Dustin Farnum Movies

Marking the 50th anniversary of General George Armstrong Custer's famous defeat at Little Big Horn, Universal re-created the battle in their biggest production ($400,000) of the year, The Flaming Frontier. Veteran screen actor Dustin Farnum came out of semi-retirement to play Custer -- to overwhelmingly positive notices -- and according to studio publicity, the film employed several thousand extras, including many Native Americans. Universal re-created Fort Hays, Custer's outpost, on the back lot in the San Fernando Valley and a duplicate of Crane City was erected at great expense near Pendleton, Oregon. Unfortunately, the studio also cast their resident cowboy star, the lackadaisical Hoot Gibson, in the starring role, and the entire production was thus geared to Gibson's familiar shtick rather than faithfully re-telling the story of one of the great blunders in military history. In the hands of Edward Sedgwick, Gibson's usual director, the slaughter at Little Big Horn proved little more than a plot contrivance. Gibson played a Pony Express rider admitted to West Point due to the influence of a powerful senator (George Fawcett), whose daughter (Anne Cornwall) he loves. In return, Gibson assumes the blame when the senator's wastrel son (Harold Goodwin) gets in trouble with the daughter (Kathleen Key) of a crooked Indian agent (Ward Crane). Gibson is expelled and returns West to join Custer's forces. To get even with Gibson, whom he still accuses of defiling his daughter, the Indian agent conspires with Sitting Bull (African-American actor Noble Johnson) to lure Custer and his troops into an ambush. Misinformed about the strength of the enemy, Custer and his 400 men are slaughtered by Indian warriors numbering in the thousands. Gibson, meanwhile, has been sent for reinforcements, thus surviving the massacre. He later leads an uprising among the settlers against the nefarious Indian agent, who has taken the senator's daughter prisoner. Most reviewers were appreciative of Universal's great expenditure, but Variety's scribe saw the film as little more than an ordinary Gibson Western. Sadly, modern audiences are prevented from forming an opinion, as no prints now survive. However, many of the more spectacular sequences later found their way into The Indians Are Coming (1930), a Universal serial released in both silent and sound versions. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, 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

Although he was a big star in the 1910s, by 1923, Dustin Farnum was starring in inexpensively made programmers. This one, from Fox, had settings in both the Klondike and in London society, and received some good notices. Kit Carew, a Klondike miner (Farnum), inherits a large English estate from his partner, Cavendish. When he travels to London, he meets Cavendish's beautiful daughter, Blanche (Arline Pretty, who was also a bit past her prime in 1923), and dissolute son, Luke (Leon Bary). Luke, scared of losing his comfortable lifestyle, tries unsuccessfully to have Carew bumped off. In spite of her dangerous sibling, Blanche falls in love with the miner, and they plan to marry. But she is left waiting at the altar and mistakenly believes she is being jilted. The romance over, a disheartened Carew signs the estate over to Blanche and returns to the Klondike. Luke shows up to cause more trouble, but Blanche, whose faith in Carew has been restored, also travels to the frozen north to reconcile with him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Based on a 1922 Western Story Magazineshort-story by George Owen Baxter, this fine silent Western featured the spectacle of Bessie Love playing a battered wife, who to escape her brutal husband, masquerades as a man. A rather simple revenge story (apart from Love's unusual getup), Three Who Paid starred Dustin Farnum as Riley Sinclair, a cowboy determined to punish the three villains who left his brother Hal (Robert Agnew) to die in the desert. Sinclair goes after the three bad men (Fred Kohler, Frank Campeau and Robert Daly), who one by one are made to pay for their crime. Former Griffith star Love was suffering one of her many career-slumps when she appeared, third-billed, in this Western produced by Fox. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this creaky, old-fashioned melodrama, Dustin Farnum plays a man who is too heroic to be believed. Two cousins, good guy Jim Thorpe (Farnum) and bad guy Ned Henderson (Walter McGrail) are in love with the same girl, Eve Marsham (Irene Rich). Even though Henderson comes out the loser when they draw to see who gets to propose first, he slips in ahead of Thorpe and Eve accepts. Thorpe leaves for Peru, and when he returns a year later, he finds that Eve is being horribly mistreated by Henderson, who has also become a bandit. When he is suspected of robbing a stage coach, Henderson sees that Thorpe is arrested for the crime. The self-sacrificing Thorpe is willing to hang for his cousin's deed, but Henderson is shot, and as he dies, he reveals that he is the guilty one. With the wicked Henderson out of the way, Eve and Thorpe are able to be together. The trade papers were usually careful when they panned a film, but The Film Daily advised exhibitors, "Your folks will have to like Dustin Farnum awfully well to put up with the poor story....A good comedy would help you out in case they don't like the feature." ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Manly Dustin Farnum usually did well in action-packed Westerns; perhaps this one didn't work because it wasn't packed with enough action. It certainly had its fair share of clichés, however. George Kirby (William Conklin) steals a mining claim from Tom Curtis (Farnum) and forces him to become an outlaw. Years later, Curtis comes to the rescue when Anne Kirby (Marguerite Marsh) is kidnapped by real outlaws, but when he finds out she is married to his enemy, he decides to hold her captive. Although he changes his mind and offers to let her go, she stays to nurse his gunshot wounds. Kirby finds them together and accuses Anne of loving Curtis. Curtis goes to town to turn himself in and finds Bat Piper (William Elmer), another bad guy who is in cahoots with Kirby. After several gunfights, Kirby is finally killed and Anne realizes that her late husband was right -- she really does love Curtis. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although Dustin Farnum continued to star in pictures for a couple more years (illness would pretty much sideline him after 1924), this hackneyed drama didn't exactly enhance his popularity. Angus MacDonald (Farnum) is a rich Canadian lumberman who falls in love with Ruth Mayo, a cabaret dancer (Doris Pawn). Right away they have problems because he loves nature and wide-open spaces while she's a dyed-in-the-wool city girl. MacDonald is the one who gives in, and he and his wife move to New York City. When a strike threatens his company, he has to go back to Canada. Ruth, who is lonely and bored, accepts a dancing engagement in Europe. The couple winds up being separated for six years. When MacDonald finds his little daughter dancing in the Grand Palais -- the same place where her mother debuted -- he tracks Ruth down and the family is reunited.
~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Veteran silent star Dustin Farnum played a rancher whose land is being constantly depreciated because of cattle rustlings in this lavish Western produced by Fox. When Carson (Harry Dunkinson), Brian Wayne's (Farnum) partner, is mortally wounded by the rustlers, Brian promises the dying man to look after his young son, Bobby (Frankie Lee). The child's nasty mother, La Belle (Rosita Marstini), is in cahoots with the rustlers and to shield Bobby from his mother's evil influence, Brian agrees to sell the ranch to Travers (Philo McCullough), the slick fiancé of newcomer Janice Webb (Mary Thurman). But Bobby discovers oil on the land and realizing he has been tricked, Brian tears up the deed. Travers takes the case in court but justice prevails and Brian is free to marry Janice, with whom he has fallen in love. Leading lady Mary Thurman was a former Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty whose career was decidedly on the upswing when she suddenly died in 1925 from bronchopneumonia. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, 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 adaptation of the play David Garrick (one of several versions), Dustin Farnum plays the title character. Garrick is an actor in mid-18th century London. While he is performing in Romeo and Juliet at Drury Lane, he sees Ada Ingot (Winifred Kingston) sitting in one of the boxes, and they become smitten with each other. He spends months searching for her, not realizing that she is the daughter of Simon Ingot, a wealthy merchant (Herbert Standing). So when Ingot comes to him complaining that his daughter must be rid of her infatuation, he agrees. When he attends the dinner party at Ingot's home and realizes that it is Ada who he must discourage, he still goes ahead with the agreement by pretending to become drunk, which disgusts her. But he also winds up in a duel the next morning with one of the other guests, who had insulted the girl. Ada discovers the truth and goes to Garrick. Her father, realizing that he is an honorable man -- even if he is an actor -- gives his assent to their betrothal. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Mark Quaintance (Dustin Farnum) spends his days discussing World War I with a patriotic society, but a General spurs him into action with information about the number of German spies that are infiltrating U.S. intelligence. So Quaintance volunteers to go to Berlin, and on the voyage he meets the beautiful Greta Glaum (Winifred Kingston), who, unbeknownst to him, is a German spy. A romance springs up between the two, and more and more, Greta views her mission as something distasteful. But pressure from the head of the secret service, Freiheer von Wittschaeft (William Burress), keeps her going about her spying. In Berlin, Quaintance sneaks into von Wittschaeft's home so he can steal a book with valuable information. There he finds Greta, and she decides to help him with his mission. She brings the book to the American Ambassador (Charles Clary), after which she is captured by her own people. Quaintance, too, has been captured, and even though he is tortured, he refuses to say where the book has gone. Greta also stands up under torture. Finally, the pair are scheduled to be executed. They refuse to give up any information and gladly face the firing squad, a downbeat ending, rare in mainstream American cinema of any era. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide