Charles Bickford Movies
Hard-fighting, strong, durable redhead Charles Bickford graduated from MIT before he began appearing in burlesque in 1914. After serving in World War I, he started a career on Broadway in 1919. He didn't come to Hollywood until the birth of the Sound Era in 1929. His first film was Cecil B. DeMille's Dynamite, during the production of which, he punched out DeMille. He became a star after playing Greta Garbo's lover in Anna Christie (1930), but didn't develop into a romantic lead, instead becoming a powerful character actor whose screen appearances commanded attention throughout a career spanning almost four decades, in films such as Duel in the Sun (1946) and Johnny Belinda (1948). His craggy, intense features lent themselves to roles as likable fathers, businessmen, captains, etc. He sometimes played stubborn or unethical roles, but more often projected honesty or warmth. He co-authored a play, The Cyclone Lover (1928) and wrote an autobiography, Bulls, Balls, Bicycles, and Actors (1965). He was Oscar-nominated three times but never won the award. Late in his life he starred in the TV show The Virginian. ~ All Movie Guide- 1933
This drama centers on the fight for certain post-Prohibitionist groups to gain total control over the liquor industry. Much of the tale is focused upon a family endeavoring to keep their little brewery. Their tiny beer- making operation was first jeopardized by the racketeers they refused to join. Film, history and sports buffs should keep an ear out for a continuity glitch in the story. In a Prohibition speakeasy, a radio plays the broadcast of the landmark Jess Willard-Jack Dempsey fight. Actually the fight occurred before Prohibition was in effect. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1932
A mentally unstable naval officer goes mad with jealousy when his wife's recent lover shows up as a lieutenant on the submarine he commands. It is the smell of cheap perfume that arouses the husband's suspicions, and he plans to confront the lieutenant in the sub. The wife follows him there, knowing very well that while in a jealous rage her husband cannot be responsible for his actions. Her husband catches her and locks her in his cabin then deftly steers the sub towards a freighter. Just before the ships collide, he forces the lieutenant to take the controls. It is a terrible crash and the sub sinks, stone-like, towards the bottom. Even as they go down, the cuckoo commander insists the lieutenant is to blame for the tragedy. Meanwhile the woman successfully convinces the remaining crew members of her husband's lunacy, they accept the orders of their new commander, the lieutenant, and escape together just in the nick of time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, (more)
- 1932
In this melodrama, a starving orphan deliberately breaks a store window in hopes that she'll be tossed in jail and get a hot meal. The arresting officer does feed her, but then he gets her a job dancing in the Follies. Eventually the girl falls madly in love with the policeman. Unfortunately, he seems to have only a professional interest in her welfare and does not return her affection. This angers the frustrated girl. To try and get the cop's attention, the girl begins dating a notorious local sleazebag who tries to lure her to his bed. Fortunately, she escapes. Later the gigolo is found dead and the girl stands accused of the crime, forcing her beloved cop to arrest her. Later, he proves her innocence and marries her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Helen Chandler, (more)
- 1932
Tallulah Bankhead's first Hollywood movie was this romantic-drama weepie, in which she plays Susan, the unhappy wife of oil rigger Walt (Charles Bickford), who labors in a Central American oil field. The bored Susan falls in love with Walt's good friend Ken (Paul Lukas) but keeps her husband in the dark about her feelings -- until he's plunged into darkness for real when he loses his eyesight. Susan finds her attentions then wandering yet another man, Davis (Ralph Forbes), and Ken urges her to return to Walt. Unable to reconcile her emotions and ashamed of her faithlessness, Susan throws herself from a high cliff. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Bickford, (more)
- 1932
In this newspaper drama, a dedicated small-town reporter works hard and becomes the editor of a major New York paper. Unfortunately the man's ambition has blinded him to the needs of his wife and son. When the son dies, the bereaved, and lonely woman decides to leave him. Later the editor reconsiders his life, quits his high-pressure job and decides to save his marriage by working in a quieter town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Rose Hobart, (more)
- 1932
Eternal movie trollop Helen Twelvetrees is more sinned against than necessary in Panama Flo. Stranded in Panama, honky-tonk entertainer Flo (Twelvetrees) picks up some quick change by divesting roughneck mining engineer Charles Bickford of his pocketbook. Rather than turn her over to the cops, Bickford demands that Flo accompany him to his jungle mining camp. The girl naturally assumes he's got a few carnal pleasures in mind, but this is not the case: Bickford merely wants Flo to work off her debt as his housekeeper. By the time the two have fallen in love, their lives are complicated by snake-in-the-grass Robert Armstrong, whose abrupt transformation from hero to heel is one of the most abrupt -- and unbelievable -- in movie history. Suitably cleaned up to conform to the tighter Production Code, Panama Flo was remade in 1939 as the Lucille Ball vehicle Panama Lady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Twelvetrees, Robert Armstrong, (more)
- 1932
In this mystery, a detective is called in to investigate the fate of a derelict ship that was found floating off the coast of Port Said. But for a madman and a woman, the ship is empty. The investigator soon reveals a plot involving the destruction of the vessel and insurance money. When the crew found out about it, they mutinied. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Constance Cummings, (more)
One of the most frequently telecast films of the 1950s and 1960s, East of Borneo stars Rose Hobart as Linda, the wife of African missionary Dr. Clark (Charles Bickford). Feeling stifled by her unfamiliar surroundings, Linda is further isolated from civilization when her husband runs off into the jungle, believing that his wife has been unfaithful. With grim determination, our heroine heads into the wilds herself in search of Clark, braving all manner of marauding wildlife and human predators. When she finally catches up with her husband, she finds he's been living in comparative luxury as court physician of the Prince of Marudu (Georges Renavent). The End? Not quite -- we've still got a volcano in the offing! East of Borneo achieved latter-day fame when an avant-garde filmmaker got hold of a print of the film, spliced together all of the leading lady's close-ups, and came up with a surrealistic exercise titled Rose Hobart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rose Hobart, Charles Bickford, (more)
- 1931
Based on a play by William DuBois, Pagan Lady top-bills Evelyn Brent as the title character, a "woman of the world" named Dut Hunter. In the tradition of Somerset Maugham's Rain, Dut is everybody's sexual plaything on a remote tropical island. When young, comparatively innocent Ernest Todd (Conrad Nagel), the nephew of evangelist Mal Todd (William Farnum), proposes marriage, Dut is tempted to accept but realizes she's no good for the boy and does her best to disillusion him. Hanging around on the sidelines is Dingo Mike (Charles Bickford), who's got Dut's number but loves her all the same. The film's highlight is an outsized lightning storm, with unsubtle carnal symbolism abounding. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Brent, Conrad Nagel, (more)
- 1931
In this drama, a woman with dubious past finds herself blackmailed when she makes plans to marry a senator's son. She finds salvation with a bootlegger who offers to take care of the excursionist. Unfortunately, he chooses to kill the fellow, gets caught, and is put on trial. Now the woman must choose to risk reputation, and good marriage or tell the truth and save him from the electric chair. Eventually, she chooses the honorable path and happiness ensues all around. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Moran, Charles Bickford, (more)
- 1931
The second of three versions of James Oliver Curwood's pulp fiction drama of a mountie and his separated-at-birth prey stars Charles Bickford as both Sgt. Conniston and accused murderer John Keith. The latter is persuaded to prove his innocence by impersonating his captor, who has conveniently died from a "frosted heart." Everyone at the Mountie outpost likes the "new" Conniston, especially the dead mountie's girlfriend, Miriam (Evelyn Knapp), who just happens to be the daughter of the commandant (David Torrence). This idyll, however, is rudely interrupted when a jealous rival (Walter McGrail) reveals that Conniston has a wife and child stacked away in faraway England, a development that forces Keith to show his hand. River's End had been filmed in 1920 as a vehicle for Lewis Stone and would be remade in 1940 starring Dennis Moore. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1931
Cecil B. DeMille's third remake of his debut film, this was the first sound version of Edwin Milton Royle's stage western melodrama. The story centers on a British captain who heads into the American West after taking the blame for his embezzling, blue-blooded cousin to protect the reputation of his cousin's wife, whom the captain secretly loves. There he rescues a beautiful Indian woman from a lustful, wicked cattle rustler. Later he and the woman marry and have a baby. To prove her love for her new spouse, the Indian murders the cattle rustler. More trouble brews when the captain's true love comes to tell him that her husband confessed all upon his death bed and that the captain is to the new Earl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Cavanagh, Lupe Velez, (more)
- 1930
William Wyler was still primarily a western specialist when he was assigned to direct Hell's Heroes. Based on Peter B. Kyne's Three Godfathers (which was filmed officially and unofficially several times), the story deals with three frontier bandits (Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, and Fred Kohler Sr.) who come across a pregnant woman in the desert. The woman dies in childbirth, but not before the three fugitives have promised the unfortunate mother to locate the baby's father. Two of the three criminals are killed before they are able to keep their promise, but the surviving bandit (Bickford) restores the baby to its father. Having accomplished the only good deed in his life, the bandit dies from drinking poisoned water. Filmed in the Mojave Desert and the Panamint Valley, Hell's Heroes represented William Wyler's first "outdoors" talking picture; even after attaining the front ranks of his profession, he would return to the western genre with such "A" productions as The Westerner (41) and The Big Country (58). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Fred Kohler, (more)
- 1930
Filmed in 1929 and released early in 1930, Dynamite was Cecil B. DeMille's first all-talking feature. As one observer has noted, this 128-minute opus has enough plots for seven pictures. The basic storyline here involves spoiled heiress Cynthia Crothers (Kay Johnson) who will lose her fortune if she isn't married right away. Her love Roger Towne (Conrad Nagel) isn't interested in marriage, so Crothers decides to wed convicted murderer Hagon Derk (Charles Bickford). Her plan: Derk will die, then she'll be a millionaire, free to chase after Towne without benefit of clergy. Unfortunately for Crothers, Derk is pardoned at the last minute when the real killer (Leslie Fenton) confesses. Crothers tries to drive Derk out of her life by humiliating him at a fancy party, only to discover that the conditions of her inheritance require that she live with her husband for a set period of time. She swallows her pride and heads for Derk's home town, a grimy mining village. Touched by Crother's inept efforts to keep house and cook dinner, Derk eventually falls in love with her--though he makes it clear that he wants no part of her money. Crothers, in turn, falls genuinely in love with her brutish but basically decent husband. It must needs be that fortune-hunting Towne arrives in the mining village, leading to a powerful climax wherein Derk, Crothers and Towne are trapped in a mine cave-in. Though the dialogue is occasionally quite silly (after the killer commits suicide in a crowded restaurant, one of the patrons is heard to complain "It's ruined my dinner!") and the performances overripe at times, Dynamite actually holds up better than you'd expect. DeMilles' utilization of sound is both innovative and imaginative, especially during the noisy climactic sequences. The film was a success, paving the way for DeMilles' camp classic Madame Satan (1930). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, (more)
- 1930
"Sea Bat" is another name for the poisonous sting rays that trouble swimmers in warmer ocean climes. The story is set upon a tropical island and centers on the sister of a reef diver who was attacked under water by another diver and left to be eaten by an enormous sea bat (in reality the rays eat plankton). The distraught young woman, looking for solace, goes to a recently arrived priest, who, unfortunately is an escaped convict from Devil's Island in disguise. He and the girl's attempts to solve the murder are constantly thwarted until the title creature gets involved and sees that deep sea justice is served. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bickford, Raquel Torres, (more)
- 1930
In this drama, a two wealthy cousins find themselves involved in an unfortunate love triangle. The trouble begins when the one cousin, whose wealth came from marriage convinces the other, an heiress, to marry the family chauffeur. Years pass, and the first cousin ends up falling for the chauffeur herself and trying to break up the marriage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Kay Johnson, (more)
- 1930
Accompanied by one of the most successful advertising campaigns in Hollywood history, Greta Garbo made her "talking picture" debut in this carefully chosen vehicle, the second screen version of Eugene O'Neill's 1922 play about the Minnesota-raised Swedish girl who desperately attempts to keep her unsavory past from her long-lost father, Kris (George F. Marion). But when she falls for a charming Irish sailor, Matt Burke (Charles Bickford), Anna can keep her secret no longer. Learning that the girl used to be a prostitute, Matt is at first repulsed, but quickly realizes that he cannot live without her. Working overtime, Garbo filmed both Swedish and German versions under the direction of Belgian Jacques Feyder. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Garbo, George F. Marion, (more)
- 1929
In this comedy drama, a very early talkie, set in the splendiferous South Seas, a French lassie charms a sea captain who takes her for his wife and sets sail for his conservative New England home. There the staid locals are shocked by the captain's free-spirited bride. More trouble ensues when the bride becomes disenchanted with her new husband because she believes that he loves his ship more than he does her. In the end the sea captain sails to France. There he discovers that his bride has inherited a fortune. Songs include: "Raymond," "Bric-a-Brac," "Sidewalks of New York," "An Idyll of the South Seas," "If You Believed in Me," and the title song. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenore Ulric, Charles Bickford, (more)
