Bernard McConville Movies

Story has it that Douglas Fairbanks was approached for the role of the Yankee, Martin Cavendish. It certainly would have made interesting casting, but Harry Myers (who, a decade later, would appear as Charles Chaplin's rich, boozy friend in City Lights) does a fine job in the part. This spectacular production was a big release for the Fox studios in 1921. Wealthy Martin Cavendish is in love with Sandy, his mother's secretary (Pauline Starke). His mother (Adele Farrington), however, wants him to marry Lady Grey Gordon (Rosemary Theby). One night, a burglar breaks into the mansion and attacks Cavendish with a spear belonging to a suit of armor. Cavendish is knocked unconscious and he wakes up in a dream where he is being poked by a knight, Sir Sagramore (George Siegmann). Sagramore takes Cavendish to King Arthur's court, where he saves himself from being tortured to death by claiming a solar eclipse was his doing. Cavendish is made a knight with the title Sir Boss, and he brings the modern-day luxuries of 1921 to medieval times, including tin lizzies, plumbing, and telephones. He rescues Lady Alisande la Cartelone (Starke) from the wicked Queen Morgan Le Fay (Theby). When he goes to battle Sir Sagramore at a tournament, he shows up dressed as a cowboy and lassos him off his horse. Then he has the king (Charles Clary) dress as a peasant to make him understand that "all this nobility stuff is bunk." When Cavendish finally awakens from his dream, he goes to Sandy and they elope. Mark Twain's famous tale has been filmed numerous times; other notable Yankees have been Will Rogers and Bing Crosby. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Yes, this is the classic Arabian Nights story, with Ali Baba discovering the treasure in the cave that opens to the magic words, "Open Sesame." But there's a twist here -- all the roles from Ali Baba (George Stone) to his beloved, dancing girl Morgianna (Gertrude Messinger) to Abdulla (Raymond Nye) are played by children. And yes, tiny Gertrude Messinger performed a hootchie-koo dance. Fox filmed a series of classic stories, such as Jack and the Beanstalk and Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, with kiddie actors, in the hopes of grabbing the child audience. Even in the days of their original release, they were curios. Sidney A. Franklin, who later went on to a distinguished career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer directed this picture. It is likely that he did not keep it on his resume. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Esther Ralston, who plays a nice chorus girl in this comedy-drama, is upstaged by Margaret Livingston, who has a much-flashier role as her not-so-nice friend. Ralston is Alice O'Neil, who is in love with Bertie Lenox (Joseph Striker), the son of a nouveau riche family. His sister Marian (Margaret Morris) loves the chauffeur, a down-to-earth young man by the name of Henry Morgan (Warner Baxter). Their parents (Edwards Davis and Kathlyn Williams) naturally are less than thrilled with Bertie and Marian's choices -- after all, Alice wants Bertie to give up his money and go to work! And they've picked out Arthur Rockmere (William Austin) as a mate for Marian. Rockmere sets up a meeting with Alice in an attempt to buy her off, which angers Bertie. A fight outside of a supper club results and everyone lands in jail -- except for Alice's friend Millie (Livingston), who bails them all out with the bribery money. In the end, both Bertie and Marian wed their sweethearts, while Millie weds their uncle, George Grafton (Larry Steers). This picture is based on the play by David Grey and Avery Hopwood. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In this episode of the western series, the Mesquitters try to stop a ring of silk thieves while dealing with a shady medicine show man and his kids. One of his offspring is a beautiful young woman. The Mesquiteers must hurry to find the thieves as they too are suspects. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Johnny Mack Brown's Universal western series was drawing to a close when Cheyenne Roundup was released in mid-1943. Brown is herein cast in a dual role, as honest Gils Brandon and his less-than-honest brother Buck. Pursued by lawman Steve Rawlins (Tex Ritter), Buck tries to pass himself off as the upright Gils. But in the end, the good brother is forced to make the bad one pay the price for crime. Jennifer Holt, daughter of cowboy favorite Jack Holt, is the leading lady; Fuzzy Knight socks over his usual unsubtle comedy relief; and music is provided by The Jim Wakely Trio, soon to star in their own series of sagebrushers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An airborne serial killer terrorizes a group of war veterans in this ultra-cheap but fairly engrossing whodunit produced by one of Hollywood's few women executives, Fanchon Royer. Assigned to investigate a series of flight disasters committed by a phantom aircraft bearing only the legend "X," veteran test pilot Jerry Blackwood (John Carroll) learns from Dr. Norris (John Elliott) that the killer in all likelihood is a veteran of the last war suffering from "battle neurosis." Jerry gathers a group of fellow veterans at the plant operated by aircraft manufacturer Henry Goering (Henry Hall), an assembly consisting of Baron Von Guttard (John Peters) of the German Luftwaffe, the French pilot René LaRue (Gaston Glass), the British Captain Saunders (Pat Somerset), and American Douglas Thompson (Wheeler Oakman), late of the famous Lafayette Escadrille. Also present is the mysterious Lieutenant Ives (Reed Howes) and Carl (Leon Kent), Goering's son, who seems to know a great deal about Von Guttard. The German, however, is the first to die during an airborne patrol, closely followed by LaRue. Saunders, meanwhile, seems to come completely unhinged and remains the obvious suspect when Dr. Norris is found murdered. The real "Pilot X," however, is someone completely different, as Jerry and Goering's ward, Helen Gage (Lona Andre), learn the hard way. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

It is said that every actor wants to play Shakespeare. Will Rogers would seem a likely exception to that rule, but here he is in this silent, taking a stab (albeit comic) at Romeo. Slim (Rogers), of course, begins as a cowpuncher but his boss switches from cattle to sheep, throwing him out of work. In addition his sweetheart, Lulu (Sylvia Breamer), says he should learn to be a real lover, like Douglas Fairbanks. So Slim decides to go work in motion pictures to discover how film folk make love. After he doubles for villains and heroes alike, Lulu changes her mind -- now she thinks Romeo and Juliet is the yardstick by which all lovers should be measured. So Slim obligingly gets his hands on a copy of the play and tries to read it. Naturally he falls asleep, but he dreams the story with himself and his girl in the title roles. When he awakes, however, he throws all technique out the window, grabs Lulu away from his rival (Raymond Hatton) and drags her off to the preache r. His show of force is what she wanted after all and the film ends happily. This was the final picture of Rogers' contract with the Goldwyn Studios. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Mary Philbin, whose performance in The Merry-Go-Round had earned her critical raves, stars in this rather lightweight Universal "Jewel." William Tudor (Joseph J. Dowling) is so overloaded with debt that he is forced to give up the family castle, Pencarreg. After selling it to John Kershaw (Dewitt Jennings), a war millionaire, he goes to London with his granddaughter, Irene (Philbin). Owen (William Haines), Tudor's nephew and Irene's sweetheart, travels to South Africa to oversee his father's mines. Irene finds work as a chorus girl at the Gaiety Theatre, and Christopher Kershaw (Freeman S. Wood), John's womanizing son, falls in love with her. She refuses to have anything to do with him, but then her grandfather falls ill and she hears that Owen has been killed in South Africa. Tudor's doctor suggests that a return to the family castle may prolong the old man's life, so Irene accepts Christopher's marriage proposal. Just after the wedding, Owen (who clearly wasn't dead after all) shows up at Pencarreg. The castle bears a curse, which falls upon Christopher when a huge chandelier crashes down on his head. He is killed, so Irene and Owen are able to reunite. Owen buys the castle back from John Kershaw, and Irene's grandfather returns home. This drama was based on the novel The Inheritors by L.A.R. Wylie. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Dorothy Gish stars as Gretchen, the daughter of Dutch immigrant Ralph Lewis. Doing her best to adjust to her strange new homeland of the USA, Gretchen falls in love with Italian-American Frank Bennett. The plot thickens when she is kidnapped by gangsters so that her father, an engraver, will be forced to make counterfeit plates. A rousing (and amusing) rescue scene caps this cinemadaptation of Bernard McConville's story Gretchen Blunders In. Curiously, the film is not mentioned in the otherwise thorough 1973 coffee-table book Lillian and Dorothy Gish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heart of the Rockies launched Republic's second season of popular "Three Mesquiteers" westerns. Returning to the fold are Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke, Ray "Crash" Corrigan as Tucson Smith and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin. This time our heroes play modern-day cattle ranchers who are falsely accused of killing bears on the grounds of a national park. The boys seem to have plenty of motive, inasmuch as the bears are suspected of depleting their livestock. When it turns out that the real villains are a gang of smugglers, the Mesquiteers team with the park rangers to get their man (or men). Robert Livingston was injured during production of Heart of the Rockies, forcing Republic to replace him with Ralph Byrd in the next Three Mesquiteers opus, Trigger Trio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Wayne stars in this Western as a law student seeking revenge on the ruthless land baron who killed his parents; after he is thwarted in the courts, he chooses to explore frontier justice instead. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

aka The Count of Monte Cristo Much of John Gilbert's early work as a leading man was done at the Fox Studios. He made nineteen pictures for the company, but only two are still in existence -- this adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel, and 1923's Cameo Kirby. As Edmond Danton, and later as the Count of Monte Cristo, Gilbert at times seems too mannered -- a habit that he would have to watch throughout his career. Danton is dragged away from his wedding feast with Countess Mercedes (Estelle Taylor) and falsely imprisoned in the Chateau d'If. He swears to wreak vengeance on those who wronged him, if he ever escapes. Eventually he is able to dig his way out, and with another prisoner, he goes to the island of Monte Cristo, where he finds an immense treasure. He returns home as the Count of Monte Cristo and, as he promised, proceeds to destroy all his enemies. Featured in a supporting role is Renee Adorée, who would star with Gilbert in several of his pictures, most notably The Big Parade. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Ever on the lookout for original story ideas, the producers of the "Hopalong Cassidy" series came up with a lulu in Outlaws of the Desert. In this one, Hoppy (William Boyd) and his saddle pals Johnny (Brad King) and California (Andy Clyde), is assigned by the US government to head to Arabia, there to buy a herd of Arabian steeds. Once they've arrived in the desert, our heroes are kidnapped by swarthy Sheik Suleiman (played by future "Cisco Kid" Duncan Renaldo). In his efforts to figure a way out of his predicament, Hoppy must also attempt to rescue distressed damsels Susan Grant (Jean Phillips) and Marie Karitza (Luli Deste). Good escapist fun, Outlaws of the Desert is definitely the most unusual of the early-1940s "Hopalong Cassidy" entries (even though the film's "Arabia" is obviously located near Chatsworth, California). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide