Marjorie Beebe Movies

Hollywood Cavalcade was a fictionalized history of silent films and the growth of the movie industry. Don Ameche portrays a character based on equal portions of Mack Sennett and D. W. Griffith, while Alice Faye's silent star is an amalgam of Mabel Normand and Gloria Swanson. Ameche breaks into pictures with slapstick comedies, initiating the first "pie throwing" scene, with Buster Keaton the thrower and Alice Faye the throw-ee. Thanks to Ameche, Faye becomes a major comedy star, appearing in wild Keystone Kops chase comedies. But success goes to Ameche's head, and soon he's staging elaborate Intolerance-like historical spectacles. As Ameche's artistic aspirations climb, his relationship with the faithful Alice deteriorates. She finds solace with her young leading man (Alan Curtis) and becomes a top dramatic star. Having made and lost several fortunes, Ameche talks Alice into appearing in his "comeback" picture, but shortly before filming ends, she and her husband are in a serious auto accident. The husband is killed, and as Faye recuperates, Ameche agonizes over how he'll save his uncompleted masterpiece. He witnesses the premiere of Al Jolson's part-talking The Jazz Singer and decides to risk everything by scrapping his film and remaking it as a talkie. Faye, who's never really stopped loving Ameche, agrees to star in this new project. On a level of accuracy, Hollywood Cavalcade is for the birds, but it scores on its energetic performances and nostalgic appeal. As a bonus, several past movie greats appear in cameos: Al Jolson, Buster Keaton, Mack Sennett, Ben Turpin, Chester Conklin, Jimmy Finlayson, Hank Mann and even Rin Tin Tin Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In between warbling Old Home Ranch and Yellow Mellow Moon (both by June Hershey and Don Swander), barytone cowboy Fred Scott goes after "Scar" Adams (Charles King), a notorious stage-robber who had almost killed his father, the sheriff (Frank LaRue). Scott's girlfriend and "Scar's" estranged sister (Phoebe Logan), meanwhile, refuses to marry him if he doesn't hand over his deputy badge, but when she changes her mind when her prospected father-in-law's body is delivered at the wedding ceremony. Assuming the mantle of sheriff after his slain father, Scott and comic sidekick Al St. John track down the killers. The Fighting Deputy marked the Scott series debut of veteran slapstick comic St. John, who played his usual character of "Fuzzy Q. Jones." A former star of the San Francisco Opera, Fred Scott had come to B-Westerns courtesy of his friend, producer Jed Buell. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a recently convicted criminal boards a train bound for the prison where he will be hanged. His wife rides with him and en route tells a reporter how her husband had accidentally killed a man while protecting her. The reporter, who is dying of tuberculosis, is touched by the story and decides to help them by knocking out a guard, helping the man to escape and jumping off the train to his death. When authorities find the corpse, the assume it belongs to the young convict, and the real killer and his wife are free to start a new life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

As cheap as any other poverty-row talkie, Dragnet Patrol possesses a breezy charm that is hard to resist. Glenn Tryon stars as a rambunctious sailor who marries carnival cutie Vera Reynolds. For her sake, he hires himself out to shady business entrepreneur Walter Long, only to face extermination when Long's faithless wife Symona Boniface "comes on" to him. Finally getting his priorities straight, Tryon returns to his wife, but not before an understanding judge gives him a severe dressing-down in court. Effortlessly stealing the picture is 2-reel comedy perennial Vernon Dent as Tryon's sailor pal; the scene in which Dent returns home to his wife Marjorie Beebe, only to be forced to kick Beebe's current boyfriend out the back door, is priceless. Also worth noting is the performance of veteran screen heavy Walter Long, who turns out to be more honorable and up-front than the so-called hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A judge investigating two Wall Street brokers accused of stock manipulations learns of a mysterious invention, a "DXL Accumulator" with which its inventor, Prof. Farrington, plans to harness solar power. The judge decides to visit the professor at his mountain hideaway. When he arrives, he finds that the professor's daughter and her boyfriend are there, along with the professor's mysterious housekeeper, her creepy son and a strange couple the daughter and her boyfriend brought along. As the judge is questioning the professor, someone turns off the lights, and when the daughter and her boyfriend rush into the room, the judge is found murdered and the professor has disappeared! Mischa Auer and Martha Mattox, the twin menaces in the "classic" horror cheapie The Monster Walks, play approximately the same roles here. The sputtering laboratory equipment and the electronic special effects were the handiwork of Kenneth Strickfaden, of Frankenstein fame. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

A cast of silent-film veterans distinguishes the pedestrian crime drama First Aid. Grant Withers stars as a doctor who is forced to operate on a wounded gangster. As if this wasn't enough of a headache, the gangster's rivals converge upon the doc's office, hoping to find out where the patient has hidden a cache of stolen jewels. Unable to contact the police, the crafty hero manages to write a coded plea for help in a drugstore prescription. Things turn out for the best when the doctor falls in love with the gangster's sweet sister. Two-reel comedy stalwarts Marjorie Beebe and Billy Gilbert provide the laughs, while Wheeler Oakman, William Desmond, Paul Panzer and other battle-scarred veterans of the silent era go through their customary paces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Much of this drama is comprised of newsreel footage. It chronicles the exploits of a luckless college prize-fighter attempting to go professional. Unfortunately he is exploited by his dishonest manager. The innocent pugilist is eventually befriended and assisted by a pretty reporter who helps free him from his wicked manager. During the big fight, the fighter takes a real lickin' when he discovers that the reporter has not come to the fight. This is a very early talkie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Marjorie Beebe, leading lady of many a Mack Sennett comedy 2-reelers, plays the title character in the slapstick feature The Farmer's Daughter. Gormless Arthur Stone plays Beebe's hometown sweetie, a would-be inventor. When Stone's latest creation, a cheese-making machine, falls apart at the seams, it is the cue for city slicker Warren Burke to move in on Beebe. But the day is saved when a representative for a big-time cheese manufacturer offers Stone a huge contract. Boasting a cast of grotesques, The Farmer's Daughter has all the subtlety of the Keystone Kops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sammy Cohen, Fox Studios' resident Jewish comic, heads the cast of Homesick. This one is all about a cross-country bicycle race, with Sammy Schnable (Cohen) competing against his old pal Ambrose (Harry Sweet). Whoever wins the race will also win the hand of eligible bachelorette Babe (Marjorie Beebe). The ethnicity inherent in Homesick extends to the other bike riders, including stereotypical Italian Henry Armetta and ersatz Polish-American Pat Harmon. Co-star Harry Sweet later became head of the short subjects department at RKO Radio, a position he held until his death in a 1933 plane crash. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Madge Bellamy stars as a humble sales clerk, forced by circumstance to pose as a famous female athlete. In this guise, she is wooed by wealthy Pat Cunning, who makes it clear that he's crazy about "outdoor" girls. So as not to lose Cunning, Bellamy endures a rigorous weekend of jogging, hiking, rowing and mountain-climbing. Only when the picture is nearing its end does the heroine come to realize that the hero is in love with her and not her phony reputation. Joseph Cawthorn has the film's best scenes as Cunning's crotchety, smarter-than-he-looks father. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Madge Bellamy plays a vivacious clothes model in Ankles Preferred. Tired of being appreciated only for her beauty, Bellamy sets out to prove that she's got brains as well. This leads to a number of comic mishaps, ranging from a tussle with an amorous financier to a zany car chase. In the end, she causes feminist teeth to gnash all over the country by deciding that good looks are infinitely preferrable to intelligence. Three writers worked on the screenplay of Ankles Preferred--all men. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide