Billy Bevan Movies
Effervescent little Billy Bevan commenced his stage career in his native Australia, after briefly attending the University of Sydney. A veteran of the famous Pollard Opera Company, Bevan came to the U.S. in 1917, where he found work as a supporting comic at L-KO studios. He was promoted to stardom in 1920 when he joined up with Mack Sennett's "fun factory." Adopting a bushy moustache and an air of quizzical determination, Bevan became one of Sennett's top stars, appearing opposite such stalwart laughmakers as Andy Clyde, Vernon Dent and Madelyn Hurlock in such belly-laugh bonanzas as Ice Cold Cocos (1925), Circus Today (1926) and Wandering Willies (1926). While many of Bevan's comedies are hampered by too-mechanical gags and awkward camera tricks, he was funny and endearing enough to earn laughs without the benefit of Sennett gimmickry. He was particularly effective in a series of "tired businessman" two-reelers, in which the laughs came from the situations and the characterizations rather than slapstick pure and simple. Bevan continued to work sporadically for Sennett into the talkie era, but was busier as a supporting actor in feature films like Cavalcade (1933), The Lost Patrol (1934) and Dracula's Daughter (1936). He was frequently cast in bit parts as London "bobbies," messenger boys and bartenders; one of his more rewarding talkie roles was the uncle of plumbing trainee Jennifer Jones (!) in Ernst Lubitsch's Cluny Brown (1946). Among Billy Bevan's final screen assignments was the part of Will Scarlet in 1950's Rogues of Sherwood Forest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Marie Prevost and George O'Hara are two newlyweds who go before a judge seeking a divorce in this slapstick comedy. His Honor (Charles Murray) sees photographic evidence from the wife with the husband's arms around another woman. He claims he was only helping the woman over the fence and he is being blackmailed by the unknown photographer. The judge recalls his experiences in a series of comical flashbacks before he makes his ruling on the couple's future. Billy Bevan masquerades as an attorney with Kalla Pasha and Eddie Gribbon his assistants. In one of his recollections, the judge finds himself in a lion's den in one of the trick-photography scenes. Ford Sterling is the haberdasher Milton Robin, with Phyllis Haver in the role of his wife and Fanny Kelly as the judge's wife. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Murray, Ford Sterling, (more)
- 1921
This hilarious slapstick comedy from Mack Sennett finds Sam Smith (Ben Turpin), the resident of a small town, accused of stealing. The jealous villain J. Wellington Jones (James Finlayson) orchestrated Sam's frame-up to keep him from wooing Mary (Phyllis Haver), the prettiest single girl in town. Sam moves to Hollywood where he meets movie-star Marcelle Mansfield (Marie Prevost). He manages to get into the film business and stars as a Roman gladiator, but his helmet keeps slipping down over his crossed eyes. He gets a job as a stuntman when he tries to kill himself and lands a part as a western hero. Sam returns to his hometown a celebrity, but Jones once again tries to discredit him and abduct Mary. Sam uses his acting skills to chase down the villain -- the ensuing chase destroying the entire town -- and save the damsel in distress. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Turpin, Phyllis Haver, (more)
- 1922
This feature-length comedy-melodrama was not one of the best from Mack Sennett, or his talented director, F. Richard Jones. Country boy Michael Flint (George O'Hara) arrives in the city to seek his fortune. He's a bit better off than your average naïve youth because he has a letter of introduction to his rich Uncle James (Noah Beery). The connection pays off and Michael gets a job in uniform -- as a street cleaner. Nevertheless, he finds himself pursued by various females, including his landlady (Dot Farley), who somehow manages to become engaged to him. Michael is somehow able to break the engagement, but then his uncle is reported killed and he becomes entangled with a mercenary vamp, Grace St. Clair (Ethel Grey Terry), who involves him in a breach of promise suit. Meanwhile, Michael has fallen in love for real with debutante Ruth Anthony (Kathryn McGuire, who later became Buster Keaton's co-star in Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator). Luckily for the hapless young man, Uncle James shows up very much alive. Michael wins Ruth's hand by saving her father (Herbert Standing) from financial ruin. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethel Grey Terry, Robert Cain, (more)
- 1923
Mabel Normand's last feature-length film is also one of her most entertaining. Sue Graham (Normand) lives in the tiny hamlet of River Bend. When her parents (George Nichols and Anna Hernandez) refuse to let her marry her sweetheart, Dave Giddings (Ralph Graves), she enters a movie contest and wins. But Sue finds stardom in Hollywood very elusive and winds up working in the wardrobe department at a studio. She convinces her parents to sell everything they have to join her in Hollywood, but they are taken in by a swindler and lose all their money. Giddings comes out to help Sue get a better job, but she is determined to track down the swindler and get the money back. Eventually she is successful and everyone returns to River Bend. Normand has one of her most memorable comic moments when she leads a lion around on a leash, fully convinced it is a dog in disguise. Shortly after this picture was released, Normand was involved in a scandal in which her chauffeur shot a male friend with whom she had been drinking. After the 1921 murder scandal involving her colleague Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and the unsolved killing of her good friend, director William Desmond Taylor in 1922, this was the last straw. A number of states banned her from the screen (Ohio's attorney general remarked, "This film star has been entirely too closely connected with disgraceful shooting affairs.") Producer Mack Sennett released Normand from her contract and her career never recovered. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Nichols, Anna Hernandez, (more)
- 1924
With its racy title and emphasis on jazz parties and youth, this romantic drama was a typical mid-'20s release. But being an early release from the newly formed MGM, it also featured a great cast, headed by the suave Adolphe Menjou. Menjou plays Arthur Merrill, whose fast lifestyle has made him old before his time. Through Dr. Eustace (Jean Hersholt) and the miracles of modern medicine, he is able to obtain a rejuvenation treatment which restores his lost youth. Merrill has met thoroughly modern flapper Penelope Stevens (Eleanor Boardman) and wants to win her. After he lures her to his apartment and discovers that she's a "nice girl," he can't help but give her a fatherly lecture for her behavior. Then it turns out he really is a father; Brock Farley (Conrad Nagel) arrives from Ohio with a letter proving that he is Merrill's son. Penelope and Farley fall in love, and Merrill decides he's better off acting his own age. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Eleanor Boardman, (more)
- 1924
Madge Bellamy and John Bowers (who appeared together a year or so earlier in Lorna Doone) have the leads in this moving drama. Hattie Lou Harkness (Bellamy) can no longer stand living in the country with her Aunt Cynthia (Ethel Wales), so she runs away and gets a job as a maid for the wealthy Van Gore family. One of the Van Gore sons, Spencer (Hallam Cooley), takes Hattie on board his yacht and has the captain stage a mock wedding. When Hattie learns of the trick, she leaves, and later on gives birth. She hears that the yacht has wrecked and everyone on board was lost, so she returns to the Van Gore home, posing as Spencer's wife. She meets Grant Van Gore, an invalid from the war (Bowers), and they fall in love. Spencer, who had been trapped on an island, is found and returns home. It turns out that his marriage to Hattie is binding, since the captain made sure the yacht was beyond the three-mile limit when he performed the ceremony. Spencer is conveniently killed when the Van Gore home burns down, so Hattie is able to be with Grant. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madge Bellamy, John Bowers, (more)
- 1925
This film from 1925 features Billy Bevan trying to deal with radio-controlled Model-T Fords. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Easy Pickings was one of a rash of "old dark house" comedies produced in the wake of 1926's The Bat. This time Mary Ryan (Anna Q. Nilsson) and Peter Van Horne (Kenneth Harlan) become trapped in a forbidding mansion festooned with sinister types and supposed ghosts. Questionable comedy relief is provided by black actor Zack Williams, who as a household servant named Rastus runs the gamut of demeaning "scared darkie" routines. Sennett comedian Billy Bevan, minus his trademarked walrus moustache, is effective as the detective on the case. Easy Pickings was adapted from a play by Paul A. Cruger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Q. Nilsson, Philo McCullough, (more)
- 1928
These vintage silent comedies from Mack Sennett include A Strong Revenge (1913) A Sea Dog's Tale (1926), Sailor, Beware (1927) and The Channel Swimmer (1928). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1928
All evidence suggests that Riley the Cop was a delightful vehicle for John Ford "regular" J. Farrell McDonald. New York policeman James Riley is asked to retrieve neighborhood boy Joe Smith (David Rollins), who skipped town after being falsely accused of theft and is now living a sinful life in Berlin. It isn't long before Riley himself succumbs to charms of the German metropolis, whereupon he magnanimously allows Joe to stay in Berlin long enough to win the heart of aristocratic Mary Coronelli (Nancy Drexel). Riley himself also finds romance, in the form of gawky German damsel Lena (Louise Fazenda). Little does he realize that Lena is the sister of his hated rival -- police officer Hans Krausmeyer (Harry Schultz). If the synopsis is any indication, the present unavailability of this John Ford comedy is a real loss. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Farrell MacDonald, Louise Fazenda, (more)
- 1929
The Trespasser was Gloria Swanson's first all-talking picture. All talk is right. Swanson plays a humble secretary who marries the son (Robert Ames) of a domineering millionaire (William Holden--no, not that William Holden). The father-in-law bullies Swanson into giving up his son; she agrees to step out of his life, proudly withholding the fact that she's about to become a mother. Later, Swanson enters her ex-husband's social class via an inheritance. Unfortunately, he's remarried to Kay Hammond, who is crippled and thus more needful of the man's love and comfort than self-reliant Swanson. Tearfully, Swanson gives up the man she loves, left only with her child and a bulging bank account. When Trespasser was remade by director Edmund Goulding as That Certain Woman with Bette Davis in 1937, a last-minute happy ending was tacked on--if one can call the death of wife number two a joyous event. As for the original film, Gloria Swanson proved (contrary to the popular belief engendered by Sunset Boulevard) that she could have been just as big a star in talkies as she'd been in silents (she even sings well); unfortunately her subsequent judgment in screenplay selection resulted in a string of flops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Swanson, Robert Ames, (more)
- 1929
In this wartime adventure, a wealthy young pilot strays from his mission and stops to say good bye to his girl friend. Unfortunately his plane crashes and he is left paralyzed from the waist down. To make matters worse, while he recuperates, his character comes under close scrutiny. Eventually he recovers both the use of his legs and his good name. He does the latter when he saves London from a German zeppelin attack. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Chandler, John Garrick, (more)
- 1929
In one of her first talking pictures, Carole Lombard played a girl crook falling in love with a handsome lineman (William Boyd) while marooned during a snow storm. Crossing the High Sierras in a bus, a group of travelers find themselves stranded in a small village and at the mercy of Bill Dougherty (Boyd), a lineman who apportions them a small amount of food. Despite warnings from detective Dan Egan (Owen Moore), Billie Davis (Lombard), the girl crook, falls in love with Bill, who turns out to be an escaped convict. Briefly planning to flee, Bill and Billie decide to serve their sentences and share a happier future together. High Voltage was produced by Pathé and featured blonde newcomer Diane Ellis as a young girl en route to her wedding. Ironically, Ellis died less than a year later from a rare tropical disease while honeymooning in India. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
