William Benedict Movies
Oklahoma-born William Benedict is fondly remembered by fans for his shock of unkempt blond hair; ironically, he lost his first job at a bank because he refused to use a comb. Stagestruck at an early age, the skinny, ever-boyish Benedict took dancing lessons while in high school and appeared in amateur theatricals. After phoning a 20th Century-Fox talent scout, the 17-year-old Benedict hitchhiked to Hollywood and won a film contract (if for no other reason than nerve and persistence). He appeared in the first of his many office-boy roles in his debut film, $10 Raise (1935), and spent the next four decades popping up in bits as bellboys, caddies, hillbillies, delivery men and Western Union messengers. He portrayed so many of the latter, in fact, that Western Union paid tribute to Benedict by giving him his own official uniform -- an honor bestowed on only one other actor, Benedict's lifelong friend Frank Coghlan Jr. (the two actors costarred in the 1941 serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel). In 1939, Benedict played a bicycle messenger in the Little Tough Guys film Call a Messenger; four years later he appeared with another branch of the Little Tough Guys clan, the East Side Kids, in Ghosts on the Loose. He remained with the Kids as "Skinny," then stayed on when the East Siders transformed into the Bowery Boys in 1946. As "Whitey," Benedict was the oldest member of the team, a fact occasionally alluded to in the dialogue -- though Leo Gorcey, two months younger than Benedict, was firmly in charge of the bunch. Benedict left the Bowery Boys in 1951, gradually easing out of acting; for several years, he worked as an assistant designer of miniature sets for movie special-effects sequences. He returned to performing in the 1960s, still playing the newsboy and delivery man roles he'd done as a youth. Film and TV fans of the 1970s might recall Billy Benedict as a world-weary croupier in the early scenes of The Sting (1973), and in the regular role of Toby the Informant on the 1975 TV series The Blue Knight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1935
Two of America's most distinguished humorists, Oklahoma's Will Rogers and Kentucky's Irvin S. Cobb, costar in Steamboat Round the Bend. Cobb isn't much of an actor, so it is Rogers who carries the comic weight of this fast-paced slice of Americana. Will uncharacteristically sticks to the script for most of the proceedings as the proprietor of a combination travelling waxworks and medicine show. The plot resolution hinges on a climactic steamboat race, in which Rogers' paddlewheeler is fed bit by bit into its own furnace when the fuel supply runs out. Steamboat Round the Bend was released posthumously after Rogers' sudden death, at which point Fox Studios tried unsuccessfully to create a "new" Will Rogers--in the form of his old friend and costar Irvin S. Cobb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Anne Shirley, (more)
- 1935
In a rare starring role, character comedian Edward Everett Horton is top-billed in Your Uncle Dudley. Horton is a civic-minded patsy who puts his own interests on the back burner so that he can help out his neighbors. In the true spirit of "No good deed goes unpunished," all Horton has to show for his efforts is a wallful of paper citations and a mountain of debts. Realizing that he has been taken advantage of by the less honest townsfolk, Horton does a "worm turns" scene, though he continues to extend generosity for the truly deserving. Your Uncle Dudley was based on a stage play by Howard Lindsay and Bertrand Robinson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Wilson, John McGuire, (more)
- 1935
Never mind the title and the musical content: College Scandal is at heart a murder mystery, and a pretty suspenseful one at that. Several mysterious killings have taken place at a co-ed college, and it looks as though there won't be anyone left alive to appear in the annual campus musical. The police, headed by the irascible Chief Magoun (William Frawley) are at a loss to solve the murders, so the students take it upon themselves to play detective. It is college cutie Sally Dunlap (Arline Judge) who discovers that the killing spree is related to the accidental death of a student during a long-ago fraternity hazing. The film's most startling moment occurs when music student Paul Gedney (Johnny Downs) is knocked off while singing his latest composition, ironically titled "In the Middle of a Kiss." College Scandal was remade in 1942 as Sweater Girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arline Judge, Kent Taylor, (more)
