Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Movies
American actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was the son of film star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Fairbanks Jr. made his acting debut in 1923's Stephen Steps Out, which was remarkable only in how quickly it went out of circulation. Young Fairbanks was more impressive as Lois Moran's fiancé in 1926's Stella Dallas, though it did give Fairbanks Sr. pause to see his teenaged son sporting a Fairbanksian mustache. Even as a youth, Fairbanks' restlessness would not be satisfied by mere film work; before he was 20 he'd written an amusing article about the Hollywood scene for Vanity Fair magazine. In 1927, Fairbanks appeared in a stage play, Young Woodley, which convinced detractors that he truly had talent and was not merely an appendage to his father's fame. When talking pictures came in, he demonstrated a well-modulated speaking voice and as a result worked steadily in the early 1930s. Married at that time to actress Joan Crawford, Fairbanks was a fixture of the Tinseltown social whirl, but he had a lot more going for him than suspected; in 1935 he offered the earliest evidence of his sharp business savvy by setting up his own production company, Criterion Films--the first of six such companies created under the Fairbanks imprimatur.Fairbanks had his best role in 1937's The Prisoner of Zenda, in which he was alternately charming and cold-blooded as the villainous Rupert of Hentzau. Upon his father's death in 1939, Fairbanks began to extend his activities into politics and service to his country. He helped to organize the Hollywood branch of the William Allen White Committee, designed to aid the allied cause in the European war. From 1939 through 1944, Fairbanks, ever an Anglophile, headed London's Douglas Voluntary Hospitals, which took special care of war refugees. Fairbanks was appointed by President Roosevelt to act as envoy for the Special Mission to South America in 1940, and one year later was commissioned as a lieutenant j.g. in the Navy. In 1942 he was chief officer of Special Operations, and in 1943 participated in the allied invasion of Sicily and Elba. Fairbanks worked his way up from Navy lieutenant to commander and finally, in 1954 to captain.
After the war's end, the actor spent five years as chairman of CARE, sending food and aid to war-torn countries. How he had time to resume his acting career is anybody's guess, but Fairbanks was back before the cameras in 1947 with Sinbad the Sailor, taking up scriptwriting with 1948's The Exile; both films were swashbucklers, a genre he'd stayed away from while his father was alive (Fairbanks Sr. had invented the swashbuckler; it wouldn't have been right for his son to bank on that achievement during the elder Fairbanks' lifetime). Out of films as an actor by 1951 (except for a welcome return in 1981's Ghost Story), Fairbanks concentrated on the production end for the next decade; he also produced and starred in a high-quality TV anthology, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents (1952-55), which belied its tiny budget with excellent scripts and superior actors. Evidently the only setback suffered by Fairbanks in the last forty years was his poorly received appearance as Henry Higgins in a 1968 revival of My Fair Lady; otherwise, the actor managed to retain his status as a respected and concerned citizen of the world, sitting in with the U.S. delegation at SEATO in 1971 and accruing many military and humanitarian awards. He also published two autobiographies, The Salad Days in 1988 and A Hell of a War in 1993. Fairbanks, Jr. died on May 7, 2000, of natural causes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1925
Square-jawed Jack Holt and ornery Noah Beery were the stars of Paramount's popular Zane Grey adaptations. Their best efforts were probably their first two films, the epic Wanderer of the Wasteland and North of 36 (both in 1924). Although lesser in scope, Wild Horse Mesa was filmed on breathtaking locations in Colorado and featured a herd of beautiful wild horses. Holt plays Chayne Weymer, who is obsessed with capturing Panguitch, king of the wild stallions. He is opposed to the local ranchers' use of barbed wire, and an epic fight ensues. Wild Horse Mesa is best known today for featuring a brief performance by Gary Cooper, who also appeared, again very briefly, in Paramount's following Grey Western, The Enchanted Hill (1926). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Noah Beery, Sr., (more)
- 1925
One of the silent era's most popular tearjerkers, this soapy melodrama was adapted by legendary screenwriter Frances Marion from the 1923 novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. Belle Bennett stars as Stella Dallas, a small town girl who is devastated by her father's death and quickly marries the upper class Stephen Dallas (Ronald Colman), with whom she has nothing in common. After the birth of a daughter, Laurel, the Dallases go their separate ways, Stephen returning to New York. As Laurel (Lois Moran) grows into a spirited young woman, Stella realizes that Stephen can provide their daughter countless opportunities she'll never have while living with a destitute single mother, and so Stella makes a selfless sacrifice and sends Laurel to live with Stephen and his new family. Stella Dallas (1925) would later be remade at least twice, its most beloved and famous version being the 1937 King Vidor classic starring Barbara Stanwyck in the title role. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Ronald Colman, (more)
- 1925
By using a borrowed medal, Russ Kane, a crook (Warner Baxter), is able to get a job as an air mail pilot. His plan is to steal some valuable cargo, but soon enough the job begins to have a positive effect on him. When his plane has to make a force landing, he meets Alice Rendon (Billie Dove, who was also the wife of director Irvin Willat). His love for Alice encourages him to go straight. When Alice's invalid father (George Irving) needs medicine, Kane flies to get it, but on his return the craft is pursued by two renegade airplanes. Kane's young friend, Sandy (a very fresh-faced Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), saves the valuable cargo by parachuting out of the plane while holding it. On the ground, three escaped prisoners have taken over Alice's home. The sheriff's posse wipes out the bad guys while Kane destroys the outlaw planes, and Sandy achieves his dream by flying the mail to the next station. Back in 1924 and 1925, the concept of air mail was still very novel (it only took three days to get the mail across country instead of six -- an impressive feat in those days). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Billie Dove, (more)
- 1923
Paramount gave their newest star, an adolescent Douglas Fairbanks Jr., every advantage in his film debut. As support, young Fairbanks had some of the best talent from the studio's stock company, including renowned scene-stealer Theodore Roberts and Harry Myers, who had recently impressed in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The young actor himself received polite notices for his performance as Stephen Harlow Jr., who fails a class in Turkish history, and, as a result, can't graduate from college. His irate father, Stephen Sr. (Roberts), who has endowed the college, sends his boy to Turkey to learn some history firsthand and fires the professor, Mr. Gilman (James O. Barrows). When he discovers that professor Gilman has been discharged, Stephen Jr. becomes determined to get him his job back -- but first he gets involved in a Turkish revolution, led by the villainous Muley Pasha (Noah Beery Sr.), and rescues the sultan's son (Pat Moore). For his heroic acts, Stephen Jr. receives the Grand Cross of the Crescent, and he sends it to Gilman, claiming that it is for books he wrote on Turkish history. The college, seeing that Gilman is a man of prominence and distinction, reinstates him, and Stephen returns home to a proud father. This film was based on Richard Harding Davis' adventure story The Grand Cross of the Crescent. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Theodore Roberts, (more)
