Wallace Beery Movies
Beery was a character actor in silents and talkies and the half-brother of actor Noah Beery, Sr. and uncle of actor Noah Beery, Jr. At age 16 (1902) he joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant to the elephant trainer; two years later he began singing in New York variety shows, then worked in both Broadway musicals and Kansas City stock companies. A peculiar career path led him to his first series of silent comedy shorts in the cross-dressing role of Sweedie, a Swedish maid, beginning with his move to Hollywood in 1913 when he signed a contract with Essanay; from there he did one- and two-reelers with Keystone and Universal, then tried unsuccessfully to produce films in Japan. Returning to Hollywood, Beery tended (like his half-brother Noah) to be cast as "heavies" and villains, though by the late '20s his performances were tinted with considerable humor. Although he did not have a smooth voice, he made the transition into talkies and soon achieved great success in the role of a retired boxer in The Champ (1931), for which he won a Best Actor Oscar (the previous year he had been nominated for his work in The Big House). The huge box office sales for The Champ propelled Beery into a position as one of Hollywood's top ten stars, and he ceased to be cast as heavies, instead adopting a tough, dim-witted, easy-going persona, and often playing lovable slobs. He appeared in several films with Marie Dressler, and for a time the two of them were among Hollywood's most noteworthy screen couples; later he often played opposite Marjorie Main. From 1916-18 he was married to actress Gloria Swanson, with whom he had co-starred in a series of Mack Sennett comedies. ~ All Movie Guide
Narration and music accompany this two part collection of clips. The moments that left you hanging are collected in this program which features selections from 14 silent serials. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1914
Before he teamed up with Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy already had a long career in comedy films. While it has been said that he frequently played comic "heavies," in reality Hardy didn't always play the bad guy (perhaps his most famous turn in this type of role would be opposite his future partner Laurel in 1920's Lucky Dog). This Pokes and Jabbs film is one of the first times Hardy is seen playing the heavy. He is a villainous character called Shifty Mike who is trying to force himself on innocent Ethel (Ethel Burton), the daughter of the wealthy Plaid Jabbs (Bobby Burns). Jabbs comes to his daughter's rescue and gives Mike a well-deserved thrashing. Mike swears revenge and somehow gets Ethel's sweetheart, Pokes (Walter Stull), embroiled in his plot. Pokes needs a job so he and Ethel can marry and he is unaware that he is being paid to toss a missile into Jabbs' window. Of course, it all turns out badly for Pokes, and somehow the missile winds up getting back into his hands before exploding. Jabbs tosses him out the window and falls right on top of Mike, who once again is forcing himself on Ethel. So, in spite of himself, Pokes saves the girl. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1914
Ladies World magazine held a contest in which they ran several mystery stories. The winners had to come up with the best ending for each tale, and instead of running the result in print, each story was filmed by Essanay. This picture was the first winner. Craig Ewell (Francis X. Bushman) is in love with Alice Graham (Beverly Bayne -- actually Bushman was in love with Bayne in real life and he would divorce his wife to wed her). But Ewell has a rival in Norris Griggs. To get Ewell out of the way, Griggs gets him embroiled in a train robbery. As a result, Ewell goes to jail and Griggs marries Alice. After ten years Ewell is released and he heads for the West Coast, where Griggs has become involved in the financial doings of the Mexican revolution. Through watching the rebel ships, Ewell finds out about their schemes, and gives the alarm. The Federales and the rebels fight, and Ewell finds himself in hand-to-hand combat with Griggs. The two men don't recognize each other, but Griggs is mortally injured. Ewell takes him to a padre, where he confesses his part in the train robbery. Ewell and Griggs finally recognize each other just before Griggs dies. Ewell goes to Alice, and the two are finally reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1915
An outright farce produced in Chicago by the Essanay company, this film was set in the country of Morovenia, where fat women were considered beautiful. Poor Princess Kalora (Ruth Stonehouse), unfashionably slender, cannot find herself a husband despite efforts to appear fatter by stuffing pillows down her dress. Kalora's father, Count Malagaski (Harry Dunkinson), ships her off to an American fat farm, where the thin princess falls in love with American businessman Alexander Pike (Francis X. Bushman). The Count forbids his daughter to marry a commoner, so the American is presented at the Morovenian court as "the Grand Exalted Ruler of the Fraternal Order, a Knight Templar and King of the Hoo Hoos." The Morvenian ruler accepts the disguise and the two lovers marry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1916
This silent video features Teddy, the Great Dane who rescues Gloria Swanson from a villain. ~ All Movie Guide
It would be easy to assume that combining Mary Pickford's charm with director Cecil B. DeMille's penchant for the spectacular would create an exceptional piece of work. But judging from this picture, and the one made before it -- Romance of the Redwoods -- that just wasn't the case. The bottom line was that both Pickford and DeMille wanted control over their productions and neither of them were truly capable of the kind of compromise required by collaboration. As a result, their work together suffered. America had recently entered World War I when this picture was made, and it was one of innumerable patriotic films produced around this time. It begins in 1914 with American Angela Moore (Pickford) and her two foreign suitors -- a German, Karl Von Austreim (Jack Holt) and a Frenchman, Count Jules de Destin (Raymond Hatton). Angela prefers Karl, but when war breaks out in Europe, both men go to serve their countries. Eventually Angela, too, sails for France, but her ship is sunk by a U-boat (although not named, the ship is presumed to be the Lusitania). She is saved, but when she arrives at her destination, she finds her aunt dead, and the family chateau transformed into a hospital for those wounded in battle. The Germans arrive to fight, rape and pillage. Angela and Karl are reunited when, unaware of her identity, he tries to attack her. She forgives him this transgression, but when the Germans discover her sending messages to the French, the commander (Herbert Bosworth) orders her shot. At this, Karl denounces his country and he is ordered to be shot, too. The pair are saved by a French shell which blows up the Germans at an opportune moment, and after an all-night battle, they are found by the Allies, sleeping at the foot of a cross. Although Karl is arrested, Angela is able to have him freed and they leave for the U.S. together. This mediocre film was overshadowed by the far superior Poor Little Rich Girl, which was released earlier in the year. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Silent star Mary Pickford once referred to director William Desmond Taylor as "a very charming man who directed me in three very bad pictures." This was one of them. Not that he didn't have help in creating this anemic vehicle -- the story was written by Rupert Hughes and the scenario was by Frances Marion, both normally much more competent at their tasks. Johanna (Pickford) has spent the better part of her young life caring for her siblings and livestock on her father's Pennsylvania farm. She's never had a beau, but one day a whole regiment of soldiers camp out on her father's land and she is overrun by men. Lieutenant LeRoy (Emory Johnson) is utterly charmed by the girl, as is Private Vibbard (Monte Blue) and Captain Van Renssaller (Douglas MacLean), although the latter is loathe to admit it. Because of an understanding between the Lieutenant and the Private, the Private is faced with court martial. Johanna, however, gets everything straightened out. And when the Captain realizes that she comes from good, solid Dutch stock -- just like he does -- he decides to marry her when the regiment picks up camp and heads for the next town. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
In order to rescue his brother, society boy David Strong (Wallace Reid) has to travel through the underworld. He disguises himself as "the Colt Kid," who has just gotten out of prison. During his travels, Strong winds up in a cabaret where he meets singer Joan Gray (Anna Q. Nilsson). Joan is being pestered by coast-to-coast Taylor (Wallace Beery), who wants her as his mistress. Strong saves Joan from this situation and they fall in love. Only after going through some adventures together does she discover his real identity, and he finds out she is actually a writer who has been researching the criminal side of life. This film was based on the play One of Us by Jack Lait. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Based on the Rupert Hughes novel, this film concerns the German atrocities committed in Belgium at the beginning of the Great War. Blanche Sweet plays two American girls: gentle, passive Alice Parcot and her sister, the adventurous Dimny. Alice and her mother (Mary Alden) are caught in Belgium when the war breaks out; they are raped by the Germans and eventually die. Alice, still in America, goes to Europe to search for them, aided by a young man, Noll Windsor (Matt Moor). Wallace Beery does one of his villainous turns as Colonel Klemm. Although this was one of Marshall Neilan's more serious films (he was better known for more lighthearted fare, such as his work with Mary Pickford), he did add a few comic touches here and there -- unfortunately they were not wholly appropriate. There was much criticism about this film when it was released -- Americans were trying to heal from the recently-ended war and did not want to be haunted by the past behavior of their former enemy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Axel Heyst (Jack Holt) is taught bitter lessons by his father -- that pity is contemptible and sympathy is useless. So the young man intends to exile himself to an island, but he winds up bringing along Alma (Seena Owen), who he has saved from unhappy circumstances. Even more complications arise when hotel proprietor Schomberg (Wallace Beery), who is jealous of Heyst, sends a group of crooks after him. The arrival of these evil characters, led by Ricardo (Lon Chaney), inspires Heyst to drop his father's philosophies and save the girl. This story was based on the novel by Joseph Conrad, but -- as is all-too common in the world of cinema -- instead of the book's tragic ending (both Alma and Heyst died), the pair live happily ever after. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Jack Hearns (Jack Holt), aka the Romany Rye, is the son of a Gypsy mother and a wealthy English father. But instead of claiming his fair share of the estate, he prefers to roam freely. His half brother Philip Royston (Lew Cody) finds out about the Romany Rye's existence and hunts for the family Bible, which contains the marriage certificate that will prove his parentage. He can't find it because two crooks, Joe Heckett (Tully Marshall) and Bos (Wallace Beery), have stolen it. They're friends with Hearns and they bring it to him. He has decided he wants to settle down with Heckett's daughter Ruth (Pauline Stark), so they set sail for America to get affidavits from witnesses to his mother's marriage so he can finally claim the estate. They are followed by Royston. Things really heat up when the ship catches fire, and Hearns rescues Ruth, while Royston perishes. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
After finishing his first costumer swashbuckler The Mark of Zorro, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. reverted to his standard formula with the contemporary action comedy The Mollycoddle. Doug plays the title character, a dandified American who returns to his home in the Wild West after being educated in England. Suspected of being little more than a pantywaist, Doug proves his grit by capturing notorious desperado Wallace Beery. Fairbanks and Tom Geraghty co-adapted The Mollycoddle from a short story by Harold McGrath. He followed this picture with another modern comedy, The Nut, then devoted the rest of the 1920s to such period pictures as Robin Hood, The Thief of Baghdad and The Gaucho. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1920
For some mysterious reason, producer Adolph Zukor decided to set the slapstick aside for Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's first full-length feature. Instead, he cast him in this Western comedy-drama, with an emphasis on the drama. In addition, Arbuckle's role of sheriff "Slim" Hoover was a secondary one, in spite of his star billing. The sheriff figures very little in the plot, which involves Dick Lane (Irving Cummings), a prospector given up for lost and his sweetheart, Echo Allen (Mabel Julienne Scott), who decides she loves Jack Payson (Tom Forman) anyhow. Dick's gold dust has been taken by Buck McKee (a villainous Wallace Beery, who stole the show), and McKee left him in the desert to die. Dick's brother Buddy gets tangled up in McKee's affairs and a hold up they commit is pinned on Payson. Eventually Slim rounds up the U.S. Cavalry and captures the bad guys. Lane is located, but he is mortally wounded, and Echo and Payson are happily married. The final shot shows Arbuckle, alone, saying, "Nobody loves a fat man." Nobody loved this picture, and it was a disappointment to his fans. A couple of interesting notes -- Arbuckle's longtime pal and former collaborator, Buster Keaton, stopped by to play an Indian extra. Also, the picture was based on a stage play by Edmund Day and during its long theatrical run the sheriff was played by Macklyn Arbuckle -- no relation to Roscoe. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
- 1920
America has just entered World War I, and because of his name, German-American Oscar Krug (Hobart Bosworth) is thought to be an enemy sympathizer. He fights his foes to prove that they're wrong, then immediately enlists and is assigned to the merchant marines. The night before boarding, he marries his sweetheart, Alice Morse (Jane Novak), and she sails with him, disguised as a Red Cross nurse. A German submarine torpedoes the craft and sinks it. Krug and his bride board a lifeboat, where the sub finds them a couple of days later. The Germans take Alice and leave Krug, who swears revenge to the commander (Wallace Beery). Krug is saved by a passing ship and gets his chance a year later when he is in charge of another ship. It blows up a sub, and Krug sees the commander -- the same man he is looking for -- in the water. He pulls the commander on board and tricks him into telling Krug the details of how the commander ravished Alice and threw her body overboard. Then Krug reveals his identity and skins him alive. The movie's end shows Krug a saddened old man, whose soul rises from his broken body (with the help of double exposure) to join his dead bride. This film was based on a Gouverneur Morris story that appeared in Collier's Weekly. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Maurice Tourneur was the original director on the 1920 silent version of James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, but he fell ill during production, obliging his talented assistant Clarence Brown to finish the job. Though contractually Tourneur could have taken full credit for the finished film, he generously shared that credit with Brown, permitting the younger man to take top billing. The story is taken virtually verbatim from the Cooper original: During the Canadian wars between the French and the English in the 18th century, Huron Indian Magua (Wallace Beery) casts his lot with the French, while Mohicans Uncas (Albert Roscoe) and Chingachgook (Tod Lorch) are loyal to the English. The film's action highlight is the massacre of Fort Henry (we are spared nothing, not even the bayonetting of babies), but its emotional peak occurs when Cora Munro (Barbara Bedford), daughter of the Fort Henry commander, threatens to fling herself off a high cliff rather than fall into the hands of the lecherous Magua. Uncas, who loves Cora from afar, is too late to effect a rescue, and the sense of genuine loss pervades the thrill-packed climax, injecting a strong sense of humanity into what otherwise might have been a straightforward adventure tale. Both the 1936 and 1990 remakes of Last of the Mohicans owe a great deal to this impressive silent version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Barbara Bedford, (more)
- 1920
In the '20s, the Turkish empire was considered a lawless and barbaric place by Westerners who didn't understand the people's religion or their ways. Such civilized ignorance gave this part of the world an aura of mystery and decadence, which director Tod Browning captured in this tale of romance and adventure. American solider of fortune Captain Carlisle Pemberton (Wheeler Oakman) is trying to bring law and order to the desert with the aid of the Black Horse cavalry. In spite of himself, he falls in love with a Turkish beggar girl, Sari (Priscilla Dean). She sneaks into a mosque where she sees a murder being committed, and the killer, Sheik Achmet Bey (the effectively villainous Wallace Beery), tries to lure her to his harem. When this doesn't work, he tries to marry her by proxy, but Pemberton buys the proxy away, so that he, not the sheik, is married to Sari. The angry Achmet Bey kidnaps them both, but Sari escapes and brings in the Black Horse cavalry to save the day in a rousing finale. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
This is one of a number of silent pictures in which a young American is raised as a Chinese girl, and even though she has no Asian features to speak of, she never guesses she's white until the film's end. While they are visiting China on business a curio collector, Carmichael (Dwight Crittenden) and his wife (Irene Rich), are killed during a Boxer uprising. A servant, Ah Wing (E. A. Warren), saves their baby, which he takes to America and raises as his own. Sui Sen (Leatrice Joy) grows up in Chinatown really believing that Ah Wing is her father. A wealthy American, Newcombe (J. Frank Glendon), sees Sui Sen and falls in love with her on the spot. But Ling Jo (Wallace Beery) -- the same man responsible for the Carmichaels' deaths -- is living in the very same Chinatown and is determined to make the girl his wife. Ah Wing tells Ling Jo that if he can get him the scepter of the Mings -- a supposedly impossible task -- then he can have Sui Sen. But Ling Jo comes through and Ah Wing has to honor the promise. Newcombe finds out about it, however, and goes to save Sui Sen. But he is captured and taken to the steel room to be crushed to death. With the help of a Chinese boy, Newcombe is able to escape, and Ling Jo winds up being crushed in the steel room instead. Finally Sui Sen learns that she is American as apple pie and weds Newcombe. This picture was the first time author Gouverneur Morris wrote a story directly for the screen, and it was part of producer Samuel Goldwyn's "Eminent Authors" series. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leatrice Joy, Wallace Beery, (more)
- 1921
Former socialite Maurice "Lefty" Flynn made a bid for western stardom in this mild silent western about a stranger mistaken for an outlaw, the notorious "Night Hawk." He finds a believer in lovely Winifred Sampson (Eva Novak) who shelters the presumed outlaw from the authorities until her fiancee, unscrupulous dam engineer William Kirk (Wallace Beery) turns him in. The Stranger, however, is in reality a detective in disguise and has enough evidence to arrest Kirk, the real outlaw. The commonplace plot was used twice more, in 1927 (as a vehicle for Tom Mix) and 1933, starring George O'Brien. The brawny Flynn never made it as a bona fide western star and was actually better known from the gossip pages than for any particular film. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1921
Even in 1921, tales of the Northwest Mounted Police had already been done countless times before, so this drama -- based on a story by the dependable James Oliver Curwood -- was nothing new or special. Sergeant Philip Rainey (Lewis S. Stone) is out to get his man -- in this case, Bram Johnson (an excellently cast Wallace Beery), who, many years before, had killed a dozen men to avenge the death of his father. Rainey's travels up north take him to a cottage where a dying man hands him a baby (Esther Scott) and a rabbit snare made of a girl's hair, which belongs to Johnson. Rainey meets pretty Celie (Ruth Renick), who was raised from infancy by Johnson. A gang of marauders, led by Black Dawson (Wellington Playter), want to kidnap the girl. They capture Johnson and Rainey, but Johnson battles the bad guys and makes short work of them. He is mortally wounded, however, and before he dies, he reveals how he found Celie on a deserted ship. Celie is glad to marry Rainey and be a mother to the infant he was given. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lewis Stone, Wallace Beery, (more)
- 1921
The mystical novels of Vicente Blasco-Ibanez were much prized by ambitious silent filmmaker Rex Ingram, who filmed two of them in the 1920s, both ostensibly vehicles for his actress wife Alice Terry. The first of the two, Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, was infinitely more successful than the second (Mare Nostrum), a fact that can be attributed to two little words: Rudolph Valentino. The quintessential Latin Lover stars as Julio, the scion of a wealthy Argentinian family. During the years prior to World War I, Julio's relatives relocate to Germany and France, with Julio opting for the latter country, where he opens an art studio. Here he carries on a torrid affair with Alice Terry, the wife of an attorney. When World War I breaks out, Terry joins the Red Cross and her husband enlists in the army, while the carefree Julio avoids involvement in the conflict. Only when visited by the spectres of the Four Horseman--war, conquest, famine, and death--does Julio don a uniform. His death is a symbolic sacrifice on behalf of Ms. Terry, whose husband has been blinded in the war: and, in an additional symbolic grace-note, Julio dies at the hands of his own cousin, now a German officer. The film's Big Money sequence was the one in which Rudolph Valentino danced the forbidden tango in a dingy, smoke-filled Argentinian cantina. That's what made him a star, not all that mumbo-jumbo about fate, destiny, and Four Horsemen. Proof that Valentino and not Blasco-Ibanez was the principal drawing card of this film was the 1962 remake, in which Glenn Ford portrays Julio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, (more)
- 1921
Douglas MacLean and Doris May made a number of popular light comedies in the late 1910s and early '20s. In the spirit of their first hit 23 1/2 Hours Leave, MacLean once again plays an army sergeant, only this picture shows his adventures after he has returned home from France. James Stewart Lee (MacLean) tries to become a book salesman. He fails miserably, but he does meet pretty Alicia (May). Lee decides to visit his wealthy aunt only to discover that she has died and left him her fortune with one catch: he has to keep her servants for six months. This is not an easy task since she has willed them 5,000 dollars each and they are anxious to leave so they can collect. At a library where Lee is trying to find an answer to his problem, he meets an older man known only as Dad (Frank Currier). The two strike up a friendship and Dad goes to Lee's home. He proceeds to straighten out the servant problem. Alicia, meanwhile, tells Lee she is upset because her father is missing. Lee doesn't realize the missing Dad is staying right in his home. Dad, however, finds out that his daughter is looking for him and orchestrates a series of adventures for the couple that guarantees that their romance will culminate in marriage. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas MacLean, Doris May, (more)
- 1921
This comedy, which was based on a stage play, got high marks from Moving Picture World, but would undoubtedly not be welcomed today -- "Among the amusing features," notes the trade paper, "is an amateur circus and the formation of a miniature Ku Klux Klan." The street urchins who are busy playing miniature Klansmen are found by Patsy, a tomboy (ZaSu Pitts who, even though she was in her early twenties, somehow manages to play a credible young adolescent). Dressed as a boy, Patsy ran away from an orphanage and has been traveling around the country. The kids initiate her into their gang and eventually she takes over as their leader. Patsy also finds an adult supporter in Pops, an inventor (John McFarlane). Swindlers are trying to trick Pops out of his land, but Patsy comes to his aid, along with reuniting him with his long-lost daughter, Margaret (Marjorie Daw). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, Wallace Beery, (more)
