Franklin Farnum Movies
A rugged and trustworthy Western hero from Boston, silent screen cowboy Franklyn Farnum's appeal was closer to William S. Hart than Tom Mix. Farnum's road to screen stardom began in vaudeville and musical comedy. While he was not related to stage and screen stars William Farnum and Dustin Farnum, two legendary brothers who also hailed from Boston, he never really dissuaded the name association, and while he never achieved the same success as the other Farnums, it was not for lack of trying. Onscreen from around 1914, Franklyn Farnum was usually found in inexpensive Westerns and reached a plateau as the star of the 1920 serial The Vanishing Trails and a series of oaters produced independently by "Colonel" William N. Selig, formerly of the company that bore his name. In 1918, Farnum received quite a bit of press for marrying screen star Alma Rubens, but the union proved extremely short-lived. As busy in the 1920s as in the previous decade, Farnum made the changeover to sound smoothly enough, but he was growing older and leading roles were no longer an option. He maintained his usual hectic schedule throughout the following three decades, more often than not playing villains and doing bit parts, working well into the television Western era. For many years, Farnum was the president of the Screen Extras Guild. In 1961, Franklyn Farnum died of cancer at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1917
The Clean Up was ostensibly set in Illinois, but the distinctly Californian topography and foliage in the outdoor scenes rather gave the game away. Franklin Farnum plays Stuart Adams, the publicity man for a rag-tag burlesque troupe which pitches camp in the tiny Illinois town of Weston. Stuart is soon smitten by Hazel Richards (Brownie Vernon), the daughter of the town's bank president. Naturally, Hazel's daddy frowns upon her fraternizing with "show folk," but Stuart gets into the old man's good graces when he helps to foil a bank robbery. The individual plot elements of The Clean-Up make little sense, notably a subplot involving a "woman of the world" who turns out to be a government agent. Evidently, Universal was relying upon the engaging personality of star Farnum to smooth over the film's many rough spots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Compiled by the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry and distributed to theaters across the United States, National Association's All-Star Picture, features selected scenes from various popular films, offering glimpses of many of the biggest stars of the day. Included are clips of Charlie Chaplin, Francis X. Bushman, Douglas Fairbanks, and many others. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1917
Jeannie, the usual cinematic country girl (Leah Baird), marries a city man (Franklyn Farnum) who neglects her and then divorces her when he finds a friend coming on to her. The shock of the divorce kills her mother, so Jeannie swears revenge. First she becomes lovers with the man who lusted after her, then she comes back into her ex-husband's life and seduces him even though he is happily married to another woman (Gertrude Aster). She brings the two men together so that they will get into a fight; then she kills her lover and has her ex-husband arrested for the crime. Luckily for the ex-husband's family, he dies before he is convicted of the murder, so they're saved from the stain of scandal. This picture was based on the book, The Toll of Vengeance, by George Hively. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Playboy Franklyn Farnum inherits a Western ranch on the condition that he shall run it properly for 6 months. A villain (none other than Lon Chaney) makes an attempt to distract him from reaching the goal, but Farnum, no longer the wastrel of yore, persists and becomes full owner of the property. Despite a strong supporting cast -- including veteran vamp Claire Du Brey, the always menacing Sam De Grasse and, of course, Chaney -- Anything Once was deemed only fair entertainment by most reviewers. The rough-hewn Farnum, despite hailing from Boston, was decidedly miscast as a socialite. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franklin Farnum, Claire Du Brey, (more)
- 1917
This drama was based on the then-popular novel by Richard Hardin Davis. Billy Winthrop (Franklyn Farnum) is the idle son of Samuel Winthrop (Al Filson). When Billy discovers that it's destroying his father financially to constantly get him out of trouble, he straightens up. Although Billy loves Beatrice Forbes (Edith Johnson), she is already engaged to marry Ernest Peabody (Sam deGrasse), the son of banker Cyrus Peabody (Howard Crampton). Billy and Beatrice plan to elope, but it isn't as easy for them to run off together as they thought it would be. They get tangled up in situations involving forgery and murder that need to be solved before they can get married. Both Peabody father and son are revealed as the crooks. Director Joseph deGrasse was the older brother of Sam deGrasse. A pre-stardom Lon Chaney has a small but intense role as Beatrice's father, Paul Revere Forbes. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
The Winged Mystery was supposed to have been taken seriously, but audiences and critics alike regarded the film as a laugh riot. Most of the story takes place in a grim country mansion, which serves as an "airstrip" for a collection of carrier pigeons. Each time one of the pigeons takes flight, its course is charted by a flashlight, wielded by a sinister Man of Mystery. Hero Franklin Farnum, attending a weekend party held at the mansion, tries to figure out the purpose behind all this aviary traffic. A few explosions and fistfights later, the mystery is solved. The highlight of The Winged Mystery was a knock-down, drag-out fight between the heroine and a slinky villainess; it wasn't much of highlight, true, but it was better than nothing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
After ten years in China, Monty Gray (Franklyn Farnum) meets up with old friend Wilbur Mason. He sees a photo of Wilbur's cousin, Constance (Agnes Vernon) and immediately falls in love with the girl. Wilbur warns him that Constance's mother is determined that she will marry someone of title, but this doesn't stop Monty. He becomes "Lord Winston Radleigh" so he can woo her. At a house party thrown by Constance's family, Monty finds he has competition in a man called the Duke of Cannister. But Constance -- who isn't as title-mad as her mother -- is not interested in the Duke, or in Monty's fake title. She is interested in Monty himself, however, and sets up a situation to test his mettle -- she has a group of cowboys from her father's ranch kidnap her. Monty rises to the occasion and comes to her rescue. He has beaten up most of the cowboys when Constance tells him it was a set up. She decides that Monty is the man for her, which is just as well because it turns out that the Duke was a phony and a con man. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Franklyn Farnum and Brownie Vernon team up yet again for another Universal comedy-drama. In his will, Mr. Baird leaves his son Arnold (Farnum) just one seven-passenger auto and a hundred dollars to keep it filled up and in good repair. When James Bennett (Mark Fenton) hears of this, he insists that Baird do something to make his fortune before he can marry his daughter Ruth (Vernon). Bennett begins by using the car to start a jitney-bus line. This is not terribly impressive to Bennett -- who owns a trolley company -- and he decides he would rather see Ruth married to his controller, William Mott-Smith (H.J. Bennett). But when labor leader Israel Helmstone (Walter Belasco) calls a strike against the company, Baird gets traffic moving with the help of his pals, who also offer their vehicles as jitney-buses. Bennett's company is in danger of crumbling, and he is forced to bargain with the strikers through Baird. Meanwhile Mott-Smith's evil nature is uncovered, thus Bennett has no issue with giving Baird a job -- and Ruth's hand. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Bookish Richard (Franklyn Farnum) is in love with Helen (Juanita Hansen), who spurns him because he's not "manly" enough to suit her tastes. Conversely, Richard can't stand the Countess Wintershim (Catherine Henry), who's just ga-ga over him. Hoping to escape the Countess, Richard pretends to have drowned. Meanwhile, Helen has fallen for Spike, a boxing champion who happens to be Richard's exact double (Farnum plays both roles). With Spike's help, Richard wins Helen's hand and heart, but not before a wild-and-woolly seance sequence in which the "deceased" hero seemingly returns from the Great Beyond. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Gerald Harper (Thomas Holding) is running for governor, and that's about the only reason his ambitious wife Carol (Anna Q. Nilsson) is sticking with him. She sends Diana Casper (Marin Sais, a lobbyist friend of hers, to work on a certain politician in her husband's favor. Harper, meanwhile, heads for the settlements, where he meets Marna Royal (Mary MacLaren), the lovely daughter of a tenement family. One day, when he sees Marna dressed up, he kisses her on impulse. The naive girl believes this is practically a marriage proposal. Diana has no luck with the politician, but she finds out about Harper's minor dalliance with Marna, and goes to his friend, Drew Garret (Franklyn Farnum) with this information. She threatens to expose Harper unless Garret marries her. Garret refuses, and then has to do damage control on the stories Diana spreads. He brings Marna to the Harper household, and she is disappointed to find out that Harper is already married. Diana finally gets her comeuppance, and Garret encourages the depressed Harper to go away and start over. Marna winds up with Garret. This picture was directed by one of silent film's few women directors, Ida May Park. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
When his father gets fed up with his spendthrift ways, Jimmie (Franklyn Farnum) is forced to find work. A newspaper hires him as a reporter and immediately sends him out on an assignment. He has to track down a gang of counterfeiters who have been baffling the police. Jimmie follows the crooks to a mysterious house, where he finds a girl (Eileen Pearcy) is being held captive. After much difficulty, he and the girl escape and the counterfeiters are rounded up. But the next morning, Jimmie's story doesn't appear in the paper. He goes to the office to complain and recognizes all the other reporters, who were posing as counterfeiters, and the girl, who is the paper's society editor. It was all a set up, arranged by his father who had just bought the paper and wanted to challenge Jimmie. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Wealthy Henry Arlington (William Lloyd) despairs that his profligate nephew Dick (Franklin Farnum) will never amount to anything. At the end of his tether, Arlington announces that he will cut his nephew off without a cent -- but before he can make this decision legal, the old man is shot to death. Certain that he will be accused of the crime, Dick heads for the hills. During his flight, he saves the life of pretty Margaret Hammersley (Gloria Hope). Hero and heroine become engaged, but their wedding plans are scuttled when word gets out that there is a $5000 reward on Dick's head. Convincing Dick to stop running away from his troubles, Margaret transports him back to the scene of the murder, where together they expose the guilty party -- who turns out to be the same fellow who advised Dick to escape the law in the first place! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Some critics took Franklin Farnum to task for too closely emulating his screen "role model" Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in The Fighting Grin. Others merely followed the audience's lead by sitting back and enjoying the show. Described as "a western love story," the film cast Farnum as Billy Kennedy, the son of wealthy rancher Otis Kennedy (Charles Hill Mailes). For many, many years, the elder Kennedy has waged a range war against his friend-turned-enemy Amos Meredith (Fred Montague). The animosity between the two ranchers intensifies when Billy falls in love with Meredith's daughter Janice (Edith Johnson). When the young lovers announce their plans to marry, Billy is kidnapped by his own father to prevent such an eventuality. To escape his dad's minions, our hero is compelled to disguise himself as a notorious bandit -- and the plot really takes off from there. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Booted out of his own home by his snobbish father, wealthy playboy Laurence Percival Van Huyler (Franklin Farnum) is forced to make his own way in the world. Accordingly, he trades in his fancy duds for a pair of faded overalls and takes a job as a construction worker. While tearing down an old building, our hero finds an ancient document which states that the supposedly blue-blooded Van Huylers were actually descended from the McCartys, a family of Shanty Irish immigrants. Armed with this document, Laurence forces his pretentious family to give up their high-society airs and begin behaving within the perimeters of Good Old American Democracy. And, yes, he wins the love of haughty socialite Alicia (Juanita Hansen), who rather enjoys being treated like "Just Folks." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Sculptor Paul Brehant (Vincent Serrano) meets Denise Fleury (Dolores Cassinelli) in a cabaret. Denise has come there to escape the misery of her slum life. Paul is taken with her purity, and she becomes his model. A great masterpiece is the result -- and also a marriage, much to the chagrin of Paul's former lover, Countess Olga Vosloff (Marie Chambers). She follows after the couple on their honeymoon and gives Denise such a difficult time that she runs off to Paul's friend, Edward Dorin (Franklyn Farnum). But Paul goes after her and finds that she has been true and Dorin has been honorable. Not surprisingly, this picture was directed by Albert Capellani, who did his best work with this type of melodramatic, emotional fare. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
The founder of the pioneering movie organization Selig Polyscope Company, Colonel William N. Selig continued producing low-budget films long after his company had floundered in 1918. In 1920-1921 he produced several westerns and one serial, Vanishing Trails, all starring veteran cowboy Franklyn Farnum. In The Last Chance, Farnum hits the bottle when his father dies. He loses his girl to a slick-looking neighbor and finds that life is no longer worth living. That is, until he meets a kind-hearted saloon belle, whose kidnapping spurs him back into action. Farnum's westerns were perhaps a bit more adult in themes than most of the oaters littering the Hollywood stage at the time, but they were no less pedestrian in execution. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1921
Film pioneer Colonel William N. Selig had watched his once-powerful organization, the Selig Polyscope Company, dissolve in 1918 because of his own aversion to multi-reel feature films. The colonel stayed in the business, however, and in the early 1920s produced a series of low-budget westerns starring Franklyn Farnum. The old Selig films were remembered for their fast-paced, no-nonsense style, and Selig had not lost his touch. In The Struggle, Farnum plays a war veteran defending a woman millworker in a fight with a notorious gang leader. Assuming he killed the brute, Farnum's Dick Storm flees out West, hiding out with a gang of outlaws. The gang plans to rob a ranch belonging to lovely Norma Day (Genevieve Bert), and Storm blows his cover to aid the defenseless woman. The gang, as it turns out, is led by the brute from back East, very much alive and ready for revenge. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1921
The rugged Franklyn Farnum stars in this tale of Northwest bootleggers. Two revenuers, Fitzgerald (Farnum) and Herrick (Bud Osborne), are on the trail of a gang of whiskey smugglers who are led by Hank Nelson (John Hatfield) and his son. Before he heads off to track down Nelson, Herrick says good-bye to his sweetheart, Honey Moore (Claire Windsor), whose father (Frederick Soult) owns the Medicine Creek Ranch. Herrick mentions to Honey that he thinks this new assignment may be his last. The conversation is overheard by Bob Thiele (Vester Pegg), who also loves Honey, and who decides to make Herrick's premonition come true. Shortly afterwards, Herrick is found shot to death. It is up to Fitzgerald to track down the smugglers, and he also becomes determined to find Herrick's killer. He discovers it is Thiele, and traces him to a cabin, where he has imprisoned Honey. Fitzgerald rescues the girl, and Thiele is struck by lightning and killed. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
This minor silent Western was one in a series of oaters produced independently by the founder of the pioneering Selig Company, Colonel William N. Selig, and starring veteran screen cowboy Franklyn Farnum. Based on Bertha "Muzzy" Sinclair's The Happy Family, the film featured Farnum as a ranch hand battling an evil sheep man (Bud Osborne). Osborne doesn't take the interference lying down, however, but kidnaps the interloper and takes him to a deserted cabin in the mountains. Although tied to a powder keg, Farnum manages to escape and bring the entire gang to justice. As a reward, he marries his pretty boss, Genevieve Bert. Comedy is provided by five-year-old Joseph Chatterton as the son of a ranch hand (Vester Pegg). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franklin Farnum, Genevieve Bert, (more)
- 1921
This Western, starring Franklyn Farnum, combined many different elements -- comedy-drama (with a bit more emphasis on the comedy), romance, and a prize fight. Drifter Jack Bray (Farnum) wanders into a town which is ruled by a gang of masked riders known as the "six-o-one," headed by shifty saloon keeper Jim Dougherty (Al Hart). Dougherty is trying to make moves on his pianist, Olga Swenson (Virginia Lee), who wants nothing to do with him. Bray, naturally, falls in love with her, which earns Dougherty's antagonism. When Bray hooks up with Battling Rush (Shorty Hamilton) and enters him in a prize fight, Dougherty tries to fix the outcome. Bray and Rush find out, so Dougherty's scheme is unsuccessful. The villain's next plan is to gather his masked confederates and hang Bray, but his crooked dealings are revealed and he is forced to leave town. This finally enables Bray and Olga to be together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
Lower-echelon cowboy star Franklyn Farnum played a "half-breed" in search of a hidden gold reserve in this independent silent oater produced by movie pioneer William N. Selig. Along the way, Farnum falls in love with a pretty white girl Ethel Ritchie and discovers to his relief that he is white himself and only raised by the Indians. Selig had produced scores of Westerns like this in the 1910's, the heyday of his Selig Polyscope Company, a pioneering film concern that went out of business in 1917. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franklin Farnum, Ethel Ritchie, (more)
- 1922
John Ford's older brother Francis Ford directed this very minor, independently produced silent western starring Franklyn Farnum and made on location at Tulsa, Oklahoma. More suited to character roles (of which he would later do hundreds), Farnum benefitted from a case of mistaken identity. He was assumed to be related to brothers Dustin and William Farnum, major stars of the early silent screen, but although hailing from Boston like them, there was no connection. Farnum played a mining engineer in Gold Grabbers, hired to run a valuable mine formerly belonging to lovely Peggy O'Day's family. He naturally falls for the girl and decides to work out a peaceful settlement. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franklin Farnum, Shorty Hamilton, (more)
- 1922
Maverick Hollywood producer Phil Goldstone and director Alvin J. Neitz fashioned this minor silent Western starring Franklyn Farnum as a milquetoast Easterner who on a trip to the Wild West is mistaken for a U.S. marshall. Does Farnum rise to the occasion? Of course he does -- and gets the girl as well. She was played by Florence Gilbert, the wife of yet another independent producer-director, Ashton Dearholt. Character actor George F. Marion, later to portray Greta Garbo's drunken sod of a father in Anna Christie, plays a comic undertaker in this film. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franklin Farnum, Florence Gilbert, (more)
- 1922
Silent Western star Franklyn Farnum travels West to locate a missing girl in this comedy-oater directed by John Ford's older brother Francis. Attempting to return a lost purse to a girl, Farnum finds himself in the middle of a furious labor dispute among miners. Poor Farnum is soon falsely accused of theft, trapped by outlaws in a cave and spurned by the young woman (Genevieve Bert). This inexpensive Western was one in a series of six produced by screenwriter William M. Smith for release by poverty row company Merit in 1922-1923. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franklin Farnum, Genevieve Bert, (more)
- 1922
Also known as Texas Angel Citizens, this minor silent Western from poverty row producer William M. Smith starred Franklyn Farnum as a drifter who solves a murder in the ill-named frontier town of Angel Citizens. Directed by Francis Ford, the older brother of John Ford, this Western also featured Peggy O'Day as the murder victim's daughter and the comedy of Shorty Hamilton. Angel Citizens was released by Merit Film Corp. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franklin Farnum, Peggy O'Day, (more)
