Claude Payton Movies

The first of five Guinn "Big Boy" Williams Westerns produced by low-budget Beacon Pictures, Thunder Over Texas remains one of the decade's more obscure sagebrush melodramas. Written by Sherle Castle, the film was directed by her soon-to-be husband, legendary cult figure Edgar G. Ulmer, who moonlighted as "John Warner" in order to fool his employers at Universal. Big Boy plays Ted Wright, a cowboy who adopts a little girl, Tiny (Helen Westcott), after her father is killed in a struggle over valuable railroad maps. When several attempts to get hold of the maps fail, crooked banker Bruce Laird (Claude Payton) and his cohort, the even more crooked sheriff (Philo McCullough), kidnap the little girl who is, of course, saved in the nick of time by Ted and pretty schoolmarm Helen Mason (Marion Shilling). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Ken Maynard searches for a wayward youngster in this average Western from his days with low-budget KBS Productions. A rancher turned miner, Ken promises lovely Helen Clark (Helen Mack) to be on the lookout for her rebellious brother Morton (Paul Fix), who has gone missing since heading west from Kansas City. Catching up with the youngster, Ken hires him to work on his mine and later assigns him to trade in their gold for cash. But after losing the earnings in a crooked poker game, Morton is blackmailed by nasty Sam Goss (Roy Stewart) into robbing the Fargo Express stagecoach. Ken attempts to cover for him but Morton is apprehended by the sheriff (William Desmond) and thrown in jail. Fearing that Morton will name him as an accomplice, Goss springs the young man from jail, intending to silence him after recovering the stolen money. Ken, meanwhile, convinces the sheriff that Morton was forced into a life of crime, and after a climactic fight, Goss is handed over to the posse. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Robust silent screen cowboy Art Acord played "Side Show" Saunders, a dog and pony show operator who takes a job as a store clerk in this average Universal "Blue Streak Western." At the general store, Saunders gets acquainted with lovely Holly Farrell (Olive Hasbrouck), so much so, in fact, that Holly's fiancée, Burke Tanner (Claude Payton), takes umbrage. Well aware of a possibly rich strike at Holly's Queen Mine, Tanner lures Saunders to a deserted hut, leaving the clerk bound and gagged to starve to death. The irrepressible Saunders, however, manages to alert his former co-stars, the horse Buddy and the dog Rex, who loosen a boulder which smashes into the hut thereby freeing Side Show. With not a moment to spare, Saunders arrives at the Queen Mine to save Holly from the evil Tanner. One of the young cowboys appearing in this film, Curley Witzel, showed so much promise that Universal starred him in a series of Western 2-reelers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

As reward for saving a girl (Lotus Thompson) from quicksand, Fred Humes gets a job on her ranch. One problem, though: he is afraid of horses due to some childhood trauma. Because of that unwelcome phobia, Humes had been fired by haughty rancher Claude Payton. Payton owns the water rights in the valley and is trying to force Thompson's father (Buck Connors) off his land. Motivated by revenge and a newfound love for the girl he saved, Humes conquers his fears and wins the Big Race to save the day. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

"God Damn" O'Day (William Desmond) swears off gambling after he is falsely accused of murdering the husband of a saloon vamp, Denver Nell (Marguerite Clayton). Escaping from jail, God Damn manages to track down the real killer and later celebrates his good fortune by changing his name to "Good Deed" O'Day. If nothing else, this typical oater, filled with reliable veterans of the genre, proved that you could actually use the phrase "God damn" with impunity in 1925. Such language was rejected by the censors ten years later and "damn" wasn't heard again until Rhett Butler's famous closing line in Gone With the Wind (1939). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The feud between cattle ranchers and sheep men took center stage once again in this fairly effective Jack Hoxie western. Hoxie is the foreman on one of those despised sheep ranches. When a neighboring cattleman (William Welsh) is found murdered, Hoxie finds himself the prime suspect. The real killer, however, is Hoxie's employer (Claude Payton), who not only desired the neighbor's ranch for his sheep but also the dead man's niece (Lillian Rich) for a wife. Based on a story by pulp writer William McLeod Raine, this typical silent oater was directed by one of the best in the business, Robert North Bradbury. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Suffering from shell-shock, returning war veteran Jack Hoxie is falsely accused of being a criminal in this typical silent oater from the Universal salt mines. Unscrupulous Gentleman Harry" King (Claude Payton) has concocted the scheme in order to gain access to Hoxie's inheritance. A veteran stock company actor who began his long screen career in the early 1910s with the Thanhouser Company of New Rochelle, New York, Claude Payton continued to menace cowboy stars until his retirement in the late 1930s. Appearing in a minor role as a tramp was Jack Hoxie's younger brother Al Hoxie, here billed as "Alton Stone." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

About the only thing that separated this Northwoods drama from the other several dozen that were released during 1922 was that this one took place in the summer, hence there are no snow scenes. Oddly, while the heroine wears lightweight dresses, all the men sport knitted caps and heavy jackets, as if they're waiting for a wayward snowstorm. Buck Jones -- still being billed as Charles Jones -- takes a break from his usual Western fare here, but this picture certainly didn't do his career any good. It's so loaded with clichés that when one of the opening title cards reads, "a tale of love and duty in the Northwest," the whole audience probably could fill in the details for themselves: Trooper O'Neil (Jones) is out to get his man -- in this case, whoever murdered Jacob Dell. He poses as a trapper and heads for Saskatchewan country, where he meets and falls in love with Marie (Beatrice Burnham). Dell had ruined Marie's sister Celeste, so the suspects boil down to either her brother Paul (Jack Rollens) or Celeste's suitor, Pierre (Francis McDonald). But then evidence indicates that the killer would have a wound on the right side -- which Marie does. Torn between "love and duty," O'Neil chooses duty and arrests his sweetheart. But the real killer, Black Flood (Claude Payton) tries to murder O'Neil, and falls off a cliff in the ensuing chase. With his last gasps, he reveals that he did in Dell, so the very understanding Marie is reunited with her Mountie. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Handsome Lester Cuneo, formerly of the Tom Mix stock company, advertised himself as "The Smiling Daredevil" in the hopes of becoming a viable rival to his former employer, Mix. He never came close, but some of the Cuneo westerns did have some merits, especially The Masked Avenger. Cuneo plays a carefree rancher who's suddenly faced with a series of cattle rustlings. To catch the rustlers, the rancher dons the disguise of a masked avenger, foraging into the moonlit prairie nights in search of his prey. Cuneo -- or screenwriters Henry McCarty and Leo Meehan -- had undoubtedly the Zorro legend in mind when they assembled this western. The film did benefit from an above-average supporting cast that included Mrs. Wallace Reid (AKA Dorothy Davenport), the wife and soon-to-be widow of one of the era's great matinee-idols. Reid's son, Billy, had a supporting role. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The story of vagabond poet Francois Villon was made into a play in 1901 by Justin Huntly McCarthy and in 1927 as a musical, The Vagabond King, by Rudolph Friml and Brian Hooker. The original play starred E.H. Sothern; celluloid Villons have included John Barrymore and Ronald Coleman. This version of Villon's life stars William Farnum and was directed by J. Gordon Edwards. The plotline covers familiar terrain -- in his effort to get the peasants to battle against the Burgundians, King Louis XI (Fritz Leiber) temporarily makes Villon the ruler of France. Betsy Ross Clarke plays Katherine, the king's ward who comes to love Villon. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

By mid-1919, Theda Bara's career was on its downslide. The release of A Woman There Was all but killed it. This was a very weak attempt at casting her as something other than a "vampire." The plot was silly and dated -- Bara plays Princess Zara, who lives on a South Sea Island. A handsome young missionary (William B. Davidson) arrives and there is a romance, which is hindered by various complications including a poorly-staged typhoon. Zara is accidentally stabbed and killed, and the missionary goes home to the white girl who is waiting for him at home in England. Apparently this film no longer exists, but stills for it show Bara looking her worst -- she is overweight and her primitive costumes and wig make her look especially dumpy. It was the last film she made with director J. Gordon Edwards -- a sorry end to what was, overall, a very profitable working relationship. The films Bara and Edwards made together formed the peak of both their careers. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although some purists hold out for Duck Soup (1933), many Marx Brothers fans consider A Night at the Opera the team's best film. Immediately after the credits roll, we are introduced to Groucho Marx as penny-ante promoter Otis B. Driftwood. After a sumptuous dinner with a beautiful blonde at a fancy Milan restaurant, Driftwood tries to cadge another free meal from his wealthy patroness, Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont). The dignified dowager complains that Driftwood had promised to get her into high society, but has done nothing so far. Otis B. counters by introducing Mrs. C to pompous opera entrepreneur Gottleib (Sig Rumann); all Mrs. Claypool has to do is invest several hundred thousand dollars in Gottleib's opera company, and her entree into society is in the bag. Contingent upon this plan is Driftwood's signing of Rodolfo Lassparri (Walter Woolf King), a self-important tenor. Backstage at the opera, Driftwood meets Fiorello (Chico Marx), who poses as a manager and offers to sell Driftwood the "world's greatest tenor"-not Lassparri, as Driftwood assumes, but Fiorello's pal Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones). Instantly the two sharpsters try to draw up a contract ("The party of the first part shall hereafter be known as the party of the first part..."), which they proceed to tear up piece by piece whenever coming across a clause that displeases them (Driftwood: "That's a sanity clause"; Fiorello: "You no foola me. There ain't no Sanity Claus"). Having lost Lassparri to Gottleib, Driftwood sails back to America with Mrs. Claypool and the opera company. Gottleib arranges for Driftwood to get the tiniest, least accessible stateroom on the ship. Unpacking his trunk, Driftwood discovers that he's got to share his postage-stamp quarters with Ricardo Baroni, who has stowed away because he's in love with the opera troupe's leading lady Rosa (Kitty Carlisle). Also hiding out in Driftwood's trunk is Fiorello, who's come along because he's still Ricardo's manager, and the wacky Tomasso (Harpo Marx), Lassparri's former dresser, who has come along for the hell of it. Anxious to arrange a tete-a-tete with Mrs. Claypool in his stateroom, Otis finds out that his unwelcome guests won't leave until they're fed ("Do you have any stewed prunes? Well, give them some black coffee, that'll sober 'em up"). After ordering a huge dinner, Otis and his new friends are crowded even farther by a steady stream of intruders, including an engineer and his assistant, a cleaning lady, a manicurist, a girl looking for her Aunt Minnie, and a dozen waiters. The celebrated "stateroom scene" comes to a rollicking conclusion when Mrs. Claypool has the misfortune of opening the door. On the last night of the voyage, Fiorello, Tomasso and Ricardo sneak out of their stateroom to enjoy an impromptu ethnic festival in steerage. Ricardo sings, Fiorello "shoots the keys" on the piano, and Tomasso plays the film's theme song Alone on the harp. The stowaways are caught and thrown in the brig, but with Driftwood's help they escape. To avoid recapture, the stowaways don heavy beards and pose as three famed Russian aviators. After making a shambles of a public reception, the three reprobates hide out in Driftwood's New York apartment, where everyone conspires to drive an investigating detective (Robert Emmet O'Connor) crazy. Driftwood is fired from the opera company for associating with the stowaways, while Rosa is dismissed for refusing Lassparri's affections. In order to restore Rosa's job and put the deserving Ricardo in Lassparri's place during the opening performance of La Traviata, Driftwood, Fiorello and Tomasso concoct a scheme that will reduce the opera to comic chaos. The actual night at the opera in A Night at the Opera must be seen to be believed, but the spirit of the scene can be summed up by Gottleib's anguished cry "A battleship in Il Trovatore!" Opera was the Marx Brothers' first film for MGM, and they dearly coveted a hit after the disappointing box-office showing of their final Paramount films. With the blessing of MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, the Marxes went on the road with their brilliant writing staff (including George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Al Boasberg) to test their comedy material before live audiences. As a result of this careful preplanning, Night at the Opera was a smash-hit gigglefest, grossing over $3 million and putting the Marxes back on top in the hearts and minds of filmgoers everywhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide