William "Wild Bill" Elliott Movies
Western star "Wild Bill" Elliott was plain Gordon Elliott when he launched his stage career at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1928. Under his given name, he began appearing in dress-extra film roles around the same time. While he had learned to ride horses as a youth and had won several rodeo trophies, movie producers were more interested in utilizing Elliot's athletic skills in dancing sequences, in which the still-unbilled actor showed up in tux and tails. Beginning in 1934, Elliot's film roles increased in size; he also started getting work in westerns, albeit in secondary villain roles.In 1938, Elliot was selected to play the lead in the Columbia serial The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, in which he made so positive an impression that he would be billed as "Wild Bill" Elliott for the remainder of his cowboy career, even when his character name wasn't Bill. Elliott's western series for Columbia, which ran from 1938 through 1942, was among the studio's most profitable enterprises. Fans were primed to expect an all-out orgy of fisticuffs and gunplay whenever Elliott would face down the bad guy by muttering, "I'm a peaceable man, but..." Elliott moved to Republic in 1943, where he continued turning out first-rate westerns, including several in which he portrayed famed fictional do-gooder Red Ryder.
In 1945, Elliott began producing his own films, developing a tougher, more jaded characterization than before. A longtime admirer of silent star William S. Hart, Elliott successfully emulated his idol in a string of "good badman" roles. The actor's final western series was a group of 11 above-average actioners for Monogram in the early 1950s, in which Elliott did his best to destroy the standard cowboy cliches and unrealistic Boy Scout behavior symptomatic of the Roy Rogers/Gene Autry school. During his last days at Monogram (which by the mid-1950s had metamorphosed into United Artists), Elliott appeared in modern dress, often cast as hard-bitten private eyes. In 1957, Bill Elliott retired to his huge ranch near Las Vegas, Nevada, where he spent his time collecting western souvenirs and indulging his ongoing hobby of geology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1927
This western is one of Tom Mix's most inventive and certainly among his most off-beat. This time he plays a California breeder of polo ponies in love with a society gal. The cowboy saves the day when a member of her brother's polo team is injured during an important match. Mix immediately replaces him and amazes the audience with his spectacular riding stunts. In the story's highlight, he and his talented horse Tony chase the bad-guy through the many rooms and even up the great staircase of a big California mission. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Mix, Dorothy Sebastian, (more)
- 1925
Produced by Preferred Pictures on rental stages at FBO and on-location at Pomona College in Claremont, CA, The Plastic Age was Clara Bow's 15th and final release of 1925 and the comedy-drama that made her a major star. She plays Cynthia Day, the campus flirt whose "hotsy-totsy" lifestyle does not bode well for freshman Hugh Carver (Donald Keith), smitten with Cynthia from day one. The pride of his community, Hugh is expected to become a track star but late nights with Cynthia take too much out of him and Coach Henry (David Butler) is soon in despair. After yet another wild night at the local roadhouse, during which Hugh saves his romantic rival, Carl Peters (Gilbert Roland), from a police raid, Cynthia realizes the error of her ways and nobly refuses to see him again. Hugh quickly regains his athletic prowess, wins the big game for Prescott College and is rewarded with both self-respect and the love of a properly chastened Cynthia. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Bow, Donald Keith, (more)
- 1918
On the heels of his masterpiece, Intolerance, which dramatized the futility of war born out of prejudice, director D.W. Griffith shifted gears for this film. Intolerance had proven a financial disaster for Griffith, so he signed with producer Adolph Zukor to release his next film. He came upon the subject matter on a trip to England to promote Intolerance. The British government, desperately looking to America for help in fighting the Germans in the first World War, persuaded Griffith to make a propaganda picture. Set in France, it's the portrait of a village overrun by the Germans during the hostilities. Griffith begins the story in 1912 with a slow developing romance between The Boy, Douglas Gordon Hamilton (Robert Harron) and The Girl, Marie Stephenson (Lillian Gish). A street singer known as The Disturber (Dorothy Gish) tries to come between them, but she settles for her own romance with Monsieur Cuckoo (Robert Anderson). In the summer of 1914, The Boy and M. Cuckoo answer the call to arms, forcing the postponement of The Boy and Girl's wedding. The film's second half cuts back and forth between the battlefield and the home front (which in this case are separated by only a few miles). By the time the film was completed, the United States had already entered the war, and over the years its extreme portrayal of German soldiers has been trimmed, the first time at the request of the wife of President Woodrow Wilson. In fact, Griffith included shots of American troops helping out in the story's final battle and then marching off to return home. The version viewed for this review, running 115 minutes, included a brief prologue with footage of Griffith touring the battlefields in France, where some documentary footage was shot, though most of the film was made in Southern California, and the director meeting with British prime minister David Lloyd George. Also notable is the appearance in small parts of future filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim as a German soldier, future character actor Ben Alexander as The Boy's youngest brother, and future entertainer Noël Coward as a young villager pushing a wheelbarrow. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, (more)
- 1915
Woman and Wine almost bring about the downfall of the hero of this 5-reel melodrama. After inheriting a fortune, an impressionable young man falls under the spell of a beautiful "adventuress" (a 1915 euphemism for "hooker"). He soon runs through all of his money, and in the process all but destroys his family and friends. Eventually, things are set right when the adventuress is conveniently killed by her live-in lover. The star of Woman and Wine was Broadway actor William Elliot -- who, we hasten to add, was no relation to cowboy hero William "Wild Bill" Elliot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
