Philo McCullough Movies
Actor Philo McCullough began his movie career at the Selig Company in 1912. At first, McCullough specialized in light comedy roles, often playing cads and bounders. After a brief stab at directing with 1921's Maid of the West, he found his true niche as a mustachioed, oily-haired, jack-booted heavy. During the 1920s he appeared in support of everyone from Fatty Arbuckle to Rin Tin Tin. Talkies reduced him to such bit parts as the "Assistant Exhausted Ruler" in Laurel & Hardy's Sons of the Desert (1933) and Senator Albert in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). One of his few roles of consequence in the 1930s was the principal villain in the 1933 serial Tarzan the Fearless. Philo McCullough remained active until 1969, when he appeared with several other silent-screen veterans in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1928
The audience got two Universal stars for the price of one with this rousing Western: Hoot Gibson and Fred Gilman. The two popular celluloid cowboys played brothers, one a lawman Gibson, the other a rancher Gilman fighting a gang of horse thieves hired by greedy neighbor Captain C.E. Anderson. Arriving from the East, Gibson goes undercover as a ranch hand, deliberately earning a reputation as a coward. Under this convenient guise, the lawman manages to bring the villain and his men to justice, helped in no small way by brother Gilman, Anderson's innocent niece (Dorothy Gulliver) and a local judge (Andrew Waldron). A vivacious WAMPAS Baby Star of 1928, Dorothy Gulliver gave up her screen career in the early 1940s only to make a spectacular comeback as a bored hausfrau picking up young lovers in John Cassavetes' fascinating Faces (1968). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, Dorothy Gulliver, (more)
- 1928
One of the more palatable non-Frank Capra silent films from Columbia Pictures, The Apache is not a western. The title character, played by Don Alvarado, is one of those beret-wearing French dancers who tosses his partner about on stage. Alvarado commits a murder, and hero Warner Richmond is blamed. Professional knife-thrower Margaret Livingston utilizes her specialty to extract a confession from the tremulous Alvarado. The tiny Columbia backlot successfully stands in for Paris' Montmartre district, an illusion enhanced by Ted Tetzlaff's murky photography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Livingston, Warner P. Richmond, (more)
- 1928
Presently unavailable for public reappraisal, the biting and cynical melodrama Power of the Press would seem to be a precursor to such Frank Capra talkies as Platinum Blonde and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Cub reporter Clem Rogers (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) wants a "big scoop" more than anything else in life. Alas, he stumbles onto a hot news story that implicates his sweetheart Jane Atwill (Jobyna Ralston), daughter of mayor candidate Atwill (Edwards Davis), in a murder. Putting his job and his future on the line, Clem endeavors to help Jane prove her innocence, and together they begin to see a connection between the murder of the district attorney and the political ambitions of her father's political rival. Curiously, Capra never mentions Power of the Press in his autobiography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jobyna Ralston, (more)
- 1928
James Cruze was the producer-director of The Night Flyer, while Cecil B. DeMille served in an executive-producer capacity. DeMille contractee William Boyd stars as Jimmy Bradley, a two-fisted locomotive fireman. Jimmy is engaged to Kate Murphy (Jobyna Ralston), but she breaks it off when our hero gets plastered at his bachelor party. Kate gravitates to Bat Mullins (Philo McCullough), a mail train engineer and Jimmy's longtime rival. When Mullins' engine suffers a breakdown, Jimmy forgets his differences with the man and gets the mail through. In so doing, he lands an important government contract and simultaneously redeems himself in Kate's eyes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Jobyna Ralston, (more)
- 1928
George Fitzmaurice directed this romantic World War I drama, which was First National Pictures' entry into the epic war/romance genre popular in the late 1920s (The Big Parade, Wings). Colleen Moore stars as the French gamin Jeannine Bertholot who is a good luck charm to a seven-man platoon of the British Air Force that uses the lilac fields of a small French village as their base. Jeannine is the niece of Madame Berthelot (Eugenie Besserer), who lodges and cares for the platoon. After a bumpy start, one of the flyers from the platoon, Philip Blythe (Gary Cooper) falls in love with her. Philip is reluctant to tell Jeannine that he loves her, but one morning before a dangerous mission, he declares his love. During the mission, Philip is shot down, and Jeannine frantically arranges for an ambulance crew to remove Philip's body from the wreckage. But during the rescue operations, Jeannine loses sight of Philip. To find him again, she begins an exhausting search of all the military hospitals, hoping to see Philip for one last time. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Moore, Gary Cooper, (more)
- 1928
When Cecil B. DeMille's own production company was absorbed by Pathe in 1928, several DeMille contractees went along for the ride. One of these was William Boyd, the star of the 1929 Pathe effort The Leatherneck. The setting is China, specifically the headquarter of the 6th U.S. Marine regiment, where Calhoun (Boyd) and Schmidt (Alan Hale) are facing court-martial for desertion. In a series of flashbacks, the viewer is apprised of the reasons for the two leathernecks' supposed dereliction of duty. Essential to the action are a third marine, the unfortunate Joe Hanlon (Robert Armstrong), and a mysterious Russian girl named Tanya (Diane Ellis). A silent picture for most of its 76-minute running time, The Leatherneck includes approximately eight minutes' worth of dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Alan Hale, (more)
- 1928
Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, Warming Up is an early baseball film starring Richard Dix and Jean Arthur. After pitcher Bert Tolliver (Dix) is heckled by the members of a major-league team he's trying out for, he comes to believe that one of the players has hexed him. Luckily, a pretty girl named Mary (Arthur), who happens to be the daughter of the man who owns the Green Sox, discovers Bert at the local park, where he's amazing concession stand customers with his pitching accuracy. When it's time for the Green Sox to play the last game of the series, the team manager is forced by unforseen circumstances to let Bert pitch. As he faces the batter, Mary signals her love for him, in doing so giving Bert the inspiration he needed to end the jinx. Warming Up also features Claude King, Philo McCullough, and Billy Kent.
~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1927
The second of Thomas Meighan's three 1927 vehicles, We're All Gamblers was also the first of two collaborations between Meighan and director James Cruze. Based on Lucky Sam McCarver, a play by Sidney Howard, the story concerns a refugee of the Lower East Side who rises to the uppermost rungs of the nightclub world, all for the sake of a "dame." Boxer Sam McCarver (Meighan) falls in love with society girl Carlotta Asche (Mariette Mische). To prove his devotion, Sam purchases a swank nitery, where he shows up every night at the piano to serenade his sweetheart. When Carlotta is a accused of murder, Sam nobly takes the blame, and for a while it looks as though he's going to make the supreme sacrifice on her behalf. But thanks to a dizzying series of last-reel plot convolutions, Sam is permitted to enjoy a happy ending with Carlotta. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Meighan, Cullen Landis, (more)
- 1927
The popular screen team of Jack Mulhall and Dorothy Mackaill were back again in Smile, Brother, Smile. The stars are cast respectively as hot-shot salesman Jack Lowery and sagacious secretary Mildred Marvin, employees both of a big-time cosmetics company. Inexplicably, the company's sales are dropping, and it looks as though there's going to be some "downsizing" in the near future. Putting their heads together, Jack and Mildred discover that the firm's duplicitous manager Harvey Renrod (Philo McCullough) is actually in the employ of a rival firm. In a fit of euphoria, Mildred sample's some of her company's product and transforms from an ugly duckling into a swan, thereby cinching a fat new contract for her boss and simultaneously winning the love of Jack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Mulhall, Dorothy Mackaill, (more)
- 1927
Easy Pickings was one of a rash of "old dark house" comedies produced in the wake of 1926's The Bat. This time Mary Ryan (Anna Q. Nilsson) and Peter Van Horne (Kenneth Harlan) become trapped in a forbidding mansion festooned with sinister types and supposed ghosts. Questionable comedy relief is provided by black actor Zack Williams, who as a household servant named Rastus runs the gamut of demeaning "scared darkie" routines. Sennett comedian Billy Bevan, minus his trademarked walrus moustache, is effective as the detective on the case. Easy Pickings was adapted from a play by Paul A. Cruger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Q. Nilsson, Philo McCullough, (more)
- 1927
It was an open secret in Hollywood that actress Lilyan Tashman preferred the company of women to men. Who better, then, to play the man-hating heroine in The Woman Who Did Not Care? The daughter of a boarding house keeper, Iris Carroll (Tashman) is subjected to the unwanted advances of her mother's boarders. When mom dies, Iris kicks over the traces, moves out of town, buys a gorgeous wardrobe and sets about to "get even" with the entire male population. At one point, she has both an elderly millionaire and the millionaire's son dangling at her fingertips. Ultimately, however, Iris succumbs to romance when she's "tamed" by woman-hating sea captain Gregory Payne (Philo McCullough). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Per its title, Fire and Steel is set in a busy steel plant in an industrial town. Steelworker hero Jack Perrin is in love with heroine Mary McAllister, but he hasn't a dime to his name. Through hard work and determination, Perrin ends up with a dime to his name. He also dukes it out with the villain high above the traditional vat of molten steel. Critics complained that the film's story didn't make much sense, pointing out that the actors seemed as confused as the audience. For "name" insurance, Burr McIntosh and Cissy Fitzgerald were given top billing, though their contributions to the film were minimal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary McAlister, Burr McIntosh, (more)
- 1927
Fired for crashing his aeroplane into his employer's ranch, Tom Mix is elected sheriff in a town with, as a title stated, "a high mortality rate among sheriffs." Mix, of course, prevails against almost impossible odds, at one point cornering a gang of cutthroats holding leading lady Dorothy Dwan captive in the crater of a volcano about to erupt. Mix was at his best in fanciful Westerns like this one, although purists everywhere decried the use of fast cars, airplanes and stunts seemingly too impossible to be real. Most of them, amazingly, were all too real, a fact that was actually lost on contemporary audiences. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Mix, Dorothy Dwan, (more)
- 1926
This sentimental comedy begins when four middle-aged actors jointly adopt an orphaned baby girl, raising her in a backstage milieu. The girl grows up to become Doris Poole (Betty Bronson), and it is hoped by her foster daddies that she will become an actress herself. When Doris falls in love with wealthy Ted Potter (Lawrence Gray), her four surrogate parents stage an elaborate charade to convince Ted's snobbish mother Anastasia (Louise Dresser) that Doris is of good breeding. The girl wants no part of the hoax and confesses all to Ted's mom, whereupon Ted is bundled off to Europe "for his own good." But the four adoptive fathers arrange another little "drama" to get Doris on board Ted's ship. Ziegfeld Follies headliner Raymond Hitchcock steals the show (no small task in this ham-infested effort) as a phony butler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Bronson, Ford Sterling, (more)
- 1926
Ladies at Play was based on Loose Ankles, a stage comedy by Sam Janney. Heroine Ann Harper is thrilled to discover that she has inherited six million dollars. She is less than thrilled when she finds out that, in order to collect her fortune, she must be married within three days. After looking for love in all the wrong places, she finally settles down with the one man who couldn't care less about her millions. Additional laughs are provided by Louise Fazenda and Ethel Wales as Ann's cluck-clucking aunts -- and by older-than-dirt Tom Ricketts as a dyspeptic deacon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Kenyon, Louise Fazenda, (more)
- 1926
A New York society girl becomes a target of land-grabbing bandits when she inherits a Western ranch in this uneasy five-reel feature version of a ten chapter serial. The original chapterplay was based on the novel Janie of the Waning Glories by Raymond Spears and featured veteran Universal star Dorothy Phillips in what was supposed to be a comeback effort. Produced by C. W. Patton, a retired rancher, the serial was not one of Pathé's better efforts, and the subsequent feature version was a distinct failure. Phillips continued in films as a bit player and extra until the early '60s. She was the wife of veteran director Alan Holubar. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Phillips, Wallace MacDonald, (more)
- 1926
A remake of a 1915 Tom Mix/Selig Western, this film was yet another silent oater (loosely) based on a story by popular pulp fiction writer Peter B. Kyne. Hoot Gibson starred as Chip Bennett, a Flying U ranch hand-turned-cartoonist, who despite being a confirmed misogynist falls in love with Della Whitmore (Virginia Brown Faire), a lady doctor and sister of his employer (DeWitt Jennings). To get the woman's attention, Chip fakes an accident and claims to have injured his ankle. Having submitted several of Chip's accomplished drawings to a receptive publisher, Della learns of the cowboy's deception and determines to give him the cold shoulder. Down but far from out, Chip kidnaps the girl from a dance and carries her off to a minister to be married. Like Mix before him, Gibson played the story entirely as a comedy, eschewing most of the usual Western trappings. The 1939 Johnny Mack Brown Western of the same name, although based on the same source material, substituted the original Battle-of-the-Sexes scenario for a straight sagebrush melodrama. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson, DeWitt Jennings, (more)
- 1926
Mismates was based on the Myron C. Fagan stage play of the same name. Doris Kenyon plays a pretty young woman of modest means who doesn't know what she's in for when she marries wealthy Philo McCullough. The groom's over-protective mother not only refuses to recognize the marriage, but she also denies Kenyon access to the family home -- for five long years! McCullough's snooty relatives try to rid themselves of Kenyon by framing the girl for a crime she didn't commit. But our heroine escapes from jail to get the last laugh on her despicable in-laws. Halfway through the film, director Charles J. Brabin tries and fails to emulate Cecil B. DeMille with an extravagant society party, which makes about as much sense as the rest of picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Kenyon, Warner Baxter, (more)
- 1926
The Savage is set in motion by the rivalry between two behavioral scientists, played by Tom McGuire and Sam Hardy. Hoping to discredit McGuire, Hardy hires city-dwelling Ben Lyon and plants the young man on a desert island. He then arranges for McGuire to discover Lyon on the island. Instructed to behave like a "savage," Lyon is brought back to civilization by McGuire, who intends to exhibit the boy as proof of his Missing Link theory. Meanwhile, Hardy sits back and waits for the right opportunity to expose McGuire as a fraud. But when Lyon falls in love with McGuire's daughter May McAvoy, he decides to teach Hardy a good -- and painful -- lesson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Lyon, May McAvoy, (more)
- 1926
Yet another amiable Hoot Gibson western in which the somewhat bumbling star is caught up in, of all things, a Chinese Tong war in San Francisco. Soon enough he is falsely accused of a crime and must hightail it back to Arizona, accompanied along the way by the children (Jackie Morgan, Turner Savage and Billy Kent Schaeffer) of his friend (comic sidekick George Ovey). The foursome hides out at the ranch of Col. Savery (Emmett King) until Gibson manages to win first prize in a sweepstakes and eventually saves the colonel from foreclosure and clear his own name. Always more at ease with comedy than heavy dramatics, Gibson is this time dangerously close to being upstaged by three adorable tots. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson
- 1925
Cowboy ace Tom Mix allowed himself a change of pace with this costume adventure produced by Fox. Mix plays the legendary British highwayman, who after robbing nasty Lord Churlton (Philo McCullough) learns that the nobleman is to be married to innocent Lady Alice Brookfield (Kathleen Myers), a gun-shot wedding, so to speak, as the lady considers Churlton loathsome. With the assistance of Lady Alice's maid Sally (Lucille Hutton), our gallant hero concocts a plan to smuggle the fair maiden to York dressed as a boy. The scheme backfires, though, and Dick Turpin is chased all over creation by the authorities. He arrives in York just in time to save the fair maiden from a fate worse than death and together they find a safe haven in France. A very young Carole Lombard saw most of her footage left on the cutting-room floor but the future star can still be spotted in a crowd scene. And according to at least one report, fellow Fox cowboy Buck Jones joined the ranks of extras in a successful effort to surprise Mix. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Mix, Kathleen Myers, (more)
- 1925
Though his starring career took a nose-dive after he was dropped from the starring role in Ben-Hur, action hero George Walsh (brother of director Raoul Walsh) still managed to scare up work in such medium-budget vehicles as Blue Blood. Walsh is cast as scientist Robert Chester (we know he's a genius because he wears thick horn-rimmed glasses), as handy with his fist as with a Bunsen burner. Chester puts his test tubes aside to save the honor of Geraldine (Cecile Evans), daughter of chewing-gum magnate Leander Hicks (Robert Bolder). The headstrong Geraldine is on the verge of marrying handsome rum-runner Percy Horton (Philo McCullough), who is posing as a rich malted-milk manufacturer. Chester shows up Percy for the bounder that he is and wins the girl in the bargain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Walsh
- 1925
Veteran silent screen actress Anita Stewart starred in this silent comedy-drama based on a 1915 play by Winchell Smith and Victor Mapes. Wanting to get in on what she sees as a racket, clairvoyant Virginia Zelva (Stewart) signs on as a nurse at a new sanitarium founded by idealistic psychologist Dr. Sumner (Bert Lytell). But instead of being a front for nefarious goings-on, the sanitarium proves legitimate, and Virginia falls in love with the good doctor. Handsome Donald Keith and former child starMary McAllister provided added romance, and the sour-faced Ned Sparks supplied comedy relief in this routine offering from producer B. P. Schulberg. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anita Stewart, Bert Lytell, (more)
- 1925
Martin Craig (Sam de Grasse) believes that his son may not really be his, so he throws both his wife, Pauline (Ethel Clayton), and the child out of the house. Pauline leaves the little fishing village for the city, but believes her boy has died along the way. He was not dead, however, but merely lost. He grows up to be known as Bill Smith (Cullen Landis). Pauline, meanwhile, has found a certain amount of satisfaction in running a home for fallen girls. One of the young ladies, it turns out, is from Pauline's own village, so she returns to discover that the young man who wronged the girl was her own son. Bill, Martin, and Pauline overcome their mutual animosity and are reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
