Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Movies
American actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was the son of film star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Fairbanks Jr. made his acting debut in 1923's Stephen Steps Out, which was remarkable only in how quickly it went out of circulation. Young Fairbanks was more impressive as Lois Moran's fiancé in 1926's Stella Dallas, though it did give Fairbanks Sr. pause to see his teenaged son sporting a Fairbanksian mustache. Even as a youth, Fairbanks' restlessness would not be satisfied by mere film work; before he was 20 he'd written an amusing article about the Hollywood scene for Vanity Fair magazine. In 1927, Fairbanks appeared in a stage play, Young Woodley, which convinced detractors that he truly had talent and was not merely an appendage to his father's fame. When talking pictures came in, he demonstrated a well-modulated speaking voice and as a result worked steadily in the early 1930s. Married at that time to actress Joan Crawford, Fairbanks was a fixture of the Tinseltown social whirl, but he had a lot more going for him than suspected; in 1935 he offered the earliest evidence of his sharp business savvy by setting up his own production company, Criterion Films--the first of six such companies created under the Fairbanks imprimatur.Fairbanks had his best role in 1937's The Prisoner of Zenda, in which he was alternately charming and cold-blooded as the villainous Rupert of Hentzau. Upon his father's death in 1939, Fairbanks began to extend his activities into politics and service to his country. He helped to organize the Hollywood branch of the William Allen White Committee, designed to aid the allied cause in the European war. From 1939 through 1944, Fairbanks, ever an Anglophile, headed London's Douglas Voluntary Hospitals, which took special care of war refugees. Fairbanks was appointed by President Roosevelt to act as envoy for the Special Mission to South America in 1940, and one year later was commissioned as a lieutenant j.g. in the Navy. In 1942 he was chief officer of Special Operations, and in 1943 participated in the allied invasion of Sicily and Elba. Fairbanks worked his way up from Navy lieutenant to commander and finally, in 1954 to captain.
After the war's end, the actor spent five years as chairman of CARE, sending food and aid to war-torn countries. How he had time to resume his acting career is anybody's guess, but Fairbanks was back before the cameras in 1947 with Sinbad the Sailor, taking up scriptwriting with 1948's The Exile; both films were swashbucklers, a genre he'd stayed away from while his father was alive (Fairbanks Sr. had invented the swashbuckler; it wouldn't have been right for his son to bank on that achievement during the elder Fairbanks' lifetime). Out of films as an actor by 1951 (except for a welcome return in 1981's Ghost Story), Fairbanks concentrated on the production end for the next decade; he also produced and starred in a high-quality TV anthology, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents (1952-55), which belied its tiny budget with excellent scripts and superior actors. Evidently the only setback suffered by Fairbanks in the last forty years was his poorly received appearance as Henry Higgins in a 1968 revival of My Fair Lady; otherwise, the actor managed to retain his status as a respected and concerned citizen of the world, sitting in with the U.S. delegation at SEATO in 1971 and accruing many military and humanitarian awards. He also published two autobiographies, The Salad Days in 1988 and A Hell of a War in 1993. Fairbanks, Jr. died on May 7, 2000, of natural causes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Narrated by Anjelica Huston, this cable-TV documentary offered an up-close and personal look at the life and career of quintessential movie queen Joan Crawford. From her humble beginnings as MGM contract starlet Lucille LaSeuer, Crawford climbed to the top with a heady combination of talent, tenacity, glamour, hard work -- and obsessive, manipulative ruthlessness, both onscreen and off. Written off as "box-office poison" in the early '40s, Crawford confounded her detractors by changing studios and staging a spectacular comeback, winning the Academy Award for her performance in Warner Bros.' Mildred Pierce. She managed to hold on to her stardom well into the 1970s, plunging headlong into the horror genre with such masterworks as What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? -- not to mention such dogs as Berserk! and Trog. In private life, Crawford married several times (her union with Pepsi Cola executive Alfred Steele briefly but memorably transformed her into a high-pressure businesswoman) and enjoyed the favors of dozens of men along the way. She also "enjoyed" a reputation as a domestic tyrant, allegedly insisting upon an immaculately clean home and holding her children in the grip of horrified fascination. In addition to excerpts from Crawford's classic (and not-so-classic) films, the documentary includes interviews with such interested parties as the actress' first husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., her directors (George Cukor and Vincent Sherman), her costars (Anita Page and Cliff Robertson), her biographer Bob Thomas -- and, inevitably, her stepdaughter, Christina Crawford, whose warts-and-all biography Mommie Dearest yielded one of the most campily outrageous biopics in movie history. Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star debuted August 1, 2002 over the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anjelica Huston
- 1989
Emerging Chaplin profiles the talent of the best-known actor of silent comedy, Charles Chaplin. Follow the emergence of Chaplin's genius, from his early films, to his stint at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios, to his classics: Kid Auto Races, The Bank, The Tramp, The Rink, and Easy Street. Highlights include a look at Chaplin's enduring portrayal of the Tramp, a short, shabby man with a black moustache who waddled his way into the hearts of Americans. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. narrates this look at the comedian's extraordinary gifts, expressive grace, and perfect timing. ~ Sally Barber, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
- 1988
Produced for Britain's Thames television in 1979, Hollywood is a 13-part overview of the silent film era, lovingly assembled by historian Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. Each episode runs one hour, and each concentrates on a separate aspect of the art of the silent cinema. Chapter titles include "The Pioneers," "Single Beds and Double Standards," "Swanson and Valentino" and "Comedy: A Serious Business." In addition to interviews from such silent-movie veterans as Lillian Gish, Allan Dwan, Viola Dana, William Wellman, Karl Brown, Colleen Moore, King Vidor and Blanche Sweet, each episode of Hollywood is distinguished by rare, lengthy filmclips, many in pristine condition. The symphonic background music by Carl Davis superbly evokes the 1910s and 1920s without ever stooping to tinkly-piano cliches. The release of Hollywood was accompanied by the publication of a coffee-table book, also the handiwork of Brownlow and Gill. In 1988, a feature-length version of Hollywood was made available for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
The history of censorship in the American film industry is recorded in this documentary hosted by actors Peter Fonda and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Shown are scenes that were ordered removed by the censors from such films as King Kong and Peeping Tom. Actress Mamie Van Doren reminisces about controversial films she made, such as Girls Town and High School Confidential, and director Martin Scorsese discusses Michael Powell's notorious Peeping Tom. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1986
This two-part, four-hour TV miniseries was adapted from the same-named 1984 novel by Arthur Hailey. Pamela Sue Martin headed the huge cast as Celia Gray, a young woman who rose from humble drug store clerk to become the head of a major pharmaceutical manufacturing firm during the 1950s and 1960s. Along the way, of course, Celia met with formidable opposition from the all-male medical establishment, and consequently, her private life was often a mess. Also on hand were two other TV stalwarts, Patrick Duffy as Dr. Andrew Jordan and Dick Van Dyke as Sam Hawthorne. Presented as part of the syndicated Operation Prime Time dramatic anthology (one of many pre-Fox efforts spearheaded by a consortium of independent TV stations to establish a "fourth network"), Strong Medicine was first made available on April 21, 1986, though most local markets did not run the property until May. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Hosted by the American Film Institute, this video is a tribute to career of Lillian Gish. Included are excerpts from: The Birth of a Nation, Duel in the Sun, The Scarlet Letter and other films. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1984
- Add George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey to QueueAdd George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey to top of Queue
The man who assembled the remarkable documentary George Stevens: A Filmaker's Journey had the benefit of knowing the subject intimately: the film was written, produced and directed by George Stevens Jr. Utilizing pristine-quality filmclips and interviews, Stevens Jr. details Stevens Sr.'s rise from silent-film cameraman to one of the top producer/directors in Hollywood. We are treated to snippets of Stevens' camerawork on the Laurel and Hardy films at Hal Roach Studios, then we are transported to his salad days as a feature director at RKO. Among the films highlighted from this first chapter of Stevens' directorial life are Alice Adams (1935), Swing Time (1936) and Gunga Din (1939) (one would like to have heard a bit more background info concerning Stevens' Wheeler and Woolsey comedies). Next we find Stevens as an autonomous entity at Columbia Pictures, producing and directing such classics as The More the Merrier (1943). The war years are thoroughly covered via Stevens' vivid color footage of the invasion of Europe. The last stages of Stevens' Hollywood career is traced through generous portions of A Place in the Sun (1951), Shane (1953), Giant (1956) and The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). The many interviewees include Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Warren Beatty. As an added filip, A Filmmaker's Journey includes rare home-movie sequences showing George Stevens at home and at work--all filmed with as much care and professionalism as Stevens' "mainstream" pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Stevens, Jr., George Stevens, (more)
- 1983
This video was featured at a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, celebrating the age known as La Belle Epoque. This "beautiful era" was from 1890 to 1914. Some of the leading figures of the times, including Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Enid Goulden-Bach, provide recollections of the gay '90s and events leading up to World War I. Other visual aids include photographs and film clips, along with re-enactments in period costumes. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
This 1981 John Irvin picture constitutes an adaptation of Peter Straub's colossal, bestselling novel. The central plot -- shared by both book and film -- revolves around the four elderly members of the Chowder Society (Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and John Houseman), who gather in each other's drawing rooms each winter to sip cognac and spin elaborate ghost stories. The four men also share a dark secret far more unsettling than fiction -- a secret which has literally come back to haunt them, as well as their own adult offspring. Each man is visited by a hideous specter bearing the likeness of a young woman (Alice Krige) they accidentally killed 50 years ago when spurning her mischievous sexual advances. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, (more)
- 1981
- R
A profile of Charlie Chaplin, most noted for his lovable "Little Tramp," from his childhood in England through his early career in vaudeville to his stardom in Hollywood. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1980
Suspense novelist Alistair MacLean wrote Hostage Tower directly for television. A master criminal takes over the Eiffel Tower, holding the mother of the President of the United States hostage. The criminal demands a $30 million ransom or the tower will be blasted into oblivion. The cast is quite stellar for a TV-movie, including Peter Fonda, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (then in virtual retirement), Celia Johnson and Maude Adams (as one of the villains). Curiously, the director of Hostage Tower is sitcom veteran Claudio Guzman, best known for his long association with I Dream of Jeannie! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
A million-dollar cast was assembled for this high-gloss TV movie. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Rosalind Russell play a pair of ageing con artists, plying their trade with the members of a lonely hearts club managed by Maureen O'Sullivan. Complicating the schemes of the tricky duo is the presence of a mystery killer who preys upon wealthy widows. Advertised as "A Delightful Tale of Murder", The Crooked Hearts was based on the novel Miss Lonelyhearts 4122 by Colin Watson. The film proved to be the last screen appearance of Rosalind Russell, who fell ill shortly after its telecast and died three years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were the stars of note in Hollywood in 1926. This documents some of the ways in which they gained their status off the silver screen. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1963
The art of the movie chase sequence hardly began with Bullitt or The French Connection -- no thriller of the silent era was complete without a hair-raising chase scene, and this compilation pulls together highlights from some of the great films of the early 20th century. Starting with The Great Train Robbery (1903), this documentary follows the history of the silent movie chase sequence, and it includes excerpts from The Mark of Zorro (1920), Way Down East (1920), The Perils of Pauline (1914), and Buster Keaton's masterpiece, The General (1927). The Great Chase also features an original score written and performed by the great harmonica player Larry Adler. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1961
This is one in a series of entertaining cinematic compilations by Robert Youngson that reviews aspects of the history of film (The Golden Age of Comedy and When Comedy Was King directly preceded this release). As in its predecessors, this compilation looks back on the more distant past. Renowned comics like Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennet and the Keystone Kops, Fatty Arbuckle, Stan Laurel, and others are featured in some of the best moments in their filmic careers. As for the thrillers, those times when the heroine was tied to the train tracks or the hero's car balanced on the edge of a cliff, they are as hilarious in retrospect as the comedies were to that generation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Why has total stranger Richard Todd shown up at the villa of wealthy Anne Baxter? Why does he claim to be her long-lost brother? Is Todd planning to finagle Baxter out of her inheritance? Is someone going to end up seriously dead? The answers to these questions can be found in Chase a Crooked Shadow, a confounding chiller with more than a few adroit plot twists. Before the film has run its course, we learn that the true villain is not necessarily whom it appears to be--nor is the heroine all that she seems. Chase a Crooked Shadow was based on an 1943 Whistler radio play; the plot was later reworked into no fewer than three American made-for-TV movies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Todd, Anne Baxter, (more)
- 1956
Directed by Roy Kellino, this British comedy stars David Niven as Roger Tweakham, an accountant for a silk manufacturer who finds himself digging deeper and deeper into trouble. Not only is he suddenly smitten by a French model (Geneviève Page) despite his marriage to his wife (Dorothy Alison), Roger has also devised an ambitious plan to fix the financial books to make his company appear more successful than a rivalrous nylon maker. The final film for director Kellino, who suffered a fatal heart attack before it was released, The Silken Affair was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Robert Lewis Taylor. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Geneviève Page, (more)
- 1954
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. stars as a horse trainer who's turned to the dark side in this equine drama. Fairbanks' character peddles false information to his rich clients, which is all well and good until he falls for a woman he's swindled. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This film offers a trio suspenseful dramas. In the first, an unhappy wife refuses to mourn the death of her husband, a miner who was trapped in a mining accident. Instead, she gets herself a new lover. Unfortunately, the husband survived. In the second episode, one sister saves the other, who has been betrothed by locking the groom away. Unfortunately, she has locked away the wrong man. In the final vignette, a saboteur plants a bomb in a factory and must escape before it goes off. Unfortunately, just as he thinks he is home free, a helpful coworker returns the lunchbox he left behind in his haste to leave. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This drama is comprised of two short films originally made to be shown on British television. The first short is the story of a scientist who invents a miraculous new drug that no one pays attention to. Distraught, the scientist is just about to end his life when his drug saves a child's life. In the second drama, the patriarch of an Irish family falls for the mechanisms of a con artist and threatens to squander the family savings on the foolish scheme. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Forever My Heart appears to have been fashioned from two half-hour episodes of TV's Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents. Fairbanks produced this 52-minute effort, and appeared in both of the short playlets offered herein. The first story takes place a hundred or so years ago; a male and female prisoner in the Tower of London plot their escape, but when the time comes, only one of them is able to make the break to freedom. In the second story, a woman of loose morals begins to imagine that the ghost of her sister has materialized to condemn her. The biggest "name" in the cast outside of Fairbanks is Anouk Aimee as the heroine of the second story. Forever My Heart was directed by Leslie Arliss and Bernard Knowles, both regular contributors to Fairbanks' TV anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This anthology is comprised of three stories. In the first a naive American tycoon boards the famous Orient Express and finds himself victimized by con-artists until a helpful train guard comes to aid him. The second tale centers on an impoverished Irishman's daughter who wants to marry the son of a miserly Scottsman. She and he are told they cannot marry, but the Irishman steps in and saves the day. The third tale centers upon a Norwegian artist who kills his own brother. It is his own wife who sees that he gets his come-uppance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1953
This British anthology was put together from the television series Douglas Fairbanks Presents. In the first two stories, Basil Sydney plays a surgeon who must operate on a man shot by his own daughter, and George Benson unwittingly becomes involved in a murder. The final story is a bit better, as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Constance Cummings play a couple who buy a haunted house, with deadly consequences. Co-director Terence Fisher went on to become a leading force in British horror with such classics as The Curse of Frankenstein and The Horror of Dracula. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
