William Wellman Movies

According to her autobiography, Dark Lady of the Silents, film star Miriam Cooper brought the idea of filming Longfellow's poem to her then-husband, director Raoul Walsh. She also claims that she originally had little desire to play the title character -- but of course, she wound up in the lead anyhow. The picture itself begins with a quarrel between two lovers. To bring them to their senses, the girl's father reads them the poem Evangeline... On their wedding day, a pair of Acadian lovers (Cooper and Albert Roscoe) are separated when English soldiers interrupt the proceedings. The couple don't reunite until old age. Perhaps Cooper wasn't being coy when she said she wasn't interested in the role of Evangeline -- even though the film was quite successful, the long-suffering character doesn't have much dramatic bite. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

William Russell did his best work in Westerns, and here he plays saloon owner Bill Lark, who is given three days to live when he ends up the loser in a dispute with villain Jim Pemberton (Henry J. Herbert). Lark figures that he might as well do some good with the time he has left and tends to the one family in the town of Suffering Creek. The wife has run off with Pemberton, and Lark takes care of the twin children (Malcolm Cripo and Helen Stone) while the father goes after the wayward couple. Lark gets the wife to return to her husband and drives a stage coach through an attack of bandits headed by Pemberton before the husband finally gets his vengeance and shoots the villain down. So Lark escapes his death sentence and returns to his dance hall girlfriend (Louise Lovely). This picture was based on a story by Ridgwell Cullum. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In this simple little romantic drama, Charles "Buck" Jones plays fireman Andy McGee. McGee becomes a fireman over the protests of his mother (Lucy Beaumont), who doesn't want to see her son sacrifice his life the way his father did. When she dies, McGee adopts little Elizabeth Stevens (Eileen O'Malley), who takes care of him instead of vice versa. Along the way he meets Agnes Evans, a chorus girl (Marian Nixon), and falls in love. He finds out she is married to a worthless alcoholic, and he sadly has to write her off. When the home in which she lives catches fire, he comes to the rescue and saves her. Then he finds out that her husband -- who had locked her in her room -- is still inside. McGee does his duty and goes back for the husband. His heroic attempt to rescue the man, however, is in vain. The death of Agnes' nasty husband paves the way for her relationship with McGee. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although this was one of William Wellman's early directorial efforts, his talent still shows through in this Western programmer. Dustin Farnum stars as Bill, a gambler, whose friend Scipio (Ralph Cloninger) goes in search of his wife Jessie (Jacqueline Gadsden). Jessie, fed up with her life of poverty, has run off with the wealthy and villainous James (Lloyd Whitlock). She has left behind her two children (Muriel McCormack and Micky McBan) on James' promise that she can send for them later. Scipio leaves the tots with Bill when he goes on his search. With the help of three old gamblers, Bill cares for the children. In short order, he keeps them from being kidnapped by James, saves a gold shipment from being stolen, and convinces Jessie to return to her husband, who finds oil on his property. Ultimately, Bill sacrifices his life in his attempt to round up the villains. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Cowboy Buck Saxon (Buck Jones) is falsely accused of attempting to murder his rival in love (Jack McDonald) and is on the run from the law. He is hired incognito by a travelling circus and works there as a trick rider. On the job, Saxon falls for the show's blond high-wire artist, Bird Taylor (Marian Nixon). They marry, despite the objections from a lovesick animal trainer, and Buck later gets the chance to clear himself of attempted murder. Fox was grooming lovely Marian Nixon for top stardom and almost succeeded. In the end, the attempt was defeated by subpar material and Nixon never enjoyed the success of another Fox starlet, Janet Gaynor. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This early directorial effort by William Wellman focuses on two married couples: Violet and Henry Gilbert (Dorothy Revier, Forrest Stanley) and Violet's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Belcher (Tom Ricketts, Ethel Wales). The Gilberts are newlyweds, while the Belchers have been spliced for years. When Mr. Belcher wanders away from his nest in the company of blonde vamp Charlotte (Maude Wayne), Violet begins to suspect that her own husband will follow suit -- and when she finds Henry's briefcase in Maude's roadster, she's sure of it. Actually, Henry has been trying to persuade his father-in-law to give up Charlotte, but try telling that to the easily excitable Violet. Originally released in January of 1926 by Harry Cohn's C.B.C. Pictures, When Husbands Flirt was reissued in July by C.B.C's successor, the fledgling Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After making one unsuccessful film (The Cat's Pajamas), director William Wellman was in danger of being fired by his new employers at Paramount. He made a rousing comeback with You Never Know Women. Written by the Hungarian-born Ernest Vajda, it involves a Russian theatrical troupe of acrobats, clowns and magicians. There is a romance between two of the troupe's members, Norodin (Clive Brook) and his partner Vera (Florence Vidor). Something truly magical exists between them, but their connection is interrupted by the wealthy and devious Eugene Foster (Lowell Sherman). Foster pretended to have saved Vera from a falling beam at a construction site, when it was actually one of the workers who pulled her to safety. Norodin, believing that Vera prefers Foster, decides to bow out. He fakes his death during a Houdini-like stunt in which he's manacled and locked in a trunk that's thrown into a river. He swims away, but everyone believes that he has drowned.

