Bruce Gordon Movies

The unusual amalgam of documentary maven Robert Flaherty and pure-entertainment producer Zoltan Korda resulted in the 1937 money-spinner Elephant Boy. In his screen debut, eleven-year-old Indian-born Sabu plays the title character, a mahout named Toomai. When his father is killed by a tiger, Toomal is left alone and unprotected and not long afterward loses his beloved elephant to a sadistic "driver." Stealing back the pachyderm and heading into the wilderness, Toomal stumbles across a herd of wild elephants, which the British government has long been seeking. With visions of a huge reward in his head, Toomal offers to lead the authorities to the elusive herd -- whereupon the "dramatic" portion of the story gracefully gives way to the "documentary" portion. More intriguing than entertaining, Elephant Boy was nonetheless one of the most successful films of its kind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This chiller speculates upon a haunting real-life mystery that occurred off the English coast on December 5, 1872 where the American ship Marie Celeste was found drifting with her sails set at half-mast with absolutely no one on board. According to the film, the crewmen were murdered by captain Anton Lorenzen, whose lust for vengeance against a mutinous first mate six years before drives him insane. The film is also titled Mystery of the Marie Celeste. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a sailor saves a drowning Frenchwoman and falls in love forgetting all about his landlocked girlfriend. Fortunately, he soon comes to his senses and is reunited with the one who really loves him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton team up again in this silent comedy, in which they (respectively) play Mike Doolan, a half-bright gumshoe, and Scoop McGee, his equally dim-witted journalist pal. While on the trail of a group of gangsters, Doolan and McGee unwittingly fall in with a group of gangsters, and wind up bringing them to justice in spite of themselves. Partners In Crime was one of a dozen silent comedies Beery and Hatton would appear in together; their partnership would end with the coming of sound. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Outlaw Dog stars Ranger, one of the better Rin-Tin-Tin rivals, in the title role. When his master is attacked and left speechless, Ranger is held responsible. On the lam from the Law, the canine hero links up with telegrapher Bill Brady (Rex Lease) and Bill's girlfriend Helen Meadows (Helen Foster). He gets a chance to clear his name by helping Bill trap a pair of outlaws who plan to blow up a mail train and abscond with the loot. Finally, Ranger's former master regains his voice, exonerates the dog, and everything in the garden is lovely. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

German-born William Wyler began his long, eventful directorial career helming Fred Gilman Western 2-reelers at Universal. Graduating to feature Westerns, Wyler directed both Fred Humes and Ted Wells. Desert Dust was the second of three Wells Westerns for Wyler, a breezy oater about a reform-school kid who must prove his real worth in order to win the heart a state senator's lovely daughter (Lotus Thompson). Wyler considered it a move upwards when he left the Wells unit in favor of Fred Humes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Poor Nut was based on a stage comedy by the father-and-son team of J. C. and Elliot Nugent. Jack Mulhall assumes the role played by Elliot Nugent on Broadway, that of wimpish college student John Miller. Suffering from an inferiority complex, Miller worships beauty-contest winner Julia (Jane Winton) from afar, writing letters boasting of his imaginary athletic prowess but never having the nerve to mail them to her. When one of his letters is sent to Julia by mistake, she shows up on campus to meet her "hero" John Miller -- who is now obliged to prove that he is, indeed, the super-athlete he claims to be by participating in a track meet. Through a series of flukes and coincidences, Miller ends up the hero of the hour, but in the fadeout it is local soda-shop clerk Margie (Jean Arthur), and not the vampish Julia, who is the beneficiary of our hero's hugs and kisses. The Poor Nut was remade in 1931 as the Joe E. Brown vehicle Local Boy Makes Good. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Independent producer Jesse J. Goldburg (the initial "J" stood for "Jesse!") released this minor offering starring second-echelon cowboy Bob Custer. More a comedy of errors than a true red-blooded western melodrama, The Dude Cowboy is the tale of a rancher (Custer) who hires himself out as a chauffeur for a pretty gal (Flora Bramley. In one of those coincidences so beloved by Hollywood hacks (in this case, Paul M. Bryan), the girl is on her way to Custer's dude ranch. The hero, smitten with the girl, keeps up the charade until the ever-present crooked foreman (Bruce Gordon forces his hand. Screenwriter Bryan threw a couple of stranded chorus girls and a fake count into the already outlandish plot. The heroine, British-born Flora Bramley, had appeared in the stage hit Cradle Snatchers before entering films in 1926. She was voted a 1928 WAMPAS Baby Star by the Hollywood publicists but returned to the stage soon after. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Another entry in Paramount's long-running "Zane Grey" series, Born to the West represented the first directorial effort of John Waters. The story concerns the lifelong rivalry between two men over the love of one woman. Most of the action takes place in Nevada during the Gold Rush, where trail boss "Colorado" Dale Rudd (Jack Holt) again confronts his longtime rival Bate Fillmore (Bruce Gordon), who has drifted to the opposite side of the law. Fillmore's father Jesse (George Siegmann) runs all illegal activities in the territory, meaning that Rudd is going to have a hard time rescuing his sweetheart Nell Worstall (Margaret Morris) from this dangerous environment. Born to the West was remade in 1937, with John Wayne and Johnny Mack Brown as Rudd and Fillmore -- whose good guy/bad guy roles were reversed for the occasion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on an original story by the prolific L. V. Jefferson, this minor silent Western featured Colorado cowboy Pete Morrison as a ranch hand falsely accused of robbing the stage. With the assistance of his girlfriend, Barbara Starr, Morrison goes in search of the true culprit, the slick Bruce Gordon. Produced in assembly-line fashion by Universal and directed by veteran comic Milburn Morante, The Escape, like almost all Morrison Westerns, was thoroughly geared to audiences in the hinterlands. Morrison survived the sound revolution but was reduced to playing henchmen. He retired in 1935 to take up ranching near his hometown of Morrison, Colorado. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Paramount team of Richard Dix and Lois Wilson starred in this top-notch silent western in which a Native American is the protagonist. The early silent era devoted many films to the depiction of American Indians, but that trend had not carried over into the screen's third decade, where Indians almost always played villains or were merely background dressing. Based on a Zane Grey novel and filmed partially in Monument Valley, The Vanishing American presented Dix, in what might very well have been his best performance until Cimarron (1930), as a college-educated Native American who only meets with racial intolerance when he returns to a reservation now lorded over by a villainous Bureau of Indian Affairs agent (Noah Beery). Today considered "quaintly" racist despite its good intentions, The Vanishing American must be viewed and compared to other films of the era. It certainly benefits from sincere portrayals of Dix and Wilson, the latter playing a dedicated schoolmarm desired by Dix and lusted after by Beery. According to one modern critic, Jon Tuska, the film was not a political tour-de-force, "but rather a kindly, occasionally sentimental portrayal of the red man as he adjusts to the white man's civilization." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Once again, Evelyn Brent plays a girl crook who eventually reforms in this entertaining melodrama, in which nearly every character is a crook. Gertie Jones (Brent) is posing as a maid solely to get her hands on the valuables of a wealthy dowager. Just as she has opened the safe, Jimmy Hartigan (Bruce Gordon), another thief, shows up. The pair agree to split the loot, but the police arrive. To save Gertie, Hartigan allows himself to be caught and later Gertie helps him escape from prison. While they are seeking refuge in a farmhouse, they are discovered by a justice of the peace who mistakes them for elopers. He marries them and they settle down in the city. They become acquainted with an elderly couple, and when a crook attempts to rob them, they decide to go straight and give the old couple their stolen loot to invest. It turns out that the old folks are crooks, too, and they abscond with the money. Kersey, a detective (Fred Kelsey), tracks down Hartigan and arrests him. Gertie poses as a detective herself, gets the money back from the old couple, and goes to save Hartigan. The train taking him back to prison wrecks and Kersey is trapped under a fallen beam. At Gertie's insistence, Hartigan rescues him, and Kersey allows his charge to go free. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

South African-born leading man Bruce Gordon stars in this pedestrian silent western about a marshal going undercover as a bandit in order to flush out the leader of a notorious gang of crooks smuggling diamonds across the Mexican border. The marshal almost gives up the masquerade when he falls for a lovely Mexican senorita (1924 WAMPAS Baby Star Carmelita Geraghty), the daughter of an intended victim (Harry Lonsdale), who, quite reasonably, hesitates to get involved with a common thief. This movie was released two years after Lonsdale's death. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide