John Farrell MacDonald Movies
J. Farrell MacDonald was one of the most beloved and prolific character actors in Hollywood history. A former minstrel singer, MacDonald toured the U.S. in stage productions for nearly two decades before he ever set foot in Tinseltown. He made his earliest film appearances in 1911 with Carl Laemmle's IMP company (the forerunner of Universal); within two years he was a firmly established lead actor and director. While functioning in the latter capacity with L. Frank Baum's Oz Film Company, MacDonald gave much-needed work to up-and-coming extras Hal Roach and Harold Lloyd. When Roach set up his own production company in 1915 with Lloyd as his star, he signed MacDonald as director (both Roach and Lloyd would hire their one-time employer as character actor well into the sound era). In the 1920's, MacDonald had returned to acting full time, appearing extensively in westerns and Irish-flavored comedies. A particular favorite of director John Ford, he was prominently featured in such Ford silents as The Iron Horse (1924), The Bad Man (1926) and Riley the Cop (1927, as Riley). He also showed up as Kelly in some of Universal's culture-clash "Cohens and Kellys" comedies. With a voice that matched his personality perfectly, MacDonald was busier than ever in the early-talkie era, usually playing such workaday roles as cops and railroad engineers; in 1932 alone, he showed up in 18 films! Even when his footage was limited, he was always given a moment or two to shine, as witness his emotional curtain speech in Shirley Temple's Our Little Girl. He kept up his workload into the 1940s, often popping up in the films of John Ford and Preston Sturges. His later roles often went unbilled, but he gave his all no matter how fleeting the assignment. One of his choicest roles of the 1940s was as the Dodge City barkeep in Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946). J. Farrell MacDonald continued working right up to his death in 1952; one of his last assignments was a continuing character on the Gene Autry-produced TV series Range Rider. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1932
This "gimmick" murder mystery begins during a crucial college football game. Wally Clark (Johnny Mack Brown), the team's star player, is killed just before making the winning touchdown, as the titular 70,000 witnesses look on. Wally's teammate Buck Buchanan (Phillips Holmes), the younger brother of gambler Slip Buchanan (Lew Cody), had previously refused to drug Wally at Slip's bequest. Even so, when Wally drops dead, the leading suspect is poor Buck. It's up to bibulous reporter Johnny Moran (Charles Ruggles) and Wally's sister Dorothy Clark (Dorothy Jordan) to save Buck before local detective Dan McKenna (David Landau) railroads the boy into the electric chair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phillips Holmes, Dorothy Jordan, (more)
One-time movie song-and-dance man James Dunn won an Academy Award for his "comeback" performance in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Based on the best-selling novel by Betty Smith, the film relates the trials and tribulations of a turn-of-the-century Brooklyn tenement family. The father, Dunn, is a likable but irresponsible alcoholic whose dreams of improving his family's lot are invariably doomed to disappointment. The mother, Dorothy McGuire, is the true head of the household, steadfastly holding the family together no matter what crisis arises. The story is told from the point of view of daughter Peggy Ann Garner, a clear-eyed realist who nonetheless would like to believe in her pie-in-the-sky father, whom she dearly loves. Joan Blondell co-stars as the family's brash, freewheeling aunt, whose means of financial support is a never-ending source of neighborhood gossip. This first film directorial effort of Elia Kazan earned a special Oscar for "Most Promising Juvenile Performer" Peggy Ann Garner. A Tree Grows From Brooklyn was remade for TV in 1974, and also served as the basis of a Broadway musical. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, (more)
- 1928
Anne Nichols' Broadway comedy Abie's Irish Rose was almost universally panned when it opened in 1923. But despite the moans and wails of the critics (notably Robert Benchley, who turned his weekly drubbing of the play into an art form), the Nichols piece ended up as one of the longest-running plays in American theatrical history. Inevitably, the play spawned innumerable imitators, many of which had been committed to film long before the movie version of Abie's Irish Rose was released in April of 1928. It will be recalled that the story concerns the "mixed" romance between Jewish Abie Levy (Charles Rogers) and Irish Rosemary Murphy (Nancy Carroll). Taking into consideration the ethnic antagonism between the Levys and the Murphys, the road to the altar for Abie and Rosemary is a rocky one. Even after the couple is married, an argument rages between the parents over whether the first grandchild will be raised as a Jew or a Catholic. Fortunately, Providence takes a hand in matters when Rosemary thoughtfully gives birth to twins. Holdovers from the original Broadway cast include Bernard Gorcey as family attorney Isaac Cohen; Gorcey, the father of Leo Gorcey, is best remembered today as Louie Dumbrowski, the gullible sweet-shop proprietor in the Bowery Boys comedies of the 1940s and 1950s. Completed as a silent film, Abie's Irish Rose was released with a brief talkie sequence, padding the running time out to an ungainly 120 minutes. Though no classic, the original Abie's Irish Rose was far better than the phlegmatic and outdated 1946 remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buddy" Rogers
- 1921
With this picture, Western star Hoot Gibson graduated to full-length features. He plays Sandy Brouke, one of three prospectors who wind up buying a ranch from Molly Casey (Clara Horton), whose father has been killed. But some bandits believe that there must be gold on the property and manipulate circumstances to ship Molly off to an Eastern school and wrestle ownership away from Brouke and his pals. The battle is on, and by the end of the last reel, gold really is found on the property, the villains are vanquished and Brouke wins the heart of Molly. The directing reveals the fine hand of John Ford, whose brother Francis Ford had a co-starring role. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Madge Bellamy plays a vivacious clothes model in Ankles Preferred. Tired of being appreciated only for her beauty, Bellamy sets out to prove that she's got brains as well. This leads to a number of comic mishaps, ranging from a tussle with an amorous financier to a zany car chase. In the end, she causes feminist teeth to gnash all over the country by deciding that good looks are infinitely preferrable to intelligence. Three writers worked on the screenplay of Ankles Preferred--all men. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madge Bellamy, Lawrence Gray, (more)
- 1934
Beggar's Holiday was, appropriately enough, filmed on Hollywood's "Poverty Row"--that ramshackle collection of tiny studios on Gower Street rented out by independent producers in the early 1930s. This typical bit of Depression-era whimsy is apparently all about a callow rich man who taps his essential decency by pretending to be poor (we say "apparently" because the film has evidently vanished from sight, and information is sketchy). Hardie Albright and Sally O'Neil are the requisite young lovers, while J. Farrell McDonald does his reliable philosophical tramp routine. Beggar's Holiday was directed by Sam Newfield, perhaps the most prolific megaphone-wielder in all of "Gower Gulch". It was a painless way for moviegoers to spend 59 minutes back in 1934. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Earlier in the century, this melodrama about a young girl in the garment industry was a famous stage play. To bring it to the screen in 1926, the Fox studios changed modest Bertha in her gingham apron into a modern young lady who wears silk lingerie. Madge Bellamy was well-cast in the title role. Bertha Sloan is a sewing machine girl for only a few minutes of screen time. In short order, she is fired from her job and lands a new one, as the telephone girl for a company that manufactures fine women's lingerie. Bertha falls in love with Roy Davis, a young shipping clerk (Allan Simpson), and Morton, the company's manager (Paul Nicholson), makes her one of their models. He also invites the unsuspecting girl onto his yacht, where he tries to have his way with her. But Davis comes to the rescue and saves Bertha's virtue. It turns out that Davis is not a clerk at all, but the head of the company. He fires Morton and marries Bertha. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madge Bellamy, Anita Garvin, (more)
- 1922
Angela Gaskill (Betty Compson) travels to the South Seas to help sailor John Somers (John Bowers) kick his addition to alcohol. The two are marooned on a desert island after her sober father Captain Gaskill (J. Farrell MacDonald) wrecks the boat, but the drunken sailor has the wherewithal to save everyone from maritime disaster. John takes to the bottle again when he is wrongly accused of stealing. Angela, inexplicably left with several changes of clothes during their island isolation, tries to get John to give up the sauce and repay the loan he took out to purchase his small schooner. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Compson, John Bowers, (more)
- 1930
This drama is set during the mid Twenties when gangsters were a bit more genteel than their 1930s counterparts. Based on a true story, it profiles the experiences of a young gangster who, after getting caught during a robbery is given a choice: he can either go to prison or join the military and fight. He chooses the military. There he becomes a hero. But when he returns home, he immediately returns to gangster life. Trouble ensues when he falls for an aristocratic woman with a daughter. Their happiness is interrupted by an old enemy who kidnaps the girl. The protagonist successfully saves the girl and kills his enemy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Catherine Dale Owen, (more)
Bowery at Midnight casts Bela Lugosi as Professor Brenner, a psychology instructor at New York University (which looks a lot like Berkeley in the exterior shots!). When not enlightening his students -- most of them buxom Monogram starlets -- Brenner is engaged in charitable work, running a mission in the Bowery. In truth, however, the kindly professor is a fiend in human form, who uses his mission as a front for a vast criminal empire. When Judy (Wanda McKay), one of Brenner's students, stumbles onto the truth, she's targeted for extermination by the Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde prof. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bela Lugosi, John Archer, (more)
- 1928
George McManus' long-running domestic comic strip Bringing Up Father was brought to the screen by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures. Reportedly, Hearst had approached vaudeville's Three Keatons (Joe, Myra and young Buster) to star in this project back in 1916, but Joe Keaton hated films and turned the newspaper mogul down flat. This 1928 film stars J. Farrell McDonald and Polly Moran as nouveau riche Irish-Americans Jiggs and Maggie, with Gertrude Olmstead as their pretty daughter Ellen. Despite his wealth, Jiggs prefers keeping company with his old drinking buddies at the greasy-spoon emporium owned by Dinty Moore (Jules Cowles), but social-climbing Maggie has loftier ambitions, among them a wealthy marriage between Ellen and a hand-kissing Count (Andres de Segurola). With Jiggs' covert help, Ellen is able to spend her time with her true love Dennis (Grant Withers), leading to a wealth of farcical complications. The magnificent Marie Dressler is wasted in the comparatively minor role of Dinty Moore's wife Annie, a role created solely for the purpose of reteaming Dressler with her Callahans and the Murphys cohort Polly Moran. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Farrell MacDonald, Jules Cowles, (more)
- 1935
James Barton plays a salty old sea captain on the verge of retirement, forced to return to the sea when his funds run out. Planning to stay with his ship only long enough to pay his mortgage, Barton finds himself on the bounding main a lot longer than expected due to bad weather and unexpected delays. When his ship catches fire, Barton rescues his crew and guides them to shore. He returns to his Cape Cod home a hero, and the mortgage is forgotten. Likewise forgotten is Captain Hurricane, which disappeared shortly after its 1935 release and is seldom resurrected for TV--except in the wee small hours on cable's American Movie Classics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Barton, Helen Westley, (more)
James Cagney made his first Technicolor appearance in the morale-boosting aviation flick Captains of the Clouds. Cagney plays Brian MacLean, a hotshot Canadian bush pilot who delights in stealing jobs-and women-away from his competitors. Brian is forced to shape up in a hurry when he's assigned to train other pilots for the Royal Canadian Air Force. At the ending of the training period, he is given his first real RCAF assignment: The seemingly unimportant task of shepherding American bomber planes across the Atlantic to England. With startling suddenness, Brian comes to realize the true importance of his job when he is forced into a deadly confrontation with a fleet of Nazi raider planes. Real-life Canadian WW1 flying ace Billy Bishop plays a small but pivotal role in Captains of the Clouds, while the leading-lady duties were handled by Warner Bros. stock actress Brenda Marshall (aka Mrs. William Holden). Cinematographer Sol Polito earned an Oscar nomination for his vivid color photography, though aerial photographers Elmer Dyer, Charles Marshall and Winston Hoch were certainly just as deserving. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, (more)
- 1943
Even non-fans of the East Side Kids will get a goodly share of laughs out of the 1943 series entry Clancy Street Boys. The story commences when Muggs McGinnis (Leo Gorcey) learns that his wealthy Uncle Pete (Noah Beery Sr.) is coming to town for a visit. The problem: Muggs' mom (Martha Wentworth) has claimed that she has seven children so that big-hearted Pete will continue sending much-needed money to her fatherless family. To avoid disillusioning Pete, Muggs' pals are enlisted to pose as his siblings, with Glimpy (Huntz Hall) posing as sister Annabelle (it is explained that Scruno, the black member of Muggs' gang, was "adopted"). Uncle Pete and his pretty daughter Judy (Amelita Ward) are taken in by the ruse until local crook George Mooney (Rick Vallin) spills the beans. But all is forgiven when Muggs, Glimpy and company rescue Pete from kidnappers. Best bit: About to go into a huddle, the East Side Kids turn "en masse" towards the camera, politely tip their hats and say "Excuse us!" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, (more)
