William Farnum Movies

In 1952, the comedy team of Abbott and Costello entered into a joint agreement with producer Alex Gottlieb and Warner Brothers, whereby two color musical comedies would be produced: Bud Abbott would serve as producer--owner of one of the films, while Lou Costello would do same for the other. Costello's contribution to this agreement was Jack and the Beanstalk, a kiddie-matinee adaptation of the famed fairy tale. Constructed along the lines of The Wizard of Oz, the film begins in black and white. Jack (Costello) is a professional baby-sitter, while Dink (Abbott) is Jack's "agent." After a run-in with a gargantuan cop (Buddy Baer) and a statuesque waitress (Dorothy Ford), Jack and Dink show up at the home of Eloise Larkin (Shaye Cogan), there to look after Eloise's troublesome nephew Donald (David Stollery) while the girl and her boyfriend Arthur Royal (James Alexander) rehearse at their community theatre. While reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to the bratty Donald, Jack falls asleep, and begins dreaming himself, and his cohorts, into the story as the impoverished boy sent out to sell the family cow. While en route to town with his cow, he encounters a shady butcher (Abbott) who bilks him out of his broken-down bovine for the price of a few 'magic' beans. In keeping with the traditional tale, Jack plants the beans and from them a magnificent vine grows and reaches into the clouds. Along with the butcher, Jack climbs into a fantastic world inhabited by a terrifying giant (Baer) and other magical creatures, including a gold egg-laying hen, a singing harp, and a distressed prince and princess. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Economically utilizing the Universal Studio itself as a "set," Hollywood Story is a murder mystery centered in the film capital. The story concerns a long-unsolved homicide case involving several silent-film stars (an echo of the William Desmond Taylor scandal of 1922). Producer Richard Conte decides to make a movie based on the case, and to this end rounds up its surviving participants, including a once-great star/director (Henry Hull) reduced to bit parts. The denouement holds no surprises for mystery fans, but is effectively staged by director William Castle. Hollywood Story is given the aura of verisimilitude by the presence of several silent-movie celebrities (including William Farnum and Francis X. Bushman) as "themselves." Also appearing in an unheralded bit part is Elmo Lincoln, moviedom's first "Tarzan." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Martha Vickers was given a rare leading-role opportunity in Daughter of the West. Vickers plays Lolita Moreno, a part-Native American girl who falls in love with college-educated Navajo Navo (Philip Reed). The film's Indian characters are depicted in a dignified, respectful manner: not so the white villains, headed by crooked Indian agent Ralph Connors (Donald Wood). When Connors and his flunkies try to cheat the Navajos out of their land, Navo gets wise to their scheme and nips it in the bud. The film's highlight is an authentically staged Indian harvest sequence, lensed in Cinecolor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After Ray Milland turned down the leading role in Bride of Vengeance, Paramount contractee John Lund stepped into the role of Alfonso D'Este, second husband of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. The ruthlessly ambitious Lucrezia is played by Paulette Goddard, who seems ill at ease in the role. MacDonald Carey is better suited to his assignment as Cesar Borgia, the real villain of the piece. The plot proper gets under way when Lucrezia seeks revenge for her first husband's murder. The supporting cast is an odd lot, especially Billy Gilbert as Beppo, a wandering minstrel. A far better recreation of the Borgia "regime" was offered in the like-vintage Prince of Foxes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The third of four films bearing the title of The Perils of Pauline, this musical biopic purports to tell the life story of famed silent serial queen Pearl White. Right at the beginning, however, an introductory title informs the audience that what follows is merely "suggested" by incidents in White's life and career. Translation: The film is a fabrication from beginning to end, but an enjoyable one. Played on all four cylinders by Betty Hutton, White is introduced as a frustrated factory worker who aspires to become a dramatic actress. She joins a touring theatrical troupe managed by handsome but pompous Mike (John Lund), but fame and fortune elude her because she's unable to suppress her natural rambunctiousness. In desperation, White takes a job at a movie studio, where she promptly finds herself in the middle of a slapstick pie fight. With the help of bombastic director Mac (William Demarest), top-hatted villain portrayer Timmy (Billy De Wolfe), and imperious dramatics coach Julia (Constance Collier), Pearl soon becomes world-famous as the star of such cliffhanging, tied-to-the-railroad-tracks serials as The Perils of Pauline (hence the title of this film). At the height of her fame, she arranges for her theatrical mentor Mike to get a job as her leading man, forcing him to swallow his pride and admit that he's been in love with her from the moment he met her. A series of clichéd complications contrive to separate White and Mike, but he returns to her arms when she's seriously injured during a Parisian stage performance. A few fairly credible recreations of silent moviemaking techniques aside, The Perils of Pauline is wildly anachronistic and inaccurate (for one thing, Pearl White made most of her serials in New Jersey rather than Hollywood). As a musical comedy, however, the film passes muster, especially during the performance of such Frank Loesser tunes as "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" and "The Sewing Machine." As a bonus, the film rounds up several silent-movie veterans in cameo roles, including William Farnum, Chester Conklin, Jimmy Finlayson, Creighton Hale, Hank Mann -- and Paul Panzer, who played the sneering villain in the original 1914 Perils of Pauline. ~ Rovi

In this western comedy, the mis-adventures of a bumbling range rider are chronicled. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Wildfire was the first release from Screen Guild Productions, the adventuresome little independent that would eventually metamorphose into Lippert Pictures Inc. The title character is a magnificent wild horse, slated to be destroyed by a group of ranchers. It seems that Wildfire is being held responsible for luring the ranchers' own stock of horses into the hills. Bob Steele and Sterling Holloway play Happy and Alkali, two rambunctious horsetraders who rescue Wildfire from extinction. Apparently they succeed, inasmuch as 1948 brought forth a sequel, Return of Wildfire, which unlike its predecessor was lensed in Sepiatone rather than Cinecolor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cattlemen Robert Paige and Noah Beery Jr. run up against a shady syndicate, set up to squash the dealing between independent dealers and cattle buyers. Paige sets up his own exchange, in direct competition with cattle baron Thomas Gomez. He also falls in love with Anne Gwynne, daughter of a man killed by Gomez's top henchman Lon Chaney Jr. (billed misleadingly as "Chango the Mad Killer"). In the hands of Universal's resident serial director Ford Beebe, Frontier Badmen exudes an energetic pace that puts many an "A" picture to shame. Western fans were particularly gratified by the presence in the supporting cast of singing cowboy Tex Ritter and onetime silent-screen action star William Farnum. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The tumultuous presidency of 17th-president Andrew Johnson is chronicled in this biopic. The story begins with Johnson's boyhood and covers his early life. During the Civil War, Johnson stays a staunch Unionist and upon Lincoln's reelection in 1864, becomes his Vice President. After Lincoln's assassination, Johnson becomes the President. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

It is now an accepted fact that the best of Johnny Mack Brown's Universal westerns were directed by the talented Joseph H. Lewis. Boss of Hangtown Mesa may not be in the same league as the Brown-Lewis classic Arizona Cyclone, but it comes awfully close. This time around, hero Steve Collins (Brown) comes to the aid of Betty Wilkins (Helen Deverell), who has taken over the telegraph-line business established by her uncle John (Henry Hall). The latter was murdered by outlaws who don't cotton to having the territory linked up electronically with the rest of the world. Collins manages to expose the "Mister Big" behind the outlaws and to make the frontier safe for Western Union. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hoping to increase its box-office allure by adopting the title of a popular song, Deep in the Heart of Texas (clap!clap!clap!clap!) was the first Johnny Mack Brown western of the 1942-43 season. The plot concerns a group of insurrectionists who intend to keep Texas separate from the rest of the USA. Brown is cast as Jim Mallory, son of insurrectionist leader Colonel Mallory (played by William Farnum, who was often called upon to play Brown's dad). At first sympathetic to the separatists out of loyalty to his father, Johnny ultimately realizes that the movement has been corrupted by a criminal element. With the help of governor's emissary Brent Gordon (Tex Ritter), Johnny is instrumental in restoring the Lone Star state to the Union. The title tune is sung con brio by the Jimmy Wakely trio. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

20th Century-Fox hoped to make a film star out of Texas A&M football hero John Kimbrough, and to that end placed the gridiron hero in a brace of compact westerns. The first of these was Zane Grey's The Lone Star Ranger, previously filmed by Fox in 1931 with George O'Brien in the lead. Kimbrough plays Texas Ranger Buck Dunne, assigned to round up a gang of bank robbers. The leader of the gang turns out to be the "respectable" Judge Longstreth (Jonathan Hale), making life difficult for Dunne inasmuch as he's in love with Longstreth's niece Barbara (Sheila Ryan). Despite the herculean efforts of director John Tinling, John Kimbrough was consititutionally incapable of delivering a convincing performance in either Lone Star Ranger or its immediate followup Sundown Jim. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Despite its title and the fact that it was made by Universal Studios, 1942's The Silver Bullet has nothing to do with werewolves. This is a western, starring Johnny Mack Brown as the hero and Fuzzy Knight as his comical sidekick. Brown seeks to avenge the death of his father, who was shot in the back by an unknown assailant. The only clue Brown has to go by is that his dad was killed by a silver bullet. And, no, the Lone Ranger didn't do it. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi