Victor Fleming Movies
An assistant cameraman for director Allan Dwan in the early teens, Victor Fleming was a director of photography by 1915, and worked under D.W. Griffith's supervision as well as for Dwan on several films with Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks also starred in Fleming's first two films as a director: 1919's When the Clouds Roll By, co-directed by Theodore Reed, and his solo effort of the following year, The Mollycoddle. Fleming helmed several rugged actioners in the 1920s, and became a reliable craftsman of impersonal but handsome films at MGM in the 1930s. Skilled at films for young audiences--Treasure Island, Captains Courageous, The Wizard of Oz--Fleming was also a favorite director of actor Clark Gable, and having guided him in Red Dust (1932) and Test Pilot (1938), was brought in to take over the direction of Gone with the Wind (1939). His most notable films of the '40s were the Spencer Tracy films Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1941), Tortilla Flat (1942), and A Guy Named Joe (1944), and his final film, Joan of Arc (1948), starring Ingrid Bergman. ~ All Movie Guide- 1917
Rancher Warren Bronson (Herbert Standing) is plagued by cattle rustlers, so he gets Western detective Fancy Jim Sherwood (Douglas Fairbanks) on the case. Fancy Jim disguises himself as an Eastern wimp and easily discovers that Bull Madden (Frank Campeau) is the head of the rustlers. Jim also falls in love with Jane Forbes (Eileen Percy), a school teacher who has been harassed by Madden. Before rounding up the rustlers and getting the girl, Fairbanks gives full reign to his usual stunts -- climbing up the sides of buildings, mounting a dashing horse, and other leaps and bounds. This wasn't a stand-out vehicle for the athletic star, but according to reviews of the day it was entertaining nevertheless. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Daydreaming clerk Douglas Fairbanks discovers that he's of royal blood. In fact, if his information is correct, he's next in line for the throne of Vulgaria. Leaving his job behind, Fairbanks travels to the home of his forefathers to quell a takeover attempt by villainous nobleman Frank Campeau. He saves the day with his usual eye-popping athletics...and then screenwriters John Emerson (who also directed) and Anita Loos pull a fast one on the audience. Among the bit players in Reaching for the Moon are Erich von Stroheim and Douglas Fairbanks' friend and "mascot" Charlie "Injun" Stevens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Douglas Fairbanks recalls James M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton in the 1917 silent Down to Earth. Billy Gaynor (Fairbanks) takes over an asylum where his girl, Ethel (Eileen Percy), is resting after a supposed nervous breakdown. "Doctor" Gaynor realizes that Ethel is perfectly healthy; all that's wrong with her is that she has become soft and spoiled thanks to modern living and too-rigid adherence to passing fads and foibles. He arranges for Ethel and the rest of the hypochondriac patients to take an ocean voyage, then stages a shipwreck, forcing these pampered creatures to fend for themselves on a "desert island" (actually a wooded glade just off a main California highway). Sunshine and hard work does more good for the patients than all the psychiatrists and so-called experts in the world. Having proven his point, Billy claims his girl and bids the other patients a jaunty farewell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
The Good Bad Man is at once a straight western and a gentle spoof of the genre. Douglas Fairbanks plays a fellow who calls himself "Passin' Through." Orphaned at birth, Our Hero grows up to be a Robin-Hood-like bandit, robbing the rich so that he can finance a home for unwanted children. In this guise, he meets Bud Fraser (Sam DeGrasse), the man who killed his father. Bessie Love plays the obligatory heroine, who frankly hasn't much to do in the proceedings. The Good Bad Man was directed by frequent Fairbanks collaborator Allan Dwan; it was photographed by Victor Fleming, who later became an excellent director in his own right (one of his 1930s films was a little something called Gone with the Wind). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
