John Walker Movies
An athletic, tall, dark, and handsome man, whom the camera loved, John Walker appeared in approximately 77 films between 1915 and 1933, mostly as a supporting character (variously credited as J. Walker, Johnny Walker, and John Walker). His films of the 1910s, made while he simultaneously held a brief stage career, include his first role as David Moss in the John H. Collins comedy Cohen's Luck (1915). He played Larry Ward in director Henry Otto's drama The Man From Nowhere (1916), Xenia's son in Paolo Trinchera's A Son of Strife (1918), Hampton Gray in Robert G. Vignola's thriller The Knife (1918), and Herbert Drake in John B. O'Brien's comedy-drama Impossible Catherine (1919).With the advent of the 1920s, Walker was more in demand, appearing in 34 films between 1920 and 1925 from Fantomas (1920) and Over the Hill to the Poorhouse (1920) to the role of Larry Brainerd in Whitman Bennett's Children of the Whirlwind (1925). In 1920, Walker also tried his hand at directing in Bachelor Apartments.
Other films included Greater Than Fame (1920); Live Wires, What Love Will Do, and The Jolt from 1921; Extra! Extra!, In the Name of the Law, and Walker as "a stranger" in Captain Fly-By-Night in 1922; The Third Alarm, The Fourth Musketeer, Children of Dust, Red Lights, Souls for Sale, and Shattered Reputations in 1923; The Spirit of the U.S.A., Girls Men Forget, Wine of Youth, The Slanderers, and Walker (now 30) played the part of 20-year-old Jackie Donovan Jr. in Life's Greatest Game in 1924; and, in 1925 came The Reckless Sex, The Mad Dancer, and the role of Lt. Parkman in The Scarlet West.
In 1926, Walker received his most well-known supporting role in James Cruze's stirring saga of the sea Old Ironsides (aka Sons of the Sea) released by Paramount in 1926. Walker plays Lt. Stephen Decatur on board an 18th century American fighting ship engaging Barbary pirates in battle. Six other features in this active year included Honesty -- The Best Policy, Lightning Reporter, Fangs of Justice, and Morganson's Finish. In 1927, Walker was involved in no less than 12 features, including a dual role in The Snarl of Hate, Wolves of the Air, and Rose of the Bowery.
In 1928, Walker finally had the opportunity to demonstrate his talents as a leading man in Frank Capra's touching comedy The Matinée Idol. Once thought lost, this 55-minute classic was recovered in 1996 in France and fully restored. In the story, Walker is Don Wilson, a Broadway matinée idol whose car breaks down in a small town where he falls for Ginger Bolivar (Bessie Love). As Harry Mann, he joins her father's awful acting troupe in their Civil War melodrama. Wilson's producers want to bring the piece to Broadway as a comedy, but the film is ultimately sympathetic to the untalented but earnest troupe.
In 1933, Walker again directed a film, Mr. Broadway, and produced The Yiddish King Lear in 1934. ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Rovi
- 1924
While the boast that this society drama had an all-star cast is a bit exaggerated, it did feature some of the best-known leading players of the day. Wilbur Brown (John Walker) has run up a huge debt. His sister Mary, a chorus girl (Vivian Martin), is determined to save him because news of Wilbur's wrongdoing would kill their sick mother (Mary Alden). Mary accepts money to pay the debt from John Duane (Robert Cain), a faithless married man with an eye for young chorus girls. Mary's sweetheart, Jimmy York (Kenneth Harlan), writes Duane a check to pay him back, even though he has nowhere near that amount of money in the bank. He figures he'll get the money by winning a big auto race, but he loses. Mary is about to pay Duane for the debt with her favors when Wilbur shows up and settles with him. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi
- 1921
Based on a popular French novel and the 1913 serial Fantômas starring René Navarre, this chapterplay featured character actor Edward Roseman in the title role, an evil master criminal with a penchant for disguises. Fantomas is ready to give himself up to the authorities in exchange for amnesty. His offer rejected, Fantomas instead kidnaps influential Professor Harrington (Lionel Adams). Aided by tireless detective Dixon (John Willard) and optimistic fiancé Jack Meredith (Johnnie Walker), the professor's daughter, Ruth (Edna Murphy), spends the remaining 19 chapters tracking down the kidnapper. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- 1920
Light comedy actor Johnny Walker took a stab at directing and the result was this mediocre low-budget film. I.O. Underwood (Frederick Howard) discovers that he must either get married or go to work, so he ships his trunk to the home of his sweetheart, June Shelton (Georgia Hopkins) -- never mind that her father (George DuPre) thoroughly disapproves of him. Then he asks his friend, Bert Morley, a real estate agent (George Renalds), to sublet his old place. He attends a bachelor dinner, gets thoroughly drunk, and forgets he has moved out of his apartment. Morley has rented it to Howard Thorpe (Edward M. Favor) and his daughter Pearl (Eva Gordon), and they've been arguing about her sweetheart. When Underwood stumbles into his former bedroom and finds Pearl there, her father is convinced this is her boyfriend, and he insists that they must be married first thing in the morning. The unwilling couple are marched off to the same church where June is waiting to wed Underwood. Luckily, Pearl's real boyfriend shows up, resulting in a double wedding. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi
- 1920
Margaret Brooke (Elaine Hammerstein) has a lovely voice, and the choirmaster at her church suggests that she travel from her home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to New York City to pursue a singing career. She does, and while she is taking opera lessons, she is dazzled by the usual temptations offered by the big city. Ultimately she decides that love and happiness lead to a better life than fame does, and she returns home to her sweetheart, who she had secretly married the year before. Greater Than Fame was based on a play by S. Jay Kaufman. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi
- 1919
The head of the Kimberly household rules it with an iron fist. Unfortunately the head of the Kimberly household isn't Grant (J.H. Gilmore), the father and wealthy Wall Street magnate -- it's his spoiled, headstrong daughter Catherine (Virginia Pearson). She is so willful that she has earned the name "Impossible Catherine," and her whole focus in life is to prove women's superiority over the masculine gender. Catherine is pretty successful in this endeavor until she runs into Yalie John Henry Jackson (William B. Davidson). He's read The Taming of the Shrew and believes he can out-Petruchio her Catherine. First he takes the feisty lass up in a plane and after a few tail spins, suggests she either marry him or jump. She marries him, of course, but then runs away. He finds her and takes her to his Canadian ranch, where he sets her firmly in the kitchen. But none of this tames her spirit until one day he is wounded while trying to protect her -- and this is the one thing that's always guaranteed to get the girl. It works on the wayward Catherine who decides that Jackson is her hero. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi
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