With her partner gone, Vera realizes how much he meant to her, so she tells Foster she is through with him. Foster angrily attacks her, and she wrestles away, running through the backstage area in search of a place to hide. She finds Norodin's trick cabinet just as Norodin, who has heard about Vera's grieving, returns to the theater. She runs into the cabinet, there is a blast of smoke, and Foster finds himself faced with Norodin, who, with a few knife tricks, chases him off. Beautiful lighting and camera work by Victor Milner, spare use of sub-titles, and Wellman's skillful handling of the actors all conspire to make this a wonderful example of silent film technique. Paramount was so happy with this feature (and its earnings) that they gave Wellman another film to direct -- Wings -- and a 25-dollar-a-week raise. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Wings, the first feature film to win an Academy Award, tends to disappoint a little when seen today. Too much time is afforded the wheezy old plotline about two World War I aviators (Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen) in love with the same woman (Jobyna Ralston), while the comedy relief of El Brendel is decidedly not to everyone's taste. But during the aerial "dogfight" sequences, the film is something else again: a grand-scale spectacular, the likes of which has never been duplicated, not even by more expensive efforts like Hell's Angels (1930) and The Blue Max (1965). Twenty-eight-year-old director William Wellman, himself a wartime aviator, was fortunate enough to have the full cooperation of the US War department at his disposal (even though his legendary temper nearly lost him that cooperation on more than one occasion!) Brilliantly handled though the aerial scenes may be, they are matched by the Earthbound combat sequences, including the now-famous shot of a long trench caving in on hundreds of unfortunate doughboys. The storyline is as follows: Jack Powell (Rogers) and David Armstrong ($owell) hate each other during basic training, grow to like each other, and fall out again while competing for the affections of Sylvia Lewis (Ralston). Mary Preston (Clara Bow) sacrifices her own nursing career to save a drunken Powell from disgrace, Powell goes on a rampage when he believes his pal Armstrong has been killed, inadvertently shoots down Armstrong while decimating the German air corps, and is finally reunited with the nurse. Wrapped up in nurse's garb throughout most of the film, the ebullient Clara Bow is permitted a sequence in which, disguised as a Parisian floozie while trying to rescue a revelling Rogers, she displays a great deal of epidermis. One of the film's chief claims to fame is its "introduction" of Gary Cooper (who'd actually been in films since the early 1920s), in a brief but crucial role as veteran flyer with a cheerily fatalistic attitude. When originally released, Wings included a sequence lensed in the wide-screen "Magnascope" process; even when seen "flat", however, the film contains some of the best flying sequences ever captured on celluloid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wallace Beery appeared in this silent film with intertitles, a dark drama of hobo life. Jim (Richard Arlen), a wanderer, comes upon young Nancy (Louise Brooks), who has just killed the guardian who was trying to rape her. Disguised as a boy, she takes off with Jim and rides the rails to a hobo camp led by Arkansas Snake (Robert Perry). When Oklahoma Red (Beery) takes over the camp, he begins to pursue Nancy, but before he can take her from Jim, the detectives show up to arrest her. He escapes with Nancy and Jim, and when he sees how much they love each other, Red helps them escape by creating a diversion, during which the detectives kill him. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

Bearing no relation to the popular torch song of the same name, The Man I Love is a prizefight picture, courtesy of Paramount production exec David O. Selznick. Richard Arlen stars as Dum-Dum Brooks, a tank-town boxer who journeys to New York in hopes of cracking the Big Time. Along for the ride is Dum-Dum's long-suffering but ever-faithful wife Celia (Mary Brian). After licking Champ Mahoney (Charles Sullivan) in an exhibition bout, Dum-Dum is given a chance to win the title for real. His road to success is temporarily blocked off by seductive Sonia Baranoff (Olga Baclanova), giving poor Celia even more to worry about. Among the real-life pugilists seen in The Man I Love is ubiquitous stunt man and bit player Sailor Vincent, who remained in films well into the late 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite the creative input of producer David O. Selznick and director William A. Wellman, Chinatown Nights was just so much chop suey. In her first (and last) talking-picture appearance, silent screen queen Florence Vidor plays Joan Fry, a San Francisco socialite who ruins her reputation when she falls in love with Chinatown gang boss Chuck Riley (Wallace Beery). When she fails to convince Chuck to quit the rackets, the couple splits up. Unable to return to her own social class, unlucky Joan ends up as a streetwalker (albeit a very glamorous one!) Realizing that he is responsible for the girl's present sorry state, Chuck promises to reform, and together he and Joan leave Frisco to start life anew. In later years, the long-retired Florence Vidor described Chinatown Nights as "absurd," citing producer Selznick's decision to team her with the rough-hewn Wallace Beery as its biggest absurdity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joseph Conrad's novel Victory inspired some of this South Sea drama. Alma (Nancy Carroll), a violinist hired to play at an island resort, is pressured to make herself available to its male visitors. She flees and hides in a skiff belonging to the reclusive Heyst (Richard Arlen), who is said to have hidden a stash of gold. The men in pursuit of Alma -- and of Heyst's gold -- force a confrontation with Heyst and they all wind up dead or arrested; Heyst, who actually has no gold, winds up with Alma. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

William Wellman's Night Nurse survives as a potentially interesting but ultimately unsatisfying melodrama about a nurse discovering evildoings in the household where she is caring for a couple of sick children. Based on a 1930 novel by Dora Macy, Wellman's probe into medical corruption is one of the director's more cynical looks on Depression-era America, but most of the characters are weakly drawn and the denouement a cheat, cinematically. Barbara Stanwyck plays Lora Hart, an ambitious student nurse whose first assignment after graduation is tending to a couple of deathly ill little girls, Nanny (Marcia Mae Jones) and Desney (Betty Jane Graham). Despite their posh surroundings, the girls are apparently suffering from malnutrition; their mother, Mrs. Ritchey (Charlotte Merriam), is hopped-up on bootleg booze ("I'm a dipsomaniac! A dipsomaniac I tell ya! And I like it!"), and the girls' physician (Ralf Harolde) is a society quack with a facial tick. Lora soon realizes that the good doctor is deliberately starving the children to death in order to gain access to their trust fund and that Mrs. Ritchey is kept in line by Nick (Clark Gable), a black-clad gangster posing as the family chauffeur. A desperate Lora proposes to contact the authorities, but her medical sponsor (Charles Winninger) deems that unethical and instead suggests that she find a solution from inside the family. Nearly at the end of her ropes -- and having accepted one too many blows to the chin from Nick -- Lora is saved by an admirer, good-natured bootlegger Mortie (Ben Lyon), whose "friends" take the evil chauffeur on a final "ride." None of this makes much sense, and the film appears to have been tampered with along the way. One of the children disappears without any explanation halfway through, and the hospital establishment's reticence is never properly explained. Instead of a coherent plot, Night Nurse, in typical pre-Production Code style, offers quite a few scenes of Barbara Stanwyck and fellow nurse Joan Blondell dressing and undressing and a rather brutal portrayal by a very young Clark Gable on the threshold to fame. Warner Bros. had borrowed Gable from MGM to play the despicable chauffeur when the original choice, James Cagney, suddenly proved too valuable a commodity for what was actually a supporting role. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide