Seven
Screenwriter |
1933 | |||
|
Fast Life
Screenwriter |
1932 | |||
|
Speak Easily
Screenwriter |
1932 | |||
|
The Crooked Circle
Screenwriter |
1932 | |||
|
The Passionate Plumber
Dialogue Writer |
1932 | |||
|
Caught Plastered
Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
Cracked Nuts
Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
Everything's Rosie
Dialogue Writer, Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
Laugh and Get Rich
Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
Peach O' Reno
Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
The Gorilla
Play Author, Screenwriter |
1931 | |||
|
Half-Shot at Sunrise
Dialogue Writer, Screenwriter |
1930 | |||
|
Hook, Line and Sinker
Screenwriter |
1930 | |||
|
The Florodora Girl
Screenwriter |
1930 | |||
|
Way Out West
Screenwriter |
1930 | |||
|
A Lady of Chance
Screenwriter |
1928 | |||
|
Baby Mine
Intertitle Writer |
1928 | |||
|
Beau Broadway
Intertitle Writer |
1928 | |||
|
Bringing Up Father
Intertitle Writer |
1928 | |||
|
Excess Baggage
Screenwriter |
1928 | |||
|
Show People
Intertitle Writer |
1928 | |||
|
Skirts
Intertitle Writer |
1928 | |||
|
Vamping Venus
Intertitle Writer |
1928 | |||
|
Adam and Evil
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
Buttons
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
Johnny Get Your Hair Cut
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
Lost at the Front
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
Spring Fever
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
The Callahans and the Murphys
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
The Gorilla
Play Author |
1927 | |||
|
The Taxi Dancer
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
Tillie the Toiler
Intertitle Writer |
1927 | |||
|
For Heaven's Sake
Intertitle Writer |
1926 | |||
|
It's the Old Army Game
Intertitle Writer |
1926 | |||
|
Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Intertitle Writer |
1926 | |||
|
Pals First
Intertitle Writer |
1926 | |||
|
The Campus Flirt
Intertitle Writer |
1926 | |||
|
Tin Hats
Intertitle Writer |
1926 | |||
|
American Pluck
Editor, Screenwriter |
1925 | |||
|
Why Women Love
Intertitle Writer |
1925 | |||
|
His Darker Self
Intertitle Writer |
1924 | |||
|
On Time
Intertitle Writer |
1924 | |||
|
The Early Bird
Intertitle Writer |
1924 | |||
|
A Friendly Husband
Editor, Intertitle Writer |
1923 | |||
|
Let's Go!
Intertitle Writer |
1923 | |||
|
Luck
Intertitle Writer |
1923 | |||
|
Arabia
Intertitle Writer |
1922 | |||
|
Chasing the Moon
Intertitle Writer |
1922 | |||
|
Do and Dare
Intertitle Writer |
1922 | |||
|
Sure Fire Flint
Intertitle Writer |
1922 | |||
|
Stranger Than Fiction
Editor, Intertitle Writer |
1921 | |||
|
Jack Spurlock, Prodigal
Screenwriter |
1918 | |||
|
The Poor Little Rich Girl
Screenwriter |
1917 |