- 1927
A long lost silent comedy-drama, Colleen was a great success for Madge Bellamy, whose popularity reached its zenith in the mid-1920s. According to the Motion Picture News, Bellamy played a debutante who falls in love with the son (Charles Morton) of an impoverished nobleman. "Their love making under difficulties and constant squabbles form the basis of the action," the trade-paper stated rather tersely. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1922
Come on Over is the saga of an Irish-American family. What's past is prologue in this case, as the trials and tribulations of earlier generations dictate the behavior of the contemporary family members. Colleen Moore heads the cast as the spirited Moyna Killea. The other character names sound like a 1910 NYPD roll call: O'Mealia, Morahan, Carmody, Dugan etc. As usual, the only people we're allowed to dislike are stuffed shirts who look down upon the Hibernian heroes and heroines. Come on Over was written by Rupert Hughes, the uncle of zillionaire Howard Hughes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Moore, Ralph Graves, (more)
- 1938
This Roy Rogers musical western (his second starring vehicle for Republic) concerns itself with a group of Texas Rangers, forced to disband when Texas is admitted the Union. The state brings in members of the U.S. Cavalry to provide law enforcement in the Rangers' stead, yet the Cavalry officers become hopelessly confused and muddled -- not only from their ignorance of the territory, but by the guerilla tactics of Texas bandits and local political corruption. When ex-ranger Rogers's brother is killed, he recognizes that the Cavalry will not be able to respond with proper force, and asks his fellow ex-rangers to take up arms in vengeance. The film co-stars Mary Hart, Raymond Hatton, J. Farrell MacDonald and Purnell Pratt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Mary Hart, (more)
- 1939
RKO's Conspiracy attempts to be an up-to-date (for 1939) espionage drama without using such problematic words as "Nazi" or "Fascist". The film solves this problem by taking place in a mythical Central American country, though the key figure of a despotic dictator is clearly meant to be an Hispanic Hitler. Allan Lane stars as an adventurer who joins forces with Linda Hayes, who plays a revolutionary dedicated to toppling the dictator's regime. If the average filmgoer of 1939 detected parallels to the recent Spanish Civil War, then screenwriter Jerome Chodhorov had succeeded. Conspiracy bears no relation to a 1930 RKO feature of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Hayes, Robert H. Barrat, (more)
- 1926
The Country Beyond is another "Northwest Mountie" opus from the pen of James Oliver Curwood. Filmed on location in Canada's Jasper National Park, the story focuses on Valencia (Olive Borden), an orphan girl left in the care of the abusive Hawkins family. Fugitive from justice Roger McKay (Ralph Graves) stumbles onto the Hawkins' property, where he immediately falls in love with Valencia. When Mr. Hawkins is killed by his long-suffering spouse, Roger assumes that Valencia committed the murder, confessing to the crime when the Mounties come calling. The plot then goes off on another tangent entirely, as Valencia finds success as a stage actress under the auspices of theatrical impresario Henry Harland (Lawford Davison). Lovable old Mountie Sergeant Cassidy (J. Farrell McDonald) shows up backstage one evening, where for no discernible reason he kidnaps Valencia and spirits her back to Canada. The reason for Cassidy's seemingly unmotivated act is explained at the end, as the sergeant presides over the reunion of Valencia and the now-exonerated Roger McKay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olive Borden, Ralph Graves, (more)
- 1937
A jockey is thrown off the track after it is discovered that gangsters drugged his horse. This drama follows his attempts to redeem himself. First he and his buddy get jobs working on a horse-breeding farm. There he finds himself attracted to the farmer's pretty daughter. The farmer is unhappy with this, but is even more unhappy when he learns that the rider has secretly been training a promising young horse and has entered him in the Big Race without permission. Just before the start of the race, the gangsters try to drug the horse again, but this time the jockey is ready for them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Arledge, John Farrell MacDonald, (more)
- 1937
Nothing of cult director Joseph H. Lewis' much-vaunted flair is on display in this average musical Western, the screen debut of Bob Baker, Universal's dark-haired answer to Gene Autry. Baker -- who had beaten a young Roy Rogers for the berth at Universal -- had sung on the National Barn Dance radio program but his vocal prowess quickly proved as untrained as his thespian abilities. Set during the Civil War, Courage of the West opens with President Lincoln (Albert Russell) establishing the Free Ranger corps in order to prevent the constant attacks on gold shipments from the West. After this potentially interesting opening, the Western settles down to tell the rather ordinary story of a ranger (J. Farrell McDonald) adopting the young son (Buddy Cox) of a convicted outlaw (Harry Woods). Years later, the boy has become the head of the rangers and is soon chasing down a gang of gold thieves headed -- unbeknownst to him -- by his own father. In between battling his natural father, Baker sang "Resting Beside the Campfire," "Ride Along Free Rangers," "Song of the Trail," and "I'll Build a Ranch House on the Range," all by Fleming Allen. Although competent enough astride his handsome paint horse, Apache, Baker's vocalizing never gave Gene Autry or Roy Rogers much to worry about and his starring career proved brief. By 1939, he was playing second leads to Johnny Mack Brown and by 1940 bit parts. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Baker, Lois January, (more)
- 1927
This first film version of the popular Russell Medcraft-Norma Mitchell stage farce The Cradle Snatchers is also one of the earliest directorial efforts of Howard Hawks. Tired of their husbands' philandering, three wealthy matrons decide to fight fire with fire by hiring three college boys to pose as their "young lovers." The boys do their job so well that, for a while, it looks like everybody's going to end up in divorce court. Fortunately, however, the wandering husbands see the error of their ways and return to their spouses. Long believed lost, The Cradle Snatchers was rediscovered by Howard Hawks aficionado Peter Bogdanovich in the mid-1970s; while only 5 1/2 reels of the 7-reel picture could be restored, it was enough to prove that even this early in the game, Hawks was a master farceur (interestingly, the original stage version of the play co-starred Humphrey Bogart, who later collaborated with Hawks on To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep). The property was remade as the Broadway and Hollywood musical Let's Face It. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Fazenda, Ethel Wales, (more)
- 1950
Although Marie Windsor plays the title role in Dakota Lil, she is shunted away to third billing, right after male leads George Montgomery and Rod Cameron. Montgomery is cast as a secret service agent Tom Horn, sent West to round up a gang of counterfeiters. He starts by gaining the confidence of dance-hall girl Lil (Windsor), one of the ringleaders. She, in turn, leads Horn to the brains of the operation, Harve Logan
(Cameron). When Lil finds out that Horn is a Fed, she's tempted to fill him full of holes; instead, having fallen in love with him, she tries to help him get the goods on Logan. Dakota Lil was based on a story by Frank Gruber, later one of the leading lights of the TV-western craze. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
(Cameron). When Lil finds out that Horn is a Fed, she's tempted to fill him full of holes; instead, having fallen in love with him, she tries to help him get the goods on Logan. Dakota Lil was based on a story by Frank Gruber, later one of the leading lights of the TV-western craze. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Montgomery, Rod Cameron, (more)
- 1935
Silent screen leading man Lawrence Gray stars in this low-budget thriller produced by legendary penny-pincher Sam Katzman. After selling his cargo of silk to merchant Nick Conrad (Bryant Washburn), Captain Matthews (John Elliott) is brutally robbed by a gang of thieves under Conrad's control. Fortunately, intrepid newspaper reporter Jerry Mason (Gray) manages to get hold of the money, which he hides in a sausage at the deli belonging to his friend Freddy (Fuzzy Knight). Just as the thieves descend on the deli, the sausage is purchased by police officer O'Brien (Fred Kelsey), and is thus out of their reach. Having decided to set sail on the Lottie Carson as soon as possible, Matthews and his daughter Lorraine (Sheila Mannors aka Sheila Bromley) are persuaded by Jerry to stash the money in Freddy's safe. But Conrad and his gang, who quickly descend on the defenseless couple, intercept a letter to Jerry from Matthews. Happily, Jerry and Freddy manage to arrive just in time at the Lottie Carson to save father and daughter from Conrad, who is summarily thrown overboard to his death. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
