
William H. Strauss
Acting
Known For

Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
The Public Enemy

A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

Despite his talent as a musician, a city boy decides to become a boxer. He's successful as a fighter — much to the dismay of his father. When gangsters try to buy a piece of him, he begins to have second thoughts.
Golden Boy

A hustling public relations man promotes a series of fads.
Hard to Handle

Story about four generations in a family of musicians.
Beloved

Members of a teenage gang are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the callous Thompson. Soon Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner, arrives and takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. Thompson needs a quick way to discredit him.
The Mayor of Hell

A young couple making plans to elope are overheard by a jewel thief, who sees a chance to turn the situation to his advantage.
Love in High Gear

Three people live together in the maintenance shed at Central Park as an alternative to living on the streets.
One More Spring

An ex-con uses his street smarts to become a successful photojournalist.
Picture Snatcher

Two down-on-their-luck former outlaws volunteer to be Texas Rangers and find themselves assigned to bring in an old friend, now a notorious outlaw.
The Texas Rangers

A young Jewish man works in his father's jewelry business, but he doesn't like it at all--he wants to be an entertainer, something he knows that his father would never approve of. He comes up with a scheme to put on his own show in a theater and show his father that he can be a success, but things don't work out quite as well as he planned.
Lucky Boy

The neighborly "feud" between a Jewish and an Irish families escalates when two of their youngsters fall in love.
The Shamrock and the Rose

Searching for headlines at any cost, an unscrupulous newspaper owner forces his editor to print a serial based on a past murder, tormenting a woman involved.
Five Star Final
Northwest Mounted Policeman faces many obstacles in attempting to apprehend a murderer. He miraculously escapes ambush and learns of the dying murderer's name. After a thrilling fight he secures a confession from his man and saves the girl from disaster.
The Law of the Snow Country

So This is Love? was another early Frank Capra production for fledgling Columbia Pictures. The hero, dress designer Jerry McGuire (William Collier Jr.), is tired of being considered a wimp. After business hours, Jerry secretly takes boxing lessons, enabling him to knock the stuffings out of his burly rival Spike Mullins (Johnnie Walker). Jerry's newfound pugilistic skills wins him the affections of store clerk Hilda Jensen (Shirley Mason), who's just car-razy about "cave men." Filmed in a fast three weeks, So This is Love? was completed before Frank Capra's Matinee Idol but released afterward. Leading lady Shirley Mason was the sister of Viola Dana, who starred in Capra's initial Columbia effort, That Certain Thing.
So This Is Love

Isadore "Izzy" Goldberg changes his name to I. Patrick Murphy because his store is in an Irish-neighborhood in New York City. He meets Eileen Cohannigan, the daughter of a meat-packer, and he tells her he is Irish and a romance begins. When America enters World War I, "Izzy" enlists, is sent to France, and is wounded while engaged in a heroic rescue during a big battle. While recovering in an overseas hospital, he writes Eileen and tells her he is Jewish and not Irish. Returning home, he is parading with his regiment and he sees Eileen with Robert O'Malley, his old rival. He thinks she has thrown him over because he is Jewish. An Irish lodge comes to bestow an honor on the man they think is Patrick Murphy, an Irish hero. But O'Malley tells them his real name is Goldberg. But Eileen tels him it is he she loves, and they head for the marriage-license bureau.
Private Izzy Murphy

Intending that her son, Herbert, marry debutante Mildred Vane, Mrs. Consuelo Carter is most dismayed when she learns that Herbert has fallen in love with Pat Murray, a model in Darrow's dress shop. Pat's emphatic refusal to take Mrs. Carter's "suggestion" that she give up Herbert leads to her being fired, and she reluctantly accepts Herbert's invitation to weekend at the Carter country home. Finally realizing the hopelessness of the situation, Pat makes a spectacle of herself at a party; but Herbert is not fooled, and their love triumphs.
The Jazz Cinderella

Sally, a girl of the tenements, is being raised by three bachelor foster-fathers, a pawnbroker, an organ-grinder and a peddler, and is very happy preparing their meals and keeping the house, while the old men bask in the attention she gives them. However, this happy home is broken up when Sally wealthy aunt appears on the scene and takes Sally back to her luxurious penthouse in order to give her the advantages of money and social position. But Sally's heart is back across the river with her plumber sweetheart, Jimmie Adams.
Sally in Our Alley

Meyer Rubens and his wife, Esther, own a pressing-shop in New York's Lower East Side. Esther wants to move on up to the Upper West Side. She has a rich sister, Reba, who persuades Meyer to invest in the worthless oil stock sold by her husband. The stock proves to be not worthless and Meyer and Esther become overnight millionaires. But Reba thinks Meyer, who has no taste for high society, is holding her sister back socially, so she devises some schemes that involve catching Meyer in a compromising situation with other women, so her sister can file for a divorce.
Millionaires

The DVD for this film bears the title "The Lure of Hollywood". Marian Nixon plays a girl who doesn't want to settle for second best. She is offered chance to be a model and jumps at it. Her boyfriend is upset--he just wants to marry her and settle down to a life of domestic bliss. But she has stars in her eyes--and soon learns to use publicity to create a new movie star persona. Throughout all this, the sappy boyfriend is always waiting nearby--hoping that she'll come to her senses and give up this new life.