Frank Beal Movies

One of American Western star Buck Jones' finest silents, A Man Four-Square is a screen version of William McLeod Raine's popular tale of a rancher who finds himself falsely accused of murder while attempting to help a friend in need. Jones, needless to say, not only saves his friend (two-reel Western lead William E. Lawrence), but vindicates himself and gets the girl (Marion Harlan). This fast-paced Western marked the first of many screen encounters between Jones and the always hissable Harry Woods. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The air-mail pilots who fly from a small airport in the Rocky Mountains are determined but not paid well, and there are occasional fatal crashes. It's a tradition of long standing that when this happens, chief pilot Mike Miller (Ralph Bellamy) makes the next flight himself. Daredevil Duke Talbot (Pat O'Brien) is hired; he starts an affair with Irene Wilkins (Lilian Bond), wife of pilot Dizzy (Russell Hopton). A fierce snowstorm rages when Dizzy next takes off. He crashes and is killed, so Mike makes the next flight. He crashes in an inaccessible valley, but survives. Although Duke has now run off with Irene, when he hears about Mike's crash, he decides to fly to the rescue. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Nella Banard (Gladys Brockwell) has been temporarily left alone in her cabin home by her parents (Spottiswood Aitken and Margaret McWade). While they are in the city, two escaped convicts come seeking shelter. One insults Nella, and the other, "Sporting Chance" Austin (William Scott), chases him away. Austin has been serving time for a crime he did not commit, and he and Nella develop a strong attraction for each other. They spend the night together and Austin leaves in search of a preacher. But he is caught and sent back to jail. Nella waits in vain for him, and then because she is pregnant, she agrees to marry a writer who she is working for as a secretary. Three years pass, and the writer goes to the prison in search of material and meets Austin. He is finally about to be released, and when the writer hears his sad story, he agrees to bring him home. He has no idea that Austin and his wife are acquainted, but he finds out. The two men debate who has the right to Amy, and Austin, who is a gambler, suggests they roll dice for her. The writer agrees, but Austin, who is determined to lose for the sake of Amy and his child, uses loaded dice. The writer, of course, wins, and Austin takes his leave. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Cimarron was the first Western to win the Oscar for Best Picture--and, until Dances with Wolves in 1990, the only one. The film begins on April 22, 1889, the opening day of the great Oklahoma Land Rush on the Cherokee Strip. Boisterous Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) is cheated out of his land claim by the devious Dixie Lee (Estelle Taylor). Instead of becoming a homesteader, Cravat establishes a muckraking newspaper, and with pistols in hand he becomes a widely respected (and widely feared) peacekeeper. He also displays a compassionate streak by coming to the defense of Dixie Lee, who is about to be arrested for prostitution. Cravat's insistence on sticking his nose into everyone's affairs drives a wedge between him and his young wife Sabra (Irene Dunne), but she stands by him--until he deserts her and her children, ever in pursuit of new adventures. Sabra takes over the newspaper herself, and with the moral support of her best friend, Mrs. Wyatt (Edna May Oliver), she creates a powerful publishing empire. Cimarron makes the mistake of placing most of the action early in the film, so that everything that follows the spectacular opening land-rush sequence may feel anti-climactic. While it's always enjoyable to watch Irene Dunne persevering through the years, it's rather wearing to sit through the overblown performance of Richard Dix, who seems to think that he can't make a point unless it's at the top of his lungs. Cimarron creaks badly when seen today, but it still outclasses the plodding 1960 remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Universal's sloppy-looking cowboy star Hoot Gibson plays the carefree son of the tough prison warden (Frank Beal) in this fine late-silent Gibson western. The penal colony is enjoying the presence of a very liberal-minded supervisor (Eugenia Gilbert), with whom Hoot naturally falls in love. She, however, is too busy rehabilitating the inmates to spare him a minute, so the resourceful hero masquerades as a hardened criminal and a trouble maker. He is soon involved with a gang of cutthroats and must use all his cunning to get out of the jam. Poverty row producer-director-star Denver Dixon (aka Art Mix aka Victor Adamson) is seen briefly as one of the inmates. The film was directed by Henry MacRae, who for many years was head of Universal's serial unit. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Having built up the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey into a surefire box-office draw, RKO Radio was possessed with the notion to briefly split up the team, showcasing each actor in his own separate vehicle in hopes of doubling their profitability. Woolsey's first (and last) solo effort was Everything's Rosie, which though ostensibly a screen original by Al Boasberg was actually a rip-off of the 1923 W. C. Fields stage vehicle Poppy (in which Woolsey had played a featured role). The bespectacled, cigar-chomping comedian is cast as Dr. J. Dockweiler Droop, a crooked-yet-lovable sideshow medicine man. Rescuing a two-year old urchin named Rosie from her harridan of a mother, Doc Droop raises the girl as his own. By the time she reaches maturity, the lovely Rosie (played as an adult by Anita Louise) is every bit the sharpster that her "father" is. When Rosie falls in love with wealthy Billy Lowe (John Darrow), Doc tries his best to make a good impression at a party given by Billy's mother, only to end up in the calaboose when he's accused of theft. Realizing that he's a millstone around Rosie's neck, Doc quietly shuffles out of her life, but not before smoothing the romantic path for the hero and heroine. Funny though he was in the Wheeler and Woolsey comedies, Bob Woolsey simply wasn't a strong enough performer to carry a picture by himself -- though in all fairness, it should be noted that Bert Wheeler fared almost as badly in his solo RKO effort, Too Many Cooks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Peter B. Kyne's 1925 magazine story "Thoroughbreds", this silent cavalry melodrama starred Kenneth Harlan as a West Point graduate commissioned to a cavalry outpost near the Apache reservation. Cheated out of their supplies by crooked Indian agent Major Gaynes (Lawford Davidson), the tribe goes on the warpath. Losing his nerve at the last moment with disastrous results, Harlan is thrown out of the service, and his fiancée, Dixie Dennison (Madge Bellamy), breaks their engagement. After a heart-to-heart talk with his father (Hobart Bosworth), a veteran cavalry man, Harlan returns to his post, unmasks the evil Gaynes, and regains the trust of both his soldiers and Dixie. A true film pioneer who has been credited with starring in the first film to be produced in Hollywood in 1909, Hobart Bosworth received top billing in this fanciful Fox Western despite the relatively brief nature of his role. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This tense but implausible melodrama was John Gilbert's last film for Fox before moving over to the greener pastures of MGM. Jack Saunders (Gilbert) falls in love with a mysterious girl tourist and leaves his home in search of her. In the big city, his money quickly runs out and he is offered a lucrative deal by Burke (Harry Todd), a politician. The daughter of the governor (Edward Tilton) has murdered a lecherous old roué, and they need someone to take the fall. For a large sum of money, and the promise that he will be pardoned after a year, Saunders volunteers to plead guilty. When the time comes for the pardon and the governor unexpectedly denies it, Saunders makes a prison break. At the governor's mansion, Saunders finds that Burke is about to be married to the girl, Margaret West (Evelyn Brent), who also happens to be the tourist he has been trying to find. After everything is set right, Saunders weds Margaret. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This melodrama featured Edmund Lowe in a dual role, and a very young Carole Lombard. Cyril Gordon (Lowe) joins the secret service, and since he is a dead ringer for international crook Harry Holden (also Lowe), he is assigned the task of retrieving a stolen government code from Holden's gang. He discovers that Celia Hathaway (Lombard) is being forced into a loveless marriage with the crook, so, still posing as Holden, he marries her himself. As they head for Chicago by train, they are pursued by the real Holden. Gordon tells Celia his true identity and the couple goes to Washington, D.C., where he reports to his higher ups. Holden breaks into Gordon's apartment and the two men fight it out. Holden loses and his gang is jailed. Celia decides she loves Gordon and wants to stay married to him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Vitagraph's husband-and-wife team of William Duncan and Edith Johnson starred in this fine silent western about a cowboy who wins a newspaper in a poker game. Taking over the journal, Jerry Hoskins (Duncan) immediately begins a crusading campaign to get rid of the town's corrupt sheriff (Dick LaReno). The editor's headstrong daughter (Johnson) is none too taken with her father's new boss, however, but changes her mind after he saves her from a runaway carriage. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Though Universal temporarily abandoned its western product when talkies came in, a few of its 1929 silent sagebrushers were released with audible sequences. Completed as a silent, Senor Americano was 85% reshot for the benefit of the microphone. Set in Old California, the film concerns the exploits of U.S. Cavalry officer Ken Maynard, who is dedicated to keeping the territory safe from bandits and plunderers. Top-billed Katherine Crawford is cast as the fair senorita whose heart is captured by the dashing "Senor Americano". Both Maynard and Crawford are given ample opportunities to sing, which both do with enthusiasm if not great skill (Maynard, however, would continue to inflict cowboy ballads on his faithful fans for the next ten years). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a US marshal goes undercover to bust up a bunch of rustlers. The history behind the film is as interesting as the story. Paramount made this during the Depression when the studio was teetering towards bankruptcy. To save money, much of this film was comprised of footage from the earlier films of former western star Jack Holt. The long shots were old silent footage, while the close-shots were of different actors wearing exactly the same costumes. Paramount made 9 other westerns in this way. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide