Fay Wray Movies
The daughter of a Canadian rancher, Fay Wray was raised in California. While attending Hollywood High School, Wray appeared in the annual Pilgrimage Play. Exhilarated by this brush with show business, she decided to try her luck as a film actress, and spent the next few months leaving her pictures and resumé with various studio casting agencies. She managed to land a few western ingenue roles and a handful of bit parts in Hal Roach's 2-reel comedies, but full stardom didn't come her way until 1928, when she was selected by Erich Von Stroheim to play the main female lead in The Wedding March. This led to a contract with Paramount Pictures, where she was briefly groomed as one-half of a romantic screen team with Gary Cooper. Surviving the talkie explosion, she continued working steadily into the early 1930s, appealingly conveying what one biographer would describe as "the contradictory qualities of virtue and sex appeal."Beginning in 1932, Wray developed into the talkie era's first "scream queen," playing the imperiled heroine in five back-to-back horror/fantasy classics. In Doctor X (1932), Vampire Bat (1933) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), she was cast opposite the satanic-featured Lionel Atwill, playing his daughter in the first-named film and his intended victim in the remaining two. In The Most Dangerous Game, Wray and Joel McCrea were hunted down like animals by demented sportsman Leslie Banks. And then came Fay's opportunity to play opposite "the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood"--King Kong (1933). It was in this film that the auburn-haired Wray donned a blonde wig to portray Ann Darrow, the wide-eyed, writhing, screaming object of the Mighty Kong's affections. While King Kong is the film for which Wray will always be remembered (as late as 1996, she was still making annual pilgrimages to the Empire State Building to commemorate the anniversary of the film's premiere), it must be noted that she was certainly capable of playing roles with more depth and dimension than Ann Darrow. She was excellent as Gary Cooper's bitchy ex-flame in One Sunday Afternoon (1933) and as a dim-witted, voracious artist's model in The Affairs of Cellini (1934). Still, she felt typecast after King Kong, and in 1935 headed for England, hoping to find better film opportunities; instead, it was back to damsels in distress, most notably in the 1935 seriocomic thriller Bulldog Jack.
During her Hollywood heyday, Wray was married to screenwriter John Monk Saunders, but their marriage ended in 1937. After a lengthy romance with playwright Clifford Odets, Wray married again, this time to another screenwriter, Robert Riskin. When Riskin became seriously ill in the late 1940s, Wray retired from acting to care for her invalid husband. She returned before the cameras in 1953, co-starring with Paul Hartman and Natalie Wood in the TV sitcom Pride of the Family. After Riskin's death in 1955, she made a film comeback in character roles, most memorably as philandering psychiatrist Charles Boyer's long-suffering wife in The Cobweb (1955). Throughout her acting career, she also kept busy as a writer and musician, and at one point co-wrote a play with no less than Sinclair Lewis. Curtailing her professional activities after her third marriage to a Los Angeles physician, Wray retired after portraying Henry Fonda's sister in the 1980 TV movie Gideon's Trumpet. In 1989, Fay Wray published her long-awaited autobiography, an endearingly overwritten tome titled On the Other Hand. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Because of his portrayals of villainous Prussians in pictures such as Hearts of the World and The Heart of Humanity, Erich von Stroheim was already famous as "the man you love to hate." But Stroheim had also been quite busy behind the camera over the years, as an assistant director to D.W. Griffith and art director to Douglas Fairbanks. When he approached Carl Laemmle at Universal Studios with a screenplay entitled The Pinnacle, the mogul wasted no time in agreeing to let Stroheim both star and direct. The result was the auteur's first film, renamed Blind Husbands. In it, Stroheim shows deeper facets to his officer (this time an Austrian) who, underneath the elaborate trappings, is no gentleman. American couple Dr. and Mrs. Armstrong (Sam deGrasse and Francelia Billington) arrive at a retreat in the Alps at the same time as Lieutenant Erich von Steuben (Stroheim). The Lieutenant is a reckless and dissolute soul who sets his cap for Mrs. Armstrong. Since her husband is kindly but neglectful, she is easy prey. Their flirtation is watched over carefully by the guide Sepp (Gibson Gowland), who is indebted to the good doctor, and he manages to keep the wife away from the Lieutenant on the night the four of them spend together in a lodge. The next day when von Steuben and Dr. Armstrong climb the summit, a letter from Mrs. Armstrong falls out of von Steuben's pocket and a fierce battle between the two men takes place on the peak. The doctor cuts the rope binding the two men together, and for his sins, the Lieutenant falls to a terrible death. This picture introduces themes that carried throughout Stroheim's career -- the eternal triangle shows up in most of his films in one form or another, and the climatic struggle between the two men would be repeated in the director's flawed masterpiece, Greed (which starred Gowland as McTeague). The easy decadence and the careful attention to detail would also be constants. Even though this isn't anywhere close to his best work, Blind Husbands was one of the most impressive directorial debuts of all time -- "This picture is exceptional. It marks an epoch," spouted an enthusiastic Variety critic. Stroheim was poised at the dawning edge of the '20s, at ready to give the decade some of its most deliriously debauched dramatic moments. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam de Grasse, Francelia Billington, (more)
- 1925
Coast Patrol was a threadbare silent 5-reeler starring Kenneth MacDonald as an officer in the titular patrol. Nothing much happens really, except for a few misunderstandings, fistfights and boat chases. The film was, from all reports, well photographed; too bad there wasn't anything truly worth photographing. Spottiswoode Aitken, once one of the stalwarts of D.W. Griffith's stock company, is wasted in a minor role. If Coast Patrol has any distinction, it is that it served as one of the first leading-lady assignments for the very young Fay Wray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth MacDonald, Claire de Lorez, (more)
- 1925
Producer Hal Roach often claimed that Your Own Back Yard was his favorite of all the Our Gang silent comedies produced by his studio. The focus is on black youngster Allen "Farina" Hoskins, whose efforts to leave his own back yard and participate in the gang's activities are constantly rebuffed. Eventually, Farina not only gets his wish, but an unexpected financial windfall. Meanwhile, the other kids decide to become dentists, with the expected disastrous results when they spread dental cream on the mouths of their pet dogs. Originally released on September 27, 1925, Your Own Back Yard was long regarded as a lost film; only in the late 1970s did the film's second reel resurface, revealing that one of the supporting players was none other than Fay Wray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farina Hoskins, Mickey Daniels, (more)
- 1925
One of Charley Chase's co-stars in this comic short is Oliver Hardy. The two comedians knew each other from other studios, and Chase brought him to Hal Roach. He also is responsible for Stan Laurel coming to Roach, too. While it is likely that Laurel and Hardy would have wound up at the studio anyhow -- it was the best comedy studio at the time -- it is interesting to note that Chase had a hand in their fate. Chase plays a beleaguered husband who is in desperate need of a vacation. He wants to go camping, but his wife (Katherine Grant) wants to go on a cruise -- so does her lazy mooch of a brother, Remington (Hardy). It turns out that there is a contest, in which whoever sells the most fountain pens wins a cruise, so Charley decides to give it a try. At first he fails miserably; he climbs a huge flight of stairs (the same used in the Laurel and Hardy 1932 short The Music Box), only to be turned away by a housewife (Fay Wray) and attacked by an extremely small dog. But, somehow, Charley manages to win the cruise and he and his family are off -- except they accidentally leave their little girl behind. More disasters and mishaps happen on board the dilapidated ship (Charley mistakes a dinner bell for an alarm and thinks the boat is sinking, for example). Remington's presence also threatens to ruin the trip. But all ends well -- the ship makes it to port, and the couple's daughter has beaten them there. Best of all, the ship's steward (Lon Poff) informs Charley that Remington broke his leg and had to be shot. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charley Chase, Katherine Grant, (more)
- 1926
William Wyler directed this fairly good Art Acord vehicle that also featured a very young Fay Wray in the female lead. Cowboy Lance Lighton (Acord) is known as "Lazy Lightning" because he's capable of riding like the wind but chooses not to. Lance is snapped out of his lethargy when little Dickie Rodgers (Bobby Gordon) -- the kid brother of the lovely Lila Rogers (Wray) -- is stricken with a fatal illness. Mounting his horse and riding hell for leather, Lance races through a spectacular rainstorm to rush a vial of life-saving serum to Dickie's bedside. Once this is accomplished, our hero sets about to foil the villain (Arthur Morrison) and win the heroine, Lila. Of the many "lost" films of Art Acord, Lazy Lightning would be worth seeing again if only as an early example of the directorial expertise of William Wyler. Vin Moore, otherwise a busy director of Universal western 2-reelers, played the sheriff. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bobby Gordon, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1926
This typical Hoot Gibson Western starred the rumpled cowboy as Jeff Morgan, Jr., the son of a famous outlaw (Charles Hill Mailes) who, on his father's behest, looks into a series of hold-ups claimed to be part of a dude-ranch "package tour." Lawrence (Lloyd Whitlock) assures that the hold-ups are staged for the benefit of the tourists but is actually a real outlaw and in cahoots with one of the guests, city flapper Laura Mayhew (Sally Long). Gibson, however, with the assistance of lovely Pauline Stewart (Fay Wray), the daughter of the dude ranch owner (Emmett King), forces a confession out of Lawrence, who is arrested. Both Fay Wray and Sally Long were elected WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1926, but the similarities ended there. While Wray went on to cult status as King Kong's leading lady, Long retired in 1930 to marry composer Jean Schwartz. Another future star, Boris Karloff, earned a bit as one of the villain's henchmen in this film. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Directed by Ernst Laemmle, a nephew of the studio's diminutive owner, this typical Universal oater starred Fred Humes and newcomer Fay Wray. Humes plays a rancher whose homestead is threatened by the evil machinations of crooked neighbor Stephen Laban (Norbert Myles). When snobbish Millicent Delacey (Lotus Thompson) arrives from the East, Humes attempts to impress her by masquerading as the Duke of Black Butte, a visiting nobleman. Millicent and her social climbing mother (Julia Griffith) buy the disguise hook, line, and sinker, but the idyll is interrupted by Laban and his henchmen, who frames Humes in a bank robbery. With the help of local girl Robyna Roberts (Wray), the hero manages to catch the real culprits and clear his good name. No longer threatened by foreclosure, Humes can settle down peacefully, not with the Eastern snob, but married to Robyna. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Humes, Harry Todd, (more)
- 1927
Universal cowboy ace Art Acord once again rescued a damsel in distress from a runaway carriage in this well made silent Western. This time around, Acord played Pony Express rider Jack Marley, the damsel was Fay Wray, and the vehicle was a stagecoach. Mildred (Wray) is travelling West in search of her long-lost father when she catches the roving eye of wicked dance-hall proprietor "Hawk" Kent (Captain C.E. Anderson). She turns him down flat and Kent has his henchman Blaze (J. Gordon Russell) frame her in a crime. To keep herself out of jail, Mildred is compelled to work in Kent's dive, until the ever-gallant Jack once again comes to her rescue. Blaze offers to turn traitor and receives a bullet for his efforts. But before he expires, the ex-henchman reveals that he is Mildred's father. Still a relatively unknown starlet, Fay Wray was still little over four years away from her memorable encounter with King Kong. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Universal's rough-hewn Art Acord squared off against former real-life bandit Al Jennings in this 5-reel "Blue Streak" Western. Acord played Bud Harris, who returns from an adventure in the nearby oil fields to find the Vernon ranch encumbered with debts. Oil has been found on the spread, and nasty Bush (Jennings), who holds the mortgage, attempts to foreclose. In love with Molly Vernon (Fay Wray), Bud is about to enter a horse race to pay the debt and is kidnapped by Bush. Happily, Bud's horse manages to free his owner, and Bud wins the Big Race, saving the Vernon spread. A former lawyer turned bank robber, Al Jennings was given a pardon in 1907 and entered films the following year. After several moralistic re-enactments of his former life of crime, Jennings settled down to a career in supporting roles, almost always villainous in character. He retired in the '40s, spending the rest of his life raising chickens. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1928
Director William Wellman's follow-up to Wings was based in part on his own WWI experiences with the Lafayette Flying Corps. Four young men from various walks of life sign up for the French escadrille known as "The Legion of the Condemned." In essence, all four are running away -- from the law, from love, from themselves. Whenever a suicide mission comes up, the four men draw cards to see who will fly off to near-certain doom. With his best friend Byron Dashwood (Barry Norton) already haven died in combat, Gale Price (Gary Cooper) waxes fatalistic when he draws the high card next time around. As he prepares to drop a spy behind enemy lines, Gale flashes back to the events leading up to this moment -- specifically, to his ill-fated romance with Christine Charteris (Fay Wray), whom he has been led to believe is a German spy. Returning to the present, Gale discovers that his passenger is Christine, who is actually an operative in the French secret service. Before explanations can be exchanged, Gale is obliged to fly Christine to her rendezvous point. She is arrested as a spy and sentenced to be executed but is saved when the firing squad is decimated by a bombing raid, paving the way for a tender reunion with Gale. The screenplay for Legion of the Condemned was written by Wellman and his Wings collaborator John Monk Saunders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fay Wray, Gary Cooper, (more)
- 1928
This was the third screen version of A.E.W. Mason's oft-filmed novel about one soldier's triumph over cowardice and was the last rendering during the silent era. Here, Richard Arlen stars as Harry Faversham, the British officer who resigns rather than fight against rebels in Egypt. When four of his former colleagues present him with feathers signifying their belief that he's a coward, Faversham has a change of heart, and posing as an Arab, he goes on a potentially deadly mission to rescue captured British forces. Fay Wray also appears as Ethne Eustance. Wray and directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack would reunite four years later for another classic tale of adventure, King Kong. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1928
Street of Sin was the final American film of Scandinavian director Mauritz Stiller, whose inability to adapt to Hollywood (and vice versa) forced him to return to Sweden where he died, dispirited and disillusioned, not long after the release of this film. The story is set in the seamy Soho section of London, where burglar Basher Bill (Emil Jannings) shares bed and board with his sluttish girlfriend Annie (Olga Baclanova). As wicked as they come, Bill softens when he meets virtuous Salvation Army lass Elizabeth (Fay Wray). He helps her take care of a group of orphans, abandoned in the Army's care. The jealous Annie, assuming (correctly) that her boyfriend's interest in Elizabeth goes far beyond sympathy, betrays Bill to the cops. Mortally wounded in the climactic gun battle, Bill holds no grudge against Annie: in fact, as he breathes his last, he advises her to save her soul by joining the Salvation Army -- which she does! Since the film no longer exists, it is hard to tell whether Street of Sin was truly worthy of Stiller's talents; chances are, however, that Paramount heavily tampered with the film before its release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emil Jannings, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1928
Having alienated virtually all the major Hollywood studios, filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim turned to independent entrepreneur Pat Powers for funding for his 1927 epic The Wedding March. Set during the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg regime, the film stars director Von Stroheim as wastrelly Prince Nikki, who is advised by his parents to marry into money if he hopes to keep up his sumptuous lifestyle. During the Corpus Christi festival (much of which is lensed in early Technicolor), Nikki spots the beautiful peasant girl Mitzi (Fay Wray) in the crowd. The two fall in love, but happiness eludes them: Nikki is slated to marry the homely, clubfooted daughter (ZaSu Pitts) of a millionaire corn-plaster manufactuer, while Mitzi's erstwhile boy friend, a mean-spirited butcher (Matthew Betz) who despises the aristocracy, promises dire consequences to Nikki for compromising Mitzi. Despite his dissipated, debauched lifestyle, Prince Nikki develops into the most sympathetic character in the film. As it now exists, The Wedding March is one of Von Stroheim's best films; incredibly, it was originally the first half of a two-part production (the second half, The Wedding, no longer exists). Released by Paramount, the film did excellent business during its first week-then dropped off precipitously, one of several factors which caused an irreparable rift between Von Stroheim and his new benefactor Powers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erich Von Stroheim, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1929
Thunderbolt was Josef von Sternberg's first American talking picture. George Bancroft, a von Sternberg regular (despite frequents clashes between the two men), plays a death row inmate who may be on the eve of eternity, but who has still one more murder on his mind. He plans to kill the young lover (Richard Arlen) of his former girl friend (Fay Wray); fortuitously the lover is incarcerated in the same prison where Bancroft awaits the chair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Bancroft, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1930
In this convoluted drama, the jolly painted face of a circus clown is but a mask for an avaricious, ruthlessly ambitious, and deceitful man. Hap is performing in small New Orleans clubs when he saves the life of the starving Gardino, a member of a distinguished family of European clowns. Though impoverished and unemployed, Gardino is determined to avoid the family slapstick and become a "serious" performer of high-class clowning. Hap suggests they team up, but thanks to Gardino's refusal to do slapstick, their act is a dud. Gardino leaves in a huff. Later Hap finds his former partner performing Hap's proposed act with a new partner. He is doing quite well, and when he sees Hap, Gardino apologizes and they again team up. This time Gardino insists on star billing. To make matters worse, he steals Hap's girl and they marry. The honeymoon is barely over before Gardino is playing around with other women and gambling away all of their money. After his latest affair goes bust, Gardino grows despondent and so walks into the sea, never looking back. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hal Skelly, William Powell, (more)
- 1930
The search for sunken treasure provides the basis for this adventure that begins when a treasure hunter's dive is sabotaged. He is diving off the shore of a remote tropical island that is the scene of an inter island war between rival native bands. While he is underwater, enemy natives cut his air hose. He manages to survive and make it to the beach still wearing his cumbersome diving suit. The stunned local cannibals immediately hail him as a sea god. This ruse comes in handy when he finds that evil rival treasure hunters also inhabit the lush isle. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1930
William Powell was still in his tux-and-top-hat period when he starred in Pointed Heels. The scene is Broadway, where millionaire Robert Courtland (Powell) promises to back a new musical production on the proviso that bit player Lora Nixon (Fay Wray) be given a major role. Lora is appreciative but drops out of the show upon falling in love with younger millionaire Donald Ogden (Phillips Holmes). When Donald's mother cuts him off without a cent, Lora shows that she's true-blue after all by returning to the stage to support him. Still quite fond of Lora, Courtland arranges for her latest show, which threatens to be a flop, to become a hit by getting the show's pretentious stars drunk so that their attempts at high drama will be misinterpreted as comedy. Ungrateful Donald mistakenly believes that Lora is having an affair with her benefactor and walks out on his "unfaithful" wife, but with Courtland's help the two sweethearts are reunited at film's end. Pointed Heels was supposed to have been a vehicle for "boop-boop-a-doop" girl Helen Kane, but by the time the film was released, Kane's role was reduced to a supporting part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1930
The Border Legion (1930) is one of several cinemadaptations of the Zane Grey story of the same name. Jack Holt plays Jack Kells, a ruthless but essentially decent outlaw. Kells befriends straight-arrow border patrolman Jim Cleve (Richard Arlen), who is in love with heroine Joan Randall (Fay Wray). When Jim and Joan are threatened with imminent extermination, Kells nobly lays down his own life to save theirs. The production values of Border Legion were enhanced with yards and yards of stock footage from the 1924 silent version of the Zane Grey story (itself a remake of a 1919 film!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Jack Holt, (more)
- 1930
With a title like The Texan and a star like Gary Cooper, one might assume that this 1930 actioner is a western -- and one would be wrong! Set in 1885, the film stars Gary Cooper as Enrique, alias Quico, alias the Llano Kid. Whatever the name, he's a bold and daring bandit, and after shooting a young gambler in self-defense he's got a price on his head. Looking for a safe hideout, the Llano Kid agrees to a scheme hatched by a crooked lawyer named Thacker (Oscar Apfel). Our hero agrees to pose as the long-lost son of Mexican aristocrat Senora Ibarra (Emma Dunn), a role for which he is extensively coached by Thacker, who stands to collect a huge reward when he delivers the "son" to the old woman. Upon learning that the real son was the gambler he killed, the Llano Kid calls off the scheme, whereupon Thacker hires a band of thugs to steal Senora Ibarra's fortune. With the help of his long-time adversary, Bible-quoting sheriff John Brown (James Marcus), the Llano Kid foils Thacker's plan and in the bargain wins the hand of Senora Ibarra's lovely niece Consuelo (Fay Wray). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1931
A clever, slyly self-satirical screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur helps to make The Unholy Garden seem better than it is. The title refers to a Saharan oasis where a group of international crooks have converged, free from prosecution. Ronald Colman stars as gentleman thief Barrington Hunt, who rallies his fellow crooks together in a plan to divest a wealthy baron (Dudley Digges) of his fortune. Part of the scheme requires Hunt to make love to Fay Wray, the baron's lovely daughter, a task that proves pleasurable indeed. But Hunt hadn't counted on falling in love with Wray -- and when he does, it's "reformation and redemption" time, with our hero turning on and turning in his former pals. Among the reprobates within Hunt's orbit are such veteran screen heavies as Warren Hymer, Lucille LaVerne and Lawrence Grant, the latter chewing the scenery as a discredited doctor who keeps the skull of his murdered wife in a jar! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1931
In this western, three disreputable cowboys begin pursuing a beautiful lady because she possesses a map to a valuable gold mine. All three compete to win her hand because by law a wife must share all her belongings with her spouse. Despite their efforts, the woman falls in love with a decent fellow who takes her far from the three bad men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor McLaglen, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1931
Warner Bros.' Captain Thunder contains some of the darndest Mexican accents you've ever heard in your life. The star is Hungarian-born Victor Varconi, portraying a legendary south of the border outlaw who tries to force Canadian senorita Fay Wray to marry a rival rustler whom she despises. She pleads with the bandito so pathetically that he is moved to grant her a single wish. Without hesitation she chooses her poor but true love. The bandit king, being a somewhat honorable fellow grants the wish and without a twitch, guns down the wicked cattle thief. Fortunately the film was played for comedy, a wise decision since it probably would have garnered laughs as a straight drama anyway. No fewer than four writers worked on Captain Thunder, and that folks is never a good sign. The true "bandit" in this film was Jack Warner, who picked the pockets of those filmgoers who thought they were going to see a thrilling melodrama (or at least a film with a semblance of coherent plot). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Varconi, Fay Wray, (more)
