Kathryn McGuire Movies

Once again, Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) leave the confines of their downtown police station to venture into the wilds of Hollywood. 16-year-old movie starlet Joan Hamblin (Norma Eberhardt) has reported that a forged check has somehow shown up in her bank account. Can it be that someone within the girl's "trusted" entourage is taking advantage of her celebrity? (Coincidentally, some of the best lines in this episode go to Ben Alexander--who had once been a child movie star himself). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cowboy hero Hoot Gibson made his talking-picture debut in the self-produced The Long Long Trail. The star is cast as The Ramblin' Kid, a rodeo rider whose chances of winning an important sweepstakes tournament are foiled by scurrilous Mike Wilson (played by the "original" James Mason). Slipping the Kid a Mickey, Wilson absconds with the sweepstakes money. The final scenes, filmed in the early widescreen Magnascope process, show the Kid pursuing and lassoing the fleeing villain. Walter Brennan, cast as Gibson's sidekick Skinny Rawlins, likewise made his talkie bow in this pleasing vehicle, while Sally Eilers, the future Mrs. Hoot Gibson, fulfilled the heroine duties. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Lost Zeppelin offers a bonanza of special effects and art-deco sets with a nickel's worth of plot. The film begins at a banquet celebrating an upcoming dirigible expedition to Antarctica. Explorer Donald Hall (Conway Tearle) knows that his protégé, lieutenant Tom Armstrong (Ricardo Cortez) is in love with Hall's young wife Miriam (Virginia Valli). Just when this plotline reaches its saturation point, it is forgotten in the excitement of the daring dirigible voyage. Utterly modernistic in design and equipped with every possible convenience and provision, the big blimp nonetheless meets disaster in the snowy wastes of "Little America." Somewhat slow-moving for most of its running time, The Lost Zeppelin really picks up the pace in its closing reels and remains among the most impressive of the early independent talkies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With less sumptuous production values perhaps, but with just as much savoir faire as in his earlier Fox Westerns, Tom Mix starred in this late-silent Wild West melodrama from poverty row company FBO as a ranch foreman assigned to escort his employer's daughter (Kathryn McGuire) from the big city back to the ranch. The girl, Ellen, is carrying the valuable Regent diamond, and the pair become the target of a gang of thieves led, it turns out, by Ellen's former fiancée Rodney (Ernest Hilliard). Still a name to be reckoned with, Mix was released from his contract later that year when FBO abandoned the outdoor units in preparation for a merger with RKO and sound films. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

The "U.P." in the title refers to the Union Pacific railroad, the trail of which is followed by famed frontier scout Buffalo Bill Cody (here played by Roy Stewart). Hired to provide food for the railroad workers during the Union Pacific's Westward expansion, Buffalo Bill also prevents the employees from falling into the hands of hostile Indians. The plot is for the most part a fabrication, as witness the scene in which Buffalo Bill grows wealthy by building a prosperous "whistle stop" along the Union Pacific path. As pointed out by the trade magazine Variety, had Bill become a frontier burgomeister, he would never have had any reason to go on tour with his fabled Wild West Show. Oh, well...if the moviegoer wanted accuracy, he could always go to the library. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Girl in the Pullman is a standard door-slamming farce in the fine tradition of Up in Mabel's Room and Getting Gertie's Garter. While on his honeymoon with his new bride, Harrison Ford (not the same!) discovers that his ex-wife is occupying the adjacent pullman sleeper in the company of her new mate. The inevitable mix-ups ensue, with everyone suspecting the worst and no one willing to listen to explanations. Franklin Pangborn, a semi-regular in silent films of this nature, scores the biggest laughs as the outraged "other man." Reviewers in 1927 suggested that Girl in the Pullman was more suited to Mack Sennett than to its actual producer, Cecil B. DeMille. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

On the verge of his greatest success with MGM, personable young William Haines starred in the energetic Columbia programmer The Thrill Hunter. Haines plays an irresponsible fellow who overdoses on a health tonic named "Peppo" and dreams he has been spirited off to the mythical country of Grecovia. Here he gets mixed up in a Prisoner-of-Zenda situation when he is ordered to assume the duties of the Grecovian king. Our hero quells a revolution and wins the hand of heroine Kathryn McGuire before awakening from his dream. Ah, but was it all a dream? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Perhaps the best known film produced by the little poverty row company Goodwill, this is a typical 1920s haunted house thriller-comedy. Eight people gather in a deserted house in the Florida Everglades for the reading of a will. Strange things begin to happen -- sliding panels, clutching hand, mysterious bumps in the night (via subtitles, of course) and a masked avenger -- but, like always during the silent era, the "haunting" proves to be merely the work of a gang of crooks. The film abounds with red herrings, including a mysterious Chinaman (Edward Peil, Sr.), who proves to be an undercover agent, and a paraplegic (Charles Belcher), who isn't paralyzed at all. Francis X. Bushman, Jr., Goodwill's biggest star and Kathryn McGuire were the romantic leads, with Western star Jack Perrin as a lawyer, African-American comedian Martin Turner as a stereotypically frightened factotum, and spinsterish Nora Cecil as a Mrs. Danvers-type housekeeper. Rocky Aoki, the founder of the Benihana restaurant chain, played a bit part. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Jack Hoxie's final Western for 1925 featured Universal's second most popular cowboy hero (after Hoot Gibson) chasing a wanted man. The trail leads to Kathryn McGuire's ranch, which is about to be taken over by greedy banker Harry Todd. In one of those coincidences found only in cheap movie-making, the banker turns out to be the same man Hoxie had been chasing all along. Better known as a comic, the veteran Todd was surprisingly cast against type in this film. Leading lady Kathryn McGuire, a 1922 WAMPAS Baby Star, later married Mary Pickford's publicist, George Landy. Today, the blond starlet is best remembered as Buster Keaton's girl in both The Navigator (1924) and Sherlock, Jr.. She left films at the advent of sound. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

At the request of his star Buster Keaton, producer Joseph M. Schenck purchased an obsolete ocean liner for $20,000. Keaton wanted to use the boat as a "prop" in his upcoming feature comedy, but went into production with nary a plot idea in his head. Eventually, Buster and his chief gagman Clyde Bruckman came up with a story involving two wealthy, pampered young people (played by Keaton and Kathryn McGuire), who through a series of fantastic but logical plot convolutions end up stranded together on a drifting, deserted ocean liner. At first, the young couple is helpless because they've never had to lift a finger in their lives. As the weeks pass, Keaton and McGuire become quite adept at fending for themselves, utilizing the huge facilities of the liner (its steam room, its enormous kitchen) for the simplest and most basic of necessities. An attack by a cannibal tribe requires Keaton to be more resourceful than ever; the build-up to the climactic contretemps between Keaton and the cannibals is almost as side-splitting as the climax itself. While the film is rife with some of Buster Keaton's most elaborate gags, he scores equally well with smaller, more intimate comedy bits, notably his losing battle with a deck chair and his attempt to shuffle a waterlogged deck of cards. Reasoning that the comedy in The Navigator would work best if built upon an utterly serious storyline, Keaton hired actor/director Donald Crisp to handle the "straight" scenes. Alas, as Keaton would later recall, the constitutionally humorless Crisp "turned gagman on us", resulting in miles of wasted footage. Thus, pay no attention to the "official" directorial credits: Buster Keaton alone is responsible for the helming of The Navigator. Joe Schenck's initial 20 grand investment proved sagacious when Navigator ended up as Buster Keaton's most profitable silent feature film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is not the 1919 Swedish picture, but an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, That Lass o' Lowrie's. It takes place in the English coal mines of the 1870s and revolves around Joan Lowrie (Priscilla Dean), who works as a pit girl. Fergus Derrick (Robert Ellis) is the son of the mine's owner, but instead of leading an idle life, he prefers to actually work in the mines himself. Joan's cruel father Dan (Wallace Beery) also works in the mines, and he often beats his daughter, who has inherited his strength of will but not his temper. Although Derrick has fallen in love with Joan, he is compelled to fire Lowrie. Lowrie leaves town, and Joan is finally able to relax and enjoy her life and Derrick. But her father returns, bent on revenge, and goes into the mines to kill his former employer. He lights a cigarette, causing an explosion, but Joan doesn't think twice about braving the flames to rescue her lover. Derrick in turn throws away any class-conscious concerns and unites with Joan for good. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Comedy producer Mack Sennett certainly couldn't let Rudolph Valentino's hit The Sheik come and go without spoofing it with none other than Ben Turpin as the star. Turpin starts off as a bill poster for a movie theater, while a tall, dark, and handsome type is dressed as an Arab and riding a horse to draw customers. But everyone is more interested in the good looking rider than going into the theater, so the manager fires him. In his place, he uses Turpin because he figures that no one will want to look at him for very long. But our cock-eyed hero falls asleep on the job and in his dream he is transported to the desert where he gets into an altercation with a perturbed ostrich. Because he has upset the "royal bird," he is taken away to be executed. He is saved, however, by the arrival of the Arab Prince (Ray Grey), who is about to leave for a two-week vacation in Baghdad. He sits Turpin on the throne in his place, and in the course of his duties as temporary prince, he saves a beautiful American girl (Kathryn McGuire) from bandits. But then a policeman (Louis Fronde) shakes Turpin awake -- he is back on the street with his tawdry costume and advertising sign. The support in this comedy is notable -- Kathryn McGuire would go on to star in two of Buster Keaton's most important films, Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator, while two other actors, Charles Stevenson and Dick Sutherland, had recently appeared in Harold Lloyd's picture Grandma's Boy. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Hal G. Evart's very "London-esque" 1920 dog melodrama The Cross Pull reached the screen the following year as The Silent Call, a vehicle for canine star Strongheart. Popular enough to have a dog food named after him, this handsome German shepherd continued to hold his own through 1927 despite increasing competition by newcomer Rin-Tin-Tin. When his master, Clark Moran (John Bowers), leaves to tend to business in the Big City, Flash (Strongheart), who is part wolf, finds himself falsely accused of "sheepicide." Captured by the local ranchers, Flash is condemned to death but escapes into the mountains where he finds a mate. But when lovely Betty Houston is kidnapped by nasty Luther Nash (James Mason), the true sheep killer, Flash leaves his new companion and races to the rescue. Nash drowns in the rapids, Flash clears his good name, and Betty is reunited with Clark Moran, Flash's returning owner. The 1961 film of the same title was not a remake but a sentimental story of a little boy separated from his pet dog. Owned and trained by his director, Lawrence Trimble, Strongheart died at the ripe old age of 13 in 1929; a book dedicated to him, Letters to Strongheart, was published by Prentice-Hall in 1940. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi