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- 1920
Beebe, a Belgian flower girl (Shirley Mason), falls in love with Victor Fleming (not the director -- although he was known as a ladies' man -- but Philo McCullough), a charismatic artist visiting from Paris. He finds her innocence appealing, but eventually he returns to Paris, promising to send for her. When she hears that he is heartsick, she believes he is really ill and heads to Paris. But when she arrives at his studio, she walks into a wild revelry with Victor at the center of it all, surrounded by a crowd of Latin Quarter lovelies. Beebe is horrified, but Victor gently explains that they are too different to be together. So she goes back to Belgium to wed Jeanot (Raymond McKee), a humble wood chopper who has loved her all along. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Mason, Raymond McKee, (more)
- 1919
This amusing Universal comedy starred Hale Hamilton and Louise Lovely. Wannabe writer Johnny Rutledge (Hamilton) lives in the same boarding house as aspiring author Anne Travers (Lovely). Although neither of them can sell a story to save their lives, they fall in love. Anne, who can barely make rent, has no idea that she has inherited a fortune and that a detective is trying to find her before the two months' time frame runs out. Johnny gives Anne his last few dollars and is evicted. He winds up joining a medicine show, helping a fake doctor sell a snake-oil concoction. One man who is aware of Anne's inheritance is Arthur Abington (Philo McCullough), who poses as a successful author named Cooley so that he can win her trust. He convinces Anne to marry him but luckily, Johnny arrives just in time and keeps the ceremony from happening. He and Anne end the film united. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Though forgotten today, Baby Marie Osborne was an incredibly popular pre-1920s movie child star-so popular, in fact, that she had her own production company. The fact that Baby Marie ended her Hollywood days as a bit player and stand-in should not dim the luster of her long-ago international celebrity. Her 1919 vehicle Child of M'sieu was a thinly disguised adaptation of Robert Browning's poem Pippa Passes. Contemporary reviews suggest that this was the only time that Browning's poem received anything approaching a decent screen treatment. In the "Little Miss Fixit" title role, Baby Marie was permitted to alternate between laughter and tears. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Young country nurse Helen Armes (Dorothy Dalton) arrives in New York City to visit a friend and her husband. They go out for a New Year's Eve celebration, accompanied by a young profligate. When they arrive at the cabaret, the wastrel's brother is there, and seeing how innocent Helen is, insists that she is taken home. But at the hotel, this bad seed tries, unsuccessfully, to force himself on her then later tells his brother the girl was the one who made a pass. The brothers quarrel and the good one is temporarily blinded. His nurse is none other than Helen, but she uses a different name so he won't know that the woman caring for him was the type to go cabaret-hopping. When she discovers the bad brother trying to steal from her patient, she convinces him to do something decent and enlist. As a result, he goes to France, where he is killed in action. The good brother falls in love with Helen and proposes marriage, but when he regains his sight he finds out who she really is and leaves her because he believes his dead brother's story. But the brother's ghost visits him and clears her name, so they are reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
While other silent-film studios had their Muriel Ostriches and Arline Prettys, Universal had the dazzling Louise Lovely. In The Girl Who Wouldn't Quit, Lovely plays the daughter of a mine owner (Henry A. Barrows). When her dad is falsely accused of robbery, Our Heroine sets about to clear his name. And, true to the title, she won't quit, not even when threatened with death or fates worse than death. Featured in the cast is the statuesque Gertrude Astor, a favorite of comedy fans via her later co-starring gigs with Charley Chase, Laurel & Hardy and The Three Stooges. The blond Louise Lovely hailed from Sydney, Australia and became a star in several Universal melodramas. The Girl Who Wouldn't Quit was based on The Quest of Joan, a story by James Oliver Curwood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Mary (Dorothy Dalton) and Jim Bowen (Edward Coxen) are happily married. Jim works as a cashier for an insurance brokerage. The boss's wastrel son Alan Perry (Philo McCullough) takes advantage of Bowen's trusted position at the company and forges some checks. Bowen is accused of the fraud and is sent to prison. Hoping that the job will give her the means necessary to prove her husband innocent, Mary goes to work as a cabaret singer for the powerful John Boland (Henry A. Barrows). It isn't long before Perry, a frequenter of Boland's cafe, falls in love with her. One night, after some heavy drinking, Perry follows her home. But on that same night, Bowen, who has escaped from jail, has taken refuge there. Boland, who has heard of his escape, also heads for the Bowen home. A fight breaks out between Boland and Perry, and Boland is knocked unconscious. Mary convinces Perry that Boland is dead, and extracts a confession from him. The police break in and arrest Perry, while Boland -- who has regained consciousness -- uses his power to help exonerate Bowen. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Also known as A Rich Man's Daughter, this five-reel drama starred Louise Lovely as the supposed mistress of an aging millionaire (Harry Holden). To avoid a family scandal, the millionaire's son (Philo McCullough) elopes with the heroine, even though he holds her in utter contempt. Only after making a thorough ass of himself does the son realize that the girl is blameless, and that he has fallen in love with her in spite of himself. If the film seemed unexciting and uninvolving, it may have been because its producers feared the censorial wrath of the National Board of Review. So little happened on screen that the audience found itself concentrating on the well-composed background shots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
When Della Arnold (Mae Murray), a hopeful young actress, winds up stuck at an inn with the troupe's leading man, Julian Lawrence (Philo McCullough), he signs them in as husband and wife. Although nothing happens -- the hotel proprietor puts a halt to his advances -- this goes on to haunt her throughout the film. She leaves acting, and through a friend, Myrtle Harris (Claire DuBrey), meets George Addison (Arthur Shirley), who finds her work as an artist's model with Wilbur Henderson (George Chesebro). Henderson falls in love with Della and they plan to get married, but he runs into Lawrence, who tells him that they had stayed at a hotel together, giving it the lascivious bent he had wished it had. Henderson grills Della on this but refuses to believe her, so she sends him away and goes to visit Myrtle. Addison is among the people there. She reveals her broken engagement and Addison asks to marry her. Before she accepts she tells him the story about Lawrence. He believes her, and finally Della has a man with whom she can be happy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Directed by character actor Otto Hoffman, this silent Western was produced at Long Beach, California, by the Balboa Amusement Producing Company, a busy firm that lasted from 1913 to 1918. Vola Vale starred as Miriam Vale, who takes a job as a schoolmistress in a Western outpost in order to investigate the death of her grandfather, a prospector. She quickly discovers that the killer, one Henry Stanley (J.B. Warner), is a member of an avaricious family with designs on grandpa's hidden mine. With the help of cousin Blake Stanley (Philo McCullough), Miriam learns the truth of her grandfather's murder, and together they locate the hidden treasure. Both leading man Philo McCullough and supporting villain J.B. Warner would enjoy further success in Westerns in the '20s, the former as a dyed-in-the-wool villain and the latter as a Western star in his own right. Warner's success proved short lived, however; he died of tuberculosis in November of 1924. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1914
In one of his few outright comedies, Harold Lockwood played a husband who, "while wifey is away," invites his buddies over for a game of poker. The gentlemen, all of whom have told their wives that Lockwood is ill and in need of their care, are interrupted by wifey (Mabel Van Buren), who arrives with the irate wives in tow. Produced by the Selig Polyscope Company, the comedy was directed by character actor Fred W. Huntley. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
