Kenny Delmar Movies
An actor since childhood, Kenny Delmar made his screen debut in D.W. Griffith's Orphans of the Storm, playing Joseph Schildkraut's character as a boy. Delmar's career shifted into drive in the 1930s when he secured steady work as a radio actor and announcer playing a wide variety of roles in everything from The Shadow to Orson Welles' Mercury Theater on the Air (he played the FDR soundalike in Welles' notorious War of the Worlds broadcast). While working as the announcer for The Fred Allen Show in 1945, Delmar created the character of bombastic southern senator Beauregard Claghorn ("That's a joke, son -- joke, that is!"). The role transformed Delmar into an overnight sensation, leading to a feature film based on the Claghorn character, 1947's It's a Joke Son!, the moderately successful Broadway musical Texas, Little Darlin' in 1951, and countless Claghorn imitators, the most famous of which was the Warner Bros. cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn. Remaining a New York-based actor until his retirement, Kenny Delmar spent the 1960s providing voices for TV commercials and cartoon series, playing The Hunter on King Leonardo, Commander McBragg on Tennessee Tuxedo, and Col. Kit Coyote on Underdog. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
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Colonel Kit Coyote and his aide ergeant Okey Homa occupied a U.S. Calvary fort in Gopher Gulch. They spent their time devising new ways to drive the dim-witted gopher natives, Ruffled Feathers and his interpreter Running Board from the land, while the gophers countered with creative ways to protect their territorial rights. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1962
In this decidedly Hollywood view of what growing up Puerto Rican in New York must really be like, almost an entire family (with only one son and a daughter) faces disintegration and tragedy. The father loses his job, which puts the family in a crisis situation. So the son goes out to find work as a delivery boy and the daughter eventually lapses into prostitution. Trouble brews when the son confronts a local gang leader whom he believes has misused his sister, and the mother similarly tracks down a bully for more or less the same reason. In a plot twist, it is the mother's confrontation that goes from bad to worse, precipitating a comparable and tragic denouement at home. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Camilo Delgado, Rosita de Triana, (more)
Radio actor Kenny Delmar created the character of bombastic Southern Senator Claghorn for a 1945 installment of The Fred Allen Show. The character immediately caught on with the public, spawning an overabundance of merchandising and thousands of ersatz Claghorn imitators (foremost among these was the Warner Bros. cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn). In 1947, Delmar attempted to parlay Claghorn into film stardom with It's a Joke, Son. From the outset, screenwriters Robert Kent and Paul Gerard Smith were faced with a problem: Senator Claghorn was very funny in small doses on The Fred Allen Show, but could the character sustain a feature-length picture? Their solution to this dilemma was to "humanize" the Senator by removing some of his obnoxious braggadocio and transforming him into a harmless, henpecked small-town windbag. Living in his decaying ancestral Southern mansion with his long-suffering wife Magnolia (Una Merkel), Claghorn has trouble making ends meet financially. Magnolia hopes to resolve their money problems by running for state senator on behalf of the Daughters of Dixie. A band of northern political crooks convince the gullible Claghorn to run against his wife in the senatorial race, thereby splitting the vote so that their own equally crooked candidate can win the election. Complication piles upon complication until Magnolia, realizing that Claghorn is being set up as a patsy, has him kidnapped "for his own good"-a plan which predictably backfires. Future TV star June Lockhart is decorative as Claghorn's daughter, while Kenneth Farrell is adequate as the obligatory romantic lead. It's a Joke Son was the initial Hollywood effort from the Eagle-Lion Productions, a British-based firm which would eventually absorb PRC Pictures, where this film was made on the very cheap. Though moderately successful, the film proved that Senator Claghorn was much funnier heard than seen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenny Delmar, Una Merkel, (more)
Having turned the creaky old stage melodrama Way Down East into a money-spinning film, director D.W. Griffith set about to perform the same magic with the barnstorming theatrical piece The Two Orphans. Adolphe Philippe Dennery's play told the story of two orphaned girls, one blind, who are separated early on and undergo innumerable deprivations before their tearful reunion. Though the play took place in France, it had nothing whatsoever to do with the French Revolution; this didn't stop Griffith from plunking the storyline smack dab in the middle of that late-18th-century maelstrom, allowing him full scope for the spectacular scenes which had brought him worldwide fame. Lillian Gish plays Henriette, the sighted sister, while Dorothy Gish is cast as the visually impaired Louise. Henriette brings Louise to Paris, in search of a surgeon who might be able to restore her sister's sight. Henriette is kidnapped by a lascivious nobleman, leaving Louise to wander helplessly about until she too is "stolen" by a family of beggars. Rescued by kindhearted aristocrat Chevalier de Vaudrey (Joseph Schildkraut), Henriette begins the arduous search for her lost sister. Just before the film's intermission, Henriette hears Louise begging on the streets. Before they can be reunited, Henriette is arrested by minions of the evil nobleman who'd earlier tried to seduce her. Released from the Bastille by the revolutionaries, Henriette resumes her search, only to be arrested again--this time because she has consorted with the aristocracy, and is therefore a candidate for the guillotine. The stage is thus set for a thrilling "race to the rescue" climax, and of course the reuniting of the two orphans. Orphans of the Storm was filmed at Griffith's east coast studio in Mamaroneck, New York, which explains why the exteriors are always so overcast. In an effort to be topical, Griffith took every opportunity possible to equate the French revolution with the recent Bolshevik rebellion in Russia, and to warn his audience of the dangers of mob rule (this from a man who glorified the Ku Klux Klan in Birth of a Nation!) The film opened to excellent reviews and great business; Griffith, who always placed art above commerce, poured virtually every penny of profit into his "smaller" project, Isn't Life Wonderful, which died at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, (more)
