Johnny Mack Brown Movies

The Valiant began life as a one-act play by Holworthy Hall and Robert Middlemass. It is a stark little vaudeville piece about a convicted murderer who goes silently to his execution without ever revealing his true identity. Expanded to 65 minutes, The Valiant was filmed in 1929, starring Paul Muni in his first feature-film role. He plays a drifter with a clouded past who accidentally kills the key witness to a crime, then sacrifices himself to the law under an assumed name rather than disgrace his family. In this manner, Muni is certain that he's redeemed himself for his previous misdeeds--but a curious police inspector tries to probe his past. The Valiant was remade in 1940 as The Man Who Wouldn't Talk, with Lloyd Nolan in the Muni role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the great directors of the silent era, Victor Sjostrom, teamed with fellow Swede Greta Garbo for this drama. The great Garbo plays Marianne, a young woman from Brittany who was neglected by her impoverished parents. Marianne longs to be an actress and moves to Paris, where theatrical producer Henry Legrand (Lowell Sherman) takes her under his wing; Henry was romantically involved with Marianne's mother years ago and feels a semi-paternal affection for the young woman. Marianne falls in love with Lucien (Lars Hanson), a man who has deserted from the Army and is on the run from the law. To prove his devotion to her, Lucien steals a dress for Marianne, but this only attracts the police and Lucien winds up in jail. With Lucien behind bars, Henry's attentions become less friendly and more romantic, and Marianne must decide if she should wait for the man she loves or devote herself to the man who wants her. Sadly, no complete prints of The Divine Woman are known to exist; one reel of the eight-reel feature was discovered in a Russian film archive, but the remainder of the picture remains lost. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Flower-shop clerk Madge Norton (Madge Bellamy) loses her job because she won't fool around with her boss. Figuring that the only way to get anywhere in the world is to be bad, Madge tries to become a loose woman. Unfortunately, she is too good to be bad and is thwarted in her efforts to live a life of sin by her inherent moral fibre. Virtue is ultimately rewarded when Madge falls in love with clean-cut Bradley Lane (Johnny Mack Brown). Play Girl afforded the tired businessmen in the audience ample opportunity to see star Madge Bellamy in a variety of revealing outfits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In her last silent film, Norma Shearer plays Dolly, aka Angel Face, a young woman engaged in blackmailing rich libertines. Cheated out of her loot by a couple of former associates, Bradley (Lowell Sherman) and Gwen (Gwen Lee), Dolly commits a bit of larceny but manages to skip town with her latest victim, Steve Crandall (Johnny Mack Brown), a Southern-fried cement tycoon whom she hastily marries. But Steve turns out to be a pauper, his much vaunted plantation actually belonging to a neighbor, and Dolly's game is up when Brad and Gwen make an unannounced arrival. But Dolly has fallen in love with her poor but hardworking husband and is ready to take her punishment. Steve, meanwhile, convinces a judge to release Dolly into his custody and the lovers are reunited. A Lady of Chance was released with added dialogue scenes but none of them apparently featured Miss Shearer, who instead made her talkie debut in the courtroom melodrama The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Even those who can't recall the plot of the silent Our Dancing Daughters (and there admittedly isn't much to remember) can never forget the indelible images of Joan Crawford tearing loose with one Charleston after another. Since everyone in the film is rich, the wild parties that dominate Our Dancing Daughters are played out in the biggest mansions this side of Windsor castle. Jazz-baby Crawford is actually a good girl despite her hedonistic lifestyle. She wants to marry young millionaire Johnny Mack Brown, but he is tricked into marriage by deceitful Anita Page. After drinking herself blotto at a party, Anita brags about her subterfuge, then conveniently tumbles down a long flight of stairs to her death ("Poor little rich girl" is the general consensus of opinion amongst the many servants, though few in the audience are shedding any tears). Thus, Crawford is able at last to link up with Brown, presumably to live happily ever after. Released with synchronized music and sound effects, Our Dancing Daughters manages to convey the "noise" of the Roaring '20s without sound, relying instead on inserted shots of art-deco statuary and the bubbling-over performance of Joan Crawford in the role that made her a star. Crawford was reunited with her Dancing Daughters co-stars Anita Page and Dorothy Sebastian in two follow-up films (not sequels), Our Modern Maidens (1929) and Our Blushing Brides (1930). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular baseball films ever made, Slide, Kelly, Slide also solidified the stardom of MGM leading man William Haines. In his usual brash, cocky manner, Haines is cast as Jim Kelly, a self-styled baseball whiz who talks himself into a job with the New York Yankees. Though his boundless braggadocio is backed up by his talent on the baseball field, Kelly soon alienates himself from the rest of his teammates, who can't stand his arrogant behavior. Veteran Yankee catcher Tom Munson (Harry Carey) -- also the father of Kelly's sweetheart Mary (Sally O'Neil) -- tries to set the young upstart straight, but Kelly isn't interested. Upset because he feels the team isn't on his side, Kelly gets drunk on the eve of an important game in Chicago. Mary doesn't want him to get fired, so she hides him in her hotel room. When Tom shows up he tries to talk some sense into Kelly, but the hot-headed young player unleashes his invective on Tom, calling the aging player an old has-been in full earshot of the entire team. This shameful display thoroughly disillusions Yankee batboy Mickey (Junior Coghlan) who, up to that moment, worshipped Kelly.

After quitting the team, Kelly makes himself scarce during the deciding World Series game. When the team runs out of pitchers, little Mickey decides to seek out Kelly and beg him to return -- only to be struck down by a truck. Realizing that Mickey will recover only if he redeems himself, Kelly returns to the Yankee roster and scores the winning run without resorting to his usual show-off tactics. As the recovered Mickey is wheeled into Yankee Stadium, Kelly reverts to his old boastful self, but by now, everyone -- including Mary -- realizes that our hero is truly a reformed man. Filmed on location at the Yankee's spring training camp in Florida and at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field (one of the best minor-league stadiums in America), Slide, Kelly, Slide boasts cameo appearances from such real-life baseball luminaries as Mike Donlin, Irish Meusel, Bob Meusel, Tony "Poosh-em-Up" Lazzeri, and umpire John "Beans" Reardon. As a bonus, football-star-turned-actor Johnny Mack Brown makes his film debut in a one-scene bit part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Little Jackie Coogan, Charlie Chaplin's famous The Kid(1921), starred in this action melodrama from MGM as a young bugler whose stepmother (Claire Windsor) attempts to supplant the mother who only lives in his memory. According to the Motion Picture New Booking Guide, The Bugle Call, which apparently no longer exists, was set in a frontier cavalry post in the 1870s and also dealt with "Indians and adventure." Handsome Herbert Rawlinson played the romantic lead, with Tom O'Brien as a no-nonsense cavalry sergeant and Nelson McDowell and Sarah Padden as weather-beaten frontier types. The Bugle Call was directed by Edward Sedgwick, formerly of Hoot Gibson Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide