Marion Mack Movies
American actress Marion Mack (born Joey Marion McCreery) is best remembered for playing the romantic lead in Buster Keaton's classic Civil War comedy The General in 1927. She made her film debut in 1920 as one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties and went on to appear in many short films and a few features. In 1923, Mack wrote and starred in Mary of the Movies, a semi-autobiographical account of her own career. Following her retirement from acting, she penned scripts for her husband/producer, Louis Lewyn's short films. During the 1970s, Mack often lectured at silent film festivals. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1968
This 60-minute pastiche of silent film footage is narrated by humorist Henry Morgan. While the producers clearly worship Buster Keaton, they are confined to public domain material, so many of Keaton's best efforts, notably Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator, are absent. The clips from Keatons 1917-1919 apprenticeship with Fatty Arbuckle are interesting, though hardly representative. Old "stone face" even smiles and laughs in some of the Arbuckle pictures! Still, there's plenty of great material at hand, especially the lengthy excerpts from Cops (1922) and The General (1926). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Buster Keaton plays Johnny Gray, a Southern railroad engineer who loves his train engine, The General, almost as much as he loves Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack). When the opening shots of the Civil War are fired at Fort Sumter, Johnny tries to enlist -- and he is deemed too useful as an engineer to be a soldier. All Johnny knows is that he's been rejected, and Annabelle, thinking him a coward, turns her back on him. When Northern spies steal the General (and, unwittingly, Annabelle), the story switches from drama and romance to adventure mixed with Keaton's trademark deadpan humor as he uses every means possible to catch up to the General, thwart the Yankees, and rescue his darling Annabelle -- for starters. As always, Keaton performs his own stunts, combining his prodigious dexterity, impeccable comic timing, and expressive body language to convey more emotion than the stars of any of the talkies that were soon to dominate cinema. ~ Emru Townsend, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, (more)
- 1926
The "carnival girl" of the title is played by Marion Mack, most fondly remembered as Buster Keaton's bird-brained lady love in The General. A fine comedienne in her own right, Mack plays it straight as a tightrope walker in love with navy lieutenant Allan Forrest. Villainous strong man George Siegmann, seething with jealousy, does his best to do in Forrest by setting fire to the lieutenant's ship. Diminuitve Frankie Darro, an accomplished acrobat, co-stars as Marion's limber kid brother. Carnival Girl was directed by Cecil B. DeMille's #1 assistant, Cullen "Hezi" Tate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gladys Brockwell, Frankie Darro, (more)
- 1925
Another variation on Abie's Irish Rose, the low-budget One of the Bravest focuses on the romance between Irish fireman Dan Kelly (Edward Hearn) and Jewish lass Sarah Levin (Marion Mack, best remembered as Buster Keaton's vis-a-vis in The General). When money raised for the Fireman's Ball turns up missing, Dan, the firehouse treasurer, is held responsible. Sarah's father Morris (Sidney Franklin) recoups the loss. This still doesn't compensate for the fact that Dan is deathly afraid of fire (!), but our hero redeems himself by rescuing his fireman father (Ralph Lewis) from a roaring blaze, simultaneously capturing the rat who stole the Ball funds. One of the Bravest was photographed by Ray June, a mainstay at poverty-row Gotham Pictures whose work was invariably better than his material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Lewis, Claire McDowell, (more)
- 1923
Before making film history by starring opposite comic great Buster Keaton in The General, Marion Mack starred in a few small films of her own (working up from her modest beginning as a Mack Sennett bathing beauty). This comedy-drama, put together by Film Booking Office of America (FBO), is perhaps the best-known of Mack's non-Keaton work -- literally dozens of the day's best-known movie stars have cameos (not surprisingly, the producers were publishers of a fan magazine). Mary (Mack) is a small-town girl who leaves her home in Arizona and heads for Hollywood fame and fortune when her family faces financial difficulties. She is aided in her efforts to find film work by Jane, an extra girl (Rosemary Cooper), and a nice young man (Creighton Hale). They take her around to the studios where she meets Douglas MacLean, Barbara La Marr, Johnnie Walker, J. Warren Kerrigan, Herbert Rawlinson, Louise Fazenda, Anita Stewart, Bessie Love, Rosemary Theby, Tom Moore, ZaSu Pitts, Elliot Dexter, Marjorie Daw, and a host of other stars, plus directors Maurice Tourneur, Rex Ingram, and Edward J. Le Saint. All this star power doesn't seem to help her much, since she winds up having to work as a waitress. But then she gets her lucky break -- a star that she resembles falls ill, and she steps into the role. She makes good, and is able to save the family home from being auctioned off. The boy who was so helpful to her inherits a fortune and everything ends happily. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Mack
